I’m taking my girlfriend to breakfast, but it’s got nothing to do with Mother’s Day. She’s clocking in to work at the reasonable hour of eleven o’clock, so we’re going to take advantage and spend some time together.

The Freeberg family doesn’t have any actual mothers in it. The Freeberg-male eccentricity drove them all off; the ones who managed to survive it, anyway. Mom died years ago, “Kidzmom” is off in Nevada and it’s up to the boy to take the initiative to honor his Mother, and in his fourteenth year I hope to hell he’s got enough going on to do it without being reminded. If not, I’ll give him a good thumpin’ when he gets here and that will be my Mother’s Day contribution.

That, and bitching about the long line at the restaurant.

Anyway. Hope yours is happy. Let Mom know you’re thinking of her, while she’s still here.

Update: “I have no doubt that as a matter of course, she handled pains that would have crushed me, and whatever strength I may have, I credit to her and to God.” Professor Mondo delivers up some wonderful prose describing the story behind his white carnation. It fits ours as well, as it happens.

Dad’s second-most-recent visit down here was back in ’07; he took Amtrak. He left with a vow never to take Amtrak again, since he spent something like thirty hours on a route that was supposed to take only twenty-four or something. From what I hear, this is a common experience on Amtrak, much of which runs on borrowed rail that belongs to Union-Pacific…or somebody. And so I found it curious when, after Joe Biden’s announced selection as Barack Obama’s running mate, I was looking up his entry in Wikipedia and stumbled across a paragraph extolling the Senator’s virtues as a regular Amtrak rider. Joe Biden’s awesome! He rides Amtrak! Yay! (I see now, the tone is different, applying more focus to Biden’s five-year stretch as a single-dad and the tragedy that started said stretch; but that creates more questions than answers, with the high fallibility involved in Amtrak schedules.)

I thought back to this, briefly, when I read George Will’s excellent column called “Why Democrats Love Trains.” It’s all about one word: dependency.

Yesterday, I immersed myself in the dependency class. I rode the light rail downtown, looped back up North-ward, used my mountain bike spun in to the University district and caught the light rail back home again. I still haven’t made up my mind whether this is a humbling experience, or the reverse. I’m very fortunate to enjoy a three-mile commute Monday through Friday, and to live in an area with a much higher per-household income compared to what surrounds us. I consider my horizons to have been broadened by the unpleasantness.

It makes me look at my own single-dad-ness much differently. You’ll notice, all across the political spectrum we make much of the idea that people should not judge other people, and it becomes doubly wrong to judge people based on a superficial glance. So I try not to. But then again, we also make much of the idea that something called the “environment” has a state to it, and we should avail ourselves of every opportunity to think about that state and our effect on it as we pass through it; try to keep it as it is, avoid making it worse, maybe even make it better.

Well guess what. You have to judge people in order to do that. If, as a parent, you’re going to be adding some.

And this thought, as is the case with the thought above, comes down to that one word dependency. Again.

It impresses me that, as I pass through this big valley, these wide swaths of ground where I’m thinking “must get the fuck out of here before dark, must get the fuck out of here before dark,” the ones whose names show up in the newspaper where the murders happened, overlay with remarkable precision the places serviced by light rail and by bus lines. It’s true in Sacramento, in Seattle, in Detroit, and every other “big” place I’ve ever lived or visited. I’m given to entertaining the thought that this is a testament to good design. People in humble areas need to get to work, they don’t get to pick and choose where that work is going to be, and many cannot afford cars.

The problem with that theory is that it accounts only for an approximation. I’m seeing much more than an approximation here; I’m seeing the sort of precision you see when your hand is covered by a latex glove. A light rail system cannot evolve; at least, not easily. This system reachs a terminus in my district, in downtown Folsom. It’s then up to me to saddle up again and cycle the remaining four miles home, regardless of which of the last three stations I chose. It’s as if, the day they were laying track, someone said “Okay, I just saw three houses in a row worth more than such-and-such, so we stop here.”

You simply can’t walk through how that would work. Tearing up track is exorbitant, and the same goes for laying new track. Not an everyday occurrence. So the route is static. If it were dynamic, how would the heavy demand in humble areas, and the lighter demand in more affluent areas, translate into a force on this supposedly-dynamic track? The market forces are light: A two-hour pass for $2.50, all-day ticket for $6.00. Light rail systems, by design, are to be a rebuke against the free market anyway. It’s hard to think of a profitable one, even harder to think of one that remains profitable for several years in a row. So they’re not situated well to flex, to accommodate the signals of supply and demand. This theory is not in healthy shape, and its health deteriorates further when I throw more observations at it — that’s a sign that the theory isn’t a good one.

Besides of which, after I got myself a nice day’s exercise and a quality sunburn, the first station I hit on Power Inn road, wasn’t selling tickets. The machine was busted. I chose to ride on eastward and buy a pass at the next one. My fellow “passengers” at this location, did not have such an option and they didn’t very much care. They were hopping the turnstyle. Of course they were; whadya think they’re gonna do? Wonder if the regional transit authority knows the machines are busted here? The repairs looked inexpensive, to me. One machine complained specifically of its paper roll being empty. The other might consider accommodating if the customer could pay the six dollars in coin.

I know, from experience, how this works. The dependency-class is dependent. It depends on a service, and because it is dependent, anybody who denies the service, by action or inaction, is infringing on a fundamental human right. And, should this take place, this imbues the dependency-class with new rights it would not otherwise have. And so The System, which denied the service by inaction and failing to keep the machines in good working order, has it comin’. The rail hoppers will enter, again, that surreal region in which a crime is to be committed, but not really, because it is a “gettin’ even” for another crime that was committed. A written law will be violated, as redress of grievances for the violation of some other unwritten law.

So I think back to the four possibilities that arise with correlation:

A. X causes Y
B. Y causes X
C. An unseen-as-yet Z, causes both X and Y
D. It’s all a coincidence

And so I slip down to the next on the list, which I like better. It is in healthier shape, after I get done assaulting it with observations and facts. This other theory says the crime and the blight and the dysfunction, start with the rail system and radiate outward. Y, the rail, causes X, the rancor, weirdness, borderline-mental-illness, diminished skill. That would explain the neat precision overlay on the map.

