Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Tomorrow Might Really Suck - UPDATED WITH STRIPPERS!

(Which, I suppose, makes it harder to convince people that tomorrow could suck.)

Peter Schiff is predicting an economic collapse of the markets worse than 2008...and it could happen as early as tomorrow! Isn't THAT special?
"If the Fed ultimately comes through with QE3... it won't strengthen the economy, but it will weaken the dollar," Schiff said, noting that Bernanke's policies will eventually lead to a Greek style debilitating sovereign debt crisis where the dollar plunges and consumer prices and interest rates spike.
"We have a much bigger collapse coming, not just the markets, but of the economy. It's like what you're seeing in Europe right now only worse," Schiff said.

Apparently the debt bomb is about to go off. And its going to hurt. A lot. Sort of like a WMD but without all the noise and dust. At least I won't have to dust again. I hate housework even more than owing $691,000 dollars in government debt, which is the amount each family of four is in the hock for from government promises.
 He goes on to say that things will get truly ugly when we hit our fiscal cliff and have to slash government spending across the board.
"People on entitlements like Social Security and Medicare... they're not going to get the benefits they've been promised. Government workers are going to have to take pay cuts... banks are going to fail... people are going to lose money, not just investors but depositors. The housing market is going to fall again."

So tonight it's some Glenmorangie over ice and AC/DC:



UPDATED!
Commenter, RG, directed me to this awesome video.

"Run up a deficit, ignore the facts! Blame someone else, put up tax."

Besides, you didn't spend that. Someone else did that.

True. Can't argue with that.

We Don't Cotton to Yelling 'Round Here


Someday I Will Be Old


When I Am An Old Horsewoman


I shall wear turquoise and diamonds,
And a straw hat that doesn’t suit me
And I shall spend my social security on
white wine and carrots,
And sit in the alleyway of my barn
And listen to my horses breathe.
I will sneak out in the middle of a summer night
And ride the old bay gelding,
Across the moonstruck meadow
If my old bones will allow
And when people come to call, I will smile and nod
As I walk past the gardens to the barn
and show instead the flowers growing
inside stalls fresh-lined with straw.
I will shovel and sweat and wear hay in my hair
as if it were a jewel
And I will be an embarrassment to ALL
Who will not yet have found the peace in being free
to have a horse as a best friend
A friend who waits at midnight hour
With muzzle and nicker and patient eyes
For the kind of woman I will be
When I am old.
-Author Unknown

Afterthought: Of course this doesn't apply to Ann Romney because she spends too damn much money on her horses.


YOU LIKE ME! YOU REALLY LIKE ME!




This is must be what "arriving" feels like. I am positively giddy.

THE DEFINITIVE LIST OF AWESOME RIGHT WING BLOGS

Harvey at IMAO.US has updated their blogroll and.....

*****DRUM ROLL, PLEASE*****

I am on it!


The Snoopy Dance updated with outdated music. 


They Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth

Joan of Argghh! at Primordial Slack and Velociman at Velociworld review the opening ceremony of the Olympics. I have been struggling with whether I would write anything, as I really love the Olympic Games for the level of competition and the unique place they hold in history, but...DAMN! They are so right.

It must be said.

My daughter and I were equal parts quizzical, confused, hysterical and horrified as we watched. It was an S&M masturbatory orgy of self-flagellation that gave us the “story” of how Western man once lived in a bucolic paradise until he destroyed it with the industrial revolution and ruined everything, driving the people from the beautiful farms to the dirty, sordid cities where they lived desperate lives until government rescued them from the greedy capitalists (who had destroyed the planet and brought world wars in pursuit of profit) and gave them freeeeeeeee health care. We couldn’t decide whether to laugh, cry or puke.

 Behold! Paradise with fake clouds.  Everybody's happy in Paradise despite having to work their entire lives scratching out a living and dying young, broken and tired. They had cleaner air. 


And they danced a lot of virginal rites.

Then man's mind got busy and discovered ways to make things EASIER through the invention of machinery and industrialization and all bloody hell broke loose. What a disaster THAT was. People started enjoying free time, getting an education, and actually living longer.

But the government fixed that with the NHS. 

