Blowhard of the Week

The hyperwealthy blowhard of the week is NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg. The mayor, whose personal net worth is in the near neighborhood of $10 billion, has some dandy ideas for helping the rest of us live righteously green lives. As the New York Post tells us, the Mayor wants the good people of Gotham to pay a $30 a year surcharge on their electric bills, be forced to switch to those expensive, dim, ugly fluorescent bulbs, and bear the cost of building code modifications. As Mayor Orwell puts it, the city will be "expanding programs to manage demand."

If this guy were merely thousands of times wealthier than the rest of us, I might be willing to lend an ear. But the Mayor lives, pretty much alone, in a 5 story 7,000 sq.ft. mansion. He also has houses in Bermuda, Vail and Connecticut when the strains of command get to be too much. Oh, and did I mention the TWO private jets? Look, he made his pile and he has every right to spend it any way he wants...divorce settlements, buying elections, whatever. But when comes to making economic decisions for everyone else, decisions that won't cost him the spare change from the sales tax on his dry cleaning bill, he should just stick his face in the same trough as Prince Charlie and Algore, and STFU.

Well, finally.

At last a politician somewhere who'll make the greenies choose between religions. What's it going to be oh green robed ones? Globalwarmenism or Antinuclearism? Good old John Howard. There are really only three choices, Green Ones, either we burn carbon, we split atoms or we turn off the lights.

Virginia Tech

A whacked out Korean kills 32 people then eats his own lead. The MSM has the predictable response---gun control. This of course begs the usual questions. First, psychopaths don't care about gun control laws. Second, if one of the victims had been armed, the whole affair likely would have ended very differently.

The BBC is Confused (Again).

Some times I think the BBC's site has been secretly hacked by The Onion. Or maybe they're just stupid, or maybe like most of the MSM, the BBC long ago gave up any pretence of professional journalism. Have a look at this story entitled "Confusion Over Iran's Intentions".

Right. There's a confession of complete journalistic incompetence. Iran, daily and in no certain terms, advises the world of its intentions. The confusion results from the refusal to take the mullahs and their squinting tool of a President at the plain meaning of their words.

Here's the Supreme Grand Poobah:""In case the enemies of Iran intend to use force and violence and act illegally, without a doubt the Iranian nation and officials will use all their capabilities to strike the invading enemies."

Now what exactly was confusing about the intentions expressed in that remark?

Here's the BBC:"It was an oddly defiant and hostile tone to strike for a new year speech." Well, no. Actually, that's the voice of sweet reason compared to the usual fire-and-blood. Perhaps the BBC is just indulging in a bit of British understatement.

Iran

What's this about? My own opinion is that when you add Ahmadi-Nejad's cancellation,the developingdust-up with the Brits, and the Iranians' continuous softening up of public opinion since last May for the inevitable withdrawal from the Non Proliferation Treaty and you come to the conclusion that Tehran has already decided that war is inevitable and probably imminent.

"Leaders" (and whacked out millenarian fanatics) like Ahmadi-Nejad don't lightly give up a chance to beard the Great Satan in his own living room. Think Khrushchev with his shoe pounding, Arafat with his pistol, Castro in his fatigues and Chavez with his comedy act.

Things could start going bang in the night very, very soon. This won't end well.

Autumn reruns

I was back over some old posts and found this one. I quite like it and I think it's still true. Those who defend Islamic racism need to consider just how much they personally are prepared to alter their behaviour in order to accomodate Muslim sensibilities.

"As some of my dissembling commentators know perfectly well, I'm not in the least concerned with private behavior. To clarify for the morally clueless: Are you, personally, prepared to give up drinking alcohol,eating pork or keeping a pet dog; if a woman, are you prepared to cover yourself from neck to ankle in public; if you are gay,are you prepared to go WAY back in the closet; or, if unmarried, to give up public displays of affection? Well, are you?

And those are just the things that offend moderate Muslims.