A dependency relationship, we see once again, is toxic. We are very slow to catch on to this when we are given evidence of it, because we are taught a great deal to the contrary. We are taught “no man is an island,” that communities that thrive and prosper, are communities in which people depend on each other. That may or may not be true. But I think what has to be realized here, is that there is a difference between people depending on each other, and people putting together a system and then other people coming to depend on that system. A community filled with inter-dependence relationships is personal; a leviathan system providing spotty, splotchy, unreliable service to a dependency-class of vengeful moochers, is impersonal.

You know, I think it comes down to that old saying about democrats. There can be no denying how much they love poor people — all their policies keep them that way, and create more.

In about a week and a half, Our First Holy Divine Man-God-Boy-King President has acquired and released a form of identification, and then claimed credit for dispatching the most wanted man in the entire world. His is a unique case in which these achievements are roughly equivalent.

I’m ready to take a new approach on this, since I’m still trying to process and organize my reactions. People are still bitching about my posts being too long. So — let’s just list the reactions and call it good. One per line and then bail out.

It occurs to me that the result would be just as worthy an artifact to seal up in a time capsule, for the edification of my grandchildren, as any other. So. Without further ado.

1. Chuckling at the talking heads on the news getting “Obama” all mixed up with “Osama.”
2. Marveling at the consistency with which conservatives place the interests of country over party.
3. Wondering if liberals would handle it the same way if Osama bit the mat during the previous administration.
4. No, not really.
5. Thankful for the fighting men in our Navy SEAL units, and in all our military, and the gals too.
6. Still can’t believe Obama is so inept at PR, that victory over bin Laden has turned into a net loss for Him.
7. Absolutely sickened by the decision not to release photos, and genuinely so, not putting on an act.
8. Trying to think of the last good thing I ever learned about this President, that I was allowed to verify for myself.
9. Taking note, again and again and again, of a three-stanza-anthem that has emerged among Obama’s supporters:
 • a. Why should He release anything He doesn’t have to prove anything and He doesn’t owe anybody anything;
 • b. Place all your faith in these (nameless) wise sages who surround The Obama, because that’s what I’m doing;
 • c. Feck off you’re unworthy and should be banished from our super-perfect Obamatopia.
10. Wondering how this affects the domestic issues in the long run.
11. Hoping desperately that the White House has already run into that gut-wrenching “we’ve overplayed our hand” feeling.
12. In a state of dread over what wretched ideas we’re going to see, should that not be the case.
13. In a state of abject bewilderment that such smart people can make the same mistakes over and over again.
14. Isn’t this the equivalent of “parallel parking by Braille”?
15. Gloating that the “birther” movement seems to have declined by half, or more.
16. Noting that this is precisely what we were told, with such condescending certainty, would not happen.
17. Waiting for the apology that I know will not come.
18. Looking forward to many years coming & going without my having to hear “it wouldn’t convince anybody anyway…”
19. Knowing that isn’t going to happen either.
20. Wondering what kind of people would toss out the “wouldn’t convince anyone” bromide without feeling deep shame.
21. Not looking forward to coming into contact with such people.
22. Still walking on air because Osama bin Laden’s dead.
23. Befuddled about the Too Civilized and Evolved to See Any Good Here crowd.
24. Have no idea what in the world is driving them.
25. No wait, now that I think on it, the problem is I have way too many ideas about what is, or might be, driving them.
26. None of these ideas say anything good about them for being the way they are.
27. Or about the rest of us, for putting up with them.
28. Wondering what act of revenge Al Qaeda will try to launch over here.
29. No, not really.
30. But cautious vigilance is always a good thing…to whatever extent it’s my place to exercise it.
31. Wondering where premium gas is going to be by Memorial Day weekend.
32. Hoping everybody looking for work, that is ready willing & able to accept a job offer, gets one.
33. Wondering how that would work for them, if these jackasses didn’t show up talking the economy down every day.
34. Wishing a case of worms on them. Seriously, if you don’t know things will get better, just say you don’t know.
35. Trying to figure out why, if President Awesome is so Awesome, it costs a billion dollars to re-elect Him.

Speaking of blogger friend Phil: He was egging me on, with regarding to a sort of half-assed plan I had germinating in my head anyway. About an hour from here up into the mountains, we have this really cool road that goes up into many, many square miles of hiking and camping spread known as El Dorado National Forest. The plan was to haul the mountain bike up there, along with the Little Joe which is now something like five seven years old, and horribly under-used, with a thick layer of dust all over it. Thought I’d take advantage of the off-season and the diminished traffic, sort of build up my confidence with the device.

Because it’s an intimidating thing, you know, if you haven’t put it into some real use just yet. Dumping your pedal equipment in the middle of the Highway 50 corridor, you know, it could get someone killed. But the machine does seem to be in good working order…just need to get it into circulation.

Well, I forgot the Little Joe. But that was a secondary mission. The primary focus was just exploring the campground. You see, this far up into the mountains, the campgrounds remain frozen like popsicles into the month of May. And so, knowing that the road was closed off to motorized vehicles, I had promised my son that I’d go on this venture to use the pedal-power and check out the campground we had reserved for this summer, when he comes to see us.

This gets into some personal stuff I haven’t written about here. There’s an agreement going on here, one in which both sides have had to flex a little. The boy is with his Mother for the school year right now, we get him during the summer. We’re winding up the first year in which it’s worked out like this. There’s been just a whole lot of the other kind of thing…you know…Momma gets him for the fun summer things, we have to deal with bedtimes and homework and yelling and drama and…and…and. Which, right now, she’s dealing with. As she has all year. But we haven’t had our fun times with the kid yet, and we’re looking forward to that. So we’re looking forward to the fun. Of course, he’s coming up on fourteen, so it isn’t quite as much fun as it would’ve been earlier…

That’s something of a tragedy, of course. We try not to think about it too much. But the fact is, life is not a dress rehearsal. On the other hand — although fourteen is too old for water parks, it’s just right for camping out, figuring out the Seven Manly Ways to Start Fires with your old man…and s’mores.

So I gassed up in Placerville, and managed to find a good parking spot up in the forest just on the early side of ten o’clock. Most weekends, the girlfriend works Saturday and I confine my adventuring to that day of the week. On this particular one she had Sunday allocated as well, so while she slaved away, I bolted together the bike and set to exploring.

The clock on my point-and-shoot is a bit fast, I think by about twenty minutes or so, maybe more.

Here we’ve barged on in past the gate, which you can see if you blow this up enough. Now, one month previous to this shot we were fortunate enough to check this place out — three generations of Freeberg males. It was the first week of April and we were walking around on the snow on top of this gate. So you see, there is a good amount of meltin’ goin’ on. On the previous trip, even on pedal power this would have been quite unthinkable.

