Thursday, July 11. 2013
 Opium, gin, and Soma: There’s a Pill for That
Roger Kimball goes fishing
Related: How Big Government Erodes Quality of Life
Documents Detail the Department of Justice’s Role in Organizing Trayvon Martin Protests
Small town America: Remington, U.S.A.
How to answer questions like a White House press secretary
Failure to Rescue: How FDR hurt Jewish would-be immigrants
'The Collaboration: Hollywood’s Pact With Hitler’
Obama's Sex Harassment Policy for Colleges:
Unauthorized,
and Very Likely Unconstitutional - See more at:
http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2013/07/obamaharrasspolicy.html#sthash.fyFhWTAA.dpuf
Dr. Carson: Restoring plain and civil speech to politics - Breaking speech taboos reinforces the power of
persuasion
Just when you think that the EPA cannot possibly get any more idiotic…
Britain set to privatize its Royal Mail postal service
Wednesday, July 10. 2013
On Immigration, Strong Words
Mourning the Birds and the Bees
Fear and Loathing at Commerce - How a simple computer bug was mistaken for an act of war.
D.C. Council poised to chase off 900 jobs because they don’t like Wal-Mart, so there
Charter Schools and Their Enemies - Why undermine institutions that have benefited thousands of city students?
Early photos of the Middle East
A brief version of Glenn Reynold's Ham Sandwich Nation: Due Process When Everything is a Crime
Tuesday, July 9. 2013
Piano Lessons With The Maharaja of the Keyboard
That will give anybody piano-envy. Magic.
Five men stuck in a tree surrounded by Sumatran tigers for four days
Another ObamaCare Tax That Is Bad for Your Health - Venture capital is drying up for medical-device startups facing the new 2.3% levy.
Feds add Greek yogurt to school lunches
Gasland Director Presents Anti-Fracking Hoax as Evidence in New Film
Why Obamacare Threatens Immigration Reform - In delaying the employer mandate, Obama shows his disregard for the rule of law.
Colorado Baker Faces Up to a Year in Jail for Not Baking Cake for Gay Wedding
Patty-cake, patty-cake, baker-man....
George Will: 'What ObamaCare Requires For it to Work - Mass Irrationality'
Matt Ridley gave up on climate change
Who’s a journalist?
We are journalists
TV Is Americans' Main Source of News - Preferred news source varies by age, education, and politics, among other factors
The Year of Confirmed Suspicions, Immigration Edition
France's Big Brother, by contrast with the United States, is totally illegal
A secret thanks to librarians
How much do you appreciate people who want to raise your awareness?
Hey, New York: It was really only $750/hr
Same price as a fancy lawyer
Buchanan: Why the Reagan Democrats Departed
Sultan: Egypt is never going to get any better
Small banks can't afford Dodd-Frank compliance staff
Related, from a farmer: “I can fight the bugs, I can fight the lack of rain, but when the guy comes with a clipboard what are you going to do?”
Sunday, July 7. 2013
Everything possible is going wrong: White House Down, Obama Version
Is it incompetence, bad luck, or by plan?
Suddenly, unexpectedly, we have too many lobsters. I doubt that the lobster community would agree with that.
A few years ago, the cyclical decline in lobsters was blamed on global warming. Our local lobster, Homarus americanus, is the largest crustacean in the world, lives in cold water, and many people consider it a tasty treat. So do Striped Bass.
I think they are fun to eat once in a while, but there are many seafoods I prefer to lobster. If you want lobster, my advice is to get the biggest ones you can find. The bigger the lobster, the higher the meat/shell ratio and the more cost-efficient it is.
Phone the seafood market and ask them to steam a 5-pounder for you. There will be plenty of leftover lobster meat for sandwiches or lobster salad the next day.
Saturday, July 6. 2013
A series of Condell talks.
Just wait a minute between each presentation. Good fun on a warm day. He is indeed a passionate and entertaining atheist, but that is not his main theme.
Dr. Helen: Six Reasons Why Men Are Avoiding Marriage
She says she is "essentially honest."
Colorized History
Always lots of gems at American Digest
Grilling Over Charcoal Is Objectively, Scientifically Better Than Grilling Over Gas
I agree. In fact, I use a charcoal base with wood on top.
