and the people who don't like to hear about it. Part of it: In the Thirties, intellectuals smitten by progressivism considered limited, constitutional governance anachronistic. The Great Depression had apparently proven capitalism defunct. The remaining choice had narrowed between communism and fascism. Hitler was about an inch to the right of Stalin. Western intellectuals infatuated with Marxism thus associated fascism with the Right.
Later, Marxists from the Frankfurt School popularized this prevailing sentiment. Theodor Adorno in The Authoritarian Personality devised the “F” scale to demean conservatives as latent fascists. The label “fascist” has subsequently meant anyone liberals seek to ostracize or discredit.
Fascism is an amorphous ideology mobilizing an entire nation (Mussolini, Franco and Peron) or race (Hitler) for a common purpose. Leaders of industry, science, education, the arts and politics combine to shepherd society in an all encompassing quest. Hitler’s premise was a pure Aryan Germany capable of dominating Europe.
While he feinted right, Hitler and Stalin were natural bedfellows. Hitler mimicked Lenin’s path to totalitarian tyranny, parlaying crises into power. Nazis despised Marxists not over ideology, but because they had betrayed Germany in World War I and Nazis found it unconscionable that German communists yielded fealty to Slavs in Moscow.
mad at him:
The White House announced Friday that it is shelving a major planned Environmental Protection Agency regulation that would have tightened smog standards, dealing a huge blow to environmentalists that had pushed the Obama administration to resist industry pressure to abandon the regulation.
In a statement, President Obama said that the rule is being shelved because he is wary of imposing regulatory burdens during the economic recovery.
Translation: a bunch of states like Texas looked at what this rule would do to power generation and the costs it would impose- which would include dead bodies in heat and cold waves- and raised three levels of bloody hell. And a bunch of Democrats in those states probably pointed out "You let this go through and you're through."
One of the pieces of bullshit in this was the EPA claiming 'health benefits' would pay for the costs:
While EPA estimated that the strictest standard in the range under consideration — 60 parts per billion — would cost as much as $90 billion annually by 2020, the same analysis said this would bring $100 billion in annual benefits per year by 2020.
Number One: has ANY estimate from these people ever not turned out to be low? Often WAY low?
Number Two: Even if their estimate was correct, you're talking about crippling industry and- in extreme weather- endangering lives in exchange for an estimated $10 billion 'savings'.
Congress requested documents related to the Solyndra loan from the Office of Management and Budget. After three months and zero documents produced, a hearing was scheduled. An OMB deputy director was asked to attend but didn’t show up, claiming a scheduling conflict. Finally, OMB allowed that congressional staff could view some of the requested documents on site, but when they arrived in mid-July not all the documents were available and some that were made available had been redacted. Specifically, the information on risk ratings had been lined out. Given that this was exactly the information congress had been looking for the entire exercise was becoming a waste of time. At this point the committee held a hearing to consider issuing a subpoena for the documents.
Why would Solyndra get such sweet interest rates for what is obviously now -- and also was obviously then -- a high-risk investment? Well, maybe because one of its "prime financial backers" was an Obama 2008 fundraiser
More on Californicated from VDH:
The UC and CSU systems in outward appearance haven’t changed that much in half a century, but no college president in either current system would bet his life that today’s random graduates of his campus could match exit test scores in math or English of their 1960s random counterparts (so much for all those cutting-edge new classes and brilliantly conceived “centers”). The effort to open the new problematic UC campus in Merced did not quite follow the long ago exemplar of Irvine or Santa Cruz: our forefathers simply built massive new campuses next to resort cities; we in contrast sue and file impact statements over starting on empty isolated ground. Half of incoming freshmen at CSU today require remediation; about half graduate in six years. Pick up an old catalog from the library and compare the course listings — and the reason why jumps off the pages.
Of course, the 'education' crap behind this has migrated all over the damn place, so we've all got some level of this problem.
So with all this 'Federal Family' crap, they're admitting they're Big Brother and Big Sister?
Also:
Really? So if I ever choose to fly again, I shouldn’t worry about being probed by some degenerate government thug, I should just think of it like a visit to Uncle Pervy’s secret closet?
Long ago, I read something somewhere — don’t know whether it’s true. I read that Edward R. Murrow had a sign in his London office, saying, “It is more important to win the war than to report on it.”
Until the elites figure that out, they will be nothing more than useful idiots.
In one of S.M. Stirling's Draka novels, one of the Draka tells a nun from a recently conquered part of Europe that the reason they let the muslims keep their holy Koran was because it had been suitably altered so they'd have the proper attitude toward their masters; wouldn't surprise me if the Chinese did attempt something of the kind.
