The Boston Marathon Bombings

One of my first and earliest thoughts in the tragic wake yesterday was Mayor Bloomberg needs to stop worrying about stupid stuff.  My other feeling was we've been lulled of late, no major domestic terror since 9/11 really and the few thwarted plans within the last few years were obviously concocted by amateurs (e.g. shoe bombers, undie bombers) and so there probably wasn't that heightened security at such a major event as there should have been not that there wasn't any security but you know what I'm sayin'.  Learned from some of the experts interviewed on the news yesterday that just like in the movies it is possible to detonate a bomb using a cell phone so maybe you can chalk up another negative into the cell phone/techno-addiction corner ("today's mayhem brought to you by Droid").  John Miller I like and will always stop while channel-surfing at such a time and see what he has to say, insightful and well worth listening to.  During his first address on the subject President Obama it was said made a deliberate decision to not yet use the word Terror even though CBS's Scott Pelley and some others were freely using the word so that seems to be some kind of early initial reflex on the part of the president following such events so make of that what you will.  Lastly Mayor Bloomberg needs to stop worrying about Stupid Stuff and if God forbid something like this should happen in NYC again many folks are gonna look back and say too much time spent on the Big Gulp:) 

Pro-abortionism, the quicksilver in the debate

Trying to nail down what exactly is pro-abortionism since everyone denies it so I've come up with this by way of example.  Let's say I'm against affirmative action or "reverse discrimination" as it's been called, now I think I can come up with a fairly respectable and intellectually legitimate defense of my position but let's say to make my case I then relied almost exclusively on the arguments made by avowed white male racists would it be a fair assessment among the folks-at-large to say I'm a racist or bigot, that the reason I'm against a quota system is because I hate blacks?  In the same way if I say I'm not pro-abortion but pro-choice but rely almost exclusively on pro-abortion argumentation, the pro-abortion worldview re the fetus in making my case then I think it not a far-fetched conclusion to say I'm also pro-abortion in addition to being pro-choice, nay probably pro-abortion first and foremost.  It's not really just another abortion thread just a caveat regarding semantics that when making your case be careful whose arguments you choose to use.  IF a pro-choicer uses the same material that a hardcore pro-abortionist uses and does this time and again know what I'm sayin'? 

Some more post-Newtown thoughts,

since it's still percolating out there and the state of CT has just passed some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation.  I only thought I'd do another Newtown thread if I have any fresh insights and so let's begin with the mathematics of Newtown.  Now all these massacres of late within the last several years are being lumped together somehow but in the vast majority of shooting massacres grown adults are the victims.  That's tragic enough but what happened at Sandy Hook is on another level totally IMO, a kind of existential quirk.  In fact it's bizarre and I don't think there's a snapshot anywhere of Adam Lanza where he's not a bug-eyed bastard, such a joyless individual.  Now the math angle, if you gun-controllers want to prevent another gun massacre ok but if your goal here is to prevent another Sandy Hook you're trying to prevent something that may not happen in another 150 years or ever for that matter.  Another point - how did the post-Newtown debate/discussion somehow evolve into ONLY talking about guns and gun control with a healthy side of mental health and no mention of DRUGS whatsoever?  meds, PCP, bath salts, prescription abuse, airplane glue, whatever but it's high past time authorities lay it all on the table so maybe we can have that other discussion.  One senses just another generic post-gun massacre political debate with an angle or two being deliberately suppressed and I've been wondering why.  Lastly since I'm trying to be fresh in this blog, to look at these things from another angle when you post comments I'd like some fresh and original thoughts too, maybe give yourself an aerial view of the issues instead of same-old same-old, left/right-wing talking points.  NRA Bad, ok we get that but how can you legislate exactly against or to prevent the tragically bizarre which is what Newtown was?  Conclusion: I'm not disagreeing with you about gun control per se but could Sandy Hook have been prevented?  I'm gonna go with a no:)  

The Mobile Web

My cell has the WAP browser deal where you can roam the Internet and it's real cool and addictive.  For instance when word first came out that we have a new Pope Francis I went on and found out within literally two minutes he had one lung since his teen days.  Just the other day I was doing the Sunday crossword and couldn't get the drug used in the movie Awakenings so again I went on the mobile web and within not even five minutes had my answer: L-Dopa.  Of course for real serious computer work you should have at least an iPad but it is fascinating just the same to have such information while on the go but there does seem to be limitations.  Newsmax.com itself has a nice mobile site, that's a conservative newssite but I find with Drudge the page is just too vast and sometimes you'll get a message that says "Page too large - open mobile site."  Browsing through some 'droid forums and other cyberdiscussions the other day and the things people get frustrated about like one guy wants to get the mobile version of a certain site on his laptop and it's really bothering him and I'm like why in hell would you even want to do that, are you that bored?  Anyway for those with Blackberrys or any other kind of smartphone device ya got any technical advice or pointers?

