I Question the Timing

I have said here before, somewhere, that Obama can’t win the Presidency, if he loses Pennsylvania. Now, this weekend, the right is clamoring for impeachment, because of an Executive Order about immigration. Tomorrow the Sunday shows will be all about the looney right. So do issues like this just fall out of the sky?

I got an invitation in the mail a few weeks ago to join Mitt on his bus tour. It went to the wrong mail box, so the person who got it threw it on the floor. This is New Jersey after all. So everybody has known where Mitt was going to be this weekend. Fast Eddie Rendell certainly knew, even though this time he was not fast enough.

In the bloodsport of political campaigns, it is about doing whatever is necessary to stop your opponent from delivering a harmful message. To do it well, you should “Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate.“

Mitt, in case you didn’t know, delivered a speech at the Weathering Casting and Machine Co. today. In Pennsylvania. Will anybody talk about how Mitt “resonated” in Pennsylvania with all this other noise?

- Making Catholicism Illegal Again

Here's an interesting tidbit from our progressive cousins in Europe. The Irish government has made it a crime for a priest not to report child molestation, even if they came by the knowledge of the offense in the confessional.

I stand behind no man in my hatred of child molestation. It is a despicable act for which there is no doubt a special ring of hell. I am comforted only by the fact that the US prison population is so horribly abusive to those found guilty of the crime, that some measure of justice has managed to creep in to the process. I would just as easily see the penalty for such crimes be death, except then they would probably be getting off easy.

But if the Irish government thinks that Catholic priests are going to roll over and start giving up knowledge gained from the confessional, they've got another thing coming. There is literally nothing I can think of that you can do to a priest to make him tell that particular tale, and if there is, then he is certainly no priest. I wouldn't expect the Vatican to be willing to give up any ground on this.

The sanctity of the confessional is not just some randomly thought up rule designed to get the priest all the latest village gossip. It plays an absolutely central role in Christianity's oldest faith, and the salvation of the souls of the faithful. Give that up, and all of Catholicism crumbles around it.

So the Irish have put themselves in an interesting situation. They will have the option of either never trying to enforce this particular law, or being the first Catholic country in history to make Catholicism itself illegal.

It's a crazy world when the barbarians are all on the inside of the gates.

- A Little Pop-Culture

I know this item is a little "pop-culture" for this blog, but I have to call hypocrisy on this one. According to this report, Lady Gaga (an American entertainer of some kind) is being criticized by the Thai ministry over an "inappropriate use" of the Thai Flag. The use they have an issue with (Pictured above) was to tie it on to her motorcycle during her show.

OK, I get how they might have an issue with that, and they aren't exactly throwing her in prison or anything so I suppose it's all fair game. But speaking as a man whose been to Bangkok several times, I can tell you about a whole lot of uses for a Thai flag that are both fairly common there and WAY more inappropriate.

I'm just sayin.

- Never Let A (Constitutional) Crisis Go To Waste

I think we need to make the most of the 'new brand of legislature" that President Obama and the Democrats have generously put in place via this "executive order - immigration amnesty" rule. Sure it may cause a constitutional crisis, but like someone once said someplace, we should "Never let a crisis go to waste." And if we're going to give up the whole quaint "rule of law" thing then let's by all means make the most of it.

So I have a few suggestions for the future Romney Administration on how they can issue executive orders without the consent of Congress, just like President Obama is doing:

1. Put an executive order in place preventing the IRS from enforcing any corporate income taxes of any kind. (This is legally identical to Obama's new immigration rule BTW.)

2. Fail to provide any funding for the department of energy and the EPA. Those employees who feel it's their moral duty to continue to obstruct American industry can feel free to continue to do so on a volunteer basis without fear of repercussions.

3. Issue an order which denies funding for the human resources cost associated with the Department of Education. The funding for the department will then be divided up and cut as checks - one per student, for every parent who has a child in the US schools system either public or private.

President Obama's actions are blatantly unconstitutional and although I'm no lawyer, it reads to me like an impeachable act. But since impeachment is unlikely in this political climate, the only option we have is to beat them with the stick they've given us. So let's make the most of it. Let's start planning now, and in January, we can have a grand old time warming ourselves around the constitutional fire because (according to President Obama) "It's for the good of all Americans."

And like some other Liberal once famously said "Burn Baby Burn".

- Panderer In Chief

In an attempt to buy just a couple of more votes, President Obama unveiled an executive order to halt enforcement of America's immigration laws. The Drudge headline is listing it as: "Jobs Program For Illegals".

But even the press is getting tired of all this extra-constitutional wrangling. He was heckeld during his speech by a reported fro the Daily Caller. It also gave us all a chance to see what thin skin he has:

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I can remember very clearly when the public was so furious over the issue of immigration amnesty that they were inches from revolt. Tens of thousands of calls, faxes, and letters showered down on congress. Now Obama has found a way to peacefully get around rules that don't jive with his agenda... he just ignores them.

