Results tagged “Opinion” from Bill's Words
Glad you’re finally catching on.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’ll say it again:
Change is running on the other guy’s weaknesses and not your strengths, and hope is awfully hard to legislate.
This is exactly the kind of double standard that our country seems to thrive on. On one of the MSM’s hands, it’s OK for Adobe to whine to the feds about Adobe’s perception of Apple’s practices. But on the other one of the MSM’s hands, it’s not OK for Apple to tell the DA and police that they’re going to press charges in a clear-cut case of stolen property.
Of course, everybody is entitled to his own opinions, and that’s mine.
Somehow, Frank Rich thinks that Republican “anxieties” are tied to a rapidly-changing America as if our “anxiety” is caused by race. He’s missing the freakin’ point, to paraphrase Joe Freakin’ Biden.
Frank Rich seems to think that taking back the country is all about taking it back from the people in it as opposed to the people who run it. No, it’s not about taking the country back from the majority of Americans who opposed the health care clusterfreak that just passed through our Congress. Most Americans agreed with us, for Pete’s sake! It’s not about taking the country back from the millions of hard-working Americans who oppose tax hikes. It’s not about taking the country back from millions of hard-working Americans who run their own small businesses. In fact, we’re not “anxious” about taking the country back from blacks, whites, Hispanics, dogs, cats, parakeets or salamanders, as if any of these groups are the ones running the country in the first place.
I’ll have you know that I, a staunch conservative, Conservative, republican and Republican am not anxious to take the country back from anybody except those who don’t represent my interests, namely this currently-seated Congress. I don’t give a damn about what color, race, creed, gender, political inclination, sexual orientation, or Starbucks Coffee preference you are so long as you represent my opinion. If you got elected and you don’t represent my opinion, I don’t want you in Congress. It’s that simple.
Think that’s selfish? Well, then, next time you step into a polling place, vote for somebody who doesn’t represent your point of view, who doesn’t represent your opinion. You can’t and you won’t do it. Because you realize that it’s all about having your opinion represented. That’s what our forefathers fought and died for. That’s what millions have died for over the intervening centuries. And it’s what we’re fighting for now.
Anyway, you may call me “anxious”—if you like that word—because I am anxious that Congress is running roughshod all over what I and many millions of other Americans view as our right to representation. We are seriously underrepresented. We are definitely disenfranchised. And having leadership which seems hell-bent on getting its way in spite of what we, the American people, clearly prefer is significant cause to be anxious.
Shoot. You want disenfranchised? Anxious?
I am a Republican. I live in Connecticut. Need I say more?
The words chosen by the Obama administration are not chosen lightly. So I was intrigued to hear the Obamessiah say in his speech in Copenhagen:
And we will be back having the same stale arguments month after month, year after year, perhaps decade after decade — all while the danger of climate change grows until it is irreversible.
(emphasis mine)
I seem to recall that climate change (whatever that is) was something more than a… oh, heck, let’s go to the source, shall we?
On his own website, the Obamessiah says that he will “fight global warming” and “address climate change.” Sounds less like a potential threat than a real and present danger, no? Kinda’ like weapons of mass destruction, right?
Not convinced?
Let’s start with an easy pitch. His teammate, Joe “Clueless” Biden, says:
I think it is manmade. I think it’s clearly manmade. If you don’t understand what the cause is, it’s virtually impossible to come up with a solution. We know what the cause is. The cause is manmade. That’s the cause. That’s why the polar icecap is melting. source
He swung and missed three times in that one statement. Batter up!
Now up to the plate, Barak!. Here are three pitches from the same speech:
All across the world, in every kind of environment and region known to man, increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change is real. Not only is it real, it’s here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster.
(Steeeeerike one!)
Today we’re seeing that climate change is about more than a few unseasonably mild winters or hot summers. It’s about the chain of natural catastrophes and devastating weather patterns that global warming is beginning to set off around the world… the frequency and intensity of which are breaking records thousands of years old.
(Steeeeerike two!)
The issue of climate change is one that we ignore at our own peril. There may still be disputes about exactly how much we’re contributing to the warming of the earth’s atmosphere and how much is naturally occurring, but what we can be scientifically certain of is that our continued use of fossil fuels is pushing us to a point of no return. And unless we free ourselves from a dependence on these fossil fuels and chart a new course on energy in this country, we are condemning future generations to global catastrophe.
(Steeeeerike three! Yurrrrrrrr out!)
Now, I’m really sorry that he pulled a fast one on you “libruls” and has back peddled so much, but I’m also glad that (a) he’s waking up to reality and (b) there’s a chance, however small, that you “libruls” might wake up, too. I just wish you’d woken up before the damage was irreversibly done on some other things, too. Sigh…
Great. The President takes a vacation at taxpayer’s expense when most taxpayers can’t afford to take them this year.
