Liberal Fascism In Australia
PC Gone Amok In Australia: Writer Andrew Bolt Convicted Of Race-Crime For Knocking… White People
Bolt ridicules this absurd situation — and, incidentally, argues implicitly that black women ought to receive scholarships reserved for black women, which is generally considered (in the racial/sexual spoils system) “pro-black-woman” — and is convicted of a Racial Hate Crime for doing so.
Political correctness, multi-culturality, diversity, whatever you want to call it, is inmical to individual liberty wherever the state steps in to enforce it.
Is Urban Renewal Racist?
In 1949, President Harry Truman signed the Housing Act, which gave federal, state, and local governments unprecedented power to shape residential life. One of the Housing Act’s main initiatives - “urban renewal” - destroyed about 2,000 communities in the 1950s and ’60s and forced more than 300,000 families from their homes. Overall, about half of urban renewal’s victims were black, a reality that led to James Baldwin’s famous quip that “urban renewal means Negro removal.”
That has certainly been its history here in San Francisco. The Fillmore renewal projects led to a major exodus of blacks from San Francisco. Current plans are underway in my own neighborhood to “renew it,” which means to tear down the wrecked shambles of public housing that currently makes up a significant percentage of the housing stock. And, in fact, since a peak at 96,000 in 1970, black population in San Francisco has fallen back to 1950s levels at 67,000.
Comments on this post:
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September 28, 2011 1:27 pm | #1
Yes and it appears that SF does just what they accuse southern cities of doing. It’s funny that since the 70’s the Black population of the “racist” southern cities has been growing.
A Message for Razorbacker
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FDR Left SCOTUS Gutless, Declawed
The Volokh Conspiracy » IJ on “The Myth of Judicial Activism”
Our Constitution imposes significant limits on government power—limits that are not being properly enforced because too many judges have adopted an ethic of reflexive deference toward the other branches of government. What America needs instead is a properly engaged judiciary that understands the importance of constitutionally limited government and refuses to be cowed by empirically baseless accusations of judicial activism.
FDR took their balls and kept them in a jar by his door.
In the comments, Orin Kerr speculates:
To my mind, it’s certainly understandable for libertarians to be strongly attracted to judicial activism, er, sorry, I mean, “judicial engagement.” Because judicial review in American law means saying that the elected branches can’t enact a regulation, rather than that the elected branches must enact a regulation, the more aggressive the judicial review, the more the law approaches the libertarian ideal of having less government regulation. It’s a natural fit. Given that people tend to believe what furthers their worldview already, you would expect libertarians to be unusually likely to consider themselves very strong constitutionalists who have a passion for enforcing constitutional limits — and who see restraint as “judicial abdication.”
Well, yes. The Constitution, in its plain language and obvious intent, is a very libertarian document that strictly limits the powers of government. “Checks” - of “checks and balances” - means enforcing those limits, and that has to be a primary function of the high court. That Orin then goes on to further speculate:
I recently saw a Canadian court decision that did this: The court ordered the provincial legislature to enact a new law regulating privacy. If there were something like that in U.S. law, and courts exercised that power regularly, would libertarian legal thinkers be more likely to extol the democratic virtues of judicial restraint? Perhaps I’m too cynical about these things….Or just not very thoughtful. Libertarians are intelligent enough to look at the real world actions of elements of the state, and calibrate their objections and approvals to what is actually going on. Thus, we would be able to approve the limiting functions of the Supreme Court, while opposing efforts to impose on the legislative functions of Congress. Anyway, in our system, SCOTUS has the power to review the acts of congress, but not to infringe on that congressional function, so I guess this is just Orrin being snarky for no good reason except what he calls his own cynicism.
NYPD Chief An Ignoramus: Politician Knows Nothing About Firearms
New York City Air Defenses | Snowflakes in Hell
I was interested to see this post over at Extrano’s Alley that the NYPD commish was bragging that they had the ability to take down aircraft. I’m thinking unless they picked up an SA-7, or some cheap and only likely marginally effective Soviet or Chicom AAA armored vehicle, that a Stinger or some other such MANPAD was awfully expensive for even a city as large as New York. Nonetheless, you never know, given enough budget and reckless abandon, what city officials will purchase. So I at least gave them the benefit of doubt that perhaps the NYPD got their hands on the mother of all toys.
Instead, it turned out to be a Barrett .50. What a letdown, even if gullible journos who know zip about guns referred to it as “powerful.”
Maybe against moose. But against incoming aircraft? About as effective as a flyswatter.
Comments on this post:
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September 28, 2011 8:55 am | #1
The good news is, now anyone who wants a Barrett but can’t afford one knows where to find one. And the current custodians are dumbasses who don’t deserve and probably shouldn’t be allowed to hang on to it.
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September 28, 2011 9:17 am | #2
Well, I guess that is an upside. Probably your best strategy is to just wait until one of them leaves it sitting on the trunk lid of their car while on donut break.
Usually Obama Claims to Be the Victim of Bullying
Obama Using the Bully Pulpit to Be A Bully
I thought this administration was opposed to bullying.