For that reason, I'm a little more put off on this issue than usual. I'm not even sure this will help him in the election. He says the people are Americans in every way except one... a piece of paper. By the same token, I'm a graduate of Harvard Law School in every way but one. That doesn't mean I can just put it on my resume.

I'm glad this guy from the Daily Caller spoke up when he did because it's forcing the network news guys to cover the story. And based on past history, their reaction to the President ignoring the US Constitution is to "forget" to mention it on the news broadcasts.

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I think we're at a point now where it would do the Republic some serious good to take one of these politicians, impeach him, and if possible, throw him in jail for violating his oath of office. Clearly we need to find some way to put the fear back into them because this guy is literally doing whatever he likes. It's not a matter of politics, or policy. He's ignoring the law. He is not allowed to pick and choose what laws to enforce - and it's especially callous of him to do so as part of an effort to buy himself another election.

I'm not kidding, I think he should get thrown in jail for this. It's where all Chicago politicians belong anyway.

- The Future Of NYC

Grabbed from here.

HT ...Debby Witt

- Microsoft Arrogance

Because we don't have nearly enough megalomaniacal corporations in the technology industry lately, Microsoft has decided to go into the Tablet business. Their product will no doubt elevate treating the customer like the product to entirely new level, and bring shame and embarrassment to Apple, Google and Facebook, who have based their business models around a similar idea, but must have left just a few drops of blood un-sucked from their user's veins.

Apple, as you are no doubt aware, has centered their "consumer as product" business around the seamless integration of the user's entire life under their I-tunes cloud. The client software is automatically updated every 30 seconds, and so far includes the integration of you online purchases, offline purchases, restaurant choices, clothing selection, hairstyle changes, bill payments, medical records, dating history, sexual preferences, golf scores, tax returns, and travel arrangements. The updates are specifically designed to help guide the user to a more enhanced Apple experience, and the Apple stores are designed to put you in touch with just the kind of people to help you handle your entire life, in the Apple way.

Apple wants faithful unthinking zombies who have embraced the Apple way. But Google is content to simply have obedient slaves. They've focused their 'customer as product' business on tracking of your physical location through your cell phone, and any other electronic signatures you may accidentally leave behind. You have the option of turning off your notification of the tracking, but not the tracking itself which is integrated into the core of all Google products. In addition, Google has also dispatched tens of thousands of 360 degree cameras which will map your entire world. They map your home, your office, your bedroom, your medicine cabinet, your refrigerator, and are working on an even smaller more portable camera to help you map your colon. All of this information will allow google to custom target advertising - which explains why so many people are now reporting seeing google ads for nothing but sexual enhancement drugs, and herpes medications.

Facebook has taken a subtly different track and has focused exclusively on the difference between how your 'friends' see you as compared to how you see yourself. They not only track your entire relationship history, but also track all the things you say you like, and all the things your online habits indicate that you actually like. Which has made it ground zero for online porn advertising, and a thinly veiled proxy for online dating sites. They put special effort into the online stalker market, by connecting you (like it or not) to people from your past that you thought you'd managed to evade. Their goal has always been to take all aspects of the social experience online, so they are devoting most of their effort into enabling users to lie online effectively, particularly about their weight, income, and general success level.

Microsoft has a long history of reorganizing the Windows OS experience every few years to confound those users who have learned how to solve the problems the last update created for them. While these updates represent nothing but a nuisance to its users, it represents a great boon to Microsoft who has spent the last 20 years trying to exploit is pseudo-monopoly status to turn itself from a company which sells products to a company which sells software as a service. This is a terrible thing for Microsoft users, but like most slaves they have grown accustomed to their chains. These days Microsoft's businesses clients are happy to "upgrade" to a new version so long as Microsoft denies them support for the old one.

But Microsoft has recently become aware that if you keep beating a dog, sooner or later it won't play with you anymore. While their business users now wear their chains proudly, they've begun to lose ground to Apple and Google in the individual computing space and in cell phones. This Pad effort must be an attempt to get some of those dogs back on the leash.

Microsoft systems have always been second rate designs in terms of security, efficiency and speed. But they have been relatively easy to use. The "We know better than you idiots do" design philosophy of Microsoft has never worked well in environments where users want an individual experience, or where they have a higher than average intelligence. And since they've shown nothing but open contempt for their users for more than 20 years, I don't expect it will be a success on their part. They aren't clever enough at design to do better, and their "loyal customers" are really only loyal because they have no choice. So I doubt their dreams of global Pad domination will be well received. At least not until they stop supporting PC's.