2011: The Year the Wheels Fell Off

At American Spectator.

Jonah Goldberg's 2011 in review

2011: You Can’t Win for Losing

End of year links

The Difference between Spider-Man and Santa Claus Is Very Small.

More than you want to know about mistletoe.

Worst nativity sets.

Top Scientific Discoveries of 2011.

Top 20 Weird News Stories of 2011.

Great works of public art.

The ball cutter fish

Ack.

Best fails of 2011

Some really painful stuff here.

99-year-old Italian divorces wife after discovering 1940s affair

My favorite bit: "The Italian press attributed the acrimonious split to the couple's southern blood – he is originally from Olbia in Sardinia, while his wife was born in Naples."

Texas, California, and the Tale of the Coyote

CALIFORNIA: The Governor of  California is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out, bites the Governor and attacks his dog.

1. The Governor starts to intervene, but reflects upon the movie “Bambi” and then realizes he should stop; the coyote is  only doing what is natural.

2. He calls animal control. Animal Control captures the coyote and bills the State $200 testing it for diseases and $500  for relocating it.

3. He calls a veterinarian. The vet collects the dead dog and bills the State $200 for testing it for diseases.

4. The Governor goes to hospital and spends $3,500 getting checked for diseases from the coyote and on getting his  bite wound bandaged.

5. The running trail gets shut down for 6 months while Fish & Game conducts a $100,000 survey to  make sure the area is free of dangerous animals.

6. The Governor spends $50,000 in state funds to  implement a “coyote awareness” program for residents of the area.

7. The State Legislature spends $2 million to study how to better treat rabies and how to permanently  eradicate the  disease throughout the world.

8. The Governor’s security agent is fired for not stopping the attack somehow and for letting the  Governor attempt to intervene.

9. Additional cost to State of California: $75,000 to hire and train a new security agent with additional special  training re: the nature of coyotes.

10. PETA protests the coyote’s relocation and files suit against the State.

TEXAS: The Governor of Texas is  jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A Coyote jumps out, bites  the Governor’s leather boot, and attacks his dog.

1. The Governor shoots the coyote with his State-issued pistol and keeps jogging. The Governor has spent $0.50 on a .45 ACP hollow point cartridge.

2. The buzzards eat the dead coyote.

And that, boys and girls, is why California is  broke………..And, more importantly, why too much government doesn’t work.

Original here.

Santa Claus Plays "Jingle Bells" with the Colt 1911

Ho, ho, ho.

The real history of ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’

1939 Montgomery Ward marketing campaign was where it all started.

VA Amber Alert

In Richmond, but just in case.  Car details below.

VAAMBERALERT.COM OR TUNE TO LOCAL MEDIA|CALL 8046460744 OR 911 IF SEEN|2012 WHITE GMC TERRIAN XCZ-6757 VA|Last seen 804 NORTH 35TH STREET RICHMOND|B/M,20YR,5'08,160LB,BLACK HAIR,UNKNOWN UNKNOWN|W/M,2YR,2'00,30LB,BLUE EYES,BLONDE HAIR,KAIDEN GAGE BURNSIDE

Interesting

"Mission Impossible": I Don't Understand How Tall Everyone Is

Damn. I missed it.

Global Orgasm Day was on 12/22.

Castrating Lambs With Your Teeth May Make You Sick

Damn.

Christopher Hitchens on his cancer treatment and growing weakness

Sobering: Rather than “Whatever doesn’t kill me makes me stronger”,there are all too many things that could kill you, don’t kill you, and then leave you considerably weaker.

Steyn: More More More

When it comes to spending and stimulus and entitlements and agencies and regulations and bureaucrats, “More more more / How do you like it?” remains the way to bet.

Lileks on the Kindle Fire

He hates it.

Odds Are, You Probably Don't Exist

Excellent chart.

I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land.
~Jon Stewart

Samoan rugby manager fined 100 pigs for losing.

Most commercial turkeys are conceived via artificial insemination. (insert turkey baster comment here)

The Science of Sarcasm.

Baconlube.

What Drives Death Valley’s Roving Rocks?

Heh

Thanksgiving as a kid vs. Thanksgiving as an adult.

86 year old man deep fries own leg

Or, as he calls it, his drumstick.

Ogden Nash - The Common Cold (with bonus Lord Chesterfield)

Because I refer to it somewhat often (as in, whenever a friend and/or family member is ill), I thought I'd make this easy to find. If you're unfamiliar with Nash, buy one of his books and keep it in the bathroom.

The Common Cold

Go hang yourself, you old M.D.!

You shall not sneer at me. 

Pick up your hat and stethoscope, 

Go wash your mouth with laundry soap; 

I contemplate a joy exquisite 

I'm not paying you for your visit. 

I did not call you to be told 

My malady is a common cold. 

By pounding brow and swollen lip; 

By fever's hot and scaly grip; 

By those two red redundant eyes 

That weep like woeful April skies; 

By racking snuffle, snort, and sniff; 

By handkerchief after handkerchief; 

This cold you wave away as naught 

Is the damnedest cold man ever caught! 

Give ear, you scientific fossil! 

Here is the genuine Cold Colossal; 

The Cold of which researchers dream, 

The Perfect Cold, the Cold Supreme. 

