Occupy Fort Worth A Total Bust So Far

Or: 'Dude! If you are bald or gray ditch the ponytail - you're creeping out the children!
First - I'm not going to dive into the cognitive dissonance required for people to blame 'Wall Street' over the housing bubble bust  or the crap economy the last couple of years,  yet do not Grok the link between the Crony Capitalists and the Socialist-Left Democratic Party--Whom they SHOULD be blaming for most of our problems (with a relatively minor role played by the Quislings of the irritatingly clueless Republican Establishment).  I'm going to write a blurb here about the people involved in this 'Occupy' farce. A farce which I believe that when all is said and done, will be shown to have been blown all out of proportion, and someday someone will admit as having had the express purpose of furthering the Leftist subversion of America.

About 'Occupy Fort Worth'

So few people have showed up for this 'epic fail', the local newspaper was able to put a story up with pictures identifying by name what looked like a significant number of people (who weren't minors) who showed up. Article with photos here.

The cross-section was cliche. They had freshly-minted college grad 'filmmakers', angst-ridden musicians, full-bore vegans, retired 'teachers', and my favorite: Geriatric Hippies. I believe I've made it quite clear what I'm most looking forward to on the Hippie Question.

Geriatric Hippie 'Jack Smith' (If that is his real name)

(Crop of Star-Telegram/Rodger Mallison Photo. Find Original Here)

Outside enclaves of idiocy in Dallas, Houston, and most of Austin, Texas has an acute shortage of the type of people who have either the time or inclination to gather and bi*** about how unfair life is. This is true mainly because MOST people understand life IS unfair. From what I can tell of this so called 'movement' to date, it is largely populated by people who made life choices that didn't turn out as well as they thought they should have. Tough. There are some involved who ARE victims of fate, I'm sure - and creating a narrative to explain away misfortune is a human tendency and therefore understandable. Just don't expect the rest of us to buy into whatever story you built around your misfortune to cope with it. I'm more interested in being supportive of friends who are in dire straits and are working through the situation without giving up. My sympathy extends as far as your willingness to help yourself. Can't find a job where you live and there are jobs elsewhere? MOVE. Don't have the skills needed? Get them. I know people that are doing both and they're not wasting time at the park looking for handouts.

DADT: Some Milbloggers Miss Target

Obama & Co are subverting Western Society everywhere else, why not the military too? Obama does NOT need your help Milbloggers!

I really don't have time for this, but can't let it pass without comment (which I made at the site linked in the title of this post). I am usually in complete agreement with most of the Milbloggers listed, but today, for some reason that escapes me, they felt a need to speak out on the wrong side of an issue near and dear to my heart. I still might have let it pass, except the Fabulous (usually-right-but -unfortunately-blind-on-this-issue) Instapundit linked into the 'statement' which will gain it traffic and exposure far beyond its relevance. I expect it will be mentioned on the network news in ten, nine, eight......

I've covered all this before ad nauseum here, here, and here.

PS: I just wish people would drop these turds into the punchbowl before OR after I go to work so I can zap them early in the life-cycle.

Now, I've got three DAU module tests to do tonight -- so go away!

Coffee Party: This is CNN....

Astroturfing!

More Evidence!

and More...

Update 03/15: and More...

The usual Koffeeklatchura suspects: aging hipsters, echo hippies, etc, etc. - all pretending to be a new 'grass roots' movement.

Sad...

Best Take on David Letterman

Victor Davis Hanson has the best take on Letterman's latest steps on his descent into absolute irrelevance:

"The self-serving, creepy apology was as bad as the initial slur. Letterman is emblematic of an aging, baby-boomer culture, that dresses up street vulgarity with a tie and coat."

A boor and a coward indeed.

"Disdain for U.S. Policies"

You call that a defense?

Instapundit, links to another news story concerning the two 'govnoed' (see previous post) who were allegedly (wink wink) selling out our country due to some perceived disillusionment on their part.
Hmmm.
I wonder, what tipped them over the edge? Was it perhaps the disappointment of being able to only save up enough Dinero for a 38' yacht on a State Department salary? I mean, would a bigger one have kept them from selling us out?

But Gee! I thought they were happy with the one they had:

We have the most beautiful boat!
It is 8:00 PM here; we are having a drink and are practically melting in our chairs while repeating to one another, ”we have the most beautiful boat.”

