Whatever You Want to Know. Or Not. We'll See.

What you really want to know is whether or not Congress will extract its head from its posterior, quit firing cheap shots at the political opposition, and do something to fix the economy before we get overtaken by economic powerhouses like Burkina Faso. What you're going to get is more of the same.

But then, that's why you visit good old Uncle Bilbo ... to learn interesting and useful things. Or, at least, things that can help take your mind off all the scary stuff out there.

For this reason ... and because I'm suffering from creative constipation this morning ... let's roll out a topic I haven't used for a few years: Ask Bilbo.

Yes, Dear Readers, this is your opportunity to ask Bilbo anything you want. I will answer all questions that don't involve allegations of past intimate relationships with small animals, my shameful past as a Republican, or my true opinion of S&P, Congress, and the financial mismanagement industry (there are, after all, children who read this blog).

Post your question in the comments, or send an e-mail to bilbo_the_blogger(at)yahoo(dot)com. If I get enough questions, I'll answer them tomorrow. If not, I'll do something else. Whatever.

Operators are standing by ...

Have a good day. Answers to your questions tomorrow.

Bilbo

Yet More Great Moments in Editing

What with helicopter crashes in Afghanistan, terrible economic news, an inept and useless Congress, and general personal crankiness, I need something funny to start out another week. How about some more Great Moments in Editing?

You can't be too careful ...

I certainly hope they have fresh breasts ...

I'm sure the owner was happy to get it back in one ... uh ... never mind ...

And after the trial is over, he's going to run for Congress ...

I'm not sure I'd want anyone who was willing to volunteer for this one ...

I guess they don't need to know geography as long as they can cook ...

I wonder why they're not meeting in the 5-H building ...

Maybe this is why the ladies at the dance party Saturday night at Forever Dancing were looking at me oddly ...

I guess sometimes you just forget things in the ... uh ... heat of the moment ...

And we're off to start yet another week. I can hardly wait.

Have a good day. More thoughts (hopefully, properly-edited ones) tomorrow.

Bilbo

Time to Open Another Envelope

Yes, Dear Readers, it's time once again to present the award first suggested some months ago by Faithful Reader Chrissy. Her original suggestion, and my original intent, was to make this a weekly award ... and there's certainly no shortage of candidates (I could make 535 weekly awards just by going down the Congressional roster); however, I find that I get so aggravated when I consider the range of potential awardees that it puts me into a bad mood and I spend the rest of the day having to calm down and stop spluttering.

So ...

Having said all that, I am proud pleased grudgingly moved to present the latest Ass Clown of the Week award:

This week, we are making a group presentation - to the leader and members of the Westboro Baptist Church for their latest disgusting outrage: planning to travel to Norway to picket at the funerals of people murdered by right-wing extremist Anders Breivik.

The Westboro Baptist Church - a bizarre fringe sect whose membership consists of less than 100 people, most of whom are members of a single extended family - has made itself notorious for its core belief that terrible things happen (soldiers killed in battle, mass murders, natural disasters, etc) because God is punishing those victims for happening to live in, be connected to, or somehow represent a government, country, or organization that accepts homosexuality as a lifestyle. The so-called "church" attracts attention far out of proportion to its level of membership or support of its beliefs by its hateful practice of using funerals and memorial services as venues to present its in-your-face message of hatred. Here's an example:

Lately it's been difficult to find any individual or group that exemplifies the need for the Ass Clown of the Week Award more than the GOP, but the Westboro Baptist Church has made a very strong come-from-behind showing to earn this week's symbol of utter disgust.

You go, WBC! I just wish you'd go somewhere else. And I have a suggestion where that might be.

Have a good day. Monday will come soon enough. More thoughts then.

Bilbo

Cartoon Saturday

Well, let's drive a stake through the heart of this ugly week, shall we?

Standard and Poor's credit rating agency has downgraded the credit rating of the United States for the first time in its history - from AAA to AA+ (of course, as Mike points out, this was the same agency that gave a AAA rating to all those "financial instruments" based on questionable home loans); thirty-one US Special Forces soldiers have been killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan; in Norway, a polar bear killed one person and injured four others participating in a school trip; speaking of Norway, the reprehensible and disgusting ass clowns of the Westboro Baptist Church have announced plans to picket the funerals of persons killed in the terror attacks in Oslo; and China, not content with keeping a very tight lid on anti-government dissent at home, is throwing its weight around to keep people in other countries from criticizing the communist regime as well.