As it is, according to the website, this road is open up to cars on May 26. That’s something, isn’t it? Here we are barely four thousand feet above sea level…doesn’t seem Californian at all, huh. Memorial Day weekend and the place is going to be in its first week open, because of snow.

It’s hard to believe, but these campsites are still in premium demand. You’ve heard that California is packed with pussies who consider it a hardship when their four-dollar coffee drinks are made with real milk instead of soy. Well, you’re right about that…California natives get goosebumps if the temperature is below 75 degrees, and start shivering.

But they snatch up these campsites fast enough. Go figure. The “furlough Fridays” have a lot to do with that, as I’ve written before.

As you can see from this shot, it seems going forward we’re snow-free. This is, if I’m remembering right, about 0.42 miles away from where we assembled the bike, 0.15 miles from the gate that blocks off the car traffic.

From this point, the road meanders around, constantly on a downhill grade. Of course, after that sharp turn, I’m cut off from all kinds of civilization…motorized…visual. Wonder if there’s bears down there?

But I told my son I’d check the place out. A promise made is a debt unpaid. So onward we go.

By the way, all of these stills are clickable. Click for larger if you are so inclined; I had my camera set to 3072 pixels wide.

Took a side trip here to check out what’s going on. The bike computer says I’m 1.08 miles in. Why did I take a picture of this placard? What is it I keep telling you about tree-hugging hippies…they smell like grass, corn chips and butt crack, and nobody ever tells them no. About anything. Ever. Except when…no…actually there are no exceptions. Nobody ever tells the long-haired hippies no.

Really, I’ve got nothing to complain about. It’s not like a city block is being closed off for these damn birds. My objection is not so much to the infringement of space, but of time. May 26 is pretty damn late in the year you know.

So once again, the “long pig” is making room for the other creatures. This is in blatant contravention against the Book of Genesis, which makes it abundantly clear that Man is to have dominion over the beasts of the field, the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky. But the pagans with their incense candles and their tie-dyed shirts and their lava lamps and their henna and their ponytails, demand absolute deference. And so, to the animals, the homo sapiens must yield. Hope they appreciate it. The beasts, I mean, not the hippies.

Actually I hope the hippies appreciate it too. Peace, man.

This is not a long-distance trek by any means. We knew that going in. But at this point something interesting, and not completely expected, happens: Water. Frozen. Lots and lots of it. Take a look; the camera is pointing in the direction in which we are traveling, 1.92 miles in. As you can see, we have a little bit of a situation going on. The two-wheel form of travel has reached a decisive dead-end.

We’re hoofing it from here.

The up-side is that we can leave the Trek on its kickstand, exactly as you see it. Bears are not known for their skills, nor for their enthusiasm, when it comes to stealing bikes. Candy bars and Little Debbies, maybe, but not bikes. Must be their butts being too big for the seats, or something.

But I do have to say, it’s a pleasant change of pace to just leave the bike where it is. Even peeled the helmet off my head and just chucked it to the ground as I continued onward, exploring on two feet. Campsites 81 through 111 are down this way, and we’ve reserved campsite 101.

We did not find campsite 101 as it turns out. You see, this snow…it’s in a process of melting and freezing and melting again and freezing again. It borders on a “snowshoe” adventure, and we were in sneakers. In our urban, sedentary lifestyle, we are of generous girth and the pounds-per-square-inch where our soles meet the earth, is a figure in a state of gradual increase.

So we had to shift our weight carefully in order to avoid sinking. Up to our waist. Bottom line? We didn’t explore too much from this point.

Here’s the reservoir, as viewed from the campground.

Across this body of water, there’s another campground we’ve been visiting on & off since the boy was about five or six (he’ll be fourteen this summer). So we’re looking at something familiar to the two of us, from a new angle for me.

At this point, I’m really looking forward to this. The wonderful thing about California is that the nighttime sky changes a whole lot depending on how secluded you are. There is the light pollution, and then there is the gas that comes from human activity. You get away from those two things and it is amazing how many stars you can see.

Of course, right now I’m not too concerned with stars. I’m a little concerned about bears.

On the way back, I saw one of these “bear proof” food repositories. They’re like garbage dumpsters, except weighted down so that a bear can’t tip them over. We-ell…this one was actually tipped over. Made me stop & go hmmm.

This last photo is of the only casualties on the trip, so far as I can see. I didn’t get nibbled by a bear, didn’t see any bears. But these things? My guess is: snowmen. I think what we’re looking at, here, is a snowman graveyard.

So I’m in at a little bit before ten in the morning, out at slightly after eleven.

Incidentally: On the way back to civilization, I stopped off at C & T’s restaurant in Pollock Pines. During the “Dad Grandpa and Kid” trip a month back, we breezed on in at 1:55 and kept them late…turned out their closing time was two. They accommodated us until we were good & ready to leave, not looking the least bit peeved. The service is excellent, the food is just as good. You should go.

This time, I didn’t act like a complete butthole. I patronized them promptly at 11:45.

Now, lessee…we get the kid right after school closes out, in early June. So I’m probably checking this place out one more time, most likely on the 4th of June at which time the road will be open. I could go the weekend before, really. Once the reservation timeframe is upon us, the boy is going to learn something about being a “quartermaster” on this particular camping trip. The meanie-cows who run the El Dorado web site insist on a two-day stay; we’re going to use this to make Friday night into a “shakedown,” and once we have a good inventory of all the goods & supplies we forgot to pack, we’ll descend upon Kyburz, or Pollock Pines — maybe both — snapping up whatever didn’t make the first inventory, at premium prices, for our second night out.

That’s a good camping trip right after the fourteenth birthday, I think. That’s a good age to learn your Dad is fallible and flawed and imperfect — you can’t just hang back, hope the old man thinks of everything, wait to be entertained. Participation becomes a requirement. And you know, in my world that’s healthy.

Anyway, I survived. The bears didn’t get me.

Can’t speak for you, but I’m convinced these fuckers are intelligent.

Every year, somewhere close to the Vernal Equinox it starts. They come out and start pushing the envelope. In wasp-language, they submit the proposition, signed sealed & delivered, that our balcony actually belongs to them.

We courteously submit a rebuttal, in wasp-language.

And so beginning on the Paschal Full Moon or thereabouts, I begin my sentry duties outside. Laptop, beer bottle, Wasp & Hornet Spray. Try not to go mixing ’em up.

