22 December 2008
Low Activity Alert
The Dog Farm is taking it's show on the road (sans doggies) for the holidays. Probably not much activity here until we get back to the Tundra. Thanks for checking in as always. See ya at the the airport.
17 December 2008
Saved by an American Car
Samuel Johnson, one of the leading literary figures of 18th-century England, wrote, "When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully."
So does spinning out at high speed in the rain on the interstate. It gives your mind a certain focus.
Today, someone asked me what I want for Christmas. "I've already got it," I answered.
I Throw My Shoe at You!
We saw it during the campaign, when everyone was instructed to shit their pants over the amount of money the Republican Party spent on clothes for Governor Palin. "What was wrong with the clothes she had?" they screamed. However, no one seemed too upset over what the Democratic Party spent on that one-night-only faux Roman stage show at Invesco Field for the glory of The One. What was wrong with the Pepsi Center that was already set up and paid for?
Then we saw everyone play the part of apoplectic taxpayer for considering a bailout for the Big Three after their CEOs had the audacity to travel to Washington DC in jet aircraft that were purchased expressly for the purpose of transporting the very same executives. No one ever seemed to ask how the United Auto Workers' representatives are serving the interests of their devout retirees by owning its own golf course.
Now we have to endure the same childlike shortsightedness again. Everywhere you turn, that idiot who threw his shoes at President Bush is being conveyed folk-hero status. "What a brave thing for him to do; there's no more profound display of disdain in that culture."
Oh please. If that reporter had any measurable bravery, he'd have thrown shoes at Saddam Hussein or Hosni Mubarak (the 'journalist' is Egyptian). The only reason he did what he did is that he know there'd be no gallows or firing squad for his act. The easily amused will say that this dope was trying to shame President Bush, but I think his act warrants a deeper look at the shame angle:
The reporter knows deep down that he can throw his shoe at Bush only because of Bush and it shames him. He can’t forgive Bush for that.Indeed.
You Are Worthless
This is what happen when you vote for dolts that promise you the moon; eventually, the bill comes due.Federal obligations now exceed the collective net worth of all Americans, according to the New York-based Peter G. Peterson Foundation. Washington politicians and bureaucrats have essentially mortgaged everything We the People own so they can keep spending our tax dollars like there’s no tomorrow.
Americans’ total household net worth, diminished by falling stock prices and home equity, is $56.5 trillion. But rising costs for unfunded social programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security increased to $56.4 trillion – and that was before the more recent stock market crash, $700 billion bank bailout, and monster federal deficits chalked up in October and November.
12 December 2008
Reasonable Friday
First:
It's not just that requiring prior approval is a prior restraint. It's not just that you can bet your bottom dollar that prior approval is based on content. The crowning absurdity here is that MSU thinks that there is nothing wrong with placing a completely arbitrary limit on the number of people you can e-mail about a serious issue of public concern at a public university. So much for the right to petition government for redress of grievances. Apparently, MSU's IT department has overruled the Bill of Rights.Next:
Chastened no-on-8 types decide to chill out, and think twice before demanding people lose their jobs over their political activities. Ha ha, just kidding. Legendary KCRW General Manager Ruth Seymour–past recipient of a Los Angeles Times First Amendment Award!–takes the unusual step of bitch-slapping Brodesser-Akner publicly.Finally:
“Che hated artists, so how is it possible that artists still today support the image of Che Guevara?” Turns out the rebellious icon that emblazons countless T-shirts actually enforced aesthetic and political conformity. D’Rivera explains that Che and other Cuban authorities sought to ban rock and roll and jazz.Make sure to watch the video on good ol' Ernesto.
11 December 2008
From GM's Ouch Division
GM sales in 2007: 9,370,000 vehicles
Toyota sales in 2007: 9,366,418 vehicles
GM profit/loss in 2007: -$38,730,000,000 (-$4,055 per car)
Toyota profit in 2007: +$17,146,000,000 (+$1,874 per car)
These are numbers only the UAW could be proud of.
