BZ
Rules of Comedy
Category Archives: Uncategorized
What A Collection of Dolts
I’m sorry, I customarily attempt to temper my labels and name-calling but the “major story” in Washington on Monday was Mr Obama’s stunningly-stupid order to his cabinet to locate and identify $100-million dollars in spending reductions.
I’ll just cut to the chase: Mr Obama is a bleeding moron.
And the media that covered it are equally moronic, as are the sphincter-breathers who took a collective intake of air from their southern regions and gushed with approval.
$100 million dollars? An “m” and not a “b” or a “t”? As one observer wrote: “The thrifty measures Obama ordered for federal agencies are the equivalent of asking a family that spends $60,000 in a year to save $6.”
The county where I work is damned near $100 million in debt — as contrasted to the friggin’ Federal Government?
Then Mr Obama, apparently not satisfied with this cretinous directive, upstaged himself in terms of lunacy and stated that the amount is a “drop in the bucket.”
If so, then what in the hell was the point of making such a blockheaded announcement in the first place?
[ . . . wait for it . . . wait for it . . . ]
Because he knew the bulk of the electorate — and certainly the media — are actually that stupid.
BZ
C02 Declared Hazardous By Our EPA
Having so made this declaration, are we ready as a nation and as a culture to open this door and walk through? Has anyone even remotely considered the unintended consequences? And has anyone done what I call the “logical extension”?
I suspect not.
And, unfortunately, I find this is an issue little covered by the Conservative Blogosphere — an issue with potentially nation-crushing consequences.
The much-awaited endangerment finding requires the EPA to force power plants, auto companies, manufacturers and other major industrial sources of greenhouse gas to cut their emissions under the Clean Air Act.
This EPA finding can be sourced here. FoxBusiness video covers the issue here.
And please read this carefully from the Abilene ReporterNews:
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson cautioned that regulations are not imminent and made clear that the Obama administration would prefer that Congress address the climate issue through a broader “cap-and-trade” program that would limit heat-trapping pollution.
Cap and trade. Put that phrase aside for a moment.
House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio stated the obvious when he said the EPA ruling was “a backdoor attempt to enact a national energy tax that will have a crushing impact on consumers, jobs and our economy.”
And truer words were never spoken.
Ambivalence
My country is ready to proclaim me a Domestic Terrorist (go check out Texas Fred’s post on this here — Domestic Terrorist test here). I am considered for this proclamation because I believe in a limited Federal government, the primacy of states’ rights, limited general government, the preeminence of the First and Second Amendments, national sovereignty, local powers, independence, self-reliance.
This is the U.S. government making these declarations and, though ridiculous, my government is unwavering and very clear in its position.
My government also officially believes the recent wave of TEA Parties is “unhealthy“:
WASHINGTON (CNN) – Senior White House adviser David Axelrod on Sunday suggested the “Tea Party” movement is an “unhealthy” reaction to the tough economic climate facing the country.
Axelrod was asked on CBS’s “Face the Nation” about the “spreading and very public disaffection” with the president’s fiscal policies seen at the “Tea Party” rallies around the country last week.
“I think any time you have severe economic conditions there is always an element of disaffection that can mutate into something that’s unhealthy,” Axelrod said.
This is my government thinking that dissent by lawful citizens is “unhealthy.”
And yet, on the other hand, my current federal government appears to have much ambivalence towards actual terrorists.
In truth, Mr Obama has kept a good deal of the hated Mr Bush’s GWOT infrastructure in place whilst, at the same time, publicly declaring the War On Terror to be defunct. The GWOT is now Nerfed to read as “Overseas Contingency Operations.” Terrorism is Nerfed to be “Man Caused Disasters.” Mr Obama has sworn to not only close Gitmo but essentially cease waterboarding or other options altogether, cease wiretapping and all efforts at rendition. Further, his release of memos regarding interrogation techniques exists at the farthest possible point from equivocation. I say: let’s just make things easier and cc the Taliban and other terror organizations when additional memos are sent to our alphabet agencies.
These are confusing, mixed messages of the worst kind. Both domestically and abroad.
The Obama Administration has it precisely backwards; this does nothing more than muddy already opaque waters and leave our country more susceptible to attacks by those determined to witness the fall of this Great Satan.
BZ
Steam Over Donner Pass
On Friday, April 14th, I happened to digitally capture a singularly exceptional event: Union Pacific’s steam locomotive # 844, (an ALCO 4-8-4 Northern-type) enroute the Roseville (Fornicalia) Yard for a weekend exhibition, during Union Pacific’s 2009 Western Heritage Tour. Please click on the photo for a full-sized view.
Here, I document the locomotive drifting downhill on the #1 track just past the Alta crossing. Following 844’s two tenders are diesel-electric locos UP 1996, an EMD SD-70ACe in tribute colors to Southern Pacific, and UP 1983, an EMD SD-70ACe in tribute colors to the Western Pacific.
If you’ve never had the opportunity or pleasure to hear, see or feel one of the few remaining operating steam locomotives in America, you do yourself a disservice by not tracking down one of these three steam behemoths:
1) UP’s 844 Northern 4-8-4;
2) UP’s 3985 Challenger 4-6-6-4;
3) SP 4449 Daylight GS-4 4-8-4
You’ll soon come to realize, particularly if you’re able to watch them up close as they begin to move from a complete stop, that they remind you of living, breathing creatures — you can literally hear their intake of breath, feel them exhale. You would swear they were alive, standing next to one.
Please note: THE finest documentation of a steam locomotive available on DVD and in stereophonic sound is Skyfire Video’s presentation of “Daylight Express.” Absolutely unparalleled and exquisite. You will absolutely not be disappointed if you order this DVD.
Manipulating a steam locomotive as an engineer and/or a fireman is, both at once, a science and an art.
Here is a video, pacing the UP 844 at 79 mph:
There never has been, nor will there be again, another symphonic and symbiotic union of Man and Machine.
BZ
P.S.
Took a few days off, spiriting my wife away to places unknown for a bit of decompression. Back in full force this coming week.