And then laptop, empty beer bottle, full beer bottle, spray. Laptop, two empty beer bottles, beer bottle, spray. Now we’re at laptop, empty beer bottle, empty beer bottle, empty beer bottle, empty beer bottle, beer bottle, spray. Try not to mix ’em up.

Now here is the spooky part: Following Mother’s Day, or even Easter, there isn’t any spraying going on. It isn’t necessary. Wasps, I’m convinced — and I don’t give a shit what the entomologists have to say about this, okay? — understand the human-like concept of a “property line.” I am stalwart in this belief because I see it happen. They bob & weave the way they do, lazily to & fro…they sort of wander right up to where our negotiations concluded, and they wander right back again. I could measure it down to the fraction of the inch. And you know what? It works this way well past Labor Day, until there are Halloween decorations in the drugstores. At which time they disappear. Lay their eggs, and then salmon-like, go off and die?

It does seem to me that the negotiations need to be resumed the following year. Not possessing an encyclopedic knowledge of insect hibernation/reproduction rituals, I assume I am addressing a new generation. But even if that be the case, it seems to me there are genetic artifacts of what was negotiated the season previous. It’s as if momma wasp and daddy wasp told ’em, “don’t fuck with that guy with the can up there, he’s an asshole” and they listened somewhat.

The theories presented here, I have an opportunity to subject to a vigorous test. A tree is engulfing our balcony. It is deciduous, its pitch flows outward to the farthest leaves on the farthest branches. The wasps love it. But once those lines are negotiated in the springtime, they remain in full force throughout the entire year, and razor sharp.

No further negotiation necessary. Wasps is smart.

Had an argument over on the Hello Kitty of Blogging about the Osama bin Laden post mortem picture not being released…of course, I completely eviscerated the opposition in every conceivable way. And yes, I know what you’re thinking. I thought it too: All smirking egotists think they’ve prevailed in all discussions whether they really did or not. But of course you can’t measure that!

In this case, though, you can. Because every single one of my opponent’s points packed a persuasive punch, but only for people who think things through emotionally, to those who make logic a loathed stranger to be kept at a distance. For those to whom logic is a welcome friend to be embraced, everything he said was impotent.

He deployed three of the best.

1. It won’t change minds, because whoever isn’t convinced in the moment I’m typing this, will never be convinced. This one did startle me, I must say. I would have thought the entire nation got its fill of this last week.
2. These other people over here are part of a formidable “brain trust,” they know better than you do even though I cannot name their names; so why don’t you just shut up and think what they tell you to think. (One of the many problems this creates is: If I’m so insignificant that my opinion shouldn’t have any effect on anything compared to these intellectual titans, then the exercise of convincing me of something must be completely meaningless; so why are we having this conversation?)
3. Prerationalism. You are to be banished from the village gates, sir! Ostracized, to whither and perish in the harsh winter, and I get your ration of milk and grain!

As I commented in there: My position is absolutely moderate with regard to the bin Laden death photograph, just as it was with regard to the birth certificate. I am steadfastly convinced of the opinion President Obama wants me to have. But I will not join in on this exercise of heckling, ridiculing, browbeating, cajoling and bludgeoning those who dissent. I regard their disagreement to be reasonable. That’s called, having the ability to intellectually engage people who have different opinions. Does our President have this ability?

Furthermore, the merits of the doubter’s arguments — the arguments of those who call President Obama a liar — although not sufficient to sway me toward their point of view, is in a state of ascension as more feeble excuses are produced in lieu of the actual documentation. And, my own certainty that the President’s statement of the facts is the correct one, is in a state of decline. All of this is only reasonable.

President Obama has made a career out of a favorite catchphrase of His, “We Must Reject The False Choice.” How ironic it is that He has made a favorite maneuver out of one such false choice: Take My word for it, and oh by the way, if you take My word for it I will count on your support to help defeat and disenfranchise those who are not taking My word for it. That is, in & of itself, a “false choice” is it not? It sounds so…Sith-like, so dealing-in-absolutes-ish. Doesn’t it? Doesn’t that sound like “you’re a friend of us or else you’re a friend of the terrorists”? Wasn’t Birther Zero elected to put a stop to that kind of intellectual simplicity?

But the reason I’m jotting down a memo-for-file on this is: It seems to me these three logical fallacies, historically, have been cellophaned together onto a common flat. In fact, it seems to me they have historically arrived in sequence. Goldilocks slept in a bed that was too hard, too soft, just right. The wolf blew down the house of straw, then the house of sticks, then made a play for the brick and the mortar. Scrooge was haunted by Christmas-past, Christmas-present, Christmas-yet-to-come. Brahma/Creator, Vishnu/Preserver, Shiva/Destroyer. Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Revenge of the Jedi. Sine, Cosine, Tangent. Prue, Piper, Phoebe. Larry, Moe, Curly. That particular prime number seems to be a seed for the universe we know, and in which we are bound. Defined sequences seem to surround it at all times; this appears to be a cosmic constant.

Thus it is with dipshit liberal arguments: alpha, beta, gamma.

I often make much of the weak arguments, the arguments formulated for those who are lacking in a decent, working, long-term memory; those who, as mentioned above, treat logic as a loathed stranger to be kept away. I place pride in my ability to avoid these derelict arguments, to detect what is wrong with them — therefore I have pride in my own long-term memory. But I must admit to being a flawed ugly-bag-of-mostly-water, and my own memory is not infallible. I cannot rattle off a list of previous examples of this; I’m just picking up a vibe. A vibe of deja vu. I wish to crystallize this vibe into an article of reference that, later on, maybe I can use. That’s what memos-for-file are really all about.

I must say, though, I have a great deal more faith in the vibe than I have in most “vibes.” I think there is going to be a pattern detected from this. No point producing the smoking gun nobody will be convinced anyway; why don’t you just shut up and believe these nameless faceless demigod experts; you are to be banished from the village. I’ve gone into detail about each one of these feckless arguments. What is new here is the sequence. I think the sequence is something of a constant. I’ll test the theory in the time that stretches out before me, assuming The Lord sees fit to keep me on the planet for a suitable timeframe.

In the meantime, do I need to state the obvious? Those who are engaged in an attempt to present an argument that possesses real merit, should not need to make use of any of these techniques, or anything remotely like them. They are anti-logical. Like Jedi mind tricks, they only work on the weak minded. A healthy intellect won’t even lose track of a rhythm, should they appear, because if the powers of observation are working, recognition will be immediate. And it was.

