Update

The Ford Excursion that first born didn't buy is now "on sale this week" for $2,000 MORE than she could have paid. What kind of. . . no, there's no question. Those people are crazy. Even the name of the place is misleading: Car Systems. Shouldn't they be selling stereos? (I guess there is a question after all.)

CUTE: Add Beth Behrs ("2 Broke Girls") to my cute list. (I also love the horse in the back yard.)

Fun with diversity

I must recognize and commend The Berkeley College Republicans of UC Berkeley for Tuesday's Increase Diversity Bake Sale, held to protest the ill-advised, biased Senate Bill 185 presently on the governor's desk. That legislation, if signed, would allow public universities to consider race and other factors in student admissions.

At the clever, satiric event, goodies were offered for sale with the following appropriate price structure:

White/Caucasian $2.00
Asian/Asian American $1.50
Latino/Hispanic $1.00
Black/African American $0.75
Native American $0.25
$0.25 off for all women

The mainstream press reported that "several dozen" supporters faced off with "hundreds" of critics. AP punctuated the story with a photo of a group of potential disrupters, fronted by an angry black woman, with their fists raised in the air in the ritual black power salute.

Prejudice nothwithstanding, the point was made and, although I doubt there were many sales (nor much food avaliable), I suspect the student Republicans polished off the inventory before thay had to return to class, and face the disapproval of their predominately liberal professors. More power to The Berkeley College Republicans.

As an accompaniment to the T-Shirt profiled at the right. . .

you can purchase a T-Shirt, Sweatshirt or 7" X 12" sign reading "The Hokey Pokey Clinic A place to turn yourself around." -- signals.com (almost as overpriced. . . plus shipping)

ROAD TRIP ANYONE? The Humphrey Bogart 1937 Plymouth referenced in my post of May 20, now resides in the Lone Pine Film History Museum. I don't recall my interviewer mentioning that over 100 movies had been made in or near town, or I might not have been so quick to resign that position. Being the only college graduate in theatre in town might have given me an entry into the world of Hollywood.

. . . and here it is

I regret I must allow myself to be offended by the giant hypocrite in the White House who proposes to financially punish the owners of corporate jets, while he avails himself of the largest, most expensive corporate jet in the world, Air Force One, and has yet to announce that he plans to pay his fair share of tax for his personal use for extensive political campaigning, and numerous vacations with his wife and children, and, on at least one occasion, 75 of his closest friends and relatives.

As one of those "rich people" he excoriates, I certainly hope he also looks forward to contributing an inordinately unfair percentage of his income to fund his unrealistic programs and incentive destroying entitlements.

Just one word to those of you who are not rich -- if you let the government unfairly punish other Americans, don't be surprised when they come for you.

#900 Two new sitcoms

Kathryn Hahn is a little zoftig, but still very desirable, and makes my top five. Her show, "Free Agents," is better than "Up All Night," which I assume to be the direction they want my dinner to go. Only fans of treacle could keep it down.

ALSO: Our long national talent nightmare is finally over. Silhouettes finished second. The winner can now buy an Hispano-Suiza and never disturb Sinatra again. With a good vocal coach he may develop his own style, but with a better accountant, he won't have to work at all. . . unless the dollar goes the way of 1930's German Mark.

I JUST REMEMBERED: One of my grade school teachers once wrote, "Was impudent, but has improved" on my report card. She was wrong. I kept getting worse, and today I am a major wise-ass. Wait until you read my upcoming letter to the editor. . .

What's this all about?

First born is in the market for a new work vehicle. Well, not a new one, but newer than the '87 and '90 she has been patching up on a regular basis. Although she has been paying two mechanics very frequently, she claims to have an aversion to monthly payments. Personally, I would not buy any used vehicle that cost more than $700 cash.

She, however, after a recent windfall, is prepared to pay $10,000 and no more. With that in mind, yesterday she traveled to the capitol city with one of the above mentioned mechanics to investigate two Ford Excursion diesels, the 2000-02 models of which "everyone" says are some of the best SUVs.

They were to be found at a very unusual used car lot. The salesman introduced himself as someone who is retired and just filling in since the mechanic "left." When she asked, he said there was no Carfax for the 2001, because they "cost money," but when pressed, a copy magically appeared in a folder full of others. One can look, but he did not volunteer to make a copy.

The mechanic found enough glitches to label the 2001 questionable, even though it was priced below blue book, but one could talk to the owner in the next few minutes about financing. There would be no negotiations of the price, however. They never do that. They take all the fun out of buying a used car. I believe if first born had waved nine one-thousand-dollar bills in his face, he would have said he needed the other few hundred dollars he had mentioned. Then the owner said he had to go, so decide now. The pressure offended her; she said goodbye. He didn't try to stop her. What kind of used car salesman is that?

The other Excursion was a 2000 with higher mileage, but a price significantly above blue book. That was puzzling, but she simply didn't bother to look at it because it cost more that the $10,000 she has budgeted, and it is black. Women. . . .

