Rattlesnakepoint

GBCW

noreply@blogger.com (kidneystones) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 00:29:00 +0000

No, not here. There.

Work day

noreply@blogger.com (kidneystones) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:10:00 +0000

Archives, maps, biographies, letters and reams of writing.

Oh boy!

Big Orange Smiley Face

noreply@blogger.com (kidneystones) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 03:36:00 +0000

Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse has a top recommended essay on Climategate over at the Orange Smiley Face. Pity the premise looks to become the subject of criminal prosecution (ht Glenn Reynolds) in the UK.

John Horgan and George Johnson spent Science Saturday examining the urgent question of on-line dating, rather than delve into the tawdry tale of data dumps and conspiracy at the University of East Anglia's famed CRU. In short, the reality-based community wants to avoid examining the possibility they've been had by Al Gore and his cash-collecting cronies.

The good news? Some of the scam-artists may end up in jail.

BNP To Speak At Copenhagen

noreply@blogger.com (kidneystones) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 01:41:00 +0000

Sky reports wacky BNP leader and far-right bigot Nick Griffin is a surprise choice to represent the EU at Copenhagen,

Mr Griffin, who sits on the environment, public health and food safety committee hopes to expose the "somewhat dodgy" science behind the climate change movement, a BNP spokesman said.

"It is a global Marxist mantra that is going to be used to beat people around the head, tax us to the hilt, smash nations and impose a one-world government,"

Why has Griffin received this last minute invitation? Griffin and the BNP are so toxic they aren't listed as members on the home page of the European Parliament Environment Committee.

Facing a crisis of credibility, climate scam-artists can now portray critics as racists and bigots. Griffin's surprise invitation is as dodgy as the suspect science. It stinks.

On the twitter_

noreply@blogger.com (kidneystones) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:11:00 +0000

Matt Lewis and Bill Scher's Bloggingheads 'Special Episode' has been largely ignored! No longer! Matt points out that the technology has changed. The 'Twitter' is the new arm of online inter-action and I'M now part of the evolution! My twitter id is '@kidneystones_'

Up and running!

Tinker, tinker

noreply@blogger.com (kidneystones) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 05:08:00 +0000

Ford Motor Company demonstrates that luck and cash and the bank are better security in economic tough times than big hand-outs from government. The astonishing unemployment rates in Michigan don't look to jolt Dems out of their fatal love of hand-outs and speechifying.

After a one-year hiatus I'm back on the blog. Holidays and all attendant bills loom over the horizon.

Good thing adults are in charge!

Remembering Remembrance Day

noreply@blogger.com (kidneystones) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:35:00 +0000

Pig Fat

noreply@blogger.com (kidneystones) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:05:00 +0000

His coat and gloves went up on the hook and he heeled off his boots. Ma's new rules. Slippers for everyone. Wash your face and gargle before you sit to table ever since that oriental girl came for a 'home-stay' two years back.

Hardy liked the new food but wasn't about to admit it. Besides, sea-weed and bean curd was never gonna beat home-made jam and jelly and looked like there were fresh eggs and cinnamon rolls steaming under the steel warmers on the table today.

'Don't touch a thing, boy. Go get your cousin.'

Damn. Must have eyes in the back of her head. Hardy went down the long hall to the back room. Dennett was glued to CNN.

'They show the hockey scores, yet?'

Nothing. Sometimes Hardy thought about bouncing a shovel off his cousin's head just to see if he'd budge.

'Let's go, Denn. Time to eat.'

Year of The Cow

noreply@blogger.com (kidneystones) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 23:44:00 +0000

Picking rocks. Hardy's back screamed each time he tossed some millions-year old stone into the steel bucket of the front-end loader. His nose ran a little in the fresh, sharp winter air.

Climate change? Shit. Snow melted and Hardy was out in those fields, picking out the fresh crop of boulders the freezing earth pushed up into the topsoil. Every year. No wheat or corn got planted till the rocks were gone.

Most kids worked at the outlet mall for an hourly wage un-packing boxes from China. Most times Hardy had no regrets, but clearing rocks each spring always had him thinking about his decision to stick it out another season.

The big loader engine grumbled and stopped.

Mary's jeans tight on her rolling hips and her full, firm ass, glorious as a vision of Jesus, was the about the only thing keeping him going.

Time for breakfast. He straightened with a groan and turned for the house.