Why is it that people who have insisted on making a human rights issue out of the public display and public acceptance of their lifestyle at all times and in all places regardless of the offense caused are suddenly so reticent when it comes to Islamist sensibilities? Just a coincidence, I'm sure.

Blowhard Fatigue

First Al Gore, now Prince Charlie. It must be the week for hyperwealthy blowhards to tell the rest of us how to be virtuous. I've always known that underneath the liar (invented the Internet, inspired Eric Segal to write Love Story) and the lunatic (remember ALpha Male and Tipper's televised tonsil massage)lay gross hypocrisy.

Prince Charles, product of centuries of careful inbreeding, says why not just ban McDonald's? Very regal of you Chuck, shall we have them drawn and quartered as well?

This all began, at least in its modern, media friendly form with the arch-hypocrite John Lennon. I never liked the idea of some zillionaire stoner with a pink Rolls Royce and a nice piece of Manhattan real estate telling anyone else to "imagine no possessions".

Bush sounds retreat.

It's official. The neo-cons are out and Daddy's realists are in...and we all know what a great job they did..remember the "New World Order". Demoralised by the mid-term elections, the President has allowed himself and the country to get rolled by a sick alliance of cynical realists like Robert Gates and congentital idiots like Nancy Pelosi.

First, he cuts yet another deal with Kim Jong-il (Bouffant Boy really means it this time, then he decides he'll discuss Iraq with Boy Assad and the Mad Mullahs after all. We all know what's going to happen with the surge as well. They'll lay down enough firepower to pacify Baghdad for six months or so, declare mission accomplished, and slink home.

We'll live to regret this...at least those of us who don't get killed in the next wave of 9/11s.

Tariana Turia, Racist or Merely Stupid.

Never the sharpest tool in the shed, Tariana shows that she's either fundamentally racist or has the IQ of a penguin. Calling for limitations on immigration to New Zealand from "traditional sources" such as Canada and England (that would be white people for the subtext challenged), TT said this:

"No, we aren't playing the race card, because we are not talking about Asian immigration."

Nope, no racists in the Maori Party. And just when more than a few socially conservative voters were toying with giving them a party vote. Somehow, I don't think Pita Sharples would have said that.

Iraqi Prostitutes, NZ Sex Workers

TV One aired this CBS news report last night on Iraqi regugee women in Syria forced into prostituion through economic necessity. The report says that turning to prostitution is a "mark of desperation". Just so. Then why isn't it a mark of desperation when New Zealand women stand outside on Manchester Street every night? Why is it a lifestyle choice in Christchurch, but a humanitarian crisis in Damascus? Tim Barnett and all his enablers need to take a deep look inside their rotten souls.

Say goodnight, Joe.

Was that Joe Biden whistling past on his way to political oblivion? No one, and I mean no one, can sink a presidential candidacy faster than Joe Biden. Even pointy hat man David Duke and eco-nut Ralph Nader managed to stay in the race longer than Biden. Here he is on Barack Obama (see link to the Observer story above):

"Mr. Biden is equally skeptical—albeit in a slightly more backhanded way—about Mr. Obama. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

And I bet he's one of your best friends, too.

Dance, Hillary, Dance.

It's kind of fun watching Hillary dance around as she tries to figure out which the way wind is going to blow on the war. If she goes full tilt angry-left, she risks losing every vote that's more than 50 miles from either coast and not permanently resident on a university campus. If she backs the President, and he cocks up his last chance (something that's at least even money), BO and Edwards will outflank her on the left. If she does the "more in sadness than in anger" routine and starts voting to pull out, and there's another terrorist attack (something which also seems likely), she gets to follow John Kerry down the memory hole. I suppose there's always Option D-be a leader, just tell us what you really think and see if the people will follow you.

That of course would require a very un-Clintonian elevation of principle over ambition.

God Bless Barack Obama.