For the rest of us who work for a living—especially my wife, who is working twenty hour days to afford his government and to save as much as possible before his health care and tax nightmares set in—this is insulting.
Joe Nocera thinks he knows something about privacy, and I think he’s full of crap.
In his blog entry today, he says:
There are certain people who simply don’t have the same privacy rights as others, whether they like it or not. Presidents. Celebrities. Sports figures.
No. That’s wrong. Completely and totally wrong. Everybody has a right to privacy, and unless you are undertaking an activity that requires you to breach your privacy in order to complete that activity, your privacy is your privacy.
Presidents, maybe. But celebrities? Sports figures?
Puh-leaze. Just because a bunch of ravenous fans elevate me to superstar status (maybe even against my will) doesn’t mean I have to let anybody perform a colonoscopy to see if I’m healthy enough to justify betting your life’s savings on my next game.
And the same goes for CEOs, too, no matter how cool they may be.
(Hat tip to Daring Fireball).
Article here.
How come this is being reported in England and not in the United States of America? Oh, wait, that’s right: the liberal mainstream media have their collective head so deeply embedded up President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama’s digestive tract that they can’t quite see the light of day. Want some evidence? Go ahead, Google it. I’ll wait here.
Yes, the article appears in the Daily Mail and The Guardian. And Fox mentions it. (Surprise.) But every other media outlet is doing their best to emphasize that most, if not all, of the cost is being picked up by private donations.
That’s great! $100 million of the $160 million (that’s $160,000,000) price tag will be covered by private donations (up to only $35 million as of this writing), but that leaves a huge chunk that every man, woman, boy and girl in the United States is expected to pay for, because the District of Columbia and surrounding states are submitting that bill to the Congress.
And that $50,000,000 is more than George Bush’s entire inauguration “effort,” as the Obama event is being called (sounds more palatable than “party,” doesn’t it?), cost four years ago. That event was called lavish, extravagant, and over-the-top in a then-good economy by news outlets of all kinds.
I weep and pray for this country which embraces double standards on so many levels and calls them acceptable.
Oh, and for those of you who are attending, be sure to drive across the country in your SUVs, spending as much as you can on the way. The rest of us need that economic stimulus to pay for your ticket.
(Hat tip to blonde sagacity.)
Article here.
I’m confused.
When Obama chooses a course of action that is in line with his followers’ beliefs, it’s called “embracing diversity.”
But when Obama chooses a course of action that is contrary to his followers’ beliefs, it’s called “a genuine blow.”
Isn’t that what defines diversity? A willingness to accept or, at least, not discriminate against someone or something—a viewpoint, perhaps?
Thought so.
I think Obama’s supporters are going to have to get used to the fact that they did not elect a leader. No, the GBLT community elected a self-serving follower, someone who will shift and bend with the winds of popular opinion. They should expect change—it was Obama’s entire platform, for goodness’ sake!—even if it’s not in line with their minority views.
And given that Proposition 8 passed in the most liberal state in the Union, it’s entirely likely that the GBLT community will get nothing but lip service throughout Obama’s presidency.
[via blonde sagacity]
After watching some hours of the Olympics, it struck me: the machine is unhappy. And who or what is this machine? It’s China.
Yes, the Chinese are ahead in the number of gold medals, and it’s unlikely (impossible?) that anybody will catch up to them, but if you look at the individual competitors, they just plain don’t look happy. And when the cogs are unhappy, the machine is unhappy.
I have no idea what kind of stress they’re operating under, but whether it’s threats from the motherland or whether they are simply not prone to smile, they just don’t look like they’re enjoying what they’re doing.
They compete in stark contrast to many of the athletes of the rest of the world, most of whom look like they’re there to have a great time and party from start to finish line, doing their best along the way. These non-Chinese athletes look like they weren’t bred for this job but rather like they are delighted to have made it, not knowing, as I suspect some of China’s Olympians are, that they would get to be there in the first place.
As I watched the platform diving, these wisps of… can I even call them women, they’re so young?… girls, then… these girls don’t look happy, they don’t look sad, they don’t look serious, they just… look. It’s as if nobody’s home except The Diving Machine.
Wow.
Article here.
Another take:
Note to normal-sounding smart kid Ryan Schallenberger:
We all hated the rich guys with the good-looking girlfriends. We hated how they seem to have everything handed to them on a silver platter. We hated how they wore their letter jackets around school and “their type” made fun of “our type.” We hated how their B’s in “regular” classes weren’t as hard for them to “earn” as our B’s in our AP classes. Hell, we even hated how C’s for them were acceptable. We hated everything about them.
But we didn’t blow them up.
Why not?
Anticipation.
