Believe me I am still alive

Hey, I have a blog site.  Almost forgot about it until I received an email asking to moderate a comment that turned out to be spam.

Perhaps I should post more ramblings that are too long, or political, for Bookface*.

 

* – Facebook, per George.

 

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How the Deficit got this big

From the NY Times Op-Ed page:

With President Obama and Republican leaders calling for cutting the budget by trillions over the next 10 years, it is worth asking how we got here — from healthy surpluses at the end of the Clinton era, and the promise of future surpluses, to nine straight years of deficits, including the $1.3 trillion shortfall in 2010. The answer is largely the Bush-era tax cuts, war spending in Iraq and Afghanistan, and recessions.

This graph really stuck out.

If we have to cut, isn’t it pretty obvious where those cuts should come from?

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What has the GOP become, part 2?

David Brooks, who is definitely no liberal, writes the following article:

The Mother of All No-Brainers

 If the Republican Party were a normal party, it would take advantage of this amazing moment. It is being offered the deal of the century: trillions of dollars in spending cuts in exchange for a few hundred million dollars of revenue increases.

A normal Republican Party would seize the opportunity to put a long-term limit on the growth of government. It would seize the opportunity to put the country on a sound fiscal footing. It would seize the opportunity to do these things without putting any real crimp in economic growth.

The party is not being asked to raise marginal tax rates in a way that might pervert incentives. On the contrary, Republicans are merely being asked to close loopholes and eliminate tax expenditures that are themselves distortionary.

This, as I say, is the mother of all no-brainers.

But we can have no confidence that the Republicans will seize this opportunity. That’s because the Republican Party may no longer be a normal party. Over the past few years, it has been infected by a faction that is more of a psychological protest than a practical, governing alternative.

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The GOP Survival Suit

It sure seems that the GOP has come to this:

Continue reading

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Jon Stewart on Fox News Sunday

Jon Stewart appeared with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday this weekend.  Wallace tried to nail down Stewart, trying to call him partisan, but Jon Stewart came back with a larger point that Wallace just didn’t seem to grasp:

“You can’t understand, because of the world you live in that there is not a designed ideological agenda on my part to affect ideological change, because that is the soup you swim in… Ideological regimes can’t understand that there is a free media somewhere, because they take marching orders.”

It’s a fascinating interview, with Jon Stewart finally making the point that his kind have been around forever.  That comedians have always pointed out absurdity wherever it exists.  If Jon Stewart is like anyone, it’s more a Mark Twain or a Will Rogers.”Only the jester dare utter the truth.”

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More politicians like this, please.

NY State Sen. Roy McDonald (R-Saratoga) had this to say:

“You get to the point where you evolve in your life where everything isn’t black and white, good and bad, and you try to do the right thing,” McDonald, 64, told reporters.

“You might not like that. You might be very cynical about that. Well, f— it, I don’t care what you think. I’m trying to do the right thing.

“I’m tired of Republican-Democrat politics. They can take the job and shove it. I come from a blue-collar background. I’m trying to do the right thing, and that’s where I’m going with this.”

We need more independent-minded folks in office.  To hell with those that demand loyalty to “the party.”

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I’m back… again.

Given Apple transferring to iCloud (and thus discontinuing MobileMe), I’m going to start posting again.  I have a few ideas for posts, so watch this space.

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Facebook killed my blog

Ever since I finally learned Facebook, I’ve pretty much forgotten about my blog.  Then again, I’ve pretty much forgotten about writing stuff on Facebook, too.  The bottom line is I’ve had precious little time to share my life with the outside world, and instead chose to share it with those I thought closest to me.  I do so through phone, AIM, and a little Facebook, and I find that’s enough for me.I got into Blogging solely because it was “the thing to do.”  However, 1and1’s implementation of the WordPress blog software isn’t easy to use, especially in Safari (this is a new paragraph, but WordPress doesn’t recognize the line break; and I intentionally didn’t go into the “code” tab to edit it so you can see what happens).  So, Vorticity Advection in this form is unlikely to continue.I’ve since gotten a MobileMe account (actually my wife got a family version), and will probably start blogging there as it’s dirt simple to use iWeb and share via MobileMe.  I’ll post here when/if that goes live.Hasta pasta.

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Vengeance unrequited

On this day, April 19, 1995, my son was born at 7:47 a.m.  I was looking forward to a happy day of being a new father.

At 9:03 a.m., that opportunity was denied.

Timothy McVeigh detonated a bomb at the Murrah Federal Building.  I vaguely remember the low rumble.  I distinctly remember the screams of horror from the room next to me as the woman saw her child’s caretaker wheeled out of the YMCA building across from the Murrah center.

If I could, I would go back in time.  I would confront Mr. McVeigh, beat him until he was incapacitated, rip his testicles off, and put my foot on his neck until he was dead.

Yes, I hold a grudge.

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“Basically,” like…. you know.

We always hear about colloquialisms that enter everyday conversations.  Back in the 80’s, it was “valley girl speak” of “like… you know” and “Oh… my gawd!”   We then heard the over-use of “essentially.”

That has now evolved into my new pet peeve: “Basically.”

That is the new overused word in the American conversation.  While the speaker may intend to use it as a simplification of a point, it is often used as a “filler” to make the speaker seem smarter than they actually are.  More often than not, it makes the listener feel more inadequate, or it makes the speaker appear arrogant about their own intelligence.

So, I beg of each and every one of you:  do not use “basically” when you are trying to describe something.  Use “I believe” instead, because that’s what you are… basically… expressing.

GAH!

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