Grandpa John's

The New McBurri- Coming Soon?

2009-07-13T22:05:00.005-05:00

Philip Stafford in London reports in the Financial Time.com:

McDonald’s is to leave London for Geneva, joining the growing ranks of US companies moving their European headquarters to take advantage of preferential intellectual property tax laws.

The fast-food group, which will open its head office in the Swiss city in the autumn, said the move had been almost a year in the planning.

The Swiss tax regime, particularly for intellectual property, has become increasingly attractive for foreign companies, particularly the regional European headquarters of US multinationals.

Kraft, Procter & Gamble, Google, Electronic Arts and Yahoo have switched from the UK to Switzerland in recent years, while Informa, the UK publisher, is changing its tax domicile to the country.

One pound pure beef patty, Brandy sauce, bacon, cheese, mayo, on a William Tell bun. Served with a six pack of your choice.

So much for the appetizer. For the main course Lance recommends...

(H.T. Don Surber.)

My Momma Always Said...

2009-07-13T09:57:00.003-05:00

"Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."

Reality & Perception.

(Toon H.T. Left Coast Rebel.)

Pelosi, Reid, & the Priest

2009-07-13T09:50:00.002-05:00

In Washington an old priest lay dying in the hospital. For years he had faithfully served the people of the nation's capital. He motioned for his nurse to come near.

"Yes, Father?" said the nurse.

"I would really like to see Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid before I die", whispered the priest.

"I'll see what I can do, Father", replied the nurse.

The nurse sent the request to Congress and waited for a response.

Soon the word arrived; Both would be delighted to visit the priest.

As they went to the hospital, Reid commented to Nancy, "I don't know why the old priest wants to see us, but it will certainly will help our images and might even help us get re-elected. After all, I'm IN IT TO WIN IT". Nancy agreed that it was a good thing.

When they arrived at the priest's room, the priest took Reid's hand in his right hand and Nancy's hand in his left.

There was silence and a look of serenity on the old priest's face.

Finally Nancy spoke. "Father, of all the people you could have chosen, why did you choose us to be with you as you near the end?"

The old priest slowly replied, "I have always tried to pattern my life after our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

"Amen", said Nancy. "Amen", said Reid.

The old priest continued, "Jesus died between two lying thieves; I would like to do the same."

(From Wicked Thoughts.)

The Divine Right of Gaia

2009-07-12T21:16:00.002-05:00

The Attack of the Warm-Mongers
Mark Steyn earns his keep while making fun of Charles, Prince of Wales and Al Gore, Prince of Whales, et al.

Capitalism and consumerism have brought the world to the brink of economic and environmental collapse, the Prince of Wales has warned. . . . And in a searing indictment on capitalist society, Charles said we can no longer afford consumerism and that the ‘age of convenience’ was over.
He then got in his limo and was driven to his other palace.

Sarahcuda

2009-07-12T17:49:00.003-05:00

Ralph Z. Hallow reports in an interview with Sarah Palin in The Washington Times:

"I'm not ruling out anything — it is the way I have lived my life from the youngest age," she said. "Let me peek out there and see if there's an open door somewhere. And if there's even a little crack of light, I'll hope to plow through it."

Sarah, there is a lot of darkness and many cracks. Go, Sarah, go.

(H.T. John Ray.)

Wisconsin Grizzly Gerbils Endangering Residents

2009-07-10T20:41:00.004-05:00

It's War in Winneconne:

WINNECONNE – A Washington Street resident found out it’s not OK to shoot raccoons and gerbils in the village after a neighbor called police July 1 to report someone was discharging a .22 caliber rifle in a back yard.

But, Sheriff, I caught 'im hackin' inta mah computer.

But, Deputy, I caught him astealin' mah picinic basket.

Ya sure don't want to try to take on a gerbil with anything less than a .44 magnum.

