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I offer up no excuses for my extended absence. One reason is because the extended absence, and the months-longer de facto one that preceded it, I probably don't have a readership left anyway, other than those who might still wander over here occassionally from my podcasts, which do still have a small but diehard following. Hard to believe I was once a Large Mammal in the TTLB Ecosystem once upon a time.
But that's what changes in life circumstances can do to you.
A little over a year ago I was hospitalized with raging hypertension stemming from, so they told me, Type II diabetes. So I spent last spring losing fifty pounds and have been on blood pressure meds ever since. Then, last June, the general manager at my day job resigned, shifting some of his responsibilities onto my shoulders, when I didn't have any spare time as it was. Then, last Labor Day, my mother died, and I took on stewardship of my father's finances. A few weeks later my employer undertook purchase and implementation of a gigantic, catch-all, gonzo, Big Gulp, grand unification theory-esque software package called an ERP system that will supposedly turn our internal universe of spreadsheets into the one-stop shopping experience of my boss's fantasies, except that it is, in reality, a user-hostile, white elephant boondoggle that has and will continue to make my workload immensely more burdensome than it would otherwise be (and it was already burdensome, in case that drift hadn't sunk in yet). Figure in my burgeoning role in my church's music ministry and, well, as Deadpool used to screech, "Something's got to give!", and so what gave was hardstarboardblog.com, which ironically, was where this empire started.
After Mom's passing even the bulletin board this blog had turned into (aside from Jenber's much appreciated, if occasional, contributions) went by the wayside. I literally haven't had the time to write or post at all, unless I was willing to forgo sleep. And that's werry werry bad for my blood pressure.
So does this post mean I'm turning the blogging lights back on? I wish I could say yes, but then I thought I was reaching that point a month ago, so I don't want to make a promise I can't keep. But then again, I've found over the years that writing and not writing is a kind of rhythmic habit. To get back into it, I have to consciously choose to start, and once I do the habit returns, and it re-weaves itself back into my daily routine. Maybe this is the ice-breaker that brings me back to these hallowed pixels once again. After all, there have always been ebbs and flows to my blogging over the past eight years.
I'll do my best. But I make no promises. Because who knows what might happen next.
]]>Barack Obama will lose the U.S. presidential election in November. The GOP will win a record share of the non-Hispanic white vote.From your mouth to God's ears, John.
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The final compromise appears to tweak this a bit to make it less onerous for small business. But what were they thinking in the first place? What business operates two months at a time? The minimal time horizon for business is the quarter -- three months. What genius came up with two? U.S. businesses would have to budget for two-thirds of a one-quarter tax-holiday extension. As if this government has not already heaped enough regulatory impediments and mindless uncertainties upon business.
But making economic sense is not the point. The tax-holiday extension -- presumably to be negotiated next year into a 12-month extension -- is the perfect campaign ploy: an election-year bribe that has the additional virtue of seizing the tax issue for the Democrats.
Why aren't each and every one of these idiots being carted off to jail?Scruffy progressive protesters locked themselves together across railroad tracks, blocked traffic, and shouted profanities at police on Tuesday in a coordinated "West Coast Port Shutdown." Truckers lost wages. Shippers lost business. This is what the Occupy Wall Street movement calls "victory."
Few remember now that the Left's three-month-long "Day of Rage" festivities kicked off in September at the port of Longview, Wash. -- a far cry from Goldman Sachs and the rest of New York's financial district. Unionized longshoremen stormed the port there and took a half-dozen guards hostage. They damaged railroad cars, dumped grain, smashed windows, cut rail brake lines, and blocked a train for hours while the ILWU and AFL-CIO cheered them on.Again I ask, where are the cops? Where are the governors? Where is the President? Never mind the last one, he's hiding in the hip pocket of Big Labor.
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As they sweat out the months before the Court issues its decision, the healthcare experts who drafted the bill don't know if it's dead, but revealingly enough they are already talking about what they should have done differently.
President Obama campaigned against the individual mandate at the heart of the controversy over constitutionality, and the decision to embrace it was not a natural one for him.What's natural for Obama is to insert as much socialism into this country as he can, while he can. If that means an individual mandate, who cares about constitutionality?
The Post reached a new low in MSM glorification of these parasites the other day, when the whole front of the Style section described how "A Square Gets Hip" and "improvises a vibrant urbanism," illustrated with a huge map showing the encampment, which appears to have named the paths crossing the square after Occupy heroes, including Che Guevara and Angela Davis (what, no Stalin Boulevard?).
Hours after a man was found dead inside a tent at Pioneer Park, Salt Lake Police Chief Chris Burbank announced Friday he could no longer allow camping in the park or anywhere in the city.
"We can no longer have individuals camping on our streets," Burbank said. "We as a city just cannot tolerate this going on."
Initially, Moore tried to deny that his massive wealth made him a member of that one percent. Even when forced to admit the obvious, Moore suggested that he was not always among the one percent, based on his income: "Other years, like last year, I don't have a job (no movie, no book) and so I make a lot less."
The fact is that Moore is so wealthy that he does not need to worry about his income. According to public tax records, Moore owns a massive vacation home on Torch Lake, Michigan-one of the most elite communities in the United States-in addition to his posh Manhattan residence.
Through an independent source, Big Hollywood has obtained exclusive photographs of the house matching the address of Moore's waterfront mansion. It is the kind of luxurious summer home that 99 percent of Americans can only dream of owning.
