Thursday, July 31, 2014

All Points Bulletin

Inquiring minds want to know: where the devil is Wronwright, and what has he been up to? We haven’t got his whereabouts pinpointed yet, but we think we’ve got the general area identified (H/T: Michael Lonie).

Thick skull not entirely impervious to brick

Rep. John Boehner, who tends to forget that the president is not the only one with a telephone, has canceled a vote on the cynical amnesty-lite bill he was flogging in the House after phone lines in Washington suffered a total melt-down from alarmed and angry constituents demanding that the bill be killed. It ultimately became obvious, even to the Grim Weeper, that he didn't have the votes to pass this thing.

Which doesn’t mean he won’t be trying some kind of amnesty prestidigitation again in the near future. Boehner is not to be trusted – and there is probably no better proof of this than the role played by Jeff Sessions and Ted Cruz, who had to sound their warnings from over in the Senate. It will be interesting to see how much longer Boehner’s “Damn the constituents, full speed ahead!” strategy will continue to work – or rather, will continue, with impunity, to not work. I believe pro-amnesty wealthy donors only have one vote each, same as the rest of us.

The government official from central casting

John Kerry: perception and reality.

This may lead to some kind of China-syndrome-type thing

Barry and Cankles are vacationing at Martha's Vineyard at the same time.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Babysitting

Our two boys are off gallivanting in Richmond for a couple of days, so Mrs. Paco and I get custody of the granddaughter - which little Maggie Lee seems to like just fine.



Monday, July 28, 2014

Warren G. Harding was a playah

Looks like the gentleman should have availed himself more frequently of cold showers : “Trove of President Harding’s love letters reveal steamy affair”.

As to being one of the country’s “worst presidents”, old Warren at least had the graciousness to die in office, thus bequeathing us Silent Cal, who was probably one of our better chief executives. No such option today, sadly. If President Cypher were to depart office, we’d be stuck with the absurd Joe Biden, who might very well find a way to plunge us into a war with Canada (which we would no doubt lose under his maladroit leadership), or perhaps tackle the illegal immigration problem by making Honduras the 51st state.

Hillary Clinton: You know who makes me proud to be an American?

George W. Bush, that's who.

Monday movie

Screen icons James Garner and Bruce Lee in a couple of scenes from the 1969 private-eye flick, Marlowe.

Sounds about right

"If today's New York Times editors were in charge in 1943".

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Sunday funnies

Ummmm...I think I'll go a few more miles down the road.

Commenter Veeshir has another example from the fine art of gun engraving (and be sure to check out his blog, Doubleplusundead, which I have added to the blog roll).

The great escape.

Two from Kate at Small Dead Animals:

Finis.

Let me at him!

Peter O'Toole is priceless as Lord Emsworth.

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Our border is under control

The one with Canada, that is.

H/T: Captain Heinrichs

Gorgeous summer day

It's days like today that take the edge off of living in Occupied Northern Virginia. Mrs. Paco has really been busy with her flowers and vegetables, and has wound up turning the Command Center into an imitation of a plant nursery (click to enlarge).

Approaching the front door, one is met with a riot of color.





Thank goodness the Texas star finally bloomed, so people can now stop asking me about the "marijuana" plant in the yard.



These hibiscus flowers are big as bread plates.



And we're getting a bumper crop of green beans this year.



When we run out of yard, we just put things in pots. This coleus and impatiens mix turned out nicely.



From the Department of What a Way to Go

"Giant anteaters kill two hunters in Brazil".

Friday, July 25, 2014

Nancy Pelosi

Congresswoman, former House Speaker, Doctor of Divinity.

Yet another foreign policy failure

Or perhaps disaster is a better word:
Even as ISIS began its rapid advance across Iraq, the administration refused to acknowledge it. According to testimony from Brett McGurk, the State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for Iraq and Iran, the White House knew Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul, would fall to advancing ISIS fighters three days before it did. They did nothing about it. Today, unspeakable crimes against human dignity and the common heritage of mankind are committed in that ancient city on a near daily basis.
Barack Obama: transforming not only America, but the entire world.

