Bush kills
For those of you who did not stay up late last night watching the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner -- it is sort of the Oscars for the wonk set -- Allahpundit has video, links and other coverage over at Hot Air, including cuts from President Bush's hilarious routine (in which a "double" says what Bush is "really thinking" as he speaks his platitudes to the press).
Allah is correct, by the way, that Comedy Central's Steve Colbert was not, by and large, funny. At least in the laughter-inducing sense of the term. I am prepared to believe that I am biased in this, but the difference in audience reaction really was striking. And it was hardly an audience that was predisposed to affection for the current President. As Allah suggests, perhaps Colbert wasn't funny on purpose.
CWCID: Joe's Dartblog.
posted by TigerHawk at 4/30/2006 09:08:00 AM
107 Comments:
Or one of these at all speaking events.
Maybe Bush has a sense of humor and Colbert has to work at it. Most people whose humor is aimed at targets other than themselves have to work harder to be funny.
Of course, people will always disagree on what is funny and what isn't. But there is no arguing that Colbert functioned much in the same way as a court jester: for one evening he had permission and immunity to tell brutal truths (or what Colbert believes are brutal truths) directly to the assembled powerplayers.
What Colbert did went beyond the usual jovial "roasting" routines. Again, people may approve or disapprove. Personally, I thought it was absolutely savage, brilliant, and, at times, transcendent.
Oh, and the dueling dual Bush skit was top-notch surreality.
Colbert, Muhr and that Stewart fellow, none have respect for the Press.
The Comedy is "left" but the underlining commentary is sometimes "right"
A lot like Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam
The best line wasn't given last evening but today by Ms. Rice. Said she in reference to Mr. Ahmadinejad's "Go to hell", "We have a lot of diplomatic quivers in our arrow”….or not. You can almost hear the echo of hilarity reverberating from Iran.
She who laughs last laughs best.
That wasn't PeterUK's usual Sunday LSD trip, the Romans actually did divert streams under the city to fill the Colosseum with enough water to float actual naval vessels--upon which (using the condemned as sailors) they actually staged naval battles--REAL naval battles, with full-scale battle to the death. Take that, Shakespeare.
You talk about a funny guy: Mr. Josh Bolten, being interviewed by Chris Wallace this morning, said that the President expects illegal Mexican protestors and amnesty demanders to operate within the law. Now, that is priceless.
While not even remotely on par with Mr. Bush and company, I know that I will, nevertheless, be amused by my response to Republican pendejo fund raisers, beginning tomorrow: “You obviously believe me also a RINO; you are mistaken. Direct your solicitation to Mr. Lechón Asado, c/o The White House.” You just can’t beat multi/culti- humor.
ha--will NASCAR survive now that NBC has targeted the racism that NBC is drooling to expose there?
They'll find prejudice alright--against NBC.
I'm watching Oliver North's production of Patton. In the coverage of the American incursion into Mexico in pursuit of Pancho Villa, there was no sensitivity demonstrated for Mexico's sovereignty and humiliation.
Oh, Villa raided across the border with merely scores of bandits, nothing like the numbers of today. The US protected its border by sending in the Army. Wow, I thought Wilson was an effete Harvard prof.
He was, allen
But times and standards change.
JFK and HHH, if their positions stayed the same, would be on the Radical Right, today.
ABC, always in service of the truth, brought Wilson/Plame.
We need that.
Anybody ever see Pelosi's daughter's movie of Bush on the first campaign trail?
Or try to find it?
Bet that was hilarious.
Whatever Bush May Lack, it's not skill in delivery of wry humor.
...like Algore. Not.
Right, Uk of Northumbria, such wet sensibilities would've fared neither well nor long under such rigorous conditions as pertained everywhere before that brief shining moment post-WWII--that moment which even as we speak is drawing to a whimpering and unlamented close.
Unlamented by who?
I even whimper about it sometimes.
Then it would you, then.
be
A lack of high quality humor?
Here's some high-quality humor: "Air America" !
Humor is obviously in the ear of the beholder, but I'll give Colbert the benefit of the doubt and keep looking.
he's pretty funny -- I think Repack saw the thing thru a couple o them BDS eyeballs.
I appreciate that I may be biased in this, but there was a palpable difference in the audience reaction to Bush and Colbert's performances. The audience laughed during the former, and chuckled during the latter (to my ear, anyway). Of course, perhaps that was because Colbert was so freakin' funny that the audience was stunned. We can't know, because the cameras, which panned across the audience laughing at numerous points during the Bush gig, stayed fixed on Colbert (at least according to my memory). My own guess is that it is because he was so offensive that it shocked even the guests, which also explains why it was so thrilling to the lefty bloggers.
WHITE 'INGRATITUDE' WORRIES TUTU
BBC." Archbishop Tutu and Mr de Klerk are both Nobel peace laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said South Africa's white community has not shown enough appreciation of the generosity shown to them by black South Africans.
Ex-President FW de Klerk said in turn that black citizens should be grateful to whites for surrendering power.
Archbishop Tutu headed the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission which began work in April 1996."
Talk about comedians. Remember when white Americans were considered racist for thinking and saying blacks with newly acquired civil rights were ungrateful? The MSM loved this phony. I am sure his racists thoughts and comments will be on the NYT website headlines. I think I will go read all about it.