This honored system humbly holds 

The Super-cold to end all colds; 

The Cold Crusading for Democracy; 

The Führer of the Streptococcracy. 

Bacilli swarm within my portals 

Such as were ne'er conceived by mortals, 

But bred by scientists wise and hoary 

In some Olympic laboratory; 

Bacteria as large as mice, 

With feet of fire and heads of ice 

Who never interrupt for slumber 

Their stamping elephantine rumba. 

A common cold, gadzooks, forsooth! 

Ah, yes. And Lincoln was jostled by Booth; 

Don Juan was a budding gallant, 

And Shakespeare's plays show signs of talent; 

The Arctic winter is fairly coolish, 

And your diagnosis is fairly foolish. 

Oh what a derision history holds 

For the man who belittled the Cold of Colds!

Although I'm not suggesting that you use them in this manner, it's impossible for me to think of bathroom books without thinking of Lord Chesterfield's Letters to His Son (to his illegitimate son, that is; he (Chesterfield) was trying to raise him (the son) above his (the son's) lowly origins and inferior blood):

I knew a gentleman, who was so good a manager of his time, that he would not even lose that small portion of it, which the calls of nature obliged him to pass in the necessary-house; but gradually went through all the Latin poets, in those moments. He bought, for example, a common edition of Horace, of which he tore off gradually a couple of pages, carried them with him to that necessary place, read them first, and then sent them down as a sacrifice to Cloacina: this was so much time fairly gained; and I recommend you to follow his example. It is better than only doing what you cannot help doing at those moments; and it will made any book, which you shall read in that manner, very present in your mind.

Must read: Among other things global warming crusaders got wrong: skepticism is a virtue

Unchanging Science: excellent article in the Weekly Standard on global warming/climate change by my friend Bill Anderson.

Must read: Hedge Broker Shuts Down Firm With Chilling Letter About the Market

Going Galt post MF Global:  A firm, led by a crony of the Obama regime, stole all of the non-margined cash held by customers of his firm. Let’s not sugar-coat this or make this crime seem “complex” and “abstract” by drowning ourselves in six-dollar words and uber-technical jargon. Jon Corzine STOLE the customer cash at MF Global. Knowing Jon Corzine, and knowing the abject lawlessness and contempt for humanity of the Marxist Obama regime and its cronies, this is not really a surprise. What was a surprise was the reaction of the exchanges and regulators. Their reaction has been to take a bad situation and make it orders of magnitude worse. Specifically, they froze customers out of their accounts WHILE THE MARKETS CONTINUED TO TRADE, refusing to even allow them to liquidate.

Headline of the day

Brave Grandma Arrests Robber With His Penis.

Bonus - ad with Ben Bernake's picture next to article makes it look as if he's the subject of the article.

Canada to Obama: you delay the pipeline, we'll sell the oil to Asia

GatewayPundit has links and comments: The Keystone Pipeline project was expected to create up to 1,000,000 high-paying US jobs in the oil manufacturing and associated industries. The project itself would create 20,000 construction jobs.  Obama refused to sign the Keystone agreement last week. Today Canadian Prime Minister Harper told Obama that he would look to Asia to sell its oil.

Hello Faddah, Hello Mama, I’m Occupying Camp Obama

Iowahawk: With Apologies to Allan Sherman.

Monday links

Is the stench of massed zombies toxic?

Would you wear elephant dung shoes?

Gallery: inside waves.

Man stacks 3,118 coins on a single dime.

The Easter Island “Heads” Have Bodies.

'My boobs saved my life'

A flat-chested woman cheated death in a head-on car smash — thanks to her 'chicken fillet' bra pads.

Sports Media Asks Molestation Victims What This Means For Joe Paterno's Legacy

The Onion.


Describing the downfall of Paterno as "clearly the most devastating thing to come out of the sex scandal," outlets from ESPN to USA Today asked Sandusky's victims if, while being forced to engage in oral and anal sex with a man 40 to 50 years their senior, their primary fear was for Paterno's reputation.

Yet another reason not to have sex with animals

Study Links Bestiality, Penile Cancer.

"Of the 118 penile cancer patients, 45 percent reported having had sex with animals, compared to 32 percent of healthy men."

Headline of the day

Fusion boffins crack shreddy eddy plasma puzzle.

Libertarianism versus Statism

Jacob Horneberger explains what libertarians believe:

We believe that people should be free to engage in any occupation or profession without any government-issued license, permit, or other form of official permission. Let consumers, not the government, decide who engages in different lines of work.

We believe that people should be free to enter into mutually beneficial transactions with anyone else in the world, without interference by the government. That includes such things as hiring a housekeeper from Mexico and selling food to a Cuban.

We believe that people should be free to accumulate unlimited amounts of wealth and, equally important, to decide for themselves what to do with it — spend, save, invest, or donate it. Thus, we hold that people should be free to plan for their own retirement (or not), to donate to their church or other causes (or not), and to help out their elderly or ailing parents (or not).

via Newsalert. 

Friday links

Meet Dentist in A Box.

Gallery: Journey into the MicroWorld.

Verify That You Have Good Scotch — With Lasers.

Cuban gynecologist/used car salesman’s TV commercial.

What Makes a Rabbit’s Foot Lucky?

