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The Ramble for 8/22/11

Middle Village, NY–

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Middle Village, NYC, NY

I’m in  New York City dropping a load of drinks. I came in early this morning,  from outside Scranton, PA, and will leave noonish for who knows where.

My truck is  fixed now, so I returned the one I picked up last week.

[2]
Truck 259, what I was driving for a few days.

Here’s a pic of it.

It’s the same type pretty much as my own, with a few things lacking in the options department.  It’s got a mid-size Cat engine and a super-shifter ten speed tranny.

Not my favorite combo, but I must admit that once you get it rolling, it pulls very well indeed. Also, I think my own truck looks a bit nicer.

Apparently, the issue with my truck involved a leaking intercooler. Those who know about Turbochargers will know that this explains the black smoke I’d been getting under full power, and why it’s a bit weaker than it should be. I won’t deny I’m quite happy to get my own truck back.

  • The Black Racists and their Leftist Politics: I see Andrew Breitbart is asking a question few will want to answer, since the answer both unavoidable, and quite implicative:

    Why are there no black conservatives on the Martha’s Vineyard ‘Race Panel’?

    Here’s the article on the subject. [3]  The purpose of the meeting, is obviously exactly the same as that of Obama as bus tour; only Kool-aid drinkers need apply, because just as sure as an economic failure when liberals are in charge, nobody else is going to be heard,  no other opinions are going to be suffered and  no actual change will occur as a result of it. And given Mr. Obama and his overt hatred of white people, and yes I said that first, the White House looks on all of this with tacit approval.  It’s down to the point now where there is no way around the conclusion that what we’re dealing with here is black racism.  They have become what they’ve been protesting.  And the left, who frankly couldn’t give a damn about people of color are using this for their own political agenda.  If the left really cared about black people, do you suppose that they would be automatically excluding black conservatives, which is the fastest growing group of black people?  You know they wouldn’t.

  • When John Huntsman Attacks: Oh, goody. John Hunstman wants to be another centrist maverick. [4] You know how that’s going to play.   Let’s be honest, here. The reason he’s not going to be the republican nominee is precisely because he’s running afoul of the majority of the country.  As demonstrated by the last election, (And the loss of McCain, therein..)  the country is no longer in the mood for GOP centrists.  They want somebody in the office will actually stands for GOP principles.  Huntsman simply does not qualify.  Let’s remember, for example, Huntsman buys into this AGW fraud [5].  Anyone… And I mean anyone dumb enough to sign onto that fraud needs watching, not the power that comes with elective office. And yes, dear reader, that includes NJ Gov Chris Christie. Huntsman’s done. Good riddance,  Idiot.
  • When Unions Lose, America Wins:You may recall I mentioned last week briefly the subject of Verizon, versus the unions… The Unions lost.  [6]
  • The Band Played On: [7]It is said that while the Titanic was sinking the band, figuring they were going to die anyway, decided to continue playing.  The last song they played was “Nearer My God to Thee”. President Obama, meanwhile, while his country continues to wallow and falter under his policies, continues to play golf.  Now just recently, the white house issued a ban on cameras at these events.  Obviously the president does not want the image of him playing golf while everyone suffers publicized.  It hurts his image.  Thank god for Fox News:
  • All according to plan? I repeatedly made the charge that the failure of America has always been the plan of the Obama administration.  And Obama, himself, in particular.  Perhaps that’s why he’s not all that worried about it, and as demonstrated above, continues to play golf and other celebratory things.  (As an example, did you know that there have been more concerts in the White House [8]since Obama infested it, than there has been at Madison square garden for the same period?  )  Another point that came up in my reading just a day from Billy Beck….

    If, during a war, an enemy were able to knock twenty percent of America’s coal-fired electrical generation offline, it would be regarded as a major strategic strike.

    Yet, this is precisely what the Obama and administration set out to do and has done. [9] This is nothing more less than part and parcel of the left, and its war on reliable energy.  It’s also a major reason for our economic doldrums at the moment.  That, too, is according to plan. Does anyone aside from the left think that a 20% reduction in generating capacity is not going to cause a serious issues? Let’s remember, we’re already dealing with rolling blackouts [10]across the country this summer. And maybe, just maybe, that’s why Costco decided to remove the car chargers from its parking lots [11].  Apparently, they figure the cost is going to be too high and /or somebody figured out that there is a coal fired plant at the other end of electrical cord.  Turns out nobody was buying the things anyway.