2 films, one about pop background singers and one about Breughel
I guarantee that you will love this
From a gay guy: Gay Marriage: “What-The-F- -Ever.”:
Every day American culture is a little more like a Black Mass against nature and manhood and anything decent or beautiful or noble or worth saving. Western Civilization has become a Black Mass for Western Civilization. Everything our better fathers believed in has been spit on and placed like a tainted Host between the yeasty thighs of a giggling whore.
In some formerly great nations, like England, I could probably be jailed for “hate speech” even writing that.
Kimball: July 4, 2013: Thinking about the Summer of 1776
The State’s Case Against the State - Who in his right mind would ever hire George Zimmerman’s
prosecutors?
EPA Growth Knows No Limits
Hinkle: Commit any felonies lately?
Drudge:
ONLY 47% OF ADULTS HAVE FULL-TIME JOB...
Longest Stretch of 7.5%+ Unemployment on Record...
Krauthammer: Obama’s Global-Warming Folly - No, Mr. President, we don’t need a war on coal.
I don't mind the guy being on his sailboat, but why lie about it?
... it turns out there’s a reason they call it “jailbait,” after all.
Hannan: Those greedy frackers
The top 5 lies about fracking
How Hate Facts Kill Scientific Inquiry:
Academic outsiders seldom grasp the personal consequences of expressing hate facts. The penalties are especially grim for those who mistakenly soldier on marshalling yet more solid evidence for their "hate." Nor can distinguished academics escape the anti-hate rage. In fact, it seems the more renowned the messenger, the greater the indignation, a perfect strategy to intimidate those with less prestige.
The world famous Harvard professor Edward O. Wilson was physically assaulted and repeatedly harassed for his work on sociobiology. Noble Prize winning geneticist James Watson suffered a similar fate when he said that according to his reading of the research literature, low IQ among sub-Saharan Africans Africa limited their economic progress (he also emphasized his unease about that conclusion, but this hardly helped). The American Sociological Association's campaign once tried to excommunicate James S. Coleman after his infamous report on schools' limited ability to boost academic achievement.
Wednesday, July 3. 2013
Kenyon College's young Andrew Pochter was tragically uneducated in the existence of evil and malice. I do not blame Kenyon for that. It is a wonderful school which is not overly-steeped in moonbatism.
That kumbaya stuff is not "idealistic," it is playing with fire and in denial of human nature. Andrew Pochter: Murdered in Cairo
Related, Egypt: Epidemic of Sexual Violence - At Least 91 Attacks in 4 Days; Government Neglect Means Impunity Rules.
Is this fascinating country ready for representative rule? The Egyptian army always seems to be the only half-sane part of the government.
Tuesday, July 2. 2013
Media and academic elites prefer to focus on the old South while a new one marches on.
It is rising again.
Article here.
Traditionally first-timers have accounted for around 40 percent of purchases in the resale market. But in May, according to the National Association of Realtors, they were just 28 percent, down from 29 percent in April and 34 percent a year ago.
Big deal? Yes. If predominantly young, first-time purchasers are not entering the home ownership pipeline at anywhere near their traditional rate, at some point the system begins to choke...
Well, many figure that owning property is just a money pit anyway. Truth be told, my place has been an excellent investment, but I would never sell it. I'll die here. Where else? It's home. And the bank still owns 1/3rd of it anyway.
Even though I am opposed to the mortgage interest tax deduction, I am not retarded. I would never pay off a mortgage unless to get a better one.
Traditionally
first-timers have accounted for around 40 percent of purchases in the
resale market. But in May, according to the National Association of
Realtors, they were just 28 percent, down from 29 percent in April and
34 percent a year ago.
Big deal? Yes. If predominantly young,
first-time purchasers are not entering the home ownership pipeline at
anywhere near their traditional rate, at some point the system begins to
choke. - See more at:
http://bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/2013/06/student_debt_flunking_many_first_time_home_buyers#sthash.BXSGcD7E.dpuf
Traditionally
first-timers have accounted for around 40 percent of purchases in the
resale market. But in May, according to the National Association of
Realtors, they were just 28 percent, down from 29 percent in April and
34 percent a year ago.
