DYSPEPSIA GENERATION

We have seen the future, and it sucks.

Archive for May, 2012

Proof Electric Cars DO Cause More Pollution Than Normal Ones: Study Shows Impact Is Worse Than Petrol-Powered Vehicles

31st May 2012

Read it.

A study of pollution in 34 Chinese cities has found that the electricity generated by power stations to drive electric vehicles leads to more fine particle emissions than petrol-powered transport.

No surprise to some of us.

Posted in News You Can Use. | 3 Comments »

NBA Star DeShawn Stevenson Installs Cash Machine in His Kitchen

31st May 2012

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For the sports star who has everything there remains one tiresome problem – how do you get hold of your millions without having to leave the house?

Basketball player DeShawn Stevenson has come up with the answer and had a cash machine installed in his own kitchen, next to the toaster.

I suppose a piggy bank would have been too plebeian. (The term ‘cargo cult’ somehow jumps into my mind.) Perhaps the next step is to have a Starbucks installed in the breakfast nook, and a MacDonalds in the dining room.

Posted in You can't make this stuff up. | Comments Off on NBA Star DeShawn Stevenson Installs Cash Machine in His Kitchen

British Lesbian Couple in Ecuador Maternity Battle

31st May 2012

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Nicola Rothon and Helen Bicknell tried to register joint maternity after their daughter, Satya Amani, was born in December, but were denied permission.

The women, both 34, then filed a claim alleging discrimination and demanding that state prosecutors protect their constitutional rights.

I’m curious as to what ‘constitutional rights’ a homosexual couple could have in Ecuador.

Their baby was conceived using a sperm donor, who was a mutual friend, and Miss Rothon carried the child to term.

So Rothon is the mother and the sperm donor is the father. That’s biological fact, and (more than likely) legal fact in Ecuador (and every other jurisdiction not run by space cadets).

Whatever happened to the ‘reality-based community’ that ‘progressives’ so loudly claim they inhabit? No trace of it here.

In 2008 Ecuador adopted a new constitution extolling “families of diverse types” and recognising civil unions, giving them the same rights as marriage apart from joint adoption of children.

Aha. But do-it-yourself-parentage wouldn’t appear to be included.

The women are now considering taking the case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Where would the space cadets be without these trans-national busybody organizations? For which taxpayers like you inevitably wind up paying?

Sarahi Maldonado, an activist supporting the rights of sexual minorities in Ecuador, said: “It is outrageous to believe that you can’t have a family in which no man is present.”

I must admit that outrage seems to be what they do best.

Posted in You can't make this stuff up. | Comments Off on British Lesbian Couple in Ecuador Maternity Battle

Islamic Slavery Is Alive and Well in Bosnia

31st May 2012

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A pointed reminder that Islam has absolutely no problem at all with slavery; Saudi Arabia didn’t abolish slavery until 1962, and it’s still a flourishing practice (in effect, if not formally) in Sudan and other Islamic states.

Posted in Living with Islam. | 1 Comment »

Where’s George W Bush? How a Two-Term President Became the Quiet Man of US Politics

31st May 2012

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Maybe — just maybe — he’s not the raging narcissist that his Democratic colleagues are.

Just maybe.

Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Where’s George W Bush? How a Two-Term President Became the Quiet Man of US Politics

Crony Capitalism and Defense Spending

31st May 2012

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There was a time, perhaps, when U.S. defense spending could accommodate both our strategic interests/defense needs and the political needs of our legislators. Ashton Carter and Peter Schweizer correctly insist that this time has passed.

Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Crony Capitalism and Defense Spending

Underground Chemists Leave Drug Warriors In the Dust

31st May 2012

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One of the under-appreciated challenges of banning stuff is that you have to define with some degree of precision whatever it is you’re trying to outlaw. Write a law too broadly and you might render illegal things (and anger constituencies) that were never on your radar. Write too narrowly, and you miss your target entirely. And if you set out to ban chemicals, natural or artificial, that make people feel good, you soon discover that savvy chemists are perfectly capable of making new chemicals that get people just as high.

