Bullitt
Steve McQueen
The King of Cool
5 years ago
10.30.2008
Doom and Gloom
In a typical Democrat manner, Barry Obama has predicted the next president will inherit a “significant recession”. Oh! Whatever shall we do? Well folks, in order for you to survive, you must – MUST – vote for Barack Obama, the savior of the world!! The Messiah. (Cue dramatic music) THE CHOSEN ONE!!
Well. Let’s get back to reality. Two years ago, the economy was fine. We, and I say “we” loosely, voted in a Democratically controlled Congress. Today, my 401(k) is in the shitter.
Let me share a few insights about the economy. If you were worth millions, and a perfect stranger came up to you and said, “I’ve got $1000 to my name, my credit rating is 400, and I want to own a home. Will you lend me the money?”, would the color of that person’s skin have any bearing on how fast you tell that fool to take a hike?
Me, neither.
The New York Times reported in 1999 that the Clinton Administration was pressing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into giving loans to people who couldn’t afford them.
And don't forget. Franklin Raines is one of Barack Obama's financial advisors.
And then there’s the one and only Barney Frank. Congressman Frank had himself a boyfriend, one Herb Moses. Herb Moses was the assistant director for product initiatives for Fannie Mae from 1991 to 1998, while his boy toy Barney was on the House Banking Committee, who has jurisdiction over Fannie. Conflict of interest, anyone? Republicans, and even President Clinton, tried to get more regulations on Fannie in the 1990’s and they were blocked by none other than Barney F-ing Frank. And he now has the balls to try and tell us that this mess is the Republican’s fault? Hats off to the Boston Globe for getting it right!!
Summing this all up quite brilliantly is Orson Scott Card… a Democrat.
Four days left, folks. Four days. If you haven't been praying yet, start now.
Well. Let’s get back to reality. Two years ago, the economy was fine. We, and I say “we” loosely, voted in a Democratically controlled Congress. Today, my 401(k) is in the shitter.
Let me share a few insights about the economy. If you were worth millions, and a perfect stranger came up to you and said, “I’ve got $1000 to my name, my credit rating is 400, and I want to own a home. Will you lend me the money?”, would the color of that person’s skin have any bearing on how fast you tell that fool to take a hike?
Me, neither.
The New York Times reported in 1999 that the Clinton Administration was pressing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into giving loans to people who couldn’t afford them.
And don't forget. Franklin Raines is one of Barack Obama's financial advisors.
And then there’s the one and only Barney Frank. Congressman Frank had himself a boyfriend, one Herb Moses. Herb Moses was the assistant director for product initiatives for Fannie Mae from 1991 to 1998, while his boy toy Barney was on the House Banking Committee, who has jurisdiction over Fannie. Conflict of interest, anyone? Republicans, and even President Clinton, tried to get more regulations on Fannie in the 1990’s and they were blocked by none other than Barney F-ing Frank. And he now has the balls to try and tell us that this mess is the Republican’s fault? Hats off to the Boston Globe for getting it right!!
Summing this all up quite brilliantly is Orson Scott Card… a Democrat.
Four days left, folks. Four days. If you haven't been praying yet, start now.
10.29.2008
Life up North
What's it like up there?
The typical question whenever I tell someone I work on the North Slope. The answer really depends on what your job is and how you deal with being isolated from your friends or family. There's hundreds of people who work up here who are basically just laborers. They have no office, probably share a bedroom, and work hitches that can see them up here for 4 or 6 weeks at a time. No private space whatsoever and they work a vast majority of their time outside.
You couldn't pay me enough to live like that.
For me personally, it's not even remotely close to that horrible. It's not Club Med, mind you, but it's a workable situation. I have my own bedroom. I share a sizable office. I'm up here two weeks at a time, but I don't have to go outside very often. -45 degree weather in the winter and mosquitoes in the summer? No, thanks. The facility I live in houses about 40 people, so it's a small community here. It's not often an engineer will get a chance to rub elbows with operators, maintenance crews, and other field based employees. It brings a perspective on the work I do I've never had before, and because of that, the experience has been invaluable.
I don't know too many people who can say they've seen the Arctic Ocean, or an Arctic Fox, or the last sunset for the next two months. I saw a Polar Bear a few weeks ago. It was miles away, mind you, and I had to get the binoculars out, but I saw him!
The typical question whenever I tell someone I work on the North Slope. The answer really depends on what your job is and how you deal with being isolated from your friends or family. There's hundreds of people who work up here who are basically just laborers. They have no office, probably share a bedroom, and work hitches that can see them up here for 4 or 6 weeks at a time. No private space whatsoever and they work a vast majority of their time outside.
You couldn't pay me enough to live like that.
For me personally, it's not even remotely close to that horrible. It's not Club Med, mind you, but it's a workable situation. I have my own bedroom. I share a sizable office. I'm up here two weeks at a time, but I don't have to go outside very often. -45 degree weather in the winter and mosquitoes in the summer? No, thanks. The facility I live in houses about 40 people, so it's a small community here. It's not often an engineer will get a chance to rub elbows with operators, maintenance crews, and other field based employees. It brings a perspective on the work I do I've never had before, and because of that, the experience has been invaluable.
I don't know too many people who can say they've seen the Arctic Ocean, or an Arctic Fox, or the last sunset for the next two months. I saw a Polar Bear a few weeks ago. It was miles away, mind you, and I had to get the binoculars out, but I saw him!
10.28.2008
10.27.2008
Constitution
With just about a week to go before the election, I'm going to hammer on some things I care deeply about.
First and foremost is the Constitution of the United States. One candidate calls it "flawed", which would lead me to believe that he wants to re-write it.