1930's

noreply@blogger.com (kidneystones) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:12:00 +0000

What's at stake. Storm-clouds have yet to completely break over the horizon but that doesn't mean they aren't out there.

There is no substitute for America on the world stage. The choice we have before us is between the potentially disastrous effects of disengagement and the stiff price tag of continued American leadership.

Following the moron currently occupying the Oval Office was never going to be easy. Should the arsenal of democracy choose to follow 'I've got a bracelet, too' we could be looking at a major realignment in the global map, with authoritarian regimes pushing a weak president off positions the west fought for and held for generations.

No We Can't

noreply@blogger.com (kidneystones) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:25:00 +0000

Joe Biden served notice that all the promises of the last year don't mean squat. Biden warned supporters to expect 'low poll numbers' and expect 'unpopular decisions'.

Gee...higher taxes, no more troops for Afghanistan, and full retreat on all fronts. After pushing the experience candidate out of the primary, the junior Senator from Illinois sends Biden out to beg for patience and understanding while 'I've got a bracelet, too' tries to figure out which part of America is up.

Nobody could have imagined experience might matter.

Take a bow, bots!

Deadwood

noreply@blogger.com (kidneystones) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 02:54:00 +0000

Dropping an octave is far more important than dropping the ball. Al Swearengen has a point. Watching McCain sit at the same table for just a few seconds with the guy who knows this election was scripted months ago was almost torture. The fix is in. McCain can fight his corner, pray, and hope to salvage something for Palin in 2012. Obama sat on his 6 point cushion like it was K2 and he had all the keys to the kingdom.

If voters don't step to the musky wonder things are going to get ugly. Dems are eager to surrender the field to every enemy George Bush has managed to embolden on four continents over the last 8 years. America has squandered immense amounts of capitol pissing the world off. Snake oil will sell your kids future to China to win the world over while Putin and the rest smirk.

Get ready to redraw some maps.

Bush Nostalgia

noreply@blogger.com (kidneystones) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:15:00 +0000

The towers of commerce are crumbling. What better way to celebrate the farcical notion that any of us are capable of learning much from history than the sight of so many voters drooling at the bounty they believe is about to pour forth from an empty cup?

An eternity ago American voters, bored of Clinton constructed good times, sniffed at Al Gore and decided (kind of) for the much more exciting and affable political operator from Texas. Unable to enter any decent grad school on merit, the Connecticut Senator's grandson slithered past the proletariat to snake his place at Harvard Business School, where he might have learned something had he a mind.

Dubya mastered, however, the skill of cracking wise; and often made himself the butt of his own jokes right up until he winked his way into the White House. Then all hell broke loose.

Eight years later with record deficits looming and the world financial system on the brink of collapse, American voters look to let yet another glib prevaricator unable to win an honest place at an Ivy League graduate school without the help of the well-connected sail straight past GO into the Oval Office.

Average Americans and the naive are appalled. Others take cold comfort from the thimble of continuity. Our big-screen careen towards the precipice is scored, at least, with familiar platitudes all designed to lull the dull-witted and sedate the anxious.

What fresh hell beckons on the cresting wave of credit collapse? We can only guess.

By the time the final bill is tallied George Bush probably isn't going to look like such a rotten president after all.

Yes, it could be that bad.

Barack Busted Sabotaging US-Iraqi Settlement

noreply@blogger.com (kidneystones) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:01:00 +0000

The NY Post is reporting that the Chosen One is trying to keep US troops in Iraq and prevent the signing of a US-Iraqi withdrawal plan.

According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July.

"He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington," Zebari said in an interview.

Obama insisted that Congress should be involved in negotiations on the status of US troops - and that it was in the interests of both sides not to have an agreement negotiated by the Bush administration in its "state of weakness and political confusion."

"However, as an Iraqi, I prefer to have a security agreement that regulates the activities of foreign troops, rather than keeping the matter open." Zebari says.

Republican President John McCain will be remembered as the candidate who stated: 'Winning the war means more than losing the election' and as the individual who risked all to stand by an un-popular President to win victory for America in Iraq. Barack Obama did just the opposite and is now scared to death that peace in Iraq will put a final end to any chance he still has of worming his way into the Oval Office.

The Chosen One opposed the war and then opposed the surge championed by maverick Republican candidate John McCain, whose efforts and support of the surge actually made the US-Iraqi settlement possible. Should US troops start coming home too soon, the candidate of hope might have to concede John McCain is right: America is a country all Americans are proud to serve.

