Posts
May 11, 2014
Gary Stein
The Sun Sentinel
RE: G-d help us all! – Some comments on your column asking why God won’t just go away.
Big Stein,
When you’re right, you’re right.
Prayer is a vexing issue. [It will be more so when the burnoosed, teenage girl snatching WOGs begin to exert their power but that’s for a different discussion]
That is why I am making you a one-time offer.
I will come to the coven of modern American Liberals – ink stained wretch local chapter AKA the Sun Sentinel – on Wednesday at noon. I will collect all of your divinely referenced currency. It goes without saying that I will dispose of same in an environmentally sensitive manner. I can’t get more Christian than that, can I?
Your extra credit assignment is to find out what in the name of the anti-Christ “annuity coeptis” means.
You “pray that public officials…cut taxes”. Stop praying. There is one sure fire, 100% guaranteed way to cut taxes. Are you ready for this? Here it is.
CUT SPENDING
At the Federal level we can toss a coin to see whether the Department of Energy or the Department of Education gets the chop first. Wait a minute! Shoot them both together. Forgive me but “God will know His own”.
KEVIN SMITH
WARRIORBARDIT@BELLSOUTH.NET
PS – To make matters worse, a Koch Brothers operative starts all Supreme Court hearings with “God save the United States and this honorable court”. What next? Swearing on bibles? Army chaplains? Navy Crosses? Los Angeles class submarines? Where will it end?
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
May 11, 2014
Letter to the Editor
The Sun Sentinel
500 E. Broward Blvd
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33394
RE: Today’s Page 1 – plus the Opinion Page
Sirs,
The not quite upper case Jeremiad, the Page 1 article authored by William Gipson, your Mount Olympus dwelling Washington correspondent, about the coming horrors of “fracking” in the foetid swamp East of Naples, fails the smell test.
I say that because I “fracked” my first well in January, 1974 with no deleterious effects on me or the environment.
The sad truth, an inconvenient one, is that modern American Liberals never let facts interfere with their argument[s]. By the by, it makes no difference which Republican sponsored evil is being excoriated because the answer[s] will always be the same.
Make Americans less free
and/or
Raise taxes
And when that doesn’t work double the dosage. How else could we still be fighting the War on Poverty? 50 years and counting...with no end in sight. “Once more dear boobs, once more into the breach….”
The sad truth is that if we don’t “frack” we wind up buying more oil from Nigeria and Brunei, two modern American Liberal villains du jour. Look it up. Honest.
The other thing is that I didn’t know is that GIs and their kids are second class citizens when it comes to in-state tuition. These are people who, having gone into harm’s way, who have “seen the elephant”, who stand on walls so we can sleep safely in our beds, now find themselves subordinate to the children of illegal aliens. A case can
be made for not visiting the sins of the father – if you break the law getting here you are per se illegal – on the son. [Check the Constitution. Look for the prohibition of Bills of Attainder] Shouldn’t a case be made for Veterans and their children being treated pari passu?
If you need some guidance on this matter I suggest a quick reading of Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural address may be of some help.
Kevin Smith
Letter to the Editor
The Sun Sentinel
500 E. Broward Blvd
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33394
RE: Today’s Page 1 – plus the Opinion Page
Sirs,
The not quite upper case Jeremiad, the Page 1 article authored by William Gipson, your Mount Olympus dwelling Washington correspondent, about the coming horrors of “fracking” in the foetid swamp East of Naples, fails the smell test.
I say that because I “fracked” my first well in January, 1974 with no deleterious effects on me or the environment.
The sad truth, an inconvenient one, is that modern American Liberals never let facts interfere with their argument[s]. By the by, it makes no difference which Republican sponsored evil is being excoriated because the answer[s] will always be the same.
Make Americans less free
and/or
Raise taxes
And when that doesn’t work double the dosage. How else could we still be fighting the War on Poverty? 50 years and counting...with no end in sight. “Once more dear boobs, once more into the breach….”
The sad truth is that if we don’t “frack” we wind up buying more oil from Nigeria and Brunei, two modern American Liberal villains du jour. Look it up. Honest.
The other thing is that I didn’t know is that GIs and their kids are second class citizens when it comes to in-state tuition. These are people who, having gone into harm’s way, who have “seen the elephant”, who stand on walls so we can sleep safely in our beds, now find themselves subordinate to the children of illegal aliens. A case can
be made for not visiting the sins of the father – if you break the law getting here you are per se illegal – on the son. [Check the Constitution. Look for the prohibition of Bills of Attainder] Shouldn’t a case be made for Veterans and their children being treated pari passu?
If you need some guidance on this matter I suggest a quick reading of Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural address may be of some help.
Kevin Smith
May 11, 2014
Dennis Hickey, General Manager
The Miami Dolphins
347 Don Shula Drive
Miami Gardens, FL 33056
RE: “Watch your mouth” versus “Free men speak with free tongues”
Mr. Hickey,
In a country where it is OK for 15 naked self-proclaimed homosexuals can masturbate in front of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral – the big one in New York, the one on 5th Avenue and 50th street – to show their solidarity with gay Pride Day why can’t one of your players say “OMG – Horrible” when Michael Sam is drafted?
As long as we are on the subject…
Would it be homophobic of me to ask why you didn’t draft Michael Sam?
Could you tell me if he is bullied will it be treated as a hate crime?
Exactly how, other than telling your player what to say and more importantly, what not to say, are you going to “handle it appropriately”?
Would you handle it differently if Ryan Tannehill had been the Tweeterer?
Kevin Smith
PS – I read Pouncey’s tweet, “I can’t wait for our gifts he’s getting us”, about Ju’Wuan Jones, your first round draft pick. Forget about pass blocking and picking up blitzers. Get him a crash course in Grammar & Composition, preferably in English.
Dennis Hickey, General Manager
The Miami Dolphins
347 Don Shula Drive
Miami Gardens, FL 33056
RE: “Watch your mouth” versus “Free men speak with free tongues”
Mr. Hickey,
In a country where it is OK for 15 naked self-proclaimed homosexuals can masturbate in front of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral – the big one in New York, the one on 5th Avenue and 50th street – to show their solidarity with gay Pride Day why can’t one of your players say “OMG – Horrible” when Michael Sam is drafted?
As long as we are on the subject…
Would it be homophobic of me to ask why you didn’t draft Michael Sam?
Could you tell me if he is bullied will it be treated as a hate crime?
Exactly how, other than telling your player what to say and more importantly, what not to say, are you going to “handle it appropriately”?
Would you handle it differently if Ryan Tannehill had been the Tweeterer?
Kevin Smith
PS – I read Pouncey’s tweet, “I can’t wait for our gifts he’s getting us”, about Ju’Wuan Jones, your first round draft pick. Forget about pass blocking and picking up blitzers. Get him a crash course in Grammar & Composition, preferably in English.
May 11, 2014
Omissioner Kristin Jacobs
Broward County Commission
115 S. Andrews Avenue
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33301
RE: You’re gaining on it! – Some comments on the heights or depths of the vacuous inanities that you belched out on today’s Sun Sentinel Opinion Page.
Ms. Jacobs,
Hi from a serious “climate change denier”
#1 – I am typing this about 15 yards from the Intercostal. It is “very real and tangible”. I have lived here for 12 years. With the exception of tidal action – You are aware of the tides, aren’t you? – the average height of the water has neither gone up nor has it gone down. Wherever the water from the ice berg melting, polar bear drowning, caused by GlobalCoolingGlobalWarmingClimateChangeClimateDisruption has gone, it hasn’t yet showed up here.
I check my manatee traps twice a day. More than that when the pups are separated from their moms by ozone depletion, the Tea Party, too much plastic, and the Koch Brothers. Trust me. The water marks on the wall haven’t changed since 2002.
#2 – Speaking of “settled science”, I have 4 Quixotic quests for which I would appreciate your help in pursuing.
A – Pluto – How did it get the boot from the index of planets? Who speaks for Pluto? I do. Will you?
B – Ptolemy – The science was “settled” for more than a millennium. [That’s 1000 years] Ptolemy was the top dog in Astronomy. Who tossed him out? “Astronomy deniers”? I want him back. Will you help me?
C – Age of the Universe – It is either 4,672 years old or it is 13,000,000,000 + years old. That is one Hell of a bid and asked. Can you help me “settle the science” on this one?
D – If you are really serious about getting the public’s attention on the climate kerfluffle I suggest that you – let’s take baby steps first – introduce a motion to turn off all the A/Cs in the room where you have your public meetings. Then you can ban A/Cs in all Broward County buildings. I don’t know if the jail is A/Ced but if it is turn it off. They’re in prison, not in the Hard Rock. Also, all Broward County employees – no exceptions, including you – must use public transportation getting to and from work. It’s
the least we can do for the children, not to mention furbish louseworts and various snail darters.
On a more personal note, I have a wager that you couldn’t find your ass if you were in a mirrored phone booth and were allowed to use both your hands and it was 2 out 3 with a Mulligan. Don’t let me down.
I don’t know how old you are but I suggest, for the good of the species, a tubal ligation. To Hell with half-way measures! Only a total hysterectomy will do.
There is no sense being a half-assed horse’s ass.
Kevin Smith
Omissioner Kristin Jacobs
Broward County Commission
115 S. Andrews Avenue
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33301
RE: You’re gaining on it! – Some comments on the heights or depths of the vacuous inanities that you belched out on today’s Sun Sentinel Opinion Page.
Ms. Jacobs,
Hi from a serious “climate change denier”
#1 – I am typing this about 15 yards from the Intercostal. It is “very real and tangible”. I have lived here for 12 years. With the exception of tidal action – You are aware of the tides, aren’t you? – the average height of the water has neither gone up nor has it gone down. Wherever the water from the ice berg melting, polar bear drowning, caused by GlobalCoolingGlobalWarmingClimateChangeClimateDisruption has gone, it hasn’t yet showed up here.
I check my manatee traps twice a day. More than that when the pups are separated from their moms by ozone depletion, the Tea Party, too much plastic, and the Koch Brothers. Trust me. The water marks on the wall haven’t changed since 2002.
#2 – Speaking of “settled science”, I have 4 Quixotic quests for which I would appreciate your help in pursuing.
A – Pluto – How did it get the boot from the index of planets? Who speaks for Pluto? I do. Will you?
B – Ptolemy – The science was “settled” for more than a millennium. [That’s 1000 years] Ptolemy was the top dog in Astronomy. Who tossed him out? “Astronomy deniers”? I want him back. Will you help me?
C – Age of the Universe – It is either 4,672 years old or it is 13,000,000,000 + years old. That is one Hell of a bid and asked. Can you help me “settle the science” on this one?
D – If you are really serious about getting the public’s attention on the climate kerfluffle I suggest that you – let’s take baby steps first – introduce a motion to turn off all the A/Cs in the room where you have your public meetings. Then you can ban A/Cs in all Broward County buildings. I don’t know if the jail is A/Ced but if it is turn it off. They’re in prison, not in the Hard Rock. Also, all Broward County employees – no exceptions, including you – must use public transportation getting to and from work. It’s
the least we can do for the children, not to mention furbish louseworts and various snail darters.
On a more personal note, I have a wager that you couldn’t find your ass if you were in a mirrored phone booth and were allowed to use both your hands and it was 2 out 3 with a Mulligan. Don’t let me down.
I don’t know how old you are but I suggest, for the good of the species, a tubal ligation. To Hell with half-way measures! Only a total hysterectomy will do.
There is no sense being a half-assed horse’s ass.
Kevin Smith
May 10, 2014
The Pope, the Perons, a mysterious “lock box”,
and why “mater si, magistra no” is still valid doctrine.
The term “ex cathedra” applies.
When Pope Francis, and blessed be his name, turned 13 the Big Boss in the City of Good Airs was Juan Peron. Just like Jesus forgave Mary Magdalene he forgave Eva Duarte. As Evita Peron she was a glass ceiling breaker long before its time. She turned her horizontal tango skills into a vast shopping spree.
Argentina was/is/and shall be a land that has received a wildly disproportionate share of God’s blessings. If it isn’t grown there it can’t be grown. Las vacas climb the Andes to graze there. Los toros swim mighty rivers to be with them. Almost as an afterthought world class wines are made there. They play soccer and polo superbly well.
And now comes the other zapato.
The country is almost 200 years old.
The only lasting contribution it has made to the Western Canon, to the ever expanding legacy of Western Civilization, is the tango. This version is the one that has 4 feet on the ground at all times. The obverse of that coin is that they stole it from the Italians.
It would be easier for Argentineans to get to Saturn as it would be for them to understand that as you sow so shall you reap.
Commercial contracts are made to be broken. Bonds are sold so they can be defaulted. The constant solution to inflation, the government imposed tax on the poor and the helpless, is to knock a few zeroes off the currency.
The descamisedas of Evita became the desaparecidos of Galtieri.
And no one said “Basta”!
