Rape and drugs at Occupy Baltimore

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It’s from FOX so it must be a lie.

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Pro-OWS Bloggers

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The Issues

The Herman Cain phenomenon has brought up the idea of the experienced politician. This proposes that there is a minimum level of previous government job history needed for high office. If experience were that important, Governor Sarah Palin would be president and multi-term Senator John McCain would be her VP.

Why do we need professional politicians? By all accounts, the Founding Fathers wanted elected officials to come from the general citizenry and return to private life after some appropriate time. Other governments of the time had aristocracy in key legislative positions. The nobility was born to rule and democracy was doled out a little at a time.

The argument for the experienced politicians is that politics is a professional skill and amateurs are bad for the process. You don’t want an inexperienced doctor or plumber. That would be true if a government filled with gamesmanship and constant negotiations is the norm. People want legislation to create jobs, but the Congress can’t pass a plan that’s advantageous enough to both sides. Instead, they pass resolutions to make “in God We Trust” our national motto.

We’ve had a government for over 200 years now. The Congress passes laws, the President signs them and the Supreme Court judges them. Given the amount of time we have invested, why are we writing more laws now than when the Republic was created? Basically, we have two sides (whose philosophies occasionally reverse themselves) that keep trying to rewrite laws to suit their issues. The bigger government gets, the more important the games get.

Issues are a set of practices that exist where politicians are supposed to have a stance of “for” or “against.” This is usually the first thing that trips up the non-politician. If asked “where do you stand on X?” you must have an answer. Saying that you don’t care sometimes means you are for it. It’s a binary choice. Some issues have been decided by the courts, but presidents get to appoint the judges. Most issues have already been decided one way. The whole fight is about overturning law that’s been made.

Issues are different from policy. Tax cuts or increases are an issue. Policy is how a budget is made that actually uses funds (or credit) available. What we need is money spent wisely and an within our ability to finance it. Taxes are one method to get revenue. So, instead of working out the budget, we fight over the tax rates before a budget is even passed.

I think we could use some citizen politicians. Here’s a bill. Yes or No? If it’s no, go back to the drawing board. Instead, we spend months before something is even up for a vote. It’s defeated anyway, but it was there to put people on the record. That means it’s for planning the next campaign. I bet no one would care who’s on record if everyone was limited to one term.

This country needs decisions, not opinions. It’s funny that the best decision makers seem to be the ones most quickly pushed out of the political circle by the media.

Independence revoked!

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Found floating on Facebook:

To: The citizens of the United States of America

From: Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

In light of your immediate failure to financially manage yourselves and also in recent years your tendency to elect incompetent members of congress and therefore not able to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up ‘revocation’ in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy). Your new Prime Minister, David Cameron, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A survey will be conducted sometime next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as ‘colour,’ ‘favour,’ ‘labour’ and ‘neighbour.’ Likewise, you will learn to spell ‘doughnut’ without skipping half the letters, and the suffix ‘-ize’ will be replaced by the suffix ‘-ise.’ Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up ‘vocabulary’).

2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ”like’ and ‘you know’ is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter ‘u” and the elimination of ‘-ize.’

3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can’t sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you’re not ready to shoot grouse.

5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler.

Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.

8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. New Zealand beer is also acceptable, as New Zealand is pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. Canadian Molson Beer is great too, that is why they produce and export so many great ice hockey players. They are also part of the British Commonwealth – see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English and Canadian actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English and Canadian actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one’s ears removed with a cheese grater.

11. You will cease playing American football. There are only two kinds of proper football; one you call soccer, and rugby (dominated by the New Zealanders). Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).

12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the Australians or Indians (World dominators) first to take the sting out of their deliveries.

13. You must tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us mad.

14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

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Shouldn’t California and the rest of the southwest go back to Mexico? Cuz I’d rather eat a taco than Spotted Dick.

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Half a million!

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While nobody was looking we passed the 500,000 hit mark.

We owe it all to George Soros. Or is it the Koch brothers?

I forget.

Drinks are on the house!

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Take away his parachute too!

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Wow, Jon Corzine — Way To Fly Your Company Into A Mountain

Well, this one’s right up there with the most spectacular CEO disasters ever.

Yesterday, 18 months after Jon Corzine took over the helm of MF Global with the goal of building it into a real investment bank, he flew the company into a mountain.

Why?

Because part of becoming a real investment bank, apparently, is betting the company.

Jon Corzine bellied up to the global market tables, bet MF Global, and lost.

