Oh Noes! An Experiment in Nepotism Goes Awry! ^O^

Headline from a Yahoo news article by Dylan Stableford: "Critics on Chelsea Clinton’s ‘Rock Center’ debut: Boring!"

Is anybody surprised? o_O

She was chosen for her family background rather than for her talent. I might sympathize with the young Mrs. Chelsea Mezvinsky who was doubtless only thrust into this position because her parents wished to use her as a pawn rather than from any desire that she herself had for the post, but the fact is that this is not what she was trained in nor is it anything she had job experience in. I wish her well but this does seem to be what happens when someone is thrust into a job because of nepotism rather than because of skills. In any situation where technical competence or talent matter and the recipient of such patronage lacks it you will find that it is merely an act of cruelty both to the recipient and those who must suffer from her lack of ability.

However both she and ABC may comfort themselves with this....

1. At least none of them put themselves into the same position as the poor fools who voted someone into the Presidency with no more executive experience than that of being a "community organizer". Nor are they in the same position as the poor foolish "community organizer" himself who will go down in history for his outstanding incompetence. :P

2. If they learn from this that such nepotism as this is a very bad idea then they will have proven themselves quicker learners than the people of Illinois.

I think that those are solid items of consolation, don't you? ^_~

A 2nd Look at the "99%" Courtesy of the Daily Northwestern! :P

Headline from The Daily Northwestern of Monday, October 17, 2011: " 'Occupy Chicago' still evolving".

I can see how this might be exciting news from their point of view. At this rate it's doubtless that the Occupy Chicago people will eventually become multicell creatures. ^o^

But perhaps I shouldn't be snarky because on page one of that same paper Katie Glueck, the author of the article, informs us that the organizers of their Grant Park rally say that they drew about 2,000 people. Assuming that any demonstration's organizers can be trusted not to exaggerate the attendance of a demonstration that really is not a bad draw for a weekend. Or rather it wouldn't had this "Occupy" movement not claimed to constitute 99% of the American population. That deserves mockery. A LOT of mockery. Tons and tons of mockery laid on with a trowel. Katie Glueck on the other hand deserves praise. Faithful readers of this blog will know what I mean when I suggest that she has shown greater numeric precision than the crowd estimate of thousands given to us by CNN on a similar occasion. And unlike CNN, Miss Glueck was kind enough to provide the source of just where her estimate had
come from so that we might form our own judgement of both their knowledge and their reliability. This did represent a better work ethic than that shown by the CNN people and we hope that such diligence in research is not a hinderance to Miss Glueck when she graduates and seeks to take her place among her fellow "professionals". ^_^;

But all the same 2000 for a weekend isn't a half-bad draw at all. Were it not that the peeps involved boasted of being 99% of the population it would be worthy of respect rather than of mockery for pretentiousness could we be sure that the figure were accurate. By way of comparison an annual Science-Fiction convention named Windycon gets 1300 to 1500 people in a weekend. I guess that means that Windycon attendees are entitled to call themselves "the almost 75%"? o_O

But let us not forget that 2,000, if accurate, was a respectable figure considering that the "Occupy Chicago Movement" is a lot less important then the things that take place at Windycon and not nearly half as much fun either. As a second comparison let us note that Anime Central's attendence for 2011 was 23,183. If 2,000 people are truly "the 99%" I guess that means that our local ottaku are the 1089% after we take the time to round down? ^_~

Meanwhile, attendance at Gencon is 2011 was 36,733 . Does that mean that gamers outnumber "99%" of Chicago by 18 to 1? @_@

And yet even Gencon's attendance is well and truly dwarfed by that of the San Diego Comic-con which claimed an attendance of 125,000 in 2011. That it would imply that comic book fans outnumber "99" of Chicago by more than 60 to 1. n_n

And please note that I have been very carefully abstaining from mentioning the fact that Windycon, Anime Central and GenCon all charge for attendance while the Occupy Chicago people did not. But then again which sort of event would you rather be at? :P