Idiot and legislator Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) just authored a bill requiring parents to provide workers' compensation benefits, rest and meal breaks and paid vacation time...for babysitters! * ...
Under AB 889, household "employers" (aka "parents") who hire a babysitter on a Friday night will be legally obligated to pay at least minimum wage to any sitter over the age of 18 (unless it is a family member), provide a substitute caregiver every two hours to cover rest and meal breaks, in addition to workers' compensation coverage, overtime pay, and a meticulously calculated timecard/paycheck.
Failure to abide by any of these provisions may result in a legal cause of action against the employer including cumulative penalties, attorneys' fees, legal costs and expenses associated with hiring expert witnesses, an unprecedented measure of legal recourse provided no other class of workers - from agricultural laborers to garment manufacturers. (On the bright side, language requiring an hour of paid vacation time for every 30 hours worked was amended out of the bill in the Senate.)
*"Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." Mark Twain, very appropriate to this clown Ammiano
about the breaking of law and misuse of authority by the people in charge of Gunwalker; their latest letter, to the acting AG in Arizona:
“The level of involvement of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona in the genesis and implementation of this case is striking,” the letter states. It continues:
Operation Fast and Furious was a prosecutor-led Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) Strike Force case. The congressional investigation has revealed that your office, and specifically Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) Emory Hurley, played an integral role in the day-to-day, tactical management of the case. In fact, Mr. Hurley served as a prosecutor on this case until very recently.
Witnesses have reported that AUSA Hurley may have stifled ATF agents’ attempts to interdict weapons on numerous occasions. Many ATF agents working on Operation Fast and Furious were under the impression that even some of the most basic law enforcement techniques typically used to interdict weapons required the explicit approval of your office, specifically from AUSA Hurley. It is our understanding that this approval was withheld on numerous occasions. It is unclear why all available tools, such as civil forfeitures and seizure warrants, were not used in this case to prevent illegally purchased guns from being trafficked to Mexican drug cartels and other criminals. We have further been informed that AUSA Hurley improperly instructed ATF agents that they needed to meet unnecessarily strict evidentiary standards merely in order to temporarily detain or speak with suspects.
It is essential for Congress to fully understand your office’s role in Operation Fast and Furious. … In addition, it is imperative that the Committee have an opportunity to discuss the facts above with individuals in your office who are familiar with the details of this operation. It is not our intention to second guess day-to-day decisions of your staff, but rather to make sense of them. The Attorney General has said that “letting guns walk is not something that is acceptable. … We cannot have a situation where guns are allowed to walk, and I’ve made that clear to the United States Attorneys as well as the agents in charge of various ATF offices.” Operation Fast and Furious is unique in that guns were allowed to walk with the apparent knowledge of, and authorization by, officials in your office.
Whew! That letter should make it perfectly clear. If AG Eric Holder seriously thought shuffling the players would shush the investigation, he should think again.
I've no doubt that the transfers and shufflings and 'promotions' had two purposes:
1. To try and protect those people, as much as possible, so as to keep them from testifying/being questioned without DoJ lawyers present to try to protect the bigshots in hazard, and
2. "Maybe if we fire and transfer Melson it'll let them put some of the main blame on him and stop digging. And we can explain away the promotions for Newell and the others."
Fat chance on both points.
CBS News has a link(here) to "an internal ATF email dated the day after Terry's death reveal[ing] the quick decision to not disclose the source of the weapons found at the murder scene: "... this way we do not divulge our current case (Fast and Furious) or the Border Patrol shooting case."
The link to the email on the CBS News site results in a "page not found" message. Fortunately, Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars obtained a copy from another source and it has been posted on this reporter's Scribd page. In it many names that have become familiar to those following this story will surface, including two recently "reassigned" figures, former Phoenix Filed Office Special Agent in Charge William Newell and former ATF Supervisor David Voth, as well as former Phoenix Assistant SAC George Gillette.
Especially relevant to prior reports in this column: Much of the correspondence focuses on straw purchasing suspect Jaime Avila, and a memorandum from AUSA Hurley to his then-boss, just-resigned U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, specifically opens detailing Avila's connection to the guns found at the Brian Terry murder scene. Burke, regular readers will recall, filed a motion with the court in the Avila case to deny victim status to Agent Terry's parents citing lack of a link between Avila's straw purchases and their son's murder.