Today the temperature was around 60 degrees and the wind from 4 to 8 knots. We sailed the good ship Helene on the Bay for 4 hours. Kendall sailed then napped for an hour on a pad behind the helm’s seat. I used a finger to occasionally touch the wheel while the boat sailed herself. Clouds were mesmerizing. No other boats around so thoroughly relaxed. Our only comments were how well balanced she is, how smoothly she sails, and how fast she is in any wind.
Two weeks ago we took her on her first sail of the spring and were surprised by a 24 knot gust. She took the blow like a champ, rounding up to wait for us to ”come to!”
We just want you to know our happy we are with our decision to purchase this gem from you!

Cheers,
Gwen and Kendall

Somehow I think the link to the above will disappear soon. Update 06/10/09 1020hrs: The link no longer works. No worries though, as I saved a copy:


We will next begin to hear that what they gave the Cubans wasn't THAT important. That will be even more disgusting.

Cuban Spies In The State Department?

Who'd a Thunk?

If the case is valid (and I'd say we have every reason to believe it is) these people are disgusting. The Soviets used to call them 'govnoed' (Sh**eaters):

Officers of both the GRU and the KGB have very much more respect for their agents than for the sh**-eaters. The motives of agents are clear — an easy life and plenty of money. If you take risks and lose, then no money and no easy life. To the end of his life the agent will not be able to tear himself away from this servitude — as is the case in the criminal world. But the behaviour of the numerous friends of the Soviet Union is utterly incomprehensible to Soviet people. --Victor Suvorov

Or could it just be the Conservative in me that makes me too easily disgusted? Well, that's probably what Psycheboy Pizarro thinks anyway.

~Sigh~ @#^*!%! Freaking Hippies and punk-a** Postmodern Academes.

San Francisco gets Even Weirder

Like a lot of the rest of the world, I visit Instapundit daily. I had some time on my hands and went back for seconds this evening. What did I find? A link to an article on some San Francisco denizens who seem to have some odd ideas about great sex. I mean, even weirder than usual.

In what seems to me to be more in the vein of cheerleading, the 'journalist' authoring the piece provided this gushing description:

"...Ms. Daedone, 41, who can quote the poet Mary Oliver and speak wryly on the intricacies of women’s anatomy with equal aplomb."

Well, hells bells! I can 'quote Kipling and speak wryly on the intricacies of women’s anatomy with equal aplomb'. Doesn't mean I'm going to start up some weird commune. Heck, you won't find me doing anything weird unless the wife gives the OK....and she won't even let me date.

Oh... and Mary Oliver ain't no Kipling. Yech.

Academes Gnaw on the Hands....

That feeds them, clothes them, etc.

Via Tigerhawk, I've just read a short, superb, exposition on an attitudinal problem that has apparently spread, though not universally IMHO, throughout academia. The problem is the odd notion that, as phrased by the author: "Some students and professors reject business as a morally responsible way to spend one's life".

I have seen both professors and students display the outward trappings of this philosophy over the years myself. My college attendance was sporadic in my early years, but I've been a student almost continuously since my early 30's (Gack!, has it been that long?). Perhaps I was sufficiently inoculated against such sentiment, but I've always found it incredibly self-important and a blatant sign that those afflicted really had no idea from where the wealth of this nation actually comes.

I would guess in one way, my experience is somewhat different from the author's. I experienced a few Profs carrying this kind of baggage in my English, Art, and other softer elective and non-science classes I took. But as most of my classes were math and science (including what were essentially a lot of 'do-overs' because of credits lost in transferring to new schools) and since most of my classes were of the 'evening ' variety mostly made up of fellow 'seasoned' students, it was the eager and young-ish among us that stood out the most in this way. I chalked it up to them being young and naive for years, but these days I suspect it was the result of programming they were getting in other classes.

Stupid PETA Tricks

On the heels of rolling out the overt "Sea Kittens" propaganda campaign, the Emoters of PETA provide us with another example of willful inanity: "saving" George the Lobster!

The quote coming from the mouth of the leader of the PETA Inanity Brigade, co-founder and president Ingrid E. Newkirk is precious:

"We applaud the folks at City Crab and Seafood for their compassionate decision to allow this noble old-timer to live out his days in freedom and peace" [emphasis mine].