Posted in Think about it. | 2 Comments »

Vodafone Executive Died After Working His Way Through Hotel Minibar

31st May 2012

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The 39-year-old started drinking in the bar of the hotel in the upmarket business district, but once back at his room worked through almost the entire minibar, the inquest heard.

The father-of-two’s lifeless body was discovered along with an empty bottle of Tequila at around 3pm on February 3, after he failed to emerge the next day.

Let that be a lesson to us all.

Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Vodafone Executive Died After Working His Way Through Hotel Minibar

Artur Davis, Former Black Caucus Member, Switches to GOP

30th May 2012

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Artur Davis was first elected to Congress from Alabama in 2002. The Harvard Law School grad was quickly tapped as a rising star among Democrats. He became a Senior Whip for the caucus, co-chair the New Democrat Coalition and even headed up the Southern region for the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee. His eight years in Congress showed him to be a thoughtful, independent and energetic member. Yesterday, he announced he is now a Republican.

What does he know that you don’t?

‘On the specifics, I have regularly criticized an agenda that would punish businesses and job creators with more taxes just as they are trying to thrive again. I have taken issue with an administration that has lapsed into a bloc by bloc appeal to group grievances when the country is already too fractured: frankly, the symbolism of Barack Obama winning has not given us the substance of a united country. You have also seen me write that faith institutions should not be compelled to violate their teachings because faith is a freedom, too. You’ve read that in my view, the law can’t continue to favor one race over another in offering hard-earned slots in colleges: America has changed, and we are now diverse enough that we don’t need to accommodate a racial spoils system. And you know from these pages that I still think the way we have gone about mending the flaws in our healthcare system is the wrong way—it goes further than we need and costs more than we can bear.’

Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Artur Davis, Former Black Caucus Member, Switches to GOP

A Little More Signal, a Lot More Noise

30th May 2012

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Because we humans seem to be natural-born signal hunters, we’re terrible at regulating our intake of information. We’ll consume a ton of noise if we sense we may discover an added ounce of signal. So our instinct is at war with our capacity for making sense.

Posted in Think about it. | 2 Comments »

Obama Honors Socialist Leader

30th May 2012

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One of the leaders honored by President Obama yesterday with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, is Dolores Huerta, an honorary chair of Democratic Socialists of America.

The Democratic Socialists Web site calls for “massive redistribution of income” and sharp cuts to defense spending.

Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Obama Honors Socialist Leader

Monks Fight to Sell Caskets in Louisiana

30th May 2012

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Abbot Justin Brown of the St. Joseph Abbey never thought about the casket business, despite the fact that the abbey has made them for years, but as the abbey must support itself, the monks invested in the necessary equipment and added casket-building to their routine, the Post reported.

But due to the state law, the abbey must either give up the business or get licensed, which would require a display area, a layout parlor, employment of a licensed funeral director and even an embalming room. So with the assistance of the Institute for Justice, a libertarian civil liberties law firm that challenges “the government when it stands in the way of people trying to earn an honest living,” the monks went to federal court.

In a July ruling, U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr., said Louisiana’s restrictions were unconstitutional and held “the sole reason for these laws is the economic protection of the funeral industry,” the Post noted. Judge Duval pointed out that consumers can buy a casket online from Wal-Mart or Costco, but not from an in-state manufacturer.

Crapitalism red in tooth and claw.

Posted in Whose turn is it to be the victim? | Comments Off on Monks Fight to Sell Caskets in Louisiana

How Maryland’s Tax Rates Are Driving Jobs to Virginia

30th May 2012

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Maryland accounted for the largest taxpayer exodus of any state in the region between 2007 and 2010.

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

It’s pretty amusing how all the Democrats that work in DC live in Maryland, and all the Republicans that work in DC live in Virginia.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on How Maryland’s Tax Rates Are Driving Jobs to Virginia

Hundreds of Cherokees Form New Group to Challenge Elizabeth Warren

30th May 2012

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Apparently the natives are restless. Ask not for whom the drums sound — they sound for thee.

