But I know there is another word for what the people protesting Cheney’s visit to the Seattle/Everett area in the picture at this leftist site suffer from.
I was going to call it some weird offshoot of “Bush Derangment Syndrome”, but they have him nude on the side of their protest banner, so it has to be something more Freudian than that.
Whatever it is, all I know is that they’re beginning to scare me in the way that the thought of living next to a serial killer scares me.
My apologies. I seem to have repeated myself there.
Remember when I asked for your opinions about the definition of racism and I told you about letting a professional linguist talk to you about how you think? Well, Peter Schweizer of Canada’s National Post has the goods on Noam Chomsky.
One of the most persistent themes in Noam Chomsky’s work has been class warfare. The iconic MIT linguist and left-wing activist frequently has lashed out against the “massive use of tax havens to shift the burden to the general population and away from the rich,” and criticized the concentration of wealth in “trusts” by the wealthiest 1%. He says the U.S. tax code is rigged with “complicated devices for ensuring that the poor — like 80% of the population — pay off the rich.”
But trusts can’t be all bad. After all, Chomsky, with a net worth north of US$2-million, decided to create one for himself. A few years back he went to Boston’s venerable white-shoe law firm, Palmer and Dodge, and, with the help of a tax attorney specializing in “income-tax planning,” set up an irrevocable trust to protect his assets from Uncle Sam. He named his tax attorney (every socialist radical needs one!) and a daughter as trustees. To the Diane Chomsky Irrevocable Trust (named for another daughter) he has assigned the copyright of several of his books, including multiple international editions.
Chomsky favours massive income redistribution — just not the redistribution of his income. No reason to let radical politics get in the way of sound estate planning.
If you’ve ever heard Trotsky, oops, I mean Chomsky speak (sorry, I keep getting those two mixed up), you’ve probably heard his spiel on property rights and how it is a tool of the rich to keep the poor where they are, yada, yada, yada.
Well, Schweizer has some very tasty info on what Trot, damn, Chomsky thinks of his property,
But when it comes to Chomsky’s own published work, this advocate of open intellectual property suddenly becomes very selfish. It would not be advisable to download the audio from one of his speeches without paying the fee, warns his record company, Alternative Tentacles. (Did Andrei Sakharov have a licensing agreement with a record company?) And when it comes to his articles, you’d better keep your hands off. Go to the official Noam Chomsky Web site (www.chomsky.info) and the warning is clear: “Material on this site is copyrighted by Noam Chomsky and/or Noam Chomsky and his collaborators. No material on this site may be reprinted or posted on other web sites without written permission.” (However, the Web site does give you the opportunity to “sublicense” the material if you are interested.)
Radicals used to think of their ideas as weapons; Chomsky sees them as a licensing opportunity.
Chomsky has even gone the extra mile to protect the copyright to some of his material by transferring ownership to his children. Profits from those works will thus be taxed at his children’s lower rate. He also thereby extends the length of time that the family is able to hold onto the copyright and protect his intellectual assets.
I’m sure that Canada’s socialist contingent will be asking for Schweizer’s head on a plate and a retraction with apology from The National Post in short order.
Of course, with a name like Schweizer, it probably won’t take Chompers long to call him a Nazi.
And the lefties will eat it up.
Post story found at Alarming News
You do all remember that Casey Sheehan’s mother is refusing to pay her taxes, right?
Well, yesterday was the deadline for filing whatever paperwork you needed to file to either get your damn money back from the fed, pay the fed because some bureaucrat says you made to much money, or file an extension to attempt to figure out how much money you made.
Does anyone know what Mama Moonbat did, perchance?
My hopes are that she did just exactly what this loser did (from the Seattle Times Letters to the Editor section, Sat, April 15th)
Undue Caesar
Federal income-tax returns are due. I’ve sent mine in already. I owe tax, but I won’t be paying it. I’ve come to the decision that I can no longer pay for war.
If there is a silver lining to the current state of the world and our country’s policies, it is that the issues have been made so stark that even I had to make a moral choice.
I’ve tried to be clear about the reasons for my decision. I’m not trying to evade taxes, just trying to make sure my payments are not used to promote war.
— David Berrian, Bothell
The leftists are all paranoid that they’ll get rounded up and put in camps by BushMchaliburtCheneyCo Inc. And they will be.
But instead of being put into concentration camps in the New Mexico desert and made to build the 20ft wall separating the US from Mexico, they’ll be dropped into Federal ‘Pound Me in the Ass’ Prison.
I can almost hear their screams now!
This is what happens when Californiaitis runs rampant
The May cover story of Sunset, a California-based magazine about life in the West, detailed some of the top campgrounds in the West, including six Montana locations.
But a map accompanying the article shows five of those six ‘‘Montana’’ sites are actually in Wyoming — three of them in Yellowstone National Park.
