Friday, June 7. 2013
 FYI: Drowning people do not splash
They usually just slip under, quietly
Top Science Journal Rebukes Harvard's Top Nutritionist
More junk science. I never believe anything nutrition experts say. Now they tell us that broccoli causes cancer. Sheesh.
U.K. Had the Coldest Spring Since 1962
Inside The New Marble-Filled World Trade Center Subway Station
The Left wages war on Father's Day
The War on Pot Is Both Insanely Racist and Insanely Expensive, New Report Says
It should not be illegal. If you want to be a stoner, then be one. Or be a drunk. It's a free country. Good luck finding a job, though.
Argentina: A Textbook Case Of Government Gone Mad
The people don't care. They ignore the government and the laws. They're Italians.
The IRS Can’t Locate It’s Own Receipts
Criminal Unions: The Perfect ‘Government Union Fat Cat’ Storyi
Sultan: The Apotheosis of Chris Christie
The Hidden Jobless Disaster - At the present slow pace of job growth, it will
require more than a decade to get back to full employment defined by
prerecession standards.
Meet one of the people Joe Biden says lives ‘in fear and in the shadows’
Fixing California: Is the dream becoming a nightmare?
Kimball on Richwine: The assault on truth continues
NYT: President Obama’s Dragnet
Meet PRISM / US-984XN - The US Government's Internet Espionage Super Operation
Makes people feel paranoid
US Mainstream Media Fail to Break Even One of Four Obama Scandals
Hinderaker:
What level of domestic data collection is currently engaged in by what government agencies? And what degree of privacy do Americans want and expect in their digital and electronic communications?
Is Big Data turning government into 'Big Brother?'
Reagan's Normandy speech
Sen. Marco Rubio zeroes in on cutting the 'heart' out of ObamaCare
From Mead:
President Obama is now caught in a trap of his own making. By downplaying the threat and trying to create an atmosphere of peace and normality in the country, he has delegitimated the measures he believes that our safety requires. Having tried and failed to keep these secrets dark and hidden, he must now try to explain what many Americans will find inexplicable. If the terrorists are really on the run, and we can finally go back to a 9/10 state of mind, why are you assembling and wielding the most powerful and intrusive systems of surveillance ever conceived?
Thursday, June 6. 2013
Rand Paul Rips NSA Seizure of Verizon Phone Records. They have no business spying on Americans. Very creepy.
And I am with Rep. Gowdy here. But Mrs. Gowdy needs to discuss his haircut with him.
I think the Federal government is out of control in many ways, and I think Andy McCarthy is wrong, for once. See this: America's surveillance state: anger swells after data revelations
Public schools want to teach sexual matters from Kindergarten, and to make sure the kiddies know all about sex, safe sex, anal sex, oral sex, masturbation, mutual masturbation, gay sex, etc. The schools thus stimulate, or overstimulate our innocent youth. Heck, coeducation is overstimulating in itself.
At the same time, Twerking is sexual harassment of some sort. How a Twerk dance harasses anybody is beyond me. It's meant to be silly fun. As Instapundit says cleverly "Welcome to the neo-Victorian era — bringing back the censoriousness, but not the virtues..."
Photo is a Worksman Bicycle, made in NYC since 1899. Their original factory was at the site of the World Trade Center:
"Our Goal is to bring a more efficient, reliable and healthful transportation to modern industry" -Morris Worksman, 1898
Emmaland and Sophialand
Emirates Air now offering private cabins
Do Not Disturb
Texas farmer is pursued across field and stung to DEATH by 40,000 killer
bees
Insty doesn't dare wonder whether Viagra sales are due to the rise in fat American women
Idolizing Hannah Arendt
Sarah Murnaghan lung transplant case: Sebelius ordered to make exception on transplant
The politicization of medical care begins
The Insiders: As trust in government erodes, Obama’s plans evaporate
Do Human Beings Only Matter To the Extent They Serve as Cogs in a Government Plan?
Just when did political consultants start passing for journalists?
Google Hires Obama's Reelection Campaign E-Team
DNC, Press Share Talking Points on GOP's Reaction to White House Scandals
CNN Solves Problem of Piers Morgan’s ‘Liberal’ Overreach…
Why Does the American Media Get Big Stories Wrong?
