Tuesday, October 30, 2012
A relatively obscure Michigan referendum could shape the future of the public sector reform movement.
Michigan’s Prop 2 is a desperate power grab.
In Wisconsin and elsewhere, government employee unions are on the ropes as a result of a public sector reform movement led by governors and fed-up taxpayers. But in Michigan, these unions are fighting back with Proposal 2, a ballot initiative that would amend the state constitution and solidify unions’ control of the state budget.
In Wisconsin and elsewhere, government employee unions are on the ropes as a result of a public sector reform movement led by governors and fed-up taxpayers. But in Michigan, these unions are fighting back with Proposal 2, a ballot initiative that would amend the state constitution and solidify unions’ control of the state budget.
Mark Steyn: Rain of Terror
No dictator will ever need to declare martial law in America. All he’ll need to do is issue a “severe weather advisory” and everyone will stay indoors until they’re told it’s safe to come out.
Misinformed Man Riding Out Storm In Bathtub Filled With Batteries
Monday, October 29, 2012
Bringing Back the "Cold Fusion" Dream
Remember the 1989 claim of nuclear fusion at room temperature using a tabletop device (I seem to remember Tupperware being mentioned) that was debunked shortly afterward? Well, there may be something there after all...
What Devotion Looks Like
A picture that should make every American proud. Our soldiers protecting the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the face of Hurricane Sandy's wrath. Stay safe...
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Body painting meets contortion
Painted Alive: 12 Amazing Pieces of Body Painting and 15 Amazing Body Paintings.
Another creepy Obama ad - with children singing about an America where "sick people just die" and "oil fills the sea"
You can't parody this stuff - they're going to put The Onion out of business. And how offensive is it to use kids in this kind of thing?
Comments and links, and the complete lyrics, at Newsbusters:
The Future Children Project from FutureChildrenProject on Vimeo.
Comments and links, and the complete lyrics, at Newsbusters:
The Future Children Project from FutureChildrenProject on Vimeo.
Imagine an America
Where strip mines are fun and free
Where gays can be fixed
And sick people just die
And oil fills the sea
We don't have to pay for freeways!
Our schools are good enough
Give us endless wars
On foreign shores
And lots of Chinese stuff
Where strip mines are fun and free
Where gays can be fixed
And sick people just die
And oil fills the sea
We don't have to pay for freeways!
Our schools are good enough
Give us endless wars
On foreign shores
And lots of Chinese stuff
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Hurricane Sandy’s Track Speeding Up; Today is the Day to Prepare
Lots of good information and advice - read the whole thing, and follow the links for preparation ideas.
Landfall is now expected to occur Monday night, not Tuesday, and bad weather will begin well in advance of the center.
Landfall is now expected to occur Monday night, not Tuesday, and bad weather will begin well in advance of the center.
Creepy "virgin voter" Obama ad & prior creepy Putin ad were preceded by creepy Australian ad
Via Mark Steyn at The Corner:
Important correction: In my weekend column, I wrote that President Obama’s virgin-sacrifice campaign ad was lifted from Vladimir Putin. I deeply regret this appalling error. In turns out, Putin got it from Australia’s Green Party Senator, Sarah Hanson-Young. Our friends at Quadrant have the full story with cringe-making video.
So, if you’re an impressionable liberal anxious to lose your virginity to a bold forceful leader, pick a politician who’s big Down Under. (Titter.)
Important correction: In my weekend column, I wrote that President Obama’s virgin-sacrifice campaign ad was lifted from Vladimir Putin. I deeply regret this appalling error. In turns out, Putin got it from Australia’s Green Party Senator, Sarah Hanson-Young. Our friends at Quadrant have the full story with cringe-making video.
So, if you’re an impressionable liberal anxious to lose your virginity to a bold forceful leader, pick a politician who’s big Down Under. (Titter.)
Here's the Obama version:
The Putin version:
And the Aussie version:
Friday, October 26, 2012
Very informative transcript of former Lt Colonel call to Limbaugh on Benghazi
Read the whole thing.
I wanted to speak to the question of when the president knew and why Secretary Panetta refused to support the CIA annex request either to move to the consulate or to reinforce. Within a few minutes of the consulate being under attack -- I'm a retired lieutenant colonel special operations planner for 15 years -- the personal security detail for the ambassador notified the communications room in Tripoli who then, on the top secret side, sent a message to the White House Situation Room that the ambassador was in peril, okay? And they did that by code word and it would have been within minutes of the attack commencing.
I wanted to speak to the question of when the president knew and why Secretary Panetta refused to support the CIA annex request either to move to the consulate or to reinforce. Within a few minutes of the consulate being under attack -- I'm a retired lieutenant colonel special operations planner for 15 years -- the personal security detail for the ambassador notified the communications room in Tripoli who then, on the top secret side, sent a message to the White House Situation Room that the ambassador was in peril, okay? And they did that by code word and it would have been within minutes of the attack commencing.
Assets Ordered to “Stand Down” During Libya Attacks; Delta Force Spec Ops Waited Hours For Deployment Orders
Fox News has learned from sources who were on the ground in Benghazi that an urgent request from the CIA annex for military back-up during the attack on the U.S. consulate and subsequent attack several hours later on the annex itself was denied by the CIA chain of command -- who also told the CIA operators twice to "stand down" rather than help the ambassador's team when shots were heard at approximately 9:40 p.m. in Benghazi on Sept. 11.
'Did your son always have balls the size of cue balls?' Biden's bizarre question to father of Navy SEAL who died in Benghazi attack
The President, by contrast, was apparently much more subdued, to the point of coldness.
'Shaking hands with him, quite frankly, was like shaking hands with a dead fish. His face was pointed towards me but he would not look me in the eye, his eyes were over my shoulder.
'I could tell that he was not sorry. He had no remorse.'
When Mr Woods met Mrs Clinton, she made a reference to the U.S.-made YouTube video mocking the Prophet Muhammad which was originally thought to have been behind the attack.
'When she said that, I could tell that she was not telling me the truth,' he said.
'Shaking hands with him, quite frankly, was like shaking hands with a dead fish. His face was pointed towards me but he would not look me in the eye, his eyes were over my shoulder.
'I could tell that he was not sorry. He had no remorse.'
When Mr Woods met Mrs Clinton, she made a reference to the U.S.-made YouTube video mocking the Prophet Muhammad which was originally thought to have been behind the attack.
'When she said that, I could tell that she was not telling me the truth,' he said.
Excellent post: 5 Reasons This Election Is Ward Cleaver vs. Eddie Haskell
Read the whole thing at PJM.
What’s so satisfying about Leave It To Beaver is that it presents a time-tested way of ordering the world: it trusts maturity. Even the best-intentioned young people lack the wisdom and knowledge to cope with instability, danger, dishonesty, and disorder. Their innocence and naivete mean that they’ll too easily trust demagogues and make foolish, hurtful, and potentially harmful mistakes.
What kept the show from being a tragedy, and turned it into an amusing morality tale, was that week in and week out, the grown-ups in the room were able to sort out the child’s chaotic world. Sadly, real life isn’t like that. Too often, naive voters put their faith in demagogues and there is no rescue. This election, though, there’s still a chance that Ward Cleaver’s political stand-in can win the vote and save the day.
From the moment Mitt Romney became the presumptive Republican candidate, this election took on the trappings of a contest between Ward Cleaver (played by Mitt Romney) and Eddie Haskell (played by Barack Obama). The comparison was easy at a superficial level: Romney bears an almost uncanny resemblance to Ward Cleaver, complete with commanding height, combed-back black hair, square jaw, and fatherly meme. Obama, too, is Eddie Haskell’s double since he shares the youthful face, lanky body, and manipulative, hustler’s demeanor.
If one digs beneath the superficial similarities, it’s uncanny how Mitt and Obama still stay close to the Ward and Eddie characters.
What’s so satisfying about Leave It To Beaver is that it presents a time-tested way of ordering the world: it trusts maturity. Even the best-intentioned young people lack the wisdom and knowledge to cope with instability, danger, dishonesty, and disorder. Their innocence and naivete mean that they’ll too easily trust demagogues and make foolish, hurtful, and potentially harmful mistakes.
What kept the show from being a tragedy, and turned it into an amusing morality tale, was that week in and week out, the grown-ups in the room were able to sort out the child’s chaotic world. Sadly, real life isn’t like that. Too often, naive voters put their faith in demagogues and there is no rescue. This election, though, there’s still a chance that Ward Cleaver’s political stand-in can win the vote and save the day.
From the moment Mitt Romney became the presumptive Republican candidate, this election took on the trappings of a contest between Ward Cleaver (played by Mitt Romney) and Eddie Haskell (played by Barack Obama). The comparison was easy at a superficial level: Romney bears an almost uncanny resemblance to Ward Cleaver, complete with commanding height, combed-back black hair, square jaw, and fatherly meme. Obama, too, is Eddie Haskell’s double since he shares the youthful face, lanky body, and manipulative, hustler’s demeanor.
If one digs beneath the superficial similarities, it’s uncanny how Mitt and Obama still stay close to the Ward and Eddie characters.
Friday links
How to Weaponize Office Supplies.
How Turkey Got Its Name.
Grandmothers gave humans longer lifespans
The Interesting Origins Of Some Of Our Favorite Food And Drink.
Red Cross Nursing Posters from World War I. Kind of related, Ghosts of WWII: Photos of Soldiers Seen in the Streets of Modern Day France.
Why Are Elections on Tuesdays?
How Turkey Got Its Name.
Grandmothers gave humans longer lifespans
The Interesting Origins Of Some Of Our Favorite Food And Drink.
Red Cross Nursing Posters from World War I. Kind of related, Ghosts of WWII: Photos of Soldiers Seen in the Streets of Modern Day France.
Why Are Elections on Tuesdays?
Ronald McDonald breaches restraining order by following wife to McDonald's
RONALD McDonald has admitted breaching a restraining order after he followed his wife to McDonald's, writes Max Evans.
The 50-year-old Westgate man, who shares his name with the fast-food chain’s famous mascot, flouted a ban barring him from contacting his wife last month.
The 50-year-old Westgate man, who shares his name with the fast-food chain’s famous mascot, flouted a ban barring him from contacting his wife last month.
via Fark.
TX Trooper Kills 2 During Car Chase With Vehicle Suspected of Carrying Illegals
This will get ugly fast: A Texas Department of Public Safety sharpshooter opened fire on an evading vehicle loaded with suspected illegal immigrants, leaving at least two people dead, sources familiar with the investigation said.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Creepy Obama "My First Time" ad, and the (even creepier) Putin version
The Putin version - click on CC for subtitles.
Father of Slain SEAL: Who Made the Decision Not to Save My Son?
Weekly Standard:
Charles Woods, the father Tyrone Woods, who was killed in the 9/11 terrorist attack at the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, reveals details of meeting Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton at the publically broadcast memorial service for the slain Americans at Andrews Air Force Base only days after the attack. And, in a recent radio appearance, Woods publicly questions who made the call not to send in back-up forces to possibly save his son’s life, as well as the three other Americans killed in Benghazi (which includes the American ambassador to Libya).