To borrow an expression from my Native American brethren, my heart is on the ground. A complacent and basically ignorant society might elect this criminally incompetent knee-jerk ideologue once, but it takes a genuinely sick society to have given him a second term. Obama will be gone in 2 ½ years – practically guaranteed to be the longest 2 ½ years any of us will ever experience - but that great swath of imbecilic demography that put him in office in the first place will still be out there, waiting for the next reality-show presidential candidate.

I suppose there is one, very small ray of light: nobody seems any longer to be floating the idea of a change in the constitution to allow this gravedigger of peace and liberty to seek a third term. On the other hand, at the rate Obama and his ilk are undermining the constitution, perhaps that document will be a dead letter by the end of his second term, and he’ll just issue an executive order making himself president for life.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Happy Feet Friday

Tony Pastor and friends get it on with Your Red Wagon.



Yeah, I'm shocked, too

Barry O has a sort of warped sixth sense that enables him to get foreign policy wrong practically every time. Now, he and his absurd Secretary of State are busily undermining Israel in its umpteenth war for survival against terrorists.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Screaming for a caption

The photo in this Tweet over at Ed Driscoll's place is one of my favorite pictures of Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Eye catching



(Via Moonbattery)

On a related theme, Beretta is pulling up stakes in Maryland and heading to Tennessee.

And a new Beretta rifle is the subject of an article written by an idiot.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

The bear is loose

Make that, "the cub is loose".

Obama's lame duck bear second term...

"Was Bin Laden driving GM's Chevy Cobalt when he died?"

Remember the Obama campaign's arrogant boast? - "Bin Laden is dead, GM is alive".

The People's Cube remembers - boy, do they ever.

Monday, July 21, 2014

Serendipity

Occasionally, here at the the Paco Command Center, a flower or other plant springs up and we have no idea where it came from. This phenomenon happened again this year, with the appearance of a cornstalk...



There are two ears of corn sprouting, too...



By the way, does anybody know how to tell when an ear of corn is ready to be picked?

Monday movie

Extortion fail in this scene from Mob City.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Sunday funnies

That's a relief! Historic cheese vans recovered.

Well, there's your problem right there.

Ah, good ol' summer camp.

Hmmmm. Having trouble finding this one in the statutes.

Harry Potter's middle-aged adventure...



Boy, am I glad that soccer thing is over. Maybe now we can get some coverage of real sports - like the World Snuff Championship.

How wine is made...

Friday, July 18, 2014

The future of grocery shopping…

…if Michelle Obama has her way:
According to FreeBeacon.com, the federal busybodies want to provide food-stamp shoppers with “incentives” for making healthy food choices – such as discounts or free movie tickets – and even talking shopping carts that will notify them when they’ve selected enough healthy items.

The high-tech carts – which would cost every grocery store about $30,000 to provide – would be physically divided and color coded to help consumers select approved food items. It would also “have a system installed so that when the shopping cart reaches its healthy ‘threshold’ it would congratulate the customer.
You know it’s not going to end with food-stamp shoppers…

[Paco goes shopping]

Paco: Let’s see now, bananas, cantaloupes…Whoa!...What’s that over there? Ahhh, peanut-butter cookies!

Shopping cart: Hold up, tubby!

Paco [startled]: Who said that?

SC: I did. Allow me to introduce myself: I’m SC#179, and I’ll be your healthy foods consultant today.

Paco: But…you’re a shopping cart!

SC: That’s right, porky, and who better than I to assist you in monitoring your calories?

Paco: I think I’m capable of watching my own weight, thanks.

SC: Well, yeah, I guess so, considering there’s so much of it. I mean, one could be as near-sighted as Mr. Magoo and still observe that expanse of tarp you call a shirt. Didn’t you notice when you stepped on the weight sensors that trigger the automatic door that the door flew open so fast it derailed and crashed into the mango bin?

