Happy New Year!

Best wishes to all for a happy and prosperous New Year.

And if you're celebrating with champagne, be careful...

Junius: Letter to President Obama

To His Excellency, Barack Hussein Obama, President of the United States

Dear Mr. President:

One need not subscribe to the wilder flights of fancy ventured by the American philosopher Lysander Spooner to see in his observation on the subject of mendacity in public officials a well-grounded truth: “Those who are capable of tyranny are capable of perjury to sustain it”. Indeed, perjury is the blueprint for the construction of the edifice of tyranny, the ultimate political lie which posits the moral and intellectual superiority of one man over the accumulated experience and wisdom of untold millions of his erstwhile fellows, living and dead.

In an age of vigorous individualism, marked by a universal regard for liberty and a general expectation of the consistent exercise of personal responsibility, men have no need for a self-proclaimed demigod, trumpeting his possession of a utopian gnosis, and declaring his own unique suitability for serving as a guide to the promised land. It is Your Excellency’s great good fortune, and our bitter fate, that you came to what now passes for manhood in the present epoch, a singularly pusillanimous, complacent and ignorant stretch of history in which freedom has largely become synonymous with the baser sorts of self-indulgence, and all responsibility – for our education, for our livelihoods, for our security, for our health, for our very lives – is seen as the province of the State, its expenses to be funded through the expropriation of the wealth of faceless “others”, a class from which an ominous and increasingly large number of people blithely exclude themselves.

But even though the independent spirit of the populace has become so thoroughly numbed, and the cognitive spark so widely dampened, nonetheless there survives, almost in spite of itself, a latent, yet powerful, hunger for reason and for truth - or, at the very least, a repugnance for the more obvious and demeaning insignia of servitude; so much so, in fact, that Your Excellency has found it expedient to coat the bolus of peonage that you would cram down our gullets with a confection of falsehoods intended to disguise the repellant taste. Thus do we witness the president of the most powerful nation on earth repeatedly claiming to be surprised by the legal and ethical infractions committed by the organs of his own government, many of whose chiefs he has, himself, appointed. Thus do we encounter the most extravagant prevarications in defense of legislation and programs which, in the plain light of factuality, are clearly indefensible. And thus do we see Your Excellency, conspiring with your mamelukes in both government and the Press, to erect towering fabrications in order to screen the tragic results of your staggering incompetence in the field of foreign policy.

Sir, your career is founded on folie de grandeur, a fantasy that has been nurtured and propounded by your ideological apostles, and grasped in misplaced confidence by the willfully blind, perennially in search of secular saviors. I am too advanced in years, and too thoroughly schooled in human nature, to have any false hopes concerning either your desire or your ability to abjure the path of falsehood; however, I am also too devout a Christian to presume that you are irretrievably and necessarily lost to honor, so I will leave you with the thoughts of a man for whom you have displayed ample, albeit inexplicable, signs of disdain, but from whom you might learn much if, even at this late date, you would leave a political legacy that does not become a hiss and a byword for future generations. The man is Winston Churchill, and he wrote the following: “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.”

In the end, there it is. And in the end, Your Excellency, where will you be? Attending, however belatedly, at the altar of truth? Or wallowing in the ashes of your reputation, attempting futilely to stay warm in a world that has grown cold to your hubristic cant? I pray that you should choose with unaccustomed wisdom.

Junius

Hey, it's Virginia

Get yourself a concealed carry permit - and start carryin'.

Bumped

I linked this over at Grandpa John's, but I like it so much I decided to just filch the picture and put it up here (royalty check in the mail, Steve).



Also check out Steve Burri's take on global warming.

Unique photobomb

A frightening photo of an unwelcome bystander.

Monday movie

Science and crime meet with unexpected results in The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse.

Wanted: Major newspaper organization to serve as chief propaganda organ for Hilary Clinton's presidential campaign

Oh, sorry. Looks like the position has already been filled.

Sunday funnies

Don't worry. They'll probably show up on Pawn Stars someday...



Now, that's what I call a lawn ornament.

Hey, dogs, you better keep a good thought.

Steve Burri has one of the best takes on ObamaCare, yet.

Mmmmm. Appetizing.

