When Soaring Rhetoric Meets Reality

It all well and good to use fancy words and soaring rhetoric.   It even better if you actually know what the words mean, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post:

“It was easy to say, ‘Hey, I support COIN,’ because nobody had done the assessment of what it would really take, and nobody had thought through whether we want to do what it takes,” said one senior civilian administration official who participated in the review, using the shorthand for counterinsurgency.

The failure to reach a shared understanding of the resources required to execute the strategy has complicated the White House’s response to the grim assessment of the war by the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, forcing the president to decide, in effect, what his administration really meant when it endorsed a counterinsurgency plan.

The moron who is our president, Barack Obama, commits to a counterinsurgency plan(COIN) without the first clue what COIN actually means, much less would entail.

Meanwhile, Laura Logan, who has actually has had her boots on the ground in both Iran and Afghanistan,  rips the one, the strutting Delaware Blue Hen and the Obamatards a new one, video:

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Hat tip:  Allah Pundit, Hot Air.

Meanwhile back at Neverland East, the one is now prepared to make nice with the Taliban, from Gateway Pundit:

President Barack Obama is prepared to accept some Taliban involvement in Afghanistan’s political future and appears inclined to send only as many more U.S. troops as needed to keep al-Qaida at bay, a senior administration official said Thursday.

The even the one does not know what he means when says he will accept some Taliban involvement in the Afghanistan government.   Maybe Obama means the Taliban can only stone women on Tuesdays?

The Welcome to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the ‘sphere… This is the BitsBlog Nightly Ramble

This is the Tourist Trap Edition

The picture is shamelessly stolen from the REAL “Tourist Trap” on Hwy 7, Musquodoboit Harbour, Nova Scotia (and modified a bit for the purpose. ) Nope, never been there, but did drive by it once. Charming place, as is the whole area, there.  One day, I’ll go back there. No, I’m not getting money for the mention, just thought I’d be a good soul by way of thanking them for use of the pic… and for the memory of the area.

• IS THE GOP WINNING THE HEALTHCARE DEBATE?
  

  “Just look at how President Barack Obama’s standing has fallen as he has pushed for reform. According to Fox News surveys, the number of independents who oppose health-care reform hit 57% at the end of September, up from 33% in July. Independents are generally a quarter of the vote in off-year congressional elections.

  Among college graduates, opposition to health-care reform is now 50%, while only 33% support it, according to Gallup’s Sept. 24 poll. College graduates are slightly more than a quarter of the off-year electorate.

  

  Karl Rove

  Among seniors, opposition to ObamaCare hit 63% in last month’s Economist/YouGov Poll. But the number from that poll that should spook Democrats is this: 47% of seniors said they “strongly” oppose health-care reform, just 27% “strongly” support it. Seniors are the biggest consumers of health care, and their family members will probably take their concerns seriously. Seniors will likely cast about 20% of the votes next year.

  The trend behind these numbers is that voters are turning away from Democrats”

  I’d say your conclusion is about half right, Karl. It’s true that the Democrats are losing this fight, but I’d say the situation is more due to the Democrats losing, then the Republicans winning. You see, there is a major difference between winning on the virtues of your battle strategy, on the values of your arguments, and winning because the other side is busy destroying themselves.

  Rove goes on to suggest that the numbers are going to get worse for the Democrats if they pass a Healthcare bill. One presumes Rove means ANY healthcare bill.  In my opinion,  quite correct, there. The tax hikes, the cutbacks in services under Medicaid and Medicare, are going to cause even more bloodletting among the Democrats. Says Rove:

  “This battle is far from over. But what Democrats have to keep in mind is that there are two fights going on here—one over health care and another over which party will control Congress after next year’s elections. By waging the first, they may be setting themselves up to lose the second.”

  Maybe. Frankly, though, I’m not quite sure that it matters quite so much to the Democrats going forward. Let’s remember that we are dealing with a President who has stated he would be happy to be a one term president, if he manages to get socialized Healthcare through. He considers it a good trade.  I suspect Democrats as a whole look at things that way, as well.

