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Thingish Things

Impeachy Keen

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 25•11

Iowa Rep Steve King (R) suggested today that President Obama be impeached if the nation’s debt goes into default.  Another young Republican Turk has suggested that Obama be impeached should he unilaterally raise the debt ceiling, that is, without the approval of the Congress. Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D), who probably would have voted against War of 1812, says Obama should be impeached for ignoring the War Powers Act in bombing Libya.

Don’t we have enough problems today without members of Congress invoking the “I” word at every turn?  It’s never going to happen, so why raise the issue? Why further feed the notion that Washington’s disagreements are irresolvable? Congress’s disapproval rate stands at 74.9% already.

Voters should do the impeaching in this country on Election Day. No need for Messrs. King and Kucinich to be involved. All they do is bring further ignominy on their legislative house.  They should knock it off. 

21 Years?

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 25•11

That’s the maximum prison sentence in Norway.  Heck, if I were a relative of Anders Behring Breivik’s victims, I’d consider taking a crack at the guy worth it.  My unread copy of War and Peace would consume the first dozen years.  

Twenty one years.  That would have put Charles Manson back on the street in 1990. Sirhan Sirhan would have been out a year before that, in 1989.  It’s madness. 

The Growing Youth Revolt

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 23•11

President Obama was bound to lose his grip on the youth vote.  Young people may think they are immortal, but they aren’t stupid.  They can do math, and, according to every available calculation on the federal deficit, the under-30 crowd is screwed.  They are the ones who will be stuck with the bill for decades of overspending by their elders.  And still, Democrats are resisting cuts.

Reuters today reports an extraordinary new statistic out of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. In 2008 – when President Obama was elected with the help of the much-heralded youth vote – the Democratic Party had a seven-point registration advantage over Republicans among white voters under the age of 30.  Less than three years later, Republicans have an 11-point registration advantage among those very same voters – an 18-point swing in just three years.

One has to think that change occurred for at least three reasons,  1.) Icarus-Obama predictably fell from the sky; young people didn’t realize that would invariably happen, 2.) war is no longer the prevailing issue in America; debt is, and 3.) Unemployment remains high among young people, even those with college degrees. 

Cracks in the President’s standing among young voters were beginning to appear as early as last January.  Today’s Pew Poll is nothing short of breathtaking, though. 

Amy Winehouse, 27, RIP

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 23•11

In these days of bad-girl, bubble-gum pop stars, I once assumed that Amy Winehouse was just another one.  I had seen news clips of the British musician on television, tattooed and stumbling drunk, and wondered how she, like so many others today, had gotten famous.

Then my wife played an Amy Winehouse song in the car one day, and I instantly knew why.  Amy Winehouse was magnificently talented.  But more than that, she was a genuine original in a world full of fakes.

Based on Winehouse’s appearance, I would have expected her to be an angry rocker.  She was anything but.  Her lyrics were honest and heartfelt; her sound was part American soul, part jazz, part hip-hop and part 1950’s crooner. Put together, it was 100% her own.  Others are now trying to emulate it. 

Everyone knew Winehouse was an addict.  Except Winehouse.  How terribly sad. Amy Winehouse, dead at 27

Quote of the Day, Norwegian MP

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 22•11

“Right now there is a sense of silence and waiting as people wait for information on who was behind (the two attacks).

“But there is also a sense of community, a sense of sticking together in difficult times. We know that this day and what happened on it has changed Norway, but we don’t yet know in what way. But however it changes Norway, it will not change our will to defend democracy and to defend our democratic institutions.” — Hadja Tajik, an MP with Norway’s ruling Labour party.”

Campaign Ad, Carter ’80

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 22•11

http://youtu.be/MhkL-mji9UE

Reagan may be the Democrats’ favorite Republican today, but here is how they positioned Reagan in ’80.  Does the scare tactic sound familiar? 

Macy’s Voyeurs

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 22•11

Macy’s installs changing room doors upside down so that employees can peer into dressing rooms and watch customers change, according to a report in the news today.  The upside down doors are part of an anti-theft measure instituted by Macy’s security.  It reportedly has been going on for years. 

Customers changing are in full view of anyone peering down through the blinds.  Those changing, though, cannot see that they are being watched. 

Is Macy’s out of its mind? 