Guess who...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11OhmY1obS4
First and foremost is the Constitution of the United States. One candidate calls it "flawed", which would lead me to believe that he wants to re-write it.
Guess who...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11OhmY1obS4
10.24.2008
Rome
In his book Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) said that the following five attributes marked the Roman Empire at its end:
1) A mounting love of show and luxury
2) A widening gap between the very rich and the very poor
3) An obsession with sex
4) freakishness in the arts, masquerading as originality, and enthusiasm pretending to be creativity
5) an increased desire to live off the state
Much to think about, yes? To fall into oblivion after rising to such heights? How far away from this are we?
More to follow...
1) A mounting love of show and luxury
2) A widening gap between the very rich and the very poor
3) An obsession with sex
4) freakishness in the arts, masquerading as originality, and enthusiasm pretending to be creativity
5) an increased desire to live off the state
Much to think about, yes? To fall into oblivion after rising to such heights? How far away from this are we?
More to follow...
10.21.2008
Marxism, Part I
“Spread the wealth around”
With those four words, Barack Obama has revealed exactly what his plans are - income redistribution.
From The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx:
“…the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.
We Communists have been reproached with the desire of abolishing the right of personally acquiring property as the fruit of a man's own labor, which property is alleged to be the groundwork of all personal freedom, activity and independence.”
He continues…
“You are horrified at our intending to do away with private property. But in your existing society, private property is already done away with for nine-tenths of the population; its existence for the few is solely due to its non-existence in the hands of those nine-tenths. You reproach us, therefore, with intending to do away with a form of property, the necessary condition for whose existence is the non-existence of any property for the immense majority of society.
In one word, you reproach us with intending to do away with your property. Precisely so; that is just what we intend.
From the moment when labor can no longer be converted into capital, money, or rent, into a social power capable of being monopolized, i.e., from the moment when individual property can no longer be transformed into bourgeois property, into capital, from that moment, you say, individuality vanishes.
You must, therefore, confess that by "individual" you mean no other person than the bourgeois, than the middle-class owner of property. This person must, indeed, be swept out of the way, and made impossible.”
Finally, the first five of his ten tenets of society:
1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
What concerns me the most is that this class warfare that has been stoked for so long is going to lead us straight down a path that’s been tried before, with miserable results.
Marxism doesn’t work.
It never has.
With those four words, Barack Obama has revealed exactly what his plans are - income redistribution.
From The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx:
“…the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.
We Communists have been reproached with the desire of abolishing the right of personally acquiring property as the fruit of a man's own labor, which property is alleged to be the groundwork of all personal freedom, activity and independence.”
He continues…
“You are horrified at our intending to do away with private property. But in your existing society, private property is already done away with for nine-tenths of the population; its existence for the few is solely due to its non-existence in the hands of those nine-tenths. You reproach us, therefore, with intending to do away with a form of property, the necessary condition for whose existence is the non-existence of any property for the immense majority of society.
In one word, you reproach us with intending to do away with your property. Precisely so; that is just what we intend.
From the moment when labor can no longer be converted into capital, money, or rent, into a social power capable of being monopolized, i.e., from the moment when individual property can no longer be transformed into bourgeois property, into capital, from that moment, you say, individuality vanishes.
You must, therefore, confess that by "individual" you mean no other person than the bourgeois, than the middle-class owner of property. This person must, indeed, be swept out of the way, and made impossible.”
Finally, the first five of his ten tenets of society:
1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
What concerns me the most is that this class warfare that has been stoked for so long is going to lead us straight down a path that’s been tried before, with miserable results.
Marxism doesn’t work.
It never has.
Movie recommendation
If you can handle subtitles, a movie called The Lives of Others is a fabulous look at life in a socialist society, East Germany, before the fall of the Berlin wall and when the Stasi police tracked every aspect of everyone's lives.
10.20.2008
wine recommendation
2005 Desert Wind Ruah, Wahluke Slope Columbia Valley
you will NOT be disappointed
you will NOT be disappointed
Underwater sightings
Saw an octopus on Saturday. Just hanging out at the bottom of the ramp in Whittier. No one had any cameras, so we didn't get a picture, but it was cool to see. Chalk it up to another "hadn't seen that before" for me.
Here's an interesting article from the NY Post.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10202008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/dems_get_set_to_muzzle_the_right_134399.htm
The Dems are planning a full frontal attack on the 1st Amendment. They can't win on the radio waves, so they'll just shut people up in the name of "Fairness". If we applied "Fairness" to the publicly funded PBS, publicly funded university classrooms, and your nightly news, I'd be in favor of it.
Here's an interesting article from the NY Post.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10202008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/dems_get_set_to_muzzle_the_right_134399.htm
The Dems are planning a full frontal attack on the 1st Amendment. They can't win on the radio waves, so they'll just shut people up in the name of "Fairness". If we applied "Fairness" to the publicly funded PBS, publicly funded university classrooms, and your nightly news, I'd be in favor of it.
10.17.2008
Entry #1
Yes... I've done it. I have my own blog.
I certainly have no idea who's going to pay attention to anything I have to say, so this may end up just being a way for me to talk to myself.
Given that we're less than 3 weeks away from the election, you'll probably see alot of political rantings of mine, so buyer beware.
Hope all is well with all of you... I'm going scuba diving tomorrow, so I'm doing juuuuuust fine.
I certainly have no idea who's going to pay attention to anything I have to say, so this may end up just being a way for me to talk to myself.
Given that we're less than 3 weeks away from the election, you'll probably see alot of political rantings of mine, so buyer beware.
Hope all is well with all of you... I'm going scuba diving tomorrow, so I'm doing juuuuuust fine.
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