Shot in the Dark

That’ll Learn Ya

A friend of mine emailed:

A friend of mine sent this to me today while vacationing near White Mountain National Forest in Vermont.

By the way if you want to visit a federal open air sculpture garden that is still open, you can’t go to the national Korean War memorial. But you can to the the front of the U.S. Courthouse in Minneapolis and have your picture taken by the cute little animals sculpted there. So why is that open but not the open air Korean War memorial. Is the sculpture garden in front of the courthouse more necessary? Just a thought.

I’m gonna guess if we organized a “cute little federal animals tour” with a couple hundred people, we’d see barricades.

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Mitch Berg

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29 responses to “That’ll Learn Ya”

  1. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    All of the furloughed federal workers will be paid in full for lost pay during the shutdown. The House passed this bill on Saturday by a 407-0 vote. So workers will be paid for not working. Didn’t see that coming did you… ;^)

    The shutdown was caused by groups making non-negotiable demands, the shutdown will be expensive, and my guess is the shutdown will probably end before Congress goes on recess. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/us/a-federal-budget-crisis-months-in-the-planning.html

  2. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    I’m as far-right a small-L libertarian as you’ll find around here but I don’t see a problem with honoring promises. The employees didn’t decide to bloat the government by adding non-essential jobs; they didn’t decide to take citizens hostage to endlessly higher debt; they are (by and large) decent, working, taxpaying family people ready and willing to do the job as soon as management gets its act together. They’re like the 999 men standing around waiting for the last guy so they can lay the keel of the Liberty Ship. Not their fault management is screwed up. Paying them is fair to employees.

    At the same time, I think government IS bloated and management ought to be sending out layoff notices so people in limbo can start looking for other work. That’s fair to employees, too.

  3. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    Korean, WWII, Vietnam memorials are closed, but Pro-immigration rally had been allowed. All hail Ceabama!

  4. Colonel_Flagg Avatar
    Colonel_Flagg

    Fact of the matter is, the Senate had three separate chances to end this fiasco by funding the government in full, except for Obamacide, as passed by the House.

    The other fact of the matter is that this fiasco ends as soon as the Spite House decides it should end.

  5. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    “I’m as far-right a small-L libertarian”
    Libertarian is a less embarrassing way to say Republican. Conservatives could use William F Buckley Jr. (or someone of similar intellect) right now. I hate to encourage the Republican party for glorifying stupidity, and flunking math and science. Perhaps the Tea Party would consider becoming a third party. Then I could start voting Republican again.

  6. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    “Libertarian is a less embarrassing way to say Republican”

    Well, no. On a political Venn diagram, some Republicans (and fewer Democrats) would intersect with Libertarians.

    And the Tea Party is the part of the GOP that actually works.

  7. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    MBerg says “And the Tea Party is the part of the GOP that actually works.”

    The reason the Republicans shutdown the government is an attempt by conservative groups to “defund Obamacare”. http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/ryanriebe/joint-letter-on-sequester-savings

    “It articulated a take-no-prisoners legislative strategy that had long percolated in conservative circles: that Republicans could derail the health care overhaul if conservative lawmakers were willing to push fellow Republicans — including their cautious leaders — into cutting off financing for the entire federal government.”

    We need to draw the line on spending, and it’s best to draw it with health insurance, which is a luxury we can’t afford. Not when we need all of these F-35’s. Seems like a shell game. Where’s the pea ?

  8. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    Emery: F-35, threadjack.

    The subject matter of this post is the Obama Administration using the apparatus of government to punish ordinary Americans who disagree with The Light Bringer’s agenda, just as it did with the IRS, EPA, DHS and now the Park Service.

  9. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    I’m glad Mr. Doakes didn’t gutlessly blame both parties, but you still could’ve been more explicit that this a 100% republican manufactured crisis. For a person that uses a pseudonym that implies “the average man” you sure are gullible.

  10. Loren Avatar
    Loren

    “!00% Republican manufactured crisis”, Emery? Really? I thought it took two to tango.

    I seem to remember my mother saying something about needing two to have a fight…

    And is Emery not a pseudonym?

