Here’s to the girl with the little red shoes,
She lives in my house and drinks all my booze.
She’s not a virgin, but that’s no sin,
She still has the box that the cherry came in.
BUFF, out.
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Socialized Medicine vs Free Market Solutions
This is the first in a series where in I shall address the fallacy that Government in charge of your health care is good. It is so not good.
Where ObamaCare Is Going
The government single-payer model that liberals aspire to for the U.S. is increasingly in trouble around the world.
Aug. 13, 2014 7:12 p.m. ET
The liberal attraction to making government
the sole source of health-care insurance has not abated even as the
deficiencies in ObamaCare, a halfway move toward the single-payer model,
have become increasingly evident. The question is whether growing signs
of single-payer trouble overseas will be enough to discourage this
country's flirtation with socialized medicine.
The
Obama
administration showed its hand long ago with the nomination of
Tom Daschle,
an advocate for Britain's socialized National Health Service, as
secretary of Health and Human Services in 2009. (Mr. Daschle withdrew
amid criticism for nonpayment of taxes.) The White House installed
another outspoken NHS fan,
Donald Berwick,
as an interim appointee (2010-11) to run the Centers for Medicare
and Medicaid Services.
This summer,
the Commonwealth Fund—a private foundation focused on health care that
is a favorite of progressive policy types—issued a report ranking the
NHS as the best medical system among those in 11 of the world's most
advanced nations, including Canada, France, Germany, Switzerland and
Sweden. Coming in last: U.S. health care.
Yet the Commonwealth rankings are
contradicted by objective data about access and medical-care quality in
peer-reviewed academic journals. For instance, Americans diagnosed with
heart disease receive treatment with medications significantly more
frequently than patients in Western Europe, according to
Kenneth Thorpe
in Health Affairs in 2007. In Lancet Oncology in that same year,
Arduino Verdecchia
published data demonstrating that American cancer patients have
survival rates for all major cancers better than those in Western Europe
and far better than in the U.K.
Similar
examples concerning the deadliest and most significant diseases abound
in medical journals. One may ask why the Commonwealth Fund's health-care
rankings published in June don't reflect that reality. Theanswer lies
in the report's methodology, which relied heavily on subjective surveys
about "perceptions and experiences of patients and physicians."
Yet
even as the single-payer system remains the ideal for many on the left,
it's worth examining how Britain's NHS, established in 1948, is faring.
The answer: badly. NHS England—a government body that receives about
£100 billion a year from the Department of Health to run England's
health-care system—reported this month that its hospital waiting lists
soared to their highest point since 2006, with 3.2 million patients
waiting for treatment after diagnosis. NHS England figures for July 2013
show that 508,555 people in London alone were waiting for operations or
other treatments—the highest total for at least five years.
Even
cancer patients have to wait: According to a June report by NHS
England, more than 15% of patients referred by their general
practitioner for "urgent" treatment after being diagnosed with suspected
cancer waited more than 62 days—two full months—to begin their first
definitive treatment.
In response the
British government has enlisted private care for help, including most
recently through the Health and Social Care Act 2012. In May last year,
the Nuffield Trust, an independent research and policy institute, along
with the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the U.K.'s leading independent
microeconomic research institute, issued a report on NHS-funded private
care. The report showed that over the past decade the NHS, desperate to
reduce its ever-expanding rolls, has increasingly sent patients to
private care. The share of NHS-funded hip and knee replacements by
private doctors increased to 19% in 2011-12, from a negligible amount in
2003-04.
In 2006-07, according to the
report, the NHS spent £5.6 billion on private care outside its system.
This increased by 55% to £8.7 billion in 2011-12, including a 76% rise
in spending on nonprimary care, going to £8.3 billion from £4.7 billion,
despite significant reductions in spending on private care attributed
to the financial crisis.
Britons who can
afford to avoid the NHS are eager to do so. Even with a slight decrease
due to the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath, about six million
British citizens buy private health insurance and about 250,000 choose
to pay for private treatment out-of-pocket each year—though NHS
insurance costs $3,500 annually for every British man, woman and child.
The
socialized-medicine model is struggling elsewhere in Europe as well.
Even in Sweden, often heralded as the paradigm of a successful welfare
state, months-long wait times for treatment routinely available in the
U.S. have been widely documented.