Time Lapse Dam ‘Removal’ Video.

83 year-old man arrested for prostitution

Probably not a particularly profitable line of work...

His & Her Diary From the Same Day

Classic.

via Geekpress.

Two-Headed Albino Milk Snake

Weird Florida wildlife alert (actually it was born in captivity).

EU Bans Free-Range Kids

Nanny of the month.  

Smoking-Gun Document Ties Policy To Housing Crisis

Rewind to 1994. That year, the federal government declared war on an enemy — the racist lender — who officials claimed was to blame for differences in homeownership rate, and launched what would prove the costliest social crusade in U.S. history.

When I was born, I was the 2,493,417,202nd person alive on earth

BBC app - fill in your birthdate.

World's most powerful laser to tear apart the vacuum of space

What could go wrong?

Solve world hunger by eating old people?

Soylent green.

French Academy of Surgery weighs in on normal "tackle" size

Get out the tape measure.

Monday links

U.K. Man Sets Fire To Apartment Trying to Turn Feces Into Gold.

Witches accused of zombie abuse.

The mathematics of ideal breasts.

Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer, Literally.

The Evolution Of Swing Sets.

Naked ex-postman superglues himself to desk.

Have a Happy United Nations Day! After All, You Paid for It!

The UN would be a joke if it was merely ineffective; if it wasn't, in addition, grossly corrupt, destructive, disgraceful  and expensive.  A few quotes:

United Nations: where America feeds the hands that bite it.
~Gregory Nunn (attributed)

“It’s a good basic axiom that if you take a quart of ice-cream and a quart of dog feces and mix ’em together the result will taste more like the latter than the former. That’s the problem with the U.N.”
~Mark Steyn

The United Nations is an uplifting experiment, dedicated to raising the standards in Africa, the consciences of the democracies, and the price of prostitutes in New York. (One out of three ain't bad)
~Frank Dane (attributed)

Townhall article for UN Day 2010:  Have a Happy United Nations Day. After All, You Paid for It!

Life imitates Monty Python

OWS 1765: "Blimey, this redistribution of wealth is trickier than I thought!"

OWS fighting over money:

Smith is a member of the Comfort Working Group -- one of about 30 small collectives that have sprung up within OWS. The Comfort group is charged with finding out what basic necessities campers need, like thermal underwear, and then raising money by soliciting donations on the street.

“The other day, I took in $2,000. I kept $650 for my group, and gave the rest to Finance. Then I went to them with a request -- so many people need things, and they should not be going without basic comfort items -- and I was told to fill out paperwork. Paperwork! Are they the government now?” Smith fumed, even as he cajoled the passing crowd for more cash.

Elvis sings the Solyndra song

to the tune of “Love Me Tender.”

Germany returning to the Deutsche Mark?

Zero Hedge says so - the article he cites from FT Deutschland is in German, which I can't read.

Zombie Meal

From the EpicMealTime guys.

(Human) Sex Is Boring

Giraffes, slugs, and fungus are more interesting.

SF: tax break for hiring felons

Apparently this is already happening elsewhere: The idea to offer employers tax breaks to hire ex-offenders is not new. The federal government offers tax credits for companies that hire felons and other targeted groups, including long-term welfare recipients and disabled veterans.

The states of Illinois, Iowa and Maryland also have similar programs in place for ex-felons.

Pre-Teen Transgender Therapy

Jeez.  A lesbian couple in California who say their 11-year-old son Tommy who wants to be a girl named Tammy are giving their child hormone blockers that delay the onset of puberty -- so that he can have more time that he can have more time to decide if he wants to change his gender.

Bill Bennett: Have We Forgotten How to Raise Boys Into Men?

Boys need heroes to embody the everlasting qualities of manhood: honor, duty, valor, and integrity. Without such role models, boys will naturally choose perpetual childhood over the rigors of becoming a man.

To a 1 Year Old, Magazine Is an iPad That Doesn't Work

Heh.

You know your city has become a hellhole when...

Potential "red flags".

via ZeroHedge.

The other Solyndra story: 60% tax rebates failed to drive demand

The stimulus had already boosted investment tax credits for solar panels from 10 to 30 percent. But the “private letter ruling” obtained by Solyndra from the IRS increased the tax credit for its products by an additional 30 percent.

That last 30 percent, however, only kicked in for solar panels installed on so-called “cool” roofs, painted white to reflect sunlight. And Solyndra was then the only vendor whose solar panels fit the bill.

Egypt’s Starvation Time

The amount of wheat Egypt currently has in storage combined with planned purchases, primarily from Russia, is expected to last only until March."

"The corruption, the cultural backwardness, the anti-Christian hatred, unemployment, a stagnant economy, a dishonest, inefficient bureaucracy and Muslim religious fanaticism all point" toward an inability to change direction.

And this: "If a collapse does occur in Egypt, southern Europe can expect a massive flight of refugees to cross the Mediterranean in search of food and safety"

Japan nixed Obama apology for Hiroshima

Cable released by WikiLeaks: Sent to Secretary of State Clinton, it reported Japan's Vice Foreign Minister Mitoji Yabunaka telling U.S. Ambassador John Roos that "the idea of President Obama visiting Hiroshima to apologize for the atomic bombing during World War II is a 'nonstarter.'"