THE END







Monday, July 30, 2012

Good Ponies




The cross country phase of the Olympic 3 Day Eventing was today and there were lots of good ponies. Currently the German team stands in 1st place with a total score of 124.70, which is no surprise to anyone. But the Brits had a terrific day and are close on their heels in 2nd place with a team score of 130.20, only 5.5 points out. One rail down and a few time faults in tomorrow's stadium round could change everything. But Sweden is breathing down BOTH teams' necks with a score of 131.40, only another 1.2 points behind Britain and a mere 6.7 points out of 1st place.  The three teams are stacked up on top of each other. There could be a lot of movement in tomorrow's standings, depending on how tired the horses are after the HUGE effort of today.

Our American team had a good go overall, currently standing in 5th place, though none of our riders had a completely clear round. Boyd Martin was the first man on course, which is always a tough spot as you do not have the opportunity to actually see how the course is riding; you only have your course walk and the idea of how it will go in your head. But he had a fabulous ride, finishing clean for jump faults and with only 3.6 time faults over a very twisting, turning course. Next up was Karen O'Connor, one of the veterans on the team, and she rode like the pro that she is, finishing a beautiful round confidently and adding only 5.6 time penalties to her dressage score. Tiana Coudray was next. As the youngest member of the team, both she and her horse were the rookies. But boy! are they talented rookies. It took her magnificent gelding, Ringwood Magister a few fences to settle into the job at hand, and unfortunately, his unsteadiness cost them a jump penalty at Fence 3. This fence proved to be a bugger for a number of riders throughout the day; it was the fence where Hawley Bennett-Awad, on the Canadian team, fell and was removed by ambulance to the hospital later in the competition. But that stop seemed to be the antidote to their nerves because after that one mishap Tiana and "Finn" had a glorious go, adding only 5.6 time penalties to their jump faults of 20 penalties. That is, quite frankly, amazing. A stop ALWAYS costs you time, from the stop itself to retaking the fence to regaining your rhythm and concentration. To have a stop yet finish the course with only 5.6 time penalties qualifies her for FLYING SPEED! To give you an idea of just what I mean, William Coleman riding Twizzel was our next rider out on course and he came to grief at the precipitous down bank where his horse stopped to take a peek before going over. Like Tiana, Will had only one stop in an otherwise superb go, but ended the course with 16.4 time penalties in addition to the 20 jump penalties added to his score. As I said, Tiana and Finn FLEW around that course.

This is what the horse sees at the top of the down bank.
Twizzel politely said,  "Hold on, I'd like a little look-see."

The picture of the down bank is courtesy of Horse Tip Daily.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

QOTD From Doug Ross@Journal's Larwyn's Linx

Larwyn's Linx, your daily dose of everything.

QOTD: "The unconscionable behavior of the political class should be thought of as a contagious disease that infiltrates any industry that comes within influence of the state. Government contractors, lobbying associations, favored corporations, and even the press all seek to use the monopolized power of government to further their own interests. Instead of attempting to roll back stifling regulations, many of these firms simply wish to get in on the spoils of the great extortionary scheme. The results are always the same. Politicians pretend to be saving the people from cold-natured capitalism while politically-connected businessmen and bankers act as if their commercial success is completely of their own doing. The hidden truth is both act in tandem to fleece the average taxpayer." --James E. Miller

So very, very true.

As the old saying goes, "No one hates capitalism like a capitalist."


See? I can be reasonable.





A Brief History Lesson

From Primordial Slack.

Go read it.

Class dismissed.


Eventing Dressage

I have just spent the last two mornings watching the Dressage Phase of 3 Day Eventing. Tomorrow is CROSS COUNTRY!!! Which, as everyone knows, is why we event. It ain't for the dressage, that's for damn sure. Eventers are a breed unto themselves and there is a brotherhood/sisterhood that marks us all. We ride for the cross country phase, every one of us. For the sheer thrill of that inexpressible partnership one forges with their horse from galloping at speed over obstacles that are both challenging and crazy-ass fun.

