Random Thoughts for February, 2012
Robert A. Hall
I left this offering to post on the blog while I’m traveling, but thought I’d share it with my mailing lists early, to enjoy or delete at your leisure.
If you e-mail me a link to something and don’t have time to tell me anything about it, that’s okay, as long as you understand that I don’t have time to look at it.
You better get used to the idea that these are “The Good Old Days” your kids will be looking back on.
If you will remember to put group e-mail addresses in the BBC block, and to delete all e-mail addresses from those e-mails you forward, you will deny them to spammers and fraudsters.
I have my office computer set so if a staff member comes into the office, it auto-switches to a game of solitaire. If they catch me working, it spoils my image.
Recently I was reminded of the key question on Marine fitness reports, that cuts through all the clutter and tendency to exaggerate on “annual reviews.” The person doing the review has to check a box, “yes” or “no.” The question? “Would you want to go into combat with this person.” Who among our political leaders, of either party, would you trust to have your back in a desperate, life-or-death situation? There are a few today who have been there: Rep. Duncan Hunter who served as a Marine officer in Iraq, and Sen. John McCain, whose heroic service in Vietnam far outstrips what his critiques have given to this country. They are among a very few others. But would you want Obama or Romney or Gingrich in the fox hole next to you?
If Iranian agents screaming “Allah Akbar” forced their way into the White House and gunned Obama, the New York Times would blame Sarah Palin.
Since the federal courts, desperate to preserve stoning for rape victims accused of adultery, have knocked down laws prohibiting using Shari’a Law in cases, I suggest the following law: “No court or magistrate in this state shall use, reference or consider in any case any law or rule which conflicts with the US Constitution, the constitution of this state, or federal, state or local statutes passed by the duly elected legislative bodies.”
When’s the last time you heard about a Buddhist, Baptist or Baha’i suicide bomber blowing up children? It happens so often with Muslims that it hardly gets a notice. But people continue to avert their eyes and insist it has nothing to do with Islam, which is a “great religion of peace.”
I’ve been among those eager to volunteer for the firing squad for the traitor, Bradley Manning. But there’s something to be said, I must admit, for having him spend the rest of his natural life in prison as Bubba’s Bitch.
Discriminating against racial minorities is wrong. Unless, of course, it’s universities discriminating against Asian-American kids because they do too well, thanks to a pro-education home culture—and there are too many of them for “diversity” and “balance” if they were admitted on merit. That many of their ancestors came here as virtual slave laborers, and were murdered, beaten and discriminated against, buys them nothing in the victim recompense world, as they overcame it.
Almost every week I wish I subscribed to some publication, so I could cancel in outrage, after they publish some egregious, anti-freedom article.
Time saving tip: If an e-mail says “Don’t Delete—forward to everyone” you can safely delete it.
That fact that someone is not as conservative as you doesn’t mean they aren’t a conservative.
The fact that someone doesn’t agree with you on some social issues doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be an ally on the issues that threaten the existence of our country. Those, IMHO are Debt, Immigration, Jihad and China.
With some friends, you just know not to open their e-mails in the office.
I wish the people knocking capitalism would move to some nice non-capitalist country where they would be happy. Thanks to capitalism, the poorest 5% in the US are wealthier than 2/3rds of the world.
My bride and I have reached the age where we frequently accuse each other of “mumbling.”
Somewhere a Democrat brain trust is trying to figure out how to tie the Fort Hood shootings to the Tea Party.
Because our condo is small, we regularly have to purge clutter. Recently I reorganized the office in the spare bedroom, and cleared out a large box and a shopping bag of book I’d either read or finally decided I wasn’t going to read. I took them to Half Price Books. Some pretty expensive and current stuff. They looked at the fact that I’d hauled them in along with an oxygen tank, figured I wouldn’t haul them out and gave me $20. Never again, next time I donate them.
I bet many of the people who feel they shouldn’t show an ID to vote are happy to show one to cash their welfare checks at the liquor store. (Stop booing and look at the study from California about where welfare checks—or now I guess welfare credit cards—are used.)
