I SWORE I Wouldn't Do It...

..."it" being commenting on L'Affaire Gates. It's already much ado about not much... waaay too much ado, actually. But... seeing as how we've all read and heard too much about this stupidity already I don't think I'll hurt things by adding a couple of "don't miss" articles/posts on the subject.

First... David Burge has a guest posting at his place of bid'niz. The lede and link:

Cambridge Police Profiling Still A Grim Reality for Harvard Faculty Assholes

Guest Opinion
by Professor John Evans Evans-John
Harvard School of Harvard Faculty Asshole Studies
Harvard University
When I first learned of the arrest of my colleague Professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates after he stood up to the fascist jackboots of a declasse, ill-educated Cambridge police officer, I was of course angered -- but scarcely shocked. L'Affaire Gates simply aired, in public, the dirty 100-thread-count table linen of an American culture where Harvard faculty assholes still face a daily struggle against profiling, abuse, and insolence.
It will come as no surprise that Skip's arrest was the talk of the Douchebag Room at the Harvard Faculty Club last Friday. I and a group of colleagues had assembled for our weekly lunch; I opted for their competently-prepared Ahi Tuna Tartare and an amusing glass of '05 Hospices de Beaune Premier Cru Cuvee Cyrot-Chaudron. I had noticed that the Franz Fanon Memorial Booth -- Skip's long-reserved lunch spot -- was uncharacteristically empty, and asked our waiter Sergio for an explanation.
"Professor Skeep, he no is come today," said Sergio. "I tink he is in the jail."

Heh. RTWT*, as we bloggers acronymize.

And Lex, he speaks for me: "they both suck." All three of 'em suck, if ya wanna include The Most Powerful Man In The World, who started the whole brouhaha with a statement to the effect of "... I don't know the facts, but..." Frickin' ROOKIE.

There. I'm done.

* Read The Whole Thing.

Irresponsible...

... and proud of it. Here's what triggered the post title... something Kris left in comments to a previous post, to wit:

Wine in bottles. Bottles are glass. Glass is recyclable. We do recycling in our town.

Consumption of good quality wine = being environmentally conscious.

Al Gore will finally return my calls! ;-)

Ummm... we don't do recycling here in P-Ville. We are, apparently, unreconstructed Neanderthals in that all our waste... bottles, cans, kitchen garbage, cardboard boxes (large and small), what-have-you... goes into the dumpsters here at Beautiful La Hacienda Trailer Park and from there off to the landfill. I contrast this to previous lives, wherein we saved all our bottles and cans and hauled them off to the local grocery store on a monthly or bi-monthly basis for to redeem the nickel or dime deposits (depending on whether we were in Michigan or New York) we paid when purchasing our beer and soft drinks. There are no such deposits here in unreconstructed New Mexico, and I'm glad for it. I frickin' HATED saving all those damned cans and bottles and hauling them off every so often. But I hated the thought of losing that money even more... so I played the game. No more. I cheerfully toss all my bottles and cans into the garbage with nary a thought and most certainly without regret.

It wasn't always so and it most definitely used to be worse: I could still be living in Berkeley, where I had to sort my trash into (a) kitchen waste, (b) paper... bundled and tied according to specific instructions issued by the Powers That Be, (c) green glass, (d) brown glass and (e) clear glass... there being separate and discrete receptacles for all the aforementioned categories of refuse located in the trash area of my apartment complex (actually a four-plex of apartments) in said City of Berkeley. Failure to comply with the city's recycling requirements guaranteed you a visit from the Berkeley Trash Police... I shit thee NOT. And this was nearly ten years ago... in the Year of Our Lord 2000.

Things got better when I left Berkeley and moved out to San Ramon, where the City Fathers were less environmentally conscious... or had access to bigger landfills. Recycling in those parts of the Bay Area remained a matter of personal choice... and it might please those of you Gentle Readers who take this sort of thing seriously that I did separate my glass from the rest of the trash and put it in the conveniently-provided recycle bins.

But no more. I never even give this sort of thing a passing thought, except for when the subject rears its less-than-comely head... such as it did when Kris broached the subject. I cheerfully throw my cans and bottles away with a nary a guilt-twinge and am supremely glad for the opportunity to do so. Thank you, P-Ville and New Mexico. I love you.

Yep. Al Gore would hate me if he knew. So be it. We're known both by the company we keep and the quality of our enemies, right? If that's truly the case then I have the best of all possible enemies.

