Don't Occupy The Sour Milk Sea

Glenn Reynolds reminds us of this classic song; he suggests the Occupy folk should take George Harrison's advice and get along.



Here the author explains the song, and it sure does fit with Mr. Reynolds advice.

GEORGE HARRISON says '… I wrote Sour Milk Sea in Rishikesh, India. I never actually recorded the song--it was done by Jackie Lomax on his album IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT?. Anyway, it's based on Vishvasara Tantra, from Tantric art………'what is here is elsewhere, what is not here is nowhere'……… it's a picture, and the picture is called Sour Milk Sea - Kalladadi Samudra in Sanskrit. I used Sour Milk Sea as the idea of - if you're in the shit, don't go around moaning about it: do something about it…'

I just finished the book about the great rock keyboard player who appears on this song, if you also admire his work you should read and on piano...Nicky Hopkins by Julian Dawson.

And, congratulations to Sir Paul on his recent marriage. I wish you both much happiness!

The $10,000 College Degree

Just when I am underwhelmed by the man, word comes that Rick Perry has instructed his educators to come up with a plan for a $10,000 college degree. All four years for one set, and comparatively affordable, price.

I like that idea! Reduce the cost to the student. And, if more education is warranted after four years, then they can purchase the next level.

But down the road, the best way to deal with the high cost of college education is to reduce it! And Texas governor Rick Perry has thrown out the gauntlet by demanding that his regents come up with a plan for a $10,000 degree—not $10,000 per year but $10,000 for a full degree.

Update:

Of course college is not for everyone, such luminaries as Bill Gates and the late Steve Jobs were not college graduates. There are alternatives.

Gravity On Pause

Not really, the explanation is that the spring action of the slinky makes it appear that the bottom does not drop when it should. Or, something like that.

Whatever the reason for, it is an amazing thing to watch.

Let There Be Trees

It is my opinion that anything to do with loving nature is today overrun by the kook fringe. But, I am kooky about trees, and make no apology for the pleasure I get from walking within a forest of really big trees.

Though I do hope no one mistakes me for one of the unreasonable masses of lemmings for ecology that have mushroomed upon us since the last half of the twentieth century.

All of this came to mind when I checked on the reaction to a comment I left at the Courier-Journal article about Louisville, Kentucky's loss of big trees. I had to laugh when I saw the score it received; +11. I am certain that is my best mark ever.

Arbor Day, that quaint and often forgotten holiday should be given more importance that the holidays for supposedly heroic social figures. We should go to work on MLK Day and stay home working in the yard on Arbor Day.

My own yard is looking better than ever. In some communities it may require a civic effort, but most of the good work can be done one yard at a time.

Sanity At The Daily Kos

Words I believed I'd never be able to use together with sincerity. A first time diarist makes the case against the Occupy crowd by calling them TeaBaggers throughout the piece while presenting a plethora of links to Occupy offenses. A brilliant piece; read it before they realize what it says and take it down.

For the last few years, the point has been expressed on this blog, as well as others, that the tebaggers are a violent, racist, and disgusting mob intent on transforming our society into something completely alien to our progressive democracy. While we've all known this to be the case despite a lack of evidence, these last few weeks of vile teabagger demonstrations have provided all the evidence needed to put the question to rest and exxpose the baggers for what they truly are. Warning, this diary contains some offensive material.

The Way We Were; When We Were A We

So, yesterday I am at work in a client's home..... why are you interrupting me with that puzzled look?

Well, yes, there are still people who work for a living. You don't? Well, then which Occupy protest do you call home?

Anyway, enough of my fantasy conversation with one of the dead beat protestors of today. My conversation with my client reminded me of what hard times really used to be like. This couple was old enough to remember food shortages in the 30's and 40's. "When we could get butter we had to add the color ourselves", she said, as he chimed in that "it wasn't even butter, margarine, or lard is more like it". She continued, "and we saved the wrapper from our stick of gum, foil, and roll them up in a ball for the war. They dropped them out of the planes", to confuse radar I supposed.

