Monday Book Pick: Amateur Night
Amateur Night: A World War II Historical Adventure by C.P. McKechney
An interesting, but long, story about a Nazi attempt to knock out the Panama Canal just before the US becomes involved in WWII. The plot is foiled by a collection of ‘expendable amateurs.’ This book was interesting to me personally in several ways. First, I’m a more than average history buff, I enjoy military fiction, and most of the action occurs in the Canal Zone, where I lived for a couple of years as a kid. There are some interesting characters in the book, some of which are slightly more filled out than your typical cardboard cutout character. The action scenes are well written and are clearly carefully story boarded. There is also a very good, and shorter, book trapped inside this novel waiting to get out. I was reminded of an interview with an author who pays his mortgage with sales from e-books, in which he points out that he budgets for an editor for all of his books. Those carefully story boarded actions scenes I mentioned, you read almost all of them multiple times as the author provides multiple viewpoints for each fight. These are not blended together to provide a fast narrative that conveys the chaos of combat. You get the full action sequence played out, in full, from two or more perspectives, one right after the other. If you enjoy this type of book, and have the time to kill, give it a go. If you don’t have the patience to slog through a book that really is much too long, then don’t start this one.
Quote of the Day
“Let Bo ride on the press plane with the rest of Obama’s pets.”
Bonus Quote by Mr. Burge:
Multitasking: president summons the royal dog plane while practicing Rockette chorus kicks in saddle shoes.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Lay the Favorite
Nice little comedy with some decent star power in the way way of Bruce Willis, Vince Vaughn, and Catherine Zeta-Jones. You don’t see much of Zeta-Jones, but what you do is good eye candy with more than a phone in acting. The movie is based on the book by Beth Raymer, and the movie appears to follow the book fairly faithfully. A fun flick, well worth the rental fee. Oh, bonus casual upper torso nudity by That 70’s Show alumni Laura Prepon.
Round Up Post
Filed under: economy, Obama Economy, Our Dear Leader, Politics
The New York Times company sells the Boston Globe at a massive loss.
The brand just isn’t worth what it used to be. Could it be that alternative media has allowed sophisticated news readers a wider range than the what the narrow far left filter of the Boston Globe gave them.
Media Malpractice and the IRS Scandal, Part II
The MSM/DNC really want this to just go away, but this story has legs that just keep going on and on.
Example: Emails reveal Lois Lerner wrongfully used IRS to aid FEC in targeting conservative group in 2009
The Obama Economy: Where’s that 5% unemployment rate Obama promised by now?
According to the famous Obama Economy chart, unemployment would be at 5.25% by now in the “worst” case of the government doing nothing.
Now we know the actual worst case scenario was the Obama economic plan!
Quote of the Day
“Compared to the typical Zim/Chomsky-spouting grad school clown, a trucker with a screaming eagle hat is a paragon of political nuance.”
Monday Book Pick: Attack of the 50 Ft. Democrats
Filed under: Monday Book Pick, Political Books, Politics, When democrats attack
Attack of the 50 Ft. Democrats by R.K. Delka
R.K. Delka mixes a few genres in this story. Political satire, B-Movie SciFi Horror flicks, and a good dose of humor. Word of warning, anyone who cried in disappointment when Keith Olbermann was tossed off MSNBC won’t find this funny. People who pay attention to a wider spectrum of news will. While Mr. Delka approached this subject with tongue firmly planted in cheek, aspects of the story struck home with precision accuracy. The majority of the “mainstream” media giving up all pretense of objectivity to become ‘fan boys’ of a President who can’t be trusted to speak without a teleprompter (he messes up words with a silent ‘p’, just like President who said ‘corpsemen’, twice, while giving speech honoring US Navy Corpsmen) is one example. The more subtle one was the 50 ft democrats roaming the nation destroying sections of cities. They don’t need to be 50 feet tall to do that. Just look at Detroit. 50 years ago it was a thriving, vibrant city with one of the highest per capita incomes in the nation. 50 years ago was also the last time a Republican was involved in the city government. 50 years later, large sections of the city lies in ruins, the people are impoverished, almost half the streetlights don’t work, and the city is bankrupt. Attack of the 50 Ft. Democrats is funny, but it is also a warning. Congressional democrats may not actually have the brand of certain billionaire who spends orders of magnitude more money than the Koch brothers, but they are certainly more under the influence of his money than they are the votes of the people they are supposed to represent. So laugh away, but pay attention to the message, which includes this, It Is Not Too Late. Oh, and he set the stage for a sequel. So expect more adventures featuring the former US military fighter pilot turned politician.