A Sad Day

2009-07-10T09:27:00.002-05:00

Today is the funeral and burial of the three year-old daughter of close friends and fellow church members. Little Patience died after drowning in a neighbor's swimming pool. She remained on life support for about a week and succumbed shortly thereafter.

Grief.

Rhesus Monkeys Prove Value of Obama Policies:

2009-07-09T22:11:00.003-05:00

-Cap & Cage
-Universal Government Health Care
-Government Oversight of All Areas of Life

20 year UW-Madison study shows restrictions caused caged monkeys:

...have fewer age-related diseases... less shrinking with age in areas important for decision-making and controlling movement in the brains... helps preserve primates’ bodies and brains... extend the lifespan... even greater health benefits...

If we will be wise enough to allow the government to control our lives within literal or metaphorical cages, we will live much happier and longer lives.

Lance... Lance!.. Hey, Anybody Seen Lance?

2009-07-08T21:14:00.003-05:00

Ja nahe an der Straße.

BERLIN (AFP) – German police called to clear a road of a dead badger found the animal in question had in fact gorged itself on over-ripe, fermented cherries and, blind drunk, staggered out into the middle of the road.

"The animal's stomach had turned the fruit to alcohol and the badger was, to put it crudely, drunk as a skunk," said a police statement on Wednesday. "In addition, the badger was suffering from diarrhoea studded with cherry stones."

Prodding the reluctant beast with a stick, officers managed to persuade it to leave the road near the town of Goslar in northwestern Germany and to sleep off his night of excess in a nearby meadow.

"It could not immediately be established whether the badger got into trouble with his wife when he came home in such a state," the tongue-in-cheek police statement concluded.

(H.T. Fark.com.)

Administration Alienating More Friends

2009-07-08T19:50:00.004-05:00

The Administration continues to sidle up to our enemies and back stab our friends and sour diplomatic relations. This time it's Switzerland... again.

Back in February:

ZURICH, Feb 21 (Reuters) - The right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) called on Saturday for retaliation against the United States over a U.S. tax probe into the country's biggest bank UBS that threatens prized banking secrecy.

Presently:

Switzerland has vowed to prevent UBS from handing over client information to U.S authorities, in an attempt to defend bank secrecy, and says the tax case targeting its biggest bank is souring diplomatic ties.

Washington has accused UBS of hiding nearly $15 billion in assets in secret accounts but the tax litigation is also crucial for the future of the multibillion-dollar wealth management industry and is pushing several offshore banks to force clients to come clean.

The Swiss Justice Ministry said earlier on Wednesday that Swiss law prevents UBS from handing over client information and the government would seize UBS client data, if necessary, to stop that happening.

If this keeps up much longer, Lance and I may wind up in an internment camp. (Government food, lodging, health care... Come to think of it, the way things are going, perhaps the whole country will soom BE the camp.)

(H.T. Say Anything.)

President Obama Slams Gore, Cap & Trade

2009-07-08T17:43:00.004-05:00

In a speech Tuesday at the New Economic School graduation in Moscow, President Barack Obama inadvertently struck Al Gore a blow in the nads and discounted the logic for Cap & Trade legislative measures. Here's the money quote:

Like President Medvedev and myself, you're not old enough to have witnessed the darkest hours of the Cold War, when hydrogen bombs were tested in the atmosphere, and children drilled in fallout shelters, and we reached the brink of nuclear catastrophe. But you are the last generation born when the world was divided. At that time, the American and Soviet armies were still massed in Europe, trained and ready to fight. The ideological trenches of the last century were roughly in place. Competition in everything from astrophysics to athletics was treated as a zero-sum game. If one person won, then the other person had to lose.

And then, within a few short years, the world as it was ceased to be. Now, make no mistake: This change did not come from any one nation. The Cold War reached a conclusion because of the actions of many nations over many years, and because the people of Russia and Eastern Europe stood up and decided that its end would be peaceful.