These were people who were alive during the dust bowl years. His father worked for the WPA. The WPA, the Work Progress Administration is what sparked the conversation as I had mentioned it in describing the cabin (seen on the home page and called the "Goat's Nest") where I had taken my Mother's ashes a few years back, it was built as a WPA project. The WPA was a solution to underemployment back when folks were used to real work, and people were grateful for any job they could get.

Our talk was in now way comprehensive of all the ways people survived, but we did cover things like how my Grandparents dealt with their trash without a landfill. What would burn went into a barrel, what could be composted went into the ground, and metal such as tin cans were opened on both ends, flattened and recycled for the metal.

I still have the gasoline ration books issued during the war. And, I will not pretend to offer a complete inventory of all the ways people scrimped, and found resourceful ways to get along during truly hard times. But, today's sufferings do not measure up to what folks went through last century.

Get Real

SDA

Holder The Criminal

I don't mean anyone named Holder in particular is a criminal. It just seemed like something good to say.

Coincidentally, the head of the Department of Justice is named Holder, and some want him to resign.

It was faint at first, but it grows ever louder, this cry for Attorney General Eric Holder to resign. Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) today became the fourth Congressman to explicitly call for Holder to take responsibility for the lethally reckless Operation Fast and Furious and to voluntarily leave his post because of his presumed authorization of the program. Walsh’s behest follows similar requests from Reps. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), Blake Farenthold (R-Tex.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.).

Walsh had a particularly damning indictment of Holder before concluding that Holder should resign.

Your Department has made an enormous error in judgment. It instructed federally-licensed firearms dealers to illegally sell at least 2,000 guns that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) intended to be trafficked to drug cartels in Mexico. The results of this error in judgment have implicated the United States in well over one hundred deadly crimes and the deaths of two federal agents.

This not only raises serious questions about your ability to serve as the head of the Justice Department, but also begs the question of why an anti-gun Administration would knowingly force licensed firearms dealers to sell guns to violent criminals. I raise this because Operation Fast and Furious — if the facts of this case had not come to light — would have been used by this Administration as another false argument to attack law-abiding American gun owners.

The American people deserve to know if your Department had any intent to link the legal purchase of firearms here in the U.S. to crimes committed near our southern border. Operation Fast and Furious funneled firearms legally purchased at gun shops in the U.S. to known criminal syndicates to prove these syndicates have access to legal purchased weapons. This is a deliberate attempt to vilify and attack the millions of gun owners in America who value our Second Amendment and have never broken the law.

Am I alone in seeing a resemblance between the current administration and the legend of the Nixon administration which ended with that President resigning?

A carrot to: Small Dead Animals

Richard Epstein On A Healthy Economy

Watch Does U.S. Economic Inequality Have a Good Side? on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Prof. Epstein corrects his Lincoln quote attribution. He now accepts that it was by William J. H. Boetcker.

On Those Who Do Not Think When They Tweet

I struggled to find a header which explains the interview Patterico did with the girl who tweeted that Andrew Breitbart should die. I believe the one I displayed is inadequate. But, then, I am not sure there are words which can explain the interview without completely representing the entire interview. So, the line above will do.

The state of intellect among those who favor sending death threats, like K.R. in this interview, is not acceptable. We used to be better.

I tried to take the issue out of the Internet context, asking: “Would you walk into a party and say to one of the guests that they should die, to see if the other guests reacted negatively?” She replied:

i see what youre doing and i understand that point of view and i admit i didnt think this through as much as i should’ve. i did it for the lols and to recreate what he did. mostly because i didnt believe people would say things like that. if one of my friends said “oh i said this stupid negative thing to this guy and people threw rotten apples at me” I would probably attempt it because it’s so un[b]elieva[bl]e.

I asked: “You did it for the ‘lols’? Could you elaborate on that for me?”

Like a very patient young person explaining something to an old codger, she said:

doing it for the lols” or “lulz” is an internet meme. it means doing it for fun for laughs

Yeah, I know. I was just trying to figure out why it should make someone “laugh out loud” to advocate the death of someone about whom they admittedly have not the slightest clue. I played along, relishing the role of doddering Internet know-nothing: “You think it’s fun to suggest someone should die?”