Jeff Offers the Most Honest Twitter Invite I’ve Ever Seen
you are all cordially invited to follow me on Twitter @proteinwisdom, where you’ll find much of what I say here repeated, and little else of value from me.
Only shorter.
Twitter is blogging for people with the attention span (and intellect) of gnats.
Comments on this post:
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September 28, 2011 10:28 am | #1
Twitter is blogging for people with the attention span (and intellect) of gnats.
Oh, I wouldn’t go that far, Bill. Puppies, maybe. They can be paper-trained, though you may have to rub their noses in it a few times.
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September 28, 2011 10:32 am | #2
Twitter is blogging for people with the attention span (and intellect) of gnats.
Just tweeted that quote on hash tag #DailyPundit. Maybe it will create a ‘ahem’ buzz.
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September 28, 2011 11:27 am | #3
Or for people who don’t have much time. I’m a big cycling fan, so I use Twitter to follow professional cyclists who frequently post their thoughts after the race is over (or after the day’s stage is over, in stage races such as the Tour de France).
To be fair, though, that’s pretty much all I use it for. I never tweet anything myself…
The Awesomely Heroic Tale of REMF FOBBIT Smitty and the Afghan Navy
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO Reveals U.S. Navy’s Secret Weapon in War Against Taliban : The Other McCain
The amazing, heroic tale. Don’t miss a single riveting word.
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September 28, 2011 10:39 am | #1
Wow. First, the Army ships a water buffalo to Afghanistan (http://thedonovan.com/archives/004697.html), and now the Navy chips in. What a military we have.
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September 28, 2011 10:52 am | #2
Eh? That was the State Department, not the Army.
Kindle Fires Opening Salvo in Great Pad Wars
Amazon Unveils $199 Kindle Fire Tablet - Bloomberg
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), the world’s largest online retailer, unveiled its Kindle Fire tablet computer, taking aim at Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s bestselling iPad with a device that’s smaller and less than half the price.
The Kindle Fire will have a 7-inch display and sell for $199, compared with $499 for Apple’s cheapest iPad, Amazon executives said. The device, a souped-up version of the Kindle electronic-book reader, will run on Google Inc.’s Android software, the Seattle-based company said.
…The Kindle Fire doesn’t have an embedded camera or a microphone. The device offers Wi-Fi connectivity, though not 3G access, and comes with a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime, the company’s $79-a-year membership service that includes streaming video and free two-day shipping.
Okay, it’s here. Like all tablets, a lot will depend on the apps available for it, and what it can do. The lack of 3G means it won’t be as usable as my iPad, but if you have a WiFi connection handy, it will work fine. And the price is extremely attractive, which leads me to wonder: I just yesterday paid my annual $79 subscription fee for Amazon Prime. If I were to buy one of these things, would they refund the payment or otherwise give me credit? If so, that drops the price to an amazing $120.
UPDATE: It’s only a 30 day free trial of Prime. So never mind. I’ll just have to wait until I can get an income stream from Amazon Associates up and running again. As to which, by the way, they still haven’t let me know anything about reactivating my account.
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September 28, 2011 7:22 am | #1
I also wondered what special discount would be available for us Prime customers. Guess we’ll find out soon enough.
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September 28, 2011 7:34 am | #2
I, too, would be interested in a Prime discount. It would actually make the buying decision for me.
Unless something has changed, it’s going to be tied so closely to Amazon that I wonder if it ends up crippling it. That’s my biggest concern, not being able to transition from the bat-phone to this.
Also, I definitely dig the 7″ screen. 10″ is too much for my requirements.
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September 28, 2011 12:12 pm | #3
Bill,
Just a thought.
I read that that Amazon hasn’t reactivated your account.
Have yu considered just trying to create a new account with your CA address and see if it goes through?
(Please understand that I don’t have any idea how much pain and suffering is involved in creating a new account, but it might be an interesting experiment.)
DCP
Stinks
More liberal fascism, close to home » Cold Fury
“I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover. I really hope that someone can agree with me on that,” Perdue said. “You want people who don’t worry about the next election.”The comment — which came during a discussion of the economy — perked more than a few ears. It’s unclear whether Perdue, a Democrat, is serious — but her tone was level and she asked others to support her on the idea.
That’s because–despite the N&O’s desperate attempt at spinning this serious gaffe away–she wasn’t joking at all, but expressing a concept near and dear to the “progressive” mind, such as it is. When your intention is to remake society and create a New Progressive Man governed entirely by the diktats of “experts,” who needs or wants any input from the rabble via elections, except as a dumbshow to keep them in line by smoothing over their untidy urges towards self-determination?
…When fascism comes to America, it will not only be wearing a smiley-face — it will be running on the Democrat Socialist ticket. Which, given the history, is entirely appropriate.
Neo-Marxism on proud display in a patently anti-American regime, committed to destroying the last vestiges of America That Was; governing against the clearly-expressed will of the people it seeks to enslave; and encroaching on liberty by fiat, edict, and Imperial decree. That’s where we are in 2011, people. Deny it if you will. Myself, I’m loading magazines.
