Song of India (crossover opera/pop)

"Send Me Your Terrorists, Your Kidnappers, Your Huddling Masses of Murderers Looking For A More Target Rich Environment"

Would it be going too far to say that Barack Obama has never seen a criminal he wants to slow down or punish? He has enjoyed the friendship of Tony Rezko and Bill Ayers. Way too many of the men he appointed to high office laughed while they broke tax laws and have yet to be called to answer for their crimes. Since we have only his questionable word to rely on we do not know the full extent and nature of his relations with ACORN. We do know that his campaign paid ACORN many hundreds of thousands of dollars to register voters and that an unusually large number of nonexistent people as well as sports stars and cartoon characters were delivered by ACORN as voters. But there has been no sign of a troubled conscience from the president. All this crime and we see not the least sign of embarrassment from the president. A high profile pedophile is at last being brought to justice and many prominent members of the president’s party flood us with an endless chain of weak excuses and fishy rationalizations for releasing the predator back onto society. So part of me is not surprised by Obama’s move to weaken our Southern border. I have to figure that Obama just doesn’t care if there will be increased crime near the border. Since I live less than a hundred miles from Mexico I do care. But I would think more Americans would care since this makes it so much easier for Muslim terrorists to enter the country and make large devastating explosions.
Here are a couple of quotes from a CNS News story about President Obama’s weakening of our border security.

"(CNSNews.com) - Even though the Border Patrol now reports that almost 1,300 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border is not under effective control, and the Department of Justice says that vast stretches of the border are “easily breached,” and the Government Accountability Office has revealed that three persons “linked to terrorism” and 530 aliens from “special interest countries” were intercepted at Border Patrol checkpoints last year, the administration is nonetheless now planning to decrease the number of Border Patrol agents deployed on the U.S.-Mexico border."
………………………………..
"In the May 7 update of its performance review, DHS said the Border Patrol’s goal for fiscal 2009 was to have 815 of the 8,607 miles of border for which the agency is responsible under “effective control.” The review also said the Border Patrol’s goal for fiscal 2010 was to again have 815 miles of border under “effective control,” meaning DHS was not planning to secure a single additional mile of border in the coming year."

Brahms - Symphony No.3 - Poco Allegretto

Designation As 'Too Big To Fail' Seems To Guarantee Failure

Obama has said that many banks are too big to fail. And as has become his style ever since being sworn in, he sees ineluctable catastrophe for the US and the world if his plan is not enacted immediately. He never spent enough time as a state or US senator to learn how to bring something about via the normal give and take of the legislative process. It is almost as if he was saying, “I’ve never learned how convince someone through discussion and argument. But this, ‘the world will end if you don’t do what I say’ thing has worked pretty well for me. Let’s see how far I can push it.”
What do we need these expensive banks for anyway? Right now it would be good if they were making loans. That could get the economy moving and make a dent in the plague of unemployment. But they just aren’t making many loans. Some of them spent their bailout money acquiring other banks. Many now have higher standards to be met before giving loans. And they just plain aren’t making many SBA loans.
So the loans that would most help to build the economy, the loans that would do the most to reverse the spiral of unemployment are being dodged by banks. There is some sense to their behavior. If you don’t need to take the risk of a loan to stay in business why accept the unnecessary risk? Since Barack Obama has made it very clear in a very loud way that he will not allow certain banks to fail, the management of these banks knows where they stand. (And I’m sure there will be more communication via contributions to the appropriate political campaigns and committees, e. g. all of the money recently flowing from bailed out banks to ACORN.)
The major problem I see with all of this is that I cannot distinguish between a failed institution and one that no longer performs the function for which it was needed. The banks ARE failures. And the over vigorous intervention of the government was the kiss of death. At this point the banks are dead to me. Their present purpose is to serve the Obama administration in their theft of tax payer money for their partisan political ends.

Diane Sawyer: "I'm Fair Because It Says So In My Job Description,"

She listened to a room full of people, is capable of repeating their input and still ignores them. The smart money would have to be on her having no difficulty ignoring a credible witness. And another anchor thing is born.

