Send Chesterfields to All Your Friends!

Retronaut

Ready for Christmas, I Guess

Damned shame the world is ending tomorrow, ya know?

A glass room is the perfect environment for a Christmas Tree

Forget Politics, Obama is Just a Bad Value

The 50 years of the Cold War is estimated to have cost the US in the neighborhood of $8 trillion (I’ll stipulate that I have no idea if that’s adjusted for inflation) with historically low deficits, meaning it was pretty much “paid for”. Thus far, Obama has amassed $6+ trillion in deficits alone, in his first four years.

At least we had some very cool hardware, and the most lethal military in the history of the world to show for our Cold War expenditures, what do we have to show for the Obama years, friggin' ObamaCare?

Birds of a Feather

This certainly isn't the first time that the American Left has found common cause with an authoritarian Communist regime, is it?

CHINESE STATE MEDIA DEMANDS US CITIZENS BE DISARMED 

The official Chinese government news agency, Xinhua, has demanded the US immediately adopt stricter gun control measures to reduce the number of firearms the US populace is permitted to possess. 

The Chinese state-controlled media’s statement, titled “Innocent Blood Demands No Delay for US Gun Control,” is primarily focused on the Newtown tragedy in which 26 Americans were killed by a mad gunman. Twenty of the victims were young children. 

The Chinese government stated, “Their blood and tears demand no delay for the U.S. gun control.”

I'm sure their only concern is for the safety of Americans, Right?

Islam: Depravity, Redefined

Much as early Christians “imprinted” holy days upon existing pagan rituals, I believe Muslims have “imprinted” Islam on man’s worst instincts as exhibited by the criminal class. It doesn’t challenge you to forswear abhorrent behavior, just change it’s name and purpose.

The longer we deny what should be obvious to anyone with a modicum of reason, the more we will pay the price for our self-imposed ignorance.

The Inevitability of Tragedy Opportunism

I simply can't help mentally profiling this group, ya know?

Substantially more gun control is in the offing and the best we can hope for is mitigation. Most people are seeing this through emotional eyes and the gun control people are seeing it through opportunistic eyes. 20 dead first graders evokes a far deeper response than a comparable number of teenagers or college students. I disagree that this will go away any time soon; Obama and the gun control lobby will ride this toward sweeping weapons legislation and it matters not that said legislation will be meaningless and ineffective. What will matter is that they’re “doing something”.

Some think it’ll never make it through Congress -- picture on one side of the screen, the nebulous “assault rifle” and on the other side of the screen, pictures of the dead children, does anyone really think arguments based on logic and/or facts are going to win the day? Did arguments based on logic and/or facts with the election? When was the last time we won a single argument based on logic/facts?

Eaten Up With Race

I'm not personally familiar with ESPN commentator Rob Parker.  The only time ESPN is on in my house is when there's a game of particular interest being shown, so I've no knowledge of their on-air personalities (or, in the case of Mr. Parker, lack thereof).  I will say that I have no use for sports commentators who feel that people who turn to sports as a respite from serious issues should be regaled with political or social opinions as Bob Costas did earlier this month.

This week, ESPN's Parker decided to weigh in on the 'black authenticity' of rising NFL star Robert Griffin, III, (known as RGIII) a black man who is engaged to a white woman (which seems to be an issue to Parker), who has publicly stated that he chooses not to be defined by his race and (gasp!) may, just may have right-of-center political beliefs:

I talked to some people down in Washington, D.C. … friends of mine who are around at some of the press conferences, people I’ve known for a long time. But my question, which is just a straight honest question, is he a brother, or is he a cornball brother? … He’s not really, he’s black, he kind of does his thing, but he’s not really down with the cause, he’s not one with us, he’s kind of black, but he’s not really like the guy you want to hang out because he’s off to something else ….

I don’t know because I keep hearing these things. We all know he has a white fiancée, there was all this talk about he’s a Republican, which there’s no information at all. I’m just trying to dig deeper into why he has an issue. Because we did find out with Tiger Woods, Tiger Woods was like, ‘I got black skin, but don’t call me black.’ So people got a little wondering about Tiger Woods ….

To me, [his braids are] very urban, and makes you feel like, I think you’d have a clean cut, if he were more straitlaced or not like, wearing braids, you’re a brother, you’re a brother if you’ve got braids on.

So, RGIII, to his enormous credit, chooses to be judged “on the content of his character rather than the color of his skin” and he’s considered “inauthentic” by this talentless hack, Rob Parker?

So, who are the “authentic” blacks, the gangbangers, the wife beaters and misogynists, the crack-addled, the 13 year-old rapists, armed robbers and murderers?

How about the NFL player who murdered his girlfriend, the mother of his child, then committed suicide in front of his coach? Is HE an "authentic" black man? How about the NFL player who, while driving drunk, killed his teammate in an automobile accident? Is HE "authentic"?

RGIII is a huge bright spot in an increasingly troubled “black community” (oh, how I hate that term) and Parker and his ilk are too vested in their own racism to recognize the value of RGIII, not only to blacks, but to everyone. Too bad our President didn't choose not to be defined by his race.