Stephanie Cutter Attended WH
Meetings With IRS Chief
NSA collecting phone records of millions daily, court order reveals
From this report:
In the mid-1970s, Congress, for the first time, investigated the surveillance activities of the US government. Back then, the mandate of the NSA was that it would never direct its surveillance apparatus domestically.
At the conclusion of that investigation, Frank Church, the Democratic senator from Idaho who chaired the investigative committee, warned: "The NSA's capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn't matter."
UCLA Study: There is No Recovery
Except in DC
Wednesday, June 5. 2013
 I suppose there's an irony here somewhere:
The most puzzling airline disaster in history has the most befuddling answer in the history of airline disaster solutions.
In brief: In 2009, in one of the most modern airliners ever built, Air France 447 took off from Rio in Brazil and was safely on its way to Paris, last contacting land while partway over the Atlantic.
And then it disappeared.
A few months later, the PBS show 'Nova' put together a team of experts to figure out what most likely happened. They had some serious heavyweights on board, like a guy who took part in the investigation of the tragic, final flight of the SST, and a guy who worked on what was considered the 'most puzzling crash in history' of its day, Flight 800 out of New York, which inexplicably blew up just off the coast, later traced to faulty wiring in a fuel tank.
But at least the Flight 800 team had little clues to work, like "where it went down".
As referred to, say, if it went down.
Because of the curvature of the earth, cross-Atlantic flights always go off radar at some point, and it was only hours later when it didn't show up on African radar that the alarm was even sounded. If a small electronic monitor box hadn't automatically sent a quick 'update' to headquarters via satellite link somewhere between 1 and 15 minutes before the crash, they would have been totally clueless where it ended up, and even then they just had its last known location and were forced to consider where the wreckage could be spread over hundreds of square miles of open ocean. And in 15,000 feet of water.
And they eventually did find it.
Black boxes, befuddlement, and all.
Continue reading "Flight 447: The final leg"
 Photo: That looks delicious
Moses Finally Vindicated by Israeli Oil
He takes no insurance, no Medicare or Medicaid, gives discounts to the needy, and posts his charges.
Congress is getting closer to passing the $1 trillion farm bill, and it is a piece of work
It's pure vote buying. Maggie's Farm takes nothing.
Virginia's Tax Reform: A Model For The Nation?
Woodrow Wilson was as important as FDR or LBJ. Why aren't we celebrating his 100th anniversary?
A Green Battle Worth Fighting
Insty: Fighting education fanatics
Report: How GOP lost young voters
A one-woman death panel: Sebelius to Dying 10 Year-Old Girl: “Someone Lives, Someone Dies”
Why Chris Christie Might Be a Political Genius
BLIND TO TERROR: THE U.S. GOVERNMENT’S DISASTROUS MUSLIM OUTREACH EFFORTS AND
THE IMPACT ON U.S. MIDDLE EAST POLICY
Austria: Teachers told not to cover Turkish jihad invasions of Europe, to avoid offending Muslims
Random terrorism seems to work. But why would Muslims be offended by their great historic invasions of Europe? They conquered Spain, they reached the outskirts of Paris and the gates of Vienna, but their current invasion is far more successful and likely permanent.
Tuesday, June 4. 2013
Her moving testimony today, here.
I am not sure whether 501 (c) 4 exemptions should exist, but as long as they do, they should be available to all who qualify. I'm not sure the IRS should exist either. Too much power. I'm open to other ideas about federal tax collection.
From Kling's Tribal Politics - Progressives, conservatives, and libertarians each have a mythology in which they are the heroes and the
other tribes are villains. Partisans of these three ideologies even
speak different languages.
Hinderaker:
America’s slow-to-nonexistent economic growth, of which today’s manufacturing data are one of many symptoms, is the result of bad government policies: out-of-control regulations, excessive and inefficient government spending, rising tax rates and the impending disaster of Obamacare, to name the most obvious ones. Until observers are willing to acknowledge the extent to which poor government drags down the economy, they will continue to be surprised by unexpected bad news.
 Pic: The stove in a friend's cabin in Vermont
The decline of NASA and the senseless priorities of our government
What My Father Taught Me: Mike Rowe
I Am Starting To Believe Most Studies Are Crap
Welcome to the club!