To
fix the problem, the Swedish government has aggressively introduced
private-market forces into health care to improve access, quality and
choices. Municipal governments have increased spending on private-care
contracts by 50% in the past decade, according to Näringslivets
Ekonomifakta, part of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, a Swedish
employers' association.
Swedish
primary-care clinics and nursing facilities are increasingly run by the
private sector or receive substantial public funding. Widespread private
competition has also been introduced into pharmacies to tear down the
previous government monopoly over all prescription and non-prescription
drugs. Though Swedish economist Per Bylund calculates that the average
Swedish family already pays nearly $20,000 annually in taxes toward
health care, about 12% of working adults bought private insurance in
2013, a number that has increased by 67% in five years, according to the
trade organization Insurance Sweden. Almost 600,000 Swedes now use
private insurance, though they are "guaranteed" public health care.
The
recent Veterans Affairs scandal, following the disastrous ObamaCare
rollout, was a red flag about problems of nationalized health. Now
concrete evidence is coming in from other countries that have tried it
for decades. The reality is that the key goals for health-care
reform—reducing spending, expanding access to affordable coverage,
preserving personal choice and portability of coverage, promoting
competition in insurance markets, and maintaining excellence in
medicine—do not require government to directly provide insurance or
health care.
I get the progressives ,"lima charlie".
BUFF, out,
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Friday, August 8, 2014
Reflecting on the Great Man, Ronald W Reagan!!
We have it in our power to change the world over.
~ Thomas Paine
You did that Mr. President, and you did it well. My goodness how this Country cries out for a LEADER such as yourself.
Thank you for your service.
Some of my favorite quotes:
- "Welfare's purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence."
- “THE GREATEST LEADER IS NOT NECESSARILY THE ONE WHO DOES THE GREATEST THINGS. HE IS THE ONE THAT GETS THE PEOPLE TO DO THE GREATEST THINGS.”
- "The ultimate determinate in the struggle now going on for the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas - a trial of spiritual resolve; the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish and the ideas to which we are dedicated."
- "We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions."
- "We don't have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much."
- "You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done."
May GOD continue to Bless the United States of America!
BUFF, out.
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
The Delusion, or the argument with a False Moral Equivalency
Israel, Hamas and the "Palestinians". It's not too often I agree with Rep. Charles Schumer, but let's start there.
In essence, the claim goes like this: “Both sides are fighting each other with similar degrees of violence; both treat each other equally badly; each side is equally to blame for the violence, and they just can’t come together.”
That notion that there is a moral equivalency between the defensive and targeted actions that the rule-of-law-based Israel is compelled to take, and the proactive and indiscriminate actions that hate-based organizations like Hamas takes, is completely unfair, unfounded and infuriating to supporters of Israel — with good reason.
In fact, there is no moral equivalence between the actions and reactions of Israel and Hamas and the Palestinian community to the violence that has occurred.
Two glaring examples stand out. The first revolves around the difference between Israel’s and the Palestinian community’s reactions to the horrible kidnappings and coldblooded murders of four boys, three Israeli and one Palestinian.
No doubt the loss of these children is one beyond words. Both incidents were abhorrent.
But the reaction on both sides was not the same. How did Hamas and too many diverse parts of the mainstream Palestinian community respond to the kidnap and murder of three young Israelis? They cheered.
The official Hamas spokesman called the kidnappers “heroes.” The mother of one of the suspected kidnappers, Abu Aysha, said, “If he [my son] truly did it — I’ll be proud of him till my final day.”
And is it no wonder, given the vitriolic hatred of Israel that has been preached in textbooks and schools to two generations of Palestinian children. Such propaganda has been propagated by not only Hamas, but by the Palestinian Authority, and has created a perverse mythology throughout Palestinian society that calls suicide bombers “martyrs” and extols kidnappers and murderers as heroes.
Those who killed the Israeli boys have not been found, and the cooperation of Palestinian authorities in the hunt for them has been lukewarm at best.
Compare that to the reaction of the Israeli people to the murder of the Palestinian teenager. Israelis were aghast. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately called the murderers “terrorists” who committed deeds equal to the terrorism on the other side and said that Israel must find “who is behind this despicable murder.” The Israeli government has made every effort to bring those responsible to justice, and there are now six arrests.