Chinese Ingenuity

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 22•11

 

A Wholly Original Fake Apple Store (from BirdAbroad.com)

A number of years ago, the Chinese unveiled a remarkable handheld device.  It was called “The Redberry” and it did the most marvelous thing.  It allowed one to send emails to other “Redberry” devices.  It could even be used as a phone. Any similarities to Research In Motion’s Blackberry device was mere coincidence, China Unicom officials said.  The two handhelds boasted identical keyboards.  Go figure.  The same invention occurring on opposite sides of the globe.

The Redberry

Today we learn of new “Apple Stores” in China selling the entire line of “Apple” devices — IPads, Iphones, Mac Book Pros, etc.  The only problem of course is that Apple — the real company — has never heard of the stores.

They are painstakingly produced to resemble real Apple stores in almost every detail. Yet they are frauds.  Utter fakes, like so much developed in China and exported today.

A friend and reader rightly pointed out last week that China has a long history of inventiveness. He pasted some of the inventions in the comments section of this blog item. But really. what has China produced that is original since 1949 when the Communists declared victory?  Lies and fakes. Original knock-offs. That’s what they have produced.  

I know we’re all supposed to be bowing over China’s economic prowess, but give me the folks in Silicon Valley any day. They invent things. Not scams.  

 

 

The Dreaded 10th Anniversary

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 21•11

My father used to talk to my older brother and me about the War when were little kids. It was the mid-to-late 1960’s and World War II was fairly recent history. Germany and Japan had surrendered just over 20 years prior to that, the rough equivalent today of the end of the First Gulf War.

My father told us stories — some of them hair-raising — about what it was like to kill and see your friends killed, and what it was like to be wounded by German mortar shrapnel (twice) and have it removed with the help of morphine and pretty Italian nurses. He told us of listening to German soldiers sing in their foxholes on a cold winter night, and how they ambushed them all the next morning.  He told us stories we will neither forget nor pass on.  

And then, like so many others, my father abruptly stopped talking about the War.  We were always in the market for more stories, and ever-excitable yours-truly had question after question after unanswered question. I still do. 

I always thought my father ceased recalling the War because he was haunted by memories of it. I’m sure that’s partially true. But it never occurred to me, until some years after 9/11, that maybe, just maybe,  he and millions of other Americans were just collectively sick to death of talking about it. And so they stopped. 

That’s what I think now.

The ten-year anniversary of 9/11 will soon be upon us, and PR types like me are busy preparing real and dubious 9/11 angles to everything ranging from memorials to laundry soap for possible media mention. But I can’t help thinking in the back of my head that not a single American wants to hear one more damned thing about 9/11. Those lost will be remembered, of course, but the rest of the story has been told to death, beaten into pulp into the ground over a period of years.  The story no one could get enough of became excruciating to listen to. It’s why the bin Laden killing turned out to be only a three-day story. 

That shift in attitude happened abruptly, too. I was particularly attune to it because I worked with several 9/11 groups and national security organizations in the years following the attacks. For the longest time, the mere mention of terrorism would bring reporters running and civilian eyes front-and-center.  And then, in my observation anyway, the interest simply shut off one day. Anyone peddling national security stories — legitimate ones — got a door in the face.  The long news cycle was over.

I remember exactly when it happened. It was in early 2007, just after the tide in Iraq began to turn back in our favor. When it was clear the Surge was working. From that point on, the economy became the issue and mentions of 9/11 or terrorism were met with rolled eyes or outright scorn.  

Today we learn that al Qaeda may have infiltrated our nuclear power plants, and still I don’t want to hear about it. Terrorism and 9/11 fatigue got to me, too. Just tell me if something blows up, I half-think. I’ll pay attention then.  I don’t mean to sound dispassionate, but, in truth, I am.  I got burned out on the story years ago. 

I don’t know if I can bear the 10th Anniversary news cycle in America.  Can’t we wait ’til the 25th? 

What Would Reagan Do?

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 21•11

http://youtu.be/vx8C-seaFQ4

President Obama and other Democratic leaders have repeatedly invoked Ronald Reagan in their negotiations with Republicans over the debt ceiling.  They have suggested that Reagan would have been more willing to yield on raising taxes. Here Michael Reagan, a son of the late President, has some fun at President Obama’s expense comparing Reaganomics with Obamanomics.  It’s sure to make its way around the net today.