The List (2)

A while back a list of blemished Obama appointees was tagged with a note that it was undoubtedly incomplete. Yep.

Today we read of another St. Hoppen Change appointee problem. It's a two-part deal:

1. Obama says: "No former lobbyists in the new administration get to work on deals they dealt with while lobbying."

2. Except when President Obama decides they can.

The guy in question is Billy Lynn. Obama wants him to be deputy secretary of defense. That's the guy who actually runs the Pentagon while his boss, Bob Gates, thinks great thoughts.

Lynn comes to our defense fresh from a stint lobbying for Raytheon, the fifth-largest defense contractor.  Obama says it's okay because Lynn won't deal with anything that could make Raytheon another buck or two. Hokay.

(Readers are warned against using the term "smudge" on Obamian ethical purity when referring to such peccadillos. Racist, don't you know?)

TBC.

Kristen

Break a rule, Folks. Read HuffPo this morning. The caterwauling over there will do more to get your blood circulating than two espressos and a Vivarin.

According to everybody with a press card, New York Gov. David Paterson will appoint to the United State Senate a female who hunts and shoots and fishes -- and who very often is accused of thinking for herself. Sarah? Naw, but I bet Gov. Palin sends a nice note to Senator-designate Kirsten Gillibrand.

It gives some of us a new fantasy. Kristen and Sarah decide to go moose hunting in the wilderness. We're invited. We sit around the campfire chewing broiled wild-animal meat and snicker at the Brady Bunch.

Digitally Perfect Missing

Our English Cousins report a new gun toy for wannabee deadeyes.

You buy an iPod, buy the program, strap the iPod to your rifle, make sure its battery is up,  and  load the weapon. At that point you're almost ready to shoot -- after you 

"... use the iPod’s touch-screen to tap in details about the wind conditions, ammunition type, distance to the intended target and even the wind speed."

Nothing could be more perfect, assuming the shooter is among those who can accurately estimate distance and  judge mid-range wind, and who is shooting a round whose characteristics he perfectly understands.  (I met such a fellow once and have heard rumors another one exists.)  Then, of course, you need the leisure to "tap it  in."  

Suggestion: Take the IPod and and program money. Spend it on a few boxes of ammunition instead. Use it for practice.  Consult any good ballistics manual and sight your rifle to hit an inch or two high (varies with caliber and loads)  at 100 yards. You dope the wind just  like you would with the gadget -- take a wag, then click accordingly. If your hat blows off, clear your weapon and go for coffee.

The truth as reported by many mossbacks: Bad shots who spend money on gadgets become heavily equipped bad shots.

Can't happen here

Some of our younger friends may appreciate a quick explanation of the reference to Nuremberg. 

In 1934, American journalist William L. Shirer  decided to try to understand the Nazi phenomena. He went to a National Socialist rally in the old Bavarian city and reported:

 "I was a little shocked at the faces," Shirer wrote in his diary, 'when Hitler finally appeared on the balcony for a moment. They reminded me of the crazed expressions I once saw in the back country of Louisiana on the faces of some Holy Rollers...they looked up at him as if he were a Messiah, their faces transformed into something positively inhuman'."

Adolph Hitler's tame writers labeled it "The Rally of Unity and Strength."

Obama is no Hitler. Mill-run Obama worshippers  are not NDSAP material.  But  words have meanings and ideas have consequences, so let's be wary about those who sculpt graven images to an unexplained "unity."