Mind you, all of this doesn't even bother to mention that the population of Chicago is 2,695,598 so once again it appears as though our "99%" people are once more actaully less than 10% of 1% even on a weekend! >_>

But I'm sure they'll still "the 99%" in their mind! As long as we don't buy into their delusions I guess we shouldn't mind if they go ahead and claim to be the Queen of Sheba as well. ^_~

Mood Music: 'Run That By Me One More Time' as sung by Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner. ^_^

Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering? @_@

Quoth SCC: 'Aldercreatures are our sometimes elected City Council. There are 50 of them for some reason and their conviction rate averages around one-a-year - we don't know how New York City gets along with only half that many with three times Chicago's population. Must be something in the water.'

A more accurate description of them than that would be very hard to find. ^_^



Quoth Glenn Reynolds: 'Environmentalists, like feminists, are just another arm of the Democratic establishment: “running dogs” to be loosed or reined in as politics require. It is thus unnecessary to pay attention to what they say, since it’s just politics anyway.'


True enough. If you allow your poltical party or faction to do your thinking for you and dictate what you may read, think and say - as pretty much all leftists have done since the time of Karl Marx - then you have allowed them to turn you into a trained parrot. And once you have allowed your party to turn you into a parrot then why should you be regarded as anything more than a trained performing animal rather than as a human being? o_O

Sucks to be either a feminist or an environmentalist but they did this to themselves! :P


Also from Glenn Reynolds: 'I guess the lesson is, if you want scrutiny of Executive Branch actions, vote Republican. . . .'


That does tend to be the logical consequence of Old Media having made themselves the lapdogs of the Democrat Party, doesn't it? I wonder if they themselves would ever be bright enough to appreciate the irony? ^o^

And, before we continue on to others, yet another from Glenn Reynolds: 'Personally, I believe that “fairness” consists in the fruits of my labor not being taken by corrupt hacks to redistribute to their cronies in exchange for votes.'

But, sadly enough, the patronage hounds and wardheelers who favor high taxes would seem to disagree. I wonder why that might be? :P



Quoth A. Jacksonian: 'Engineering is the Dirty Little Secret of getting energy.'


The fact that the Left is hostile to this basic truth is the reason that people like Mr. Obama and all his little toadies will never fit for office.



Quoth Claire Berlinski: 'The danger that Stroilov and Bukovsky faced was real and grave; they both assumed, one imagines, that the world would take notice of what they had risked so much to acquire.'


I suppose one does not have to be a ninja to know that the truly hidden is sometimes that which is within plain sight. >_>


Quoth Paul Mirengoff: '...Thus, NASA's primary mission is no longer to enhance American science and engineering or to explore space, but to boost the self-esteem of "predominantly Muslim nations.'

Given that any form of leftism seems to eventually require its adherents to become a bunch of technophobes should we really be surprised by this? o_O

Mr. Obama and his fellow Dummycrats have clearly forgotten the Dirty Little Secret of Energy that AJacksonian pointed out to us before and in doing so have quite firmly made themselves the citizens of Cloud Cuckoo Land! ~_~



Quoth Francis Turner:'The death of the traditional print business model was merely hastened by Amazon. The seeds of its destruction had already been laid by the earlier adoption of the grocery business model, however Amazon helped speed up the death spiral. Not that this is going to help Amazon much in the longer term. The problem for Amazon is that while the web helped them take sales from existing bricks and mortar stores because of larger inventory and lower prices, their success is gradually killing these stores. If (when?) the bricks and mortar stores go away then so does the casual reader base that buys bestsellers and takes an occasional chance at something else when browsing in an airport bookstore. These folks are the ones whose purchases support publishers and thus, eventually, the industry as a whole. Hence Amazon's gain at the expense of the bookstores looks like it could be rather temporary. Unless of course we can replace that casual treeware reader base with a casual electronic reader base....'