Posted in You can't make this stuff up. | Comments Off on Hundreds of Cherokees Form New Group to Challenge Elizabeth Warren

Doc Watson RIP

30th May 2012

Read it. And listen to the music.

He will be missed.

Posted in Dystopia Watch | 1 Comment »

If You Use Drugs, You Might End Up Eating Someone’s Face

30th May 2012

Read it.

Or maybe not. Jacob Sullum appears to intend to criticize current drug policy while actually criticizing news coverage, but hey, it’s all criticism, right?

Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on If You Use Drugs, You Might End Up Eating Someone’s Face

Evidence Ties Iran to Diplomat Assassination Plots

30th May 2012

Read it.

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

Posted in Living with Islam. | Comments Off on Evidence Ties Iran to Diplomat Assassination Plots

Quote of the Day

30th May 2012

Lileks. ‘If you can’t figure out Twitter on your own, do the world a favor and stay off Twitter’.

And that goes for politics, as well.

Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Quote of the Day

Anders Behring Breivik a Self-Styled ‘Metrosexual’ Who Used David Beckham as Example

29th May 2012

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The Norwegian mass killer’s life “fell apart” after a failed relationship with a Belarusian internet date left him struggling with his sexuality, his friends told the court.

“That was perhaps his last attempt at dating a girl like the other boys did,” his best friend’s ex-girlfriend told the court.

Breivik’s friends suspected the 33-year-old extremist might be homosexual because he was feminine and fastidious about his appearance, another friend, a lawyer in Norway’s Ministry of Defence, said.

“He used make-up powder, those kinds of things, and he explained that as being ‘metrosexual’. He made reference to David Beckham being that at the time.”

Heh.

Posted in News You Can Use. | 2 Comments »

Oh Yeah, That’s Right, Housing Is Still in a Depression

29th May 2012

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And, last time I looked, Obama still hasn’t tried to do anything about it. He talks a good game, though.

Posted in Think about it. | 1 Comment »

Honor Student Jailed for Not Warming a School Seat Often Enough

29th May 2012

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There are big differences between doing business with a private vendor and doing business with a public agency. If the private vendor doesn’t like the way you use its services, it might ding you on the price or even sever ties and send you elsewhere. If the public agency doesn’t care for your interpretation of the arrangement, it has the power to throw your ass in jail. Which is how Diane Tran, a Houston-area high school honor student who takes advanced placement courses, gets straight-As and works full-time to support herself and two siblings, found herself in jail for “truancy.”

 

Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Honor Student Jailed for Not Warming a School Seat Often Enough

Four Men and Two Women Sentenced to Death for Dancing at Pakistan Wedding

29th May 2012

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Your life under Islam. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Posted in Living with Islam. | 1 Comment »

Tool-wielding Robots Crawl in Bodies for Surgery

29th May 2012

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Scientists and doctors are using the creeping metallic tools to perform surgery on hearts, prostate cancer, and other diseased organs. The snakebots carry tiny cameras, scissors and forceps, and even more advanced sensors are in the works. For now, they’re powered by tethers that humans control.

We have the technology.

But experts say the day is coming when some robots will roam the body on their own.

Rather like herpes.

Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Tool-wielding Robots Crawl in Bodies for Surgery

Plans for Islamist Breakaway State Within Mali Collapse

29th May 2012

Read it.

Back to the drawing board.

Posted in Living with Islam. | 1 Comment »

Birds May be Paedomorphic Dinosaurs

29th May 2012

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Paedomorphosis is the evolutionary process in which a descendant retains the juvenile state of an ancestor, retaining certain juvenile features of the ancestor into adulthood and reproductive age.  Paedomorphosis is one example of heterochrony: the process (discussed by Steve Gould in his book Ontogeny and Phylogeny) whereby evolution operates by changing the timing of development.

Bet you didn’t know that.

Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Birds May be Paedomorphic Dinosaurs

Researchers Find Back Door in MILSPEC Silicon

29th May 2012

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A pair of security researchers claim to have found a back door in a commercial field-programmable gate array (FPGA) marketed as a secure tool for military applications.