Update:
Just days after Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Acting Director Ken Melson was forced into a make-work job at the Justice Department and long-time Janet Napolitano confidant U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke abruptly resigned, the investigation into Operation Fast and Furious rapidly gained momentum with evidence of a coverup instigated within hours of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s death.
Also, the Justice Department begrudgingly revealed that Fast and Furious guns were recovered at the scene of more than twice as many violent crimes as they has originally told congressional investigators.
And in the latest bombshell, emails reveal that the White House had indeed been briefed directly about Operation Fast and Furious while the operation was still walking thousands of guns to the Sinaloa cartel. Which means there's solid proof that Holder lied to Congress, and Obama lied to Congress; they need to hand Holder a subpoena and put his corrupt ass under oath and see what comes out.
Sipsey brings us this from the LA Times:
Three national security officials were given some details about the operation. But an administration official says the emails do not prove that anyone in the White House was aware of the covert tactics of the program. ... Newly obtained emails show that the White House was better informed about a failed gun-tracking operation on the border with Mexico than was previously known.
Three White House national security officials were given some details about the operation, dubbed Fast and Furious. The operation allowed firearms to be illegally purchased, with the goal of tracking them to Mexican drug cartels. But the effort went out of control after agents lost track of many of the weapons. ... But the senior administration official said the emails, obtained Thursday by The Times, did not prove that anyone in the White House was aware of the covert "investigative tactics" of the operation.
"The emails validate what has been said previously, which is no one at the White House knew about the investigative tactics being used in the operation, let alone any decision to let guns walk," said the official, who was not authorized to speak about it publicly. "To the extent that some [national security staff members] were briefed on the top lines of ongoing federal efforts, so were members of Congress." Except, as Sipsey notes,
"The emails were sent between July 2010 and February of this year before it was disclosed that agents had lost track of hundreds of guns." Serrano himself knows that this statement is false. Even ignoring the fact that David and I have been on this story since the first of the year, Charles Grassley's letters to the administration began on 27 January.
because someone in AZ is acting in a non-pc manner. It's not your general gun bigotry, oh no, it's 'anyone who uses/owns guns and defends the 2nd' bigotry.
Well, the proper response to such questions would be "None of your damned business".
Aides point to a series of high-profile cases where councils demanded deeply personal information when people signed up for services.
That includes revelations last month that libraries in Islington, north London, were asking people registering to borrow books if they had cancer, HIV, or diabetes and whether they were transgender.
in CT is a miserable bastard who doesn't care about the law and abuses his authority. And helps cops who don't bother to know the law to abuse THEIR authority. Both of which abuses the citizens of CT.
Here’s the problem: If you have a permit, it’s perfectly legal to walk into a McDonalds in Connecticut while plainly carrying a firearm. As Gideon notes, the problem is that too many cops in Connecticut simply don’t know the law. Lawlor’s solution isn’t to educate them, but to come up with creative (and baseless) applications of other laws that allow cops to continue to violate the rights of Connecticut citizens who exercise their right to carry. Gideon’s analogy to the camera issue is spot-on. Because exercising this particular right tends to upset police officers, and because police officers aren’t aware of the law, the state officials in charge of law enforcement have chosen to simply not give a damn about protecting this particular right.
Sue the bastards. Every one of them. And, since this appears to be the cops either not know the law or not caring about it and the clowns like Lawlor WANT to help them screw the public by making up bullshit charges, they might not be covered by sovereign immunity; which means THEY'LL have to pay.
I don't really care for suing people, but if it's the only thing that'll get these bastards attention, do it.
on cloud formation, short version: "It really doesn't mean anything(even though it does) and we wish we didn't have to release this information."
One could perhaps understand if all scientists were similarly gagged and prevented from interpreting the results of their research in ways that could be relevant for policymaking. However, the main problem is that many people who are trying to work on very different phenomena in the climate are not prevented from interpreting – and indeed, overinterpreting and misinterpreting – their results that are often less serious, less reliable, and less rigorous, perhaps by orders of magnitude, than the observations by the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
Moreover, this sentence by Heuer
One has to make clear that cosmic radiation is only one of many parameters.is really a proof of his prejudice. Whether the cosmic radiation is just one player or the only relevant player or an important player or an unimportant player is something that this very research has been supposed to determine or help to determine. An official doesn’t have the moral right to predetermine in advance what “one has to make clear” about these a priori unknown scientific results.
But then, as Lawrence Solomon reminds us, this was never an experiment the scientific establishment wanted to happen in the first place.
in 2009 that the Mexican Gun Lie was a lie clear back in 2009; but they pushed it anyway. Gee, I wonder why...
