Nannies and Bots of the Evil Kind

It's still way early (for me) but David Burge is leading the sweeps for the day's best tweet with this:

@iowahawkblog David Burge

All in a day's work for the U.S. Department of Facepalm dailycaller.com/2011/06/22/fed…

Heh.  I'll have to file that away for future use.  Burge is right though... facepalm is the appropriate reaction after reading shit like this (from Burge's link):

The federal government has a growing interest in the eating habits of Americans for the same reason it has an interest in tobacco consumption, said Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

The reason is money, because three-quarters of medical-spending is driven by chronic diseases, such as obesity and tobacco-related diseases, she said.

Sebelius’ comments came at the tail-end of Tuesday’s White House press conference where officials showcased nine new photos that must be carried on cigarette packs. Officials used a survey of 18,000 people to find the images that would have the most distressing impact on groups of smokers, including young smokers and mothers of young kids. 

Ah, yes.  There's much to dislike here.  A "growing interest in the eating habits..." sounds both ludicrous and ominous at the same time, if that's possible.  Then again, those two words describe much of the gubmint's activities these days.  I won't rant about Nanny's new cigarette pack "warnings," except to say gubmint at ALL levels should be very careful what they wish for.  The taxes paid by cigarette smokers provide for a LOT of gubmint services, especially at the state level.  If every smoker in America quit today each of the 50 states would be in a budget crisis tomorrow.  What?  Oh, OK... make that a worse crisis.

―:☺:―

In other news... My baby has her new hat.  I left El Casa Móvil de Pennington just before 0700 hrs yesterday morning and didn't return until nearly 1800 hrs, which made for a mighty long day, lemmee tell ya.  I put that time to good use by doin' sumthin' I rarely do these days:  I read Robopocalypse from cover to cover (so to speak) in a single sitting.  The lede grafs from a review at IO9:

Cool robots unlike any you've seen before battle humans in a near-future world where computerized cars and military drones are out to smash all homo sapiens. Until some robotics geeks and an army of Osage natives learn to fight back. 

It sounds like the plot to the most awesome robot uprising movie ever, and one day it will be. For now, it's Daniel Wilson's first novel, Robopocalypse. Long before it hit bookstores this month, Wilson's book was already in Steven Spielberg's hands, being turned into a futuristic war movie. And when you read it, you'll see why. Though Robopocalypse follows the general outlines of the classic robot uprising story, it's packed with enough realistic detail and surprising twists that you'll be riveted. Imagine the smartest parts of the Battlestar Galatica remake crossed with the most awesome fight scenes from Independence Day. Yeah, it's kind of like that.

The references are lost on me seein' as how I'm not familiar with either, but the book is a serious page-turner.  This is just the ticket if you're looking for a beach book and you like sci-fi.

Surprised?

I thought not.  Me neither.  I'm not gonna pile on here, the rest o' the right-o-sphere is beatin' this to death.  Well, mebbe not "to death," but we on the right are gettin' a LOT o' mileage outta this, as well we should.  Absolutely no one is gonna take Weenie seriously, ever again.  Well, except mebbe for the die-hard Hopey-Changey types... and don't THEY look silly now?

Which brings up another point.  Don't be expectin' ME to take a page out o' Weenie's book... coz I really WAS hacked.  Like I said before:  that's not me and you can't PROVE it's me.

Interesting

You could cue up Arte Johnson after that "interesting" title, to wit: "But STOOPID."  From my congresscritter's newsletter, which hit my in-box moments ago:

Americans pay the price of Loose Monetary Policy and Quantitative Easing at the Pump

A weak U.S. dollar due to the Federal Reserve's unprecedented pumping of dollars into the American economy is adding 56 and a half cents* to the price of every gallon of gasoline, according to a new study by the Joint Economic Committee Republican staff.


Titled The Price of Oil and the Value of the Dollar, the study notes the value of the U.S. dollar has declined 14 percent since the Federal Reserve began its program of quantitative easing in November of 2008. With oil an international commodity that trades in U.S. dollars, the declining value of the dollar has added $17.04* per barrel to the price of Brent Crude oil. Crude oil is the primary input in the process of making gasoline.


Americans are paying a steep price at the pump as a result of the weak dollar policies pursued by this Administration and the Federal Reserve. There are two lessons here. Rather than pointing fingers at energy manufacturers the President should be looking to his own Treasury and the Fed for answers to the high price of fuel. And this drives home the point that the Federal Reserve should have one mandate, price stability, to prevent inflation and preserve the value of the U.S. dollar.

Read more here.

Ah, yes.  The Fed.  They're a day late and we're a dollar-three-ninety-eight SHORT.  Bernanke will burn in hell, I'm convinced of that.  Asshat.

Update and Linkage

Yanno that Chomsky thing I posted this past weekend?  Well, Lex gives us this about that:

Noam Chomsky

 Chris Hitchens treats him roughly.