She responded with shame and remorse. OK, that’s actually not true. Actually, she said:

i think the reactions to such a statement are so ludicrous it’s entertaining

I patiently soldiered on, asking: “Would you walk up to someone in line at the supermarket and say they should die, to see if the other people in line would react negatively? If they did, would you find that entertaining?” She responded:

and as i stated earlier, i did not think this through as much as i should have

I hope that this little girl comes to a point in her life where she avoids those who encourage her to not think. And, I don't mean to offend her, I truly hope she is strong enough, or fortunate enough, to move away from the influences that led her to act for "lulz" at the risk of someone's life.

A carrot to: Instapundit

New Obama Economic Image Revealed.

The Hope of growth, the Promise of Harvest, the Change to detritus; when the plan is rotten so will be the fruit it delivers.

Wild Things On The Loose; Blame Brad Pitt?

Big predators let loose, reminded me of a movie.

Brad Pitt let them loose, I've seen where he did that before. Caused a lot of confusion, and they were never captured because some maniac caused an epidemic, and when Bruce Willis came back in time to find who started the panic Pitts' "Twelve Monkeys" outfit was an immediate suspect. But he only let a bunch of zoo animals go that time. And, thus allowed a maniac to kill off most of the planet. Now he drove a man to kill himself after his animals were set free. That darn Brad Pitt, first he induces an epidemic, now he causes a suicide! Where will it all end?

All attempts at humor aside, sad that it came to this, isn't it. Junior would agree, if he was still around.


Update: Somehow related, actually wild animal meets domesticated animal.

We're Being Gored

Al Gore's experiment faked? Say it ain't so Gaia!

The upshot is that the author at Watts Up With That? was reviewing Al Gore's Climate 101 video and decided to reenact an experiment presented in the video. Gore made the claim it was such a simple test that it could be done in high school. The author found that the video had been tampered with to produce the result shown through Photoshop type techniques, (the picture above reputedly shows two thermometers, but it was discovered that they are the same picture except the blue fluid which marks the temperature was "photoshopped" in one to make it appear that these are two independent thermometers recording temperatures in two individual vessels at exactly the same time), and the experiment was not easy to perform and when performed did not yield the result promised. She says the claim made in Gore's video, with regard to this experiment, is false, and the video was faked.


One more carrot to Instapundit, I sometimes forget to give him the credit for so many of my finds.

One Time, At Occupy Camp....

Abolish ignorance.



Update: Now they are raping too.

Freeloaders Robbed

Ironic I say.

Update: Now they are raping too.

Blurrrrrrrrr!

A new software that corrects blurry pictures? Really? Have I got some challenges for that product!

Bones, More Brain Power

Or, so I imagine Captain Kirk demanding of the ship's doctor if they had known about modafinil. Maybe they did, and his subcutaneous delivery device just never got mentioned?

Of course, that sixties television show would have been perceived to be endorsing recreational drug usage if Dr. McCoy was popping little pills (yellow pills?. what color is smart?) before each diagnosis, or during each operation. Not that a full out space campaign openly promoting drug usage could have had much effect to increase the seemingly omnipresent consumption of illegal pharmaceuticals back then, but it would have been frowned upon. To no effect, I might add, for today we have the same practices and no end in sight. So much a part of our culture, in fact, that it won't surprise when they are made legal; the only question left seems to be when?

Women, Aim Higher

I just discovered an article which puts Anita Hill on a pedestal and holds her up as an icon of sexual harassment in the workplace elimination. I find that elevation of this woman to be ludicrous; and below is the comment I left to announce my rejection of her as a pioneer in that field. Take it for what its worth, but even she says she never meant her testimony to serve as charges against her former boss.

Anita Hill just wants everyone to be clear. A few seconds into my question about her "allegations" concerning Clarence Thomas during his 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearings, she politely, but firmly, interjects.

"When you say 'allegations,' it suggests that I was bringing some kind of claim against someone," she says, apologizing for the interruption. "That was not the case. I was giving testimony about my experience of working for an individual, testimony that read to the character and the qualification of an individual who was going to be sitting on the highest court of the country and given a lifetime appointment to that court. A lot of people have been confused by this kind of language -- 'allegations' and 'trial.' People start to ask whether I proved my case. Then they say, 'Wait a minute. If she didn't prove it, then why do we even care about it?' "

All hail Anita Hill, he said sarcastically, the Twana Brawley of Washington DC. The lesson here, little girls, is; perpetuate a fraud and get yourself respectability among those who buy into your ruse.