“When [Obama] came over to our little area” at Andrew Air Force Base, says Woods, “he kind of just mumbled, you know, ‘I’m sorry.’ His face was looking at me, but his eyes were looking over my shoulder like he could not look me in the eye. And it was not a sincere, ‘I’m really sorry, you know, that you’re son died,’ but it was totally insincere, more of whining type, ‘I’m sorry.’”
Woods says that shaking President Obama’s hands at his son’s memorial service was “like shaking hands with a dead fish.”
“It just didn’t feel right,” he says of his encounter with the commander in chief. “And now that it’s coming out that apparently the White House situation room was watching our people die in real time, as this was happening,” Woods says, he wants answers on what happened—and why there was no apparent effort to save his son’s life.
“Well, this is what Hillary did,” Woods continues. “She came over and, you know, did the same thing—separately came over and talked with me. I gave her a hug, shook her hand. And she did not appear to be one bit sincere—at all. And you know, she mentioned that the thing about, we’re going to have that person arrested and prosecuted that did the video. That was the first time I had even heard about anything like that.”
Charles Woods, the father Tyrone Woods, who was killed in the 9/11 terrorist attack at the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, reveals details of meeting Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton at the publically broadcast memorial service for the slain Americans at Andrews Air Force Base only days after the attack. And, in a recent radio appearance, Woods publicly questions who made the call not to send in back-up forces to possibly save his son’s life, as well as the three other Americans killed in Benghazi (which includes the American ambassador to Libya).
“When [Obama] came over to our little area” at Andrew Air Force Base, says Woods, “he kind of just mumbled, you know, ‘I’m sorry.’ His face was looking at me, but his eyes were looking over my shoulder like he could not look me in the eye. And it was not a sincere, ‘I’m really sorry, you know, that you’re son died,’ but it was totally insincere, more of whining type, ‘I’m sorry.’”
Woods says that shaking President Obama’s hands at his son’s memorial service was “like shaking hands with a dead fish.”
“It just didn’t feel right,” he says of his encounter with the commander in chief. “And now that it’s coming out that apparently the White House situation room was watching our people die in real time, as this was happening,” Woods says, he wants answers on what happened—and why there was no apparent effort to save his son’s life.
“Well, this is what Hillary did,” Woods continues. “She came over and, you know, did the same thing—separately came over and talked with me. I gave her a hug, shook her hand. And she did not appear to be one bit sincere—at all. And you know, she mentioned that the thing about, we’re going to have that person arrested and prosecuted that did the video. That was the first time I had even heard about anything like that.”
World's largest bottle of single malt Scotch
Standing at 4ft 9ins, the giant bottle of Tomintoul 14-year-old single malt contains 105.3 litres and would serve up 5,250 drams.
The record-breaking tipple is on view to visitors at the Scotch Whisky Experience in Edinburgh until April next year.
The specially-commissioned bottle holds 150 bottles and is worth about £5,000.
Mark Levin’s legal arm sues EPA
More at Daily Caller.
The suit argues that news stories and political observers have indicated the EPA is “intentionally delaying the issuance of controversial new regulations until after the November election” with the possibility that “a) the Obama Administration is improperly politicizing EPA activities; b) EPA officials are attempting to shield their true policy goals from the public; and/or c) EPA officials themselves are putting partisan interests above the public welfare.”
Grandmothers gave humans longer lifespans
I've seen things along these lines before; they always warm the cockles of my grandmotherly heart*.
Help with childcare from grandmothers at an early stage of human history could have resulted in an evolutionary change which caused women to live long past the menopause, researchers said.
Female chimpanzees rarely live beyond their 30s or early 40s, when their fertility typically ends, but a computer simulation showed that the influence of grandmothers could extend their lifespan to human levels within 24,000 to 60,000 years.
A popular theory known as the "Grandmother Hypothesis" suggests that older women had an evolutionary benefit by caring for their grandchildren after their childbearing years were over.
The new study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B journal, backs up the theory by demonstrating that grandmothers alone, and not other factors like the development of larger brains, could result in women having longer lifespans.
Researchers suggested grandmothers may even have been responsible for increasing humans' brain size by allowing mothers to have larger families, which increased the pressure of natural selection on their children.
Most primates and mammals collect their own food after they have been weaned, but when African forests began to be replaced by dry savannah two million years ago, children were no longer able to forage for themselves.
The Grandmother Theory suggests that older women began performing childcare tasks such as cracking hard nuts or digging up tubers from the dry ground, which allowed their daughters to keep producing and caring for new babies.
This meant long-lived and healthy grandmothers could pass on their genes to more descendants, increasing the number of women who would survive beyond childbearing age.
Mathematicians simulated the impact of childcare from grandmothers on a society of animals which only lived for 25 years after reaching adulthood, similar to chimpanzees in the wild.
They found that thanks to "grandmothering" female chimps would evolve to live for 49 years as adults – a level similar to human hunter-gatherers – within the space of 24,000 to 60,000 years.
Prof Kristen Hawkes of the University of Utah, senior author of the study, said: "Grandmothering was the initial step towards making us who we are."
It resulted in "a whole array of social capacities that are the foundation for the evolution of other distinctly human traits, including pair bonding, bigger brains, learning new skills and our tendency for co-operation," she said.
*What are the cockles of one's heart, anyway?
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Physicists Invent (Tiny) Working Tractor Beam, World Becomes Instantly More Awesome
Geekosystem:
We have tractor beams now! Like where you zap a thing with a laser and pull it toward you with beam power? Yeah, those! We have those now. Even though they are super tiny and effective only on microscopic items like silica spheres suspended in water for right now, they are still working tractor beams, and now that we have the principle down, they are pretty much only going to get cooler from here.
We have tractor beams now! Like where you zap a thing with a laser and pull it toward you with beam power? Yeah, those! We have those now. Even though they are super tiny and effective only on microscopic items like silica spheres suspended in water for right now, they are still working tractor beams, and now that we have the principle down, they are pretty much only going to get cooler from here.
Wednesday links
UK scientists recreated Neanderthal man, and he looks just like Chuck Norris.
How to make buildings from the blood of cows.
What would happen if your nose were upside down?
76-Year-Old Goes After Roomate With Chainsaw.
Beetles Dance on Poop Balls to Keep Cool.
Geneticists create mice that find the smell of landmines irresistible.
How to make buildings from the blood of cows.
What would happen if your nose were upside down?
76-Year-Old Goes After Roomate With Chainsaw.
Beetles Dance on Poop Balls to Keep Cool.
Geneticists create mice that find the smell of landmines irresistible.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
You know those "Rugby Players Eat Their Dead" bumper stickers? The plane crash in the Andes was 40 years ago
Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012. Uruguay's former rugby players marked the 40 year anniversary since they survived 72 days in the Chilean Andes by playing a rugby match with the former members of Chile's team. Only 16 of the 45 passengers aboard survived, by feeding on dead passengers preserved in the snow.
Happy B'day Weird Al Yankovic
Wikepedia has 40 times more information on him than you ever wanted to know.
Here's White n' Nerdy:
and One More Minute:
Here's White n' Nerdy:
and One More Minute:
UK scientists recreated Neanderthal man, who looks just like Chuck Norris
A team of scientists has created what it believes is the first really accurate reconstruction of Neanderthal man, from a skeleton that was discovered in France over a century ago.
In 1909, excavations at La Ferrassie cave in the Dordogne unearthed the remains of a group of Neanderthals. One of the skeletons in that group was that of an adult male, given the name La Ferrassie 1.
These remains have helped scientists create a detailed reconstruction of our closest prehistoric relative for a new BBC series, Prehistoric Autopsy.
New research suggests premenstrual syndrome is a myth
I grew up in the 60's before anyone ever mentioned PMS, so none of us had it. I've always thought it was a terrible thing for the women's movement - if you want to be treated equally you shouldn't look for excuses to be bitchy several days each month.
Women who feel grouchy before getting their periods shouldn't blame it on their hormones directly, according to researchers at the University of Toronto.
Women's menstrual cycles are mythologized as a time of the month of low mood and irrationality.
"Taken together, these studies failed to provide clear evidence in support of the existence of a specific premenstrual negative mood syndrome in the general population," Gillian Einstein, a professor in the psychology department at the University of Toronto and her co-authors concluded in the journal Gender Medicine.
"This puzzlingly widespread belief needs challenging, as it perpetuates negative concepts linking female reproduction with negative emotionality."
Italy’s top disaster experts quit after jail sentences in earthquake trial
ROME—Four top Italian disaster experts have quit their jobs, saying the convictions of several former colleagues for failing to adequately warn of a deadly 2009 earthquake means they can’t properly perform their duties.
A court on Monday convicted seven former members of Italy’s so-called “Great Risks Commission” on manslaughter charges, giving each a six-year prison sentence.
Prosecutors alleged the defendants didn’t properly inform residents of L’Aquila town of the risk for a big quake following weeks of small tremors.
Scientists have ridiculed the case, saying there’s no definitive way to predict temblors.
Commission president Luciano Maiani and two other members resigned Tuesday. Maiani said the court ruling made it impossible to work in a “serene and efficient” way.
Also quitting was a top official at the Department of Civil Protection.
A court on Monday convicted seven former members of Italy’s so-called “Great Risks Commission” on manslaughter charges, giving each a six-year prison sentence.
Prosecutors alleged the defendants didn’t properly inform residents of L’Aquila town of the risk for a big quake following weeks of small tremors.
Scientists have ridiculed the case, saying there’s no definitive way to predict temblors.
Commission president Luciano Maiani and two other members resigned Tuesday. Maiani said the court ruling made it impossible to work in a “serene and efficient” way.
Also quitting was a top official at the Department of Civil Protection.
Previous post: L'Aquila quake: Italy scientists guilty of manslaughter
29th anniversary of the Beirut barracks bombing
Malkin has more information and links.
October 23, 1983.
On that day, 241 U.S. Marines, soldiers, and sailors were murdered as they slept by truck bomb jihadists — who were waging a war on us long before we woke up and started fighting the war against them.
On that day, 241 U.S. Marines, soldiers, and sailors were murdered as they slept by truck bomb jihadists — who were waging a war on us long before we woke up and started fighting the war against them.
Monday, October 22, 2012
Joe Biden's Brother Wins $100 Million Federal Contract to Build Homes in Iraq
Doug Ross has details and links:
Even better: he has no background in residential construction. Charles Gasparino at Fox Business gives us the lowdown:
David Richter, the president of Hill International (HIL), a mid-sized outfit that manages construction projects, was speaking last year at a private meeting with investors when he was asked about the recent success of his newest subsidiary, HillStone International.
How was it that HillStone, a newcomer in the business of home building, landed a massive and potentially lucrative contract to build 100,000 homes in war-torn Iraq?
Richter didn’t mince words. It really helps, he said, to have “the brother of the vice president as a partner,” according to a person who was present.
Since November 2010, James Biden has been the executive vice president of Hill International’s housing subsidiary despite little if any documented work history in residential construction. And if the company’s projections are accurate, both Hill and Biden are on the verge of a huge payday...
...the Iraq project may be the most lucrative single development in Hill’s history.
Just a coincidence, I'm sure.