When Jorge Bergoglio was just a joven he saw how businesses prospered. Buenos Aires was run by a South American version of Tammany Hall on steroids. The mordida became imbedded warp and woof in the DNA of Argentinean business. The alcalde had the ability to make things easy or to make things impossible. Worse, he could raise doubts as to who owned what. That was the world the Pope was raised in.
Alas, his major premise, the one that says business is corrupt and not entitled to keep what it produces, is based on a fallacy. Pope Francis saw the particular of the Argentinean market place and constructed a universal. That is offensive both to Logic, to empiricism, and worse, to fairness. If the subjective rule of a despot determines how filled one’s larder is concupiscence rules.
The evidence of your own eyes tells you that Switzerland and Hong Kong prosper. Cuba and Zimbabwe don’t. Piketty, the du jour prophet of top down redistributionism, essentially a mindset that proclaims that Cuba will be rich if Hong Kong becomes poorer, predicates his secular premise on repealing all the laws governing gravity. When that doesn’t work the 105% tax bracket will become the ideal.
“Such stupidity is not found in nature”.
Even South of the Equator debits still have to equal credits. His accountant father would see and have to square the circle of bribes, slush funds, fake contributions, and phantom purchases that are part of ongoing crony capitalism. Doubtless, his father would have taken an asi es la vida outlook because he lived in the real world and he had a family to raise. In Argentina it was the way negocio was done. Add to that was the simple truth that the Rule of Law was essentially foreign to Argentina. People were beaten; money was stolen; the new boss was the same as the old boss. Thus was formed his vision of wealth creation.
It became known as the “lock box” theory of wealth.
Sitting in the basement of the Big Boss’s castle was a room that housed a big safe, a “lock box” if you will. It was filled with wealth. [How it got there is a different question] A good boss would let some poor people dip their beaks in the trough where dinero flowed. A bad boss would cut back on the goodies.
If no consideration is given to how wealth gets into the “lock box” the only consideration is how fair will be the distribution of its contents.
The New Testament tells us to sell all and give to the poor. The downside of that fallacy is that the goose only has one life
I will know that my Redeemer liveth when I see a Kennedy fire sale at Hyannis to provide for homeless lactose intolerant trans-gendered AIDS victims. As soon as George Soros begins to pass out $20 dollar bills, only on days ending in Y, will we begin to see fairness ascendant.
Why not see if there are any Chinese billionaires who would like to own the Pieta? The distribution of the proceeds would be left to men [and women] known for their fairness.
“Chinese billionaires”? Maybe there were some good parts in Chairman Mao’s red book. What next? The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in a Seminole casino? Tradable indulgences? Commercially available transubstantiation? Purple hat bingos?
In the “solid world” of which Orwell spoke, in the world where “stones are hard and water is wet”, it is a hard fact that the “animal spirits” that Keynes spoke of is what fills the “lock box”. Samuel Johnson spoke of “the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice”.
Tuitions at Catholic schools are paid for with the after tax dollars of parents.
Would not Logic dictate that anything that makes that pie grow exponentially is good? The excesses caused by the fact that men are not angels will be with us forever. We have laws that punish the wretched excesses of the few. Alas, so many of them are caused by the less than deft hand of a government that, since it cannot adequately reward success, it is incapable of punishing failure. Vide Solyndra, VA hospitals, and everybody’s favorite, the Post Office.
The Medicis, the Krupps, Henry Frick, Walt Disney, Clarence Birdseye, Kemmons Wilson, Colonel Sanders, Andrew Grove, Warren Buffett, and Bill Gates, have done more for the untermenschen than can be imagined. The library I went to in Bayonne was built by Andrew Carnegie, at one time the richest man in the world. His legacy continues to this day.
Mother? Yes, and always.
Teacher? No.
And that is ex cathdera.
Kevin Smith
The Pope, the Perons, a mysterious “lock box”,
and why “mater si, magistra no” is still valid doctrine.
The term “ex cathedra” applies.
When Pope Francis, and blessed be his name, turned 13 the Big Boss in the City of Good Airs was Juan Peron. Just like Jesus forgave Mary Magdalene he forgave Eva Duarte. As Evita Peron she was a glass ceiling breaker long before its time. She turned her horizontal tango skills into a vast shopping spree.
Argentina was/is/and shall be a land that has received a wildly disproportionate share of God’s blessings. If it isn’t grown there it can’t be grown. Las vacas climb the Andes to graze there. Los toros swim mighty rivers to be with them. Almost as an afterthought world class wines are made there. They play soccer and polo superbly well.
And now comes the other zapato.
The country is almost 200 years old.
The only lasting contribution it has made to the Western Canon, to the ever expanding legacy of Western Civilization, is the tango. This version is the one that has 4 feet on the ground at all times. The obverse of that coin is that they stole it from the Italians.
It would be easier for Argentineans to get to Saturn as it would be for them to understand that as you sow so shall you reap.
Commercial contracts are made to be broken. Bonds are sold so they can be defaulted. The constant solution to inflation, the government imposed tax on the poor and the helpless, is to knock a few zeroes off the currency.
The descamisedas of Evita became the desaparecidos of Galtieri.
And no one said “Basta”!
When Jorge Bergoglio was just a joven he saw how businesses prospered. Buenos Aires was run by a South American version of Tammany Hall on steroids. The mordida became imbedded warp and woof in the DNA of Argentinean business. The alcalde had the ability to make things easy or to make things impossible. Worse, he could raise doubts as to who owned what. That was the world the Pope was raised in.
Alas, his major premise, the one that says business is corrupt and not entitled to keep what it produces, is based on a fallacy. Pope Francis saw the particular of the Argentinean market place and constructed a universal. That is offensive both to Logic, to empiricism, and worse, to fairness. If the subjective rule of a despot determines how filled one’s larder is concupiscence rules.
The evidence of your own eyes tells you that Switzerland and Hong Kong prosper. Cuba and Zimbabwe don’t. Piketty, the du jour prophet of top down redistributionism, essentially a mindset that proclaims that Cuba will be rich if Hong Kong becomes poorer, predicates his secular premise on repealing all the laws governing gravity. When that doesn’t work the 105% tax bracket will become the ideal.
“Such stupidity is not found in nature”.
Even South of the Equator debits still have to equal credits. His accountant father would see and have to square the circle of bribes, slush funds, fake contributions, and phantom purchases that are part of ongoing crony capitalism. Doubtless, his father would have taken an asi es la vida outlook because he lived in the real world and he had a family to raise. In Argentina it was the way negocio was done. Add to that was the simple truth that the Rule of Law was essentially foreign to Argentina. People were beaten; money was stolen; the new boss was the same as the old boss. Thus was formed his vision of wealth creation.
It became known as the “lock box” theory of wealth.
Sitting in the basement of the Big Boss’s castle was a room that housed a big safe, a “lock box” if you will. It was filled with wealth. [How it got there is a different question] A good boss would let some poor people dip their beaks in the trough where dinero flowed. A bad boss would cut back on the goodies.
If no consideration is given to how wealth gets into the “lock box” the only consideration is how fair will be the distribution of its contents.
The New Testament tells us to sell all and give to the poor. The downside of that fallacy is that the goose only has one life
I will know that my Redeemer liveth when I see a Kennedy fire sale at Hyannis to provide for homeless lactose intolerant trans-gendered AIDS victims. As soon as George Soros begins to pass out $20 dollar bills, only on days ending in Y, will we begin to see fairness ascendant.
Why not see if there are any Chinese billionaires who would like to own the Pieta? The distribution of the proceeds would be left to men [and women] known for their fairness.
“Chinese billionaires”? Maybe there were some good parts in Chairman Mao’s red book. What next? The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in a Seminole casino? Tradable indulgences? Commercially available transubstantiation? Purple hat bingos?
In the “solid world” of which Orwell spoke, in the world where “stones are hard and water is wet”, it is a hard fact that the “animal spirits” that Keynes spoke of is what fills the “lock box”. Samuel Johnson spoke of “the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice”.
Tuitions at Catholic schools are paid for with the after tax dollars of parents.
Would not Logic dictate that anything that makes that pie grow exponentially is good? The excesses caused by the fact that men are not angels will be with us forever. We have laws that punish the wretched excesses of the few. Alas, so many of them are caused by the less than deft hand of a government that, since it cannot adequately reward success, it is incapable of punishing failure. Vide Solyndra, VA hospitals, and everybody’s favorite, the Post Office.
The Medicis, the Krupps, Henry Frick, Walt Disney, Clarence Birdseye, Kemmons Wilson, Colonel Sanders, Andrew Grove, Warren Buffett, and Bill Gates, have done more for the untermenschen than can be imagined. The library I went to in Bayonne was built by Andrew Carnegie, at one time the richest man in the world. His legacy continues to this day.
Mother? Yes, and always.
Teacher? No.
And that is ex cathdera.
Kevin Smith
Thursday, May 8, 2014
May 7, 2014
Superintendent Robert Runcie
Broward County Board of Education
600 SE 1st Street
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33301
RE: Truth in lending vs Truth in education – Some comments and question on the proposed $800,000,000 bond issue to be presented to the voters of Broward County.
Mr. Runcie,
$800,000,000 is an enormous amount of money.
Let us assume that it will be spent wisely on the myriad construction projects that the Broward county board of Education has earmarked. Let us assume that the process will proceed minus the mendacity of past Board members and employees. Let us further assume that Broward County will not be indenturing itself for 3 decades for what should have been current expense items.
[I moved here in 1996. I went to the Board of Education to get some budget numbers. I was shocked, shocked when I realized that the 2 people I spoke to did not know the difference between a capital budget and an expense budget. I used a refrigerator as an example. The big thing [refrigerator] that you plug in is a capital item. The things [milk, eggs] that you put in are expense items. They looked at each other with a wild surmise. Honest.]
Here’s where the truth in lending part kicks in.
Alas, the tooth fairy will not be making anymore stops in Broward County.
You do not borrow $800,000,000 for 30 years for free. If you have a mortgage you know what I mean.
Let us assume that $800,000,000 lent to the Broward County Board of Education and guaranteed by the citizens of Broward County will cost us – the borrowers – 5% a year.
My math skills, never having been FCATed, may have diminished so please check my calculations.
The carry cost of $800,000,000 @ 5% is $40,000,000 a year. Every year.
The interest alone will be $1,200,000,000. That’s one billion, two hundred million dollars.
And, at the end of the 30 years, the original amount of $800,000,000 has to be repaid.
[The question of whether or not the interest being tax free is fair is for a different time. Since both rich kids and poor kids go to the school the question of why the poor kids’ families are subsidizing their wealthier classmates is vexing.]
That’s $2,000,000,000 or, put differently, two billion dollars.
That’s a Hell of a lot more than $800,000,000.
Federal law commands that anytime anyone borrows money the full cost of the loan musty be disclosed.
You are asking the citizens of Broward County to authorize the borrowing of $800,000,000 without disclosing the full cost of the loan.
Here’s a revolutionary suggestion.
Why not tell them how much the loan will really cost?
Used car companies have to. Aluminum siding companies have to. Mortgage lenders, even predatory ones, have to.
Don’t you think the Broward County Board of Education should do likewise?
I await your reply.
Kevin Smith
Superintendent Robert Runcie
Broward County Board of Education
600 SE 1st Street
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33301
RE: Truth in lending vs Truth in education – Some comments and question on the proposed $800,000,000 bond issue to be presented to the voters of Broward County.
Mr. Runcie,
$800,000,000 is an enormous amount of money.
Let us assume that it will be spent wisely on the myriad construction projects that the Broward county board of Education has earmarked. Let us assume that the process will proceed minus the mendacity of past Board members and employees. Let us further assume that Broward County will not be indenturing itself for 3 decades for what should have been current expense items.
[I moved here in 1996. I went to the Board of Education to get some budget numbers. I was shocked, shocked when I realized that the 2 people I spoke to did not know the difference between a capital budget and an expense budget. I used a refrigerator as an example. The big thing [refrigerator] that you plug in is a capital item. The things [milk, eggs] that you put in are expense items. They looked at each other with a wild surmise. Honest.]
Here’s where the truth in lending part kicks in.
Alas, the tooth fairy will not be making anymore stops in Broward County.
You do not borrow $800,000,000 for 30 years for free. If you have a mortgage you know what I mean.
Let us assume that $800,000,000 lent to the Broward County Board of Education and guaranteed by the citizens of Broward County will cost us – the borrowers – 5% a year.
My math skills, never having been FCATed, may have diminished so please check my calculations.
The carry cost of $800,000,000 @ 5% is $40,000,000 a year. Every year.
The interest alone will be $1,200,000,000. That’s one billion, two hundred million dollars.
And, at the end of the 30 years, the original amount of $800,000,000 has to be repaid.
[The question of whether or not the interest being tax free is fair is for a different time. Since both rich kids and poor kids go to the school the question of why the poor kids’ families are subsidizing their wealthier classmates is vexing.]
That’s $2,000,000,000 or, put differently, two billion dollars.
That’s a Hell of a lot more than $800,000,000.
