Biden Lied! People Died!

Posted on October 11, 2012 by The Political Hat

     At the Vice-Presidential Debate, Vice-President Joe Biden harangued Rep. Paul Ryan for “putting two wars on a credit card” by voting to authorize the use of force against Afghanistan and Iraq.

     Turns out Biden was fibbing.
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When Congressmen Attack!

Posted on October 11, 2012 by The Political Hat

     Looks like things have gotten a wee bit testy between Congressional rivals Rep. Brad Sherman and Rep. Howard Berman.  They are both vying for the newly drawn 30th Congressional District in California.  Due to California’s new “Jungle Primary,” where the top two vote getters regardless of party advance to the November election, the 30th Congressional district features two entrenched Democrats vying for the same seat with a fury reminiscent of the Mensheviks/Bolsheviks a hundred years ago, or perhaps Stalin vs. Trotsky?

     Things have gotten so bad that Rep. Sherman became physically aggressive towards, if not committing assault against, Rep. Berman to the point that a police officer had to step in to separate the two.

     And the Democrats in California wonder why their state is such a basket case?  Since the November election for the 30th Congressional District only features those two Democrats, perhaps the best vote to cast is a blank one for that race.

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A Look Back on Vice-Presidential Debates

Posted on October 10, 2012 by The Political Hat

     Thursday, Oct. 11th marks the first, and only, Vice-Presidential debate for the 2012 election.

     While many are concerning themselves with the upcoming debate/battle (20 Million Quatloos on the young one!), let us take a gander at the past eight Vice-Presidential debates.

     The first Vice-Presidential debate was the 1976 contest between Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale and Kansas Senator Bob Dole, where Dole (in)famously referred to WWI, WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, as “Demcorat Wars.”  The entire debate is available online, though, alas, it is not embeddable.  1980 saw no Vice-Presidential debate, though in 1984 George H. W. Bush did have a chance to debate Rep. Geraldine Ferraro of NY:

     The 1988 debate between Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas and Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana.  This debate had probably the best debate quips of the Vice-Presidential debate when Sen. Bentsen replied to Sen. Quayle’s comment, about being the same age as JFK, by saying: “Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy, I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.”  Unlike Dole in ’76, the Bush/Quayle went on to curb stomp Dukakis/Bentsen in a landslide. Continue reading →

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Transvestites Against Crossdressing?

Posted on October 9, 2012 by The Political Hat

Cross-dressing contest: Inciting prejudice against those with “Gender Identity Disorder”?

“There is a time and place for everything. It’s called ‘College’.”
— Chef, “Southpark”

      The Unviersity of Shimane, Hamada, in Japan, where Political Correctness is blissfully rare, has had to cancel its annual “Crossdressing Contest” due to the complaints of… Transvestites.

      This lighthearted bit of silliness, which was part of the university’s cultural festival, was attacked by the “Purple Wind” LGBT rights group. This Japanese group has been complaining that this shows disrespect for “people with gender identity disorder.” Continue reading →

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Europe’s Death Penalty: Slaughter of the Innocents

Posted on October 8, 2012 by The Political Hat

     Europe has long considered America to be “uncivilized” because in most states, as well as on the Federal level, the death penalty exists.  Yet, despite their cry of “barbarity” at our willingness to protect innocent people from monsters, Europe actually allows real monsters free reign to slaughter the innocent.  Europeans, however, do not call them “monsters,” they call them “Doctor.”

     Unlike the euthanasia happy European medical establishment, the death penalty in America is reserved for the worst scum and is often necessary in order to protect innocents.  For example, the most recent person to be executed in California was convicted of crimes committed while he was already serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.  Clearly, the death penalty was necessary to protect further slaughter of the innocents.

     Euthanasia was most sickeningly displayed by the NAZI regime, which killed hundreds of thousands of innocents including both adults and children who were mentally and physically handicapped and thus were considered “unworthy of life,” under direction of the Charitable Foundation for Curative and Institutional Care.  Indeed, the NAZIs not only killed children for reasons of racial purity, but because they were considered a drain on society. Continue reading →

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What Was Meant to Unify, Now Tears Asunder

Posted on October 6, 2012 by The Political Hat

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world”
—William Butler Yeats “The Second Coming”

     Separatist movements have a long history in Europe, even being implicated as one of the major causes of the First World War.  After the Second World War, though Europe was divided by an Iron Curtain, a chance towards unity, rather than division, was hoped for.