The great thing about wind turbines is that they pay for themselves

Of course, you have to be very, very patient.

The locality of Eastleigh, Hampshire spent nearly $50,000 installing a wind turbine in 2005, but the inefficient turbine only generates about $21 worth of power every month — meaning the payback period on this turbine is 190 years.

Hmmm. Sounds like the kind of return you get on Paco Financial's Intergenerational Bond Fund - which, incidentally, is a no-load investment vehicle with a low annual management fee that is perfect for people looking to lower their tax liability through the shrewd use of a micro income stream. Order a prospectus now. (Don't read Turkish? No problem; we'll throw in a free Turkish-English dictionary!)

Finally!

The “knock-out game” – an ugly exercise in which one or more thugs sucker punch an unsuspecting pedestrian – has been in the news for several months, and seems to represent a resurgence in black-on-non-black crime (since the vast majority of assailants have been black, and the victims typically white or Asian). The feds have, at long last, gotten around to charging somebody with a hate crime in connection with this act - guess it's just a coincidence that it happens to be a white guy.

Now, I’ve never been a fan of the “hate crime” designation, because (a) a crime’s a crime, regardless of the motive – which is not always easy to prove - and every violent crime is already punishable at the state level, and (b) the category can too easily be turned into a political weapon to favor the sensibilities of some groups at the expense of others. But if the government is going to enforce this thing, it ought to enforce it across the board - which isn't going to happen under Eric Holder's radicalized Department of Justice (oh, and by the way, Eric: turning white people into second-class citizens in a spiteful, “hooray-for-our-side” policy of revenge for the wrongs suffered in past days by blacks is the sort of strategy that makes the words “civil rights” an obscenity when they come out of your mouth).

Better yet, drop the whole hate crime thing, and just prosecute to the max on (in this, and similar, cases) the underlying assault and battery, which is always repugnant, whatever the motivation.

Out: Switzerland

In: South Dakota.

One of life’s simple, but most gratifying, pleasures…

…is to kick back and watch Jeff Goldstein set his high-capacity invective gun on full-auto, and spray some idiotic prog who’s attached his name to a deceptive left-wing fund-raising email. A sample:

You are not only an unfunny, miserable, sneering hypocrite whose schtick grew old somewhere around the end of the Clinton era; but you are also proving yourself to be a useful idiot for a “cause” you can’t possibly defend, nor in any way make palatable to any kind of truly sentient and logical organism.

Medic!

Happy Feet Friday

Some dreamy jazz from Duke Ellington and Willie Smith, in this early fifties version of Sophisticated Lady.

Investors wanted!

I wish Paco-Stupendo studios had thought of this one first!

I was going to ask for the same thing, too, but I was afraid we'd just get Biden

H/T: Moonbattery.

Totally unrelated update: Smitty at the Other McCain announces an exciting new television program.

Let's be frank

Riding to your wedding reception in a standard limousine: boring.

Riding to your wedding reception in the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile: awesome.

Merry Christmas!

Best wishes to everyone from the Paco Command Center for a happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

And just to set the proper mood, here is John Wharton's classic piece from 2012, an alternative take on It's a Wonderful Life (in a nutshell: Mr. Potter was slandered!)

They're here!

It's time for the 2013 Awards for the Worst Reporting, from the Media Research Center.

Here's a taste: "The Pantsuit Patrol Award for Boosting Hillary Clinton":

The idea of losing Hillary has seemed especially unbearable at this political moment. It’s as if she has become, literally, the ship of state. She stands for maturity, tenacity, and self-discipline at a time when everyone else in Washington seems to be, in more senses than one, going off a cliff — a parade of bickering, blustering, small-balled hacks bollixing up the nation’s business. She’s a caring executive too, and that takes its own emotional toll. What a disgrace that John Bolton and his goaty Republican ilk accused Her Magnificence of inventing a concussion to get out of testifying at the Benghazi hearings. Bolton is not fit to wipe her floor with his mustache.

— Newsweek/Daily Beast editor Tina Brown in a January 2 Web article.

(How about if John Bolton uses "Her Magnificence's" mustache?)

