This Is Rock #8

I was watching videos of some bands. I discovered this song by the Talking Heads. I've never heard it before but I thought the song was beautiful. Kind of a hippie song though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zNdMc6wGtU&feature=related

Hey Bud-D, have you ever heard of King Crimson? Jake recently discovered them and is totally in to their music. I think it is ok but I can only take so much.

Interesting Happenings

I was watching Monday Night Football the other night and something caught my eye. Or rather, my ear. An HP commercial featuring a Melanie song and a Microsoft commercial featuring a Donovan song appeared almost one after the other. While these two commercial soundtracks might mean nothing to the common MNF viewer, among Triomino enthusiasts they are very significant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5s1QNfXGn4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dv-fbO-_xl0

I have not pin pointed the specific significance of these findings. I will have to seek the highest of my order to do so.

One more thing. I was searching for a picture for this post. I stumbled on some peculiar photos of what appears to be potential Triominauts who were otherwise unknown until now. Again, these are things only the highest of my order will be able to explain.

NPR fires Juan Williams for saying what he Thinks

National Public Radio fires Juan Williams, supposedly for saying on the Bill O'Reilly Show on Fox:

“I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country,” Williams said Monday. “But when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

Wow.  An honest statement, that probably 90% of America would say, "yeah, me too", if asked.  I would bet that the vast majority of the ultra-libs that run NPR, if they are being honest with themselves, would agree with him.  But supposedly, this 'outrageous' statement got him branded a racist and fired by NPR. According to NPR 'CEO' Vivian Schiller:

controversial opinions should not come from NPR reporters or news analysts.

and followed that directive up with

Schiller said Williams' feelings about Muslims should be between him and "his psychiatrist or his publicist - take your pick."

Schiller apologized for the last comment later.

So, does anybody buy NPR's story regarding the firing?  I've watched and listened to Juan Williams for years on NPR and Fox.  He's certainly a liberal, but he isn't close-minded, and seems like a genuinely nice guy.  He wrote a universally acclaimed and famous book called "Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965" as well as a biography of Thurgood Marshall.

I think his statement on Fox was an excuse that Schiller used to fire him.  I suppose most people think that.  Williams' sin againts NPR and liberals in general is to appear on Fox.  Liberals hate Fox with a white-hot hate, because it has been critical in breaking through the media wall, which NPR itself is a gigantic part of, which has enabled liberals to control the media narrative for decades.  Williams' presence on Fox helps to legitimize Fox to open-minded liberals and blacks, something that cannot be tolerated by the Left, or their already-breaking-up media wall will completely collapse.

This may be just a coincidence, but leftist billionare and Rupert Murdoch/Fox-hating  George Soros donated $1.8 million to NPR on Monday, right before Williams was fired.

This may be another case of Leftists' intense hatred of conservatives forcing them into doing or saying foolish things.  The blatant bias shown in this firing is going to give Republicans a good chance to push de-funding National Public Radio, particularly in America's current anti-big government mood.  According to what I've seen, only 2% of NPR's budget comes directly from the government (ie taxpayers), but a whole bunch of it comes from member stations who also are publically funded.  It seems to me that this foolish firing is going to work out to be a coup for Fox and quite possibly a loss of funding for NPR...oh and also a coup for Juan Williams himself, who has just gotten a raise and more air-time from Fox in response to this incident.  Though I honestly believe that Williams is sad to leave NPR.

Texas Thinks it's Colorado in Atlas Shrugged

Rich Lowry in National Review points out that half of the new jobs created in the US in the last year were created in Texas:

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 214,000 net new jobs were created in the United States from August 2009 to August 2010. Texas created 119,000 jobs during the same period. If every state in the country had performed as well, we’d have created about 1.5 million jobs nationally during the past year, and maybe “stimulus” wouldn’t be such a dirty word.

What does Austin know that Washington doesn’t? At its simplest: Don’t overtax and -spend, keep regulations to a minimum, avoid letting unions and trial lawyers run riot, and display an enormous neon sign saying, “Open for Business.”

Not only does Texas think they're better than everyone else, they really are better than everyone else. I'm sure the Nanny State Federal Gubmint will do their damnedest to shut down the Lone Star state.

I can't stand Texans' thinking their flat, hot, dusty state is so super awesome, but they back it up.

Ace of Spades writer thinks exactly like me, but Better

Ace of Spades guest writer Monty writes what I wish I could write.  This pretty much sums up all the problems Western Civilization has at once.  I'd like to quote the whole thing, but hopefully, you will read the article.  Ace of Spades HQ writers are normally pretty funny and irreverent when they're making their points, but this one is straight up serious.  A super awesome 'read the whole thing' link.

Just a couple of quotes:

Governments the world over are discovering that the river of money is not endless. That seemingly-inexhaustable mountain of wealth has been turned into an ocean of debt that will take decades to pay off. The spendthrift habits of the Western nations will put burdens on our children, and other generations not yet born, that should outrage us as a people. We are investing in the old rather than the young, and are punishing risk-taking and entrepreneurship rather than rewarding it. Our tax regimes seem to be deliberately crafted to kill innovation and long-term thinking. (What does "legacy" mean if the wealth I have accumulated in my life cannot be passed on to my children or heirs, but is instead eaten by the all-consuming government?) Young people -- young families -- are the foundation upon which Western Civilization is built. Neglect them, overburden them, cheat them, and you are committing societal suicide.

and

One measure of how self-destructive Europe has become can be seen in the birthrate. In developed countries like France, the birthrate among natives has plummeted to below the replacement rate (though some dispute this). Among immigrants who share little cultural affinity with the French (or are actively hostile to it), the birthrate has soared. What this means in 20 or 30 years is that what is "French" (or "English" or "American") will be determined by those same children. The same goes for Spain, for Portugal, for Germany, for England -- indeed, for the entire continent. (America at least has a positive population growth, albeit not by much. And our immigrants are also outbreeding the natives by a wide margin.) Demographics is a game of last man standing: the people who make the laws 20 or 30 years from now are the babies being born today. If you don't produce children, you have no voice in the future.

Not very cheery. But seeing the problem is a start in fighting it.

She's Back! Leader of the Free World puts the breaks on Multiculturalism

I'll give her a more dignified look this time. 

Via Hot Air, Angela Merkel says

“We feel tied to Christian values. Those who don’t accept them don’t have a place here,” said the chancellor.
“Subsidising immigrants” isn’t sufficient, Germany has the right to “make demands” on them, she added, such as mastering the language of Goethe and abandoning practices such as forced marriages.

Whoa! This is a German from post-Christian Europe saying this. Winds of Change?

Says Ed Morrisey at Hot Air:

Merkel’s speech may be one of the more important given by a Western leader in the last several years. It underscores that immigrants have a duty to assimilate if they want to live in another country, and that the receiving nation’s responsibilities do not include carving its nation or its laws into mini-models of the nations that the immigrants have left.

If she can make it happen, if she has the support of most Germans, this could be a real step towards sanity and a Post-PC world.

A Couple of Relevent Observations from Pre-Pussified/Socialized England

I forget what blog posted these comments, but they sure are good, and sure make you go "hmmm" when you see who said them and how long ago they must have said them:

“The worst difficulties from which we suffer do not come from without. They come from within…They come from a peculiar type of brainy people, always found in our country, who if they add something to our culture, take much from its strength. Our difficulties come from the mood of unwarrantable self-abasement into which we have been cast by a powerful section of our own intellectuals.”


- Winston Churchill, on Leftists

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”


- C. S. Lewis