Henry II had a stalwart friend and assistant in Thomas Beckett his chancellor. When there was a chance to elevate Thomas to a position of arch-Bishop of Canterbury Henry did so, thinking he’d have a close ally in the Church. What he didn’t realize was that Beckett was loyal not to him as his chancellor but the office … and when he was head cleric … he was likewise loyal to his office and no longer a close friend and ally of the King. In a frustrated rage (and Henry had a temper) Henry famously hollered  “will someone not rid me of this meddlesome priest” … and two knights took him at his word, rode forth in the night to Canterbury and slew the Bishop in cold blood at the altar, an act which shocked and horrified both England and their King who never actually intended this act to be carried out.

The left in general and the left elite in particular see themselves as the faithful guardians and representatives of the people. A popular movement arising naturally belongs within their party, not the opposition. When this occurs it is an affront to their long held assumptions that the ordinary folk are their constituents and this movement is a betrayal (just talk to a gay conservative as to how liberals treat with them … for a party that thinks that harsh words against oppressed groups are harmful, they are mighty quick to use them themselves).

Mr Obama has joked about using the IRS as a political tool, he’s remarked how Tea Party members were nefarious, he’s publicly called out persons and groups to be targeted by liberal pressure. Low and behold a few knights ride out to do his bidding. Actually more than a few, but who’s counting. Apparently we are to believe there was no connection between his attitude, the atmosphere he encouraged in his administration and its behavior. History if I remember, finds Henry culpable for the consequences of his remarks. History likewise, will likely find Mr Obama culpable for the spate of government overreach and partisanship it demonstrates …

On the other hand, it seems calls for “impeach the bum” keep coming from the right. Uhm, a few points to this remark:

• Biden? Geesh
• The President is tried in the Senate, by Senators not a few of whom have Presidential aspirations and for which a majority share the same political party as the President.
• Which means, the only actual good that would come of impeachment is … that it would shut down the federal government for a month or so.
• and finally, Biden? If that doesn’t frighten you, nothing will.

Oh, wait. Point #3 might be the actual point. Impeachment even without conviction would be likely to hamstring the President during and afterwards … and he’s not going to be convicted so the Biden threat isn’t very real.

Busy morning for me. You?

1. If our plan holds, this is the next “family” car after the kids move out … or the equivalent in 2017.
2. A few years in the cellar.
3. “Mystical” … what does that mean to ABC I wonder.
4. The standards … they are double, eh?
5. An aesthetic is a method for evaluating art. By what aesthetic is that worth that much? Not one I might fathom.
6. Some games and a photo-essay.
7. Two very different posts on exercise, here and here.
8. While you’re thinking about the IRS.
9. Ink on skin meets religion in the Middle East.
10. OK liberals … defend this! or this.
11. School and men.
12. Frakking and the obvious.
13. He calls it “inexcusable” and is right glad his Chicago training taught him how to have no tracks back to himself on this one … at least as long as those losing their jobs keep their mouths shut.
14. And we end with a discussion of a fictional figure in popular media.

Moving on

1. Do drones work?
2. More on the same.
3. Researching for the government. Heh.
4. The liberator and open source.
5. First there was lather rinse repeat now we find eat, pray, drink.
6. Liberty. Three notions of liberty (freedom to choose, loving neighbors/community, and now … freedom to make laws). Do they differ at the core or just the edges?
7. Cheating.
8. Multi-culturalism and its claims … a test lab.
9. The last weeks scandal that was lost.  Another list. A prediction … I’m not convinced he’s lost them yet.
10. Dogs and medical methodology and recommendations.
11. “We don’t rush in half cocked” …  of course we do, if we have to. Remember McClellan  and the Civil war … responding too much to the fear of losing and the unknown leads merely to just plain losing.
12. Biden-the-knucklehead takes credit for the White House promoting fracking. Promoting fracking? What is he smoking?
13. Danger danger Will Robinson!!!

