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Liberals’ Lancing Limbaugh’s Loquacity?

Posted on March 22, 2012 by museman

Closed for the Duration - Vintage WWII Poster

In MGM’s 1976 movie Network, aging newscaster Howard Beale, faced with declining ratings, is transformed through a unusual set of circumstances into a vociferous, investigative talk show host targeting the disaffected population of middle-class America. His talk show’s an instant hit: Until he speaks truth to power. After he’s reminded that there are interests far more important and entrenched than his controversial show, he’s told to kowtow to those interests or be fired.

It seems that Rush Limbaugh’s editorial response to Sandra Fluke’s advocacy for free taxpayer-funded contraception-on-demand has now given him his “Howard Beale” moment: To succumb to apparently greater interests or steadfastly defend his principles.

There’s no denying that contraception one of a myriad of important social, medical, political, and economic issues confronting our nation, and I’m glad we live in a country were people can advocate their causes of interest. There’s also no denying Rush might have been better served to ratchet down his Sandra Fluke rhetoric a notch or two: “Free Speech” doesn’t mean “freedom from consequences”- as Bill Maher (Warning: Strong language) found out.

But, if free taxpayer-funded contraception-on-demand was so vitally important, why wasn’t it in the national spotlight during the six months the Democrats were ramrodding the Affordable Care Act through Congress?

The answer is easy: The “contraception issue” is merely the catalyst towards achieving a much larger, and disturbing, goal: Liberals want to silence an educated, widely known, well-respected, and influential voice of dissent during a critical Presidential election cycle. Failing that, their attack will at least divert Rush’s time & resources from focusing on far more pressing issues, such as this, this or even this.

Rush will certainly survive the Left’s attempt to silence him – he’s publicly apologized at least six times on the air during his long career, managing to emerge stronger and more successful after each. (BTW: Six apologies works out to one apology per 2,875 on-air hours, assuming 23 years of a 50-week work schedule comprising 5 broadcast days of 3 hours each… a rate that, to date, is less than this guy. But, I digress.) However, should the Liberal Left expand their targets to include lesser, less successful conservative personalities, they could be celebrating more than just Glenn Beck’s departure from Fox.

Here’s my take on what I suspect Liberals imagine when they dream about Limbaugh’s “Howard Beale” moment – it’s only a minor rewrite of Scene 153 from that awards-winning movie (my emphasis, of course):

RUSH LIMBAUGH (ON AIR) (sad, resigned, weary) [For over 23 years], I got up here and asked you people to stand up and fight for your heritage, and you did and it was beautiful… It was a radiant eruption of democracy. But I think [this is] it, fellers. That sort of thing isn’t likely to happen again. Because, in the bottom of all our terrified souls, we all know that democracy is a dying giant, a sick, sick dying, decaying political concept, writhing in its final pain.

[The] United States is finished as a world power. The United States [was] the most powerful, the richest, the most advanced country in the world, light-years ahead of any other country. And I don’t mean the Communists are going to take over the world. The Communists are [smarter] than we are [- they've already taken over].

What’s finished is the idea that this great country is dedicated to the freedom and flourishing of every individual in it. It’s the individual that’s finished. It’s the single, solitary human being who’s finished. It’s every single one of you out there who’s finished.

Because this is no longer a nation of independent individuals. This is a nation of [three] hundred odd million… bodies, totally unnecessary as human beings and as replaceable as piston rods…

Not to worry, though: It’s not as if Liberals have ever conveniently silenced a conservative media personality with a Trumped-up charge at a critical point in a Presidential election cycle… just ask Jeff Jacoby about his July 3rd Boston Globe editorial on the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Thanks for reading!

Posted in History, Media, Not Surprisingly, Politics | Tagged Censorship, Dissent, First Amendment, Rush Limbaugh, Sandra Fluke | Leave a comment

Oldthinker Bellyfeel Unplusgood “Proofredress”.

Posted on March 12, 2012 by museman

Mona Charen, a Columnist over at Townhall.com, recently expressed her exception to Apple’s implementation of the proofreader in their “Pages” application.

She feels the feature is so gender-neutral it

“Seems to have been designed and programmed by the women’s studies department at Cupertino community college.”

Consequently, she’s named the feature “Proofreadress“.

Her comments got me thinking: In our country’s long march towards societal enlightenment through politically correct language, we’ve embraced succumbed to such phrases as “letter carriers” (not “mailmen” – that word’s sexist not once but twice!), “undocumented workers” (not “illegal aliens” – why, that insults Martians!), and “workforce realignment” (not “firings” – we need to consider possible fragile egos!). Other examples abound.

I suspect the neutralization of gender-specific language might just be the first step in an Orwellian march towards the goal of a language purged of any ability to offend. To that end, I humbly offer a list of phrases I’m sure will eventually appear in proofreading programs and dictionaries everywhere – as taken from the yet-to-be-released Government publication “U. S. Uniformly Regulated Popular English Dictionary”, 1st Ed.