  Remember….Socialists tend to take the long view on policy matters such as this. What we have here is on the left hand a group of people fighting over the long term for their values, and on the right, a group of people who haven’t figured out what their values are, as yet. The values of the first group are so bad, so destructive to America, that once those values start being implemented, the American voters tend to like the second group better, but not by much. Yes, it’s true, according tot he latest PEW polling, 47% Oppose ObamaCare, 34% Favor Obamacare. Quinnipiac polling which usually favors the left a bit more, shows it as 48% against 47%  for. Thing is, if I’m the GOP, I’m not taking any solace in the recent gains in the polling data.

  As a datapoint, in support of these thoughts, let me offer you former Senator Bob Dole, who has recently come out in support of the government takeover euphemistically referred to as “reform”. The history books tell us that bob Dole lost in his presidential aspirations, and I suggest that’s due in no small part to his utter lack of true conservative principles. The voters.. particularly conservative voters… took one look at him, realized that “Liberal Lite” was just as damaging as Bill and Hillary Clinton, and voted accordingly.

  I would dare to suggest to you that the Republicans would be doing far better if they were actually driven by conservative ideology as the Democrats are liberal ideology.  That means at times working in a hopelessly outnumbered fight. That means instead of offering “improvements” to the Democrat driven Government takeover of healthcare, opposing government interference in the healthcare process outright. Let’s remember what it is we’re supposedly compromising with, all right?

  If we saw Republicans in the long-term strategy mode, working toward conservative American foundational principles, as Democrats are working toward leftist and socialist foundational principles, the Republicans would be in power right now… 2008 would not have been a victory for the Democrats. I suggest that it is time those in the GOP leadership roles were reminded just what conservative American foundational principles are, and were forced to work for them, regardless of what happens in the most immediate election, next.

• THERE IS A POINT AT WHICH CRAZY NO LONGER COMES UP TO THE LEVEL OF WHAT YOU’RE DESCRIBING: And this story would seem to be such a case.
• BOOBIE-THON: Need I say more. A fun deal and a good cause. My favorite subject in High School, come to think of it.
• TROOP MORALE? WHAT TROOP MORALE?: I predicted this the moment the election returns were in. ANd yes, McCain, I think the comparisons to Vietnam quite valid.
• OH, AND DOLLARS TOO: The dollar has dropped to it’s lowest level in 14 months. Hope and Change in action.

Most people will remember, I think… at least those not ‘educated’ at government schools… that Hiroshima was hit by a bomb at the end of world war two… and we’ve all seen some of the destruction wrought by that attack. Just as a reminder, here’s a few pics of the aftermath. Remember in all cases you can click on the pic to get the better resolution. Warning: Some are quite large.

You get the idea. Now, let’s look at Hiroshima, today.

OK. Now having look at what’s happened over the last 60 odd  years in Hiroshima, let’s look at Detroit. Detroit is a union/Democrat dominated town.  Let’s start by looking at what the place looked like 60 years or so ago.

Now, let’s look at the Detroit of today after 60 years of liberal/Democrat/Union rule.

Well, I’m sure you get the idea. So is liberalism more destructive the the Hiroshima bomb? I don’t know. I don’t know at all. But I can tell you this….I wouldn’t want to be the one arguing against the idea.

I only used part of the list of pics I collected for this peice.  Here’s the rest… I’ve put them together in link  size. You can click on them to view them full size, if you like.

“In recent years an ongoing debate has brewed over advertisers and fashion magazines using photographs, particularly photographs of women, that have seemingly been altered, or “retouched,” by airbrushing and photo editing software such as Photoshop. The latest such image to cause an uproar is one featured in a new Ralph Lauren advertisement that shows a model, Filippa Hamilton, so emaciated that her waist actually appears to be smaller than her head.”  Read more at Yahoo’s SHINE

If you thought that parade of Hollywood perverts was long, it just got longer, video:

Hat tip and more,  Fausta:

Somehow I had managed to not know about Mackenzie Phillips’s heroin addiction and her 10-yr long incestuous sexual relation with her own father.

Ten years. The word wrong doesn’t begin to describe it.

Phillips is one sick chick.

One sick puppy, via Gateway Pundit:

Levi Johnston is going for the ultimate exposure—his bare body.

Posing nude for Playgirl is next for the 19-year-old father of Sarah Palin’s grandchild. Johnston’s attorney, Rex Butler, said Wednesday that a formal agreement has not been reached with the online magazine but adds it’s a “foregone conclusion” it will happen.