Mark Steyn vs. his own editor

When my older son was just a little fellow - perhaps two years, or a trifle younger - we lived in Miami, and numbered among our friends a man whose hobbies included cock-fighting. He brought one of his roosters into his living room one day when we were visiting, holding it tightly with his large, powerful hands. It was a gorgeous creature, with, as I recall, blueish feathers, feet that resembled eagle talons, and a ferocious expression. My boy was delighted, and toddled up to the bird, shouting, "Puppy!" Naturally, I hauled him out of harm's way.

I shiver to think what might have happened had Number One Son had an unsupervised encounter with that avian killer. I am reminded of the episode by this Mark Steyn piece, in which the author takes umbrage at criticism leveled at him by his own editor at NRO. Unfortunately, the editor had no loving hands to protect him from a (well-deserved) mauling.

Assortment

I was going to link a couple of posts at Small Dead Animals, but I got to scrolling and saw that it’s all good, so just go over and start browsing.

Welcome to Gotham and Gomorrah!

Michael Bloomberg wants you to downsize.

ObamaCare: the opiate of the masses?

Hey, maybe the whole U.S. government is an ATF sting operation.

Robert Avrech has some fine tributes to Joan Fontaine and Peter O’Toole (and some interesting tidbits about Ava Gardner).

Happy birthday, Federal Reserve! (So why don’t you die, already?)

Grassroots taking hold even in the tough streets of Chicago.

Yesterday, Mrs. Paco and I went to see The Desolation of Smaug, the second in Peter Jackson’s series based on Tolkien’s The Hobbit (we never saw the first installment). Now, we haven’t been to a movie in ages, but when did theaters start running 30 minutes worth of previews? Or has it always been that way, and maybe I just forgot? I mean, there have always been previews, of course, but I don’t recollect having to sit through a half hour of them. One thing I couldn’t help but notice was that the trailers were all from action films, and you could pretty much switch scenes from one movie to another with little or no break in the continuity of each film. Anyhow, we enjoyed Smaug, but here’s a tip for the producer: if the Orcs are supposed to be such fearsome creatures, the occasional elf or dwarf is going to have to, you know, die sometimes. The elves, particularly, are not entirely credible as almost invincible ninjas. Loved the dragon, though. Having him slither under, and gradually emerge from, those enormous mounds of gold coins was inspired. And the scenery (New Zealand?) is awesome.

Another notable departure

Mikhail Kalashnikov – yes, that one – has died at age 94.

Monday movie

Vincent Price is unmasked, in House of Wax.

Increasingly obvious

H/T: Moonbattery.

Sunday funnies

Read any good books lately?

Traffic cop busts some moves.

Somewhere on the country estate of J. Packington Paco III...

Reinventing the wheel.

Ain't love grand?

New boat owner...

Definitely prettier than your average Army officer

And probably more lethal. Hats off to Rachel Washburn, who went from cheerleader to Army intelligence officer, with two tours of duty in Afghanistan under her belt.

I guess the official candlestick telephone is on the fritz

North Korea sends a threatening message to South Korea…via fax.

Ducks vs. bucks

Here’s an interesting take on the Duck Dynasty controversy, which posits that the show “got away” from A&E.

This is what happened. The whole idea of the show was to parade these nouveau riche Christian hillbillies around so that we could laugh at them. "Look at them," we were supposed to say. "Look how backward they are! Look what they believe! Can you believe they really live this way and believe this stuff? See how they don't fit in? HAHAHA"

When the producers saw the way the show was shaping up, different than they envisioned it, they tried to change course. They tried to get the Robertson's to tone down their Christianity, but to their eternal credit they refused. They tried to add fake cussin' to the show by inserting bleeps where no cussword was uttered. At best, they wanted to make the Robertson's look like crass buffoons. At worst they wanted them to look like hypocrites.

They desperately wanted us to laugh at the Robertsons. Instead, we loved them.

In short, A&E was uncomfortable with the real Robertsons, and with the fact that the family values displayed on the show struck a responsive chord among millions of viewers. Nonetheless, all that money coming in sure was nice, so there was an uneasy truce, until Phil, the patriarch, said some things in an interview which, despite a certain coarseness of expression, represent a completely orthodox Christian outlook on human sexuality – and that’s when the political correctness hit the fan, and the bloodthirsty humanitarians of the Left started baying about “tolerance”, and bawling for Phil’s ouster from the show.

