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Four days before Christmas, the Friends’ world was rocked by the sort of violence they have devoted their lives to stamping out.

Vandals with an acetylene torch crept onto the project’s muddy construction site in the middle of the night. Working out of view in the meetinghouse’s freshly cemented basement, they sliced off dozens of bolts securing the bare steel columns and set fire to the building crane, causing $500,000 in damage.

Police detectives deemed the attack arson because of a series of confrontational visits from union officials days before the incident. They say the torch could only have been operated by a trained professional, and believe it was almost certainly the work of disgruntled union members. The city has assigned extra investigators to the case and is working with federal forensic experts to track down the vandals, said Michael Resnick, the city’s public safety commissioner.

Look for … the Union label….

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The military is perhaps as selfless an institution as our society has produced. But in its current form, Mr. Kane says, it stifles the aspirations of the best who seek to serve it and pushes them out. “In terms of attracting and training innovative leaders, the U.S. military is unparalleled,” he writes. “In terms of managing talent, the U.S. military is doing everything wrong.”

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The federal government has emerged as one of the most potent factors driving income inequality in the United States – especially in the nation’s capital.

The capital is totally under the control of the Federal government. If they can’t get D.C. right, why believe that they can get anything else right?

Check it out.

Gives ‘techno’ a whole new meaning.

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Thieves who targeted Microsoft’s Silicon Valley campus over the holiday break walked away with five iPads but apparently didn’t consider any Microsoft products worth stealing.

Which is why I own a lot of Apple stock and no Microsoft stock, even though I’ve been a developer on the Microsoft platform for over two decades.

Read it.

A question that I’m sure has been as much on your mind as it has been on mine.

An “ostrich-like dinosaur known as an ornithomimid would probably yield the most consumer-friendly cut of meat, while still maintaining a unique dinosaur taste.”

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In a classic tale illustrating the “law of unintended consequences,” a new report concludes that President Barack Obama’s $3 billion “Cash for Clunkers” taxpayer-funded boondoggle artificially drove car prices up, not down, and unleashed an “environmental nightmare” through shredding, not recycling, many of the 690,000 cars people traded in for an up to $4,500 car credit.

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

Read it.

While economics could have played a part in any decline, Eberstadt sees other things at play.  He points to the continuing fracture of the U.S. family structure. People of all ethic backgrounds are running from marriage and family formation. No way this couldn’t affect fertility rates. There may be lots of babies being born out of wedlock but you have to believe that most single mothers are not having multiple babies that way. They learn how to stop pretty quickly once reality dawns that their single motherhood won’t be like Madonna.

Let’s hope the Octomom is listening.

What does religious belief have to do with embracing children? Eberstadt says there is a strong correlation. Nones in the U.S. and Europe have matching low fertility rates while religious people in the U.S. have the same relatively high fertility rate as their counterparts in Europe. The problem for Europe is they have so many Nones. Our problem could be that we are catching up.

Why such a correlation? It could be that Nones look at this world and see nothing beyond it. This is it. There is no more. In Woody Allen’s Annie Hall, Alvy Singer is scolded for not doing his homework. “The universe is everything,” he says, “and if it’s expanding, someday it will break apart and that would be the end of everything! So what’s the point?” Such nihilism must do something to the psyche and to the desire to multiply. Woody Allen had only one biological child.

I am comfortable in a world where Woody Allen has only one biological child.

Face it, children are inconvenient. When my wife and I married we went to Europe a lot. When our first daughter came, we still went to Europe but less. Our second daughter has never been to Europe.

My, what a hardship.

For many people such things really matter. They want to be able to go to Europe or Bermuda or Patagonia. They want a new car every two years. They want a vacation house. Those inconvenient children can stand in the way of all of this. Even one child can stand in the way. Now think about two or three or four children and then ponder a future of vacations not in Paris but at the small lake down the road.

The horror! The horror!

Read it.

And thoats. Don’t forget the thoats.

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There are copies available but kiddie porn involving small furry animals is easier to find.

The film’s live-action depictions of Uncle Remus and his fellow smilin’, Massah-servin’ black folk are embarrassingly racist.