I'd ask, "What's next?", but I'm afraid I'd find out the answer.

For a while, there seemed to be a rash of cartoons out there about cavemen (not including the silly Geico commercials). Here are a few ...

My personal favorite ...

And this one, which shows that people have always been ... well ... odd ...

I got a kick out of this cartoon, not the least reason being that it's closer to being topical than I'd probably like to admit ...

This one just showed up this morning on Miss Cellania's site, and I couldn't resist re-posting it ...

Welcome to Washington! ...

How our elected reprehensives seem to be getting their message across ...

I'll never look at my gin and tonic the same way again ...

When some smarmy, self-important politician tells you what "the American People" want, he may not be thinking quite of this ... but he should ...

And finally, I thought this one was just too clever to pass up ...

We had a great dance party at Studio One last night, with some old friends making an appearance after a long absence and the ladies demonstrating their mastery of The Language of the Fan, courtesy of eViL pOp TaRt. And I only stepped on my own feet once.

Around here, you take what you can get.

Have a good day and a great weekend. Monday will come soon enough. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

Thoughts About Leadership

I normally write just one post per day, but I got spun up about this topic earlier today and wanted to write the post while the thoughts are still fresh in my mind. The subject is leadership.

This is a topic I think I can write about with some authority, having spent 23 years as an officer in the Air Force and been a small unit commander, an operations officer, and a staff division chief - all leadership positions. How successful I was as a leader is for others to judge, but I think my experience gives me a perspective to comment on the ridiculous circus that we hang our heads and grudgingly admit is our elected government.

It's clear that one of the things most lacking in our government at the moment is leadership. The Republicans don't let a day go by in which they don't loudly castigate President Obama for not demonstrating leadership. Both political parties lack effective leadership, and as a result are led around by the nose by their most extreme fringes and by unelected, self-important buffoons like Grover Norquist and Rush Limbaugh.

But what does it all mean? What do we really need in a leader?

I suggest that there are three essential leadership qualities we need in our government at this crucial point in our history ... all of which are sadly lacking:

First, leaders must inspire. They have to make people want to follow them, even when the way is difficult and the need for short-term pain to fix long-range problems is evident.

Second, leaders must have a vision. No one wants to follow a leader who doesn’t know where he (or she) wants to go.

And finally, leaders must have a plan. A vision may inspire followers, but without a plan for achieving the vision, it's nothing more than a mirage.

Take President Obama. I voted for him and will probably vote for him again, if only because I'm so sickened by the behavior of the Republicans. I do have a certain amount of buyer's remorse, because I don't think Mr Obama is living up to my expectations, but he's had a hard row to hoe. The Republicans may thunder that he's not providing leadership ... but it's tough to be a leader if your opposition is noisy, well-organized, and totally opposed to everything you do or say. When the Republican leadership says that its main goal is to ensure that Mr Obama is a one-term president, and then does everything it can to make that happen, it's tough for the president to demonstrate effective leadership.

I like Mr Obama, and I respect him, but I don't think he has either a vision of where he wants to lead the nation, or a plan of how to get there. He's an inspirational speaker in the sense that he gives a good speech, but I never have the sense that there's a passion and a vision behind the words. No matter what you may say about the Republicans (and I've said a lot, as you know), they have a vision (of a tiny and ineffectual government that collects no taxes and pretty much lets everyone do whatever they want) and they have a plan to get there (do everything possible to block whatever the President and the Democrats try to do).

Leadership is more than the ability to out-shout your opponents. It's more than blaming the other guy for all the problems you worked with him to create in the first place. It's more than putting up a solid wall of unyielding opposition to ideas other than your own.

Leadership is the ability to convince people that you're right, that you have a vision, that the vision is one that also meets their needs and aspirations, and that they can trust you to lead them there.

Leadership is what we have in woefully short supply. It's what both parties have subcontracted to their worst elements ... to the fringe wingnuts who substitute shouted slogans for rational debate and discussion, and who substitute passion for reason.

If we don't get some real leadership from the President - and some willingness to cooperate from the disloyal opposition - the country is going to be in a lot more trouble than it is now, and sooner rather than later.

Call your elected reprehensives. Tell them you demand effective leadership and cooperation based on a willingness to accept that both parties have legitimate issues and concerns. The stakes are high, and you deserve no less.