Today's Funny

... is from Lisa Benson:

Heh, as we say in these parts.

Apropos of nothing... I went to Viral Vids to see if there was anything amusing to post and saw the entire Top 20 was nothing but MJ. I shoulda known...

Heh

A lot of folks I read have posted about the exchange SENATOR B. Boxer (D - LaLaLand) had with Brigadier General Michael Walsh recently. But this is the best thing I've seen on the subject:



Heh. It's a good ad and I wish Chuck DeVore all the luck in the world. He'd have MY vote if I still lived in California.

(h/t: Susan)

Sunday, Ideological Sunday

(with apologies to Bono for the post title, of course)

The Politico has an interesting article on one of my favorite conservatives... Newt Gingrich... titled “Gingrich, provocateur, returns.” A few excerpts:

In the three months that Obama has been president, Gingrich has blasted the Democrat on a number of different fronts, from the economy and domestic policy to defense and foreign policy.

Obama’s budget? It “deliberately” reduces charitable deductions in the tax code to wage a “war against churches and charities.” His stimulus plan? An attempt to create a “European socialist model.” At one point during the omnibus spending bill debate, Gingrich said of the Obama administration: “I wonder how dumb they think we are that we wouldn’t notice 8,000 earmarks.”

He doesn’t mince words in his bracing critiques. After North Korea recently tested a missile, Gingrich accused Obama of engaging in “fantasy foreign policy” that could create “enormous trouble” for the United States. As for former Vice President Dick Cheney, Gingrich said he’s “clearly right” that the United States “is running greater risks of getting attacked than we were under President Bush.”

No one, not even the press, is immune from his barbs. The media’s obsession with the president’s new first dog, he said recently, is “fairly stupid.”

[…]

“If anybody doubts that he is the de facto leader of the Republican Party right now, they’re crazy,” said Matt Towery, CEO of the polling firm InsiderAdvantage and a former Gingrich aide. “Newt Gingrich is filling a void that nobody else is stepping up to fill right now.”

[…]

While Gingrich declined to comment for this story, a month into Obama’s presidency, he lifted the curtain on his opposition to the new president in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference.

“We now have more than enough evidence of what this administration thinks of the American people,” Gingrich said before launching into a blistering critique of Obama. “Now, a month ago, I would not have said what I’m about to say, but I’ve watched carefully the first month of the left-wing machine.”

Norquist explained that Gingrich is an obvious choice for who should serve as the GOP’s voice because “he’s got 20 IQ points on some of the alternatives.”

Read the whole thing, as it's said. The article is fairly brief and is a wonderful lead-in to what I really want to talk about today.

I had the opportunity to watch the Speaker in action this past Friday when he gave extensive testimony on pending energy legislation before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. What was most interesting about Speaker Gingrich’s testimony was the fact he followed Algore and former senator John Warner (R-Va), so one had the opportunity to contrast The Goreacle’s bombastic, overly dramatic, “end of the world as we know it” rhetoric with Mr. Gingrich’s cool, fact based, and unruffled testimony… even in the face of an obviously hostile Democrat-controlled committee. There was an exception: former chairman John Dingell (D-Mich) greeted Speaker Gingrich warmly, saying "Nice to see you again, Newt," sounding like he actually meant it. (Newt responded in kind.) But that was the sole exception. The high point of Mr. Gingrich’s appearance was the spirited exchange between resident idiot and committee chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif) and the Speaker. Mr. Gingrich coolly and systematically dismantled arguments advanced by an obviously agitated Congressman Waxman. It was a thing of beauty to behold.

But we digress. The Speaker’s opening statement before the E&C committee is available on-line, in its entirety. Here are a few excerpts:

But as a former environmental studies professor who lectured on the second Earth Day, and as someone who was named Legislative Conservationist of the Year in 1998 by the Georgia Wildlife Federation, it should be no surprise that I care deeply about and am committed to the protection of our environment.

In this commitment, I echo the conviction of two great American leaders. The first is President Theodore Roosevelt, who said that "the nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets, which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired, in value." The other was then-Governor Ronald Reagan who, upon the occasion of the first Earth Day, affirmed the "absolute necessity of waging all-out war against the debauching of the environment."

It was in this spirit that I read the bill that is being discussed before this committee and it is in this spirit that I report to you today my conclusion that this is the wrong bill.

This bill is wrong for our national security.

This bill is wrong for our economy.

This bill is wrong for government of, by, and for the people.