    It’s down to the point now of some in the left recognizing publicly, that they have been had, big time. Consider the comments of Walter Russell Mead: [12]

    The belief that green jobs would drive a new era of American prosperity was — like the large majority of green policy chat — intellectually incoherent. The goods that drive renewable energy industries, like so much else in this world, are far cheaper to construct in Asia.

    Of course, there’s a reason for that, it’s called the EPA. Mead goes on:

    It’s understandable and even forgivable that a political candidate would talk about green jobs on the hustings, especially when the Democratic Party is divided between job hungry blue collar workers and fastidious greens who break out in hives in the presence of coal. What worries me isn’t that the President’s team advised him to make a few speeches on this subject; if a candidate can’t throw chum to the base now and then what’s the point of having elections? What worries me is that they didn’t understand that making something this bogus a central plank of his actual governing plan on an issue as vital as jobs would have serious costs down the road.
    Many liberals want green jobs to exist so badly that they don’t fully grasp how otherworldly and ineffectual this advocacy makes the President look to unemployed meat packers and truck drivers.

    That’s very true, but there’s a reason behind that as well; it’s because the Red-Green left, really doesn’t care about such people, all posturing to the contrary aside. All they care about is making the world safe for their Prius. Essentially what we have is with these now is what it always has been…. Unenlightened self interest. They don’t care about America’s success. In fact most of them would much rather we DIDN’T succeed. That’s the dirty little secret and explains why once liberals gain power, American doesn’t succeed. Mead continues:

    Green jobs are the Democratic equivalent of Tree of Life Medicare; they scratch every itch of every important segment of the base and if they actually existed they would be an excellent policy choice. But since they are no more available to solve our jobs problem than the Tree of Life stands ready to make health care affordable, a green jobs policy boils down to a promise to feed the masses on tasty unicorn ribs from the Great Invisible Unicorn Herd that only the greens can see.

    So it always has been. So it always will be, and in far more than just energy policy. Can we point to the similarities in the way the left views health care, as an example?

    I grant that this argument makes the idea that Obama is simply incompetent, more believable. I don’t think it’s so. As I’ve said many times, now… Obama knows very well what he’s doing. He knows very well, even if they do not, that leftist policies as espoused by the people who worked so hard to elect him to office, are destructive to America. So they have been, and here we are. And the obvious is taking it’s toll… As Mead suggests, Obama no longer has any credibility among the vast majority of people. Witness, his outright abysmal approval ratings. But all of this matters little. He has succeeded in what he set out to do. Obama has his victory, and we have the disaster he intentionally left behind him.

    Now, having just written this, I see David has already made mention of this article. And that’s fine. It means he and I are on the same page. I write my articles mostly offline on my phone and often don’t see what David has cooking until he’s got it posted. I thought about withdrawing my comments but I thought better of that. Consider mine an expansion of David’s thought.

    The truth of the matter is that we are suffering not a string of bad luck, as David so rightly pointed out the other day [13], but we’re suffering under Democrat policies. We are at that point in history, where in the back of heads all over the left, they’re starting to figure out that their policies of the cause of our current dilemma. But, like any true believer anywhere, they’re not ready to admit that, even to themselves. Such is the explanation for the increase in violence, and such is also the collective and collectivist deer in the headlights look on their faces when the question of what we do now, comes up.

  • A Question of Quality: Saying that the state of education in this country is lacking, is something of an obvious statement.  It has been for generations, no.  That’s one reason that America has started to fall behind.  The reason for that of course is, say it with me, the government takeover of education.  As with everything else the government has taken over, save defense , the inefficiencies and simply poor workmanship has overcome all effort.  As a result on educational system is the laughing stock of the entire world.  Has been for several generations now.  And yet, we see the left pushing sex education in government schools. are that issue has come up recently here, in the New York city school system.  The arguments in those systems and in those areas are falling into a fairly predictable patterns.   Glenn runs a post over the weekend by Naomi Schaefer Riley [14], and adds a question which, as with the question posed above,  is both unavoidable, and quite implicative: Will They Be Better At Sex Ed Than At Math Ed? [15]  And the obvious answer, is a resounding “No”. The implications I will commend to you.
  • Photo of the day: [16]