Tag Archives: election

Thank You, Seven-Of-Nine

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We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to that sexy, stunning Borg drone Seven-Of-Nine!

On the third “Star Trek” spin-off, “Star Trek: Voyager”, which aired on the long-gone Paramount Network from 1995 -2001, from 1997 to the end of its run, a female Borg drone was introduced as the new cast member and shipmate to the lost Star Fleet crew of the star ship “Voyager”. Her designation was Seven-Of-Nine. The drop-dead gorgeous half-human/half cybernetic organism space socialist in the breathtakingly form-fitting catwoman space suit was play by actress Jeri Ryan.

So why does she merit such appreciation? You see Jeri Ryan was married to Jack Ryan for most of the Nineties. In 1999 she divorced her husband of eight years. In 2004, Jack Ryan decided to run for the Illinois U.S. Senate seat vacated by retiring Republican Senator Peter Fitzgerald. After easily winning the Republican primary, Ryan was expected to easily win that Congressional Senate seat over his neophyte Democratic rival…

…Ah, the best laid plans…

In June of 2004, after several of Ryan’s republican opponents had months earlier requested the release of Ryan’s divorce records, it was revealed that Jeri Ryan based her reason for divorce on the allegation that during their marriage Jack liked to take her to sex clubs with the intention of performing bizarre sex acts with her in public. Jeri alleged that Jack took her to sex clubs all over the world, something she was very resistant to.

After these divorce allegations were made public – allegations which Jack Ryan flatly denied – he was forced by the Illinois state Republican Party to withdraw his candidacy for the U.S. Senate. But at such a late date it was difficult to find a replacement candidate. The same Republican party leaders who called for Ryan’s resignation chose Alan Keyes, a carpetbagger from Maryland, as Ryan’s replacement in the November senatorial election. Keyes lost easily.

That neophyte Democratic candidate that would have been trounced so easily haed Jack Ryan stayed in the race?…

…Barack Obama!

Without knowing it at the time, Jeri Ryan set off a chain of circumstantial events that taken in order conspired to make Barack Obama the president-elect of the United States.

The law of unintended concequences — and all because Seven-Of-Nine got a divorce!

Thank You, Seven-Of-Nine. Thank You So Very, Very Much!!!

– daveydoug

A Quote:

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“Ask yourself [this question]: How has “elitism” become a bad word in American politics? There is simply no other walk of life in which extraordinary talent and rigorous training are denigrated. We want elite pilots to fly our planes, elite troops to undertake our most critical missions, elite athletes to represent us in competition and elite scientists to devote the most productive years of their lives to curing our diseases. And yet, when it comes time to vest people with even greater responsibilities, we consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence. When it comes to choosing the people whose thoughts and actions will decide the fates of millions, then we suddenly want someone just like us, someone fit to have a beer with, someone down-to-earth-in fact, almost anyone, provided that he or she doesn’t seem too intelligent or well educated.”

— Sam Harris —
— Newsweek Magazine —

I couldn’t have said it any better…

– daveydoug

Hello, Pot? This Is The Kettle

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John McCain certainly seems to be clueless when it comes to picking economic advisors… almost as clueless as he is about the economy in general. Phil Gramm not only was the primary player responsible for banking/mortgage deregulation and making it easier for investment banks to hide their liabilities, but was a co-author of the Enron loophole legislation.

Carly on the other hand, while being a bad choice because of the common perception of her being a horrible CEO, actually withstands closer scrutiny fairly well, at least when using daveydoug’s standards. The problem is, I’m not sure where he gets his numbers from. According to my records, Hewlett-Packard stock (HPQ) during the Fiorina era tracked the Nasdaq Computer sector index almost perfectly. Further, the major decrease in stock price occurred before the Compaq merger which is the subject of the most common criticism heaped upon her. Just about every tech company suffered dramatic losses in stock price in 2000 including other major companies like Intel and Microsoft. This was not the fault of the people running the companies, but rather rampant speculative investing where people were buying stocks with a Price:Earnings ratio well over 100.

Even at that, the numbers are wrong. The highest the stock got was around $136 before the 2:1 stock split of 10/30/2000 and the lowest it got was $10.75, or adjusted to pre-split numbers, $21.50, the week of 7/22/2002. Keep in mind that H-P is a dividend paying stock and the dividend income during this period is not accounted for in these numbers despite the stock price keeping up with H-P’s peers.

Did she do a stellar job at H-P? No, especially if you were one of the people terminated from a company known for retaining employees. Was she competent? I think so. Is her association with the McCain campaign a compelling reason to vote for McCain? No way. The faux pas that McCain committed with Fiorina had to do with the public perception of her. He might as well have put Michael Jackson in charge of a commission to attack child porn, after all, Jackson was never convicted of anything… right? Public perception, right or wrong however, is not on Jackson’s nor Fiorina’s side.

On the other hand, if we use Palin’s logic that she has foreign affairs expertise because she could see Russia from her home state of Alaska, then simply owning H-P stock might qualify one as an economic expert.

– Jeffersonish