The framework in which I have analyzed this bill can be captured in a very simple phrase: 2+2=4, which was a prominent rallying cry in the late 1980s when the Solidarity free trade union movement was campaigning in Poland's first free elections.

The core idea behind 2+2=4 is that citizens must tell the truth even when governments lie. 2+2=4 forces you back to reality.

As matter of reality, the United States faces three enormous threats: threats to our national security, a threat of further economic decline, and a threat of government for the government (and not government for the people), which leads to corruption, political favoritism, and the fundamental breakdown of the rule of law. On all three of these bases of reality, this is the wrong bill.

[…]

When you consider President Obama's budget, this proposed legislation has a price tag for the American people of at least $646 billion. We know from news reports that senior Obama administration officials have indicated that $646 billion is a conservative amount and that the overall figure may be as much as three times that amount or $1.9 trillion in new taxes.

This is currently a 648 page bill, or, put another way, $1-3 billion per page. This is quite a costly bill, even for the standards of this Congress. It would be two and a half times the size of the giant stimulus package passed earlier this year. And it would be a tax burden not a spending stimulus so it would deeply burden the American people and the economy.

While our economy is in deep recession and Americans are losing jobs by the thousands each month, this bill would worsen both. Make no mistake about it: This bill amounts to a $1-2 trillion energy tax levied on a struggling economy, which is destructive and wrong. With this glorified $1-2 trillion new energy tax, expect utility bill increases up to $3,128 per year per household. Filling up your gas tank will cost anywhere from 60 percent to 144 percent more, your electricity bill will increase by 77 to 129 percent, and the cost of home heating oil and natural gas could nearly double.

If enacted, this energy tax will increase the electricity bill of every American, increase the cost to drive a car, and increase the cost of doing business. This will punish every retired American, every rural American, and every person who drives to work, uses heating oil, or has electricity in their home. This will kill jobs and lead American jobs and investment being shipped to China and India, two countries that have made it quite clear that they will not levy such an enormous tax on their own economies.

Once again… Speaker Gingrich’s complete statement is here, and it’s VERY good reading. C-SPAN has video of the Speaker’s testimony, if video is more your style. And… in the spirit of bipartisanship (heh)… you could also watch The Goreacle’s testimony, if you’re into self-abuse on a grand scale. And yes, that would be ME, as well. I watched the whole Goreacle testimony in real-time and I’m still suffering from the experience. The things I do to keep an open mind amaze even me sometimes. Be advised: both videos are rather long. But they are MOST enlightening.

It should come as no surprise, Gentle Reader, that I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Gingrich's positions... while I think Algore is a prat, and a dangerous prat, too. Gore wields a lot of influence, God only knows why. Maybe it's that Nobel thing. Or perhaps it's his Oscar, which I think would carry more weight with mainstream Obama voters. An inconvenient truth, if ever there was one.

Finally... Mr. Gingrich's website... American Solutions... is also worth a visit if you have some time to kill. Good Stuff be there.

Vets As Nutjobs

(Lisa Benson, via Townhall.com)

Heh. No one has been in touch with ME... yet. But ya never know, do ya? Them there former military right-wing nutjobs are a BIG problem...

Much has been written over the course of this last week about the language used in the Department of Homeland Security's report titled "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence and Recruitment." And here it is:



DHS Report on Right Wing Extremism - Free Legal Forms

The American Legion, among others, were upset about the language contained in the report, and Legion president David K. Rehbein sent a rather strongly-worded letter to Janet Napolitano which said, in part:

The best that I can say about your recent report is that it is incomplete. The report states, without any statistical evidence, "The possible passage of new restrictions on firearms and the return of military veterans facing significant challenges reintegrating into their communities could lead to the potential emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks."
The American Legion is well aware and horrified at the pain inflicted during the Oklahoma City bombing, but Timothy McVeigh was only one of more than 42 million veterans who have worn this nation's uniform during wartime. To continue to use McVeigh as an example of the stereotypical "disgruntled military veteran" is as unfair as using Osama bin Laden as the sole example of Islam.

Your report states that "Rightwing extremists were concerned during the 1990s with the perception that illegal immigrants were taking away American jobs through their willingness to work at significantly lower wages." Secretary Napolitano, this is more than a perception to those who have lost their job. Would you categorize union members as "Right Wing extremists"?
In spite of this incomplete, and, I fear, politically-biased report, The American Legion and the Department of Homeland Security share many common and crucial interests, such as the Citizen Corps and disaster preparedness. Since you are a graduate of New Mexico Girls State, I trust that you are very familiar with The American Legion. I would be happy to meet with you at a time of mutual convenience to discuss issues such as border security and the war on terrorism. I think it is important for all of us to remember that Americans are not the enemy. The terrorists are.