Unlike practically all bloggers out there writing on the topic, who invariably introduce their posts with the words, “I’ve never seen the show…”, I am a regular viewer, and I thoroughly enjoy it. It does not really follow the same pattern as other so-called “reality” programs; it is far more like a regular sit-com, and, although Duck Dynasty is obviously scripted, the cast members reveal an extraordinary amount of natural comedic talent which, blended with their sincere religious faith and unfeigned loyalty to family and friends, portrays a world that is simple, yet delightful, and infinitely to be preferred to the cynical, oh-so-sophisticated, post-modernist hell depicted in the brain poison that constitutes so much of our TV fare.

Happy Feet Friday

Ray Anthony and his orchestra swing out with a brassy boogie.

Chuck Norris wants you to have a Merry Christmas

So, you'd better have a merry Christmas.

Today's Chuck Norris fact: Chuck Norris can pass an eye exam...blindfolded.

What did we do before Photoshop?

Pajama Boy's new career as the face of Obamunism.

Take a walk with me now down memory lane...

Readers of Tim Blair's great independent blog will recollect Tim's many trenchant observations and witty comments concerning one Phillip Adams, a left-wing crackpot who looks a bit like Santa Claus's estranged ugly brother. Friend, commenter and blogger, Col. Milquetoast - who, I am reliably informed, resembles the dashing young Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. - rekindles memories of the old coot with this post, in which the colonel captures Adams' apoplectic rage over the NRA (or, as Adams curiously refers to it, the "NRMA").


Phillip Adams: Your Sherpa guide to American terrorists.

Is that supposed to be a blogger? (You know, pajamas and all)

The ObamaCare marketing campaign has fully embraced the Weird with its latest ad, featuring a geeky-looking fellow wearing a “onesie”, sipping hot chocolate.



The response in the dextrosphere has been…well, not exactly subdued.

P.S. This guy is being referred to all over the place as a "hipster". When did hipsters start looking like bookish Pee Wee Hermans? I remember when hipsters looked like this...



and like this...



and, especially, like this...



So, in the current cultural/aesthetic environment, is this now supposed to be a "babe"?



Update: For those who don't know, the woman in the picture is Rosie O'Donnell: former talk show host, terrible actress, and noted 9/11 truther.

American idolatry

"Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation." - Psalm 146, 3

How stupid do they think we are?

Perhaps a more pertinent question is how stupid are we? Guess we’ll find out when election time rolls around.

From the Department of People With Too Much Time On Their Hands

Another milestone on the road to the collapse of civilization: feminist programming languages.

H/T: Captain Heinrichs

When giants walked abroad

Aye, we do, Maggie, we do.

H/T: Col. Milquetoast

Joe Biden saves woman from choking to death

I mean, that's what this is about, right? The Heimlich maneuver?

Joan Fontaine, RIP

And another of Hollywood's notables has passed: Joan Fontaine died Sunday at the age of 96.

Update: Good lord! Eleanor Parker died last week, too.

Monday movie

Intense cop Robert Ryan gets carried away in On Dangerous Ground.

How long, O Lord?

It's all about Obama. Everywhere, 24/7.

They never seem to learn

Don't mess with Gunny.

Paco Enterprises turns down buy-out offer

You've probably heard about the ongoing consolidation of various conservative blogs under the corporate umbrella of Salem Communications. Paco Enterprises - proud of its independence, and scornful of Salem's offer of a dollar-fifty and two box tops - will continue with no change in ownership.

Peter O'Toole - RIP

Peter O'Toole has died, at age 81.

He is probably best known for his depiction of T.E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and he was certainly great in that role; however, I will always like him best as the washed-up Errol-Flynn-type character in My Favorite Year.

Sunday funnies

(Via Savage Chickens)

Looks like the pool guy missed something.

At the top of every liberal's Christmas list.

The internet: now with transistors!

Only the police should have guns.

Wronwright spotted?

Assortment

A fool Alan Grayson and his money are soon parted (it's like liberalism, Alan; if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is).

Oh, man, if only it didn't get so cold there in the winter.