(It’s no use excerpting Hitchens; he’s like a seven course meal, and must be taken sequentially.)

What The Good Captain said.  

I read another good piece by Hitch last night, which made me terribly sad.  The man is dying slowly and that is positively the WORST way to go.

Weekend Outrage

I picked this up from a tweet by Blake Hounshell and sorta wished I hadn't after reading the (mercifully short) piece.  A couple o' excerpts:

We might ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush’s compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic. Uncontroversially, his crimes vastly exceed bin Laden’s, and he is not a “suspect” but uncontroversially the “decider” who gave the orders to commit the “supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole” (quoting the Nuremberg Tribunal) for which Nazi criminals were hanged: the hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of refugees, destruction of much of the country, the bitter sectarian conflict that has now spread to the rest of the region.

[...]

Same with the name, Operation Geronimo. The imperial mentality is so profound, throughout western society, that no one can perceive that they are glorifying bin Laden by identifying him with courageous resistance against genocidal invaders. It’s like naming our murder weapons after victims of our crimes: Apache, Tomahawk… It’s as if the Luftwaffe were to call its fighter planes “Jew” and “Gypsy.” 

That would be Noam Chomsky.  I seriously thought the asshat was dead, but no... he apparently still lives and is churning out shit Pravda would have rejected for being too extreme.  This guy is such a fucking waste of oxygen.  And a living icon of the Left.  Go figure.

Ridiculous

Watching the debate about a gub'mint shut-down...

Yup.  Stand firm, Mr. Boehner... stand firm!

From the usual source.

Despicable

I dunno about you, Gentle Reader, but I find this abomination fits the definition of the word "despicable" precisely:

(click for full-screen image)

I suppose it had to happen sooner or later: some low-life, money-grubbing, motherless SOB would figure out a way to make a buck off the nation's darkest day since Pearl Harbor.  This both saddens and outrages me at the same time... and you wouldn't want to be in the same room with me when the teevee ads for this crap come on.  The air turns blue and it's a wonder my teevee still lives, given my apoplectic reaction to this brand of greed and opportunism.

I don't see how any American who was alive and in possession of their mental faculties on that black September day could EVER forget.  The appropriate way to commemorate and remember 9/11?  Observe a moment of silence when the day rolls around in September.  Make a pilgrimage and join in the solemn ceremonies that will be held at Ground Zero, the Pentagon, or the site of the Flight 93 Shanksville Memorial.  Do anything other than buy this bullshit.  Anything.

Disagree?  I'd like to hear your rationale in comments... but ya better make it good.

Yup. It's Gonna Be HARD.

The federal deficit is obscene but the states are in worse shape... which is no big secret to anyone who's been paying even the slightest bit of attention.  While California and New York garner the most attention as the poster children for the states' fiscal woes, things blew up yesterday in Wisconsin.  From the WSJ:

MADISON, Wis.—Democratic lawmakers fled the state in an effort to torpedo a closely watched vote on what would be the nation's first major overhaul of union laws in years, as government workers flooded the statehouse for a third day seeking to block passage of the bill.

Surrounded by thousands of tightly packed protesters, including teachers who had been encouraged by union leaders to show up in force, state senators gathered around 11 a.m. to vote on Republican Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to limit collective-bargaining rights for most state employees. 
 
The governor's proposal, part of a bill aimed at overcoming a $137 million deficit in the current budget and a projected $3.6 billion hole in the next two years, would allow collective bargaining on wages, but not pensions and health care. Workers would be required to pay more for both. And raises would be limited to the inflation rate, unless voters approved steeper boosts.

All that sounds pretty reasonable to me... and there's more detail at the link... but not to the public employees unions, most specifically the teachers unions, who are engaged in Academy Award level histrionics worthy of a "Best Performance By Spoiled Brats" Oscar, if there were such a thing.  And they're doing so on the taxpayers dime, too, and that's the most sickening part of the whole thing.  The WSJ, again:

The drama disrupted schools across the state, as thousands of teachers called in sick to attend the protests. Public schools were closed in Madison, La Crosse, Racine and Wausau.

Patrick Gasper, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, the state's education agency, said he didn't have a statewide tally of closures among the state's 424 school districts, which educate 872,000 students. But he said, "They're all over." 

He added that some districts could have to add days at the end of the year to meet state requirements for days and hours of instruction. School officials in Milwaukee said missing work without a valid excuse would "leave teachers open to disciplinary action." 

