Blogiversary

This is it fans……

6 years!

Thanks to you all I’ve actually climbed the blog ranks this year. I had quit watching because the stats were so low, then boom! Here I am at 8283 out of 1,262,120.
[bragging face]

And it doesn’t matter. I still enjoy this and with elections coming up, there is bound to be lots to say. This blog has served my purposes over the years and has introduced me to many other interesting opinions over the years. My blog roll will be updated soon, but in the meantime be sure to visit some regular linkers. (not because they link, but because they’re good and they link)
ThreeSources
House of Erotosthenes
and Tai Chi Policy

And of course, Environmental Republican who I’ve missed this year as real life has gotten busier for him.

Thank you all for visiting….keep enjoying the sphere because all of that information continues to need dissecting.

Outakes

These are our new representatives?
(the blue tape brigade after their march to Reid’s office to tape their demands to his door)

“We’re doing our job in the House of Representatives,” announced Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), a member of the blue-tape brigade. “We put forth a proposal that would cut $61 billion . . . and yet Senator Reid won’t even, uh, consider that. That is dereliction of duty.”

Actually, Congresswoman, the derelict Reid did bring that proposal to a vote in the Senate — and it failed, 56 to 44.

……………………………..
This is our Secretary of State? (When asked about the administration’s decision she quoted others so she could deny the opinion later.)

On Sunday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – when asked about why we’re involving ourselves in Libya but not Syria – said this about Bashar Assad: “Many of the Members of Congress of both parties who have gone to Syria in recent months have said they believe he’s a reformer.” For understandable reasons – more about that in a moment– those comments didn’t fly very well. So it was time for a retake.

Yesterday, when asked about her statement at a press conference, Secretary Clinton said, “Well, first, Jay [Solomon], as you rightly pointed out, I referenced opinions of others. That was not speaking either for myself or for the administration.”

……………………….
These are our latest allies?
(Libyan rebel “training”)

The lack of control over Libya’s rebel army also raises questions about how it might behave as an occupying force were it to take over a town such as Sirte which has not risen up in support of the revolution and where the Libyan leader is believed to retain some support.

Killings of alleged mercenaries in Benghazi, the rebels’ de facto capital, as well as the large numbers of young men who have assumed an authority over ordinary citizens apparently only granted by their guns, will raise questions about how an ill disciplined and unaccountable force will behave on taking control of a potentially less welcoming city.

It would be embarrassing, to say the least, if even some of the rebels armed by Britain or the US were to carry out the kind of atrocities the west says it is intervening in Libya to prevent.

War

In all the stories of war in Libya – I, a girl with zero knowledge of combat – find it odd that the media really likes it when both sides are pretty much even and with momentum on the side of the underdog.

Its as if no one should be allowed to actually decisively win the objective.

Even us. If there were an objective and if we were part of the fight (ahem) we would be bad if we actually went ahead and used all our guns to win the objective.

Apparently in the eyes of many, the playground with a teacher overseer is how war should be “played”. Dear journalists…this isn’t play.

To Be Clear…..

Go ahead and develop those oil resources because we want to buy, buy, buy….but then we’re going to let you tank by cut, cut, cutting.

Sure we will….just like by switching to you (Brazil) we’ll let Saudi Arabia tank.

Only thing is, my secret plan is about as bright as all my plans. They don’t include those butterflies by the millions in China etc.

The Speech

The speech has a number of good reviews out there.
You won’t get that from me.

But then – any time I listen to Obama I have problems, so don’t mind me.

I found the tone of the speech to be one big excuse. “Here is me, letting you folks who have been complaining, in on my plan for Libya because apparently you aren’t getting it from the news reports. X, Y, Z and to be blunt – we didn’t do X, Y, Z in Iraq so it was bad, but this is good. I am a leader. And you can tell I’m a leader because I just said so. I have put together this coalition and like any good community organizer I, as a leader, am letting others do some of the work. Because that’s how good leadership works. And no, we’re not ousting anyone like the last unleaderly President. Instead, I, a leader, am doing all I can and hoping that Khadaffi will be ousted. In the meantime – good on you youths out there. I am proud of your radicalism, so just you remember in the future and don’t attack us, because we’re the US and I’m here to help. ok. remember that. “

Victor David Hansen has a take too. His take is probably fairer so go read the whole thing.:

Translation: It now seems good to have removed Saddam, but too costly. It was good to remove Milosevic, but it took too long. So I will remove Qaddafi much more quickly and at far less cost, but I won’t do it by targeting Qaddafi, but by preventing his aircraft from flying and hoping Qaddafi goes away. Qaddafi deserves our special intervention because he is worse than other dictators, such as an Assad who is a “reformer” or Ahmadinejad whom we won’t “meddle” against. We successfully sought a UN resolution to protect the people, and will stick by it, but hope somehow someone will go beyond it and remove Qaddafi. We are an exceptional nation that has always acted out of humanitarian concerns in a way not true of other countries (“To brush aside America’s responsibility as a leader and — more profoundly — our responsibilities to our fellow human beings under such circumstances would have been a betrayal of who we are. Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different.