While each side has its fanatics, it’s how the societies deal with those fanatics that counts.
A second example is the difference between how Israel and Hamas have conducted themselves in the last weeks as violence has soared.
Most headlines and news reports suggest that there is fighting on both sides, air raids on both sides and say or imply that each side is equally at fault. They ignore the stark difference between the two sides.
Hamas, which has won elections with the support of the population of Gaza, is a terrorist group that remains bent on the destruction of Israel and its citizens. Without provocation, the Hamas governing authority flings rockets over the border, all over Israel, without regard to civilian lives or public safety. In fact, the terrorists frequently target civilians. Their intent is to terrorize and inflict as much pain as possible.
When Israel reacts, it does so defensively, to prevent rockets from hurting its people. It targets military capabilities or terrorist leaders. What other society gives advanced warnings to those shelling it, by dropping leaflets and making cellphone calls to warn the inhabitants of impending defensive strikes, to minimize the loss of innocent lives?
These proportional steps clearly make it harder to eliminate the terrorists and rockets, and Israel is almost unique in taking them.
Again, to say that both sides are equally to blame in this recent round of violence simply lets Hamas and its leaders off the hook and naturally encourages them to continue the violence, because the condemnation of the world falls equally on Israel’s and Hamas’ shoulders — a condition they seek as effectively giving permission for future violence.
Netanyahu has asked: What would the United States do if this kind of violence was happening in Houston, or Chicago, or New York? What would Germany do if it were happening to Frankfurt — or France, if Paris was under attack?
Would those countries just shrug their shoulders? Would they listen to admonitions of the world to let the rockets continue, and just try to talk? No, they’d defend their citizens as Israel is defending its citizens.
We can’t have a double standard which fails to grant Israel the same understanding as any other country that finds itself under attack.
Now, because I like economics, another opinion:
The differences between Hamas and Israel are so profound, it’s almost as though the two aren’t living in the same century.
The Hamas war against Israel pits cheap rockets — basically the 21st-century version of an exploding cannonball — against a high-tech military so sophisticated, it can send harmless “door-knocking” bombs to land on the roofs of buildings to warn its targets inside that the next live bomb will level the place.
One side is monstrous but hapless: Hamas is looking to create mass terror through the deliberate targeting of enemy civilians, has fired 500 rockets, and has killed exactly one Israeli.
The other side is effective, at times to its own disadvantage: Israel wants to eliminate weapons caches and does whatever it can to minimize civilian casualties but has killed 200 in Gaza — almost entirely because Hamas wants to use its own people both as human shields and as public-relations weapons.
But take the war away, and what do you see about the differences between Hamas and Israel?
It was nine years ago that Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza. It was seven years ago that Hamas took control of Gaza following an election in which the terrorist group routed the Palestinian Authority (which controls the West Bank).
The area has been entirely under Palestinian dominion.
Since 2005, Israel’s overall economy has grown almost 60 percent larger, with an annual GDP growth rate of 4.5 percent.
Israel, once the globe’s poorest democracy, ranks 37th among nations in overall GDP and its per-capita income of $31,000 per year makes it the 25th-richest country on Earth.
And Gaza? Its economy is largely frozen. Its per-capita income hovers around $2,000. Because its people elected a terrorist group dedicated to the destruction of Israel, almost all economic ties between the growing economic giant and the basket case have been severed.
No rational outside investor wants to have anything to do with Gaza, given its management and the simple fact that its government seems to be obsessed with getting itself into a destructive war with its neighbor every couple of years.
And not only that, but Gazans exist in a bizarre condition known nowhere else on Earth. Nearly 1.2 million of the area’s 1.5 million residents are classified as “refugees,” notwithstanding the fact that almost all of them were born there. They live in eight “refugee camps” — towns that are now 65 years old.
As Michael Bernstam of the Hoover Institution has written, “These camps were established in 1949 and have been financed ever since by the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. Yet far from seeking to help residents build a new and better life either in Gaza or elsewhere, UNRWA is paying millions of refugees to perpetuate their refugee status, generation after generation, as they await their forcible return to the land inside the State of Israel.”