Friends,
I hate to throw water on a parade where the Colbert-dog is my choice for Loser Della Annus, but I listened to the same HotAir clip, and I suggest that something may have happened similar to once in Thailand when His Majesty the King made a broadcast:
The first one was clear, audible and breath-takingly sharp in his rebuke of then Mayor and the Prime-Minister-Wannabee: they were BOTH dressed down right smartly, BUT then, in all the rebroadcasts, his speech was garbled, barely audible and meaningless to native Thai speakers as well as me.
I think something changed on Colbert's microphone setup, and although he WASN'T particularly humorous, there were SOME chuckles out there, but they weren't picked up.
Thank God for small favors.
And at the risk of instigating an echo chamber, I concur TigerHawk's comments a few posts upstream:
ANYBODY can out-Rickles Don's offensive brand of nasty, critical 'humor', but it shows left AND right the measure of the meanness of the nasty-mouth, much more than it reflects on Bush! (or any other target!)
Among the things that leftists and muslim fanatics share in common, is lack of any sense of humour. What passes for humour among muslim fanatics is a video of an infidel's head being slowly sawed off. Leftists have similar ideas of humour, just different "infidels."
" ... And the Espionage Act of 1917, as amended in 1950, very clearly makes it a criminal offense to transmit or receive classified information.
"If these statutes mean what they seem to say and are constitutional, public speech in this country since World War II has been rife with criminality," wrote law professors Harold Edgar and Benno Schmidt. "The source who leaks defense information to the press commits an offense; the reporter who holds on to defense material commits an offense." ... " Blowback on the Press
At least Mr Colbert did not leak the plans for the May Day Comedy Stayaway Reprisal.
Following the President's schtick, Mr Colbert had little chance of success.
A bit like following Jerry Lee Lewis's burning piano, it'd take greatness to accomplish the mission, successfully.
Mr Colbert, a phoney reporter of make believe news, in his real life's work, fell short.
It was not part of General, Nationwide Conspiracy.
That happens today.
" ...In February, John Negroponte, America's director of national intelligence, blamed the Iranian government for the spread of such weapons throughout Iraq.
He told a United States Senate committee: "Teheran is responsible for at least some of the increasing lethality of anti-coalition attacks in 2005, by providing Shia militants with the capability to build IEDs [Improvised Explosive Devices] with explosively formed projectiles, similar to those developed by Iran and Lebanese Hizbollah."
The Telegraph
Now those Negroponte lines, as well as the Administration's reaction to these developments ...
Now that is FUNNY!
Some more comedic relief
"... LONDON, May 1 (IranMania) - According to an AFP report, Baghdad accused Iranian forces of entering Iraqi territory and shelling Turkish-Kurdish PKK guerrilla positions, with the Kurds accusing Tehran of working with Ankara to attack their movement.
"Iranian forces hit a border area called Haj Umran and then entered five kilometers (three miles) into Iraqi territory and hit the area of Lollan with heavy artillery with 180 shells targeting PKK positions," an Iraqi defense ministry statement said.
The shelling was the second military attack on the Kurdish guerrillas by Iranian forces in 10 days. The previous attack on April 20 left two guerrillas dead and another 10 wounded.
The Kurdish rebel group, Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), who have dug-in in Iraq's northern Kurdish-controlled area on the border with Iran and Turkey, have warned Iran not to interfere in their fight against Ankara's rule in southeast Turkey. ... "
"... Turkey has long urged the United States and Iraq to root out the PKK from its bases in the mountains of northern Iraq, but it has been told that violence in other parts of the conflict-torn country was their priority.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on Ankara during a visit last Tuesday to refrain from unilateral action against the Iraq-based Kurdish rebels, calling instead for renewed three-way cooperation to fight the threat. ... "
"... Washington labels the PKK as a "terrorist" organization. ..."
The Iranians are policing Iraq of Kurdish terrorists attacking Turkey, that are to much for US to handle, now.
"We gotta talk"
funny stuff
Iran, is stepping up and fighting terrorists that are attacking our NATO ally, Turkey.
Turkey requests US assistance in securing portions of occuppied Iraq from Terrorists, while the US replies it has other, more pressing priorities than transnational Terrorism, based out of Iraq.
All this time, the Law, and still terrorists of International Scope base out of Iraq.
To much for US to get a handle on, while we garrison Camps Fallujah and Anaconda with 40,000 troops,combined.
Another good day for a little 3 on 3 B-ball, then a stop at the Green Bean for a cup of joe, at Camp Anaconda.
I wonder if Turkey is simply reaping what it sowed.
skipsailing
That could well be the case, but those PR Wars that Mr Rumsfeld continues to tell US we're losing, this is another broadside.
While the reaction of many of US, could mirror yours, our impotent response to a seemingly reasonable Turkish request for action against terrorist base camps will be seen differently in the Muslim world.
Iran fulfills it's Treaty Obligations to Turkey, while the US is shamed by inaction.
Mr Bush and US are portrayed as weak and liars, not living up to the words of the Bush Doctrine or our mutual defense pacts.
We are still not seen as a people to be feared or respected.
Pay any Price - Bear any Burden.
When the PKK militia is integrated into the ISF, then the "troubles" will stop?
And we asked Turkey not to take
"unilateral action" against the terrorists, but we would not join their "Coalition" and act with the Turks.
So the Iranians did.
Turkey got military action against the PKK, in Iraq.
US and the Federal Iraqi lose face, twice.
First for never acting against the PKK terrorists.
Second when Iranian forces cross the Iraqi border to preemptively strike at the PKK base camps.
