Tuesday 16 September 2014

Cameron Eloquent For A United Kingdom

This is leadership, Cameron's plea to save the UK puts himself second and Scots first.
"So this is our message to the people of Scotland. We want you to stay. Head and heart and soul, we want you to stay. Please: don’t mix up the temporary and the permanent.
"Don’t think: I’m frustrated with politics right now, so I’ll walk out the door and never come back.  "If you don’t like me – I won’t be here forever. If you don’t like this Government – it won’t last forever. But if you leave the UK – that will be forever".

Is no one coming to Obama's party? UN Climate Theatre Flopping

Obama is to address the UN September 23rd to save the world from climate.  Embarrassingly, "Thanks but no thanks" notes are piling up from world leaders.
As reported by "Watts Up With That":

The Canadian PM sends his regrets.
The presidents of both China and of India
  couldn't clear their calendars.
The Australian PM had a previous commitment.
The German president is taking a rain cheque.

Sunday 14 September 2014

Scottish referendum with surprise consequences.

My accountant son, visiting from Scotland, had a couple observations about the referendum that surprised me.

Pensions after a separation will be a net positive because Scots die on average younger than other Brits.  Not all payroll deductions for pensions will have to be paid out or else Scotland can afford to keep the retirement age at 65 while the rest of the island goes to 67.

Another surprise is university education.  "Uni" is free for all Scots and this was extended to all EU students but with one big exception.  The English don't get it.  If there is separation, the English will then become full-status EU and a flood of students will have to be admitted free to Scottish universities. Don't expect that one to fly.

There are more than 200 national bodies that will have to have their databases divorced. This is the equivalent of Y2K for accountants, potentially an enormous windfall.

Bickering between England and Scotland is nothing new:

Don't forget  verse five of God Save the Queen:
"May he sedition hush
And like a torrent rush
Rebellious Scots to Crush (Battle of Culloden)
Rebellious Scots to crush.
God Save the King."

And up past Hadrian's wall that was built to keep the barbarians at bay, they like to sing "The Flower of Scotland" at sporting events for an anthem:
"But we can still rise now,
And be the nation again,
That stood against him,
Proud Edward's Army,
And sent him homeward,
Tae think again."

  (The Battle of Bannockburn was exactly 700 years ago in 1314, when Robert Bruce sent King Edward II packing.)  As I mentioned once earlier, my dear,late, and gentle grandmother from Nairn harboured hard feelings towards the English and the allegedly traitorous Campbells who drove Bonnie Prince Charlie away. That too was centuries ago.

Thursday 11 September 2014

The enemy is someone who is willing to die in order to kill you.

Head chopping barbarians remind me what real enemies do.  Fake enemies  disagree about cupcakes in school lunches and pipeline rights-of-way, stuff like that.  "While it is true that the Enemy always hates us for a reason — it is his reason, and not our's.   The quote below is borrowed from Instapundit from Harris's "Civiilization And Its Enemies":



"Forgetfulness occurs when those who have been long inured to civilized order can no longer remember a time in which they had to wonder whether their crops would grow to maturity without being stolen or their children sold into slavery by a victorious foe.

They forget that in time of danger, in the face of the Enemy, they must trust and confide in each other, or perish.
They forget, in short, that there has ever been a category of human experience called the Enemy. And that, before 9/11, was what had happened to us. The very concept of the Enemy had been banished from our moral and political vocabulary. An enemy was just a friend we hadn’t done enough for — yet. Or perhaps there had been a misunderstanding, or an oversight on our part — something that we could correct. And this means that that our first task is that we must try to grasp what the concept of the Enemy really means.
The Enemy is someone who is willing to die in order to kill you. And while it is true that the Enemy always hates us for a reason — it is his reason, and not ours".


And for dessert, this thought from Ace of Spades HQ:.
Do the world's Muslims want their contribution and legacy to the 21st century to be murder and rape?  That question does not call for collective punishment. However, it does leave open the question of whether or not Muslims should feel ashamed for the murderous impulses many of their coreligionists feel.

Tuesday 9 September 2014

Obama the JV player

Powerline says Obama is the JV player who put on a big league sweater and thought he was Kobe Bryant.  Everybody is piling onto the dude in the president's chair.  Now it's original to find something true and praiseworthy about Barack.  I know of two.   He and his wife are sometimes courteous to the secret service guards.  (Not everybody is).   He quietly redirected attention to Pacific alliances in the last year when no crisis was in the news.
Dress up and be someone new.

Sunday 7 September 2014

Jack the Ripper: DNA Gotcha

DNA has almost certainly identified the killer.  In 2007, Russell Edwards bought a bloodied auctioned shawl taken from one of the Ripper's victims and had it scanned for DNA.  The shawl was more expensive than Catherine Eddowes probably could have afforded and raised the possibility that the killer had handled it.  