Everything you thought you knew about the risks of nuclear energy is wrong
Spain wisely eliminates minimum wage
The Decline of the Obama Presidency - His second term is coming undone not because of scandal but because of decisions made in the previous four years.
Al Sharpton’s Long Bill of Goods, From Tawana Brawley to Primetime
Michael Barone: Tragedy of Detroit shows 'Big Unit' America is out of gas
Why most new laws should not be passed
Obamacare To Double Cost Of Insurance For Average Californian
Court: Police can take DNA swabs from arrestees
Princeton University Declares Gun Violence ‘Public Health Epidemic’
Hey, All You Warmists Shouldn’t Feel Guilty About Being Complete Hypocrites
Abolish Corporate Income Tax!
Average US household far from regaining its
wealth
Treasury IG Compares IRS Scandal to Nixon Only Worse – “This Is Unprecedented”
Mead:
The greens have deluded themselves into thinking that somehow market forces didn’t apply to manufacturing “clean” tech. It just illustrates the lack of policy competence in the green community, and the cleverness of crony capitalists, who know the silly greens will lobby for your sweetheart deal if you sprinkle some of their favorite phrases into the promotional literature.
Monday, June 3. 2013
A Message for the Class of 2013 - Dear Graduates: You're pampered, privileged and oversexed—but at least your employment prospects are dim.
 Image stolen from Moonbattery
Rise of the man-bag: British boys rush to copy Ryan Gosling's metrosexual style
When I travel, I always have a shoulder bag for camera, maps, paper, phone, book, medicines, etc.
Religious Fundamentalism: A Mental Illness That Might Be Curable'
Is time a real thing?
Why are liberals so rude to the right?
How Halsey Minor Blew Tech Fortune on Way to Bankruptcy
Marc Faber: "People With Financial Assets Are All Doomed"
The new F-word: Father
‘Rep. Markey, in your 36 year career, has there ever been a single time when you’ve opposed a tax increase?’
Bring Back the Ottoman Empire
The End of Snow, 13 Years On
Noonan: Why This Scandal Is Different
Redstate:
Statism is inherently paranoid. Dissenters are the enemies of progress. When the government is the repository of all virtue, those who resist its expansion become villains. When the government is the primary agency of compassion, it can easily portray its critics as heartless. To those who depend on the State for their livelihood, dissenters who speak of economic liberty and diminished government are the enemy. If you won’t give politicians the resources and authority they need to “help” someone, then you must “hate” whoever they were trying to help. Socialist redistribution is among the most divisive political systems ever created, because the recipients must be made to see themselves entitled to what is given, while their class enemies can be allowed no moral claim to what is taken.
Steyn:
As the great Walter Williams pointed out the other day, every single American waives his Fifth Amendment rights every time he signs that tax return on April 15. Americans are fearless if some guy pulls some stunt in a shopping mall, but an IRS assault is brutal and unending.
US judge orders Google to turn over data to FBI
Take a bow, capitalism – nearly 1 billion people have been taken out of extreme poverty in 20 years, thanks to markets
Funeral rites for a perfidious presidency
George Will: government regulations
Friday, May 31. 2013
 Regardless of politics, you have to like this regular, red-blooded, common-sensical guy: George W. Bush Bikes With Injured Vets, Reflects On White House Decisions, Life After The Presidency.
Where's the normal political narcissism? Seems absent in him.
After Careful Deliberation, Baby Goes With Homosexuality
How's that sexual revolution working out for you? If you’re
married, the answer is: probably not very well.
Man dies after being attacked by beaver
Not from Monty Python
"I thought to myself, “Oh, that sounds like a fun story.” So I just started writing. I started at noon and I was done by 1pm"
Jonathan Rauch’s New Kindle Book, Denial: My 25 Years Without a Soul
Sheesh. Heartbreaking.
Sen. McCain Meets with Syrian Rebels, Ends Up Posing with Islamist Kidnappers
Moron.
Michelle Obama to Elite Donors: Republicans Are Going After Your Food Stamps
Total White House Visits By Former IRS Head Shulman Now at 157 and Climbing
More Deserts to Bloom, This Time in Israel
Forget 'Islamophobia'. Let's Tackle Islamism
Intuition and common sense tell us that college should be harder than high school, But a funny thing has happened on our way to the perfectly equal society in which everybody has a college degree.