Meanwhile, Israel has economic and political problems of its own — but its problems have been generated in large measure by the rapidity of its economic growth.
Housing has become insanely expensive, in part because (as in New York City) foreign investors looking to diversify their personal holdings think Israeli real estate is a good value for them.
They’ve driven up the prices in the higher ends of the market in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, which has in turn made it very difficult for younger Israelis to buy their own homes.
This affordability crisis led to large-scale protests in 2011 that led to national elections in which, for the first time in the nation’s history, domestic issues took precedence over foreign and military issues.
The country’s politics and politicians can’t keep up with the exploding private sector, which has drained Israel’s public life of its smartest and most capable younger people and left the management of the country to a class of hackish stumblebums who trip over their own shoes.
There’s basically one person who seems to know how to play the political game in Israel right now, and that’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — which is why he bids fair to become his country’s longest-serving head of state since its George Washington, David Ben-Gurion.
Bibi could use some serious rivals, but he doesn’t have any, because everyone who could be has decided they can do better.
Israel is a First World country with First World problems. Gaza is a 65-year-old refugee camp run by vicious terrorists who can’t shoot straight — and even when they do, they see their rockets destroyed by the most advanced system of air defense the world has ever seen.
It’s not a fair fight, and thank God for that.
Source: http://nypost.com/2014/07/15/whats-behind-the-ongoing-violence-in-gaza/
Israel, on the other hand, fires only at specific, intelligence-derived military targets, to the best of their ability. Since these targets are deliberately intermixed with the civilian population by Hamas, Israel must take steps to minimize the collateral casualties, and does. But, it is now a proven fact that Hamas intermingles civilians on purpose. Source: http://www.idfblog.com/blog/2014/08/04/captured-hamas-combat-manual-explains-benefits-human-shields/
Do facts still matter? I am gravely concerned that there is a dearth of critical thinking. Can't we even tell the difference between right and wrong and agree on that?
There is no moral equivalency between Israel and Hamas
Amid the recent troubles between Israel and the Palestinians, many Americans and media commentators are drawing disturbing lines of parallelism between the two societies, asserting a false moral equivalency to the actions of each.In essence, the claim goes like this: “Both sides are fighting each other with similar degrees of violence; both treat each other equally badly; each side is equally to blame for the violence, and they just can’t come together.”
That notion that there is a moral equivalency between the defensive and targeted actions that the rule-of-law-based Israel is compelled to take, and the proactive and indiscriminate actions that hate-based organizations like Hamas takes, is completely unfair, unfounded and infuriating to supporters of Israel — with good reason.
In fact, there is no moral equivalence between the actions and reactions of Israel and Hamas and the Palestinian community to the violence that has occurred.
Two glaring examples stand out. The first revolves around the difference between Israel’s and the Palestinian community’s reactions to the horrible kidnappings and coldblooded murders of four boys, three Israeli and one Palestinian.
No doubt the loss of these children is one beyond words. Both incidents were abhorrent.
But the reaction on both sides was not the same. How did Hamas and too many diverse parts of the mainstream Palestinian community respond to the kidnap and murder of three young Israelis? They cheered.
The official Hamas spokesman called the kidnappers “heroes.” The mother of one of the suspected kidnappers, Abu Aysha, said, “If he [my son] truly did it — I’ll be proud of him till my final day.”
And is it no wonder, given the vitriolic hatred of Israel that has been preached in textbooks and schools to two generations of Palestinian children. Such propaganda has been propagated by not only Hamas, but by the Palestinian Authority, and has created a perverse mythology throughout Palestinian society that calls suicide bombers “martyrs” and extols kidnappers and murderers as heroes.
Those who killed the Israeli boys have not been found, and the cooperation of Palestinian authorities in the hunt for them has been lukewarm at best.
Compare that to the reaction of the Israeli people to the murder of the Palestinian teenager. Israelis were aghast. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately called the murderers “terrorists” who committed deeds equal to the terrorism on the other side and said that Israel must find “who is behind this despicable murder.” The Israeli government has made every effort to bring those responsible to justice, and there are now six arrests.
While each side has its fanatics, it’s how the societies deal with those fanatics that counts.
A second example is the difference between how Israel and Hamas have conducted themselves in the last weeks as violence has soared.