Workplace malaise

I think it's time for a fresh blog.  Politically I can't latch onto anything at the moment and so I figured I'd do another work blog.  The workplace, it's been said companies and corporations have become more impersonal over the years.  Now I've had many jobs in my life, a quite varied resume but back in the day you were more like Family.  Most recently I've been getting over a severe groin pull and told my boss about it and even called out sick one day.  This is really a weird ailment because the pain is worse at night and in the morning but when you're active during the day you kinda forget it even exists.  Mild activity is better than staring out your bedroom window all day but anyway I took the one day and when I got back nobody really asked me how I was.  While everyone knew what the problem was because I told them and it's kind of awkward talking about your nether regions but no person in authority came up to me and said do you need some time off? not that I would've used it but it's nice to ask.  You know, concern.  Then there's the winter weather.  You could have 1 1/2-2 feet of snow and the place is still open and if you do call in there's a kind of weird silence on the other end of the line ("you mean you're not coming?").  Minor criticisms -- now I'm of the opinion that let's say you've put in 20 years at a place, they know your work product and on balance you're damn good and so one day some boss levels a mild criticism at you for whatever.  Nothing earth-shattering mind you but imo it shouldn't be brought up as the bulk of your work production over the years really outshines the minor bad and you do work through various ailments which people tend to forget so what's the purpose of the nitpicking point?  Oh yeah they're cutting back the hours on alot of people because of ObamaCare which I'm sure it's not Obama's fault and I ain't understanding the problem correctly.  I've got some years to go but I'm retiring the first day:)

Pope Francis I

Argentinian Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio is the first pope from the Americas.  One news station treated him as a political candidate and flashed on the screen "opposes abortion, euthanasia and same-sex marriage."  Well every pope in modern times has opposed those things, it's part of official church teaching if you haven't heard but then again the msm is so used to covering politics maybe it's hard to switch gears.  This was a great day for the Spanish news stations like Univision.  When I first heard the news that we have a Pope Francis I went on my mobile web and found out he has only one lung because of a lung infection he had as a teen, he has prefered humble living quarters and public transportation and has a special concern for the poor.  I have a good feeling about him.  At 76 he defied conventional conclave wisdom that held the 115 cardinals were gonna go with somebody younger and so as one commentator put it maybe they prefer shorter-term papacies now, God knows that would be a good idea for politics.  It's said he supports many social programs for the poor so we'll see how the National Review crowd reacts as they've been critical of popes in the past who have seemed to veer to the Left in their eyes.  Oh yes he chose Francis which is my middle name, Francis of Assisi one of my favorite saints:)

OK so Florence Nightingale she's not

I found this item on the website of the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network.  Since the TS Life & Hope Network is obviously an anti-euthanasia organization I just had to read about this incident but after reading it at least two times I came to the conclusion there was no pro-euthanasia motivation that I could detect on the part of the nurse involved or her place of work although I do think she and her facility were tragically mistaken.  I blame the lawyers.  At my workplace for instance one of the co-managers came over one day and we had a kind of impromptu meeting and the gist of it was if a customer is in need of some type of urgent medical attention just call 911 and leave it at that.  Attend the person in need but that's it, don't try to help them yourself so I politely said what if someone is choking on a chicken bone can't you perform the Heimlich?  I mean by the time the paramedics arrive and he said well ok but you have to be properly trained and certified in these life-saving procedures.  Well the reason he gave that you're not supposed to help the person in need besides calling 911 is your workplace can be sued later, YOU could even be sued if something goes wrong.  Better to sit back and do nothing and wait for the ambulance to arrive and just hope they're not navigating heavy traffic.  Again I blame the lawyers.  Interesting scenario though, a lawyer is choking on a chicken bone......