A Chapter In Which the Blogger Probably Says Too Much About the Blogger

I’ve not posted for a couple of weeks because of a major problem with my computer. I’m not presently able to afford a replacement. But I asked around for help and my generous brother-in-law has loaned me an old Dell laptop that makes it possible for me to get back online.
At the beginning of the computerless period I felt very lost and at loose ends. But I came enjoy the time offline and saw it as a chance to clear my head and get some perspective. It took a forced retirement for me to get a clear idea that I was spending much more time on line than I had imagined. I’ve spent the increased free time listening to music, reading and watching movies (lots of movies).
Most bothersome to me was the awareness I came to about my emotional state. I had been aware of an angry undercurrent in some of what I was writing. But I wasn’t paying much attention to it: it was just a distant and cloudy sort of partial awareness. In just such a cloudy way I might have tried to justify my anger with something along the lines of, “Well, of course I’m angry. I was born and brought up in pretty well functioning constitutional republic and here’s a crowd trying to stealthily turn it into some kind of one party dictatorship run by a cult of personality.” And, in spite of what political partisans say, anger is one of the most basic human emotions that is normally marshaled by the personality in response to many situations, such as assaults on a vibrant and operational constitution. But my semi-exile from the political domain, increased time spent in meditation and introspection convinced me that more than a normal situational response was going on here.
I came to conclude that a lot of this anger came from fear. There has been more fear in my reactions to life for a while. It has often come up in my daily inventory. I endeavor to believe in an all powerful and loving God. But sometimes my response to events can be little different from what might be expected from a nonbeliever or from someone who did not believe in the goodness of God.
I know that belief is not something decided one day that there after changes all of your actions and reactions. Belief is a daily enterprise. It requires work and watchful care every day. If the daily work is done, small change is built upon small change and the world view that has inspired each small change becomes stronger and more deeply rooted. Belief is not just a decision. It is a commitment. It requires frequent reinforcement and regular self-examination. And ignoring my mild discomfort about anger caused me to give it too much power in my life, power that might have been mitigated by more thorough self-examination.
I would have had to face all of this sooner or later. But a broken hard drive caused it to come sooner.

Offenbach - Barcarolle , from 'The Tales of Hoffmann'

Shipoopi

Family Guy: Shipoopi!

EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

No posting expected in the near future.

Jascha Heifetz plays Paganini Caprice No. 24

Cool People Joining Together To Wash Your Brain While Taking Special Care To Have Plausible Denialability

These Are Community Organizers; Let's Elect One President

h/t: Hot Air.com

“Bogus claims have been made by those who only want to make trouble.”

Pundit and Pundette ran a little piece yesterday exposing more of the emperor’s nakedness. They pointed out that there is no Obama health care bill. I can only add to that his willingness to use as proof of his statements and wild accusations any part of the existing bills he finds convenient and to ignore any part of them he finds inconvenient. His accusations are by definition wild because they are not based on any portion of the real world anyone but President Obama can access. Add to this his speech last night about his own private health care world and you have a Fantasyland that is only entered by the president but used by him as a weapon to beat up on his enemies. And on top of that we have an unquestioning press corps who have entered another bizarre reality in which they think their job is to support the president no matter what rather than truly getting to the bottom of what he says. They are not even very sure of what he is saying or proposing but they back it up one hundred per cent regardless.
Barack Obama spoke to both chambers of Congress last night and said that, “Bogus claims have been made by those who only want to make trouble.” Sounds like some pretty rotten people. I don’t think too highly of people who only want to make trouble. I wonder why the president did not name some of them and give us some examples of these bogus claims.
He did gave as an example of these trouble makers those who say that illegal aliens will be covered by his reform legislation. The little problem with that is that no legislation presently under consideration in congress includes any procedure for determining the immigration status of a recipient of health care. Even more embarrassing for the president’s claim is the fact that none of the legislation being considered proscribes any penalty for a provider who treats non-covered non-citizens. In other words, people who make such claims are not wrong. Yet, in spite of the truth of their claims, Mr. Obama gets all holier than thou and attacks their character without factual basis. Who is it who, “Only want(s) to make trouble?” If anyone fits that definition it would seem to be President Obama and his bogus claims.
Mr. Obama waxes indignant easily. And it would be easier to take him serious if I had ever been led to believe his sermonizing is based on some reality other than his desire to make his adversaries look bad. But the more factless screeds that come from the president the less likely it is that people will see him as anything other than a pathetic joke. A pathetic joke who clouds the air of civil discourse with lies and just makes progress more difficult for anyone who seriously undertakes legislative improvement.