9/11

Yesterday, to increase newspaper circulation and TV viewing, the state-controlled media wallowed in pity and repeatedly asked what we have learned from the tragic attack. . . ten years later, as though we had never considered it before.

That question took me back to my childhood. I remember catechism, the Catholic version of Sunday school. It was there that I was told that Catholicism was the only "real" religion, and by implication, that anyone who did not embrace it might be deprived of the glory of heaven. I was admonished not to set foot in any building housing a religion other than Catholicism without special dispension. When my high school choir went to sing at a Protestant church, I didn't ask any priest for permission, but, as a result of the experience, I neither felt damned to hell nor in the presence of evil. The members of the host church didn't seek me out for disapproval, and at that young age, I learned about accceptance. I decided to respect all those who lead moral lives, and I try to emulate them.

After 9/11, however, I learned that Islam is governed by a written tract that can be interpreted to say that all "infidels" (of which I am apparently one) must either embrace their faith or be put to the sword. Because some of the adherents have already acted upon it, I have become wary of the members of that one religion. I don't like that feeling, and if I prayed, I would ask God to change their minds.

One week to go

PREFACE: The previous post was published today, just in time to advise tonight's speech. The E-R did not observe the usual seven-day wait, and released it in a timely manner. I hope it's because I wrote it.

Now, to the penultimate week of that American talent. And it has been characteristically American: everyone has spoken and/or sung in English, and none of them groused about being discriminated against or mistreated. All the losers, when asked, expressed thanks for the opportunity. . . the ultimate entitlement.

Four acts remain. America finally abandoned the opera singer, for, I suspect, the same reason I did. . . she dropped her voice an octave and sounded like Cher. Everyone had been urged to show versatility, but that was too much. Nobody channels Cher.

Remaining are the pop group, Poplyfe, which, unfortunately did a Michael Jackson medley, the Sinatra channeler who switched to Dean Martin, the dance group that lights up in the dark (when you can see it), and my personal favorite, Silhouettes. This is a large group of people who range in age from three to adult which creates silhouettes by dancing before a backlighted scrim, thus creating tableaux of famous American-themed places and events, pictures of which are then superimposed to prove how close the group has come to the original. It is not only clever and beautiful, but uplifting, and the versatility they show is the ability to create an increasing number of such scenes of American history.

Letter to the editor

This morning, on FoxNews Sunday, Chris Wallace asked the panel what President Obama could best say in his upcoming speech to the joint session of Congress to reverse the disastrous journey upon which he is embarked.

I have the answer: "Effective immediately, I, Barack Hussein Obama, resign the Presidency of the United States. I further direct that Joe Biden join me by stepping down as Vice-President, because, as self-absorbed and egotistical as I am, I won't endure this indignity alone. The polls by which I live say you don't like me any more, and I never did like you, so I'll be going back to Chicago and work for Mayor Emanuel, who always used to tell me what to do anyway."

With the ascendency of Speaker Boehner, the nation can take a break from the constant speechifying and concomitant lying to which we have been subjected for over three years, and prepare ourselves for the new round of political obfuscation and equivocating.

The Crisis of the European Union: Causes and Significance

Selected quotes from Vaclav Klaus, the president of the Czech Republic who spoke to friends of Hillsdale College in Berlin on June 11, 2011.*

"Europeans today prefer leisure to performance, security to risk-taking, paternalism to free markets, collectivism and group entitlements to individualism. They have always been more risk-averse than Americans, but the difference continues to grow. Economic freedom has a very low priority here. It seems that Europeans are not interested in capitalism and free markets and do not understand that their current behavior undermines the very institutions that made their past success possible. They are eager to defend their non-economic freedoms -- the easiness, looseness, laxity and permissiveness of modern or post-modern European society -- but when it comes to their economic freedoms, they are quite indifferent. . .

"Of course, with the way your American government has been going, you might be able to catch up with us -- in terms of our problems -- very soon. But you are not so far along yet. So maybe seeing Europe's crisis today will at least help you in America turn back toward freedom."

Take heed.

*Reprinted in "Imprimus," Volume 40, Number 7/8 (July/Aug. 2011)

The finals

In the semifinals I divided my choices into four groups -- my top three, my second four, my third four, and the rest. America chose two acts from each of my first three groups. The other four winners include a singer who does Sinatra, a frenetic dance group, a group that does a dark dance which capitalizes on the popular vampire craze, and a family whose two sons have convinced them to risk life and limb by participating in their motorcycle hijinks.

To guide your choices, if you decide to watch, I recommend the three singers -- the operatic voice, the eleven-year-old girl, or the cute pop group. Secondarily, the magician has all the appropriate equipment, the Silhouttes do that very well, but I couldn't see the group with the lights in the dark very well. Perhaps it's my eyesight. . . or a lack of interest. Fortunately, all of the real losers are gone, so a lot depends upon the quality of the final performances.

Several talents have already been eliminated basically for errors. Some Americans aren't very forgiving, even though we have a President who speaks of 57 States, and calls military medics "corpse-men." (Not to mention the lies.)

See you next week.