When the final history of this administration is written -- with the dozens of green energy companies tied to Obama's campaign bundlers, the hundreds of Mexicans and Americans killed by Operation Fast and Furious, and the rest of the hideous Obama legacy -- it will have recorded the greatest collective fleecing of the American taxpayer in history.
Even better: he has no background in residential construction. Charles Gasparino at Fox Business gives us the lowdown:
David Richter, the president of Hill International (HIL), a mid-sized outfit that manages construction projects, was speaking last year at a private meeting with investors when he was asked about the recent success of his newest subsidiary, HillStone International.
How was it that HillStone, a newcomer in the business of home building, landed a massive and potentially lucrative contract to build 100,000 homes in war-torn Iraq?
Richter didn’t mince words. It really helps, he said, to have “the brother of the vice president as a partner,” according to a person who was present.
Since November 2010, James Biden has been the executive vice president of Hill International’s housing subsidiary despite little if any documented work history in residential construction. And if the company’s projections are accurate, both Hill and Biden are on the verge of a huge payday...
...the Iraq project may be the most lucrative single development in Hill’s history.
Just a coincidence, I'm sure.
When the final history of this administration is written -- with the dozens of green energy companies tied to Obama's campaign bundlers, the hundreds of Mexicans and Americans killed by Operation Fast and Furious, and the rest of the hideous Obama legacy -- it will have recorded the greatest collective fleecing of the American taxpayer in history.
This vegetarian festival in Thailand appears to be full of Reavers
Not for the faint of heart - let's call this NSFW due to graphic weirdness. Click through at your own risk.
Brutal rituals of festival goers who force knives and guns through their own cheeks.
Brutal rituals of festival goers who force knives and guns through their own cheeks.
L'Aquila quake: Italy scientists guilty of manslaughter
This strikes me as rather extraordinary:
Six Italian scientists and an ex-government official have been sentenced to six years in prison over the 2009 deadly earthquake in L'Aquila.
A regional court found them guilty of multiple manslaughter.
Prosecutors said the defendants gave a falsely reassuring statement before the quake, while the defence maintained there was no way to predict major quakes.
It took Judge Marco Billi slightly more than four hours to reach the verdict.
The seven - all members of the National Commission for the Forecast and Prevention of Major Risks - were judged to have provided "inexact, incomplete and contradictory" information about the danger of the tremors felt ahead of 6 April 2009 quake, Italian media report.
In the closing statement, the prosecution quoted one of its witnesses, whose father died in the earthquake.
It described how Guido Fioravanti had called his mother at about 11pm on the night of the earthquake - straight after the first tremor.
"I remember the fear in her voice. On other occasions they would have fled but that night, with my father, they told themselves what the risk commission had said. And they stayed."
The judge also ordered the defendants to pay court costs and damages.
It was not immediately known if they planned to appeal.
The case has alarmed many in the scientific community, who feel science itself has been put on trial.
Previous articles:
L'Aquila quake scientists in dock
Six Italian scientists and an ex-government official have been sentenced to six years in prison over the 2009 deadly earthquake in L'Aquila.
A regional court found them guilty of multiple manslaughter.
Prosecutors said the defendants gave a falsely reassuring statement before the quake, while the defence maintained there was no way to predict major quakes.
It took Judge Marco Billi slightly more than four hours to reach the verdict.
The seven - all members of the National Commission for the Forecast and Prevention of Major Risks - were judged to have provided "inexact, incomplete and contradictory" information about the danger of the tremors felt ahead of 6 April 2009 quake, Italian media report.
In the closing statement, the prosecution quoted one of its witnesses, whose father died in the earthquake.
It described how Guido Fioravanti had called his mother at about 11pm on the night of the earthquake - straight after the first tremor.
"I remember the fear in her voice. On other occasions they would have fled but that night, with my father, they told themselves what the risk commission had said. And they stayed."
The judge also ordered the defendants to pay court costs and damages.
It was not immediately known if they planned to appeal.
The case has alarmed many in the scientific community, who feel science itself has been put on trial.
More than 5,000 scientists signed an open letter to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano in support of the defendants.
Previous articles:
L'Aquila quake scientists in dock
Must read VDH: Do We Believe Anymore?
Read the whole thing at PJM.
We live in an age of disbelief, in which citizens increasingly do not believe what their government says or, for that matter, what is accepted as true by popular culture.
We live in an age of disbelief, in which citizens increasingly do not believe what their government says or, for that matter, what is accepted as true by popular culture.
Yesterday was Trafalgar Day
May the Great God, whom I worship, grant to my country and for the benefit of Europe in general, a great and glorious Victory; and may no misconduct in any one tarnish it; and may humanity after Victory be the predominant feature of the British Fleet. For myself, individually, I commit my life to Him who made me, and may His blessing light upon my endeavors for serving my Country faithfully. To Him I resign myself and the just cause which is entrusted to me to defend. Amen. Amen. Amen.
- Horatio, Lord Nelson (his prayer, 20 October 1805, on the eve of the Battle of Trafalgar)
No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of an enemy.
- Nelson (memorandum, written onboard HMS Victory, off Cadiz, 9 October 1805)
ENGAGE THE ENEMY MORE CLOSELY
- Nelson's favorite signal* (made "general" to the fleet by him for the last
time at 1156 on 21 October 1805)
Yesterday was Trafalgar Day in the Royal Navy, the 207th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar and the death of England's greatest naval hero, Admiral Horatio Nelson on 21 October 1805. Fought off the southwest coast of Spain, Trafalgar was the greatest naval victory of the Napoleonic wars and essentially destroyed the sea power of France in a single engagement. Nelson and the British fleet had been blockading the French and Spanish fleet under Villeneuve in Cadiz after pursuing it to the Caribbean and back. When Villeneuve finally emerged to give battle, Nelson, depending on the superior seamanship and fighting skill of his "band of brothers" and the British sailor, adopted an unorthodox tactic that split the French/Spanish line into three parts and led to a general melee in which the British took 19 ships without loss. At the height of the battle however, Nelson was cut down by a French sharpshooter's bullet, and he died a few hours later. In his History of Modern Europe (1883), Charles Alan Fyfe wrote,
"Trafalgar was not only the greatest naval victory, it was the greatest and
the most momentous victory either by land or by sea during the whole of the Revolutionary War.** No victory, and no series of victories, of Napoleon produced the same effect upon Europe... Nelson's last triumph left England in such a position that no means remained to injure her."
Since this post is largely is about Trafalgar Day the Lady Hamilton affair is left out. BBC History has more on that, if you're interested.
- Horatio, Lord Nelson (his prayer, 20 October 1805, on the eve of the Battle of Trafalgar)
No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of an enemy.
- Nelson (memorandum, written onboard HMS Victory, off Cadiz, 9 October 1805)
ENGAGE THE ENEMY MORE CLOSELY
- Nelson's favorite signal* (made "general" to the fleet by him for the last
time at 1156 on 21 October 1805)
Yesterday was Trafalgar Day in the Royal Navy, the 207th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar and the death of England's greatest naval hero, Admiral Horatio Nelson on 21 October 1805. Fought off the southwest coast of Spain, Trafalgar was the greatest naval victory of the Napoleonic wars and essentially destroyed the sea power of France in a single engagement. Nelson and the British fleet had been blockading the French and Spanish fleet under Villeneuve in Cadiz after pursuing it to the Caribbean and back. When Villeneuve finally emerged to give battle, Nelson, depending on the superior seamanship and fighting skill of his "band of brothers" and the British sailor, adopted an unorthodox tactic that split the French/Spanish line into three parts and led to a general melee in which the British took 19 ships without loss. At the height of the battle however, Nelson was cut down by a French sharpshooter's bullet, and he died a few hours later. In his History of Modern Europe (1883), Charles Alan Fyfe wrote,
"Trafalgar was not only the greatest naval victory, it was the greatest and
the most momentous victory either by land or by sea during the whole of the Revolutionary War.** No victory, and no series of victories, of Napoleon produced the same effect upon Europe... Nelson's last triumph left England in such a position that no means remained to injure her."
* N.B. However, much more famous was his signal at the start of the battle:
"ENGLAND EXPECTS THAT EVERY MAN WILL DO HIS DUTY"
In signal flags, this appeared as:
** Meaning here, the conflicts that followed the French revolution in 1789.
One of several paintings of the battle of Trafalgar by English artist J.M.W. Turner (1875-1851):
"ENGLAND EXPECTS THAT EVERY MAN WILL DO HIS DUTY"
In signal flags, this appeared as:
** Meaning here, the conflicts that followed the French revolution in 1789.
One of several paintings of the battle of Trafalgar by English artist J.M.W. Turner (1875-1851):
Also, here's their Animated Map: Battle of Trafalgar - A step-by-step guide to the battle,
And additional resources:
Battlefield Academy: Refight Trafalgar! - Refight Nelson's greatest battle against the remorseless Artificial Intelligence engine of the Academy.
The Battle of Trafalgar by Andrew Lambert
Trafalgar: The Long-Term Impact by NAM Rodger
Napoleon, Nelson and the French Threat by Dan Cruickshank
Nelson: The Hero and the Man by Colin White
The Art of War Gallery by Professor Daniel Moran
Life at Sea in the Royal Navy of the 18th Century by Andrew Lambert
Women in Nelson's Navy by Nick Slope
Taken from Ed's Quotation of the Day, only available via email. If you'd like to be added to his list, leave your email address in the comments.
Battlefield Academy: Refight Trafalgar! - Refight Nelson's greatest battle against the remorseless Artificial Intelligence engine of the Academy.
The Battle of Trafalgar by Andrew Lambert
Trafalgar: The Long-Term Impact by NAM Rodger
Napoleon, Nelson and the French Threat by Dan Cruickshank
Nelson: The Hero and the Man by Colin White
The Art of War Gallery by Professor Daniel Moran
Life at Sea in the Royal Navy of the 18th Century by Andrew Lambert
Women in Nelson's Navy by Nick Slope
Taken from Ed's Quotation of the Day, only available via email. If you'd like to be added to his list, leave your email address in the comments.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Skeleton of French man found in bed after 15 years
(Reuters) - Police in France said on Friday they were trying to identify the skeleton of a man believed to have lain undiscovered in bed for more than 15 years.
The body, found in an abandoned house in the northern city of Lille, is thought to be that of the elderly owner of the property, who lived alone and appeared to have no relatives.
Police said they had found piles of unopened mail at the house dating back to 1996.
The body, found in an abandoned house in the northern city of Lille, is thought to be that of the elderly owner of the property, who lived alone and appeared to have no relatives.
Police said they had found piles of unopened mail at the house dating back to 1996.
What Does Giant Panda Taste Like?
Terrible, apparently. In 1983, a Chinese villager named Leng Zhizhong was tried for illegally killing a giant panda. He told the judge that his wife cooked the meat with turnips, but they didn’t enjoy it, so he fed some to his pigs and gave the remainder to his sister. Leng, unfortunately, didn’t explain what made the meat so unpalatable in what appears to be the only written description of panda-eating. Rural Chinese people have no tradition of eating the animal, and some ethnic groups may have considered the practice forbidden. When President Theodore Roosevelt’s sons, Kermit and Theodore IV, killed a giant panda in 1928, their local guides refused to join them in eating the meat and called in a priest to purify the hayloft where the beast had been butchered. (The Roosevelt boys left no description of the taste.) Today, the penalty for killing a panda is several years in prison.
