Nazir had a friend who loved to blow big bubbles. The bubbles get bigger each day,defying gravity. He seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of hot air. Nazir encouraged him in this dubious talent.
Except one day Nazir pricked his latest bubble with a sharp pin. It burst, creating a big mess.
“What did you do that for?”
“Truth can be as sharp as a pin.”
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Arundhati Roy writes in the NYTimes again. She is upset. Barack Obama did not solve the Kashmir problem during his visit to India. Other problems he has not solved: the Palestine problem, the Energy Crisis, Climate Change, the Riemann Hypothesis and the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle.
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Here in the town of Gananoga, in upstate New York, a dog catcher is just what it sounds like: he (or she, but it has been a he for thirty five years) catches wayward dogs. In most cases, he finds the owner and returns them. Otherwise, it goes to the pound, to be adopted by someone. MacWho, the guy who has held the job these thirty five years, is a dog lover. No one bothered to ask what party he was. But, it appears, he is a registered Republican. In most off-off-years, he would have been re-elected with barely a whimper.
Not this time. Conservatives are angry that tax dollars are being used to feed runaway dogs.
That dog pound is a Socialist paradise for canines
thunders Eric Redbeard, in his blog. Redbeard lives no where near Gananoga. In fact he would not know where Gananoga is if his life depended on it. But where someone is getting fat on Government largesse, Eric finds a cause. He signed up the town whino, Coughman, to run against Joe MacWho. Only Eric messed up: Coughman is the whino from the next town over. In fact, Coughman has not even visited Gananoga for many years.
Still, Joe MacWho would have kept his job if it were not for Gov Sarah. From her Facebook page, (more…)
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All the talk in the US is about National Health Care. A colleague, who always has his finger in the wind, whispers that growth area in medical research is Alzheimer’s disease. How can we, as a Physics Department, cash in on that? The signs that old people (we like to call ourselves middle aged, but that presumes we will live to be a 100: a frightening thought) dominate the national conversation are everywhere. Count how many Viagra ads come on during a political talk show. And compare to the number of birth control ads.
Not like in the sixties when the US was a young country. “Don’t trust anyone over thirty”, said John Lennon. He was right. Old men like to send young people into war; unless enough say “hell no we won’t go”. Even after the election of Obama, the US still mired in two wars for reasons that sound a lot like the domino theory of old. Yet, where are the protests?
What happened? (more…)
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My life has meaning now. KO quotes a diary from DKos on his show. OK, it wasn’t my diary, but I read it. Before KO quoted it. On TV! Yes, sometimes if you live a good life and work hard it all pays off in the end. Life is not all unfair.
A celebrity quoted the diary. Someone who is actually paid to be on TV. Just think of that. I am dumbfounded. Or something.It was like the time I was at a concert and a drop of Sting’s sweat fell on me. I didn’t wash for a week. Didn’t want that celebrity saltiness to wash off my skin. Another time I was at a restaurant in Connecticut and someone told me Paul Newman had eaten there the week before. Yes! Just one week before I ate there, Paul Newman had sat at the same table. OK, may not be the same table. Same room. Or general area. Or something. (more…)
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Gov. Sarah Palin has a short announcement to make, after which she will be answering your questions.
Hi America, I appreciate speaking directly TO you, over the heads of the Liberal Media. People who know me know that besides faith and family, nothing’s more important to me than our troops who are serving so well defending freedom in Kosovo. And it is in honor of those troops that I announce my withdrawal from the Presidential race of 2012.
And you know me by now, I promised even four years ago to show MY independence… no more conventional “politics as usual”. Real winners make up their own rules, instead of playing by the rules or the constitution or whatever you call them over at your Department of Law in Washington. We broke ground on the new prison. The more people we put in jail, the greater our security will be. I can think of one or two reporters I would like to have as guest in our new prison.
Make no mistake about it. I am no quitter. I am a fighter. Which is why I will be resigning as your President effective the year 2012.
Q: If you are quitting the race how can you resign from the Presidency? (more…)
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10. Wants to go hiking the Appalachian Trail.
