Four in Hand

1. I guess it depends on what the meaning of “stimulus” is:

Seems that there has been a jump in people signing up for memberships in porn sites, correlated with the economic stimulus checks that were recently sent out. Well heck, it beats doing something boring with it like putting it in a low-interest “savings” account… or using it to help pay off a credit card… or buying a new set of tires. And as “unanticipated consequences” go, it’s pretty thin gruel; who _wouldn’t_ have expected the average Joe Six-pack to invest a bit in his fantasy life, since the real thing is turning ever more nasty, brutish, and short due to all-encompassing government. I say – rock on, brothas! Show those geeks in Washington that the wage slaves still have something to look forward to on a Saturday night – more than the bureaucrats do, I’d be willing to bet.

2. You gotta break some eggs to make a bomblet:

The unexploded munitions controversy, which has been going on for some time now, is focused more and more on what are termed “bomblets” – small explosives scattered from a cluster bomb, whose sole purpose is to kill and injure “enemy personnel”. Of course, our Defense Department has long contended that these fiendish devices are only intended to kill armed insurgents, and never civilians – the implication being that each bomblet has a tiny brain that enables it to tell the difference, even days, weeks, or years after the cluster bomb was dropped. The proposal now is to make the bomblets more… bomb-like, let’s say, and less land-mine like, by constructing them so that 99% will detonate on impact. (There is still that pesky issue of the other 1% -- and when you consider that we drop thousands of these things, that 1% can add up. But let that go for now.) But as far as adopting a treaty signed by 111 – that’s 111, not the Roman 3 – nations, “including many of America’s key NATO partners”, to outlaw current designs of cluster munitions – well, that’s just a bit much. In fact, we weren’t even at the talks that produced the treaty. We boycotted them, along with – get this – “Russia, China, Israel, India, and Pakistan”. Looks like we’re in the best of company – as usual – on this issue. Then we gripe when shitholes like the Central African Republic wind up on some U.N. “human rights commission”. I guess it’s all a question of whose hypocritical ox is getting gored.

3. Where are they now?

Is it just my imagination, or have Bill and Hill totally dropped off MSM radar? Surely the current, post-primary doings of “the” power couple of all time – well, since the Roosevelts at least – should be worth a _little_ bit of coverage. After all, Bill is a free man again, and free to do his, um, “thing”. That could provide plenty of good copy for, oh, say, National Enquirer. And Hillary probably retreated to some secret mountain fastness where a hard-core elite “womynchurch” group holds bizarre and frightening pagan purification ceremonies. I predict she will come back tanned, rested, and ready for the next battle, whatever that might turn out to be. See, the problem with politics in America is that the mighty do, in fact, fall… but they hang around. There is no exile, no prison, no firing squad, none of the cleanness and finality of political transactions in the Europe of old, or the Third World of new. It’s just this bland, fading-away, lame-duckedness – terribly depressing if you ask me. At least they could be exiled to the Isle of Elba. OK, Fire Island, maybe? Anything but being allowed to run around in a grotesque, symptomatic manner until they get their next whiff of power. Meantime, Obama, with every compromising, wishy-washy statement, becomes less of a radical and more of a doormat. By the time November rolls around, he’ll be making Calvin Coolidge look like a Weatherman. Sic temper gloria (or whatever his wife’s name is).

4. Chillaxin' --

Global warming has already had a deadly impact on Pittsburgh. The days are mild – very little real swimming weather so far – and the nights are downright cool, in some cases chilly. I’m still using a comforter, and it’s the second week of July! Cool, fresh breezes blow across the hilltops, and there is plenty of rain to keep things green. This global warming stuff ain’t half bad. Fortunately, my neighbor is doing his part with his bottled-gas grill, which he fires up three times a day and uses for every cooking need, including scrambled eggs. Funny thing too, he doesn't look that testosterone-laden. But you never can tell.