It’s tempting to assume that giant pandas would taste like other members of the taxonomic family Ursidae, such as black and brown bears, which were a regular part of the frontier diet in 18th-century North America. Bear meat is darker and fattier than beef, although similar in flavor. The problem with the comparison, though, is that an animal’s diet greatly affects the flavor of its own flesh. Bears that dine mainly on salmon, for example, taste worse than those with a more varied diet. Since 99 percent of a giant panda’s diet is bamboo—with the occasional addition of a rodent, bird, or fish that popped out of a stream—it’s very unlikely that its flesh tastes anything like that of other bears.
It’s tempting to assume that giant pandas would taste like other members of the taxonomic family Ursidae, such as black and brown bears, which were a regular part of the frontier diet in 18th-century North America. Bear meat is darker and fattier than beef, although similar in flavor. The problem with the comparison, though, is that an animal’s diet greatly affects the flavor of its own flesh. Bears that dine mainly on salmon, for example, taste worse than those with a more varied diet. Since 99 percent of a giant panda’s diet is bamboo—with the occasional addition of a rodent, bird, or fish that popped out of a stream—it’s very unlikely that its flesh tastes anything like that of other bears.
RIP George McGovern - Libertarian Hero?
Read the whole thing at Bloomberg - extracts below. I can't say I've followed him post his presidential run, but Nick Gillespie makes a good case.
George McGovern’s Legacy as a Libertarian Hero
When you take a longer view of his career -- especially after he got bounced from the Senate in 1980 during the Republican landslide he helped create -- what emerges is a rare public figure whose policy positions shifted to an increasingly libertarian stance in response to a world that’s far more complicated than most politicians can ever allow....
McGovern believed that attempts to impose single-value standards were profoundly un-American and “that we cannot allow the micromanaging of each other’s lives.” But as governments at various levels expand their control of everything from health- care to mortgages to the consumption of soda pop and so much more, that’s exactly what’s happening.
In 1972, McGovern was out of step with the American public. Not anymore. Large majorities see the long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as the mistakes and failures they plainly were. And his criticism of paternalism is wildly popular with everyone but our rulers. An August 2012 CNN/ORC International Poll found that only 40 percent of registered voters want the government to “promote traditional values,” a finding that is down from 57 percent in 2008. CNN also found that “six in 10 say that government is doing too much that should be left to businesses and individuals.”
These days, it’s politicians of both parties who are out of step with the voting public. As the nation prepares to pay its last respects to George McGovern, we can only hope that our leaders will learn from his example and become less confident in telling us how to live our lives.
George McGovern’s Legacy as a Libertarian Hero
When you take a longer view of his career -- especially after he got bounced from the Senate in 1980 during the Republican landslide he helped create -- what emerges is a rare public figure whose policy positions shifted to an increasingly libertarian stance in response to a world that’s far more complicated than most politicians can ever allow....
McGovern believed that attempts to impose single-value standards were profoundly un-American and “that we cannot allow the micromanaging of each other’s lives.” But as governments at various levels expand their control of everything from health- care to mortgages to the consumption of soda pop and so much more, that’s exactly what’s happening.
In 1972, McGovern was out of step with the American public. Not anymore. Large majorities see the long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as the mistakes and failures they plainly were. And his criticism of paternalism is wildly popular with everyone but our rulers. An August 2012 CNN/ORC International Poll found that only 40 percent of registered voters want the government to “promote traditional values,” a finding that is down from 57 percent in 2008. CNN also found that “six in 10 say that government is doing too much that should be left to businesses and individuals.”
These days, it’s politicians of both parties who are out of step with the voting public. As the nation prepares to pay its last respects to George McGovern, we can only hope that our leaders will learn from his example and become less confident in telling us how to live our lives.
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Benghazi: What Did The President Know And When Did He Know It?
Read the whole thing at IBD:
Cover-Up: America's slain ambassador in Libya repeatedly sought security which went unheeded, new documents show. The CIA, meanwhile, told Washington within 24 hours that the Benghazi attack was terrorism. So where was our president?
The sorry answer is that it's starting to look as though he and his team knew all along that the attack in Libya was a terrorism from the start.
That hasn't been what he's presented to the public. But instead of owning up to it, the White House has perpetrated the red herring that a old YouTube video depicting Islam in a bad light was the real reason, because calling terrorism terrorism would reveal their their Middle East policy failure.
And this:
It's not just outrageous to attempt to fool U.S. voters in this way, it's an absolutely incompetent to allow such a denial to reach the ears of terrorists.
Apparently, word of the charade is getting to them. In an absolutely grotesque two-hour interview published in the New York Times Thursday, Ahmed Abu Khattala, identified by U.S. intelligence as the leader of Ansar al-Shariah, the Libyan Islamofascist militia believed to have led the terrorist attack, brazenly told the New York Times over a strawberry frappe in a Benghazi luxury hotel that he wasn't hiding and didn't have any plan to stay out of sight.
That's a sign of weakness, and a president who can't bear to admit the truth to voters. That puts terrorists in a position of strength and compounds the president's errors unforgivably.
Cover-Up: America's slain ambassador in Libya repeatedly sought security which went unheeded, new documents show. The CIA, meanwhile, told Washington within 24 hours that the Benghazi attack was terrorism. So where was our president?
The sorry answer is that it's starting to look as though he and his team knew all along that the attack in Libya was a terrorism from the start.
That hasn't been what he's presented to the public. But instead of owning up to it, the White House has perpetrated the red herring that a old YouTube video depicting Islam in a bad light was the real reason, because calling terrorism terrorism would reveal their their Middle East policy failure.
And this:
It's not just outrageous to attempt to fool U.S. voters in this way, it's an absolutely incompetent to allow such a denial to reach the ears of terrorists.
Apparently, word of the charade is getting to them. In an absolutely grotesque two-hour interview published in the New York Times Thursday, Ahmed Abu Khattala, identified by U.S. intelligence as the leader of Ansar al-Shariah, the Libyan Islamofascist militia believed to have led the terrorist attack, brazenly told the New York Times over a strawberry frappe in a Benghazi luxury hotel that he wasn't hiding and didn't have any plan to stay out of sight.
That's a sign of weakness, and a president who can't bear to admit the truth to voters. That puts terrorists in a position of strength and compounds the president's errors unforgivably.
An Orwellian effort at making some words matter and others disappear while facts are pushed aside
Hugh Hewitt, via Instapundit:
President Obama's Closing Act: An Epic Collapse
The ongoing collapse of President Obama's campaign may lead to some extraordinary stunts during Monday's last debate, but no matter what he tries, it is very unlikely that the president can reverse the enormous momentum behind Mitt Romney's campaign.
(One data point. Congressman John Campbell, a frequent guest on my radio show, polled his district this week. It is Califronia's 45. John McCain carried it by 4.7 points in 2008. Mitt Romney is almost 20 points ahead in this cycle. Campbell reports that this sort of result is showing up across the country.)
The nation is simply finished with a president whose rhetoric has never been matched by his actions, and whose performance has removed Jimmy Carter from the bottom of the rankings of the modern president.
The president of course has his passionate supporters. These are the same people that spent last Tuesday night declaring him the winner of his second meeting with Mitt Romney, and Wednesday and Thursday trying to infuse the word "binder" with game-changing significance.
They are the same people who spent Friday denying that "not optimal" was not a big deal.
"Binder" --big deal. "Not optimal" --no deal at all. That's the state of the Obama campaign: A nearly Orwellian effort at making some words matter and others disappear while facts are pushed aside It hasn't worked. It won't work..
Mitt Romney by contrast followed two very strong debate showings with a wonderful set of remarks at the Al Smith dinner, the third time in two weeks that he has reassured those just tuning into the presidential campaign that he will be a steady and reliable force for good in the Oval Office.
Romney was ready for his close up. This is the primary reasion behind his surge.
And what a surge. Romney was up seven points in Thursday's Gallup tracking poll, and even the very partisan Democratic polling firm PPP has Romney ahead in Iowa and New Hampshire on Friday. The president is hdidng from reporters to avoid more Libya questions, and when he hand-picks a safe zone --a comedy show hosted by a huge ally-- he still falls on his face, and not just with the "not optimal" comment but with his doubling down on clsoing Gitmo.
The market shudders, the quesiness about earnings, the goofy jobs data --all this and more is fueling the growing, now urgent sense of a need for a big change. A U-Turn. And Mitt Romney is the beneficiary.
Every motorist who gases up between now and election day (especially those in California) should recall last Monday's debate and the direct question to the president about gas prices which he refused to asnwer.
President Obama's Closing Act: An Epic Collapse
The ongoing collapse of President Obama's campaign may lead to some extraordinary stunts during Monday's last debate, but no matter what he tries, it is very unlikely that the president can reverse the enormous momentum behind Mitt Romney's campaign.
(One data point. Congressman John Campbell, a frequent guest on my radio show, polled his district this week. It is Califronia's 45. John McCain carried it by 4.7 points in 2008. Mitt Romney is almost 20 points ahead in this cycle. Campbell reports that this sort of result is showing up across the country.)
The nation is simply finished with a president whose rhetoric has never been matched by his actions, and whose performance has removed Jimmy Carter from the bottom of the rankings of the modern president.
The president of course has his passionate supporters. These are the same people that spent last Tuesday night declaring him the winner of his second meeting with Mitt Romney, and Wednesday and Thursday trying to infuse the word "binder" with game-changing significance.
They are the same people who spent Friday denying that "not optimal" was not a big deal.
"Binder" --big deal. "Not optimal" --no deal at all. That's the state of the Obama campaign: A nearly Orwellian effort at making some words matter and others disappear while facts are pushed aside It hasn't worked. It won't work..
Mitt Romney by contrast followed two very strong debate showings with a wonderful set of remarks at the Al Smith dinner, the third time in two weeks that he has reassured those just tuning into the presidential campaign that he will be a steady and reliable force for good in the Oval Office.
Romney was ready for his close up. This is the primary reasion behind his surge.
And what a surge. Romney was up seven points in Thursday's Gallup tracking poll, and even the very partisan Democratic polling firm PPP has Romney ahead in Iowa and New Hampshire on Friday. The president is hdidng from reporters to avoid more Libya questions, and when he hand-picks a safe zone --a comedy show hosted by a huge ally-- he still falls on his face, and not just with the "not optimal" comment but with his doubling down on clsoing Gitmo.
The market shudders, the quesiness about earnings, the goofy jobs data --all this and more is fueling the growing, now urgent sense of a need for a big change. A U-Turn. And Mitt Romney is the beneficiary.
Every motorist who gases up between now and election day (especially those in California) should recall last Monday's debate and the direct question to the president about gas prices which he refused to asnwer.
Scientists devise complex formula for perfect beer enjoyment
Based on surroundings, music volume and the number of drinking partners, researchers have devised a formula that can calculate what makes a perfect pint for any given individual.
The equation also takes into account the availability of snacks, the ambient room temperature, and the number of days until you are required back at work.