¶6. (SBU) Comment. Claims by Mexican and U.S. officials that upwards of 90 percent of illegal recovered weapons can be traced back to the U.S. is based on an incomplete survey of confiscated weapons. In point of fact, without wider access to the weapons seized in Mexico, we really have no way of verifying these numbers. (Emphasis supplied, MBV.) Other link to the information if you can't look at Sipsey
As Sipsey also notes, this is so big and in the open now that even MSNBC is reporting on it. Including Issa telling the Administration "We're not stopping the investigation":
"While the reckless disregard for safety that took place in Operation Fast and Furious certainly merits changes within the Department of Justice, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee will continue its investigation to ensure that blame isn't offloaded on just a few individuals for a matter that involved much higher levels of the Justice Department," Issa said in a statement.
It's been pointed out that if the budget stuff hadn't been making enough noise to drown everything else out, Gunwalker would be a much bigger deal because the media- like it or not- would've been forced to cover it more; it's reaching the point- or has hit it- that they can't ignore it anyway.
He said an “increased supply of cheap, palatable, energy-dense foods”, coupled with better distribution and marketing, had led to “passive overconsumption”.
Naturally the individual is incapable of deciding these things for himself. And naturally, we have to think of, yes, wait for it, the children.
And, naturally, it involves coercive taxes:
“I think governments get it, but don’t know what to do about it, and don’t think it’s their responsibility. But it is their responsibility,” he said. His study lists eight cost-effective policies. Topped by a tax on unhealthy food and drink, the rest focus on shielding children from TV advertising or ensuring they exercise more.
The officers, of course, claimed qualified immunity, under which an officer acting in good faith is generally immune from prosecution. The legal standard for this is that if a "reasonable" officer would have recognized that his conduct violated someone's Constitutional rights, immunity is lost and the case may proceed. The District court indeed concluded that a reasonable officer should've recognized that arresting Mr. Glik for recording them was a violation of his First Amendment rights, and that, therefor, they had no qualified immunity. The officers appealed, and, today, a three-judge panel affirmed that, yes, they should've known they were trampling Mr. Gilk's constitutional rights, and that they could consequently be sued.
Well, hot damn!
Next, they need to hold a prosecutor to the same standard and let him PERSONALLY get his ass sued off.
To borrow Insty's phrase, I don't want to hear another goddamned word about the nasty rhetoric from the tea party, or Republicans, or libertarians, from the bigots and assholes in the Democrat party.
Rep. Andre Carson, a Democrat from Indiana who serves as the CBC's chief vote counter, said at a CBC event in Miami that some in Congress would "love to see us as second-class citizens" and "some of them in Congress right now of this tea party movement would love to see you and me ... hanging on a tree." Carson also said the tea party is stopping change in Congress, likening it to "the effort that we're seeing of Jim Crow."
For some reason I didn't connect the names: US Atty Dennis Burke, who became 'physically sick' when the Committee grilled him on Gunwalker?
Dennis Burke, a close confidant and former chief of staff for Janet Napolitano, has resigned, effective immediately, just days after testifying in from of the Congressional Oversight committee about his role in Operation Fast and Furious:
Burke's resignation comes days after he testified before a Congressional committee about his office's role in the ATF gun-smuggling operation known as "Fast and Furious" that has become the center of a growing scandal because some of the weapons federal firearms officials were tracking in the operation ended up used in crimes and many others could not be accounted for.
...
Burke is the same slimeball that blocked Brian Terry's family from being recognized as crime victims in court after Terry was murdered and two Fast and Furious weapons were recovered at the scene of his death.
The only plausible reason Burke would have done that was an attempt to limit his own legal exposure and that of the government as it relates to investigations about Agent Terry's murder.
Burke's sudden resignation occurs on the same day other players in Gunwalker scandal were reassigned: That must've been some real interesting questioning, not to mention the answers.
I should note Sipsey Street is calling Burk's quitting and all the transfers 'Night of the Short Knives'.
This must be more of that 'doing jobs Americans won't do' stuff:
Phoenix-based Nuestros Reconquistos claims that there will be a war very similar to the Civil War fought in the next five years. “La Raza and MEChA have already talked to Latinos and Phoenix and explained that Latinos need to arm themselves for war,” says Nuestros Reconquistos President Manuel Longoria.
Cecilia Maldonado of Chicanos Unidos Arizona isn’t hoping for any sort of war, but believes it may be unavoidable. “For generations, our people have prepared us to take back the lands of the Southwest that were stolen from our Mexican ancestors. Because of the bad economy and many racist laws, Latinos will be forced to fight sooner than later,” says Mrs. Maldonado.