The Japanese feared the apology would be exploited by anti-nuclear groups and those opposed to the defensive alliance between Japan and the U.S.

Before Hitler, Who Was the Stand-In for Pure Evil?

Short answer: the Pharaoh.

UK and EU: Children banned from blowing up balloons

Nanny state story du jour.

"You might say that small children have been blowing up balloons for generations, but not anymore and they will be safer for it," said an official.

How To Explain Greece To A Complete Idiot / Politician

At ZeroHedge.

Monday links

In honor of Columbus day, here’s a list of the top 10 accidental discoveries. 

The origins of Uncle Sam.

Website devoted to analyzing the writing on the blackboard in the background of porn movies.  No videos, SFW (depending on where you work, I guess).  Also in the “category” of “everything’s available on the internet”, here’s the the “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks.

Florida Lawmaker Wants To Overturn Ban On Dwarf Tossing.

Could I take down a T. rex with my Beretta 9mm pistol?

Lives Within a Drop of Water.

Italy Blames Market Volatility On Cocaine Abuse By Traders

Heh.

Giovanardi, who is in charge of family policy and drug prevention, said that the abuse of drugs including cocaine might explain part of recent stock volatility.

Van Jones' weird chant at OWS

We’re here to give everything from the people from whom you stole everything!

Of course the Greek chorus repeats it all. 

Yes! We're all individuals!

Life (in the form of Occupy Atlanta) imitates Monty Python.  Obviously I have no use for John Lewis, but this is seriously creepy.  And what's up with the jazz hands?

The Monty Python version.

The Onion's Steve Jobs obit

Last American Who Knew What The F*** He Was Doing Dies.

The new hockey stick graph

The rising trend of retractions of scientific research papers.

Links and comments at PowerLine.

Thursday links

You missed it – In Florida, Sep 30 Was the Last Day to Legally Have Sex With Animals.  Also in the animal category, Beetles Die During Sex With Beer Bottles.

Gallery: Frisbee Dog Champions.

Chocolate is as good for you as exercise.

World’s Smallest People.

People don’t think as clearly when their bladders are full.

Must read: P.J. O'Rourke speech from 1993

The Liberty Manifesto:

There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences.

There are just two rules of governance in a free society: 

Mind your own business.  

Keep your hands to yourself.

Chicken

Chicken.

Thursday links

1955 article: Ancient War Machines, with schematics for models.

A 78-year-old woman famous for streaking on an airline information video has rescued a man who fell into a creek he was trying to urinate in.

A few million virtual monkeys are close to re-creating the complete works of Shakespeare.

Pakistani Truck Art.

The Origins of 7 Common Superstitions.

A Short History of the Income Tax

WSJ on the separation of the corporate and personal tax.

Troop demographics: Who fights for America?

Busting the myth about the "fact" that those who serve in the U.S. military typically have no other career options. "America's soldiers, they said, were poor and black".  

Indeed, the Heritage report showed that "low-income families are underrepresented in the military and high-income families are overrepresented. Individuals from the bottom household income quintile make up 20.0 percent of Americans who are age 18-24 years old but only 10.6 percent of the 2006 recruits and 10.7 percent of the 2007 recruits. Individuals in the top two quintiles make up 40.0 percent of the population, but 49.3 percent of the recruits in both years."

What about the charge that our Army is disproportionately black? This too is false, as is clear from data for fiscal 2010 available on the Army's website: Whereas blacks comprise 17% of Americans ages 18-39 with high school degrees, they represent only a slightly larger proportion of enlisted soldiers, at 21%.

Ford Pulls Anti-Bailout Ad After White House Complaints

Links and comments at Instapundit.

EPA: Regulations will require 230K new employees

at a cost of $21 billlion per year.  Not countin' the cost of the regs themselves, of course.

Paging Mark Steyn, and Spengler.

The world gets more crowded - with old people.
.
Foreign Policy: Until quite recently, such population growth always came primarily from increases in the numbers of young people. But in the future it will be the exact opposite.

God: Human Body Not Designed To Play Football

The Onion:  "O my children, I implore you, look deeply into your hearts, your minds, your extremely fragile and complicated knees—in fact every part of your glorious but mortal bodies—and ask yourselves if I really intended you to collide with one another as hard as you possibly can," God said.

Steyn: It’s the end of the world as we know it

You shouldn’t feel fine.

Man dies of spontaneous human combustion.

In Ireland.

Friday links

Gallery of decrepit cars.

Things We Say Today And Owe To Shakespeare.

Fat bank aims to let patients store removed fat for future use.

Reconstruction of an antique Roman road map with internet technology.

The Purpose Of Bird-Egg Coloration.  Also, Evolution Explains: Why Dogs Eat Poop.

How Shakespearean are you?

In it you copy and paste some text into the tool, then "your words will be compared with all the words used by Shakespeare in his plays and our verdict will be delivered on its Shakespearean content."

Spengler's new book "How Civilizations Die"

Reviewed at Forbes.

For Goldman demography is almost destiny.  He argues that demographics shed light on the rise and fall of nations, tribes, and civilizations... This leads him to one of his “universal laws,” namely, that “The history of the world is the history of humankind’s search for immortality.”  A large part of the book is about the intricate ways in which this law interacts with demographic changes, and sheds light on national/tribal destinies from antiquity to our days.