It is a fellowship of people who love the spirit of flat out riding, and we will do it no matter what.  Only in eventing will you see someone pull up in a trailer that has a door held shut with a twisted piece of wire or roll out a dirt bike from the bed of their pickup truck to take a quick spin around the cross country course, a Jack Russell terrier perched like a boss between the handlebars.  Admittedly, things are much more high-falutin' now than when I competed. There's certainly more money in it now; more money in the horses, the rigs, the training. There was a time when the horses we rode were all rejects from the racetrack; now they are mostly bred for the sport, with jumpers or dressage horses in their lineage.

But we had the most gigantic personalities back in the day. Eccentricity and off-beat silliness ran deep in this sport, right down to the spectators. At one very prestigious event here on the West Coast, in the most gorgeous setting of Napa Valley, dressage morning dawned crisp and beautiful, with just a slender, cooling mist rising off the grassy fields where the courts were set up. The first horses were scheduled for the ungodly hour of 7:00 a.m. due to the high number of entries. As the unlucky riders who had pulled that ride time warmed up, a beat up old pickup drove right out onto the field. Out jumped a couple of young men who proceeded to pull out of the bed of the truck the most disgusting, filthy, worn old sofa you could ever imagine. This sofa would have stood out as an eyesore at the dump. All business, the young men carried the sofa over to the first dressage court and set it down exactly at E, paralleling the long side.



While the few of us who were up at that hour watched, they set about decorating their private "box." Within moments it looked like this.

Complete with private bar and colorful decor.

The young men then sat down, opened beers and prepared to watch the day's activities. We all took bets on whether they would haul that horrid sofa up to the cross country course the next day. They did.

Of course, if Ann Romney had been pissing away her money on horses in those days, things would have been much classier.


Saturday, July 28, 2012

It's Saturday Night and This is Good Advice



This is one of those songs that you can sing along at the top of your lungs.  Love it. The BEST part in the video is at the end where he chucks a beer out into the crowd and the girl snags it. That's something I would do. But then I would fall off the damn railing.


I Want My Country Back!

Yes. Yes, I do.




Friday, July 27, 2012

If You Weren't So Ignorant, I Wouldn't Need to Do This Every Night - UPDATED WITH AWARD!


Lucky we have the MSM or we would have to take our president at face value.

Listen up, you mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging, gun-toting, sister-humping, Bible-thumping, six-toed, slack-jawed, fly-over mutants with your receding foreheads and prominent supraorbital ridges on your stupid faces. Everyone's getting really tired of having to explain this to you virtually every single freaking day.

The President is amazing. Got that? Amazing. Write that down...A. M. A. Z. I. N. G. And DO NOT move your lips while you write it. Jee-EEE-sus!

Amazing.  What that means is he never makes mistakes. Never. Not with the Olympics, not with Solyndra, not with Gitmo, not with the stimulus, not with Fast and Furious, not with Tom Dashcle, or Tim Geithner, or even Michelle. And certainly not when he speaks. He is a brilliant speaker.

Making mistakes is what YOU do. That is why we all need this amazing president. To keep you retards from doing stupid things, like building businesses and then thinking you're so smart. And that is also why I am here every single night setting the record straight, as if it matters at all to people so stupid that you actually believe what the president said is what he meant.

When our most magnificent president said, "... look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own.  You didn’t get there on your own.  I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart", you knee-jerking dimwits out there thought he was saying that you are selfish and ungrateful for all the help government has given you and that you are flat out wrong for taking any credit for anything you've done. You think he was actually saying that you can't do shit without government and that because of that anyone who happens to stumble across success should just forget that they had anything in particular to do with it and pony up. Pay up and then shut up. And that made you angry.

So let me be very clear on this: Because you're angry, he didn't say that.

There. I can't believe I have to explain this to you over and over. If you're angry at something President Obama said, he didn't say it. How much simpler does it have to get for you people to understand? It's like when you got all pissed off about the "spread the wealth around" comment or the "at some point you've made enough money," remark, or when he said, "'This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility,'" to the freaking Russian president about freaking missile defense.

So listen, one more time. If it makes you angry, you heard wrong. Got that? Damn, people. Are you really that stupid?

Come on. This poor president has already dumbed down his speeches to the level of 9th graders for the Europeans -- and we all know how much smarter they are than you. He basically has to get down on all fours and bark for you idiots to understand him.