The jury ruled last March that [John] Hoff’s scathing blog post amounted to actively interfering with [Jerry] Moore’s job at the U, even though Hoff’s statements were true when he linked Moore to high-profile mortgage fraud.
Bad idea, I'm thinking.
A concrete tent?
Fighting pirates fairly seriously; personally I'd say "One warning shot, then take them out." Though in some cases it should be "Warning shots? You serious?"
Some more on how the UN is the enemy of free people: current example, the Arms Trade Treaty and supporting dirtbagsdocuments:
The draft Bill establishes a principle that has developed globally in the last decade, and is a core objective of many government’s efforts to strengthen their national legislation: “the possession and use of weapons is a privilege that is conditional on the overriding need to ensure public safety.” ... Licence applicants may be required to provide a good reason, justifying why they need to possess a firearm. Legislation may prescribe the circumstances under which possession of a firearm may be justified.
If‘personal protection’is permitted as a good reason, applicants should prove to the police that they are in genuine danger that could be avoided by being armed.
Yeah, we've seen how well this kind of crap works. For disarming victims and giving criminals more freedom to act, that is. Yes, I do include governments in the last.
A Chesty Puller story.
What? You never heard of him? Shame on you.
Stories began to cluster about him. When he was first shown a flame thrower he supposedly asked, “Where do you mount the bayonet?” Advised that his unit was surrounded he replied: “All right, they’re on our left, they’re on our right, they’re in front of us, they’re behind us…they can’t get away this time.” On an inspection tour of a Marine unit he became exasperated at the lack of spirit he saw and finally said,”Take me to the Brig. I want to see the real Marines!” Oh bleep, I've got to steal this from a comment:
MEMO FROM: God Almighty TO: Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines RE: Which Service is Best
I’ve been watching and here’s what I think. All branches of the United States Armed Forces are truly honorable, courageous, well-trained and capable.
Therefore, there is no superior service.
Sincerely, God Almighty, USMC (Ret.)
Somewhere amidst all the above I found this link; I've heard of a Kelly Kettle before, but not this particular note of use:
On a typical trip I'll boil up one batch of water and use that to reconstitute a freeze-dried meal, pouring the boiling water into the food pouch which is wrapped in something insulating, like a sleeping bag or my wife's wool hat.
Ok, so the Lakewood Police need their ass sued off. Then prosecution for violation of civil rights. There is no bleeping excuse for this kind of crap.
And last, two at Beck's place:
"If cigarette packs are required to have pictures of diseased lungs, college brochures should be required to have pictures of graduates working at Starbucks." and
They came for my cigarettes -- who among you said one word against it? I could ask questions like this all day long and there are no answers.
Why should I care? I've got a bagful of nice guitars, and when they take them away from me, then I'll be in the same leaking kayak with the rest of you, with one signal difference: I always told you they were coming, and almost all of you always thought I was out of my mind.
Well, I wasn't. I was way ahead of all of you.
Tell me why I should give one shit in the world, now.
Looks like he’s being moved to Justice, presumably where higher ups can keep a closer eye on what he’s up to.
Must've been some interesting dealing back & forth on this; lots of room for speculation. Especially with this:
Melson is being reassigned as a senior adviser on forensic science in the Office of Legal Policy, the department said.
Does Melson actually have expertise in this, I wonder?
Wow! U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke, one of the officials closely tied to Fast and Furious, is also a casualty in a shakeup tied to the botched gun-running program. Burke was on the hot seat last week with congressional investigators and, according to several sources, got physically sick during questioning and could not finish his session.
I know, but I heard this a bit ago when had to run out, and wanted to say something. Why, when my eyes are crossing, I don't k now...
since 0700 yesterday. Damn, I'm dragging. But a couple of things I want to post on before I lose them:
First, a different view on the 'sheepdog' metaphor:
Sheep dogs are someone’s property and they help control other property. It sounds like a liberal’s fantasy of society. You know, the flock carefully tended and controlled with the sheep dog doing the master’s bidding.
No thanks.
I only plan on defending me and mine.
You’re on your own, sheep.
Second, Linoge responds to a gun bigot point by point. In detail. A VERY short version would be "Since you cannot tell the difference between honest people and criminals, and apparently have no self-restraint and think nobody else does either, and LOVE the idea of non-violence, you want us to be unarmed in the face of attackers; no thanks."