Update: Somewhere in my archives, I had made a point of linking to blogger friend Phil…who, somewhere in his archives, summarized a favorite leftist argument as something like “Everyone who agrees with us, agrees with us!” The village-banishment ritual, which here is Installment Three of Three, seems to me to wrap up an instance of this argument. “Now that I have made a point of banishing everyone who won’t buy this argument from the ‘village,’ or at least from my own consciousness, I can continue to state that everybody* agrees with my point of view on this thing!”

In Anno Domini Twenty Eleven, being a liberal has a lot to do with arriving at custom definitions of that word — “everybody.” The liberals won’t say so, but they use that to describe “everybody…within a certain periphery…that I’ve drawn.” If they were too forthcoming about that, they wouldn’t look too “liberal.” But let’s cut the crap. That’s what they mean.

The village-banishment maneuver also has a lot to do with disagreement sliding down a short, steep, icy slippery slope into rancor and dysfunction. Which we then blame on “discussing politics in the workplace/at the party/in the bar.” The blame for which is to be cast to both sides, equally.

But since the liberals are becoming enamored of the prerational village-banishment maneuver, and rather exuberantly at that, isn’t it past high time the blame went to them? I can’t think of a better way to turn a jocular, jovial, light-hearted, family-friendly, fun-for-kids social occasion into a hotbed of rancor, than to pretend to be ready to engage these issues in a friendly, civilized, mutually respectful way — and then, as a direct result of the strategy that has been selected and rehearsed ahead of time, fail to deliver on this.

It’s bad faith. Shouldn’t we treat it like that’s what it is?

Wall Street Journal:

A 2008 study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, for example, found that the highest-earning 10% of the U.S. population paid the largest share among 24 countries examined, even after adjusting for their relatively higher incomes. “Taxation is most progressively distributed in the United States,” the OECD study concluded.

Meanwhile, the percentage of U.S. households paying no federal income tax has been climbing, and reached 51% for 2009, according to a new analysis by the Joint Committee on Taxation. That was the first time since at least 1992 that more than half of households owed no federal income tax, according to JCT estimates.; earlier data were unavailable on Monday.

Many who paid no federal income tax for 2009 are likely low-wage workers, students and the elderly, according to Democratic aides, as well as those whose incomes have been affected by the economic downturn. [emphasis mine]

Stealing this from somewhere, although I can’t recall where: We know those liberal democrats must really like poor people since their policies continue to make more of them!

Hat tip to Neal Boortz, who adds:

Are you following this? The OECD says that our tax system is the most progressive among 24 large economies studied —- yet our re-distributor in chief says that the rich really aren’t paying their fair share. They just need to pay more.

And when you have over one-half of the people in this country not paying any income taxes – and from that you can suppose that over one-half of eligible voters don’t pay income taxes – how easy is it for a politician to talk about raising taxes on the evil rich?

Exactly. Must be that steely spine that was responsible for taking down bin Laden. Really going out on a limb there, Holy Man.

Maybe we can stumble on some “science” or some scientific “research” that says an enabling, redistributive government is bad for the environment or something. Voting for more alms emits carbon.

You wouldn’t know it from reading the pages here at The Blog That Nobody Reads. But I do love a true bumper-sticker slogan, that actually would fit on a bumper sticker.

Rush…

CNN says Obama just got a point, a bump of one point in the polls. They’re clearly unhappy about this. There’s a Washington Post Pew poll out now. Now, get this. This is quite telling. Washington Post Pew poll out now that says Obama has had his approval for the way he handled terrorism boosted to an all-time high of 69%. Washington Post Pew poll, Obama, all-time high in approval of how he handles terrorism, 69%. So SEAL Team 6 will be ecstatic to hear that it all worked out, it was worth it. Weirdly, though, on the economy, Obama still sits at 40% approval, a career low. How is that possible? It’s because you can’t put Osama Bin Laden’s blood in your gas tank. It’s because you can’t take Osama Bin Laden’s turban to Walmart and exchange it for a box of crispies. But why is the media going crazy running all these polls? Wasn’t killing Osama a good thing? It was a bipartisan thing. Why are they running all these approval polls anyway? I thought this was simply the right thing to do, to kill Osama Bin Laden? Even if it didn’t help Obama in the polls, this was just the right thing to do. They’re still running all these questions, all this polling.

Let me ask it this way. When did we land on the moon? When did Neil Armstrong take the first step out there on the moon? Remember the year, Snerdley? That’s right, 1969. July, 1969. Who was president? Richard Nixon. Did the country celebrate Richard Nixon after the moon landing? They didn’t celebrate Nixon? They didn’t? We didn’t celebrate Nixon? But Nixon was in the White House when we landed on the moon. Why didn’t Nixon get the credit for it? ‘Cause it was JFK’s baby, right? It was JFK’s objective to put a man on the moon in the next decade. Well, the country came together on Sunday night over the takedown of Osama Bin Laden. The country instantly unified around that singular event. Now, the media wants everybody to think we unified around Obama. The White House thinks — they want us to think — we unified around Obama, do they not? That’s exactly what they want us to think. Even Obama last night — I felt bad for Ted Baxter. His show was interrupted. Fox cut away from The O’Reilly Factor last night to go to the White House to show Obama getting a standing ovation from members of the congressional leadership for unifying the country.
:
Every narcissist’s dream is to have the world agree with them and adore them but that’s not our dream here, that’s not what this unity is all about. No, the American dream concerns our families, our life goals, jobs, homes, those that still have them, our disposable income, those that still have that, and the liberty, those that still have that. I mean there’s really nothing to leverage here. The celebration over Osama’s assassination isn’t transferable to a domestic political agenda. But they’re trying. You see, the American people know what to celebrate. We did that. We know what not to celebrate, too. And that’s liberalism. We don’t do that no matter how it’s positioned. And asking us to set aside our principles as a means of showing unity is absurd. Transparently absurd, but that’s what they’re doing.

Oh my goodness! Was that racist of me?? I’ll make a note to lose some sleep over that one. I just can’t think of a more apt metaphor. And take my word for it…if the President was a white dude doing what He’s doing, I’d use the same one. I’m piqued in a very equal-opportunity way here.

Consider: No Way No How!

President Obama declared Wednesday that “you will not see bin Laden walking on this earth again” but said he would not release photos of the terrorist leader’s corpse as proof that he is dead.

“It is important for us to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence, as a propaganda tool,” Obama told CBS’ 60 Minutes in an interview to be broadcast Sunday. “You know, that’s not who we are. You know, we don’t trot out this stuff as trophies.”