Rand Paul's filibuster on drones

By all accounts he got rave reviews from across the political spectrum and well deserved I may add.  The only sourpusses in his own party were John McCain and Lindsey Graham.  McCain's probably just jealous he couldn't do such a thing without making periodic trips to the bathroom or else wear a catheter.  Look it doesn't matter that Paul was discussing a hypothetical, it's valid anyway and today's hypothetical may be tomorrow's reality.  He finally got his answer from AG Holder stating that no Obama does not have the constitutional authority as president to use a weaponized drone on a US citizen on American soil who's a noncombatant or something like that and I think we all agree Jane Fonda is safe in her cafe.  Rand Paul is fresh, McCain and Graham by contrast are old and stale and represent the old guard.  So John Brennan was confirmed as new head of the CIA but that's not the point and that point is that drones are now a valid part of our national political discussion.  It's not so much an attack on Obama but do you want to live in a world where politics and sci-fi eventually meet?  So hear hear to Rand Paul libertarian Senator from Kentucky and he somehow pulled it off without sounding like Alex Jones:)

Obama Fatigue

You had it with Bill Clinton and George W. Bush now I think it's beginning to settle in especially with the sequestration.  Obama is slowly but surely going down in History as The President of Bad Times.  It's as if he doesn't mind so long as he doesn't get blamed for it, so long as he can blame them Republicans.  Also you have to ask yourself how stupid was it to pick a fight with Bob Woodward, I mean he's not some new squirrel in the park.  At least with Clinton he felt our pain, Obama abstracts it always into some political issue that throws him in the best light.  Drama Queen-in-Chief, our existential leader and now I get this on my Mobile Web day in and f'ing day out.  QUESTION: does the IRS get sequestered?   Followup Question: can Woodward deepthroat Obama?

Will they sequester Planned Parenthood?

I mean it's a meat cleaver approach as Obama has said and so it has to fall on everyone......

right?

Oscar thoughts

It dawned on me that I haven't even seen any of the big movies nominated here.  I thought Argo was some sort of update of Jason and the Argonauts until some woman at work explained to me it had something to do with Iran or Iraq and the war.  Lincoln I'd have to be in the proper frame of mind first to sit through and even then I might find it boring.  Silver Linings Playbook, chick flick.  Of the current crop I'd opt for Django.  Zero Dark Thirty is the type of movie I'd definitely watch but it's not so pressing that it can't wait 'til the DVD comes out which is my way of doing things lately that is if all the FYE stores don't close down in the meantime.  I was in a DVD store just last week on my day off and it must be slow there and/or they're overly concerned about shoplifting or something but no sooner did I enter the store than the young female clerk practically accosted me, handed me a bag for my goodies, asked me if this is my first time here and then when I started to browse kept following me and asking me if I'm finding everything ok and things like that and I found the whole experience supremely distracting.  My whole shopping concentration was thrown off and I have to say I made some poor selections.  Look I get it about customer focus and all that but sometimes us browsers just want to be left alone.  I mean I don't know what I want, I'll know it when I see it.  Don't go to the movies, can't shop - anybody got a bootleg copy of Django?

Pope Benedict resigns

His was a kind of quiet papacy in the eclipse you could say of the charismatic and saintly John Paul II and his grand and long mark on history.  I was not really surprised to learn of Benedict's leaving the papal office at the end of this month, he's up there in years and has had health issues so now the attention turns to possible successors, papabile.  Former Vatican Secretary of State Angelo Cardinal Sodano is no good, he suppressed alot of stuff on Fatima.  Same with the current Sec'y of State Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone.  Re the Third Prophecy the BVM had said to Lucia: "Look my child don't be surprised if, at a certain moment, a certain diabolical disorientation affects the best of minds, a disequilibrium so that they no longer judge according to the voice of my Son and of Peter."  Dolan is a long shot for the job but I think he would enjoy it for no other reason than that fine Vatican cuisine and impressive team of professional chefs.  I picture him for starters with a nice draught of abbey ale in the papal den perusing the New York sports pages and that husky laugh of his when he gets a visitor.  Incidentally if you're ever on Jeopardy and get asked this question they do have a team of what are called tastetesters whose sole job is to sample the food cooked for the pope on the offchance it may be poisoned, a kind of gustatory secret service.  Betcha didn't know that, you get the occasional nugget here.  My personal favorite is the Cardinal from Nigeria Francis Arinze who's been around the Vatican for awhile most lately as Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.  He was a chief advisor to JP2, he knows the players, he's conservative and we've already had a Pole to break the long line of Italian popes and so I think for many different reasons one from Africa would be ideal.  Benedict, now Ratzinger again? will probably go back to writing books, tweeting and playing with his mobile device.  My favorite newspaper headline is from today's New York Post, "Pope Gives God 2 Weeks Notice."