And it begins - cloning a Woolly Mammoth
Just in time for Global Cooling. Can't wait to hunt one.
Holder Personally Sued in Massive Tea Party Abuse Lawsuit
The Lois Lerner state
Bureaucratic tyranny
Idiot Dems in California trying to kill fracking despite massive potential for jobs and energy
Our tax dollars to the Palis
California Dems for a Feudal California
Let's ban energy exports to California, for their own good
N.H. ski areas join petition to fight climate change
Greedy, selfish SOBS
7 Burning Questions on Marijuana Legalization
Florida: Illegal Immigrant Mother of Seven Given Food Stamps, Meds, Housing, and Social Security – For 20 Years
Everything free in America
NBC News Chooses “Israel-bashing” President
Tuesday, May 28. 2013
 Sounds like a lot of fun.
"Right-of-center ridicule hasn’t stopped numerous white-privilege activists, professional and amateur, from continuing to bang the breast-beating drum. One of the most prominent these days is Tim Wise, 44, part Jewish, part Southern Scotch-Irish, who has devoted nearly all of his postcollege years to what might be described as white-privilege careerism, traveling from campus to campus—and also from corporate headquarters to corporate headquarters as a paid speaker—lecturing his fellow whites on the dastardly implications of their skin color. Wise’s extensive bibliography includes such books as White Like Me: Reflections on Race From a Privileged Son (2004) and Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority (2012)."
I thought the American campi were pushing hard for abundant and indiscriminate sexual experimentation and promiscuity. How can that animalistic utopia (aka "zoo", aka "monkey cage") come to pass if the Feds are trying to make every potentially-romantic encounter a crime?
I am confused.
More government overreach -- on campus sexual harassment
Here are the new campus rules: Rape is illegal, a felony. That's a non-issue and a non-campus issue. But if she or he likes you, and wants to come to your dorm room for sexual fun, it's not harassment. It she or he doesn't like you, it's harassment. If he or she wants you at first, while half-drunk, but changes her mind, you're in big trouble. It's always safest to keep romance "50 miles from the flagpole," as they used to say. However, the primal urges of the young can not be suppressed, even by campus Thought Police and the Federal government.
 Well, rat farts.
Pardon my strong language.
After getting poked and prodded for six hours at the hospital a few weeks ago, they came up with squat. For you new readers, I had an intestinal operation last summer to remove a growth before it became cancerous, then was healing quite nicely until around last November when I just kind of stalled out at around 80% better. I was still in debt to the hospital, though, so it took a few months to get that cleared up enough that I could start a new 'tab' with them. I had (what felt like) about a gallon of blood drained from me (I made a comment about 'bloodletting' and how "I feel better already!'), an EKG, some skin samples for the lab, and a "nonintrusive ultrasound test" where they tested the blood flow throughout my body.
Then it turned out my blood pressure is through the roof. I've never paid much attention to it, and the previous time I was at the hospital for an operation follow-up, about three months ago, nobody said anything so I guess it was fine.
It was 165 over something when I was there the other day. I think the nurse actually gasped when she read the meter. Normal is 120 or below. Since nothing else has changed in my life (diet, living quarters, lack of exercise, etc), I gather most of it is just stress, worrying about rent and food, and exacerbated by the fact that I never know how much work I'm going to get from the one main company I webmaster for. So, the wonderful discovery that I could stroke out any minute added another two hours to my visit.
I've had better days.
And, as noted, they came up with zip in the blood test. Now I have to decide when or even IF I'll be able to afford to take the next round of tests and whether or not I should dump my (cough!) $120/mo Internet service. After rent, that's my biggest expense. If you didn't catch the story, I moved behind the local cellphone tower about a year ago which, as it turns out, are very directional and neither my Verizon Wireless nor a Sprint unit would work. I finally found a company that specializes in rural hook-ups and sitting on top of my tower is a 4" x 6" box with a 3' antenna sitting on top of it. It works fine, but it's nasty expensive.
Anyway, that's where things currently stand. Or sit, in my case. If you'd like to help with my get-well fund, it would be sorely appreciated.