While we stand by, publicly impotent due to our inability to control the countryside or cityscapes in Iraq or beyond.
Points well taken DR.
although tiger hawk has a different take. My reading of his post is that the Iranians are reacting to american inspired provocation.
I expect that the border regions will be hot beds this summer.
My guess, and it's a guess, is that the military in Iraq faces three issues: the violence in Baghdad, the insurgency in ramadi and the borders.
A long hot summer
I think what you heard from the audience during Colbert's schtick was the sounds of an audience made uncomfortable. So many here moan about the MSM, and I've always found it interesting that those of the far left also moan equally about the MSM, but Colberts barbs were aimed primarily at the media and they were the audience.
I found the editied sections presented at hotair to be not very well selected or stiched together. A more complete clip of Colbert's can be found at Crooksandliars
I haven't found a complete clip of the Presidents presentation yet. If anyone has it, I'd appreciate watch it in its entirety.
note: Colbert's schticks seem to be best viewed as if he were the man he models the character on, Bill O'Reilly.
The State of Manhood in America:
"Geldings"
desert rat,
further to your postings on incompetence and such, I came across this article by Galbraith that you might find interesting. In his view, it seems, incompetence doesn't do enough to describe it, but rather the word predator is more apt. From near the end of the rather short, but concise, article byGalbraith
"Why don’t markets provide the discipline? Why don’t “reputation effects” secure good behavior? Economists have been slow to answer these questions, but now we have a full-blown theory in a book by my colleague William K. Black, The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One. Black was the lawyer/whistle-blower in the Savings and Loan and Keating Five scandals; he later took a degree in criminology. His theory of “control fraud” addresses the situation in which the leader of an organization uses his company as a “weapon” of fraud and a “shield” against prosecution—a situation with which law and economics cannot cope.
For instance, law and economics argues that top accounting firms will protect their own reputations by ferreting out fraud in their clients. But, as with Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom, at every major S&L control fraud was protected by clean audits from top accountants: You hire the top firm to get the clean opinion. Moral hazard theory shifts the blame for financial collapse to the incentives implicit in insurance, but Black shows that the large frauds were nearly all committed in institutions taken over for that purpose by criminal networks, often by big players like Charles Keating, Michael Milken, and Don Dixon. And there’s another thing about predatory institutions. They invariably fail in the end. They fail because they are meant to fail. Predators suck the life from the businesses they command, concealing the fact for as long as possible behind fraudulent accounting and hugely complex transactions; that’s the looter’s point.
That a government run by people rooted in this culture should also be predatory isn’t surprising—and the link between George H.W. Bush, who led the deregulation of the S&Ls, his son Neil, who ran a corrupt S&L, and Neil’s brother George, for whom Ken Lay sent thugs to Florida in 2000 on the Enron plane, could hardly be any closer. But aside from occasional references to “kleptocracy” in other countries, economic opinion has been slow to recognize this. Thinking wistfully, we assume that government wants to do good, and its failure to do so is a matter of incompetence.
But if the government is a predator, then it will fail: not merely politically, but in every substantial way. Government will not cope with global warming, or Hurricane Katrina, or Iraq—not because it is incompetent but because it is willfully indifferent to the problem of competence. The questions are, in what ways will the failure hit the population? And what mechanisms survive for calling the predators to account? Unfortunately, at the highest levels, one cannot rely on the justice system, thanks to the power of the pardon. It’s politics or nothing, recognizing that in a world of predators, all established parties are corrupted in part.
So, how can the political system reform itself? How can we reestablish checks, balances, countervailing power, and a sense of public purpose? How can we get modern economic predation back under control, restoring the possibilities not only for progressive social action but also—just as important—for honest private economic activity? Until we can answer those questions, the predators will run wild. "
reply to Ash,
Yawn.....
sooo, skip, is the Bush admin, in your view, simply incompetent or willfully indifferent to incompetence? Or are you going to argue the third option, that they are doing a great job?
Ash, how did you get all the way to Earth from Planet Perfect?
Criminalizing political behavior is the essence of Marxism. By use of specialized meanngs of words, simple things like making a living in the marketplace become criminal, if there is so much as one person somewhere not participating. It is nothing less than the use of that defining quality of human beingness--the use of language--for purposes of control by the owners of the rights to meanings. This will always in the end be some sort of inside gang kept beyond popular control via armed secret organizations. Please read some of the euro0fascist literature of the 30s--it'll pop your eyes. It'll sound like your quoted author. To enter the dialectic, is to observe that man is without value or meaning, and is but a comsumption machine taking his bread from others. It's evil sh*t, Ash--you need to grow some antennae.
The problem with all that lurid crap is it's all just as true as the Dale Darnegie, or Billy Graham, vision of life. The politics of faith and optimism are just choices--only true if you make 'em that way.
The dark vision is unfortunately the default, as it reverts to the survival instinct unfettered--where the next meal is all that counts.
And BTW, Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, those babies are Clinton-era, GWB is the clean-up man. A reading of your post yields a different, and false, impression.
Uk of the Catuvellianii: So let it be said, so let it be done.
I guess it doesn't matter anymore, since words and the ballots they create have been made so cheap, whether you have a genuine crook at the top (Clinton), or whether you have a mere political crook (Bush), who is a crook to the half of the electorate that obviously respects the law of the land only conditionally.
There *is* an actual history of the S&L debacle, that doesn't mince/fudge/misrepresent either genesis nor denouement.