Ruh-roh.

On the other hand, maybe not.

Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Researchers Find Back Door in MILSPEC Silicon

George Lucas, Facebook, and the Crisis of NIMBYism

28th May 2012

Read it.

Dumb rules prevent Silicon Valley from building the houses and offices we need to power American innovation.

Apparently even Left Coast ‘progressives’ get tired of their ideological fellows from time to time.

The stretch of the United States running from San Jose, north through Silicon Valley, up to San Francisco and into the North Bay suburbs is the one of the most prosperous places in the history of humankind. But for the dynamic enterprises in that part of the country to live up to their full potential—and for Americans as a whole to benefit from them—we need to combine innovation, talent, and venture capital with old-fashioned things like buildings and people. And right now, idiotic land-use policies are restricting the area’s growth.

When Matthew Yglesias starts sounding like Newt Gingrich, you know it’s gotta be bad.

George Lucas currently stands accused of “inciting class warfare” by Caroline Lenert, head of the North San Rafael Coalition of Residents in Marin County.

In other words, intending to build housing for poor people in a rich people’s neighborhood. (If the government were doing it, perhaps under a DOJ mandate, presumably they wouldn’t have a problem with it. It certainly wouldn’t stop them voting fascists like Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer into Congress.)

Pass the popcorn.

Posted in Whose turn is it to be the victim? | Comments Off on George Lucas, Facebook, and the Crisis of NIMBYism

New Sensory Organ Discovered in Whales

28th May 2012

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I think Congressmen ought to be tested for this new organ. They certainly have the ‘special, accordion-like blubber layer that goes from the snout to the navel’ that ‘expands  to allow the whales to engulf large quantities’.

Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on New Sensory Organ Discovered in Whales

The Vegetarian Personality

28th May 2012

Read it.

I have trouble accepting the idea that Hitler was a vegetarian. He just didn’t seem that pushy.

It’s not pretty.

Of all the annoying identity movements under the giant rancid rainbow, what is it that causes militant vegetarians to be the most obnoxious? What is it about the Vegetarian Personality that makes me wish someone would cannibalize them? What is it about being lectured by vegans that makes me want to drive straight to Wendy’s and order a Classic Triple?

Because they are the most irrationally self-righteous, which irritates the living shit out of normal people, even if they can’t articulate why.

Human beings evolved to, among other things, eat meat. Modern ‘progressives’ delight in forcing people to acknowledge moral superiority for things that are against nature (‘gay marriage’ comes immediately to mind), all the while proclaiming that their adversaries are ‘anti-science’. This hearkens back to Tertullian’s famous dictum ‘Credo quia absurdam’ and just reminds us that there is nothing new under the sun.

Posted in Think about it. | 1 Comment »

‘Biocoal’ Fuels Steam Train Comeback

28th May 2012

Read it.

Forward into the past!

The university, along with Sustainable Rail International, are to restore a 1930s locomotive – 3463, a 4-6-4 Hudson-type loco built by Baldwin that’s spent its retirement at the Kansas Expocenter in Topeka – as a test bed for bio-coal. The locomotive has already been stabilized prior to the trip to Minnesota for restoration.

If all goes well, the university says, it expects to create the “cleanest, most powerful passenger locomotive”, costing less to maintain and fuel than current diesel-electric locos.

And, since there’s no point in ambitions if you don’t make them big, the consortium also hopes to take the restored loco up to 130 miles per hour (nearly 210 km/h).

Good luck finding tracks that will handle that speed in modern America.

Its biocoal – cellular material processed into a solid fuel – exhibits the same energy density and material handling properties as coal, the university says, but without coal’s heavy metals. The biomass is also carbon-neutral, and produces less ash, less smoke (sorry to those for whom the ‘magic of steam’ includes the smell of burning coal), and fewer volatile off-gases.

Note there’s no discussion of how much it costs. Which means that it’s far more expensive than real coal.

Posted in News You Can Use. | 3 Comments »

West Point Split on the Fate of Approach to War

28th May 2012

Read it.

