Does Reality Have Relevance?

Does it make a difference any more what the facts are? Can we simply say whatever we feel like and regardless of the truth, if it hits an emotional hot button do we fall swooning at the feet of the Bamster? Catch this clinker:

Valerie Jarrett Gives Sermon: Jesus is Her Boss and Satan is the GOP

Should we give her a pass for failure to notice that two out of the three years of her administration were blessed with a heavy Democrat majority in both chambers of the legislature? OK, let's ignore that for a moment.

How about this then:

"Teachers, and firefighters, and policemen, whose jobs are now in jeopardy because Congress--well let me be specific--because the Republicans in Congress," Jarrett told the crowd. According to the CBS affiliate in Atlanta, at this point, "Before she could finish her sentence, people in the congregation were laughing, and applauding."

Teachers, firefighters and policemen work for which department of the federal government? Oh, they don't work for the feds? So the Congress doesn't have a bloody thing to do with their jobs?

That's right, kiddies! Teachers get paid by your local school district funded by your local ad valorem property taxes. In most states there is a significant chunk paid by the state through their tax structure, mostly sales taxes and license fees. The federal government tosses in an average of 8-10% of total school funding and that is mostly through payment for school lunches!

Firefighters and police work for cities. They are metropolitan government employees. They aren't hired, fired or funded by the feds.

Will no one stand up and challenge this sort of drivel?

Scraping Bottom

I'll be the first to admit that Fighter Pilots are not a community of saints. We wouldn't even qualify as reasonably dissipated alcoholic monks. We can get raunchy and maybe even under the  right conditions set records for profanity. But there is a time and a place for such things.

Prime time television isn't that place. At least it shouldn't be.

But we seem to demand it in our entertainment. If we can't descend into middle school scatological commentary about bodily functions, wink-wink, nudge-nudge, then we simply aren't entertained.

Golden Globes Cover Rotting Fruit

The total loss of American sophistication, culture and dignity seem to be proceeding at an accelerating pace.

Bad Zoot, Bad

Are You Ready For Some Football?

Can you still have any adrenaline left after yesterday's playoff games?

The final minutes of the Saints-49ers was unbelievable. If we are to believe that there was a divine interest in the game that might merit intervention the shock was that it didn't link to Tim Tebow. That game was an entirely different story.

Tebow did his best but the rest of the Denver Broncos apparently took the weekend off. Tom Brady returned from his four year hiatus into mediocrity to flash the precision and skill which had begun to look as though it had burned out. If the Pats bring that next week, we're going to have a memorable Super Bowl.

Barring an upset this afternoon, I'm thinking Pack v Pats on the big day and I couldn't begin to make a prediction on who might take the hardware home from Indianapolis.

This Pretty Well Sums It Up

For Hillary and Leon and the Bamster and all of the rest of the bleeding heart main-stream media:

Unless You Walk In Their Shoes STFU!

Dead is dead. You don't get more dead by someone acting upon your body. Stupid is stupid, but that's all it is.

Saturday Morning Rocker

Still my favorite. Hard pressed to find a better rocker, writer and creative artist.

Is the Warrior Ethic Still Viable

The author of this piece is Dr. John Lehman, former Secretary of the Navy. He writes about what is occurring in the Naval Aviation community and he does it with great insight.

Recently there have been numerous items circulating with similar themes. It isn't unique to the Navy. The Air Force has a parallel if not identical issue.

At first I simply wrote it off as just another circulation of military griping. We did it in the immediate post-Vietnam era as the adjustment to peacetime operations required a bit of throttling back. We saw it during the mid-'80s with the now famous "Dear Boss" letter. It came around again ten years ago with an update of the "Dear Boss" to current issues, but still the same problem. Now it is top-level Boss writing about the problem in the hope that maybe a cultural epiphany could still save the spirit.

Where Warriors and Why Military Politicos?

Is this just griping?

I don't think so. In the last two months I got to visit a couple of places. In one I saw young students, eager and aggressive, competitive and professional seeking to continue with the heritage of military aviation. They were not only US, but NATO allies. Students and instructors alike were a slice of free-world military aviation. They had the spirit. The mentioned old jets, but they had what they needed and they knew how to get the most out of it.

Then I saw a USAF operational training base. The facilities were amazing compared to the period when I thought we had it pretty good. But within 36 hours I could tell the jets were tired, the crews were over-tasked, the leadership was frustrated and at all levels they looked to a dismal future. They saw cut-backs in modernization and protracted high op-tempo. They saw pending assignments to drone ops. They saw a promotion system that rewarded yes-men and punished warriors. They saw arbitrary rulings and stifling of e'sprit without any justification.  They were a grim force, simply hanging on.

Fighter pilots are different. Some say better, some say worse. Some say arrogant others call it confident. Some say immature, others say aggressive. All say that they prevail even when it seems impossible. Will they? It seems impossible again.

Figures Lie/Liars Figure

I often took the stat on those poor Americans languishing without healthcare coverage and used it in class to demonstrate the need to question everything. That concept is core to understanding politics in America. Just because someone gives you a number and it seems to indicate an outrage which must be corrected does not necessarily mean that is the fact.

The folks without healthcare coverage were variously estimated at between 30 and 40 million Americans. There are a number of ways to parse that statistic to bring it down to a figure which represents the truly indigent, but let's just take the median, 35 million. Do you realize that then means 280 million Americans are covered by various healthcare plans?