For as long as I can recall folks who dislike the rough and tumble of free market capitalism have been predicting our doom.
Galbraith is not saying anything new Ash. We've heard these dire predictions before and we'll hear them again.
there is an endless stream of boogie men that the anti capitalists warn us about. It's just plain tiresome.
years ago I watched Milton Friedman's PBS series "free to chose" At the end of each episode he'd take questions from dissenters. Basically he ate their lunch.
Ash's post attempts two things. First it is a clarion call for more "action" in the market place. this is simply wrong headed as free markets function better than governments any day of the week.
next, it's an opportunity for Ash to engage in his passion: Bush Bashing. It must be really sad to live such a shallow life, but there you have it.
In fact Bush doesn't merit mention in the Galbraith piece. It is Ash's rebuttal that is so revealing of his true agenda.
Ash, again, Yawn.
Skip--look at the S&L timeline--it was Carter's baby (after "Carternomics' 20% inflation/int rates, something hadda be done to save the S&L industry).
The monetary instability opened the doors to the speculation that caused the insolvency--when the hard-money cure (the only cure) was applied to repair Carternomics.
buddy and skip, I think you both are missing the primary thrust of Galbraith's thesis. It does not matter if the S&L had its genisis during Carter years or whether Clinton presided over the USA when corporations engaged in corrupt behaviour. The problem lies in the free markets inability to confront such predations. When a predator is able to get to the top spot in a corporation the corporation is pilfered. Similarily if a predator should get to the 'top' in US politics the US will be pilfered. Mr. Bush has made decisive moves toward increasing the power of the executive office, with little to nothing to check that power all that is left is 'politics' to counter any corruption.
Buddy I had some business associates that lost their jobs in the S&L debacle. They were convinced that this was a witch hunt by the "banks" to eliminate an entire group of competitors. If you look at bank profits these days, I'd say it worked.
The problem then is Galbraith's solution. More politics is not likely to solve a problem caused by too much politics.
but again, Ash isn't interested in that, he's only seeking new and clever ways to Bash Bush and express his anti American agenda.
The other two branches have been on a 30 yr roll against executive power, Ash. Granted GWB has taken back, for the office, some of the recent encroachments. But this is a balance-of-powers conflict only at the margins, and besides is always ongoing, has been a feature of USA history.
Wartime powers that lean to the executive are an historic fact--the founders made it so in order that the nation not be handicapped by creatures like Durbin and Pelosi during a national emergency.
buddy, I'm still looking constitutional provisions granting a presidents increase in powers due to war. The best I've been presented so far has been Lincoln's precedent suspending habeas corpus.
I also don't see anything in the constitution regarding Presidential signing statements. Does that mean they carry no force?
"Since taking office in 2001, President Bush has issued signing statements on more than 750 new laws, declaring that he has the power to set aside the laws when they conflict with his legal interpretation of the Constitution. The federal government is instructed to follow the statements when it enforces the laws. Here are 10 examples and the dates Bush signed them:"
Examples of the president's signing statements
Bush challenges hundreds of laws
President cites powers of his office
He's the president, Ash. He won the election. Should he break the law, be absolutely assured, you'll hear about it.
the legislative branch, Ash, has become--largely due to the Dem's Rule-or-Ruin tactics, frozen, nearly incapable of decisive action on items that need it, while becoming ever more activist against the executive brance. It's not a good combo, and the prez is fighting back, trying to govern per his job description. Your links are examples of soured Lilliputians who over-reached.
Buddy, I agree that Congress has not been effective at governing. I'm puzzled (well not really - you are blatantly partisan) that you attribute the problems to the Dems. Don't the Republicans hold a majority in both houses? Fillibusters haven't been popping up so I think the Republican party can take full credit for our present situation.
No ash, I didn't miss the point. I understood it, but discounted it.
Recall the milton friedman program ash? One idiot asked what the free market would do to such predators. Friedman asked for an example and then asked: where are they now?
if big oil squeezes us, we'll use less. If the banks squeeze us we'll find alternatives, if the cable company squeezes us we'll turn the damned thing off.
Galbraith misses the point: the free market, people who are free to chose will in the long run level the playing field ash.
It's a fundamental fact of life so I'm not surprised that you missed it.
Now I see you've returned to option A: Bash Bush.
How sad you must be.
Well, if I'm partisan, it's by default, I guarantee ya.
Faced with sorry and sorrier-by-far, I gotta stick with sorry.
As to how the Dems muck up so effectively from a minority--that is the large imponderable of the age. I guess they're just really good at it.
I read to Boston Globe article, but I don't see the problem Ash.
I'm sure you do, so kindly tell us what you're undies are in a bundle about today.
Take it issue by issue, Ash -- you'll see how they do it. Look at the Bolton process -- total congressional exhaustion of time and energy just to get a floor vote. And still had to do a recess appt--thereby giving demagogues more ammo--in order to get someone into the UN who wouldn't steal, and would instead TRY to DO some GOOD. and Bolton is just one thing -- look at SocSec reform--hell look at everything.
skip, the problem resides in Congress making laws and the president overriding them.
I take it you don't see the problem in your jib trim pictured on your Avatar as well ;)
Ash, this is BS.
"But the words ''in a manner that is consistent with the Constitution" are the catch, legal scholars say, because Bush is according himself the ultimate interpretation of the Constitution. And he is quietly exercising that authority to a degree that is unprecedented in US history."
this isn't news, Ash, its opinion. And since it's negativity is aimed at your nemesis you are buying this lock, stock and barrel.
