Well, he didn't put it exactly like that. But only because he apparently doesn't know there's a convenient acronym he could use to refer to Obama that would fit perfectly throughout his entire WSJ Weekend Interview.

... as Mr. Zuckerman ponders the Occupy Wall Street movement, he concludes that "the door to it was opened by the Obama administration, going after the 'millionaires and billionaires' as if everybody is a millionaire and a billionaire and they didn't earn it. . . . To fan that flame of populist anger I think is very divisive and very dangerous for this country."

Ya think? It goes on.

At that time [Zuckerman] supported Mr. Obama's call for heavy spending on infrastructure. "But if you look at the make-up of the stimulus program," says Mr. Zuckerman, "roughly half of it went to state and local municipalities, which is in effect to the municipal unions which are at the core of the Democratic Party." He adds that "the Republicans understood this" and it diminished the chances for bipartisan legislating.

Then there was health-care reform: "Eighty percent of the country wanted them to get costs under control, not to extend the coverage. They used all their political capital to extend the coverage. I always had the feeling the country looked at that bill and said, 'Well, he may be doing it because he wants to be a transformational president, but I want to get my costs down!'"

As John McClane might say, "Welcome to the party, pal!"

A large number of the "millionaires and billionaires" who occupy Wall Street's corner offices contributed to Obama's campaign and voted for him. Leaving aside the fact that they should have been smart enough to see this coming, is it really surprising they've grown weary of being demonized ... especially by someone as ineffective as Obama?

It'd be different if it was a wink-wink, nod-nod kind of deal where some light bitching about "the rich" was just part of the act, but all they see now is a ruined economy and a bunch of disaffected yobs being whipped into a frenzy by a guy in love with the sound of his own voice. When the moneyed set is wondering when Armani introduced its new Bullseye Collection, the SCOAMF's got a problem.

All this is enough to make a stereotypical New York Liberal™ pine for the good old days.

Unprompted, he spends much of our discussion reminiscing about the Reagan presidency.

I bet he does.

Read the whole thing.

Posted by: andy at 11:55 AM | Comments (204)
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It's a healthy, if sometimes (ok oftentimes) an unpleasant thing.

Consider the difference between your average life-coddled "occupy" whatever ninny, with his or her apparent dental care, privileges of upbringing, friggin clothes and iPhones (THANKS MOM!), and education, and the American Soldier.

Kurt Schlichter already did this for us.

But the troops would not complain to the cameras even if there were any left in the war zones documenting their struggles. They aren't whiners. They may be the same general age as the Occupy Wall Street gang, but they occupy a very different, less frivolous world.

On a windy mountaintop in Kunar province, a tired 22-year-old infantryman on patrol rests and shares a swig of warm water with his buddy. In Manhattan, a 22-year-old from Scarsdale shares a bong-load of killer weed with a guy sporting dreadlocks and a Che T-shirt he got at Hot Topic.

It's kind of difficult for me to give a rat's ass about these incoherent ninnies who are occupying whatever, and down-twinkling, except to note that they are being pushed at us through the media, and the left, in order to advance the leftist agenda. So a little perspective doesn't hurt. Military service isn't for everyone. But working and supporting yourself, and your family if you have one, that kinda is for everyone. It's how life works.

Schlichter is a funny, caustic conservative. Also a lawyer. Also an officer in the United States Army. His favorite caliber is .45 (well hell, who doesn't love .45?)

via MissConservagal, who also asked me to remind you that Obama believes Martin Luther King Jr. would have backed the Occupy Wall Street movement.

I don't presume to know what King would or would not have supported, but Obama is taking care of all the presuming that needs to be presumed anyhow.

And another thing: John Adams put us some f'n knowledge, when he said,

"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.

And idiotic sign-making.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 10:31 AM | Comments (94)
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Here ya go. This is the place to talk football.

Also, the Rangers are goin to the show!

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 08:45 AM | Comments (355)
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This week, I have that relative rarity in my reading world: a really bad book. I'm a pretty good judge of books, so I generally don't pick up junk, but this book fooled me. It's called Lights in the Tunnel by Martin Ford, and it's a good example as to why a lot of techies should stay far away from books about economics or sociology. (Martin Ford is a Silicon Valley software guy. He's also a HuffPo writer, which should tell you something about both the man and his intended audience.)

Ford's book is what I call a "New Age Luddite" work, in that he posits a world in the near future where machine intelligences have taken all the jobs from human beings. Other technologists and politicians have been sounding this alarm bell since the 1970's (Bill Joy, the Unabomber, and President Barack Hussein Obama, among many others). The idea is that as automation gets both better, faster, and cheaper, it will supplant many workers in jobs that are prone to automation -- not just industrial assembly jobs, but more particularly in "knowledge" and service jobs. Most economists point out that automation has actually led to an explosion of new jobs over the years as old ones are destroyed, and that it has led to a world where products are both cheaper and far better-made (think of how lousy cars used to be) while at the same time lifting billions of people out of poverty. But the doomcriers envision a future where computers and robots do all the work, leaving no way for poor humans to make a living.

I assume that Ford is a liberal because he often throws in dire warnings about global warming and the need for massive government spending to ward off this Armageddon. But it's not his liberalism, or indeed the subject-matter of the book, that puts me off: it's the really horrible logic at work. He often says things like, "You may think this is crazy, but it's true!" Well, when people preface a statement with "You may think I'm crazy", the statement that follows usually is crazy. Ford's book is no different. He constantly makes leaps of logic, and asserts outcomes, that are not supported by the evidence he presents. He posits the worst possible outcomes for trends which, up until now, have had mostly-positive results.

