LEE RODGERSJuly 5 –
“PENALTY” OR “TAX”
– DO
VOTERS CARE WHAT IT'S CALLED? …
CALIFORNIA WELCOMES
ILLEGALS FROM ARIZONA ...
MEMORIES
OF BABY SATAN'S NANNY
I strongly suspect that the abundance
of attention being given by the media commentariat to the subject of
whether the price the public will pay for Obamacare is a “tax” or
a “penalty” means next-to-nothing to the vast majority of voters.
People are either willing to accept this bastardized system of
government-run medicine, or they aren't. These antics with semantics
are unlikely to change many minds, one way or the other.
Also … the Romney “aide” who
keeps muddling the message on the subject ought to have his
(bleeping) teeth kicked out! Mitt's a fool to keep this dumb SOB on
his campaign payroll. Loyalty to patently stupid subordinates is no
qualification for the presidency.
- - - - -
Then I considered how Ye Olde Country has succumbed to such nonsense as government-run health care and allowed its capital to become so overrun by crazed Muslims that the native population refers to it as “Londonistan” and ultimately concluded that, slim as our chances of recovery from national stupidity may be, they're probably no worse here than on the other side of the Atlantic.
The shocks just keep coming …
New York Congressman Charlie Rangel, charged with ethics violations, re-elected via questionable vote-counting … suspicions of irregularities in the Mexico election. Who would have suspected such things?!
-
-
- - -
To the leftist California state legislators promoting a new law that would make California more welcoming to illegal aliens (which they're calling the "anti-Arizona" law) we Arizonans say ... THANK YOU!
We encourage even more illegals who cross the 'zona-border border to do what many are already doing: hang a left at the border, head for a more hospitable California and bleed the taxpayer/suckers there.
Columnist Burt Prelutsky is befuddled …
“Frankly, I am amazed that, according to the polls, Obama is tied with or running slightly ahead of Romney. It makes no sense. When you realize how great the nation’s debt has grown over the past three years, how static the unemployment rate has remained and how much respect America has lost world-wide, Obama’s approval numbers should be single digit, consisting solely of his Chicago cronies, college students and aging Bolsheviks.
“In the old days, liberals believed everything they read in Pravda and the Daily Worker. Today, they believe everything they read in the New York Times or see on ABC, NBC and CBS. Once I realized that, it occurred to me that those on the Left are so hopelessly addicted to lies that it’s a shame that interventions are limited to those whose demons are alcohol, drugs or gambling."
… and further …
“If you listen to the way that liberal women carry on, you would think that such things as a nuclear Iran, a 16 trillion dollar national debt and ObamaCare, all take a backseat to abortions on demand for teenagers. The logical conclusion is that liberals are simply too dumb to have sex and chew gum at the same time.”
A keen observer of American politics checks in from London with this observation about Chief Justice Roberts … “You would think that the only legacy the Chief Justice would covet would have been, 'He upheld the constitution.' “Apparently his will be, 'He upheld his D.C. cocktail circuit invitations.'” – Thanks, Dave --
- -
- - -
Professor Walter Williams (Townhall.com) directs us to some worthwhile reading …
“Anthony Daniels, who writes under the pen name Theodore Dalrymple, is a retired prison doctor and psychiatrist who tells of his experiences with his patients in 'Life at the Bottom.' It's an insightful book of essays about the self-destructive behavior and attitudes of the underclass. “Dalrymple says that he cannot recall meeting a 16-year-old from the public housing project near his hospital who could perform simple multiplication operations, such as nine times seven. One 17-year-old told him, 'We didn't get that far.' This was after 12 years of attending school.
“Those who attend a school that has very high academic standards risk a beating if they venture into neighborhoods where the underclass live. He recalls treating two boys in the emergency room after they'd been beaten and two others who had taken overdoses for fear of being beaten at the hands of their neighbors. “A "legacy of slavery" surely cannot explain problems among blacks, unless we assume it skips whole generations. Nationally, in the late 1800s, percentages of two-parent families were 75.2 percent for blacks, 82.2 percent for Irish-Americans, 84.5 percent for German-Americans and 73.1 percent for native whites. Today just over 30 percent of black children enjoy two-parent families. Both during slavery and as late as 1920, a black teenage girl's raising a child without a man present was rare.”
- - - - -
“Us” magazine carries a cover-story about Katie Holmes filing for divorce from Tom Cruise (DOES Tom … cruise? If you don't get that reference, ask any San Franciscan) with a headline announcing that Katie felt as if she were in “Rosemary's Baby, “ the movie in which an innocent young mother is unwittingly giving birth to the baby son of Satan. In the movie, young mother Mia Farrow is befriended by a neighbor, played by Ruth Gordon, who's actual purpose is to make sure Baby Satan is well-tended.
A personal footnote:
Shortly after
seeing that just-released movie, I had a job interview with legendary
broadcasting executive John VanBuren Sullivan, who had built New
York's WNEW to powerhouse status and was now undertaking a similar
project down the street at Storer Broadcasting's WHN.
(None of this, by the way, is to be
construed as suggesting that my path to moderate media success was
easy. I was turned down more often the sheets
at the No-Tell Motel.)
Anyway … Mr. Sullivan was
well-connected in New York high society and after a brief chat in his
office, he announced that we'd be having lunch at the Oak Room of the
Plaza Hotel where a couple of his friends would join us. They did.
Actress Ruth Gordon and her husband, famed playwright Garson Kanin. I
recall little of the conversation because seated directly across from
me was the woman I'd just seen on the big screen taking care of
Satan's child. It was … disconcerting.
Footnote: This took place during
one of New York's interminable garbage strikes. I spent the next
three days apartment-hunting on the upper east side of Manhattan and
finally tired of walking around mounds of garbage. I called the
Storer executive who had recruited me for the WHN job and told him
that I'd decided against moving to New York. He responded by offering
me a management job at their Miami station … I took it … and had
a very satisfying five years there. But I will never forget my day
with Satan's nanny.
- - - - -
Last evening as I was channel-surfing, I came upon BYU-TV, the Brigham Young University cable channel, carrying a performance of the National Anthem by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Susan suggested – correctly, of course – that all sports events, from NASCAR to ballgames, should simply play a recording of that magnificent performance and stop the embarrassing nonsense of having the Anthem butchered by pop and country music “stylists” with no vocal range and ridiculous “interpretations.”
- - - - -
The farther-further dilemma is most easily resolved this way. If you're talking/writing about a distance that can be objectively measured (E.g., Alaska is FARTHER away than Nevada -- use the a-word.
If the subject is not objectively measureable – E.g., more smoking will FURTHER damage your lungs -- u use u.
- - - - -
My friend the lovely Ms. Wong forwards from Toronto this brief essay …
If a man cuts his
finger off while slicing salami at work, he blames the restaurant.
If you smoke three packs a day for 40 years and die
of lung cancer, your family blames the tobacco company.
If your neighbor crashes into a tree while driving
home drunk, he blames the bartender.
If your grandchildren are brats without manners, you
blame television.
If your friend is shot by a deranged madman, you
blames the gun manufacturer...
So, if I die while my aged, wrinkled butt is parked
in front of this computer, I want all of you to blame Bill Gates...
Creative marketing department: This sign in a beauty salon window …
”DON'T WHISTLE AT THE GIRL LEAVING HERE;
SHE MAY BE YOUR GRANDMOTHER.”
"...and now, if you'll excuse me..."