Barack Obama was born in Kenya as recently as 2007

 blather, history, Obamazombies, politics  15 Responses »
Aug 212012
 

Put a bit more accurately: professional people paid to publicize Barack Obama as recently as 2007 were claiming that he was born in Kenya. In this case, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. Their list of authors, courtesy the Internet Wayback Machine (AKA archive.org), lists Obama as of April 3, 2007, in these terms:

BARACK OBAMA is the junior Democratic senator from Illinois and was the dynamic keynote speaker at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. He was also the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. He was born in Kenya to an American anthropologist and a Kenyan finance minister and was raised in Indonesia, Hawaii, and Chicago. His first book, DREAMS FROM MY FATHER: A STORY OF RACE AND INHERITANCE, has been a long time New York Times bestseller.

As of April 21, 2007, he was described thusly:

BARACK OBAMA is the junior Democratic senator from Illinois and was the dynamic keynote speaker at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. He was also the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. He was born in Hawaii to an American anthropologist and a Kenyan finance minister and was raised in Indonesia, Hawaii, and Chicago. His first book, DREAMS FROM MY FATHER: A STORY OF RACE AND INHERITANCE, has been a long time New York Times bestseller.

The oldest capture of the site that archive.org has only goes back to November 3, 2006, but it contains the “born in Kenya” narrative.

Does this mean Obama was born in Kenya? No. I’m pretty sure he was born in Hawaii. But I’m also pretty sure he was trying to use the myth of a Kenyan birth for political purposes right up until it was detrimental. Remember, interesting things were afoot at the time:

On February 10, 2007, Barack Obama, then junior United States Senator from Illinois, announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States in Springfield, Illinois.

Getting his public record cleaned up to dump references to being born in Kenya down the memory hole would have been in full swing in April.

 Posted by at 8:41 pm

Aerofex

 aircraft, awesomeness, news, youtube  2 Responses »
Aug 212012
 

New Hover Vehicle Recalls ‘Star Wars’ Bike

Looks like a  smallerized and modernized Piasecki VZ-8 Airgeep.

So far the test flights seem to be at altitudes of inches. But if it can be made reliable and practical to fly these things at respectable altitudes, I think they might have themselves a market. Especially if they can be made so that they can fit in the back of a truck, or on a reasonable trailer. Such things would open up a whole new world for nature photographers in the mountains, hikers, campers, hunters, and those who need to go rescue ’em.

[youtube akA-B64RACU]

[youtube FGw7qQlQWFM]

And then there’s this…

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And…

[youtube h-7RlL3YtiQ]

 Posted by at 6:27 pm

Is this “irony?”

 blather, news, Obamazombies, politics  10 Responses »
Aug 212012
 

Or just “hypocrisy?”

Yesterday President Obama came out of hiding briefly in order to give a few remarks to the press. I’m *sure* the timing had nothing to do with the Akin “legitimate rape” scandal, but he touched on it nevertheless. In doing so, he said this:

So what I think these comments do underscore is why we shouldn’t have a bunch of politicians, a majority of whom are men, making health care decisions on behalf of women.

Anyone else find it odd that a politician who led a fight to install government as the arbiter of health care is now arguing that politicians should be in charge of health care?

 Posted by at 10:48 am

L’Enfant Plaza

 blather, photography  19 Responses »
Aug 212012
 

The Washington D.C. Metro system is an interesting set of contrasts. It’s a seemingly cheap and efficient means of getting around a city known for hideous, economy-crushing expense married with nightmarish bureaucratic inefficiency. The people you will meet on it are as likely to be tourists as they are to be Congressional staffers as they are to be filthy bums as they are to be military officers as they are to be feral thugs. And while the outside world might be a heat-blasted sauna or a frozen icebox, brightly day-lit or pitch black night, the underground stations are always the same dim, cool environment.

One of the larger and busier of the stations in L’Enfant Plaza, the station nearest to the National Air and Space Museum and other well-known locales. The station looks like it was designed to withstand a nuclear strike… which is probably the case.

