DYSPEPSIA GENERATION

We have seen the future, and it sucks.

Archive for May, 2010

Life in the Third Realm

31st May 2010

Read it.

It’s that time of the month again. Yes: it’s time for Life-form of the Month.

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Lotto lout Michael Carroll going back to being a binman after blowing £9.7m win

31st May 2010

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Yet Another Example of the eternal truth that most poor people are going to wind up poor no matter how much money you give them. They’re poor because of defects in character, not because of some sort of bad luck.

Posted in Think about it. | 2 Comments »

I have a question….

31st May 2010

Why do people use ’emeritus’ when they mean ‘retired’ or ‘former’? ‘Emeritus’ means ‘for merit’ — you can look it up — and certainly retired people can be given ’emeritus’ positions, but there is a distinction there that seems to be rapidly becoming lost.

Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on I have a question….

Using a cellphone seems to protect against two types of brain tumors.

31st May 2010

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Everything bad is good for you, it seems.

This is why I don’t put any faith in the ephemeral pronouncements of ‘scientists’, because I’ve seen too many times when they’ve completely reversed themselves farther on down the road.

And this is why giving power to government bureaucrats is always a bad idea, because they take the latest trend in ‘scientific research’ and go rushing off to ‘do something about it’, typically making what might be a bad situation into one that is almost certainly worse.

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Gaza Human Shields and The Turkey Problem

31st May 2010

Read it. And watch the video of the ‘peace activist’ stabbing an Israeli soldier.

Let’s be clear, this flotilla had nothing to do with humanitarian supplies, which could have been shipped by land. The flotilla, if successful, would have opened the door to military supplies to Hamas concealed in later shipments.

The flotilla was a collective human shield operation in which civilians, including reportedly including an 18 month old child, were put on the ships either to dissuade the Israelis from stopping the ships, or alternatively, to create an international incident. Prior to the flotilla launching, the leader of Hamas announced that it would be a triumph  regardless of whether the flotilla landed or was stopped by Israel.

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I have a question….

31st May 2010

When did ‘out of pocket’ come to mean ‘out of touch’ or incommunicado?

Posted in Dystopia Watch | 3 Comments »

La Raza and the Reconquista Myth

31st May 2010

The Other McCain turns over a rock.

What you are seeing here is an attempt to delegitimize the United States in the same way Palestinian nationalists have attempted to delegitimize Israel. Like the “Zionism is racism” argument that Palestinians use to justify their terrorism against Jews in israel, the advocates of a Mexican reconsquista proclaim that the mere desire of Americans to control their borders — to have an orderly system of immigration — is “racist.”

What these activists are attempting to do is to propogate a racist/nationalist myth — a sort of fascism. What else to say about their claim that, because most Mexicans have some native ancestry, that this gives them to a right to reside hundreds of miles north of the homelands of their own peoples? It’s as if the Mayan Empire had belatedly laid claim to Arizona.

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A Tired Propaganda Battle At Sea

30th May 2010

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The voyage is symbolic because Israel routinely allows food, medical supplies, etc., into Gaza. Israel has invited the activists to dock at an Israeli port, where the cargo will be unloaded, searched, and then shipped into Gaza. But that, the flotilla’s organizers say,  is a “ridiculous and offensive” suggestion. This is what passes for argument in the world of the Palestinians.

Now, Israeli naval vessels are moving to intercept the flotilla. They will tell the ships that they must proceed to Ashdod harbor or else be boarded. Israel’s Government Press Office also responded to the activists’ claim of hardship in Gaza by recommending the Roots Club in Gaza City. “We have been told the beef stroganoff and cream of spinach soup are highly recommended,” the Press Office said in an email to reporters.

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Cage fighter ‘ripped out heart of training partner’

30th May 2010

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A US cage fighter ripped out the heart of his training partner while he was still alive after becoming convinced he was possessed by the devil.

Jarrod Wyatt also cut out his friend’s tongue and ripped off most of his face in a brutal assault that police said looked like a scene from a horror film.

They found the 26 year old standing naked over his friend’s body with body parts, including an eyeball, strewn around the blood splattered room.

I wonder whether this guy does requests….

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Climate Change Myth Threatens Noble Savage Myth

30th May 2010

The Other McCain points out a little-appreciated problem.

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Ever Hear of the Civil Rights Act of 1875?

30th May 2010

Read it.

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Regulating

30th May 2010

Freeberg is not afraid to ask the hard questions.

I’d sure like to know what magical power, what birth star, blood line, what is it exactly? — What’s supposed to make these government regulators so much wiser than the people they’re regulating. I’ve talked and talked and talked to these “we need more regulation” people and none of them have ever been able to tell me.

Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Regulating

Feedbooks: A Primer

30th May 2010

Read it.

If you use an e-book reader, you need to know about Feedbooks.

If you’ve been hesitating to buy an e-book reader, you REALLY need to know about Feedbooks.

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Discriminating Between Discriminations

30th May 2010

Jacob Sullum has an excellent piece on maintaining legitimate distinctions.

Libertarians such as Epstein, Bernstein, and Sanchez would like to have prevented this one exception from multiplying. “When you say, this is such a wonderful idea, let’s carry it over to disability,” Epstein says, “you create nightmares of the first order.” But if one thing can be confidently predicted based on the history of U.S. government, it is that exceptions made for one particular purpose will be extended to others, to the point where they become the rule rather than the exception.

Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Discriminating Between Discriminations

Perfect Thin and Crispy French Fries

30th May 2010

Read it.

For best results, substitute tallow for the peanut oil. Trust me on this.

UPDATE: Some people are more serious about this stuff than others.

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‘DIY U’ and the future of public education

30th May 2010

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Listen to the Crust talk to itself.

Follow the chain of logic here: State governments committed themselves to paying for everybody to go to college because of some vague feeling that it would be an ‘investment’. (Considering how much the degeneration of modern culture is caused by these college-educated people, I find this assumption ludicrous on its face, but let’s accept it for the sake of argument.)

As the population grew and more and more people took advantage of this freebie (Extend your adolescence for 4/6/8 years at taxpayer expense! Make more money when you get out than your parents ever dreamed of!), they discovered that, no, they couldn’t afford such an open-ended project.

When you can’t afford something, you either have to find more money or cut back spending. You can’t just wish yourself more money (unlike the Federal government).

The people riding the gravy train, of course, object to being expected to pay for their own improvement. (Mom! Dad! I need more money!) So this is all a plot by some unnamed set of villains to screw the poor. Women and minorities hardest hit, etc., etc.

I’m working on a concept here: How about the people who benefit from something are obliged to pay for it? And if they can’t pay for it, they don’t get it?

Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on ‘DIY U’ and the future of public education

15 House Plants You Can Use As Air Purifiers

30th May 2010

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Don’t say we never have useful stuff here.

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Great Wall of China’s strength ‘comes from sticky rice’

30th May 2010

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The secret of the strength and longevity of the Great Wall of China lies in the sticky rice that was used as its mortar, Chinese scientists have found.

Sort of changes your view of Chinese food, doesn’t it?

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SMOKE ’EM IF YOU GOT ’EM: CIGARETTE BLACK MARKETS IN U.S. PRISONS AND JAILS

30th May 2010

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My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on SMOKE ’EM IF YOU GOT ’EM: CIGARETTE BLACK MARKETS IN U.S. PRISONS AND JAILS

Mexican prison warden abducted, dismembered

30th May 2010

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The first job of a government is to protect its citizens. Looks like Mexico is falling down on the job.

No wonder we’re getting so many illegal immigrants. I wouldn’t want to stay in Mexico, either.

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Samsung develops USB-powered desktop PC monitor, plans 2011 street date

30th May 2010

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This strikes me as an important development.

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The Hard Sell on Salt

30th May 2010

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By all appearances, this is a moment of reckoning for salt. High blood pressure is rising among adults and children. Government health experts estimate that deep cuts in salt consumption could save 150,000 lives a year.

And that’s exactly all that the New York Times spends on what we Real People would consider the fundamental question: Is the purported link between salt and high blood pressure actually a fact? Or merely a suspicion? For the Times, saying “government health experts” apparently settles the question — a remarkable bit of handwaving from a publication that is disinclined to accept the word of “government experts” in any field where said experts disagree with the preconceptions of the Times.

I wish I had a nickel for every time that “government experts” were damned sure of X, only to be equally damned sure of -X five years later. And of course I an congenitally disposed to think that, if “government experts” say X, the truth is more likely than not to be -X.

But that aside, one would think that an article discussing the Crust’s attempts to strong-arm the public into using less salt would delve a little deeper into whether such fascist thuggery is actually in truth justified.

Since processed foods account for most of the salt in the American diet, national health officials, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York and Michelle Obama are urging food companies to greatly reduce their use of salt. Last month, the Institute of Medicine went further, urging the government to force companies to do so.

But no.

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A Breakthrough Cure for Ebola

30th May 2010

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Last week, in what may be the biggest medical breakthrough of its kind in years, a group of scientists published results in The Lancet describing a completely new type of anti-viral treatment that appears to cure Ebola. They report a 100% success rate, although admittedly the test group was very small, just 4 rhesus monkeys.

