50 Feet Further Than Last Year

Yesterday would have been, if my math is correct, my friend Donnie's 58th birthday.  And it's been nearly 17 years now since the car wreck that killed him, on his way to work.  That's longer than the time we were friends, longer than I knew him.

It amazes me that I'm no better adjusted to a world without my friend today, than I was on that stormy Monday...17 years ago.  I was better for knowing him.  But, I'm worth less every day and every year since.  That's just the way it is.

I miss you, my friend.  I'll raise a freshly squeezed Budweiser to you, sir.  I wish you a happy birthday, on that great golf course in the sky (or is it a great blues bar?).

Whichever, would it kill you to call and say you're squeezing the phone tight?

Linky Love Tuesday

I'm just going to publish a little linkarama for this Tuesday.  Maybe I'll serve up some more self-produced nuggets later, but these caught my eye this morning, and I felt like sharing.

I keep linking to Lemuel and he refuses neglects to reciprocate for whatever reason, but today he does give us some good reason to celebrate the fact that NC Dumocrat Congresscritter Ethridge (district 2) has likely slapped and manhandled his last student.  Go meet the Republican opponent to Boob Ethridge at Hillbilly White Trash.  North Carolina politics is fixin' to get a whole lot prettier.

That guy makes me wonder whose desk Mel Watt has been hiding under regarding what happened last week on the steps to his office.  Has anyone heard Watt distance himself from the thug that punched a peaceful Tea Party rallier, or remotely condemn that behavior?

Other unrelated good work this A.M. comes from Mary Grabar at American Thinker, entitled Keeping Up With the University of Stupid.  Actually, it's great work.  What does the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), have to say about the University of Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Berkeley...and your favorite school?  I'll tell you this from the whodathunkit department: Arkansas gets an A.  Read the article wherein she also links to this site for the report card.  Does your Alma Mater consider Gender Studies and Environmental Science valid as core curriculum material, as worthy replacements for mathematics, foreign language, philosophy, and real science?  Mine got a B, with poor performance in Literature, US Government or History, and Economics.  The score does not mean the university does not teach these things, just that they aren't required.  The shame.

Kick Here

If you're the guy occupying the Presidency, and you're "sitting around talking to experts" in an effort to learn whose "ass to kick," recognize my upstretched hand.

It is I.

I am America.  I am your opposition.  I am the person whose Liberty and singularity you've methodically sought to abolish.  I am Joe the Plumber.  I am Capitalism and self-reliance.  I am John Galt.  I am a white man devoid of white guilt.  I thumb my nose at Islam and their prophet.  I'm John Wayne.  I'm a Southerner with a truck, and I stand with Israel.  I pledge allegiance and honor the Anthem and the Flag with my hand over my heart.  I abhor and shun perversion, and would never hire a child-molestor to be "safe-schools czar".  I never showed up at my job just to vote "present."  I'm a friend of the Tea Parties.  I'm an ecologist who doesn't subscribe to the global warming hoax.  I'm a US citizen, and able to prove it.  I sing God Bless America... with conviction. I am the original captain of the Olympic Ass-Kicking Team.  And whipping me would win you the esteem of all your true believers...like Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Bill Maher, Michael Moore, Janeane Garofolo, Hugo Chavez, ad nauseum.

We could get a Pay-Per-View event set up, sell access at $50 per household, and pay down the national debt.  Or someone could just lock the two of us in a room for ten minutes.  Let your "expert" James Cameron set up a video camera in that room, and he can sell the "cold-cockumentary" at the theatres.  That'd be my preference, but I ain't too picky. Even if it's just the two of us, for what it's worth, you won't be the "smartest person in (that) room."

I just got sliced open last weekend and still have some staples in my gut, but like John Wayne says to Bruce Dern in The Cowboys, "...on my worst day, I'd still beat the hell outta you."

Any time.  Anywhere.  For any amount of money.

You think you're a bad muthafucka competent leader?  Come meet one.  I'm America, and I'm calling your punk ass out.

Intellectual Left?

Contradiction In Terms

The politically charged arguments you have with the screaming-hair-afire nutcase liberal in the cubicle next to you (or in the comments section of your favorite blog), leave you exasperated, and it's not because he has insight and wisdom which you cannot refute.  The reason arguing with him or them gets you nothing but aggravation is because deductive reasoning, logic, and even knowledge are something they avoid.  Want proof?  Check out this article in the Wall Street Journal.

