Reflections From a Murky Pond

The Southwest Patty Melt at Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s is a spicy twist on a classic burger, the new Southwest Patty Melt features a charbroiled beef patty, with sliced jalapeños, grilled onions, pepper-Jack cheese and spicy Santa Fe sauce, all on grilled sourdough bread.

Better, hotter, and definitely spicier than the patty melt in question, the commercial for this dish features Kate Upton really enjoying a Southwest Patty Melt at a drive-in cinema.  😛

I’d like One To Go, Please…And One Of The Burgers Too

Now, aren’t you gentlemen suddenly hungry and doesn’t Carl’s Jr. or Hardees sound like a good choice? 😆

Warning: Before ordering a Southwest Patty Melt please consult with your physician to make sure your heart is healthy enough for gastronomic relationships.

Oh humor – and drooling over Kate Upton – aside, this is one of the finest examples of television commercials I’ve ever seen. The drive-in setting, Upton’s pink sweater, hair bow, polka-dotted sun dress, and stockings and garters all evoke Americana and have a retro sensibility that pushes so many of the right buttons.

The modern cars and modernly dressed people around Upton just add to this. It makes Kate Upon and her patty melt a vision and gateway to an idealized time.

Add in the sex, and passionate enjoyment of food has always been a metaphor for sex and an indicator of sexual prowess and willingness, and you’ve got a perfect marketing storm.

Sort of sadly, the mousy brunette in the next car looks more the type to order the Low Carb It.® – Original Grilled Chicken Salad with Low-Fat Balsamic Dressing on the side – so it’s pretty obvious that Carl’s Jr. and Hardees are still not interested in the female demographic.

The Roberts Electric Car was built in 1896, 13 years before even Henry Ford’s famous Model T, and it got, using only the lead-acid batteries of the late 19th century, 40 miles per charge. This is the same range as that which is advertised for Chevy’s $32,000 Volt which cost nearly $750 million for them to develop.

Roberts Electric Car Circa 1896 – 40 Mile Range

Slightly later, in 1914, the Anderson Electric Car Company in Detroit, MI was producing electric cars using Edison’s nickel-iron batteries with a confirmed range of 80 miles per charge, twice that of the car which GM Dan Akerson called “not a step forward, but a leap forward.”

Anderson Electric Car Circa 1914 – 80 Mile Range

So the Volt was progress? No. The abject and pathetic travesty that is the Obama-approved “Great Leap Forward” in green engineering, the now defunct Chevy Volt was not progress in anything other than gross stupidity compounded by government intervention.

Chevy Volt Circa 2012 – 40 Mile Range

If one wants to look at progress in electric vehicles one might consider looking at Dave Cloud, an electric vehicle hobbyist who designed and built his Dolphin for just $3000 using reclaimed car parts and COTS equipment. His Dolphin has a range of 200 miles on a single charge with a speed of 60-65 mph for 85% of those miles.

Dave Cloud’s Dolphin Circa 2004 – 200 Mile Range

Admittedly, Cloud’s Dolphin is not truly practical for normal driving. Yet, what could someone like Dave Cloud design and build if given a fraction of the $750 million that GM wasted on the Volt?

Of course, between the actions and demand of the UAW and the restrictive regulations of the federal government, even if Mr. Cloud got access to funding it’d be unlikely that he could bring anything to market that was anywhere near as good as what he’s already designed.

The “people” that Obama chooses to surround himself with – or, more likely, those that his handlers choose for him – are often the sort that shock the consciences of the American people.

It’s certainly very shocking for a POTUS to have an Islamist jihadi in their inner circle of czars, appointees and advisers, yet Obama does so in the twisted form of Dalia Mogahed who he appointed to his White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

It’s pointlessly redundant to describe a Muslim as an anti-Semite, but Mogahed’s recent Twitter rant begs for that redundancy.

To those siding w/Assad: he cannot deliver stability, protection of minorities, or resistance to Israel. He is a killer w/o legitimacy.

Of course, declaring that Syria’s President, Bashar Hafez al-Assad lacked “legitimacy” because he didn’t support Muslim terrorism against Israel strongly enough isn’t that surprising coming from the vermin, Mogahed. This is the worthless sharmuta that two years ago said that Shari’a belonged in the UK and that is provided “gender justice.”

The majority of women around the world associate gender justice, or justice for women, with Shari’a compliance.

To be fair, she’s a hijabi, so it’s more than likely this mariidah kus thinks that wife-beating, raping prepubescent girls, and discriminating against women in matters of testimony, inheritance, marriage and divorce are :gender justice.”