Bombs Away!

noreply@blogger.com (kidneystones) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:01:00 +0000

1000 bunker-busters will soon be on their way to Tehran via various air-fields in Israel. Looks like the IDF is going to launch that solo attack on Iran after all.

Taking a stand frightens the dickens out the Chosen One. I doubt he and his advisers are ready to contemplate the consequences of dropping several hundred of these devices into downtown Tehran. But that's precisely what we're talking about. Obama's left-wing constituency will shriek at the thought, as will Obama's buddies around the world. Israel will give the US a chance to talk Iran off the ledge and then attack. Hell to pay from that point forward.

What impact will the sale have on the US election? Hard to say. Republicans want to make national security an issue. Victory in Iraq is not just possible, but necessary; and in many ways the last thing Americans want is war with Iran.

McCain-Palin understand,however, we don't always get what we want. Iran is counting on the anti-war left to constrain Bush from exercising his Presidential responsibility to protect US troops in Iraq; and US allies in the Middle East.

A nuclear Iran is unacceptable to nearly every right-thinking individual and government on the planet. Israel certainly isn't about to stand still while Iran pursues a bomb and there's little chance the bunker-busters are intended for some dry-run show of force. Barring a complete end to all Iran's nuclear preparations, Israel is going to attack.

Right before or right after the US election.

Your call.

Dems Sharpen Knives for Obama

noreply@blogger.com (kidneystones) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 12:55:00 +0000

Sarah Palin makes bacon from Barack Obama and his phony message of change. Jim Pinkerton claims conservative feminism is sweeping the land. Elitism pours forth from the Obama campaign and from his water carriers in the press. The Weekly Standard has the details.

What are Dems going to do with Barack Obama? Clarence Page claims Obama needs a game-changer, and help from the Clintons, btw, right frigging now. At the NYT, Tommy Friedman argues that Republicans are actually trying to make America stupider, Bob Herbert warns dimwittedness may prevail, and Maureen Dowd sneers that Governor Palin is an idiot.

As fascinating as the current panic is, the fight I'm really looking forward will come after the election, when Dem dreams collapse into dust and the media dogs turn circle for full-throated attack on Obama.

Will P. Diddy be wearing his 'Obama or Die' designer shirt? Which media lizards will we find slithering around the candidate and his wife? How long before the serpents sink their fangs? What will analysts be saying about the folks who shoved the most formidable politician in the Democratic Party to the back of the bus; and then lost?

Anyone think the simmering rage over the sexism of the Democratic primary has disappeared? Figure those accused of racism have forgotten? Think Hillary voters and all the Dems who even now face a resurgent Republican party rejuvenated by McCain-Palin at the top of the ticket are going to extend a hand of good-will to the supporters of the candidate whose feckless posturing, faux temple, excellent European vacation, dumb 'presidential' seal, and political meanderings allowed a moribund Republican party to rise from the dead?

Blame it on Hillary? When hasn't blaming a Clinton sounded like a plan? Course, losing the election to a geriatric war-hero and his bubble-gum chewing side-kick will make it a lot harder to blame Hillary for a race she didn't run. Plenty of Dems are sure to try, especially if the alternative is admitting you and your candidate fucked-up a gimme. 18 million Dems warned all along that Obama might not be able to close the deal. Proven right, Hillary supporters are likely to reject any responsibility for the Chosen One's defeat.

A year ago I shared space with a young Democratic activist. I was impressed by his ethics, his intelligence and his energy. Even when we'd disagree on detail or policy, the one point upon which we could both agree was that there was next to no chance whatsoever that a Republican would follow George Bush into the White House.

Sixty days before the election it appears that maverick Republican John McCain and a one-term Republican governor named Sarah Palin will be sworn in as President and Vice-President of the United States.

When President John McCain and Vice-President Sarah Palin take office Democrats will look at each other in disbelief for about sixty seconds: then tear each other to shreds. It'll be hard not to laugh, given all the hoopla Dems have served up about a 'different kind of politics'. The screams and howls will make the primary battles seem like a summer picnic.

I'll bring popcorn.

Charlie Gibson's Boner

noreply@blogger.com (kidneystones) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 01:26:00 +0000

Gibson Aims At Palin: Shoots Himself In Face. Shoot-out at the ABC corral and another media big-wig bites the dust. How did the Alaska hockey-mom manage to turn the tables on yet another so much smarter east-coast big-shot? Easy: by asking sensible questions, followed with succinct measures of straight-talk.

