Protocol

Or a little arrogance makes me cranky and so I’m going to pick on this little thing.

Since Obama seems to think he’s made some important steps toward democracy here (what exactly?) I’d like to point out what he has done to ruin our reputation in the world. He’s insulted the King of Jordan!! Check out this photo.

I know very, very little about protocol. I know very little of other cultures. But I vaguely remember something about the bottom of the foot, crossing the legs, and Arab culture. Sure enough.

Crossed Legs

There is a lesser gesture that could bemore offensive than expected, namely when the foot on the upper crossed leg is pointed directly and frequently in the direction of people from especially the Middle East. The foot, when ‘bounced on the knee’ in the general direction of people from Islamic countries, can cause discomfort, perhaps even distaste, since it may symbolise, in body language terms, an accusing or threatening weapon. The solution is not to cross the legs when in such company and to take care in which direction the foot is pointed.

I recognize, that the King of Jordan will let this pass. But this photo is front and center of the Jordan Times. How does it look to have our President on such display??

Between that and the bow to the Chinese I think this dude ought to get off his high horse.

Poland

I can’t imagine what they are going through.
I can’t imagine ignoring the air traffic control people because you think maybe it’s a Russian plot to get you to Moscow. I like my simple life.

Poland, my thoughts are with you.

The Census

The Census and the Tea Party.

An acquaintance of mine made an off the cuff remark about having just paid his taxes and that “he was no tea partier” and had paid. He somehow thinks tea partiers don’t believe in taxation vs don’t believe in taxation without representation AND they aren’t happy with the respresenters currently representing them because of the money going out the windows in all directions that will eventually lead to taxation on our kids who currently have no representation.

If I understand it right.

(yes – I realize there are other “angry” reasons to join, but that seems to be the gist)

Which is why I was surprised by this article today in the Post by Dana Milbank (though I shouldn’t be surprised as he hasn’t really had a clue) about the republican districts doing fine concerning filling out their census forms. From that he concludes the tea party is exaggerated hype. Huh?

Allapundit has a good post today linking to an NPR story of NYC hipsters not filling out their forms. Apparently they aren’t you know, “cool”.

What a day it will be when overeducated hipsters doofus’s are underrepresented, while tea partiers become the bulk of all things census for the next 10 years!

Circling back….tea partiers WANT representation and are smart enough to realize that representation is exactly what the census is about vs getting “free” federal money. ? Or as one NPR interviewee suggested, they might fill it out if given $5.
Tea partiers will pay their taxes, they just don’t want the government redistributing said taxes to others for reasons such as to keep rich homeowners in their upside down homes. Because that stinks.

I’ve heard that you want to meet the new dog

Axle is his name.
He is sweet as pie. Let’s go with Boxer/Shepherd cross. 1 year old.
Did I say sweet as pie? This was his first camping trip. He/we had a great time!

Funny, Funny, Funny

On the same day that we get this hilarious re-cap of how our administration just needs to come up with better outside of the box ideas for our high unemployment situation we get a clearly not helpful (economically) requirement out of HHS.

Place nutritional information on the front of the box.

Take up advertising space, re-do your packaging, spend the company’s money all to assist “the busy shopper”.
I kid you not.

“Busy shoppers will be able to go into grocery stores and have some easy to understand information on the front of packages giving them quick data on what is a healthier choice,” said Sebelius at the U.S. Capitol.

Also instead of “self labeling”, Sebelius is going to require evidence based labeling of nutritional information. ie “This is food” ?

But back to the other clown (who you’ll want to read just to see al Jazeera’s insights into the American psyche).
Somehow the government is supposed to supply us with jobs…..yet his examples of thinking outside the box include small business coming up with innovative ideas.

?

The paralysis of thought stems from….Republicans. Somehow, though I can’t comprehend this paragraph.

So why the political paralysis?

Firstly, there are the easy answers to this question – the current debt and deficit anxiety that hangs over Washington (conveniently slamming the door on any new ambitious social agenda) results from the roadblock of a conservative Senate beholden to corporate lobbies.

‘splain please?

The Biggest Question concerning our Europeanization

Sure, we’d all love the hours of work, the months of vacation, the siestas, but the biggest question is, if we go Europe, then

Who’ll do America’s job?

From Jonah Goldberg. (read the whole thing)

Europe is a free-rider. It can only afford to be Europe because we can afford to be America.
The most obvious illustration of this fact is national defense. Europe’s defense budgets have been miniscule because Europeans can count on Uncle Sam to protect them.
If America Europeanizes, who’s going to protect Europe? Who’s going to keep the sea lanes open? Who’s going to contain Iran — China? OK, maybe. But then who’s going to contain China?
But that’s not the only way in which Europeans are free-riders. America invents a lot of stuff. When was the last time you used a Portuguese electronic device? How often does Europe come out with a breakthrough drug?

Kyrgyzstan

Just an fyi y’all because our papers haven’t mentioned it yet.

While this administration was failing to appreciate how democracy worked in places like Honduras, I bet you dollars to donuts it immediately recognizes the new coup leaders in Kyrgyzstan. Why? To appease the Russians.

These new leaders are working closely with our new Bff, Russian.

No sooner had presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev signed an arms reduction pact in Prague as part of an effort to “reset” strained relations than a senior official in Medvedev’s delegation urged Kyrgyzstan’s new rulers to shut the US base.

The official, who declined to be named, noted that Bakiyev had not fulfilled a promise to shut the Manas Air Base, and said there should be only one base in Kyrgyzstan — a Russian one.

Omurbek Tekebayev, a former Kyrgyz opposition leader who took charge of constitutional matters in the new government, said that “Russia played its role in ousting Bakiyev.”

“You’ve seen the level of Russia’s joy when they saw Bakiyev gone,” he told Reuters.

I love a good blog post title

Today from Viking Pundit he has a post on the MA citizens who are signing up for health insurance moments before they actually need it.

His title:

Everybody act surprised

His conclusion:

So to recap: your costs are soaring because people are gaming the system without fear of consequence and the government says you can’t raise rates even though your business is currently operating in the red.

Once more, with feeling: this is a great plan.

Kudos and admiration are sent his way.

Happy Easter

That’s all, just Happy Easter.

The Administration doesn’t control everything

How can I be so sure?
Apparently businesses are paying their executives what they want to pay their executives and not what Obama wants them to pay their executives.

I know there is an April Fools in there somewhere.

Because we know the world is better if everyone would just do what this administration says. Right? Not the last administration though, just this one.