The unfortunate Ms Eddowes left 126 year old traces but so did Aaron Kosminski, the chief original suspect.  The researchers went to descendents of  Eddowes and Kosminski and found a perfect match for both.  The little lights came on with the Kosminski genes, blinking at the 95% confidence level.  This could collapse an entire publishing industry.
The story broke first at The Daily Mail.

Frequent strikes pave the Dodo road. Hello BCTF

You can predict teacher's unions will be left behind by history because of their strike behaviour.
From comments at smalldeadanimals.com, Big Momma writes:
"It has been my observation over the years, that when a group starts to strike often, then that profession is going the way of the dinosaur. Drywall was invented in the late 50's because of all the strikes by the plasterers - anyone can install drywall (a bit more skill is needed to install on ceilings). Again, there were many strikes by the milkmen in the early 60's - we now buy our eggs and milk in the grocery store, no more home deliveries.
The teachers in the public school seem to strike ever 3 or 4 years in all of the provinces. It is my belief that more parents will be sending their children to private or charter schools and sucking up the extra expense, so that they will not have to deal with this nonsense and be held to ransom all the time. OT, I also think that Canada Post will be a much smaller presence in 10 years, again because of all the strikes. With the last strike in 2012, I had all my bills delivered on-line and I pay them on-line. Enough with all this nonsense!"

Saturday 6 September 2014

A-bomb in Hicksville looking good to Putin

Putin's appealing choice is to drop a nuclear bomb in a strategic Hicksville where NATO will take less note.    Last week he said:"Russia is one of the most powerful nuclear nations. This is a reality, not just words." Fifteen days earlier, on Aug. 14, at a conference in Yalta, the Russian president had told the assembled factions of the State Duma that he soon planned to "surprise the West with our new developments in offensive nuclear weapons about which we do not talk yet.


Foreignpolicy.com spells out the choice. Call it quits in Ukraine and look weak.  Go for broke and be beat when the big powers pitch in.  Or gain empire and win Russian popularity by throwing a bomb in some backwater where the powers dither about the provocation.  How about a nice little plebiscite in a corner of Estonia to join Mother Russia?  Do you think NATO or the US would step up to the plate if the battlefield was small enough and far enough away from Washington, London and Paris?

Estonia is no Hicksville but to snobs in the financial capitals, it doesn't rate.

Smart mirror on the wall makes you fairest of all.

Panasonic has a digital mirror that figures where you are and reflects you back with different eyebrows and sparkle and eye shadow.   If it came with sideburn and moustache options, or even just hair on top, I'd take a look.  Found at Engadget.

Why are people so clean?

Why are so many people clean?  They shower, deodorize and add scents.  It wasn't always so. I think the reason is to conceal information about ourselves.   Most of us now live in cities and complexly interact with strangers.  We don't want them to know what the pores and glands on our body  advertise about sexual status, how hard we exert ourselves and the food we have access to. (Think farts).  We hide our stools (flushing is the modern way).
We now spend a lot of time inside the territories of strangers and much less in our own.   We don't just let our hair down at home.  We make loud noises in the bathroom, overlook some smelly armpits and burps and don't mind if there are lingering smells in the bedroom of sexual activity or the presence of a testosterone-smelling male.

Friday 5 September 2014

Americans will choose a re-run to put Barack behind them. Secret Service has the character scoop on Matt and Hillary

Who would you pick as a decent human being?
Excerpted from Kessler's The First Family Detail.

Hillary


When in public, Hillarysmiles and acts graciously.  As soon as the cameras are gone, her angry personality, nastiness, and imperiousness become evident. In front of the lights, she turns it on, and when .. she’s away from the lights, she’s a totally different person,.  She’s very angry and sarcastic and is very hard on her staff. 
“If Hillary was walking down a hall, you were supposed to hide behind drapes."  Hillary never talked to us.  Most all members of first families would talk to us and smile.  She never did that. 
    Hillary’s Senate campaign staff planned a visit to a 4-H Club in diary farm country in upstate New York.  As they approached the outdoor event and she saw people dressed in jeans and surrounded by cows, Hillary flew into a rage.  “She turned to a staffer and said, ‘what the f- did we come here for?  There’s no money here’.
   (Chelsea was always very nice to the agents.)

Mitt


The fifteen Secrert Service agents on Romney’s 
detail found that the Romneys treated them like family..invited them to lunch and dinner (and) would kibitz with them…  One of the agents was in tears (when Romney conceded). The agents became part of the family.  The next morning, Ann Romney made buttermilk pancakes which Mitt served them on paper plates in their vehicles.

(He was mocked for putting the family dog in the car top carrier while packing the car full with his wife and four sons.  I love him for it.)




The book is worth reading for the character summary of presidents and vice presidents and hopefuls. A lot of rude people and a few nice ones. Adultery was popular but not with all of them.

 ADDED:  Buchanan said to host John McLaughlin. I think, then you get Mitt Romney against someone like a Cruz, or someone like that, and I think that would be the finals. And I think that Mitt has got it in his heart to do this thing." "The only cure for presidential fever is embalming fluid. I think he's going to run," Buchanan said to host John McLaughlin.

