The New American Divide
By CHARLES MURRAY

America is coming apart. For most of our nation's history, whatever the inequality in wealth between the richest and poorest citizens, we maintained a cultural equality known nowhere else in the world—for whites, anyway. "The more opulent citizens take great care not to stand aloof from the people," wrote Alexis de Tocqueville, the great chronicler of American democracy, in the 1830s. "On the contrary, they constantly keep on easy terms with the lower classes: They listen to them, they speak to them every day."
if you can't get to the link, email me, I will send you the link that will allow you to read the article.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020430140457717073381718164...

Using daughters from your first wife to convince everyone that your second wife is lying about your third wife.

Lisa, I think you are wonderful! Happy BD!

From this mornings CQ Roll Call:
NO SIR, THAT’S JUST A MONEYBOMB: The TSA may have picked the wrong senator for a full-on pat-down. Rand Paul is a member of the Homeland Security Committee, has a reputation for doggedness when it comes to defending civil liberties — and is eager to start distinguishing his own version of tea party Republicanism from that of his father (because the senator is already thinking about a presidential run four years from now, when his dad will be 80 and has promised to be out of public life). The senator says his experience at the Nashville airport yesterday — when he was prevented from getting on his first-choice flight after he triggered a magnetometer alarm and then refused to be touched by TSA agents — could spur him to offer legislation requiring the agency to allow airport passengers a second chance to go through screening machines.

I am trying to survive without being able to watch the Daily Show live.

I have a bunch of old MASH DVDs. I just watched the pilot episode.

I never knew that the original Father Mulcahy was played by George Morgan.

http://www.newt.org/
send him $5
Do it for America. Do it for the world!

Of course good defenses win more Super Bowls than good offenses.

Think of it this way, I have an overly simplified football team.

You can sign the best quarterback or the best linebacker. Somehow you are sure each one will help win the exact same amount. Which should you sign?

In a completely free market, it wouldn't make any difference. In the NFL, you should sign the linebacker.

Why?

If you have a better quarterback then you will have more passing yards. Your receivers will look better than they actually are. Better looking wide receivers get paid more. The defense will protect more against the pass meaning your running game will do better. The running backs will get paid more. Overall, the offense will get paid more.

If you sign the better linebacker then other defensive players will look better. Now, honestly, do you really know that the left tackle or the nickel back is better on the Jets than the Giants??? Yes, the other players on defense will look better and need to be paid more. But the extra pay will be far less than you would have to pay the offense if you signed the great quarterback.

What do the Comedians/Publicans stand for when the party of family values boos a man who has been happily married for 41 years and applauds the candidate who has the morals of Newt?

I have a video unit that needs a TV tuner. I had been using the cable box.

Now, I don't think I can even receive over the air TV.

I wonder how hard it will be to survive without any TV.

20 Jan 2012 11:52 AM Quote For The Day
"Predictions are dangerous, but I'm going to go ahead and make one right now: By November, the Obama campaign will have torn Mitt Romney into tiny little pieces, put those pieces into a wood chipper, and fed the dust that came out the other end to the worms. He'll end up the kind of failed nominee that no one wants to associate themselves with when it's over. Think Bob Dole after 1996, or Michael Dukakis after 1988," - Paul Waldman, The American Prospect.

Carry Interest is one of the most disgusting parts of the current tax code.

Rarely are there such obvious examples of big tax breaks that serve ZERO public interest.

Of course, few things were as bad as the QTE law that Senator Grassley got changed which cost me my job at Sumitomo. Carry interest might cost the Treasury more money but is far less disgusting that the QTE rules.

Rush does not have an easy job.

First he hated Romney because he was a Democrat and not conservative.

Then, when Romney was assured of the nomination, he backed Romney and attacked Gingrich as the candidate of Occupy Wall Street.

I haven't listened to him recently but Rush might have to spin on a dime again if Gingrich wins big.

BTW, as of now, both Nate Silver and Intrade have Gingrich in the lead in South Carolina.

George Romney was born in Mexico to American parents.

It appears there was no concern at all that he was eligible to become President.

I know Obama doesn't deserve to be President because his mother was under 18 when she flew to Kenya from Hawaii to give birth.

But, I thought there was a question as to whether someone born outside the US could be President.

I guess George Romney shows that it doesn't matter where you are born as long as you are a citizen on day 1.

http://mirrors.5nines.com/stream/ If you want a boring webcam, this is for you!