Free cell phones as a gov't bennie - Gov't stroking the sweet spot

Got a thing in the mail yesterday from a place called Safelink which is a service of Lifeline which is actually something to do with the Federal Government.  Note the key words here - Safelink, Lifeline, Federal Government.  Apparently and I've heard about this but if you're poor enough, if you're under a certain predetermined income level and already partake of certain government programs like food stamps and SSI you're ELIGIBLE, entitled to a free cell phone with 250 free minutes!!!  Text your heart out.  So of course they have some kind of positive blurb at the bottom of the letter from some older disabled woman saying the cell phone practically saved her life butcha just know most folks are just gonna be gabbing and blabbing and yakking on the things.  Bishop Sheen warned about this way back in the day, they're gonna try to make you dependent on the federal government.  Free cells and having your job be forced to cover your birth control, it's all of a thread.  Maybe they should call it Flukelink (pronunciation fluck).  The Obama Motto - don't let your boss decide if you can have bc or not.  To me that's irrelevant, your boss has nothing to do with your personal life.  During my last job interview it never dawned on me to ask in closing are you gonna cover my sex'chal needs?  The ONLY thing that matters is getting paid for services rendered, that's it!  You know it's become kind of gauche to point this out lately but these are the type of people who voted for Obama and yes he won the election fair and square but when his second term is up that's when we have to have The Great Rollback, the massive scaling back of liberalism and at the top of my list will be the free cell phone.  Conservative post-election analysis greatly missed the point.  Generally speaking Mitt Romney really did nothing wrong, the country's changed is all.  BTW BB's probably entitled to a free cell:)

Obama's very liberal 2nd Inaugural Address

The Leftward Tsunami is coming, conservatives better head for the hills.  Obama riding the back of Leviathan, there's a Dali painting in there somewhere and at long last his speech finally dispelled the myth of his centrism.  The NY Times proudly used the term "liberal" on its front page and it's pretty clear he's gonna do what he wants in his second term and why not? the American people gave it to him.  The msm will have his back of course, well maybe not Jake Tapper but he's gone rogue.  Obama has this very annoying but shrewd polemical habit I've noted, if you don't agree with him or otherwise want to work with him you're an extremist, an absolutist, bad for the Republic and in this way he casts himself as the reasoned and civil moderate when in reality what people are really against is his liberalism.  This is defining the terms of the debate from the getgo (what debate?) and in psychological terms is called invalidation ("you're irrational").  There've been a few liberal invalidating comments posted of late on this very blogpage.  For instance if you don't agree with me you're incapable of processing my opinion i.e. reason.  It's clear Obama doesn't want to work with conservatives, he is divisive and polarizing as usual and he'll never change.  The speech covered the usual liberal gamut from gay rights to gun control, immigration reform and entitlements to climate change and it's clear LI Rep. Peter King was starstruck by the Beyonce/Jay-Z couple as he eagerly whipped out his picture phone like any stalkerazzi approaching deadline.  OK OK so perhaps BB and Saty can explain to me AND the Ole Gray Lady why his very well-received second inaugural address wasn't liberal:)

Advanced Obamanomics - the payroll tax

We just got a memo from Human Resources, the federal payroll tax holiday is expiring and they just went up 2%.  To use an example someone pulling in $300/wk. would have six extra dollars taken out.  Of course I'm not a member of the evil 2% and I know Obama is looking out for my middle-class interests.  Then there's the new health-care tax:)

Here's hoping that 2013 sucks less than 2012

The Fiscal Cliff - what I want to know is why did everyone wait until the last minute to resolve the Crisis?  The only explanation I can get out of it is like the teen who deliberately masturbates right before his parents come home from food shopping.  The metal gate's clanging, oh here we go...must be the excitement of it all, some just like to look over the precipice.
Hillary has a blood clot near the brain - and no she didn't fake it to get out of Benghazi.
Can we go a whole year without a mass shooting?  I don't know, is that asking too much? maybe it is.  We just got these new uniforms at work, nice new black aprons with a big red bullseye-type dot with the company logo smack dab in the middle and the produce guy and I both agreed, with all the violence in society our new dress code is making us somewhat uncomfortable.
Which celebrities will be arrested in 2013? the same ones or some new surprises?  Why is Jessica Simpson famous?  Judge Judy annoys me.
50 Shades of Grey the Movie - at least Hunger Games had something to say, a point.  So the movie will come out and eventually the DVD version with 10 minutes or so of extra uncensored director's cut footage and you go out to the nearest FYE store and buy it 'cause you think someone's gonna be trussed up like a turkey with an apple in the mouth or someone goes to the bathroom in a litter box.  I mean you don't have to be psychic.
How many days out of the new year am I not going to get any? (get the marker out).  While we're on the subject Jefferson Valley Mall in Yorktown Hgts. has these new massage chairs with a whole anal routine.  Bad day at the office, hit the mall.  I'm just sayin'
Subway pushers - the new normal.  A-Train's a-comin'
A whole entire new year of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh complaining about Barack Obama, God help us!

