LEE RODGERSOBAMA'S DELAY OF BIN LADEN ATTACK
REVEALED ...
SEND JOE OUT TO PLAY WHILE ADULTS PLOT ...
LIES, DAMNED LIES AND STATISTICS
SEND JOE OUT TO PLAY WHILE ADULTS PLOT ...
LIES, DAMNED LIES AND STATISTICS
Happy Seis de Mayo! -- for those running a little late.
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Unsurprising news comes now ... news from General Jack Keane (Retired), the former Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, telling Mike Huckabee on Fox News that Barack Obama knew about Osama Bin Laden’s hideout since the summer of 2010 but wouldn't act until months later, and then only after composing a memo that would place the blame on the military should the raid be unsuccessful. Our hero!
There's abundant speculation that he only approved the raid out of fear that the several military officers who knew about bin Laden's whereabouts would go public if Obama failed to act. Given his behavior pattern, why wouldn't there be such speculation? Perhaps he'd previously chosen to believe that Osama bin Laden was a composite, fictional person. You know -- like his college girlfriend.
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Now comes word -- from the NY Times, yet -- that VP Joe Biden is not invited to sit in on Obama's campaign strategy meetings. No surprise, really. Who'd want that blabbering fool involved in any serious discussion, anyway?
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Oh, goodie! Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway company doubled its profits in the first quarter, with the increase coming largely from his railroad, Burlington Northern Santa Fe.
Of course, it always helps when you have a White House occupant protecting that railroad's profits largely based on transporting oil from Canada by killing competition from the proposed Keystone pipeline that would have moved the oil south to U. S. Gulf Coast refineries for a fraction of the price.
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Just in case you haven't already figured it out, John Crudele (NY Post) explains how the Obama thugocracy is cooking the books on employment figures ...
"The federal government told you (Friday) that the jobs market in April was lackluster — that payrolls expanded by just 115,000, much less than Wall Street expected.
"The anemic number then spooked investors, which sent the Dow Jones industrial average down 168.32.
"I’m here to tell you that the labor picture in April wasn’t even that good.
"Sure the unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent from 8.2 percent, but that was because the percentage of working-age folks looking for a job fell to 63.6 percent in April — the lowest level in 31 years!
"The others have given up looking for work."
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Credit to economics editor and columnist James Pethokoukis for pointing out the obvious: When Barack Obama took office, 65.7% of the work force was employed. Today it is 63.6% today, thus the real unemployment rate is 11.1%.
Even the NY Times adds substance to the unemployment argument with this: "Confronting the worst job market in decades, many college graduates who expected to land paid jobs are turning to unpaid internships to try to get a foot in an employer’s door."
And that growth in unpaid intern jobs has expanded into more and more industries that have not resorted to the practice in the past.
It's really very simple: You know ... I know ... any mildly perceptive person knows ... that our economy is a disaster, and all of Obama's wasteful "stimulus" nostrums have failed. It's as if we've put a six-year-old in charge of the family budget.
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Here's another take on Obama's fictional, composite campaign woman, Julia. Read the following quote before proceeding to the surprise source at the end ...
"She’s an everywoman only by the standards of the liberal upper middle class: She works as a Web designer, has her first child in her early 30s (the average first-time American mother is in her mid-20s), and spends her golden years as a “volunteer at a community garden.” (It will not surprise you to learn that the cartoon Julia looks Caucasian.)
"What’s more, she seems to have no meaningful relationships apart from her bond with the Obama White House: no friends or siblings or extended family, no husband ('Julia decides to have a child,' is all the slide show says), a son who disappears once school starts and parents who only matter because Obamacare grants her the privilege of staying on their health care plan until she’s 26. This lends the whole production a curiously patriarchal quality, with Obama as a beneficent Daddy Warbucks and Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan co-starring as the wicked uncles threatening to steal Julia’s inheritance."
The surprising source of this analysis which effectively ridicules the whole contrivance? Ross Douthat, NEW YORK TIMES.
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Ho-hum department: Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, who attracted no serious attention during his brief run for the Republican presidential nomination, is going to be the Libertarian Party candidate.
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If I had a father, son, daughter, brother, husband, wife ... killed or injured in Afghanistan, I'd be demanding an answer to one question from the parasitic slugs we call "leaders": For WHAT?
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The no-strings single life may be fine for some people, but overall and on average, it carries a "single penalty" as opposed to the "marriage premium." Janice Shaw Crouse with a couple of reasons ...
"Economists refer to the economic benefit that accrues to married couples as the 'marriage premium.' A recent CBS television special asked the question, 'Why is marriage such an economic turn-on?' The program 'MoneyWatch' gave three reasons based on a report from the Pew Research Center’s report, 'Women, Men and the New Economics of Marriage':
"Economies of scale: Married couples share the cost of necessary expenses, such as health insurance, utility bills and mortgage payments. That is especially significant today when more than two-thirds of men have working spouses and 22 percent of wives make more than their husbands.
