A cartoon is worth...

Sometimes cartoons say it all.

Why Republicans should win big in November

This chart shows the ratio between the total civilian employment and the total population in the US.  This obviously is a precipitous decline in 4 years, but the worse news for Obama is the stagnation and lack of any signs of recovery.

Buying a new Lexus

Buying a new car in this family is a rarity.  The last new car we bought, A RX300 Lexus, was in the 20th century, 1999 specifically, nearly 13 years ago.  In this post Helen and I visit a Lexus dealer in Santa Monica where we purchased a new, first year model, Lexus CT200h.  The "h" stands for hybrid, our first experience with this relatively new technology. Toyota/Lexus has been our brand(s) of choice since 1990 when we purchased a Toyota 4Runner that is currently in regular service as a "station" car for our daughter and husband who commutes daily by train from their home in New Jersey to New York City.  As a sports car aficionado (previous ownership: two Porsches and an  Alfa Romeo) I currently drive a 10-year old Celica. And of course, at least for the time being we still have the RX300, easily our favorite car among all the many we have owned in 43 years as a family.  Viva Toyota/Lexus!

The purchase experience was unique.  Asking for written bids to our carefully detailed specifications from 10 dealerships within a one hour drive from our home, we received 9 back.  There was a $2,500 spread between the lowest and highest bid, most bids coming in roughly $500 more than the winning low bidder, a dealership in Santa Monica.  Other than a test drive early on, we never entered a dealership in this whole process until we picked the car up one Saturday morning.  Really quite a hassle-free buying experience and we can claim a $2,500 savings since one of the high bids was our local dealership.  We put the "savings" into an extended 8 year warranty basing this decision on the facts we keep cars over ten years, and on all the electronics failures we've experienced with our  Miele and Thermador high end appliances since we bought them 5 years ago.  When electronics go, replacements are costly.


The dealership, located in the heart of Santa Monica, proved to be luxurious, in keeping with the brand's image.

 This dealership specializes in the sale of hybrids.  The full line of Lexus hybrids must have been on display in the showroom, a beautifully appointed room with unique appurtenances.

 Helen enjoying her freshly brewed coffee and homemade cookies.  An original mural in the background.

 A chessboard and baby grand automated player piano for passing paperwork time away.

Our salesman Danny was a model of politeness and attentiveness.  A 30 year veteran of car sales!

Here's our Magenta red beauty, the color was Helen's choice.  Kinda Ferrari-like, eh?

Out the door and ready for its first voyage.  Helen was too nervous to drive it the 45 miles trip home.  She stuck to the old Lexus until she could read the manuel on the new hybrid and practice some things in our driveway.  There are some unique features on hybrids that take some getting used to.  But by and large when driving one never knows its different from a conventional gasoline only powered car.

The loose canon

Thinking about how best to describe Obama's role as POTUS many different and appropriate metaphors and adjectives have been used by various pundits.  "Amateur", "in over his head", "mystery man", "weak-kneed", "celebrity president", "incompetent", "community organizer in chief" are just a few.  Overlooked is perhaps the most apt of all: the guy is simply a loose canon.  This particular metaphor probably dates to 17th, 18th and 19th century British naval warfare when in the heat of battle and while underway one of the massive canons of a frigate  or warship broke loose from its station and careened about causing unpredictable havoc and destruction throughout the lower deck where all the canons were lined up all in rows facing out toward the enemy ship.  This untoward event could and maybe often did change the outcome of a battle at sea, and who knows,  maybe even in the larger picture, the fortunes of nations.  From the very beginning of his administration, virtually all of Obama's major and minor decisions, from a single-minded pursuit of Obamacare in the middle of a serious recession, to the recent spurious claim of executive privilege in the "Fast and Furious" scandal have created chaos and resulted in massive confusion and uncertainty.  In short Obama's the perfect political loose canon and the sooner we are rid of him and his destructive political machine the sooner we can begin to seriously address all the important issues facing our nation.  And let's face it, there are many such serious and important issues that have been ignored or mishandled badly by the crowd currently occupying the WH.

Education analysis

This is a powerful indictment of our current "public" education system.  It is also provides reasons why many families (including ours) elect to keep their children in private schools in spite of the egregiously high cost and sacrifices required of that action.  If one wants to raise independent thinking, resourceful young people in the next generation, there are far to many hurdles to overcome in the public schools as presently organized and run in our country..

Last hurrah for libs?

Liberals in the government, in the media, academe, and hollywood must be nervous because their lies and distortions are no longer working.  Thankfully the evolution of the right wing media in talk radio, TV, and the internet is having an effect.  This example involving the Breitbart exposure of the fraudulent attempt to claim racism back when Obamacare was passing in the Congress, is but one of many push backs against these attempts to smear Republicans since the right wing media became a force.  Andrea Mitchell's recent attempt to smear Romney over the WAWA restaurant reference provoked this response from a former producer on the Katie Curick "news" show is an example of how the corrupt MSM supports these left wing lies.  And here, David Maraniss a lefty Washington journalist, in writing the "definitive"  and officially approved biography of Obama, manages to demonstrate how the media manipulates its readers by leaving out significant events and backgrounds of influential people in Obama's early life in order to hide inconvenient realities.  Once these right wing "exposures" began, it's become clear how much and how the left has manipulated it core audience into believing what it wants it to believe, which more often than not is based on a lie, a gross distortion, or an omission of facts.. Losing this important technique leaves the left without much to work with any longer.  Good riddance.

The Hollywood campaign

If you have ever wondered about the Obama campaign for the election of 2012's inspiration, look no further than this article about O's campaign head Jim Messina and his Hollywood "advisors".  All of which simply proves how out of touch Hollywood is with the country at large.  It also accounts for the unhappiness of the pros, Carville, Clinton, et al., with the emphasis of the campaign on pitting various groups or collection of Americans against one another.  We're looking at a wipeout election this year not only because this administration has failed on so many levels but because they have been running a divisive, even destructive, campaign that has just about everyone at each other's throats.  Not good.