By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  August 19th at 10:39 PM  | 

It was a dreary November morning in 2006. I still lived in Alexandria, VA back then. While voting for the GOP, I reminded myself of a classic Robert Heinlein novel – Stranger In a Strange Land.

Standing in line, I was surrounded by angry hordes of liberals. They anticipated a Visigoth holiday at the expense of Speaker Hastert’s dying GOP majority. I heard endless talk of ending the war. The line repeated by many in line was that this was the most important election of their lifetime. The war had to end.

At another precinct near the one I voted in, a man drove up in a pick-up truck with a coffin in the back. A sign on it read “George W. Bush Killed My Son.” The Democrats swept into power, the wars continue interminably, and the bereaved gentleman’s son still lies dead. It’s the major-league protests that are missing.

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  August 17th at 08:39 PM  | 

This explains the level of buy-in Barack Obama received in 2008. A lot of frightened and disillousioned people were convinced he could lead them somehow to safety. He can’t because he is unable and because he is also unwilling to do what this requires.

“Bail-outs” and “Stimulus Packages” dance around this question. They are a fraud in the same sense that James Kunstler spoke of swindles and frauds. If everyone can just keep holding on until one day after election 2012, everything will magically start to get better. Yet the veneer and the slickness where thin, and increasingly more Americans see that nothing is there underneath. What then? Our next two elections will be all about deciding that question.

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  August 12th at 07:39 PM  | 

I particularly commend to your consideration an article written by Michael Lind entitled “Are liberals seceding from sanity?” Lind tees off on the fashionable, anti-Southern bigotry that the Democrats are desperately attempting to use as filler for the lack of intellectual rigor that would justify passing their policy agenda.

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  August 12th at 07:33 PM  | 

By the skillful use of social opprobrium, liberal opponents of 2nd Amendment Rights have stigmatized what the Constitution and The Bill of Rights prevent them from legally banning. This approach has yielded palpable results, which we’ve seen in conversation and all over blogs across the land. Yes, we still have the right to keep and bear arms. No, the cool kids don’t want to play with you if you exercise that right. Weisenthal tries so pathetically hard to be cool.

Firearm ownership has unfairly become a proxy by which the prevailingly trendy judge the sophistication, intellect, social class and sanity of the gun owner. If a person meets a stranger and learns nothing else about him except that he owns two AK’s and a 30.06, the mental judgments immediately get formed. With no other information in hand, the average American from a city or a wealthy suburb is likely to classify the gun owner as a raving Wingnut. DHS has to keep a close watch on the sort of person who walks around quoting Thomas Jefferson in unguarded moments.

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  August 12th at 07:31 PM  | 

Late summer is a special time in the life of every football addict. I’ve loved being able to follow my beloved Deadskins through every workout this camp via the sports bloggers at The Washington Times. Yet a certain dread accompanies the hope and excitement that every NFL franchise brings to training camp. It’s towards the end of the exercise when The Turk rears his ugly head and young men’s dreams of stardom come crashing to an end.

Who is this Turk? He is the individual assigned by the organization to go to a player’s room, knock on his door and utter those dreaded words: “The coach wants to see you–and bring your playbook.” In short, the Turk is the NFL version of the Grim Reaper.

The decision to cut or keep a player gets driven by two sparse resources; money and rosters spots. The team only has so much payroll space, under the salary cap, and the coach has only so many roster slots to fill with the skill sets he desires for the coming season. Of course, NFL players like Kurt Warner have survived being cut to get their lives back together and succeed magnificently. The same may not be true for older Americans who get similar news from their doctors.

Read More »

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  August 11th at 07:50 AM  | 

Welcome to the jungle

We take it day by day

If you want it you’re gonna bleed

But it’s the price you pay

And you’re a very sexy girl

That’s very hard to please

You can taste the bright lights

But you won’t get them for free

Guns-N-Roses, “Welcome to the Jungle”, 1988

It seems The Great State of Rhode Island has problems even more pressing than unemployment and Lincoln Chaffee. For years, they delved into an experiment in “Liberaltarianism” involving the steadily progressive decriminalization of prostitution. It takes the Act Utilitarian postulate of “If it feels good, do it” to a whole new and frightening level. Things are being done to weak and defenseless women that should never occur in a sane and civilized community.