America is very fortunate these days in having a broad range of very highly intelligent (and very highly educated) field-grade officers who spend their spare time thinking through variations on existing (and prior) military doctrine and using the excellent technical tools we now have to work through simulations of their ideas in action. America is even more fortunate in having a military establishment who value these people and their approach, and listen to them with  respect.

Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on West Point Split on the Fate of Approach to War

This Week in Girls Are Funny

27th May 2012

OneSTDV has a talent for finding nuggets of degeneration where you would think that the depths have already been plumbed.

You MUST watch this video, which is a definite sign of the End Times.

Posted in You can't make this stuff up. | Comments Off on This Week in Girls Are Funny

Tattoos: The Legacy of a Seafaring Heritage

27th May 2012

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From Captain Cook to playboy Prince Bertie, Tessa Dunlop examines the appeal of the tattoo among high society.

A transparent attempt to sanitize the celebrity culture of narcissism that has rich white liberal kids attempting to act like the poor black underclass. If the tattoo has any appeal, it is among low society, not high; a public distinguishing characteristic of people with poor to nonexistent impulse control, like slacker adolescents and the criminal fringe. ‘Here’s your sign.’

Posted in Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media | Comments Off on Tattoos: The Legacy of a Seafaring Heritage

Survival Condo Project Sells Out of Missile Silo-Based, Apocalypse-Ready Apartments

27th May 2012

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If the nuclear apocalypse comes, do you want to be hanging out with the mutants we got to know oh-so-well in Fallout? Of course not, but you’ll have to pay for the privilege to ride out the end of the world in the lap of luxury — to the tune of at least $2 million if you’re looking to get into Larry Hall’s 200 foot-deep, missile silo-housed apartment complex in Kansas.

In-depth (no pun intended) overview here.

Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Survival Condo Project Sells Out of Missile Silo-Based, Apocalypse-Ready Apartments

Meta: Generic Right-Wing Blog Post

27th May 2012

OneSTDV saves everyone a lot of time.

I don’t care who you are, that’s funny.

Of course, left-wing blogs do exactly the same thing — but they have no sense of humor about it. Nyah nyah….

Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Meta: Generic Right-Wing Blog Post

To Complete This Reading Transaction, Press CANCEL

26th May 2012

Lileks feels our pain.

We love the swipe-and-go payment method. The cards have cut down on that bane of the grocery store line: the Checkbook Lady. She’d wait until the last item was bagged before spelunking in her purse for the checkbook; once it was found, she wrote the check with a speed that suggested writer’s block, as if she was searching for le mot juste for the comments field — I know! Groceries! Once this was done, the amount would be entered in the register with the meticulous care of Bob Cratchit working the books under Scrooge’s baleful eye, and then the checkbook would be returned to the cavernous purse before she moved an inch away from the counter. On behalf of everyone: You are why our ice cream has those crystals you get when it melts and refreezes.

I have always hated those people. I want to grab them by the throat and say ‘BITCH, IT’S A NEW CENTURY. GO TO YOUR BANK AND MURMUR THE MAGIC WORDS “DEBIT CARD” AND END OUR NATIONAL NIGHTMARE!” But I never do. Must be my native indolence coming to the fore. Or maybe it’s the restraining order.

Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on To Complete This Reading Transaction, Press CANCEL

Liberal Cannibalism: SEC Targets Progressive-Friendly Chipotle

26th May 2012

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Modern Liberalism is more about politics than policy. Even the most devout liberals are not immune to the legal harassment levied against other entrepreneurs.

The pack sometimes eats its own, to keep the rest strong — and watchful. ‘Okay, boys, meat’s back on the menu!’

Sure you would expect any successful chain to face nuisance lawsuits. Last year, a Mexican National sued a Minneapolis Chipotle for violating his human rights by denying him a beer. They actually asked him for more identification than the State of Minnesota requires to vote. The chain was also sued by a man in a wheelchair who claimed that the counters were too high for him to watch his burrito being prepared, denying him of his “full Chipotle experience.”

