SEARCH BLOG: 2ND AMENDMENT.
Recently, small children were suspended from school for pointing with their index fingers. That was considered extremely dangerous behavior by the school. Now Justin Bieber is being investigated for possible assault charges for tossing foam projectiles.
SEARCH BLOG: TELEVISION.
We've just gotten used to 4G for cell phones. The next upgrade may come in the form of 4K broadcasting. 4K is roughly 4 times the resolution of a Blu-ray DVD.
Look for it sometime in the 2nd quarter of this century. Meanwhile...
We could have it sooner, but that would mean your monthly cable bill would go up 100% or so. And some people think that it is just not worth it.Japan to broadcast in 4K starting in 2014.
..Why Ultra HD 4K TVs are still stupid.
SEARCH BLOG: OBAMA and GUNS.
A lot has been said about the fact that assault-style rifles are exceptionally dangerous despite the fact that many of them are virtually identical, mechanically, to non-assault-style rifles. But the mechanical aspects are not important. Neither are the pistol-style grips. Neither are the shoulder straps or the carry handles. Neither are the magazines.
No, President Obama has divined the real reason why assault-style rifles are so dangerous. Read about it here.
SEARCH BLOG: EDUCATION.
I can't see what could go wrong here, can you?
WASHINGTON (AP) — Breaking new ground, the U.S. Education Department is telling schools they must include students with disabilities in sports programs or provide equal alternative options. The directive, reminiscent of the Title IX expansion of athletic opportunities for women, could bring sweeping changes to school budgets and locker rooms for years to come.
Schools would be required to make "reasonable modifications" for students with disabilities or create parallel athletic programs that have comparable standing as mainstream programs. [source]Fits right in with sending women into hand-to-hand combat.
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
George Orwell, "1984", first sentence
SEARCH BLOG: WEATHER.
Actually, cold weather is consistent with winter. This odd map of pressure systems is unlike most I've seen before. Must be consistent with something that will require government action and new taxes.
SEARCH BLOG: OBAMA and TAXES.
Barack wants to be just like François. And just like France, the U.S. may see these results.
Golfer Phil Mickelson May Call It Quits Due To Climbing Tax RatesObama-tide... lowering the level of all ships.
..Phil is hardly suffering, but that doesn’t necessarily justify derision for his anger about more of his income being confiscated in the name of “fairness.” There are a lot of “fairness” seekers who would never consider putting in the hours necessary to hone a talent that could earn the wealth that comes with being the best. There are a lot of “fairness” seekers who would never consider working in lieu of government largesse. There are a lot of “fairness” seekers who see the success of others as the basis of their own failures.Perhaps there should be a special tax on those who chronically siphon off the rewards of hard work from others.
SEARCH BLOG: CALIFORNIA.
It's official: whites will become a California minority in 2013. In other news, the U.S. Supreme Court will look at affirmative action:
That figures.The court said Tuesday it will return to the issue of affirmative action in higher education for the first time since its 2003 decision endorsing the use of race as a factor in admissions. This time around, a more conservative court is being asked to outlaw the use of Texas’ affirmative action plan and possibly to jettison the earlier ruling entirely.A broad ruling in favor of the student, Abigail Fisher, could threaten affirmative action programs at many of the nation’s public and private universities, said Vanderbilt University law professor Brian Fitzpatrick. [source]
SEARCH BLOG: IRONY.
In days of yore when men were men and women were women, Great Britain used to send their convicts to Australia... seen as a great punishment. My how the mighty have fallen!
SEARCH BLOG: GLOBAL WARMING.
Pictures of Russian cities covered in water have been flooding the internet recently. These inundations are "consistent with" global warming.
SEARCH BLOG: GUNS.
Now that New York has quickly cobbled together its misguided gun control law, this type of rifle can can still be legally purchased.
SEARCH BLOG: GUNS.
While trying to tell the world who owns a gun, the White Plains, NY, Journal News inadvertently informed all area would-be home invaders which homes are not protected by guns [image].
The gun control debate has shifted over the last 20 years. Back then it was common to hear that it is in everyone’s best interests if the government made guns go away. The legislative agenda of anti-gun groups was much more radical and overt. Activists pointed to Britain, Australia, and Canada as models of gun control policy.
In 1997 Britain banned handguns, and between 1998 and 2003 gun crimes doubled. According the British Home Office, between 1997 and 2001 homicides increased by 19% and violent crime increased by 26%, while in the U.S. those same crimes fell by 12%. Between 2000 and 2001, robbery increased by 28% in Britain but only 4% in the U.S. Domestic burglary increased by 7% in Britain, but only 3% in the U.S.
In 1996 Australia enacted sweeping gun control laws. In the six years following, violent crime rates rose by 32%. Canada isn’t faring well under its stringent gun control laws. Today Canada’s violent crime rate is more than double that of the U.S. [source]..