Peace? This kind of of ignorance simply HAS to be willful. The ocean is the one place where the food chain is best known and most visibly in action. Even if Ms. Newkirk has never spent an hour snorkeling on a reef, at some time she should have seen at least one Cousteau-like documentary where some ocean creature ate another one. PETAism could be just another manifestation of the Hippie Effect, in which case we just have to wait for them to die off - 'cause there's no hope for stupidity.

Here's something for the Emoters to roll around in their spacious skulls. Releasing 'George' in strange waters probably took away the one thing that allowed him to live so long in the first place: the great hidey-hole he had in Newfoundland. George may be a Striped Bass' dinner before the end of his first day off Kennebunkport.

Aghhh! Hippies!

Here's a quick sidetrip from the KC-45 tanker battle. This was making the e-mail rounds among my military and defense worker friends today: Marines in Berkeley!
Everybody's first response was the same as mine: 'Jon Stewart?' or 'The Daily Show?'

- He must be working on his ratings.

There's quite an assortment of likely suspects in the above video.

Conservatives at the Gates

And only the ‘”Tenure Ramparts” are keeping them out!
Note: Part of this is also cross-posted as part of a comment at Greg Mankiw’s Blog.

Volokh Conspiracy has a great series of fresh analytical posts on the latest numbers (referenced by someone in an earlier comment) defining the liberal-conservative-libertarian divide.

My favorite parts:

A Title:

IDEOLOGY AND ACADEMIA – LIBERAL DOMINANCE ONLY IN THOSE FIELDS WHERE IT MATTERS

And an ‘Update’:

“Among actual scientists, in the physical and biological sciences, the percentage who identify themselves as Marxists is zero.””

Loved the ‘actual’ reference.

What shall we do M’Lord?
As to the defenses that liberal academics have erected to conservatism on campus. I’m still not too worried about it.

John Kerry Hits Bottom, Keeps Digging....Again

JK: The Gift That Keeps on Giving

“ John Kerry”, erstwhile Vietnam War veteran hit bottom with his assertions that a bloodbath in Southeast Asia after the US cut off the South Vietnamese at the knees in 1975 'didn't happen'.

As published on WSJ Online on 26 July 2007, James Taranto wrote:

Mr. Kerry, who served in Vietnam before turning against that war, voted for the Iraq war before turning against it. He draws on the Vietnam experience in making the case that the outcome of a U.S. pullout from Iraq would not be that bad. "We heard that argument over and over again about the bloodbath that would engulf the entire Southeast Asia, and it didn't happen," he said recently.

As seen at the page linked above, the Wall Street Journal (specifically James Taranto) "called out" the aging Junior Hairdo From Massachusetts on his shameful, self-serving statements. NOW, in an extremely weak retort, Kerry keeps digging and provides us with this gem, whereby he attempts to misrepresent the conditions in Southeast Asia both preceding AND following Congress’ shameful abandonment of the South Vietnamese in 1975 to fit his neat little left-wing POV.

Does his delusional summary of the Vietnam War and its aftermath ring true with the American people? True science isn’t run on consensus, but political science is, so what’s the bottom line? Did Kerry make a sale with the WSJ public? A review of the reader responses posted so far gives me cause to think well of my fellow citizens.

Citizens Vs. Kerry Scoreboard: 21-1-1

Out of 23 responses, 21 decidedly reject Kerry’s pseudo-intellectual posing, and most of those I would also say go so far as to properly MOCK the Senator and his ludicrous contortions.

One response is rational but approaches the issue with oblique peanut butter spreading of recriminations among all players in his sight. Ehh, call it a 'Tie' ( = neutral).

Finally, the lone (clear) Kerry supporter attempts to support his boy by also denying the Domino Effect via the technique of employing the narrowest possible definition of the Domino Theory and interpretation of the events that have followed, so allow the limited mind to ignore the instability of SEA after 1975. This supporter can be simply dismissed on the grounds that it is one of the WSJ’s perennial gadflies, a "semi-pro" commentator, who after retiring from a career as an ‘Educrat’ now spends his breakfasts crafting responses to any and all commentaries with which he is, or is not, in agreement. As regular readers are aware, one of my 'dreads' in this life is that we will be suffering more of such behavior in the future as more and more @# * #$^%@ hippies retire and have more time on their hands -- time to whine incessantly about all manner of things. Yes, “Michael D. McCaffrey of Yarmouthport, Massachusetts” I am talking about you and your ilk.

