Overheard at dinner

I was eating dinner with the kids, and the conversation turned to politics.  Hilarity ensued.

#1 Son: The only things that are certain are death and taxes, and death doesn't change when Congress is in session.

Me: You're an Enemy Of The State®.

#2 Son: That's because the State sucks!

I wish he wouldn't say "sucks", but heh.

Targeting the Little Satan, or the Great Satan

So Iran is readying a nuclear test, and the entire Middle East is on tender hooks.  Everyone expects Iran to start lobbing nukes at Israel as soon as they roll off the assembly line.

I'm not sure that this makes sense.  After all, Israel is the "Little Satan".  There are other targets in the area that may be more interesting:

(AP) —  Iranian patrol boats and aircraft shadowed a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group as it transited the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday.

The passage ended a Gulf mission that displayed Western naval power amid heightened tensions with Tehran, which has threatened to choke off vital oil shipping lanes.

We are, after all, the Great Satan.  They've attacked us before.  The Revolutionary Guards are staffed with guys who would take a nuke on a one-way mission.  The current Administration is staffed with rookies, and the Iranians might be able to cause them to send two carrier groups.  I'd say "three", but that's just crazy talk.  Wait, what?

The push to get Iran to do something terminally irrational (now that USS Enterprise in its final tour of duty is almost on location just off the side of CVN-70 Lincoln and CVN-72 Vinson in the Arabian Sea, where the US will shortly have not one, not two, but three aircraft carriers) is now in its final stretch. As AP reported earlier, Iran has been now entirely cut off from the global financial system, as that anchor of international financial transactions, SWIFT, has just taken Iran off the grid. This leaves Iran with just three options for international trade: making gold into a fully convertible currency, barter, or exchanging Rials for Renminbi and other local currencies. As a reminder, virtually the entire non-parked naval fleet will be in the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf in the next 4-6 days, where 3 aircraft carriers and one big-deck amphibious warfare ship are just waiting for the order.

Taking out a carrier or two would put a real crimp in any American response to an attack on Israel.  It likely would have a certain popularity in much of the International Community, unafraid of our Apologizer In Chief.

But hey, probably nothing to see here.  I mean, we have all the Right People® in the Oval Office now.  They have a (D) after their name, so everything's fine.  Oh, wait ...

Well, I thought I was a little more ahead of the curve

The Progressives see the writing on the wall:

Here is where the parasitic 1% have their problem. What they have “sold” the American public as the spirit of the nation is now in direct opposition to reality. In fact, it has become so obviously untrue that the population is waking in drove to the truth and the truth is that we have a utterly corrupt, sociopathic minority running the nation like a giant criminal syndicate for their own power and money. Therein lies their weakness however. They have no philosophy. These guys are actually so twisted that all they think about is how can they keep growing their money and power. Furthermore, they are operating under an exposed playbook of control. Just take a look at Obama’s approval ratings. They are plunging. They are plunging despite fabricated economic numbers and biblical stock market rigging to make things look good. They are plunging because people are waking up and seeing all of this for what it is. A gigantic scam. All the signs I see point to increasing desperation on their part and exponential awakening on the part of the meat of the bell curve. These guys are toast and what we should now be focusing most of our attention on is what kind of society we want when this one collapses. Hopefully the other side of the bell curve can influence the debate for the first times in five thousand years. That is my hope and my vision of the future.

I used a few more words to say the same thing, but it's odd that people so well schooled in the Dialectic seem to think that now that Fortuna's wheel has brought them to the top, we're suddenly at the End Of History, and that their beloved changes are the synthesis, rather than the thesis.  They think that they're the Revolution, rather than the Establishment.  The intellectual failure on display from the "best" educated is something to behold.

It's so bad, they can't even see what's unfolding.  Good.

What comes next is a mystery, since we all view the future as through a glass, darkly.  But it sure isn't the Progressive New Jerusalem.  They don't see that now, but they will.

No better friend, no worse enemy

Semper fi, Devil Dogs.

Zeroing your rifle

Advice.

So just what is the TSA good for?

[Update 13 May 2013 11:28: graphic originally included in the post removed at the request of the owner]

Sweet.  Even sweeter is how Orlando International Airport is telling the TSA not to let it hit them in the gropeables on the way out:

One of America’s busiest airports, Orlando Sanford International, has announced it will opt out of using TSA workers to screen passengers, a move which threatens the highly unpopular federal agency’s role in other airports across the nation.