You gotta love Barack Obama. His initials are BO, his name sounds vaguely Muslim and his last name rhymes with Osama, his ears are a cartoonist's dream, he has less political experience than my cat, he's too black for the rednecks and not black enough for the race hustlers, but by Jove he's going for it. After BO announced his candidacy, Hilary looked like she swallowed something slimy. He can't win, but he can give the Angry Left somewhere to go besides Hil's place. They'll follow him off the cliff just like they followed McGovern and Humphrey and Nader and Gore and Dean and Kerry....

Heads Up, Assad

No need to link to or watch the Saddam snuff film. I looked at the official one...I truly think that he didn't believe until the floor dropped away that they'd really do it.

Cremate him and use his ashes in the butt tray at the cigar bar in the Peninsula.

Swinging Saddam

Saddam to the gallows.

The real utility of stretching the Saddamite neck is the salutary effect that it will hopefully have on Boy Assad and various other jihadist enablers. The lesson for them is that regardless of what chaos and bloodshed may follow, if you provoke us enough, you personally will be on the gibbet. Make no mistake, they're watching.

John Kerry : Idiot.

The Dems must be wishing that John Kerry would just go away or maybe start campaigning for the Republicans. Everytime he issue some lame non-apology, he digs the hole a little deeper, shoves the foot towards his larnyx.

Check outthe "apology":

I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform and I personally apologize to any service member, family memebr or American who was offended."

The problem of course is that that there wasn't any misinterpretation. The plain of meaning of his words could not have been misunderstood, and he didn't imply anything...he said directly that anyone serving in Iraq is there because they're either stupid, uneducated or lazy. Way to go Mr. Nuance.

Kerry's problem is that he lives with one foot in Zillionaireland and the other in 1970.

Bad Options and Worse Ones

North Korea's nuclear weapon leaves civilization with only bad options and worse ones. We've only ourselves to blame: 20 years of feckless American diplomacy, 20 years of Chinese encouragement and acquiesence, have brought us to this point. It's too late for a military solution and far too late for a political one. It is near inevitable that Japan will complete its own nuclear weapons program. South Korea will either follow suit or put its head even further in the sand. Having let Pyongyang build and explode a weapon, our impotence in regard to Tehran or any other third world shithole with an internet connection, two electricians, and a plumber is now obvious.

A least bad option? Call Hu Jintao and tell him that unless he puts the very hard word on Kim and backs it up--now--with action, the the United States will publically announce that it, in the current strategic environment, can no longer in good conscience object to a nuclear armed South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. What could China realistically do? For a start, Beijing could close down all North Korean connected businesses in Macau. NoKo trading and shipping companies in Macau act as Kim's defacto overseas banking and trade arm. The North Korean Embassy in Beijing should be closed. Again NoKo embassies in large part exist as smuggling operations for drugs and counterfeit currency, and Beijing has the biggest one.

Not much, but thanks to the studpidity of three successive American presidents, it's all we've got.

North Korea Tests Nuke?

Matt Drudge is reporting via AP and South Korean media that Bouffaint Boy has lit off a nuclear weapon.

Now what?

Nanny Must Be So Disappointed

Nanny Helen must be bitterly disappointed that after all work pretending that she thinks the UN is worth a rat's ass, they pass her over for Secretary General. I'm sort of bummed about it, too. At least she wouldn't have been a corrupt African quango, an unrepentant Nazi or the loser foreign minister of an Arab dictatorship. Also, if they'd picked Helen, New Zealand would have finally seen the back of her.

Asian Proliferation

If I were Hu Jintao,this would have me more than a little vexed. If North Korea does test a nuclear device, the only rational strategic response for Japan and South Korea is to do the same. On a list of things that China does not want to see in international politics, a nuclear Japan had got to come in at number 2, maybe even tied for first with an independent Taiwan.

From China's point of view North Korea must be like an ugly and unpleasant dog that the kids left behind when they went away to college. It snarls at the postman, barks all night, bites you when you pet it and shits on the carpet, but you just can't quite bring yourself to throw the damn thing into the river.