Obama Warned Us – It’s Freedom

We do not believe that in this country freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few. We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us at any time may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in a terrible storm. The commitments we make to each other through Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security, these things do not sap our initiative, they strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.

BARACK OBAMA, Inaugural Address, Jan. 21, 2013

“Risks like ‘will the government suddenly, out of nowhere, regulate me out of business just like the coal and insurance industries?'”

Random Thoughts: Trump, Whatsapp, and Wedding Cakes

“I am very interested in what this Trump fellow has to say about conservatism.” -liberal journalist wanting to make fun of conservatives

Invite Trump to CPAC. Disinvite his hair.

“I have drawn a red line, and to make sure the Ukraine government doesn’t step over it, I won’t tell them where it is.”

I don’t remember seeing a single gay marriage in The Jetsons. #WrongSideOfHistory

I’d love to see a poll of how many people who believe the science on man-made climate change think it could lead to more asteroid impacts.

Took that “Which Downton Abbey Character Are You Quiz” and got “Mr. Green.” Don’t watch the show; is he a duke?

Can never remember if it’s btfss or bftss because it’s unintelligible nonsense either way.

Oh. “What’s aaaaapp.” I just got it. That will be one billion dollars.

I’m a laugh a minute (next laugh in 37 seconds).

Whatever happened to Chuck Hagel? If I knew making him Secretary of Defense would disappear him, I’d have lobbied Bush to do it.

If you make a popular app with no ads, is your business strategy to get bought up by a larger company?

BREAKING: Absolutely everyone is using this app no one’s heard of.

First they came for the lawyers, and I didn’t say anything because I am not a lawyer. Now everything is awesome.

Afraid that during one of the Olympic events, a country will start chanting, “Poo-S-A!” and we’ll be so burned we can’t do anything about it.

I wish I was a hotshot pilot. Or some other sort of hotshot. What are the hotshot options other than “pilot”?

“We have nothing to fear except… FEAR ITSELF!” -Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a.k.a., the Scarecrow

Getting on a plane really early with two small kids and lots of luggage went about as well as could be expected, i.e., it was hellish.

I miss them having razor blade disposal slots in airplane bathrooms; now I end every flight with handfuls of dirty razor blades.

So making creme brûlée is more complicated than setting Jello pudding on fire?

Can everyone responsible for passing Obamacare apologize because it is really really offensive.

It would be easier to tell if people were criticizing the president only because he’s black if he weren’t also so aggressively incompetent.

Do you think the graffiti guys who can only do unintelligible scrawl get self-esteem issues versus those who can do the big blocky letters?

Never really got what was Piers Morgan’s qualification other than that he has a British accent.

American liberals have enough trouble understanding conservative. Seems extra foolish to then bring in a foreign liberal.

Would Jesus support using government force to make Christians bake cakes for gay weddings? Is that a serious question?

Shouldn’t the condemnation be focused on the people who thought, “Since you won’t make me a cake, I’ll use the government to destroy you!”?

If I go forward to hit the invisible block with the 1up mushroom in it, I won’t be able to go down the green pipe. #FirstWorldProblems

More things I don’t have to do

FlappyRobotJust in time for the pulling of the Flappy Bird app from Apple’s App Store …

Hey! I’ve figured out where Frank J’s been! He’s been so upset that Flappy Bird is no longer available that he’s holed up in a room somewhere, not wanting to deal with the world. But, he’ll be okay. He’ll be back soon, I’m sure.

Anyway, just in time for the pulling of the Flappy Bird app from Apple’s App Store, two guys in China built a robot to play Flappy Bird. Really. (via Dan Collins/Facebook)

How does this impact you? Or, more importantly, how does it impact me?

Well, it doesn’t. Not really. Because they’ve now built a machine to play a game that I don’t have time to play.

That means the Chinese have finally caught up to where I was in 2008, when the TiVo was recording shows I never watched. Then I’d delete the shows because I wasn’t going to watch them.

So, in 2008, instead of me watching all that TV, I just had the TiVo watch it for me. They’re building cars that drive themselves. The NSA reads my emails so I don’t have to. And, now, I don’t have to play Flappy Bird because I can have a robot play it for me.

Pretty soon, I won’t have to do anything. I’ll be able to do nothing, and be good at it.

Of course, I’ve had wives tell me I’m good for nothing, so once again, I’m ahead of the curve. Y’all catch up when you can.

I Love Me Some Mike Rowe

[High Praise! to Call Me Stormy]


[Mike Rowe’s Best Advice | “Liberty Treehouse”] (Viewer #3,362)

Mike Rowe can ad-lib his way through an interview more cogently and cleverly than any man I know, and still make great points while doing so. I envy his talent.

I wish the guy he was with was similarly skilled. If you get tired of him and just want to get to the “Mike’s talking now” part, skip to 1:13.

Link of the Day: Hallucinations Welcome

[High Praise! to 4of7 of Little Worlds]

Genius – Unintentional

As 4of7 described it to me:

“Here’s a crop of mind-benders. My own batch of Rorschach ink blots, in a way.”

Some are tougher than others. Then again, it took me weeks of looking at the same drawing before I saw my first “nina“, so maybe it’s just me.

[Think you have a link that’s IMAO-worthy? Send it to harvolson@gmail.com. If I use your link, you will receive High Praise! (assuming you remember to put your name in the email)]

Obama Warned Us – Democrat Base

Look, here’s the reason that we’re going to be based outside of Washington. I don’t want our campaign to be hearing only from pundits and powerbrokers and lobbyists. I want our campaign to be hearing from the folks who got me into the Oval Office. I want them hearing from you.

BARACK OBAMA, remarks at DNC event, Apr. 21, 2011

“…You… the people who give pundits, powerbrokers, and lobbyists huge stacks of cash under the table.”

This has promise

Taco Bell BreakfastTaco Bell for breakfast?

I’ve eaten some things for breakfast that aren’t generally considered breakfast. Well, not to me.

I’m not counting non-traditional stuff that was because my schedule was all screwed up from working late.

Pizza, of course. Cake. Peanut butter sandwiches. Peanut butter and jelly mixed in a bowl because I was out of bread. Chicken cacciatore — that was an Army thing, and it was all out unit had for like three weeks in Kuwait, and I have not eaten it since.

But now, I’m going to add Taco Bell to my list of out of the ordinary breakfasts. Only, it won’t be. No really. Out of the ordinary, I mean.

Taco Bell is offering breakfast starting 27 March, according to their Website. And it looks pretty good.

First thing I’m going to try is the Waffle Taco. That’s a Waffle. With Sausage. And Eggs and Cheese. Folded like a Taco. The only thing missing is Bacon.

Can they pull it off? I don’t know. I’ve had breakfast at some places that just don’t know how to make breakfast. Mostly in Kuwait or in Canada — Niagara Falls, if you must have an explanation as to what I was doing in Canada — but I’m thinking I’ve had breakfast in the U.S. that I didn’t like. Somewhere.

I hope Taco Bell lives up to the promise.

If they don’t, I hope they get deported back to where they came from: Downey, California.