Big deal? Yes. If predominantly young,
first-time purchasers are not entering the home ownership pipeline at
anywhere near their traditional rate, at some point the system begins to
choke. - See more at:
http://bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/2013/06/student_debt_flunking_many_first_time_home_buyers#sthash.yeVwqfD2.dpuf
Traditionally
first-timers have accounted for around 40 percent of purchases in the
resale market. But in May, according to the National Association of
Realtors, they were just 28 percent, down from 29 percent in April and
34 percent a year ago.
Big deal? Yes. If predominantly young,
first-time purchasers are not entering the home ownership pipeline at
anywhere near their traditional rate, at some point the system begins to
choke. - See more at:
http://bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/2013/06/student_debt_flunking_many_first_time_home_buyers#sthash.yeVwqfD2.dpuf
Pic above via Ace
Green Fail: New York Gives Up on Hybrid Buses Textaholics
Thanks for nothing, college! The studies extolling college's virtues are
outdated and misguided. Here's what's really happening to Millennials
Do you know what the Deep Web is?
Bloomberg: Frisk more black guys
Gitmo: Inmates running the asylum
Poll of Latino voters: Hillary 66, Rubio 28
Free Justin Carter Now The 19-year-old has been in prison since March for the crime of sarcasm.
Washington State’s bravest politician: Tells teachers to stop whining in open letter.
Noonan: Immigration: A Retrospective
The ObamaCare Flack at Your Dinner Table
Reynolds’ Law: “Subsidizing the markers of status doesn’t produce the character traits that result in that status; it undermines them.”
Arab Spring Prompts Arab-Israeli Christians to Reevaluate Israel
Can We Still Call Turkey Civilized?
A Young Jewish Man's Lethal Arab Spring Delusion:
Prochter attended Kenyon College, where he was a religious studies major, who co-managed the college's Hillel, and had just completed his sophomore year. Prior to his fateful sojourn in Egypt, Pochter interned for AMIDEAST, an American nonprofit that focuses on the Middle East and North Africa, and studied regional politics. His mother, Elizabeth Pochter, maintained that her son read poems to his girlfriend about the "Israeli-Palestinian conflict," and insisted that somehow the endless jihad against The Jewish State, "wasn't just about some detached war to him, but a struggle that he passionately wanted to resolve." Elizabeth Pochter added, according to a statement by Kenyon College, that her Jewish son,
...was a person who didn't see the world as separate nations, but a collection of vibrant cultures.
Is The Arab-Israeli Conflict Really About Economics?
Oh Brother… Obama Warns Africans If They Get Air Conditioning the “Planet Will Boil Over”
Government takes broader role as school food police
Study: Electric Cars No Greener than Gasoline Vehicles
"Upon closer consideration, moving from petroleum-fueled vehicles to electric cars starts to appear tantamount to shifting from one brand of cigarettes to another," Zehner, a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, said.
Zehner, once an electric car enthusiast who has since changed his position and become an activist looking at a number of so-called green initiatives, is the author of the book "Green Illusions."
Like we say, electric cars run on evil, evil coal.
WH Touts Kenyan Program to Obtain National ID Cards for Voter Registration
Monday, July 1. 2013
Same-sex couples flood immigration offices for green cards
How You Can Gain 10 pounds in 5 days
Oligeeks Head Down to the Farm
Not from The Onion: Horrified Bird Watchers See Rare White Throated Needletail Whacked By Wind Turbine
How and Why The Media Got It So Wrong – The Zimmerman Case – Packaged and Sold By Ryan Julison, Benjamin Crump, Natalie Jackson
NYC: We would become a 4-year-long dick joke.
Let’s Divorce Marriage from the Government
Obama's Climate Five-Year Plan
Goodwin: Can the United States survive the remaining 3 1/2 years of the Obama presidency?
European officials lash out at new NSA spying report
Obama, in South Africa, Tells U.S. Media to 'Behave'
Marco Rubio 2009: “You cannot grant amnesty”
Is
the labor market return to higher education finally falling? - See more
at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/06/is-the-labor-market-return-to-education-finally-falling.html#sthash.hzwRNwcU.dpuf
Is
the labor market return to higher education finally falling? - See more
at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/06/is-the-labor-market-return-to-education-finally-falling.html#sthash.hzwRNwcU.dpuf
Sunday, June 30. 2013
 A friend drove a Tesla msp85 around 100 miles last weekend. The guy knows cars. Said it was the best car he had ever driven, by a long shot.