“The president of the airport said Tuesday that he would apply again to use private operators to screen passengers, using federal standards and oversight,” reports the Miami Herald.

...

Larry Dale hinted that the move was motivated by the innumerable horror stories passengers have told of their encounters with the TSA, noting that the change was designed to provide a more “customer friendly” operation.

Gee, ya think?  Come on - what's a visit to Magic Kingdom without a trip on the Pedobear ride?  It's a "E" ticket!

(Via)

What does a contented man have to say that's interesting enough to bother reading?

I don't know, but I guess we'll find out.

I'm coming up on my fourth blogiversary in a couple months, and have found that blogging is getting, well, hard.  This is a first for me.  Blogging has always been a release from life talking in its Loud Voice.  For the last while, I find that life is pretty good, and that the Muse is getting crowded out.

I'm a bit at a loss, actually.  It's been a long time since things have been smooth.  Even folks who have hung out here basically from the beginning - Jay, and Lissa, and Weer'd, and Doubletrouble, and ASM826 - I don't think any of you have ever seen me like this.  2cents has, but not for a long while.  I almost can't remember it, myself.

I'm afraid that it feels good.

The problem has been known for a long time.  It was Nietzsche himself that said be careful when in casting out your demons you don't cast out the finest part of you.  I guess we'll see if that's true.

So apologies in advance, if I wander off.  And maybe I'm inviting disaster, going on about how things are going better.  Probably jinxing myself.  And thanks to everyone who's been here over the last few years.  The support you've given has sure meant a lot to me.

Hey Progressives - thanks for the memories!

Since you're all out of gas, let me be the first to thank you for all your, err, "help".

Global Warming mockery!

Step right up!  It's been a while since we've mocked all Right Thinking People™ about Global Warmening!  Reader Brian emails to point out the latest ZOMG Thermageddon!!!eleventy!! Peer Reviewed Scienciness®:

Danish researchers have announced a theory that may not only explain why people all over the world are getting fatter and fatter, but also warn of the serious consequences for life on Earth of continued pollution of the atmosphere by CO2 emissions.

In itself, the theory is quite simple: CO2 contributes to making us fat.

Well, of course it does.  The Scienciness is Settled®: Global Warmening causes everything!



Got to regulate the Buster Poindexter emissions.  Err, or learn the difference between correlation and causation.

Man, this is work

The last post took hours to write*, after hours of thinking.  I'm used to a more, err, casual work attitude towards blogging.  Like cute cats:

Heh.

* And I even proof read it for you.  I guess it's all part of being a Full Service blog.

Napoleon's Sponge

The most confusing chart ever created

Retreating this day and the next,
We wonder'd when 's our battle, vext;
The veterans talk'd upset:
"What then? we 're off to winter dorms?
Go the commanders by new norms;
Daren't they rip foreign uniforms
On Russian bayonet?"

- Mikhail Lermontov, Borodino

Americans have a rather provincial view of the War of 1812.  We think of Ft. McHenry and the rocket's red glare, and the more honest of us recall the burning of the White House - an act for which we've been strangely negligent in thanking Great Britain.  While all that was going on, nearly three quarters of a million men were locked in hand to hand combat on the Russian steppe.

Napoleon had made himself master of Europe, with only two exceptions.  Nelson and the Royal Navy had stymied his plans to invade that nation of shopkeepers in the west.  To the east, the Czar refused to be cowed.  And so l'Empereur assembled nearly half a million men to break the last of the resistance under his heel.

Crossing the river Neman on 24 June, Napoleon's army reached - and occupied - Moscow less than 100 days later, having covered the distance on foot.  Hitler's panzers took five months to make that same journey, a century later.  The French seemed unstoppable, an irresistible force of nature, the wave of the future.  Napoleon didn't see that the entire campaign was leading his Grande Armeé into utter collapse.

His philosophy led to overreach, to the point where the fall was so sudden and so far that it changed the course of European history for a generation.  The Russians burned everything behind them in their retreat, leaving nothing for the French to eat.  Of the nearly half a million men he led into Russia in June, only 27,000 followed him back across the border in November - the width of the lines in the picture above represents the size of the army as it crossed Russia and back.  A Europe crushed and demoralized by French force of arms was suddenly in open revolt as subject kingdoms in Germany and Austria saw the weakening of their hated overlord.  Even Paris itself rose in a coup d'état.  Sixteen months after he invaded Mother Russia, the Battle of Nations ended Napoleon's dreams of a Europe safe for French culture.

