Friday, October 29, 2010

Karl Rove suggests that Sarah Palin lacks “gravitas”

From The Daily Telegraph:
Karl Rove displaying his "gravitas"
“There are high standards that the American people have for it [the presidency] and they require a certain level of gravitas, and they want to look at the candidate and say 'that candidate is doing things that gives me confidence that they are up to the most demanding job in the world’.” - Karl Rove referring to Sarah Palin

Ah, Karl, have you not noticed that we now live in an internet/facebook/twitter world? Gravitas is a word that had meaning in the telephone/radio/television world of last century. Gravitas conjures up images of the stuffed shirts and empty suits of yesteryear. It has the smell of “Good ol’ Boys” all over it. You can almost hear it whispering “She’s not one of us… don’t let her in!”

You Republican Sweathogs were happy to have Sara Palin as a sidekick for John McCain, as long as she kept her mouth shut, and played the game. But when you realized that Sara Palin appealed to a lot of people because she had (gasp!) her own thoughts and opinions, you turned on her like spoilt milk.

Sara Palin has the cojones (figuratively speaking, of course) to whip your gravitas. She proved it as a mayor and as a governor. Have any of you reprobates run a town, or a state? I’m not talking about buying off anyone who is loose enough to be bought; I’m talking about actual management - solving problems, dealing with issues, and using the law to protect the public.

So, Karl and Company, if Sara Palin does decide to run in 2012, she’s got my vote. If she wins, you may have to wipe the gravitas off your face.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

A Very Large Boatload


The Emma Maersk is one of three ships presently in service, with another two ships of this size to be completed in 2012. Commissioned by Wal-Mart, each ship can transport goods across the Pacific in just five days.

These ships can carry 15,000 tractor-trailer-sized containers. Each is longer than an aircraft carrier, and with its 207-foot beam (width), it won’t fit through either the Panama or Suez Canals. It needs only 13 people as its crew.

The Command Bridge is higher than a 10-story building. The ship has 11 cargo cranes that can operate simultaneously, unloading the entire ship in less than two hours.

A recent documentary on the History Channel noted that all of these containers are shipped back to China, empty. Yes, that's right … we send nothing back on these ships. So much for the trade balance.