Got that? But then there’s…Yes We Can!

President Barack Obama is to release up to 2,000 photographs of alleged abuse at American prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan in a move which will reignite the scandal surrounding Abu Ghraib prison in 2004.

The decision to make public the images sought in a legal action by the American Civil Liberties Union comes amid a political firestorm over alleged torture of detainees under President George W. Bush.

Some of the photographs, which will be released before May 28, are said to show American service personnel humiliating prisoners, according to officials.

The images relate to more than 400 separate cases involving alleged prisoner abuse between 2001 and 2005.

I admit my 8-ball analogy falls apart here a little bit, for “McCarthy”-ite reasons. If President Obama were merely a fickle flibbertigibbet who doesn’t know up from down, rather than an impassioned anti-American douchebag who paid way too close attention during the sermons of that bigoted asshole pastor of His, Jeremiah Wright, the laws of probability dictate that these decisions would promote American interests fifty percent of the time. The Magic-8 ball would respect this, I think. But with our Man-God-Boy-King President Holy Man, the laws of probability are not to be so appeased.

And so I object to the situation that, time after time, the decision made is opposed to the interests of the country over which He is supposed to be presiding…or “rule”-ing…or whatever. I object to the notion that there’s no rhyme or reason to them, and there’s no place for anybody to ask the questions looking for rhyme-or-reason in them; I object to the peeved attitude we’d get back if anyone did so ask.

But I object even more to this:

With respect to Afghanistan, Jennifer, I don’t think this is a matter of some datum of information that I’m waiting on. It’s a matter of making certain that when I send young men and women into war, and I devote billions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer money, that it’s making us safer, and that the strategies that are placed not just on the military side but also on the civilian side are coordinated and effective in our primary goal…

…blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But did you catch that first part? No particular datum. President Smarty-Pants, President Knows-What’s-Up, will take just as long as He wants to eke out some answer while not awaiting any particular datum.

The decision will not necessarily be consistent with other decisions, prior or subsequent. So we know there is no methodology at work. None other than…whatever diminishes America. That part does seem consistent.

But there’s no methodology apart from that. No data being accumulated or even absorbed. Just President Think-A-Lot needs more time. The question that naturally arises is, in what way would a decision made after ten months, become meaningfully different from a decision made after nine? If there’s no datum? Well the question is not asked, and if ever it is, it means racist!

That is what really sticks in my craw. Obama will take just as long as He wants, and the 310 million or so people who share a country with Him are just supposed to pipe down, go about our meaningless lives, wait with baited breath while He announces that next month He just might announce when He will announce that He’s going to announce His decision. Just like shaking a Magic-8 ball and seeing what comes up. Except this one gets back to you on its own sweet time and you don’t get to shake it again.

Once again: It seems like a fitting situation for an emperor, or a king. It doesn’t fit a constitutional republic operating under a government designed with separation-of-powers in mind.

Update: I thought this was a masterful job of scribbling that Neal Boortz did yesterday. In fact, it captured my thoughts verbatim…as in, syllable for syllable. Until somewhere around ten hours ago.

I’m not exactly a fan of our current president. I feel that he’s dangerous to the cause of liberty, and I earnestly hope that every single day I’ll manage to say something – to put across one small point somewhere – that will cause someone out there who supports Obama to pause for a minute and to say to themselves “maybe, just maybe, there are some things about this man I haven’t considered.” In order for that to happen, listeners – whether friendly or unfriendly – have to believe that I’m trying to be honest with them. And just how will listeners believe I’m trying to be objective and honest if I am completely unable to give credit where credit is due, or if I have to grudgingly give credit laced with sarcasm. So you’re now going to see hear me (or see me) use a phrase I generally try to avoid. That phrase? President Barack Obama. When considering the operation that turned bin Laden into fish food Obama showed himself to be presidential. Maybe it’s early in this particular game, but I can’t think of one single area in this entire scenario where Obama comes in for any legitimate criticism. That may change tomorrow or next week as we learn more … but for now it’s “job well done, Mr. President.”

What happened ten hours ago? “Oh no, we can’t release pictures of the dead bin Laden because I’m a big ol’ pussy!”

Just…dis…gust…ing…

My theory as of now: No masterful plan for manipulating the masses. Just raw, ignorant narcissism. “They are my subjects, they must believe Me!”

The result: A net P.R. loss. Obama stood a better chance, such as it was, of winning re-election of 2012 earlier this weekend, before the first Black Hawk left for that compound, than He does now. This is not ugly just to right-wing zealots; it is creepy to classic “middle America” voters. Creepy and downright weird.

More of my wisdom, from Daphne’s place. Just a note I’d like filed away that, in its own way, is important I think…

There is one wrinkle in the fabric that I wish were explored in great detail. Barack Obama is famous for using the word “I” in His speeches very often, up to & past the point where it becomes self-parody. You would think that the few times such a person uses the word “we,” He really & truly does mean to activate and implement the concept of “we.” But that’s not the case here.

The option was put on the table to raze the compound to the ground with missiles but, from what they’re saying, President Obama immediately ruled this out because “we” had to have absolute, irrefutable proof that Osama bin Laden was eliminated, and not some imposter. This significantly elevated the risk to the troops engaged in the mission, as well as to the success of the mission itself.

We-ell, Mission Accomplished, as they say. Then what? The DNA test to make absolutely positively sure…the President makes His announcement…it seems at least one photograph was taken, and I would assume — hope — there were some meaningful remnants kept of this DNA testing process. And then whoosh. The body is treated according to Islamic tradition, “buried at sea,” with not even the name of the body of water disclosed, so it is absolutely impossible to build any kind of temple. Okay, as I said before I can see the logic in that.

B-u-u-u-t…

Here we are at end-game, and “we” didn’t have a single thing proven to “us.” Barack Obama made sure things were proven to Barack Obama for the benefit of Barack Obama.

For the record, I don’t think this will have a meaningful impact in this particular situation. Osama bin Laden is dead; I believe he was killed this last Sunday, as we were told. We’re going to get at least one gory photograph to support this, and I’m all-but-certain that there is, indeed, some useful remnant from this DNA process to accommodate an enlarged audience of neutral arbiters, should that need somehow arise.

It’s the mindset that irritates me. “No rockets because we need do make sure it’s really him” — fast foward to — “Okay, I am sure it’s him now I’ll make my announcement in a couple hours so go ahead and get that thing out of here.” So the corpus delicti is fish food before we even find out there is a corpus delicti because, well hey, what the hell do we need to know? Other than Obama Is Awesome.

