Our Demopublican Government

Well it's silly season and the giant poobahs have taken up the cudgel, mounted their media steeds and are charging at each other with vicious abandon. Ho Hum.The only good thing about this Presidential Election is that it will be over November 7th.

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Smiley with an Idiot Twist

Thanks to my good friend, Photoshop Wizard and fantastic Photographic Artist Klaus Lange for the new Smiley which I will use gratefully when appropriate. For a real treat, visit Klaus's website;  The Astonishing Beauty of the Sides of Ships You'll be amazed at what you sea.

You Discourtous Bastard!

How can you breathe with your head that far up your ass?

There are a few words and phrases that have dropped out of the vocabulary of the baby boomers and their spawn.

Notably absent are; Please, May I, and Thank You.

No where is the latter more absent than behind the wheel. 

If you question this conclusion, try this little Amygdala activating experiment. Next time you're on the road, yield the right-of-way, it's easy. Let the asshole who's tailgating you pass you. Stop for the idiot who just stepped into traffic from between parked cars. If you're on a two lane side-street pull to the right to let the massive pick-up truck coming at you at 50 mph, pass you. Let that teen in Mom's SUV, back out of that driveway, while putting on make-up with one hand and Texting with another. Or, the best one is to try to change lanes by using your turn-signal, watch the adjacent drivers adjust their speed to prevent your progress.

See if any these sub-amoeba, shit grovelers raises a hand or even smiles a thank you for your consideration.  

If this pisses you off as much as it does me, let me know by commenting below.

You don't have to be Jewish

An American Jew in London

An American Jew was shopping on Piccadilly, in London. He entered the posh gourmet food store, Fortnum & Mason.
 

A salesman in a Morning Coat - with tie and tails - approached and asked, “May I be of service to you, sir?”

“Yes,” replied the customer, “I'd like a pound of Lox.”

“Sorry, sir,” answered the cultured salesman, “Do you mean Smoked Salmon'”?

“Okay, a pound of Smoked Salmon.”

“Anything else?”

“Yes, a dozen Blintzes.”

“I believe you mean Crepes.”

“Okay, a dozen Crepes.”

“Anything else?”

“Yes. A pound of Chopped Liver.”

“You are probably referring to Pate'.”

“Okay,” said the customer, “a pound of Pate', and could you deliver this Saturday? “

“Sorry, sir,” said the salesman, “We don't schlep Chazzerai on Shabbos!”

 

Tesla: Misinformation Redacted

 

The Ultimate Geek 

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Read it and learn, read it and weep.

Auntie Meg

In 2010 Auntie Meg Whitman spent over 322,000.000.00 to win the Governor's race in California. While running for governor, Whitman emphasized three major areas: job creation, reduced state government spending, and reform of the state's K-12 educational system. She argued that it is best to start only a few things and finish them, instead of starting a lot of things and finishing few of them. In case you don't remember, Jerry Brown whipped her to a fair-thee-well.  

Smart move California!

Wicked Whitman went on to the Board of Hewlett Packard and, on the promise of revitalizing the PC division, she was appointed CEO in September of 2011.

Last week, speaking at the Global Influencer's Summit 2012 conference in Shanghai, Whitman said: " . . .    HP will increase investment in research and development, streamline corporate processes, and invest in its employees’ growth, . . . I’m so proud that ours is a company based on hardware, and HP will keep investing on hardware.”

Today, Whitman announced the potential elimination of 25,000 Hewlett Packard jobs. Due to the fact that the company’s PC sales are dropping as consumers favor tablets, such as Apple Inc.’s iPad, and it has been slow to adapt to the shift toward cloud computing, away from the IT services Hewlett-Packard provides. Hardware, I don't think so.

Her first promise in the Gubernatorial campaign was job creation, oh, really? This is the same Meg Whitman who was on Bain Capital's Founder; Mitt Romney's National Finance Team. She learned well at the feet of His Mittness.  
I repeat, "Smart move California!"