Paco: Listen, wise guy, how’d you like a new career transporting some homeless guy’s worldly goods around the inner city?

SC: Ok, ok. I was just trying to get your attention. I’m simply here to make suggestions. It’s for your own good, you know. After all, I’m part of an important government project.

Paco: Oh, right. The government’s doing such a bang-up job with foreign policy and securing the border and managing the economy, what could possibly go wrong micromanaging the daily menu for its citizens?

SC: Careful, slim. You’re starting to sound like one of those private militia crazies. Now, let’s get down to business. Instead of buying those peanut-butter cookies, why don’t you substitute something wholesome – like, say, broccoli?

Paco: Broccoli. You mean those things that look like little trees from somebody’s bansai garden?

SC: Sure. Plenty of vitamins and good roughage.

Paco: But they also taste like little trees from somebody’s bansai garden. No, I’m sticking with the cookies.

SC: C’mon, man! Eating one of those cookies is like screwing a cork into your aorta. Don’t blame me if you have a heart attack later on.

Paco: I hereby absolve you of all guilt. Now, here’s the bread aisle. Any problem with a loaf of whole wheat?

SC: Better check it for gluten content.

Paco: Checking the nutrition label. Nope. No gluten.

SC: You’re lying.

Paco: How the hell do you know?

SC: Ve haff vays.

Paco: Does the management here know that you’re trying to kill their business?

SC: We’re not trying to kill their business, just reorient it toward healthier products. Hey, what are you doing? Why are we speeding down the aisle?

Paco: You’re so smart, you figure it out! [Begins vigorously scooping cookies, pancake syrup, chocolate bars and sodas into cart]

SC: Help! I’ve got a rogue glutton on my hands! Somebody stop him!

Paco: Bwahahahaha!!

[Arrives at a checkout lane and begins to unload groceries]

Cash register: Halt! Is that a bag of powdered donuts?

Paco: Wha…?!?

Cash register: I’m not processing that stuff.

Paco [to clerk]: Hey, who’s in charge here, you or the machine?

Clerk: Sorry, sir, but the register is equipped with the Michelle-O-Meter; it’s a healthy foods override device. It’s blocking me from ringing up most of your purchases.

Paco: And just who sets the benchmark for healthy foods?

Clerk: Well…you know…[rolls eyes in the direction of a massive image hanging on the wall of Michelle Obama, wearing an Uncle Sam hat and pointing, above the words, “I want YOU to eat right!”]

Paco: But I’ll starve!

Cash register: Nonsense. We’ve got a special on broccoli today.

Paco: That tears it! I’m going to Safeway!

Clerk: Won’t do you any good, sir.

Paco: Why not? Last time I was there, they didn’t have any of these officious contraptions.

Clerk: That’s true; however, Safeway stores are now operated directly by the Department of Agriculture’s elite Michellestaffel unit. They’ll search your cart before you leave the store, confiscate your unhealthy items and you won’t get your money back.

Paco: This sounds like food fascism, to me!

Cash register: What’s your point?

Happy Feet Friday

Ray Sinatra (Frank's cousin) gives us some upstairs boogie.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Just think: one day, thanks to ObamaCare, we’ll all have access to VA-quality health care

“Wife's outrage after unconscious vet was pronounced DEAD at VA hospital”.

Let’s see, now. Lots of veterans have died waiting to get assistance from the VA, and here’s one who apparently was being assisted, and was pronounced dead while still alive. This is a level of incompetence that is shocking, even for the federal government. I’m with Dave of Texas on this: the VA is unfixable.

Dog bites man

So, another Darryl Issa subpoena gets ignored, and Rep. Issa waves his arms in the air, professing to be outraged.