How many times over the years have we been told by our betters how stupid we are to fear the motives and methods of the left in America? How many times have we been told that those who defend the Second Amendment on the basis of defending the Republic against tyranny are insane? How many times have we been told that the left is really defending and strengthening democracy in America, rather than seeking to destroy it?
Enough so that I, at least, easily recognize the stench of tyranny when my nostrils are full of it.
Comments on this post:
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September 28, 2011 9:48 am | #1
I didn’t see your post, Bill, I put something in Off Topic. At any rate, I’m glad I live in North Carolina so I can help fire that stupid bitch in 2012.
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September 28, 2011 1:26 pm | #2
The provision for House elections is mandated by the Constitution. There is no provision or delegation of authority for suspending any part of it. It’s amazing that so many of those charged with upholding, or in the case of states, being in compliance with the Federal Constitution are unaware of its provisions. Maybe all public officials should first be made aware of the “right to revolution” clause of the Declaration before they take office.
Leftists Like Screwing Their Relatives
Morgan Freeman Free To Marry Step-Granddaughter | YourTango
Yeah, we’re thinking the same thing: Is that even legal? And what does that make him? Father slash great-grandpa to his own children? Um, gross! Who knew the 73-year-old actor (who recently played Nelson Mandela) was such a dirty old man? 4 Strangest Celebrity Family Relationships Ever
Seriously, we’re having trouble wrapping our heads around this one.
That’s because you’re a twenty-something moron with the historical knowledge of a weevil, who knows nothing about the incestual sexual proclivities of another heroic far leftist, Woody Allen.
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September 28, 2011 6:21 am | #1
I am not terribly concerned about the so-called “incest”, since there is no known blood relationship between the old perverts and their young victims.
It does make for a great paintbrush, though.
I’m more bothered by these cultural icons sullying the whole concept of marriage and commitment. What great examples they set as they try to teach us morality.
They have no honor.
Netflix
What’s Really Behind The Netflix/Qwikster Split?
If this is what’s going on behind the scenes, then most of what’s been going on with Netflix over the past several months starts to make a lot more sense. The pricing changes that caused so much controversy when they occurred were likely Netflix’s attempt to narrow down its population of streaming customers to only those that are actually using the service (since that’s how the studios are charging them). And splitting the company into DVD and streaming-only independent operations brings that population down even further.
It’s an interesting take, and it sounds right to me. I imagine that Hollywood greed will eventually do it in, though.
The Birth of Tyranny, FedGOV Style
‘Mens Rea’ Legal Protection Erodes in U.S. as Federal Criminal Code Expands - WSJ.com
Back in 1790, the first federal criminal law passed by Congress listed fewer than 20 federal crimes. Today there are an estimated 4,500 crimes in federal statutes, plus thousands more embedded in federal regulations, many of which have been added to the penal code since the 1970s.
Everything not permitted is forbidden.
UPDATE: President Can’t Find Own Ass With Michelle’s Hands, A Map, and a Searchlight
Gaffetastic: Team Obama relocates Colora-DOH!; Update: Prez can’t remember CO Senator’s name
Is it time yet to start the rumor that Obama may be suffering from early-onset Alzheimers?
I mean, I’m just going by the Dem’s tactical playbook. You know, the one Saul Alinsky wrote?
Whorehouse Bank? I Assume That Means Somebody Is Getting Screwed….
Bruce Krasting: Another big month at Geithner’s whorehouse bank
The Federal Financing Bank (FFB) has released its August report. This is the bank that has provided the $500mm to Solyndra. Under normal conditions this monthly report would go unnoticed (except by folks like me). This time might be different. I would expect that a few Republicans are going to jump all over this. They should. The FFB is continuing to lend taxpayer money with virtually no oversight.
Pretty amazing. And why are we loaning so much money to Ford?
Wanna Know How Bad Obama Care Is Going to Be? This Bad
MaxedOutMama: Lalalalalalaaaaa
In 2012, Medicare physician reimbursements are scheduled to drop 29.5%. The final rule is due November 1st, but the proposed rule gives a good feel for what this is going to cost doctors. That’s 176 pages and hard going, so try this short article to get a feel for things. Excerpt chart:
What this means is that doctors are going to drasically limit the number of Medicare patients they see. Which means that Medicare patients are going to have much more difficulty in even seeing physicians. Why is this a big deal? Because Obamacare drastically expands the number of people receiving Medicare coverage.
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September 27, 2011 7:58 pm | #1
There are many doctors now that don’t take Medicare/medicaid patients unless they’re referred by a hospital. The only reason they do then is because the hospitals make it a condition for using the facilities.
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September 27, 2011 8:36 pm | #2
Yes, genes, I know that. The point is, there will be many more who will either cut way back, or refuse to take them at all.
