Month: December 2013

Iceland Shows The World

This would have been the perfect gift for the country to give to its people on the joy of the season……start putting the thieves that work at banks in prison…….wishful thinking I know but at least one country has done the right thing…….(read on)…..

There has been lots of mumbling and grumbling about what the bankers were allowed to get away with when they caused the economic meltdown of 2008……..they have made obscene bonuses and still walk among us even after about 50% of the population lost lots of their coveted nest egg that they were depending on for a comfortable retirement….the American Dream was crapped on by the banks and the thieves they employ……some Americans have called for these crooks to be jailed for they basically robbed the population of their funds….but so far they got bigger bonuses and are not help responsible for their actions…….what to do…..what to do?

The small island country of Iceland has shown the world what should be done to these cons……

(Newser) – Iceland has done something highly unusual with some of the bank chiefs blamed for the country’s 2008 financial collapse: put them on trial and sent them to prison. Four former Kaupthing Bank bosses have been sentenced to between three and five years for market abuses relating to a deal where a Qatari sheikh bought a confidence-boosting stake in the bank with money that had been provided by the bank itself, the BBC reports.

Prosecutors said the loans, made soon before Kaupthing collapsed under massive debts, were made solely to boost the bank’s share price, reports Reuters. The bank’s former chief executive and chairman of the board received prison terms, along with one of its majority owners and the chief of its Luxembourg branch. The sentences are the heaviest Iceland has ever handed down for financial fraud, but prosecutors say a bigger case against Kaupthing is in the works

And that my friends is how you hold con artists responsible for their actions……America should follow suit….but NO…we fine them and let them return to the actions they were doing that caused the economic collapse……where is the logic here?

Merry Christmas: A Message

Today is the big day….a day of joy and family and friends….a time when we look back at our year and see the things we accomplished and the things that we may have left undone or unsaid….a day of food, fun and family…..I want to take a moment to write a brief note to all my followers……I read this op-ed an thought it would make a great closing message……

Christmas has become the most wonderful time of year … for heated political debate, especially of the “War on Christmas” or First Amendment variety. It’s “when all the ideologues get a little extra outrage or victimization in their stockings,” writes Michael Gerson in the Washington Post. This year “is all the more poignant in the light of a fallen reality-television star who manufactures duck calls and culture war imbroglios.” Such controversies are really centered on power, Gerson says. “Who has the ability to define and enforce the boundaries of the acceptable?” But the story of Jesus’ birth and life turns traditional ideas of power upside down. “If the deity was born as an outcast, it is impossible to view or treat outcasts in quite the same way,” Gerson notes. “A God who fled as a refugee, preferred the company of fishermen and died as an accused criminal will influence our disposition toward refugees, the poor and those in prison.” When we look to score political victories around Christmas, let’s remember that Christianity is about “identifying with the vulnerable and dependent. Living for others,” Gerson notes. “The author of this creed sought a different victory than politics brings—the kind that ends all selfish victories.” Click for his full column.

Thank you all for your support and your patronage…..it is the one thing that has made my year a success and a joy…….today will be a day of rest and relaxation for the old professor….but never fear…the old opinionated SOB will return tomorrow just as fired up as always…………

Enjoy your day ….fun, food, football and family…it gets NO better than that…..Merry Christmas everyone…….

How To Judge Success

It is the holiday season…..

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the blog…..not a creature was stirring with the exception of Chuq…..the professor, who just cannot let it go…….

All of us bloggers want a successful blog……we like to know that people are reading and appreciating our diligence….but how do we judge success?  Some of us spread HATE….and they may call it anything they like…but if it smells like a turd…it usually is……do we want a certain type of person to visit and read or do we just like to know that all visitors appreciate the work it takes to post on a daily basis without being redundant….or are the visitors looking for crap that can feed the hate?

I admit that I spew a little hate from time to time….but if I single a person out for an insult or two I will email them a copy of my post and ask them if they would like to respond and that anything they write will be posted on my blog…..I give everyone a fighting chance to explain their thinking.