He's right. I've seen the same thing happen, albeit from different causes, in various hobbies when they cease to be newbie-friendly. It's not an accident that a trip to certain SF Cons can feel like a visit to a geriatric ward. And reading for the sake of pleasure is very definitely a hobby, albeit an important one!


Quoth Wretchard: 'A lot of Democrats who are now staring political death in the face may now be asking themselves what has changed since they were re-elected last. Who brought this pox upon their houses? The right answer would be the political and economic environment. But the obvious answer would be Barack Obama. He’s the obvious patsy. He’s what changed since last. As the President’s unpopularity bears down on his supporters like the albatross around the Ancient Mariner, the temptation to survive at his expense may easily infect a group of people who were opportunists to begin with.'

Actually, I suspect this may be a case where the rats aren't bright enough to desert the sinking ship. Because where are they going to go? They used their ideology to stifle their conscience and whatever very slim chance of political survival the Left still has depends on them hanging together in case things can somehow still be worked out. If I am correct then it's only when the election is over, and they find themselves out in the cold and truly hated by all, that the Left will then turn upon Mr. Obama and one another. But when they do so it will be in the manner of piranas and not a pretty sight at all. Any bets on the forms that it will take? ^_~

That said, expect more and more dirty tricks and cheating from the Democrats this year as their desperation begins to mounts. It's been the only thing they've had left for decades now and the more that the American voters have seen through them the more desperately they've continued to need it. I wonder if any of them could still operate in any other way or even imagine doing so? o_O


Quoth Dr. Jerry Pournelle: 'I did find it interesting that they kept counting until Franken won. And I make no doubt that will happen this November as well. It's always best to have a decisive win. Recounts generally go to the party employing the recounters.'

Worth remembering the next time any Democrat wants a recount, isn't it? :P

Just as it's worth remembering that the Democrats tried to use this trick to steal the 2000 election when Mr. George W. Bush legitimately defeated Mr. Al Gore. Remember what I said about dirty tricks being the only thing the Democrats have left? And even such tricks are nothing more than a double edged weapon with poison for them. Each time the liberals use it for a short term gain they lose a bit more of the public's respect, a bit more of their own supporters, and a bit more of their own ability to do things in any other way. Such things have postponed their collapse but only makes things worse for them on the day that collapse comes. I wonder how long it will be before we see their party go the way of the Federalists and Whigs? O_o


Quoth Tom Smith (The Right Coast blogger, not the filker!): 'I remember reading stories of women who got themselves sterilized because of the population explosion. Fewer dumb genes in the gene pool you may say, but it's not as if they can sue Paul Erlichman.'


It wasn't just the women either. I remember hearing about a lot of men who got vasectomies on the same account. Hardly the first time that people messed themselves over or were messed over because of the more wacky environmentalist beliefs when you think it. Nor will it be the last. If you doubt me then consider how many people may be messing up their lives or the lives of others here and now because they honestly think "Global Warming" something more than a scam that has been somewhat anti-science. For that matter, ask yourself where the 20 million children
who have died from Malaria because of Rachel Carson and her disciples go to get their lives back either? Especially when it's quite likely that these deaths continue at the rate of 800,000 per year? >_<

Something to think on the next time an environmentalist trys to sound a bogus alarm, no? But it's not as though anyone who is of the Left will ever be any good at taking responsibility for what they do, now is it? :P

Best.Summation.Of Old Media. Ever! ^_^

Quoth A. Jacksonian: "They tried to put in dedicated delivery concepts, as if we all wanted a piece of paper with a lovely banner on it, when we just wanted the damned information."

Sad but true. Print journalism died from within in the early 1970s when newspapers decided to quit competing with television for giving the news and settled for a parrot-like repeating of what broadcast journalism had already said. Only the advantages of oligopolic conditions among the survivors served to keep them alive, or rather merely undead, this long after that. But now, the decay of the corpse that first found its form, along with an accelerated bias in favor of the Democratic party, during the Clinton years has eaten away the last of print journalism's flesh and has begun to dine upon its bones.