Hopefully, we’ll start seeing more of this kind of pushback:
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September 28, 2011 5:43 am | #3
No, Bill, what we’ll see is FedGov letting the states know that if they want any of that sweet Mediscam cash they’ll make taking Mediscam patients a condition of licensing in that state. Of course, that will simply mean a LOT fewer doctors…
He’s Still the Wild Card In the Race, You Know
Jon Stewart’s Extended Interview With Ron Paul | ZeroHedge
Straightforward, no gotchas. A good, and revealing, interview.
Family formation? Sexual equality? Sexual liberty? Pick Any Two
Armed and Dangerous » Blog Archive » Reconsidering sexual repression
I don’t have a submissive wife and never wanted one. I like strong and independent women. It therefore horrifies me to reach the conclusion that sexually repressive patriarchies may after all be a better deal for most womens’ reproductive success than the relative equality they have now is. But that’s where the logic leads.
Another possibility: Some agency other than the family takes charge of gamete/zygote production.
unworkable? It’s never stopped gooberment before.
EPA: Regulations would require 230,000 new employees, $21 billion
The Environmental Protection Agency has said new greenhouse gas regulations, as proposed, may be “absurd” in application and “impossible to administer” by its self-imposed 2016 deadline. But the agency is still asking for taxpayers to shoulder the burden of up to 230,000 new bureaucrats — at a cost of $21 billion — to attempt to implement the rules.
Y’all ever watch a game of three card monte?
Yeah, it’s like that. While you’re off watching the elected, the appointed are doing their dirty work.
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September 27, 2011 7:50 pm | #1
But the agency is still asking for taxpayers to shoulder the burden of up to 230,000 new bureaucrats — at a cost of $21 billion — to attempt to implement the rules.
They’re asking? I find that a little hard to believe.
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September 28, 2011 5:46 am | #2
Yeah, Bashir, asking.
As in paying income taxes is “voluntary.”
“You wouldn’t force Guido to break your skull, would you?
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September 28, 2011 8:07 am | #3
And note: That $21 billion is a projected annual - not one-time - expense.
Hell, I remember when the whole federal budget was “only” $100 billion.
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September 28, 2011 8:47 am | #4
Whenever the Obama administration talks about their “deficit reductions,” they always multiply by ten. So let’s return the favor: This is, in effect, nearly a quarter trillion dollars of spending increases.
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September 28, 2011 9:44 am | #5
Multiply by ten again to get the cost to business to comply with the regulations. That doesn’t include the cost to file the forms needed to keep the 230,000 bureaucrats busy.
Saudi Arabia: The Real Untouchables
DOJ Releases Islamic Bank Agreement :: The Investigative Project on Terrorism
In a nutshell: Saudi financiers get pass on Muslim terror financing activities.
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Okay, you all see Drudge; I get that. But still…
Perdue jokes about suspending Congressional elections for two years
Speaking to a Cary Rotary Club today, N.C. Gov. Bev Perdue suggested suspending Congressional elections for two years so that Congress can focus on economic recovery and not the next election.
“I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover. I really hope that someone can agree with me on that,” Perdue said. “You want people who don’t worry about the next election.”
I’ve got an idea; why don’t we just kind of ease into it? Let’s just suspend the elections for the House of Representatives and see how that works out.
Ford pulls its ad on bailouts ‘Didn’t take the money’ boast ruffles feathers
With President Barack Obama tuning his re-election campaign amid dismal economic conditions and simmering antipathy toward his stimulus spending and associated bailouts, the Ford ad carried the makings of a political liability when Team Obama can least afford yet another one. Can’t have that.
The ad, pulled in response to White House questions (and, presumably, carping from rival GM), threatened to rekindle the negative (if accurate) association just when the president wants credit for their positive results (GM and Chrysler are moving forward, making money and selling vehicles) and to distance himself from any public downside of his decision.
Nice little company youse got here. Be a shame if something was to happen to it.
Comments on this post:
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September 27, 2011 5:35 pm | #1
Or maybe we should just suspend some politicians.
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September 27, 2011 9:49 pm | #2
From the lamp-posts? (Or maybe the traffic lights, so that passing trucks can hit them?)
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September 28, 2011 5:45 am | #3
No, Avatar, no! Hanging politicians from traffic lights will encourage innocent little children to run into the intersection to whack them like pinatas. Think of the children!
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September 28, 2011 11:59 am | #4
Hanging politicians from traffic lights will encourage innocent little children to run into the intersection to whack them like pinatas.
Huh? What’s the downside of that?
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September 28, 2011 12:02 pm | #5
??? Little children playing in traffic and you don’t see the problem? Why do you hate children and the traditional American family, Tom?
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September 28, 2011 1:11 pm | #6
Maybe Tom’s kids are grown and his grandkids don’t give him the time of day? I think Tom is looking at the suggestion as a great way to make drivers slow down at intersections, which are all we’ve got for community gatherings. That’s the only way Europeens are ahead of us - they have town squares ideal for administering the Mussolini Treatment.
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September 28, 2011 1:23 pm | #7
Live Oaks are best. They have nice sturdy limbs at the right height. We could even use the same ones that the Declaration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclamation were read under and posted on. You guys in Calli can just use the overpasses.