Actually, you can get a pretty good idea of the mindset of Marcia Capellan by this line alone:
The Constitution is really just a bunch of words and it can be amended. Guns are not the answer and I hope the government does something about it soon.
Went to the range yesterday and ran eight or ten(I forget) magazines of the Federal through the conversion: not a single failure to cycle, which is better than I've ever done before with this conversion and ammo.
This is some seriously slick grease, light enough to easily use a hypodermic syringe and needle to deliver and yet it seems to stay where you put it; I'm impressed. I did clean and lube the kit after the last firing; I always have before. This time I'll leave it, and see if it's still as slick next time.
I'll repeat my original caveat: this is just some tests that came to mind to try the stuff out, not a proper scientific test; but it seems to be giving some interesting results anyway.
to fund a SWAT team then they need their budget cut, more on the raw milk raids, including
The movie though brings up a couple of themes that should resonate with Americans, especially when it comes to the 2012 elections.
Why aren’t we Free to Choose? Armed with information, why shouldn’t we be able to make those choices for ourselves whether we consume raw milk or not?
Obamacare will take all those choices you make for your health care and institutionalize them. It’s not hard to imagine underground doctors giving banned medical treatments one day and government SWAT teams raiding their office.
The other point the movie makes is symptomatic of Big Banking, Big Pharma, Big Oil or Big Business taking roles in the federal bureaucracy and then slanting rules and regulations to help their former businesses, then leaving the bureaucracy and becoming re-employed in their former industry.
The answer is not to change the system or have a counterbalance. The answer is to shrink or eliminate the system and its influence. How do you do that? Strangle it by cutting spending. Don’t give the beast any money and it can’t operate. The additional option you must take is to change the dynamic by putting the power into the hands of individual decision makers and eliminating top down control.
From Britain, another view on the Irene hype:
Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security chief, declared that there was “a ways to go with Irene” but “with the evacuations and other precautions taken we have dramatically decreased the risk to life”. Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York seemed thoroughly delighted with himself, as if he personally had calmed the waters and stifled the winds.
The truth is that the dire warning beforehand suited both politicians and journalists. Just as with the minor earthquake that shook the east coast last week causing no loss of life and virtually no damage, Irene became a huge story because it was where the media lived.
For politicians, Irene was a chance to either make amends or appear in control. The White House sent out 25 Irene emails to the press on Saturday alone.
Hey, with the peasants all pissed off about he and the wife spending Deity(and their accountant)alone knows how much on their vacations- including the separate flights to this one- he had to do SOMETHING that looked official...
Combat engineers, and some of the vagaries of enemy bombs and your own equipment.
So supposedly ethanol is supposed to be saving the environment, etc.; so this just doesn't look right:
Since the federal renewable fuel mandate classifies sugarcane ethanol as an advanced biofuel, but corn-based ethanol as only a biofuel, it's quite likely the United States will continue to export corn-based ethanol to Brazil while at the same time importing mass quantities of the sugarcane-based biofuel from Brazil. This looks like we're moving towards a future that puts us right back where we started: relying on foreign fuel.
Looks to me like various industry weenies and politicians ripping us off with our own money. Again.
I must admit, my first thought was "Must've been the neighbor's wife or girlfriend bitching." Why?
I'll close with this: Judith Wagner, a professor of education at Whittier College and every teacher who takes part in this should be fired. And have their ass kicked from the office to the street.
What comes next, she said, is a hard call. “Do you go back to the parents and say, ‘Gosh, can you rethink the plastic bags and all this food?’ Or do you talk to the children, and you make the children feel guilty because they’re throwing this all away?” Let me make this simple, Wagner: who the FUCK gave you permission to shove your beliefs on kids this way? Who the hell do you think you are, shaming kids for the horrible 'crime' of having their lunch in a fucking plastic BAG? You are a sodding disgrace to the profession of teaching; if you had any real integrity you'd resign. But then you wouldn't have a nice, safe, protected position from which to screw with kids minds, would you, you miserable bitch?
The Feral Irishman pointed to this guy(old site here, current site here) who has a bunch of posts on the subject.
Note to media: big difference between immediate accurate coverage of a storm and "Flee, or you're going to DIE!!" idiocy.
Further from the Weather Nerd:
All of which brings us to the inevitable questions about “hype.” Was Irene overhyped? Well, yes and no. The fearful possibility of a monster hurricane hitting North Carolina, then taking an exceedingly dangerous and potentially mega-destructive track of the East Coast, was very real and fully justified as of midweek. And indeed, Irene took precisely the near-worst-case track that was being discussed. It just failed to ever became a true “monster.” There was nothing preordained or inevitable about that failure — indeed, the meta-conditions were broadly favorable for rapid strengthening — yet it didn’t happen, demonstrating once again forecasters’ lack of skill at predicting hurricane intensity (in stark contrast to the ever increasing skill, sharply on display here, at predicting hurricanes’ tracks).