 Posted by at 10:19 am

We’re Number One!

 awesomeness, blather, news, politics, russian empire, weapons  43 Responses »
Aug 202012
 

American civilians buy as many AK47s as the Russian military and police… and demand is surging because gun owners fear they will be banned

In short: about 40% of the AK-47s made in Izhvesk, Russia, home of the Izhmash Kalashnikov factory, are going to the US civilian market.

While these are, sadly, semi-auto rather than full-auto, it’s good to see the increase. The Daily Mail article links to a New York Times article, and both make a massive journalistic faux pas: they both point out that many of the AK-47’s are going to American hunters, who are, contrary to the politically correct talking point, effectively using the AK-47 to go hunting. And why not? It’s cheap, reliable, easy to maintain, and kinda-sorta vaguely accurate.

This is good for everyone involved: the Russians get an economic boost, America gets more quality firearms. When you consider that gun rights and gun ownership rates have been on the rise for the last ten years or so, while at the same time crime has been on the decline, increased ownership of AK-47’s can only be a good thing.

——-

Heh. Reading the comments section of the New York Times is both instructive and entertaining.

Maybe start by passing local government laws to tighten up on gun control, then local government could take on central government on this issue. Who needs a semi-automatic weapon in an urban concrete jungle? The days of the Wild West have long gone and people go to the supermarket to get food these days. You’ve got the government and military forces to protect you. You need to put your trust in your government to protect you like other nations do.

—

Just you wait. The next mass killing is around the corner. And guess what the weapon will be? Why do we need this? Is there any way we can stop the insanity? Can we take to the streets? Let’s organize, people!

—

This is crazy. There isn’t one good reason why anyone over here would ever need one of these.

—

Wait. Did I say “entertaining?” I mean “sad.”

 Posted by at 3:24 pm

Republicans eat their own

 blather, dumbassery, politics  15 Responses »
Aug 202012
 

And sometimes, that’s for the best. When a Republican says something offensively dumbass (or dumbassly offensive), said Republican will be raked over the coals over it by the press, and it will be used over and over in the quest to tar Republicans as a whole. And thus, sometimes a strategic retreat is the only real tactic available.

Example: Missouri Congressman Akin, who is running for the Senate, made this monumental linguistic blunder while discussing abortion in the context of pregnancy by rape:

“It seems to me first of all, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

There are two things here. One: is pregnancy by rape rare? Does the female body react in such a way that it works to prevent fertilization of eggs in such a situation? I don’t know. I seem to vaguely reading about that some years ago. But even so, “rare” doesn’t mean “never.”

Second: “legitimate rape.” Ouch. I can kinda get what he’s saying… *IF* the female body works to prevent pregnancy by violent rape, it may well not do so in the case of what I suppose Whoopi Goldberg might not refer to as “rape rape.” I guess something like drunken sex that is later regretted, and thus a dubious rape allegation is made… the physiological responses that hypothetically might have prevented a successful pregnancy probably wouldn’t kick in here. But regardless, “legitimate rape” is one of those clumsy phrases calculated to get the speaker in a boatload of trouble.

Even before the Democrat Attack Machine really got up and running over this Monumental Outrage, the Republican party decided that Akin had to go.

Scott Brown calls for Todd Akin to drop out of Senate race

If Akin Remains In, the NRSC Will Spend Nothing on Mo. Senate Race

Romney: Akin’s Comment ‘Inexcusable’

And even a bunch of Freepers agree that the comments are stupid and replacement-worthy.

And so:

Reports: Akin Advisers Make Preparations For Withdrawal Tomorrow

I don’t know if Akin had a legitimate point about “legitimate rape,” but I do know that what he said was, in this age of instant media, massively impolitic. And… he’s a politician. This would indicate that he’s just not good at his job.

From the viewpoint of a libertarian, the biggest problem with Akin was that he has given the Democrats a massive opportunity to try to convince the voting public that the big issue this voting season is abortion, not the dismal economy. That alone should merit Akin a smackdown from his party.

 Posted by at 2:02 pm
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