He said the power, comfort, and design were stunning. Goes about 400 miles before a 6-8-hour recharge with the super charging device. Consumer Reports says it's the best car they have ever tested.
I don't want one, even without the $125,000 price tag of that model. I'd be happy to try one out, though.
Each Tesla is made to order. When you think about it, they basically run on coal but the coal-burning is remote.
As I noted in yesterday's morning links, we've recently seen a reprehensible display of cheap sensationalism from muckrakers claiming that the 1996 crash of Flight 800 has all been a massive conspiracy.
Speaking of hoaxes and conspiracies, you might have heard that some glory-seeking and/or mentally-deficient morons are claiming the explosion aboard Flight 800 back in '96 was — and I hope you're sitting down — a government cover-up! That's right, it was a missile, either accidentally fired from a U.S. warship during exercises or a deliberate act of terrorism; your choice. And the government is keeping it all a secret because of, er, um, because it would be really-really embarrassing for everybody on the international stage. That part — along with who fired the deadly missile — remains a little hazy on the details.
Regardless, this delightful little theory has the same problem the 9/11 'Truthers' had. By the time you figure in all of the people involved in the investigation over three years, plus all of the outside people like those operating nearby airport radar units that tracked the crash, you are counting upon hundreds of people to keep silent for the rest of time eternal. In an age when everyone's 15 minutes of fame is just a YouTube video away, isn't it interesting that not one person has ever come forward, protected by shadowy face and encrypted voice, and said "I was working for the NSA/FBI/CIA when Flight 800 was shot down, and here's what really happened that fateful day." Not one.
The problem is that conspiracy nuts are exactly like global warming alarmists. You can show them graphs and videos all day long but it won't do the slightest bit of good. But, like AGW, it's still fun to try.
To wit:
— Not brought down by enemy fire, check!
— Not brought down by friendly fire, check!
— Not an external explosion at all, check!
— Gas tank blew up from an electrical short circuit allowing high voltage to enter a low-voltage line, check!
— Flaming fuselage, still under power, streaked upwards after the nose cone broke off as witnessed by hundreds on the ground, check!
— Sensationalistic muckrakers opening old wounds for nothing but greed dragged out to the street and publicly flogged, unchecked!
The full episode is here.
One thing to note is that while it mentions that a handful of gas tanks have blown up over the years (lightning, sabotage, engine falling off), electrical short wasn't on the list. The implication is that this was a pretty rare event and that the equally-sensationalistic documentary continually screaming about how this could happen at any moment to any airplane in the sky (!!!) was quite a bit overblown.
And the same might be said of Boeing's reaction. While it's certainly caring of them to put in an 'inerting' system, all that'll do is add another quarter-ton of weight to the plane; weight that'll have to be compensated for somewhere else, possibly impairing the integrity of the aircraft. Merely replacing the wiring would have accomplished the same end. When they talk about the 'chain of events' that lead up to an airline disaster, about nineteen factors had to line up perfectly in order for the high-voltage line to arc into the low-voltage gas tank line in the first place, plus the perfect abrasion on the gas tank sending unit allowing the spark to occur at all.
On the other hand, this raises a key point. While the FAA has been criticized over the years for only taking action after a horrific accident has occurred, this is obviously a highly unjust complaint because it's simply impossible to predict everything that could go wrong on such a complex craft and the tremendous pressures it faces at altitude.
But when something does go wrong, the FAA is to be credited with making damn sure it won't happen again. Glancing over the Mayday airline disaster documentaries indicates that, with one glaring exception, not one accident whose mechanical cause was even suspected ever repeated itself. In many cases it was equivalent to the now-mandatory inerting system; that is, probably a serious overreaction, but the bottom — and only — line is that the tragedy hasn't happened again.
The one exception was the rear door popping off a DC-10, way back in '72. The FAA took the manufacturer's word for it that it'd be fixed, but two years later it happened again, this time with the explosive decompression taking out the plane's hydraulics and a loss of 346 lives.