Have a good day. Demand real leadership.

More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

Thanks, Congress!

Well, don't we have good news this morning?

Yesterday, Wall Street tanked yet again as a result of what one commentator said was an atmosphere of "total fear."

This morning, the Asian markets have taken a steep nose dive as well.

I suppose I could look at the bright side and think that at least the rubble has been swept away from the smoking hole where my 401k used to be. But I won't.

Let's see how the rest of this year is shaping up at the Bilbo household:

Job in jeopardy as a result of automatic budget cuts which will be imposed if the Congressional "super committee" can't agree on "savings" (yes, good luck with that) ... just in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas, no less ... check.

Retirement savings pretty much wiped out ... check.

Social Security and Medicare on the ropes just as retirement savings pretty much wiped out ... check.

Ability to land another job in the current economic climate ... forget it. And this article pretty much sums it all up: No One Knows What the Hell to Do About Jobs. Here's the key part of that article:

“The White House's jobs agenda is always, always, a re-branding of stimulus spending. The GOP's "jobs agenda" is always a cocktail of plans they've already proposed, which are never about using government spending or intervention to create jobs, and always about deregulation. Check out the list of job-creating GOP bills - half of them are about opening up new energy exploration or peeling back the post-BP oil spill limits on licensing. Good ideas! Just not representative of a surge of GOP jobs ideas ... The horrible truth is that Democrats are not being stopped from implementing ideas that will grow the economy at double-speed. Nor is it that Republicans are being stopped from unleashing bold new ideas that'll fix the housing or employment crises. The truth is that no one knows what to do in the short term.”

Want some more good news? Steven Pearlstein is here to help: The Global Economy Comes to the End of Its String.

Thanks, Congress! Hope you're enjoying your vacation.

I really need to go dancing tonight to try to forget about this mess for a few hours. It will be a little strange watching the ladies fan themselves between dances, though ... check out this wonderful analysis from eViL pOp TaRt: The Language of the Fan, Updated.

Tomorrow is Cartoon Saturday ... maybe I'll feel better then. Don't hold your breath.

Have as good a day as you can. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

(aka, Mr Crankypants)

BS

Let's talk about bullshit, shall we?

I've been thinking about it quite a bit lately, given the unconscionable antics of our elected reprehensives (who are now on vacation, having stiffed about 24,000 FAA workers who are without jobs and pay). Here are a few things to think about on the subject of bullshit.

First, this marvelous song from Grace Jones (from the album "Warm Leatherette") ...

Then we have this wonderful book by Harry G. Frankfurt ($9.95 at Amazon.com) ...

Mr Frankfurt says eloquently,

“One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern. We have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves.”

Au contraire, Mr Frankfurt ... there are 535 overpaid buffoons soaking up oxygen on Capitol Hill who can tell you exactly what functions it serves.

Remember the Republican "Contract with America" ... especially the part about the "Job Creation and Wage Enhancement Act" they promised? I didn't think so. I'm not sure I remember the last time the GOP mentioned jobs, except in the context of trumpeting about why taxes kill them. About creating them ... not so much.

And if you would like to have a nice glass of wine while you consider the topic of bullshit, you can enjoy it while reading Richard Quandt's erudite article titled "On Wine Bullshit."

So, join me in helping to limit bullshit ...

Your country needs you to take a stand on this critical issue.

Just watch where you step.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

Random Thoughts for a Hot Wednesday

I'm having a bit of trouble this morning with linear thinking, so I thought I'd just throw out a few disconnected observations in an attempt to look as if I'm coherent and intellectually wide-ranging.

It's worth a shot.

Congress, in a state of exhaustion from the stress of having recklessly brought the nation to the brink of economic disaster ... and leaving critical business undone ... has adjourned for a well-earned rest. This is not a bad thing, as history shows Congress can cause far less trouble when it's not in session.

China's leading credit rating agency has downgraded the credit rating of the United States for the second time, from A+ to A. The chairman of the Dagong Global Credit Rating Company said that "The squabbling between the two political parties on raising the US debt ceiling reflected an irreversible trend on the United States' declining ability to repay its debts." I guess that will come as a surprise to all those conservatives who grandly announced that there would be no repercussions if the nation went into default.

I just heard on the news that the special "super-committee" which is supposed to identify still more cuts to the Federal budget is supposed to deliver its initial report before Thanksgiving. That will certainly give most of us something to be thankful for. I'm already planning on downsizing from turkey to Cornish game hen.