Rigged
Obama’s Randomly-Selected Questioner Just So Happens To Be A Major Democratic Donor
As in really major. Although what would you expect from a “former Google executive?”
The problem is that this works anyway, Rational ignoramuses catch a glimpse of this kabuki and assume it is a legitimate opinion, rather than a staged scam. By the time the scam is exposed, the boobs are no longer paying attention, so the impression of legitimacy remains.
Welcome to New Stalingrad.
I heard that the NYPD claimed to have the capability to take down aircraft. I decided to check it out, it appears to be true. Then I found this:NYPD Bomber Squadron: Don’t Mess With City
The New York Post, citing police sources, reported that the weapon the NYPD has is a Barret .50 caliber rifle, which can be mounted on almost any police helicopter.
The Post said the department has had the powerful gun for four years, and that it is deployed only on “special occasions,” for instance when the president visits the city.
The NYPD also its own Navy, err, OK, at least a Coast Guard-grade fleet of boats equipped to detect radiation.
And as if anyone didn’t already know, or sense it, just about all of Lower Manhattan is under video surveillance through a network of 2,000 cameras, the images from which can be instantaneously accessed 24 hours a day at the department’s command center.
In fact, according to the “60 Minutes” interview, if the city wanted to search for someone wearing a red shirt, the cameras can call up all images of people wearing red shirts within the surveillance network.
This was authorized by a man that doesn’t want his serfssubjects citizens to have so much as a starter pistol.
Looks like Bloomberg is setting up his own little kingdom. Wonder when the silk gloves come off and the jackboots go on.
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Comments on this post:
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September 27, 2011 11:08 pm | #1
This was based on a Barrett? Really? List of a/c that’ll take down is actually limited…
BTW, does Mr. Barrett know NYPD has one (or more?) of his fine products? ‘Cuz he blacklisted all law enforcement agencies in CA over CA’s refusal to allow Californians to own one. If they already had one and send it in for service, they get a refund back instead of a rifle… -
September 28, 2011 4:58 am | #2
I hope he pro-rated the refund and deducted the cost of repairs.
In one article I saw Bloomy alluded to more dangerous weaponry.
Dysfunctional
Riehl World View: The Push For Christie Is About Romney, Not Perry
Forget the YouTube clips, Christie is pure establishment Republican dealing with a balanced budget mandate in NJ and an already over-taxed population. He has no other route to take for New Jersey than the one he has been and he is doing some real good there. However, if he ever steps onto the national stage, it will soon be very clear from his record that he is your typical NE Republican and unable to stir the conservative base.
All the forces pushing him hope for is that Christie could peel off enough soft conservatives to take it to Mitt. Christie may well eventually run for President one day, but he’ll do it as an establishment Republican because that’s what he is. The backstory behind the push for Christie makes it obvious, but all the proof one needs can be found on the pages of the Weekly Standard and the Washington Post. Those are not publications that give a damn about pushing a genuinely conservative candidate. If they could beat Romney and also knock Perry, or any other conservative out of the race, they would be thrilled. But they would not be backing Perry no matter how well he was performing. Sans Christie, they will eventually fall in line behind Romney, just as their earlier positioning makes abundantly clear.
Perry, Cain, Bachmann, Santorum, Paul — all conservative to some reasonable extent - and yet Romney, a RINO who rarely gets more than 25% either at the polls or in the polls is claimed to be on track to becoming the GOP nominee. If that turns out to be the case, then the GOP stands revealed as being useless to conservatives, and we will need to look elsewhere for ways to get our candidates elected.
The Stolen Money Goes Round and Round
Sultan Knish a blog by Daniel Greenfield
Got a new bill that calls for spending 10 billion dollars to make pogo sticks in low income neighborhoods more energy efficient or 400 million dollars in foreign aid to terrorists or 1 million to rum factories in the Cayman Islands (because who the hell knows why)? No problem, just get ready to pay your fair share of the bill first toward the national debt and all other obligations.
Tax government spending? I dunno. Seems kinda circular to me.
Carded
[EDIT by Steve: The post was just a link with no text either to display for the link or to discuss it. Fleshed it out a bit so people can at least click the link.]
Comments on this post:
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September 27, 2011 10:59 am | #1
Eh, I like mine better. The race card never looks that nice and clean.
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September 27, 2011 4:25 pm | #2
Morgan Freeman had a far different image several years ago. I think he’s what many people thought they were getting when they voted for Bambi. I guess Freeman noticed what happened to Cosby and decided to get back on the plantation.
Question Asked and Answered
Poverty in America – 2010 – Health Insurance | America’s North Shore Journal
Over half of those that the Census Bureau reports as without health insurance coverage are eligible for coverage and don’t have it or don’t want it, or are non-citizens. Do we have a health insurance coverage problem in America?
Only if you’re a left wing supporter of the ObamaCare version of socialized medicine.
Comments on this post:
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September 27, 2011 10:28 am | #1
And don’t forget the conflating of having insurance, “access” to insurance, and “access” to health care.