A few questions Ash? What "legal scholars"? How do these unnamed "legal scholars" support the conclusion that this is unprecedented.
I agree with Buddy, this is just more of the same sour grapes.
yes, take a survey of partisans who are trained to take either side of anything and argue for or against it, and you'll end up with some great boilerplate.
OH Ash, you poor kid.
Congress cannot limit the constituitional authority of the president. That's the dynamic I see here. Congress passes laws that the admin thinks is limiting and so they countermand it.
Welcome to the US government ash.
Again, this is a big deal because you need it to be. you have find something to complain about and this is it.
so, tell us here, what problem do you percieve with the trim of that jib? And It's not really a jib Ash, it's a jenny
There are some salient points to Ash’s 9:18am post, though I think the author fatally conflates the issue with the Bush dynasty. The trend of mergers and acquisitions has been to bring about economic well being to the predator company and not necessarily for the overall health of the economy. There is a reason that there are anti-trust laws and I am afraid in the gonzo service economy where the US neither builds nor makes anything for export except for weapons systems, based on the idea that we, a nation of lawyers, pizza delivery persons, hairdressers and phone-sanitizers, will be hired by the Chinese army or Putin’s thugs in order to service the rope that they made for our own lynching, and it will therefore all work out within the bistro math when the bill comes due, somehow., It doesn’t ring true to me.
I’ve watch companies spend 30% of their total economic output making quarterly forecasts come true. We shipped product to distribution points that didn’t order it, then offered them a huge discount, just to post sales within forecast if for a day or two. We had our production shut down because the trucks with our Just-In-Time supplies were parked down the street so our quarterly forecast would be on track, and yeah, we wouldn’t take credit for sales because we didn’t want to be over forecast either. The MBA’s screwed American manufacturing, they screwed the savings and loans, and they’ll screw what ever else comes down the pike. You can’t run a company based on strict adherence to quarterly goals, while we dithered, Asia build infrastructure.
And one day the bagmen came and cooked the books like bones of the living organism and feasted on the gutted carcass. It happened.
skip,
By Jenny, I trust you are referring to a genoa which is an overlapping jib. You seem to be getting some luff in your sail up by the numbers. A little too much sag in your forestay could be the cause of this as well as improper trim - your sheet could be too loose but you do appear to be in light air conditions so you don't want to overtighten your forestay or your jib sheet. Your jib cart position looks like it could be off as well. In any case, you've got a bit of luff there so you aren't getting full power out of the sail. Mind you, throwing up the main would help as well if going faster was your goal.
Anyway, the pres isn't supposed to selectively enforce laws enacted by congress.
annoymouse, ya, the prime argument is the economic one though the same principles can apply if the predators prowl at the top of the food chain in government. American politics, in general, does have reputation for a close relationship between money and power.
But Annoy, don't you see the difference? Think long term.
A question that gets asked in business frequently is this: will you firm be here in fifty years?
it seems to me that there are two big problems with the current approach to business management.
One is the almost exclusive reliance on numerical analysis and the other is a focus on the short term.
Alexander solzhenitsyn wrote about a soviet chandelier factory who's production targets were based on pounds shipped. Since they couldn't make any more chandeliers and not many people were buying them, the only way to meet the quotas was to make the chandeliers heavier. At some point no ceiling in the soviet union could support them.
I call this the solzhenitsyn syndrome and it is prevalent today. The stories you're telling are part in parcel of this. "Just get the number" becomes the mantra and concepts like quality and service (and even honor) fly out the window.
it's important to avoid working for firms like this. I've been in a few and it's not my cup of tea.
As for the short term, a strong business will seek to strike a balance between getting the quarterly number and being survivable long term. Gaming the system to get your bonus really does nothing to help a firm long run.
and we're in it for the long run.
You look nicely close-hauled there skip. You are not reaching close-hauled, you’d have to have the motor on, otherwise, in light air a small swell causes a little back filling, something the smart skip wants, to keep it out is to be over trimmed. Stay easy on the controls in light air. It happens to be a head stay.
Sounds like another case of Ash intellectual over-reach. Ashes halyards must not go all the way to the top.
Blew by You
PHRF 07758
righto--leadership is everything. Prez or line manager, focusing on the short tewrm is not good. A good CEO can get his company off that dime.
Down here in the south, we've progressed past the age of sail. My evinrude never has any luff in the jib.
Well thanks for the tip Ash, next time I take a long cruise around my home waters I'll bear your sage advice in mind.
So, I'm supposed to accept your analysis of sail trim when it's followed by your lame response about Bush? he's not supposed to what now? selectively enforce? Are you serious?
He's not selectively enforcing in this situation Ash, he's telling the people that work for him, those nice folks in the executive branch, that they work for the president and withing the confines of the constitution the president decides, not congress.
Ash, that wasn't even a worthy effort. Weak to say the least. Try repositioning your jib sheet lead block and get back to us, OK?
Man--senior moment?--the Jack Aubrey novels, RN fighting Napoleon--sailing craft by the page--loved it. Author, Irishman--just passed away a couple years ago mebbe--
Concur with your analysis skip. It is always a rocky tack to take sides with incinerette the BDS raconteur.
hehehe, yes annoy mouse you certainly don't want to be over trimmed in light air or you'll choke the sucker off. Still, the sail looks strapped in pretty tight at the foot yet still luffing at the top...a little too much twist?
