Monthly Archives: December 2009

ObamaKare Reformulation: Meet The New Boss, Same As The Old Boss

Posted on by


Wily Demorats would have you believe that, magically, mystically, they have somehow managed to de-res the so-called “public option” out of their newest US Senate iteration of ObamaKare.

Beware, uninformed Americans: this couldn’t be further from the truth.  The words have simply been rinsed, dried, shaken out and reformulated.
The government will still be in charge of your healthcare.

Even the Financial Times seems to think this abortion has a chance of passage.

But here’s the shocker and the right-cross and uppercut to all my Leftist readers: 44% want George Bush back, over Our Hero Mr Obama.

Moreover, here’s what you need to read and heed:

In a bold but risky year-end strategy, Democrats are preparing to raise the federal debt ceiling by as much as $1.8 trillion before New Year’s rather than have to face the issue again prior to the 2010 elections.

“We’ve incurred this debt. We have to pay our bills,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told POLITICO Wednesday. And the Maryland Democrat confirmed that the anticipated increase could be as high as $1.8 trillion — nearly twice what had been assumed in last spring’s budget resolution for the 2010 fiscal year.

The spending goes on and on and on and on and on.

Don’t fall for it.  Don’t be the rubberized Demorat Doormat.

But perhaps the biggest chill you encounter today — and during the week — should be this:

C. Fred Bergsten, former assistant secretary of international affairs for the Treasury, sounded the alarm that dollar deficits may not be funded for long by foreign nations, including China, in the Nov./Dec. 2009 issue of the Council on Foreign Relations “Foreign Affairs” magazine.

If you don’t think that one statement is a veritable heart-stopper — well, then, I suspect you’ve not been paying attention since January 20th of this year.  You want debt?  Read the rest of the article here.

BZ

 Share

Cars & Snow

Posted on by

Some rather obnoxious Global Warming seems to have occluded my house just this past Tuesday. Almost two feet of Global Warming.

First, I had to dig my way out of the Global Warming. One of my shovels broke. If my brother wasn’t with me to help, I might not have extracted ourselves for a meeting in the valley far below.

It’s also very helpful if you have good tires with decent tread. My Yokohama Geolanders hadn’t much tread left. I barely made it up this hill in 4WD. I leaped onto TireRack.com. I wanted a set of Yokohama Parada Spec-X’s, but they could only find one tire in Nevada and another in Virginia. I didn’t want to drive that far and I wanted two more tires. I “compromised” with the Michelin Latitude Tours.

Unfortunately, when I got back up to the house I discovered my pipes were frozen. In my rush to make my appointment, I forgot to leave the water running overnight. Highly inconvenient in terms of toilet duties.

My other brother is doing his best to assist with the economy. He just purchased a 2010 BMW 535i X-Drive wagon in AWD. Once he can figure out the knobs and buttons, he’s going to take it to Dinan Engineering in Morgan Hill and have it tinked-with. He’s thinking somewhere in the neighborhood of 360 hp. My, that will be some kind of Q-ship indeed.

Nice, very clear dash and gauges.
Ew. A version of I-Drive. Better him than me. That shift lever looks complicated.

Beautiful interior. I really like the wood. The two-tone black interior with the tan leather seats looks great.

Back seat, with appointments and individual climate controls for rear passengers.

I should be receiving my tires and getting them installed today.

BZ

 Share

Air Tran Airways Flight 297

Posted on by

There have been many conflicts and e-mails around the internet regarding Air Tran Airways Flight 297 in Atlanta, last month. The pilot turned the plane around and decided to go back to the gate and secure the cabin.

The “official” stance of Air Tran is this:

On November 17, 2009, AirTran flight 297 was scheduled to travel from Atlanta to Houston-Hobby. During taxi a passenger was non-compliant with Crew Members, using a cell phone and taking pictures. The flight taxied back to the gate and the passenger, who did not speak English, and his companion acting as his interpreter were asked to de-plane. They were met by customer service personnel and TSA.

The passengers were allowed to re-board and continued on the flight after speaking with AirTran and TSA representatives. The flight was delayed by more than two hours.

According to Air Tran, it is as simple as that.

One e-mail that resulted, from an individual calling himself Theodore Petruna, who claimed to have been on that flight, made many allegations. The full (and disputed) e-mail is here.

It was later discovered that Mr Petruna was not even on that flight. The original e-mail is debunked here.

However, please note: things were not quite so simple as to dismiss them wholesale — as the air carrier and the MSM would wish.

One gentleman seems to indicate that there were clear complications. The incident is documented here. Excerpts, which appear to carry the most veracity:

(Passenger Brent) Brown runs a security consultant company and is a frequent flier. But even for him, he said the events of Flight 297 were disturbing and frightening. As the Houston-bound flight taxied to the runway, several in a group of about a dozen men of Middle Eastern descent started walking the aisles and using their cell phones, Brown said.

“And then after the fact, when (AirTran) apparently issued a statement that says, in effect, that this was a customer service issue or someone was on the phone…they’re dead wrong,” said Brown.

The crew, including the pilots, decided not to continue with the flight. Brown said AirTran put about 10 of the 12-man group back on the plane with a new crew. Most of the original passengers chose not to re-board and instead got on a different flight.

WSB TV, Channel Two video story is here.

Some people are postulating that this was another IslamoFascist “dry run” test of air security.

UK’s The Economist (to which I subscribe) also debunks the e-mail of Petruna — and rightly so — but fails to perform what I call The Logical Extension.

I conclude:

– We (the United States of America) have, unfortunately, learned little following 9/11;
– We still do not recognize the full threat of, specifically, Middle Eastern iterations of Islam;
– We do not realize that the bulk of Muslims live in Indonesia and Africa;
– The US has not sufficiently profiled to realize the above facts;
– Profiling IS beneficial because it uses statistics, trends, numbers and logic;
– This flight captain was the exception and not the rule;
– Overall, my country still refuses to acknowledge the threat before its very face.

After watching the video, what might be your opinion?

BZ
 Share