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Tuesday, February 21. 2012

Moonbattery wonders how many kids will get squished by drivers trying to read the sign

Millennials forced to put lives on hold

I blame Bush

Sex-Changing Treatment for Kids: It's on The Rise

I blame Bush

Can Children Be Manipulated into Eating Their Veggies? How come French children don't need to be experimented upon by psychologists to get them to eat well?

Good news! The Advantages of the Middle-Aged Brain - Despite news reports about cognitive decline starting at 45, the middle-aged brain actually performs better in other ways

Video Games Make Society A Better Place

Apparently, nowadays you can get arrested for leaving a kid home alone...

How To Avoid Adultery When Temptation Is Looking You in the Eye - No one wants to take up permanent residence in Heartbreak Hotel:

Senator Scott Brown Exposes NOAA’s Illicit $300,000 Party Boat

Via Ace:

Mr. Weston spoke of how Tony Blair and his British Labor Party set out to destroy traditional Britain by encouraging mass immigration to ensure a majority that would vote for the Welfare State in perpetuity. Millions of people from around the world were invited to move to Britain. Pamphlets were distributed in Pakistan, for example, urging locals to move to England and go on welfare. And both of these actions were facilitated and were, fed, in part, by post-colonial British guilt. Today, although a native British citizen cannot marry more than one spouse, the United Kingdom pays welfare costs for immigrants with up to four wives and their children.

Hostage crisis? What hostage crisis?

"He knows what's good for you, and he's going to give it to you good and hard."

Fakegate: how the alarmist blogs and mainstream media self destructed

Harvard Prof: What if they're wrong about CO2?

Does it pay to work?

Or how about going onto disability?

Can You Be Fired for Your Genes?

High Real Unemployment Data Reflect Poorly On Obama

White House economic report hides sharp drop in number of working Americans

...what is it that motivates those on the left? Why do they care so deeply about the kind of insurance coverage Catholic employers provide?

Why Capitalism Isn't Going Anywhere - It's the only system known to humanity that increases both growth and freedom.

Why not make other mandates free?

Everything free in America

"Question: Where is the political Left on education reform?

Domestic production eyed as gas prices head toward record-breaking height

Argument preview: The Constitution and lying

Health insurance costs to rise 31% under Obamacare says plan's architect

Duh.

Just weeks after 17-day Hawaii vacation Michelle hits the slopes with daughters on Aspen ski trip

Lifestyles of the rich and famous

The Catholic Betrayal of Religious Freedom

Israel’s Energy Driven Sovereign Wealth Fund is Launched

Market strategist: Policymakers are “one-dimensional, short-termist, bereft of courage”

Mr. Krugman’s unfamiliarity with history is disturbing.

Bookworm:

Many commentators have shuddered at the way in which Republican candidates are stupidly making this election about women’s sexual rights. What they miss is that the whole abortion/contraception issue is a tar baby* that Democrats placed squarely in the Republicans’ path, so that it was impossible for Republicans to avoid.

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 06:29 | Comments (13) | Trackbacks (0)

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Nice boat. thirty two foot Boston Whaler, three 300 HP Verados - pretty nice. Considering that $150,000 of that boat is engines, I'd say they got quite a deal.

Check out the caption on that photo - now that is funny.

#1 Tom Francis on 2012-02-21 07:08 (Reply)

Surely the only treatment kids need to affect a sex change is to change the social environment that constructs their sexuality. (Lysenkoism for people!) No surgery necessary, but if surgical supplements are necessary, I demand sex change for tots be included in Obama- and Romney-care.

#2 ErisGuy on 2012-02-21 08:42 (Reply)

Bird Dog: Harvard Prof: What if they're wrong about CO2?

What if they're wrong about Germ Theory? What if they're wrong about the Theory of Gravity? Then scientists will modify or discard the old theory as required. From the articles:

Mike Stopa: Well, the truth of this issue should be apparent within about 15 years. . .

Heh. This is very similar to the anti-evolution arguments that Darwin's theory will be overturned, going on 150 years now.

Mike Stopa: ...at which point we may be allowed to buy incandescent light bulbs again.