It’s the same as with “global warming”: if the proponents push bafflegab, “peculiar” redefinition of common words, numbers from secret sources, and insults to their skeptics, then maybe, just maybe, their claims won’t withstand scrutiny. You don’t need to know anything about cloud effects on heat radiating to space or violent crime statistics or economics. Just look at the people to know that global warming claim, rape statistics, and American childhood poverty rates are not worth the spit it takes to spew them.
if you thought that was all America’s fault
‘Golden’ budget rule too complicated: economists
And the take-away is buried in the final paragraphs.
France last had a balanced budget in 1973 and all pledges to save tax receipts in the good years for difficult times ahead have been sabotaged by politics, Wyplosz said.
“It’s what we’ve never been able to do in France. That is, whether good year or bad, we’ve always run deficits,” Wyplosz said.
“My worry is that by passing this law as is, in a few years it won’t have worked and the principle itself will be discredited because the version adopted was the wrong one,” he said
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September 27, 2011 5:41 pm | #1
Well, the Sarkozy “Golden Rule” budgetary control plan is nothing but a scam, rather like the scams the GOP House, in collusion with the Gentry GOP Senators, have been pushing forward as “deficit reduction” although they have not reduced any, you know, deficits. But morons might think that deficit reduction as a concept is a failure, not understanding that these scams are designed to fail.
I sympathize with the guy who noted that. We have the same problem, and the same sort of scumbag politicians.
How Much Does It Matter? A Lot, At Least to Conservatives
INDEED: Mitt? Rick? Herman? How much does it matter? “I am thinking more and more that the GOP presidential candidate is a distraction. Whoever it is will be better much than Mr. Obama, so don’t worry about it. Mr. Obama makes Mitt Romney look like George Washington. So, what does matter? Making sure we have a Tea Party Congress in 2012 is the most important thing.”
Glenn says, “Indeed,” but frankly, that’s just nuts. Why would the most potent force in GOP politics today want to vote for somebody who rejects everything they want? This is just more applause for the whole “lesser of two evils” strategy that has wrecked conservative influence on the national path for decades, and I, for one, am not going to buy it.
If elections have consequences, then candidate selections do as well.
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September 27, 2011 9:30 am | #1
Sometimes, people need to be reminded: The lesser of two evils - is still evil.
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September 27, 2011 1:25 pm | #2
Yeah, I posted yesterday about not letting establishment types set our priorities, and when I saw that same link above by Glenn, I went over and blasted the idea in their comments.
It’s disheartening to read the comments there, though. Most of them are “mumble, mumble, yeah I guess you’re right, mumble, mumble”.
It’s as if these people are setting themselves up to get screwed over and feel OK about it.
No Problems Mixing Religion and State Here
Alabama’s jail-or-mosque program raises hackles | Nation | News from Fort Worth, Dallas,…
ALABAMA — A civil liberties group said Friday that the town of Bay Minette should not start an alternative sentencing program that would give nonviolent offenders a new choice: Go to jail or to a mosque.
Outrageous, eh.
I await the inevitable howls from the usual suspects.
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September 27, 2011 12:45 pm | #1
Send ‘em to jail. The priest/pastor/imam can meet them there.
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September 27, 2011 11:04 pm | #2
The Facespace page has been an eye-opener. A close friend, who happens to be Wicca, posted a version of this that said “jail or church” and stated “I’d feel safer in jail.”
Really? I pointed out that “Even in Detroit, they don’t shank you in church.”
Well, not usually…
Anyway, I’m wondering now about the difference between the versions. (Church/mosque) -
September 28, 2011 4:04 am | #3
Why not do both? Jail, plus conversion by the sword.
Obama: Uncharitable to Private Charity
Obama’s fight against charity | Wizbang
A little-noticed provision in President Obama’s new $447 billion jobs bill seeks to limit tax deduction for charitable giving at 28 cents for every dollar donated, causing big waves along the front lines of those serving in rescue missions and crisis shelters across the country.
Of course leftists like Obama hate the idea of private charity. It’s competition. And, of course, we all know the government can give away your money better than you can.
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September 27, 2011 9:35 am | #1
Well, they definitely give it away faster than I either can or will…
Covert Ops? Ohhh, Icky!
The Captain’s Journal » Any Spooks Left in the CIA Attic? Aiding the Syrian Army Defectors
General Petraeus. Once you get settled in over at the C.I.A., can you check around the closets or under the desks at Langley and see if there are any covert ops people left? I know we are too high-tech for that sort of thing nowadays, but every so often a job comes up that just can’t be done by the drones or the snooping satellites or wire intercepts.
The wonks and technocrats in charge of our spying organizations don’t do people, only ELINT. It’s just so much cleaner that way.
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September 27, 2011 9:38 pm | #1
Not since carter and the church commission…
They’ll Just Cook A Poll For Huntsman
The network has said candidates must reach an average level of support of 2 percent in three separate polls by news organizations published since Sept. 1. Mr. Huntsman has reached 2 percent in two polls, but has been at 1 percent in the rest.
If he doesn’t reach 2 percent in a third poll by Oct. 16, Mr. Huntsman will not be on the stage. Sam Feist, the Washington bureau chief for CNN, said Monday that the network set the 2 percent floor months ago and hasn’t changed it.