"How Civilizations Die"at Amazon.

Ladies: Come to Thailand and get your breasts slapped

The procedures include slapping a women’s breasts to make them larger, as well as buttock- and face-slapping to firm things up.

Gordon Ramsay’s Badger-Eaten Porn Dwarf: Just a Myth?

Shucks.

How America planned for an attack on Britain in 1930

American military plan for an attack to wipe out a major part of the British Army.

Don’t Forget Obamacare

Start passing House bills to repeal individual provisions.

At the Weekly Standard.

Rainbow Poo sing-along

Rainbow Poo San is the result of eating one color candy at the time, creating rainbow layers in your belly!

Steyn @NRO: ‘Pass This Jobs Bill!’

There is no bill, it won’t “create” any jobs, and it will be paid for with money we don’t have.

The Death Star: Example Of Bad Defense Contracting

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, another military superpower spent way too much money on massive planet-busting weapons that didn’t work well. Maybe the Defense Department could learn something from this before it finds an X-wing crammed up its thermal-exhaust port.

The EPA’s Most-Wanted List

At The Corner: "(The EPA) has its own FBI-type list of 18 most-wanted environmental fugitives. Their menacing violations include “multiple counts for the blending of motor fuel” (oh my!), selling “R-12 Freon, an ozone depleting substance” (gadzooks!), importing “automobiles that did not meet” U.S. emissions standards (horrors!), giving “indications that the oil-content monitor downstream of the [freighter] vessel’s oily-water separator had been bypassed” (heavens to Betsy!) and aiding and abetting “false entries into an Oil Record Book” (bring out the guillotine!).


The EPA website presents the entire list of these wily, dangerous criminals, complete with downloadable “Wanted Posters.” (I kid you not.) And the EPA website warns: “Do not attempt to apprehend any of these individuals.” My goodness — one of them might spray you with Freon or put a false entry in the maintenance records you keep for your car on how often you change the oil.

The Hitler "AttackWatch" video

Speaking of specialization...

Friday links

BBC Video: How to artificially inseminate a rhino.

Japan Earthquake: Six Months Later.  Many of the photos are before (just post-earthquake) and after (recently).

World’s funniest analogies.  Also, Everyday sayings explained.

Raising Teenagers is Hard — Regardless of Your Species.

Would You Drink Recycled Sewage?

Taxidermy TV commercial of the year.

Medical billing codes go from 18K to 140K

Today, hospitals and doctors use a system of about 18,000 codes to describe medical services in bills they send to insurers. Apparently, that doesn't allow for quite enough nuance.  A new federally mandated version will expand the number to around 140,000.

Nine codes for macaw mishaps, twelve for alligators, one for crocheting.

Here are the waterski related codes:

V9027XA	Drowning and submersion due to falling or jumping from burning water-skis, initial encounter
V9027XD	Drowning and submersion due to falling or jumping from burning water-skis, subsequent encounter
V9027XS	Drowning and submersion due to falling or jumping from burning water-skis, sequela
V9037XA	Drowning and submersion due to falling or jumping from crushed water-skis, initial encounter
V9037XD	Drowning and submersion due to falling or jumping from crushed water-skis, subsequent encounter
V9037XS	Drowning and submersion due to falling or jumping from crushed water-skis, sequela
V9087XA	Drowning and submersion due to other accident to water-skis, initial encounter
V9087XD	Drowning and submersion due to other accident to water-skis, subsequent encounter
V9087XS	Drowning and submersion due to other accident to water-skis, sequela
V9107XA	Burn due to water-skis on fire, initial encounter
V9107XD	Burn due to water-skis on fire, subsequent encounter
V9107XS	Burn due to water-skis on fire, sequela
V9137XA	Hit or struck by falling object due to accident to water-skis, initial encounter
V9137XD	Hit or struck by falling object due to accident to water-skis, subsequent encounter
V9137XS	Hit or struck by falling object due to accident to water-skis, sequela
V9187XA	Other injury due to other accident to water-skis, initial encounter
V9187XD	Other injury due to other accident to water-skis, subsequent encounter
V9187XS	Other injury due to other accident to water-skis, sequela
V9207XA	Drowning and submersion due to fall off water-skis, initial encounter
V9207XD	Drowning and submersion due to fall off water-skis, subsequent encounter
V9207XS	Drowning and submersion due to fall off water-skis, sequela
V9227XA	Drowning and submersion due to being washed overboard from water-skis, initial encounter
V9227XD	Drowning and submersion due to being washed overboard from water-skis, subsequent encounter
V9227XS	Drowning and submersion due to being washed overboard from water-skis, sequela
V9387XA	Other injury due to other accident on board water-skis, initial encounter
V9387XD	Other injury due to other accident on board water-skis, subsequent encounter
V9387XS	Other injury due to other accident on board water-skis, sequela

From the Department of Things That Sound Like The Onion But Aren't...

#Attackwatch is making Obama look like a creepy, big-brothery nutjob!  

Vladamir Putin, action hero

I am not, of course, actually a fan.  This is a heck of a set of pictures, though.

