I called Congress

Loser's Cathedral

I called Congress. I don't think they were listening. Perhaps I should have called the Politburo instead.

Laying Blame

Losing the war in Viet-Nam

In my opinion, the United States has been damaged more severely in the last year than any time I can remember. American status as a world leader has been degraded, the economy is nearly destroyed, the national coffers have been emptied and our debt has multiplied to the point that we must borrow abroad like poor relatives.

Previously, I had thought that the US nadir of my lifetime was the time after our disastrous defeat in Viet-Nam. Today has those grim times beat, hands down.

Who do I blame? I'll start with the Republican Party, the last years of George Bush's administration and John McCain. These three crippled our ability to fight off the poison of Marxist thought. The source of that poison gets the rest of the blame. The Democrat Party, the Democrat controlled Congress and, most of all, the Obama administration. The poison has gone systemic and there is no clear antidote.

It is going to take decades to restore our nation. I don't think I will live to see America recover. I am plagued with the thought that we don't have what it takes to make a recovery at all.

I see our only hope being in a fundamental change in our election process. A large minority of Americans aren't fit to vote and should be stricken from the rolls. We need to make the right to vote something of value again. Being able to breathe simply isn't sufficiently exclusive.

Do I think the nation has the wisdom or the cojones to implement voter reform? I'm not optimistic, given that so many of today's voters haven't a clue about our Constitution or its historical context. What will I do about it? I'll try to live free in an unfree world. The rest of you are on your own. May the devil take the hindmost.

Plumb Tuckered Out

I used to clean up nice

The feedlot is turning brown and square. I'm so tired that I can't think of anything to post here.

This old photo of myself is now my profile picture on FaceBook. I'm sporting new gear, even the Randall knife was new. I should have listened to Ben Franklin's advice: “Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.”
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Click the pic and the post title to read about Mitchell Werbell III. I was fascinated by the cat when the photo was taken.

Too bummed to blog

The old feeder's personal life has taken a sudden and unexpected hit. I'm too depressed and miserable to do anything.

John 'Magic Fingers' Houghtaling Dead

Magic Fingers Motel Box

News item: John Houghtaling, inventor of the Magic Fingers system, has passed away at age 92 in Florida. May he rest in peace in a non-vibrating coffin.

If you have spent half as much time in seedy motels and cheap hotels as the old feeder, you are familiar with the Magic Fingers box that was often found in them. Put a quarter in the firmly affixed box's slot and you would be treated to an annoying buzz and a vibrating bed that even a dog wouldn't use.

The only time I was ever suckered into trying one I was suffering from jet lag and thought it might help. The only result was to delay my wretched attempts to sleep for fifteen minutes. Jumping immediately out of the bed, I had to sit in the tiny room chair as I waited out the buzzing. I worried that the mechanism was stuck and would never quit.

Some folks must have liked them, since Mr. Houghtaling was able to retire to Florida. I can't help but think that his success might be due in part to the fact that he was selling the miserable contraptions to motel and hotel management, and not to end users. I'll bet none of the hoteliers that bought them ever used one.

Preposition Choice: No Hope

Hopeful Survivors?

The old feeder used to teach Turks how to use English prepositions. It was difficult because the Turkish language doesn't use prepositions. They use agglutinated postpositions.

I found two internet news headlines that were trying to say the same thing: that there won't be any survivors from the Air France flight that crashed into the Atlantic. The editors' choice of prepositions, however, yielded two very different meanings. Read the headlines and see if you can spot the problem:

• Air France says no hope of survivors in Atlantic - AP
• Air France says no hope for survivors - ABC News

I emphasized the operative prepositions. See the difference in meaning?

The first headline says it right, we shouldn't hold out any hope that there were any survivors of the catastrophe. The second headline implies that there were survivors, but that they have no hope of rescue.

Its is sad to see professional users of the English language screw it up so badly. It isn't just the American Way that is dying. Our language is dying with it.
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Sample lesson from my teaching notes:

You are at the firing range. Do you fire your weapon [by - toward - near - at - in - to] the target?
Choose the appropriate preposition.

The Turks generally chose toward or to. With prepositions, there aren't always clear cut rules, only acceped usages which must be learned by rote. Still, nuanced choices DO affect meaning. Click the post title for a preposition quiz.

Fed IG Elizabeth Coleman and 9 Trillion dollars

Federal Reserve Inspector General Elizabeth Coleman

Click over to RedStateEclectic blog to watch a short video of US Congressman Alan Grayson asking Federal Reserve IG Elizabeth Coleman "where the money went." IG Coleman is clueless.

If you pay federal income taxes, her answers will make you cry. If not, feel free to laugh at her.

Sorry we depicted you nice chaps as Japs and Krauts

Aporogize! Schnell!

From Babalu Blog: "Obama apologizes for the way the Germans and Japanese were depicted In MGM and WB cartoons in the 1940's." Click over and watch a cool cartoon.

He sure doesn't speak for me. PTG sent this link in with this comment: "If it weren't for those cartoons (and American willingness to fight evil to the bitter end) we would all be eating sauerkraut with chopsticks today."