Federal law commands that anytime anyone borrows money the full cost of the loan musty be disclosed.
You are asking the citizens of Broward County to authorize the borrowing of $800,000,000 without disclosing the full cost of the loan.
Here’s a revolutionary suggestion.
Why not tell them how much the loan will really cost?
Used car companies have to. Aluminum siding companies have to. Mortgage lenders, even predatory ones, have to.
Don’t you think the Broward County Board of Education should do likewise?
I await your reply.
Kevin Smith
Monday, April 28, 2014
April 27, 2014
Carl Hiaasen
The Miami Herald
3511 NW 91st Avenue
Miami, FL 33172
RE: “turgid and impenetrable” – Could this be the start of something big? Some comments on Federal bureaucrats - not the ones who run ObamaCare, thank God – and how some of God’s creatures are in grave danger.
Mr. Hiaasen,
What with the tandem canonization of 2 Popes on the same day we should be open to the possibility of divine intervention. Thus, when I was reading your column on how insensitive rich White guys [and where are the exceptions?] were scheming and conniving to make life miserable for Florida’s newest arrivals, anacondas and pythons, I was struck, thunderstruck to be precise, by your sudden turn away from formulaic “mALsob” AKA modern American Liberal standard operating bullshit.
Yadda, yadda, and then POW!
“turgid and impenetrable”
Could this be your Damascene moment?
Could this be the Red Sea parting to show you the splendor of the “broad, sun lit uplands”?
“turgid and impenetrable” are your words describing the way the Army Corps of Engineers’ way of doing business in re the Florida Everglades. I’m from New Jersey. Up there we call them swamps.
[Let there be no doubt as to my position here. Unless we can turn that swamp into Venice, the place in Italy, not the pizza joint on the boardwalk in Hollywood, it should be paved over. Homeless shelters, drive through casinos, Section 8 housing, Midnight Basketball clinics, halfway houses for recovering pervs would be given first priority. Naturally, all structures will be powered by a yet undiscovered amalgam of tidal action, excess mammalian eructations, and good people holding hands and wishing for electricity. It will be managed by a bastard son [or daughter] of Sam Solyndra. Who says I’m heartless? Have you ever thought of calling Halliburton? They would have the place spitting out Pellegrino or Perrier in about a year. Longer if you wanted them to get salmon to spawn there or sun powered kayak water skiing. Honest]
Maybe you could tell me why money from hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer – Wait a minute! 2 years ago “hedge fund billionaire” was a 4 letter word when it was in the same sentence with Mitt Romney. Wazzupwidat? – is good while money from non-hedge fund billionaires Ben and Jose Koch is bad?
The United States government has now spent more time reviewing the Keystone pipeline proposal than it spent fighting the Civil War in the 19th century or World Wars 1 and 2 in the 20th century.
Honest. You could look it up.
Somewhere in the Bible the line “Put not your faith in Princes” is to be found.
Modern American Liberals, particularly those afflicted with terminal “non-malodorous fecal matter syndrome”, always believe that the next Prince will be the chosen one, the one who will suspend gravity and have lambs fighting to get in the dinner line with a newly irenic Simba.
Weren’t we told 5 years ago that the “earth would cool and the oceans would recede”? Saps, particularly ink stained wretches like you believed, as you always do, that nit-wit’s clap trap. Believe me when I say that my contempt is not personal but I must tell you that the steady flow of warm liquid on your back ain’t rain. Don’t look up. You don’t want to get any in your eyes.
5 years into the Age of Suspended Disbelief we find that, sorry to say, “stones are hard and that water is wet”, still.
Your concern for the welfare of the swamps West of Sawgrass is easily mockable. The people in charge of it are the same people who run the Post Office. Perhaps we could get some experienced administrators, people like those in charge of the Fast & Furious investigation or some key people who are digging into the Benghazi and IRS coverups to lend their strong hands to the swamp problem.
The Hound of Heaven, in this case bearing the decidedly un-canine name “the evidence of your own eyes”, may have nipped at your heels long enough to make you shout out “turgid and impenetrable”. We are familiar with T & A. Let us hope that T & I will soon have equal footing.
“I came out of the cave and looked up and saw the stars” is how Dante, an absolute beneficiary of the last millennium’s Global Warning period, ended one of his Cantos.
I will pray to the 2 new Saints asking them to intervene with the Lord to keep guiding your steps on your hejira to the Promised Land of Reason.
But wait. There’s more.
You say that the failure to implement the Marshall Plan for the swamp – Would that plan fall under the category “shovel ready jobs”? Can it still make it to this year’s Summer of Recovery”? – will “kill manatees”.
I know that manatee suffrage is high on the bucket list for Broward County hard core, card carrying modern American Liberals but, as harsh as it may sound, does anyone else think maybe it’s time for these wretched creatures to go?
If the top rung of the ladder of life for the Alpha male manatee is to swim into a whirling propeller maybe it’s time for these aquatic slugs to exit stage left and stage right “pursued by a bear”.
If mush brained boobs did not give them 10 day old arugula, endive, and kale they would all be lined up at our understocked soup kitchens
I don’t understand why the alligators don’t eat them.
My plan to herd them into Florida’s widest Cuisinart to make sausage for the homeless has not yet gained traction.
Maybe you, once you get over the twin palisades of “turgid and impenetrable”, surely this age’s Scylla and Charybdis, you will be my big time media mogul.
Maybe “at this point, what difference does it make”?
Maybe not.
Kevin Smith
Carl Hiaasen
The Miami Herald
3511 NW 91st Avenue
Miami, FL 33172
RE: “turgid and impenetrable” – Could this be the start of something big? Some comments on Federal bureaucrats - not the ones who run ObamaCare, thank God – and how some of God’s creatures are in grave danger.
Mr. Hiaasen,
What with the tandem canonization of 2 Popes on the same day we should be open to the possibility of divine intervention. Thus, when I was reading your column on how insensitive rich White guys [and where are the exceptions?] were scheming and conniving to make life miserable for Florida’s newest arrivals, anacondas and pythons, I was struck, thunderstruck to be precise, by your sudden turn away from formulaic “mALsob” AKA modern American Liberal standard operating bullshit.
Yadda, yadda, and then POW!
“turgid and impenetrable”
Could this be your Damascene moment?
Could this be the Red Sea parting to show you the splendor of the “broad, sun lit uplands”?
“turgid and impenetrable” are your words describing the way the Army Corps of Engineers’ way of doing business in re the Florida Everglades. I’m from New Jersey. Up there we call them swamps.
[Let there be no doubt as to my position here. Unless we can turn that swamp into Venice, the place in Italy, not the pizza joint on the boardwalk in Hollywood, it should be paved over. Homeless shelters, drive through casinos, Section 8 housing, Midnight Basketball clinics, halfway houses for recovering pervs would be given first priority. Naturally, all structures will be powered by a yet undiscovered amalgam of tidal action, excess mammalian eructations, and good people holding hands and wishing for electricity. It will be managed by a bastard son [or daughter] of Sam Solyndra. Who says I’m heartless? Have you ever thought of calling Halliburton? They would have the place spitting out Pellegrino or Perrier in about a year. Longer if you wanted them to get salmon to spawn there or sun powered kayak water skiing. Honest]
Maybe you could tell me why money from hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer – Wait a minute! 2 years ago “hedge fund billionaire” was a 4 letter word when it was in the same sentence with Mitt Romney. Wazzupwidat? – is good while money from non-hedge fund billionaires Ben and Jose Koch is bad?
The United States government has now spent more time reviewing the Keystone pipeline proposal than it spent fighting the Civil War in the 19th century or World Wars 1 and 2 in the 20th century.
Honest. You could look it up.
Somewhere in the Bible the line “Put not your faith in Princes” is to be found.
Modern American Liberals, particularly those afflicted with terminal “non-malodorous fecal matter syndrome”, always believe that the next Prince will be the chosen one, the one who will suspend gravity and have lambs fighting to get in the dinner line with a newly irenic Simba.
Weren’t we told 5 years ago that the “earth would cool and the oceans would recede”? Saps, particularly ink stained wretches like you believed, as you always do, that nit-wit’s clap trap. Believe me when I say that my contempt is not personal but I must tell you that the steady flow of warm liquid on your back ain’t rain. Don’t look up. You don’t want to get any in your eyes.
5 years into the Age of Suspended Disbelief we find that, sorry to say, “stones are hard and that water is wet”, still.
Your concern for the welfare of the swamps West of Sawgrass is easily mockable. The people in charge of it are the same people who run the Post Office. Perhaps we could get some experienced administrators, people like those in charge of the Fast & Furious investigation or some key people who are digging into the Benghazi and IRS coverups to lend their strong hands to the swamp problem.
The Hound of Heaven, in this case bearing the decidedly un-canine name “the evidence of your own eyes”, may have nipped at your heels long enough to make you shout out “turgid and impenetrable”. We are familiar with T & A. Let us hope that T & I will soon have equal footing.
“I came out of the cave and looked up and saw the stars” is how Dante, an absolute beneficiary of the last millennium’s Global Warning period, ended one of his Cantos.
I will pray to the 2 new Saints asking them to intervene with the Lord to keep guiding your steps on your hejira to the Promised Land of Reason.
But wait. There’s more.
You say that the failure to implement the Marshall Plan for the swamp – Would that plan fall under the category “shovel ready jobs”? Can it still make it to this year’s Summer of Recovery”? – will “kill manatees”.
I know that manatee suffrage is high on the bucket list for Broward County hard core, card carrying modern American Liberals but, as harsh as it may sound, does anyone else think maybe it’s time for these wretched creatures to go?
If the top rung of the ladder of life for the Alpha male manatee is to swim into a whirling propeller maybe it’s time for these aquatic slugs to exit stage left and stage right “pursued by a bear”.
If mush brained boobs did not give them 10 day old arugula, endive, and kale they would all be lined up at our understocked soup kitchens
I don’t understand why the alligators don’t eat them.
My plan to herd them into Florida’s widest Cuisinart to make sausage for the homeless has not yet gained traction.
Maybe you, once you get over the twin palisades of “turgid and impenetrable”, surely this age’s Scylla and Charybdis, you will be my big time media mogul.
Maybe “at this point, what difference does it make”?
Maybe not.
Kevin Smith
Thursday, April 24, 2014
April 24, 2014
Letter to the Editor
The Miami Herald
3511 NW 91st Street
Miami, FL 33172
RE: “Baby it’s wet outside” – some comments on your typical modern American Liberal “The sky is falling” editorial about the horror, the horror, of the ocean rising. It is a screed that thumbs its nose at 25 centuries of Western Civilization. [Stuff like Logic, reasoned discourse, and the scientific method, things like that, don’t you know?]
Sirs,
Every time we proclaim that “the science is settled” it goes and “unsettles” itself. Indeed, it is a new definition of hubris.
If you don’t believe me ask Ptolemy.
His version of the earth and the sun and the planets and the stars was etched in stone for more than a millennium
Honest. You could look it up.
My 1970 copy of “The Population Bomb” by Paul Ehrlich, Ph. D, a regular on the Johnny Carson show, said that not only was the “science settled” but the future of mankind was “settled”.
The race was on. The finish line, the one with the flashing sign that said “Will the last person living please turn off the lights”, was the year 2000. The only thing “unsettled” was whether we would starve to death or freeze to death.
Honest. You could look it up.
[I add, somewhat sheepishly for fear of being labeled a knuckle dragger, that it is 2014 and I am still somewhat calorically challenged. Professor Ehrlich’s admonition not to buy any green bananas was safely ignored. Some legatees of DWEMs have all the luck.]
I have lived less than 15 yards from the Intercostal for 12 years.
Why hasn’t the water risen here?
Perhaps you are confused by the tides’ waxings and wanings. Plus, the moon has something to do with it also. Please consult with Professor Vivaldi, the noted Italian climatologist. He will explain all.
Perhaps the ocean is rising in Miami but not in Fort Lauderdale. For that to happen a lot of science would have to become “unsettled”.
Maybe it’s time to give Ptolemy, like the Keystone pipeline, another look. Maybe not.
Kevin Smith
Letter to the Editor
The Miami Herald
3511 NW 91st Street
Miami, FL 33172
RE: “Baby it’s wet outside” – some comments on your typical modern American Liberal “The sky is falling” editorial about the horror, the horror, of the ocean rising. It is a screed that thumbs its nose at 25 centuries of Western Civilization. [Stuff like Logic, reasoned discourse, and the scientific method, things like that, don’t you know?]
Sirs,
Every time we proclaim that “the science is settled” it goes and “unsettles” itself. Indeed, it is a new definition of hubris.
If you don’t believe me ask Ptolemy.
His version of the earth and the sun and the planets and the stars was etched in stone for more than a millennium
Honest. You could look it up.
My 1970 copy of “The Population Bomb” by Paul Ehrlich, Ph. D, a regular on the Johnny Carson show, said that not only was the “science settled” but the future of mankind was “settled”.