This presidential passage parsed is telling us that the Anthropocentric Global Warming produced through the efforts of many nations caused the melting of the glacial Cold War assuring peace between two dangerous superpowers. Global Warming saved the planet.

A Proposal for Congress

2009-07-08T17:25:00.002-05:00

(At the risk of causing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Booker T. Washington, Jackie Robinson, and George Washington Carver to roll over in their graves...)

I did not watch any of the Michael Jackson coverage. However, even ESPN's Sports Center showed clips of Michael Jordan's and Magic Johnson's speeches at the ceremony. Apparently, Magic views Jackson as the finest human being that has ever lived.

Therefore:

Be it resolved that the United States Congress declare a national holiday to honor Michael Jackson.

Be it resolved that Michael Jackson Day be observed each year on February 30th.

Michael Jackson National Holiday theme song:

I'll be there, I'll be there, just call my name, I'll be there

(Just look over your shoulders, honey - ooh)

I'll be there, I'll be there, whenever (or not) you need me, I'll be there
Don't you know, baby, yeah yeah!

Fewer Lawsuits, More Free Time

2009-07-07T20:30:00.003-05:00

Whittle on PJ TV

2009-07-07T18:20:00.001-05:00

Bill Whittle's latest on Pajamas TV.

Chris Wysocki is on a Power Trip

2009-07-07T15:58:00.003-05:00

This ain't your dad's vacation, Grasshopper.

Only in America. (Or Star Wars, or Star Trek)

How the Mighty Have Fallen

2009-07-07T10:53:00.005-05:00

Or, At Least, Weirded Out!
It struck me as funny as anything I have ever seen in sports.

For over 30 years I have paid close attention to The Tour de France. I consider it one of the premier sporting events in the world. The Tour is over three weeks of team work, luck, and guts beyond measure.

At the end of each stage there is a short ceremony presenting the awards and/or jerseys for the individual stage winner, the leader of various competitions within the race, and, of course, the presentation of the yellow jersey to ~~Lance Armstrong~~ the overall leader of race.

The awards/jerseys are always presented to the cyclist by the two rule 5 beauties flanking him. For example, the woman to his left will help him put on the jersey, the other will present him with a bouquet, the first will hand him the stuffed lion, and he will give and receive kisses on the cheek to and from them.

After that the leader receives his applause, looking something like this.

The Swiss Tour is similar.

But today's overall leader, Fabian Cancellara, was honored to have BEN STILLER help him with the yellow jersey and present the mascot stuffed lion. (Kisses for the babe on his right, but a belated, awkward handshake for Stiller.)
Rumor has it that Armstrong's Astana team slowed their team time trial finish by a tenth of a second because they found out that Stiller was participating. The French Tour administrators had Stiller's lips slathered with lip balm laced with steroids in hopes that his cheek kisses would cause Lance to finally test positive for banned substances.

Armstrong is considered to be in second place even though his total time is the same as Cancellara's.

Sotomayor Nomination in Jeopardy

2009-07-06T16:03:00.003-05:00

AP writer, Matthew Lee reports:

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. officials say Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to meet ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya this week. It would be the highest-level contact the Obama administration has had with Zelaya since he was deposed last week.

Most think this meeting is to curry favor with the Obama Administration to assist in returning Zelaya to the presidency of Honduras. My sources, however, claim that there is an entirely different reason for this meeting:

Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya is no longer interested in returning to Honduras to live and lead. He is visiting Washington to request replacing Sonia Sotomayor as President Obama's nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Zelaya says that his experiences are extreme qualifiers for this nomination. He has seen first hand what damage a supreme court can do to a renegade executive branch when the court actually follows faithfully the actual meaning of the Constitution. He would never allow that to happen. President Obama is said to be 'deeply interested.'

In addition, Mr. Zelaya also declares that a wise Latino Honduran will make far better decisions than a wise Latina Puerto Rican any day.