Though I’m right-handed, I’ve trained myself to use the computer mouse with either hand. Probably use the left for it more than the right. If I start to feel any repetitive-motion stress, I just switch hands.
Education is not something a person achieves. It is a process that a person engages in throughout life. In my view, anyone who doesn’t read 12 to 20 serious, non-fiction books a year in subjects like politics, history, economics, current events, and biography, among others, cannot claim to be educated. Reading to stay current in your profession doesn’t count.
Sometimes people who you thought of as friends get angry at you, change their behavior towards you, and you never know the reason. Welcome to life.
Every Christmas, the pope calls for “World Peace.” The media covers this as though it’s news. News would be if the Pope called for, “Someone to bomb the snot out of those bastards in Misogynistostan.” There was a time when a Pope, “Called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross.” (From Lepanto. Great poem, look it up.)
Nothing like having a subordinate get pissed of or drunk to learn what he really thinks of you.
I know one thing you are thankful for. It’s that no one knows all your secret fantasies.
Everyone keeps asking, “Where did the year go?” Hell, I can’t figure out where the 20th century went.
You can say a lot of mean things about President Obama, but “overqualified for the job” isn’t one of them.
Gender discrimination is much worse than racial discrimination. No woman whose resume was as thin or hidden as Obama’s could be elected to Congress, never mind the White House.
It takes two sides to make peace, only one to make a war. Anyone who doesn’t believe that should try to negotiate “peace” with an armed robber on the street. Good luck.
According to the Mayan calendar, the world will end before I can afford to retire. Figures.
Maybe the Mayans just ran out of space….
Economic laws are often as unforgiving as gravity, but harder for politicians to learn. For example, they financially incentivize behavior they are trying to reduce. If you reward behavior, you get more of it. Duh.
Boy, do I love the Social Security payroll tax cut. I plan to collect when I turn 66 in April, but keep working. Figure I have maybe a 25% chance to get out what I paid in before my pulmonary fibrosis catches up with me, but meantime while working I’ll pay less and still collect. And the system will probably last beyond my death, unless the fiscal collapse comes suddenly. Accelerating the Social Security collapse through this vote-buying is tough on those under 55 though.
I wish I could afford to create a “robocall” program that would call all of the candidates’ homes daily at mealtime to tell them I don’t vote for or give money to people who use machines to talk to me.
If you are on Twitter, @TheFakeCNN is very funny, though often X-rated.
Green Energy policies make us subservient to terrorist-supporting states. Unfortunately, it won’t be the policies’ sponsors who will die. They will just go on getting rich off us.
If the President had to put gas in the White House limo out of his own pocket, I bet he’d have approved the job-creating Keystone Pipeline.
Because you are somebody on Twitter or Facebook, doesn’t make you somebody.
Maybe time distorts my memory, but has the media not given the allegation that Gingrich wanted an open marriage more coverage than the allegation that Clinton raped a woman?
Recently we went out for breakfast. Our waitress was a tall, lovely, young Asian woman named Anya, who told us she was from Outer Mongolia, here studying management and marketing. I asked if all the women in Mongolia were as pretty as she was, “Oh, yes,” she laughed, “I am the ugliest one!” She said she grew up in a fairly large city, one of three in Mongolia, thus dispelling my vision of her herding goats and living in a yurt as a child. She plans to stay in the US, still despite our flaws, the land of opportunity for the world.
I had an Uncle Art by marriage. He ran a recycling (junk) yard. I used to trade him stuff when I was ten, which he liked. One night he went into the living room to take a nap before dinner. The dog was on the couch, so as to not disturb the animal, he lay down on the floor to sleep. And never woke up. A good way to go.
If Obama is so smart, why wouldn’t he release his college records? It’s like Kerry the war hero promising to release his full military records several times, never doing so, and getting a pass from the media.
To win, Obama needs to change the focus from ineptitude to inequality. The theory is that if I earn $50k a year, and you earn $100k, I should vote for a guy who will make us both earn only $30k a year, because I’ll be better off if everyone is equal.