The ancient Greeks knew that hubris led to nemesis.  So with Napoleon, who thought he had the subject kingdoms cowed.  Early victories - especially those where victory was not truly consolidated - led to a false sense of superiority, and a resulting disaster.  Disaster which can come astonishingly quickly.

The Progressive agenda has been ascendent for a century, carrying all before it in western societies.  It has seemingly marched from victory to victory, and Emperor Barack Obama led what was to have been the final assault on what little remained of resistance to the Progressive Cause.  Obama is encountering what Napoleon did - a scorched earth where territory "won" benefits the victors not at all.  This has been going on for some time, and is accelerating.  Consider the "victories" of the Progressives:

• Roe v. Wade.  Most States were already relaxing bans on abortion when a narrow 5-4 Supreme Court decision removed this topic from the political arena, deciding that it could not even be discussed by the elected representatives of the People.  Ever since, Progressives have lived as under siege, always feeling that they were but a single SCOTUS nominee from defeat.  They may be right, since more Americans self-identify as "pro-life" than as "pro-choice".
• Taxes.  Americans don't like them, never have, and aren't showing any inclination to change that view.  A majority want spending cuts, not higher taxes.  Only Progressives would be shocked at this.
• The Death of Environmentalism.  Cap and Trade is dead, and not even the Lightbringer could reanimate its corpse.  People oppose higher gasoline taxes, and strongly support the Keystone pipeline.  After a generation of pro-environment messages from a very liberal media, a majority of Americans do not self-identify as "environmentalists".
• Growing opposition to public employee unions. People don't really care, until it's a choice of higher taxes or union give backs.  Guess which wins?
• Gun Control.  Stick a fork in it.  Even Maryland courts won't uphold it, and even the Maryland Legislature won't vote for it.
• Affirmative Action.  Blacks and Hispanics like it, whites don't.  Color me shocked.  Blacks and Hispanics make up 25% of the population.
• The Rise of Libertarianism among the youth.  It's been said that if you're not a liberal when you're 20, you have no heart.  R0n P4uL! would beg to differ.

Obamacare was the high water mark of the Progressive dream, equivalent to Napoleon's inconclusive "victory" at Borodino, where a quarter million men faced each other with grapeshot and bayonet, and 70,000 ended their campaign for good. Today Obama seems like Napoleon, looking upon the devastation that was Moscow and wondering how he can keep his army alive over the winter. 

He can't, and they're all deserting.  2010 saw the Democratic Party refuse to run on the "success" that was their biggest entitlement victory in a generation, because America increasingly hates it - to the point that 90% oppose the mandate to buy insurance.  That's not "50% plus one" where you can either convince people later or sweep it under the rug.  That's the time you start wondering if your party is the 1%.

The problem for Progressives is that Obama has let the mask slip.  He ran as a moderate who would reach across the aisle to get things done for America.  He's governed as a radical who is intentionally inflaming class warfare.  And so the Democratic Party finds itself in a crisis of legitimacy so profound that even the Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg can't avoid it:

But in smaller, more probing focus groups, voters show they are fairly cynical about Democratic politicians’ stands. They tune out the politicians’ fine speeches and plans and express sentiments like these: “It’s just words.” “There’s just such a control of government by the wealthy that whatever happens, it’s not working for all the people; it’s working for a few of the people.” “We don’t have a representative government anymore.”

But none of this has slowed the Administration, pushing stealth gun control via the ATF "Fast and Furious" operation, preventing oil drilling on public land or in the Gulf, or using the IRS to harass Tea Party organizations.  As Maréchal Ney said to Napoleon after Borodino, "Never let a crisis go to waste, even if you have to make the crisis."  (Err, I think I read that in a history book somewhere.)

And as we view the unfolding collapse of the Progressive vision in general and the Eurozone in particular, the Administration tells Congressional Democrats that they're on their own as far as fund raising is concerned.  Three years after receiving his Nobel Prize, the Emperor is leaving the advanced guard behind.   He's taking a sleigh away from the front lines to save his own chances, while they're expected to fall under Tea Party sabres in the snowy retreat.