National Review describes the legal conditions prevalent in Rhode Island with respect to prostitution.

Tiny Rhode Island prides itself on its history and charm. But since it decriminalized prostitution in 1980, it has become a haven for something decidedly uncharming: the trafficking of girls and young women into the commercial sex industry.

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  August 7th at 07:10 PM  | 

I can ignore the extent to which I oppose our current President’s policies and deplore many of his disingenuous thug tactics when evaluating his ability to light up an audience with his rhetoric. President Obama has a talent to accomplish two seemingly contradictory goals. He fires up the radicals while simultaneously lulling the moderates to a trusting sleep.

Now all is not well in the kingdom of Hope and Change and those who believed in his promises must face a decision. They can take a leap of faith and write off flag@whitehouse.com as a necessary evil to accomplish vital reform. Or, they can wake up and smell the asphalt; as citizen protestors are accused of being Astroturf Nazis.

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  August 5th at 07:57 PM  | 

So Barack Obama promises the Moon. He also tells us we don’t even need to pay for the rocket. His budget goes far beyond even the most positive year of tax revenues in recent history. He can’t even execute said budget without a 17% cost overrun.

This leaves him short a projected $1.2Tr. in Federal Revenues next year if the stupidity continues. The stupidity will continue until moral improves. The Taxman cometh. If you feel a couple of pounds lighter next year, that’s your wallet, not a successful combination of exercise and diet.

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  August 4th at 07:56 AM  | 

With Russia and China picking up the gauntlet for the United States, the terrorists are now in combat with nation states that spent several centuries each under the tyrannical heel of the Mongol Dynasties. Their views on military struggles are grimmer, more mordant and perhaps more realistic than any being espoused by Versailles upon the Potomac. Operations will be more “kinetic” and rules of engagement “less encumbering.”

Tamerlane rarely fielded too many complaints from those concerned about human rights. Once they got a good look at his mounds of human cadavers, they quickly hushed their whinging and offered up tribute. People that openly hated Tamerlane lasted maybe fifteen minutes.

The surviving remnants of Al Qaeda will take one look at how China handles business in Moldova and decide Afghanistan is truly the central front in their war against the 21st Century. They won’t be tactically stupid enough to espouse hatred of those who overwhelmingly respond to it.

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  July 31st at 09:22 PM  | 

Today is my first crack at writing what I think the GOP should start marketing as an alternative to Obamacare. We can’t just be the party of “No!” Sometimes people are stubborn, and we have to develop backbone and be the party of “H___ No!”

While we do that, we should also put forth a better idea than Nancy Pelosi. (Come on guys, I’m not setting the bar very high here!) My first suggested reform involves tort litigation. I call it Insurance Risk Reduction through Litigation Caps.

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  July 31st at 09:02 PM  | 

I wrote the Good Pay-Dawg Democrat who represents me in Congress a rather heartfelt and somewhat challenging letter regarding the Obamacare fiasco on its way through the Waxman Committee as we speak. He responded back. Presented w/o further comment, Congressman Parker Griffith.

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  July 29th at 07:31 PM  | 

“I love these members, they get up and say, ‘Read the bill,’” said Conyers.

“What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?”

It’s an interesting question, pre-supposing literacy on the part of Congressman Conyers. What if the bills before our legislature have hit the point of ineluctability? What if a member of Congress is intelligent, as opposed to being John Conyers, and still can’t get through one of these Porknibus Spending Fiascos without a two-week sabbatical and the OJ Simpson Legal Defense Team? Can our national government still effectively function?

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  July 29th at 07:29 PM  | 

I understand well that you perform a difficult and vital duty for the preservation of American Democracy. I understand the value of your time and thusly do not write you today to expend it unduly on matters not worthy of immediate attention.