That's when the FAA learned a valuable little lesson in 'trust' and started officially covering the bases, with the resultant sterling record of no repeats. There will always be the occasional piece of fuselage ripping off because of some metal rot that no one spotted; the occasional bird strike as well as the hopefully-rare control tower mix-up resulting in either an in-air or on-ground collision, but the crafts, themselves, seem as solid as they'll ever be.
The last stat I read:
You have a greater chance of being stung to death by bees than you do of dying in an airplane. So, just stay from any bee hives and, statistically, you should be good to go!
Saturday, June 29. 2013
We linked Megan McArdle's piece on the Oregon study a while ago: It's possible that medical insurance doesn't make us healthier.
Why would it? Does fire insurance prevent fires? The main purpose of medical insurance is as bankruptcy insurance.
Bird Dog's a little busy this weekend so I'll be doing today's morning links. I believe he and the missus took off for the annual Two-Seed-In-The-Spirit Predestinarian Baptist All-Gospel Revival & Review that's currently playing in downtown Connecticut. Those New Englanders really know how to shake a tambourine, don't they?
By the way, did I ever mention I own one of these?
It's a Guild F-212, a somewhat rare animal. I bought mine in 1968. What makes it special is that it's a 12-string but it doesn't have that usual monstrous 12-string body. It also has a standard 6-string neck, so while it's twice as hard to learn how to play, once one does, one can just fly because the fingers don't have to move twice as far as on a regular wide 12-string neck. It's a real honey.
But enough about me! Let's get to the links!
Interesting News
Men With Guitars Deemed More Attractive
Hey, what a funny coincidence!
U.S. Discovers 'Miracle Drug' — Film at 11
So, along with curing athlete's foot, gout, lumbago, cancer, dandruff and other assorted ills, we can add to the list...
Marijuana: The Next Diabetes Drug?
And, in what I'm sure many will consider the height of irony...
Study: Cannabis May Prevent Brain Damage
Get the low-down on the evil killer weed here.
The Evolution of Computer Virii
Computer Virus v1.0 (Windows):
Malware Infects 30 Percent of Computers in U.S.
Computer Virus v2.0 (Apple/Mac):
Apple Releases Major Security Update for OS X
Apple to Support Staff: Don't Discuss Mac Malware
Researchers Find Signs of Zombie Macs
Android, Apple Face Growing Cyberattacks
Apple is the New Hacker Bulls-Eye
Computer Hacking Group Targets Apple in Latest Attack
Apple Macs Hit by Scareware Attacks
Malware Attack Specifically Targets Mac Users
Apple Macintoshes Targeted by Porn-Based Computer Virus
Hidden Security Worms May Loom in Apple's Future
New Trojan Swipes Mac Passwords
Kaspersky Labs: Apple's Security 10 Years Behind Microsoft
Apple Triggers 'Religious' Reaction in Fans' Brains, Report Says
Is Apple Fandom a Religion?
Are Apple Product Launches Like Religious Revivals?
Managers Can't be Afraid to Toss Out Bad Apples
And now, Computer Virus v3.0:
Smartphone Hacking Comes of Age, Hitting US Victims
But even as smartphone users in Asia are beginning to suffer exploding bills and emptied bank accounts at the hands of hackers, U.S. users largely remain safe and blissfully unaware of the gathering threat.
Not for long.
As famed author Thomas Wolfe once said, you're either on the bus or you're off the bus. Staying a step ahead of the smartphone hackers sounds like a good bus to be on.
The Fawning MSM (part MMMDLXVII)
It's just disgusting the way the press protects the White House when a Dem is the current occupant. Remember all that talk about WMD and the Iraq War back in the Bush days?
Well, fifty thousand lives were recently lost due to a horrific WMD attack, but do you see any mention of it in the press? Of course not. Apparently, if it doesn't happen in Obama's own back yard, it's just not worth bothering with. But tell that to the fifty thousand innocents who were gassed to death!
Memorial Scheduled for Sunday at Wilsonville
Related: another horrific WMD attack on innocents reported here.
Asking The Toughies
Question: How do you embarrass famed blogger John Hinderaker of Power Line blog?
Answer: Link to his latest article on global warming:
Global Warming Alarmism In Twilight
The one teensy, eensy little flaw in this otherwise idyllic scenario is that it escaped the attention of almost everybody else on the friggin' planet.