"Married couples earn more: From 1970 to 2007, the median household income for married couples rose more than incomes for unmarried couples. The mutual support that couples give each other and their mutual stake in the relationship means they work together toward their financial goals." -- (Washington Times) --
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Big news for solar power advocates! A solar-powered catamaran boat has completed an around-the-world voyage. Of course, it took a year and eight months ...
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John Parker (co-author, Best of Our Lives -- available on the internet) voices frustration ...
"'We can’t ask voters for identification, that might disenfranchise someone.' Really? The states involved in these controversies have offered free identification cards for anyone who needs one. Who would be disenfranchised? Is anyone so completely stupid they don’t recognize this as a ploy to make sure the ballot box can be stuffed by illegal votes and in some cases, illegal citizens.
"In what transaction in this country are you disenfranchised if someone asks you for identification? I’m asked for it at my bank, grocery store, health care facility, airport, liquor store, video store, department store, hardware store, etc. Is our stupid government really telling me in order to vote, our most sacred right as a citizen of this country, I shouldn’t have to show my identification? Very stupid."
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Did you hear about the sad case of the racing fan who made a mental bet on yesterday's Kentucky Derby -- and lost his mind?
Since Bodemeister led most of the way before fading at the end, he should be the favorite for the Preakness, which is a 16th-of-a-mile shorter.
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A nit that deserves to be picked. Fellow word-seeker Judith suggests that PAEAN is preferable to the alternative spelling I used yesterday, PAEN. I agree with her and will henceforth use the five-letter form. That is, if I ever have occasion to use it again. And it PAINS me to admit it. Thank you, Judith. Or as my neighbors across the border a few miles south might say, "Gracias, Hudith."
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Anyone interested in a late-summer cruise from and around Japan? It would be on Princess, sailing from either Tokyo or Kobe, 10-12 days. Figure on basic costs around $3,000, including air. If so, e-mail RADIORODGERS1@YAHOO.COM.
Arigato gozaimasu (bowing gracefully).
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A warning to would-be trespassers on El Rancho Rodgers: Susan almost stepped on a diamondback rattler about ten feet from our driveway last week. The local Snake Patrol picked him up, took him to the lab to be milked (the venom is used to make snakebite antivenin) before being released some miles away. My far-away Aunt Dottie listened to the dialogue of the reptile roundup folk over Susan's cellphone, responding with an occasional "Eeek!"
That's rattler #5 for this spring.
The good news is, our favorite bull-snake, "Toro) has returned to his lair under a giant cactus plant on the property. Yes, good news; they're non-poisonous and rattlesnakes fear them. And when a bull-snake moves in, rodents move out -- or become lunch.
Old joke: How do you milk a rattlesnake? First, get a very low stool ...
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Nookie news ...
Catherine Scalia, a 45-year-old mother of four who lives in East Rockaway, New York, understands marketing. She developed a profitable sideline to her business of selling hotdogs out of a snack-truck on Long Island. She was also selling another kind of ... meat.
She's been busted -- about a 38-D -- by police on prostitution charges.
Ms. Scalia obviously understood the symbolic connection between weiners and her other career.
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How drunk can you get?
Ask Tom Boersma of Pewaukee, Wisconsin.
Tom had a few, then a few more, then ... he took a nap beside the railroad tracks. And slept so soundly he didn't even notice the train that hit him, leaving him with serious injuries to his arm and buttocks. In fact, he was annoyed by the officers and EMTs who woke him up to take him to the hospital.
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Mr. Eason came across this classic collection of classified ads from British newspapers ...
Classified ads, actually placed in U.K. Newspapers:
FREE YORKSHIRE TERRIER. 8 years old. Hateful little bastard....bites!
FREE PUPPIES, 1/2 Cocker Spaniel, 1/2 sneaky neighbour's dog.
FREE PUPPIES. Mother is a Kennel Club registered German Shepherd. Father is a Super Dog, able to leap tall fences in a single bound.
COWS, CALVES: NEVER BRED. (Also 1 gay bull for sale)
WEDDING DRESS FOR SALE . Worn once by mistake. Call Stephanie.
And the WINNER is...
FOR SALE BY OWNER. Complete set of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Excellent condition, £200 or best offer. No longer needed; got married, wife knows everything.
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Sheila, Spirtual Advisor, offers timeless advice and simple truths ...
When a lady is pregnant, all her friends touch the stomach and saying "congrats".
But none of them come and touch the man's penis and say "Good job".
Moral of the story: "Hard work is never appreciated.'
Words to live by: Alcohol does not solve any problems, but then neither does milk.
"...and now, if you'll excuse me..."