Dale Conour, Sunset’s deputy editor, said the listing was a mistake and that the Menlo Park, Calif.-based magazine was sending letters to subscribers notifying them of the error. He also said a story planned for the July issue would correctly report Yellowstone’s location.
‘‘It’ll be clear from that story that we do, in fact, know where the grand park of Yellowstone is located,’’ Conour said. ‘‘I’m hoping that will quiet the mob.’’
If you really cared, you’d have gotten it right the first time, Dale.
My wife and I got back in to SFO yesterday afternoon, and managed to drive home and sleep about twelve hours. One thing about a ten-hour plane ride, you can sure catch up on all the recent movies that you’ve missed. Virgin Atlantic had a selection of about fifty for us to choose from. My wife and agreed that that Tommy Lee Jones’ The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada was excellent, as was Capote and Walk the Line. My wife watched Hustle and Flow and liked it, while I watched Aeon Flux and didn’t. The latter was well-executed, and caught the tone of the animated shorts just right, but Charlize Theron was horribly miscast as Aeon. There was also a grating scene with four snipers in towers shooting at targets several hundred feet below — and hitting — even though they didn’t correct for the downward angle. Oh, well.
Thanks to all who commented on my London Calling post. I was not able to check out either the Imperial War Museum or Victoria Street, both of which sound like excellent suggestions. We just didn’t have enough time in London. However, the Tower was a blast and I’ll have pics shortly.
Paris was very kewl and merits a couple of separate posts. Be patient, I’m an old-fashioned geek and have to process about fifty rolls of something called photographic film before I can scan in the images for y’all to see.
To Petey:  Yes I am going to be in Nebraska on May 4-6 for the Don Bower Clinic. If you’re going to be in the area, you should really consider signing up for the Clinic. I’ve posted before about Don Bower, the Specialty Pistols group, and last year’s S.H.O.T.S Clinic. At less than $200 for three days of pretty much one-on-one instruction in ultra-long-range handgunning (there may even be a one-mile target !!!!), this year’s Bower Clinic will be as much a bargain as Gene Econ’s Boomershoot Clinic. Wish I could have gone to both this year, but it was not to be.
To the Analog Mom: thanks very much for the kind words and the book suggestion! I am always on the lookout for good books, and I’m ordering Sarum right now based on your recommendation.
Last week at this time, I introduced you to my latest vehicle aquisition, Grimm. The next day, I told you my ulterior motive in buying him, besides his “Scares the hell out of yuppies” factor: SHTF transport. I also delayed telling you how much I paid for him.
I delayed that because I was wheeling and dealing with my friend and co-worker, Don on a second acquisition from his driveway and I wanted to present them as a package deal, as I bought them.
I not only spent Saturday afternoon wondering if I was going to be facing down a picket line of angry Teamsters this evening when I went to work, I was also out picking this up
Say hello to Grimm’s backpack, a 1974 MelMar 10ft camper.
You may remember that in my second post of last week I talked about getting out of dodge as quickly as possible to try and avoid as much of the inevitable traffic jams that would follow a mass evac due to an incoming natural disaster, such as Hurricane Katrina, or a happening one, such as the local dormant volcano, Mount Rainier, deciding that popping it’s top would be fun.
The MelMar fills that bill. At only being two years younger than myself, I don’t have to feel any pain about ripping out say, the commode, and turning the 2ftx2ftx6ft room it resides in into a closet for added storage space for “The Three B’s” (Beans, Bullets and Band-Aids).
The MelMar has every creature comfort you could expect in a camper of that era, and he is ready to go as we speak. The MelMar was re-cornered just a couple years ago with all new jacks and a new roof and seals. The batteries are juiced up, the propane and water tanks are full and the plates, cups and diningware are in the cupboards. All it needs is “The Bugout Touch”: Some food, some ammo and med kits.
But that will have to wait for a bit. The Analog Wife hasn’t even seen it yet as she was sleeping while I was picking it up so that she wasn’t a zombie at work. Her and I will be taking Grimm on down to the storage yard this weekend. I’ll be making the necessary adjustments to the MelMar there until it and it’s place at Casa de Analog are ready.
She is also already planning the camping trip we’ll be taking in it this summer, which will extend the ready time a bit, but if it makes her happy, I will gladly make the exception.
By the way, total cost for both Grimm and the MelMar was $1800 ($1500 for Grimm and $300 for the MelMar).
If you’re in the market for equipment such as this, you know that that is a damn decent price by any standard. Keep your eyes open for deals and they may just wander your way, folks, just like this one did. Speaking of which, Don still has his other two trucks for sale.
I know haven’t really said anything about the ‘Condolezza Rice/Watermelon’ math question, but I have a halfway decent excuse; because it is what I expect out of academia and the story barely raised my eyebrow when I heard it, and I promptly saw it as a story that, if I were to talk about it, I would just be parrotting, which I am loath to do.