I was stunned that Newsweek published an article entitled, “Why are Obama’s critics so dumb.” I mean, who knew that Newsweek was still publishing?
Fairy Dust Wishful Thinking doesn’t change the law of supply and demand. If you get a degree in Social Work, and there are ten people with that degree for every job requiring it, you have a 90% chance of not being employed in the field you borrowed all that money to study. If you were smart enough to get a degree, why weren’t you smart enough to look into its value in advance? It could be worse—you could have a degree in a field ending in “studies.” I’ve never seen a job ad that says, “Requires a Degree in Peace Studies.” Or requires any other “____ Studies” degree.
Universities will be happy to take your tuition, even if you are going into debt majoring in something that makes you unemployable. Your future poverty isn’t of concern to them, compared to their salaries and perks now.
I tried to introduce a new dress code in my office for the New Year: “Upscale Tramp.” Got too much pushback from the staff. Maybe things have gotten too casual?
By the time you read this, we’ll mostly have forgotten Iowa for another four years. Because no candidate gave a “Dean Scream.”
I think Mormon theology is a little nutty. But every religion’s theology looks a little nutty to outsiders. And every Mormon I’ve ever met was the kind of friendly, honest, hard-working person I’d like as a neighbor.
Here's a rule of thumb. If you go into a convenience store, and the clerk is in a cage and the bathrooms are locked, it's a bad neighborhood. Be alert. If the bathrooms are locked, but the clerk is out, it's so-so. If the bathrooms are unlocked and the clerk is out in the open, it's usually safe.
"As we mark the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade," Obama said, "we must remember that this Supreme Court decision not only protects a woman's health and reproductive freedom, but also affirms a broader principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters.” I suppose this is why he doesn’t care about Islamic honor killings of teen girls—like abortion, it’s a “private family matter” where government shouldn’t intrude. Buying health insurance is, however, not a private matter but something you must be forced to do by the government. Jesus told him so.
If you get an envelope marked "Official," it isn't.
If Obama was a Republican, everyone in the media would be a “birther.”
Flat surfaces attract clutter like magnets attract iron filings.
When you read this, I’ll be in San Francisco on business. Will I be able to tell if the folks I see are Occupy-Poopers or just the usual people on the street there?
Do progressives look at an unwanted baby being adopted and think, “There’s one that got away”?
Those who think Obama doesn't know what he's doing are disgusted. Those who think Obama knows exactly what he's doing are angry and scared about the future.
If Ron Paul is nominated, Republicans will start thinking of 1964 as a pretty good year.
Every time someone clearly explains the usage of the phrase "begs the question" to me, the explanation is different and I get more confused.
"Retarded" was politically correct back way when it replaced "feeble-minded," which was PC when it replaced "moron." Now "retarded" is very non-PC, but you can probably call someone "feeble-minded" or a "moron" without any PC blowback. Maybe a fat lip, though.
Some people spend far too much time and energy trying to make the world revolve around them.
Some people complain more about a cold than others do about a life-threatening illness. They just like to share their misery with everyone.
I’m so old I remember when the country was in bad shape because people were borrowing and spending too much and not saving enough. Now it’s in bad shape because they are saving too much and not borrowing and spending enough.
There's no use trying to rescue some people from a cesspool they entered willingly. They'll just dive back in.
If you had the secret to end racism, the liberals would kill you to protect it. It's their bread and butter.
If you vote to re-elect Obama and he wins, you will have to spend four years agreeing with every single thing he does, says or thinks, or spend four years being called a racist when you don’t. Do you want to put up with that?
The goose that laid the golden eggs was the American work ethic and free-market, private-sector capitalism. They have pretty much killed that, consigning future generations born in America to Third World poverty. Very sad, but due to economic ignorance on the part of most voters.
My Marine DIs convinced me that swearing at people and things encourages them to function better. Given the modern business world, I’ve pretty much given up swearing at people, but still find it helpful to motivate things such as my computer, my oxygen tank and hoses and that shelving unit I just put together for the pantry.
