Innocent Bystanders

She Should Say No. -lauraw May 30, 2012

Ridiculous.  Actors are ridiculous people.

And this is a bad portent for the marriage ahead, too. What happens when you marry this guy: PUBLIC DRAMA.

Look at all the other people he got involved in what (for most people) is a private moment. Not a good sign, in and of itself.

But also: how can she say ‘no’ now, even if she wanted to? He’s bullying her through social pressure.

I hope she knows she’s submitting to a control freak with no regard for her privacy.

Thanks to scottw, who proposed to me in total secrecy and darkness, as God intended.

Monasteries On High May 28, 2012

When you want to get away and engage in some quiet religious contemplation, you can’t do much better than these places:

The extraordinary hanging monasteries that cling to the sides of cliffs

Amazing photos at the link – here’s just one to whet your appetite:

Assigning Blame for FY09 May 25, 2012

There’s a lot of Obamaphilic revisionism going on lately, with the President and his supporters claiming that he has had the smallest budget increases of any President in recent history. That claim comes from several weak assumptions, the foremost of which involves blaming President Bush for the spending in FY09. This is a bit of a toughie – Bush was President, but the Democratic Senate and House never gave him a budget to sign, so the budget, Stimulus, and Omnibus bills were all passed after President Obama took office.

But there is an easy way to decide how much blame to give Bush for the FY2009 spending – we can just look at his proposed budget to see what he was planning before the Dems got a hold of it.

President Bush proposed a $3.1 trillion budget in 2009, with a projected $400 billion deficit. The Dems added $400 billion, and the recession lowered the expected receipts of $2.7 trillion to a dismal $2.1 trillion.

So in the end it’s a tie:

• Bush Share of Deficit: $400 billion
• Obama Share of Deficit: $400 billion
• Recession Share of Deficit: $600 billion

But despite the similarity of the numbers, there’s a huge difference in culpability. Bush’s budget was submitted before the troubles at Bear-Stearns became well known, and well before the collapse in late summer and fall of 2008.

President Obama, on the other hand, had full knowledge of these events. He knew what the original deficit was, he knew that the recession would make that deficit larger, and yet he still chose to pile on another $400 billion in spending. Where a rational budgeting process would have led to adjustment of spending to accommodate the changing circumstances, President Obama went the opposite direction. And that demonstrates that his decision-making ability is far inferior to his predecessor’s.

Finally, people who try to defend President Obama by comparing the similarities of his spending to President Bush’s forget one key fact:

Fiscal conservatives hated Bush’s spending.

Saying the President Obama’s spending isn’t much worse than Bush’s isn’t going to earn any applause from budget-conscious voters. Or votes, for that matter.

Sen. Sessions — How to Lose the Confidence of the American People May 23, 2012

Ever Wonder What Hip Hop Violin Looks Like? May 22, 2012

Wonder no more.

Here’s Lindsey at an NBA halftime show, with a dance team backing her.  It is an amazing performance.

How do you display such musicianship while dancing like that?  I can’t dance and drink a beer at the same time.

Thinking About Starting to Consider Planning a Vacation May 22, 2012

I was just thinking how much it might not suck to be floating without a care in the largest swimming pool in the world.

That’s a full kilometer of stress reduction right there. [Tons more envy-generating photos at the link]