Today I Display My Shoe Fetish

2009-07-06T10:06:00.006-05:00

Even as a faithful follower of fashion, I rarely talk about shoes. It is a little amazing in that I wear them quite often.

I recall the beginnings of my fetish. Back in 1982 I traveled from Victoria, Texas, to return to Atlanta, Georgia, to attend the graduation of my former classmates. Since leaving them I had changed quite a bit. This was the first time that any of them had seen me with a haircut, or clean shaven, or wearing anything approaching my 3 piece suit. After finally realizing who I was, the only comment about the transformation that I heard was, "Steve! You're wearing shoes! Hey, guys, look at Burri. He's got shoes on!" Hmmm... shoes.

Recently, my interest has been piqued during analysis of Sarah Palin's latest activity. All the usual suspects have used their usual authoritative speaking or writing voices that all sounded like, "Yada, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah..., unless another shoe drops." Hmmm... shoes.

I may have missed it, but I did not hear a lot of talk about shoes dropping out of the Obama closet and landing on Obama. There has been a lot of probability talk about an Obama shoe violently kicked up my rectum and in my groin, or a fashionable Obama boot pressing on the back of my neck as my face was ground into the dirt, but little about Obama's shoes scuffing his own halo.

Stanley Kurtz and Steve Diamond had done some great work in uncovering Obama's close ideological connection to Bill Ayers, but somehow that shoe missed Obama. Hannity pressed Obama's relationship with Jeremiah Wright, but his work didn't seem to drop even an argyle sock on Obama. Other than those researchers, very little primary source research has been undertaken to press Obama's background to the foreground. More is known about the varieties of canned peas consumed by the Palin household, how they are prepared, who eats and who refuses or sneaks them to the dog, and how the empty cans are discarded than about the major influences and co-operative efforts that are integrated into Obama's character.

Snaggletoothie reprints The Unvetted President from time to time as a reminder:

Some things the public has a right to know that will never be available or are still kept out of the public record:

1. OccidentalCollege records — Not released
2. ColumbiaCollege records — Not released
3. Columbia Thesis paper — ‘not available’
4. Harvard College records — Not released
5. Selective Service Registration — Not released
6. Medical records — Not released
7. Illinois State Senate schedule — ‘not available’
8. Law practice client list — Not released
9. Certified Copy of original Birth certificate — Not released
10. Embossed, signed paper Certification of Live Birth — Not released
11. Harvard Law Review articles published — None
12. University of Chicago scholarly articles — None
13. Record of baptism — Not released or ‘not available’
14. Illinois State Senate records — ‘not available’

Andy McCarthy has recently found some of Obama's student paper articles that illuminate us on some of Obama's thought life. Another single shoe. I imagine that no single shoe dropping will bruise Obama, but since he probably has more shoes that could fall than Imelda Marcos possessed in prime time, I am hoping that the accumulative effect will cause Obamunism to fail in America. Hmmmm... shoes.

I suspect that MSM journalists consider the 'godlike-shivers-up-my-leg' Obamessiah to be ultra-spiritual and resort to using the Biblical passage found in John 3:8, "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." So don't bother trying to find out where he came from or predict where he is going.

I suspect that most MSM journalists aren't greatly concerned about the potential for further newspaper failures. In such a case they could simple begin drawing paychecks from the DNC or as Evangelists for the Perpetual Obama Campaign.

More Proof That Liberals & Independence Day Don't Mix

2009-07-04T19:07:00.001-05:00

Burt Prelutsky:

I’d like to quote from an e-mail I recently received from a reader named J. Pyle. In response to a piece I had written ridiculing the state of higher education, he wrote: “I remember when ‘Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies’ meant trying to figure out what’s wrong with those people. In fact, if your child is majoring in something that ends in ‘Studies,’ you better not turn their bedroom into a den, because that one is coming home after college.”