Most headlines and news reports suggest that there is fighting on both sides, air raids on both sides and say or imply that each side is equally at fault. They ignore the stark difference between the two sides.
Hamas, which has won elections with the support of the population of Gaza, is a terrorist group that remains bent on the destruction of Israel and its citizens. Without provocation, the Hamas governing authority flings rockets over the border, all over Israel, without regard to civilian lives or public safety. In fact, the terrorists frequently target civilians. Their intent is to terrorize and inflict as much pain as possible.
When Israel reacts, it does so defensively, to prevent rockets from hurting its people. It targets military capabilities or terrorist leaders. What other society gives advanced warnings to those shelling it, by dropping leaflets and making cellphone calls to warn the inhabitants of impending defensive strikes, to minimize the loss of innocent lives?
These proportional steps clearly make it harder to eliminate the terrorists and rockets, and Israel is almost unique in taking them.
Again, to say that both sides are equally to blame in this recent round of violence simply lets Hamas and its leaders off the hook and naturally encourages them to continue the violence, because the condemnation of the world falls equally on Israel’s and Hamas’ shoulders — a condition they seek as effectively giving permission for future violence.
Netanyahu has asked: What would the United States do if this kind of violence was happening in Houston, or Chicago, or New York? What would Germany do if it were happening to Frankfurt — or France, if Paris was under attack?
Would those countries just shrug their shoulders? Would they listen to admonitions of the world to let the rockets continue, and just try to talk? No, they’d defend their citizens as Israel is defending its citizens.
We can’t have a double standard which fails to grant Israel the same understanding as any other country that finds itself under attack.
Now, because I like economics, another opinion:
What’s behind the ongoing violence in Gaza
July 15, 2014The differences between Hamas and Israel are so profound, it’s almost as though the two aren’t living in the same century.
The Hamas war against Israel pits cheap rockets — basically the 21st-century version of an exploding cannonball — against a high-tech military so sophisticated, it can send harmless “door-knocking” bombs to land on the roofs of buildings to warn its targets inside that the next live bomb will level the place.
One side is monstrous but hapless: Hamas is looking to create mass terror through the deliberate targeting of enemy civilians, has fired 500 rockets, and has killed exactly one Israeli.
The other side is effective, at times to its own disadvantage: Israel wants to eliminate weapons caches and does whatever it can to minimize civilian casualties but has killed 200 in Gaza — almost entirely because Hamas wants to use its own people both as human shields and as public-relations weapons.
But take the war away, and what do you see about the differences between Hamas and Israel?
It was nine years ago that Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza. It was seven years ago that Hamas took control of Gaza following an election in which the terrorist group routed the Palestinian Authority (which controls the West Bank).
The area has been entirely under Palestinian dominion.
Since 2005, Israel’s overall economy has grown almost 60 percent larger, with an annual GDP growth rate of 4.5 percent.
Israel, once the globe’s poorest democracy, ranks 37th among nations in overall GDP and its per-capita income of $31,000 per year makes it the 25th-richest country on Earth.
And Gaza? Its economy is largely frozen. Its per-capita income hovers around $2,000. Because its people elected a terrorist group dedicated to the destruction of Israel, almost all economic ties between the growing economic giant and the basket case have been severed.
No rational outside investor wants to have anything to do with Gaza, given its management and the simple fact that its government seems to be obsessed with getting itself into a destructive war with its neighbor every couple of years.
And not only that, but Gazans exist in a bizarre condition known nowhere else on Earth. Nearly 1.2 million of the area’s 1.5 million residents are classified as “refugees,” notwithstanding the fact that almost all of them were born there. They live in eight “refugee camps” — towns that are now 65 years old.
As Michael Bernstam of the Hoover Institution has written, “These camps were established in 1949 and have been financed ever since by the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. Yet far from seeking to help residents build a new and better life either in Gaza or elsewhere, UNRWA is paying millions of refugees to perpetuate their refugee status, generation after generation, as they await their forcible return to the land inside the State of Israel.”
Meanwhile, Israel has economic and political problems of its own — but its problems have been generated in large measure by the rapidity of its economic growth.
Housing has become insanely expensive, in part because (as in New York City) foreign investors looking to diversify their personal holdings think Israeli real estate is a good value for them.