Walk Forrest!... Walk!

or: "A Teachable Moment"

Sort of an "Anti-War" Field Trip I Guess...

Two young Americans march across the country to make a statement. I wonder if they will learn anything? The money quote:

Casale and Israel had hoped that others who opposed the war in Iraq would join them on their 3,000-mile walk from San Francisco to Washington. But since starting off May 21, it's usually just been the two of them.

Do you think they just might pause to wonder 'why'?

It will be interesting to see if the extra press amplifies their message down the home stretch. I keep thinking of the cross-country running scenes in Forrest Gump.

Militia Foils Pinko-Hippie-Anarchist Alliance

aka:

"Pinko Losers & Aging Hippies Herded Like Cattle by Real Americans"

I was going to blog on this in detail, contrasting the smelly, Commie-Pinko, "Anti-Victory" Hippies with the upstanding citizens of the Gathering of Eagles, thus protecting the monuments from the desecration that occurred last time. But then I viewed Michelle Malkin's excellent summary (with pics) and knew it couldn't be topped.

Go to Michelle Malkin's site. See real Americans, from different walks of life, make a stand against the anti-civilization hordes.

And lest you think I jest about the Commie-Pinko Hippies, here is the URL (sans "http:" as I don't want to link to this filth) for International Answer: "//answer.pephost.org". Scroll only a bit to see the nice selection of Che shirts.

I've often wondered where the natural curiosity of the press is concerning the true nature of these 'organizers'.

Update 03/25/07 -- corrected one horrible mispelling of Michelle Malkin's name. (I'm so ashamed)

So Long Hippies (Just Not Soon Enough)

The Hippie Effect: We're On the Cusp

A couple of weeks ago Dan Riehl had an excellent post highlighting the AP’s blatant misrepresentation of a long-time lefty as an ‘unlikely activist’. The post and comments with commensurate links fully exposed Rosemarie Jackowski as a fairly run-of-the-mill ‘Proto-hippie’ and no amount of Shinola from the AP will be able to hide it from this point forward. In the comments, I mentioned I was considering blogging an analysis of when we might expect the influence of all the 60’s retreads to start fading away, and when what I have come to call the ‘Hippie Effect’ will also diminish.

In subsequent comments to the post, “Fellow Peacekeeper” at Rearguard, suggested that I go ahead and blog it, and provided a ‘back-of-the-envelope’ analysis that was very close to my detailed analysis.

My take on the (in America anyway) Hippie Effect and when we can expect it to diminish significantly (as mentioned in the comments to the post at Reihl World View) is as follows:

1. Peak leftist cohorts are baby boomers born 1946-53,
2. College age years 1966-75 with peak radicalism in 1968-1972 timeframe,
3. Age now of the worst of them is 56-63,
4. Peak of influence IS about now,
5. Marked decline should be really felt around 2015 when they are 66-73: I just hope we don't have a lot of them using their retirement years clogging up the highways driving to the next protest.
6. I think the average age of the House/Senate will decrease soon on its own (heck, when Byrd leaves it will drop the average significantly), but the hippie effect might linger due to acute academentia in the universities.

I came to these conclusions based upon the following:

1. That left-wing activism was fomented (and has since been nurtured) in America’s colleges and universities, and that radicalism spilled out over into the general population to a certain degree.

2. The Vietnam War and advances (as well as follies) in civil rights were tremendous stressors on American civilization that Proto-Hippies successfully exploited for a time, and

3. The targeted/affected cohorts who were particularly susceptible to the Hippie Effect due to their coming of age in a pampered life without (relative to their parents) ‘struggle or want’ were made even more susceptible
due to the rise and spread of the drug sub-culture.

If we chart the year 1961 (pre-Vietnam) through 1980, and overlay historical events (some of which are shown on the first chart below) and highlight the degree of campus radicalism by year for each cohort, we can fairly closely identify those cohorts exposed to radicalism and approximate to what degree each cohort was exposed.

