December 3, 2011 by fbk.

Well, my track record remains intact.  Once again, I have supported a Presidential candidate who then got out of the race early.  Last election cycle, I got so frustrated with my power that I turned it to evil uses.  I endorsed Hillary Clinton to get rid of her.  Then I forgot about my puissance, and after McCain named Sarah Palin as his running mate, I worked for his campaign.  We all know how that turned out.

 Still, this is a truly awesome power.  While I may not be able to help a favored Presidential candidate, perhaps I can help my financial situation.  So, Newt, Mitt, John Huntsman, etc., how much will you pay me NOT to endorse your bid for the Presidency?  Conversely, how much will you pay me to endorse, and therefore totally destroy, someone else’s Presidential bid?

Let the bidding war begin!

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November 12, 2009 by fbk.

I’m going to change my name to “None of the Above” and run for President in 2012.  You?

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September 10, 2009 by fbk.

Gresham’s Law is usually stated as, “Bad money drives out good.”  Years ago the great author, H. Beam Piper, referred to Gresham’s Law of Manners, that bad manners drive out good manners.  I think Congressman Joe Wilson has illustrated this rather well.  The soi-disant Democrats or Progressives, who would more truthfully call themselves Socialists, Communists, and/or Fascists, have been using bad manners for years while the Republicans were supposed to hold themselves above that.  Barack Obama has been lying and calling others liars when they dare bring up the truth.  And after all of the lies and insults, I gather that Congressman Joe Wilson could no longer hold his tongue.  In an outburst during the President’s speech to a joint session of Congress, Congressman Wilson showed the bad manners to yell at the President of the United States of America.

Now, mind you, what Congressman Wilson said was entirely truthful.  Barack Obama was lying.  Or perhaps Barack Obama is trapped in a fantasy land spurred by some sort of psychosis?  I’m not sure that would be better for the country, but if it makes you feel better, have your own fantasy that a Democrat politician might be honestly hallucinating rather than lying.

For those of us who have been waiting for a little more tit-for-tat, a little dose of bad manners by a Republican to match the outrageous behavior of the Democrats, Joe Wilson’s honesty was refreshing.  Was it an appropriate act of taste and decorum?  Why should we care?  Democrats have been doing much worse for at least forty years.

Joe Wilson for President!

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February 10, 2009 by fbk.

Welcome to Nueva Venezuela!

I continue to watch as President Obama and his followers turn the US into the next Banana Republic.  We have probably passed the point of no return.  The Constitution doesn’t matter.  The law doesn’t matter.  All that matters is, “What has the federal government given me lately?”  For those who watched it happen in Cuba, China, Venezuela, and other places, the pattern is very familiar.  Or should I compare it to Zimbabwe?  The current so-called “stimulus” actions are only going to promote runaway inflation.

 Cod help us!

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February 4, 2009 by fbk.

“I’m sorry, Prince Edvard. You had a wonderful civilization here on Marduk. You could have made almost anything of it. But it’s too late now. You’ve torn down the gates; the barbarians are in.” – Lucas Trask, Space Viking, H. Beam Piper

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November 15, 2008 by fbk.

The world’s smartest and wisest liberal was walking along a beach when he saw something glass sticking out of the sand.  Thinking that someone might trip or step on it and get cut, the liberal started working the piece of glass up out of the sand.  When he had fully unearthed it, he saw that it was a beautifully worked and intricate multi-colored glass bottle.  Out of curiousity, he pulled out the stopper.

Suddenly, he was engulfed in a cloud of smoke that formed above his head into a giant figure.  In a booming voice this figure cried out, “At last!  I have been freed!  20,000 years couped up in that bottle, and I’m free.”

Looking down at his bottle prison, the Djinn noticed the liberal standing with his mouth agog.  “For freeing me, I will grant you one wish, but only one, so choose wisely.”

For a moment the liberal stammered, then he pinched himself, obviously to determine if he dreamed.  Finally, he said, “I have always believed and been acknowledged by my peers as the smartest and wisest person they know.  I always have the answers ready,” after a pause, he went on in an aggrieved tone, “But I never believed in people who could be trapped in bottles or grant wishes.  This means that there are things that I don’t know.  I want to know everything and truly be the wisest being that exists.”

The Djinn looked down sadly while shaking his head, “I cannot make you God, nor can I make you wiser and smarter than I am myself.  Perhaps I can make you wiser and smarter than you are, though.  Maybe by 20,000 times, to celebrate my freedom.  Would that be acceptable?”

The liberal thought about it, and he couldn’t even imagine being 20,000 times smarter and wiser.  He thought of all the things he could do with such intelligence and wisdom, and envisioned being the world’s first trillionaire.  Greedily, he nodded his head in agreement with the Djinn.  The Djinn waved his hand, and the liberal found himself transported from the beach, he also felt confused and anxious and realized just how little he really knew. 

“Wait!  I don’t feel wise or smart.  I feel uncertainty and confusion.  All of the things I used to believe are foolish, and what I now am certain of are almost the opposite.  If I’m 20,000 times smarter and wiser, why do I feel this way?”

“In your former state, you believed you were wise and smart, but now you truly are.  Things are neither as simple or as nuanced as you previously believed.  Good luck!  I have to go now,” and so saying, the Djinn evaporated into a mist that dissapated into nothingness.

The man who was formerly the world’s smartest and wisest liberal looked around the office he had found himself in, just as a man in a black suit came in to announce, “Mr. President, it’s time for us to start moving to get to the inauguration ceremony.  If we move fast enough, we can be there before President-Elect Obama.”

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July 23, 2008 by fbk.