Glenn Beck weighs in on the Large Hadron Collider

Black Hole Destroys Earth

The old feeder isn't the only one concerned about the possibility that there will be no September 11th this week. At the risk of being called a twat, Glenn Beck asked on his radio program today:

Could a French made black hole destroy the earth tonight as you sleep? Scientists say probably not, but check back tomorrow....

He wonders if the reason given for taking even a small risk of destroying the Earth is sufficient. He's right; the odds may be long, but the risk is extraordinarily high given the ephemeral value of a successful or otherwise non-cataclysmic outcome.

Eventually, Glenn comes to the same conclusion that I did: fire it up. There are worse things than having no future. Glenn:

When you put it in perspective, it's never what you expect that's going to end it all for you. --- It's like, whatever. So we're sucked into a black hole. I won't have to do the debates. I mean, I don't have to listen to Keith Olbermann for the next two months.

Beck is no twat either.
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IMHO, it doesn't make any difference if the black hole that eats the earth is French-made or not.
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Update: The scientists at CERN are claiming success. What they really mean is that they were able to run a moderately high energy proton beam through the complete circuit of the circular collider without having it fizzle out or escape its magnetic bounds. The world didn't end. End of story? Not quite.

It will be some time before the proton beams are jazzed up to the full energy capacity of the giant collider. Then the really risky part of the planned experiment to 'discover' the Higgs boson can begin. This will involve running two extremely high energy proton beams in opposite directions and causing them to collide head-on. It is at this point that the 'mini' black hole may be created and the elusive Higgs particle detected.

I think today's experiment was a trick. Now the rest of us are supposed to breathe a sigh of relief and say, "Those wacky high-energy physicists are OK. They pulled it off and the world didn't end." These world class fiddlers have only rosined up their big bow. Contrary to what Drudge's headline this morning says, the "Big Bang" recreation has not yet been attemped. The black hole part of the tune is 'way on down the program. Stick your i-pod things back in your ears, folks, you'll hear no big bang this week.

The CERN kids with the big chemistry set won't blow up the garage, even if they have access to more cash and electrical energy than most third world countries. No way, man. Be cool.

Zodiacal Musings

Leo

I'm no more of an astrologer than Al Gore is a climatologist but I'm going to borrow some horoscopic symbols to take an offbeat look at the election.

Now that Hillary has been sidelined we can forget about a Scorpio president. You don't have to believe in astrology to believe in Scorpio's. Just ask around. There's enough evidence available at November birthday parties to make one take notice. President Bush, who has more sense than to listen to astrological advice or predictions, nevertheless married a Scorpio, made another (Condi) his secretary of state, and tried to get another (John Bolton) in the U.N. Scorpio's can be dynamically powerful which makes them greatly admired by some and feared by others as untrustworthy demagogues. Scorpio's can lead, e.g. Teddy Roosevelt and George Patton. And they can scare us and worry us to no end, e.g. Charles Manson and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

John McCain, unfortunately, is a Virgo. So am I. The problem is that almost none of us are natural-born leaders, no matter that we may possess a multitude of other talents. Lyndon Johnson comes to mind. Those who are well known are rarely admired to any degree. George Wallace, Huey Long and Yasser Arafat. Maybe Virgo should be called the sign of the Maverick. Though I'd hate to see it happen John McCain would do better as Hillary's vice-president given their rapport. The reason I'd hate to see it is that I think they would be a formidable team. It wouldn't work, though, if she was his vice-prez. If nothing else Bill, who's every bit a Leo, would see that it didn't work and the results wouldn't bode well for old John.

In the world of sun signs the leader of the pack is generally Leo. Barack Obama is a Leo. I'd feel good about that if I liked him. The problem is that I see how bad lefty Leo's can be. Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. Our own Bill Clinton, even Monica Lewinsky, George Soros and lesser annoyances like Sean Penn and Martin Sheen. When a lion gets some power they usually let the world know about it, well beyond the boundaries of whatever office they hold.

What hurts is that we had our chance to put a big cat on the throne and we lost it. Fred Thompson is a wise old lion, one who doesn't roar without a good reason. And he's definitely not a circus lion who's willing to jump through hoops to get elected, such as the one we seem destined to put in the White House. I can hardly blame Fred for not wanting the job badly enough that he would perform tricks for the camera. He does quite well in his own corner of the jungle and seems happy enough - possibly even relieved - to be campaigning for McCain but I wish it was the other way around.

It seems that a lot of us don't want an Obama presidency and yet we hate the thought of voting for the 'maverick'. The latest Gallup poll shows them running pretty close. Forget about astrology. I'm wondering if enough of us are convinced that it's worth our efforts to put McCain in the White House.

Cheap Date

Watch those hands!

PT's pissed off about Super Tuesday and doesn't feel like blogging so this blog is going to the dogs. A movie theater in Austria is having a monthly Doggy Day to bring in a little extra business. Free popcorn for your date(s); how can you beat that?

One of those days

Some days reading the news and the blogs makes me feel awful.

Out of the Depths

This old feeder has spent the last week in the ugly world of illness. I am recovering. I will blog again.