He must be a Heinlein admirer (from Time Enough for Love):

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

Video: Bystanders lift burning car, save biker

Whoa.

What Terrifies Dems re: NY-9 Loss

Kaus: It’s the possibility that the Democrats favorite issue–Social Security–didn’t work to save them because Obama, too, has embraced cutting Social Security and Medicare in “some undefined ‘everything on the table’ entitlement reform,” as Weigel puts it. Could it be that the differences between Obama’s Medicare cuts and GOP Rep. Paul Ryan’s Medicare cuts–differences that seem so significant to policy analysts in Washington (and to me)–don’t have much salience in the crude argumentation of direct-mail electioneering?  Now that’s scary for a Dem.

Headline of the week

Gordon Ramsey Sex Dwarf Found Dead in Badger Sett.

Um, what?

An itty-bitty porn star who hit the big time as a Gordon Ramsay lookalike has been found dead in a BADGER’S SETT!

His tiny corpse was found deep in an underground chamber by Ministry of Agriculture experts ahead of a planned badger-gassing programme near Tregaron, west Wales.

"SpongeBob" hinders kids' minds, quickly

Small sample but interesting.

Obama Earns $ For U.S. By Appearing In Japanese Commercial

WASHINGTON—In an effort to obtain badly needed revenue for the ailing U.S. economy, President Barack Obama recently appeared in a 30-second television spot for the popular Japanese snack product Glico Pretz Ham & Cheese, White House sources reported Wednesday.

Looters Steal Gadhafi's weapons, including surface-to-air missiles

What could go wrong?

UK: Postal workers refuse to deliver Bible recordings

after deciding they were ‘offensive material’.

Fannie and Freddie as Victims

WSJ: The toxic twins now blame banks for their losses. 

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now shocked, shocked to discover they were buying low-quality mortgages during the housing mania.

Scandal at DoJ as Illegal Guitars End Up With Mexican Drug Lords

Iowahawk: "By putting American guitars in the hands of Mexican gangs, I think we've proven what we've warned all along - that Mexican gangs have access to American guitars. Hopefully this will lead to sane and sensible guitar controls."

Tuesday links

Did Mozart die of a lack of sunlight?

Excellent gallery – The Quest for Perpetual Motion.

Panties puzzle – 1700 pairs dropped along the side of Ohio road.

A brief history of the ancient science of sword making.

What Your Groceries Say About You.

How did a family get hold of $40 million in gold coins

Fascinating story.

The Secret Service has been chasing them for 70 years.

US Debt Passes Debt Ceiling Less Than a Month Since Extension

Deja Vu All Over Again.

Chamberlain's secret bid to reach a deal with Hitler

Newly released documents: British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain held secret talks with Hitler's henchmen to work out ways of making the Nazis look more sympathetic to ordinary Britons, classified documents released last week reveal.

Via Lucianne.

Man Goes In For Circumcision, Wakes Up Without Penis

A little too much off the top.

President's approval of the American public slips

President Obama's approval rating of the American public has fallen to an all-time low, according to a new Gallup survey of White House residents and employees.
...

Other results from the poll indicate that Americans are incapable of providing for their own medical care, insist on buying cars that are safe and comfortable instead of cars that get the highest gasoline mileage, smoke too much, harbor too many of the wrong attitudes, fail to volunteer at sufficient rates, are too greedy, do not separate their recyclables enough, and continue to cling to guns and religion despite being lectured to by their betters about the importance of doing otherwise.

via Lucianne.

Video of little Chinese girl driving down the street

She looks 4 or 5 years old.  The question of how this young girl’s legs were able to reach the gas and brake pedals is answered at the end of the clip when the girl stops the car and a man comes around and appears to remove some sort of extension pedals from beneath the driver’s area.

Goldman's "End Of Europe" Report

Zero Hedge has comments, links and lots of charts.

Video: Hayek explains how unions cause unemployment

The real world dynamics of labor unions.

Friday links

Slingshot Cannon.

Hobbit house in Montana.

Batman Villains Psychoanalyzed By Mental Health Experts.

Crop field art.

10 Products Discovered By Accident.

The speech Obama should give

Jonah Goldberg: “My fellow Americans, I’ve said many times I believe that government can do amazing things. I still believe that. But after more than two years of bold, persistent experimentation, it has become clear that in this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

Unexpectedly- US creates ZERO jobs in August

Rate stays at 9.1. 

Another foot washes ashore in Vancouver

the latest in roughly dozen such cases since 2007.

Steven Seagal Sued for Driving Tank into AZ Home, Killing Puppy

Forbes.

How ObamaCare Plays Games with Your Life

Dr. Paul Hsieh:  Under the new system, the sickest patients will be viewed as the biggest burden on the ACO.

Are you overweight, out of shape, or arthritic? Do you smoke, drink alcohol, or do drugs? Do you have any chronic medical problems? Are you old, have poor eyesight, losing your hearing or memory? Are you at risk of falling?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, you are the 2011 definition of a leper. Face it, if I am accountable for how well you handle an illness, and for what your outcome is, I cannot afford to treat you unless you are highly compliant, have no other risk factors, and stand a 99% chance of getting well.