But then I read a ‘Letter to the Editor’ from local resident Scott Amsden and just couldn’t not post it for y’all. Check this idiot out,
I don’t understand the fuss being made over the “Condoleezza” math question. Having read and heard several stories about its supposed racial overtones, I still find myself shaking my head. It is obvious to me and I would think obvious to any thinking member of our society that no racism was intended.
The teacher was just trying to inject a little interest into the question. The fact that Ms. Rice is African American was not even considered. In fact, I would wager that, in Washington, 99 people out of 100 would never have made a racist connection between the name Condoleezza and the fact that she was tossing a watermelon from the Federal Building.
Now, however, because the issue was so publicly aired, Bellevue Community College is going to be looked badly upon by many people across the country for what should have been ignored.
The proper way to have handled this would have been for the student to have approached the instructor and pointed out that the question could be perceived to contain a negative racial stereotype. In that way, the question could have been changed or removed and BCC’s reputation could have been spared the blemish caused by what I would be willing to bet was an innocent mistake.
Let’s save our outrage for true incidents of racism.
One must wonder, just how far up his ass his head actually is? This prick would actually rather save BCC ‘reputation’ than attempt to nip this case of overt racial bigotry mixed with hatred of everything Bush in the bud.
I wonder what his opinion was when a single mother was found raped and murdered by an illegal alien just off the campus a few months back was? My guess is that he was glad the press refused to use the word ‘Illegal’ when the killer was ID’d.
But that isn’t the only silliness I found in the local paper.
This is the latest excuse for why Rice’s name was used int he question, from BCC President, Jean Floten in Sunday’s edition of the Times:
“He loves the word ‘Condoleezza,’ he loves the way it looks and is spelled,” Floten said. “There is no political motivation behind this.”
And yes, they are still refusing to release the Professor Bigot’s name.
It seems that Professor Booty has caught the attention of Bullseye from American Drumslinger out of Fort Liquordale, FL.
And then I went and won the ‘Shameless Caption of the Week’ contest.
What can I say, we’re just a good bunch of fellas ’round here.
Seeing as he is from Fort Liquordale, I wonder if Bullseye has ever met the Walker Sisters?
I found a link to this at the dKos, highlighted by none other than Markos himself, so be careful with it and don’t go whacking the first hippie you see after reading.
It is titled “The Income Gap More Like A Chasm” and it appeard in the LA Times last week. Steve Lopez sees a microcosum of America in Los Angeles. While that is a scary enough thought, it leads me to believe that he needs to travel the country a bit more.
After few whining and off topic paragraphs about how much it costs to live in LA, Steve finally settles down and writes about Kevin Wong of UCLA’s Center for Labor Research theory on how to makes things better in LA.
But before I get to that, only a group of academics could have to come up with a ‘Center’ to research labor. You only reasearch that which you don’t know, after all.
Anyway, Wong’s theory goes like this: After aerospace and other manufacturing bugged out of SoCal, the only things left were service industry jobs and those don’t pay enough for people to live well in an expensive place like LA.
His answer: More socialism! Unionize everyone!
Wong neglects to remember that it was the unions were a big reason, though not the only one, that drove Aero and actual skilled manufacturing jobs out of SoCal, driving wages to the point where businesses either went under or found that they could move, rebuild, rehire and retrain at a cheaper rate than staying would have cost.
Steve Lopez then quotes Bruce Stenslie of the Los Angeles Workforce Investment Board, who said this:
“If you could move them from $8.50 an hour to $10.50, $11, $12, with health benefits,” as Local 1877 of the Service Employees International Union is trying to do with security guards, “you’d have an enormous impact on the economy,” he said.
Yes Bruce, you’d have a bunch of unemployed security guards. I would think that Bruce would have had to have taken at least one decent economics course in order to qualify to sit on the ‘Workforce Investment Board’, but I guess that in LA all it takes it to have read some Marx.
Steve Lopez mentions a ‘giant sucking sound’ in LA if the unionization happens and attributes it to the sound big business would make after having to absorb the costs of increased labor.
I think that it would be more accurately attributed to the sound of US Dollars flowing into Mehico at a rate unseen up to now.
Well, I was out today picking up the second surprise I mentioned last Monday, (it’ll debut tomorrow) and got a couple calls from some of my union member co-workers who went to the meeting yesterday.
It was basically just a status meeting to keep the guys up to date on the negotiations, but, of course, the rude boys showed up to vent at the speakers. To say it got a bit ugly would be a just a mild understatement.
Words went either way, as did some hand gestures, and the dissention was full-blown. Hopefully, the reports of this that were being called to the union members who didn’t show at that meeting will emphasize how important their attendance at today’s vote really is.
I will post here as soon as I know anything. I’ll bump this to the top for those who care.
And because I can
Â
UPDATE: No strike.
Whatever went on yesterday put the fear into the guys with cooler heads. I don’t know exactly what they did vote for, either one or two weeks of an extension, but Monday will be business as usual.