Revising e-History as it Happens
KHQA TV wishes to offer clarification regarding a story that appeared last month on our website ConnectTristates.com. The story, which discussed the appointment of a replacement for President Elect Obama in the U.S. Senate, became the subject of much discussion on talk radio and on blog sites Wednesday. The story housed in our website archive was on the morning of November 5, 2008. It suggested that a meeting was scheduled later that day between President Elect Obama and Illinois Governor Blagojevich. KHQA has no knowledge that any meeting ever took place. Governor Blagojevich did appear at a news conference in Chicago on that date.UPDATE: You know David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel don't have to get their hands dirty; the Devout and Faithful are already doing that for them:
Why this "clarification" has been issued is not cleared up by the item. The original item does not, as you can see, "suggest" that the meeting might/maybe happen. It says that "He's meeting" (He is meeting).... The only question that the clarification raises is about Ms. Sowers' professional ethics: Was she making it up then or is she making it up now?
I've written to both Sower and Hunt asking for comment. I'll report on any response. I doubt any response has been forthcoming. Both "reporters" have doubtless already gotten the word to be quiet "if you know what's good for you."
In fact, if you mention ROD BLAGOJEVICH in your question, at all, even totally politely in a relevant way, your question will not only be voted down but "removed" (says the site) as "inappropriate," visible only through a specific search for ROD BLAGOJEVICH.
Change.gov looked like it was going to be a nice, civil exception to the usual mob rule in Web comment sections. And maybe it would have been, with some conscientious Change.govers letting in some Blago questions. But now Drudge has linked the site, via this story, so a bunched of pissed off Obama conspiracists will jump into the game, resulting in an epic mod war and soon the whole thing will look like a YouTube screaming match.
10 December 2008
They Study it in Vienna
Dogs can sniff out unfair situations and show a simple emotion similar to envy or jealousy, Austrian researchers reported Monday. Dogs sulked and refused to "shake" paws if other dogs got treats for tricks and they did not, said Friederike Range, an animal psychologist at the University of Vienna, who led the study into canine emotions. "It is a more complex feeling or emotion than what we would normally attribute to animals," said Range.
Science Warns of Exctinction
Drivers who can position their car in the middle of a parking space at a supermarket are sliding closer to extinction, conservationists have warned.Remember - extinct is forever.
Research teams have recorded a sharp decline in numbers over the last decade, despite strenuous efforts to educate the public about how easy it is to just put your fucking car in the middle of a parking space.
Conservationists have blamed the crisis on a combination of poaching, loss of habitat and an unbelievable fucking selfishness by a bunch of total and complete bastards who deserve to die on a spike."There are now less than 50 people in the UK who are able to do this," said Dr Logan.
Obama's Vision for America
Among the highlights:
- a proposed "O'Malley Road Reconstruction" in Anchorage, Alaska, that will cost $30 million but provide 300 (count 'em!) jobs;
- a Gadsen, Alabama "Hoke Street Sidewalk Construction to serve new Department of Human Resources facility" that's a real steal at $150,000 but will take almost surviving members of the Allman Brothers Band off the public dole (at last!);
- Police Facility Solar Panels for Lake Havasu City, Arizona, for only $400,000 and 75 jobs;
- Stormwater Settlement Ponds for Beloit, Wisconsin for $1,428 million and five whole jobs, which will feed a family of four in the Badger State, especially if they only eat government cheese;
And, literally so much more it's virtually impossible to document. But the mayors have. Don't you know that the Columbia Avenue storm sewer in St. John, Indiana needs "additional capacity" (and it will only cost $275,000 and provide 15 Hoosiers good, decent jobs)? Or that Manhattan, Kansas can finally (finally!) coordinate the traffic lights on Fort Riley Boulevard for a measly $71,250 (sure it will add only one job to the economy, but one is almost twice as much as zero when you think about!)? And that for barely over $4 million, Atlanta, Georgia can install "reflective or green roofing" on unspecified buildings, thus becoming the Reflective or Green Roofing Capital of the United States, or at least the Southeastern United States?