Current Phrase	Federally-Mandated Replacement
black eye	periorbital ecchymosis
Black Friday	“Fair Profit” Friday
black-eyed peas	physically-abused peas, (aka: “periorbital ecchymosis” peas)
brown out	energy conservation
Fishkill, NY	Fish Creek, NY
Froot Loops®	“Empty-Calorie Tooth-Decaying Rings of Death”®
Green Energy	Green Energy
gaiety	happiness
Indian Summer	life-threatening climate change
Mexican standoff	Israeli-Palestinian relations
red skies at night	mostly Pantone 032 skies
red tape	consumer protection
pink slip	career-change certificate
Purple Rain	(unintelligible symbols) (aka: mostly Pantone 266 Rain)
yellow journalism	Fox News
White Christmas	deprecated snow holiday

Ms. Charen’s comments reminded me of George Orwell’s book “1984″, where he describes the creation of “Newspeak”:

“You think, I dare say, that our chief job is inventing new words. But not a bit of it! We’re destroying words — scores of them, hundreds of them, every day….It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words….Every concept that can ever be needed, will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten.”

BTW: The title, in Newspeak, roughly translates to “A person who clings to obsolete means of thought feels extremely bad about the product ‘Proofredress’ “.

Update, 03.31.12: Looks like the New York City Dept. of Education is considering moving closer “towards the goal of a language purged of any ability to offend” by banning 50 common words and concepts from standardized school tests.

Update, 05.07.12: Scotland Yard has apparently banned IT employees from using the words “blacklist” and “whitelist”, suggesting they “red list” and “green list” instead.

Thanks for reading!

Posted in Media, Politics, Ramblings, Technology | Tagged Charen, Culture, Language, Politicians, Proofread, Red Tape, Social Media | Leave a comment

You’re “Landed Aristocracy”. Honest!

Posted on March 9, 2012 by museman

Juan Ricardo Cole, whose impressive biography describes him as a “…public intellectual, prominent blogger and essayist”, posted a map of the United States portioned off according to wealth. Not surprisingly, under this criteria America’s wealthiest 10% would hold the vast majority of our nation’s land.

An impressive chart, to be sure… and, bound to engender some anger among the 90% of the US population suddenly relegated to the Deep South (hey, at least many of them would now have an ocean view).

As long as we’re using land to represent wealth, let’s look at this actual map of Alaska, courtesy of nationalatlas.gov

Remember: If it's in color, it's Federal Land!”

It’s much more impressive – because it’s in color! Those pretty colors represent the land owned, managed, or controlled by one or more departments of the United States Government.

All those colors sure are confusing, so here’s a couple legends to help sort it all out:

Update: As of April 2024 The National Atlas Map Maker website no longer exists, but here’s another chart produced by Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources in 2016 which might be easier to read:

Who Owns / Manages Alaska?
(click to enlarge image)

Yessiree, the very same Government representing us citizens – you and me, rich and poor, taxpayer and non-taxpayer alike - the “1% and 99%”, if you will. Wealth the Federal Government controls, and can increase… “Nationalize” …in the interest of us all.

Man, imagine how upset those Alaskans must be knowing that roughly 65% of their land isn’t just theirs, but ours!

And, Alaska’s only one of 50 states (or, possibly 57 states, depending on who’s speaking) – Check out the “Lower 48″:

Is Uncle Sam a Land Baron?

If Alaskans are upset, residents of Nevada must be absolutely furious: Uncle Sam owns over 84% of Nevada! In fact, Uncle Sam owns land in a bunch of states (Forget for a moment that, thanks to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, Ginnie Mae, and the USDA, he also owns almost all of the mortgaged homes sitting on this country’s soil… not to mention General Motors and Ally Bank. Or the Federal Buildings, National Highway System, military hardware, et cetera ad nauseam. And by “he” I mean “us”.)

Thankfully, Mr. Cole’s diametrically-opposed chart is merely artful rhetoric: The “90%” appear to be richer than the chart indicates. Including (unfortunately?) all of the land called “Washington, D.C.” (If by “richer”, I overlook Uncle Sam’s generous gift of massive, crushing debt)

BTW: It might also be nice to show a map of the USA demarcated by total tax burden instead of wealth. But I’ll leave that as an exercise for the reader.

Thanks for reading!

Posted in Politics, Ramblings | Tagged 1%, Bailouts, Bureacracy, Demographics, Media, Obama, Regulations, Wealth | Leave a comment

Does this Job include Healthcare?

Posted on March 9, 2012 by museman

I have no idea how this job posting landed in my mailbox: I can’t speak or read Spanish!

Check out a couple of the job’s “Requirements”:

Requires individuals to act in a combative role for various physical training exercises and must be willing to perform rigorous physical activities such as being handcuffed, frisked, tackled, struck by (rubber) baton, and shot at by simulated rounds from a pistol. (Safety measures and protective gear are in place for these scenarios).