Researchers calculated that the higher the final score for ‘E’, the greater the enjoyment of the pint will be.
HOW TO CALCULATE YOUR OWN PERFECT PINT
The formula for working out how to achieve a perfect pint is:
E = - (0.62T2 + 39.2W2 + 62.4P2) + (21.8T + 184.4W + 395.4P + 94.5M - 90.25V) + 50(S + F + 6.4).
The initials in the equation stand for the following:
E = Factor describing overall enjoyment
T = The ambient temperature in degrees Celsius
W = The number of days until you are required back at work
P = The number of people with whom you are drinking
M = Related to your mood whilst drinking the pint
V = Related to the volume of the music being played
S and F are related to the availability of snacks and food.
The equation also takes into account the availability of snacks, the ambient room temperature, and the number of days until you are required back at work.
Researchers calculated that the higher the final score for ‘E’, the greater the enjoyment of the pint will be.
HOW TO CALCULATE YOUR OWN PERFECT PINT
The formula for working out how to achieve a perfect pint is:
E = - (0.62T2 + 39.2W2 + 62.4P2) + (21.8T + 184.4W + 395.4P + 94.5M - 90.25V) + 50(S + F + 6.4).
The initials in the equation stand for the following:
E = Factor describing overall enjoyment
T = The ambient temperature in degrees Celsius
W = The number of days until you are required back at work
P = The number of people with whom you are drinking
M = Related to your mood whilst drinking the pint
V = Related to the volume of the music being played
S and F are related to the availability of snacks and food.
Holy crap - high school kicker makes 67-yard field goal
Rehkow wasn’t the only player on the field Thursday night to smash a Washington state record. Shadle Park (the opposing team) sophomore quarterback Brett Rypien — whose uncle, Mark, was the MVP of Super Bowl XXVI with the Washington Redskins — threw for 577 yards, to eclipse the previous single-game mark by 61 yards.
Planned Parenthood: Obama Is Wrong, 'We Don't Provide Mammograms'
Which everyone on the right side of the isle already knew...
The official statement from Live Action President Lila Rose, following the second presidential debate last night:
"President Obama continues mislead Americans in his defense of the abortion giant Planned Parenthood. Live Action conducted an investigation last year that demonstrated that Planned Parenthood does not perform mammograms. The Department of Health and Human Services confirmed in June, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, that not a single Planned Parenthood in the nation has mammography equipment. Planned Parenthood is spending millions to preserve its place at the taxpayer trough and re-elect the president. It's no wonder that the president used the debate as a promotion vehicle for Planned Parenthood's lies."
The official statement from Live Action President Lila Rose, following the second presidential debate last night:
"President Obama continues mislead Americans in his defense of the abortion giant Planned Parenthood. Live Action conducted an investigation last year that demonstrated that Planned Parenthood does not perform mammograms. The Department of Health and Human Services confirmed in June, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, that not a single Planned Parenthood in the nation has mammography equipment. Planned Parenthood is spending millions to preserve its place at the taxpayer trough and re-elect the president. It's no wonder that the president used the debate as a promotion vehicle for Planned Parenthood's lies."
Friday, October 19, 2012
A child being raised correctly...
In a world full of vegan this and gluten free that, this child is obviously being raised up right!!! The grammar gets a little bit questionable, but I'll let it go since I appreciate the sentiment so much.
(Hat tip Buzzfeed)
http://www.buzzfeed.com/rsultan/this-sixth-grader-may-or-may-not-love-bacon
The Onion Endorses John Edwards For President
Read the whole thing at The Onion. Excerpts:
Choosing who should be entrusted to lead our nation’s government is not a responsibility that should be taken lightly, and never has that maxim been truer than in this current election cycle. Our economy is stagnant, our culture is dangerously stratified, and our way of life is threatened by a host of dangers both foreign and domestic. In this newspaper’s more than two centuries of covering the national scene, few moments in history have felt more crucial or, indeed, perilous.
And so the time has come to decide who is best equipped to lead our country through this era of great crisis and great opportunity. America needs a leader who offers a coherent vision and who appeals to the better angels of our nature. We need a leader who is well-versed in the moral and legal foundations of our freedom and will work to uphold them. In short, this country needs the best man for the job.
And so it is without ambivalence or hesitation that The Onionendorses former U.S. senator John Edwards for president.
Mr. Edwards’ career has not been without its missteps. He has, like all of us at one time or another, made his share of mistakes. His opposition to a nationwide military draft, for instance. In addition, his support for the expansion of immigrants’ rights has angered this newspaper’s editorial board. And yet at each turn, Mr. Edwards has recovered in full, with two feet planted firmly on the ground and his dignity and political acumen intact. He is a man who has learned from adversity, knowing, as any former attorney does, that the strongest individuals are forged through trials by fire.
Furthermore, Mr. Edwards conducted a protracted extramarital affair with a younger woman while his wife was dying of cancer, and we like that he did this. Our reasons for liking that he did this are tenfold:
1. It was a brave thing to do, given the possible consequences
2. The woman in question was more attractive than Mr. Edwards’ wife
3. He did what he did without compromising his ideals, at least not to any illegal extent
4. He enjoyed himself, and good for him
5. The Onion believes sex is a natural and healthy biological function
6. Women have a weakness for men in powerful positions, and Mr. Edwards expertly exploited that weakness
7. Mr. Edwards’ “Two Americas” premise is very appealing
8. Again, his wife was dying of cancer, and thus was not an ideal partner for sexual intercourse
9. Mr. Edwards is attractive, and it is pleasing to imagine him having sexual intercourse with another attractive person
10. Every employee of this newspaper would have done the exact same thing, given the opportunity
Choosing who should be entrusted to lead our nation’s government is not a responsibility that should be taken lightly, and never has that maxim been truer than in this current election cycle. Our economy is stagnant, our culture is dangerously stratified, and our way of life is threatened by a host of dangers both foreign and domestic. In this newspaper’s more than two centuries of covering the national scene, few moments in history have felt more crucial or, indeed, perilous.
And so the time has come to decide who is best equipped to lead our country through this era of great crisis and great opportunity. America needs a leader who offers a coherent vision and who appeals to the better angels of our nature. We need a leader who is well-versed in the moral and legal foundations of our freedom and will work to uphold them. In short, this country needs the best man for the job.
And so it is without ambivalence or hesitation that The Onionendorses former U.S. senator John Edwards for president.
Mr. Edwards’ career has not been without its missteps. He has, like all of us at one time or another, made his share of mistakes. His opposition to a nationwide military draft, for instance. In addition, his support for the expansion of immigrants’ rights has angered this newspaper’s editorial board. And yet at each turn, Mr. Edwards has recovered in full, with two feet planted firmly on the ground and his dignity and political acumen intact. He is a man who has learned from adversity, knowing, as any former attorney does, that the strongest individuals are forged through trials by fire.
Furthermore, Mr. Edwards conducted a protracted extramarital affair with a younger woman while his wife was dying of cancer, and we like that he did this. Our reasons for liking that he did this are tenfold:
1. It was a brave thing to do, given the possible consequences
2. The woman in question was more attractive than Mr. Edwards’ wife
3. He did what he did without compromising his ideals, at least not to any illegal extent
4. He enjoyed himself, and good for him
5. The Onion believes sex is a natural and healthy biological function
6. Women have a weakness for men in powerful positions, and Mr. Edwards expertly exploited that weakness
7. Mr. Edwards’ “Two Americas” premise is very appealing
8. Again, his wife was dying of cancer, and thus was not an ideal partner for sexual intercourse
9. Mr. Edwards is attractive, and it is pleasing to imagine him having sexual intercourse with another attractive person
10. Every employee of this newspaper would have done the exact same thing, given the opportunity
Banana Boat recalls sunscreen after reports of people catching on fire
“If a consumer comes into contact with a flame or spark prior to complete drying of the product on the skin, there is a potential for the product to ignite,” the company said.
Unexpectedly good unemployment stats? Calif. official whose agency under-reported stats was big Obama donor
Read the whole thing at The Daily Caller:
The good news for the Obama administration spread quickly, with outlets like CNN and Bloomberg declaring, “Jobless claims fall to four-year low.”
Early Thursday, the federal government finally revealed that California had, in fact, under-reported jobless data, skewing the national jobless claims results. This week’s updated jobs report corrected the error and showed unemployment claims spiking back up by 46,000 to 388,000.
Everything you need to know to catch this weekend’s Orionid meteor shower
This weekend, Earth will plow through a dense stream of celestial debris given off by Halley's Comet. These fragments of Halley will collide with the planet's atmosphere at speeds approaching 150,000 miles per hour, setting the night ablaze as they streak and explode across the pre-dawn skies of Saturday, October 20th and Sunday, October 21st.
Astronomers are predicting that Sunday's shower, in particular, will be one of the most impressive of 2012. Here's everything you need to know to spot as many meteors as possible.
Astronomers are predicting that Sunday's shower, in particular, will be one of the most impressive of 2012. Here's everything you need to know to spot as many meteors as possible.
Friday links
An angry crow mocked me this morning. I couldn’t finish my croissant, and fled the café in despair: Le Blog de Jean-Paul Sartre.
“Sounds of Cylons,” as sung by Simon & Garfunkel.
Inhabited bridges.
“Sounds of Cylons,” as sung by Simon & Garfunkel.
Inhabited bridges.
Neatorama's Halloween blog.
12-Year-Old Girl Shoots Intruder During Home Invasion
She told deputies the man came into the room where she was hiding and began to open up the closet door. That was when the 12-year-old had to make a life-saving decision.
"And what we understand right now, he was turning the doorknob when she fired through the door," said the Bryan County Undersheriff Ken Golden.
"And what we understand right now, he was turning the doorknob when she fired through the door," said the Bryan County Undersheriff Ken Golden.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
I may run for White House, says Chelsea Clinton
Chelsea Clinton has hinted that she may run for political office in the US while refusing to rule out a challenge for the presidency.
The daughter of former President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary, the current Secretary of State, indicated that her family may yet become the latest multi-generational force in Washington DC, following the Kennedy and Bush dynasties.
The daughter of former President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary, the current Secretary of State, indicated that her family may yet become the latest multi-generational force in Washington DC, following the Kennedy and Bush dynasties.
Obama's fluff appearance du jour (the Daily Show): 'If 4 Americans get killed, it's not optimal'
Obama claimed his paramount interest for four years has been protecting Americans and their national security and added confidently, "And they will continue to get that over the next four years of my presidency."
Poverty a crushing load on 113-yr-old dwarf
Zeenat, who is just 3 ft tall, does not know her date of birth. Her age certificate, issued by Bhopal’s JP Government Hospital on March 29, 2004, mentioned her age as 105 years.
Round up the grandkids: Transfusion of young blood could delay onset of diseases like Alzheimer's
Giving middle-aged people a transfusion of young blood could keep their brain healthy in old age and delay the onset of diseases like Alzheimer's, scientists claim.
Researchers from Stanford University found that old mice given transfusions of younger blood performed better in a memory task than those left to age naturally.
They also began to re-grow connections in their brains which had previously begun to disappear as part of the aging process and which affect memory.
