Category Archives: Quickies

When the Numbers Just Don’t Work

Posted on by

According to Frank Rich in a New York Times op-ed, the Massachusetts Massacre “was not a referendum on Barack Obama, who in every poll remains one of the most popular politicians in America.”

Huh?

I don’t want what Mr. Rich is smoking; that’s too much milk and honey for my blood.

With identical approval/disapproval ratings of a record low 47%, I’m thinking he isn’t as popular as Mr. Rich would have us believe. Nixon had a 56% approval and only 20% disapproval rating a year after his inauguration. Even Jimmy Carter was still 51% approval and only 28% disapproval after a year. Reagan had slipped to 49% and 39% by then but was back to 63% to 29% immediately before he left office. Bush 41 was 79% to 10%, far better than Clinton’s 53% to 38%. And, not surprisingly, Bush 43 had 84% approval and only 13% disapproval a year after his inauguration.

I guess Mr. Obama’s “most popularness” is “as compared to Adolph Hitler.” Or to Barney Rubble.

Oddly, David Pogue used his New York Times column this week to decry manufacturers who fudge their numbers.

They Got the Gold Mine (We Got the Shaft)

Posted on by

The U.S. Senate skulked around in the dark again — that would be the wee hours while it rained on my roof last night. They voted 60:39 to pass another landmark, TRILLION DOLLAR, ObamaCare insurance bailout guaranteed to make less health care available to more people, increase premiums, and raise taxes. (The $500 billion Medicare cuts drive Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill would cut the U.S. national deficit by $132 billion over 10 years.) Giving up $500 billion to get $132 billion. Wow. Obamathematics strikes again.

The Senate also voted to raise the National debt ceiling.

Coincidence? I think not.

Just Say No

Posted on by

NYTimes writer Maureen Dowd says that John McCain, once a “constructive independent, is now such a predictable obstructionist that he’s in the just-say-no vanguard with the same conservatives who used to despise him.”

It has apparently escaped our MSM colleagues like Ms. Dowd that there is nothing, absolutely nothing, to be positive about in this Congress. When the only “compromise” in any bill is the competition for how much pork to add, even Mr. McCain just has to say no.

Party Hearty

Posted on by

The Federal Aviation Administration has set stiff airline fines for those hours-long waits on the tarmac some airlines “give” their passengers. Carriers that do not provide food and water after two hours or a chance to disembark after three hours will face penalties of $27,500 per passenger.

I have sat waiting to take off for half an hour or so but luckily have never been held that long. Of course, the two hour break for bread and water will guarantee a need for the three hour break to pee.

I’m thinking it would have been smarter just to give the money for a single, 200 passenger junket on the tarmac to the passengers than to spend it for a great drinking party in Atlanta.

Louder Than … ?

Posted on by

Caroline Cartwright, 48, a Tyne and Wear woman whose raucous lovemaking earned her an Anti-Social Behaviour Order and multiple arrests, declared that the order is a violation of her human rights.

According to court records, Sunderland City Council installed “specialist equipment” that recorded noise levels of between 30 and 40 decibels, “with the highest being 47 decibels.”

Lowest limit of urban ambient sound … 40 dB
Bird calls … 44 dB
Loud sex in the neighbourhood … priceless