Napolitano later delivered an apology, of sorts. All this being, of course, old news. But... I figured if I was gonna post the cartoon... I may as well provide the requisite background information.

Heh

Remember this? Wherein I said... "Let's think about other things, such as going to the DMV (or some other to-be-announced Fed agency) to file a warranty claim on your GM car. Yeah. THAT will be fun, dontcha think?" The folks at Reason were on the same page... and made a video to that effect.



Heh.

One Good Thing and a Few Variations on "Worst"

Here’s a pretty cool piece on Twitter from Ed Driscoll which contains everything you ever wanted to know about Tweeting, and then some:

If you moused over the Ed Driscoll link you probably saw it takes you to a piece Ed wrote called “Twitter: ‘The Worst Person in the World.’” And yeah… that’s a nod to one of Olbermann’s signature shticks, wherein he names a daily “Worst Person” on his “show”… which is nearly always someone like Dubya, Cheney, Newt, Ann Coulter, or any other conservative who happens to pop into his ever-so-short attention span. Being named as “Worst Person” is a Badge Of Honor for conservatives, ya know.

Well, Dear Keith put his foot in it last week, BIG Time, by claiming... on air, in a “Worst Person” segment, no less!... his @countdownMSNBC Twitter account was a false-flag op by none other than Fox News. In the words of Red State: “Epic Fail!” The whole story, if’n ya missed it… is here… complete with Olby video and screenshots of the now-closed @countdownMSNBC Twitter account.

Heh. This couldn’t have happened to a more deserving asshat. Long time readers know I used to beat up on Olby quite often in the way-back… I’ve since discovered I (generally) have better things to do with my time, but this is TOO good to let slide…

―:☺:―

Apropos of “worst”… this weekend was a serious downer for YrHmblScrb. First there was the weather, wherein Ol Man Winter made a curtain-call here on The High Plains of New Mexico on Friday and Saturday… complete with freezing rain, snow, wind, and other undesirable weather thingies. Sunday was a little better in that our temps got back up into the 70s… but there was that howling wind… ever-present at this time of year. Here’s what we looked like last Friday morning:

I took that screenshot and went directly back to bed and stayed there until around 1400 hrs. It wasn’t only the weather that drove me to return abed though, Gentle Reader. I’m still not healing as well from the latest Adventures in Modern Dentistry as I think I should be and there’s a distinct possibility I may be nursing an infection of sorts. I’m scheduled to have my stitches removed late this week but I may go in earlier if The Good Doctor is available (he’s on his annual, well-deserved Spring Break at the moment).

So… there’s all that and more. I spent the entire day Sunday down with an absolutely miserable case of gastric distress, of the type where one cannot be more than a few feet from The Little Room at any given point in time. Nothing… not even water… would remain in my gut longer than about six minutes. Pepto-Bismol normally works pretty well for me when I’m so afflicted, but NOT yesterday. Whatever gut-bugs are resident in my frame simply drank The Pink Stuff up and sent it on its way… quickly. This also tells me I may be nursing some sort of infection.

This, too, shall pass.

Heh

On Salsa... Oh So Briefly (and Other Things, Too)

There’s one thing I just have to say before I even get started… home-made is BEST. It’s always been so, and probably will always BE so… with just a couple of caveats: (1) you gotta know what you’re doing and (2) you have to have the proper ingredients. Number Two is key, yanno. Some folks can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, but that ain’t the case when it comes to salsa and its prime ingredient: chile. The ol’ IT saw… garbage in, garbage out… applies to salsa, in spades.

I might could be a salsa connoisseur, but I’m reluctant to bill myself as such. Let’s just say my experience with the art form goes back well over 40 years and I’ve eaten a tremendous number of varieties of this essential condiment… ranging from the exquisite to the mundane (and worse). And speaking of “exquisite,” The First Mrs. Pennington is a past master at creating the most delectable salsa you can imagine. Apropos of nothing, the lady kept me supplied with it (the salsa) during my one-year sojourn in Beautiful-Sinop-By-The-Sea via frequent Care Packages containing Mason jars of her salsa. That salsa was jealously guarded… believe me… and accompanied me to the chow hall every morning to grace my eggs and every evening to make other things edible (Army food SUCKS). Her salsa was also much in demand from friends who knew about the wonderfulness of salsa in general and hers, in particular. A few friendships were made because of her salsa, but let us not digress further.