Quote of the Day
Filed under: economy, Obama Economy, Political Books, Politics
“A liberal would star at you slack-jawed if you explained that the federal government, via Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, forced politically correct lending policies on the banks — policies that were attacked by Republicans but ferociously defended by Democrats–and that banks’ suicidal loans were then bundled into mortgage-backed securities and dispersed throughout the entire financial system, which poisoned the economy, bringing down powerful institutions, such as Lehman Brothers, and destroying innumerable families’ financial portfolios.”
— Ann Coulter, Demonic
Worst President for the Middle Class
By way of Breitbart comes a WSJ article which details economic data that is no surprise for anyone who has been paying attention.
The economy has become more unequal under Obama. “For four and a half years, Mr. Obama has focused his policies on reducing inequality rather than increasing growth,” the Journal notes. “The predictable result has been more inequality and less growth.” The rich have done well; the middle class has struggled.
Middle class incomes have fallen under Obama. The Journal points out that median real household income has fallen by 5%–not just since the start of the recession under George W. Bush, but also since the start of the economy recovery in 2009, for which Obama and the Democrats have often claimed sole credit.
The administration has constantly failed to meet promises of faster growth. Contrary to Obama’s cherry-picked statistics in his recent speech, theJournal reminds readers that the Obama recovery is “one of the weakest on record,” despite repeated rosy projections by the White House and the media of fast growth.
Obama has made entitlements are a drag on the middle class. The Journal focuses on ObamaCare, which has hurt job creation and created uncertainty. It could have also mentioned the failing state of Social Security and Medicare, which Obama has failed to reform, and the future cost of Obama’s staggering debt.
Even Obama’s few pro-growth initiatives are not serious. Despite the Journal‘s early, enthusiastic support for immigration reform as an engine for expansion, the authors of the editorial finally admit: “we’re not sure [Obama] wants even that to pass…he may be setting it up to use as a campaign wedge in 2014.”
How many times has our Dear Leader turned his laser like focus on the economy? Eight? Nine? More? None of them have been serious or of any useful duration.
Let’s be serious, improving the economy has never been a priority for Barry. One can even argue that an improved economy would run counter to his goals of fundamentally transforming America.
Based on his actions, not his teleprompter supplied speeches, BHO’s priorities are transferring tax payer money to his political allies, taking lavish tax payer vacations, and playing golf.
Sunday Sci-Fi: The Office
The Office is a small branch of the Environmental Protection Agency that deals with Mad Scientists and other Evildoers that want to harm the environment, and/or large chunks of the human beings in said Environment.
The Office is another “Men in Black” group that likes dark suits, sunglasses and large black American made sedans. They deal with the government bureaucracy, mad scientists, and wacko cultists.
You can read about the Office in two (so far), short stories by Leslie Bates. The first is Weekend, followed by Tuesday.
In Weekend, you meet an agent of the Office who’s most common alias is John Flanders. Agent Flanders spends his weekend dealing with some not so nice people wanting to ‘immanentize the eschaton.’ Oh, and he fills out all the relevant paperwork. The Office is part of the EPA after all.
The second Office short story, takes place on a Tuesday. The Office has a new politically appointed head, who has been placed there as a punishment detail for annoying the President. This does put her in better standing with the non-politically appointed Office Staff. The action once again takes place in what many people politically to the Left of Agent Flanders refer to as one of the “flyover states.” This time is a cult founded by a hack writer of pulp fiction. Ya, it’s a thinly disguised version of that cult. Once again, Agent Flanders deals with Evil, and fills out the paperwork, in this case a lot of paperwork. There are events the EPA frowns upon. Agent Flanders doesn’t manage to stop the event, but he does save the damsel in distress and his boss.
The Office stories are short bits of fun filled with movie and SciFi tropes, 80’s and 90’s pop culture and some not so thinly veiled political commentary. Oh, and Mr. Bates is not above Rocky Horror Picture Show references, so be warned.
Round Up Post
President Barack Hussein Obama Creates Two New Food Stamp Recipients for Every Job Created!
Since February of 2009, the first full month of Obama’s presidency, 9.5 million Americans have dropped out of the labor force. Nearly 90 million Americans are not working today!
That means that 1.3 Americans have dropped out of the labor force for every one job the administration claims to have created.
Good work Barry! That’s a new record for Presidential failure!
Proving once again that the so-called “progressive” left are the racists they accuse everyone else of being.
Another example of democrats committing voter fraud. This time it’s Joe “Plugs” Biden’s niece.