Even in the pros, you occasionally get an own-goal.

Personally, I don’t see a problem with hiring Mexicans to work in a Mexican restaurant.

Indeed. Whipping up disgusting unhealthy third-world poverty food and selling it to SWPL metrosexuals at premium prices sounds like the Platonic ideal of a Job Americans Won’t Do.

This is politics Chicago-style (apparently, deep-dish pizza isn’t the only tradition nationally franchised out of the Windy City). It’s flat-out harassment. The Administration is trying to convince the restaurant that it would be more profitable to donate than to pay legal fees. As the adage goes, Hell hath no fury like a liberal denied his protection money.

Nice little restaurant chain you got there, amigo. Be a shame if anything happened to it. Make the check out to ‘Obamassiah for President’.

Apparently, just being liberal isn’t enough anymore.

Sadly, it never is.

Posted in Whose turn is it to be the victim? | Comments Off on Liberal Cannibalism: SEC Targets Progressive-Friendly Chipotle

Nobody Is Challenging Obama in the Primaries–and Doing Surprisingly Well.

26th May 2012

James Taranto has a dark horse for you to bet on. Or is that racist?

Nobody is challenging Barack Obama in the Democratic primaries this year–and is doing surprisingly well. One of the reasons some commentators thought Obama would be a shoo-in for re-election is that like Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, he drew no serious primary opposition as an incumbent president. By contrast, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Bush père were challenged by Reagan, Ted Kennedy and Pat Buchanan respectively. Lyndon Johnson abandoned his 1968 re-election bid after Eugene McCarthy’s surprisingly strong showing in New Hampshire and Robert F. Kennedy’s late entry.

We now have seen Obama held under 60% by a slate of three candidates–antiabortion extremist Randall Terry, federal prison inmate Keith Judd and Tennessee lawyer John Wolfe–not to mention Nobody. Unlike the recently re-elected presidents, Obama does not have the full support of his party.

Hey, I’d vote for Nobody over Obama.

Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Nobody Is Challenging Obama in the Primaries–and Doing Surprisingly Well.

Some Comma Questions

26th May 2012

Ben Yagoda continues his fight for truth, justice, and correct use of the comma.

 

Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Some Comma Questions

College Liberal Memes

26th May 2012

Read it.

Dozens of memes, no waiting.

 

Posted in You can't make this stuff up. | Comments Off on College Liberal Memes

Mutilated Bodies of Mother and Four Children Found in Latest Syrian Atrocity

26th May 2012

Read it.

Whenever there aren’t any Jews or Americans handy, Muslims will quite cheerfully murder each other.

But of course the Crust can’t be bothered with this sort of thing — they’re too busy protesting Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.

That’s some fine Religion o’ Peace™ you got there, Mohammed.

Posted in Living with Islam. | 1 Comment »

Radical Environmentalists and Other Merchants of Despair

26th May 2012

Read it. And watch the video.

“We have never been in danger of running out of resources,” says Dr. Robert Zubrin, “but we have encountered considerable dangers from people who say we are running out of resources and who say that human activities need to be constrained.”

Posted in Think about it. | 1 Comment »

Vampires and Politicians

26th May 2012

Read it.

The resemblances might surprise you.

And, then again, they might not.

Posted in Think about it. | 1 Comment »

Obama’s ‘Real World’ Located in Whole Foods Parking Lot

26th May 2012

Smitty at The Other McCain points and laughs.

President Barack Obama, who has spent almost all of his career and adult life in academia, law firms, and government, begins his criticism of Mitt Romney by declaring, “those of us who have spent time in the real world . . .”

Posted in You can't make this stuff up. | Comments Off on Obama’s ‘Real World’ Located in Whole Foods Parking Lot

Teenager Squatted in AOL’s Offices for Two Months Unnoticed

26th May 2012

Read it.

Eric Simons, from Chicago, slept on sofas, ate free in cafeterias, and used his days to work on his own start up company, offering teachers the chance to share lesson plans.