     The economic and political unification of Europe began in earnest with the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951; continued with the foundation of the European Economic Union in 1957; culminated with the Maastricht Treaty and the foundation of the European Union in 1992; and consolidated with the Lisbon Treaty in 2007.  Despite attempts to offer a rival block of Western nations in Europe, such as the European Free Trade Association, the EU managed to grow to its current dominance by not only bringing in most of the EFTA members (only Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Iceland remain) but the former Easter Block nations as well.

     Despite the economic disaster that the single currency has brought, most of the countries, both financially collapsing ones like Greece and those with better economic footing such as Germany, seem intent on keeping the Eurozone and the EU together.  Not everyone in Europe agrees though, and separatist calls have increased lately.  Though these have been mostly tranquil affairs since their entry to the EU could be vetoed by the country the separatist have left, they are perhaps getting to a point where that would not be a deterrent to independence, but the very feature they wish to achieve.

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When Tech Blogs Fail At Science

Posted on October 5, 2012 by The Political Hat

or… making a Star Trek reference does not make you a nerd.

     A recent article on Wired.com attempted, and failed, to inform people about a genuinely interesting and potentially groundbreaking development in propulsion within our solar system.

     While utilizing Star Trek as a way to bring attention to, and interest people in, science is laudable, it is abhorrent when both it and science are abused by allegedly technologically minded people for the purposes of a cruddy article.

     Ignoring their clumsy, and misleading, attempt to call attention to the article by insinuating that faster than light warp drive was nigh, the real problem lies with the crux of their article: Lithium for use as fusion fuel for a spaceship. The author writes:

“[T]his fusion reactor would be fueled by “a few tonnes” of deuterium (a heavy isotope of hydrogen) and lithium-6 (a stable molecule of lithium) in a crystalline structure — hence the “dilithium crystal” claim. Technically, dilithium is a molecule with two covalently bonded lithium atoms, while lithium-6 features six bonded atoms, but we can forgive them for the temptation of using a little poetic license.”

     This is factually incorrect. 6Li (i.e. Lithium-6) is neither a “a stable molecule of lithium” nor six lithiums bonded into a single discrete molecule. It is an isotope of lithium with three protons and three neutrons, in contrast with 7Li (Lithium-7) which has four neutrons instead of three.

     This would be excusable if it were posted by a 6-year old was recounting what he heard from Al “ManBearPig” Gore, but for a “tech” writer who ought to get at least the gist of the technology he/she/it is talking about, it is beyond pathetic. Even Captain Picard agrees:

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“Our Fine Arts, These, Forever”: From Livy and Virgil, to Romney and Ryan

Posted on October 1, 2012 by The Political Hat

     Barack Obama’s foreign policy is quite rightly considered a disaster.  From supporting the former President of Honduras Manuel Zelaya who was legally removed by the Honduran Supreme Court and Congress, promising to Medvedev and Putin more “flexibility” for Russia, apologizing to rioting Muslims (from Kuwait to Thailand and even Greece) for our daring to have free speech, to supporting countries that employ child soldiers.  Recently, Mitt Romney opined in a Wall Street Journal editorial concerning that weakness brought by Obama, and offered a return to those post-WWII policies that lead to America, as if a sentinel, standing over astride the world in Pax Americana.  Most notably, Romney said:

“Since World War II, America has been the leader of the Free World. We’re unique in having earned that role not through conquest but through promoting human rights, free markets and the rule of law. We ally ourselves with like-minded countries, expand prosperity through trade and keep the peace by maintaining a military second to none.”

     This hearkens back to the very roots of Western Civilization, and another, more ancient Republic:

“Others, no  doubt, will better mould the bronze
To the semblance of soft breathing, draw, from marble,
The living countenance; and others plead
With greater eloquence, or learn to measure,
Better than we, the pathways of the heaven,
The risings of the stars: remember, Roman,
To rule the people under law, to establish
The way of peace, to battle down the haughty,
To spare the meek.  Our fine arts, these, forever.”

— Virgil, the Æneid, Book VI

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Test Post

Posted on September 29, 2012 by admin

Don’t mind me… just testing.

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