9. This is not a retreat. It is an advance in the direction opposite to forward.
8. Wants to be appointed Ambassador to Africa. She still thinks it is a country.
7. Will be appearing on Wife Swap, with Jenny Sanford.
6. Michelle Bachmann was getting too much attention for being batshit crazy.
5. Thought she could put her job up for sale on EBay.
4. Palin is the sole beneficiary in newly found Michael Jackson will.
3. Took career advice from President Dan Quayle.
2. John McCain bailed out five times too.
And the number one reason why Sarah Palin quit as Governor of Alaska:
1. Wants to move to Chicago and become a Community Organizer.
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Duh. Next week’s revelation: Water is Wet. Really.
The Liberal blogosphere has turned Green. TPM and Rachel Maddow have become cheerleaders for what they think is the democratic movement of Iran. Obama and Kos have decided to stay out of the fray, while not criticizing others for commenting on the situation. On the Right Wing, there is talk that this cautious approach is somehow a betrayal of our allies in Iran. Remember how well McCain’s meddling in Georgia worked out.
As someone who grew up in another country (India) awash in conspiracy theories of American involvement in local politics, I believe that the best thing for Americans can do right now to support democracy in Iran is..nothing. Stay out of it. Obama, having lived abroad, understands this. As does Kos, for the same reason. Any whiff of American support for Moussavi will undermine him. The crowds in Teheran, chanting “Allahu Akbar”, will themselves turn against Moussavi if the US voices support for him.
As I write this, the Supreme Leader is giving a sermon in Teheran. Darkly warning against “arrogant Western powers” and asking for “prayer” and “divine guidance”. Even if the US Government stays out of it, if American media is involved, such as through blogs, it will be used against Moussavi and his party. In other words,
Don’t just do something. Stand there.
Besides, we may not really understand what is going on. (more…)
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Nobody speaks of Bush anymore. It is Cheney who haunts us as the ghost of errors past. Hard to believe that a little less than half of voters went for Bush in 2000, and then again a slight majority in 2004. Right after 9/11, Bush had the support of 90% of people. Even as he limped out of town, about a third of Americans approved of him. That is after the Iraq debacle, after the Katrina disaster,after the disclosures of torture at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. Some one must have supported torture back when Bush and Cheney were waterboarding prisoners. Someone other than just Bush must have thought that Brownie was doing a heck of a job in New Orleans.
It is not just evil people who cause great harm to the world. It is well meaning people who try to fit in, somehow contorting their thoughts to fit the conventional wisdom of the day. Many of these same people are now for Obama, fitting into the new CW,forgetting where they stood back in the brief dark age after 9/11. “The Google”, which just happened to come online about the same time, allows us to look up the celebrities among us.
(more…)
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That sound you are not hearing is the roar of conservative activist groups enraged at the progressive in the White House. Other than a few buffoons like Limbaugh, right wing activists are demoralized, without a target to hit at.
The Globe
The arrival of a big-city liberal president backed by Democratic majorities in Congress should have given single-issue conservative interest groups concerned with guns, abortion, and religion a lot of new material. Yet only four months after taking office, Obama appears to have already fulfilled one of the murkiest pledges of his candidacy: to declare a cease-fire in the culture wars.
Rich Lowry is despondent that the new President is not waving the red flag at the conservative bulls:
Rhetorically, he is in the middle of any debate, perpetually surrounded by finger-pointing extremists who can’t get over their reflexive combativeness and ideological fixations to acknowledge his surpassing thoughtfulness and grace.
This is how Obama, whose position on abortion is indistinguishable from NARAL’s, can speechify on abortion at Notre Dame and come away sounding like a pitch-perfect centrist. It’s natural, then, that his speech at the National Archives on national security should superficially sound soothing, reasonable, and even a little put-upon (oh, what President Obama has to endure from all those finger-pointing extremists).
Many liberals also seem angry that Obama is not being more provocative. But that was Obama’s style all along.
(more…)
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The Cheney-Churchill comparison has not yet been made. But it is coming. Sooner or later every conservative thinks he is the next Churchill.
Dick Cheney is on TV every day. Even calls in to a radio talk show in North Dakota. Not only is it out of character for him, it is against the conventions of American politics for a former VP to criticize a new President so soon after the election. Perhaps Cheney is scared that he will be indicted for war crimes and is offering a pre-emptive defense.Torture is not just any war crime: it carries the death penalty. Maybe it is not his own indictment that he fears but that of his former aides like Addington. Or he is drumming up publicity for his book. He could just be bored after his retirement. Is Lynne Cheney making him mow the lawn, if he stays home?
