VA Viper: 2012-10-14

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.

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.

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.

Holy crap - high school kicker makes 67-yard field goal

Plus this:

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."

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

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.

The Crash of October 19, 25 Years Later

Good post at PowerLine.

Unexpectedly good unemployment stats? Calif. official whose agency under-reported stats was big Obama donor

Read the whole thing at The Daily Caller:

On Oct. 11, the federal government reported that weekly jobless claims were down significantly, suggesting a dramatic national increase in economic growth and a steep decline in layoffs. Jobless claims, according to the Labor Department, had fallen by 30,000 to 339,000, their lowest level since February 2008.

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.

The Empire State Strikes Back: Post-Kelo Eminent Domain Abuse in New York

At Reason, a round-up of eminent domain abuse all over New York.

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.

Deadliest Epidemics in History.

Headstone repossessed after bill unpaid for three years.

Neatorama's Halloween blog.

Mythbusters Greatest Hits

Bollywood: Powerman vs Indian Demon

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.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

“Sounds of Cylons,” as sung by Simon & Garfunkel

via io9.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

French president considering a ban on homework

Harrison Bergeron, please call your office...

For the sake of creating a more level playing field for students who might not have home lives as conducive to productive learning as others, the national — I repeat, not some local or regional government or association or something, but the national — French government is actually floating a plan that would disallow schools from assigning their pupils homework.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Homeschoolers: The Last Radicals

Read the whole thing:

A political class that does not trust people with a Big Gulp is not going to trust them with the minds of children.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Title sequence for The Simpsons done with real actors

via Kottke

Monday, October 15, 2012

Obama's disregard of the Constitution’s limitations on executive power

President Barack Obama is running roughshod over the Constitution, legal scholars say, by disregarding it, changing laws outside the legislative process, and extending federal power in unprecedented ways.

Michelle Obama: We're In A 'Huge Recovery'

“We are seeing right now that we are in the midst of a huge recovery,” the First Lady told WPGC 95.5. “Right? Because of what this president has done.”

The president, she added, had “pulled this economy from the brink of collapse when we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. Now we’re gaining every — throughout most of his presidency, we’ve been adding jobs to this economy because of what he’s been doing. The stock market has doubled. Housing prices are rising. Foreclosure rates are lowering. But in the face of that, you still have people trying to convince us that things aren’t better.”

Dana Loesch's video from yesterday's molestation by the TSA

On the afternoon of October 14th, 2012, TSA agents in terminal four at the Phoenix Airport forced me into a private room where their "enhanced screening" included pressing down repeatedly upon the front of my vaginal area.

It began after I was "randomly selected" for an additional screening which consisted of swabbing my hands with paper strips. The strips were then taken to a machine for analysis and an alarm sounded. TSA agents determined that I had a suspicious, possibly explosive, residue on my hands and required another, "enhanced screening."

Read here why these tests are unreliable:
http://danaloeschradio.com/guess-who-gets-to-go-through-airport-security-agai...

I was, of course, aggravated, as we arrived two hours early and already 15 minutes had gone by due to the amount of time I had to wait on agents and the swab. During this time an elderly gentleman behind me and in front of my husband was forced to stand (despite having to use a cane and being unable to do so well alone) and not permitted to lean on anything or given a wheelchair, despite my husband requesting one.

The agents finally gathered my belongings and led me away from the populated security lines to a more secluded area near the private rooms. I asked twice for a public screening and was denied.

They performed the regular pat-down and then the agent informed me that she would be using the front of her hands to "sweep" my groin. She pressed and swept across my crotch three times horizontally and three times vertically. In any other circumstance this would be sexual assault.

The agents themselves were friendly and smiled, yet I was still denied a public screening and no witness of my own present for the screening itself (a second agent was in the room at the time). I had no reason to be angry with the agents themselves, yet I was angry, and still am, at the regulations which require them to routinely violate men, women, and children in the name of a false sense of security.

Read about my similar experience with Providence, RI's TSA here:
http://danaloeschradio.com/a-date-with-the-tsa/

After concluding that I wasn't a terrorist hiding weapons in my vagina, the TSA agents allowed me to go. They also gave me information about pre-check, which they said would help me avoid such procedures.

Unfortunately, pre-check isn't available in all airports and innocent Americans shouldn't be subjected to a full FBI check simply to board a plane. Also, I doubt we would pass the test considering Janet Napolitano put conservatives like me (and many others) on the DHS domestic terror watch list back in April 2009:
http://www.thelibertypapers.org/2009/04/12/homeland-security-document-targets...