  11. Seflores Avatar
    Seflores

    Honestly DougieG / alter ego Emery – this post is about how petty the Democrats and the Administration are being in that they have to stage these Shutdown Theater presentations at various open air memorials and sites that rarely if ever have a Federal employee around just to show the “people” how important their Federal government is in their lives. Did you not get that?
    I seem to remember Democrats routinely challenging W Bush on settled law and protesting and underfunding his programs and no one told the Democrats to shut up or sic the IRS on them and their supporters. I expect the party that’s out of power to challenge the party in power. Is this a soft bigotry of low expectations thing with you?
    F-35 & the TEA Party? – were you not paying attention when this happened, Doug?
    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/us/politics/17-f-35-engine.html
    As if defense contractors don’t know to spread the work around so that Sherrod Brown and John Boehner have to be on the same side of a spending issue to protect jobs at General Electric units in Ohio? Are you this dumb in your real life?
    I hate to encourage the Democrat party for glorifying tyranny and celebrating bigotry and brown shirt tactics. Perhaps the Bull Connor wing of the Democrats would consider becoming a third party. Then I could start voting Democrat again.

  12. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    Are you this dumb in your real life?

    There you go again with rhetoricals…

  13. Joe Avatar
    Joe

    The shutdown of the Amber Alert site, while Michelle Obama’s “Lets Move” site remained operational, was making the I-net rounds, but doesn’t seem to have garnered much attention. The Amber Alert site was resurrected shortly after the incident came to light. If challanged, I suppose that un-named, lower-level employee will be found to be at fault again …

    If true, and I’ve found nothing so far to disprove it, it’s one of their more reprehensible tactics. I guess High Pitched Harry’s open disregard for the child with cancer should have served as notice that even the most vulnerable of kids aren’t safe (until they get caught).

  14. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    @Loren: Google the name Joe Doakes. /The character’s name comes from “Joe Doakes,” which was a popular American slang term for the “average man”. (The term “Joe Blow” is now more common.)/
    Whereas Emery is just a name. Was able to get out on the bike today and cranked 65.2 miles. ;^)

    @Seflores: your talking points sound familiar…
    /This toolkit is designed to be used by individuals and groups alike. We have included many resources, such as letters to the editor, which can be signed by an individual or an entire tea party group.We encourage you to use the sample blog posts, sample social media, and sample letters as a guideline to start your own creative process. /
    http://www.teapartypatriots.org/2013/09/get-your-defunding-obamacare-toolkit/

  15. jimf Avatar
    jimf

    Sorry, Emery- that would be the Democratic party that’s “flunking science and math”. But nice try.

  16. passout76 Avatar
    passout76

    June 12, 1987, West Berlin
    “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

    October 8, 2013, Vermont
    “Mr. Obama, unlock this latrine.”

  17. Powhatan Mingo Avatar
    Powhatan Mingo

    The US Congress is the most small-d democratic of the three branches of the federal government. Despite left-talk about gerrymandered districts (which apparently only appeared in 2010), the House of representatives is the more small-d democratic of the bicameral congress.
    Obama forced the ACA through the House and senate on a narrow margin, using every trick in the Chicago politician’s book. The move to defund Obamacare represents a small-d democrat impulse far more than the full-speed-ahead drive ti implement Obamacare by a democrat controlled senate and a lame duck president.

  18. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    Obamacare is the only major social welfare legislation ever passed with support from only one party. Until the Democrats find a way to change it that brings in some Republicans, it will remain a target for the Republicans. What did the Democrats expect? Do you think Social Security or Medicare would have lasted this long with only one party’s support?

  19. Powhatan Mingo Avatar
    Powhatan Mingo

    Emery, the response of liberals to your 09:39 is that because in 1998 a Heritage foundation paper supposedly proposed the individual mandate as a conservative alternative to single-payer health care, and Because Romney signed off an individual mandate for MA, Obamacare is actually a conservative program. Therefore the reason that no Republicans voted for it was because they are all racists.
    Opposition to Obamacare is therefore unprincipled racism.