I try to give my reader news that is just not regurgitation of the day’s talking points but rather news that they may not be aware of….news that could have a profound result if it goes unchecked……all that is just ducky……but how does one judge success?

Some like a ba-zillion hits on their site……others like it when everyone feels the necessity to re-blog their posts…..some feel that they need recognition from outside entity in the form of awards………all these are indications of a successful blog and I too would like ALL of them……but for me….I judge success by the number of followers…..that means that the more followers one has the more people get each and every post by email……and most are never counted as ‘hits’….I like the idea that so many people will receive my posts and hopefully ALL are reading them…..but I am realistic…..probably only a small amount of people actually spend the time to read my posts…….But I feel good that that many people get them daily……and then I judge success by the comments…….not necessarily the quantity but the quality….and so far my visitors are of high quality and even when I do not agree…the exchanges are thoughtful and civil….and I thank those people from the bottom of my heart…..I have you guys and that makes In Saner Thought a success……..

Hopefully, they appreciate the work that goes into writing a post and ….once again hopefully it will give them an insight that they had not considered in the past……conversations will save this country from the insanity that it now has made for itself……the more we talk the better the understanding……the better the understanding the sooner we start working as a people and stop this tribal insanity…..

I would like to thank all my followers, commenters and friends that I have made…… writing this blog is a joy…..and that is why I do it and I consider In Saner Thought a success…….thank you one and all for all your help in making this blog a success.

Merry Christmas to all….and to all a good night!

Obit: Kalashnikov

Not something that I care to celebrate…..but as a person who has faced and at times used an AK-47 I can say that it was a remarkable weapon….neither sand or mud or water could stop this weapon from firing…..it was a work of genius.

The inventor of this famed weapon has died at age 94…..

(Newser) – A man whose last name is all but certain to be remembered long after he has been forgotten has died at age 94. Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventor of the AK-47 assault rifle, was hospitalized in mid-November, after weathering heart and intestinal problems; a cause of death will be released post-autopsy. In its obit, RT uses the header “Patriot, genius, villain?” Kalashnikov has long been revered as a hero in Russia (indeed, Putin has expressed “deep condolences,” and a public funeral will be organized), a self-made man who didn’t finish high school but manage to create the weapon known by his name in his twenties—one that has become the weapon of choice for terrorists and child soldiers.

Though initially pooh-poohed by the US as being inaccurate and poorly made, its ability to hold up in jungle and desert conditions became apparent in 1960s Vietnam, where Americans’ M-16s were no match for the Vietcong’s AK-47s, reports the New York Times. RT reports that he defended the rifle as having been invented “for the protection of the Motherland. I have no regrets and bear no responsibility for how politicians have used it.” Still, on one occasion he expressed sadness at the knowledge that terrorists used his weapon. “I would prefer to have invented a machine that people could use and that would help farmers with their work—for example a lawnmower.” Which, in fact, he did create … only much, much less famously.

May he find peace….more so than his weapon ever created.

2013 Babbling Buffoons Of Babylon #5

This will probably be the last Babbling of the year…..’tis the season to shop and spend cash, cash most of us do not have but it is expected and we Americans do not like to disappoint…….but it will be back in 2014….I am sure that there will not plenty to write about in the coming year…..

Some people just cannot find it in their tiny little minds to stop talking and just give that malfunctioning computer they call a brain a rest…..continuing my series on morons babbling on and on about stuff they cannot possibly know….gives my site all the ammo it needs to keep calling the idiots out whenever I find them……

1–Scott Lively, the radical preacher and Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate, is predicting that 2014 will be the year that the tide turns back in the favor of the anti-gay Right. In a column today, Lively describes the struggle between the Religious Right and gay rights advocates as “a battle between Good and Evil.”

“The homosexual movement stands for the agenda of the evil one, represented in counterfeit marriage and corrupt notions of family, the sublimation of the needs of children to hedonistic selfishness, and a degeneration of civilization into moral anarchy,” he writes.