One of the absolute worst periods of my life where salsa is concerned was spending over ten years in the Great Salsa Desert, also known as the northern tier (read as: Detroit and Rochester, NY). People in that part of the world have absolutely NO idea about salsa… and their concept of “good salsa” is limited to Pace or Old El Paso. Blech. Either of those two brands are to salsa as ketchup is to marinara sauce… i.e., they’re both red, but the resemblance begins and ends right there. And you know what’s strange? I can go to Wally-World right here in P-Ville and BOTH of those brands are featured prominently on the shelves. Go figure…

One of the reasons I make my bi-weekly trips over to The Big(ger) City^TM is to pick up a couple weeks’ supply of El Pinto, my current favorite salsa. El Pinto used to be available in P-Ville but for some reason the managers at Wally-World decided to discontinue it… more than likely because it ain’t the cheapest brand available, and Wally-World is ALL about cheap. But we digress… yet again. I truly believe El Pinto is the absolute BEST commercial salsa I’ve ever tasted and comes awfully danged close to home-made. It’s also available in several different formulas, from the usual mild to hot, to various permutations of red, green, and other varieties. And there’s good news for those folks who aren’t privileged to live in New Mexico, otherwise known as The Capital of the Chile Universe: you can buy El Pinto salsa on-line. My two favorite flavors are illustrated at left.

So… just as life is too short to drink bad beer, it’s most definitely too short to tolerate less than the best salsa. You DO have options. Use ‘em.

―:☺:―

Via Johnny Dollar at Olbermann Watch… a most excellent segment from last Friday’s Red Eye:

The whole Halftime Report is here… if’n ya wanna go. It’s worth the trip.

―:☺:―

While we’re on about politics, there’s this:

Looking for all the world like the sweating floor manager on the late afternoon shift at Larry Flynt's Hustler Club in an unbuttoned shiny black shirt and undersized sport coat, Rush Limbaugh leaned his meaty hands on the lectern at the CPAC conference and slipped a greasy dollar bill into the G-string of the writhing conservative dead-enders packed into garishly lit Omni Shoreham in Washington DC.

Jowls rolling like thunder from the right via CNN's unfortunate high-definition feed, Limbaugh took control of the sad and tattered remnants of the mainstream conservative movement, and urged continued allegiance to the noble Lost Cause of Reagan, metaphorically carrying his rebel-yelling followers into the hills like modern-day Quantrill's Raiders standing firm against change.

Judas Priest. The above takes the proverbial cake in the Purple Prose Sweepstakes. Isn’t there some sort of web site dedicated to over-reliance on one’s handy-dandy thesaurus and bad writing, in general? Why, yes… yes there IS. I’m thinking you’re seeing the 2009 Bulwer-Lytton winner, just above. All others should just give it up… there’s NO topping Mr. Watson. Elementary, and all that.

Heh

Gear-heads... Rejoice! Sports cars shall live on, even in that totally-green, eco-conscious Brave New World that's coming at us faster than a Bugatti Veyron!



But... I'll stick with The Green Hornet for the foreseeable future, thankyaverymuch. She's still got a LOT of life left in her. And TGH has a much better sound system, too, albeit she IS lacking a Barney Frank-approved condom dispenser. I can live with that, though.

(h/t: Blog Bud Gordon)

The Scandal du Jour...

A screenshot from memeorandum this morning:

Yeah, OK. Right. Everyone who's anyone has something to say about this brouhaha, however meaningless and mundane it might be. I mean, we're talking Illinois politics, ain't we? Which is the antithesis of "squeaky clean." But I digress. All you really need to know about this oh-so-surprising scandal (surprising if you're a third grader, or if you live under a rock somewhere) is up at Iowahawk's place, to wit:

BREAKING: Feds Seize Blagojevich eBay Account

CHICAGO - The ongoing corruption probe into Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich took a dramatic turn this evening, as federal agents working for US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald announced that they had seized the governor's eBay account. It is as yet unknown how the latest seizure will effect the outcome of the case.
IOWAHAWK EXCLUSIVE! RUSH UPDATE!

Leaked documents from latest sealed federal indictment (click to embiggen)

Heh. You really gotta see this...