Apparently, Obama’s DOJ has determined that congressional subpoenas carry about as much weight as a flyer left on your door by a vinyl siding salesman. Although at least vinyl siding companies make a sale every now and then; I’ve yet to see any of Issa’s targets seriously discommoded. I like to think (but am in no way especially confident) that voters will eventually tire of seeing Republican politicians engaging in pointless theater, and will insist on real action to preserve the separation of powers and rein in the executive branch’s overreach.

The TSA continues to impress

Or perhaps astound is a better word: “Orlando TSA agent who stopped DC man didn't know where ‘District of Columbia’ was”.

Now, to be fair, I have to confess to a grudging envy of this TSA agent; I often wish that I had never heard of the District of Columbia either.

Hey, what about musketoons?

Rolling Stone publishes an article on the "the five most dangerous guns in America". Hilarity ensues.

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

President Zero

Obama declared early on that he wanted to transform America - too bad not enough voters figured out that he wanted to transform it into a third world hell hole.

Would-be carjacker needs to consider another line of work

"Woman takes carjacker's gun, shoots him with it".

Monday, July 14, 2014

Eric Holder takes time out from his job covering up Obama administration scandals...

...to investigate a satirical float in a small town parade.

How ironic that Public Enemy #1 is holding the top position at the Dept. of Justice.

BTW, here's some more satire of the O regime that might require investigation (gratefully lifted from I Own the World).


Monday movie

An exciting chase scene from To Live and Die in L.A..

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Sunday funnies

Out: "Excuse me". In: "Here's to your health."

12 things women can get away with (that men can't).

Full-auto talking.

Alcohol: it's inspirational, is what it is.

I didn't know the army was this hard up.

Excessive exuberance illustrated.

How to pass time in the airport.

Meh. How hard can it be to park cars?

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Another gun manufacturer hedges its bets

Mossberg, primarily known for its shotguns, is headquartered in Connecticut, but is substantially expanding its manufacturing capacity in Texas.

Incidentally, here's a nice Mossberg semi-automatic shotgun - the 930 SPX - that I'm thinking of adding to the arsenal.

Friday, July 11, 2014

Happy Feet Friday

Ginger Rogers stirs things up in the jailhouse (from the 1942 movie, Roxie Hart).

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Assortment

The IDF deals handily with some Hamas infiltrators (H/T: Captain Heinrichs).

Maybe it's time to bring back the practice of tarring and feathering.

The growing plague of media ignorance.

Perfect casting! Robert Redford has agreed to play - are you ready? - Dan Rather in a film based on the memoir Truth and Duty, the apologia written by the absurd Mary Mapes after she got fired for publishing a bogus story about George Bush.

Store clerk defends herself from gun-toting robber with beer.

You know who's responsible for the border crisis? Do we really even have to ask?

Among the intellectuals.

Our broadminded president admits that not "all" Republicans are terrible people.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Somewhat dumber than the average bear

Ace has been having fun with the White House PR machine’s latest indulgence in “cute” messaging – Tweeting out “the bear is loose” whenever Obama takes a trip outside of the White House.

Looks like another caption opportunity!


The bear is loose. And he wants to play through.

“No, thanks, Bro; but here, try some of mine”

President Choom is offered weed in Colorado.

Plus, looks like it’s caption time again!


Horse's head meets horse's ass.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

What Pogo said

Victor Davis Hanson has penned a searing indictment not only of Barack Obama and his lawless henchmen, but of a strangely apathetic nation that watches the ideological war against our founding principles unfold with a seemingly bovine lack of awareness.

What Boehner, McConnell and company don't get

As Rush Limbaugh points out, “Every day it’s an all-out assault on essentially the founding of the country.”

It's not just garden variety party politics anymore. We will awaken someday to find ourselves in a country we don't know.

Monday, July 7, 2014

Monday movie

Kurt Russell confronts his wife's kidnappers in this tense scene from Breakdown.

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Caught in the act

Something's been cropping my roses, and today I found out what it is...