Muslim “Gender Justice”

The evidence is not particularly in doubt. The only real question before the American people is what “remedy” to apply to the White House Jihadi and whether or not those that apply it will let the law limit the nature of the solution they arrive at.

Michelle Obama has always had “issues” with pride and shame. She apparently spent her whole adult life before the 2008 elections being ashamed of America – or maybe it was just “Black America” since she’s always had a streak of racism and racial angst running through her and she did say “her country.” So maybe it was “Black America” she thought was making a comeback. I really couldn’t say.

Be that as it may, it’s nice to see that the FLOTUS is over her issues and that being the First Lady has improved her outlook.

And isn’t it special that she wants to share her new-found pride with we, the People?

Dear American Taxpayer:

For the second time in my adult life, I am not ashamed of my country.  I want to thank the hard working American people for paying $242 thousand dollars for my vacation in Spain.  My daughter Sasha, several long-time family friends, my personal staff and various guests had a wonderful time.

Honestly, you just haven’t lived until you have stayed in a $2,500.00 per night private 3-story villa at a 5-Star luxury hotel.

Thank you for the use of Air Force Two and the 70 Secret Service agents who tagged along to assure we were safe and cared for at all times.  By the way, if you happen to be visiting the Costa del Sol, I highly recommend the Buena Ventura Plaza restaurant in Marbella; great lobster with rice and oysters!  I’m ashamed to admit the lobsters we ate in Martha’s Vineyard were not quite as tasty, but what can you do if you’re not in Europe, you have to just grin and bear it.

Air Force Two (which costs $11,351 per hour to operate, according to Government Accounting Office reports) only used 47,500 gallons of jet fuel for this trip, and carbon emissions were a mere 1,031 tons of C02.

These are only rough estimates, but they are close.  That’s quite a carbon footprint, as my good friend Al Gore would say.  So we must ask the American citizens to drive smaller, more fuel efficient cars.  And drive less too, so we can lessen our combined carbon footprint.

I know times are hard, and millions of you are struggling to put food on the table, and trying to make ends meet.  So I do appreciate your sacrifices, and do hope you find work soon.

I was really exhausted after Barack took our family on a luxury vacation in Maine a few weeks ago.  I just had to get away for a few days.

Cordially,

Michelle Obama

P.S.  Thank you as well for the $2 Billion dollar trip to India.

P.P.S.  Thank you too, for that vacation trip to Martha’s Vineyard; it was fabulous.  And for the second smaller jet that took our dog Bo to Martha’s Vineyard, so we and the children could have him with us while we were away from the White House for eleven days.  After all, we couldn’t take him on Air Force One, because he might pee on some wires or something.

P.P.P.S.  Oh, I almost forgot to say thanks also for our two-week trip to Hawaii at Christmas.  That 7,000 square foot house was great!  That only cost you guys $4 million. The Mr. wanted to do Camp David! Boring!!!!!!

P.P.P.P.S.  Don’t forget my ski trip to Vail this winter, and now the girls and I are in Africa with my mom.  All this while Barack golfs and campaigns to keep my trips coming for the next 4 years!  Love ya! Remember, we all have to share the pain of these economic times equally!  Love to redistribute – share the wealth.

Yes, the above-quoted email that I received is cruel, sarcastic humor. It is nothing but a snide attack upon Michelle Obama’s lifestyle since being installed in the White House contrasted against her public policy attempts and her husband’s campaign of class warfare. Yet, despite that or because of it, no actual facts presented in it are untrue or far wrong.

The glaring and gross hypocrisy of Michelle Obama wallowing in a taxpayer-funded lifestyle normally enjoyed on by the upper end of the global 1% while exhorting the people paying for her amusements to tighten their belts and exercise discipline in spending, diet, and other personal choices is well worthy of scorn, sarcasm, and snide attacks.

When you add in her husband’s constant pandering to populist classism and his vilifying of the successful in America, her profligate ways reach the point of ludicrousness.

Line up, Sheeple, and get your fix of comforting lies. You can tell where to go by the long queue of eager believers already formed.

Don’t be shy. All those lies are guaranteed to be comforting and to absolve you of any feelings that you might have to take action about something or that you might be wrong along with those that you followed or believed in.

Line Up For Those Comforting Lies, Sheeple!

Oh sure, you could take the road far, far, less travelled and line up for truth instead.  But those truths are unpleasant and they’re bound to make you uncomfortable with yourself and the world around you.

Truth won’t set you free. It will bind you to action more stringently than any mortal tyrant and we can’t have that, can we? It’d be bound to make you uncomfortable and it would certainly upset the political and social order if you sheeple ever accepted those uncomfortable truths.

So line up, sheeple and get your comforting lies. Pay no attention to the man with the shears or the one with the hammer.