Attacking Alaska Governor Sarah Palin established the opposite of what Obama bots in the media had been hoping to accomplish: by confirming male media's anti-Palin-McCain bias (again) and that Gov. Palin is exactly the sort of Vice-President America needs in the White House.

Sarah heard Gibson out, focused on the target, squeezed the trigger, and delivered the only fact that matters to 99% of Americans:"if there is legitimate and enough intelligence that tells us that a strike is imminent against American people, we have every right to defend our country. In fact, the president has the obligation, the duty to defend." Next question.

Dems whining about an effective 'elevator speech' on national security could learn a lot from Palin's remarks: straight at the target with every shot in the black. Clear statements nobody can mistake, friend and foe alike.

Dems fire blanks on questions of national security. Dems can't even get a bead on a 'foreign policy' sitting-duck like Palin, a hockey-mom who just found out she's slated to become the first female Vice-President in American history. And this isn't the first time Dems have missed.

We can thank Dems for letting the least popular and most ineffective President in US history destroy America's stature in the world, terrified Republicans might call them names. George Bush is still sitting in the White House because all the Dems together couldn't or wouldn't lay a glove on this feckless narcissist. Rather than fight Bush, Dems simply nominated a narcissist of their own.

McCain is cut from a different cloth. Palin's message: defend America and demand exacting analysis from subordinates and area experts hits the mark, where Dems miss. Gibson and the rest of McCain's critics can't seem to look past Gov. Palin's chest. If these smug pricks could they'd see what many average Americans already see so clearly: a strong passionate heart that sings true for the red, white and blue.

Sarah Palin is precisely the kind of home-cooked apple-pie spiced with black-powder wisdom America needs to recover from Dem capitulation during the last eight years. Not a dish Dems are likely to savor, but a banquet for Americans starved for change and working for a bright American century.

America Can Win In Iraq

noreply@blogger.com (kidneystones) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 04:47:00 +0000

FT: "Democratic jitters about the US presidential race have spread to Capitol Hill, where some members of Congress are worried that Barack Obama’s faltering campaign could hurt their chances of re-election. Party leaders have been hoping to strengthen Democratic control of the House and Senate in November, but John McCain’s jump in the polls has stoked fears of a Republican resurgence. A Democratic fundraiser for Congressional candidates said some planned to distance themselves from Mr Obama and not attack Mr McCain."

RealClearPolitics reports McCain beats his opponent in the polls, on favorables, and on Intrade. But that's not the most worrying news facing Dems: the generic congressional gap has closed to 3 points, as even the popularity of George W. Bush continues to inch upwards, although Dubya is still loathed at a rate of roughly 2:1.

Dem internals are probably far worse. This week saw the candidate of hope scrambling to spin an 'innocent' version of his 'stinks like old fish' remark, lining up one of his celebrity buddies to find a place for him. Letterman clearly didn't get the job done cause a second appearance on Saturday Night Live follows this weekend. That may have been the plan all along.

Or the candidacy may be cratering. Smooth-to-slick-to-creepy isn't the transformation the campaign had in mind. But Obama's famous smile seems increasingly forced. There's a tension in his strut that suggests the writing on the wall is coming into sharper focus. Obama has been pandering to the Republican base. Young people are famously fickle. Time to shuffle the deck.

Goofing for the camera and abasing himself for a few cheap laughs may add some temporary lustre to a campaign clearly gone stale and cold. What comes after that? Another temple? More insults? Obama offers nothing new, although it seems clear a large number of Americans are still waiting for a message. Therein lies the tension. Obama has nothing new to say. Every appearance the message is the same: 'I'm cool'. An increasing number of voters are now asking: 'So what?'

'We're cool, together.' doesn't cut it with a war in Iraq to win and rising fuel prices stalking American families. Among older voters, especially women and independents, enthusiasm for the Obama campaign has shifted dramatically. The 'what ifs' are endless. Had the press decided not to protect John Edwards a different candidate might have won the Dem primary. But the real blame can be placed on the shoulders of the candidate himself, who continues to alienate voters with his arrogance, his elitism, his breezy condescension and his volatile impatience with any who question his honesty and integrity.

Dems are paying attention and are genuinely fearful of finding themselves on the wrong side of a President America trusts and admires.

Domestic and foreign policy concerns meet on the questions of energy and Iraq. Jobs, government expenditures, national security and the environment are all affected.