SEARCH BLOG: OBAMA and ECONOMY.
Can you imagine what the mainstream media would be doing if George Bush were president and the fiscal cliff was dead ahead... and he did this?
Obama and family arrive in Hawaii for Christmas
By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press
Updated 3:31 am, Saturday, December 22, 2012
KAILUA, Hawaii (AP) — President Barack Obama and his family have arrived in Honolulu to spend Christmas in Hawaii, where the president was born and raised.
Meanwhile, the common man's president has indicated that the common man's senator from Massachusetts, John Kerry, would be the next Secretary of State.Air Force One touched down in Honolulu minutes after midnight local time on Saturday. The first family departed the plane and traveled quickly to their vacation house in the beach town of Kailua, a scenic, sleepy beach town on the east side of Oahu. [more]
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2012
Five luxury homes, 76-foot yacht, SUV, and a private jet: John Kerry models the lifestyle of a liberal who allegedly believed James Hansen's 1988 carbon dioxide warning [source]This is big government working for ... those who are elected to big government. How's that you common-man suckers?
SEARCH BLOG: DUH FACTOR.
A Simpsons episode where God takes orders from the Devil has so angered Turkey‘s Islamic government that it fined the TV network that broadcast it.
The Supreme Board of Radio and Television (RTUK), which sounds exactly like the sort of organization that would scrutinize a cartoon for blasphemy, has fined Turkish broadcaster CNBC-e $30,000 for “making fun of God, encouraging the young people to exercise violence by showing the murders as God’s orders and encouraging them to start drinking alcohol on New Year’s Eve night,” according to Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News. “One of the characters is abusing another one’s religious belief to make him commit murders. The Bible is publicly burned in one scene and God and the Devil are shown in human bodies.” You can see the offending clip, from the 2012 Halloween episode “Treehouse of Horror”, here.What can you expect from any organization with the word "Supreme" in its title?
SEARCH BLOG: OBAMA and DETROIT.
Can you imagine what the City of Detroit could do with $6 billion dollars? Even if it had to go for wasteful "green" projects, the city could create solar farms and wind farms in its vast tracts of vacant land and provide clean, free [if unreliable] energy to light the streets and power municipal facilities. It could clean up debris-strewn, rubble packed abandoned land and turn it into parks with trees, grass and artificial lakes. It could even take a pass on that $0.25 billion budget cut.
But too bad for Detroit. President Obama decided to reward all of his loyal followers in Indonesia and Brunei with $6 billion that could have gone a long way to clean up the City of Detroit.
From the Asia News Network:
US pledges $6b aid for clean energy in Asia-Pacific.
The United States has pledged up to US$6 billion to grow sustainable energy in the Asia-Pacific region as part of an initiative brokered with Brunei and Indonesia.
Dubbed the "US-Asia Pacific Comprehensive Partnership For A Sustainable Energy", the US government announced last week that it will invest billions in Asian countries over the next four years to increase their purchasing power for American technology, services and equipment.
The move will ensure "affordable, secure, and cleaner energy supplies for the region", the White House said in a statement.
US Ambassador to Brunei Daniel Shields said: "The Asia-Pacific region will need an estimated $9 trillion in investments in electricity by 2035. President Barack Obama, Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono have joined together in recognition of this fact to help supply the region with clean energy."
The US has partnered with Brunei and Indonesia as the countries take up the chairs of Asean and APEC respectively in 2013. [h/t Geeeeez]So, don't all of you Detroiters who voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama feel so much better that the money which could have gone to help your deeply troubled city will go to oil-exporting Indonesia and Brunei instead? Say, isn't the Sultan of Brunei one of the world's wealthiest men? Hey, even wealthy guys could use a few billion more to run their countries. And perhaps he can return the favor in the form of some lucrative speaking fees in four or five years. Or maybe Indonesia can make our president again feel at home in four or five years.
SEARCH BLOG: DUH FACTOR.
And who says the military is humorless? From Military Times:
Bill the Goat kidnapped, left on roadside
Bill the Goat, the Naval Academy Mascot, was stolen over the weekend and attached to a median near the Pentagon. He was recovered Saturday morning in good condition.Kid-napped, indeed.
SEARCH BLOG: GENDER and MILITARY.
It was inevitable. Once "gender equality" came to mean "no differences between the sexes" it became a foregone conclusion that "anyone can do anything."
From Military Times:
USMC changes fitness requirement for women
By Andrew deGrandpré - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Nov 27, 2012 11:46:04 EST
Female Marines soon will be required to perform pull-ups, just like male Marines do, as part of their annual physical fitness tests, the Marine Corps’ top general announced Tuesday. [more]For years, women have been excused from some of the rigors that men had to face because women supposedly lacked upper body strength. But recent experiments by the Marine Corp have proved conclusively that with the correct basic training regimen, there is absolutely no difference in the performance results between men and women... and, in fact, some women scared the hell out the men.