How do you keep the weight off around the holidays?

Wouldn't you know it everyone gave me snacks.  Oh yeah that Greek drink Ouzo 12, slept like a baby and dreamed all night and didn't want to get out of bed this morning to go to work.  I think the pitfall of many a diet is the holidays.  You have to partake, to not partake is depressing and not very social but the way I maintain is to go on a nice long walk on the morning of the holiday itself, don't eat much if anything before the main meal later on in the day and then when that's all digested do a brisk exercise routine in my room.  Won't knock off any pounds but hopefully you won't gain any.  So now the trick is is I gotta ration out the rest of my snacks in such a way so even if I don't lose I don't put it back on either.  Got a little Ouzo left, yeah baby!

The Newtown Speech - Obama and Faith

The President's address last night at the interfaith prayer vigil in Newtown CT was by turns excellent, moving, inspiring, powerful, poignant and even theologically advanced.  As a conservative at odds with the president most of the time it seems these days it was still possible to have a certain amount of pride yesterday evening.  The flourishing of faith in small towns like Newtown is heartening to see even in the wake of such an unspeakable tragedy and only the most secular liberal would have been uncomfortable last night.  Folks there aren't damning God to the heavens or asking the immemorial question where was He?  I've never been to the quaint bucolic town of Newtown myself but have visited quite often the surrounding communities many times on day trips.  New Milford up Super-7 where they recently redid some of the main drag and there's their berry farm in the springtime, Stew Leonard's at Danbury a really great food experience, the Danbury Mall of course off 84 and Dick's Sporting Goods a new addition, New Fairfield and Candlewood Lake/Squantz Pond, the winding roads of Sherman......it's become one of my favorite places to spend the better part of a day and there's just something about the name Aunt Hack Road a side road off of 6 in Danbury.  When you like a certain geographical area you develop almost a mystical connection to it speaking of which every now and then I'd go to the Marian Shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes just off of Rte. 202 downaways on 25 which actually right here at this main intersection you see signs there directing you to Newtown.  This shrine is a beautiful little place to go with a nice grotto with candles and religious statues and of course the Stations of the Cross on a gentle hill with a large dark wooden cross of Christ at the apex and then lo and behold you're almost in somebody's backyard.  All of this section of upper Connecticut is quite country with the exception of Main Street in the City of Danbury which even though there's a definite touch of squalor here there's something nice about it too and then there's the nearby town of Bethel with a quite large literal supermarket of wine and spirits.  I guess I'm one of the few conservatives who liked Obama's speech last night judging by what Hannity was saying just now on my drive over to the library.  I watched a good part of the memorial with a couple fellow conservatives and even they seemed to be softening and they're no fans of the administration.  I'm saving alot more for the Comments Section but I really think it was a defining moment on the eve of his second term. 

Obama Priorities - the Rich but what about the prevalence of guns in society?

It was one of those nonissues during the campaign and Romney didn't have much to say on the matter either.  I'm talking of course about guns and not the well-to-do on which there were plenty of thoughts.  I'm kinda more concerned lately with the threat posed by guns in society and not so much on those individuals/families/entities making more than $250,000/yr. not paying their fair share.  There was lately a shootup in some mall in Portland, OR.  Before that there was of course the Batman/Movie Theater Massacre in Aurora CO.  There was most recently some weird guy who shot and killed three Brooklyn shopkeepers and he said the CIA put him up to it and then just the other day the brazen Midtown Hitman attack in broad daylight in NYC this in probably one of the most heavily surveilled cities in the world today.  Just today at about 9:30 in the morning a 20-yr. old gunman opened fire on a couple of first-grade classrooms in an elementary school in bucolic Newtown CT killing 26 people including 20 children.  The gunman is now deceased but he was armed with three firearms and wore a bulletproof vest.  Historically it ranks as the second deadliest massacre after VA Tech and Newtown is quite close to the Danbury Mall so there are alot of open questions about the gunman's motivations/psychology here and why he chose a helpless group of first-graders instead of the usual throng of Christmas shoppers. 

