Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Obama for President loses Joel Spolsky

I used to follow Joel Spolsky, a famous software developer with his own company in New York. Joel has written a lot on hiring and developing software and likes spending a lot of his money on taxes because he's the rare breed of a business owner who is very liberal.

In 2008 Spolsky's blog was sportin a big ol Obama for president O. Joel got his wish and Obama was elected president. Apparently this didn't fit Joel's hiring strategy of Smart and gets things done because I looked at Joel's blog and guess what?

No Obama O.

You've lost Joel Spolsky Obama. Guess you didn't get things done. Thank God.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Sorkin and Daniels get it wrong, again

I was assaulted on my trip to Boston by HBO constantly advertising for an obnoxious new series called "The Newsroom." Jeff Daniels plays a "journalist" on a CNN like news show where he's not allowed any political commentary.
 

Righhhtttt. As if CNN "journalists" weren't already biased enough, now we have Socialists from HBO saying that they are not allowed to voice their true opinions on the air. As if their colors (bright socialist red) don't bleed through on every hit piece they bring on the air.

You remember Jeff Daniels right? He's the liberal idiot who made impassioned pleas for businesses to relocate to the People's Republic of Michigan. They were advertising for businesses to move up there down here in Arizona. Which is hilarious because we were seeing all kinds of license plates from California, Michigan, Illinois and various other Socialist States as their high taxes and unfriendly business climates were driving people and businesses down here like it was cool to leave. The only thing growing in Michigan is the amount of skid marks people are making with their tires as they departed under rapid acceleration.

One spot in "The Newsroom" that was particularly hard hitting was when a pretty little blond girl asks Daniel's character why HE thought America was the greatest country on Earth.

His reply: "Its not the greatest country in the world!..." "...we're seventh in Literacy..."

WRONG. The United States is listed as 10th in Literacy, the same as Japan according to this Wikipedia page: List of Countries by Literacy Rate

Which is also wrong. Georgia and Cuba are numbers one and two. Do you want to live in Georgia and Cuba? I don't. And why are all these 2nd and third world countries in the top ten?

Because the governments of Georgia and Cuba lie about their stats, MSM Idiots. Oh, excuse me, "Journalists."

 "...2nd in science." Wrong.

According to SJR international we're first: Science Rankings by Country

 "..Forty Ninth in life expectancy..."

 According to this page in Wikipedia we're 38th: List of Countries by Life Expectancy

 Which isn't so great. I looked at the average life expectancy of 78.2 years, which isn't bad. Most Western Countries on the list had an average life expectancy of around 80 years. Switzerland was at the top of the list at 82.1 years.

 "...178th in infant mortality..."

Wrong. According to this Wikipedia page we're 34th with 7.07 deaths per 1000. List of Countries by Infant Mortality Most European countries are around 4.5 deaths per 1000. The CIA factbook has us at 5.98, which makes us 49th on their list. The CIA lists the EU at 4.49 which gives us a difference of about 1.5 per 1000 from the EU which is statistically insignificant.

 "...3rd in median household income..."

 Completely wrong here. We're number one there.

"...number four in labor force..."

Wrong. Actually we're number three if you count the EU. China and India are one and two. But this is a little bit of a stupid statistic...what does that mean? The number of warm bodies that can turn a crank in a factory, let's leave that one out.

But we shouldn't count the quality of a country by these moronic statistics, most of which Daniels and Sorkin got wrong anyway but by the achievements, past and present of the nation. I remember hearing a historian talking about George Washington and his peers, saying that he was not the greatest statesman of the group, he was not the smartest of the group, nor the greatest orator. Yet all of Washington's peers acknowledged that he was the best man among them.

Why was that?

Maybe the US is a bit like George Washington in that regard. It is the mix of qualities and opportunity that makes the United States the leader of the free world. And the country that gave us a free world. The gift of liberty was given to the entire planet by the United States. That, I think is a pretty good thing.

Look, even the lefty Atlantic hates it:

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/06/the-pretentious-condescension-of-the-newsroom/258866/