  20. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    If Emery is not the name shown on your most recent government-issued name document (birth certificate, court-ordered name change, etc), then you are using an alias just as I am using a pseudonyum. Neither of us is posting under our true names because we fear backlash. That’s a valid concern in today’s politics-is-personal climate. A concern for personal safety does not invalidate our arguments.

    Attacking a person’s alias/pseudonym is an ad hominem logical fallacy that does not affect the underlying argument. Belittling the name Joe Doakes doesn’t prove Republicans are 100% at fault for the shut-down.

    Try again.
    .

  21. Loren Avatar
    Loren

    So “Emery” and “Joe Doakes” are both pseudonyms, but you are superior since your pseudonym doesn’t Google to anything? Gotcha. Makes sense.

  22. Powhatan Mingo Avatar
    Powhatan Mingo

    “Emery” is an anagram of “Meyer”. As in Meyer Lansky, “king of all evil, the brains, the secret mover, the inspirer and controller of American organized crime.”
    Make of it what you will. I’m just pointing out a fact, here.

  23. Seflores Avatar
    Seflores

    ‘Emery’ – So the response is to accuse me of reposting talking points then cutting and pasting something that isn’t even close to resembling what I wrote? For a commenter that has at least twice been caught here at SitD cutting and pasting without attribution – that’s novel.
    In all those miles you crank out you should spend time in thought about what you really think about an issue: Based on what you have read somewhere or have heard elsewhere; balance those other peoples ideas with what your own life experience has been. Then when you write here, your comment comes from your own opinion instead of something you have read and ripped from elsewhere. You might be wrong, or simply have a different opinion than others, but at least it’s your own. I can respect that.
    Simply pulling something off the internet and presenting it as your own isn’t very respectable. In fact it makes me think much of the backstory you have ‘created’ for yourself here likely isn’t true at all or is certainly embellished. It may give you some wierd sense of superiority over other commenters on this small, but regionally significant blog, but to me at least, it’s just wierd.
    As ‘Joe Doakes’ put so well: “Try Again”. Attribution. Not that hard.

  24. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    PM: you seem to have misplaced something. Let me fill in the gaps for you.

    /Despite all the reports, the U.S. Justice Department never found Lansky …. For Lacey, there was no evidence “to sustain the notion of Lansky as king of all evil, the brains, the secret mover, the inspirer and controller of American organized crime./

    Hyman Roth based on (Mr. Lansky) was a great character in the film the Godfather.

  25. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    It’s called an opinion Seflores. I’m sure you’re familiar with the old adage: ‘opinions and (fill-in-the-blank) everyone has one.’ I take a fair amount of abuse on this site and I have no objection to it. It’s all part of the charm of posting on SiTD. But in return, it’s bound to be returned sooner or later. I don’t take it personally. After all, we’re just pseudonyms aren’t we?

  26. Seflores Avatar
    Seflores

    Jaysus, Emery, in your condescension to Terry you couldn’t even cut and paste from Meyer Lansky’s wikipedia page without cocking it up.
    The passage you clipped (ahem, without attribution) from Lansky’s wiki page is the opinion of Lanskys’ biographer (Robert Lacey) based on the fact that at the time of his death in 1983, Lansky had only $37,000 that could be found (likely because of the Cubans seizing his property and assets in the Revolution) and that the author believes (again – someone else’s opinion) Lansky was no more than an accountant for the mob. Balance this with known facts about Lansky – he had significant interests mob run casinos, either sanctioned or was present at the decison to murder numerous people and was bribing government officals from Vegas to Havana. I think (based on weighing more than one piece of information) that Lansky was a “conspirer and controller of organized crime”.
    And Emery – speaking of movie characters – how about Curly Washburn from ‘City Slickers’. Speaking of opinions and (fill-in-the-blank), why don’t you Wiki him and his famous line of dialogue from the movie?

  27. Powhatan Mingo Avatar
    Powhatan Mingo

    It’s wikipedia! If people can put misleading information into wikipedia, by God I can get it out!

  28. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    Seflores > Love you man!

  29. Seflores Avatar
    Seflores

    Emery > Love you more!

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