My position on guns and gun control is rather complex and I've enough to say on the matter to piss off both sides.  I'm not against all gun control measures, would probably support many of them but also recognize their limited effectiveness.  Liberals talk as if this is the magical solution, would that this were so.  Put simply only honest law-abiding people obey laws, criminals don't that's why they're known as criminals in the first place.  Pass all the gun control measures you want and criminals will still get ahold of guns and continue to maim and kill, that's basic existential reality.  I could fill a whole blogpage with my thoughts on the subject and they ramble in all political directions at times but bottom line is Obama seems to care more about the wealthy these days and the apparent threat they pose to the country.  I wish he were just as concerned about the prevalence of guns in our society but we can't have that discussion right now because of the Fiscal Cliff.  Obama if he were a more mature and reasoned leader, not still running a campaign could have helped put all that behind us and on to more pressing matters like, say Guns in Our Society and I'd like to hear President Obama's response on the tragedy in Newtown CT and also what his mouthpiece Jay Carney has to say I mean if they have the time since the wealthy are taking up so much of their attention lately.  There will be the usual obligatory pro-forma statements of course but you would think they would at least question some of their own political obsessions/fixations of late, sober up.  The poor will always be with us and so will the wealthy and there will always be time for those discussions but the dead remain the dead.

Your thoughts? (and don't be surprised if I might agree with you at times).

Generic political commentary - the msm framing the narrative on the fiscal cliff

The disappointing commentary of Mark Shields -- he's the liberal commentator on the weekly roundup on The Newshour with Jim Lehrer with neoconservative David Brooks allegedly providing some type of counterpoint and this happens every Friday evening.  Leaving aside the fact that I'm not clubbing, a sure sign of age I do quite often get their takes on the week's political news and events.  So usually what happens is I'm sitting there and I'm slowly getting depressed and agitated, vaguely restless, irritated and I haven't even sipped from my nightly goblet yet.  It's not that the commentary is creepy or off-center and one of the few other options is the Filth known as 2 1/2 Men so I stick with it.  It's your standard fare, quite mainstream, safe even and Shields looks all serious with his folksy jowls but I'm like when's it gonna happen? it's gonna happen if not this week then the next but it's gotta happen.  No not when is Shields gonna drop the word "dick", Vampire Diaries already does that but WHEN is Shields gonna criticize President Obama even a mild anti-?  Now I know he's a liberal but he has gotten marks in the past for being a more honest and centrist kind of lib but take the current hot topic of the fiscal cliff.  Actually there is no other topic (Sandy, been there/done that).  Now I get it that one way to look at it is that Republicans according to most opinion polls will take the heavy blame if we fall off by insisting that the top 2% can't be taxed any higher than they already are and so taxes go up on the rest of us in the vast middle class -- ooooooh populism and pitchforks!  OK I get that, I'm not stupid but what Shields should be saying (also) is WHY is Obama still pursuing this class-warfare game??? the campaign's over, Romney was defeated and then taken out to lunch and so then what also happens is Brooks more often than not kinda goes along with Shields because he always has his acute neocon antennae attuned to the prevailing political zeitgeist.  Not too long ago Brooks was the one who first made the helpful suggestion that Repubs be willing to close loopholes and deductions instead of raising marginal rates on the wealthy and everyone kinda thought that was the way to go but Obama would have none of it.  Obama is now almost overtly Marxist but Shields will never be accused of saying anything ballsy or radical or even mildly controversial.  It's always safe plain yogurt, ya gotta go underground for the unpasteurized Stilton.  It's the old familiar framework, actually the media are in a rut but the story goes the Dems are somehow wiser and more right and the Repubs are wrong.  Tax Cuts along with Obesity is now the New Evil.  In the cosmology of the msm Grover Norquist is the Devil, at least Beelzebub never mind that Obama and the Dems have no intention whatsoever of cutting or reforming entitlements, of giving Boehner and his side a few crumbs and scraps off the table.  Obama is somehow getting tagged with the populist label but is ginning up hatred for the rich part of the definition of populism? not as I understand it.  The new jobs #'s are out and 146,000 new jobs were added for November and the unemployment rate dipped to 7.7% the lowest it's been since Dec. '08.  Of course alot of this has to do with lots of jobless folks still dropping out of the marketplace permanently and I think Obama kind of actually encourages a kind of semipermanent dependent circle-jerking culture/malaised social class but don't count on Shields to point any of this out or even his sidekick.  My #1 Rule for Blogging -- my commentary is my own.  The day it becomes generic I'm retiring:)