Rosebud, here, has been walking around the neighborhood, bold as brass, at all hours of the day. Saw her later on in the early evening munching seeds at a bird feeder.

Sunday funnies

Just add water.

A sadly under-appreciated art form: hippo sculpture...



This looks like fun: the world's tallest water slide (you go first).

Graffiti wiseguy.

Randy has a photo that says it all.

Butter art.

Your guide to manly living: the Swanson Pyramid of Greatness.

What's in your wallet? No, seriously, I mean let's see it...




Bob Newhart imagines Sir Walter Raleigh's business agent trying to figure out tobacco (H/T: Theo Spark and Captain Heinrichs).

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Robert Redford makes earnest noises with his pie hole

Whereupon the suave and cerebral Smitty of The Other McCain deploys his patented Word-table fisking approach to capture the man's essential stupidity.

Friday, July 4, 2014

Seen around the neighborhood

Since the storm that blew up from the outer banks made some minor inroads into Northern Virginia, the air has cooled considerably and it is a particularly fine day, with plenty of sunshine and a light breeze.I decided that it would be a good day to begin a regimen of exercise; and high time, inasmuch as my job has recently left me little opportunity for taking care of the outer man.

We live in a lovely little neighborhood called Mantua, and it is an ideal place for strolling, especially due to the trails that wind through and about the area. I proposed to Mrs. Paco that we take a brisk walk. She was delighted with the suggestion, but, because of her long practice of daily perambulations, she evinced more ambition than I, and the brisk walk turned into the Mantua death march. Endless miles of trudging through the leafy wilderness...What's that, dear? It was only a little over a mile and a half? Ah. Well, I suppose I may be slightly exaggerating the strenuousness of our little hike, but there's no denying that a goodish part of the walk was uphill.

Here are a few scenes captured at random from our walk (click to enlarge).

A neighbor apparently has (or had) something of an itinerant cat:



The forest primeval:



The trail:



All that's missing is the commemorative plaque: "Al Gore Sat Here".

Happy Feet Friday

It's Eleanor Powell, and she's got a pair of new shoes.

Happy Fourth of July!

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Louis Zamperini, RIP

Louis Zamperini, Olympic athlete and war hero, has died at the age of 97.

I highly recommend Laura Hillenbrand's biography, Unbroken (see my post on it here).

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

A peek at our future dystopia

This story has elements of two unfolding disasters: ObamaCare and immigration anarchy.
A government-contracted security force threatened to arrest doctors and nurses if they divulged any information about the contagion threat at a refugee camp housing illegal alien children at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, sources say.

In spite of the threat, several former camp workers broke their confidentiality agreements and shared exclusive details with me about the dangerous conditions at the camp. They said taxpayers deserve to know about the contagious diseases and the risks the children pose to Americans.
Who will bear the costs of health care for thousands, and perhaps millions, of unskilled, poorly educated aliens? What are the chances that the so-called Afforable Care Act will not be expanded to cover the health care of all these potential Democratic voters? And is it likely that we have seen the last twitch of the fascist impulse to control selected narratives by criminalizing the dissemination of information?

Update: More from Bryan Preston.

I'll drink to that!

Times have sure changed since the days when my father, Old Paco, was chasing bootleggers in the mountains of North Carolina: "Special Needs Mom Finds Success as a (Legal!) Moonshiner".

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Well, the book isn't doing too good, so...



Image courtesy of Moonbattery.

The power behind the golf cart

The Blaze had a story today about a photo in Valerie Jarrett's office. The photo is of Jarett herself, and is in a frame that has some little figures worshiping her.



Jarrett explains that it's just a gag, and I suppose that's true. But how to explain the way she is greeted by the White House staff every morning?

Better late than never, right?

Well, actually, no: “Vet Finally Gets VA Doctor’s Appointment – 2 Years After He Died”.

Hillary's new challenge

Looks like she'll have to invest some time in running against her husband.