This is a human heart, alive and beating, in a box

In order to facilitate transplants, we can now keep human hearts alive and beating and toasty warm inside a special electromechanical box full of fresh blood.

via HotAir.

Obama: 7 proposed regulations would each top $1B

In a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, Obama lists four proposed Environmental Protection Agency rules and three Transportation Department rules estimated to cost in excess of $1 billion. One of the proposed EPA rules — an update to the health-based standard for smog — is estimated to cost the economy between $19 billion and $90 billion.

Feds to Trucking Company: You Can't Fire Alcoholic Drivers

Alcoholism is classified as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Obama’s Uncle Busted for DUI, in Country Illegally

Hot Air has links and details.

"However, after he was arrested for DUI, authorities learned that Onyango was in the country illegally and that an order had been issued for his deportation back to his native Kenya.


He evidently obtained a legitimate driver’s license by presenting a valid Social Security number. How he came to have that number is now under investigation."

Tuesday links

Flaming raccoon starts grass fire.

 

How sex with Neanderthals made us stronger.  (Keeping ex-husband comments to myself)

While we're on the subject, just why do people get more attractive when you’re drunk?

The Strange History Of The Sunflower.

Butter sculpture of lunch ladies.

Employers now required to display union rights posters at workplace

The National Labor Relations Board has approved a new rule that requires private employers to display posters that tell workers about their right to form a union.

Goebbels' secretary, 100, breaks vow of silence

The former secretary of Hitler's propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels has broken a 66-year vow of silence to talk about her service for the man who made Germans hate the Jews.

A Short Primer on the National Debt

WSJ has explanations and comments.

Adult Children Sue Mother, for Allegedly Having Been Really Mean

Read the whole laundry list of petty complaints at Volokh.

Victoria's Secret Model's Privates Bruised By Panties

Key quote: "No man wants a scratchy...*" 

*language modified for Twitterfeed.

In all of the hyperbole about Irene

We missed National Toilet Paper Day!

ExxonMobil Sues Obama Administration

for Canceling Deepwater Well Worth ‘Billions of Barrels of Oil’.

California Green Jobs Math: $57.4 mil = 319 Jobs

$180K per job.

IBD: More than $7.2 billion dollars were appropriated for this effort. According to the most recent report on the program Capital Hill could find — June 2011, by the EPA — the effort has created 7,170 jobs total.

Perry bills feds for Texas’s cost of jailing illegals

"During tough economic times, when communities are making difficult decisions about their own budgets, Texas counties are being asked to cover more than $94.4 million in direct costs related to housing illegal immigrants while the state has been left to cover more than $254.8 million in such costs."

Irene’s got a middle name, and it’s Global Warming

"What’s a ‘tropical’ storm doing heading for the snow belt?"

Mosquitoes 'disappearing' in some parts of Africa

"One possibility for the reduction in numbers is climate change."

"Other scientists are saying they can't test their drugs because there are no children left with malaria."

Graphic sex ed toys for preschool and kindergarten

Brave New World:

He let out the amazing truth. For a very long period before the time of Our Ford, and even for some generations afterwards, erotic play between children had been regarded as abnormal (there was a roar of laughter); and not only abnormal, actually immoral (no!): and had therefore been rigorously suppressed.

A look of astonished incredulity appeared on the faces of his listeners. Poor little kids not allowed to amuse themselves? They could not believe it.

Zombie has comments, photos and links.

Obama Creates Office Of Diversity, Inclusion

Short women in the NBA, anyone?  (Actually it's just in government, for now)

NC: Concealed Carry Permits Invalid Due to Irene

Part of state of emergency regs.

Man Regains Hearing After Earthquake

As he was shaking around in his bed, something happened in his head, and he could hear and talk again.

“Have you ever had sex with Rick Perry?”

Austin Chronicle newspaper ad.

Obama admin's new goatherder regs

to assist foreign workers who fill goat herding positions in the U.S.

Read the whole thing: Gibson guitairs vs DOJ

DOJ has seized material from Gibson: the use of wood from India that is not finished by Indian workers is illegal, not because of U.S. law, but because it is the Justice Department’s interpretation of a law in India. This action was taken without the support and consent of the government in India. 

Also, in 2009, more than a dozen agents with automatic weapons invaded the Gibson factory in Nashville. The Government seized guitars and a substantial amount of ebony fingerboard blanks from Madagascar. To date, 1 year and 9 months later, criminal charges have NOT been filed, yet the Government still holds Gibson’s property. Gibson has obtained sworn statements and documents from the Madagascar government and these materials, which have been filed in federal court, show that the wood seized in 2009 was legally exported under Madagascar law and that no law has been violated. Gibson is attempting to have its property returned in a civil proceeding that is pending in federal court.

Obama has done for the economy what pantyhose did for foreplay.

Great quote, via Instapundit.

Greek police smash violent doughnut ring

Huh.

CATO on expanding federal forfeiture powers

Interesting.

Thursday links

The Inside Scoop on the Fake Barf Industry,

Flowchart: Which NFL football team should I root for?

15 Insects You Can Use To Cure Wounds And Diseases.

Sand art.

Inflatable church.

Perry and Obama at 22 years old

via The Corner.

Unexpectedly - initial jobless clains up to 417K

CNBC: It's because of the Verizon strike!