And having done the sort of work for the Democrats that they did I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that they would want their 30 pieces of silver that they hope will forfend their fate. But even if they get it I doubt that this will save them. Money of that sort does little good to those who have sold their soul.

Sucks to be them. But they were the ones who made such choices and those choices are the true reason that they are sinking into a tarpit of their own making. Technology changes the rules but it needn't have ended like this for them if they had chosen honor. >_>

A Legitimate Question! >_>

Quoth Glenn Reynolds over at Instapundit: "So while asking for McCain supporters to chill a bit, can we also ask the press to start doing its job rather than openly shilling for a Democratic victory?"

It's a good and legitimate question but, given the fact that Old Media has been nothing but a collection of PR flacks and occasional private gumshoes on behalf of the Democrats since the 1990s, I wonder how many of them would even know how? o_O

The fact that they didn't care enough about their own reputations and what it was doing to their profession to abuse the public trust sort of argues against it, doesn't it? O_o

Mind you, I wouldn't mind being surprised on this one! I don't think I would mind it at all! ^_~

Democrats and Girls...

Isn't it nice to know that we can always rely on Democrats to regard young girls as expendable? Isn't it nice to know that we can always rely upon Democrats to attack young girls? :P

And, lest the Daily KOS entry that Betsy discusses be dismissed as an aberration untypical of the Left, let us note with interest that this sentiment is openly endorsed by Congressional Democrat Barney Franks who apparently regards the fact that there are people who like Mrs. Palin's family as all the reason there need be to do as much damage to any of them as possible.

So who can doubt that all the Obama supporters are of the same orientation as Andrew Sullivan and Barney Franks in this particular matter? o_O


Who can doubt that this is the essence of what a Democrat stands for? Who can doubt that this is what everyone who is an Obama supporter really is? >_>

So much for the Democrats! So much for anyone who is a supporter of Barrack Hussein Obama.:P

Now you know what sort of people Obama's supporters really are! ^_~

Pravda Propagandists and Obama Supporters...

...Seperated at Birth? o_O

...Dafydd reports, you decide! ^O^

Almost like they share a common ideology, ain't it? ^_~

How Very *Liberal* of Mr. Trudeau! :P

There's a bit of an amusing rantage on the part of cartoonist Garry Trudeau in one of his recent Doonesbury strip as displayed in the Sunday funnies of the July 6, 2008 Chicago Tribune. In it he has a fictional Republican proclaim that "By mandating strict ID requirements, we can disenfranchise the poor, the infirm, students, minorities...". Left out of all this fun frothing at the mouth on our good Mr. Trudeau's part though was any notion of just how any of these people were going to be disenfranchised or even so much as inconvenienced by the strict use of photo id to in order to prevent cheating of the sort that was never unknown in Chicago and is not unknown in our day either. @_@

For example, just how are students going to be disenfranchised by this? I remember strict use of student IDs in both my high school and my college. Didn't seem to slow any of us down. I don't recall us having that much trouble with Drivers licences that had photos either. Alas, Garry Trudeau's strawman character can't explain! Presumably Mr. Trudeau feels students aren't bright enough to handle things that require literacy? Says a lot about Mr. Trudeau's own academic career if he believes that one! ^_~

Also unexplained is just how Mr. Trudeau thinks the use of photo ID on voter's cards would disenfranchise the infirm. Let's see, our hypothetical cripple would somehow bravely stuggle through howling winds (Barefoot and uphill *both ways*, of course!) bravely bearing a Voter's ID without a photo in order to collapse at the election judge's table to cast a ballot with his dying breath, but the addition of his own photo to his voter's card would cause him to expire before he even leaves his home? o_O Wow! That's some fevered imagination Mr. Trudeau has going there but somehow I doubt this scenario is very plausible either! ^O^

Then there's the question of how this would hinder the poor. Is Mr. Trudeau arguing that poor people aren't bright enough to handle photo IDs in defiance of the fact that many of them do indeed drive, or is he merely arguing that having their photo taken at state expense would somehow make them all homeless? O_o