They’ve driven up the prices in the higher ends of the market in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, which has in turn made it very difficult for younger Israelis to buy their own homes.
This affordability crisis led to large-scale protests in 2011 that led to national elections in which, for the first time in the nation’s history, domestic issues took precedence over foreign and military issues.
The country’s politics and politicians can’t keep up with the exploding private sector, which has drained Israel’s public life of its smartest and most capable younger people and left the management of the country to a class of hackish stumblebums who trip over their own shoes.
There’s basically one person who seems to know how to play the political game in Israel right now, and that’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — which is why he bids fair to become his country’s longest-serving head of state since its George Washington, David Ben-Gurion.
Bibi could use some serious rivals, but he doesn’t have any, because everyone who could be has decided they can do better.
Israel is a First World country with First World problems. Gaza is a 65-year-old refugee camp run by vicious terrorists who can’t shoot straight — and even when they do, they see their rockets destroyed by the most advanced system of air defense the world has ever seen.
It’s not a fair fight, and thank God for that.
Source: http://nypost.com/2014/07/15/whats-behind-the-ongoing-violence-in-gaza/
One must look at the methodologies of the two sides.Hamas sets up rocket launchers, spends major money building tunnels or uses suiside bombers - targeting population centers with no discrimination at all!!!!
Israel, on the other hand, fires only at specific, intelligence-derived military targets, to the best of their ability. Since these targets are deliberately intermixed with the civilian population by Hamas, Israel must take steps to minimize the collateral casualties, and does. But, it is now a proven fact that Hamas intermingles civilians on purpose. Source: http://www.idfblog.com/blog/2014/08/04/captured-hamas-combat-manual-explains-benefits-human-shields/
Do facts still matter? I am gravely concerned that there is a dearth of critical thinking. Can't we even tell the difference between right and wrong and agree on that?
God bless America
~ Buff, out.
Politics, Intermezzo.
Now and again, we must all step away from the frustrations of politics and take a well deserved mental health break, lest we become so frustrated that one devolves into merely raving; as a lunatic. So, under the guise of a political intermezzo, I offer a favorite poem of mine:
Ode To A Naked Beauty
With chaste heart, and pure
eyes
I celebrate you, my beauty,
restraining my blood
so that the line
surges and follows
your contour,
and you bed yourself in my verse,
as in woodland, or wave-spume:
earth's perfume,
sea's music.
Nakedly beautiful,
whether it is your feet, arching
at a primal touch
of sound or breeze,
or your ears,
tiny spiral shells
from the splendour of America's oceans.
Your breasts also,
of equal fullness, overflowing
with the living light
and, yes,
winged
your eyelids of silken corn
that disclose
or enclose
the deep twin landscapes of your eyes.
The line of your back
separating you
falls away into paler regions
then surges
to the smooth hemispheres
of an apple,
and goes splitting
your loveliness
into two pillars
of burnt gold, pure alabaster,
to be lost in the twin clusters of your feet,
from which, once more, lifts and takes fire
the double tree of your symmetry:
flower of fire, open circle of candles,
swollen fruit raised
over the meeting of earth and ocean.
Your body - from what substances
agate, quartz, ears of wheat,
did it flow, was it gathered,
rising like bread
in the warmth,
and signalling hills
silvered,
valleys of a single petal, sweetnesses
of velvet depth,
until the pure, fine, form of woman
thickened
and rested there?
It is not so much light that falls
over the world
extended by your body
its suffocating snow,
as brightness, pouring itself out of you,
as if you were
burning inside.
Under your skin the moon is alive.
eyes
I celebrate you, my beauty,
restraining my blood
so that the line
surges and follows
your contour,
and you bed yourself in my verse,
as in woodland, or wave-spume:
earth's perfume,
sea's music.
Nakedly beautiful,
whether it is your feet, arching
at a primal touch
of sound or breeze,
or your ears,
tiny spiral shells
from the splendour of America's oceans.
Your breasts also,
of equal fullness, overflowing
with the living light
and, yes,
winged
your eyelids of silken corn
that disclose
or enclose
the deep twin landscapes of your eyes.