Or the terrible statistic that Texas ranks in the lowest five states in per-capita funding for public education (K-12). Actually, that number applies to state subsidy of K-12 and the state really ranks  near the top 10 for total tax support per-capita since the state only pays about 38% of school budgets, the feds about 9% and the majority comes from local district property tax. But the real question is, do dollars spent equate with quality of education provided? And maybe equally important, does a dollar spent in Texas buy as much as a dollar spent in Chicago or New York or Washington DC? Whether the statistic is true or not, the relevance to the issue is negligible.

Numbers don't lie, but sometimes numbers don't respond to the question which was asked.

That is why this item is so interesting:

Racism, Redlining, and Redistribution

Sometimes apparently, the numbers tell a story that really doesn't have much of a plot.

Keep that in mind next time a statistic gets you all outraged and ready to take to the streets and storm the Bastille.

Dark Day in Dublin

When you move to Texas, shortly after you learn about the Alamo, Goliad and San Jacinto you progress to the Texas Rangers, Bonnie and Clyde, Ma & Pa Ferguson and by the second week you get to the intense study of Dr. Pepper.

If you go into a bar or restaurant and they don't have Dr. Pepper, simply turn around and walk back out. You have stumbled into a joint that also dishes out that salsa from "New Yawk City!"

Dr. Pepper was invented in Texas. Like all good things it eventually came to the attention of the subordinate states and inevitably a multi-mega-conglomerate bought up the name, the recipe and the distribution rights. That meant profit over quality and franchise limitations to insure that quality might not interfere should some upstart challenge the system.

That upstart is the place where Dr. Pepper started. It is the bottler in Dublin TX, a typical small town west of Ft. Worth along US 377. They held a franchise and it specified that they could distribute in a six county area. They were purists and they continued to make Dr. P the old-fashioned way with pure cane sugar rather than corn syrup. Not surprisingly you can taste the difference.

Fans of Dublin Dr. Pepper sought the real thing. The Dublin bottler obliged and filled orders from outside their authorized county limits. The corporate gods looked down from on high and declared that goodness was not part of the contract and must stop!

As with the Borg, resistance was futile. This morning we have this sad announcement:

Dublin Dr. Pepper Passes Away

Flags will be at half-staff throughout the state. Store shelves will be cleaned out. Legacy bottles will be bequeathed to grand-children who may open them for special occasions in years to come.

It's a sad day in Texas.

It Isn't Fair

Before you follow the link, let me acknowledge that the criticism isn't fair. Much of it is media hype. Much of it is bad timing. Some of it is erroneous reporting. But let's also note that a lot of it is simply an aloof disregard for the impression an act will create:

Five "Let Them Eat Cake" Moments

A President has incredible responsibility. He deserves time off with his family. He must have security and communications support. Any movement of the chief executive is going to incur costs.

But there are also impressions which will be created. When the economy is booming, the world is stable, America is riding the crest of a wave, then it is hardly noticeable when the President spends a week at his ranch chopping wood, riding his horse or having dinner with some friends and supporters.

When the economy is in shambles, when people are out of work, when threats to world peace and the existence of allies are immediate, then a bit of judgment might be appropriate.

Should a First Family be dressing up in fantasy costumes with a hundred Hollywood high rollers as the jobless rate plumbs new depths?

Should the First Lady be commandeering entire floors of five star luxury hotels on the Spanish coast simply because she can?

Is it reasonable for a chief executive of a democratic republic to take a Boeing 747 to Chicago or New York for a dinner date?

Was it really too tough for Michelle and the girls to wait four hours before departing for Martha's Vineyard?

It isn't fair to pick on them, but it is fair to look for a bit of awareness of what their behavior looks like to the rest of the nation. This sort of behavior did not fare well for Marie Antoinette nor the Romanovs.

Not For Fetching Groceries

I'm not sure what to put on the CD player. I got rid of all my CDs. Doesn't it have a iPod or MP3 harness? I think I'll shop elsewhere.

Biertijd.com // Media » Bugatti Veyron Super Sport Amazing 431km/h

Do remember to pop this up to full-screen view.

Fascinating History

Have you wondered why we don't see as many politicians running on a gun-control platform? Maybe the polling has revealed that there is a trend.

Animated Chart of Concealed Carry 1986-2011

If that doesn't tell you what Americans from sea to shining sea think about their Second Amendment you aren't paying attention.

Decisive Outcome

The "Who Cares Bowl" was played last night to determine the national championship of college football and the answer was clear and decisive. Of the two teams playing, it was "none of the above."

The team that came in ranked #1 in the nation displayed no ability to run the ball, no ability to pass the ball and little or no defense. They had no stars, no dynamics and little more than a high school level competence with regard to avoiding simple penalties.

Their opponent, showed that despite mediocre defense they still could not get the ball inside field goal range for most of the game and even then they could not always execute that basic play from normal range with consistency. Their defense offered little in the way of sacks or picks.

It was a game without stars. There was no premier quarterback. I didn't see an exciting running back or an amazing receiver. No linebackers distinguished themselves, no safeties made incredible plays and the kicking game was ho-hum.

The previous game was equally ho-hum when these teams met except the other team came out on top when time mercifully expired. Now we've got a 1-1 record at the end of the season. So who is the real national champion? Neither of these two sad organizations is a definitive champion. The BCS has clearly failed to perform its primary function. Is there a National Champion for the 2011 season? There might be, but it sure isn't either of these. Would a match-up with Oklahoma State or Stanford or Wisconsin or even Baylor have been more entertaining. I can't possibly doubt it. This was of the level of laying on your back and looking at the ceiling to watch flies fornicate.