Happy sailing all!
Truth to tell, it's a 25 year old sail. It's as soft as a bed sheet.
the head stay is sagging a bit because I had backed off the back stay abit.
I was close hauled, but none too close. I single hand quite a bit so to get this shot I locked down the wheel, scurried forward, took the shot and scurried back.
My boat has a fin keel and a spade rudder. It moves along quite nicely but it doesn't track worth a damn without a hand at the wheel. Motoring is a matter of constant attention because without it, the boat will put put along in ever widening circles.
so by the time I got to mast, the boat had already wandered a bit.
It's hard to make out in the photo but the flag at the spreaders is a blue star I made out of rip stop nylon. My son has promised to keep it safe for me when he returns (God willing) from this next bout.
I think not, twist is the true expert sail trimmer’s best friend. Wind shear, that tendency for the winds on the ground to be slower than the winds aloft, means that you need to bleed off air at the upper reaches of the sail as the apparent wind shifts to leeward. The angle of attack remains constant. The further you kick forward your fair leads the more you can pull the twist out, therefore kick ‘em back for more twist.
If you don’t know the differences from your luff from your leach, don’t step your foot into it.
Buddy, I own them all, including many of the reference books that accompany them.
Yup, Lucky Jack. What a great series. patrick O'brien was a genius.
There are a couple of things that emerge from these books.
first, I really wonder what impact the code duello had on the speech of the time. If one knew that the wrong words would force a "pistols for two, coffee for one" response, would one be more circumspect?
next, I really mourn the loss of manners. these guys knew how to behave in a gentlemanly fashion. I think a return to some of that would improve our lives.
finally I think it is very interesting to note that a relatively new country, the United States, basically redefined an entire class of men of war. Our frigates won several important sea battles in the early days of the 1812 war and caused the Brittish to reconsider their naval lists.
the aubrey/maturin books are not to be missed by anyone who values history and great writing.
I agree--a return of "old-timey" manners would sail us out of the doldrums on a freshening breeze--
annoy, I tend to let the top of my jenny "bleed off". My boat's a mast head rig so I'm wearing sail cloth all the way up and I don't have any length up there to sag off in a big blow like a fractional rig does.
Letting the jib twist off up top doesn't cost me much speed and it's a quicker way to stay on my keel.
Also I tend to trim for my personal pleasure, not some need for speed or adherence to some rule. Many evenings I'm just out puttering around and I don't really want to fiddle with the lead blocks or mess with the traveler. I just want to move generally forward and sip wine.
so yes, twist is my friend and I've come to appreciate the nuances of keel boat sailing after years of hanging on the hiking strap.
Ah, too bad he neglected to report what the patients said they were laughing about. Could be RR just infected them with mirth and joy. Like he always did me.
Tigerhawk,
Ingraham said the guests were yawning and looking bored.
...and text messaging one another on their Blackberries!
You are one of them uppity troublemakers Dan!
Watch Out!
You think this is your country, or something?
Borders!
We don't need no stinking borders, Gringo!
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What an illegal can (Now that we have a new "Latino Services" provider) expect in Paradise:
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C4 said:
"If the ease of global transportation means not having to take "the Muslim next door" over the Brazilian ready to work hard and never blow up fellow Christians..."
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On the Magic Isle, a new development:
Some enterprising Venezuelan lady got here, saw the free money work a little jobs in Govt, and said:
"I want your job."
So she took it from the Govt assistant that greeted her with tax dollars when she arrived. (I'm sure the displaced troll has a cushier job now)
Now she is busily recruiting more socialist freeloaders to encourage more less than patriotic "workers" from Latin America to come here and breed on the dole.
Has 3 helpers already, "needs" more, claims a 10% Latino population here, which is news to Kaamainas, also known as self-serving BS.
So now, indigent peasants from So America somehow make it here, and are greeted with more tax dollars, Spanish language services, and etc, MORE services are needed of course, always more.
Somehow, the Filipinos that have been coming all these years did not "need" all these FREE services, and somehow have been able to learn and speak English free of charge.
They also fight and die for their new country, but now we "need" more of these government produced leeches that never learn the language on their own, always "NEED" special services to subsist on their assisted lives, ad infinitum.
A pox on them all and the president that pretends it is not a growing problem caused not by Socialism, Decadence, and Corruption, now in the guise of "Compassionate Conservatism."
Voters for the Dems, Phony Economic "Savings" to please GOP Big Business Donors and Wealthy Mansion owners who hire illegals.
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Our politicians, leftists, and Amerika haters pretend ALL new arrivals have the same intentions, and produce the same result that the deservedly praised immigrants of the past did before the Welfare State.
For GWB to lecture us on how WE should talk about the issue is insulting in the extreme, given all the liberties he has taken with the language, the truth, our tax dollars, our security, and the law, on the matter.
"more less than patriotic "workers" from Latin America to come here and breed on the dole."
Don't leave out Del Monte.
PAKISTAN: Al-Qaeda's No.2 leader calls for Pakistani revolt:
'Musharraf is fighting Islam in Pakistan...threatens national security in Pakistan...has placed Pakistan's nuclear programme under American, therefore Jewish and Indian, control,' he added, referring to the US-India nuclear deal signed by US President George W. Bush in March.
'I call on the Pakistani people to stand with Islam against the Zionist-Crusader assault...and topple this bribe-taking treacherous criminal,' he added.