As I wrote in my post about “misconceptions,” the mere fact that a worst-case scenario doesn’t occur is hardly proof that it should never have been considered a possibility, or that precautions taken against such a scenario were therefore unwarranted. That’s totally illogical. I’m sure NOAA officials and others would love to have access to the 20/20 Hindsight Computer Model that some commentators seem to possess, but absent that, I believe it was completely justified and necessary to evacuate the folks who were evacuated, given the uncertainties in the forecast at the time decisions had to made. It’s the nature of the beast that most “alarms” will be “false alarms.” The fact of a “false alarm,” without more, is not evidence of improper “hype.”
Yet overhype certainly exists, not so much in the forecasts but in the media coverage. The primary problem, as I’ve observed many times. is the MSM’s failure to adjust the tone of coverage when it becomes apparent that the worst-case scenario or scenarios, despite having previously been realistic, have now become unrealistic. In other words: the failure to dial down the hype a notch when it’s clearly no longer justified. Good piece, worth reading.
and it's 2043 hours here. This is kind of sucky. So, since I'm not taking a walk in this, I shall instead peruse the blogosphere for things to bitch about. Easy job:
On the raw milk raids by the FDA(another organization that obviously has too much money and time on its hands),
Possibly the most bizarre thing in the article is this:
• FDA officials have stated, during these monthly "Raw Milk Calls," that their goal is the complete destruction of the raw dairy industry in the United States, and that achieving this goal was a top priority of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. [emph added - GB]
But why? Why raw milk? Some numbers follow.
Also from SG, found this on the ARMED raid at Gibson Guitars:
Gibson is the only guitar company targeted by the Obama DOJ under the Lacey Act -- Tennessee is a right-to-work state.
Fender, Taylor, Rickenbacker, Danelectro, Carvin, MusicMan, and ESP are in California; Spector is in New York; Martin is in Pennsylvania; Guild, Ovation, and Hamer are in Connecticut; Alvarez is in Missouri; B.C. Rich is in Kentucky; Heritage is in Michigan; Washburn is in Illinois. -- All are forced-union states. [emphasis for Martin added]
Peavey is another guitar and electronics company, located in the right-to-work state of Mississippi. -- Since 2009, Peavey has been the target of multiple lawsuits filed by a competitor, MUSIC Group, which alleges that Peavy products fail to meet federal safety and emissions standards.
No, it wouldn't surprise me either.
The University of Virginia is playing games; some of which are liable to get their ass sued off. And in the name of protecting AGW nut Michael Mann & Co.
UVa's August 23 release under court order of 3,800 pages of emails - records that UVa previously denied existed - was its second since the American Tradition Institute (ATI) sought judicial assistance in bringing the school into compliance with the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (VFOIA).
The school has spent approximately $500,000 to date keeping these records from the taxpayer, who paid for their production to begin with.
The university again labored to avoid releasing correspondence directly addressing the now discredited “Hockey Stick” graph produced while former assistant research professor Michael Mann worked there.
...
UVa acknowledges withholding between 3,500 and 4,000 more pages. This likely represents around ten times the original number of UVa emails revealed in “ClimateGate.”
Even before ATI was able to review these emails, Mann described the release to Science Magazine, indicating a collaborative effort with the university in what amounts to hiding from the taxpayer efforts to derail exposure of the “Hockey Stick.” Some of the people involved are really desperate to risk the kind of damage this nonsense can do to the university and the people making the decisions. Gee, I wonder why...
Mark Steyn on the "The rioters are doing it because they're deprived" crap in (fG)Britain:
...The preceding film had shown a neat subdivision of pleasant red-brick maisonettes set in relatively landscaped grounds. There was grass, and it looked maintained. Granted, it was not as bucolic as my beloved New Hampshire, but, compared to the brutalized concrete bunkers in which the French and the Swedes entomb their seething Muslim populations, it was nothing to riot over. Nonetheless, someone explained that these riotous Mancunian youth were growing up in “deprivation,” and the rioters themselves seemed disposed to agree. Like they say in West Side Story, “I’m depraved on account of I’m deprived.” We’ve so accepted the correlation that we don’t even notice that they’re no longer deprived, but they are significantly more depraved.