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Oh my God!

The end of the middle-ages marked the beginning of the Renaissance and a new era of scientific, cultural and religious enlightenment. A major factor was the commissioning of monumental structures and theological artwork to serve as the media of the time. No peasant, living in a mud hut, could doubt the existence of an all powerful deity when faced with the opulence and architectural excesses of the times. Even the most jaded of modern observers is struck breathless upon entering St. Peter's Basilica in Rome or the Cathedral at Chartres.  

The only words one can utter upon first seeing such exuberant affluence are: "Oh, my God!" and that was the idea. The gold gilding, the soaring marble columns, the massive domes and the heavenly light filtered through the acres of Stained Glass are truly awesome.  Only God could have amassed such wealth. 

"Oh, my God", were the first words out of my mouth when I first entered the lobby of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. Dale Chihuly's spectacular free-form "Fiori Di Como" is a heavenly sight to rival that of any Renaissance visage.

What do the Churches of the Renaissance have to do with the pleasure palaces of Vegas? To my mind; they are both religious Icons. 

Both represent the driving force behind organized religion of their time, the acquisition of  money. 

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The Facebook Fantasy

This is the week that Facebook launches its IPO, an Internet Gold Rush the likes of which we haven't seen for at least a couple of months. The Facebook IPO is projected to give the company a market cap of at least $100,000,000,000.00, for those of you who are numerically challenged, nine zeros before the decimal point equals One Hundred Billion Dollars. That's more than McDonald's, Disney, Fluor, Kraft Foods, American Express, Boeing, Visa and FedEx to name just a few, not to mention the plethora of "Large Cap" Companies like Microsoft, General Electric and Wal-Mart.  Shades of the '90s  Dot-Com boom.

Not too bad for a company whose product is you. Not too bad for a company that does not recognize Dynes and Ergs.

And, that is the dilemma. This country was built on the principal of reward for production. Make something tangible that serves a real need and you are rewarded for your efforts and so is society as a whole. Create a useful product and you produce both primary and secondary jobs which fuels the economy and feeds our citizens.

Now, what we create are illusionary products and ephemeral wealth, or don't you remember the real estate riches of just 6 years ago, the Dot-Com bust of 2,000 or  the Silver Bubble of the late '70s. Facebook is not an Apple or a General Electric, nor is Linked-in, Groupon, Zynga, Angie's List or Carbonite. 

The point is that creating wealth out of Zeros, Ones, Greed and hope is a Temple built on a foundation deeply grounded in quicksand.

Don't drink the Kool-Aid!

The Voter's Handbook came today and along with it a flurry of Robo-Calls and the mailbox smells of political flack.  The TV and Radio Commercials have already started with their half-truths and gross misrepresentations. So if you're bogged down in the increasing swamp of Election Manure,here's my suggestion. Follow the money! Look for the funders. 

Every political ad, whether broadcast or print must identify the sponsor. Often it's an innocuous sounding committee like: "American's for Jobs" (Unions), "Californians For A Cure" and "Californians Against Out Of Control Taxes" (Both Big Tobacco) listen to the tags and then read the voter's handbook. These bastards are tricky, take 29 for instance. There's a Doctor saying she's against smoking. Nothing wrong with that until she says that the cigarette tax will not spend one cent on treating cancer. What she doesn't say while damning the research that Prop 29 will fund is that a large portion of the revenue will be invested in programs designed to curtail smoking. Maybe that's why the $$$$$ come from Big Tobacco.  

Who pays for the ads is more important in deciding for what and whom  you vote than the promises of the ads themselves. Since practically no one reads this blog anyway, let me add, that I will not vote for anyone who robo-calls me.

Shades of the '60s

I promised yesterday that the co-opted Occupy Movement would piss me off today, but I'm not alone. One of my most rabidly progressive friends posted on FB this morning that she was fed-up as well, so my reaction is somewhat vindicated. What do you think? 


 Occupy Occupied