So how this for the perfect couple, the sick chick and the sick puppy,  Mackenzie Phillips and Levi Johnston?  Not a shred of moral fiber in either one.

BTW: Fausta suggests that is time for Oprah’s parade of perverts to end, and for real folks to simply tune out.   Amen.

Welcome, one and all to the most intense nightly read on the sphere; The BitsBlog Nightly Ramble

• GOOD NEWS BAD NEWS: The good news is, Obama has decided against a large reduction of forces in Afghanistan. Bad news is, he’s not ruled out a small one, and this move seems to be leaning away from what his commanders on the ground are asking for… more troops. Then again perhaps I shouldn’t worry… All Obama’s promises have an expiration date on them.
• BILL AYERS ADMIT WRITING “DREAMS OF MY FATHER”: So, that’s that. and all that. My original call on this stuff was correct. The question is, will the statement be denied by the White House? Or will it simply be ignored, to allow the Obama- Friendly press to ignore it?
• MORE ON GOVERNMENT CRACKING DOWN ON BLOGS: At PJTV
• No Republicans Watch Olbermann So says Jammie Wearing Fool. Thing is, the numbers say hardly anyone else does, either.
• ATTENTION NRCC: Yes, I was in on that conference call you threw last evening.  The one thing I can honestly say I was impressed by, was how impressive it was.  The one thing that I did not hear enough of, not nearly enough, was a push to remove government from the Healthcare process.  That is what Republicans need to be focusing on.  If you want my attention in the future, you will do precisely that.  Oh.. and keeping your own in line to that end. Like for example, these willing tools.  And yes, they’re outside the purview of the NRCC, but maybe it’s time you stopped fighting with the RNC Chair and working with him to those ends  End  of conversation.
• Honorable Mention @ OTB’s Caption Contest
• THE JOBS RATE IS THE THING: So says Bruce:
  

  Neil King thinks the unemployment rate will be on of the keys to outcomes in 2010.

  “Unemployment is the leading economic indicator when it comes to politics,” said Democratic pollster Peter Hart. “Anytime unemployment hits double digits, it’s hard to see the party in control having a good election year.”

  Economists generally predict that the number of people out of work will continue to inch up next year, even if the economy begins to rebound. Most see the jobless rate peaking at around 10.5% in the summer. Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said Sunday that his own hunch was that the economy would turn around over coming months, but that unemployment would “penetrate the 10% barrier and stay there for a while before we start down.”

  

  Bruce McQuain

  As Dale has noted, if we were calculating unemployment as we did in 1974, we’d be in the 17% area. That means a lot of voters are hurting and the one place they can voice their displeasure is at the ballot box.

  True nuff, Bruce. I think you’re right, about the other points you bring up as well , Afghanistan being one problem, health care actually being passed in whatever form being another that will bring the democrats down, and so on.  But what I have not seen anybody dare to do yet, is question the way those unemployment numbers are being portrayed.  I mean, it’s not like Democrats to throw faulty numbers around to back their position, is it, really?  And let’s remember, who it was who decided not to continue counting the people who are just decided to give up looking for a job … if I’m not much mistaken it was in fact the Carter administration.  If anyone were to bring all that up, it would most certainly add more fuel to the fire that is currently burning under the democrat run Congress and White House.  2010 is going to be a banner year for shift away from the Democrat party.  What is left is the question of how much of a shift.  If the other question being how much of that shift can be carried to 2012?

AFT, the cows,  to wit NOW, finally grow a pair:

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The National Organization for Women has sharply criticized comedian David Letterman, accusing him of promoting a hostile, uncomfortable work environment.

“The latest Letterman controversy sheds new light on the widespread objectification of women in the workplace,” NOW said in a statement Tuesday. “Most women can attest to the fact that many workplaces are plagued with inappropriate behavior by men in power.”

Congratulations to the cows for  finally standing up for women.   Start doing so on a regular basis, I am might start showing a bit of respect.

It may the greatest love the world has ever seen, Barack Obama’s enormous and passionate love for himself.  Jennifer Rubin, Commentary:

Jenifer Rubin

This is, of course, nothing new. Obama’s entire presidential campaign was constructed on nonsensical rhetoric and an inflated sense of his own fabulousness. From “We are the change we have been waiting for” to the embarrassing Berlin rally to the knee-jerk “I am not George W. Bush” approach to nearly every issue of national security — it’s all been about him. And he has a remarkable lack of ideas and facts to impart.

