32 thoughts on “Only 1461 Days To Go”

  5. If the term begins at 12 Noon, isn’t that clock off (optomistic) by 1 hour? At 1pm (ET), on 1/20, shouldn’t the clock register 23 hours rather than 22?

  6. The clock assumes that the term begins at 11 AM. Obama did in fact take the oath before noon. And I think they were running a little behind the official schedule.

  7. Hmmm…actually, he took the oath a few minutes after noon (and Roberts and he flubbed it, so technically, he might not actually be president). So since the term ends at noon, we actually spent a few minutes without a president. The nation seems to have survived. Anyway, I’ve reset the clock to count down to noon.

  8. “The clock assumes that the term begins at 11 AM. Obama did in fact take the oath before noon. And I think they were running a little behind the official schedule.”

    That seems kind of silly to me. The term officially begins at noon, and the exiting president ends his term at the exact same moment. You could take the oath of office a week earlier, but you still wouldn’t start your term until noon of January 20th.

    The only way that clock can be right is if it is originating in the “Atlantic” time zone, somewhere in eastern Canada.

  10. The clock uses the local timezone instead of ET or UTC-0500.

    so technically, he might not actually be president

    I’m sure there are crackpots already calling off their birth certificate lawsuit research to get ready to file over this!

  11. kayawanee: Do you mean the presidential oath isn’t a magical incantation that makes you president? I’m so disillusioned.

  12. What I remember hearing, years ago, is that the new president can’t exercise the powers of office without having taken the oath.

    Not that I think there’d be a constitutional crisis to be made from this one flub…

  13. Eeeeh. Technically, Obama became president when Biden took his oath of office. At least, according to my Government professor, somewhere in the Constitution it says that as soon as the Vice-President elect takes his oath of office, technically, the new administration is in place. =]

  16. 1461 days of Obama as President of the United States. Barring his death, resignation or impeachment, that’s a given. What is not a given is that the USA will comprise all the territory it currently does, by the end of his term.

    I can see a distinct possibility of a “Christian States of America” – which if it splits off will be a theocratic hellhole beyond most people’s worst nightmares – in the Midwest with some extensions.

    Admittedly, this event might take a bit longer than that.

  17. I can see a distinct possibility of a “Christian Socialist States of America” – which if it splits off will be a theocratic entitlements and tax hellhole beyond most people’s worst nightmares – in the Midwest on the coasts with some extensions.

    Admittedly, this event might take a bit longer than that.

    Fixed that for you

  18. I can see a distinct possibility of a “Christian States of America” – which if it splits off will be a theocratic hellhole beyond most people’s worst nightmares

    Man, you people will not give up that fantasy, will you? Santa must have really scared you as a kid.

  20. I don’t really care that the false god Obama flubbed the oath of office. I think he perjured himself and has no intention of supporting and defending the constitution.

  21. Rand, is it or is it not the case that the central parts of the USA are the ones that (a) support “that old-time religion” (anti-abortion, prohibitionist, anti-adult literature, anti-gay, anti-science, and God help you – figuratively – if you don’t toe the line) and (b) collect guns the same way that a sci-fi geek collects Star Wars models?

    Or that the two coasts are the places that support freedom of choice in terms of lifestyle? I am not gay, but if I was I know which of NYC or Salt Lake City (to take two examples) I would prefer to live in.

    The aforesaid guns might suffice to enforce the 19th-century attitudes and social norms of those that prefer them, in the places where they live. They will not suffice to force them on that part of the USA that prefers to live in the 21st century. Prohibition has been tried once, and it didn’t work.

    The Jesusland joke is not a joke at all.

  22. FC,

    The US is a large country with over 300 million people. There is a wide range of opinions but the notion that the US is going to split into different countries is a European wet-dream.

  23. “Rand, is it or is it not the case that the central parts of the USA are the ones that (a) support “that old-time religion” (anti-abortion, prohibitionist, anti-adult literature, anti-gay, anti-science, and God help you – figuratively – if you don’t toe the line) and (b) collect guns the same way that a sci-fi geek collects Star Wars models? … The Jesusland joke is not a joke at all.”

    As one who has lived fifty years in the central USA, I can confidently tell you that there are many people here who would like to ban all guns, many others who don’t want to ban them but who own no guns, many others who own one, and a very few who collect them. There are many people here who favor right-to-abort, many who favor right-to-life, and a whole lot (probably a majority) who favor the status quo because they would rather not think about the issue. There are many who believe that life on Earth has evolved over billions of years, a few who believe Earth was created only a few thousand years ago, and a great many who don’t get excited about it one way or the other. I’ve never met anyone who favors a return to prohibition of alcohol.

    And I have never met anyone who wants to secede from the USA over these issues, one way or the other.