(Video leads with thirty-second advertisement.)

“The rule of law is what separates us from the monsters.”

Update 5/24/11: A lately-published private paper from the desk of Victor Davis Hanson seems apropos:

The world must now realize that the domestic antiwar movement is dead, kaput; it cares not a whit whether we assassinate bin Laden or a son of Qaddafi or go into Libya. Everything is on the table now and there are no self-restraints, no snickers on The Daily Show, no quirky insider winks on Letterman, no Barbara Streisand crazy faxes. A Nobel peace laureate is now the Left’s totem and he can send quite deadly Americans on quite deadly missions as he sees fit — and without worry about a New York Times op-ed barrage or an ACLU lawsuit. That gives the US newfound advantages, a veritable blank check, from keeping Guantanamo open indefinitely to using a Cheney “assassination” team and valuable water-boarded intelligence wherever it wishes to.

Militant feminism took a hit, from which it has never recovered, when it sought a waiver from its own militancy for the benefit of President Clinton. People may overlook this, may choose to deny it, but this is only achieved by means of a derelict long-term memory. Two or three decades ago, if you were in a position of authority and the feminist movement came gunnin’ for you, you were gone — it was a when, not an if. You were history. That isn’t true anymore.

Militant anti-war advocacy is now in the same position, forced to seek a reprieve from its own militancy for the benefit of President Obama.

Militancy is like a windshield, or a soap bubble — it retains a certain structural strength until such time as there is a breach. It doesn’t work well with these breaches. But politics is ultimately all about breaches; give a little to get a little; half-a-loaf and go onward. And so these militant movements enjoy a working timespan in full vigor until there is a breach, then they deflate.

I’m very happy to see the anti-war movement deflate. But then, of course, there is Judge Napolitano’s concern from the video.

I’m not cool with the President noodling over His decision carefully, with His “dithering,” careful and meticulous as it might be, even if it took Him sixteen hours. Say what you want about George W. Bush, but that President had to make the case to somebody; to prove something to somebody.

Still happy bin Laden is dead. I still think about that scene from the Warner Brothers Batman movie — keep hearing Jack Nicholson’s voice in my head saying “You’re a vicious bastard, Rotelli, and I’m glad you’re dead!” But you know, it is possible to come to the correct decision following the wrong process. And when that happens, it can still be a problem. I believe it’s a problem here. And it will probably bite us in the butt down the road.

Vote here. It’s a pie chart that looks like Pac Man’s head, in mid-gulp with the mouth barely open. With the right side winning.

I’d like to know what the “no” people are thinking. Seems to be typical liberal stuff — I don’t want to see it, therefore they shouldn’t be in view anywhere. In other words, looking away is simply not an option. You know what they say…”If a conservative doesn’t like a radio station he turns the dial, if a liberal doesn’t like a radio station he wants it banned.”

Wall Street Journal is wondering if the Bush administration should get some credit for finding bin Laden so he could be killed. Over on FARK, there were 141 comments about fifteen minutes ago and as of this writing there are 377. Mmmm yes…FARK kids…I’m sure they’re going to weigh the evidence, evaluate both sides fairly and come to a reasoned decision on this.

More Hello Kitty of Blogging wisdom from Yours Truly:

If you can use time as an excuse for Obama, as in “He still needs time to fix” blah blah blah blah…then Bush gets to use the same excuse, as in “It took more than eight years to use OUR intelligence to bring down bin Laden.” Can’t have it both ways.

If this was fiction with no parallel with reality, I would have guessed the job of finding bin Laden and putting a slug between his eyes…at somewhere between two and three years. Pretty close to what it took President Obama’s administration. But it’s pretty clear He didn’t start from scratch, and it’s therefore pretty clear this is a much more involved and complicated task, full of false leads. My two-year guess would be exceptionally weak, I wouldn’t have put any “gonna feel that” money on it at all. None. I can see it taking a decade of steady, incremental progress.

Hey, timelines are hard. Sixty-some years from the maiden flight of a heavier-than-air vessel, to a successful moonshot, and then another forty years of not quite being able to get around to doing it again. A full decade to send bin Laden to meet Allah? I can certainly see it.

Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, EIT for short, has been shown to be part of it — I don’t hear anyone, anywhere, in a position of knowledge, saying otherwise. Assassination, reprehensible in any form to the extremist left in America that forms Obama’s base, was undoubtedly a part of it. It’s a core piece of the official narrative. “Kill, not capture.”

No matter who you choose to believe, this ends up being just another revolution on the merry-go-round of “When liberals absolutely positively have to deliver results, they make their decisions the way conservatives do.”

Hey, that would be a decent slogan for 2012. Wonder how much intel we’d have on bin Laden if Al Gore was our President when the towers came down?

Update: Drudge is reporting Obama has decided to release one photo. Just heard the guys on the radio report on this as well.

If that is true, this means we are going to have conspiracy theories. It can’t go any other way. There are n photos, Obama has decided to release one, and n>1. And so there is going to be speculation about what is in the (n-1) photos.

Obama’s bump in the polls — and let’s be clear about this, it is well-deserved — is going to be over pretty soon, I think. If I were an Obama fan I’d be coming off it right about now. There will be conspiracy theories about the photos because Obama’s releasing only one, or a selected subset anyway. If Obama cannot see this coming, He’s an idiot. If He can, then He’s a manipulator. But also, there’s this “when and if they decide to release it” business. What they mean by that is when/if He decides to release it…

It all seems so imperious and imperial. This one guy, this Man-God-King guy, decides moment to moment how the public’s right to know is to be interpreted. Anyone who disagrees is called a racist.

You knew it was coming.

From Jawa, by way of Terri.

Okay now this is cool. You mean every time I write something that says Obama is a one-termer, His political life gets a new lease by means of a terrorist getting killed? Is that karma or something?

I can deal with that. Obama is a one-termer, Obama is a one termer, Obama is a dead duck, Obama’s gonna lose, Obama is a one termer.

Seriously, America’s worst President does deserve some credit on this. Still waiting for the details to come out, but that much does seem clear. At the very least, He deserves credit for not getting in the way when the military did what it’s supposed to do, just like with the Somali pirates getting skull-capped.