Another news story today is the bankruptcy of Kodak. Another piece on ATC compared Fuji and Kodak. Kodak was slow to change. Was worried that they would eliminate their cash cow, film, if they jumped to strongly into digital. Fuji didn't, they ran to the high end of digital photography. They soon realized that they couldn't replace all their film profits with just digital and expanded their business into imaging, printing, medical and even cosmetics.
The company that George Eastman founded was wise enough to keep out unions by paying their employees more than they would get if they were unionized was not smart enough to realize times change.

Johnny Otis died Tuesday, if you are not into music I would understand that you haven't heard of him-though you have check out my links below. I had heard of him, I always thought he was black. He wasn't. He was raised in a black neighborhood and chose to identify as black. Then end of the NPR ATC piece says a lot:
"Johnny Otis Story, says the Ku Klux Klan once burned a cross in Otis' yard. But that didn't stop Otis from later writing a book about the Watts riots, arguing they were a logical reaction to police brutality and slumlords in the ghetto. Lipsitz thinks that's why Johnny Otis isn't better known today.
"It's as if he took a match and lit the rest of his career on fire," Lipsitz says, "because once you took a public stance like that, you weren't going to be the curator of rock 'n' roll like Dick Clark or Casey Kasem. You were somebody who was going to be outside commercial culture in the society."
Still, Otis' legacy and influence lasted. Bob Dylan put it this way: "Johnny's career just dazzles the mind."
Lipsitz wrote a book on him "Midnight at the Barrelhouse: The Johnny Otis Story."

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B_Grxib9Rjq4MzU3Y2ZhZjEtZDhkNC00ZWJhLWJ... "Costa Concordia from space"

That btw is the cover of this weeks newsweek cover story by Andrew Sullivan. http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/01/15/andrew-sullivan-how-oba...
"The attacks from both the right and the left on the man and his policies aren’t out of bounds. They’re simply—empirically—wrong." says andrew, but if enough people believe it, does it matter?
as i have often said, facts are irrelevant more often than not as perception is far more important!

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/14/opinion/obeidallah-colbert-danger/index.ht...

I can't understand what's going on. He apparently doesn't understand that Colbert is a joke. He think's he's serious. Let me show a few quotes from the article (including comparing Colbert to Hitler).

I know some will dismiss the threat posed by Colbert -- these apologists will defend him as "harmless" or say he's no more than "a charismatic speaker" -- but that is exactly what they said about Hitler.

-- Unemployment: "Suck it up, unemployed. It is your own damn fault that you don't have a job ... So stop scapegoating Wall Street." Do we really want an American president who sides with Wall Street over workers?

And now... as I called Billy, I found that this was written by a guy who's a commedian. BUT unless you read the fine print to the left you wouldn't necessarily know. But its still a good read, so enjoy.

http://www.redstate.com/neil_stevens/2012/01/12/tech-at-night-kill-sopa-... I don't always agree with Redstate but when I do, I want to re-post their fair post. Will they do the same? Probably not.

Or maybe this failed blog has nothing to post!

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-11/buffett-challenges-republicans-...

Warren Buffett said he will match the contributions of Congressional Republicans.

Was using the google machine to do get some background on the term "Matthew 25 Christian" meant and stumbled into this web site: http://www.right-wing-pseudo-christians.com/
It really is worth taking a look.
On a totally different subject, another good day to be a performing music artist. Today is the Birthday of Jim Croce, Rod Stewart, right wing lyricist Donald Fagen and Pat Benatar

Carl Rogers was born. “A person cannot teach another person directly; a person can only facilitate another's learning” (Rogers, 1951). and more really deep stuff can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Rogers
Probably a more profound impact on society than what follows. Outside of music Charles Osgood born in 1933 Who caught my attention years ago with a satirical take on Christopher Marlowe's poem http://2000clicks.com/graeme/LangPoetryFunnyPOSSLQ.htm Check it out 40 years later it is still cute. But with the birthdays of Bill Graham 1931, Elvis Presley 1935, Robbie Krieger 1946 and David Jones, who changed his name to Bowie in the mid 60's to avoid confusion with David Jones of the Monkeys, it is a good day to be born if you are in the music industry.

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/01/america-but-better.html

http://www.dangreller.com/

This is Dan Greller's blog. I'm connected with him on Facebook. Just figured you all would want to know what he is up to.