Daniel B. Klein and Zogby researcher Zeljka Buturovic surveyed 4835 American adults with eight questions, all based on economic principles.  They also asked those participants where they stood politically: progressive/very liberal, liberal, moderate, conservative, very conservative, and libertarian.  The scores are reflective of each person's ability to apply reason and logic to the questions, and designed to give partial credit for actually not knowing, as opposed to pretending to know...which gets no credit.

Consider one of the economic propositions in the December 2008 poll: "Restrictions on housing development make housing less affordable." People were asked if they: 1) strongly agree; 2) somewhat agree; 3) somewhat disagree; 4) strongly disagree; 5) are not sure.


Basic economics acknowledges that whatever redeeming features a restriction may have, it increases the cost of production and exchange, making goods and services less affordable. There may be exceptions to the general case, but they would be atypical.


Therefore, we counted as incorrect responses of "somewhat disagree" and "strongly disagree." This treatment gives leeway for those who think the question is ambiguous or half right and half wrong. They would likely answer "not sure," which we do not count as incorrect.

In this case, percentage of conservatives answering incorrectly was 22.3%, very conservatives 17.6% and libertarians 15.7%. But the percentage of progressive/very liberals answering incorrectly was 67.6% and liberals 60.1%. The pattern was not an anomaly.

All the other seven questions are shown in the article, and the ratio of correct answers (demographically sorted) are given as well.  The results are illuminating as to what your debate adversary has in his arsenal of wit, but it still won't help him see the inanity of carrying on the argument.  The argument will only come back around to some, "but what about Bush?"

Which is why the only manner wherein I choose to engage them, anymore, is to smite them with ridicule.  Debate with these fools is no more productive than seeking automotive repair advice from a special needs child.

This also reinforces my argument for a national competency exam as a requirement for voter eligibility.  Am I the only one lamenting the fact that our society is now defined by that which represents average, as opposed to being defined by those people, ideas, institutions, and endeavors which are exceptional?

Experimental Surgery

During the whole process of surgical process, nowadays, every caregiver asks you to rate your level of pain, 1 to 10, with ten being the highest.  And closing in on the time for slicing, they ask several times if you know what procedure you're having.  The first several times they asked, I answered dutifully, "I'm having my appendix removed...I'm having an appendectomy..."  And so on.  I think that has something to do with their worry over liability issues.

As they wheeled my gurney into The Room (what we on the inside call the O.R.), they asked me again, and I told them I was undergoing an experimental operation (inspired by something Ann Coulter said recently) to remove all concept of reason and accountability, in hopes of turning me from a Constitutional Republican and into your run-of-the-mill Democrat.  Cracked 'em up.

I thought about saying "Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week," but feared they'd take me up on that idea.

After surgery, again, they resumed asking me to rate the pain-level, and I played along most of the night.  In the wee hours yesterday, though, I took to quizzing every nurse and doctor who visited: On a sale of one to ten, with ten being the best patient you could ever imagine, how would you rate me as a patient?  There's a level of emotional detachment most caregivers have to own to get through their jobs, but I felt like making it easier for them to like me.  All of them were a bit off-put at the question.  Funny, that they all rated me a 10, though, and the main nurse gave me a 4.5 until I was just about to walk out the front door, when she came running after me...to tell me I was really a ten.

Some good folks, them nurses.

EDIT: Crap.  The link to the Ann Coulter essay doesn't accurately quote the author of the notion, but I'll find it.  It's still good reading, but not the exact origin.

They Can't Kill Him!

I had a slight case of emergency appendectomy Friday night!  A little worse for the wear and tear, but I am still kicking ass and taking names.  The appendix had not ruptured, but had completely worn out its welcome, kind of like the dumocrats.

Back in '07, I had the famously awful medical experience with the, ahem, "best cancer hospital in the world" (MD Anderson, Houston- according to US News & World Report).  Then, except for one radiation oncologist, the whole place could burn to the ground and wouldn't truly be missed.  I can only expect that USN&WR hasn't anything good to say about Catawba, 'cause aside from one unidentified male voice in the recovery room (and we'll get to the bottom of that) and maybe a rookie anesthesiologist, these guys were top notch in every regard.  I've got two fat lips from the breathing tube, and laryngitis, heavy congestion and slight concern for pneumonia.  If you're new to the anesthesiology game, I guess you have your first time sometime.  No hard feelings for that.