Let me just put that last bit in perspective: Obama was the crowning achievement of a century of Progressive agitation by the Press and the Academy.  This was the final push to eliminate the last vestiges of opposition.  And he's leaving his army on the field to die in the 2012 elections.

And make no mistake - die they will.  The cossacks mercilessly butchered retreating French units, and the Tea Party, Republicans, and independents will do the same to the Democrats.  Quite frankly, there won't be any "moderate" Democrats left come November.  Greenberg sees that bloody end:

This distrust of government and politicians is unfolding as a full-blown crisis of legitimacy sidelines Democrats and liberalism. Just a quarter of the country is optimistic about our system of government — the lowest since polls by ABC and others began asking this question in 1974. But a crisis of government legitimacy is a crisis of liberalism. It doesn’t hurt Republicans. If government is seen as useless, what is the point of electing Democrats who aim to use government to advance some public end?

What's the point, indeed.  But you really see the big picture if you substitute "Progressives" for "Democrats".  The People have given the Progressives the chance to prove that big government run by an intellectual elite can deliver the goods.  The People have made up their minds.  Overreach has led to what will be a fall of stunning suddenness and magnitude, changing the political landscape for a generation or two.

And so, I find myself surprisingly optimistic.  Stick a fork in the Progressive vision - it's done.  Marketing professionals will tell you that once someone makes up their mind about something (or someone), it's terribly hard to change it.  Liberals rebranded a generation ago (back to "Progressive"), but Obama's run as a centrist govern as a radical strategy has raised the difficulty level of doing that again - raised it to the breaking point.  Short of a coup, Progressives are out of gas - and I don't for a second think that the military (or the States and the National Guard, or the People in their righteous wrath) would go along with Progressives in the street.

The Republican Party, of course, remains the Stupid Party, to the point where it leaves stupid prints on the carpet when it walks by.  The Tea Party and independents will have to hold their feet to the fire, because even a stupid politician can feel pain.  A lot of people are saying that it took us a long time to get here, and it will take us a long time to unwind this.  But the story has been written, and has solidified in the public's mind: the government is a bumbling idiot and is not to be trusted with more power and money.  There's your winning slogan.

The People believe it, because they've seen it.

What is it, that is best?  To crush your enemy's ideology, to see it driven from the airwaves, and to hear the lamentation of his Professors.  I think that the cossacks said it better in the original Russian*.

(Image source)

Napoleon is a torrent which as yet we are unable to stem. Moscow will be the sponge that will suck him dry.

- Mikhail Kutuzov

* The Czar of Muscovy emails with the original Russian: Что это, что лучше? Сокрушить идеологию моего врага, наблюдать он изгнан из эфира, и слышать причитания его профессоров. Я думаю что казаки сказал вещи лучше в оригинале русский язык. It's all Greek to me, but an Autocrat must know the language of command, nyet?

Gun Deals

Found at gun-deals.com.  I haven't used it, but brought to my (and now your) attention by someone who has a clue.  Basically user submitted guns and ammo for sale.  Some are old and outdated, but the site lists deals in reverse chronological order (newest at the top).

Caveat emptor, but probably interesting to the community.

Actually, there's a quite good explanation

You see, she loves cats.

You have absolutely no sense of humor

Well, you do.  Not sure about Germans, at least if you listen to Noel Coward's 1943 song:



But all friends now.  Just don't mention the War.



I did a couple times, but think I got away with it.

Catching up

Man, I'm not caught up yet.  First being sick, then a 14 hour drive home, then losing a hour's sleep* (so my body thinks I changed two time zones, not one) and then back to work has be running to catch up.  And so the ice cream has been late, and the servings smaller.

As an apology from Borepatch Management, all posts today will be entirely free of charge to all readers.  And here's a cheap cute kitten picture, because blogging is easy when you have a cat.  Must maintain blog standards, after all.

* The Federal Office of Daylight Savings can all die screaming in a fire.

Free

Last week Mom and I ate dinner at a place overlooking Lake Travis.  Nice place, nice weather, and we sat out on the patio to dine al fresco.  For some reason, it was pretty easy to hear conversations at other tables.

For example, the table behind me had an animated discussion over CCW permitting, and one of the people made the remark that he'd heard that Georgia doesn't require any training or minimum shooting score or anything!!!eleventy!

