Obama’s First 100 Days
Thus far Obama seems to have found the heartstrings of public consciousness. If he can continue to successfully steer the unwieldy public opinion barge through rough waters (like his doppelganger Lincoln had), he should be in a good position to advance the administration’s agenda. On that point alone: give him an A.
And here is my response:
“On that point alone: give him an A.”
I will give him a B- on the point to which you refer: he does seem to have “found the heartstrings of public consciousness” (whatever that means), However, this is not true of “the public” at large. Many on the left and many many more on the right feel that he is making poor decisions and going back on some of the promises he made during the election. It seems that there is no possible way for him to not to raise taxes for the majority of the middle class. That’s something we will all feel no matter who has his eye on our “heartstrings.” But, it is true that, for the most, of the folks who voted for Obama, he is still viewed as something of a hero.
As for his answer to economic problems, that is, to throw money at it, this will solve nothing in the long run. In fact, we will be worse off than we are now, when he’s lost our money in companies that we all know are about to fail. It’s mind-boggling, really. He gets a D- for his economic policy.
Moving on to foreign policy and international relations, I give him a solid C. He’s certainly more likable than was Bush. However, let’s face it, Cuba and Venezuela are totalitarian nations. He should not have accepted anything from Chavez, nor should he have yielded to Cuba. But at least the world doesn’t hate us, so, a solid C.
Over all I’ll give him a C- thus far, but I agree with the commentator above, this “first 100 days” thing is arbitrary.
WTF, Obama!!!
Before election-day if this photo had appeared on blogs or on FOXNews Democrats would have been calling it “a smear,” or “guilt by association.”
First he bows to Saudi royalty, now he’s shaking hands with a friend of Sean Penn.
Tragedy on the High Seas
This is sad:
The entertainment industry won round one Friday in a legal battle against file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay, with guilty verdicts and one-year prison sentences handed down to four men accused of running and financing the popular site.
The defendants vowed to appeal, setting the stage for a lengthy copyright dispute between music and movie corporations and an online swap shop they say has deprived them of billions of dollars in lost revenue.
In its landmark ruling, the Stockholm district court convicted Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij and Carl Lundstrom of helping millions of users illegally download music, movies and computer games.
All four received one-year terms and were ordered to pay damages of 30 million kronor ($3.6 million) to entertainment companies, including Warner Bros, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI and Columbia Pictures.
But the fellas aren’t losing their resolve:
“We can’t pay and we won’t pay,” Sunde said in a defiant video clip posted on the Internet. Mockingly, he held up a hand-scribbled “I owe U” note to the camera. “This is as close as you will get to having money from us,” Sunde said.
Here’s a video statement that was posted on TPB earlier today:
Godspeed, TPB, Godspeed.
2nd WOTD: Changeling
The second of the two words of the day is “Changeling.”
It is synonymous with the first word “idiot,” in the sense of:
a person of subnormal intelligence
But it also has another sense, namely:
a child secretly exchanged for another in infancy
This explains the title of the Clint Eastwood film “Changeling.”
WOTD: Idiot
Today’s first of the two words of the day was inspired by the Pittsboro “Plenty” that commenter Joewalker16 mentioned in my last post.
Anyway, the first word of the day is idiot:
c.1300, “person so mentally deficient as to be incapable of ordinary reasoning,” from O.Fr. idiote “uneducated or ignorant person,” from L. idiota “ordinary person, layman,” in L.L. “uneducated or ignorant person,” from Gk. idiotes “layman, person lacking professional skill,” lit. “private person,” used patronizingly for “ignorant person,” from idios “one’s own”
You see, the folks who support this local currency are idiots, both in the sense of the Greek ἴδιος:
I. one’s own, pertaining to oneself
II. separate, distinct
and in the sense of the Late Latin idiota, which we see above means “uneducated or ignorant person.” Thus the driver that I saw yesterday with the bumper sticker that read “If we continue to buy imports, where will our children work?” is an idiot, for she is ignorant of the way imports and exports find a natural balance in the market.
Give me a break
Here’s a clip from FOX News. The guys are discussing practice of individuals or businesses printing their own currency. Obviously this is supposed to have viewers recall their U.S. history, particularly the “Great Depression.” At that time towns were so poor and isolated that it was necessary to barter and from there arose the need to print currency. However, these people have been printing their own currency since 2001 and not at all for the same reasons as the corporations in the 1930s.This is a joke.
Too Big To Fail: TARP Illustrated
Here’s a funny, but sad, take on the whole “too big to fail” argument.