There was an exchange between myself and a male voice in the recovery room, though, that's sticking in my craw somewhat.  The conversation ended with me saying to him, "be here when I get untethered from all these tubes, and we'll decide who's an asshole, asshole."  I was only semi-conscious, and hadn't yet opened my eyes, lucky for him.  But the gals (and they were the sweetest!) got him the hell out of there, and did a good job of "having no idea who it coulda been..."

The world is full of telephone tough-guys.

All things considered, though, I can't complain about the treatment.  The ER was predictably sloth-like, but I had a serious surgery and the whole roundtrip from my front door took less than 24 hours.

The stuff they gave me to bring me out of sedation kind of helped keep me up all night, and during that time I was hit by an idea for a new business venture.  Time will tell whether it's Divine Intervention or delerium, but I'm now inspired to act, and we'll see how it goes.  Wish me luck.

For those concerned over my tenacity, I tried to just ignore the whole feeling-like-I-was-stabbed thingy.  I tried rubbing some dirt in on Wednesday, and fully intended on toughing it out till Monday, had it not been for Freckles (aka Princess Nagsalot).  She's a pain in the ass, but I owe her a lot of credit for getting me to go.  Thanks, honey.

Y'all take care of yourselves out there.

The Enemies Of My Enemies Are My Friends

My buddy Ted sent me the following video, forwarded on from a friend of his.  His friend, the originator of the email, seemed to have more affection (based on the language in his text) for Obama than for Reverend Manning.  That is, the friend's words belied a bit of condescension regarding Manning, which from my point of view is misplaced considering how loathsome the alternative (Obama) is by comparison.

A brief search suggests that this video is from around the time of the 2008 election, so it's not quite cutting edge media.

I believe Dr. Manning is correct that an uprising is at hand, and he is quite welcome on the team of good guys.



"This man is destroying what God loves!" says Reverend Manning, whose doctorate is in philosophy, according to the Atlah Ministries website.

Dr. Manning's delivery may seem a bit comical, if you listen to it as if it's a news program, which is as it is designed to appear.  But, Dr. Manning is a preacher, and he's speaking to his congregation in a way to which they can relate.  The thing I believe caught my friend's friend's attention is the disgust from one black citizen regarding the Obamination.  Well, let me be the first to tell you, there's lots of influential black men and women who aren't singing Obama's (or his fellow corruptocrat's) praises.  You aren't likely to see them, if you get your current events from the ostrich media.  Want more from Reverend Manning?  Right-click the above video and watch it at YouTube...and you'll see another dozen such vids in the sidebar.

Regular readers of the ST&L will know, however, one of my favorites is Alfonzo Rachel.  Who, incidentally, also has an essay at Big Hollywood where he shoots Bill Maher (figuratively, dipshits) in the foot.

Enjoy:

30 Seconds Of Census-Boy

As a companion-piece-slash-follow-up to the my most recent (lack of) effort, allow me to redirect your attention to our new media king, James O'Keefe.  You remember James.  He's the one who videotaped the scumbag ACORN employees who thought they were assisting a young pimp and his hooker set up a whorehouse for underage Salvadoran slaves, whilest getting around the whole income tax inconvenience.  His (and Hannah Giles') efforts scooped the entire mainstream media and effectively shut down Obama's favorite criminal enterprise.

What's he up to now, you ask?  How about exposing those scammers from the census for what they are!

Disclaimer time: I personally know three (3) people who are currently (or recently) employed as census-takers.  One of them I have a lot of respect for, and do not wish to cast a blanket indictment upon his character.  The other two?  Well, no livermush for you, assholes.

If James O'Keefe does not win the Pulitzer Prize for journalism, then the Pulitzer is hereby exactly as illegitimate as the Nobel Peace Prize.



So what do you want to bet that the 30 seconds Census Boy who "knows who I am" spent in my driveway, somehow became multiple hours of government-funded (read: your tax dollars) waste?  The waste Mr. O'Keefe displays is a billion dollars, assuming 20% of their time "working" is imaginary.  I can vouch for some of these locals, that 20% seems about right.

Please also consider visiting my friends at Big Government for the bottom line on the Department of Justice's destruction of O'Keefe's evidence against Sen. Landrieu, and more on the fraudulent census taking.