G’day

1. Seems like a good thing.
2. Well, time is probably something they have on hand.
3. More things than are dreamed of in your books, perhaps.
4. Bravo.
5. Hey! That’s an old standard “dad” line.
6. Privacy or “market research”.
7. ad hoc gun show.
8. Number 6 is Mr Obama who appointed them, eh?
9. Alienated, young, and male.
10. To quoth the President a few days after the Benghazi incident “a shadowy figure behind the video sparked the attack” … “nothing new was learned” … yep. Nothing new, except that doesn’t mean what you think it means.
11. Mali watch.
12. Classical education and what that used to mean.

OK. Take a few

1. Colorado oversteps. Would local zoning laws do it?
2. All that sex talk makes Lucy a duller girl.
3. A set of odd wheels for bikes.
4. Devil(s) … impersonal or not?
5. Why? Maybe they were wearing swim suits not sweaters. More on that IRS thing here.
6. Touche.
7. Purple prose.
8. Great apes and swimming … and the resultant map.
9. Heh.
10. A mom reflects on mother’s day.
11. Losing the left on the Benghazi kerfuffle.
12. A good question, after all most of the research was supported by your taxes. And is arXIV sufficient to ameliorate the problem?
13. Famousness.

The White House talking point on Benghazi is that the hearings “told us nothing new”, which I think isn’t exactly what they were hoping for. You’d think that they would be wanting those hearings to exonerate them, instead of confirming what we already knew, i.e., that they were scoundrels.

G’day

1. One thing you don’t have to worry about shopping in the Midwestern ‘burbs.
2. Yah, that will work. So, does that mean the state department is completely ignorant of how difficult stopping a 2 megabyte zip file from being disseminated might be. I mean, why even bother. Setting aside the point that there is no actual reason for them to try to stop it in the first place.
3. Diversity and USC.
4. Modern atheism, likely flash in the demographic pan.
5. Modern reason takes a turn to the dark side. (in which dark implies ignorance and such)
6. Uhm, Ms Pelosi is grandstanding … let’s see “sequestration” is keeping a very very wealthy woman from “visiting the troops” … does that mean sequestration is keeping her from buying a plane ticket? Nope. Making phone calls? Nope. So how is sequestration stopping here. Answer,  Uhm, no … it’s not and … Ms Pelosi … you are flat out lying.
7. Impeachment. Although there is no reason to impeach Mr Obama … the Senate has Democratic majority, there is no point.
8. Fear the duck.
9. A danish writer of some renown compares Easter/Pascha celebrations in Rome and Greece.
10. Short answer, no.
11. A book list.
12. Used weather, dirt cheap.

Well, then …

1. A little honesty … to bad we don’t get more of that in politics.
2. Speaking about things needed in politics … we can dream, eh?
3. Space and fire.
4. About the WDML.
5. Spin backfires.
6. Actually it’s not a “game changer”. Zip guns have been around for a long time and this is just another zip gun.
7. And on that topic … you do realize there is no actual need to reinforce the notion that the left is completely ignorant when it comes to firearms.
8. Apparently Ms Clinton had an accurate accusation.
9. Fracking comes to Asia.
10. Well, duh.
11. Yikes.
12. Boots on the ground, costs, and performance … works for military performance and applies to lots of other things too.
13. A confession.

Yah, links?

1. Well, that’s to be expected. That arab “spring”  is a thing to behold.
2. Actually, I think the motive or at least the logic of “what did he want to achieve by that” is not very clear.
3. “The most callous thing” which means  Mr Biden completely lacks any imagination at all. Or has led an incredibly sheltered life to not realize that there are hundreds (thousands) of “more callous” things that man has done to man than that.
4. Girlfriend?
5. Doing the treadmill right.
6. Very very pretty. This too.
7. Archaeology underwater.
8. Pesky trends for the gun control = emergency crowd.
9. Where it’s not cold when it rains.
10. Apparently the “is not welcome” at Church is a recent lefty meme, alas … not true.
11. The Paschal (Easter) 2nd homily from the Russian patriarch (the first was the original by St John Chrysostom spoken at every Orthodox Paschal celebration for many many centuries … when something is done right … why change?).

Yo.