From Live Science just a few days ago:
Without Action, Warming to Decimate Species Diversity
Roughly one third of common and widespread animal species and over half of plant species will disappear from a large percentage of their current ranges if society does not take action on climate change, the research team predicted.
It's a good thing they're not stooping to wild hyperbole, isn't it? The point is, this was approximately the twentieth article I've read with the term 'climate change' in it since John's post came out three weeks ago. All you have to do is click on every link that has anything to do with the natural world and there's an 80% chance it'll be there. I was warning about such complacency three years ago. The juggernaut continues its remorseless pace and these twilight articles do more damage than good.
As far as the decimation of species goes, I'm with the Darwinists on this one:
The amusing side of the "Global warming will cause mass extinctions" claim is that we have absolutely no idea how many species there are to begin with. So, if you don't have a starting number, how do you know when there are "less"? Estimates range anywhere from 100 million species to 300 million, depending upon how far down the microscopic scale you go. When it comes to actual critters, by far the majority of species are insects, traditionally the hardiest of all creatures.
And, of course, why a temperature rise of a few degrees would reduce the number of species is never quite explained. Even if we assumed they couldn't adapt (and any believer in Darwinism would agree that's a pretty big if), for every species that finds it just a wee bit too warm and dies off, another heretofore lesser species will find the warmer temp a blessing and thrive.
Nature's real big on that 'balance' stuff.
Indeed.
Never A Dull Moment Dept
Speaking of hoaxes and conspiracies, you might have heard that some glory-seeking and/or mentally-deficient morons are claiming the explosion aboard Flight 800 back in '96 was — and I hope you're sitting down — a government cover-up! That's right, it was a missile, either accidentally fired from a U.S. warship during exercises or a deliberate act of terrorism; your choice. And the government is keeping it all a secret because of, er, um, because it would be really-really embarrassing for everybody on the international stage. That part — along with who fired the deadly missile — remains a little hazy on the details.
Regardless, this delightful little theory has the same problem the 9/11 'Truthers' had. By the time you figure in all of the people involved in the investigation over three years, plus all of the outside people like those operating nearby airport radar units that tracked the crash, you are counting upon hundreds of people to keep silent for the rest of time eternal. In an age when everyone's 15 minutes of fame is just a YouTube video away, isn't it interesting that not one person has ever come forward, protected by shadowy face and encrypted voice, and said "I was working for the NSA/FBI/CIA when Flight 800 was shot down, and here's what really happened that fateful day." Not one.
3 Reasons to Doubt the TWA Flight 800 Conspiracy Theory
Flight 800 Conspiracy? Where's Proof?
Disaster Buff Corner
Speaking of mysterious airline disasters, for those of you who enjoyed my article on Flight 447, the most recent 'greatest airline disaster mystery', there's a seriously in-depth article here on the loss of the USS Scorpion in 1968, the 'greatest sea disaster mystery' of its time.
On a semi-related note, right after Benghazi I read some comment about how it reminded the guy of the USS Pueblo, the first U.S. Navy ship to surrender in 150 years and a story quickly swept under the rug by an ever-obliging MSM with Democrat Lyndon Johnson as prez, and I thought the guy made a good point. I eventually blundered across an article on the parallel here.
Political News
Remember that guy landing a Cessna in Red Square a number of years ago? Well, some activist named Harry Atwood landed a biplane (of all things) on the White House lawn in order to prove how poor our security was, and he certainly succeeded. There's no question that if he'd been a terrorist carrying a small nuclear device, our government would have been paralyzed for years, so it's only right that serious steps be taken.
"I've already implemented a federal mandate entrusted to me by the powers of the Patriot Act whereupon DNA sampling and implanted GPS tracking for all citizens will immediately be implemented," said President Obama to a nation stunned by the near tragedy. "We need to do this for the children."
ACLU president David Shear admitted that he had to side with the president on this issue. "Not only did the Patriot Act grant the power of presidential fiat during such perilous times as this, but the American people are strong and resilient and they're aware small sacrifices must be made in order to have a more secure nation. I'm getting my own implant this afternoon."
The pilot, identified as Harry Atwood of Dayton, OH, was unavailable for comment.
Daring Aviator Lands on White House South Lawn
Daring exit question: Might Harry have been an NSA plant??
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Is America in a Pre-Revolutionary State this July 4th?