Also, I mentioned this a few months ago, but if anyone has any viable (note key word) ideas on how to make money online, I'm all ears. I've read a number of "5 Ways To Make Money On The Internet" articles and haven't seen anything viable yet. I'd grab a regular 9-to-5 job in a minute if I could find one, but these are all tourist-geared villages down here and if you don't have any experience in the restaurant, motel or scuba diving biz, you needn't bother to apply.
One thing a couple of people mentioned last time was putting Amazon links in the posts, like Glenn does over at Istapundit. The hitch here — besides being tacky — is that these things only work with big reader numbers. You're basically waiting for that 1-in-3,000 person who's currently in the market for a new set of steak knives or band saw or the boxed set of all three 'Men In Black' movies. And Maggie's just doesn't have those kinds of numbers.
My thought was to only link to Rolls Royce dealerships, realtors for large estates and high-quality diamond necklace merchants. If it only makes one sale a year, I'll be set!
Anyways, just thought I'd toss out a quick update. Got some interesting posts coming up this week, starting with...
Shorebirds vs. People
I'm with the birds on this one. We want beaches for people and dogs, and beaches for wildlife. Separate but equal.
Now The Gibson Guitar Raids Make Sense
From 2008: James Rosen’s eye-opening look at Watergate through the eyes of John Mitchell
The Apple Tax Diversion - Senators beat up a U.S. success for following the tax laws
they wrote.
The Obamacare Insurance Exchange Train Is Already Coming Off The Rails
The Obama admin is a symptom, not the problem - The GOP is missing the boat on the IRS scandal
Reynolds: A revolution in the works?
Muslims in the UK: MESSAGE UNHEARD
Have the climate sceptics really won?
To the Horror of Global Warming Alarmists, Global Cooling Is Here
Just in time to save the earth from human insanity
Obamacare's true purpose
Sailor:
"As part of its tireless commitment to being All Gay All the Time, the New York Time discusses the burning issue of: For propaganda purposes, who would be the ideal athlete to come out of the closet?"
Fernandez:
It is impossible to understand the Muslim riots and terror in Sweden, France, or Britain without first appreciating that the Muslim immigrants aren’t fighting to become like the gelded natives. On the contrary, they are fighting to be different. It’s not multiculturalism they want, but their own culture. This impulse used to be normal once — like marriage. And the wonder is that it no longer is.
Monday, May 27. 2013
And you were there.
I imagine you've seen some pretty splashy 'doodles' in place of the 'Google' name when there's an important event to honor, like the birthday of some Italian painter from the 17th century. Lesser events, like the Junior League's Summer Cotillion or the Annual Cornhuskers County Fair, don't get any doodle at all.
Or Memorial Day.
After all, to the sensitive leftists who run Google, that would be glorifying war.
And we can't have any of that.
Now, I could be wrong and maybe they did this last year and I just didn't notice, but I went to Google just now and my jaw nearly hit the floor.
It practically leaps off the page!
Sunday, May 26. 2013
Quick movie review: Watched Margin Call last night. A heck of a cast, and an authentic Wall Street ethos. Did not doze once.
How the Smartphone Killed the Three-Day Weekend
Kareem: 20 Things I Wish I’d Known When I Was 30
Reading Hayek in Beijing - A chronicler of Mao's depredations finds much to worry about in modern China.
Fired for word: 'Negro' in Spanish class
Even Politicians Tire of Failure-Prone, Freedom-Threatening DHS
Hate DHS? Hate the IRS? How about the idiocy of FEMA? FEMA Plans Clear-Cutting 85,000 Berkeley and Oakland Trees
Then covering the canyon with Agent Orange or something. That will keep us safe.
WHEN DID WE VOTE TO BECOME MEXICO?
Enough With the Bipartisanship - Republicans plus Democrats doesn’t equal good policy.
Whose Administration Is It, Anyway?
The bureaucratic-administrative-regulatory State: The rise of the fourth branch of government
Eleven people across UK arrested for making 'racist or anti-religious' comments on Facebook and Twitter about British soldier's
death
Free speech is limited to Muslims, in the UK
By 22-Point Margin, Voters Favor Obamacare’s Repeal
Obama Says Don't Fear Gov't; Tell That To Fox News
McKinsey report: 12 disruptive technologies that will transform life, business, and the global economy
If a gay dude tries to hit on me in college, can he be thrown out?
‘Allahu Akbar. We Take the Money’
Does welfare cause terrorism, Part XVIII …
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