Jerry Pournelle has come up with a great term — don’t know whether it’s original to him — to describe the parasites of the Overclass who live off of the rest of us: ‘tax eaters’ (as opposed to ‘taxpayers’). I love it.

Read it.

An ugly term for a false distinction. But the cartoon is funny.

Read it.

Around 40 per cent of people with European origins have “high risk” versions of the genes, which affect the brain’s sensitivity to nicotine.

Well, that explains a lot.

Read it.

And we think we’ve got immigrant problems….

The sweetest voices in the universe.

Read it.

Remember that next time some Muslim whines about women being made to remove head coverings for identification purposes. Muslims are great at gaming a system that allows them to do what they themselves wouldn’t be foolish enough to allow.

Read it.

Read it.

Is there anything in the modern world that someone won’t sue over? If so, I haven’t seen it.

Of course, the guy involved is a lawyer, so he may be just drumming up business.

Read it.

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

Read it.

There is something very disturbing about this, although I can’t quite put my finger on it.

Read it.

Designed by General Electric Fanuc (GEF) and programmed by Nuvation Research, this thing has been able to crush any human opponent that dared step up to its 32-bit automated ways. In fact, it can typically score around three times as many goals as even the mightiest Earthling, and while folks have been smart enough to find loopholes in the 8-bit software, this guy is pretty much invincible when running the real deal.

I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking “air defense control system”.

Read it.

You might find it natural to wonder about an industry that depends on deception to sell their products.

Read it.

After failing to help, of course, they’ll be the first to whine if any of their antiquities get damaged.

Perhaps we could persuade them to act as human shields.

Randall Parker has an excellent idea.

Read it.

Things must be getting Really Bad in Britain.

Steve Sailer takes a hard look at some recent trends in education … and politics.

One theory for why states and cities are raising their high school graduation requirements (Los Angeles now requires passing Algebra II to graduate) is that they are hoping to persuade their dumber students to move somewhere less demanding, and keep people with dumb kids from moving to the state in the first place.

The theory isn’t very plausible, however, because there’s little evidence that California’s politicians and educators are smart enough to understand it.

Steve Sailer makes the excellent point that Iran, by threatening America and Israel, is driving up the price of the only product that will bring them in hard currency.

They may be crazy but I’m not convinced that they’re stupid.

Read it.

I can think of nothing more pathetic than being part of a “fat pride” group. I suppose that, in these degenerate modern times, there would be “stupid pride” groups as well, did they but have the wit to form them.

Read it.

I wonder whether it could be used to engrave some sense on the forehead of Barack Obama, so he’d see it every morning in the mirror.

Probably not.

Read it.

“What is your target market for the iPhone 3G?”

“Journalists who have to write about it, and white people with more money than sense. We work the same demographic as posh restaurants with rude waiters.”

“So you anticipate brisk sales?”

“Certainly. There’s a lot of affluent insecurity out there, and we hope to tap into that.”

Read it.

When a bureaucrat’s job depends on him (or her) giving away money, then they’re by God going to find people to which to give money.

On a no-doubt-entirely-unrelated note, the federal deficit for this year appears to be twice what was anticipated. Just sayin’.

Read it.

Notice how, when the WaPo writes about somebody in a Third-World shithold, they never write about people who are actually doing manual labor — craftsmen, manufacturers, famers, ditch-diggers, goatherds. They always interview artists, poets, actors, playwrights, “journalists”, editors … or, as here, booksellers. If it’s not someting you can do downtown in a major American metropolis, they have no interest in it or anybody who is involved with it.

Read it.

You may not think it was a problem but it was.

Read it.

Forest supervisor Leanne Marten said when approving Savoy’s application that the project wouldn’t significantly harm the environment and the company would be required to keep noise to a minimum.

But the judge ruled the Forest Service didn’t consider how degrading the area could harm tourism, and said the agency did a “woefully inadequate” job of evaluating how the drilling might affect the Kirtland’s warbler, an endangered songbird that nests in the area.

Like $4 gas? Be prepared for $6 gas. And don’t forget, you’re paying these people’s salaries.

Read it.

Read it.

Tell the truth — we’ve all wanted to do that.

Read it.

Read it.

Read it.

Over the past several years, the highly educated coastal rich have been engaged in a little culture war with the inland corporate rich. This is a war over values, leadership styles and social networks.

Read it.

A woman was prevented from taking her own son to school because she hadn’t been screened for a criminal record.

1. Thank God you don’t live in Britain.
2. Without eternal vigilance, it could happen here. Probably in New York.

Megan McArdle has the numbers.

Gee, when tax rates go down, tax revenues go up. Isn’t that amazing.

Too bad Democrats can’t count.

Read it.

Another stage in the campaign by the left to cancel the Industrial Revolution.

Read it.

Well. There it is.

Steve Sailer understands the essence.

Read it.

Let us assume that Saint Al of Gore and the IPCC are correct in their direst predictions and that Lord Stern and his ilk are correct in their assessment of the cost of global warming. What possible benefit can result from slashing emissions in the west when India and China are committed to industrialisation and its consequential CO2 production?

A really excellent question.

Read it.

Read it.

I’m shocked, I tell you, shocked.

Read it.

Darwin Award nominee.

Read it.

It is certainly comforting to know that someone is taking action on this vital and pressing issue.

Read it.

Update: A more comprehensive explanation of the issues is here.

Read it.

Needless to say, carotene is a valuable dietary supplement.

Needless to say, regressives call it “frankenfruit” and want it made illegal.

Read it.

Go, granny, go, granny, go, granny, go.

Spiked

On the other hand, conspiracies do exist, and conspiracies run by very clever people do exist. Where does one draw the line?

Remember: the The Boy Who Cried Wolf did, eventually, see a wolf — and those who ignored him were the losers.

Read it.

Read it.

Some people have just entirely too much time on their hands.

And yet … it is through pointless monomania such as this that civilization advances. Go figure.

Read it.

Relatives of Shehzad Tanweer, who is buried there, staged the feast to ‘celebrate his life’ and ‘remember him as a martyr’ on the third anniversary of the terror attacks which killed 52 people and injured many more.

Read it.

Applied Freakanomics.

His main finding: blacks who “sound black” earn salaries that are 10 percent lower than blacks who do not “sound black,” even after controlling for measures of intelligence, experience in the work force, and other factors that influence how much people earn. (For what it is worth, whites who “sound black” earn 6 percent lower than other whites.)

Read it.

1. Thank God you don’t live in Britain.
2. Without eternal vigilance, it could happen here. Probably in California.

Read it.

Oh, as if they really have a choice.

Read it.

Cute little car, can’t deny that. And it’s great to have communists self-identify themselves; it will make it so much easier when the baloon goes up.