How do you think this makes him feel?  Lonely. Yes. Miserable. Yes. Superior. Of course. Think of him once in a while. What must it be like to rule a nation of complete dumbasses and to have to even speak to you at all?  No wonder he is moving as quickly as he can to eliminate the Constitution.  Damn thing makes him beholden to people who resemble a bunch of thick-browed Neanderthals atavistically dumped into the 21st century as VOTERS. This beleaguered giant of a man only shows his amazing forbearance that he speaks to you at all.

Amazing.  He's just amazing.

A. M. A. Z. I. N. G.

And shut your mouth when you try to think.


Little bitter-clinger demonstrating his 2nd Amendment right like a boss.
Who's smart now?

******UPDATED!!!*****

I've been linked by Joan of Argghh! at Primordial Slack. This calls for another award moment.

I don't know whether to start drinking or dancing.


Presidential Race Most Important in Our Lifetime



Twitter. Remarkable wisdom found in under 140 keystrokes.



Wednesday, July 25, 2012

"But heh! No harm, no foul, right? Except -- HARM!"

Jon Stewart of The Daily Show explores the question of how bad and wrong do you have to be at ABC to get in trouble for being so very, very bad and so very, very wrong.  Apparently we have not plumbed the depths...yet.


An Easy Choice


Tuesday, July 24, 2012

This Should Be A Class

Forget "concealed carry."  This has to be the most effective deterrent known to man.

Sign up now! Registration ends soon!


Every single day...

Sting dog knows his job.





The Good Old Days

I was going to title this, "A More Innocent Time," but thought better of it.





You Can't Argue with the Logic

Jim Treacher is an hysterically funny and insightful political writer at The Daily Caller. He often posts on Facebook as well. This is the best exchange of the day!





Monday, July 23, 2012

Still Crazy - And Wrong - After All These Years

Few things in life can be counted on like the left remaining blithely wrong despite myriad examples of their persistent mistakes. Here are just two...


Time's Man Of The Year 1938

Nobel Peace Prize Recipient 2009

Nobody loves a statist more than organizations that receive their prestige and legitimacy from the state.  

The prosecution rests.  Let the defense try to defend this.



Sunday, July 22, 2012

The Top 150 Conservative Websites for July 2012

Over at Doug Ross @ Journal, there is a listing of the top 150 conservative websites ranked according to traffic in the month of July.  Blah...blah...blah...y'all read all of them.  So do I.  No surprises there.  They are all great.

But the BIG news is I won an award, too! And after only blogging for 4 months. I think that's quite an accomplishment. Oh...wait...I didn't win this. This is a collective win. We all won this award, because you lovely people went out and built roads for me, and factories, and invested in bridges, and there was a great teacher somewhere in my life. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart.

This time it's true.

I'm digging so I've got unlimited potential.


UPDATED!

I am awarding the first Sky's The Limit Award to You Didn't Build That. Well...second, really.  I won the first one.

And you thought I wasn't going to post anything about equestrian events at the Olympics!

The games start this coming week!!!  Of course I couldn't let them start without saying SOMEthing, kittens!

In dressage Rafalca, being ridden by Jan Ebeling, is a pretty big deal, even though Ann Romney did churlishly and selfishly spend her money on a stupid horse instead of poor people or whatever the Democrats wanted her to spend her money on...and though it is admirable for all the other people who ride, train, dream, and sweat to make the Olympics, no matter how much money it takes, it is disgusting when Ann Romney does it.  But anyway, on with the show.

Everyone has seen Rafalca, what with being given the Colbert Bump, and she IS lovely, but there are some other riders who are amazing.  Charlotte Dujardin from Great Britain is actually favored to take the Gold (she's the home town girl, after all), but she would truly deserve it.  Watch this amazing ride!



And from Spain, Juan Manuel Munoz Diaz riding the fabulous stallion, Fuego XII, are an electrifying pair. The selection of music is especially appropriate.



But while I love the beauty of dressage and admire the level of commitment it takes to train a horse to Grand Prix, my heart belongs to eventing.  Here is Tiana Coudray, a wonderful, lovely, talented, amazing sweetheart of a young kid -- the youngest one on the team -- on her gorgeous guy, Ringwood Magister, nicknamed Finn.  I'll be crossing fingers, eyes, and arms and toes that she has a good go!



