Who kept us safe?

Someone needed to say it.

Peggy Noonan So Happy George W. Bush Prevented 9/11

As Wonkette puts it (always with eloquence and class):

"Every day is Good Friday in the Wall Street Journal, because Friday is Peggy’s Day, and this week her wonderful Declaration is right there in the headline, “At Least Bush Kept Us Safe.” Wait, what? Let’s just ask the old Internets here and double-check, because it is so hard to remember, say, when TERRORISTS BLEW UP MOTHERFUCKING MANHATTAN, WITH JETS, WHICH RUINED EVERYTHING FOREVER.

Umm, yep, Google says September 11, 2001. Who was president then, anyway? Right, right, Al Gore. That fat faggot, he killed 3,000 innocent Americans who weren’t even in the military, and then he started a war with the wrong place, and luckily he was indicted for War Crimes and then executed on teevee — along with Lieberman, which was extra-awesome — and the Supreme Court appointed George Bush Junior to be president because he actually won Florida, it was finally determined, and Bush kept us safe!...

George Bush Junior will be remembered for many things, for a very long time. But the witless clown who jacked off at his pretend ranch in Crawford while freaked-out FBI agents were frantically begging for White House help in stopping an organized plot unveiling itself within the United States for foreign hijackers to crash passenger jets into high-profile American buildings will certainly the fuck not be remembered by anyone as the guy who 'kept us safe.'

About time someone said it.

Don't mean to burst conservative pretensions but, for all the bluster about testing Presidents terrorists think are weak, nothing even in the ballpark of 9/11 happened on the watches of any previous American President, unless you count the War of 1812. And even then, only 2260 Americans died in action.

If terrorists attack when Presidents are weak, the current President has a lot of explaining to do.

The echo-chamber gets thick in every circle. But this particular theme has been uniquely disingenuous.

Thank God Al Queda didn't attack again. But I'm not 100% sure that George W. had anything to do with it, at all. I'm open to argument. But I'm not open to blatant bullshit. And this one has the stink of the latter.

The Administration deserves thanks for its efforts. But it doesn't deserve credit where credit is not due. And keeping us safe from 9/11 is not something the Bush Administration can claim, because 9/11 happened while he was President, if anyone took notice.

Back to the drawing board, folks. Surely there are better reasons to celebrate this President than ones that aren't true.

For the ladies in my life

For Jenny. Hope life is good, hon.



And for the future Mrs. So-Hot-I-Sizzle-In-A-Sweet-And-Almost-Intellectual-Kind-Of-Way Sutherland.



And, in case the women are into something a little more hardcore. I'm like Ice Cube with vocabulary.



There's more where that came from, ladies. Even stuff I didn't steal from the Land of the Long White Cloud (Yeah, I'm sure they were sippin' tea the night they came up with that one).

Holla.

Do we really need any more evidence?

While I appreciate and agree with Paul Krugman's conclusion that the U.S. auto industry bailout is a short-term effort to avoid facing the more fundamental weaknesses in the American car industry, and, more importantly, to help those responsible for these companies to face that weakness...

Do we really need any more evidence that this guy is just as likely to be a dumbshit like the rest of us, than this conclusion:

Krugman: U.S. Auto Industry Will Probably Disappear

Yes, he really said this. Read the article. I couldn't believe it either.

Paul is not a bad guy. He's a smart guy. He is also politically unhinged, as of late (say over the last 5 years; I bet you can deduce when it started).

And his ideological blinders show in this foolish, foolish notion that somehow America is going to stop producing cars.

You mean like how they stopped producing computers when the Japanese got a jump on that industry? Or how Americans stopped producing electronics as Taiwan got good at that?

Paul, the U.S. auto industry will not be as dominant in the next generation. You and I agree on that point. Too many stronger competitors, especially from Japan (I am biased, since I own a Toyota). But the U.S. auto industry will still be around. GM and Ford are not going anywhere (Chrysler might be another story, but I still think it is likely that someone will pick up that Chrysler brand name and run with it, even if their cars are kind of shit. Did I just say that out loud? I'm actually joking. I don't know dick about cars, is the truth. But I do have some understanding of business. And I have a feeling that someone will want to keep making money off of Chrysler's name, even if they lose market share).

People are not going to stop buying Fords and Chevies just because Toyotas are often better. They will just buy fewer of them.

And, in the meantime, that generalization does not at all hold for individual car models and car purchases, all of which are made on an incalcuable multitude of many different individual reasons and calculations.

Paul Krugman's not a bad guy. He's a smart guy. He's also full of shit. Often. And this little zinger, which derives from the field of analysis that won Krugman the Nobel Prize, international trade patterns and economic geography, remember, should illustrate that fact really well.

Don't worry, Paul. I mean that, bud. We all fuck up. I still like you. You're still a smart guy. You got plenty of good things to say, that's for sure. You just needed a little humbling.

It looks like you might be finding some. That's what it looks like to get honest, Paul.

If that's the case, proud on ya.

Choices (or I've Got Soul, But I'm Not a Soldier)

Back in July, I posted about a really outstanding soldier, Lieutenent Matthew Gallagher, known as Lieutenant G to his men, who was featured in a Washington Post article I caught awhile back, and who was being harrassed by a superior because he was asserting his right to leave the armed forces instead of going professional military. Matthew featured this Killers' song, All These Things That I've Done, on his website, Kaboom: A Soldier's War Journal.



And I have to say that after dealing with the bullshit and bureaucracy and limitations on my ability to do a better job in my own work, I completely understand this soldier's dilemma, today.

What he was going through, I think, and definitely what I am experiencing, now, is that I cannot imagine living a life where everything I do is controlled and compromised by the machinations of people who don't care as much as I do about the doing the job well and the freedom I need to do it.

And, at some level, if they can't respect my right to make my own choices - because they don't care as much about what they're doing, is the truth, not enough to question their own egos - then I need to go do something where I don't have to deal with such assholes until they can face up to their bullshit.

I'm not going to spend my life being controlled by people who care less about what they're doing. And less about me than they do about their own egos.

Fuck 'em, I say. Do it without me. I'll be just fine without anyone who disrespects me and my choices like that.

For all you babyboomers out there (especially leftists):

You remember how you felt about the draft during Vietnam?

That's how I feel about having my choices coerced by you, too. And if you can't respect that, I'll have to let you do the work on your own.

And that is the choice - as I decide if I'm staying with teaching, for a living - that I am facing, today.