Only to the SWPL crowd who see racism under every bush. The same people who will fall all over themselves praising Eisenstein’s Alexander Nevsky will run away screaming with White Liberal Guilt when face with a film that is far less bigoted and tendentious. I suppose the next targets will be A Day At The Races and Mississippi, all from the same period.

If you were born after 1980, you’ve almost certainly never seen it in full, and it’s unlikely that will change anytime soon.

Yet another sad truth about modern America.

Read it.

First you have to knock it on the table to get the weevils out. Or am I thinking of something else?

An American company has developed a technique that it says can make bread stay mould-free for 60 days.

The bread is zapped in a sophisticated microwave array which kills the spores that cause the problem.

We have the technology.

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We have the technology.

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According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass. was in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act because it failed to

* Continually provide ready-made hot and cold gluten- and allergen-free food options in its dining hall food lines;

* Develop individualized meal plans for students with food allergies, and allow those students to pre-order allergen free meals, that can be made available at the university’s dining halls in Cambridge and Boston;

* Provide a dedicated space in its main dining hall to store and prepare gluten-free and allergen-free foods and to avoid cross-contamination

The ADA is one of the reasons that George H.W. Bush deserves to burn in Hell for all eternity.

Read it.

Starbucks … they’re everywhere.

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Just when you thought that the Land of Fruits and Nuts couldn’t get any more ridiculous….

Check it out.

Democrats talk a good fight about ‘diversity’, but don’t practice it much.

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

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 Kolbe points to a survey by the Tarrance Group and Hart Research that concluded that U.S. adults favor a switch to a dollar coin by a two-to-one margin.

Uh-huh. And yet…

According to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, right now the U.S. Treasury has about $1.4 billion in unused and unwanted $1 coins. That’s so much inventory the federal government recently announced that it wound end its program of producing presidential $1 coins – or at least suspend it.

‘Unwanted’ by whom? The American public, obviously; they’re the ones refusing to use them. Which casts some doubt on the claim that two-thirds favor a switch.

Read it.

Lurking not far beneath the surface in the uproar over the 1% versus the 99% is the notion that once an American makes it to the top he or she is very likely to stay there.

But is that so?

Hint: No.

Of those who were in the top 1% in 1987 (and could be found in 2007 and had some income in 2007), 24% were in the top 1% in 2007 and another 37% were on slightly lower rungs but still in the top 5%.

So 75% had dropped out of the top 1%.

Among people ages 15 years and 18 years in 1987 who showed up as dependents of taxpayers in the top 1%, about 14% were in the top 1% as adults in 2007 and another 20% didn’t make it to the tip top but were still in the top 5%.

So two-thirds of people whose parents were in the top 1% didn’t make it as adults.

John Derbyshire, Patron Saint of Dyspepsia, shares his wisdom.

Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens, observes one of Schiller’s characters sagely: “Against stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain.”

We all know the feeling.

(If you don’t know what vade mecum means, feel free to look it up.)

Read it.

 When we remember our past selves, they seem quite different. We know how much our personalities and tastes have changed over the years. But when we look ahead, somehow we expect ourselves to stay the same, a team of psychologists said Thursday, describing research they conducted of people’s self-perceptions.

Freeberg encounters the Crust, and is Dismayed.

There is no significant change anywhere, even though the public at large is about as disenchanted with the way things are going, as they have been for quite some time. It’s like a bigger version of California. The electorate isn’t firing anyone, anywhere, and it isn’t because they’re pleased with the state of things. It’s because they’re tired. They’re not fixing anything because they don’t see how; and they refuse to admit that they don’t know what to do.

You need one of these. Now.

A comic that is far from comical.

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In praising Congress’s huge new tax increase, President Obama said Tuesday that “millionaires and billionaires” will finally “pay their fair share.” That is, unless you are a Nascar track owner, a wind-energy company or the owners of StarKist Tuna, among many others who managed to get their taxes reduced in Congress’s New Year celebration.

All of whom paid big bucks to the appropriate government officials, of course.

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 The images were found by experts who were scientifically analysing the portraits in a bid to increase understanding of the working practices of Tudor artists.

They used reflectography and x-radiography to examine the layers beneath the paint surface.

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The pieces of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver were declared treasure by coroner Andrew Haigh on Friday and will now be valued by the British Museum.