But I think it is something else. (more…)
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Look at 6:14. Condoleeza Rice says:
So by definition-it was authorized by the President- it did not violate our obligations under the convention against torture
It is a long video, but watch the rest of it for context. She claims she did not authorize it, only conveyed the authorization.
I didn’t rob the bank. I only carried the bags of money.
So when will that Presidential authorization of torture (”enhanced interrogation techniques”) be released?
Drip, Drip Drip… the Chinese water torture continues.
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I don’t oppose all wars
said Barack Obama in a speech back in 2002.
What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war…A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics…
As Sen. Clinton pointed out back then, this speech is the only thing Obama brought to the Primary campaign. It was enough. In that speech, of which only a few seconds of video remain, Obama laid out a vision for how to use (and not use) military force in the complicated world we live in.
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Today is Easter Sunday. The day that Jesus is said to have resurrected himself after being executed by a State that found him guilty after a trial. This could explain why the modern Catholic Church is against capital punishment. A cross is the best reminder that a Government’s system of justice can go horribly wrong.
The Popes of recent years have opposed executing even hardened criminals. Pope John Paul II during a visit to the US in April of 1999:
I renew the appeal I made most recently at Christmas for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary. Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform.
So why was there no protest when George W. Bush was given an honorary degree by Notre Dame in 2001? During his six years as Governor, Bush presided over 152 executions in Texas: any of which he could have prevented by an executive order. In the case of Karla Faye Tucker, he ignored a personal appeal by the Pope himself. And yet when Obama is invited to address the graduating class and receive a degree there is a firestorm of protest. (more…)
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There is an apocryphal story about Gandhi, said to have taken place when he was working as a lawyer in London. It was unusual for an Indian to have an Englishman working under him, but Gandhi had an English assistant. One day Gandhi asked him to do something and the Asssistant asked,
Mr. Gandhi, is that an order or a request?
Gandhi replied:
If you do it, it would be a request.
Gandhi did not have to ask a second time.
Hard to know for sure if it really happened.
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Arrayed around a long mahogany table in the White House state dining room last week, the CEOs of the most powerful financial institutions in the world offered several explanations for paying high salaries to their employees — and, by extension, to themselves.
We have all heard these explanations.
These are complicated companies.
We’re competing for talent on an international market.
The President was having none of it.
Be careful how you make those statements, gentlemen. The public isn’t buying that. My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”
The pitchforks are out. And not just on Wall Street.
Typically, people like their own boss. But ask anyone and you will hear complaints about extravagant benefits and salaries that others in their company are receiving. Unlike other People, Americans are not resentful of the wealthy. Those who become wealthy by talent and effort are admired. People do not mind their bosses being paid well as long as they feel they are doing a good job.
But there is a lot of anxiety out there. There is a suspicion that too many people are in administrative positions and too few in productive roles. I posted a (whose author is still unknown to me) on this blog about layoffs. It has been an instant hit. Everyone feels they are Andre’.
Obama understands the public mood. He made sure that the bankers understood as well.
The titans of finance — men used to being the most powerful man in almost any room — sized up a new president who made clear in ways big and small that he expected them to change their ways.
….
“The anger gentlemen, is real,” Obama said
It had been a landmark day in the history of American capitalism. Unbeknownst to the financial executives, General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner was also on Pennsylvania Avenue that day, meeting with Obama’s auto bailout task force. Although the finance CEOs got a meeting with the president, Wagoner saw only Obama’s senior advisor Steven Rattner at the Treasury Department. During the meeting, Rattner demanded Wagoner’s resignation.
Let us hope others heed the warning too.
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What Went Wrong? is the title of a book by the Orientalist scholar Bernard Lewis about the Decline and Fall of the Islamic Civilization. There was a time when the Islamic Empires ruled from Spain to India and beyond. They had the best scientists, the most sophisticated literature. The basic degrees given out in Western Universitites today (Bachelors, Masters, Doctorate) are translations of Arabic terms used at Madrassas from Morocco to Egypt. The idea of tax exempt foundations to support research and charitable work is Islamic. The Shariah Law gave women the right to property, unheard of in the West till the eighteenth Century. And then it all fell apart. The Ottoman Caliphate lingered on as the sickman of Europe until it was finally abolished in the 1920s by the British.