Individual will work in confined spaces, on dry docked boats, in vehicles and in classrooms.

Forget “15 minutes of fame“: This sounds more like “15 minutes of pain”! If the job provides medical benefits (there’s no mention), the eventual employee might want to consider 15 minutes of treatment prior to their first day of work.

Thanks for reading!

Posted in Are You Kidding me?, Games, Ramblings | Tagged ASRC, Games, Government Job, Jobs, Role Playing, Unemployment, Violence | Leave a comment

Another (Subsidized) Green Energy Firm goes Bust.

Posted on March 4, 2012 by museman

With attention focused on large “Green Energy” firms like Solyndra and Beacon Power, who received sweetheart Federal loans and subsidies to the tune of millions of taxpayer dollars only to declare bankruptcy, and the subsequent revelation that President Obama’s financial backers may have received at least 16 Billion dollars in taxpayer loans, it would be easy to overlook a small firm like CellTech Power LLC of Westborough, Massachusetts – the latest, but probably not the last, Obama-subsidized green energy firm to go out of business at the expense of taxpayers and their children.

Created in 2005 and spun off from CellTech Power, Inc. in January 2006, CellTech Power LLC embarked upon an ambitious technology and product development program to apply their patented (and patent-pending) “Liquid Tin Anode (LTA)” to a solid-oxide fuel cell, thereby eliminating the need for a fuel reformer.

In June 2006, courtesy of President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, CellTech received $150,000 as part of 9 Million dollars given to 34 Massachusetts companies, universities, and organizations: An event Senior Senator John Kerry (D-MA) proudly announced. Seven months later they received a direct investment of $500,000 from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s Renewable Energy Trust, a trust funded by a monthly surcharge on the utility bill of residential customers and whose Governing Board was appointed by Gov. Deval Patrick in August, 2008. (Note: In November 2009 the collaborative was folded into the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center).

A 2008 presentation by CellTech (pdf here) suggested that fuel cells with the inventive LTA anode could be powered by virtually any existing solid or liquid hydrocarbon fuel, including propane, diesel fuel, gasoline, JP-8 aviation fuel…even coal! CellTech demonstrated their concept was feasible, and showed promising results from their initial tests.

A July 2009 presentation given at the 10th Annual Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance (SECA) Workshop in Pittsburgh PA (pdf here), described a fuel cell having both lower emissions and a smaller size relative to comparable conventional fuel cells, and up to four times the power density as state-of-the-art lithium batteries: All without needing the extensive and currently incomplete nationwide refilling infrastructures required by “green” vehicles running on hydrogen, compressed natural gas (CNG), or plug-in electricity. CellTech envisioned fuel cells ranging from 100 Watts to 100 Megawatts – perfect for powering individual homes, neighborhoods, automobiles (FYI: The Chevy Volt’s battery capacity is 16 kWh) and pilotless aircraft.

I don’t know what eventually caused their demise: After a presentation in Boston on October 11, 2011 publicly-available information stops. At first blush, their solution appeared to provide an efficient synergism of existing (hydrocarbon) and alternative (fuel cell) technologies – the kind of technology we need as a bridge towards a sound, well-considered and efficient use of all energy forms available. Perhaps they couldn’t solve the technical hurdles (contamination of the yttrium-stabilized zirconia electrolyte being just one) before the taxpayer money dried up. Or, they couldn’t find enough customers, military or commercial, to invest in commercializing their product.

Whatever the reason for their demise, their website no longer exists… along with $650,000 of taxpayer money. The only mention of Celltech Power LL now is an auctioneer’s announcement to sell off their manufacturing and processing equipment to the highest bidder(s). It’s a shame.

Thanks for reading!

Posted in Environment, Politics, Technology | Tagged Bankruptcy, CellTech, Fuel Cells, Green Energy, Obama, Science, Subsidies | Leave a comment

Please Vote to Unlock my Box!

Posted on March 2, 2012 by museman

Shameless self-promotion? You bet! Besides, seems it’s all the rage in the age of Web 2.0.

I’ve entered a contest currently being run by Taco Bell until March 11th, 2012, where the prize is a Sony PlayStation® Vita (PSVita). By sheer coincidence, the contest happens to coincide with a first-person shooter video game I’m building that includes a familiar-looking fast food restaurant:

Hmmm... Eat first or shoot bad guys?

Chance of my winning? I’m guessing zero or thereabouts, as the contest is based on number of votes. Still, it doesn’t hurt to try, so if you’re curious and able to view Flash content on your browser, just click here and then click “Vote”. And, be sure to vote early and vote often… just like they do in Chicago.

BTW: This is my second video game, and shame on me – if I knew just how involved it was to create the first one, I would have never done it. One might think I’m trying to get a job at former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling’s video game company. Well, at least now I can cross “Create a video game” off of my “bucket list”.

Thanks for reading!