Judge Andrew Napolitano On The Constitutionality Of Czars

h/t: MsUnderestimated

BETTE MIDLER & The Mills Brothers - GLOWWORM (1975)

Bette Midler at the Continental Bath "Chatanooga Choo Choo"


I Shall Be Released - Bette Midler

Some Would Call This Politically Incorrect Humor

******WARNING If You Are Easily Offended By The Politically Incorrect, It Is Highly Recommended That You Do Not Watch This Clip (Unless, of course, You Like To Be Offended) -- So Do Not Say I Didn't Warn You ********************


h/t: MsUnderestimated

Ella Fitzgerald and Manhattan Transfer

Beauties of Nature

h/t: The Clay Tablet
Spiritual, Social, Historical, Political, & World Observations

Andrea Mitchell and Much of MSM Freak Out In The Face Of More Than One Opinion

Andrea Mitchell attacks, "A partisan echo chamber making it much harder for any president to make himself heard." Is this poor fool serious? If she had done just a little basic reporting she would have known that the right blogosphere listens to every word spoken by her dear leader and then closely analyzes and discusses them. I suspect that her real discomfort comes from people sometimes disagreeing with Andrea and her master. Apparently Andrea gets freaked by people disagreeing with her. Andrea's leaders in the White House and the MSM tell her what to think and she just knows that anyone who doesn't fall in line can't be as smart as she is. Poor Andrea. I wonder if the difference of opinion seen in the proverbial Oxford Debating Society makes her nervous and doesn't cause her to scold anyone who doesn't agree with Rahm Emanuel.

The Adoration of the Horsies

This is one of those viral emails.
Here's the explanation that came with it:

"This is the commercial spot Budweiser produced after
 9-11. 
 
"They aired it only once so as not to benefit financially from it.

"They just wanted to acknowledge the tragic event. Can you
 imagine what the  cost was considering production, air time.
 I never saw  this commercial until now.  
 
"Wow! Talk about a picture being worth a thousand
 words."
 

The Toms Want to Save Us From Ourselves by Continuing the MSM Mind Control

These deep thinkers seem to feel threatened by the free exchange of information. Brokaw feels that all the information available on the internet is frightening in a free society. Tom, is that more frightening than a so called free press that covers up anything that Obama does not want us to be aware of? Tom Friedman has a newsflash: you have to exercise judgment when looking at the information on the net. Now there's some super wise best selling author wisdom you don't come across every day. But nobody there had the insight to say that you don't even need NBC if you have the much feared internet. I guess there's just no joy in Mudville when a commie gets sent back to Berkeley.


h/t: Gateway Pundit

Begin the Beguine -- The Andrews Sisters with Glenn Miller and his Orchestra

yoon a in - Chopin Piano Concerto No 2, 2nd mov

The Traveller-heart -- by Vachel Lindsay

(To a Man who maintained that the Mausoleum is the Stateliest Possible
Manner of Interment)

I would be one with the dark, dark earth: --
Follow the plough with a yokel tread.
I would be part of the Indian corn,
Walking the rows with the plumes o'erhead.

I would be one with the lavish earth,
Eating the bee-stung apples red:
Walking where lambs walk on the hills;
By oak-grove paths to the pools be led.

I would be one with the dark-bright night
When sparkling skies and the lightning wed --
Walking on with the vicious wind
By roads whence even the dogs have fled.

I would be one with the sacred earth
On to the end, till I sleep with the dead.
Terror shall put no spears through me.
Peace shall jewel my shroud instead.

I shall be one with all pit-black things
Finding their lowering threat unsaid:
Stars for my pillow there in the gloom, --
Oak-roots arching about my head!

Stars, like daisies, shall rise through the earth,
Acorns fall round my breast that bled.
Children shall weave there a flowery chain,
Squirrels on acorn-hearts be fed: --

Fruit of the traveller-heart of me,
Fruit of my harvest-songs long sped:
Sweet with the life of my sunburned days
When the sheaves were ripe, and the apples red.

The Union Label

When Obama said his followers will punch back twice as hard he really meant punch. You have to wonder how cool the thug in chief is with the finger biting. Is this why he craves his own private army outside of the military, to rough up your average citizen?



h/t: Moonbattery

David Horowitz and Glenn Beck Discuss Communism and Van Jones -- MSM: "I See Nothing"

h/t: Hot Air.com
The reaction of the New York Times, WaPo, Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric, George Stephenfetchitoupolos, Brian Williams and CNN to news that might be slightly negative for their object of worship, Barack Obama.



AMERICA you have been sold a bill of goods by the lying, self-satisfied big media who think they can control what Americans think. Why will they sell out their own integrity and self-respect to cover for Barack Obama? What are the media getting out of this deal that justifies the unending decline in viewership and trust?
Is the problem that if they are offered a socialist cult of personality they cannot keep themselves from falling on their knees and blindly worshiping? Let me just suggest to America that one does not want as a source of news a gaggle of star struck lovers who can't escape blind worship and who will not share with their audience the basic narrative of the days events that it is their job to provide. Flee these lying, covering up, superior acting jerks. Here's another one of them at work. It is a clip of David Shuster who is too in the tank for Barack Obama to be able to understand the day's events.



The time has come for Americans to turn their backs on these useless hacks. They are an embarrassment to themselves and to all of us.

yoon a in - Mozart Piano Concerto No13 in C major K415 3rd mov

Van Jones Is A Truther

I know this clip must be all over the right blogospere. But I think this is on that small list of things that cannot be said too often.
*******************************************************************************


h/t: Hot Air.com

Diana Krall Trio - Boulevard of broken dreams (live)

*********************************
"But I left my soul behind me
In an old cathedral town."
*********************************

yoon a in - Scarlatti Sonata in G major

She was only 10 years old when this was recorded.
Sorry for the long lead in.



Irena Koblar, Scarlatti Sonata K. 119 in D major

WHO'S IN YOUR WALLET?

The Firemen's Ball

By Vachel Lindsay ----- I am only reproducing the third section below. Anyone interested in reading the complete work can find it with many other Lindsay poems here.

Section Three

In Which, contrary to Artistic Custom, the moral of the piece
is placed before the reader.

(From the first Khandaka of the Mahavagga: "There Buddha
thus addressed his disciples: `Everything, O mendicants, is burning.
With what fire is it burning? I declare unto you it is burning
with the fire of passion, with the fire of anger, with the fire of ignorance.
It is burning with the anxieties of birth, decay and death,
grief, lamentation, suffering and despair. . . . A disciple, . . .
becoming weary of all that, divests himself of passion.
By absence of passion, he is made free.'")


[To be intoned after the manner of a priestly service.]
I once knew a teacher,
Who turned from desire,
Who said to the young men
"Wine is a fire."
Who said to the merchants: --
"Gold is a flame
That sears and tortures
If you play at the game."
I once knew a teacher
Who turned from desire
Who said to the soldiers,
"Hate is a fire."
Who said to the statesmen: --
"Power is a flame
That flays and blisters
If you play at the game."
I once knew a teacher
Who turned from desire,
Who said to the lordly,

"Pride is a fire."
Who thus warned the revellers: --
"Life is a flame.
Be cold as the dew
Would you win at the game
With hearts like the stars,
With hearts like the stars."
[Interrupting very loudly for the last time.]
SO BEWARE,
SO BEWARE,
SO BEWARE OF THE FIRE.
Clear the streets,
BOOM, BOOM,
Clear the streets,
BOOM, BOOM,
GIVE THE ENGINES ROOM,
GIVE THE ENGINES ROOM,
LEST SOULS BE TRAPPED
IN A TERRIBLE TOMB.
SAYS THE SWIFT WHITE HORSE
TO THE SWIFT BLACK HORSE: --
"THERE GOES THE ALARM,
THERE GOES THE ALARM.
THEY ARE HITCHED, THEY ARE OFF,
THEY ARE GONE IN A FLASH,
AND THEY STRAIN AT THE DRIVER'S IRON ARM."
CLANG . . . A . . . RANGA. . . . CLANG . . . A . . . RANGA. . . .
CLANG . . . CLANG . . . CLANG. . . .
CLANG . . . A . . . RANGA. . . . CLANG . . . A . . . RANGA. . . .
CLANG . . . CLANG . . . CLANG. . . .
CLANG . . . A . . . RANGA. . . . CLANG . . . A . . . RANGA. . . .
CLANG . . . CLANG . . . CLANG. . . .

