Awesome ad, with a surprise ending!

Awesome ad, with a surprise ending!  Via my mom...

A friend sent this to me...

A friend sent this to me...  Believing that I had some understanding of Internet-based cultural phenomena, he asked me to explain it.  Obviously, my friend doesn't know me very well – my cultural sophistication has been compared unfavorably with that of a turnip, which probably should be insulting to a turnip.

So I'll ask my readers!  Does anyone out there have even the slightest clue why anyone would make this video, and what they thought they were accomplishing?

People are noticing...

People are noticing...  The climate models that have been driving the AGW scare mongering are starting to look like their wheels are coming off – and the much-mocked, much-simpler solar models are looking better every day.  I'm seeing more and more articles like this, some of them from mainstream scientists.

Even better, several friends and colleagues – former AGW faithful – are starting to sound like outright skeptics.  Now, that is fun!

I identify with this mouse...

I identify with this mouse...  His struggles remind me of attacking a tough software development problem...

Obama: The Myth of the Master Strategist.

Obama: The Myth of the Master Strategist.  By Jonah Goldberg, writing at National Review Online.  His lede:

Often in error but never in doubt, Barack Obama could walk into the Rose Garden and step on a half-dozen rakes like Foghorn Leghorn in an old Looney Tunes cartoon, and the official line would be, “He meant to do that.”

And the amazing thing is that so many people believe it. “Mr. Obama is like a championship chess player, always several moves ahead of friend and foe alike. He’s smart, deft, elegant and subtle,” proclaimed then–New York Times columnist Bob Herbert in 2009. It’s an image of the president that his biggest fans, in and out of the press, have been terribly reluctant to relinquish — because it confirms the faith they invested in him. Nobody ever likes to admit they were suckered.

It gets even better.

Look at that sour puss!

Look at that sour puss!  Someone just handed her a copy of Web Sites for Dummies.  Hah!

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal has confirmed that Obama and his aides knew all along that millions of people would have their policies canceled, and that “If you like your policy, you can keep it.” was known (by them) to be a lie.  Well of course it was – I never thought they were stupid enough to believe that bullshit!  They just thought you and I were...

Neo-Neocon was inspired to pen new lyrics for an old Bob Dylan song.  Her's is called “Stuck Inside of DC with the Obamacare Blues Again”.

And then, along the lines of dogshaming.com, we now have MyCancellation.com.  When your healthcare policy gets canceled because of ObamaCare, you can share your anger there...

I really don't want to know...

I really don't want to know... the story behind this X-ray...

A phalanx of lies...

A phalanx of lies...  The inimitable Mark Steyn weighs in.  His lede:

CNN has been pondering what they call “a particularly tough few days at the White House.” “Four out of five Americans have little or no trust in their government to do anything right,” says chief political analyst Gloria Borger. “And now Obama probably feels the same way.” Our hearts go out to him, poor wee disillusioned thing. We are assured by the headline writers that the president was “unaware” of ObamaCare’s website defects, and the NSA spying, and the IRS targeting of his political enemies, and the Justice Department bugging the Associated Press, and pretty much anything else you ask him about. But, as he put it, “nobody’s madder than me” at this shadowy rogue entity called the “Government of the United States” that’s running around pulling all this stuff. And, once he finds out who’s running this Government of the United States rogue entity, he’s gonna come down as hard on him as he did on that video maker in California; he’s gonna send round the National Park Service SWAT team to teach that punk a lesson he won’t forget.

My favorite line:

For the media, just a spoonful of bovine manure makes the Obamacare medicine go down.

Well said!

Short-form philosophy...

Short-form philosophy...  Via my mom:

As I hurtled through space, one thought kept crossing my mind - every part of this rocket was supplied by the lowest bidder.
~ John Glenn

When the white missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said 'Let us pray.' We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.
~ Desmond Tutu

America is the only country where a significant proportion of the population believes that professional wrestling is real but the moon landing was faked.
~ David Letterman

After the game, the King and the pawn go into the same box.
~ Italian proverb

Men are like linoleum floors. Lay 'em right and you can walk all over them for thirty years.
~ Betsy Salkind

The only reason they say 'Women and children first' is to test the strength of the lifeboats.
~ Jean Kerr

I've been married to a communist and a fascist, and neither would take out the garbage.
~ Zsa Zsa Gabor

You know you're a redneck if your home has wheels and your car doesn't.
~ Jeff Foxworthy

When a man opens a car door for his wife, it's either a new car or a new wife.
~ Prince Philip

A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kickboxing.
~ Emo Philips.

Wood burns faster when you have to cut and chop it yourself.
~ Harrison Ford

The best cure for sea sickness is to sit under a tree.
~ Spike Milligan

Lawyers believe a man is innocent until proven broke.
~ Robin Hall

Kill one man and you're a murderer, kill a million and you're a conqueror.
~ Jean Rostand.

Having more money doesn't make you happier. I have 50 million dollars but I'm just as happy as when I had 48 million.
~ Arnold Schwarzenegger.

We are here on earth to do good unto others. What the others are here for, I have no idea.
~ WH Auden

In hotel rooms I worry. I can't be the only guy who sits on the furniture naked.
~ Jonathan Katz

If life were fair Elvis would still be alive today and all the impersonators would be dead.
~ Johnny Carson

I don't believe in astrology. I am a Sagittarius and we're very skeptical.
~ Arthur C Clarke

Hollywood must be the only place on earth where you can be fired by a man wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a baseball cap.
~ Steve Martin

Home cooking. Where many a man thinks his wife is.
~ Jimmy Durante

America is so advanced that even the chairs are electric.
~ Doug Hamwell

The first piece of luggage on the carousel never belongs to anyone.
~ George Roberts

If God had intended us to fly he would have made it easier to get to the airport
~ Jonathan Winters

I have kleptomania, but when it gets bad, I take something for it.
~ Robert Benchley

What made someone think that “skiing” and “naked” went together?

What made someone think that “skiing” and “naked” went together?

Lies, lies, and more damned lies!

Lies, lies, and more damned lies!  It seems like every day The One and his administration just dig themselves deeper and deeper into the ObamaCare pit of things progressives desperately want to believe.  

Here's my ponder: come the 2014 and 2016 election cycles, will enough voting Americans realize (and remember) just how badly ObamaCare worked out?  If I were a betting man (other than on the stock market), I'd place a bet on “no”.  But them, I'm not generally thought of as an optimist :)

California leads the way...

California leads the way... to the bottom of the list of states with friendly concealed-carry laws...

SR-72?

SR-72?  Aviation Week is reporting that a successor to the SR-71 “Blackbird” reconnaissance aircraft is under development.  While retaining the ability to take off and land from airports, the SR-72 would have twice the SR-71's speed, and apparently would be unmanned.  Also different than the SR-71 (which so far as I know was strictly reconnaissance): the SR-72 would have strike capability.

The key to the speed of this beast is a hybrid turbine/ramjet power plant that would have both engines running in parallel during the transition to hypersonic speed.  There's a presentation on the power plant here.  Despite having dual engines, there's only a single intake and exhaust nozzle, thanks to some clever plumbing.

Way back in the early '70s, toward the end of the Vietnam War, I spent some time on a U.S. Navy ship on the South China Sea, off the coast of Vietnam.  The ship I was on (USS Long Beach CGN-9) had PIRAZ duty, and as part of that we tracked air targets over and near Vietnam.  Several times we tracked an air target crossing North Vietnam at an impossible speed – and we were told to say nothing at all about it.  Back then, the SR-71 was still a classified program. They've long since been declassified and retired, and now can be found in quite a few aerospace museums.  That's a bit of an odd feeling for me :)