The race was on. The finish line, the one with the flashing sign that said “Will the last person living please turn off the lights”, was the year 2000. The only thing “unsettled” was whether we would starve to death or freeze to death.
Honest. You could look it up.
[I add, somewhat sheepishly for fear of being labeled a knuckle dragger, that it is 2014 and I am still somewhat calorically challenged. Professor Ehrlich’s admonition not to buy any green bananas was safely ignored. Some legatees of DWEMs have all the luck.]
I have lived less than 15 yards from the Intercostal for 12 years.
Why hasn’t the water risen here?
Perhaps you are confused by the tides’ waxings and wanings. Plus, the moon has something to do with it also. Please consult with Professor Vivaldi, the noted Italian climatologist. He will explain all.
Perhaps the ocean is rising in Miami but not in Fort Lauderdale. For that to happen a lot of science would have to become “unsettled”.
Maybe it’s time to give Ptolemy, like the Keystone pipeline, another look. Maybe not.
Kevin Smith
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
April 21, 2014
Gary Stein
The Sun Sentinel
RE: It may be nut cutting time for modern American Liberals who make their living under the aegis of the First Amendment.
Big Stein,
2 questions.
#1 – The Supreme Court, by not accepting the case form the 11th Circuit, said the Florida can neither drug test job applicants nor can it randomly test existing employees.
Do you think the same ban should apply to non-governmental employees?
#2 – Around this time of the year I reach out to a modern American Liberal ink stained wretch to stand with me, to join my crusade if you will, for a reaffirmation of freedom of speech.
I want to burn a few things on the steps of the Federal Courthouse in Ft. Lauderdale on July 4th.
No one will object to the American flag being burned. Many will cheer.
No one will object to a King James Bible being burned. Many will cheer.
It gets a bit sticky here.
The 3rd thing I want to burn on July 4th is the Koran, sacred or otherwise.
Since pigs have constitutional protection in Florida I am sure I will be able to get a few gallons of pig pee. I will have it nearby should the conflagration get out of hand.
Can I count on your support?
I will let you hold the flag, strike the flint, fan the flames, fend off the WOGs, or toss the pee. You can stand behind me and shout “Free men speak with free tongues”.
Your call.
Speaking of free speech, don’t you think our Medusa-coiffed, snaggle-toothed, randy Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, had a phenomenal “Don’t piss on my back and tell me it’s rain” moment today?
She said, without a hint of sarcasm, that the President’s decision to delay the Keystone Pipeline decision was good because it was a tough decision.
Break out the umbrellas.
The same Logic would dictate that Eisenhower would not have invaded France until the end of his 2nd term.
Kevin Smith
WARRIORBARDIT @BELLSOUTH.NET
PS – Has Little Stein’s mother been to Publix lately? There goes another “Summer of Recovery”.
Gary Stein
The Sun Sentinel
RE: It may be nut cutting time for modern American Liberals who make their living under the aegis of the First Amendment.
Big Stein,
2 questions.
#1 – The Supreme Court, by not accepting the case form the 11th Circuit, said the Florida can neither drug test job applicants nor can it randomly test existing employees.
Do you think the same ban should apply to non-governmental employees?
#2 – Around this time of the year I reach out to a modern American Liberal ink stained wretch to stand with me, to join my crusade if you will, for a reaffirmation of freedom of speech.
I want to burn a few things on the steps of the Federal Courthouse in Ft. Lauderdale on July 4th.
No one will object to the American flag being burned. Many will cheer.
No one will object to a King James Bible being burned. Many will cheer.
It gets a bit sticky here.
The 3rd thing I want to burn on July 4th is the Koran, sacred or otherwise.
Since pigs have constitutional protection in Florida I am sure I will be able to get a few gallons of pig pee. I will have it nearby should the conflagration get out of hand.
Can I count on your support?
I will let you hold the flag, strike the flint, fan the flames, fend off the WOGs, or toss the pee. You can stand behind me and shout “Free men speak with free tongues”.
Your call.
Speaking of free speech, don’t you think our Medusa-coiffed, snaggle-toothed, randy Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, had a phenomenal “Don’t piss on my back and tell me it’s rain” moment today?
She said, without a hint of sarcasm, that the President’s decision to delay the Keystone Pipeline decision was good because it was a tough decision.
Break out the umbrellas.
The same Logic would dictate that Eisenhower would not have invaded France until the end of his 2nd term.
Kevin Smith
WARRIORBARDIT @BELLSOUTH.NET
PS – Has Little Stein’s mother been to Publix lately? There goes another “Summer of Recovery”.
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
April 10, 2014
Margaret Carlson
Bloomberg News
1399 New York Avenue
Washington, DC 20005
RE: God never sends us a cross we cannot bear. I think. Some comments on the horror, the horror of how rich White guys, doubtless funded by the evil Koch Brothers, conspire to keep Rosie O’Grady and all those single moms, mostly women of color, living in inner cities and in thralldom to Wal-Mart, the company store, down.
Ms. Carlson,
First, a digression.
If you ever want to see a cat die be a day late filing documents with the IRS. No excuse – none – is acceptable. They come to your house with a pound of cat nip. After they get Whisper’s attention they stomp him to death. Then they say, “How do you like them apples”?
You write about Lilly Ledbetter being a victim of misogynistic domination. At least Goodyear didn’t make her go to the pound.
Back to the reason I wrote.
I never realized until this morning how terrible the 77% solution - chicks making 77% of what guys get – is. It is the quotidian pounding of knowing that for every dollar that George Will or Charles Krauthammer makes you get .77 cents. No wonder Helen Thomas lost her girlish charm and her winning smile and became a Jew hating American version of a rabid Tasmanian Devil.
Well today I bring great news.
A pal of mine for 25 years, this year’s abbot of the DC lodge of my ex-lawyers and now a partner in a big time, white shoe law firm in DC, has agreed to look at your particulars.
Further, he has agreed to charge you only 77% of what he charges guys. His sensitivity is sharpened by the fact that his wife is an attorney also. When pillow talk begins with the 77% mantra you get sensitive in a hurry or you set the record for late night showers.
The introduction is yours for the asking.
The next issue is a touchy one.
You mention the burger flipper suffering from working for someone who makes 500 times what he does. [Let me tell you of my career as a mopper of johns. I was in high school and the pay was $1.65 an hour. I became proficient at my job. I also learned something that still resonates with me; viz. I didn’t like mopping johns.]
There is one thing I can’t help you with, try as I might.
Among the myriad Logical fallacies practiced by modern American Liberal ink stained wenches is the one made visible by your McDonald’s example.
Making a rich man poorer doesn’t make a poor man richer.
A thread common to people who believe that raising the minimum wage is a sure route out of poverty - Silly buggers! – is that there is big pot guarded jealously in the world’s most secure lock box. “Lock box”? Ah, the good old days! On said box is a sign that says WEALTH.
People who make a living telling the untermenschen how much they are hurt when Wal-Mart sells them prescription drugs for less can’t be expected to know what Keynes meant when he spoke of “animal spirits”.
How do you think the WEALTH pot gets filled and refilled?
Here are some hints.
When the “Shovel Ready” job tsunami was loosed upon us the only sure winners were the shovel makers. “Cash for Clunkers”? I’ll retire to Bedlam.
If your burger flipper wants to break out he can always join the army. See the world, kill people, and maybe make enough money to become a tax cheat just like you said they were in 2000 when you said their absentee ballots shouldn’t be counted, remember?
Don’t you think it would be the high water mark of Christian charity if the Kennedys were to sell all and give to the poor? The house in Hyannis could become a hospice for AIDS patients. Ethel’s little spread in Virginia could be converted into low income housing. Maybe a half-way house for pervs. All those malefactors of great wealth would have to work for a living. Mopping johns would be a good place to start.
Another light bulb moment happened this morning.
How has Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, everyone’s favorite combo of yenta, shrew, and Medusa, kept her lip zipped all these years?
It’s bad enough for her when she can’t get any traction on her 4th and 5th trimester abortion bill. But just imagine how bad she must feel when she sees some red neck, gun loving, Duck Dynasty fan, Tea Party supported, knuckle scraping Congressman from East Jabib who asks how can you give a tax cut to someone who has no income earning a dollar to her .77 cents?
Do the NCAA championship Lady Huskies get 77% of the scholarship pelf that the NCAA championship Non-Lady Huskies get?
Why not have them play each other?
If the chicks win they get the missing 23%. If the guys lose the 23% comes out of their hide. Pelt, not hide. Sorry about that.
We shall undercome!
Kevin Smith
Margaret Carlson
Bloomberg News
1399 New York Avenue
Washington, DC 20005
RE: God never sends us a cross we cannot bear. I think. Some comments on the horror, the horror of how rich White guys, doubtless funded by the evil Koch Brothers, conspire to keep Rosie O’Grady and all those single moms, mostly women of color, living in inner cities and in thralldom to Wal-Mart, the company store, down.
Ms. Carlson,
First, a digression.
If you ever want to see a cat die be a day late filing documents with the IRS. No excuse – none – is acceptable. They come to your house with a pound of cat nip. After they get Whisper’s attention they stomp him to death. Then they say, “How do you like them apples”?
You write about Lilly Ledbetter being a victim of misogynistic domination. At least Goodyear didn’t make her go to the pound.
Back to the reason I wrote.
I never realized until this morning how terrible the 77% solution - chicks making 77% of what guys get – is. It is the quotidian pounding of knowing that for every dollar that George Will or Charles Krauthammer makes you get .77 cents. No wonder Helen Thomas lost her girlish charm and her winning smile and became a Jew hating American version of a rabid Tasmanian Devil.
Well today I bring great news.
A pal of mine for 25 years, this year’s abbot of the DC lodge of my ex-lawyers and now a partner in a big time, white shoe law firm in DC, has agreed to look at your particulars.
Further, he has agreed to charge you only 77% of what he charges guys. His sensitivity is sharpened by the fact that his wife is an attorney also. When pillow talk begins with the 77% mantra you get sensitive in a hurry or you set the record for late night showers.
The introduction is yours for the asking.
The next issue is a touchy one.
You mention the burger flipper suffering from working for someone who makes 500 times what he does. [Let me tell you of my career as a mopper of johns. I was in high school and the pay was $1.65 an hour. I became proficient at my job. I also learned something that still resonates with me; viz. I didn’t like mopping johns.]
There is one thing I can’t help you with, try as I might.
Among the myriad Logical fallacies practiced by modern American Liberal ink stained wenches is the one made visible by your McDonald’s example.
Making a rich man poorer doesn’t make a poor man richer.
A thread common to people who believe that raising the minimum wage is a sure route out of poverty - Silly buggers! – is that there is big pot guarded jealously in the world’s most secure lock box. “Lock box”? Ah, the good old days! On said box is a sign that says WEALTH.
People who make a living telling the untermenschen how much they are hurt when Wal-Mart sells them prescription drugs for less can’t be expected to know what Keynes meant when he spoke of “animal spirits”.
How do you think the WEALTH pot gets filled and refilled?
Here are some hints.
When the “Shovel Ready” job tsunami was loosed upon us the only sure winners were the shovel makers. “Cash for Clunkers”? I’ll retire to Bedlam.
If your burger flipper wants to break out he can always join the army. See the world, kill people, and maybe make enough money to become a tax cheat just like you said they were in 2000 when you said their absentee ballots shouldn’t be counted, remember?
Don’t you think it would be the high water mark of Christian charity if the Kennedys were to sell all and give to the poor? The house in Hyannis could become a hospice for AIDS patients. Ethel’s little spread in Virginia could be converted into low income housing. Maybe a half-way house for pervs. All those malefactors of great wealth would have to work for a living. Mopping johns would be a good place to start.
Another light bulb moment happened this morning.
How has Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, everyone’s favorite combo of yenta, shrew, and Medusa, kept her lip zipped all these years?
It’s bad enough for her when she can’t get any traction on her 4th and 5th trimester abortion bill. But just imagine how bad she must feel when she sees some red neck, gun loving, Duck Dynasty fan, Tea Party supported, knuckle scraping Congressman from East Jabib who asks how can you give a tax cut to someone who has no income earning a dollar to her .77 cents?
Do the NCAA championship Lady Huskies get 77% of the scholarship pelf that the NCAA championship Non-Lady Huskies get?
Why not have them play each other?
If the chicks win they get the missing 23%. If the guys lose the 23% comes out of their hide. Pelt, not hide. Sorry about that.
We shall undercome!
Kevin Smith
Sunday, April 13, 2014
April 11, 2014
Stephen L. Goldstein
The Sun Sentinel
RE: Bupkes, Putz, and Pesach – Some comments on your typically head so far up your tuchis that you could deviate your septum from inside about why all Republicans should be bastinadoed, strapadoed, keelhauled, drawn and quartered and then fed to packs of feral dogs. In other words, more of the same.
My dear Professor,
Only a modern American Liberal, A Kool-Aid IVer, or an economic boob – the terms are interchangeable – could write the following:
“When the governor signed the bill into law,
he used the occasion to blast Charlie Crist,
his predecessor and likely Democratic opponent
in November, for having raised the fee in 2009
during the great Recession to help balance
the state’s imploding budget.”