Victor Davis Hanson had a post on The Corner recently that reminded me of some old spiritual teachings.  Here is the money quote:

“What is fascinating about the tingly-leg press is that they are exhibiting the very symptoms of arrested development and star-struck immaturity that they always accuse America in toto of suffering. The usual critique of the elite media is that we are a nation of mindless followers, who go from one fad to another, and value looks, youth, and pizzazz over substance.”

I’ve long found the best measure of a man is what he says about others.  Dr. Hanson seems to be seeing an example of the old spiritual teaching that the outer world is a reflection of the inner world.  What we see outside of us is what is actually within us and what we are.  Pay attention to what politicians say about others:

“That’s not the man I knew all of these years.”  Sounds like a man who will be different than what you have seen on the outside, doesn’t it?

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May 15, 2008 by fbk.

It really is terrible when one really doesn’t feel like complaining about anything much.  How can one be a curmudgeon if one is reasonably happy?  Thus the very dry blog these last few months.  Must be spring fever.  As the weather heats up, I’m sure I’ll get crankier.

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January 31, 2008 by fbk.

The Presidential primaries present an interesting conundrum this year.  The front runners of the moment are a 1940’s-style Democrat (Big Government CAN do it all, strong on defense) and a 1970’s-style Democrat, who looks and talks like Jimmy Carter, but actually votes to be strong on defense in the Senate.  Both have proven to find the truth a highly-elastic material.  The net difference between the Republican and Democratic frontrunners is that one of the two has real testicles.  Of course, they originally belonged to her husband.

Many might consider this to be an unfair characterization of Senator McCain.  He is a war hero, after all.  But, that war ended more than thirty years ago, and while he may have had a backbone against the North Vietnamese, he’s never shown one against the Democrats.  He’s thrown more punches, literal and figurative, at his Republican colleagues than at the Democrats.  He talks much more like Walter Mondale than Ronald Reagan, with references to “greedy people on Wall Street who need to be punished” and “for patriotism, not for profit.”  Anyone remember his comments from 2000 about the Christian right?  I could believe much of what he says coming from a John Kerry or Dennis Kucinich, but from the Republican frontrunner?

I cannot see myself voting for this man under any circumstances.  So, where does that leave me if he gets the nomination?  He can’t be trusted on Supreme Court nominations.  He has flip-flopped on what sort of Justice he would nominate.  Right now, he’s trying to claim to be conservative, but he’s had a reputation as a maverick for much longer.  There are also rumors that he has said he’ll only run for one term.  That means the day he takes office, he’s no longer beholden to the people who elected him.  He can follow his true inclination without worry about upsetting all of those wacko right-winger types, who just happen to be the bulk of his party.  I wouldn’t trust him on any issue.

On economic issues, issues of freedom, paying attention to the Constitution, and big government programs, he aligns pretty well with Senator Kennedy.  In fact, McCain is to the left of the former Senator Kennedy who became President.  John F. Kennedy at least understood the power of tax cuts to free the economy.  McCain would be likely to let the tax levels rise back to the former levels under Clinton, if not higher.  He certainly has no clue about regulation and its effect on the economy.  Comparing Senator McCain to the average Democrat would only yield a slight divergence on winning the war in Iraq.  But, despite many of the things she has said about the war, Hillary Clinton’s voting record isn’t that different from McCain’s.

If we’re going to get basically the same results either way, with one result being an economic disaster, wouldn’t it be better to let the Democrats have the White House for four years, and let them get the blame for the recession caused by economic ignorance?  If the candidates are so close on the issues and neither is a disciple of the truth, what’s the downside?  If McCain gets elected and does as expected, the Republicans get blamed.  I don’t consider myself so much a Republican as a conservative.  But, most of the other conservatives are in the Republican Party, and what hurts the party will hurt the conservative cause.  I’d much rather see the Democrats take it on the chin as they did in 1976-80.

I can’t quite bring myself to think that I’d vote for Hillary, but I’ve actually been considering it, which scares me.  How many other conservatives are thinking that Hillary might do less damage than McCain?  How many conservatives will just sit out the general election if McCain is the Republican nominee?  How many will seek a third party, such as the Libertarians?  How many will just hold their noses and vote for McCain?  I don’t have the answers to any of these questions.  But I have a feeling that if McCain gets the nomination, nothing good will come of it.

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January 10, 2008 by fbk.

More and more in my working life, I seem to encounter bloviators.

Over a year ago now, I was helping out on a project, and needed some information and clarification to get them where they wanted to be.  The executive in charge tried to answer my question, and his lack of true knowledge didn’t stop him from unleashing a torrent of words to flood the Mississippi and entire Midwest.  Now, I wound up having a very good relationship with this fellow, and we are working together again, but he’s a man who talks.

Eight months ago, I was on a two-week assignment, and 90% of it was hearing the engagement lead go on and on about how we couldn’t do what we were supposed to do because we didn’t have the knowledge.  When I finally paid enough attention to figure out what the windbag was going on about, I pointed out that we did know enough, and then took over the project and started assigning jobs to the other people, who were all senior to me.  It took me fifteen minutes to accomplish what he spent hours saying couldn’t be done.

Previous and subsequent to that, I had to put up with another fellow, not nearly as bad, but still one who talked too much.This fellow was a geek about certain topics, and could go on forever about them, whether he actually knew anything or not.

Then there was the Alpha Bore, who has been the topic of a few posts here.

Now, on a new project, I once again encounter another bloviator.  If he’s on the phone, one question can spur him to review the whole project history and future.  An e-mail with a simple statement or two can get a return reiterating everything that was said three times.

When did we shift idolizing from the strong, silent type to the chatty, say-nothing huckster?  When did men start thinking it was okay to say nothing, so long as it was said in quantity?  Was it a matter of the wars of the last century that turned men into taciturn doers rather than tsunamis of statements?  Whatever the cause, give me men who speak seldom and move the world with their actions.

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