Sadly it would be easier for the rest of to love Obama if he would but just accomplish something.

Welcome one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the sphere… the BitsBlog Nightly Ramble

• OBAMACARE PR STUNT FAIL: Charles Hurt at The New York Post
  

  WASHINGTON — President Obama yesterday rolled out the red carpet — and handed out doctors’ white coats as well, just so nobody missed his hard-sell health-care message.

  In a heavy-handed attempt at reviving support for health-care reform, the White House orchestrated a massive photo op to buttress its claim that front-line physicians support Obama.

  A sea of 150 white-coated doctors, all enthusiastically supportive of the president and representing all 50 states, looked as if they were at a costume party as they posed in the Rose Garden before hearing Obama’s pitch for the Democratic overhaul bills moving through Congress.

  They’ve got vid of the thing, too. Does anyone not understand that lab coats at the White House is a theatrical thing? Heavy handed is right. One point that bothers me, here is that the doctors in question… if doctors they are… were willing tools in this ruse.

• NO DOUBT WHAT SIDE OBAMA IS ON after cutting off funding to Iranian Human Rights documentation. Whom is it, do you suppose, he’s protecting here?
• JAMMIE WEARING FOOL STRIKES BACK AT CBS: and does a decent job of it, too.
• CONTROLLING THE BLOGGERS: This is how limits on free speech start, people. Make no mistake about this.
• WATCH WHERE YOU PUT THOSE LEAVES: Boom.
• BUMPER STICKER OF THE DAY: If you can read this,  I’ve lost the trailer.

Update! Link to podcast of today’s show!

Last Tuesday (September 29), I hosted the second half of Tim Albrecht’s program “The Bean Walker Live!” on Des Moines Local Live, and today begins 3 weeks of hosting the program in full while Tim concentrates on getting married!

On today’s show, during the first hour I will have Shane Vander Hart from Serve Our Youth Network to share about the volunteer opportunities they have and how they cooperate with local government to impact the lives of high-risk kids in the Des Moines Metro area.

During the second hour, Connie Schmett from Polk County (Iowa) Republicans will join us to talk about the upcoming Fall Dinner at Living History Farms this Sunday featuring the Iowa Republican Gubernatorial Candidates. We will also talk about some of the big issues in state and federal government this week.

Here’s a link to the podcast of last week’s show.

What Barack Obama says about climate change is just not so:, Dr. Tim Ball, Canada Free Press:

Amid the rhetoric of President Obama’s speech to the United Nations September 22 conference on climate change in New York he repeated the same few points. They’re identical to those in Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth.” Trouble is they are wrong. So, what is the President’s culpability? If he doesn’t know they’re wrong he and his advisors are incompetent. If they know, they’re deceiving.

Is it incompetence, or indifference to the truth?

Welcome one and all to the most intense night read anywhere on the sphere… The BitsBlog Nightly Ramble

• POLANSKI: Glenn Reynolds says in a Washington Examiner column over the weekend:
  

  “Technologically and market-wise, Hollywood is in the weakest position it’s ever been, and yet it is also more arrogant than it was in its Golden Age.”

  That’s true enough.  I have to say also that if the reaction to the Polanski affair (you should pardon the unintentional pun) is of any significance it demonstrates that Hollywood has become successful at disconnecting itself from mainstream America more fully than at any time in its history.  I also have to say that I have my disagreements with Allahpundit… but this has to be the best line ever on this whole thing.

  “Word on the street: Polanski’s next film is so good, Europe’s going to let him bang an eight-year-old. It’s THAT GOOD.”

  BBCT: Billy Beck, who also points up a quite in the LA Times from Harvey Weinstein:

  “Hollywood has the best moral compass, because it has compassion.”

  You know what, Harvey? You went and stepped in that, and so you can walk through it now.

  Indeed.  And what, I ask, in that context, is “compassionate conservatism”?  Remember that when we talk about centerism, and centrist reform, that Polanski and his defenders are the kind of people we are compromising our values with .  These are the people were supposed to be coming to some kind of consensus with.  You’ll forgive me if I abstain from that monstrosity.