The Sun Sentinel
Today
You
Extending your fallacy to its Logical conclusion the way to balance a budget quicker is to drastically increase taxes and fees.
Start an income tax, install both an estate tax and an inheritance tax, make the interest on municipal bonds taxable, double the turnpike fees, tax the sunlight – today’s economic History lesson is that the above is exactly opposite of what the great Lord Keynes recommended what to do in any economic downturn. Honest. You could look it up – tax the bejeezuz out of tobacco and beer, tax Lotto winnings as “windfall income”, repeal the deduction for property taxes, tax any response from police or fire departments.
By crikey we would be in surplus in 6 weeks and we would be farting through silk in 3 months.
My Uncle Adam, who made his living as a customs agent and a moral philosopher, wrote
“What is sensible in running the affairs of a
small household can scarce be folly in
running the affairs of a great empire.”
In the unlikely event that you run into a Joe the Plumber type please ask him what people in the real world, the world “where stones are hard and water is wet”, a world with which modern American Liberal ink-stained wretches are congenitally unfamiliar, do when things go bad, when the cart goes in the ditch.
The first thing they do is cut expenses.
If you want to “balance the state’s imploding budget” you make it less onerous to do business with the state.
Here’s another life lesson that, for you, is from Mars.
If you tax something you have less of it.
Chucky Crist has a morning problem. He never knows which side of his torso to put his tie. He is a world-class serial flip-flopper that his head spins around more than the girl in “The Exorcist”.
Maybe he should wear two ties.
Plaid in front; stripes in back
Meanwhile, the happy arrival of Pesach notwithstanding, you are still a putz
Kevin Smith
WARRIORBARDIT@BELLSOUTH.NET
PS – You mention $51,000,000,000 [that’s 51 billion] for Medicaid expansion that Florida turned down. Pray tell, but where was this money coming from? China? 50/50s? The Koch Brothers? An assortment of tooth fairies and pixies? Once a numnutz always a numnutz.
Stephen L. Goldstein
The Sun Sentinel
RE: Bupkes, Putz, and Pesach – Some comments on your typically head so far up your tuchis that you could deviate your septum from inside about why all Republicans should be bastinadoed, strapadoed, keelhauled, drawn and quartered and then fed to packs of feral dogs. In other words, more of the same.
My dear Professor,
Only a modern American Liberal, A Kool-Aid IVer, or an economic boob – the terms are interchangeable – could write the following:
“When the governor signed the bill into law,
he used the occasion to blast Charlie Crist,
his predecessor and likely Democratic opponent
in November, for having raised the fee in 2009
during the great Recession to help balance
the state’s imploding budget.”
The Sun Sentinel
Today
You
Extending your fallacy to its Logical conclusion the way to balance a budget quicker is to drastically increase taxes and fees.
Start an income tax, install both an estate tax and an inheritance tax, make the interest on municipal bonds taxable, double the turnpike fees, tax the sunlight – today’s economic History lesson is that the above is exactly opposite of what the great Lord Keynes recommended what to do in any economic downturn. Honest. You could look it up – tax the bejeezuz out of tobacco and beer, tax Lotto winnings as “windfall income”, repeal the deduction for property taxes, tax any response from police or fire departments.
By crikey we would be in surplus in 6 weeks and we would be farting through silk in 3 months.
My Uncle Adam, who made his living as a customs agent and a moral philosopher, wrote
“What is sensible in running the affairs of a
small household can scarce be folly in
running the affairs of a great empire.”
In the unlikely event that you run into a Joe the Plumber type please ask him what people in the real world, the world “where stones are hard and water is wet”, a world with which modern American Liberal ink-stained wretches are congenitally unfamiliar, do when things go bad, when the cart goes in the ditch.
The first thing they do is cut expenses.
If you want to “balance the state’s imploding budget” you make it less onerous to do business with the state.
Here’s another life lesson that, for you, is from Mars.
If you tax something you have less of it.
Chucky Crist has a morning problem. He never knows which side of his torso to put his tie. He is a world-class serial flip-flopper that his head spins around more than the girl in “The Exorcist”.
Maybe he should wear two ties.
Plaid in front; stripes in back
Meanwhile, the happy arrival of Pesach notwithstanding, you are still a putz
Kevin Smith
WARRIORBARDIT@BELLSOUTH.NET
PS – You mention $51,000,000,000 [that’s 51 billion] for Medicaid expansion that Florida turned down. Pray tell, but where was this money coming from? China? 50/50s? The Koch Brothers? An assortment of tooth fairies and pixies? Once a numnutz always a numnutz.
April 10, 2014
Letter to the Editor
The Sun Sentinel
500 E. Broward Blvd
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33394
RE: Peeking down the Memory Hole of the 1964 Civil Rights Act – Some comments on your “eclectically indignant” article in today’s Sun Sentinel.
Sirs,
Christy Parsons and Kathleen Hennesey of your Washington bureau write this morning about Lyndon Johnson. It’s as if no one was there. I was.
“Most obviously, Johnson benefited from large
Democratic majorities in Congress when he
pushed the Civil Rights Act.”
The Sun Sentinel
Page 2A
Today
If Johnson – “Landslide Lyndon” to his good friends – had relied on the Democrats in the Senate the Civil Rights Act would never – repeat – never have passed.
Look it up.
Many Democratic Senators devoted their entire adult public lives to a simple proposition: Little Black boys would never, ever go to school with little White girls.
One of those Senators – Richard Russell – has his name on the Senate office building.
One of those Senators – John Stennis – has his name on a nuclear ballistic missile submarine.
One of those Senators – Sam Ervin – was a stone cold segregationist who became the darling of modern American Liberals before retiring to fame and fortune as a salesman for American Express.
One of those Senators – J. William Fullbright – is mostly known now as the man who counseled William Jefferson Blythe Clinton on the intricacies of successful interning.
Speaking of LBJ, why was their no mention of how his pal Abe Fortas and the legendary Duke of Duval County were able to find 4,000 missing votes, all of which were in alphabetical order, cast for him?
Look it up.
“I’ll never send American boys to fight in foreign wars.”
Talking about Johnson without mentioning Vietnam is like talking about Easter Sunday without mentioning Good Friday.
Speaking about wars…How is the other war, the 50 year old war on poverty, doing?
What’s the next celebration?
Jimmy Carter and five FUBARed helicopters?
Bill Clinton on perjury?
I hope to complete my tour of all 57 or was it 58 states this summer. I’ll get back to you if I see any Johnson cenotaphs.
Kevin Smith
Letter to the Editor
The Sun Sentinel
500 E. Broward Blvd
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33394
RE: Peeking down the Memory Hole of the 1964 Civil Rights Act – Some comments on your “eclectically indignant” article in today’s Sun Sentinel.
Sirs,
Christy Parsons and Kathleen Hennesey of your Washington bureau write this morning about Lyndon Johnson. It’s as if no one was there. I was.
“Most obviously, Johnson benefited from large
Democratic majorities in Congress when he
pushed the Civil Rights Act.”
The Sun Sentinel
Page 2A
Today
If Johnson – “Landslide Lyndon” to his good friends – had relied on the Democrats in the Senate the Civil Rights Act would never – repeat – never have passed.
Look it up.
Many Democratic Senators devoted their entire adult public lives to a simple proposition: Little Black boys would never, ever go to school with little White girls.
One of those Senators – Richard Russell – has his name on the Senate office building.
One of those Senators – John Stennis – has his name on a nuclear ballistic missile submarine.
One of those Senators – Sam Ervin – was a stone cold segregationist who became the darling of modern American Liberals before retiring to fame and fortune as a salesman for American Express.
One of those Senators – J. William Fullbright – is mostly known now as the man who counseled William Jefferson Blythe Clinton on the intricacies of successful interning.
Speaking of LBJ, why was their no mention of how his pal Abe Fortas and the legendary Duke of Duval County were able to find 4,000 missing votes, all of which were in alphabetical order, cast for him?
Look it up.
“I’ll never send American boys to fight in foreign wars.”
Talking about Johnson without mentioning Vietnam is like talking about Easter Sunday without mentioning Good Friday.
Speaking about wars…How is the other war, the 50 year old war on poverty, doing?
What’s the next celebration?
Jimmy Carter and five FUBARed helicopters?
Bill Clinton on perjury?
I hope to complete my tour of all 57 or was it 58 states this summer. I’ll get back to you if I see any Johnson cenotaphs.
Kevin Smith
Thursday, April 10, 2014
April 9, 2014
David Fleshler
The Sun Sentinel
RE: “As sea levels rise, driven by Global Warming” redux
Mr. Fleshler.
I resist, unsuccessfully, the urge to tell you to sit in the corner wearing a dunce cap while you read about Logical fallacies.
A very important one is “hoc post ergo propter hoc”.
Joe wears his pants inside out and backwards.
Joe is a murderer.
People who wear their pants inside out and backwards
are, perforce,
MURDERERS
In 1997, the year when the Kyoto Treaty was not submitted to the Senate for confirmation as the Constitution requires, President Clinton gave a press conference in the Rose Garden on a very hot summer day.
He said;
“It’s hot, isn’t it? Summer heat is caused by Global Warming.
Global Warming is caused by summer heat which is caused
by Global Warming, so there. Excuse me but I have a
pressing appointment with a zoftig intern.
[Only kidding about the last sentence. He didn’t say it.
He meant it; he didn’t say it.]
You may wish to learn about argumentum ad captandum. While you’re at it take a peek at circular reasoning
Try this one on for size.
10 to 12 centuries ago there was a measurable uptick in temperature. 4 to 5 centuries ago there was a measurable downtick in temperatures. It was called the Little Ice Age. Honest. Look them both up.
The first measurable activity made land more arable. More arable land made more protein available. People got smarter. We wound up with the Renaissance. Do you have a problem with Dante?
The second measurable activity, AKA The Little Ice Age, had a tremendous impact on the cedar trees growing in Cremona. Stradivarius made stringed instruments that, when played 500 years later by someone who knows what he is about, can bring grown men to tears.
I prefer the cello but the rule of “de gustibus” applies.
[I also like Cole Porter and Willie Nelson but that’s a different story]
As to “settled science”, Einstein would immediately publish any and all of his theories. It was the ultimate in “peer review”. He said he only had to be proved wrong once. Then, he could get on to something new and useful.
Besides, I think it is time for the polar bears, the serial killers of cute, cuddly baby seals, to make it on their own. Sink or swim, if you will.
KEVIN SMITH
WARRIORBARDIT@BELLSOUTH.NET
PS – Here’s another one you can help me with. Why, after almost 170 years, is Darwin’s fascinating work still called a theory?
David Fleshler
The Sun Sentinel
RE: “As sea levels rise, driven by Global Warming” redux
Mr. Fleshler.
I resist, unsuccessfully, the urge to tell you to sit in the corner wearing a dunce cap while you read about Logical fallacies.
A very important one is “hoc post ergo propter hoc”.
Joe wears his pants inside out and backwards.
Joe is a murderer.
People who wear their pants inside out and backwards
are, perforce,
MURDERERS
In 1997, the year when the Kyoto Treaty was not submitted to the Senate for confirmation as the Constitution requires, President Clinton gave a press conference in the Rose Garden on a very hot summer day.
He said;
“It’s hot, isn’t it? Summer heat is caused by Global Warming.
Global Warming is caused by summer heat which is caused
by Global Warming, so there. Excuse me but I have a
pressing appointment with a zoftig intern.
[Only kidding about the last sentence. He didn’t say it.
He meant it; he didn’t say it.]
You may wish to learn about argumentum ad captandum. While you’re at it take a peek at circular reasoning
Try this one on for size.
10 to 12 centuries ago there was a measurable uptick in temperature. 4 to 5 centuries ago there was a measurable downtick in temperatures. It was called the Little Ice Age. Honest. Look them both up.
The first measurable activity made land more arable. More arable land made more protein available. People got smarter. We wound up with the Renaissance. Do you have a problem with Dante?
The second measurable activity, AKA The Little Ice Age, had a tremendous impact on the cedar trees growing in Cremona. Stradivarius made stringed instruments that, when played 500 years later by someone who knows what he is about, can bring grown men to tears.
I prefer the cello but the rule of “de gustibus” applies.
[I also like Cole Porter and Willie Nelson but that’s a different story]
As to “settled science”, Einstein would immediately publish any and all of his theories. It was the ultimate in “peer review”. He said he only had to be proved wrong once. Then, he could get on to something new and useful.
Besides, I think it is time for the polar bears, the serial killers of cute, cuddly baby seals, to make it on their own. Sink or swim, if you will.
KEVIN SMITH
WARRIORBARDIT@BELLSOUTH.NET
PS – Here’s another one you can help me with. Why, after almost 170 years, is Darwin’s fascinating work still called a theory?
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
April 9, 2014
Leonard Pitts, Jr.