Satan gets blamed for so much……so I have one question…..If God is all seeing and powerful why does he allow Satan such a free run?  Why not just squash him under his omnipotent thumb?

2–There are people (I use the term loosely) that get their “news” from morons and idiots like World Net Daily….this is a bunch of mental midgets feeding the hate of other mental midgets……….

WorldNetDaily’s Mychal Massie has declared that racism is over and African Americans who work against inequality and discrimination should simply leave the country because such injustices do not exist.

“It’s a conundrum to me as to why a group of people – who supposedly are as mistreated and persecuted as blacks are in America – would want to stay here,” Massie writes today. “Let them leave, and let them take liberals, socialists and the Obamas with them.”

Finally, a complete douche has resurrected the old slogan….”America–Love It Or Leave It”……just as pathetic as it was in the 70’s.

3–I missed this back in October….but it is still a moron babbling over his religious beliefs and another prediction from ass wads that push fear like some drug on the street…….

On his radio broadcast today, Bryan Fischer responded to a caller who sobbed over the issue of legal abortion by warning that if the United States does not collectively repent for the sin of abortion and beg God’s forgiveness, it will result in a second civil war.

“What I’m saying,” Fischer explained, “is that if we do not, as a nation, come to the place of national repentance over the sin of abortion, there’s going to be civil war again in this country; there is going to be anarchy, there is going to be unrest, there will be growing violence”:

He could very well be correct about the possibility of a 2nd civil war…….but not for the reason he champions but rather because the whole country has its collective head up its ass and that can do NO good.

4–Remember back 2012 when our man Newt wanted to have kids scrub toilets for the lunch……well that idea has not died…this time a Georgia rep thinks they should sweep floors because they are…..get this….LAZY!

“I’m on the Agriculture Committee, we have jurisdiction over the school lunch,” Rep. Jack Kingston explained to the Jackson County Republican Party in a clip obtained by The Huffington Post’s Amanda Terkel. “School lunch program is very expensive.”

“But one of the things I’ve talked to the secretary of agriculture about: Why don’t you have the kids pay a dime, pay a nickel to instill in them that there is, in fact, no such thing as a free lunch?” he suggested. “Or maybe sweep the floor of the cafeteria –– and yes, I understand that that would be an administrative problem, and I understand that it would probably lose you money.”

But it is somehow okie dokie to give agribusiness millions is subsidies….looks like Georgia is a hot bed of those that think the poor are that way because they are lazy…..they want a free lunch…to quote a moron.

So ends another year of anal statements……my work is NEVER done…..

The Wind Cries–Obamacare

For over a month now we have been hit with endless mind numbing coverage of the issue called Obamacare.   Every talk show host, every journalist, every blogger, every conspiracist, everybody have had the same thing to say……blah….blah…..Obamacare….blah….blah……

I bowed out of the conversation early because it became dueling bullshit…….but as luck would have it the other day I read something that renewed my interest in the subject….

(Newser) – Most definitely not the kind of product endorsement the White House was looking for: State troopers in Massachusetts seized 1,250 bags of heroin from a vehicle, with many of the bags labeled “Obama Care,” reports the Smoking Gun. Others were labeled “Kurt Cobain,” and four people inside the vehicle now face trafficking charges. (The backlash can’t be much worse than it was for the pajamas-clad poster boy for ObamaCare who debuted this week. See the Week for that.)

The reason I found this worthy of my attention is that it is just whacky enough to have some new conspiracy bullshit pop up around the issue……yes, Irene I expect the purveyors of crap, the yellow journalist, if you will, to use this as some sort of indicator of the wrongness of the ACA…….

That is right I expect to hear trhe usual BS artist, you know people lie Alex Jones, Bretbart, WND, and maybe FOX will slip in there…….so who will be the first to use this piece of news as a right wing weapon?

Please give me your thoughts.

I await!