Rutherford B. Hayes Pwnz Barack H. Obama! ^_^

Mr. Obama, in his eternal quest to dumb the American public down to the education level typical of a Chicago Democrat and also to justify his own indulgence of a pseudo-science scam called "green energy", recently claimed that Rutherford B. Hayes had scorned the invention of the telephone when in point of fact Mr. Hayes was the first President to install one.

Well, I guess it's only fair that this gave rise to some a captioning frenzy and I think the only thing left for me to do is to note that aside from some repetition it seems to currently be 37 pages of snarky goodness. Enjoy! ^_~

Hat tip: Instapundit

Mood Music: 'Don't Know Much About History Written' by Sam Cooke, Lou Adler, and Herb Alpert. As sung by Sam Cooke.

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. >_>

Nancy Pelosi Orders Books Burned! ^_^;

Think I'm kidding? Then check this out! Isn't it typical of the Left that they would be in the forefront of the destruction of books? >_<

Kinda shows what "Hope and Change" is worth when you think about it, don't it? o_O

Words to Contemplate as Autumn Comes Gently...

Quoth Wretchard at the Belmont Club: "The vast majority of true believers are not, as some would suppose, the soccer moms attending their Sunday church and leading their ordinary lives the rest of the week. The real compulsive joiners are those must attend the church of the co-op, pray at the shrine of the Global Warming, join political Action Wires and feel the “need to connect” without which their lives have no meaning. In the service of the new secular faiths all the old forms have been given new names. The medieval procession, sans the candles but with the molotov cocktail, has become the modern protest rally. Indulgences are back as carbon credits. Instead of a bishop on a distant cathedral altar, there is an orator before Greek columns at Invesco Field."

And it's true, all true! G.K. Chesterton once wrote in his Father Brown stories that atheists make the worst religious fanatics of all. It's strange to realize that as more than 100 years of Progress has gone by the Left has remained more frozen in time than the Amish. @_@

But then again, perhaps not so strange when we remember that many of the Left are such raging technophobes as to still bemoan the invention of agriculture...

Isn't it interesting that those who call themselves "Progressive" have such a xenophobic fear of Technology? Isn't it interesting that those who call themselves "Progressive" are themselves so afraid of Progress? Makes one thankful that we are those who embrace the Future instead of mere "Progressives", doesn't it? ^_~

1 Thing to Remember...

The best way to reduce our dependence on foreign oil would be to drill for our own! ^_^

Just a thought! ^_~

The Limits of the Wind

Via Small Dead Animals we find this interesting reality check for those who believe overmuch in wind power.

Which is no surprise. If environmentalists like the Kennedy family thought wind power were any good they wouldn't have objected to a wind farm being built within their neighborhood, ne? :P

The Triumph of the Atom! ^_^

Offhand, I would say that this counts as good news. ^-^

If I were mean I'd probably say something snarky about how Ralph Nader and his fellow Ecofreaks of the 1970s owe the rest of us an apology for keeping this from happening sooner - but better late than never, right? ^_~

Slightly Disturbing...

So via Instapundit we now learn Modern Physics is no longer required for an undergraduate degree in physics? O_O

This does serve to show what any "scientific consensus"of those
who believe in Global Warming is worth when you think of it. ^_^;

The Ghost of Futures Past...

James Lileks gives us an interesting look at what SF Fandom was like in the past complete with prime examples of the sort of Reader Service the fans had back then. Those who would like to take another look at that time via fiction might enjoy reading a novel called What Mad Universe?"" by Frederic Brown which is its own way was the "Fallen Angels" of that day. ^_^

(Via Ed Driscoll (Although "elites" is very much not the word I would use for the Leftist zombies, noobs and lamers who worship at the alter of Doom! :P ), via Instapundit ).

It's Universal Global Warming! ^_^

A lot of people are worried about Anthropogenic (i.e. manmade) Global Warming in the same way there was once much concern over Y2K or Acid Rain. Why don't we be nice and help these people out with evidence to support their cause? ^_~

Let us start by noting that there is now known to be Global Warming on Mars! ^_^


Isn't it just terrible how we nasty humans have been pumping CO2 into the Martian atmosphere? T_T

*blink, blink*

Hey, waitaminute! O_O

There is no human life on Mars. :P

...Currently! ^_~

That's OK. Let's still take a moment to help out all our environmentalist buddies by gathering some more evidence to show that global warming is indeed taking place. *Just because we are such *nice* people!* ^-^

Via Tim Blair we learn that this isn't just happening on Mars either but on Pluto as well. It would appear that there is "climate change" on Jupiter too. Such "climate change" is also occurring on Venus as well begging the question of whether terraforming Venus might not be trickier than I had initially thought. :P


And Saturn is getting warmer as well! ^_^

But none of them have any human life! T_T

That means that any global warming that takes place on them could not have been caused by human intervention. O_O

So, to help our "environmentalist" friends out let's review! ^_^

1. Mars, Pluto, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn *are* all undergoing Global Warming.

2. None of them have any human life.

3. The fact that these planets are also undergoing a warming period counts as evidence that the theory of anthropogenic global warming is nothing but a hoax to the extent that it is anything more than a manifestion of group hysteria.


