2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 41,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 15 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Civil Disobedience Cat Will Not Be Moved

HOLIDAY CAKE RECIPE

HOLIDAY CAKE RECIPE

Ingredients:
* 2 cups flour
* 1 stick butter
* 1 cup of water
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 1 cup of sugar
* 1 tsp salt
* 1 cup of brown sugar
* Lemon juice
* 4 large eggs
* Nuts
* 2 bottles wine
* 2 cups of dried fruit

Sample the wine to check quality.

Take a large bowl, check the wine again.

To be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup of wine and drink.

Repeat. Turn on the electric mixer.

Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.

Add one teaspoon of sugar.

Beat again. At this point it’s best to make sure the wine is still OK.

Try another cup of wine… Just in case.

Turn off the mixerer thingy. Break 2 eggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.

Pick the frigging fruit up off floor. Mix on the turner.. If the fried
druit gets stuck in the beaterers just pry it loose with a drewscriver.

Sample the wine to check for tonsisticity. Next, sift two cups of salt. Or something. Check the wine. Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts.

Add one table. Add a spoon of sugar, or some fink. Whatever you can find.

Greash the oven. Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over.

Don’t forget to beat off the turner.

Finally, throw the bowl through thewindow. Finish the wine and wipe counter with the cat.

Go to Trader Joe’s and buy a cake.

Bingle Jells

What exactly is a “New Year’s resolution”? It’s a “to do” list for the first week of January.

It’s the blessed time of year when we celebrate the baby born to 2 dads and a surrogate mother.

Happy New Year 2012!!!

The 2012 U.S. Presidential Election — regardless of who wins, Wall Street wins

It’s hard to imagine that in just ten months (barring a Mayan end times apocalypse), the US will elect (or re-elect) a president. While there’s a lot of pitter patter about this or that candidate, National Review columnnist Kevin D. Williamson hits the mark in describing the election and what it really means — a victory for Wall St. Here’s a snippet from the article:

For a few measly millions, Wall Street not only bought itself a president, but got the start-up firm of B. H. Obama & Co. LLC to throw a cabinet into the deal, too — on remarkably generous terms. President Obama, for a guy prone to delivering prim and smug little homilies denouncing greed, greed, greed — the only of the seven deadly sins that truly offends Democrats (though Mrs. Obama has done some desultory work on gluttony) — is strangely comfortable among the Gordon Gekkos of this world. Shall we have a partial roll call? Beat the drum slowly and call out the names: With unemployment still topping 9 percent, the catastatic world economy teetering on the brink of another, even larger financial catastrophe, and trillion-dollar U.S. deficits as far as the green-shaded eye can see, let’s hear it for Obama’s first National Economic Council director, Lawrence Summers (of hedge-fund giant D. E. Shaw and venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz), who has had some nice paydays courtesy of Lehman Bros., JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup. Let’s hear it for Citigroup’s Michael Froman, deputy assistant to the president and deputy national-security adviser for international economic affairs, for Hartford Financial’s Neal Wolin, deputy Treasury secretary, for JPMorgan’s William Daley, Obama’s chief of staff, and for his predecessor, Rahm Emanuel of Wasserstein Perella. Let’s hear it for Fannie Mae’s Tom Donilon, national-security adviser. (No, seriously: One of the luminous interstellar geniuses who brought Fannie Mae to its current aphotic state of affairs, upside down to the tune of trillions of dollars, is running national security, and the former director of the White House Military Office, Louis Caldera, was on the board of IndyMac when it finally went toes up — sleep tight, America!) And, lest we forget, let’s have three big, sloppy cheers for economic-transition team leaders Robert Rubin (Goldman Sachs, Citigroup) and folksy tax enthusiast/ghoulish billionaire vulture Warren Buffett.

Here’s a link to the rest of the article:
Repo Men by Kevin D. Williamson

Here are some of my thoughts about the upcoming election:

Obama current $4 million Hawaiian vacation only supports the NR’s position that he’s sold himself to the highest bidder. I suspect that Obama, who has betrayed his Democrat constituency, will be left high and dry by Wall St., Democrats, and voters by next November.

The Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street folks are on the fringe — they count for little. Speaking of which, I was thinking about the 2008 election and how the Republican Party, figuring they would lose anyway, decided to run too expendable candidates — McCain and Palin. I don’t think the Party realized what they had unleashed with Palin, however. My sense is that the Republican National Committee wishes she’d disappear because she’s a frequent embarrassment, despite her star power.

I think the 2012 election belongs to the GOP. Obama won in 2008 because Americans were disenchanted with Bush/Cheney and the economy was tanking. A lot of Republicans hated McCain/Palin and either didn’t vote at all or voted for Obama.

Now, a lot of Dems hate Obama and I don’t think there’s a Republican out there who will vote for him. I don’t think Obama wil be re-elected, yet the Democratic Party isn’t providing an alternative.

The 2012 election could well be a battle between 2 weak candidates, the winner being decided by some subjective factor like an SNL sketch that makes one of the candidates look ridiculous. (Tina Fey could be a decisive factor.)

Geoffrey Burgon’s Nunc Dimittis / Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy end credits

Last night, I watched the original Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy starring Alec Guinness. It was good. I especially liked Geoffrey Borgon’s haunting Nunc Dimittis.

Here’s a link to Burgon’s masterpiece.

Crime DOES Pay for the 1%

Thinking about sitting out the election because Obama hasn’t been as liberal as you’d hoped?