Researchers from Stanford University found that old mice given transfusions of younger blood performed better in a memory task than those left to age naturally.
They also began to re-grow connections in their brains which had previously begun to disappear as part of the aging process and which affect memory.
Dad stabs son twice over who gets last beer
Tennessee dad stabs son twice over who gets last beer. Related: Man fatally stabbed in the chest over a bag of Cheetos and St. Louis man accused of killing uncle over what name to call a piece of pork. (Cultural note: the uncle, one of 17 siblings, was one year older than the nephew)
Mark Steyn: Let Them Go Hungry
This year some guy working in some office someplace some ways down the chain from the chef de cabinet decided to reduce the permitted lunchtime calorie intake of American middle-schoolers from 785 calories to 700 calories.
The first lady was on hand for the launch of the new federally mandated lunch limits. The stench of failure and risibility has not yet attached to this initiative as it has to so many other Obama-era bureaucratic excesses. But, through September, returning schoolchildren complained about their new, insufficient lunches. Teachers and parents who took up their cause did so in statist terms, beseeching the commissars to raise the mandated calorie limits. Very few did so on first-principle grounds — which is to say the argument that a system in which a centralized bureaucracy attempts to impose a uniform menu on a nation of 300 million people is nuts, and cannot survive. In theory, education is the responsibility of local school districts in sovereign states. Yet somehow a bureaucrat in the Department of Agriculture wound up with a monopoly on what your kids eat.
Where do you go to vote out the Commissar of School Lunches? Even if Romney wins in November, I doubt this will be anybody's big priority. Statists well understand that you don't need a president-for-life if you've got a bureaucracy-for-life. Sometimes your team has to take a time-out for a couple of years, but, even when they do, all the departments and agencies and bureaus are still in place, hyper-regulating away. I mean, how often does the party of small government actually abolish anything?
And if Obama wins, you'll get the National Calorie Limits approach to government supersized: A vast regulatory octopus entwining itself around every aspect of the citizen's life. America is already hideously over-bureaucratized and pushing against the limits. It's not a small, homogeneous Scandinavian nation of a few million. It's a vast sprawling broke behemoth for which the concentration of power at the center will prove fatal.
The first lady was on hand for the launch of the new federally mandated lunch limits. The stench of failure and risibility has not yet attached to this initiative as it has to so many other Obama-era bureaucratic excesses. But, through September, returning schoolchildren complained about their new, insufficient lunches. Teachers and parents who took up their cause did so in statist terms, beseeching the commissars to raise the mandated calorie limits. Very few did so on first-principle grounds — which is to say the argument that a system in which a centralized bureaucracy attempts to impose a uniform menu on a nation of 300 million people is nuts, and cannot survive. In theory, education is the responsibility of local school districts in sovereign states. Yet somehow a bureaucrat in the Department of Agriculture wound up with a monopoly on what your kids eat.
Where do you go to vote out the Commissar of School Lunches? Even if Romney wins in November, I doubt this will be anybody's big priority. Statists well understand that you don't need a president-for-life if you've got a bureaucracy-for-life. Sometimes your team has to take a time-out for a couple of years, but, even when they do, all the departments and agencies and bureaus are still in place, hyper-regulating away. I mean, how often does the party of small government actually abolish anything?
And if Obama wins, you'll get the National Calorie Limits approach to government supersized: A vast regulatory octopus entwining itself around every aspect of the citizen's life. America is already hideously over-bureaucratized and pushing against the limits. It's not a small, homogeneous Scandinavian nation of a few million. It's a vast sprawling broke behemoth for which the concentration of power at the center will prove fatal.
Welfare Spending Now Largest Budget Item
Another one from the Weekly Standard - lots more detail there, but much of it is said by this chart:
The 7-Eleven Presidency: for every $7 we’ve had, we’ve spent nearly $11
Read the whole thing at The Weekly Standard. Some excerpts:
In the wake of the Treasury Department’s newly released summary of federal spending for 2012, it’s now possible to detail just how profligate the Obama years have been. Here’s the upshot: Under Obama, for every $7 we’ve had, we’ve spent nearly $11 (or, to be more exact, $10.95). That’s like a family that makes $70,000 a year — and is already knee-deep in debt — blowing nearly $110,000 a year.
Let’s take a look at the scorecard, based on official government figures. In fiscal year 2012 (which ended on September 30), the federal government acquired $2.449 trillion in tax revenue and other receipts. It spent $3.538 trillion — 44 percent more than it had available to spend. The resulting deficit was $1.089 trillion.
In fiscal year 2011 (see table S-1), the federal government acquired $2.303 trillion in tax revenues and other receipts. It spent $3.603 trillion — 56 percent more than it had available to spend. The resulting deficit was $1.3 trillion.
In fiscal year 2010 (see table S-1), the federal government acquired $2.163 trillion in tax revenues and other receipts. It spent $3.456 trillion — 60 percent more than it had available to spend. The resulting deficit was $1.293 trillion.
In fiscal year 2009 — which was, for the most part, President Bush’s fiscal year (his final one) — Obama’s economic “stimulus” added $183 billion (see table 1-2) to the deficit (it would add far more in future years), on top of the deficit that we were already running that year under Bush.
So in all, under Obama, the federal government has acquired $6.846 trillion in tax revenues and other receipts, and it has spent $10.711 trillion — 56 percent more than it has had available to spend.
Moreover, Obama has amassed this historic record of fiscal profligacy even before his centerpiece legislation has really taken effect. If it’s not repealed first, the colossally expensive Obamacare is poised to present grave new challenges to our fiscal solvency — and to our liberty — once it would become a reality on these shores in early 2014.
With one fiscal year of this 7-Eleven presidency still to come (regardless of the outcome on Election Day, fiscal year 2013 will belong to Obama) — and with the specter of Obamacare looming — our national debt is now over $16 trillion. That’s more than $6 trillion higher (see table S-9) than it was during the first presidential debate of 2008, when Obama bemoaned what he called the “orgy of spending and enormous deficits” under Bush.
Yet Obama — who recently showed that he apparently has no idea how big our national debt is — amazingly says of that debt, “[W]e don’t have to worry about it short-term.” In other words, if you have $7, spend $11 — let future generations of Americans worry about it.
In the wake of the Treasury Department’s newly released summary of federal spending for 2012, it’s now possible to detail just how profligate the Obama years have been. Here’s the upshot: Under Obama, for every $7 we’ve had, we’ve spent nearly $11 (or, to be more exact, $10.95). That’s like a family that makes $70,000 a year — and is already knee-deep in debt — blowing nearly $110,000 a year.
Let’s take a look at the scorecard, based on official government figures. In fiscal year 2012 (which ended on September 30), the federal government acquired $2.449 trillion in tax revenue and other receipts. It spent $3.538 trillion — 44 percent more than it had available to spend. The resulting deficit was $1.089 trillion.
In fiscal year 2011 (see table S-1), the federal government acquired $2.303 trillion in tax revenues and other receipts. It spent $3.603 trillion — 56 percent more than it had available to spend. The resulting deficit was $1.3 trillion.
In fiscal year 2010 (see table S-1), the federal government acquired $2.163 trillion in tax revenues and other receipts. It spent $3.456 trillion — 60 percent more than it had available to spend. The resulting deficit was $1.293 trillion.
In fiscal year 2009 — which was, for the most part, President Bush’s fiscal year (his final one) — Obama’s economic “stimulus” added $183 billion (see table 1-2) to the deficit (it would add far more in future years), on top of the deficit that we were already running that year under Bush.
So in all, under Obama, the federal government has acquired $6.846 trillion in tax revenues and other receipts, and it has spent $10.711 trillion — 56 percent more than it has had available to spend.
Moreover, Obama has amassed this historic record of fiscal profligacy even before his centerpiece legislation has really taken effect. If it’s not repealed first, the colossally expensive Obamacare is poised to present grave new challenges to our fiscal solvency — and to our liberty — once it would become a reality on these shores in early 2014.
With one fiscal year of this 7-Eleven presidency still to come (regardless of the outcome on Election Day, fiscal year 2013 will belong to Obama) — and with the specter of Obamacare looming — our national debt is now over $16 trillion. That’s more than $6 trillion higher (see table S-9) than it was during the first presidential debate of 2008, when Obama bemoaned what he called the “orgy of spending and enormous deficits” under Bush.
Yet Obama — who recently showed that he apparently has no idea how big our national debt is — amazingly says of that debt, “[W]e don’t have to worry about it short-term.” In other words, if you have $7, spend $11 — let future generations of Americans worry about it.
For lovers of Venice: Canaletto was born 315 years ago today
My beautiful, my own
My only Venice - this is breath! Thy breeze
Thy Adrian sea-breeze, how it fans my face!
Thy very winds feel native to my veins,
And cool them into calmness!
- George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) (The Two Foscari, Act 1, Sc. 1)
Canaletto united pictorial liberty and nature with such economy that his true works are obvious to those who have no more than common sense to judge with: while the connoisseur all the more finds great art in them in the choice of sites, the distribution of figures, the handling of light and shade; and in addition, a lucidity and piquant facility of color and brushwork, the effects of a calm mind and happy genius.
- Antonio Zanetti (1679-1767) (Della Pittura Veneziana (1771))
When they got home, his clients must have thought that their memories deceived them. Canaletto's Venice is most often pictured on a sunny day, but didn't it rain a lot? And was Palladio's church of San Giorgio Maggiore really next to the Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal? But despite this sort of jumbling in paintings that seem to be so meticulously faithful, Canaletto was the consummate Venetian view painter. Even his paintings of other cities look like Venice.
- Judith Martin (b. 1938)* (No Vulgar Hotel, Ch. 6, "Pictorial Venice")
(Today is the 315th anniversary of the birth of Venetian painter Giovanni Antonio Canal, better known as Canaletto (1697-1768). Born in Venice the son of painter Bernardo Canal - hence his sobriquet, which means "little Canal" - Canaletto apprenticed with his father and brother and started his career as a theatrical scene painter. Later influenced by the Roman view painter Giovanni Paolo Pannini, he turned to painting scenic views (veduti) of daily life in Venice and soon attracted the attention of English consul Joseph Smith, who recommended him to countrymen taking the "Grand Tour" as an artist who could paint vivid pictorial souvenirs of their visits to Venice. Canaletto became highly successful in this genre, and as a result there are more of his paintings in England than anywhere else. In 1746, Canaletto moved to London, where he painted many views of that city and other English scenes. Late in life, he returned to Venice, where he was elected to the Venetian Academy. Among his more prominent pupils was his nephew Bernardo Bellotto (ca.1721/22-1780), whose paintings greatly resemble those of his teacher. French writer and film-maker Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) once noted,
"True realism consists in revealing the surprising things which habit keeps covered and prevents us from seeing."
* N.B. Better known as "Miss Manners." For an example of Canaletto's frequent looseness with visual truth, see the reproduction below. The campanile (bell tower) just to the right of the left entrance tower appears to be that of San Francesco della Vigna which is too far to the left to be seen from this location. In fact, there are no bell towers behind the Arsenale in that direction - just open water.
Canaletto's painting of the historic entrance to the Arsenale of Venice (1732). It looks much the same today. The wooden drawbridge in the foreground has been replaced by a fixed structure in the same location.