1. Progress isn’t always.
2. Fast has multiple meanings.
3. A bishop does good.
4. Heh.
5. Logic and the not-pro-life crowd.
6. Some Irish history.
7. Sounds like …. (or of language and memory)
8. Hermeneutical fail … in that I have no idea what is meant by that reply.
9. A possible future.
10. In trying to parody (highlight?) loony remarks of the other side, the poster comes of as a, well, bigger loon. Wonder if that was the plan.
11. Healthcare and Oregon.
12. “Cleared for transfer“.

Good morning.

1. The gun/girl culture.
2. Mr Obama’s buddy defends his bombings … unsuccessfully it seems.
3. Hmm.
4. Even handed remarks from the left, or not.
5. And in that vein … yikes.
6. Culture.
7. Statistics and risk.
8. From the weekend, (Christ is risen).
9. Mental health and guns.
10. Book burning and the interwebs.
11. Well, did that just end the gun control debate?
12. Happiness metric.
13. Perhaps more than just cultural pressures?

Good morning.

1. Let’s start with some doodles, of a non-graphical sort.
2. If you believe a thing to be true, it’s not lying … if you publish it in a paper however, it means your editor is sleeping on the job.
3. Racial blinders. It’s not race, it’s culture, btw.
4. Oh go ahead, be happy.
5. Looking at the prospect of naval warfare and situational/geographical tactics.
6. Are we really talking about Jean Valjean stealing a loaf of bread?
7. Coloration.
8. Considering the Boston brothers with bombs.
9. And something more to be said on that front.
10. Rolling back the clock, is it possible?
11. Heh.
12. The trials and tribulations of covering the military.
13. In need of financial advice.
14. Mad skillz.

On to the business at hand …

1. Your tax dollars at work … OK. probably not your tax dollars but somebodies. Golly, gubmit sure is silly.
2. Ooh, surprise, taxes going up is the “hidden” plan.
3. Better than raising taxes any day of the week.
4. Which is another reason why not to do this.
5. A prediction made.
6. Another.
7. Hollywood and the musical.
8. Remember this.
9. Not alone in that confusion.
10. Despicable? or just ordinary ho hum?
11. What if you didn’t kill him, just put a round in a lung?  That’ll usually take the vim and vigor out of a guy.

This week has been crazy. The hotel web site crawls (which I can access at night). I’m with only sketchy phone service, no data, and no network all day. Odd doing that during a non-vacation day.

Ok. Link?

1. Pressure and the working world.
2. Syria and a prayer request.
3. Bike tech of a different sort.
4. Going way past the feed the beast notion.
5. Shale.
6. Not wrong. Christian. Jesus pointed out evil men love those who love them, love the man that hates you .. that’s a little more difficult.
7. Jane Austen and game theory.
8. Stupidity in schooling.
9. This is strange. On a Christian group conversation blog, a fellow “can’t imagine a leader not hung up on power” … Uhm, there was this Galilean fellow, you might call him the  leader of a movement, some time back …

izzat ’nuff?

Woo.

1. Yikes.
2. Keep on training.
3. Poetry so bad it has to be read to believed. (refer also to prior feed the beast suggestions).
4. Repugnance.
5. Women and the Greatest Generation (of).
6. Immigration and a 1k mile border fence … but not in the US.
7. Geesh. Please, can we stop listening to/hearing from this moron.
8. I was once in that place.
9. Russian Roulette considered.
10. Uhm. Wrong answer. Sex is determined by XX or XY pairings in chromosomes … you are not “neither” or “both” but one or the other, if you’re human.
11. Hey! Notice. The first quote is by one speaker. The second by others. People of the same party can have different notions and expressing different ideas is not a 180 shift of a viewpoint.
12. Love and the ordinary Puritan.

Yo. Link?

1. On Mr Gosnell from First Things.
2. A modern Confessor. Martyrs are remembered for dying for their faith, confessors are remembered for suffering torture or imprisonment for the same … just not to the point of death.
3. Dirty Dozen, fiction film and well known. Filthy Thirteen, non-fiction, history and not known. Something is wrong there.
4. Mill on epistemology.
5. Whose interests indeed.
6. Gun control and how to (or not to) bargain.
7. Conversion experiences.
8. Demagogue, as if that were a bad thing. Oh, wait …
9. Freedom of association, something we don’t enjoy any more apparently.
10. Speaking of gun control, a survey of police officers and their views.

OK then.