Not to worry. If necessary, the NYT will just cook a new poll giving Huntsman the requisite two percent.
Geller and Atlas Shrugs File First Amendment Lawsuit Against MTA
CBS Outdoor, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s media management company, wrote Geller her proposed ad violates authority standards.It’s unacceptable because it “demeans an individual or group of individuals,” a CBS executive wrote Geller.
CBS Outdoor is willing to discuss possible revisions to the text, or Geller can request a “formal and final determination,” the executive wrote last week.
Geller previously said she would sue, claiming a failure to run the piece would violate the First Amendment.
Our lawsuit will hit tomorrow. The MTA has run many controversial ads. If they are anti-Jew, they better keep it to themselves. They don’t get to decide what is good and what is forbidden speech.
Here’s the ad:
I don’t see how this “demeans an individual or group of individuals.” In order to make this argument, the MTA would have to admit that jihadis seeking the destruction of Israel are a legitimate group of individuals.
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September 27, 2011 10:59 am | #1
The MTA would have to admit that jihadis seeking the destruction of Israel are a legitimate group of individuals.
They’d only be agreeing with American policy.
Story Equals Fiction Equals Lie
Obama also said that when he reflects back on his tenure in the White House, he thinks his administration did not do a good job communicating what they were doing for the American people.
“I think that the more you’re in this office, the more you have to say to yourself that telling a story to the American people is just as important as the actual policies that you’re implementing,” he said.
When I was a very little kid, my mom never called lies by that word, or even what she used when I was a bit more grown-up: fibs.
Instead, she would ask me, after some particularly outrageous whopper. “Is that a story? Did you just tell a story?” This goes back to the root meaning of fiction: a lie.
I think this has to be the sense in which Obama is using the term “story.” I mean, what else could it be?
Give Palin Endangered Species Protection?
“Sarah Palin Threatens to Sue ‘Rogue’ Book Publisher”
Of course, some would argue that you can’t defame an abomination of nature and her hypocritical self-serving uterus — that is, that defamation suits are meant to protect human beings, not presumptuous hoochie cumsluts who enter into politics when what they should be doing is cleaning fish or, at best, reading the weather on some small Iowa newscast…
On the other hand, maybe she could get protection as an endangered species. A lot of Alaskan wildlife is off limits under those regulations. And the penalties are probably stiffer for threatening them.
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Comments on this post:
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September 27, 2011 9:29 am | #1
And the penalties are probably stiffer…
Yep:
Man Faces 2 Years in Prison for Shooting Grizzly While Defending Family
The Real Opening In the Polls: Not Christie, but Palin/Cain 2012
I established the title of this post as an individual category several months ago. For a long time it looked like a dead issue, but with Perry’s collapse, Cain’s rise, and the growing appearance of the inevitability of a Romney nomination, the door is wide open for Palin to enter the GOP primary contest as the one candidate who can unite squabbling conservatives - who make up the vast majority of GOP primary voters - behind a single candidacy. If she let slip rumors (for any number of reasons she can’t say so outright) that she was strongly considering Cain as her running mate if she gets the nomination - it might be enough to push her close to the fifty percent mark, and foreclose the welter of competing conservative candidates.
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September 27, 2011 4:49 pm | #1
Palin is getting close to her own deadline to decide. We should know within a week whether she’ll run for the Republican nomination or sit it out, deciding later where her endorsement should go, and when.
OTOH it’s been suggested that she might go unconventional in the extreme, by running as an independent, trusting her Tea Party supporters to get her on the ballot in all 50 states. She’s been telling those supporters to stay united under the Tea Party banner. That would fit in with a possible third party run.
My question is, if the election is thrown to the House of Representatives, which House would decide - the current one or the one elected in 2012? I think it’s the new Congress in January that receives the Electoral College vote result, and she may be banking on that. Are we heading for even more interesting times?
Like Pushing On A Limp Dick
Guest Post: The Fed Wants You To Beg For QE3 | ZeroHedge
Here’s the problem with all of the Fed’s stimulus programs, however organized: They only do one thing: permit banks to borrow from them at very low rates. The Fed doesn’t really “print money.” It essentially gives money in the form of book-keeping entries, to banks. But in order for that money to get out into the society and actually stimulate normal Americans, the banks must then loan money to individuals, and they have not been doing that. They’ve been very, very, very tight on their own lending policies, so much so that they are now sitting on 1.5 trillion dollars in excess reserves. Reserves are money they are required to keep on hand by government regulations in order to meet expected obligations - the banks have this, plus a trillion and a half more that would normally be loaned out and multiplying in the economy. So, no actual stimulus effect - except in one place: the things the banks themselves invest this money in like…oh…commodities. They either invest directly, or loan the money at good terms to bank-like entities: great investment houses like Goldman Sachs and the like. This has, be the interesting effect of injecting, not stimulus, but inflation into the economy, a double whammy for seniors and savers, especially those on fixed incomes, who see their own costs rising while their bond-based investment income falls.