They also did it to our vets:
http://americaswatchtower.com/2009/04/14/homeland-security-classifies-returni...

The above is video of what happened this afternoon, filmed by my husband. He filmed it vertically so as to avoid detection. They forced me to stop filming, against their own rules (I wasn't impeding the procedure and was not near monitors) last time.

Vote liberty.
www.DanaRadio.com

Fast and Furious: The whistleblower gets canned

“Fast and Furious” whistleblower Vince Cefalu has been fired from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms after 25 years of service. He said he was “served his termination papers Tuesday in a Denny’s parking lot in South Lake Tahoe, California.”

Apparently no one actually responsible for the Fast and Furious outrage needs to worry about losing their jobs.

Obamacare strikes gain: New limits on Flexible Spending Accounts coming Jan. 1

“It is just another example of something Obamacare does and it has no business going there—it is a relatively small offset,” he said.

“Why do that?” he asked.

“You’re just moving dollars around—why not leave people in-charge of their own money? They make better decisions than the government anyway,” he said.

“The FSA turned power back to the purchaser, the patient, that’s where it belongs,” he said.

Jody Deitel, the compliance officer for WageWorks (WAGE-NYSE), a San Mateo, Calif.-based human resources and compensation company, said the changes to the Flexible Spending Accounts are not good health care policy.

“Sadly, because you can only use them for health care expenses, the limit is really going to affect those who really need it the most,” she said. “It will hurt people with chronic illnesses, special needs kids, people with autism, so it’s not really a health care friendly policy—it was a revenue grab,” she said.

The new restrictions mean higher taxes on working Americans and less control over how they manage their own health care and other decisions, she said.

Underground sperm trade thrives in China

The eleven available sperm banks fail to accommodate the population of over 1.3 billion, leaving Chinese women less than satisfied.

Huang, the couple’s donor, channels the DIY ethic and injects the specimen himself. “I will keep my sperm in a small vacuum cup after masturbation, and then inject it into the wife’s body through a plastic injector” he says. He also claims to have much experience in the line of work. So much so that medical professionals are not required to assist in this procedure. Huang has so much belief in his conception abilities, that he recommends sexual intercourse would be his preferred method to success. This should surely restore some faith in expectant couples. And allow their husbands to sleep well.

It would be safe to say that the Chinese law does not cover this nor is this accepted as an advised method of reproducing. So please do not try this at home.

Victor Davis Hanson: The Obama Breaking Point

Worth a read: Millions are feeling liberated and are starting to feel that they have simply had enough of this bunch. In short, it is becoming OK to vote “No, you can’t!”

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Baumgartner’s space jump has already been recreated in Lego

Via Laughing Squid: Here’s Felix Baumgartner’s historic Red Bull Stratos 24 mile jump from the edge of spacebrilliantly recreated using LEGO. The video was created by the Vienna’s ModelMaker Fair which takes place October 25-28.

Why the NFL Can’t Play on Friday and Saturday (and Other Times Congress Interfered with Football)

This season, the NFL added a weekly Thursday night game, which puts professional football on TV three nights a week. Later on, after the bulk of the college football season is over, Saturday will also be in the mix—but for now, the league has to stay away from Friday and Saturday. Why? Because Congress said so.

100 Years Ago Today Teddy Roosevelt Got Shot in the Chest, Then Gave a Speech Anyway

Roosevelt stood in the seat of his automobile to wave at the crowds and Schrank, who was standing in the front row of the crowd, had his shot. He took aim: point-blank, right at Roosevelt’s head. Then three things happened at the same time. A bystander hit Schrank’s arm; Roosevelt’s security detail spotted the gun and leapt from the car; Schrank pulled the trigger. The shot landed squarely in Roosevelt’s chest just as Schrank was tackled and put in a headlock by the bodyguard. Roosevelt is said not to have noticed he was hit until he reached into his overcoat and felt the blood on his fingers.

But it turns out that Teddy’s long-winded speeches saved his life that day: the bullet traveled through a 50-page copy of his prepared speech and the steel eyeglasses case he carried in the same pocket. The bullet was slowed enough not to reach his lung or heart, which Teddy deduced from the absence of blood when he spoke or coughed. He refused to go to a hospital and insisted on giving his speech.

More at Mental Floss.