Hey, Tiana! You didn't ride that!  (She damn sure did! Stuff it, Barack.)

And here is the rest of the lineup for the Americans.  GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Team USA!


In The Beginning, There was Cute

...just to continue the Sunday morning theme.  And this was TOO cute not to post.





Sunday Morning Sermon


You Didn't Build That

Readings from the Book of Barack
1 In the beginning Govt created the heavens and the earth. Now the economy was formless and void, darkness was over the surface of the ATMs, and the Spirit of Govt was hovering over the land.
And Govt said, “Let there be spending,” and there was spending. Govt saw that the spending was good, and that it separated the light from the darkness. Govt called the spending Investments, and this he did in the first day.
Then Govt said, “Let there be roads and bridges across the waters, and let dams divide the waters from the waters.” Thus Govt made the infrastructure and the patronage jobs for eternity under the firmament from the Potomac which was above the firmament; and it was so. And Govt called the firmament Washington. This Govt did on the second day.
Then Govt said, “Let the regulations and the guidlines under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the Bureaus appear”; and it was so. 10 And Govt called the Bureaus demigovts, and the gathering together of them He called AFSCME. And Govt saw that it was good.
This morning's sermon delivered by Pastor Burge of Iowahawk. God bless him. 
Keep reading...and can I get an AMEN!!


Love ya back, sweetheart!

Ellen Barkin loves everybody, except us right-wing, f*&king morons.

XXX OOO

Hugs and kisses right back at'cha!

What really upsets me about this is now I have to stop watching one of my all-time FAVORITE movies, "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, Across the 8th Dimension."

Wait...I can just throw popcorn at Penny Priddy's piehole and call her names when she's on screen.  OH! And the scene when she's crying will be so MUCH more delicious now.  But no matter HOW many times I watch it, she still misses...Damn!

"I'm going to sing this song for you, Peggy."



Stupid Is As Stupid Does

Or "You didn't build that."


You needed government help for everything.  And now I believe I'll just help myself to your profits...

Every single one of you needs to pop over to Betsy's Page and read this post.  She's got Krauthammer and Sowell and Klein...It is filled with quotes like this from Krauthammer:
Absurd. We don’t credit the Swiss postal service with the Special Theory of Relativity because it transmitted Einstein’s manuscript to the Annalen der Physik. Everyone drives the roads, goes to school, uses the mails. So did Steve Jobs. Yet only he created the Mac and the iPad.

Obama’s infrastructure argument is easily refuted by what is essentially a controlled social experiment. Roads and schools are the constant. What’s variable is the energy, enterprise, risk-taking, hard work and genius of the individual. It is therefore precisely those individual characteristics, not the communal utilities, that account for the different outcomes.
And this from Sowell:
People who run businesses are benefitting from things paid for by others? Since when are people in business, or high-income earners in general, exempt from paying taxes like everybody else?

At a time when a small fraction of high-income taxpayers pay the vast majority of all the taxes collected, it is sheer chutzpah to depict high-income earners as somehow being subsidized by "the rest of us," whether in paying for the building of roads or the educating of the young.
Go read it all now. 


Saturday, July 21, 2012

This Will Not End Well

Both of these boys are going to be a whole lot smarter in a minute.


This Makes Perfect Sense

They've got rights, you know.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. citizens who are on the government’s list of people banned from flying because they’re considered terror threats are not prevented from learning how to fly in schools around the country, according to government regulations.
Such a person may have to drive across the country to learn how to fly a plane because he or she would likely be stopped from boarding a commercial airliner. But the security checks put in place after the 9/11 attacks will not keep the person from receiving pilot training.
Read more: 
Meanwhile, a high red-alert has been issued for all Tea Party types because of the violent, mass-murdering terrorist threats they pose to society. BE ON THE LOOKOUT! NEVER LET DOWN YOUR GUARD, COMRADES!

Why, yes, I'd love another cup of tea, thank you!

It would be so nice if something made sense for a change.

"If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen."