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1. Gingrich Schools NBC's Curry on Liberal Media Obsession with Cain Controversy
Appearing on Monday's NBC Today, Newt Gingrich took co-host Ann Curry to task for grilling him on allegations against Herman Cain: "...when the news media goes and finds an anonymous report about an anonymous incident...and you decide that matters more than every other issue in the campaign, that may put your judgment in doubt, as you, being the institutional news media." Curry began the segment by wondering: "...to have a Republican nominee for president, with unanswered questions about sexual harassment, what would it do to your party's chances of defeating Barack Obama?" Gingrich shot back: "What does it mean to the elite news media that nobody in the country ever walks up to us and raises questions you all raise?"
2. Defensive Networks Devote 84 Stories to Herman Cain Scandal, Hit Him for 'Lashing Out'
From Friday night through Sunday morning, the big three networks devoted an additional 21 reports to the Herman Cain sexual harassment story, bringing the networks' grand total to 84 in one week. Even as they continued to pile on, these same networks defensively chided Cain for daring to criticize their coverage. On Sunday's Good Morning America, David Kerley hit Cain for "lashing out" at journalists. On Sunday's Today, David Gregory indignantly suggested Cain has "created this alternate universe" where he says to supporters, "You see, this is- this is what the media does..."
3. CBS Reporter Recites Media Bias Critique on Cain Coverage
On Monday's Early Show, CBS's Jan Crawford spotlighted conservative criticism of the broad media coverage of the Herman Cain sexual harassment charges. Crawford stated that Cain's "testy exchange" with reporters "could help...because a lot of conservatives...think there's this huge liberal bias against conservatives. You know, the media didn't cover Bill Clinton...like they're doing Herman Cain." The correspondent noted the right-leaning argument in response to a statement from anchor Erica Hill about a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll that had Cain just barely behind Mitt Romney at the front of the GOP presidential pack: "It would seem these allegations didn't have much of an impact in the latest polling." Just prior to this, the morning show played a sound bite of Cain refusing to answer a reporter's question on the controversy at a weekend press conference.
4. NYT: OWS Troublemakers Merely Fringe, But Tea Party 'Responsible for the Behavior of People'
The New York Times today: "Many protesters say the lawless visitors constitute a tiny fringe and are not representative of the movement....the criminal and antisocial elements are a small minority..." Versus a Times reporter's 2010 book on the Tea Party: "It was difficult, if not disingenuous, for the Tea Party groups to try to disown the behavior. They had organized the rally, and under their model of self-policing, they were responsible for the behavior of people who were there. And after saying for months that anybody could be a Tea Party leader, they could not suddenly dismiss as faux Tea Partiers those protesters who made them look bad."
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US CENTCOM Press Releases |
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Forces in Iraq pursue 'methodical, flexible' exit plan Posted: 07 Nov 2011 05:12 AM PST WASHINGTON (November 3, 2011) -- With some 33,000 U.S. troops still in Iraq and less than two months left to complete withdrawal by Dec. 31, the redeployment operation under way there is extraordinary, a senior officer with U.S. Forces Iraq said today. |
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1. Amanpour, Agreeable with Pelosi, Pushes Boehner Repeatedly from Left to Raise Taxes
ABC's Christiane Amanpour, on Sunday's This Week, hit House Speaker John Boehner repeatedly from the left to raise taxes, a hostile, political agenda-driven approach she failed to apply a month earlier to the House's top Democrat, Nancy Pelosi. Amanpour demanded of Boehner: "Do you not feel that by opposing" a tax hike on millionaires to pay for Obama's jobs bill "you're basically out of step with the American people on this issue?" She followed by yearning: "Do you agree at all that there should be any kind of tax increases?" She soon lectured him - "you talk about fairness" - but since "one in 15 Americans live in extreme poverty which is defined as something like $11,000 per year for a family of four [actually, it's $22,000], are you concerned that these budget cuts are going to hurt the people who can least afford it?"
2. Media Onslaught Continues: 63 Stories on Herman Cain in Just Over Four Days
The unrelenting network coverage of the Herman Cain sexual harassment story continued on Thursday and Friday with an additional 13 stories. That brings the total number of reports to a staggering 63 stories in just four and a half days. Good Morning America offered up three stories on Friday, including a Brian Ross report tinged with anonymous allegations and rumor-mongering. Ross speculated, "Former employees tell ABC News, Cain was a regular on Washington's after-work bar scene, often with young women who worked with him at the restaurant association." Ross hinted, "Some say it was just Cain being personable and gregarious."
3. NBC's Lauer Spends Half of Interview Pestering Michele Bachmann About Herman Cain
In an interview with Michele Bachmann on Friday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer's first four questions pushed Bachmann to comment on the Herman Cain controversy: "As the only woman in this race, I just would like your perspective on all this....Do you think you are hearing the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth from Herman Cain?" Bachmann repeatedly told Lauer: "I don't have any comment on this particular issue." However, Lauer persisted: "Is a subject like sexual harassment, and if there - especially if there is more than one instance of it, even back in the '90s, is it a game-ender if it's proven to be true?"
4. ABC Skips Corzine Resignation, CBS and NBC Avoid Democratic Label
ABC's World News this week failed to mention the development that former New Jersey Democratic Senator and former Governor Jon Corzine is mired in a scandal involving $600 million in missing funds from the financial firm MF Global which he headed until today. The CBS Evening News and the NBC Nightly News so far have not mentioned Corzine's Democratic Party affiliation as they ran full reports on Tuesday, and on Friday both shows updated viewers after Corzine's resignation.
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