Short Attention Span Posts

This is a new feature for readers who would rather not have to wade through another long, meditative post that – in many cases – doesn't even come to a firm conclusion about anything! Here we have “just the facts, ma'am”, and an instant payoff! Think of them as “shovel-ready”. Or then again, maybe not...

Cash for Trash

Isn't it just a bit curious that the only one of the “economic stimulus” programs that actually seems to be working – namely CARS, AKA “Cash for Clunkers” -- is also the only one that has already gone broke and is in severe need of additional funding? Here we have, between the bailouts and the economic stimulus plan, hundreds of billions being paid out to people who are, by and large, criminals and who should be in jail... they invariably skim a healthy percentage of the taxpayers' money off the top to pay for their own toys... but a program that might actually help the middle and working classes is comparatively underfunded and is going begging. Anybody out there still in doubt as to the origins of the economic crisis, and who was always intended to benefit from it? They could hide the motives – at least for a while – but it's tough to hide the results.

Iraq and Ruin

Well, at least Iraq is doing the right thing – convicting Tariq Aziz of “helping to plan the forced displacement of Kurds from northeastern Iraq”. “Dozens of villages were destroyed, thousands of people displaced and children separated from their families...” Obviously a crime against humanity crying out for severe punishment. But wait – where have we heard about this sort of thing before? Oh yeah... the Israeli ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians back at the time of the founding of Israel. By comparison to which, Aziz's offenses against the Kurds start to look a bit minor-league. But did anyone do anything to stop, or punish, the Israelis? Well, no... actually, we supported them all the way, and continue to do so. Anybody out there still in doubt as to the massive hypocrisy behind our invasion and occupation of Iraq -- and our support of Israel?

Their Lieberman Can Lick Our Lieberman

And speaking of Israel – Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli foreign minister, has been acting as Benjamin Netanyahu's pit bull ever since taking office – as if Benny the Nat needs a pit bull! But now, for some mysterious reason, he (Lieberman) is being accused of “bribery, fraud, and money laundering”. (Maybe he was on the receiving end of some of those kidneys from New Jersey.) So what's the deal? It seems like, in Israel the way to get someone off the political stage is to accuse them of crimes involving money. In the U.S. it's always sex that does the trick. Well, every nation has its obsessions, I guess...

Oy Gay !

And speaking of Israel – that attack in a gay club the other day brings up an interesting question. The conventional wisdom in this country – as promoted by the MSM and Obama – is that “homophobes” are just another variety of “haters”, closely aligned with white supremacists, racists, sexists, Bible-and-gun-clinging peasants, global warming skeptics, anti-abortionists, NASCAR fans, and... especially anti-Semites. But the last I knew, everyone in Israel was Jewish... so who is this homophobic Jew who opened fire on the gay teens? Is he, in fact, the first homophobic Jew ever? And what meme are they going to come up with to account for his actions? The situation bears watching...

Not Doing It For Their Health

Re: The old expression, “waiting for the other shoe to drop” -- the shoes are falling like rain these days, owing to the Obama administration's persistent refusal to cause any real “change”. (And you can also forget about “hope” -- that idea became “no longer operative” months ago.) Now it's that the middle class, who Obama has promised -- more or less -- to protect (kind of), might nonetheless have to experience a rise in taxes in order to pay for all those programs – you know, like the ones supposedly designed to protect the middle class. It can truly be said that – to rework a classic phrase – the middle class will willingly hang itself with the rope provided by Obama and Co., and go without a whimper to the economic gallows. Of course it's always presented as a way to “reduce the deficit” -- as if “the deficit” were some free-floating thing out there, like a rogue meteor threatening to crash into the Earth, rather than a creation of the administration. They create it – and then the middle class simply _has_ to provide the extra funding to reduce it. That's the way it works, don'tcha see? Well, of course the way it really works is that the middle class has been, um, “earmarked” for beggaring, because – among other things – this will make it as abjectly dependent on the government as the lower class is, which will, in turn, increase the government's power, and serve to build up collectivism and totalitarianism and... you know the drill. The point is, we know this is the long-term plan... this is the agenda... and it's only a question of working out the details. Clearly, taxing people to pay for their own “government health plan” is going to be a big piece.

Oy Gay II !

The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles has nominated “an openly gay priest and an openly lesbian priest” for assistant bishop posts. The diocesan bishop described himself as “pleased at the wide diversity they offer this diocese”. Well, lemme see... when a church is well along in the process of turning itself into an entirely GLBT organization, it can hardly be described as “diversity”. Isn't it really just another form of non-, or even anti-diversity? Exclusivity, even? Oh, but wait. I forgot – like an all-black college still qualifies as “diverse”, right? You know, I'll never be totally at home with all these new rules...

And finally...

Jungle Fever

So how about that woman from Cameroon who has come up with a new strain of HIV? The new strain is “closely related to a form of simian virus recently discovered in wild gorillas”... and – get this -- “the most likely explanation for the find is gorilla-to-human transmission”. Now, the woman in question, who must be understandably indignant as to the implications of all of this, has said that “she had no contact with apes or bush meat”. But someone claims they overheard her, after the interview, complaining that “he doesn't write, he doesn't call...”