  24. > Or that the two coasts are the places that support freedom of choice in terms of lifestyle? I am not gay, but if I was I know which of NYC or Salt Lake City (to take two examples) I would prefer to live in.

    Perhaps FC will tell us why he thinks that his opinions have any basis in actual fact. (Hint: Baywatch isn’t a documentary.)

    As for “theocratic hellholes” in the US, Londonistan will happen first. And FC will explain why it’s a good idea, one that the US should adopt.

  25. I detect a bit of snark from Fletcher to troll it up a bit. Surely no one really thinks of interior U.S. in such extreme terms — at least I hope not.

    Besides, Fletcher must not have seen the latest Red/Blue map of voting in the last Presidential election. In the 2004 election, yea it was all red in the interior and blue along the coasts. In the 2008 there were a number of interior states that broke up the chain of red states. Many of the formerly solid red states are more purple this time around. And if you look at the voter shift maps, that indicate the delta of the shift from red to blue then practically the whole country looks blue.

    Not that I would blame him for not knowing this. In the 2004 election everyone, especially on the left, went on and on about the demographic breakdown between red/blue states and harping about how the coastal states should from a republic of double good touchy feel good. Now that things have swung more to the blue side everything is at it should be in there eyes. Now that everything is back to normal no mention is really made about the shift one way or the other.

    So, actually Fletcher, you are bit behind the times with that line of rhetoric. Although, I know how much of a jolly merry time it is to put on a faux hick accent and thump an air bible and say something brilliant about how many guns you bought yesterday.

  26. “The aforesaid guns might suffice to enforce the 19th-century attitudes and social norms of those that prefer them, in the places where they live. They will not suffice to force them on that part of the USA that prefers to live in the 21st century. Prohibition has been tried once, and it didn’t work.”

    I am glad to hear you admit that gun prohibition won’t work. Keep working on that hopolophobia.

  27. As for “theocratic hellholes” in the US, Londonistan will happen first. And FC will explain why it’s a good idea, one that the US should adopt.

    Are you kidding? FC has long advocated the thermonuclear cure for the Islam infection. Unless he has a hankering for turning London into a glass parking lot, he probably won’t be in favor of Londonistan.

  28. Fletcher’s kind of a troll, he admitted on Vanderleun’ blog, when he concurre with David Warren, of awarding Sarah, as person of the year’ for her ‘solid political instincts, and her ability to anger the right enemies’who he sees as Nehemiah Scudder, scares him more than the Wahhabi. That’s the sign of a fundamentally unserious person.

  29. Mr. Hallowell – I protest.

    “Thermonuclear cure for that infection”? Well, maybe. And the reason? All the other methods have been rejected. The West has made no serious effort to wean itself off dependence on oil – and we all know where the money for that, or most of it, goes. The West has made no effort whatsoever to keep the barbarians out of our countries; IMHO no citizen of a country that calls itself Muslim should be allowed into any country of the free world. Ever again. And the ones already here should be thrown out.

    The West has made no effort to make life uncomfortable for Muslims who happen to be citizens, in order that they will leave voluntarily. In fact, some Western countries (including unfortunately my own) bend over backwards to accommodate them.

    Why is all this relevant? Simple, really. Until oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia, the Arabs were just another backward tribe with quaint habits – like cutting each others’ heads off for small insults – and nobody gave a damn, and Islam was nobody’s problem. Now – Three Conjectures. I differ from that conclusion in that I would rather the score be 1E9 to 1E4 rather than 1E9 to 1E6-1E7, given that the 1E9 is now inevitable.

    To use a different analogy, when an infection gets bad enough to threaten gangrene, then sometimes cauterisation is the only alternative to a dead patient. Early treatment is better still.

    narciso – For the reasons above if no other, the Wahabis are a soluble problem. The USA becoming a theocracy might not be – and the human race can’t afford it. We need to get off this mudball NOW, and a major country (the world’s only remaining superpower – for now) turned into a backward, anti-science hellhole won’t help. Theocracies don’t do science – and like it or not, science is the only way humanity is going to survive.

    Mr. Hallowell – one last point. Londonistan is not going to go much further – the peasants are revolting, and I estimate that the mosque-burnings will start in less than a decade. Already, the racists among us have switched targets from blacks, who have never been any sort of problem to anyone else, to Asians (meaning mainly Pakistanis, here) who have and are. The majority will follow. “Extremist” parties are beginning to take office.

  30. Fletcher, real theocratic influences like the first generation of Islam’s warriors , even modified by the Abbasids of Baghdad and the Umayyads of Damascus are a real problem.
    The Wahhabis notice I didn’t say the Sauds, but the Ghamdi, Uteibi, Quahtani Mutairi clans, are the modern manifestation of this, Read Doughty’s Travels in Arabia, for the local perspective Charles Allen’s God’s Warrior, for
    a more historical examination, specially in the 19th century.

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