At your 20 year reunion, when you’ve used all that awesome grey matter between your ears to invent the “next big thing” or work for that Fortune 500 company or make a name for yourself in the journals or heck, even become just the best father you can be while watching your kids grow up and become smart and make you proud, you can look down your nose and realize that you made it to where you got, that you didn’t have Daddy’s Corvette to impress the girls (your beautiful wife, who happens to be a wonderful, caring and superb mother and, say, doctor, chose you based on your merits alone because you moved away from the shelter of Mommy and Daddy), and that you didn’t need to show them up in high school.
Wait for it.
Your revenge will come later, my friend. Much later. But, like many things in life, it’s really, really worth waiting for.
It’s so worth it to hear them say that they took over Daddy’s business and married the girl they’d always been dating since high-school. (Boooorrrring. Though some turn out to be very bright and smart, you’d be amazed at the number of “girl geeks” out there who are looking for their intellectual playmates and, while they may not look HAWT right now, they do grow out of the same teenagerhood that you will grow out of , and then they become SUPERNOVA HAWT.) Or got their real estate license and, my God! what color jacket is that they’re wearing? Is it really green? Sweet as it sounds, most of them don’t grow a whole lot between then and now, and, despite beliefs to the contrary, there really are greener pastures elsewhere. But you won’t find that pasture unless (a) you go looking and (b) you’re not in jail.
Oh, sure, some of them will “make it” big and it’ll really piss you off at the reunion. And some of them won’t make it so big and will do the whole real-estate/married the cute girl from class thing, and it’ll be just fine with them, and even with you. Others? Others will do the whole (insert crappy future thing here) and you and your brood will go back to your hotel or to Mom and Dad’s and laugh. And laugh. And laugh a little more. Because you thought that being rich and popular would mean guaranteed success in the world.
Friend, you’re in high school. The only thing that guarantees you anything in life is… well, there’s nothing except (pardon this faith-based bit of knowledge) believing in what you read in your Bible. There are some good guarantees in there, by the way. Some that apply to you for later (check out that Jesus Christ guy) and some that apply to you right now. Try this one: “‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay,’ saith the Lord.” (Deuteronomy as loosely paraphrased by Paul). (I recommend using BibleGateway.com to find this stuff.) Let Him take care things for you. He’s a good God and He’ll do what He can.
And, oh, by the way, avoid getting on His bad side, you know, like by plotting to blow up things and killing people and stuff.
Don’t screw up your chances of getting “there” by doing something stupid like admiring some losers in Columbine and other places.
Trust me. It’s worth the wait.
I was driving over… oh, nevermind… I was listening to NPR’s All Things Considered this evening and heard the news at the top of the hour. Some senator, whose name I don’t remember, was blaming the “war” in Iraq for the shambles that is the US economy.
Aside from being untrue (see this answer to a reader’s question), he gave examples of Screwedupian Economics which included these gems loosely paraphrased: “If we weren’t spending money in Iraq, then we could spend money on education and roads” and “The whole Iraq war is corrupt and scandal-ridden.”
So… let’s review: the “war” in Iraq is responsible for an economic disaster in the US, so instead of spending money on troops (money in American pockets), contractors (money in American pockets), supplies (money in American pockets), and improvements to the Iraqi infrastructure (OK, I’ll grant you that one), we should be spending the money in America where… the money ends up in American pockets.
The worst part about it is that that bastion of liberal, left-leaning kvetching that is NPR fell for it, hook, line and sinker. Instead of reporting and using audio excerpts that indicate that this senator knows how our economy may or may not be related to the money we’re spending in Iraq, they used quotes that clearly don’t support his thesis.
It would be like my saying, “I think the sky is blue. The sky is blue because the wavelength of light which blah blah. By the way, my kids think horses like blue skies,” and having NPR report that I said that the sky is blue and that horses like blue skies.
Sometimes, they just make me so mad.
Update: This made me feel better. It’s all of the hosts’ breathing from one hour of NPR.
…here. But perhaps we can forgive him as he’s just echoing James Fallows in TheAtlantic.com. So I’ve decided to call them on it.
Here are the cliché’s I’ve found in William Kristol’s piece:
- “snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory”
And that’s it. I’m at a loss to explain where all the other supposed clichés are. And yet Fallows somehow thinks the entire piece is cliché after cliché. Perhaps I’m confused about the definition of cliché. So I looked it up, and you can, too.
Where are the trite or overused expressions? Can Fallows (or Gruber, who might give it a try) show me where Kristol’s expressions are used elsewhere? Is Kristol’s writing really that trite as to deserve condemnation?
OK, so he’s no Andy Rooney (thank goodness), but I’d have to say, Sorry, I just don’t see it. If I want more colorful writing, I’ll read the comic, thanks.
Guess I’d better get back to reading some real literature now.
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