Weighting the depth of exposure to varying severities of radical environments, we can identify cohorts who were most at risk for radicalization, and to what degree they might have been exposed. (BTW: I did a few parametric excursions as to the assumed degrees and timing of radicalism and it didn’t make much difference in the relative cohort scores).

Assuming constant rates of changes in maturity and attitudes between age cohorts, the most radical age cohorts in the 60’s and 70’s should still be (relatively speaking) among the most radical cohorts today. This allows us to identify probable age distributions of those most radicalized groups driving today’s Hippie Effect:

[Note: the 1953 birth year cohort score only appears to be worse than the 1952 cohort due to line smoothing. They are actualy equal]

What the Hippie Future looks like...

The 2005 population distribution compared to projected distributions (Census .xls link here) in the U.S. looks like this:

The bulge in curve that shifts right over time represents the Baby Boomers. The portion of the bulge in living general population that represents the most pronounced Hippie Effect will decline by more than 32% between now and 2020. The chart below represents a slightly different group than the core represented in chart 2 above due to how the census ‘sliced’ the age groups in their data provided, but illustrates the sizable (and quite normal and expected) drop between now and 2020.

Hippie Retirement

Keep in mind that most of these people will really start retiring in large numbers around 2015. While trends in retirement age are under debate, this will still be most important in factoring the disappearing effects of those Hippies who exercise their influence through their workplace, particularly in the government and academic bureaucracies. In these arenas, Hippie government doyens and tenured superstars may linger much longer than 2015 (after all, MIT is still stuck with the last of the Proto-Proto-Hippies: Noam Chomsky). But to what degree will they maintain influence without their legions of Joe-average functionaries that now keep the gears of the Hippie infrastructure grinding?

The Hippies net influence in the workplace will also be slightly mitigated further by the fact that everyone after them also has to stay in the workforce a little longer, if post-Hippie cohorts must work until they can draw Social Security.

Buh-Bye Hippies! (AKA Demographics IS Destiny!)

If you remember all the hand wringing by the current crop of campus activist-wannabes and aging Hippies over the dearth of protests during the run-up and prosecution of the war on terror in Iraq, or perhaps are aware of more current reportage on the subject, then you know there appears to be no real impetus for a broad and popular protest movement on campus or anywhere else for that matter. Protests and ‘actions’ that have occurred are products of a hodgepodge of loony loners and fringe elements such as Islamofascist apologists, pseudo-anarchists and mere boutique commies: as evident to anyone who has ever seen one of these to-dos in person or has visited Zombietime.

Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! ...Um, what are we mad about again-o?

There are significant differences between now and ‘then’ that seem to me to be obvious mitigating factors and it could be there is no activist groundswell for any and/or all of them. A short list (in no particular order) of the differences to be found:

1. Vietnam didn’t attack us within our borders
2. On campus, now the Left IS “The Man”-who-is-to-now-be-rebelled-against.
3. Psychedelic Drug use generally isn’t ‘cool’, ‘hip’ or whatever anymore. Most people now know it just messes you up.
4. STD’s and Womyns Studies both kind’a kill the 'Free Love' concept: Can’t use sex to lure young guys into the radical fold anymore. Dang.
5. Just not a lot of big-time social injustice in the U.S. (unless you are a ‘previously privledged’ majority, equate animal rights with human rights, or really feel for killers in Gitmo) anymore. Sorry.
6. No Draft = No threat to anyone’s plans to tour the world by micro-bus or become an otherwise unemployed liberal arts grad.
7. Reference the Zombietime link above. Do YOU want to be seen with these kinds of people?

And it goes on……

[Note: I am not too worried about the aging Hippies picking up on these reasons and adjusting their game plan, as since they are STILL Hippies, they almost certainly fall into a particular category (pdf file) that places certain concepts safely beyond their reach.(Updated 01/04/07 to correct the overuse of 'certain' and it's various derivitives.)]

As I wrote earlier, I still just hope we don't have a lot of Hippies spending their retirements clogging up the highways driving to the next protest. I can see them now through the bumper stickers, driving in the left lane going 5 mph under the speed limit, with the turn indicator on.