Schoolbus Nagin was giving advice on hurricane preparation... It's amazing he's got the lack of humility to do this. Even considering the suckass politician he is.
The level of hype and screaming involved in Irene has been kind of amazing. On the subject of getting ready, Unc has an important point:
If you’re prepared for the zombie apocalypse, a hurricane is just a storm.
And this said 'evening' for time; and I screwed up and forgot to hit 'publish' last night, so now it's morning.
nasty people, isn't he?
The police chief and borough manager in Dormont are accusing the mayor of ticket fixing.
It turns out the mayor has dismissed thousands of tickets over the years and now the Allegheny County District Attorney is getting involved.
As Sebastian notes, we should not forget all the other criminals involved in Bloomberg's "We Don't Like Peasants Owning Guns" group
Second,
The Newscaster were taking calls in between interviews with authorities and assorted End Of The World advice. One particular caller had already lost electrical power and was getting her light out of a candle. The words that came out of the mouth of the female newscaster floored me:
Well, neither does he like salt or fat(except on HIS food). Or guns(unless it's his minions or bodyguards or the wealthy and/or connected who have them).
in bad weather, the EPA is tirelessly trying to trash the economy:
The EPA wants to adjust their regulation on allowable Ozone levels. (one amazing aspect of this is that we're talking about an modification to an existing regulation - not even a new reg.) Old level was 75 ppb (parts per billion or 0.075 ppm) - they want to lower that to the 60-70ppb range.
Is that a big deal?
According to an analysis conducted by the Business Round Table, 66 out of 736 counties nationwide do not meet the EPA’s current ozone standard of 0.075 ppm. However, if the EPA lowers the acceptable concentration down to 0.060 ppm, then the estimated number of non-attainment counties would skyrocket to 628 (out of 736) according to the Business Roundtable. That means fully 85 percent of the nation would be in non-attainment. The EPA’s own analysis is even more pessimistic, predicting that up to 96 percent of monitored counties would be non-attainment with the stringent 0.060 ppm threshold.
...
... the proposed 60 parts per billion standard is so strict, that even areas of Yellowstone National Park may not be in compliance. To the extent that some areas will be affected by ozone emitted elsewhere (even outside the United States), it may prove literally impossible to comply with the draconian new regulations.
So make a regulation that CAN'T be complied with, and tax us to death for not complying.
from the Bear's Den:
Let's think about that for a moment. You have a commodity or product in your possession that you purchased on the legal market here in the United States, say some Brazilian hardwood, that you want to spend a winter making furniture out of for your home. You bought it from a reputable outlet, and have no criminal intent and no reason to suspect that the wood was harvested, processed, or exported from Brazil illegally. Some arcane aspect of the Brazilian lumber law makes someone think that your future dining room set might be illegal if you had it in Brazil. Let's say that Brazilian law says that a special tax on hardwoods must be paid, and you don't have a tax stamp or something from your supplier to say that the tax was paid.
So your home could be raided, your wood, tools, financial records, computers, and anything else they think was related to this "crime" could be taken, and you could be charged with a crime for possession of something that is three or four levels of separation away from its origin in South America. You didn't cut it down or mill it. You didn't export it to the United States and sell it. All you did was buy it and try to use it. The law that you are accused of breaking is outside of the control of your elected representatives, so you can't even appeal to them to get it modified or repealed. But you're the one who got raided. And it doesn't have to be raw lumber. Can you prove that the Brazilian hardwood dining table you inherited from grandma was made from wood imported before these restrictions were put in place? If not, when you are questioned, you are out a dining table, out a fine, and out of luck.
Leave. Staying in the path of a hurricane is the definition of idiotic. Pack your kids and everything you care about, call a relative further inland and get out of Dodge. Preferably a relative who lives two states towards the center of the continent. Things you should take include heirlooms, food, clothing, weapons, pets, and liquor.
Remember the liquor. Living with your brother-in-law for a few days with all of your and his kids is going to be hard enough without trying to do it sober. Don't get sloppy drunk and for heaven's sake don't drink tequila. Just a nice mellow buzz. Bonus points if you share with said brother-in-law, especially if you break out the good stuff.
"Bailiff, kick these people twice around the room and throw them out for bringing such idiocy into the court." Properly appended to the decision should be "And for being such whiny little bastards."
Raised in a $1.5 million Barrington Hills, Ill., home by their attorney father, two grown children have spent the last two years pursuing a unique lawsuit against their mom for "bad mothering" that alleges damages caused when she failed to buy toys for one and sent another a birthday card he didn’t like.