You mean, like influenza? "Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio went down to Washington, D.C. today to meet with President Barack Obama, emerging emboldened that a 'progressive movement' was sweeping the nation."

Sheesh! Am I going to have to retire to Aruba?

What's wrong with wallet-sized photos (or, if available, mug shots)?

Yeah, like nobody could tell: "Susan Sarandon Admits She Gets Stoned Before Awards Shows".

Somehow, I missed Frank Sinatra's birthday; fortunately, Bob Belvedere didn't.

Fishersville Mike brings the cold, hard truth.

The motto of San Francisco liberals: Nancy Pelosi may be a moron, but she's our moron!

It's a little late for John Boehner to be worrying about his legacy, isn't it?

The FCC: another federal agency that's been weaponized by the Obama administration.

Are you one of those people who have trouble backing their car out of the driveway or a parking space? Paco Motors has a solution for you!

Hypocrisy

Scratch a liberal, find a totalitarian.

David Brooks and most other so-called liberals obviously wouldn’t want a dictator who looks like this…



But they’d be just fine with one who looks like this…



Or, to put it more precisely, many liberals would gladly shred the constitution today if they believed it would lead to the imposition of their ideology tomorrow. Democrats, and the Republicans who pimp for them , view the citizenry in almost the same way that the hog drover views his swine: as animate, but not particularly bright, creatures that must be herded and managed. Individual freedom, as a thing having value in and of itself, has no special place in the worldview of either Democrat or swineherd as each respectively contemplates his “charges”.

We don’t need a man on a white horse, and we don’t need a Prussian bureaucracy. We need an independent, free-spirited populace that is willing to assert its natural rights and send the government back to the servants’ hall. The liberal vision resembles nothing so much as a giant low-security prison, and the closer we get to the fruition of that vision, the more likely that the level of security will eventually rise to include razor wire and watch towers, at least for those who resist being treated like human livestock.

Happy Feet Friday

Ella Fitzgerald sings her version of a hugely popular 1940s tune, The Five O’Clock Whistle.

The TSA

Keeping the skies safe from the criminal exploits of Rooster Monkburn, the monkey sock puppet.

Things stumbled across while looking for something else

Quite by accident, I came across these clips about a Kiwi in the French Foreign Legion. Interesting stuff.

Part 1


Part 2

I can dream, can't I?

Love this headline over at Doug Ross: "Once the employer mandate kicks in they'll be hunting Democrats with dogs in this country".

Monday movie

Spencer Tracy’s not taking any guff off of Ernest Borgnine in this scene from Bad Day at Black Rock.

From the shelves of the Paco library

I am delighted to finally have the opportunity to write about a book published by someone I actually know. Marilyn Peck, an Australian artist and poet, and a long-time friend of Paco Enterprises, has written her first novel, The Dragon Bone Consortium. Part detective story, part international thriller and part treasure hunt, the book is a thumping good read, in which Marilyn picks up the threads of a real life mystery - the disappearance of the fossilized remains of Peking Man - and weaves a yarn about the ultimate recovery of the missing bones, and the price in human lives placed on their return to China by a violent and increasingly unbalanced emissary of the Chinese government.

In the 1920s, a series of excavations initiated at Dragon Bone Hill, near Beijing (f/k/a Peking), uncovered the 750,000-year-old remains of an early hominid, dubbed Peking Man. It was one of the most exciting paleontological finds in history; however, although casts were made of the bones, the original specimens vanished in 1941 during the Japanese invasion and occupation, and have never been recovered.

The novel opens 65 years later. An elderly Chinese couple, Harry and Jenny Han, own and operate a native plant nursery on the central coast of Queensland, Australia. One day, Harry stumbles across some strangers who are poking about a remote section of the property. He goes missing, and his wife suddenly makes a decision to sell the nursery at auction. Their grandchild, Suzy, who was raised by the Hans, is living in Sydney and is baffled by the news that her grandmother wants to sell the nursery. Her puzzlement turns to shock when she finds out that, after the auction has taken place (the property has mysteriously sold for much more than its appraised value), her grandmother has died. It is quickly discovered that she was murdered.

