Thursday, December 22, 2011

THE LAST THING I NEED: 'New Distinctiveness' in the news. The Associated Press appears to be following Fox's Shephard Smith in smarmy.
DAMN THE RICH! They keep getting married -- and getting richer. What Ms. Marcus fails to note is that the 'marriage gap' has been around as long as marriage.
CAN, ROAD, KICK: Hopefully the road ends on January 21, 2013.
OCCUPY SANTA:


Linked from here.
ONE GRINCH TOO MANY. Here's my response for my granddaughters:
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
I will not let the Grinches steal the joys of Christmas. Our world has thousands of Santa Clauses, angels, cupids, tooth fairies, and Easter bunnies. Their world has ..., well, is ... a grim, dark, and dismal world.

Even the unicorns and rainbows have deserted them.
MARTIN JET PACK: Just in time for Christmas!
OBAMACARE: The probable destruction of medical innovation. Get sick now before it's too late.
LOW CARBON FUEL STANDARDS: So let California refine its own 'low carbon' fuel -- it'll wither on the vine soon enough.
OCCUPY LA: 30 tons of social justice.
BARACK OBAMA: the self-approving President. Polls? I don't need no steenkin' polls.
THE DANGERS OF OVER-AUTOMATION: Air France Flight 447's final minutes.
UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE: Just another free lunch to be paid by our children.
ANOTHER OBAMA SUCCESS: "At least 60 people were killed today in 14 bomb attacks in Baghdad following the withdrawal of US troops this week."
HARSH. But accurate.
NANCY PELOSI: "160 million Americans will have their taxes increased if the payroll tax cut extension does not pass."



Note that she almost said "tax increase." Plus the minor fact that there are only 140 million Americans employed today. My favorite comment: "To call Pelosi stupid is to insult stupid."
THE EUROPEAN SKIES are about to get a lot less crowded.