Reflections From a Murky Pond

It’s just a little scary to think this girl might be a Red Green groupie. Red Green played by Steve Smith throughout the long running PBS series is, after all, old enough to be her grandfather.

The Unlooked-for 102^nd Use For Duct Tape

Of course, the alternative, that she’s the girlfriend of a “Red Belt” in the SCA who’s very, very, very desperate for his attention is much more depressing than her being a Red Green groupie is scary. 😉

If you base your long-term relationships on how fast your lover can lace up your your armor, you might be a Red Belt

Damn the hornets! Lay on!

On Thursday, March 17, 2011, acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which provides for the use of force if deemed to be needed by the UNSC, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted Resolution 1973.

President Obama promptly gave the orders for American forces in the region to begin attacking Mu’ammar Qaddafi’s loyalists in Libya.

This is not a course of action that, at first pass, makes a great deal of sense to me. It makes even less sense to me when I look back to the start of Obama’s campaign for the Presidency of America.

It’s time to admit that no amount of American lives can resolve the political disagreement that lies at the heart of someone else’s civil war.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL)
Candidacy Announcement, February 10, 2007

This is not like Obama’s reversing his decisions about Gitmo and Military Commissions; that was bowing with some small grace to necessity. Having his regime’s UNSC delegate vote in favor of Resolution 1973 was an unforced act.

So what, if anything, changed? Why has Obama committed our forces to a type of war that he previously stated he believed could not be won?

I think Americans require an answer to that question before we get too much further into the 2012 Election season.

Helen Thomas again – it just won’t die and just won’t shut up and slink back to shadows and trash heaps where it belongs, nor will the media do the right thing and turn their backs on this geriatric, antisemitic, terrorist-loving, dried up bag of garbage that still tries to mock human form and ape human speech.

Yes, it’s back at it again. This time it was spewing its vitriol to the complicit “reporters” of Playboy all the while denying its antisemitism and bemoaning its supposed victimhood.

From AFP via Yahoo News:

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Veteran US reporter Helen Thomas lashed out at Israel in an interview published Friday, standing by fiery comments which forced her to quit as doyenne of the White House press corps last year.

Speaking to Playboy, she denied she was anti-Semitic but railed against Jewish lobbies she said controlled power in America, from the White House and Congress to Hollywood and financial markets.

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Jewish lobbies had power across the board in the US, she added. “Everybody is in the pocket of the Israeli lobbies, which are funded by wealthy supporters, including those from Hollywood.

“Same thing with the financial markets. There’s total control … It’s real power when you own the White House, when you own these other places in terms of your political persuasion. Of course they have power,” she added.

If it’s being allowed to continue its existence within human society weren’t such an abomination it would almost be funny to hear it jabber the same tired old Jew-Hating canards as so many vermin have mouthed in past and try to claim it’s not an Anti-Semite.

Ranting that Jews own the government, all major businesses, and the media – or any of the claims found in the  Protocols of the Learned Elder of Zion – is one of the definitive shibboleths of antisemitism, matched only by answering the Adhan and Iqama in this modern age.

I had previously stated that there was little point beyond symbolism in exterminating Thomas do its extreme age and apparent enforced irrelevancy. Thomas’ failure to die on its own and the media’s refusal to effectively silence it in the public sphere has caused me to rethink and retract that statement.

This vermin is an abomination to all humans and deserves nothing but our abhorrence and its overdue death. Let it be treated even as the Ephraimites were treated by the sons of Gilead at the fords of Jordan.

So President Obama has taken time of from golfing and setting the “DC Line” on college basketball to do a good will tour of South America, starting with Brazil and then moving on to Chile and El Salvador. It will be a five day, three country jaunt for some fun in the sun, as it were, since he’s not bringing any significant “policy gifts” with him, nor is he expecting to return with any.

That’s certainly a better of use of his time than dealing with the ongoing crisis in Japan, our upcoming war in Libya, or any of the domestic matters that people would normally expect and want the POTUS to be directly with.

But President Obama could improve relations with these Latin American countries and explore – vicariously one might hope  and expect – the more pleasant aspects of these peoples.  It would certainly be a good use of his time and energy. 😉

Brazil

Obama’s first stop on his junket and possible the best place in the world to get to the bottom of our too-chilly relations with the Latin Americans is steamy, sultry Brazil.

Brazil – The Home of the Bum Bum

I’ve got Obama pegged as a butt and leg man – not that there’s anything wrong with that; some of my best friends are butt and leg men – so the curves the Brazilians may throw at him during these negotiations should suit him more than well enough.

Chile

Chileans and their diplomacy are bit more varied and austere than what the Brazilians favor and Obama may need a bit more refinement and finesse if he wants things to reach a happy ending. I think he’ll be up for the challenge though.

Chile – Delightful and Varied

Both Obama and the Chileans have a fondness for women’s athletics – or is it athletic women? – so I think they’ll find some common ground, though Obama may have to chaquetear before he can finally cachar.

El Salvador

Obama’s final stop is El Salvador. Far from being the savior of this this tour, El Salvador may well be the hardest place that the POTUS has to deal with. Salvadorans may seem eager and friendly at first glance but there are lengthy and complex rules that most often must be followed before any deal can be consummated.

El Salvador – Delicious, But Be Prepared To Wait

This is where I think Obama will fall down. He has too much in common with the Salvadorans and that’s not going to work to his advantage. Then again, it may be a pleasant rest after the more involved and strenuous good will sharing in Brazil and Chile.

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Truly, I hope President Obama enjoys his South American “working” vacation to the fullest extent possible – though I doubt that he’ll enjoy it as much as he could; all joking and sarcasm aside, he just doesn’t seem to me to be the type to do so and that’s all to the good.

I don’t even mind the American taxpayers funding this trip. I’d pay a lot more to keep Obama on the golf course, making sports predictions, and/or on these low-risk good will visits. The less time he spends trying to be POTUS the better off America is. The only downside is that it also improves his approval rating and re-election prospects. 😛

There’s a fair amount of discussion lately about how the internet has supplanted printed media as a news medium and how this is affecting newspapers across America.

There’s also been discussion about these newspapers moving to “paywall models” for their digital content. Whether or not such schemes will allow any individual newspaper to survive is, I believe, more upon who their target audience is than upon any other factor or or factors.

So who reads which newspapers?

1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.
2. The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.
3. The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country, and who are very good at crossword puzzles.
4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don’t really understand The New York Times. They do, however, like their statistics shown in pie charts.
5. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country and did a poor job of it, thank you very much.
6. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren’t too sure who’s running the country and don’t really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.
7. The New York Post is read by people who don’t care who is running the country as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.
8. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country, but need the baseball scores.
9. The National Enquirer is read by people trapped in line at the grocery store.
10. The Seattle Times is read by people who have recently caught a fish and need something to wrap it in.
11. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn’t mind running the country, if they could find the time from indoor tanning, teeth whitening, and botox – and if they didn’t have to leave Southern California to do it.
12. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren’t sure if there is a country or that anyone is running it; but if so, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are handicapped people-of-color feminist gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender atheist dwarfs who also happen to be illegal aliens from any other country or galaxy — provided of course, that they are not Republicans.

NOTE: Variants of this list / joke have been circulating since at least 2005 but this version came from Fellowship of the Minds.

So which group, if any, do you think will find paying for a digital subscription to their newspaper to be of value? The movers and shakers,the would-be movers and shakers, the Frustrati, or the prurient masses seeking enjoyment through Schadenfreude?

Personally I think the newspaper, such as it is, with by far the best chance of having a salable digital market is The National Enquirer. It has a large consumer base, none of which want to be seen purchasing it! 😉