First published in 1957, Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" is eerily reflective of today's political climate.
“He didn’t invent iron ore and blast furnaces, did he?” 
“Who?” 
“Rearden. He didn’t invent smelting and chemistry and air compression. He couldn’t have invented his Metal but for thousands and thousands of other people. His Metal! Why does he think it’s his? Why does he think it’s his invention? Everybody uses the work of everybody else. Nobody ever invents anything.” 
She said, puzzled, “But the iron ore and all those other things were there all the time. Why didn’t anybody else make that Metal, but Mr. Rearden did?”
Excerpted from the speech President Obama gave in Roanoke, VA on July 13, 2012:
There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me — because they want to give something back.  They know they didn’t — look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own.  You didn’t get there on your own.  I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart.  There are a lot of smart people out there.  It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. 
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help.  There was a great teacher somewhere in your life.  Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive.  Somebody invested in roads and bridges.  If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that.  Somebody else made that happen.  The Internet didn’t get invented on its own.  Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.
Life imitating art. Success is collective. There is no individual achievement.

"If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen." 



But Milton Friedman had a different take on the same idea.



Obama: If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that.  Somebody else made that happen.

Friedman: That's how the free market works.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Brian Ross is Stupid and an Ideologue

"Fake but accurate" is an ethical position for the mainstream media.


I find it fascinating that in EVERY SINGLE INSTANCE of a person doing something horrifying,  murderous or just insane since Obama took office, the press immediately accuse the vast hate-filled right-wing extremists bitterly clinging to their guns and religion in antipathy of those who are different. Every time. Not just a couple of times. Not just most the time. But every single time. I find that fascinating. Maybe they are just so stupid they get it wrong every single time. Of course they are supposed to be the ones who are professional, intelligent, non-ideological and completely objective. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Brian Ross knew that his story linking the shooter to the Tea Party was bullsh*t, but he didn't care. All he needed was plausible deniability. It MIGHT have been him....There's a James Holmes registered as a member of the TEA PARTY, fercrissakes! Who wouldn't put 2 and 2 together?  


'Cause remember this?

Joseph Stack and Right-Wing Terror: Isolated Incidents or Worrying Trend?



and this...


Bloomberg: "No Evidence" Anyone Else Involved


and this...

Who is Jared Lee Loughner


Every single time...except for this...


REPORT: FBI DID NOT INVESTIGATE FORT HOOD SHOOTER DUE TO POLITICAL CORRECTNESS DESPITE CLEAR WARNING SIGNS


So the press and our government are looking for mass murderers behind every single Gadsden Flag, but can't discern clear warning signals that a radicalized Muslim might actually be dangerous.

These guys are stupid. Or maybe they are just ideological.  Ya think?

Ross knew he didn't have to be right, only that he needed that CYA. He expected the rest of the media to provide cover for him and carry the narrative forward with enough airtime that when it was inevitably discovered to be false, the "feeling" that the Tea Party is dangerous and had something to do with it...or that they COULD HAVE because you know how they ARE...well...that would linger in the public's mind and Mr. Ross would have felt he did his journalistic ideological duty.

Because, at the end of the day, it's always those idiots who are against big government that you've got to watch. And personal trainers, of course.

Gun Control



Just today I had a liberal ask me, "But what if everybody had a gun?"

"The world would be a much safer -- and undoubtedly more polite -- place."


Our Smartest President Evah and His Economic Insight



Oh! I get it!

RAISE TAXES!



"You didn't earn that."



In fact, you got it on the come...and it not only never came, it skeedaddled out of town.