I humbly request that you please use your vote, your voice and all of your profound and venerable influence to postpone the vote on H.R. 3200 until at least the next Fiscal Year. This bill, if enacted, will substantially raise the barrier to success that every small entrepreneur must face when she or he takes the plunge and hangs out a shingle.

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  July 27th at 08:33 PM  | 

The Democrats demand the centralization of power. The promises they bandied so freely during the silly season of campaigning are all negotiable. They remain liable for betrayal in furtherance of that overdetermining directive. They will have power. They will assume control.

“What is the Matrix? Control.” – Morpheus

To look at what the Democrats actually propose is to see their lust for unbridled control. This autocratic overdrive stands revealed in the hard black and white print of legislation before the houses of Congress. The Democratic Party’s domineering contempt for limited government became blindly obvious during the debate over Cap and Trade Legislation.

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  July 22nd at 11:33 PM  | 

The President assures us all that things are OK and that we all can ignore arguments against his policies. Relax, and go back to sleep America. Take the sedatives and socialism won’t hurt a bit. If we the people allow it, the Obama Administration can be a cozy, relaxing Bedtime for Democracy.

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  July 20th at 07:47 PM  | 

Promoted by Jeff President Barack Obama refuses to release mid year budget numbers on the traditional reporting date. He has put this off until Congress goes into recess for the summer. He does so because he wants both houses of Congress to pass expensive legislation and then adjourn for their August break without the public knowing how poorly Presbud2009 is currently performing. The Associated Press | Read More »

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  July 16th at 09:55 PM  | 

For anyone sadistic enough to keep track, the value of unfunded obligations under Social Security during FY 2007 was approximately $5.3 trillion. So what in the heck can you about that? PARTY!!

A Social Security Administration motivational management conference held at a high-end Valley resort last week cost $700,000, the SSA told the ABC15 Investigators. Costs for the conference at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa included airfare, hotel entertainment, dancers, motivational speakers, and food, an administration official said.

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  July 15th at 09:24 PM  | 

I figured Spengler pretty much nailed Europe to the wall when he wrote the following.

They have no ambition but to die quietly, no concerns except for those amusements which might reduce boredom and anxiety en route to the grave. They have no passions except hatred born of envy. They hate America, a new kind of universality that succeeded where the old Christian empire failed. They hate Israel, which makes the Jewish people appear all the more eternal in stark contrast to Europe’s morbid temporality. They will pass out of history unmourned even by themselves.

If the only Europeans this would effect were the electorates responsible for Papandreou, Chirac and Gazprom Schroeder, I would remain unmoved by their current plight. Stupid is as stupid votes; and the Europeans have used their Post-WWII holiday from responsibility to elect leaders steeped in feckless enstupidation. But that would fail to take cognizance of what we’ve just elected in the Good Old US of A. It also fails to recognize the maundering plight of the current generation of young Europeans. They, like American Conservatives, are hostages – strangers in an increasingly strange land.

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  July 13th at 11:59 PM  | 

So the bottom line is this. Keynesian Stimulus must be forsworn. It does not address the current problem. It would not be effective; even if it were on point for the type of recession we currently suffer from. Even assuming that it would work, the future year costs to amortize that stimulus would far outweigh the positive, ameliorative effects on current problems. Not only should we forego further Keynesian Stimulus for ourselves, we should do it for our children as well.

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  July 9th at 08:19 PM  | 

Thanks to Investment Guru Warren Buffet, I now know what I really should be eating for breakfast. No, he’s not given up on Berkshire Hathaway and opened a new start-up called Chez Warren. He was pimping for a second stimulus package because rent-seeking billionaires haven’t been bribed enough yet by Nancy Pelosi. Something truly creepy this way comes.

“Our first stimulus bill … was sort of like taking half a tablet of Viagra and having also a bunch of candy mixed in … as if everybody was putting in enough for their own constituents,” he said. “It doesn’t have really quite the wall that might have been anticipated there.”