Under the Fedora IRS, Newsworthy Protests and Dead Cats

On Wednesday 10,000 Tea party members came to the Capital on short notice to protest the IRS scandal. TEA generally stands for Taxed Enough Already but this time it stood for Targeted Enough Already. It’s my opinion that this scandal is the only one with legs due to the legalities involved, but as I watch the left continue to circle the wagons for Barack Obama and the IRS I’m reminded of an old Star Trek Episode the Enterprise Incident.

COMMANDER: But I doubt it’ll clear you of espionage.

KIRK: We were not spying, Commander.

COMMANDER: Your language has always been most difficult for me, Captain. Perhaps you have another word for it.

KIRK: You’re grossly mistaken if you think we were there…

COMMANDER: Captain, if a Romulan vessel ventured far into Federation territory without good explanation, what would a starbase commander do? You see, it works both ways.

Is there a single member of the left that would buy this administration’s explanations for the IRS scandal (or in fact any of the scandals) if they were coming from the Bush administration?

I think not.

Incidentally for my non-geek readers, the reason why the Romulans were using ” Klingon Design” for their ship was because a production assistant stepped on the Romulan model while unpacking them.

The Edward Snowden story becomes odder and odder, I haven’t decided if he’s just a traitor trying to bring the country down or a fanatic who thinks it was necessary to stop government overreach but Bob Schieffer made an excellent point on the subject:

Some of the people I admire most took on the government — men and women who led the civil rights movement: Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. They are true heroes.

I’m not ready to put Edward Snowden in that category.

For one thing, I don’t remember Martin Luther King Jr. or Rosa Parks running off and hiding in China. The people who led the civil rights movement were willing to break the law AND suffer the consequences. That’s a little different than putting the nation’s security at risk and running away.

The case reminds me a bit of the Kate Hunt case there was a real rush to turn him into a hero by some and I suspect they will regret it as more information comes out.

I really dislike Glenn Greenwald as a rule. He was one of the “It’s America’s fault just after 9/11” and frankly I wouldn’t doubt for one moment that the injury to security of the country is to his liking but I’ll give him this. He has been no hypocrite. He has been just as hard on the Obama administration as he was on the Bushes.

None of the other scandals were able to get bring the president’s numbers down with youth but this one has and my oldest believes he knows the reason:

while the youth might not care about the implications of silencing the Tea Party or dead navy seals but they know that industry and they how much they want stiff penalties for illegal downloads.

My son told me he has friends who have been downloading movies and songs for years who literally are afraid of using their computers since the NSA scandal broke.

You want to get people excited hit them where they live and today youth live online.

The tea party protest in Washington wasn’t the only protest that took place recently. There was an Anti-gun protest in San Bernedino that I found interesting.

Exactly six months after 20 children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., a small group from Organizing for Action stood here Friday with 26 flags and signs calling for stricter gun control.

What’s significant about this protest was that the San Bernadino Sun sent a staff writer to cover this protest and devoted almost 200 words to the story of a protest that drew only three people.

Mind you this same paper when the March for life took place and 500,000 showed up in Washington DC and over 50,000 showed up in San Francisco didn’t find it newsworthy enough for an entry.

People wonder why the left is so afraid of the Koch brothers possibility buying the LA Times. This is why.

Senator Ted Cruz is on a roll, first he goes after the Immigration bill (nobody has yet explained why people unwilling to enforce immigration laws before amnesty would be willing to do so afterward. He then came up with this tweet concerning the white House arming Syrian Rebels:

Anyone know if President Obama intends to perform background checks on the Syrian rebels before providing them weapons?

— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) June 18, 2013

The Word you’re looking for is “Bazinga!”

Matt Smith’s upcoming departure as the Doctor has led me to begin reviewing his episodes in order. The first three are here here and here.

This week is the best sports week of the year, you have Baseball, and you have the Stanley Cup Finals and the NBA finals all at once. One might argue for a different time but unless baseball is in the mix it doesn’t count.

So far the NBA finals and the NHL finals have really lived up to the hype. Some of the best Hockey and Basketball of the year continues to be played right now.

Some TV? Burn Notice is in its final season, I’ve never understood of announcing at the star of a season that a popular series is about to end, I can understand a actor wanting to move on but considering how many actors never find another series I’d stick with what works. Then again if a writer is bored and new writers are brought in, the quality almost always suffers.

Speaking of TV did MeTv pick the perfect time to bring back Hogan’s Heroes or what, consider this promo:

Doesn’t Sgt.Schultz sound like the president when being asked about various scandals?

Finally had to kill the cat this week, we’ve had it for a dozen years and got her at age 5. I was struck that the vet was still affected emotionally given that they kill animals on a daily basis.

You might notice that I use “kill” rather than “put down” or “put to sleep” because that is what was done. My wife is very angry at me for using those words instead of euphemisms.

I’m reminded of a scene from the Movie: The Fighting Kentuckian. Breen (John Wayne) has been captured by the bad guys who are preparing to kill him.

Hayden: Good night Mr Breen

Breen: You mean I can go

Hayden: Anytime

Breen: What makes you think I will?

Hayden: Because that way you’ve got a chance, a small one but a chance

Breen: Well, never let it be said I didn’t take it.

As a Catholic the #1 imperative for a human is salvation but as a cat like all animals has no soul the #1 imperative is survival. Given that the cat had a 0% of survival going to the vet to be drugged to death I can’t see how that’s kinder that giving her fighting chance to live another day, week or month.

But that’s me.

Later all.