Incandescent bulbs are already old-fashioned, like typewriters or Pong. The only place you will see those is in period movies.

Mike Stopa: In conclusion, global warming is an unchallengeable “consensus” only among those who deeply yearn to save the planet.

Well, no. It's a consensus within the climate science community. That consensus is certainly considered tentative, but most of the current dispute is political and social, not scientific.

#3 Zachriel on 2012-02-21 09:06 (Reply)

"Incandescent bulbs are already old-fashioned, like typewriters or Pong. The only place you will see those is in period movies. "

I disagree. In the '60s, everything was suppose to go plastic and metal, but humans like their natural world so wood now prevails for furniture, panelling, etc. I believe the same will happen with incandescent. It is warmer, more human friendly than the fluorescents, halogens and most LEDs. Humans find the warmer end of the spectrum more pleasant. Which is why we speak of sunrise and sunset in poetry not, the stark light of high noon. Why we even now embrace the light of the wood fire rather than lock it away in a steel box useful only as heat.

The incandescent will remain because it is closer to the hearth and heart of humans.

#3.1 JKB on 2012-02-21 10:31 (Reply)

Bird Dog: Mr. Krugman’s unfamiliarity with history is disturbing.

Donald J. Boudreaux: The budget deficits of 1931 and 1932 represented 52.5 percent and 43.3 percent of total federal expenditures.

Um, no.

Hoover actually ran a surplus in 1930, just as the the banking system was collapsing. He ran a small deficit in 1931 because of severely reduced tax receipts, and only in 1932 did he begin to apply a substantial stimulus. He also imposed tariffs, which exacerbated the problem.

In millions$
Year Receipts Outlays Deficit.
1930 4,058 3320 738.
1931 3,116 3577 -462.
1932 1,924 4659 -2735.
1933 1,997 4598 -3586.

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy09/pdf/hist.pdf

#4 Zachriel on 2012-02-21 09:33 (Reply)

JKB: In the '60s, everything was suppose to go plastic and metal, but humans like their natural world so wood now prevails for furniture, panelling, etc.

You mean "wood", at least for most people.

JKB: I believe the same will happen with incandescent. It is warmer, more human friendly than the fluorescents, halogens and most LEDs.

Incandescents-to-LEDs is like vinyl-to-digital. Sure, there's some old guy somewhere in a basement who still stratches a gemstone across plastic, still thinking he can recreate his buzz from 1967, but everyone else gets their music from the Cloud.

(The slightly red, blackbody distribution of light frequencies from incandescents is more natural than fluorescent, but LEDs will quickly exceed this standard. Do you want flickering firelight for comfort or wavy blue light for contemplation or white light for work? Just say the word.)

#5 Zachriel on 2012-02-21 13:19 (Reply)

Zachriel ... You say "everyone else gets their music from the Cloud." Define this group of "everyone else" please. Perhaps it would be more accurate, and realistic of you to limit your broad statement to "everyone else that I know." There are many of us out here in the real world who do not get our music from the Cloud. Many of us don't even plan to do so in the future.

As for the continued devotion of many of us to incandescent bulbs, I don't plan to give mine up without a fight. As usual, you are making broad blanket statements without a hint of supporting evidence. I'm afraid I can't give credence to statements like that as if they were facts. So far, they are simply opinions.

Marianne

#6 Marianne Matthews on 2012-02-21 13:37 (Reply)

Marianne Matthews: You say "everyone else gets their music from the Cloud."

It was simply a broad, qualitative comment as was clear by comparison to the old hippy clinging to vinyl records. And sure, some people still have rotary phones.

Marianne Matthews: As for the continued devotion of many of us to incandescent bulbs, I don't plan to give mine up without a fight.

And that ol' hippy ain't gonna give up his vinyl records either!