Al-Qaeda's #2
The Dole Monte.
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"A Day Without an Illegal Immigrant ”
TOM TANCREDO:
What would a day without an illegal immigrant look like?
Colorado taxpayers would save almost $3,000,000 in one day if illegals do not access any public services, because illegal aliens cost the state over $1 billion annually according to the best estimates.
Youth gangs would see their membership drop by 50 percent in many states, and in Phoenix, child-molestation cases would drop by 34 percent and auto theft by 40 percent.
In Durango, Colorado, and the Four Corners area and the surrounding Indian reservations, the methamphetamine epidemic would slow for one day, ...meth is now being brought in by ordinary illegal aliens as well as professional drug dealers.
If the “Day-Without-an-Immigrant Boycott” had been held a year earlier on May 8, 2005, and illegal alien Raul Garcia-Gomez had stayed home and did not work or go to a party that day, Denver police officer Donnie Young would still be alive and Garcia-Gomez would not be sitting in a Denver jail awaiting trial.
If the boycott had been held on July 1, 2004, Justin Goodman of Thornton, Colorado, would still be riding his motorcycle and Roberto Martinez-Ruiz would not be in prison for killing him and then fleeing the scene while driving on a suspended license.
If illegal aliens stayed home—in Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, and 100 other countries—the Border Patrol would have 3,500 fewer apprehensions (of the 12,000 who try each day).
Colorado’s K-12 school classrooms would have 131,000 fewer students if illegal aliens and the children of illegals were to stay home, and Denver high schools’ dropout rate would once again approach the national norm.
Dan,
Truly sad story.
Same thing happened to B-1 Bob's Secretary and her husband, but luckily not that kind of catastrophic injury.
Happens every day, yet some claim ignoring laws and responsibilities like car insurance is no big deal.
"Good for Business"
"Americans won't work"
"Selfish Americans"
Ad Nauseum
...as the Pigs in DC Grunt and spend free money on more Pork.
And compassionate George, aka George Orwell, spouts sermons for us plebes.
doug,
"compassionate George"
Incongruous George didn't fall far from the tree. Remember, "No new taxes?" The President has been opposed to illegal immigration when has not been for it. That sounds like someone else we all know.
I am a nonpartisan basher. Mr. Bush is making it all too easy.
danmeyers,
You wrote:
Let the businesses fail that can't compete without near-slave labor. Automate or die...
...which makes me wonder. Most of the illegals who are purportedly doing "the work Americans won't do" are engaged in low skill, service employment.
It seems to me from a casual glance at the marvels on the horizon with robotic technology, that these jobs are not going to be around for long...
Jamie Irons
danmyers,
"they (illegals) can circumvent our legal system"
The problem is that the "legal system" is circumventing the legal system. Mr. Bush heads that flawed legal system. Look at the numbers posted by Michelle Malkin two weeks ago; they are criminal.
This issue is neither Republican nor Democrat. It is systemic and has been so since at least the Reagan administration.
Today in San Diego, pregnant illegal aliens didn't give birth to 500 US citizens.
I was originally brushed over for hiring where I work now as an engineer because, as I was told, it would look bad if they hired a white engineer over an immigrant engineer. Several of highly paid workers, $60,000 a year or more, paid off my companies largesse by boycotting work today.
A friend of mine runs a Jaguar dealership, he admittedly has 17 illegal aliens working for him. My friend is French of Lebanese extraction, though he notes that he would never be allowed to become a French citizen, he earned his US citizenship. He said he made a personal plea to his illegal alien employees and not one left him n the lurch. Another friend owns a large restaurant. Out of 20 illegal aliens that work for him, 2 didn't show up. He said he would remember them. I heard from 1 of his employees that makes out the schedule, they are on one week suspension. He also said that if there weren't illegal aliens he would have to shut down.
All agree that our system is broken.
doug,
While waiting at my wife's doctor's office this afternoon, I had the chance to look at the April edition of Popular Mechanics. If you have not yet seen it, do.
Of particular interest to me was the review of military weapons systems. Both the magazine's staff and other reviewers, such as Dr. Thomas P. M. Barnett, rendered scathing indictments of a number of systems and the reductions of force numbers that will be necessary to pay for them. It appears that the more the Defense Department changes the more it stays the same.
Is Dr. Barnett a liberal partisan hack, do you think?
This thread began with humor. I’d like to continue in that spirit.
The F-22 “Raptor” costs about $360,000,000 a copy. As with all new technology, it must have some impact on the GWOT. The F-22’s contribution is its ability to jam improvised explosive devices (IED). Precisely how it is to accomplish this mission in Iraq, for example, remains to be seen. Many experts, including Dr. Thomas P. M. Barnett believe the F-22 to be nothing more than a Fulda Gap toy. Whether the Raptor can also brew a good cup of coffee has not been disclosed.
According to the Defence Department, the cost to equip a Humvee with IED jamming capability, today, costs about $10,000. This capability would be useful in Iraq as this is written. The current DoD budget does not request this technology.
For the cost of one F-22, 36,000 Humvees could be equipped with actual, efficacious jamming capability. Instead, that F-22, of improbable jamming capability will be built and hyped, in part, on the basis of this altogether worthless attribute.