To be clear…

Mr. Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi is a Libyan rebel leader interviewed by the Telegraph.

He has fought “again the foreign invasion in Afghanistan” and was captured in Pakistan before being sent back to Libya. He is now storing arms at a safe zone in Chad. His Libyan Islamic Fighting Group was the second largest group of outsiders who fought in Iraq against “foreign invaders”. And he even recruited some men from Libya to fight against the coalition in Iraq.

Got all that?

Mr al-Hasidi insisted his fighters [those previously recruited for Iraq and now fighting with rebels in Libya] “are patriots and good Muslims, not terrorists,” but added that the “members of al-Qaeda are also good Muslims and are fighting against the invader”.

Who exactly is the invader he’s fighting now?
I’m beginning to think he’d had a lot easier time of accomplishing his goals by just shooting himself.

Anarchists?

Me thinks said anarchists in the UK don’t really understand what the word means.

200 arrested as hardcore anarchists fight police long into night in Battle of Trafalgar Square after 500,000 march against the cut

What cut? The cut in government services….provided by the government….

Some were hellbent on storming – or destroying – any London landmarks synonymous with luxury or money. Others targeted companies associated with tax avoidance.

Would those associated with tax avoidance be brothers in arms of actual anarchists?

Campaigners claimed they targeted the 300-year-old store because its owners are at the centre of a £40million tax avoidance row. Protesters also occupied Vodafone, Boots and BHS stores on Oxford Street for the same reason .
Sally Mason, one of the protesters who occupied the store, said: ‘Fortnum & Mason is a symbol of wealth and greed. It is where the Royal Family and the super-rich do their weekly shop and a picnic hamper costs £25,000.
‘This sits in stark contrast to everyone else who is struggling to make ends meet, fill in their tax returns and benefit forms and facing huge student debts, unemployment and the closure or dismantling of local services such as the NHS, libraries and leisure centres.’

So those “protesting the man” by making money and avoiding all those government forms are the enemy of the “anarchists” who are their to protect those who struggle with forms such as benefits forms, student debts, unemployment, and who need other government services.

Dudes, go break into a dictionary store.

The Presidential “big business”

When businesses grow they need to become more consistent in how they do things so such things don’t get lost in the cracks. Forms must be filled out, channels must be followed etc, etc and soon the new IPO of excitement and speed becomes the big monolith of slow change.
Employees start to fear making decisions and learn to navigate their way through the day with meetings. Sure, to survive there will be some deciders and some idea people but as businesses grow, in most cases, you end up with a very big bureaucracy.

Most middle management can be heard to say things like: “I didn’t know….it is a pretty big company with a lot of moving parts.”

What you really don’t want to see is the President of the free world saying the same thing.

it is “a pretty big government” with “a lot of moving parts.”

Concerning selling guns to Mexican mafia……I believe he didn’t know (maybe) but how about the kind of quote a real leader of men might say:
“I will find out who came up with this plan and make certain it never happens again.”

I won’t bother with the “how would the media handle this quote had it been Bush in office” because we know how that goes.

Too Funny

From xkcd: Tech Support

Man boys

Ok, I’ll jump in today. The whole subject of where have all the men gone has been going around for a while now. Today Maggie’s Farm linked to this American Thinker column on the subject.

Here Janice Shaw Crouse writes of 3 major problems:
1- there are fewer marriages
2 – men lag women in schools
3 – men have lost their social identity

Here are her solutions
1 – ostracize the man boys of fame (ie Sheen)
2 – make certain school teachers know the difference between girls and boys and can teach to boys as well as girls.

Her conclusion:

We will not succeed in making a new start until we stamp out the myth that young women can do just as well without a man. Unless we change that thinking, our society will be the poorer. As long as the male half of the population is disparaged, denigrated, and infantilized, they will lack the motivation to “man up” and become responsible and accomplished men.

LOL.
Got that? Here are some reasoned ideas, but in the end its up to us gals to make menfolk feel needed.

I am all for making certain friends and loved ones know they are needed in various ways – but as a society, women do not need men to earn money or to take out the trash or to change a tire. Just as men do not need women to cook and clean for them.
It’s a new society and people are figuring out their places. The beauty of the whole thing is that there is now a vast, vast array of places for people to be.

My little brother is a fantastic grown up married man and father. Brad Pitt – is definitely a devoted father and partner – though unmarried. Charlie Sheen is whacked. There may well be a marked increase in man boys and I am all for changing schools so that boys aren’t required to act like girls. At the same time, having the freedom to be who we want to be – whether that be single and playing our whole lives (George Clooney – seems fine to me) or settling down to family gets to be a choice now and not an obligation for living in polite society.

In a lot of the animal kingdom it’s only the top tier that get to mate and spread genes. Maybe it’s not so wrong for us freewheeling types to just keep on freewheeling it.

(ps – This is a Friday topic not to be taken too seriously. I know tons of reasons why men act like boys and much of it includes being screwed over by women.

Yes – we could all get together and change society so that men are men and women are girls but I would rather keep the freedom myself.)