Update 1/6/07: Friend and Co-worker 'Dave' sent me an e-mail yesterday pointing out several things could happen to change the climate into one that would create a new generation of Hippies, and he also pointed out that I shouldn't underestimate the Nostalgia effect of people who like to remember the good old days who weren't even around in the good old days:

I have run into too many people that just want to keep the 60's alive. Music, good times, no responsibilities, …
Also the whole environmental/save the this-or-that can usually snag a number of people that will keep the movement alive. I've seen it. As an example look at the war re-enacters. This is a big draw for a large number of people, comraderie, history, heritage, fun, getting out of the house.

Since a lot of Enviros are 'watermelons' - updated Hippies with socialist and commie cores - it would only make sense that there will be some next-generation outcome of the current movements (Like Rearguard posted at Reihl World: Once a hippy, always a commie).
But without the right environment, next generation Hippies just won't have that 'oomph' that made '68-'72 the years that they were.

Roger Simon Sees the Problem as Bigger than BDS

I’m going to be a little self indulgent here and relish a small validation I feel in thinking along the same wavelength as the fabulous Roger Simon.

Y’ see, I wrote an e-mail on August 18th concerning the roots behind the craziness of Catherine C. Mayo that parallels Mr. Simon’s observations today on the larger picture behind the Valerie Plame affair. When I wrote the e-mail I thought about blogging it as well - and now I’m kicking myself for not doing so earlier.

Here’s what I wrote to some friends on the 18th, about Ms. Mayo and her ilk:

So,
Is BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) a distinct form of mental illness and if so, what would it have been called before there was a Bush? Should BDS really just be considered a colloquial reference for a subset of a larger pandemic: the Aging Hippie Syndrome?

AHS seems to be brought about by too little adult guidance and/or instruction in western classical thought in the formative years coupled with cornucopian drug abuse and possibly overexposure to black lights. There is evidence that those individuals with over-inflated senses of self and entitlement are particularly vulnerable (Hence the apparent overrepresentation of ‘elite’ university alumni in the affected group).

The condition may lay dormant within these poor flower-children for years until their fragile psyches suffer one or more cataclysmic events that threaten their established world view. These types of events include:
1. Loss of political power: When this happens, the AHs must confront the reality that they are not in the mainstream.
2. Sudden Trans-Cultural Conflict: While initial effects of this can be dampened via ‘projecting’ fault as it fits an existing world-view, over time the web of self-deception breaks down and an overwhelming angst can result in episodes of irrational and random ‘lashing out’.
3. Increased Leisure Time: As AHs reach retirement age, and/or become ‘empty-nesters’ they find themselves with more time for reflection and eventually, if not still/again engaging in the recreational use of drugs, they may come to realize two previously unrecognized facts of life. One is the realization that the world moves on with or without their involvement and the other is that they are actually mortal.
At this time in our society, we seem to be hitting a ‘trifecta’ of sorts. Only time will tell if this current calamity will be subsumed by or tragically amplify the effects of other normal age-related dementia...

Now, here are two excerpts from Mr. Simon’s post (emphasis mine):

So next step - why this phenomenon? Why the acceptance of this narrative whose result is so negative to world history and seems in continuous aid of the destruction of the Enlightenment itself? Is it just Bush Derangement Syndrome? Well, I think that's a large part of it. But the term (BDS) is too narrow to encompass the phenomenon. A variety of psychological forces are in the mix, but most notable to me is a sense of deprivation. 9/11 stripped the left of its self-perceived idealism that was the mainstay of its "personality.” Forces (like Bush) that lefties once dismissed as reactionary were taking the lead in the preservation of the West instead of supporting dictators as they once did. Furthermore, in the old days the left could take concilation that the enemy (communism) had at least a theoretical rationale - economic fairness to all. The new enemy was more troublesome…

In the beginning the left went along with Bush, but the minute things began to lag in Iraq, they deserted him in a flash. At first glance the reason was political but on a deeper (and I believe more important) level the reason was psychological. The left was in a rush to reclaim its lost idealism (the "it's about oil" nonsense was but an obvious example of this), to preserve its disintegrating sense of self.

About the only significant differences I see are:
1. I am much more wordy and flippant in writing to my friends and,
2. I have offered a name to that larger-than-BDS “phenomenon” and,
3. I wish I could write about this kind of stuff with half the skill of Roger Simon.