Something like this is happening with the American Car industry. Obama just fired the Chairman of GM, the closest thing to a Caliph in America. (more…)
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Looking at these smiling people, you would never think that the topic of the day was possible layoffs, reduction of employee benefits, and other such matters. As promised in my message a couple of days ago, we held the first of a series of town meetings yesterday to explain our financial situation and to solicit ideas and suggestions from people as to how we might meet this year’s budget gap. Keep those ideas coming. This company is about you. If you were not behind me I would not not be able to lead you to a promising future.
(more…)
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The best part of Stewart’s merciless takedown of Jim Cramer was the old videotape where Cramer brags about manipulating the market. Just a few months ago people would have watched that tape and nodded in admiration. But now it exposes him as a fraud and possibly a criminal. Every time Cramer would try to weasel out, Stewart would call out a time “2:20″ and his flak would play another damning clip. Why is this guy Cramer not in jail?
It is not just fools who are taken in by market mania. Even Sir Isaac Newton lost twenty thousand pounds in the South Sea Bubble back in 1720. This time around, the victims of Bernie Madoff include a Nobel Laureate (Elie Wiesel), a newspaper tycoon (Mort Zuckermann) and several foundations.
(more…)
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The Democratic Leadership Council was formed by Al From in the wake of Reagan’s victories. Its aim was to move the Democratic Party to the center. It claimed that America was a center-right nation. Bill Clinton is its most prominent former head. Zel Miller and Joe Lieberman had a turn. Currently it is chaired by Harold Ford Jr.
Things are not going well for the DLC. America no longer looks so center-right. In fact, it looks kinda center-left these days. It is the Republicans who need to correct course towards the center,dragging the mighty whale Rush Limbaugh .
The Democratic Leadership Council — a group of centrists that dominated politics during the Clinton presidency but is laboring to remain relevant in the Obama era — is on the brink of a major shake-up.
At the same time, the Progressive Policy Institute, an influential think tank closely affiliated with the DLC, will soon part ways with the council. Will Marshall, who heads the think tank, said the recent Democratic electoral gains and a massive new agenda being pushed by the Obama administration “require us to think anew.”
Duh.
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Bobby Be Good
Rush Limbaugh is Bobby Jindal’s main sponsor in the Republican Party. They need a couple of dark skinned guys and a gal or two to show that they are open-minded too. As long as the new faces obey the guys who run the Party they are allowed to stand in front of cameras. Bobby understands that. That sycophantic smile on his face is to reassure them that he knows he is pwned.
But Michael Steele does not. Just because they chose him to be head of the RNC, Steele thought that he was the head of the Republican Party. Not only that, he went on a TV show run by another uppity fellow and declared ” I am the head of the Republican Party”. And then called Limbaugh some ugly things.
Such as, he is ugly. Was calling Limbaugh `incendiary’ a reference to the low burning point of all that body fat?
That is why Steele was taken behind the woodshed, his trousers lowered and beaten but good. That was not just to teach him a lesson. A lesson for Bobby too. If ever Bobby thinks that just because he is a Governor he is his own boss, let this be a reminder to him. Sarah Palin is on a looser leash.
Sarah The Temptress
(more…)
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I had to write a report this week and was looking through my calendar from last year. Noticed a curious entry, a talk I missed because I was out with a cold. Who exactly is Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount of Brenchley, this denier of Global Warming? The magic of Google and Wikipedia allows us to find out easily. The drawback to such convenience is that such information is often superficial.
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I was humbled and honored to be chosen to give the Republican response to Pres. Obama’s address to the nation last Tuesday. The response to my response has been consistent. Democrats think it was awful. The Republicans are hanging their heads in shame. Only Rush Limbaugh stood up for me. God bless him. He might make me President yet.
I want to begin my response to my critics with another condescending remark about President Obama’s blackness. After all, that is the most important thing about him. It is not important that Obama inherited a country mired in two wars, one of them completely unnecessary. Or that his predecessor was spending twice as much money as he was collecting. I must always start by noting the remarkable personal story of Obama, the son of a Kenyan father and an American mother. I mean, it is just awesome how I noticed that about him. Without me pointing it out, some of you could have missed that.
(more…)
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