It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
Epictetus
Political Correctness Gone Amuck:
Thumbs DOWN!
Once again, the Obama Administration State Department has decided to make symbolism and political correctness its central focus, in this case trying to manipulate even the passport process to promote social acceptance of gay parent options. (I'm sure if Hillary Clinton really had her way it would be "Village Person-1", "Village Person-2",...,"Village Person-XXX".) What about the parental rights of the sperm donor or the egg donor?
I'm not sure what string they are pushing to promote a statistically insignificant "family" structure. (Maybe the State Department is trying to reconcile arguments over which gay man is the father or which lesbian is the mother...) But it only goes to prove: what the progressive Democrats are most worried about is not trying to fix the critical path needed to get or renew a passport but what is on a form processed by yet another government-paid pencil-pusher.
And, you know, if they ever find Obama's birth certificate and it says "parent 1" and "parent 2", I don't think it's a real one....
Phony Job Comparisons: Bush vs. Obama
I do not want to serve as Bush's apologist; any regular reader of this blog knows that I have sharply criticized Bush on a number of grounds: for example, his handling of post-invasion Iraq and the economic tsunami, crony appointments, domestic spending increases (including a new unfunded Medicare benefit) and government empire building (DHS), and failed attempts to reform immigration, entitlements, and financial services (particularly, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac).
Without a George W. Bush, there never would have been a Barack Obama and the 111th Congress, without a doubt the most inept over my lifetime and perhaps American history. I mean, Nero was fiddling while Rome was burning: what do the Democrats do with an overwhelming majority? Fix entitlements with tens of trillions in unfunded liabilities? Rapidly open up new markets for American goods and services? Business tax reform? No. You have pushing-on-a-string 2000-page bills that are overwhelming the capacity of business to deal with them, mostly pushing up the cost of doing business through increased taxes, mandates and other regulations. In the meanwhile, the Congress is spending like a drunken sailor, bailing out unions and fiscally irresponsible states, throwing away money, e.g., at politically favored green energy companies which hire a negligible number of workers (compared to 15 million unemployed).
But I continue to hear Democrats push a big lie in terms of comparing the economic performance of Bush and Obama. They are using the most disingenuous means possible of comparing Bush's job growth to Obama's (saying Obama did better last year than the entire Bush Administration as a standard talking point). What they are probably referring to is the fact that year-over-year last month there's been a net increase of 1,124,000 jobs compared to Bush's net increase over 8 years of 1,080,000 (comparing January 2001 to January 2009)
Here are a few "inconvenient truths": the worst monthly jobs number under Bush was 129,839,000 in June 2003. That was higher than Obama's numbers from October 2009 through February 2010. Last month's total only barely gets back to the monthly total in June 2009, when economists have agreed the recession bottomed out (from a GDP perspective). Obama is still 2,837,000 jobs shy of the total number employed at the end of January 2009, his first as President. Moreover, Obama is still 7,239,000 shy of Bush's peak at the start of the recession in December 2007. Again: Bush added better than 2 million jobs a year between 2004 through 2006 and also gained over 1 million jobs in 2007.
Now Democrats can offer up with all sorts of excuses why Obama hasn't been able to get back to even the number of employed he started out with; they can try to explain how, 19 months after economists say the economy started its recovery, the number of new jobs was a third below expectations, and the only way you drop official unemployment to 9.4% is by people leaving the job market, not by adding enough new jobs.
Bill Daley as Obama Chief of Staff?
Yet another Clinton Administration veteran and Chicago area crony; what's really rather amusing is how Democrats are trying to spin an argument that Bill Daley is a business executive. But it's really hard to call him a banker. Bill was a career lawyer until his brother became mayor in the late 1980's; he did take a CEO role for a couple of years at Amalgamated Bank, a small bank with union roots that was friendly to unions and politicians. Most of his work, including a stint with SBC, was more as a lobbyist and/or engaging in functional activities dealing with government affairs.
Consider this blurb from JP Morgan Chase:
June 28, 2007--JPMorgan Chase today named William M. Daley to head its new Office of Corporate Social Responsibility, effective immediately. Daley also joins the firm's Operating Committee, the company's senior leadership team. As head of Corporate Social Responsibility, Daley will oversee and coordinate JPMorgan Chase's global strategy and efforts in government affairs, public policy, charitable giving, and environmental and community affairs.Remember how Obama (only for a few hundred times or so) targeted lobbyists for unwarranted influence? Apparently lobbyists who are Democrats must be "more equal"...
The fact that Bill Daley was a critic of ObamaCare and the "financial reform" consumer protection unit has infuriated the far-progressive wing of Democrats. The opposition of leftists, of and by itself, would be enough to win my support ("the enemy of my enemy is my friend"). I do think he is more business-friendly than Rahm Emanuel and maybe one of the better Democrats to deal with a Republican-controlled House and to educate Obama on business concerns.
Only in America...
To be honest, if you asked me before yesterday whom Ted Williams was, I would have mentioned the great Boston Red Sox slugger, Ted Williams, in the opinion of many (including myself) as perhaps the greatest hitter ever--despite the fact he missed four years in his prime due to military service in World War II and the Korean War as a Navy pilot. The last hitter to hit over .400, Ted Williams never took the easy way out: the year he hit .406, he entered the doubleheader with an average that rounded up to .400. He refused to get the .400 by default but played both games of the doubleheader, getting multiple hits in each game. What's even more amazing about his astonishing .344 lifetime batting average is the fact that teams often fielded against him with extreme fielding shifts to the right against the left-hitting Williams; he could get a hit at will by simply poking a bunt down the left side of the infield, but he refused to take it and simply found holes in the shift. Like the incomparable Babe Ruth, Williams ended his career with a home run in his last at-bat (see the embedded video below). His accomplishments were staggering: he won the coveted and rare Triple Crown (batting average, RBI's, home runs) twice--and almost a third, except he lost the batting average race by ten-thousandths of a decimal point.
A different Ted Williams was panhandling at a Columbus street corner, holding a sign claiming that he has a "God-given" voice, when a local newspaper videographer came across him. A homeless man, Williams had once been employed in the radio business until his life spiraled down with alcohol and drug abuse 18 years ago. On the video, he claims he's been clean for 2 years. (There are reportedly other issues in his life, including a partially blind ex-wife and children he all but abandoned years ago, which he needs to address; I prefer to view the redemptive nature of the story: America is a place where sometimes you're given a second chance.) I've also embedded the moving video of seeing his elderly mom for the first time in decades, and one of his post-viral video gigs, a voice-over for a Kraft commercial.
Very Sweet Reunion After 20 Years With His 92-Year-Old Mother
Ted Williams' Voice-Over Work for Kraft Foods
Political Humor
According to a group that monitors government waste, the Republicans’ reading of the Constitution cost taxpayers a $1 million. Only politicians could spend money reading. - Jimmy Kimmel
[The Democrats in the last 4 years spent some $5T the government didn't have because Pelosi and the rest of Democrats didn't read the Constitution.]
The Constitution is one of the most important documents in the history of the world, but it’s also very boring. It’s the kind of thing that makes you wish you never learned to read. - Jimmy Kimmel
[Congresswoman Laura Richardson (D-CA) became the first woman ever to recite the Presidential oath during the same reading, which some of us called Hillary Clinton's Dream Act.]
Musical Interlude: One-Hit Wonders/Instrumentals
Marc Cohn, "Walking in Memphis". One of the greatest songs ever written; I was captivated the first time I ever heard the stunning arrangement and vocal performance, and it's on my personal top 10.