  Meanwhile, it is interesting to note the level to which some of the Polanski defenders will go to.

• Denmark Disaster, MarkII: Both David and myself commented over the weekend, on the costly disaster in Denmark in front of the IOC .  Over at National Review, Jim Geraghty passes on a reader comment that I think cuts to the quick of the matter: (It doesn’t except well, so I’ll just post the reader quote and beg forbearance from the NRO crew)
  

  There’s actually something worrisome about this whole Chicago fiasco, and it goes back to President Obama’s inexperience. Diplomacy 101 tells us that your head of state only shows up on the high-profile stage when a deal is complete. The lesson that most politicians learn well before they gain positions of power is that diplomacy is done by diplomats, professionals who work through all the negotiations and the hardball tactics and the carrot/stick combinations. The principals in the matter gather to discuss high-level topics and to smile for the cameras as the agreement is being signed. Heads of state do not conduct diplomacy, they ratify it, and surprises are entirely unwelcome at those summits and signing events (hence Reagan’s anger in Iceland.)Why were you and Ramesh surprised? Because you thought that President Obama at least knew this very basic lesson. Today’s announcement suggests that he does not, and it just got advertised big-time to countries who already were pretty sure we had a rookie at the helm who didn’t know how to use international power. President Obama just got upstaged by an organization against whom no retaliation is acceptable, and he wants to meet with the Iranians next month? We are in deep, deep trouble.

  The loss of political capital here is not just for Obama himself, but for the country as well.  And, yes, I think it a very serious matter.  The readers points about Iran, are spot on.  And worse… Iran knows it. Not only that, but they also know that this administration has been quite willing to be conciliatory in the extreme to begin with.  The conciliatory position along with a lack of any experience in diplomatic matters makes us a extraordinarily weak and any bargaining table that Obama choses to point our country toward with Iran, or anyone else, and the ‘anyone else’ part of that comment is the larger message, here.  Our international troubles do not start or end with Iran.  It just happens to be the hottest spot in a long list of such.

  Perhaps the best comment comes from Larry Sabato, at Politico who says in part:

  Let me get this straight. The White House puts a new President’s prestige on the line, flies POTUS, the First Lady, and half of the administration to Europe to underline the importance of the gambit—and then Chicago finishes fourth—dead last—in the Olympics voting? Will anyone’s head roll for causing Obama this acute embarrassment on the international stage?

  Political capital is a precious commodity. It is never to be wasted. That’s why many have been questioning whether Obama is making too many media appearances, lessening the importance of each one. And that’s why almost every observer will wonder how the White House got snookered into Olympics-gate—an unnecessary humiliation that will be on the permanent list of losses for this Presidency.

  While Sabato seems willing to write this off totally as a case of  inexperience, I think it more a case of that combined with an insurmountable arrogance on the part of this administration. At the very time when we need serious leadership what we have is Obama.  The Reader is quite right.  We are in deep, deep trouble.

• ANOTHER STIMULUS? I’m sitting here reading the print edition of the Wall Street Journal this morning and frankly I don’t see any publicly excess a bowl link on their web page to these facts, but the paper reports that the economic recovery that we’ve experienced, such as it is here and the states, isn’t due to Washington’s stimulus spending at all, but rather it is because a free market economy and the resilience thereof.  This is remarkable given the usually quite liberal slant that the news pages of the Journal.I see were ill and Greenspan spent a good deal of time warning us against a second stimulus package.  For one thing he makes the salient point that only 40% of the money that was dedicated to the purpose is actually been spent.  Then, of course, is the issue of what got spent where.  That point aside, it seems clear that Greenspan is not pleased with the prospect of the White House dumping even more deadly than money into the coffers of his political friends.Not that it makes all that much difference to the White House, who is apparently still trying to figure out how to split the second stimulus package into the mix without calling it a second stimulus package. Typical Democrat ploy.  If someone doesn’t like a program that you like, simply change the name of it, and all’s well with the world. John Thune suggests that perhaps it’s time for a TARP exit strategy. I think he’s right, but that idea won’t make it past the front gate of this White House.  You know it and I know it.
• THE CASE AGAINST CHARLIE RANGEL: From The New York Post… worth a read. But of course I only say that because I’m a racist.  :-/  You KNOW that charge is going to come up, right?
• COMMANDERS? Several have commented that under Biush it was “I’ll listen to the commanders on the ground”. With Obama, it’s “How dare the commanders on the ground speak?” Jenifer Rubin looks at the situation and quips...” Well, it IS change”.
• DEFENDING THE AMERICAN DREAM: If you didn’t make the Defending the American Dream Summit this year, you can read what happened and see lots of pics from the event here
• HEY ANN, SITYS: Attention Ann Althouse: This stuff ain’t rocket science.
  