I'm liking the idea of American working, but I don't know how you take hundreds of thousands of white-collar men and turn them ALL into cement pourers and iron workers before the mid-term elections in 2010?
Poem, Schmoem
The prestigious MaxPlanckForschung journal needed some Chinese text for the cover, so they printed a "classical poem" that turned out to be a menu of erotic services from a brothel in Macau.
05 December 2008
03 December 2008
How Dare You Do What I Ask!
The National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a "community-based organization," is suing Wall Street ratings services for approving bonds backed by home loans to African American and Latino home purchasers with "insufficient borrower income levels."
The firms "knew or should have known" that subprime loans disproportionately were marketed to minority consumers -- a process known as "reverse redlining" -- and that those borrowers would ultimately default and go into foreclosure at high rates, according to the coalition's complaint.
Hmmm. Didn't community-based organizations push for exactly this sort of reverse-redlining?
You Can't Hide Behind a Newspaper and a Latte
The gunmen were terrifyingly professional, making sure at least one of them was able to fire their rifle while the other reloaded. By the time he managed to capture the killer on camera, Mr D'Souza had already seen two gunmen calmly stroll across the station concourse shooting both civilians and policemen, many of whom, he said, were armed but did not fire back.Remember what Clyde Barrow said about why he robbed banks: "That's where the money is." Why did these brainwashed fools kill where they did? That's were the soft targets are.
(W)hat angered Mr D'Souza almost as much were the masses of armed police hiding in the area who simply refused to shoot back. "There were armed policemen hiding all around the station but none of them did anything," he said. "At one point, I ran up to them and told them to use their weapons. I said, 'Shoot them, they're sitting ducks!' but they just didn't shoot back."
The militants returned inside the station and headed towards a rear exit towards Chowpatty Beach. Mr D'Souza added: "I told some policemen the gunmen had moved towards the rear of the station but they refused to follow them. What is the point if having policemen with guns if they refuse to use them? I only wish I had a gun rather than a camera."
And let's not forget that these are bad guys:
(Azam Amir Kasav) and the terror cell's leader began their attacks at the city's Chhatrapati Shivaji rail station. They later hijacked two cars, before police caught them. During two days of questioning, Kashmiri-born Kasav, who used the alias Ajmal Kasab, told police: 'I have no regrets'. He is said to have told officers the cell was to seek out 'white targets, preferably British and American'.
He revealed that the ten terrorists, who were highly trained in marine assault and crept into the city by boat, had planned to blow up the Taj Mahal Palace hotel after first executing British and American tourists and then taking hostages. He then added that their intention was to kill 5,000 people.
02 December 2008
Jack Sparrow Nowhere Among Them
01 December 2008
Alt Fuels Save the Day
Read it all and keep it in your pocket for the next time you hear a politiciam promising to fix things. Thanks big government!The federal government has invested billions of dollars over the past 16 years, building a fleet of 112,000 alternative-fuel vehicles to serve as a model for a national movement away from fossil fuels.
Under a mandate from Congress, federal agencies have gradually increased their fleets of alternative-fuel vehicles, a majority of them "flex-fuel," capable of running on either gasoline or ethanol-based E85 fuel. But many of the vehicles were sent to locations hundreds of miles from any alternative fueling sites, the analysis shows.
As a result, more than 92 percent of the fuel used in the government's alternative-fuel fleet continues to be standard gasoline. A 2005 law -- meant to align the vehicles with alternative-fuel stations -- now requires agencies to seek waivers when a vehicle is more than five miles or 15 minutes from an ethanol pump.
The latest generations of alternative vehicles have compounded the problem. Often, the vehicles come only with larger engines than the ones they replaced in the fleet. Consequently, the federal program -- known as EPAct -- has sometimes increased gasoline consumption and emission rates, the opposite of what was intended.