So it’s not really a cure yet, but a major milestone suggesting that a cure is possible. Still, an amazing achievement.

Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on A Breakthrough Cure for Ebola

In Czar Peter’s Footstep

30th May 2010

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The interesting part is that the New York Times suffers from the same blindness that Peter the Great did: The conviction that change proceeds from the top, and the only question left to answer is what particular technique will produce the best results.

But other people don’t wear those blinkers:

“Competition produces innovation,” said Cliff Kupchan, a director at the Eurasia Group, a global risk-consulting firm based in New York. “I still don’t see a working appreciation of that.”

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Nigeria’s agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it.

30th May 2010

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In fact, more oil is spilled from the delta’s network of terminals, pipes, pumping stations and oil platforms every year than has been lost in the Gulf of Mexico, the site of a major ecological catastrophe caused by oil that has poured from a leak triggered by the explosion that wrecked BP‘s Deepwater Horizon rig last month.

But of course. Who cares what happens on the fringe of the SWPL world?

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Royal Navy launches anti-sub war against drug cartels

29th May 2010

Read it.

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Frenchman Builds a Dream Château on a Grand Estate in the Ozarks

29th May 2010

Read it.

The real thing hasn’t been dug yet. But construction of the castle itself is under way. The first layers of hand-hewn rock are rising from a hillside clearing. The turrets are taking shape, and the arched entry that will one day support the drawbridge. You can hear the plink of chisels, the creak of wooden carts, and the grunts of local laborers who are building the massive fortress by hand, using only tools available in the 13th century.

This castle’s web site is here. The French castle’s web site is here.

“Most jobs in masonry last three or four months. Out here, we got 20 years,” says Mr. Fire Cloud, who hides his Dr Pepper in a burlap bag to keep the ambience authentic. “That’s job security.”

Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Frenchman Builds a Dream Château on a Grand Estate in the Ozarks

Legislator Posts Votes on Facebook. All of Them.

28th May 2010

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Justin Amash is running for Congress as a Republican in Michigan. He’s currently a state legislator. And as part of his campaign for higher office [UPDATE: He’s been posting votes for a year], he’s posting every one of his votes on Facebook, with a short account of why he voted the way the did.

I’d vote for him, just to have him there as an exemplar.

Posted in Think about it. | 2 Comments »

Remarks on U.S. Mortgage Finance

28th May 2010

Arnold Kling wonders where the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage came from.

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Peggy Noonan is in Shock

28th May 2010

Freeberg takes a look.

She is brilliant at what she does. But I’ve always had some reservations with what she does.

This is one of the most penetrating analyses I’ve seen in a long time. Read it twice.

Obama doesn’t have it. We haven’t seen Him actually maintain anything, besides relationships; and human emotions being what they are, with relationships you don’t work with the rewards or the wreckage of your work the day before. Obama, from the best information we’ve managed to seize about Him, seems to have spent a lifetime being blissfully insulated from the conditions of things.

Fer chrissakes, we don’t even have a story about a bicycle lovingly maintained, or a household pet. He doesn’t have the “guardian” personality. He is not, by personal inclination, a steward of something. There is no evidence whatsoever to indicate a refinement of the requisite skills, or a personal interest in refining them.

That hits the nail right on the head.

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European Commission Proposes US Surrender in Data Wars

28th May 2010

Read it.

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Ixtoc I oil spill

28th May 2010

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Ixtoc I was an exploratory oil well being drilled by the semi-submersible platform, Sedco 135F  in the Bay of Campeche of the Gulf of Mexico, about 100 km (62 mi) northwest of Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche  in waters 50 m (160 ft) deep.  On 3 June 1979, the well suffered a blowout resulting in the second largest oil spill and the largest accidental spill in history.

In the next nine months, experts and divers including Red Adair were brought in to contain and cap the oil well.  An average of approximately ten thousand to thirty thousand barrels per day were discharged into the Gulf until it was finally capped on 23 March 1980, nearly 10 months later.  Prevailing currents carried the oil towards the Texas coastline. The US government had two months to prepare booms to protect major inlets. Eventually, in the US, 162 miles (261 km) of beaches and 1421 birds were affected by 3,000,000 barrels (480,000 m3) of oil.  Pemex spent $100 million to clean up the spill and avoided paying compensation by asserting sovereign immunity.

Posted in Dystopia Watch | 1 Comment »

Japan Plans a Moon Base by 2020, Built by Robots for Robots

28th May 2010

Read it.

That will really confuse the aliens on the dark side.

Posted in News You Can Use. | 2 Comments »

A woman jumping to her death managed to land on a cleaning lady below, killing both.

27th May 2010

Read it.

Always look up.