The Miami Herald
3511 91st Avenue
Miami, FL 33172
RE: Who says Latin is dead? “Quis custodes ipsos custodiet” is back, this time with a vengeance. Some comments on typical unlinkable caterwauling column on how bad life is in Amerika.
Mr. Pitts.
I consider it a day without sunshine if I can’t pull a gem from one of your screeds.
Today produced a pearl of precious price, a stone the size of a plover’s egg.
In its entirety…
“Consider what billionaire Tom Perkins said in February:
‘Only taxpayers should have the right to vote and
the rich should have more votes.’”
The Miami Herald
Page 11 A
Today
You
#1 - Thank you for reminding me of Lani Guinier. You remember her, don’t you? She was a lawyer in the Clinton White House until Czarina Hillary said “Okie dokie, artichokie” to her. That was the inside baseball, dog whistle buzz word for her defenestration. [God’s Holy Trousers but I love that word, particularly when it is used correctly.]
Her crime was to advance the notion that Blacks in America should have more than one vote to make up for past discrimination. There is a certain Logic there. I suppose the term reverse Affirmative Action on steroids would suffice
The really fun part of this was when the President of the United States, Handsome Billy from Hot Springs, said that although he had known her for more than 20 years, even though he had been a guest at her wedding, even though he had hired her to work at the friggin’ White House he had never read anything she had written.
The impromptu press conference was interrupted by an F-16 whoosh as Ms. Guinier was flung violently through the White House attic window.
No mention of Lani Guinier would be complete without saying that she was the paradigmatic template for modern American Liberal pulchritude until the Medusa-coiffed Debbie Wasserman-Schultz came along. The two of them would cause “Gibraltar to crumble”.
It was outrageous that the outrage scale kept and calibrated by modern American Liberals judged this to be a non-event.
You may recall that Anita Hill, another lawyer who was a woman of color, was accorded a far different treatment because her alleged evil-doer was not only a Republican but a Black Republican to boot.
You do remember all of the above, don’t you?
Call me if you need clarification.
` #2 – The other thing is simple.
Why do you oppose George Soros being able to spend his own money on things that he believes in?
Tom Steyer, a newly minted, self-made billionaire, wants to spend his money saving drowning polar bears. He believes that coal, oil, and gas are malum per se. He also believes that fracking is the work of the Devil. [Full disclosure: I fracked my first well in January, 1974]
Why can’t they spend their own money? The words, “Congress shall make no law…” are majestic in their simplicity. Put differently, and paraphrasing Juvenal, another DWEM, who died and left you King?
#3 – What about inherited wealth?
In the ‘20s and ‘30s Poppa Joe Kennedy set records for philandering and plundering. He raised the stealing of hot stoves and the plucking of dead men’s eyes for grapes to an art form. He was the gold standard. [That he was anti-Semitic fan of Hitler is a subject for a different forum]
When Senator Lard Kennedy’s will went into probate the main asset was a trust created for him by his father in 1936.
Such was the size of his pelf that it now allows the 4th generation of dilettantes and toss-pots to hurl themselves into the public arena. Is it conceivable that any of these layabouts would be anything but persistent public nuisances save for Grandpa’s ill-gotten and IRS protected gains?
You say earlier in your dry-heave declaiming of the unfairness of it all, particularly since it falls disproportionately hard on minorities and women, many of whom are inner city single moms that a meeting will be held in June “to eliminate the influence of big money in politics”.
I can save the air fare.
Anything political, Pro Life or Pro Death, taxes are too low or taxes are too high, guns should be outlawed or bazookas should be mandatory, manatee suffrage, Save Tibet or Don’t Save Tibet, changing pi to 3.0 to raise teenagers’ self-esteem by making it easier to pass Geometry, should every NBA team have a fat, slow White guy as the 6th man…important stuff like that must pass the Emperor Pitts/John Rawls test.
Will it help the little guy, the wretched of the earth, the perpetual victims of life’s circumstances?
I did say that one of the constant requirements of being a card carrying communicant in the church of modern American Liberalism is to be a Stage 4 host of “terminal non-malodorous fecal matter syndrome”, didn’t I?
“FREE MEN SPEAK WITH FREE TONGUES”
Kevin Smith
Leonard Pitts, Jr.
The Miami Herald
3511 91st Avenue
Miami, FL 33172
RE: Who says Latin is dead? “Quis custodes ipsos custodiet” is back, this time with a vengeance. Some comments on typical unlinkable caterwauling column on how bad life is in Amerika.
Mr. Pitts.
I consider it a day without sunshine if I can’t pull a gem from one of your screeds.
Today produced a pearl of precious price, a stone the size of a plover’s egg.
In its entirety…
“Consider what billionaire Tom Perkins said in February:
‘Only taxpayers should have the right to vote and
the rich should have more votes.’”
The Miami Herald
Page 11 A
Today
You
#1 - Thank you for reminding me of Lani Guinier. You remember her, don’t you? She was a lawyer in the Clinton White House until Czarina Hillary said “Okie dokie, artichokie” to her. That was the inside baseball, dog whistle buzz word for her defenestration. [God’s Holy Trousers but I love that word, particularly when it is used correctly.]
Her crime was to advance the notion that Blacks in America should have more than one vote to make up for past discrimination. There is a certain Logic there. I suppose the term reverse Affirmative Action on steroids would suffice
The really fun part of this was when the President of the United States, Handsome Billy from Hot Springs, said that although he had known her for more than 20 years, even though he had been a guest at her wedding, even though he had hired her to work at the friggin’ White House he had never read anything she had written.
The impromptu press conference was interrupted by an F-16 whoosh as Ms. Guinier was flung violently through the White House attic window.
No mention of Lani Guinier would be complete without saying that she was the paradigmatic template for modern American Liberal pulchritude until the Medusa-coiffed Debbie Wasserman-Schultz came along. The two of them would cause “Gibraltar to crumble”.
It was outrageous that the outrage scale kept and calibrated by modern American Liberals judged this to be a non-event.
You may recall that Anita Hill, another lawyer who was a woman of color, was accorded a far different treatment because her alleged evil-doer was not only a Republican but a Black Republican to boot.
You do remember all of the above, don’t you?
Call me if you need clarification.
` #2 – The other thing is simple.
Why do you oppose George Soros being able to spend his own money on things that he believes in?
Tom Steyer, a newly minted, self-made billionaire, wants to spend his money saving drowning polar bears. He believes that coal, oil, and gas are malum per se. He also believes that fracking is the work of the Devil. [Full disclosure: I fracked my first well in January, 1974]
Why can’t they spend their own money? The words, “Congress shall make no law…” are majestic in their simplicity. Put differently, and paraphrasing Juvenal, another DWEM, who died and left you King?
#3 – What about inherited wealth?
In the ‘20s and ‘30s Poppa Joe Kennedy set records for philandering and plundering. He raised the stealing of hot stoves and the plucking of dead men’s eyes for grapes to an art form. He was the gold standard. [That he was anti-Semitic fan of Hitler is a subject for a different forum]
When Senator Lard Kennedy’s will went into probate the main asset was a trust created for him by his father in 1936.
Such was the size of his pelf that it now allows the 4th generation of dilettantes and toss-pots to hurl themselves into the public arena. Is it conceivable that any of these layabouts would be anything but persistent public nuisances save for Grandpa’s ill-gotten and IRS protected gains?
You say earlier in your dry-heave declaiming of the unfairness of it all, particularly since it falls disproportionately hard on minorities and women, many of whom are inner city single moms that a meeting will be held in June “to eliminate the influence of big money in politics”.
I can save the air fare.
Anything political, Pro Life or Pro Death, taxes are too low or taxes are too high, guns should be outlawed or bazookas should be mandatory, manatee suffrage, Save Tibet or Don’t Save Tibet, changing pi to 3.0 to raise teenagers’ self-esteem by making it easier to pass Geometry, should every NBA team have a fat, slow White guy as the 6th man…important stuff like that must pass the Emperor Pitts/John Rawls test.
Will it help the little guy, the wretched of the earth, the perpetual victims of life’s circumstances?
I did say that one of the constant requirements of being a card carrying communicant in the church of modern American Liberalism is to be a Stage 4 host of “terminal non-malodorous fecal matter syndrome”, didn’t I?
“FREE MEN SPEAK WITH FREE TONGUES”
Kevin Smith
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
April 6, 2014
Fred Grimm
The Miami Herald
RE: Is there no limit to how far the rich White Republicans will go to keep the undeserving poor, victims of life’s circumstances, those poor souls who were/are/will be “unlucky in life’s lottery” from voting? A comment or two on your high dudgeoned account of the unfairness of it all, particularly when it comes to voting.
Mr. Grimm,
I had an uncle in Jersey City, NJ who died in 1956 and voted until 1971 when, and do I have to tell you that the Judge was appointed by Eisenhower, he was disenfranchised by a Federal Judge.
Governor Brendan Byrne, a former neighbor of mine in West Orange, NJ got off one of his favorite lines at his 90th birthday dinner. “”When I die bury me in Hudson County so I can continue to participate in the political process.”
I was born and raised in Bayonne, NJ.
I thought the whole world knew about street money, palm cards, bullet voting, graveyard registrations and ballot boxes that went walkabout until the down state vote came in.
True to my roots, I got 6 as in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 voter ID cards in the glorious reign of Miriam Oliphant, Broward County Elections Supervisor. [She was so dumb she made you try to find a bayonet so you could sit on it, anything to drown her out. I hope I can mention that she was Black without having the dreaded Word Police visit me as they did when she was in office because of something I wrote.] I know the big question is whether or not I used them. If asked officially I shall invoke the Lois Lerner defense.
It’s worked for her so far.
This year I am building up a treasure trove of absentee ballots. Quien sabe as to my intentions.
See you at the recount.
Kevin Smith
WARRIORBARDIT@BELLSOUTH.NET
Fred Grimm
The Miami Herald
RE: Is there no limit to how far the rich White Republicans will go to keep the undeserving poor, victims of life’s circumstances, those poor souls who were/are/will be “unlucky in life’s lottery” from voting? A comment or two on your high dudgeoned account of the unfairness of it all, particularly when it comes to voting.
Mr. Grimm,
I had an uncle in Jersey City, NJ who died in 1956 and voted until 1971 when, and do I have to tell you that the Judge was appointed by Eisenhower, he was disenfranchised by a Federal Judge.
Governor Brendan Byrne, a former neighbor of mine in West Orange, NJ got off one of his favorite lines at his 90th birthday dinner. “”When I die bury me in Hudson County so I can continue to participate in the political process.”
I was born and raised in Bayonne, NJ.
I thought the whole world knew about street money, palm cards, bullet voting, graveyard registrations and ballot boxes that went walkabout until the down state vote came in.
True to my roots, I got 6 as in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 voter ID cards in the glorious reign of Miriam Oliphant, Broward County Elections Supervisor. [She was so dumb she made you try to find a bayonet so you could sit on it, anything to drown her out. I hope I can mention that she was Black without having the dreaded Word Police visit me as they did when she was in office because of something I wrote.] I know the big question is whether or not I used them. If asked officially I shall invoke the Lois Lerner defense.
It’s worked for her so far.
This year I am building up a treasure trove of absentee ballots. Quien sabe as to my intentions.
See you at the recount.
Kevin Smith
WARRIORBARDIT@BELLSOUTH.NET
April 6, 2014
Greg Cote
The Miami Herald
RE: The Constitution, 3 strikes, go on green and stop on red, apples fall from trees, and a watched pot will boil. Some comments on your rambling, not quite, rant in today’s Miami Herald.
Mr. Cote,
You say, in today’s Miami Herald…
“Constitution won the 63rd Florida Derby, a big Triple
Crown-championship prep race. It’d be a terrific story for
horse racing if Constitution happened to be born in 1176.
But I checked. He wasn’t.”
The Miami Herald’
Page 3 D
Today
You
It’s a small thing, no bigger than a man’s foist on the horizon.
Is it 3 strikes or 4 before “You’re out”?
Is it 9 yards or 11 for a first down?
Is it 12 ounces or 16 to make a pound?
I can see you are a big fan of Common Core while being opposed to the FCATs.
The Constitution, the document, was written in 1787 and adopted in 1789.
` Look it up, you boob.
Kevin Smith
PS – There is a trick question up there. Watch out.
Greg Cote
The Miami Herald
RE: The Constitution, 3 strikes, go on green and stop on red, apples fall from trees, and a watched pot will boil. Some comments on your rambling, not quite, rant in today’s Miami Herald.
Mr. Cote,
You say, in today’s Miami Herald…
“Constitution won the 63rd Florida Derby, a big Triple
Crown-championship prep race. It’d be a terrific story for
horse racing if Constitution happened to be born in 1176.
But I checked. He wasn’t.”
The Miami Herald’
Page 3 D
Today
You
It’s a small thing, no bigger than a man’s foist on the horizon.
Is it 3 strikes or 4 before “You’re out”?
Is it 9 yards or 11 for a first down?
Is it 12 ounces or 16 to make a pound?