BIG H/T: Moonbattery


Fourteen Shot Dead In Colorado

By NBC News staff 
Updated at 7:51 a.m. ET: Fourteen people were killed and at least 50 others wounded early Friday when a gunman opened fire at a midnight screening of the summer blockbuster "The Dark Knight Rises" near Denver, authorities and witnesses said. 
Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates told reporters that 10 people died at the scene and four others died after being taken to local hospitals. A three-month-old and a six-year-old girl were among those treated, according to reports. 
Police said the gunman had appeared at the front of the theater during the movie and released a canister which let out a hissing sound, which is believed to be tear gas. Witnesses told reporters that gunfire erupted during a shootout scene in the film.
This will undoubtedly do more to advance the anti-gun forces than Fast and Furious. 300 dead Mexicans and a couple of Border Agents?  meh.  Mass murder and chaos in the suburbs of Denver?  That's going to get someone's attention. And of course the OBVIOUS answer is to further disarm the people who were -- OBVIOUSLY -- already unarmed. The bad guy in this won't be deterred by more gun laws. He'll be encouraged. He put a lot of effort into this personally choreographed horror show.
A 24-year-old male suspect was apprehended in the shopping center's parking lot, Oates said. 
The incident occurred in the Century 16 Movie Theaters at the Aurora Town Center, police told NBC News. Aurora is a suburb less than 10 miles east of downtown Denver. 
NBC station KUSA-Denver cited a witness as seeing a black-clad 6-foot-tall man wearing a riot helmet, goggles and bullet-proof vest.
If 10 or 15 people in that theater had been carrying, there would have been a different outcome.  Guaranteed.  Or better yet, if it could be presumed that 10 to 15 people could possibly have weapons with them in any given movie theater, that gunman might have just decided not to go something this stupid after all.


People do make different choices based on different assumptions.


UPDATED!!!

It's Rush Limbaugh's fault.  If he would just stop talking about freedom and shit, then no one would be pissed.



AAAHHH!  Tea Party!  ahhh...no.


UPDATED AGAIN!!!

FROM ACE OF SPADES HQ:
The Dog That Didn't Bark: Given we now know his birthdate and both of his street addresses (his family's, and his own, in Aurora), and yet we have no records of political activism yet, I'm going to guess myself: This is a Loughner situation.
UPDATED YET AGAIN!!!

The brilliant David Burge of Iowahawk delivers the beat down to ABC's Brian Ross:

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil

I'm sure this is racist. Somehow.  But I r too stoopid to figure it out.

Set the WORLD to mute, kittens.  The One has spoken.  You are not to listen to anything bad about him.


But never miss your daily two minutes of hate directed towards enemies of the state, Republicans...oh, and beautiful horses qualified to represent our country at the Olympics.  





Uncommitted Voters Actually Commited to Opinion that Obama Sucks

In a recent Rasmussen poll, uncommitted voters put Obama's job performance at a 29% approval rate.  I don't know about you, but that is definitely in the "sucks" range, coming in just slightly higher than "learning you have syphilis" or "discovering your husband's new secretary looks like Scarlett Johannson".


Despite Canada Having Only One Road, They Are Now Richer Than We Are

Despite Canada having only one road, they are now richer than we are.

I am sure it has something to do with the fact that they've had socialized medicine longer than we have. 


I wonder if their Prime Minister thinks they built it, or if he tells them they haven't done squat either.  


Terrence and Phillip are no doubt delighted!  



Wednesday, July 18, 2012

This is Less Than They Made Off The Popcorn at The Last Twilight Movie

"The Obama Effect" brings in a whopping $83,896.00.

I have nothing else to add.  I'm just gleefully giggling.  The only bad news here is that my Obama Commemorative Plate is probably not worth crap.




Your Inspirational Thought For The Day



I don't do this for my health, kittens.  I do it because I love you.


Life's a Beach

If you build it, he will come.  And tax the crap out of you for it.






 If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. 
Somebody else made that happen.” 



H/T: iOwnTheWorld

So Brilliant It's Not Even There!

This seems to be my day to go batshit crazy over stories about stoopid kids, stoopider teachers, and now super megawatt, ground-zero blast, don't-look-directly-at-it-or-you'll-go-blind stoopid!

The inestimable David Thompson brings us the pinnacle of artistic appreciation.  The contemplation of that which isn't.  Now don't be alarmed, kittens, if you don't understand it.  I gar-un-tee you are too stoopid to appreciate the inspiring, mind-numbing awesomeness, the soulful expression of the deeply intuitive and intellectually risky artists who bring us the challenging, cerebral exercise of contemplating "invisibility."

Ralph Rugoff, director of the Hayward Gallery, explains visual art:  Art is really about ideas. It’s not about looking at things.