Monica Lewinsky did more to promote sexual harassment in the workplace awareness. No, let me correct that, because it was Linda Tripp who brought our attention to actual proof of sexual harassment in the workplace, Lewinsky gets credit for keeping that blue dress. (Unfortunately, the boss doing the harassment was never really held to pay for his crime, and today is well respected among those who now promote workplace harassment issues, like, no doubt, the author of this article),

Hill's testimony was decidedly unbelievable, she continued for years in the employ of the man she accused when she had chances to leave, the examples she offered of harassment were ridiculous. In fact, she is ridiculous.

Young ladies, look elsewhere for inspiration, Hill's is no example to follow. Read a biography of Madame Curie instead. Focus on achievement and don't let yourself to get bogged down in the petty squabbles of sexual harassment charlatans. You are better than that.

I have little experience with sexual harassment in the workplace, as a man some would say I don't even qualify to be harassed. So, despite my incredible good looks it workplace sexual harassment has never held me back. And, I am skeptical that it has been a hindrance to a large enough percentage of women to justify all the hubbub, though I leave open the possibility that I am wrong about that. But, I don't think so. I see many woman dress it up to use their sexual power to their advantage, within and outside of the workplace, to know that human nature says sex is going to be a part of any human contact. And it wouldn't surprise me, if such a study could be done in a truly independent manner, that there is more sexual harassment by those who tease in order to get ahead than by those who suggest in reaction to their notice of a potential sexual partner.

I repeat my last sentence from the comment, it sums it up, and sets the proper course for women to follow.

Young ladies, look elsewhere for inspiration, Hill's is no example to follow. Read a biography of Madame Curie instead. Focus on achievement and don't let yourself to get bogged down in the petty squabbles of sexual harassment charlatans. You are better than that.

The 1%

As opposed to his minions calling themselves the 99%. Just as with the million man march accounting's I think those in the 99% are incapable of doing the math.

We Are Not Suprised By Left's Racist Attitude Toward Cain

But, it is good to hear it said out loud, and often too. Calling them out is at times the only defense against the agenda of the left.

Ayn Rand For The Kids

A new book to teach children about one of the most important figures of the last century.

World's Oldest Museum

In this single room, Woolley had discovered at least 1,500 years of history all jumbled together, a bit like if you randomly found a Roman statue and a piece of medieval masonry while cleaning out your closet. Left to their own devices, these objects would never be found together like this. Somebody had messed around with these artifacts - they just couldn't have guessed how long ago and to what purpose that tampering took place.

A Woman Has The Right, Where Is Mine?

One familiar argument of the abortion promoters is that a its a woman's right to control her body. If such is the case, though I never fail to let it be known that killing babies is the actual outcome of abortion, then why don't I have the right to control my body as a man.

I am actually talking about the coming insistence on my purchasing health care which our current President jammed through when his Party controlled both Houses of Congress.

How can they take away my right to control my body that way? Would they subject women to a panel which would determine whether they should get an abortion? I sincerely doubt they would do so. Well, then why am I to being put before a panel to determine if I can get health care?

I'm seeing many parallels between the "rights" which the left insists on granting to a woman and the same freedoms they wish to remove from my choice.

Wall Street Protesters, More Like Woodstock 1999 Crowd

Woodstock 1999. It would be inaccurate to say that the entire audience was like the current Wall Street protest crowd. Just as it isn't accurate to say the concert promoters are equivalent to the Wall Street brokers being protested, (I think that is the gist of the protest, no one seems to know for sure). But, it is accurate to say that a small number of those present at each event tarnish the message for the rest.

Woodstock '99: The day the music died
Egotistical, angry bands fueled crowd's passions

Reminds me of the labor unions working behind the scenes with the WallNuts, and of those paying people to show up and protest; the leaders of the WallNut mob are ginning up a reaction.

If right-wingers want to throw a punch at musicians for inspiring bad behavior among America's youth, they can lay off poor Marilyn Manson, whose worst influence is his fashion directive. But they'd be dead-on if they pointed to the likes of Kid Rock, Insane Clown Posse, Red Hot Chili Peppers and, especially, Limp Bizkit.

