Saturday, April 16, 2011

EPA official says jobs don’t matter

Daily Caller: “We have not directly taken a look at jobs in the proposal,” Stanislaus said, referring to a regulation that would govern industries that recycle coal ash and other fossil fuel byproducts.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Mary Katherine Ham: Taxpayer Appreciation Day?

Send this video to the unappreciated taxpayers in your life on this stressful day.

Seattle school renames Easter eggs 'Spring Spheres'

On top of all the additional ways in which this is ridiculous, eggs are, of course, not spherical.

Lileks: Eleven is the new 18

If you discovered that your neighbor was running a website that told kids it was okay to have sex at the age of 11, you’d shun him, report him, stare daggers if you saw him at the grocery store. Pervert. If you found a guy outside your kid’s window, offering a box of condoms - you know,  just in case, just to be safe you’d be tempted to introduce his front teeth to the back of his throat.

Obama's war on children

Powerline: Their birthright is being sold, at interest, and they will repay every penny. They, not us, are the ones who mostly will suffer for today's stupid government spending.

Inflation Actually Near 10% Using Older Measure

CNBC: Inflation, using the reporting methodologies in place before 1980, hit an annual rate of 9.6 percent in February.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

The Homer Simpson Approach to Social Security


In a classic episode of The Simpsons, a hungry Homer Simpson runs out of donuts and breaks into his emergency stash. But when he opens the box, it’s empty except for a note that reads: “Dear Homer, IOU one emergency donut. Signed, Homer.” Homer curses his earlier self: “Bastard! He’s always one step ahead.”

It’s easy to laugh at Homer Simpson’s folly, but America is doing the same thing with Social Security financing, and the end result won’t be amusing.

For my math geek friends...

Sorting algorithms as dances

Take one Central European folk dancing team, a small folk band and an added overlay showing array locations and get them to dance the algorithms in time to "appropriate" folk music. The result is slightly surreal and for a time at least slightly hypnotic.


via Geekpress.

There's No Budget Deal, and the Government May Still Shut Down

On Friday, The White House and the GOP came to a budget agreement to fund the government for the rest of Fiscal Year 2011, averting a government shutdown.

But they didn't actually vote on the deal. They voted on a 1-week continuing resolution so they could wrangle up the details for an official vote this week. And that might not work out.

Fox Nation.

Old Enough to Fight, Old Enough to Drink


The "old enough to fight, old enough to drink" argument has force. In fact, 18-year-olds in America are old enough to do pretty much everything except drink. Along with joining the military, 18-year-olds can vote, marry, sign contracts, and even take on a crippling lifetime burden of student loan debt in pursuit of an education that may never land them a job. Yet we face the absurd phenomenon of colleges encouraging students to go into six-figure debt—which can't be discharged in bankruptcy—but forbidding them to drink on campus because they're deemed insufficiently mature to appreciate the risks.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Mubarak's stash put at $660b

Egypt's top prosecutor has notified the United States and other governments around the world that the former president Hosni Mubarak and his family may have hidden hundreds of billions of dollars worth of cash, gold and other state-owned valuables.  

Hamas capabilities catching up with intentions

At HotAir: So Hamas wasn’t attempting to hit a moving target. But the ability to accurately target a bus from a distance of two miles, with an effective modern weapon, is a game-changer in the Hamas campaign to target civilians.

The Economist: Current plans to raise the retirement age are not bold enough

70 or Bust.

Paging Mark Steyn... "Living longer, and retiring early, might not be a problem if the supply of workers were increasing. But declining fertility rates imply that by 2050 there will be just 2.6 American workers supporting each pensioner and the figures for France, Germany and Italy will be 1.9, 1.6 and 1.5 respectively."

Monty Python: Every Sperm is Sacred

This came up during conversation with friends at dinner last evening.  Still one of the greatest musical numbers ever.

Every Sperm is Sacred.