Get that?  Art is NOT about looking at things.  (And all these centuries you thought art had something to do with actual perception, you dumbasses.)  So we are now to contemplate nothing in order to discover something.  Okie dokie.  My question: how do we know we're all looking at the same nothing?  I mean, I'm more than likely to be contemplating unicorns and puppies, because I like unicorns and puppies, and my ideas from such gutsy contemplation would probably be along the lines of "Isn't life marvelous? What would it be like to fly on the back of a unicorn while being covered in wet puppy kisses...but I would have to hold on very, very tightly to the puppy because I would hate to drop him from the freaking clouds! And what if it were to start to rain while we were flying up in the clouds?...I hope I am wearing long pants and not some gossamer angel toga thing because wet horse hair is gross and hard to stay on and would make my thighs scratchy...and that unicorn better have a nice long mane to grab..."

You can see how difficult it's going to be to discuss art among your friends now that we are released from the artificial boundaries of reality.


Reasonable response, considering.

Prior to his moving to the Hayward, we learn that Mr Rugoff “curated a survey of invisible art that included paintings rendered in evaporated water, a movie shot with a film-less camera, and a pedestal once occupied by Andy Warhol.” Such was the unspeakable daring of this invisible art venture, Mr Rugoff has seen fit to repeat it, daringly, at the Hayward. If the colossal cleverness of it all is too much to endure, art lovers may wish to extend the premise by not being visible either.

I am going to go around my house today and find all the marvelous art pieces I can to take to Christie's.  I have a chair that was once sat on by Paul Newman...actually an INVISIBLE Paul Newman.  In fact I think I took some pictures of him with a camera I didn't have..an INVISIBLE camera I didn't have, for you rubes.

I'm going to be rich.

UPDATED!!

I just remembered my son's painting entitled, "Dad Drinking Beer In The Garage At Night," and completed at the tender age of four.  A visionary way ahead of his time, obviously.  I'm going to have to get that kid painting again.






Principles Are So Demanding

Liberals have cleverly discovered that it's better not to have any principles.  Or to keep re-inventing them so that it's the same as not having any while still being allowed to maintain smug moral superiority over those who stayed with the old ones and sometimes didn't live up to them.

Found at the wonderful The Doctor Is In.
Men invent new ideals because they dare not attempt old ideals. They look forward with enthusiasm, because they are afraid to look back.
--G.K. CHESTERTON--

"We don't need no stinkin' badges!"

Critics say higher standards could create teacher shortages

Nobody's getting in.
First, it was the tough, new Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test for students. Now it will be tougher tests for teachers.

Florida wants teachers to get higher grades on certification exams for some subjects, like chemistry and health. [Emphasis  mine because WTF?]
But WFTV's Racquel Asa learned that the move could hurt districts because certain subjects, particularly involving science, are already hard to recruit for. 
Andrew Spar represents the 4,400 teachers in Volusia County. He said the new standards don't guarantee the best teachers.
Read more... 
Because tougher tests for teachers, you know, setting standards that will measure whether the teachers have the knowledge to TEACH THE COURSE, will of course result in fewer teachers.  I mean, for pity's sake, kittens, the teachers have come up through the exact same shitty school system these students are in now.  How can you possibly expect them to be able to teach what they didn't learn either?  So how can the school system possibly be expected to fill the positions for teachers if they are held to a standard?

This is hard stuff.  And tests are unfair.



Tuesday, July 17, 2012

"It's the most unbelievable shot I've ever seen in my life!"

Not as good as grandpa knocking down those wannabe robbers, but pretty good.  And the announcer does a fairly good impression of South Park's Randy Marsh.



Grandpa Packs Heat

And he's not afraid to use it.

Over and over.


Do NOT piss off an old man.   He isn't even going to try to apprehend you; he's just going to shoot you.


Monday, July 16, 2012

Keeping It Real

Real luxury car - obviously an import
Real horsepower
Real manpower
Real stupid.  Smart ass, though.


Like the end of the world will like happen and we'll be all, "Did you get that?"

We'll have our iPhones handy and will be uploading the whole thing on YouTube as it happens.  Fun times. It won't occur to any of us to, you know, like RUN!

Photo: Sonia Austin-Moore
Storms hit Richmond, VA on Sunday.

In unrelated news, President Obama campaigns in Virginia.