I can see you are a big fan of Common Core while being opposed to the FCATs.
The Constitution, the document, was written in 1787 and adopted in 1789.
` Look it up, you boob.
Kevin Smith
PS – There is a trick question up there. Watch out.
April 6, 2014
David Fleshler
The Sun Sentinel
RE: “Our Rising Seas” – Some comments on your unlinkable Page 1 story of how we or our children or our children’s children or our children’s children’s grandchildren or somebody could go glub, glub.
Mr. Fleshler,
Imagine I am an extra-terrestrial alien being who visits every 5 years or so. I come back periodically because despite your lingering racism, sexism, speciesism, teen age bullying, and the heartbreak of psoriasis, you have done some good things.
Music. Books. Art. The Trivium
And another thing you, having had it
so long, now take for granted.
The Scientific Method.
I was here when an 8 column screamer was ink stained short hand for a big Page 1 story. Alas, we are down to 5.
Thank god I kept my intergalactic barf bag.
Your first sentence – “As sea levels rise, driven by global warming…” – caused onset projectile vomiting that Richter was able to measure. It was in protest for losing 25 centuries of reasoned discourse and the aforementioned Scientific Method.
[I was here in 2008 when an Illinois community activist promised that if he were elected “the earth would cool and the seas would fall”. Would the politically incorrect rising of the seas, the one featured by your Page 1 story, be racially motivated?]
The back door of my nephew’s home in Fort Lauderdale is less than 15 yards from the Intracoastal. The first thing I do when I get there is check the manatee trap pots. Nothing beats baby – particularly female – sushi as an appetizer to poached breast of whooping crane. A combo of wasabi and chipotle and your mouth will thank your teeth.
The second thing I do is check the water level.
Of course it changes. It goes up. It goes down. It goes back up. It goes back down. Over and over and over. Sometimes, and I think the moon has something to do with it, it will be exaggerated. I think the scientific term for it is “tides”. Further research will lead you to the works of Professor Vivaldi, a noted Italian climatologist, a Renaissance man, if you will. Listen to him. You may learn something
But I digress.
Please tell me how your sentence “As sea levels rise, driven by global warming…” came about.
If you use the words “science” and “consensus” in the same sentence I will have a sign made in the colors of your choice proclaiming “I am a moron”.
Further, if you say “Everyone knows”, I will have a sign made for you that says, “Not only am I a moron but I revel in being surrounded by morons”.
500 years ago, on one of my periodic trips, the “scientific consensus” was that Ptolemy was the top dog in Astronomy. Whatever happened to him? Wasn’t his science “settled”?
40 years ago, a really smart professor named Paul Ehrlich told us that the race was on. The finish line was the year 2000. The race was to see if we would freeze to death before we starved. A true Hobson’s Choice, no?
It is empirically self-evident that this ohmadahn should neither be allowed to operate heavy machinery nor should he be allowed to handle sharp instruments. The man is “a ass” and that’s an end to it.
After I finish my mid-day repast I may have to loosen my belt before I turn the A/C up for my nap.
The only plausible explanation here is that the boobies are running the hatch and you are their amanuensis.
Kevin Smith
WARRIORBARDIT@BELLSOUTH.NET
PS – Here’s a bonus question. What is the “scientific consensus” for the Permian Extinction?
David Fleshler
The Sun Sentinel
RE: “Our Rising Seas” – Some comments on your unlinkable Page 1 story of how we or our children or our children’s children or our children’s children’s grandchildren or somebody could go glub, glub.
Mr. Fleshler,
Imagine I am an extra-terrestrial alien being who visits every 5 years or so. I come back periodically because despite your lingering racism, sexism, speciesism, teen age bullying, and the heartbreak of psoriasis, you have done some good things.
Music. Books. Art. The Trivium
And another thing you, having had it
so long, now take for granted.
The Scientific Method.
I was here when an 8 column screamer was ink stained short hand for a big Page 1 story. Alas, we are down to 5.
Thank god I kept my intergalactic barf bag.
Your first sentence – “As sea levels rise, driven by global warming…” – caused onset projectile vomiting that Richter was able to measure. It was in protest for losing 25 centuries of reasoned discourse and the aforementioned Scientific Method.
[I was here in 2008 when an Illinois community activist promised that if he were elected “the earth would cool and the seas would fall”. Would the politically incorrect rising of the seas, the one featured by your Page 1 story, be racially motivated?]
The back door of my nephew’s home in Fort Lauderdale is less than 15 yards from the Intracoastal. The first thing I do when I get there is check the manatee trap pots. Nothing beats baby – particularly female – sushi as an appetizer to poached breast of whooping crane. A combo of wasabi and chipotle and your mouth will thank your teeth.
The second thing I do is check the water level.
Of course it changes. It goes up. It goes down. It goes back up. It goes back down. Over and over and over. Sometimes, and I think the moon has something to do with it, it will be exaggerated. I think the scientific term for it is “tides”. Further research will lead you to the works of Professor Vivaldi, a noted Italian climatologist, a Renaissance man, if you will. Listen to him. You may learn something
But I digress.
Please tell me how your sentence “As sea levels rise, driven by global warming…” came about.
If you use the words “science” and “consensus” in the same sentence I will have a sign made in the colors of your choice proclaiming “I am a moron”.
Further, if you say “Everyone knows”, I will have a sign made for you that says, “Not only am I a moron but I revel in being surrounded by morons”.
500 years ago, on one of my periodic trips, the “scientific consensus” was that Ptolemy was the top dog in Astronomy. Whatever happened to him? Wasn’t his science “settled”?
40 years ago, a really smart professor named Paul Ehrlich told us that the race was on. The finish line was the year 2000. The race was to see if we would freeze to death before we starved. A true Hobson’s Choice, no?
It is empirically self-evident that this ohmadahn should neither be allowed to operate heavy machinery nor should he be allowed to handle sharp instruments. The man is “a ass” and that’s an end to it.
After I finish my mid-day repast I may have to loosen my belt before I turn the A/C up for my nap.
The only plausible explanation here is that the boobies are running the hatch and you are their amanuensis.
Kevin Smith
WARRIORBARDIT@BELLSOUTH.NET
PS – Here’s a bonus question. What is the “scientific consensus” for the Permian Extinction?
April 6, 2014
Gary Stein
The Sun Sentinel
RE: How about “None of the above”? Some comments on your unlinkable column about the leading gubernatorial candidates and why a leopard will change its spots before a modern American Liberal will turn on one of its own, with the possible exceptions of John Edwards
Big Stein,
By crikey, you’re right.
Crist’s favorite color is plaid.
Scott’s favorite is disappearing battleship gray.
Several things leap to mind
#1 – Is Crist’s inability to “make anybody’s toes tingle” the opposite of or the antithesis to Chris Matthews saying in a pulsating tumescently priapristic tribute to then candidate Obama, “Stand back Eve. I don’t know how big this thing is going to get”?
#2 – I hope Nan Rich is a nice lady. What she absolutely is is a wing-nut moon bat who would try to legalize 4th and 5th trimester abortions, make Midnight Basketball mandatory, and demand compulsory sensitivity training for persistent heterosexuals. Taking a page from President B.O. she would do this by fiat in her inaugural address. In an appeal to “fairness” she would raise every tax 10% and make mass transit free. To save the drowning polar bears she would ban air conditioning. To help the endangered Florida panther and to foster the “green” revolution she would recycle aborted fetuses to feeding stations in the panthers’ neighborhood. To balance the scales of social justice she would demand that every county name its next school after those martyred freedom fighters, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Also, she would stop bullying by simply banning it. She would solve the problem of second hand smoke by banning exhaling. She would say, with neither a hint of mirth nor a sense of wit, that if a minimum wage of $10.10 is good think how much better $37.50 would be for lifting everyone out of the evil clutches of poverty, a condition caused by Wal-Mart and the new Devil du jour, the Koch Brothers.
You say, as if no one is reading, that she “would be, without a doubt, the best choice of all those running”.
I believe that I mentioned the leopard and his inability to change his spots. In this Holy season of Lent, a time when redemption and salvation is there for the taking, a weekend with Whittaker Chambers might do you some good.
#3 – Better Bubba the lawn guy than the aforementioned Ms Rich for Governor.
At least he runs a business. That means he gets to sign both sides of a pay check. That means he doesn’t mind what you think about him. He’ll keep cutting your lawn as long as you pay him. There is a valuable lesson there. It is one that modern American Liberals are incapable of learning.
#4 – Empowered by the McCutcheon decision I want to know if the ordure of “big money runs politics” extends to George Soros and Tom Steyer. Also, does the modern American Liberal ban on “big money” extend to inherited wealth? Think Kennedy. Other than being legatees of the Lucky Sperm Cabal what have those hedonistic layabouts ever done?
#5 – Prices and elections are sometimes set on the edges. I will vote for Scott for no other reason than judicial nominations and appointments. Crist works for a personal injury law firm. There is no record, none whatsoever, of him ever litigating a trip and fall or a malpractice suit or even a workmen’s comp case. That means he has been bought and paid for by parasitic plaintiff and class action lawyers. Payback is a bitch.
#6 – How is Little Stein doing in school? Has he brought any shikskas home?
Kevin Smith
WARRIORBARDIT@BELLSOUTH.NET
Gary Stein
The Sun Sentinel
RE: How about “None of the above”? Some comments on your unlinkable column about the leading gubernatorial candidates and why a leopard will change its spots before a modern American Liberal will turn on one of its own, with the possible exceptions of John Edwards
Big Stein,
By crikey, you’re right.
Crist’s favorite color is plaid.
Scott’s favorite is disappearing battleship gray.
Several things leap to mind
#1 – Is Crist’s inability to “make anybody’s toes tingle” the opposite of or the antithesis to Chris Matthews saying in a pulsating tumescently priapristic tribute to then candidate Obama, “Stand back Eve. I don’t know how big this thing is going to get”?
#2 – I hope Nan Rich is a nice lady. What she absolutely is is a wing-nut moon bat who would try to legalize 4th and 5th trimester abortions, make Midnight Basketball mandatory, and demand compulsory sensitivity training for persistent heterosexuals. Taking a page from President B.O. she would do this by fiat in her inaugural address. In an appeal to “fairness” she would raise every tax 10% and make mass transit free. To save the drowning polar bears she would ban air conditioning. To help the endangered Florida panther and to foster the “green” revolution she would recycle aborted fetuses to feeding stations in the panthers’ neighborhood. To balance the scales of social justice she would demand that every county name its next school after those martyred freedom fighters, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Also, she would stop bullying by simply banning it. She would solve the problem of second hand smoke by banning exhaling. She would say, with neither a hint of mirth nor a sense of wit, that if a minimum wage of $10.10 is good think how much better $37.50 would be for lifting everyone out of the evil clutches of poverty, a condition caused by Wal-Mart and the new Devil du jour, the Koch Brothers.
You say, as if no one is reading, that she “would be, without a doubt, the best choice of all those running”.
I believe that I mentioned the leopard and his inability to change his spots. In this Holy season of Lent, a time when redemption and salvation is there for the taking, a weekend with Whittaker Chambers might do you some good.
#3 – Better Bubba the lawn guy than the aforementioned Ms Rich for Governor.
At least he runs a business. That means he gets to sign both sides of a pay check. That means he doesn’t mind what you think about him. He’ll keep cutting your lawn as long as you pay him. There is a valuable lesson there. It is one that modern American Liberals are incapable of learning.
#4 – Empowered by the McCutcheon decision I want to know if the ordure of “big money runs politics” extends to George Soros and Tom Steyer. Also, does the modern American Liberal ban on “big money” extend to inherited wealth? Think Kennedy. Other than being legatees of the Lucky Sperm Cabal what have those hedonistic layabouts ever done?
#5 – Prices and elections are sometimes set on the edges. I will vote for Scott for no other reason than judicial nominations and appointments. Crist works for a personal injury law firm. There is no record, none whatsoever, of him ever litigating a trip and fall or a malpractice suit or even a workmen’s comp case. That means he has been bought and paid for by parasitic plaintiff and class action lawyers. Payback is a bitch.
#6 – How is Little Stein doing in school? Has he brought any shikskas home?
Kevin Smith
WARRIORBARDIT@BELLSOUTH.NET
Thursday, April 3, 2014
April 2, 2014
Leonard Pitts, Jr.
The Miami Herald
3511 NW 91st Avenue
Miami, FL 33172
RE: “The True Face of Poverty in America” – Some comments on the unfairness of it all in today’s unlinkable column. This morning’s victim is a homeless single mom of 2, a woman of color, who is yet another victim of the Koch Brothers and, to make it worse, who lives her nasty, poor, brutish, and short life under the lion’s paw of Wal-Mart.
Mr. Pitts,
Let the record show that 50 years ago the United States declared war on poverty.
It was the 3rd war that decade, the other 2 being Vietnam and drugs. I lost track of the other 2. How did they work out?
Shanesha Taylor, and her 2 children, are victims of the longest war in American History. It has lasted far longer than the Athens/Sparta dustup, AKA the Peloponnesian War.