SEARCH BLOG: OBAMA and ECONOMY.
Life is full of little "bumps in the road." Bumps in the road are much more palatable to the guy in the car than "cliffs ahead."
So, with discussions in Washington going nowhere to address the "fiscal cliff" situation, the Obama administration will shortly announce that we are headed toward a "fiscal bump in the road" which will hardly be noticeable by most people... except those with taxes to pay, retirement savings, and homes which are worth less than they paid... and maybe doctors... and perhaps the armed forces... and people who use dollars to pay for goods and services.
But those are just minor "bumps in the road." The good news is that Washington, D. C. will still be home to the Congress and the President who, incidentally, are not subject to bumps in the road.
Isn't it amazing how things that seem big can be made much more manageable if we just use the right words? And if you use the right words and they worked once, why not use them again... and again?
SEARCH BLOG: OBAMA.
Does it strike anyone that President Obama's trip to southeast Asia is stretching for a reason? Here in the U.S., the muddle over paying for government spending continues to cause consternation in Congress and Wall Street. In Europe, France and Germany's financial ratings just got downgraded and the British government appears to be lurching spasmodically between issues of taxes and energy and what it wants to be when it grows up. Of course, there is another one of those irritating scuffles going on in Gaza and Israel that Obama may hear about if he gets an intelligence briefing.
The trip to Myanmar highlighted what the White House has touted as a major foreign policy achievement [???] -- its success in pushing the country's generals to enact changes that have unfolded with surprising speed over the past year. [source] [image].Yeah, that's a bit of a stretch. But it possibly has more value than the President spending the last months of his first term doing this...
The Federal Reserve sees no need to cut interest rates in the light of adverse recent economic data, Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday.
The Fed chairman said ”to date, the incoming data have supported the view that the current stance of policy is likely to foster sustainable economic growth and a gradual ebbing in core inflation”.July 21, 2007 My guess is that if there is an interest rate change, a cut is more likely than an increase. The key variables to be watching at this point are real estate prices and the inventory of unsold homes.
"Should the elevated turbulence persist, it would increase the possibility of further tightening in financial conditions for households and businesses," he said.December 11, 2007 Somehow the Fed misses the obvious."Uncertainties about the economic outlook are unusually high right now," he said. "These uncertainties require flexible and pragmatic policymaking -- nimble is the adjective I used a few weeks ago."
http://www.reuters.com/
December 13, 2007 [from The Christian Science Monitor]
[Image from: CNNMoney.com]
"The odds of a recession are now above 50 percent," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "We are right on the edge of a recession in part because of the Fed's reluctance to reduce interest rates more aggressively." [see my comments of September 11]January 7, 2008 The real problem now is that consumers can't rescue the economy and manufacturing, which is already weakening, will continue to weaken. We've gutted the forces that could avoid a downturn. The question is not whether there will be a recession, but can it be dampened sufficiently so that it is very short.
“The question is not whether we will have a recession, but how deep and prolonged it will be,” said David Rosenberg, the chief North American economist at Merrill Lynch. “Even if the Fed’s moves are going to work, it will not show up until the later part of 2008 or 2009.”January 17, 2008 A few days ago, Anna Schwartz, nonagenarian economist, implicated the Federal Reserve as the cause of the present lending crisis [from the Telegraph - UK]:
The high priestess of US monetarism - a revered figure at the Fed - says the central bank is itself the chief cause of the credit bubble, and now seems stunned as the consequences of its own actions engulf the financial system. "The new group at the Fed is not equal to the problem that faces it," she says, daring to utter a thought that fellow critics mostly utter sotto voce.January 22, 2008 The cut has become infected and a limb is in danger. Ben Bernanke is panicking and the Fed has its emergency triage team cutting rates... this time by 3/4%. ...
Individuals and businesses need stability in their financial cost structures so that they can plan effectively and keep their ships afloat. Wildly fluctuating rates... regardless of what the absolute levels are... create problems. Either too much spending or too much fear. It's just not that difficult to comprehend. Why has it been so difficult for the Fed?
Current Activity
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| | "There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty." - John Adams"An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic. Self-government is not possible unless the citizens are educated sufficiently to enable them to exercise oversight." - Thomas Jefferson
As of Sept. 15, the current solar minimum ranks third all-time in the amount of spotless days with 717 since 2004. There have been 206 spotless days in 2009, which is 14th all-time. But there are still more than 100 days left in the year, and Perry expects that number to climb. Perry, who studies sunspots and solar activity in his spare time, received an undergraduate degree in physics at Kansas State University and a Ph.D in physics and astronomy at The University of Kansas. He also has spent time as a meteorologist.
From Icecap