Now things get bizarre in lefty-land. President Obama delivered a speech carefully stripped bare, by which I mean right down to the bones, of any “Hoo-rah” stuff. No foam rubber finger with “We’re Number One” on it, no don’t you go fucking with the USA or we’ll get ya. Not a trace. It’s clear He was trying not to piss off the internationalists, the anti-patriots, the anti-exceptionalists.

But something funny happened. He got to “killed Osama bin Laden” and there was no euphemism. Went ahead & used the k-word, just like that.

This tells me we’re nearly unanimous in agreeing with my fringe-kooky outlook on capital punishment — at least, the essentials of it. That we’ve got these bad people living among us who, for one reason or another, aren’t capable of living among us and tossing their bad asses in a cell isn’t good enough. Obama delivered this weird speech, syllable by syllable, trying His darnedest not to piss off His base…then used the word “killed.”

There are no concerns that I’ve found, anywhere, about the World Community trembling in agitation and fear about those out-of-control Americans and who are we gonna come after next. I imagine that’s because Obama’s a lefty. Kind of an “Only Nixon Can Go To China” moment in reverse.

Another weird thing: From what I’m hearing, President Obama made His announcement last night once the DNA match confirmed the identity of the deceased, at which point said deceased was deceased “about a week.” (Update: This does not seem to be the case…) That would mean Osama met Allah sometime really close to Easter Sunday, which would be pretty cool…but it also means the sequence of events goes like this:

Which provides a further answer to what I was asking on Birth Certificate Day, “why release this document on April 27 of the third year of Obama’s term?” I say “further” because the answer to that question is compatible with the interests of President Obama…not to the interests of America. We already had that much. I’m still not sure how it helps the country to release that personal record on that particular date, but now it’s a little clearer why that decision was made.

(Update: Looks like some things will have to remain a mystery.)

Lefties are now bragging rather brazenly that Obama was in the Big Chair when Osama flatlined, and President Bush couldn’t get this done. We’ll see a lot more of this, and there’s a concern that it might change the result of the election. Could be. Why worry about that one today; America will vote the way it’ll vote, and whatever that is, that’s how it will go. But do I need to backpedal on my prediction? I don’t think so. You can’t win re-election presiding over a crappy economy.

In fact I have another prediction:

“What exactly did Barack Obama do to bring down bin Laden?” is going to net me the same blank stares I used to get when I asked “what exactly did Bill Clinton do to revive the economy?” To date, it looks like the most logical answer to that is “use George W. Bush’s idea of putting General Petraeus in charge of things.”

You’re getting an object lesson in how crappy leaders do their so-called “leading,” although anyone who’s ever had a crappy boss already knew about this. They sit, like scavengers, waiting for something to happen that doesn’t completely suck. Then they swoop in and claim credit. In the meantime, while things continue sucking, they change the subject or blame the predecessor. So you see it’s a very simple process…blame predecessor, change subject, blame predecessor, change subject, when something happens that doesn’t suck you claim credit. Then the next day you change the subject and blame the predecessor. It will be this way as long as it works, and this has always worked.

Update: Wisdom from my Hello Kitty of Blogging account:

You spend three solid years explaining to me the evils involved in fruit, sugar, pastry, shortening, etc…then after all that one day you say “look, I made a cherry pie!” Of course I’m going to look at you funny. Any rational person would say “Okay, so you want credit for the pie…but you clearly have no idea what goes into one…or you think I don’t…or…that’s not a real pie.”

Assassination squads is bad. Aggressive action is bad, especially in a “sovereign nation.” Decisive action without years and years of “due process” based on presumption of innocence, with “he did it and he knew what he was doing but he might be clinically crazy” being defined as innocence…is bad. Guns is bad. Anytime good guys win and bad guys lose, there’s some way to make it bad.

And then Obama zoinks Osama and that’s supposed to be good.

I don’t know why liberal democrats continue to pretend to be supporting some kind of principle, as opposed to a nakedly partisan agenda. Oh wait — yeah, I do know now that I think about it. They’re accustomed to talking to people unwilling or unable to retain and process meaningful information.

Jeffrey Lord is writing in the American Spectator…

President Obama will not be re-elected. Period.

…very, very boldly, as you can see. Why’s he being so bold? What prompts him? Why does he think such heresy let alone scribble it down?

Let us read further:

Obamaflation has arrived, and this is what it looks like.

Milk. A gallon of skim. At the local Giant in Central Pennsylvania:

January 11, 2011: $3.20
February 28, 2011: $3.24
March 6, 2011: $3.34
April 23. 2011: $3.48

That would be a 28 cent rise in a mere 102 days, from January to April of this year. The third year of the Obama misadventure.

Then there’s the celery. Same sized bag. Same store.

January 11, 2011: $1.99 a bag.
March 6, 2011: $2.49 a bag.

A rise of 50 cents in 54 days.

You can stand on your soapbox and loftily intone “I don’t care Obama is awesome!” until you’re blue in the face. You can throw out all the platitudes you care to…Can’t Explain It There’s Just Something About Him…The Real Deal…Breath of Fresh Air.

But when you climb off that soapbox you need to go home, and to get home you need to buy gas. Economic realities set in.

WHAT SEEMS TO HAVE LEFT Obama strategists clueless is the fundamental historical fact that inflation comes slowly. Milk today, celery tomorrow, and gas almost every day. Then, too late, there’s a collective gasp of recognition by Americans walking around the grocery store that it’s no longer just the milk and the celery but the soup, the chicken, the hamburger and perhaps now critically — the Excedrin. Don’t forget the rent, either. The shock of realization dawns that somehow the patient — America — is suddenly in dire economic health and the only way out is a brutally painful form of political surgery.

But what about the swaggering and the smirking, the bigotry and the xenophobia, the — what did they call it? Jingoism, hyper-nationalism, extremist patriotism and exceptionalism. The Won was going to fix all that with a dose of much-needed humility and then we were going to be fashionable, followed by popular, around the world.

Popular hasn’t materialized. Fashionable seems to be fleeting. Humble is here, for sure…hard not to be humble when your President is bowing to everybody.

But you know what they say about humility. It’s expensive. How much humility can you afford?

Ah, but then there is the media. The media will keep Holy Man all propped up, net Him His 270 electoral votes just barely. It’s their job to tell everybody what to think after all!

Problem: After they’re done doing that — they need to buy gas too.

Obama’s a one-termer, because He hasn’t done anything that makes a second term worthy of consideration. Just give awesome speeches and make things cost more. I don’t need to double my budget for gas, to listen to awesome speeches, and neither do you. Just hit “record” and “play.”