Yup.  Get fingerprinted, fill out the form, pay your $50 (or so) to the Probate Judge, and your Weapons Carry Permit shows up in the mail in a few weeks.  No fuss at all.  It's such little fuss, it seems, that South Carolina gets their Massachusetts on and says it's not safe or something, and so doesn't recognize Georgia WCPs.

I actually think that you could improve things by making the whole process free - after all, this is an enumerated Constitutional right, and so if the Powers That Be say that the State has a legitimate interest in fingerprinting, then the State should pay for it.  But I digress.

T-Bolt is describing how to go about getting a permit in Maryland.  The whole "explain why you want a permit" thing strikes me as asking for and answer like "For the same reason I want a blog, now shut up and give me the stinking permit."  And character references?  How about doing a criminal background check and if I'm clean that's all the reference you need?

I wonder what the process is of changing a State Motto?  The "Free State" is better described as The "Tell us why you think you should be free State".

Quote of the Day, health care mandate edition

This about sums up the whole "Insurance should provide free contraception" issue:

Thinking about it, why do I have to pay rent? Shouldn’t that be covered by my insurance? What kind of straits would my health be in if I were exposed to the elements all the time?

If avoiding the costs associated with pregnancy is a key benefit of the mandate, isn't that dwarfed by saving the costs associated with frostbite amputations and pneumonia?

Forgotten weapons

Warning - you'll lose a lot of time here.

Breda PG 1935.

I'm feeling funny

Man, it was a busy day yesterday.  We're likely to have to replace the front doors here at Camp Borepatch (we've known this for a while, and the company we're working with is owned by friends), but we had to go over options first thing.

Then working in the rose garden to get it ready for the 3 yards of mulch (not enough - is there ever enough mulch - but a good start).  Then dinner at Little Alley Steak*, the new steak house on Canton St. in Roswell.  Holy cow, it's good.

Then home to set a spell on the porch, with #2 Son explaining that the ending to Mass Effect 3 blows chunks, and how it blows chunks.  In detail.

And after all of this, I realized that I was feeling kind of strange.  I'm feeling happy.

Yeah, I'm behind in my blogging, and behind in email.  I'll catch up.  But this is a cool drink of water on a hot summer day.  It feels funny, being content.  I'd very much like to get used to that feeling.

* The hog jowl compote with fig preserves is indescribably spectacular, and shows that a humble ingredient can become food of the gods when handled with genius.  The restaurant isn't cheap, but it blows Ruth's Chris out of the water.  Make reservations, if you go on Thursday through Saturday.  We were there on Sunday and it was simply packed.

The perfect Martini

It's a truism that Noel Coward goes with a pitcher of Martinis like gin goes with vermouth.  And so, to the perfect martini.  Even Coward wrote about dry martinis, and this play dates from the 1930s.  Thus we can see just how long the decline of the West has been occurring.  You see, vermouth is the key to the perfect martini.

I like 4:1 gin to vermouth, and would actually go 3:1 except that most people are unused to the taste of vermouth and so would think the cocktail to be "off".  It's actually not.  Remember, the martini is a mixed drink, so people who rinse the glass with vermouth before pouring the gin are really drinking gin, straight up.

So 4:1 it is.  After all, a Real Man isn't afraid of a little vermouth.

There are two tricks to the martini.  First, the ingredients need to be cold.  I like keeping the gin (preferably Bombay Sapphire) in the freezer, because it starts ice cold.  You can't keep the vermouth there, because while it won't freeze outright, it will congeal.  You simply won't be able to mix it.

The second trick is that James Bond didn't know what he was talking about.  You want to stir the pitcher, not shake it (keep the shaker for when you're building daiquiris).  Fill the pitcher about half way with ice, add the gin and vermouth (don't skimp on vermouth, if you're a Real Man), and stir to combine.  If you shake, you'll get a ton of ice crystals making the final poured drink into a cloudy mess.

I like to fill the glasses (proper martini glasses, 'natch; crystal is an optional added touch of class) with ice water while I attend to the pitcher.  This will make the glasses ice cold, ready for the ice cold libation.  Olive is obligatory, but the ones stuffed with blue cheese or garlic or jalapenos let you go for a walk on your wild side.  Good gin will stand up to all of these.  Extra olives, though, please.

Oh, and a dinner jacket is a very nice garnish.  A boutonniere and a SIG are obligatory, sorry.