It’s unfortunate that the skills needed to run successfully for president are not the same as those needed to serve successfully. Only a few folks have both.
I don’t always agree with John McCain, but it has become fashionable to slander him among some conservatives who never had the balls to wear the uniform, never mind serve the Republic as he did. Disagree if you must, but don’t disrespect a man who gave so much.
Because of my lung condition, it’s really important to avoid colds. I use a Neti Pot twice a day, regardless. Haven’t had a real cold in 4-5 years, even when my wife had one. I’ll get that little tickle like one is starting, but it peters out. Thankfully. I think if everyone did, we could make colds a rarity.
If 1,000 Muslims screaming “Allah Akbar” swarmed the Capital and murdered half of Congress, Obama would say it was “workplace violence,” nothing to do with religion.
Once Obama gets done with our military, the US response to a world crisis will be the same as the French knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail: “I fart in your general direction.”
Sleep safe NPR, Planned Parenthood, Green Energy, High Speed Rail and Government Unions. We are going to lay off Marines and soldiers to protect your government subsidies. You are more important than the safety of the nation.
If you disagree with Obama on anything, you’re a racist.
If you think black folks are the equal of white folks and have the brains and ability and character to compete with white folks on a level playing field, you are a racist.
If you think folks should have to show an ID to vote, just as they do to buy a gun, cash a check, get a drivers license, buy booze, get on an airplane or collect welfare, you are a racist.
The epithet “racist” is losing its power because it is over-used for everything by the left. I say we hurry it along by over-using it even more. “It’s dark already.” “That’s racist!”
I don’t want you to think I always disagree with Obama; he was right when he said: "The fact that we are here today to debate raising America 's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America 's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that, ‘the buck stops here.' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better." ~ Senator Barack H. Obama, March 2006
A young woman asked me if my oxygen tank was permanent. “No, it’s temporary,” I said, “I just have too use it until I die.”
I’m trying to get over my hateful “Islamophobia.” I think that if Muslims would stop murdering people every single day—most often fellow Muslims—in the name of Allah, I might be able to recover. Giving up the stoning of rape victims, FGM, honor killings and child marriage would help too. Meet me halfway here, Akmed.
It would take a lot of smart people a lot of thought if you wanted to design a presidential nominating and election system more screwed up than ours.
Too many list-servs have people whose “delete” key doesn’t work. Either that or their lives are so shallow and empty they are eagerly sitting at the computer, waiting for something to come in they can deem offensive and then pounce, full of self-righteous anger. It makes their day.
People feel impotent in the face of over whelming problems and hard to move institutions. I say, "You can't do everything, but you can do something, and you don't want your grandkids to know you did nothing when things were falling apart.”
I know a chemist who lost his long-term job after his company was bought. So he went back and got a certificate to teach chemistry. He was hired by an inner-city school to teach mostly black kids, and he’s white. Being new to the game, and remembering his own high school days, he expected the kids to do at least some work. When they did none at all, he failed 47 of them. The parents complained. He was fired for being “racially insensitive.” That is, for expecting that black kids should have to earn their grades equally with white or Asian kids. The kids will eventually “graduate,” knowing very little and thinking that they deserve everything without work. This will make them unemployable dependents of the welfare state, locked on the plantation, voting as told to keep the unearned benefits flowing. The teacher loses, the kids lose big time, with no route out of poverty, and the tax-payers lose. But the progressive politicians win.
Here’s my plan. On the first day of freshman year in high school, every kid is issued a High School Diploma and told to go home. It doesn’t matter any more. Employers know that a diploma too often doesn’t mean a thing, and, besides, the EEOC says requiring one violates the American’s With Disabilities Act. Before they leave, you tell the kids that those who want to work and get an education should come back in the morning, but that no BS will be tolerated.
My friend Marge used to say that, “People watch TV because it gives them the illusion they have a social life.” True, but Facebook and Twitter now fill that function as well.