Posted in Dystopia Watch | 1 Comment »

Man dies of uterine cancer linked to transplant

27th May 2010

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Not something you see every day.

Posted in You can't make this stuff up. | Comments Off on Man dies of uterine cancer linked to transplant

Predators can be picky eaters

27th May 2010

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Just in case you were wondering. I know I was.

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A South African man hired a hitman for £824 to kill his unborn child by shooting his former girlfriend in the stomach on Valentine’s Day.

27th May 2010

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A definition of ‘romantic’ that few would recognize.

Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on A South African man hired a hitman for £824 to kill his unborn child by shooting his former girlfriend in the stomach on Valentine’s Day.

Beekeepers use tracking systems as hive thefts rise

27th May 2010

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Semtex looks a lot like honey, and the technology of detonating bombs via cellphone is well known.

Hmmmm.

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Video game fanatic hunts down and stabs rival player who killed character online

27th May 2010

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Some people need to get out more.

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Please donate to A Conservative Lesbian

27th May 2010

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Cynthia does good work, and deserves your support. Time presses, so climb on board.

Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Please donate to A Conservative Lesbian

Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer rumored to present at Apple’s WWDC 2010

27th May 2010

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Why not? It’s like having a clown show up at your kid’s birthday party.

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My card, sir.

27th May 2010

Check it out.

You’ve heard of Dancing with Wolves? Well, that’s nothing compared to Networking with Rodents.

Posted in You can't make this stuff up. | Comments Off on My card, sir.

Billionaire German hotelier chokes to death on steak served at his own restaurant

27th May 2010

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Let that be a lesson to us all.

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Art Linkletter

27th May 2010

A person in whom I have absolutely no interest has died.

Apparently this has come as a surprise to a lot of people.

Posted in Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media | 2 Comments »

Phone app fakes incoming calls

27th May 2010

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At last – technology for the rest of us.

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Congress Pushes Fighter Jet Engine That Military Says it Doesn’t Want or Need

27th May 2010

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Not really news, but a useful reminder.

“It started off with an earmark that was placed into a defense bill years ago,” said Laura Peterson, who has been tracking the project for the nonpartisan watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense.

The money involved is not insubstantial. By some estimates, Congress has paid $3 billion to GE and Rolls-Royce since first setting aside money for a second engine in the mid-1990s, and it will take close to $3 billion more to have the engines tested, proven and in full production.

And top military brass say they don’t want or need it. One navy admiral told reporters it made no sense to try and carry spare parts two separate engines on an aircraft carrier. “Space is at a premium,” Adm. Gary Roughead said.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Congress Pushes Fighter Jet Engine That Military Says it Doesn’t Want or Need

Boehner Strikes GOP Earmarks

26th May 2010

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Despite being directed to withdraw their requested earmarks, four members of the GOP caucus have refused to do so: Anh “Joseph” Cao (La.), Henry Brown (S.C.), Don Young (Alaska) and Ron Paul (Texas).

I guess Ron Paul’s own private copy of the Constitution has very good reasons for sticking to his guns here. I mean otherwise he’d be a rank hypocrite and his followers would be tools and we all know that isn’t the case.

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Vito joins the no-shame game

26th May 2010

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Fossella’s swift resurrection is a departure from the old playbook and a template for the new politics of sex scandals, a model coming predictably from New York and California. For all but the grossest sins (see Edwards, John) and weirdest public conduct (see Sanford, Mark), apologies are passé, retirement is for suckers, and chutzpah is the new contrition.

Bill Clinton was the test case for brazen survival, but more recent instances come with less baggage: Arnold Schwarzenegger brushed aside campaign allegations of sexual harassment like so many hostile robots in “Terminator,” Sen. David Vitter stayed in Congress after being caught paying prostitutes, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom weathered the ugly publicity over an affair with a top aide’s wife to emerge as the leading candidate for lieutenant governor, and Eliot Spitzer was rewarded for high-profile sins with a guest-hosting gig on MSNBC.

“We are living in an age when a recluse is just somebody who doesn’t have a sex tape on the Internet,” said Eric Dezenhall, a Washington corporate crisis manager. “Shocking us is an impossibility. Shame is a silly fetish, and chutzpah pays a bigger dividend than discretion.”

And this guy was a Republican, which just goes to show you that you can’t depend on labels.

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Paraglider breaks back after taking to skies without training

26th May 2010

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There’s a reason they call it ‘natural selection’.

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Golfer gets two holes-in-one in a row

26th May 2010

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A golfer has defied odds greater than a lottery win by sinking an incredible two holes-in-one in a row during a single game.

I think I’d rather have the lottery win. But, then, I’m not a golfer.

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