Grandbaby Update

2009-07-03T22:38:00.004-05:00

Isabella, Hunter, Leah, Morgan, Cole

New Logo: Accurate Portrayal of the Way Job Has Been Done

2009-07-03T17:45:00.005-05:00

Patrick Marley reports in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal:

As the state agency charged with running elections, the Government Accountability Board can't show favor for Republicans or Democrats.

The board recently launched a new logo - an A inside a circle - that looks similar to the traditional symbol for anarchy.

The Wisconsin state elections oversight through the Government Accountability Board also has adopted a new motto:

Helter Skelter Like You Mean It

Holy Scrap!

2009-07-03T08:22:00.003-05:00

Donald Douglas, Associate Professor of Political Science in Southern California and the prolific proprietor of American Power has named Grandpa John's for the Honest Scrap Award.

Thank you, Professor Douglas...

for naming Grandpa John's(With 3 bullet holes... I wonder what he meant by that. He may have been trying to obliterate the 'S' in Scrap.)

Requirements of this honor include nomination of 7 other worthy award recipients and listing 10 honest things about yourself.

And the winners are:

- The TrogloPundit: A real rags-to-riches story. A Christian and Conservative even from Atheist and Liberal influences. Always good stuff.

- Pundit & Pundette: Yes, this blog has already been named by American Power, but it deserves two, one for Pundit and one for Pundette.

- Paco Enterprises- He's really full of Scrap.

- The Return of Scipio: A real mountain man, or rather, jungle man. PC, what's that?

- The Daley Gator: A hard core S.E.C. fan. I interpret that as 'Strongly Expounds Conservatism.'

- The Blog Prof: Innumerable articles on nuclear power; 21 titled 'The Fermi Chronicles' and most of the rest could be titled 'The Nuclear Meltdowns of Michigan and Washington, D.C.'.

- And So it Goes in Shreveport: From the Farmer's Market to exposing the rotten fruit and vegetables in Louisiana and D.C.

Ten honest things about Grandpa John's and/or me:

- Civil government of any nature will not save me, not even Obama's. Jesus Christ has already done that.

- I am a servant. Sometimes that involves leading, but usually it requires helping someone else in a leadership position.

- I have long worked with brain injured people. Some have been through trauma, some through organic disease. These people have not chosen their condition. My question is: Is Liberalosis a choice or an organic disorder?

- I play shortstop on a city league softball team. At 57, I have lost a step or two over the last 40 years of play.

- Pepperoni is my favorite pizza topping.

- I have a cat named Kittyanna Katrina Kalikovsky Mayovich and she is kinda snooty.

- Pro sports teams: Packers, Brewers, & Bucks. College favorite: Wisconsin Badgers.

- Favorite all-time athlete: Hank Aaron.

- Favorite secular writer: Thomas Sowell.

- We still owe $130,000 to our lawyers. (We won the case, but it is in the appeals process.) That kinda crimps my style.

Some Dogs are Trained to Sniff Out Drugs,

2009-07-02T20:18:00.007-05:00

Some to Locate Bodies, Some for Explosives...
Some of the scientists in our secret basement laboratory bred and trained this guy to sniff out truthfulness.

"Go, find truthfulness in the Obama Administration or the Democrat leadership, boy!"

After hours of searching, the only thing this dog marked was the Cuban music. Apparently there was some truth within that.

(Video H.T. Real Debate Wisconsin.)

Helen Thomas Challenges Scripted Press

2009-07-02T09:50:00.002-05:00

"Not even Andy Jackson tried to control us in the Media like Obama."

I Have Insulted Dan Akroyd

2009-07-01T21:19:00.009-05:00

Paco has posted a picture that I misidentified as Dan Akroyd. Akroyd complained that he often is mistaken for Paco.

Ted Nugent emailed and said that he was tired of being mistaken for me.

Kurt Rambis whined about the same thing.

My apologies to all three of these famous big babies. (Nugent does what?) Ah, those two big babies and Mr. Nugent as well.