The line of your back
separating you
falls away into paler regions
then surges
to the smooth hemispheres
of an apple,
and goes splitting
your loveliness
into two pillars
of burnt gold, pure alabaster,
to be lost in the twin clusters of your feet,
from which, once more, lifts and takes fire
the double tree of your symmetry:
flower of fire, open circle of candles,
swollen fruit raised
over the meeting of earth and ocean.
Your body - from what substances
agate, quartz, ears of wheat,
did it flow, was it gathered,
rising like bread
in the warmth,
and signalling hills
silvered,
valleys of a single petal, sweetnesses
of velvet depth,
until the pure, fine, form of woman
thickened
and rested there?
It is not so much light that falls
over the world
extended by your body
its suffocating snow,
as brightness, pouring itself out of you,
as if you were
burning inside.
Under your skin the moon is alive.
~Pablo Neruda
Ode To A Naked Beauty
With chaste heart, and pure
eyes
I celebrate you, my beauty,
restraining my blood
so that the line
surges and follows
your contour,
and you bed yourself in my verse,
as in woodland, or wave-spume:
earth's perfume,
sea's music.
Nakedly beautiful,
whether it is your feet, arching
at a primal touch
of sound or breeze,
or your ears,
tiny spiral shells
from the splendour of America's oceans.
Your breasts also,
of equal fullness, overflowing
with the living light
and, yes,
winged
your eyelids of silken corn
that disclose
or enclose
the deep twin landscapes of your eyes.
The line of your back
separating you
falls away into paler regions
then surges
to the smooth hemispheres
of an apple,
and goes splitting
your loveliness
into two pillars
of burnt gold, pure alabaster,
to be lost in the twin clusters of your feet,
from which, once more, lifts and takes fire
the double tree of your symmetry:
flower of fire, open circle of candles,
swollen fruit raised
over the meeting of earth and ocean.
Your body - from what substances
agate, quartz, ears of wheat,
did it flow, was it gathered,
rising like bread
in the warmth,
and signalling hills
silvered,
valleys of a single petal, sweetnesses
of velvet depth,
until the pure, fine, form of woman
thickened
and rested there?
It is not so much light that falls
over the world
extended by your body
its suffocating snow,
as brightness, pouring itself out of you,
as if you were
burning inside.
Under your skin the moon is alive.
- See more at: http://allpoetry.com/Ode-To-A-Naked-Beauty#sthash.2pV9QcfT.dpufeyes
I celebrate you, my beauty,
restraining my blood
so that the line
surges and follows
your contour,
and you bed yourself in my verse,
as in woodland, or wave-spume:
earth's perfume,
sea's music.
Nakedly beautiful,
whether it is your feet, arching
at a primal touch
of sound or breeze,
or your ears,
tiny spiral shells
from the splendour of America's oceans.
Your breasts also,
of equal fullness, overflowing
with the living light
and, yes,
winged
your eyelids of silken corn
that disclose
or enclose
the deep twin landscapes of your eyes.
The line of your back
separating you
falls away into paler regions
then surges
to the smooth hemispheres
of an apple,
and goes splitting
your loveliness
into two pillars
of burnt gold, pure alabaster,
to be lost in the twin clusters of your feet,
from which, once more, lifts and takes fire
the double tree of your symmetry:
flower of fire, open circle of candles,
swollen fruit raised
over the meeting of earth and ocean.
Your body - from what substances
agate, quartz, ears of wheat,
did it flow, was it gathered,
rising like bread
in the warmth,
and signalling hills
silvered,
valleys of a single petal, sweetnesses
of velvet depth,
until the pure, fine, form of woman
thickened
and rested there?
It is not so much light that falls
over the world
extended by your body
its suffocating snow,
as brightness, pouring itself out of you,
as if you were
burning inside.
Under your skin the moon is alive.
Ode To A Naked Beauty
With chaste heart, and pure
eyes
I celebrate you, my beauty,
restraining my blood
so that the line
surges and follows
your contour,
and you bed yourself in my verse,
as in woodland, or wave-spume:
earth's perfume,
sea's music.
Nakedly beautiful,
whether it is your feet, arching
at a primal touch
of sound or breeze,
or your ears,
tiny spiral shells
from the splendour of America's oceans.