Whoops! Did I write that last part out loud? O_O;

Oh well, I'm sure our environmentalist friends are all duly grateful for the help I've just given them anyway. ^o^ As far as I'm concerned they are entirely welcome to accept such help in the same spirit in which it was given to them. So pass the word onto your friends! ^_^

I'm sure they'll be amused to find out just how universal "Global Warming" really is. ^_~

A Valuable Life Skill! ^_^

From Strategy Page we learn that online chat is a more valuable skill than some people realize. When you stop and think about it that makes the Stephans bill seem even more maladroit than it does at first glance. <_<

Perhaps it would be wise for the voting public and politicians alike to consider the possibility that both Congress and the state legislatures could find uses for their time that are a bit more relevant to their own public duties than that of study hall management? o_O

Censors Get Pwn3d! ^_^

Go here for details. ^^

Don't just read the whole thing, read the links as well. Anywhere that Communists rule is a place where you will find this knowledge to be useful! ^_~

Pseudocode Exercise.

10 REM This is a pseudocode program.
20 REM Normally pseudocode is used to design programs but in this case I am using it to make a point.
22 REM
30 Let $PC = I
40 Print 'Polls closed?"
50 If "Y" or "y" then End Program. If "N" or "n" then 60.
60 REM Let's have this represent a sample election
61 Let X = overall vote counter
70 Print "Sample Race for Dog Catcher"
80 Print "This race will be provided with an Audit Trail"
90 Print "Please select the candidate you prefer."
100 Print
110 Print "Candidate A"
120 Print "Candidate B"
130 Input C
140 If C = Candidate A then print Candidate A's Name to the Audit Trail
150 If C = Candidate B then print Candidate B's Name to the Audit Trail
160 Let X = X + 1
161 REM This advances the overall vote counter..
165 Let H = H + 1
166 REM The purpose of this second counter will be revealed later.
170 REM Notice that the voter is being provided with an audit trail for his own use, whether to the screen or as a printout, so "He can see what is being done with his vote"? o_O
173 REM
180 REM Now watch what happens next!
181 REM
190 If C = Candidate A then let Candidate A's total = A + 1.
191 REM
200 REM So far, so good, right? Note once more that the audit trail has already been printed.
201 REM
210 If C = Candidate B and H < 1000 then 275 Else 220
211 REM
220 REM Now the dirty work begins! :P
221 REM
230 If H = 1000 then let Candidate A's total = A +1
240 Reset H to Zero.
250 GOTO 30
251 REM
252 REM Whee!
253 REM
260 REM Did you just see what happened? o_O
261 REM
262 REM Any voter for Candidate B would get his receipt showing that he voted for his man alright but 1 out of 1000 votes would have their votes diverted without any way of being the wiser.
264 REM
265 REM If you stop to think about it there is no reason any printout has to reflect what the Computer is actually doing.
267 REM
268 REM And if *I* can think of this then I assure you that other
269 REM activists with a programming background probably already have
270 REM as well. ^_^;
271 REM
272 REM Now let's finish the rest of this pseudocode.
273 REM
275 Let Candidate B's total = B + 1
280 Let H = H + 1
281 REM
282 REM Alas, poor B! 1 vote out of 1000 is subtle enough that he would never know what hit him but would still apply a killer advantage in a large election that happened to be close. ^_^;
285 REM
286 REM Note by the way, that I have deliberately designed this in a botched manner to discourage any script kiddies who want to try this for real. :P
289 REM
290 GOTO 30.
291 REM
292 REM That said, I hope that anyone who reads this still sees my point.
294 REM
295 REM Now you know why I don't consider printouts or receipts to be any protection against vote fraud. ^_^;;
297 REM
300 End Pseudocode Exercise! >_<

A Useful Postulate...

"I have a postulate for you to consider: IN any thinking-system, A postulate that says you can't do what you have to do must be rejected as futile.

Reason: A postulate is NOT a reality-truth; it's strictly a thought-tool...and a tool that won't work must be replaced with one that will."

- John W. Campbell, letter to Horace L. Gold on November 4, 1954. P. 263 of "The John W. Campbell Letters: Volume 1", eds. Perry A. Chapdelaine, Sr., Tony Chapdelaine, George Hay, (Frankin, TN.:AC Projects, 1985. ISBN: 0-931150-16-7 ).


Something to keep in mind the next time someone tries to sell despair when it comes to winning The War on Terror or indeed upon any other subject. After all, it's not without reason that Napoleon is said to have stated that "The Moral is to the Physical as three to one!" ^_^