Here's a slide show of Canaletto's other paintings, including views of both Venice and England (with a few of Rome thrown in):
Taken from Ed's Quotation of the Day, only available via email. If you'd like to be added to his list, leave your email address in the comments.
My only Venice - this is breath! Thy breeze
Thy Adrian sea-breeze, how it fans my face!
Thy very winds feel native to my veins,
And cool them into calmness!
- George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) (The Two Foscari, Act 1, Sc. 1)
Canaletto united pictorial liberty and nature with such economy that his true works are obvious to those who have no more than common sense to judge with: while the connoisseur all the more finds great art in them in the choice of sites, the distribution of figures, the handling of light and shade; and in addition, a lucidity and piquant facility of color and brushwork, the effects of a calm mind and happy genius.
- Antonio Zanetti (1679-1767) (Della Pittura Veneziana (1771))
When they got home, his clients must have thought that their memories deceived them. Canaletto's Venice is most often pictured on a sunny day, but didn't it rain a lot? And was Palladio's church of San Giorgio Maggiore really next to the Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal? But despite this sort of jumbling in paintings that seem to be so meticulously faithful, Canaletto was the consummate Venetian view painter. Even his paintings of other cities look like Venice.
- Judith Martin (b. 1938)* (No Vulgar Hotel, Ch. 6, "Pictorial Venice")
(Today is the 315th anniversary of the birth of Venetian painter Giovanni Antonio Canal, better known as Canaletto (1697-1768). Born in Venice the son of painter Bernardo Canal - hence his sobriquet, which means "little Canal" - Canaletto apprenticed with his father and brother and started his career as a theatrical scene painter. Later influenced by the Roman view painter Giovanni Paolo Pannini, he turned to painting scenic views (veduti) of daily life in Venice and soon attracted the attention of English consul Joseph Smith, who recommended him to countrymen taking the "Grand Tour" as an artist who could paint vivid pictorial souvenirs of their visits to Venice. Canaletto became highly successful in this genre, and as a result there are more of his paintings in England than anywhere else. In 1746, Canaletto moved to London, where he painted many views of that city and other English scenes. Late in life, he returned to Venice, where he was elected to the Venetian Academy. Among his more prominent pupils was his nephew Bernardo Bellotto (ca.1721/22-1780), whose paintings greatly resemble those of his teacher. French writer and film-maker Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) once noted,
"True realism consists in revealing the surprising things which habit keeps covered and prevents us from seeing."
* N.B. Better known as "Miss Manners." For an example of Canaletto's frequent looseness with visual truth, see the reproduction below. The campanile (bell tower) just to the right of the left entrance tower appears to be that of San Francesco della Vigna which is too far to the left to be seen from this location. In fact, there are no bell towers behind the Arsenale in that direction - just open water.
Canaletto's painting of the historic entrance to the Arsenale of Venice (1732). It looks much the same today. The wooden drawbridge in the foreground has been replaced by a fixed structure in the same location.
Here's a slide show of Canaletto's other paintings, including views of both Venice and England (with a few of Rome thrown in):
Taken from Ed's Quotation of the Day, only available via email. If you'd like to be added to his list, leave your email address in the comments.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Bankruptcy court update: Taxpayers to recover a grand total of $0 from Solyndra
Stimulus money hole news du jour.
Solyndra managed to hang on just long enough to re-arrange things so investers (some who just happened to be White House visitors) got to jump ahead of taxpayers in the line to recover some money in the inevitable event of a bankruptcy.
Solyndra managed to hang on just long enough to re-arrange things so investers (some who just happened to be White House visitors) got to jump ahead of taxpayers in the line to recover some money in the inevitable event of a bankruptcy.
Yesterday's stimulus money hole news: Electric Car Battery Maker A123 Systems Files for Bankruptcy.
The worst are full of passionate intensity*
J.E. Dyer at Hot Air - read the whole thing:
The problem is that in order to sound passionate and full of conviction, Obama had to belt out a remarkable string of untruths.
The MSM’s assessment this morning that the president staged a comeback in this debate is information about the MSM, not about the candidates or the debate. It’s like they’re narrating some invisible drama that no one else can see.
The MSM’s assessment this morning that the president staged a comeback in this debate is information about the MSM, not about the candidates or the debate. It’s like they’re narrating some invisible drama that no one else can see.
Put me in mind of this:
*William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
THE SECOND COMING
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
82-year-old woman attacks bank robber
Read the whole thing:
An Austrian bank robber met his comeuppance from an unusual source after a battling 82-year-old woman stopped one his heists, and called him a "lazy devil" for not getting a job.
The octogenarian first struck him with her handbag, and then tried to pull his balaclava helmet off despite the robber threatening to shoot her.
"That's the bank's money, if you want money get a job you lazy devil," she apparently shouted at him as they scuffled.
As the criminal tried to stuff money into a bag she Mrs Wallecker went on the assault again, this time managing to pull off his mask in full view of the bank's security cameras. Then, as he tried to put his mask back on she pulled at the money bag, spilling cash all over the floor.
At this point the robber decided he had enough and fled to a getaway car waiting outside the bank. But with the evidence from the cameras and fingerprints police later arrested a 62-year-old man on suspicion of robbery.
The octogenarian first struck him with her handbag, and then tried to pull his balaclava helmet off despite the robber threatening to shoot her.
"That's the bank's money, if you want money get a job you lazy devil," she apparently shouted at him as they scuffled.
As the criminal tried to stuff money into a bag she Mrs Wallecker went on the assault again, this time managing to pull off his mask in full view of the bank's security cameras. Then, as he tried to put his mask back on she pulled at the money bag, spilling cash all over the floor.
At this point the robber decided he had enough and fled to a getaway car waiting outside the bank. But with the evidence from the cameras and fingerprints police later arrested a 62-year-old man on suspicion of robbery.
Coburn's 'Waste Book' details $19 billion in eye-opening government expenses
Here are some highlights of the report:
-- Though skeptics say there's no such thing as a free cellphone or service funded by the federal government, Coburn's report shows otherwise. It estimates that taxpayers are subsidizing phone service at a cost of nearly $1.5 billion a year. Though the roots of the program can be traced back to an effort in the 1930s to make sure all Americans had access to telecommunications, it has morphed into a program that provided free cell service to some 16,500,000 participants last year.
-- Though NASA has no plans or budget for any manned spaceflights to Mars, the agency spends about $1 million each year on developing "the Mars menu." It's an effort to come up with a variety of food that humans could eat one day on Mars.
-- A $325,000 grant for the development of "Robosquirrel" - a robotic rodent designed to test the interaction between rattlesnakes and squirrels.
-- An estimated $70 million loss for producing pennies. According to the Waste Book, "The cost to produce a penny in 2012 is more than two times its actual value." After the pennies are manufactured and sold at face value, taxpayers are left to cover the loss.
-- The report spotlights widespread abuse of the food stamp system -- including an exotic dancer who earned more than $85,000 a year in tips, but also collected nearly $1,000 a month in food stamps while spending $9,000 during that time period on "cosmetic enhancements."
-- Nearly $700,000 from the National Science Foundation to a New York-based theater company so it could develop a musical about climate change and biodiversity. "The Great Immensity" opened in Kansas City this year. Along with the songs one reviewer described as sounding like "a Wikipedia entry set to music," the audience was also able to experience "flying monkey poop."
In all, the 2012 Waste Book report details 100 examples totaling nearly $19 billion. Coburn acknowledges that's a drop in the bucket in contrast to the overall federal deficit, which tops $16 trillion, but he says the items are snapshots of the bigger problem.
"Would you agree with Washington that these represent national priorities, or would you conclude these reflect the out-of-touch and out-of-control spending threatening to bankrupt our nation’s future?" he said.
-- Though skeptics say there's no such thing as a free cellphone or service funded by the federal government, Coburn's report shows otherwise. It estimates that taxpayers are subsidizing phone service at a cost of nearly $1.5 billion a year. Though the roots of the program can be traced back to an effort in the 1930s to make sure all Americans had access to telecommunications, it has morphed into a program that provided free cell service to some 16,500,000 participants last year.
-- Though NASA has no plans or budget for any manned spaceflights to Mars, the agency spends about $1 million each year on developing "the Mars menu." It's an effort to come up with a variety of food that humans could eat one day on Mars.
-- A $325,000 grant for the development of "Robosquirrel" - a robotic rodent designed to test the interaction between rattlesnakes and squirrels.
-- An estimated $70 million loss for producing pennies. According to the Waste Book, "The cost to produce a penny in 2012 is more than two times its actual value." After the pennies are manufactured and sold at face value, taxpayers are left to cover the loss.
-- The report spotlights widespread abuse of the food stamp system -- including an exotic dancer who earned more than $85,000 a year in tips, but also collected nearly $1,000 a month in food stamps while spending $9,000 during that time period on "cosmetic enhancements."
-- Nearly $700,000 from the National Science Foundation to a New York-based theater company so it could develop a musical about climate change and biodiversity. "The Great Immensity" opened in Kansas City this year. Along with the songs one reviewer described as sounding like "a Wikipedia entry set to music," the audience was also able to experience "flying monkey poop."
In all, the 2012 Waste Book report details 100 examples totaling nearly $19 billion. Coburn acknowledges that's a drop in the bucket in contrast to the overall federal deficit, which tops $16 trillion, but he says the items are snapshots of the bigger problem.
"Would you agree with Washington that these represent national priorities, or would you conclude these reflect the out-of-touch and out-of-control spending threatening to bankrupt our nation’s future?" he said.
French president considering a ban on homework
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Homeschoolers: The Last Radicals
Read the whole thing:
There is exactly one authentically radical social movement of any real significance in the United States, and it is not Occupy, the Tea Party, or the Ron Paul faction. It is homeschoolers, who, by the simple act of instructing their children at home, pose an intellectual, moral, and political challenge to the government-monopoly schools, which are one of our most fundamental institutions and one of our most dysfunctional. Like all radical movements, homeschoolers drive the establishment bats.
Homeschoolers may have many different and incompatible political beliefs, but they all implicitly share an opinion about the bureaucrats: They don’t need them — not always, not as much as the bureaucrats think. That’s what makes them radical and, to those with a certain view of the world, terrifying.
Lyndon Johnson Pulls Ahead In Poll Of Nation's Alzheimer's Patients
BOCA RATON, FL—A survey of the nation’s Alzheimer’s patients conducted Sunday by Public Policy Polling indicates that Lyndon Johnson now holds a comfortable 8-point lead in the 2012 presidential race, having pulled ahead of candidates Hubert Humphrey, Adlai Stevenson, Mitt Romney, and Gen. George S. Patton. “I’m voting for Lyndon Johnson this year,” said poll respondent Marjorie Halter, adding that she cast a ballot for Gregory Peck in the last election, and that she intends to vote for the Democratic ticket again this November. “I think Johnson and [Halter’s son] Doug will make a really strong team.” According to the poll, a full 14 percent of Alzheimer’s patients are still undecided, and could very well end up voting for former Olympic gymnast Dominique Moceanu if she does well in Tuesday’s debate.