Specifically, the former head of Goldman Sachs and governor of New Jersey authorized his traders to scarf up $6 billion in bonds issued by Spain, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, and Ireland. The bet, presumably, was that the powers-that-be in Europe would bail out these and other bondholders to the tune of 100 cents on the dollar, because in our global bailout spree, that’s what powers-that-be do.

Oops.

Suddenly the powers-that-be decided to force Greek bondholders to take a 50% haircut on Greek debt, which increased the risk that bondholders for Spain, Italy, Portugal, and other basket-case countries might actually be held accountable for their idiotic loans, too.

And when MF Global customers saw that Corzine’s traders had bet the firm and lost, they ran away screaming.

And even Moody’s freaked out.

And that was it, poof. No more MF Global.

As we noted yesterday, Jon Corzine, the pilot who took over the MF Global plane and flew it into a mountain, contractually has the right to a $12 million golden parachute, which would presumably go a ways toward easing his regrets. We hope that, for decency’s sake, he waives it.

If he doesn’t waive it, he can get in a long line of creditors including CNBC, from which Corzine’s MF Global bought (and didn’t pay for) some $845,000 of advertising. And, hopefully, if there’s any justice in the world, Corzine will be at the end of that line.

Because he really shouldn’t get a cent.

Three years ago Jon Corzine bet all of New Jersey’s Democratic delegates on Barack Obama even though the NJ voters picked Hillary.

Two years ago Jon Corzine lost his job to Tony Soprano Chris Christie even though Obama campaigned for him.

Once you get the Obama curse on you you’re toast.

Here’s the real scandal:

And that brings us to the real reason Corzine and his traders bet the firm:

Because it was in their personal interests to do so.

Corzine and his traders, we imagine, put the odds that Italy, Spain, et al, would get bailed out at, say, 90%, and the odds that they wouldn’t get bailed out at 10%.

And, presumably, the $6 billion of bonds Corzine and his traders loaded up on were priced as if there was only, say, a 60% probability that those countries would get bailed out.

So Corzine and his traders saw a marvelous opportunity to coin money and become a real investment bank:

The odds were 90% that they would cash in big.
And only 10% that they would fly the firm into a mountain.

And thanks to the fact that Corzine and his traders really had no huge personal downside other than forgoing a bonus for a year or two and the hassle of finding new jobs, they presumably concluded that these odds were spectacularly in their favor.

Nine times out of ten, they would win big and take home a boatload of cash.

One time out of ten, they would… well, carpe diem!

Someday, perhaps, the shareholders of Wall Street firms will wake up and realize that it’s better to make less money this year and be here next year than it is to continuously bet the firm into order to make more money now. But until those shareholders wake up and incent the people they hire to manage their firms, to actually manage them that way, though, nothing will change.

When you give gamblers all of the upside and very little of the downside, it should be no surprise that they keep betting their firms.

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There is a silver lining:

If there’s any good news here, it’s that the government didn’t freak out and bail MF Global out. Shareholders actually don’t like losing everything. And, eventually, if they keep losing everything again and again and again, they’ll finally begin to wake up.

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We keep hearing how rich people deserve to be rich because they took risks and earned the rewards. Okay, fine, as long as they’re betting with their own money.

But if we’re going to let the winners keep the spoils then it’s not fair to socialize the risk. That just encourages gambling.

After all, we don’t bail-out the losers in Vegas, do we?

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Anonymous Gives Advice to Rape Victims & Potential Rape Victims

Actual image used for the rape section of their pamphlet, entitled simply: Rape.

If the attempt by Occupy Baltimore to give advice to rape victims wasn’t a big clue in how clueless the Occupiers are, maybe this will be convincing. The hacktivist group Anonymous is out with a new guide called Survival for Citizens in a Revolution (PDF download here). Page 8 features advice for potential rape victims and rape victims, and it sounds suspiciously like the advice the Toronto cop gave that prompted Slutwalk, and a whole lot like the advice given to women circa 1 A.D. – 2011. Here it is:

The best protection against rape is not to get in a situation where it could happen

1. Never go out alone (day or night)
2. Try to appear undesirable and unattractive, but do not look helpless, or unable to escape.
3. Wear clothes that cover most of your skin, clothing that is hard to remove for attackers, but do not hinder you while running fast, or climbing a fence.
4. Wear: jeans, belt, turtleneck etc.
5. Do not wear: Skirts
6. Wear decent shoes that you can run in, like sneakers or light boots
7. Never leave public places, and don’t let people isolate you
8. Don’t trust new friends
9. NEVER provoke! What might be okay in a stable society will get you in deep trouble in times when there is no backed law enforcement.
10. Wear a wedding ring or wedding band, even if not married.