  The most striking thing in the movie was the religion. I think Moore is seriously motivated by Christianity. He says he is (and has been since he was a boy). And he presented various priests, Biblical quotations, and movie footage from ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ to make the argument that Christianity requires socialism. With this theme, I found it unsettling that in attacking the banking system, Moore presented quite a parade of Jewish names and faces. He never says the word ‘Jewish,’ but I think the anti-Semitic theme is there. We receive long lectures about how capitalism is inconsistent with Christianity, followed a heavy-handed array of — it’s up to you to see that they are — Jewish villains.

  The Great Rotundo himself is a socialist, albeit, ironically,  a rich one. When he starts talking like a liberation theologist,  which by the way we identified him has as back on the old Blogspot blog, we know where that’s all coming from. Wikipedia:

  Liberation Theologians use political theory, primarily Marxism, to help understand how to combat poverty. Some elements of certain liberation theologies have been rejected by leaders of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church over the last 30 years.^[1] At its inception, liberation theology was predominantly found in the Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council. It is sometimes regarded as a form of Christian socialism, and it has enjoyed widespread influence in Latin America and among the Jesuits, although its influence diminished within Catholicism after liberation theologians using Marxist concepts were harshly admonished by Pope John Paul II (leading to the curtailing of its growth)

  So first of all, anyone who is worth Moore’s time, by his lights, must be a socialist. … No wonder he supports Obama, and labels him a socialist.  As for the Jewish angle, good point. Let’s recall, shall we, what happened to the jews under Stalin and Hitler… unarguably, both socialists.   And as for the movie? Flop.

• BUMPER STICKER OF THE DAY: (Seen on a horse trailer) I’m having a bad mare day.

“Zbigniew Brzezinski says that a central consideration for President Barack Obama, as he faces an agonizing choice over Afghanistan, is what happened to the Russians in the 1980s and after they were driven out in 1989.  Mr. Brzezinski’s views deserve attention. Few policy makers have studied Afghanistan as long…”
Read more at NYTimes Letter from Washington

I don’t care for George Will as a political pundit.   However Will is a  person who has demonstrated a mastery of the beauty and power of the English Language.  Whereas Barack Obama as a politician makes his living using which he does not understand.    Obama is long a rhetoric, but short on achevement.     Will exposes the danger of Obama rhetoric, video:

Hat tip:  Noel Sheppard, Newsbusters.

Suppose I were trying sell you a car.   Should explain what the car will do for you, or should I  gloat over what my commission will do for my bank account?  As the one would pay to remember, there is no “I” in Leader.

Scott Fybush is reporting this morning the death of Jim Nettleton.

Diamond” Jim Nettleton began his broadcast career in Pottstown, then got his big breaks in Connecticut – in Waterbury, New Haven (WAVZ), and most of all in Hartford, where he did afternoons at WDRC in the mid-sixties. He quickly moved south to Philadelphia’s WFIL (560), where he was the “Boss Jock” holding down afternoon drive during one of the decade’s most prominent top-40 radio wars, which pitted WFIL against “Wibbage,” WIBG (990).

Nettleton moved on to overnights at New York’s WABC in 1969, but he continued to be heard in Philadelphia via voicetracks for WCAU-FM (98.1). In 1971, WABC dismissed Nettleton due to the perceived conflict with his work for CBS-owned WCAU-FM, at which point Nettleton went across tow to WPIX-FM.

I never met him, but I learned a lot from just listening to him work, and listen to him I did… and often, particularly when he was  WABC’s huge Westinghouse signal from Lodi NJ.   He was one of the Kings of the radio profession… and by all reports, a consummate professional.  Jim was a poetic 69 years old.