Thus begins a rapid-paced plot encompassing the search for Harry Han and his wife's murderer, the startling connection between Harry and Jenny and the Peking Man remains, and the fulfillment of a decades-old mission, all against the background of rival "treasure" hunters and their deadly machinations. There are several interesting sub-plots - the blossoming love affair between Suzy Han and Mike Kavafis, the manager of the nursery; the curious involvement of an American CIA operative; a corrupt local policeman's involvement in the illicit drug trade - that contribute to making this novel an enthralling page-turner. And ominously looming over all is the villainous Ho Ah-shek, an insanely ambitious agent of the Chinese government whose single-minded determination to acquire all the glory of returning the fossils to their original home places him at the epicenter of a storm of violence and murder.

The Dragon Bone Consortium is an auspicious beginning to Marilyn Peck's career as a novelist, and it has left me hungering for more. Highly recommended (and available through Amazon).

Sunday funnies

Loctite glue: nothing if not versatile.

Ten worst first times.

Happy Zak is looking for investors (H/T: Captain Heinrichs).

Great new ObamaCare ad.

You really can't judge a book by its cover.

If you're having trouble meeting new people, maybe you need to be more, er, creative.

Bear-proof.

ObamaCare: a game the whole family can (and will) play.

Caring for humans: a cat’s guide.

Just because

A 1937 LaSalle.

Mexicans take up arms in defense of their communities

When government can't protect people from the criminal element (or, worse, is in cahoots with it), you get vigilantism.

Happy Feet Friday

Freddie Slack dishes out Pig-Foot Pete.

"Why good people should be armed"

Josie the Outlaw makes an articulate case for the right to bear arms.



H/T: Moonbattery.

It's coming

How long before New York City starts to resemble a set from Blade Runner? (Or, for that matter, Escape From New York?)

Update: Not too long, apparently.

A little background on the Democrats and their support for civil rights

From Grouchy Old Cripple.

H/T: Captain Heinrichs

Well, that's different

2,000 dead mice, laced with acetaminophen and wearing little parachutes, have been airdropped on Guam in order to kill snakes.

So, let me make a mental note for the next time I go hiking: carry a bottle of Tylenol.

Cuba non-libre

Michael Totten has written a fine essay on his trip to Cuba. Well worth a read.

Liberal porn

Chris Matthews has interviewed President Obama. The thing airs Thursday, if you can stand it.

Of course, I could be wrong in my expectations. Matthews may have gone after the preshizzle with fangs bared and claws extended. But I'm thinking it's more likely that the session will resemble a commercial for KY jelly.

If nothing else, socialism sure produces a lot of hilarious, inadvertent symbolism

As President Maduro of Venezuela went on television to outline the latest steps he's preparing to take in order to consolidate socialism, the country was hit by major power outages.


"Sabotage!"

Obama likes to think he's cool...

...but does he have his own band, like Canada's PM, Stephen Harper?

H/T: Captain Heinrichs

A lean, mean idea machine

The Academy of Lagado Huffington Post has some right smart idears they'd like fer us to ponder.


A resident scholar at the Huffington Post attempts to extract a functioning government healthcare web site from cucumbers.

Next thing you know, they'll be getting the vote

“New York lawsuit seeks ‘legal personhood’ for chimpanzees”.

And if they do get the vote, stand by for Democrats to push for massive banana subsidies.

Monday movie

Henry Fonda mentors a young lawman in The Tin Star.

Sunday funnies

As an efficiency measure, all employees of Paco Enterprises are equipped with one of these.

Wild man TimT tries his hand at brewing Sumerian ale.

Swampy’s granddaughter appears to express skepticism over the efficacy of ObamaCare.

You probably won’t see this headline again any time soon: “Two men save shark from choking on moose”.

Highly entertaining, but, alas, not very convincing, alibi: "Man stole delivery truck because he was 'running from zombies'".

Crime-solving “selfies”.

One of the hallmarks of radio comedy in the 1940s was the mock antipathy that existed between comedians Jack Benny and Fred Allen. They also occasionally appeared on screen together. In the following clip from the 1944 movie, It’s in the Bag, Fred Allen poses as the president of the Nutley, New Jersey chapter of the Jack Benny fan club, in an effort to con Benny into giving him a particular chair that may contain a fortune hidden in the seat.