ADDED: Now that Scott Walker has surged to re-election, he can be considered a calmer type too. As amusingly quoted at Instapundit:
"Does Walker sizzle? Not exactly. Is he a particularly charismatic speaker? No, he isn’t. But does he sit upon a throne made of the skulls of his enemies? Yes, yes he does.".

Laniakea supercluster reveals hidden shape in the universe. Mind blowing animation.

100,000 galaxies look like a bit of dandelion fluff or a sea anemone on megaparsec scale. Embedded in this one YouTube video are all the photos and animations you have seen on the web.                    


0:26    Data points
0.33    Laniakea revealed
0:50    Lacy structure of thousands of galactic clumps
1:28    Emerging 3D model with in and out flows
1:56    3D flow identifying the Great Attractor
Pictures below snapped from the video.





ISIS morphing to "cool".

"Winning over the next generation of jihadis" reports the Clarion Project. "Soon Al Qaeda will become known as 'your father's terrorist group' ".  The ISIS propaganda team is embedded in the battle plan and  appeals to young rebels who want to look tough, kill and raise a stink for Allah.   Clarion Project quotes recruiting tweets that joke about "bring Krispy Kremes" and quitting the game "Call of Duty" to answer the real call of duty. The appeal is not to robed exiles who sit in a cave reciting the Quran. It is to rapping young muslims who see no better future.  They wants guns and money and fear. And in their rebellion, approval from a higher source.

   
This won't end well.

This goes beyond politics.  Try to change human nature. The quotes below are lifted from Wikipedia.

"We live in a decaying age. Young people no longer respect their parents. They are rude and impatient. They frequently inhabit taverns and have no self control." -- attributed to an inscription in an Ancient Egyptian tomb, quoted in Buckminster Fuller's I Seem To Be a Verb

I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words  (Hesiod)

The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers. (From Aristophanes)


Wednesday 3 September 2014

Advice to MIA Obama: Decapitate

Obama lacks more than a strategy, he doesn't even have an objective, as Krauthammer said.  My bloodthirsty advice is: Decapitate.  Do what Israel taught the Americans in Iraq, target the leaders of ISIS and take them out. "Decapitate" will send a nice little chill through the social media the jihadists read, it's easy to get your head around, and makes sense.  Their men who move money, set up logistic supply lines, produce scary recruiting videos, instruct bomb makers, and who have their finger on power, should perish.

Muslims Decapitate Franciscans Caught Preaching in Jerusalem


Make it personal.  It's kind of "limited" like the drone killings Obama okayed in Yemen and the millionaires he targeted in Russia after the Crimean invasion.  Just take a few more steps, Mr. Obama, and you'll have a policy.


It's complicated and involves many players who must pay a price, but America can clear the air by sounding the trumpet to do battle.

This is not an ashtray

"Ceci n'est pas une pipe" is a cerebral work of art.  The ashtray in my Honda CRV says it is not an ashtray and has a fuzzy liner.  It clearly IS an ashtray.


Friday 22 August 2014

TIme for a little R & R --- Romney and Ryan sounds about right.

The US wants a break from foreign policy chaos and declines in jobs and net worth at home.  A little R & R after Obama sounds just right.   Ryan has a whiff of Tea Party and Matt has the "nil obstat" blessing of the GOP.  I think the American voters will find it easy to sign up for four years of R&R.

Ryan: I'd drive Romney's bus in 2016  (The Hill)
UPDATE 2016, OFFER R&R


Plan B can be the best case: Pray for winners in the opposition parties.

Polling shows  Conservatives above 70% and below 15% depending which year and community you track.  Voters move but PC leaders and policy hardly budges.  The rightness of your cause does not settle the matter.  If you are lucky, you will be faced with second best in Ottawa. Third or fourth will sometimes be PM.  Pray that the wrong-headed, goofy parties will select the best candidates available, just in case.   You don't want to end up with an Obama.





Wednesday 20 August 2014

Obama abdicates?

I still think the American president may abdicate, if he can just find a Very Important Reason, like the UN needs him and the US doesn't deserve Obama any more.  He's looking for the right narrative.  The press is awash in bizarre, sometimes funny, headlines about his disengagement.  If he's like Canada's former defense minister, Hellyer, he can claim aliens are what's about to happen and then offer be our bridge to the star people.

As world chaos continues,l Obama quietly retreats to Martha's Vineyard. (Breitbart)
The Obama tee party:  A weak president hurts everyone, including the Democrats  (WashingtonTimes)
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Sunday 10 August 2014

His and Hers: Word counts from Facebook show big sex differences




Men and women differ.
The study analyzed seven hundred million words and did follow ups with 75,000 volunteers.
It's quoted here  in the Atlantic along with an interesting discussion of when men say "uh" and women say "um".