Hiring managers know that if they hire a black, Hispanic, Gay person, or anyone in a “protected class,” and that person doesn’t perform, it will be legally risky and difficult to fire that person. So they often pass them over if it’s a close call. This helps minorities how?
I guess I’m a drop out on pop culture. I couldn’t care less who wins American Idol, the Oscars or any given basketball game. And there are any number of famous TV series over the years that I never watch an episode of.
Anyone who wants smaller government should vote for a president who likes being able to fire people who don’t perform.
I’m getting really picky. The other night I sent the wine back in a BYOB restaurant. I have standards, you know.
If we’d had today’s media in 1941, Pearl Harbor would have been described as a cross cultural misunderstanding. Or “deplorable workplace violence.”
Everybody wants things to be “fair.” But fairness is in the eye of the beholder. The left’s view of “fair” is that no one should win a football game, because the points should be redistributed evenly to the under–privileged team.
I used to think that it was neat that my initials in the NATO phonetic alphabet were “Romeo Hotel.” Not that I thought, “Hi, I’m Romeo Hotel” would make a great pickup line.
Looking around at the general run of mankind, it’s a wonder to me that the Order of Odd Fellows isn’t larger than the AARP. (No angry e-mails please. I know the Odd Fellows are actually called that because when it started charitable giving was consider odd. Like for liberals today.)
If the most important thing in your life is what you see in the mirror in the morning, I can say with a fair amount of certitude that you have an unhappy life.
I recently tried to post a comment on a Reuters and discovered I’ve been banned. I hope they will list this as a honor in my obit.
People add, “Just Saying” at the end of something provocative, thinking it mitigates it. It doesn’t.
Reports are that Mitt Romney out spent Newt Gingrich 65-1 in the Florida primary. Without commenting on the candidates, I believe that if I outspent him 65-1, I could give Jesus a run in a primary. Beat him, too, in a Democrat primary. Just saying.
If you are over, say, 50 or 55, and have lived at least a lower middle class life in the United States, the chances are very good that you have lived longer and better than 99% of the people who have ever lived. You are the 1%--thanks to capitalism and economic and political freedom.
Note to web designers. If you make the website so full of gadgets and graphics that it takes an owl’s lifetime to load, lots of folks will click off without looking at it. So you‘ll have a really cool site that far fewer people view. Duh.
Recently my wife woke up and saw me sitting up on the side of the bed, light on. “Can’t sleep?” she asked. “Not since the alarm went off,” I replied.
It’s not going to happen, as we have three cats, live in a small, second-floor condo, and dog walking is tough when you are on O2. But I keep having this desire to get an American Bulldog and name it “Brute,” for LtGen Victor “Brute” Krulak, who commanded Marine Forces in the Pacific when I was in Vietnam. A great Marine with moral as well as physical courage. He told Lyndon Johnson his policies were screwed up, thus getting passed over for a fourth star and CMC.
Some wives call their husband “the other half.” Mine thinks of me as “the dark side.”
Just because a fellow Republican calls you a RINO doesn’t mean you aren’t a conservative. Like a liberal calling you a “racist,” it just means they disagree with you on a particular issue.
No one has harmed blacks more than the folks who convinced them to blame every trouble on racism.
When an e-mail has “Shocker!” in the subject line, if it isn’t sarcasm, it’s a sales pitch.
Every time you get voice mail, it drones, “Your call is important to us.” No it isn’t. If it was important, I’d be talking to a live person at an organization that believed in customer service.
When politicians can no longer tax or borrow enough money to pay for all the things they promised, they print money, causing hyper-inflation. It’s coming, friends.
I really have no problems with immigrants who want to join our culture, learn our language and adapt our values. I have a huge problem with colonists who want to replace our culture with the failed one they fled.
On January 31, 1940, Ida May Fuller received the first Social security check. All things have a beginning…and an end. I suspect the last person who will receive a Social Security check is now working (or already retired!), as are millions who are contributing, but who will never receive checks.
*****
Robert A. Hall is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic.
For a free PDF of the book, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com
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Robert A. Hall
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