An American victory in Iraq is necessary and achievable. Victory means political stability, with bases for US troops who will remain in the ME fulfilling the mission of the Carter doctrine. Complete support for US troops and their families is the cornerstone of McCain's policy. Service merits nothing less. A ticker-tape parade or two is likely in the offing as well.

Nuclear energy is America's only option if Americans are serious about reducing dependence on foreign sources of carbon fuels. McCain will build 45 new nuclear plants, creating energy and jobs. McCain's pro-nuclear position and clear specifics stands in stark contrast to that of the Dems.

President John McCain and Vice-President Sarah Palin, along with a reformed and genuinely chastened Republican party are ready to lead America into the reality of the 21st century. The alternative is a dream.

Rising Republican Fortunes

noreply@blogger.com (kidneystones) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 23:05:00 +0000

Family and hometown values matter. Ossie and Harriet-land isn't where we live. Nano-technology and global economics are facts of life. Faith in ourselves and our capacity to build a new future without the help of government bureaucrats guide us today.

Leftwing gas-bags count on Sarah Palin running for cover. Independent voters stand with Palin-McCain. Good news for families and workers in small towns.

Back in the Saddle

noreply@blogger.com (kidneystones) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 10:44:00 +0000

It's been a while, but the resurgence of the right warms my heart. Time to put my tiny shoulder to the wheel and put the boot to bad times and bad actors.

Barack Obama Claims That He Actually Wanted to Join the US Military, But Didn't Cause There Wasn't a War To Fight. Seems what held back this terrible Dem tiger was an unfortunate lack of blood and gunfire.

The Vietnam War had come to an end. We weren't engaged in an active military conflict at that point. And so, it's not an option that I ever decided to pursue."

Waaaa...!! Damn that Viet-Nam ceasefire!! The Telegraph notes Barack omitted any previous mention of this deeply-held desire to join the US military. Nothing appears in any interview or publication. Memory loss? Scouring the formative years of his own past, Obama writes nothing about considering a military career, or any form of military service, in either of his two celebrity self-profiles.

Dems savaged Dick Cheney for masquerading as a patriot while doing everything possible to avoid suiting up. And why not? Called to duty five times, college student Dick Cheney received five separate dispensations from Selective Services, thus denying the would-be warrior the chance to guard America's future.

Grandpa Biden Has His Own Pain to Deal With: Five Deferments. Just like Dick, Biden, the 'bare-knuckle' Dem Vice-Presidential candidate was 'denied' the right to serve five times. The silver-maned patriot waged a different kind of war, waddling through mountains of Congressional pork, waging war on drugs, and shrieking about morality.

George W. Bush stands head and shoulders above this crowd. It's that bad. What with Barack's crap about the 'route-march' not traveled and Biden-Cheney's identical five deferments, Dubya, who actually made it into a recruiting center and into uniform, is positively heroic.

Barack, Bush both claim to have considered' going to Viet Nam. Barack-Dubya both use exactly the same excuse to to 'explain' why staying home seemed a wiser path. With Viet Nam ending, Barack-Bush would have no chance of shedding blood for country.

Damn! Now it all makes sense. Obama wanted to wear the uniform! It's so easy to picture Rambo-Obama on the roof-top of the US Embassy protecting the last helicopter out. True! Pesky peace kept the youthful patriot from achieving his high-school dream of serving Uncle Sam. If only Nixon had kept the war going until Obama had a chance to suit up! Totally believable. The One simply forgot to tell anyone of his secret ambition to head into combat!

Dubya-Barack are as patriotic as every other American. Both served in elite Ivy League schools, 'toughing it out' on term papers and all-night cram sessions before going on to pursue individual national political ambitions.

And the Dubya-Obama similarities don't end there. Obama now claims the Bush tax-breaks for the rich are necessary.

Nos Cadeaux...

noreply@blogger.com (kidneystones) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 02:10:00 +0000

la parole est venu aux mains de la pierre
les couleurs changent dans le vent avec chaque nouvelle vérité

mais les blessures chantent encore, n'oubliez jamais.

Anvil

noreply@blogger.com (kidneystones) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:40:00 +0000

Keening with the chorus,
until the gray skies tired of weeping;
lean closer, I whisper

so we can spit in the face of hope.

Hanami

noreply@blogger.com (kidneystones) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:02:00 +0000

Spring blossoms waft earthward
indifferent to rumbling
trains below