There are two items in the current collection that do not sparkle as much as the others but which could be the most valuable to archaeologists researching the hoard.

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According to a study from Long Island’s Stony Brook University, the lightbulbs give off extraordinary levels of UV radiation, which can burn skin and even cause skin cancer. “When there is something in your house,” said Miriam Rafailovich, Professor of Materials Science at Stony Brook, “you don’t perceive any danger, you wouldn’t get that close to an x-ray in a doctor’s office.” Marcia Simon, who teaches dermatology, said, “The results were that you could actually initiate cell death.”

Heh.

Read it.

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

Not the sort of thing you usually see in Slate.

But Lynas has changed his mind—and he’s not being quiet about it. On Thursday at the Oxford Farming Conference, Lynas delivered a blunt address: He got GMOs wrong.

Thanks to ErisGuy for the link.

The Other McCain has a plan.

1. Raise big bucks for Obama’s campaign.
2. Start a “green energy” company.
3. Get an Energy Department grant.
4. Profit!

Read it.

Well, you could always move to Canada, right? Think again. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) comes more fully into effect this year, and as The Globe and Mail’s Barrie McKenna explains, “FATCA will force the hand of many Americans in Canada, making them choose between compliance or giving up their U.S. citizenship.”

Well, there’s always Russia.

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At the University of Minnesota, the number of employees with “human resources” or “personnel” in their job titles has grown from 180 to 272 since the 2004-05 academic year. Since 2006, the university has spent $10 million on consultants for a vast new housing development that is decades from completion. It employs 139 people for marketing, promotions and communications. Some 81 administrators make $200,000 per year or more.

In the past decade, Minnesota’s administrative payroll has gone up three times as fast as the teaching payroll, and twice as fast as student enrollment.

Oh, and tuition more than doubled in that same period, to more than $13,000 per year.

Gotta love that Blue State life … if you can afford it.

Americans and their elected leaders have grown used to discussing college “affordability” as a matter of distributing ever more government aid — in the form of tax breaks, direct assistance or subsidized loans.

Actually, this is self-defeating: by making it possible for students to pay higher tuition, federal and state aid reduces institutions’ incentive to make the hard budgetary choices that might hold tuition down in the first place.

Oh, ya think?

The Other McCain is on the case.

 According to Louisville police, Browning went to the Valley Station Walmart and tried to purchase two iPads with an Electronic Benefit Transfer card. When the transaction was denied, she assaulted a store clerk, pushed another employee to the ground and fled from the store with the merchandise.

And the Entitlement Mentality chickens come home to roost. Note that the perp is an Obama-tinted person; perhaps she thought that the free Obama phone was just the first step on the road to a free Obama electronic device universe.

We’re subsidizing stupidity and, as everyone who has studied economics knows, when you subsidize something, you get more of it.

Yup.

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And that tells you pretty much everything you need to know about France … and Russia … these days.

Read it.

Delaware taxpayers appear to be getting soaked twice under a deal in which the Democratic governor loaned $21.5 million to a hybrid electric carmaker to set up shop in the state. The company has yet to produce a car in Delaware, and taxpayers are footing the electric bill for the idle plant.

The deal was enthusiastically announced in 2009 by Gov. Jack Markell and Vice President Biden — formerly Delaware’s senior senator — as a way to bring as many as 2,500 green jobs to the state. But California-based Fisker Automotive Inc. has since suffered a series of setbacks that have compounded its shaky financial situation.

Life in a Blue State. You’d think they’d learn, but they never do.

“It has not worked out the way he had envisioned,” Markell spokeswoman Cathy Rossi acknowledged Monday in a statement to FoxNews.com.

Sort of an archetype of Democrat ‘crapitalism’ everywhere.

“We didn’t know and couldn’t have known about the underlying technical and financial problems.”

Not that they made any effort to find out. Asking somebody who knew something about business — a banker, say — would have been a good first step.

The $21.5 million from Delaware is composed of a $9 million grant and a $12.5 million loan that includes so-called “claw backs” should Fisker fail to meet deadlines. However, recovering that money should the company fold will not be easy.

No shit.

Read it.

Just in case you’re stuck for ideas.