#6.1 Zachriel on 2012-02-21 14:11 (Reply)

re: unreadable traffic signs

Once, while my wife was driving us along a well travelled highway near our home, I decided to count the number of traffic signs that our local highway department had posted along the side of the road, mainly in order to pass the idle time, unaccustomed as I was to being a passenger rather than a driver. Along a 5-mile stretch of road, I estimated there was an average of one sign every 6 feet. Traveling at the speed limit of 60 feet per second, that gives a driver just 1/10th of a second to read each of more than 4,000 signs. Seriously now, how is any driver expected to read or even notice so many traffic signs and warnings? No doubt a sign maker who's a relative of some bureaucrat in our local DOT is probably getting very rich from this misguided effort at traffic "safety." However, I also suspect that such signage clutter is at least as distracting and ultimately hazardous to drivers as is texting on a cell phone. You just have to wonder what these people are thinking when the signs go up.

#7 Agent Cooper on 2012-02-21 14:04 (Reply)

Zachriel ... Why should the "ol' hippy" give up his vinyl records? Or, for that matter, why should I give up my incandescent bulbs? Since incandescent bulbs were first developed one hundred years ago by Thomas Edison, the free market system has been developing and refining their incandescent offerings to give us almost any kind of artificial light we need, from chandelier lighting to Itty Bitty Booklights. They give us safe, benign illumination, low in cost and free of drawbacks. Now you want to substitute a relatively untried kind of light that costs much more per bulb and which may do such things as damage or fade art works, cause headaches and maybe even epileptic fits to the users. At this point the results of using the LED bulbs may present unknown hazards.
Apparently, you feel that the LEDs and CFLs should be forced on us, since we are not buying them fast enough to suit you.
Apparently, you don't understand the free market system. Under this system, a new product is developed and then placed on the market, for consumers to decide whether it is useful to them, or too expensive, or damaging in some other way. Most importantly, *They*, the consumers, get to choose whether they want to purchase the new product. The product must stand, or fall, on its own excellence, or lack of it. When you insert the fell hand of the Government into the mix, you get dictatorship, not free enterprise. And Adam Smith is going to hate you. If he were still alive, that is.

Marianne

#8 Marianne Matthews on 2012-02-21 16:20 (Reply)

Marianne Matthews: Why should the "ol' hippy" give up his vinyl records?

No reason other than quality and convenience. But if you mean why should he be required to give them up, there is no reason.

Marianne Matthews: Or, for that matter, why should I give up my incandescent bulbs?

To save energy. If you mean why should you be required to give them up, that's a question for the democratic process to decide. But consider this. Rather than conserving energy, the U.S. has spent the last generation on a policy to use military force and propping up authoritarian governments in order to guarantee its flow of oil. That policy has had profound ramifications for U.S. security and for the world.

#8.1 Zachriel on 2012-02-21 19:28 (Reply)

Zachriel ... So you want to mandate that we give up incandescent bulbs "to save energy." You say that I should "be required" to give them up by "the democratic process." All of this indicates to me that you are a member of The Busybody Brigade, the one that is convinced that they know far better than I do what I should do.
If I live in a small house, which I do [1800 square feet] and I pay my electricity bills regularly [which I do] what business is it of yours what I do with the electricity which I pay for? Do I tell you what to do with your money and time? I might suggest to you that before you reach conclusions not supported with facts that you do a little research on the whole question of energy. I suggest that you look into the shale gas and oil boom. The Wall Street Journal did a whole section on these proven oil and gas reserves which we have within our own borders. You can probably find quite a bit about this online, if you choose to be superficial about it. If you want more solid information, The American Petroleum Institute has a lot of very interesting material on shale gas and oil, and will be happy to help you if you genuinely want more facts. But, if you prefer, like Al Gore, to continue bloviating about the energy industry, then no one can help you.

Your choice. I've always chosen to research, myself.

Marianne

#9 Marianne Matthews on 2012-02-21 21:57 (Reply)

Went out and bought a package of 8 incandescent 100W light bulbs today just to annoy any AGW supporters who might be offended by this announcement. The cost of the package was the same as one "long life" CFL of allegedly the same lumens that was located on the next shelf at the store. Just kidding. Actually, I bought the light bulbs because it's everyone's duty to help combat the oncoming Little Ice Age. The longer we can postpone its arrival, the better it is for all mankind.

#10 Agent Cooper on 2012-02-21 21:59 (Reply)

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Tuesday, February 21. 2012

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