Your breasts also,
of equal fullness, overflowing
with the living light
and, yes,
winged
your eyelids of silken corn
that disclose
or enclose
the deep twin landscapes of your eyes.
The line of your back
separating you
falls away into paler regions
then surges
to the smooth hemispheres
of an apple,
and goes splitting
your loveliness
into two pillars
of burnt gold, pure alabaster,
to be lost in the twin clusters of your feet,
from which, once more, lifts and takes fire
the double tree of your symmetry:
flower of fire, open circle of candles,
swollen fruit raised
over the meeting of earth and ocean.
Your body - from what substances
agate, quartz, ears of wheat,
did it flow, was it gathered,
rising like bread
in the warmth,
and signalling hills
silvered,
valleys of a single petal, sweetnesses
of velvet depth,
until the pure, fine, form of woman
thickened
and rested there?
It is not so much light that falls
over the world
extended by your body
its suffocating snow,
as brightness, pouring itself out of you,
as if you were
burning inside.
Under your skin the moon is alive.
- See more at: http://allpoetry.com/Ode-To-A-Naked-Beauty#sthash.2pV9QcfT.dpufeyes
I celebrate you, my beauty,
restraining my blood
so that the line
surges and follows
your contour,
and you bed yourself in my verse,
as in woodland, or wave-spume:
earth's perfume,
sea's music.
Nakedly beautiful,
whether it is your feet, arching
at a primal touch
of sound or breeze,
or your ears,
tiny spiral shells
from the splendour of America's oceans.
Your breasts also,
of equal fullness, overflowing
with the living light
and, yes,
winged
your eyelids of silken corn
that disclose
or enclose
the deep twin landscapes of your eyes.
The line of your back
separating you
falls away into paler regions
then surges
to the smooth hemispheres
of an apple,
and goes splitting
your loveliness
into two pillars
of burnt gold, pure alabaster,
to be lost in the twin clusters of your feet,
from which, once more, lifts and takes fire
the double tree of your symmetry:
flower of fire, open circle of candles,
swollen fruit raised
over the meeting of earth and ocean.
Your body - from what substances
agate, quartz, ears of wheat,
did it flow, was it gathered,
rising like bread
in the warmth,
and signalling hills
silvered,
valleys of a single petal, sweetnesses
of velvet depth,
until the pure, fine, form of woman
thickened
and rested there?
It is not so much light that falls
over the world
extended by your body
its suffocating snow,
as brightness, pouring itself out of you,
as if you were
burning inside.
Under your skin the moon is alive.
Friday, August 1, 2014
Things fall apart under Obumble
Or, Why a Liberal Arts Education matters:
The Second Coming
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats (1989)
That is poetry bitches!
It is impossible to find anywhere in the world where our position or alliances are stronger than they were six years ago!!!
Let's face facts, OK. The Left destroys everything it touches
and then blames the flames on someone else. What is its vision for
the Midle-east and its peoples? None of our business? Islamist's in
control of Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Ethiopia, Somalia, Lebanon, Iran,
Iraq, ISIS, Syria, the Palestinian Territories…
No Problem? Turkey
is moving toward Islamization. We will soon leave Afghanistan.
Pakistan is on the edge. All the other 'Stans' are targeted.
Live and
let live?
When they set their sites on Saudi Arabia, what will we do?
They (Hamas) attack Israel every day, now, finally, Israel fights back. What will we do under Obumble?
Not our problem? They brought it on themselves?
As they (ISIS) purge their
lands of Christians (Mosul), as they subjugate women, as children live in
poverty and fear…Surely we must realize, their fight, is our fight!
As I said before his first election, policies matter. Incompetence in domestic matters, leads to a sluggish economy; incompetence in Foreign Policy- that costs lives!
The Policies of this Administration have failed, and the damage to U.S. interests is becoming too obvious to hide
Buff, out.
My Favorite Milton Friedman quotes!
My Favorite Milton Friedman quotes!
In order:
“Most economic
fallacies derive from the
tendency to assume that there is a fixed
pie,
that one party can gain only at the expense of
another.”
“A society that
puts equality before freedom
will get neither. A society that puts
freedom
before equality will get a high degree of both.”
And my most revered favorite:
policies and programs by their intentions
rather than their results.”
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