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In November, Chicago voters re-elected a legally insane judge charged with a crime of violence. “The Cook County Democratic Party supported her” in her re-election bid. The day after Judge Cynthia Brim “won re-election to the Cook County Circuit Court” with 63.5 percent of the vote, she “showed up in court — not as a judge, but as a defendant in a battery case.”

Not that there’s anything wrong with that….

David Friedman takes a look at the Crustian Narrative.

 A recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that being overweight, as defined by body mass index, may be good for you—that people in the recommended BMI range are more likely to die (“all cause mortality”) than people whose weight classifies them as overweight but not obese. What I found most interesting about the news coverage of the article was the reaction reported—people quoted as criticizing the article without offering any good reason to think it was wrong.

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

The Other McCain turns over a rock.

Advocates of economic redistribution do not generally think of themselves as motivated by selfishness. Egalitarianism typically presents itself as a species of humanitarian philanthropy so that its political advocates are seldom compelled to defend their implicit claims to be acting in the altruistic spirit of charity.

The Democratic Party gets a free pass in this regard. Let any thievish political scoundrel put a “D” beside his name, and he thereby gains for himself the presumption that his every impulse is motivated by a selfless concern for the plight of the downtrodden poor.

As a hustle — a scam, a racket – this is brilliant.

Get one.

A useful contrast.

Guy Somerset has some news for you.

So the apocalypse didn’t quite happen last year. It’s good news for some, but perhaps not as good as we think. This world has changed immensely in the past fifty years. Here are six signs that maybe the Mayans were more right than we know.

Read it.

In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, CNN’s Piers Morgan found a cause: gun control. Now some Americans want him deported. And…

Oh, sorry: You’re wondering who Piers Morgan is.

Well, I’m not, but most normal people might be.

He draws half the viewers of Sean Hannity and Rachel Maddow in the same time slot.

That many? Color me surprised.

I can spare those Americans who want me deported a lot of effort by saying this: If you don’t change your gun laws to at least try to stop this relentless tidal wave of murderous carnage, then you don’t have to worry about deporting me….I would…seriously consider deporting myself.

Don’t let the door hit you in the butt on the way out.

Read it.

Illinois is the only state in the Union that does not allow some sort of concealed carry statute for its law-abiding citizens. Illinois is also home to the city with the highest murder rate in the country.

Gee, I wonder whether those two facts might be connected.

According to the source, the bill would not include any grandfathering and would require Illinois gun owners to turn in their guns to the Illinois State Police, where the weapons will be destroyed.

I see some Fifth Amendment problems with that….

Read it.

One of the lines that many progressives and TV talking heads are reiterating is that no one really wants to take away Americans’ guns. Senator Dianne Feinstein apparently missed that directive. She admitted as far back as 1995 that she does, indeed, wish to take everyone’s guns away from them.

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

Which Harry Potter character would she be? Why, this one, of course.

Read it.

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

Read it.

I’m waiting for the inevitable calls to force doctors to take Medicare patients.

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Interior Minister Manuel Valls said Tuesday that 1,193 vehicles were burned overnight around the country.  Clashes between police and offenders in the New Year’s Eve took place in the Muslim majority districts in the city of Strasbourg and Mulhouse.  About seven police officers were attacked New Years eve night.

Around 1,200 cars were burned by rioting Muslims on the New Year’s Eve in France, where the mass burning cars in the national holidays are kind of tradition among Muslim residents of the disadvantaged suburbs of immigrants.

What peaceful, friendly people! Wouldn’t you just love to have some for neighbors?
That’s some fine Religion o’ Peace™ you got there, Mohammed.
Of course, as we all know, the real problem is Islamophobia.

Read it.

 In the September 1960 issue of IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, radio theorist Millett G. Morgan, a “leading researcher in the field of ionospheric physics” based at Dartmouth, speculated that he could generate artificial “whistlers”—that is, audial electromagnetic effects that are usually caused by lightning—if only he could find the right island.

“In thinking about how to generate whistlers artificially,” Morgan’s proposal leisurely begins, “it has occurred to me that an island of suitable size and shape, extending through the conducting sea, may constitute a naturally resonant, VLF slot antenna of high quality.”

Read it.

And the more the Crust raises the minimum wage, the sooner these will start putting the Underclass out of work and onto the dole. Way to go, Democrats!