BEN WEBSTER ENCONTEURS COLEMAN HAWKINS. -- Tangerine

The Buzz Kill Comedy Anti-Demi Pledge

Great New Exercise Video -- Nancy Pelosi's Sweating to the Socialists

h/t: Republic Broadcasting Network

Olbermann Can't Get No Respect -- Even on MSNBC

h/t: JammieWearingFool

The 'Peggy Effect'

Barack Obama is losing support from the left and center. Doug Ross feels this might be partly because of what he calls the 'Peggy Effect.' Here's how he explains it:

"After Obama was elected president, his approval ratings were very high. At the time, I predicted that soon those numbers would be hit by the “Peggy Effect.” That is now happening.
What’s the “Peggy Effect”? Essentially, victims of the Peggy Effect are all kids who got up all excited on Christmas morning and ran downstairs only to discover that not only were there no presents under the tree, but that Santa stole most of the shit they already had — and they’re upset.
"Everybody who voted for Obama because of all the free stuff they’d be getting, such as the famed “Peggy the Moocher,” have been running to their mailboxes for months now since Obama’s inauguration and… nothing. They’re heard about trillions of dollars being spent on hope and change, but still… nothing. What a letdown this must be. Sure, the Peggys will still vote for Obama again in the next election, because they’re so stupid that they’ll fall for the same lines all over again, but on a temporary basis, the Peggy Effect is driving down Obama’s approval rating.
"Here’s Peggy the Moocher in headier days, back when she was filled with hope, optimism and dreams of free gas and a fully covered mortgage."
**********************************************************************************


Trillions have been spent and Peggy might not have seen a cent unless maybe she got minimum wage as Astroturf. Where did all of that money go?

Another Novelty Act from Mad Men

Democrats Are Rrmaking the Credit Market While Avoiding Voter Awareness or Input

While everyone is focused on health care Barry O is sneaking through some major legislation way over there. At this point they have had all the input from voters they will ever want. Barry wants to remake the credit market by completely unlinking what he calls consumer protections from institutional soundness. The smarter-than-everyone-else Democrats are only doing this because they feel that Americans are too stupid to manage their own finances. But the oh so very smart and selfless Democrats in Congress are willing to give of themselves to lead us poor fools through the evil, complicated world. In return they only request high salaries with yearly increases, perks that would make the private sector blush and the right to add any old pork or other thing onto this Trojan horse. And don't make them send out more fat union thugs to threaten dissenters.
*******************************************************************************


h/t: Hot Air.com

Charleston from Mad Men 3-3

The Kennedy Legacy

Maybe I don't have any class. But I wonder if Stephanie Miller is the best judge of that. This vid/audio file is from the Radio Equalizer.


"Edward M. Kennedy became a laughingstock the old-fashioned way: He earned it."
-- Robert Stacy McCain

The Other McCain has an excellent collection of quotes and videos about the 'legacy.'
Chappaquiddick is a default MS spell check item. Hmmm Just part of the legacy.
Some of R. McCain's stuff is news to me. I was 21 when Chappaquiddick happened. That puts it near the beginning of my lost years. During that time I ignored a lot of the news. I do recall that after the ugly incident at the bridge and the subsequent miscarriage of justice I averted my gaze from Kennedy: I was truly ashamed of the total mockery of our laws that his special treatment made inescapably obvious. Is that the essence of his legacy: that the laws are not going to apply to rich powerful people? Is that why Tim Geithner and Tom Dashle and Charlie Rangel can urinate without consequence on the tax laws that would put many other poorer, powerless people in jail? Stephanie Miller might be committed to defending the chosen few from the rule of law. I am committed to the opposite course.

"The victory for Edward Kennedy is demeaning to the dignity of the Senate and the democratic process."
-- New York Times, editorial in response to
Kennedy's first Senate election, 1962


"On this day, every patriotic American should mourn the death of a liberal activist who diligently labored to continue the Kennedy family's noble legacy of public service. Until the day she died in 1969."
-- Robert Stacy McCain
The information about Kennedy's treacherous dealing with the KGB is totally new to me.
"This letter which details Senator Edward Kennedy's offer to help the Soviet Union defeat Reagan’s efforts to build up the nuclear deterrent in Europe was unearthed . . . after the KGB files were opened . . .
"Kennedy believes that, given the current state of affairs, and in the interest of peace, it would be prudent and timely to undertake the following steps to counter the militaristic politics of Reagan . . . In this regard, he offers the following proposals to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Y.V. Andropov . . ."
-- Committee on State Security of the USSR, May 1983
This has never been openly and adequately discussed. At the risk of appearing classless I have to say that a country that cares about self preservation has to take such things more serious than we have. If the American government is going to be more than just a private servant of the privileged like Miller, Kennedy, Geithner and Obama, we have to talk about these things and deal with them. Even if Miller has stylistic problems with her and her friends' special status being questioned.