Here’s their advice if you just can’t avoid being raped all by yourself:

If you cannot avoid it

1. Prevent beeing [sic] transported to a secondary site, use passive resistance, try to stay put
2. Yell “FIRE”, not “help”, as more people will react to it.
3. Use your head and assess the situation, don’t waste your energy.
4. If you’re pinned wait for an opportunity to break out
5. If you fight aim for the eyes, throat or genitals, dislocate/break fingers.

And there you have it. Sound advice from DudebroNation on how to protect yourself from DudebroNation. I’m thinking RadFem is onto something with Occupy Dudeville. Maybe a mass challenging of the male authority stinking up the protests is in order. I would personally LOVE to see that.

Dorothy Howell Rodham, 1919 – 2011

Deepest sympathies to Hillary and her family on the passing of Dorothy Rodham.

Statement from the Clinton Foundation:

“Dorothy Howell Rodham was born in Chicago on June 4, 1919 and died shortly after midnight on November 1, 2011 in Washington, D.C., surrounded by her family. Her story was a quintessentially American one, largely because she wrote it herself. She overcame abandonment and hardship as a young girl to become the remarkable woman she was — a warm, generous and strong woman; an intellectual; a woman who told a great joke and always got the joke; an extraordinary friend and, most of all, a loving wife, mother and grandmother.

“Dorothy is and always will be lovingly remembered by her daughter and son-in-law, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bill Clinton; her sons and daughters-in-law, Hugh Rodham and Maria Rodham and Tony Rodham and Megan Rodham; her grandchildren, Chelsea Clinton and her husband Marc Mezvinsky, Zachary Rodham, Fiona Rodham and Simon Rodham. She leaves behind many friends from all stages and places in her life, friends from California she met in high school, friends from Little Rock and Washington with whom she explored the world, the people who were first her doctors and then became her friends at George Washington Hospital, to the people she met through her children and grandchildren who became as much her friend as theirs.

“To honor Dorothy, her family will hold a private celebration of her life for family and friends. In lieu of flowers and in line with what Dorothy would have wanted, the family have asked that any one who would want to do so would make a donation in Dorothy’s memory to George Washington Hospital, where she received excellent care and made terrific friends over many years; to the Heifer Project, her Christmas gift of choice in 2010 and an organization dear to her heart; or to a local organization meaningful to the giver that helps neglected and mistreated children, a blight Dorothy was determined to remedy until her last day because she knew too well the pain too many children suffer. Her family is and will be forever grateful for the gift of Dorothy’s life and for the memories they will treasure forever.”

 

Tinfoil Tuesday: OWS leading to mass violence or mass vileness?

Via a not-so anonymous hot tip, Tinfoil Tuesday has this Conspiracy Theory to dine on today:

Within the last 24 hours significant, credible information has been received by this reporter indicating that the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement may be a mere prelude to mass violence in the streets of the U.S. One source, a political operative with connections in both Parties who spoke on condition of anonymity, stated that he fears widespread civil unrest associated with the movement–unrest that could potentially lead to dire consequences regarding the 2012 Presidential election.

That sounds ominous. Tell us more!

Those fears are becoming increasingly common as shown by the number of persons calling into radio talk shows expressing their concern about the ‘Occupy’ movement and its potentially subversive aims. Rumors concerning the spread of violence and civil unrest prior to the 2012 Presidential election have been running rampant on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Um, people calling into AM talk shows about rumors on Twitter & Facebook — that’s your next paragraph? Seriously?

The rest of it is a merry mix of fact and suspicion and fear-mongering, certainly worth dissecting.

The thing is, the vagueness of OWS in stating its goals, and its lack of transparency in its leadership, in its self-regulation,  as well as the way so many of the protestors themselves seem determined to live up to the worst stereotypes of “The Left”  – all this is perfect for inviting The Right to project it’s worst fears on them.

If OWS does have the goal of  stoking The Right’s worst fears, it’s certainly doing a good job. If that is not their goal, they should do something about more clearly defining what they want and what methods they will and will not use to get them. Either clean up their act, get rid of the vile elements of sexism, anti-semtism, anarchy and violence, or expect more of the public to start listening the to what The Right is saying about them.

The whole world can’t watch!

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At Occupy Ottawa they don’t want spectators recording their discussion of sexual assaults and calling the police.

The video is kinda long but the first 3-4 minutes tell the story.

(h/t WMCB)

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