To Fight Hyperstagflation, Greece Will Allow Sale Of Expired Food Products
Combating food inflation.
Against a deflationary environment of austerity-driven wage and pension cuts combined with rising unemployment; food, commodity, and fuel prices continue to surge in Greece. The government has taken an unusual step - allowing the sale of expired food at lower prices.
Against a deflationary environment of austerity-driven wage and pension cuts combined with rising unemployment; food, commodity, and fuel prices continue to surge in Greece. The government has taken an unusual step - allowing the sale of expired food at lower prices.
Ross Perot endorses Romney. In other news, Ross Perot is still alive.
His statement, from the Des Moines Register:
Our country faces a momentous choice. The fact is the United States is on an unsustainable course. At stake is nothing less than our position in the world, our standard of living at home and our constitutional freedoms.
That is why I am endorsing Mitt Romney for president. We can’t afford four more years in which debt mushrooms out of control, our government grows and our military is weakened.
For the past four years, we have squandered one opportunity after the next to turn things around. The longer we delay acting, the steeper the price we will have to pay.
Let’s look at the country as it is now.
Our country faces a momentous choice. The fact is the United States is on an unsustainable course. At stake is nothing less than our position in the world, our standard of living at home and our constitutional freedoms.
That is why I am endorsing Mitt Romney for president. We can’t afford four more years in which debt mushrooms out of control, our government grows and our military is weakened.
For the past four years, we have squandered one opportunity after the next to turn things around. The longer we delay acting, the steeper the price we will have to pay.
Let’s look at the country as it is now.
The American economy is stagnant. Economic growth is insufficient to create enough jobs for a country whose population is growing. The result is unemployment stuck over 8 percent for every single month of Barack Obama’s presidency. We have 23 million Americans who are looking for work and either can’t find a full-time job, can’t find a job at all, or who have given up looking. That is wrong. It’s not the way America ought to be.
At the same time, and not unrelated, is the extraordinary explosion of federal deficits and federal debt. In the last four years during Obama’s presidency, he’s added around $5 trillion to our national debt, more than any previous president. This was accomplished by successive federal budgets that each ran deficits exceeding $1 trillion a year. It is this massive deficit spending that threatens to undermine our future standard of living. To pay for our government’s massive debts, Washington’s profligacy, our children and grandchildren will be paying interest and principal on the nation’s debt for untold years into the future. That is wrong. It’s not the way America ought to be.
Even as we have engaged in runaway domestic spending, the country has been put on the path to massive cuts in the defense budget. President Obama’s own Secretary of Defense has called the proposed cuts “devastating” to our nation’s security. History teaches that the price of military weakness always exceeds the price of preparedness. And yet at a moment when turbulence is sweeping critical regions of the world, we are increasingly unprepared. That is wrong. It’s not the way America ought to be.
It is for these reasons that I am endorsing Mitt Romney. He has spent most of his career in the private sector. He understands how jobs are created. He understands how government can get in the way of that process. As a president, he would do what this administration has been unable to do, which is reform our federal government, pare it back, and — most critically — keep it from acting as a brake on economic growth.
Equally important, as a governor, Mitt Romney balanced the budget of his state for four straight years without raising taxes. Writing in all caps is called shouting, and that fact is something that deserves to be shouted from the rooftops. I should add that Gov. Romney accomplished this feat while working with a legislature that was overwhelmingly under the control of the Democratic Party in one of the most liberal states in the country. In short, although he is a rock-solid conservative, he knows how to reach across the aisle and make common cause with those with whom he disagrees.
These are leadership qualities that are sorely needed in Washington today. President Obama promised a great deal. He has had his chance. The results are visible for all to see. It is time for a new beginning. It is time for Mitt Romney.
N.B. I actually have a Perot for President button, which I found in my mom's jewelry box after her death and have been wearing around.
At the same time, and not unrelated, is the extraordinary explosion of federal deficits and federal debt. In the last four years during Obama’s presidency, he’s added around $5 trillion to our national debt, more than any previous president. This was accomplished by successive federal budgets that each ran deficits exceeding $1 trillion a year. It is this massive deficit spending that threatens to undermine our future standard of living. To pay for our government’s massive debts, Washington’s profligacy, our children and grandchildren will be paying interest and principal on the nation’s debt for untold years into the future. That is wrong. It’s not the way America ought to be.
Even as we have engaged in runaway domestic spending, the country has been put on the path to massive cuts in the defense budget. President Obama’s own Secretary of Defense has called the proposed cuts “devastating” to our nation’s security. History teaches that the price of military weakness always exceeds the price of preparedness. And yet at a moment when turbulence is sweeping critical regions of the world, we are increasingly unprepared. That is wrong. It’s not the way America ought to be.
It is for these reasons that I am endorsing Mitt Romney. He has spent most of his career in the private sector. He understands how jobs are created. He understands how government can get in the way of that process. As a president, he would do what this administration has been unable to do, which is reform our federal government, pare it back, and — most critically — keep it from acting as a brake on economic growth.
Equally important, as a governor, Mitt Romney balanced the budget of his state for four straight years without raising taxes. Writing in all caps is called shouting, and that fact is something that deserves to be shouted from the rooftops. I should add that Gov. Romney accomplished this feat while working with a legislature that was overwhelmingly under the control of the Democratic Party in one of the most liberal states in the country. In short, although he is a rock-solid conservative, he knows how to reach across the aisle and make common cause with those with whom he disagrees.
These are leadership qualities that are sorely needed in Washington today. President Obama promised a great deal. He has had his chance. The results are visible for all to see. It is time for a new beginning. It is time for Mitt Romney.
N.B. I actually have a Perot for President button, which I found in my mom's jewelry box after her death and have been wearing around.
Tuesday Links
Re-Usable Toilet Paper.
The Five Worst Sounds in the Universe.
Oscar Wilde was born 158 years ago today.
Browse like Bond: web browsing without leaving a trace.
Monstrous, Angelic, and Unusual Bridge Sculptures.
Robbing Banks: Crime Does Pay – But Not Very Much.
The Five Worst Sounds in the Universe.
Oscar Wilde was born 158 years ago today.
Browse like Bond: web browsing without leaving a trace.
Monstrous, Angelic, and Unusual Bridge Sculptures.
Robbing Banks: Crime Does Pay – But Not Very Much.
Classy Broad Award goes to: Octomom Got Drunk And Breastfed 2 Baby Dolls Onstage At Drag Show
More details here. I'll err on the side of caution and call this NSFW.
Oscar Wilde was born 158 years ago today
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
- Oscar Wilde (The Portrait of Mr. W. H.)
Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
- Wilde ("The Soul of Man Under Socialism," Fortnightly Review, February 1891)
A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
- Wilde (his famous definition of a cynic in Lady Windermere's Fan)
Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word.
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword.
- Wilde. (The Ballad of Reading Gaol, Pt. 1, St. 7)
And the wild regrets, and the bloody sweats,
None knew so well as I:
For he who lives more lives than one
More deaths than one must die.
- Ibid., Pt. 3, St. 37
Like a many-coloured humming top, he was at once a bewilderment and a balance. He was so fond of being many-sided that among his sides he even admitted the right side. He loved so much to multiply his souls that he had among them one soul at least that was saved.
- G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) (of Oscar Wilde, in October 1909)
Today is the 158th anniversary of the birth in Dublin of Irish poet, dramatist, and wit Oscar (Fingal O'Flahertie Wills) Wilde (1854-1900) to unconventional parents, both writers. Wilde attended Oxford and became a cult figure in the cause of art for art's sake while pursuing a career as a poet and playwright. His most famous plays are the witty comedies, Lady
WIndermere's Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893), and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), and he is also remembered for a single novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891).* Wilde was a controversial figure on the late Victorian literary scene, and his outrageous wit and bizarre behavior earned him many enemies. Eventually, he served a two-year prison term for homosexuality, which resulted in his two poetic masterpieces, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898) and De Profundis (published 1905). After his release in 1897 from prison, the experience of which left him a broken man, Wilde spent the last several years of his life in Paris. The inscription on his tomb in the Pére Lachaise cemetery there is drawn from Part 4 of The Ballad of Reading Gaol:
"And alien tears will fill for him
Pity's long-broken urn,
For his mourners will be outcast men,
And outcasts always mourn.")
* N.B. Wilde's play Salome (1893), his version of the biblical story about the step-daughter of King Herod and John the Baptist, was adapted by Austrian writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929) for the libretto of Richard Strauss's 1905 opera of the same name - a major landmark of early 20th-century opera. Here's Ljuba Kazarnovskaya in the "Dance of the Seven Veils" from the opera, which is both an orchestral showpiece and a great piece of theater:
The iconic image of Oscar Wilde:
His grave in Paris, designed by Sir Jacob Epstein:
Taken from Ed's Quotation of the Day, only available via email. If you'd like to be added to his list, leave your email address in the comments.
- Oscar Wilde (The Portrait of Mr. W. H.)
Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
- Wilde ("The Soul of Man Under Socialism," Fortnightly Review, February 1891)
A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
- Wilde (his famous definition of a cynic in Lady Windermere's Fan)
Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word.
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword.
- Wilde. (The Ballad of Reading Gaol, Pt. 1, St. 7)
And the wild regrets, and the bloody sweats,
None knew so well as I:
For he who lives more lives than one
More deaths than one must die.
- Ibid., Pt. 3, St. 37
Like a many-coloured humming top, he was at once a bewilderment and a balance. He was so fond of being many-sided that among his sides he even admitted the right side. He loved so much to multiply his souls that he had among them one soul at least that was saved.
- G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) (of Oscar Wilde, in October 1909)
Today is the 158th anniversary of the birth in Dublin of Irish poet, dramatist, and wit Oscar (Fingal O'Flahertie Wills) Wilde (1854-1900) to unconventional parents, both writers. Wilde attended Oxford and became a cult figure in the cause of art for art's sake while pursuing a career as a poet and playwright. His most famous plays are the witty comedies, Lady
WIndermere's Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893), and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), and he is also remembered for a single novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891).* Wilde was a controversial figure on the late Victorian literary scene, and his outrageous wit and bizarre behavior earned him many enemies. Eventually, he served a two-year prison term for homosexuality, which resulted in his two poetic masterpieces, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898) and De Profundis (published 1905). After his release in 1897 from prison, the experience of which left him a broken man, Wilde spent the last several years of his life in Paris. The inscription on his tomb in the Pére Lachaise cemetery there is drawn from Part 4 of The Ballad of Reading Gaol:
"And alien tears will fill for him
Pity's long-broken urn,
For his mourners will be outcast men,
And outcasts always mourn.")
* N.B. Wilde's play Salome (1893), his version of the biblical story about the step-daughter of King Herod and John the Baptist, was adapted by Austrian writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929) for the libretto of Richard Strauss's 1905 opera of the same name - a major landmark of early 20th-century opera. Here's Ljuba Kazarnovskaya in the "Dance of the Seven Veils" from the opera, which is both an orchestral showpiece and a great piece of theater:
The iconic image of Oscar Wilde:
His grave in Paris, designed by Sir Jacob Epstein:
Taken from Ed's Quotation of the Day, only available via email. If you'd like to be added to his list, leave your email address in the comments.
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