One of the drivers of the miserable state of the economy is the ever-spiraling cost of health care. It occurs to me that the problem is being approached in the wrong way: instead of worrying about how to pay for ever-increasing costs, perhaps we should figure out how to bring the costs down to where Real People can actually pay for them. I can think of two places to start ... cap jury awards for malpractice suits, and reduce administrative overhead in the provision of care. I know that there are reinforced battalions of lawyers and medical industry lobbyists who will insist that there's no way to bring costs down, but I think they're full of medical waste.

After I posted yesterday about Hell on Earth, Miss Cellania offered up this helpful guide ...

The only obvious thing missing is the room where sinners are forced to listen to right-wing talk radio 24 hours a day.

Okay, that's all for today. I did actually have a good evening yesterday, enjoying a Skype call with my grandchildren out in Ohio, so I'm actually a bit less cranky that it may sound. But only a bit.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

Hell on Earth

No, it isn't Pyongyang, or Sudan, or Yemen. It isn't even what Republicans envision as a nation run by Democrats.

It's actually a valley on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

If you follow this link, it will take you to an online version of an article by Edwin Black originally published in the Washington Post back in 1999 - The Truth About Hell. It's an interesting look at the history and geography of a ravine called Gei Ben Hinnom, the Valley of the Sons of Hinnom, and its role in the evolution of our ideas of what we now call hell. You might recognize Gei Ben Hinnom as the basis of the term Gehenna. This was what it looked like in 1900 ...

The article is a very interesting look at the development of our concepts of hell, and I especially liked the last paragraph:

"This much is certain, no matter how we trace Hell’s spiritual lineage or try to pinpoint its geographic fix, the map mark and quality of the place of eternal damnation is inescapeably confined to one powerful locale: the mind of man."

On other fronts, the House of Representatives has voted to accept the compromise bill to raise the debt ceiling by ruthlessly slashing government spending. Oddly enough, there seems to be no consideration of its effect on Real People in terms of jobs lost, benefits reduced or eliminated, or of the loss of America's prestige.

Thanks, Congress. If I lose my job because of your stupidity and inability to set political dogma aside, I'll remember at the ballot box.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow, when I hope to be in a better mood.

Bilbo

Happy August 1st!

The circus over the debt reduction plan continues, but it appears - once again - that a deal has been struck. Of course, said deal must be passed by both houses of Congress, where House Republicans and Senate Democrats will still have their opportunities to block it, but one must be positive. I, for instance, am positive that - no matter what the outcome - Congress will end up looking totally stupid. Quote of the day: Democratic Representative Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri referred to the deal as a "sugar-coated Satan sandwich." Congressional budget negotiators posed for a group photo to demonstrate that they're working in a sober, bipartisan fashion to resolve the crisis:

Oh, and the deal apparently features the Republican "it's all Obama's fault and we can make him say it" element which allows the President to raise the debt ceiling again, Congress to vote against it, and the President to veto the Congressional resolution.

If you still needed any proof that this is a politically-manufactured crisis, there it is.

$%#@! politicians.

Well, anyhow, welcome to August! Today is August 1st, the beginning of the month here in Disneyland-on-the-Potomac which is traditionally the hottest, not that you'd know it this year. Between the miserably hot weather and the great waves of hot air rolling down from Capitol Hill, it seems we've been living in a sauna since about April. It just brings us that much closer to the time of year when we'll switch to complaining about the snow, ice, and cold.

On the coping-with-modern-technology front, I have successfully bested the combination of hardware and software hurdles to check out and download the first electronic library book to my iPad. While I'm still a confirmed lover of traditional books, the ability to travel with a half-pound iPad instead of a ten-pound bale of books does have some appeal. I'll let you know how the electronic reading thing works out.

Speaking of books, the slow death of our local Borders Bookstore goes on. Agnes and I visited the sad remains of the store yesterday, and bought several bags of books for ourselves and for stockpiling as Christmas presents. The demise of Borders means that we now have only one traditional major bookseller in the area - Barnes and Noble. I hope that B&N sticks around, because I really enjoy the experience of browsing amid the shelves of books and exchanging capsule reviews with other customers ... an experience you just can't have at Amazon.com.

And so another week begins. I'm still employed, the debt ceiling circus goes on, and it's still hot. Here's looking forward to ... whatever.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo