Trump For Governor

No, not really. Not for me anyway. God knows, I'd like to see him on the ballot, though. Apparently, there are Republicans in our fair state who are enamored of him.

For many in the crowd, the well-known Trump represents the Republicans' best chance at defeating Cuomo.

I'm too lazy to look through the internet and find any indication of how he polls with the hoi polloi like myself. Couldn't help myself. Not doing so well. Ironically, he reminds me of Andrew's father's famous rendition of Hamlet. Except, of course, while there may have been an element of self-promotion in Mario's dithering, Trump's is 100%.

I'm pretty sure the GOP of NY is not about to take advice from me, but I would politely tell The Donald to go away. Since that isn't likely to penetrate His Ego, I would ask to see financial statements proving He is actually a billionaire before His name will again be floated publicly again as a serious candidate for any office. Just a modest proposal.

Trump was greeted outside the restaurant by a couple of dozen opponents of the law, including Tommy Thompson, of Attica, who wore a Revolutionary War-style tri-cornered hat.

"I'd vote for Goofy if he ran against Cuomo," Thompson said.

Yes Tommy, you would. But will a more independent voter? Donald, we want to see your birth certificate financial statements.That's all you gotta ask him and he'll go away. Or maybe make him say his name backwards.  

Freedom of Speech in Kansas

I'm so glad I don't use Twitter or much other social media. I'm considering a waiting period on blog posts for myself. Some cooling off time. If I lived in Kansas and was an educator I would make that an iron-clad rule.

In December the (Kansas Board of Regents) approved a policy that gives any state university’s CEO “the authority to suspend, dismiss or terminate from employment any faculty or staff member who makes improper use of social media.”
“Social media” is defined in the policy as just about anything that involves electrons, from Twitter to Flickr, including, presumably, email.
“Improper use” includes the incitement of violence and the disclosure of confidential student information. Fair enough.
But “improper use” also includes more-vague offenses, such as use of social media that is “ contrary to the best interests of the university,” or that impairs “discipline by superiors or harmony among co-workers,” or that “adversely affects the university’s ability to efficiently provide services.”

Hope for some people's sakes this doesn't catch on in blue states.

Thus the language of the proposed policy twice mentions “efficiency,” which in factories means balancing the cost of production with the saleability of the product.

Well, you say it's to improve efficiency. No ulterior motives. Alright, then.

I didn't even know colleges had CEOs.

SPECIAL ALERT: All you moonbats out there donating your hard-earned dollars to Democrats, take a good look at who you're sending it to.

The National Republican Congressional Committee has launched a series of websites that look like they support a Democratic candidate for Congress, but instead direct contributions to the Republican Party instead.

America The Beautiful vs Some Ugly Americans

(Watch the behind the scenes videos, too. To steal from the title, America, the beautiful.)

But sadly, not everyone thinks so:
Coca Cola ad on Super Bowl -- American's brand? Hm. | Allen B. West - AllenBWest.com (Allen West's post also got a memeorandum thread.)

Why Coca Cola's Multicultural 'America the Beautiful' Ad Was Offensive - Michael Patrick Leahy - Brietbart.com "Big Government"

Couldn't make out that song they were singing. I only speak English.

— toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) February 3, 2014

The Worst Super Bowl Commercial: Coca Cola Butchers “America The Beautiful” With Multiple Languages | John Hawkins - Right Wing News

Coca Cola's pro-multuculturalism, anti-American "America the Beautiful" video ads | 24Ahead

Beck: Coke's Super Bowl Ad Was An 'In Your Face' Effort To 'Divide People' | Right Wing Watch (Predictably, Glenn Beck sees a conspiracy...and Coke is in on it. [They all are!!])

Coca-Cola Under Fire For Mostly Non-English Super Bowl Commercial Featuring 'America The Beautiful' - Now The End Begins

Coke Balkanizes USA With Super Bowl Ad | Warner Todd Huston - Right Wing News

Of course, these people are obviously not conservatives or Republicans (or have ever met or even stood next to anyone who was), and they are obviously not, NOT, NOT saying anything bigoted or xenophobic... Just ask this guy:

So, the only accurate description here is that the Left is freaking out—and hallucinating—about the Coca Cola commercial.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) February 3, 2014

These conservatives are not the bigots you're looking for. Really. Trust them.

UPDATE: And now Charles C. W. Cooke's tweet doesn't exist either. A hallucination. Like it never ever happened.)

If you're seeing a photo of Cooke's deleted tweet, you're hallucinating.

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Public Shaming - Speak English!: Racist Revolt As Coca-Cola Airs Multilingual ‘America the Beautiful’ SuperBowl Ad

So... I know which ad I'm voting for in the Ad Blitz. No pressure...but please think about it.
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Also talking about it... (Good chance this list'll be updated as more people post):
Coca-Cola’s “It’s Beautiful” Super Bowl Ad Brings Out Some Ugly Americans | TIME.com

Coca-Cola's America the Beautiful Super Bowl Commercial Sparks Outrage on Twitter | E! Online

#SpeakAmerican trends on Twitter after backlash of Coke's 'America the Beautiful' Super Bowl ad (video, reaction, poll) | AL.com

Allen West does not like you singing his America songs in your weird foreign mud-language | The Raw Story

Coca-Cola 'America the Beautiful' Super Bowl Ad Celebrates Diversity, Twitter Racists Explode (VIDEO)

Twitter Got Crazy And Ugly In Response To Coca-Cola’s “It’s Beautiful” Super Bowl Commercial | College Spun – Social. Local. Consumable. College Sports.

Dumb People Mad At Multilingual "America The Beautiful" Coca-Cola Ad

Coke’s ‘un-American’ Super Bowl ad sparks instant, intense outrage - BizPac Review

Coke adds life, advertising world � Balloon Juice (Thanks for the ear-worm, BJ)

Language Log � Coca-Cola's multilingual "America the Beautiful"

Coca-Cola's Multicultural Super Bowl Ad Really Angered Conservatives (Another memeorandum thread.)

Coca Cola Super Bowl Ad Inspires Racist Twitter Backlash | Mediaite

Superbowl Coke Ad Flushes Out Dumbest Bottom Feeders Of The Right | The Raw Story

Breitbart "News" Explains Why Coca Cola's Multicultural "America the Beautiful" Ad Was Horribly Offensive - Little Green Footballs

Allen West Will Be Haunted By The Horror Of The Coca-Cola Superbowl Ad For The Rest Of His Life - Happy Nice Time People

And sorta lost in the "'merka for monolingual 'merkins" kerfuffle: Watch now: Coca-Cola unveils gay-inclusive ad during Super Bowl XLVIII | GLAAD
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In the spirit, I thought I'd end with this:
(I recall this controversy, too... It's like it's not patriotism unless it's their patriotism.)


Beautiful. Just beautiful.

A Good Day For Compassionate Conservatism

OK, I'm going to try to make up for saying nasty things aboot Mark Steyn yesterday. Today comes news of two conservatives promoting policies that appeal to us progressive moonbats. First up is Bernard Kerik. Yeah, I can't believe that one either. And yet there are people who say rehabilitation doesn't work. We're pretty sure he was actually in prison and not Obama Camp.

According to a report from the Huffington Post, Kerik, while speaking at a service center for former prisoners in Virginia, was blunt and straightforward: “The system doesn’t work.”

Kerik went on to describe the “broken” system in more detail, emphasizing the negative consequences of locking up so many people, often for nonviolent crimes like possessing small amounts of illegal substances.

He also argued against mandatory minimum laws, which deprive judges of the ability to render sentences they believe appropriate, often forcing them to send people into incarceration for longer than they would if given the choice.

Very nice, Bernie. I'm happy to see you have that come to Chuck Colson moment. Second up on my "I can't believe a Conservative is saying this" list for today is Ron Unz. He wants to raise the minimum wage! And he's a billionaire! I take back most of the bad things I've said about rich Conservatives. This does not yet apply to the Koch's.

(T)he case for raising the minimum wage to $12 an hour—the second highest statewide proposal in the country—isn’t even coming from a Democrat. It’s coming from California Republican multi-millionaire businessman Ron Unz, an ex-gubernatorial candidate, former publisher of the American Conservative and the lone sponsor of a 2014 ballot measure for a statewide $12 minimum wage.

And there's a chance he is not going to be tarred and feathered.

Prominent economists of all ideological persuasions long believed that raising the U.S. minimum wage would retard job growth, creating unintended hardship for those at the bottom of the ladder.

Today, that consensus is eroding, and a vigorous debate has developed as some argue that boosting the wage would pull millions out of poverty.

A moderate increase in the minimum wage won't raise unemployment among low-skilled workers, according to recent studies, many economists say. They are joined by some business executives who say they can live with that, especially if it's coupled with tax relief. 

What's good for Walmart is good for the US.

I would actually argue that if you are looking at a company like Walmart that is suffering economically these days, because so many of the Walmart shoppers are getting too poor to shop at Walmart, what you are talking about is shifting up to maybe $150 billion a year from the sort of families that don’t shop at Walmart to the sort of families that do shop at Walmart. Walmart raises their prices by 1 percent, roughly one time, and they get a huge amount of extra business.

I'm hoping that means their employees will be able to afford to shop there as well, even if they can't afford a model T.

Good on you as well, Ron Unz. I'm looking forward to the day when I'll be able to happily "pull the lever" for a pol with an R after his name. You give me hope.

Happy Year of the Horse everyone! 

When Bad Things Happen To Bad People

I don't think it's really going to "kill" National Review. Pretty sure its supporters have deep enough pockets to cover any damages if they are even assessed. But Mark Steyn is probably the most dickish bastard to ever come out of Canada. Oops!

In July, Judge Natalia Combs Greene rejected a motion to dismiss the suit. The defendants appealed, and last week D.C. Superior Court Judge Frederick Weisberg rejected the motion again, opening the door for the discovery phase of the lawsuit to begin. That's not all. On Christmas Eve, Steyn (who regularly guest hosts Rush Limbaugh's radio show) wrote a blog post in which he excoriated Greene, accusing her of incompetence, stupidity, and obtuseness. 

I'm, of course, all for free speech even from cranks. But then, I have to rank good taste higher. And National Review has descended into bad taste and probably doesn't have a lot of redeeming qualities. I won't be contributing to the Mark Steyn Defense Fund anytime soon, if such exists, and I'm sure it does.

 Now, the lawsuit may well be dismissed down the road. But the longer it continues, the more likely it becomes that Mann will eventually prevail, either by forcing an expensive settlement or by prevailing in court and winning a substantial penalty from the defendants.
It's doubtful that National Review could survive either outcome. Small magazines often lose money and only rarely manage to break even. They certainly don't have substantial legal budgets, let alone cash to cover an expensive payout. Indeed, in 2005, Buckley said the magazine had lost $25 million over 50 years.

It lost a half million a year? Do these people even know how capitalism works? I thought they were the business savvy party. Well it can only help The Weekly Standard.

Today the magazine enjoys circulation roughly equivalent to that of The Nation, the American Left's leading journal of opinion, and more than twice that of William Kristol's The Weekly Standard, its primary competition on the Right.

If NR wants some advice, I would suggest they break Steyn's fingers and duct tape his pie hole. Just sayin'.

APOLOGIES: I should probably apologize to Mr. Steyn first, though I doubt he will read any of this. I don't agree with his politics, nor does he agree with mine. Very likely. Many of my comments in this post are, indeed, dickish. And for that I apologize to him and to Mr. Casper. I did not do my homework on this post and several commenters were good enough to point this out to me. I will try to make any future posts here more upbeat and factual. It would be cowardly for me to take the post down, so the only option I see is to leave this sincere apology as an end-note.   

Well Done, Pete Seeger

Just wanted to note here the passing of Pete Seeger.

The banjo-picking troubadour who sang for migrant workers, college students and star-struck presidents in a career that introduced generations of Americans to their folk music heritage died Monday at the age of 94. Seeger’s grandson, Kitama Cahill-Jackson, said his grandfather died peacefully in his sleep around 9:30 p.m. at New York Presbyterian Hospital, where he had been for six days. Family members were with him.

“He was chopping wood 10 days ago,” Cahill-Jackson recalled.

That's a small bit of a very nice obituary at Salon. 

Guilt-Free Eating (Cross Posted From Hometown USA)

Since I've decided to turn Hometown into a cult of personality blog, it's important that any unsuspecting victims who wander through here are aware of the what and why of my diet. We're all narcissists now anyway, otherwise Twitter and selfies would not exist. Would they?

For the past 3 months, I've been subsisting (well, apparently, since I've lost only 7 pounds) on a, 99% of the time, vegetarian diet. Initially the reason was to lose weight and 7 pounds is better than nothing. But, this is an inactive time of the year and that was mostly during the cookie season. So many cookies between Thanksgiving and New Years! So we'll see how it works out when the freezin' season is over and gardening begins. Aside from wanting to appear buff for the beach this Summer there are health considerations. With that in mind I'll throw in a plug for Forks Over Knives, a DVD full of vegan propaganda, if you'd like some convincing of the health benefits. I love to eat meat. Bill Clinton Loves to eat meat. If Bill and I can do it, anyone can become an herbivore. But don't think just of yourself, or in this case myself, since this is my cult here.

You don't have to have the sensibilities of a PETA devotee to appreciate that animals raised for food in this country don't have the best lives. Bluntly stated, they're tortured from birth to death. Buster's Law does not apply to them. I've known that for a long time, but have happily rejected the cognitive dissonance. Admittedly this was not my overriding reason for the change in diet, though, and I'm not going to try to shame anyone into giving up meat. And besides, those animals are getting their revenge through the saturated fat, hormones and antibiotics you're ingesting. So, rather than harp on how cruel we are to these creatures, I'll get back to why it's important for you, my "follower," to abstain.

I want to live in a country and a world that's not polluted beyond hope of renewal. I've moved beyond the urge to copy and paste large swathes of the internet and basically claim it as terra incognita. So, just go to the link. In short, as your beloved leader, I implore you to make this planet healthier for me and for yourselves as well.

 

 

A Painful Truth

I realize I wasn't voting for Noam Chomsky when casting a vote for Barack Obama. I can understand the strikes early in his administration that went wrong and give him a pass on those.

Five years ago, on January 23 2009, a CIA drone flattened a house in Pakistan’s tribal regions. It was the third day of Barack Obama’s presidency, and this was the new commander-in-chief’s first covert drone strike.

Initial reports said up to ten militants were killed, including foreign fighters and possibly a ‘high-value target’ – a successful first hit for the fledgling administration.

But reports of civilian casualties began to emerge. As later reports revealed, the strike was far from a success. At least nine civilians died, most of them from one family. There was one survivor, 14-year-old Fahim Qureshi, but with horrific injuries including shrapnel wounds in his stomach, a fractured skull and a lost eye, he was as much a victim as his dead relatives.

 Later that day, the CIA attacked again – and levelled another house. It proved another mistake, this time one that killed between five and ten people, all civilians.

And since it was three days earlier, he couldn't have foreseen this tragic start to the drone program under his control.

Three days earlier, in his inauguration address, Obama had told the world ‘that America is a friend of each nation, and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity.’

The fact that the number of drone strikes we've conducted since Obama took office has increased is really no surprise. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like al-Qaeda.

Across Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, the Obama administration has launched more than 390 drone strikes in the five years since the first attack that injured Qureshi – eight times as many as were launched in the entire Bush presidency. These strikes have killed more than 2,400 people, at least 273 of them reportedly civilians.

And I'm not sure this is as reassuring as it's meant to be.

Although drone strikes under Obama’s presidency have killed nearly six times as many people as were killed under Bush, the casualty rate – the number of people killed on average in each strike – has dropped from eight to six under Obama. The civilian casualty rate has fallen too. Strikes during the Bush years killed nearly more than three civilians in each strike on average. This has halved under Obama (1.43 civilians per strike on average). In fact reported civilian casualties in Pakistan have fallen sharply since 2010, with no confirmed reports of civilian casualties in 2013.

Among many painful truths is that Noam Chomsky (or his clone) are never going to be elected president of the United States. And of course, McCain or Romney "would have been worse." Still hurts, though.