Ford's most elemental mistake is in thinking that automation will relentlessly drive people out of work...but with no countervailing societal benefit or creation of new industries. (In effect, he is Raymond Kurzweil's diametric opposite -- he predicts a "singularity" for computer technology, but not for human beings.) His solution? Wait for it.... Wait for it.... Massive government spending! That's right: he wants a permanent and broad-based system of welfare whereby the government simply sends all the unemployed people in America a big check so they can keep consuming stuff. It's a variant on Jesse Jackson Jr.'s idea, only vastly magnified. But here is where Ford's economic ignorance shows itself: like most liberals, he doesn't understand that "the government" has no money of its own; that all money paid out must be raised in one of two ways: by taxation, or issuance of debt. Ford obviously thinks that the rich will stand idly by and be milked like dairy cows so that Freddie Freeloader can continue to buy Lady Gaga albums off of iTunes, but he obviously hasn't thought through the reality that the rich will benefit from increased globalization and automation as much as anyone else: they'll simply take their wealth and go elsewhere.

EDIT: Ford also misunderstands the basic functioning of the supply and demand market. He thinks only in terms of consumption (if there are no consumers, how can production survive?), not in terms of new industries, value-add, peer markets, or anything else. In spite of his ostensibly cutting-edge book, his brain is firmly grounded in the Industrial Age economic model (as is most of his cohort on the left).

The Lights in the Tunnel is a deeply silly book even if it does deal with a very serious topic (the geometric progression of computer technology and automation). Readers would do better to turn to people like Ray Kurzweil or Marvin Minsky or Douglas Hofstadter or Steven Pinker, who all bring much more insight to this issue.

If I had bought this book in paper, I would have thrown it away rather than donate it to the library as I don't want to inflict it on anyone else. But since I got the electronic Kindle copy, all I could do was delete it. Pity.

Posted by: Monty at 05:45 AM | Comments (112)
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Yes! In before the content.

If you're in the MFL (Moron Football League), make sure to get your picks in. Although you have a good chance of beating Dave in Texas even if you forget.

Posted by: andy at 04:40 AM | Comments (213)
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What a beautiful day it was here in VA today. Just perfect. Carved out some pumpkins with the kids. Sadly, no tiger cub was around like the above picture.

So can you find the hidden cat in the above photo? There might be two. more...

Posted by: CDR M at 06:05 PM | Comments (781)
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We need a new thread anyhow.

Also, RANGERS.

9-2, bottom of the 3rd, 2 outs, runners on 2nd and 3rd.

Somebody asked me who I wanted the Rangers to face in the World Series, if we make it. I said "the Astros".

Or the Mets. I'd be good with either.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 05:36 PM | Comments (70)
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It's not "shovel-ready" (yes, actually, it is).

It doesn't provide long-term job growth (well actually, it does).

It's, it's, it's just dumb and also he's from Texas.

The Real Differences Between PerryÂ’s and ObamaÂ’s Plans:

1. PerryÂ’s plan doesnÂ’t require increased government spending;

2. PerryÂ’s plan doesnÂ’t require expansion of government oversight;

3. PerryÂ’s plan is based on current technology, so it doesnÂ’t rely on future technological advancements;

4. PerryÂ’s plan creates cheap energy, further stimulating the economy (ObamaÂ’s approach is to increase energy prices to make Green energy options more attractive); and

5. PerryÂ’s plan uses a very dependable means of expanding the economy, rather than wishful projections based on Keynesian stimuli.

The bottom line is that PerryÂ’s taxpayer-cost-per-job-created is zero, while ObamaÂ’s is running around $250K. That comparison alone would sure make for an interesting article. CNN? Anybody?

The beauty of this thing is it sweeps away the oppressive Obama regime restrictions on domestic energy production, it's proven energy as opposed to pie in the sky half-billion dollar Solyndra crony-fairy-farts, and it stomps the EPA right in their global-warmenin-commie-bullshit faces.

Other than that it's awful, and Perry stutters in debates.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 11:52 AM | Comments (509)
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For all you college football bozos.

Michigan and Michigan State tied 7-7, A&M just took a lead over the Baylor Bears, Texas, ok I don't much like their chances against OSU. Maybe Gabe will spot me 7 points.

It won't be enough.

UPDATE: BEARS! 77 yards!

ALSO: Sista S Stacia tips me that the Republican Party Animals, also known as the One Percent, are gathering in West L.A. (Los Angeles, not Lower Alabama) this evening, but you can't just show up, you gotsa buy a ticket. Got to buy it ahead of time.

Oppressing the 99% requires a little planning.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 09:20 AM | Comments (116)
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Here's the kind of looniness we have to put up with in the Bay State: Massachusetts Principal Takes Aim at Fall Holidays, Says They're Insensitive

Anne Foley, the principal at Kennedy School in Somerville, Mass., sent an email to teachers warning them about celebrating Thanksgiving [sic], the Boston Herald reported,

"When we were young we might have been able to claim ignorance of the atrocities that Christopher Columbus committed against the indigenous peoples," Kennedy School Principal Anne Foley wrote.

"We can no longer do so. For many of us and our students celebrating this particular person is an insult and a slight to the people he annihilated. On the same lines, we need to be careful around the Thanksgiving Day time as well."

Teachers have already been told not to let students dress up for Halloween

The mind. It boggles.

And ninnies like this are everywhere around here.

Also: A somewhat related PhotoShop from Exurban Kevin:

Posted by: andy at 06:16 AM | Comments (531)
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