Other employees assumed he was a colleague and admired his strong work ethic. Simons would already be in the gym when they arrived at 7am, and he always stayed latest in the office at night.

The ideal employee.

The teenager, who had only finished high school a few months earlier, gained access to the offices when he was part of an official education programme. But when that ended he found his security badges still worked so he stayed.

Just think of what he could have accomplished if he’d been a window washer.

Posted in You can't make this stuff up. | Comments Off on Teenager Squatted in AOL’s Offices for Two Months Unnoticed

Chinese Communist Leaders Denounce U.S. Values But Send Children to U.S. Colleges

26th May 2012

Read it.

When scholars gathered at Harvard last month to discuss the political tumult convulsing China’s ruling Communist Party, a demure female undergraduate with a direct stake in the outcome was listening intently from the top row of the lecture hall. She was the daughter of Xi Jinping, China’s vice president and heir apparent for the party’s top job.

Xi’s daughter, Xi Mingze, enrolled at Harvard University in 2010, under what people who know her there say was a fake name, joining a long line of Chinese “princelings,” as the offspring of senior party officials are known, who have come to the United States to study.

The current Chinese ‘Communist’ regime is merely the ancient Mandarin regime without an Emperor and wearing a Clever Plastic Disguise. As such, they represent the Platonic ideal of The Crust towards which all Western imitators vainly strive.

“This is about haves and have-nots,” said Hong Huang, the stepdaughter of Mao’s foreign minister Qiao Guanhua and a member of an earlier generation of American-educated princelings. “China’s old-boy network .?.?. is no different from America’s old-boy network,” said Hong, who went to Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and whose mother served as Mao’s English teacher.

Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Chinese Communist Leaders Denounce U.S. Values But Send Children to U.S. Colleges

How Medicare’s Payment System Discourages Quality and Innovation

26th May 2012

Read it.

Politicians are always quick to declare that America’s seniors depend on Medicare for their health. But seniors also depend on innovation in medical practice and technology. And Medicare’s top-down payment system represents a significant burden to improving both. In remarks given at a recent Harvard debate, Neil Minkoff, the founder of FountainHead Health and a commissioner on the Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission, does a good job of summarizing how Medicare’s centralized payment system discourages quality in medical servicing.

Gotta love that government health care. Before too long, government health care will be delivering the same quality product as government schools. What a paradise we’ll have then!

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on How Medicare’s Payment System Discourages Quality and Innovation

SittingAround Is Giving Babysitters Free Square Readers, Helps Them Find Jobs

26th May 2012

Read it.

SittingAround, the new service that allows parents to quickly and easily find and schedule a babysitter online, is now getting their sitters clients equipped with Square credit card readers. CEO Erica Zidel tells us that, starting now, all sitters are being offered a free Square dongle as a part of the signup process on the website, and can then indicate whether or not they accept credit cards in their online profile. Parents, meanwhile, can now search and hire sitters based on the payment method they accept.

We have the technology.

Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on SittingAround Is Giving Babysitters Free Square Readers, Helps Them Find Jobs

Value Them Because They’re Not Beautiful

26th May 2012

Freeberg just keeps on thinkin’.

… for forty years now, I’ve heard feminists tell me that everyone needs to think and live the way the feminists tell them to, because their way is the right way; over those forty years, they’ve gone from insisting women can have everything and don’t need to choose anything, nor should they have to — to, you can’t be invested with real authority, as a woman, if you happen to look good. So the inconsistency bothers me a lot. But also, it leads to an elite layer of female leaders, one that is somewhat detached from the rest of society and yet, in many cases, making highly influential decisions about how the rest of society should live. The decisions they make, then, are consistently wrong.

Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Value Them Because They’re Not Beautiful

Scottish Separatist Referendum Campaign Split Over the Queen

25th May 2012

Read it.

This could prove to be almost as entertaining as the progressive dissolution of the Anglican Communion.

All they need do is repeal the Act of Union of 1707 and work from there. But I suppose that wouldn’t allow a sufficient number of politicians to pee in the soup first.

Posted in Whose turn is it to be the victim? | 3 Comments »