Y'know, I have a hard time believing that one as well. And I can't help but feel it's a bit snobbish on Mr. Trudeau's part to assume that only people with money have enough brains to understand a photo ID. Perhaps this is a sign that Mr. Trudeau has joined Mr. Obama in overdosing on Arigula? >_>

That leaves "minorities". Without the "minorities" in question being specified. One wonders just how our good Mr. Trudeau thinks this will work. Does he believe each voter ID with a photo will broadcast a signal to the Orbiting Mind Control Satellites in the sky, and that they will then beam down a telepathic laser saying "You will not vote! You will not vote!" with the hapless voter then developing a glazed look in his eye starting to repeat in a monotone voice, "I will not vote! I will not vote!"? Doubtless, if so then Mr. Trudeau himself has hopefully been careful to wear some tinfoil in his hat. ^_^;

Fnord! ^_^

Sorry, Mr. Trudeau! I hate to spoil a perfectly good conspiracy theory for you but if we e-e-e-evil Republicans had access to that sort of tech then what people zapped with such a thing would actually be saying would be more along the lines of "Towering Barbarian deserves a billion dollars and a harem of 20 cute chicks! Towering Barbarian deserves a billion dollars and a harem of 20 cute chicks!". After all, one must always make certain to keep priorities in mind. ^_~

Unfortunately, I doubt Mr. Trudeau was so fanciful. More likely, it was a matter of Mr. Trudeau picturing his hypothetical "Minority" sitting in the same room as a student, a cripple, and a poor person as all of them drooled down the side of their mouth while saying, "Duh! I'm too dumb to use a photo ID therefore I can't vote. Duhhhh!". All in unison of course, because liberals and leftists are *very* big on "solidarity". u_u

So in other words, in the mind of Garry Trudeau no one has the brains to use a photo ID unless they are wealthy, middleaged, whites? O_O

I guess you can't get more Liberal than that! :P

Good thing for the rest of us that he's completely wrong, isn't it? ^_~

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

Edit(July 11, 2008): Feh! Nothing like evil typos to mar a perfectly good title is there? ^_^;

Let us note that Mr. Trudeau has now had his name corrected from "Mr. Truseau" as it had been typed, in prior to correction, back to "Mr. Trudeau". I'd fire the baka who does the proofreading around here if the baka in question weren't me! ^o^

The Irony From Hollywood! ^o^

Isn't it interesting that so many of those who scorned President Bush as "inarticulate" turn out themselves to be hapless to speak or perform without the assistance of writers? ^_~

Why Does the AP Neglect Afghanistan? o_O

Over in Captain's Quarters, Captain Ed joins Jules Crittenden in asking a simple question that is both interesting and pertinent: Why do the AP reporters not think our soldiers who died in Afghanistan worth naming? Since Garry Traudeau is playing a similar game in his comic strip it's worth asking why he doesn't think such soldiers worth naming either. Someone should explain to such people that Memorial Day is a day to remember *all* the troops rather than merely the ones they think they can use to score political points with. >_<

Oh well, as Sweetness and Light once pointed out, there were once Copperheads who opposed America's fight to survive in the days of the Civil War that started our Memorial Day traditions to begin with and sought to undermine the nation for their own selfish purposes even then. We should probably not be surprised that such Copperheads would be with us today as well. ~_~

A Lesson in Reading Enemy Propaganda! ^O^

You just know America is winning when propagandists for the enemy side have to reassure their target audience that the enemy is resilient, ne? ^_^

After all, does not a headline like "Sunni insurgents show resilience in Iraq" imply that the "insurgents" do indeed have a need for resilence in the first place? ^_~


And lest anyone think I do the AP wrong by calling them enemy propagandists, however inadvertant it may be on their part, let us take a moment to remember the saga of Jamil Hussein. That is not the sort of thing that inspires confidence in them at all. ~_~