"Disciplinary action" prolly means a letter of reprimand or a similar slap on the wrist.  I'm thinking wholesale firings, a la Reagan/PATCO would be more appropriate, but that's just me.  I read elsewhere that an estimated 60% of the teachers in some Wisconsin districts called in sick in order to attend the protests.  That is nothing short of despicable and speaks to the self-serving nature of teachers unions.  But, Hey.  They're entitled, not to mention privileged.  Check out these figures: 

In May 2009, preschool teachers in Wisconsin earned an average salary of $23,460, elementary school teachers earned $51,240, and secondary school teachers earned $49,400. ⁽²⁾ Education and experience level also make a difference in teacher salaries: secondary school teachers in the 90^th wage percentile earned $69,550, while the entry-level teacher salary is generally in the $30,000s. ⁽³⁾

Geographic location is another significant reason for variation in Wisconsin teaching salaries. Areas that have a higher cost of living often pay correspondingly higher salaries. Below are average annual earnings for secondary school teachers in five of the largest metropolitan areas in the state: ⁽⁴⁾

• Green Bay: $55,110
• Kenosha: $68,400
• Madison: $50,770
• Milwaukee: $54,620
• Racine: $49,710

I got those numbers from Wisconsin Teaching Salaries, via a link from Michelle Malkin.  That's pretty good money for folks who only work nine or nine and a half months out of any given year and receive benefits in excess of what private sector employees receive, yet they turn out by the thousands to protest.  On school time, no less. 

Just briefly: note the civil tone of the protesters (the image I used above is NOT from the WSJ).  A lot's been said about THAT, and I'm one of mebbe thousands of bloggers on the right to post this:




So, yeah... fixing our fiscal situation is gonna be very, very difficult if this is any indication of the sort of resistance the states will face.  And you KNOW it is.  Unions,  especially public-sector unions, have most definitely outlived their usefulness and have turned into left-wing organizations who have a "Fuck you, I got mine and I'm gonna keep it" attitude.  Who'd a thunk it?

Much, much more at memeorandum.  The link contains all articles on the subject as of 2230 hrs EST Thursday evening.

Our New Ice Age

Occasional Correspondent Lin sends along a link to a Daily Mail article that features this photo as its lede:

The Mail sez...

The image was released by the National Oceanic And Atmospheric Association (NOAA) on the day half of North America was in the grip of a severe winter storm.

The map was created using multiple satellites from government agencies and the US Air Force.

The Mail also has quotes from AlGore claiming that yes, all this snow IS due to AGW.  What a prat he is.  But, that said... and it's a given... the article also has some pretty cool winter weather pics if your winter reality ain't good enough for ya.  The salient point: it sucks to live in Chicago.

On This Day...

... Thomas Edison was granted a patent for his incandescent light, in 1880.  Just slightly less than 130 years later the state of California implemented a virtual ban on his invention, forcing its citizens to buy "eco-friendly" (oh, how it pains me to use that term) substitutes in the form of those damned CFLs or LED lights, both of which are horrendously expensive, and in the case of CFLs... an environmental hazard due to their mercury content.  Or Californians can choose to live with less light from a "standard" 100 watt bulb.

Well, it sucks to live in the Once-Golden State and light bulb stupidity is just one small example.  But the rest of America shouldn't laugh coz we'll all be in the same boat next year... California just got a head-start on the insanity.  Unless the Better Use of Light Bulbs Act or BULB Act (H.R. 91) is passed into law.  The BULB act repeals Subtitle B of Title III of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, the de facto ban on the incandescent light bulb.  The act just might pass and it would be one small step in correcting the PC madness on the federal level.  California residents would still have to deal with their dumb-ass state legislature, though.  Good luck with THAT, Californians.

Apropos of the above... don't you just HATE this new-found compulsion to assign cutesy and meaningless names to every goddamned bill introduced in Congress?  Just STOP it, already.  We are NOT amused.  (insert the UCR lawn exclamation here)

Image from here.  Scroll down and read the "How many dogs does it take to change a light bulb" joke.

OMFG. NO!

Further to the Olbermann story... there's this from NewsBusters:

A self-proclaimed media insider made the same observation at the far-left website Daily Kos Friday:

It will happen (so I'm told) on the channel now known as Versus. It's a sports channel owned by Comcast, and the story I'm hearing is that it will be rebranded as NBC Sportschannel once the takeover is complete, with Keith as its star personality. 

If Comcast was going to move Olbermann to its own sports channel, why would they humiliate him this way first?

Fans know Versus has the NHL's teevee contract, for now. If there is any one single thing that could make me quit watching hockey it would be the appearance... however brief it might be... of Olbermann on a hockey broadcast. The reason for serious worry rests with the fact Versus really only broadcasts two sports: hockey and professional rodeo, three if you count the Tour De France. But only people named "Lance" watch the TdF. The rest of Versus' programming is fishing and hunting shows and weak-ass attempts at sports talk shows, all of which... the talk shows... fail sooner or later.

I don't think I have to worry, though, as KO doesn't "get" hockey... as far as I know.  Or so I hope, anyhoo.  I will say this, though:  hockey pucks and KO have a lot in common intellect-wise, with the edge going to the pucks.