Jeff Jacoby’s latest column notes a wide array of topics, including the fact that the war between the enlightened West and militant Islam has been raging a lot longer than most of us think.
Now I could lay in to the various news agencies for their highly-skewed slant on the various anti-war protests over the weekend, but the Media Research Center has already done an oustanding analysis of the various stories.
I would like to note that the protestors in Damascus, Syria, that ABC News pointed out in its commentary were anything but peaceful, shouting, “Our beloved Saddam, strike Tel Aviv.”
I would also like to note that the group responsible for organizing the protests this past weekend is a radically leftist organization far more interested in seeing our national security forces dismantled than in seeing a corrupt, homicidal dictator rendered militarily impotent for the safety of the world.
Please do not construe any of this to mean that I am opposed to the protestors or the protesting in general. That is their right in this country, hope they had fun with all of their whining, misguided though a lot of it may be.
What I have a problem with is the irresponsible reporting that cast some sort of legitimacy on these pro-communist hippie throwbacks, purporting a “significant” portion of mainstream America is now beginning to throw its weight behind their antiwar movement. And don’t comment me with, “What about polls?” Polls are about worthless unless you start getting numbers and demographics really representative of the population. (Hint: this generally means a sample size of more than 3,000 people, and you don’t call all 3,000 within the New York or Los Angeles metro areas.)
There are reasons why Patricia Heaton continues to be one of my favorite actresses. She’s absolutely fabulous on Everybody Loves Raymond, and she continues to stand up for traditional Judeo-Christian values.
Last Monday, Heaton walked out of the American Music Awards before she was due to intoduce a retrospective montage. Why? Because she was digusted by “an onslaught of lewd jokes and off-color remarks.”
“I’m no prude, but this was such a vulgar and disgusting show,” Heaton said.
Heaton summarizes my own thoughts exactly:
“The entire evening became about bleeping. It was as if they were trying to become more like the MTV awards. But it’s one thing if this kind of stuff is on MTV at 10 at night. It’s quite another if it’s on ABC at 8 o’clock. I don’t know what Dick Clark was thinking.”
Heaton fired back, when asked if she’s worried about any sort of “you’ll never present again” backlash: “Who cares?”
Major retrophisch kudos to Patricia Heaton for taking a stand against the Hollywonk culture.
“A liberal is one who opposes racial profiling in matters of national security, but believes it is a useful standard in matters of higher education.” –your humble host
“Citizens by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.” –George Washington
“There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad.
“But a hyphenated American is not an American at all. This is just as true of the man who puts “native” before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul.
“Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance. But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as any one else.
“The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic.
“…The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American.
“… For an American citizen to vote as a German-American, an Irish-American, or an English-American, is to be a traitor to American institutions; and those hyphenated Americans who terrorize American politicians by threats of the foreign vote are engaged in treason to the American Republic. ” —Theodore Roosevelt, 1915
So, too, would I include those would refer to themselves as: African-American, Hispanic-American, Arab-American, Asian-American, et al. We are one people of many ethnicities, but one unique culture: American. If you feel you cannot refer to yourself as such without hyphenation, then do as Roosevelt suggested and leave. (Thanks to Rick for the link.)
Now you may be wondering, “How did the MRC find out those economists were Democrat contributors?” It’s called OpenSecrets.org, and you can search for campaign contributors.
Gee, what possible agenda could ABC, NBC, and CBS have for trotting out financial experts and accountants who poo-poo on the President’s tax plan, when those experts and accountants are heavy Democrat contributors?
Isn’t he adorable? Clancy loves tennis balls. . .
One of my favorite authors, and the coiner of “cyberspace,” is blogging. He also has a new book coming out, and damn, can this guy write or what? This is how the book freaking opens:
Five hours’ New York jet lag and Cayce Pollard wakes in Camden Town to the dire and ever-circling wolves of disrupted circadian rhythm.
It is that flat and spectral non-hour, awash in limbic tides, brainstem stirring fitfully, flashing inappropriate reptilian demands for sex, food, sedation, all of the above, and none really an option now.
A departure from the body of work most readers are familiar with, Pattern Recognition takes place in the present, instead of the cyberpunk future Gibson helped build.
Now February cannot get here fast enough. . .
Apple posted its first quarter results; $8 million net loss. Ouch. I’m sure the stock will drop like a stone as “analysts” and stock “experts” tell clientele to sell, sell, sell.
The loss isn’t really bad news when you take the reasons why into consideration. Why is this important? Because the “analysts” won’t, that’s why.
Apple’s revenues for the quarter were $1.47 billion, up 7 percent from the quarter a year ago. Gross margins were 27.6 percent, down from 30.7 percent in the year-ago quarter. So that explains some of it, right? Apple’s not making as much money per unit sold, even though sales were up.
But here’s the doozy: the “quarter’s results included a $17 million after-tax restructuring charge and a $2 million after-tax accounting transition adjustment. Excluding these non-recurring items, the Company’s net profit for the quarter would have been $11 million, or $.03 per share.” [emphasis added]
So, if Apple hadn’t taken the restructuring charge and the adjustment, it would have shown a profit. And its stock would still go down tomorrow, because Apple can’t win at the stock price game, unlike certain monopolistic computer companies.
Anyway, I don’t look at it as bad news. Apple is making the necessary adjustments it needs to make to stay healthy and competitive while the economy sorts itself out, and if I could afford it, I’d be snapping up more stock tomorrow when the morons dump theirs. Thus concludes this edition of the Retrophisch™ Apple Financial Analysis.