[2 things leap to mind. How she avoided the abortionist’s imported high tech coat hanger – Black women, 6% of the country’s population, have had 38% of the abortions since Roe v Wade – is a subject for a different forum. Suffice to say that it is a satanic combination of Affirmative Action on steroids and public policy gone mad. The “other thing” and I hope that the mere thought of it won’t cause you to brand me with “R” for racist, the new Scarlet Letter. It is a risk I am willing to take but what about the other partner in the horizontal tango that produced these 2 children? What about the fathers? Do you think Moynihan was right?]
Margaret Sanger, iconic heroine of modern American Liberalism and the woman whose face appears on a medal just given to Nancy Pelosi, the reigning Hecate of the accursed modern American Liberalism, would have had a simple, direct solution to Shanesha’s problem. Forced abortion, involuntary spaying, and, borrowing a tried and true tactic from the Spartans, slow starvation. Hell, she was so good that Hitler used her as a model for his 1934 Nuremberg Race Laws. No wonder modern American Liberals, secret Fascists all, are so comfortable with her.
What can we, as a society that exacerbated her and our problem, do to help her and us?
The first thing that must be done is to look at this from an a posteriori stand.
Whatever we did to cause her to become “unlucky in life’s lottery”, whatever we did to make her become “a victim of life’s circumstances”, whatever we did to make her become the poster girl for the perverse effects of modern American Liberalism, must stop.
The reasons are simple:
It is not working.
It never worked.
It never will work.
A “conscious uncoupling” of these disastrous social policies must start now. If it were possible, yesterday.
Having dug ditches in 3 countries I can assure you that when you realize you are digging on the wrong side of the property line the very first thing you do is…is…stop digging.
It is almost a Howard Beale moment.
You mention some unwise government expenditures that should be stopped so that more money will be available to “help” Shanesha. I would have liked to have seen Midnight Basketball, Cash for Clunkers, and the granddaddy of them all, Shovel Ready jobs, in there but I am just an old fashioned guy.
How about a suggestion on the income side of the ledger?
Why not make the interest on income from municipal bonds taxable? Why should inner city residents, mostly Black, many of whom are single moms, all of whom are renters, subsidize rich suburbanites, most of whom are White, when they avoid their “fair share” of taxes?
President B O, in what may have been his last truthful statement, said he wanted “to spread the wealth around”. [A statement like that bespeaks a mindset that assumes wealth is like manure. It’s not. If nothing goes into the front end of the cow, trust me, nothing is coming out the back end.] Why should Liberty City pay for Coconut Grove?
You say there are “46,000,000 poor people in America”. That is the same percentage in 1964. I mention 1964 because that was the year that Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty.
The amount of money spent on this war is beyond calculation. No wonder the charlatans in D.C. can’t tell you how many people have paid their ObamaCare premiums. Why hasn’t the needle moved?
You say in counterpoint that Shanesha’s “unemployment benefits should be cut”.
It’s a small thing but if she never worked how could she qualify for unemployment insurance benefits.
A small housekeeping detail.
You said last year that your daughter was going to study English Literature when she went to college. I asked you to find out if Wordsworth is still the misogynistic turd he has been made out to be in the current arena of academia. Maybe she hasn’t gotten to him yet. Keep me in mind.
Kevin Smith
Leonard Pitts, Jr.
The Miami Herald
3511 NW 91st Avenue
Miami, FL 33172
RE: “The True Face of Poverty in America” – Some comments on the unfairness of it all in today’s unlinkable column. This morning’s victim is a homeless single mom of 2, a woman of color, who is yet another victim of the Koch Brothers and, to make it worse, who lives her nasty, poor, brutish, and short life under the lion’s paw of Wal-Mart.
Mr. Pitts,
Let the record show that 50 years ago the United States declared war on poverty.
It was the 3rd war that decade, the other 2 being Vietnam and drugs. I lost track of the other 2. How did they work out?
Shanesha Taylor, and her 2 children, are victims of the longest war in American History. It has lasted far longer than the Athens/Sparta dustup, AKA the Peloponnesian War.
[2 things leap to mind. How she avoided the abortionist’s imported high tech coat hanger – Black women, 6% of the country’s population, have had 38% of the abortions since Roe v Wade – is a subject for a different forum. Suffice to say that it is a satanic combination of Affirmative Action on steroids and public policy gone mad. The “other thing” and I hope that the mere thought of it won’t cause you to brand me with “R” for racist, the new Scarlet Letter. It is a risk I am willing to take but what about the other partner in the horizontal tango that produced these 2 children? What about the fathers? Do you think Moynihan was right?]
Margaret Sanger, iconic heroine of modern American Liberalism and the woman whose face appears on a medal just given to Nancy Pelosi, the reigning Hecate of the accursed modern American Liberalism, would have had a simple, direct solution to Shanesha’s problem. Forced abortion, involuntary spaying, and, borrowing a tried and true tactic from the Spartans, slow starvation. Hell, she was so good that Hitler used her as a model for his 1934 Nuremberg Race Laws. No wonder modern American Liberals, secret Fascists all, are so comfortable with her.
What can we, as a society that exacerbated her and our problem, do to help her and us?
The first thing that must be done is to look at this from an a posteriori stand.
Whatever we did to cause her to become “unlucky in life’s lottery”, whatever we did to make her become “a victim of life’s circumstances”, whatever we did to make her become the poster girl for the perverse effects of modern American Liberalism, must stop.
The reasons are simple:
It is not working.
It never worked.
It never will work.
A “conscious uncoupling” of these disastrous social policies must start now. If it were possible, yesterday.
Having dug ditches in 3 countries I can assure you that when you realize you are digging on the wrong side of the property line the very first thing you do is…is…stop digging.
It is almost a Howard Beale moment.
You mention some unwise government expenditures that should be stopped so that more money will be available to “help” Shanesha. I would have liked to have seen Midnight Basketball, Cash for Clunkers, and the granddaddy of them all, Shovel Ready jobs, in there but I am just an old fashioned guy.
How about a suggestion on the income side of the ledger?
Why not make the interest on income from municipal bonds taxable? Why should inner city residents, mostly Black, many of whom are single moms, all of whom are renters, subsidize rich suburbanites, most of whom are White, when they avoid their “fair share” of taxes?
President B O, in what may have been his last truthful statement, said he wanted “to spread the wealth around”. [A statement like that bespeaks a mindset that assumes wealth is like manure. It’s not. If nothing goes into the front end of the cow, trust me, nothing is coming out the back end.] Why should Liberty City pay for Coconut Grove?
You say there are “46,000,000 poor people in America”. That is the same percentage in 1964. I mention 1964 because that was the year that Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty.
The amount of money spent on this war is beyond calculation. No wonder the charlatans in D.C. can’t tell you how many people have paid their ObamaCare premiums. Why hasn’t the needle moved?
You say in counterpoint that Shanesha’s “unemployment benefits should be cut”.
It’s a small thing but if she never worked how could she qualify for unemployment insurance benefits.
A small housekeeping detail.
You said last year that your daughter was going to study English Literature when she went to college. I asked you to find out if Wordsworth is still the misogynistic turd he has been made out to be in the current arena of academia. Maybe she hasn’t gotten to him yet. Keep me in mind.
Kevin Smith
Monday, March 31, 2014
March 30, 2014
Stephen L. Goldstein
The Sun Sentinel
RE: Confession is good for the soul – Some comments on your unlinkable public service announcement on how to spot Florida con men
My dear Professor,
A while back you told me that you were not very familiar with The Divine Comedy.
I hope this classic example of vincible ignorance does not extend to “A Christmas Carol”.
It, like its predecessor, is a story of sin, redemption, and salvation. “While the light is left to burn the vilest sinner may return”, “The Hound of Heaven”, “Amazing Grace”, stuff like that.
Those of us who can read tea leaves, a trait not limited to the blessed and beloved Tea Partyers, know that underneath your column about the suede shoe shod, electric blue silk shirt wearing poltroons who would steal your eyes for grapes is a lifetime of guilt about to explode.
It might be best to summon a Haz-Mat SWAT team lest your toxic detritus befoul us all.
Jesus Christ, a man who more than 2,000,000,000 [and if that’s not a consensus I don’t know what is] is both the Son of God and God, said to Peter, the first Pope in a line that leads us straight to current rock star Pope Francis, “Those things that you bind up on earth I will bind up in Heaven”.
God’s mercy is infinite.
Ebenezer Scrooge was saved by it.
“They are pathological liars.”
“They are gluttons for publicity.”
“They are consummate sales people.”
“They suck up to the rich and powerful.”
“They are Pollyannas.”
I CAN THINK OF NO BETTER DESCRIPTION OF MODERN AMERICAN
LIBERALS – FLORIDA DEMOCRATIC PARTY SECT.
“You can keep your doctor if you want to.”
“We have to pass the bill to see what’s in it.”
I really shouldn’t mention the inconvenient truth that 3 times in the
20th century – 1916, 1940, 1964 - 3 progressive predecessors to the
fanged, toxic modern American Liberal Cossacks promised
that they wouldn’t send American boys to fight in foreign wars
SO I WON’T.
You have taken the most important first step.
You have looked back a la Colonel Nicholson in “The Bridge Over the River Kwai” and said, “My God, what have I done”?
Now you must seek God’s forgiveness.
When He forgives you you must face the poor saps who believed all your buncombe laden, clap-trap, balderdash and cry mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
Dante ends one of his Cantos saying ‘He came out of the cave and looked up and saw the stars”.
Think how much better you’ll feel when you are to unburden yourself of the blind obedience to such sinfully folly stuff as “shovel-ready jobs” and “the summer of recovery”. “Cash for clunkers” is a burden no man should be asked to bear. Having to believe that there are 57 or was it 58 states must be like a perpetual mental proctoscopy.
“The sins we do two by two we pay for one by one” is, alas, still the coin of the realm. Your cry for help has not gone unnoticed. If you feel that you may need special help in atoning for your past sins I can arrange to have several discalced mendicant monks scourge you on the steps of the church of your choice.
It’s the least I can do.
Kevin Smith
WARRIORBARDIT@BELLSOUTH.NET
Stephen L. Goldstein
The Sun Sentinel
RE: Confession is good for the soul – Some comments on your unlinkable public service announcement on how to spot Florida con men
My dear Professor,
A while back you told me that you were not very familiar with The Divine Comedy.
I hope this classic example of vincible ignorance does not extend to “A Christmas Carol”.
It, like its predecessor, is a story of sin, redemption, and salvation. “While the light is left to burn the vilest sinner may return”, “The Hound of Heaven”, “Amazing Grace”, stuff like that.
Those of us who can read tea leaves, a trait not limited to the blessed and beloved Tea Partyers, know that underneath your column about the suede shoe shod, electric blue silk shirt wearing poltroons who would steal your eyes for grapes is a lifetime of guilt about to explode.
It might be best to summon a Haz-Mat SWAT team lest your toxic detritus befoul us all.
Jesus Christ, a man who more than 2,000,000,000 [and if that’s not a consensus I don’t know what is] is both the Son of God and God, said to Peter, the first Pope in a line that leads us straight to current rock star Pope Francis, “Those things that you bind up on earth I will bind up in Heaven”.
God’s mercy is infinite.
Ebenezer Scrooge was saved by it.
“They are pathological liars.”
“They are gluttons for publicity.”
“They are consummate sales people.”
“They suck up to the rich and powerful.”
“They are Pollyannas.”
I CAN THINK OF NO BETTER DESCRIPTION OF MODERN AMERICAN
LIBERALS – FLORIDA DEMOCRATIC PARTY SECT.
“You can keep your doctor if you want to.”
“We have to pass the bill to see what’s in it.”
I really shouldn’t mention the inconvenient truth that 3 times in the
20th century – 1916, 1940, 1964 - 3 progressive predecessors to the
fanged, toxic modern American Liberal Cossacks promised
that they wouldn’t send American boys to fight in foreign wars
SO I WON’T.
You have taken the most important first step.
You have looked back a la Colonel Nicholson in “The Bridge Over the River Kwai” and said, “My God, what have I done”?
Now you must seek God’s forgiveness.
When He forgives you you must face the poor saps who believed all your buncombe laden, clap-trap, balderdash and cry mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
Dante ends one of his Cantos saying ‘He came out of the cave and looked up and saw the stars”.
Think how much better you’ll feel when you are to unburden yourself of the blind obedience to such sinfully folly stuff as “shovel-ready jobs” and “the summer of recovery”. “Cash for clunkers” is a burden no man should be asked to bear. Having to believe that there are 57 or was it 58 states must be like a perpetual mental proctoscopy.
“The sins we do two by two we pay for one by one” is, alas, still the coin of the realm. Your cry for help has not gone unnoticed. If you feel that you may need special help in atoning for your past sins I can arrange to have several discalced mendicant monks scourge you on the steps of the church of your choice.
It’s the least I can do.
Kevin Smith
WARRIORBARDIT@BELLSOUTH.NET
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