Insane Clown Posse started the ball rolling by throwing $100 bills into the audience and watching gleefully while a melee ensued. Kid Rock demanded that the kids pelt the stage with plastic water bottles. Soon, it looked like a plague of locusts, with Rock himself having to seek shelter from the hail of plastic projectiles.

(Videotape of Rock afterward showed his lack of concern. Grinning, he told MTV News that he felt "a little bad" about his incitements, but was psyched at how riled up everyone was.)

Red Hot Chili Peppers could argue that the situation already was out of control when they played the final set of the three-day weekend Sunday near Rome in upstate New York. In fact, vandals already had set fires throughout the air base that was the site for Woodstock '99. But what did these idiots do? Played a cover of Jimi Hendrix's classic, "Fire," which further enflamed the crowd.

The worst perpetrator was Limp Bizkit, the huge metal-rap band. I witnessed the megalomania of singer Fred Durst in June, when he nearly caused a riot at Shoreline Amphitheater during the LIVE-105 show by encouraging the audience to rush the guards and get close to the stage. Stagehands, recognizing they were outnumbered by whacked-on-music kids, wisely stepped to the side and let nature take its course.

And it almost did, in a nasty sense. Kids in the front began to get crushed, and some on the Shoreline stairs were tumbling, not able to see where they were stepping. Durst, realizing what he'd done, entreated everyone to be nice, but he was lucky nothing terrible happened. This time, his irresponsibility was more costly.

At Woodstock '99, as fans started moshing crazily to the ear-shattering screaming that passes for singing on his part, Durst told the crowd he'd been asked by promoters to calm the volatile situation. "But I don't think you should mellow out," he was videotaped saying. "This is 1999, mother- - ers - stick those Birkenstocks up your a- !"

He took it a step further when the band played its song,

"Break Stuff." "Ever have one of those days when everything's f- -ed up and you just want to break stuff?" he taunted the crowd. Shortly after, the crowd began destroying a tower and pelting the MTV crew atop it with garbage, and tearing planks from the stage. Durst, too, was videotaped coming off the stage with a huge grin on his face, elated at the response.

I hope they send him the bill.

Woodstock 1999 shares one ignominious comparison to the oirginal concert, they left the place a mess.



So did Occupy Wall Street, both crowds are absolutely careless that way.



Losers.

Update: Now Occupy rapists too, it is more and more like W1999

On The Legality of Killing Al Awlaki

Or, for that matter any U.S. citizens engaging in armed hostility to the nation. I am going to reprint in full an opinion from John Yoo, (I hope that will not violate any fair use standards), it is short and to the point.

Was US's Lethal Attack on Al-Awlaki Legal

Over on a thread started this morning, there's some debate over the question of whether the attack executed against Anwar al-Awlaki represents the killing of an American citizen by executive order without due process.

An American citizen who makes the mistake of joining the enemy is not legally inoculated from military attack. What is important is not whether someone is an alien or a citizen, but whether they are a member of an enemy conducting hostilities against the United States. Here are three historical pieces of authority:

1.The Civil War. Every confederate soldier was a U.S. citizen, especially under Lincoln's theory that secession was constitutionally impossible. If one could not kill American citizens who had joined the enemy without some kind of judicial hearing or due process, the Civil War would have been unwinnable.

2. Ex Parte Quirin (1942), where the Supreme Court upheld the detention, trial, and execution of German saboteurs, one of whom was an American citizen. The Supreme Court said: “Citizenship in the United States of an enemy belligerent does not relieve him from the consequences. ” One of those consequences, of course, is being subject to attack. In World War II, many Americans returned to Germany, Italy, or Japan to fight on the side of the Axis. The courts never required some kind of due process for them.

3. Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (2004), where the Supreme Court upheld the military detention of a Saudi Arabian caught fighting during the Afghanistan invasion of 2001. The Saudi had happened to be born in Louisiana, but left as an infant. “A citizen, no less than an alien, can be part of or supporting forces hostile to the United States or coalition partners and engaged in an armed conflict against the United States.”

That seems to clear up that misunderstanding.