By the way, the Army and Marine Corps have approximately 8,000 Humvees in Iraq. Factory installed up-armoring costs $58,000 per vehicle. The cost of one F-22 would, then, pay for the factory up-armoring of 6,200+ Humvees. At this writing, up-armoring, either factory or ad hoc, is incomplete.
danmyers,
"Hell, I may have to agree with you...No, that can't be.... :-)"
We often say that ourselves, if you know what we mean?
bobal 8:35 PM,
Older, eh?
Probably some old Honky that won't speak their language:
How rude is that?
They are our guests after all.
Tell him to practice PC Etiquette, not just Medicine.
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I'm not making that up:
In the NYTimes, that was the attitude in an article about medical care.
The whole bilingual ed thing started out as a make work scam, and spread everywhere:
Like when they were 3% of the population we got that wonderful
"Press 2 for English"
A minor thing that lead inevitably to the situation today, where ILLEGAL Immigrants are telling our Lawmakers what to do!
Someone scanned all the Major Papers this morning and found ONE instance of the words "Illegal Immigrants," on page 8 of the LA Times!
Al Qaida leader purports U.S. failure in video:
“Every soldier and officer in the Pakistani military should know that Musharraf is throwing them into the burner of civil war in return for the bribes he is getting from the United States,” al-Zawahri said
“For this reason I call on every soldier and officer in the Pakistani army to disobey the orders of his commanders to kill Muslims in Pakistan or Afghanistan or otherwise he will be confronted by the mujahedeen,” he said.
Al Qaida
doug,
"illegal immigrants"
Like, that is SOOOUE judgmental.
Earlier, Bill O'Reilly put the question of open borders to the nation's foremost authority, Geraldo Rivera, suggesting that Rivera’s attitude was unfair. Paraphrasing, O'Reilly suggested that following Rivera’s logic would open the US to unlimited immigration by all comers. Blinking in surprise, from behind his glass belly-button, Mr. Rivera, would have none of that, arguing that he was prepared to discuss only the 10 -12 million current "undocumented" workers.
Working in Mexico, guns & crime stats, sail-making, and the Barbary Wars.
"We could not protest any of the government's actions or we would be committing a felony."
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Just like Bushitler!
Aasshhh!
IRANIAN PROTEST PICTURES
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A Media Blackout?
Sorry your walk was abbreviated by illness. It sounds like you know how to vagabond. If it takes a day or so to accustom ones self to the sounds of life, to stop processing it as information and to hear it as the primordial heart beat of life itself, then it takes a few weeks of solitude before the forest nymphs begin to beckon you deeper into the forest and the thickening madness. You deem real conversations heard just over the dell where you can make out the mirthful voices and you long for their company because man is, after all, a social creature.
They are the daughters of the earth, born of moisture, warmth and heat,
They carry the flames of life that shoot out of the seeds.
The flowers and twigs are their bracelets ,
Their eyes are born of the petals with restless gleams,
Their breasts are flanked with slender streams,
Where flow life's eternal poetic themes.
…
In the winding lute-notes passing over the shining pebbles scattering silence in dreaming hearts…Nymphs in the Forest
Welcome back.
Rush:
If illegals in Texas don't pay taxes, no big deal:
No Taxes!
In Calif., the Socialist State goes broke.
Doug, that's the diff, but backwards--Texas has no income tax, but still has public services, charity hospitals in every county, the usual safety nets. It's just funded thru sales and property taxes (which everybody pays--even renters, thru rent).
While surfing the internet reading various accounts of the invasion of the United States by “little brown people”, I happened upon one of their innumerable banners, which I liked instantly: “America is a continent not a country.” This sentiment is shared, I strongly suspect, by some heads of state south of the border, including Mr. Chavez and Mr. Fox.
To the protestors exclaiming that “America is a continent not a country” the meaning is clear, there are so many worthies in Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean basin lusting for American wealth, that the horde’s sheer volume renders their invasion unstoppable. And there is no question that our southern neighbors outnumber United States citizens by 2:1. Consequently, for some substantial number of the unenfranchised wailers, the bottom line could also be stated succinctly as “Might Makes Right.” And, as with its catchy predecessor, I also like this slogan.
Now, for me, the barbarians have performed a great service. Like my Scotch, I prefer my adversaries straight up, neat. And, if nothing else, our Latino uninvited guests are that, saying in effect, “Up yours Gringos!” or, in the manner of Mr. Chavez, “Up yours pendejos!”
To our exorcized friends, I point out that a C-130 gunship can place a projectile over every square foot of a football field (Gringo) in a matter of seconds. To my knowledge, no number of field hands, throwing rotten produce, has had any impact on the C-130’s performance, to date.
Indeed, might does make right. As to America being a continent, indeed, it is, with all the attendant wealth, such as petroleum. If only the United States had leadership worthy of exploiting the potential value of the protestors’ slogans to the logical conclusion. What is needed now is not a change in the immigration policy of the United States; rather, fundamental change in the governance of our southern neighbors is the remedy to the ills of mass migration.
La Raza, indeed!
allen,
130's are expensive to man, fly, maintain, and keep loaded.
"tactical nuke land mines!"
Mightier makes rightier, right?
Besides, I was a 130, you were just a 129.
doug,
"130's"
For some inexplicable reason, while thinking about the C-130 platform, I remembered the live turkey drop from WKRP – Cincinnati. There are some really cutting edge possibilities for the DoD here, by thinking outside the box. Free Duke Cunningham and free those turkeys. Air Power!
It is possible that I am in need of compassionate intervention (some good dope wouldn't hurt either - prescription only)
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