A Drink or Two a Day May Lower the Risk of Alzheimer's.

Good news!

Steve Jobs’s Best Quotes

WSJ has a collection.  We seem to be acting as if he's dead already.

Skynet alert

If you were expecting some kind warning when computers finally get smarter than us, then think again. There will be no soothing HAL 9000-type voice informing us that our human services are now surplus to requirements. In reality, our electronic overlords are already taking control, and they are doing it in a far more subtle way than science fiction would have us believe. Their weapon of choice - the algorithm.

Behind every smart web service is some even smarter web code. From the web retailers - calculating what books and films we might be interested in, to Facebook's friend finding and imaging tagging services, to the search engines that guide us around the net.
It is these invisible computations that increasingly control how we interact with our electronic world.

Guess the iLiver is breaking down.

I assume the resignation (letter in full here) means Steve Jobs is dying.  Tod bad - brilliant man and always seemed like a nice guy.

Voltaire on Earthquake Destruction

Cafe Hayek: ’All is well, the heirs of the dead will increase their fortunes, masons will make money rebuilding the buildings, beasts feed off the bodies buried in the debris: this is the necessary effect of the necessary causes; your particular misfortune is nothing, you will contribute to the general welfare’: such talk would have been as cruel as the earthquake was dreadful.”

$8 Billion of Your Money Redistributed For "Clean Energy Properties" ... So Far

Doug Ross: Part of the so-called "Stimulus", the 1603 Program has thus far spent $8.5 billion in direct payments to organizations in lieu of tax credits when they build "clean energy properties".

Stimulus grant to NV of $490,000 yielded 1.72 jobs

plus one full-time temporary job and 11 short-term project-oriented jobs.

Links for Tuesday

Kangaroo goes on lingerie theft rampage in Czech Republic. 

Cardboard cathedral.

The science of smiles.

25 Greatest Unscripted Scenes in Films. NSFW - language.

The Strange History Of The Sunflower.

Spending, not entitlements, created huge deficit

Byron York has comments and numbers: "While entitlements must be controlled in the long run, Washington's current spending problem lies elsewhere."

Bigfoot Caught on Tape! Amazing Footage!

SadAndUseless.com

Wall Street Aristocracy Got $1.2 Trillion in Loans from Fed

Bloomberg: By 2008, the housing market’s collapse forced those companies to take more than six times as much, $669 billion, in emergency loans from the U.S. Federal Reserve. The loans dwarfed the $160 billion in public bailouts the top 10 got from the U.S. Treasury, yet until now the full amounts have remained secret.

Kids Defy Cops, Buy 'Illegal' Lemonade

Watch as Kids Defy Cops, Buy Illegal Lemonade in this heartwarming video. Notice as the cops tell kids not to patronize these "illegal" sellers.

Steyn: The Imperial Presidency

European royals make do with a less lavish lifestyle than the supposed citizen-executive of a so-called republic.
 
"Rick Perry, governor of Texas, has only been in the presidential race for 20 minutes, but he’s already delivered one of the best lines in the campaign:

“I’ll work every day to try to make Washington, D.C., as inconsequential in your life as I can.”"

I'm still not sure about Perry, but that's and excellent concept.

PETA to launch porn site

The domain operator administering the .xxx domain is accepting early applications from brand owners who want control over their names. ICM Registry says it has received over 900,000 "expressions of interest" from companies that want to preregister their trademarks or block others from snapping them up to create, say, a Barbie.xxx or Coke.xxx.
 
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals also signed up. However, instead of blocking its name, said PETA spokeswoman Lindsay Rajt, the organization will launch peta.xxx as a pornography site that draws attention to the plight of animals.

Yum... Tobacco That Melts In Your Mouth

 In an era of proliferating smoking bans and less social acceptance of the habit, the industry has had to transform, he says. "They meet societal expectations," says Smith. "There's no second-hand smoke, there's no spitting, and with dissovables, there's no cigarette-butt litter."

Must read! Thomas Sowell: Social Degeneration Parts 1-3

Click here to read Part I.

Click here to read Part II.

A few quotes:

A recent study in England found 352,000 households in which nobody had ever worked. Moreover, two-thirds of the adults in those households said that they didn't want to work. As in America, such people feel both "entitled" and aggrieved.

In both countries, those who have achieved less have been taught by the educational system, by the media and by politicians on the left that they have a grievance against those who have achieved more. As in the United States, they feel a fierce sense of resentment against strangers who have done nothing to them, and lash out violently against those strangers.
...

The need to bring people down in humiliation that marked the mass violence against the Armenians in Turkey nearly a century ago, and that later marked the Nazi persecutions of the Jews in Germany, is still alive and well in people who resent those who have achieved more than they have.

Click here to read Part III.

A few quotes:

In both England and in the United States, whole generations have been fed a steady diet of grievances and resentment against society, and especially against others who are more prosperous than they are. They get this in their schools, on television, on campuses and in the movies. Nothing is their own fault. It is all "society's" fault.
...

Our elites often advise us to learn from other countries. They usually mean that we should imitate other countries. But it may be far more important to learn from their mistakes -- the biggest of which may be listening to fashionable nonsense from the smug intelligentsia.

These countries show us where that smug nonsense leads. It may be a sneak preview of our own future.