Anyway, read the whole thing, and then marvel at the joyous buoyancy of the Dow Jones.
UPDATE: The Dow just powered up through the 11k mark for the 605th time in the past year, after recently powering down through the 11k mark for the 604th time in the past year. Ho, hum.
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September 27, 2011 12:31 pm | #1
Bull market!
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September 27, 2011 1:06 pm | #2
For certain definitions of bull… 8-)
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September 27, 2011 1:36 pm | #3
Oops. Down huge at the close. Bear market! (These things change very quickly these days.)
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September 27, 2011 4:18 pm | #4
(These things change very quickly these days.)
And that, good Nemo, is exactly why I no longer ‘play’ in the market.
Fundamentals don’t matter. Research doesn’t matter. Experienced, competent management doesn’t matter. Come ten minutes before the close and the computer-driven trades simply wash out a day’s careful, managed work.
I can’t afford those algorithms. So I no longer play. A shame, since I really enjoyed the stock market. About eight years ago, I realized that I could make as much money trading stocks as I was clearing from ‘work’, and I didn’t even have to leave home. So I did.
Now I can’t. I got out completely early this spring. And, man, I really, really don’t want to look for work nowadays. But it’s going to come to that.
Solyndra: The Tale
President Solyndra
And his mean green wealth-wasting machine
If you’re not up to speed on this half-billion dollar scandal, here is a good rundown on it. Long, though, and if you don’t really give a rat’s ass, don’t bother.
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What Fresh Hell…?
Bruce Krasting: What’s up in Cyprus? War?
I’ve been following events in Cyprus for the past few months. I wrote about this on 8/1. In that piece I concluded that an EU led bailout of Cyprus was right around the corner. As it turns out, I was way off the mark. There has been a series of developments. It’s an interesting tale.
Krasting connects the dots.
Protecting Us From the Future
FuturePundit: Rapid Ramp In Full Genome Sequening: 30,000 In 2011
The rate of full genome sequencing has risen by about 1000 in a couple of years. That’s because costs have dropped by orders of magnitude. The rapid cost drop looks set to continue.
This year, the world’s DNA-sequencing machines are expected to churn out 30,000 entire human genomes, according to estimates in Nature magazine. That is up from 2,700 last year and a few dozen in 2009. Recall that merely a decade ago, before the completion of the Human Genome Project, the number was zero.
The vast majority of us will be able to afford to get our full genomes sequenced in a few years. Costs are now below $10,000 per genome and in larger quantities below $5,000.
Moore’s Law continues to grind inexorably onward. The biggest threat to the miracles now beginning to emerge is the heavy hand of the state, which now serves to “protect” us from amazing advances that will improve our lives immeasurably.
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September 26, 2011 11:11 pm | #1
The highest, greatest “service” most of Gubmint can possibly deliver to the majority of people must now come in the extent to which it stops over-controlling practically everything, and gets the hell out of the way of most things.
Of course, it seems highly unlikely, given the overall nature of Gubmint bureaucrapcy and the “professional” pols who feed it and feed upon it, that this will be understood or followed by the Beasts Of Politickin’ And Policy.
The struggle will therefore likely continue…
Bullshit, Bullshit, Bullshit From Down on the Democrat Plantations
Class Warfare - Yuck! « Teds Take
I voted for our President. I have maxed out on personal donations to his re-election campaign. I forgot his campaign wants to raise $1 billion. THAT is a lot of money–money–money–money! Money still talks. It blows my mind when I am asked for money as a donation at the same time I am getting blasted as being a bad guy!
See, I don’t give a rat’s ass that this moron is upset with Obama. I don’t care one bit that he doesn’t like Obama’s move to class (and soon race) warfare.
Why?
Because this drooling boob maxed out his donations to Obama’s re-election campaign! Money talks, bullshit walks, and this idiot is crawling. Clue, dumbass: If you don’t like what Obama is doing, stop financing him.
Otherwise, you’re just another rich crony capitalist whining to be exempted from The Won’s Class War, because you’ve already paid your bribes, and now the King of Boodle isn’t coming through for you. You’re pathetic.
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September 26, 2011 9:31 pm | #1
Yep. My reaction on reading this was “What are you whining about? You got exactly what you asked for.” And, paraphrasing Ayn Rand, I’m cruel enough to say that when he looks around the ruins of the world he helped create and cries out “But I didn’t mean this!” he will not be forgiven.
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September 27, 2011 5:05 pm | #2
If a conservative is a liberal who got mugged, what do you call a liberal who got mugged by a marxist?
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September 27, 2011 5:33 pm | #3
Serf.
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September 27, 2011 6:29 pm | #4
But They’re Different
Bill Clinton’s ironic Tea Party rant | Questions and Observations
You know, there’s not a single solitary example on the planet, not one, of a country that is successful because the economy has triumphed over the government and choked it off and driven the tax rates to zero, driven the regulations to nonexistent and abolished all government programs, except for defense, so people in my income group never have to pay a nickel to see a cow jump over the moon. There is no example of a successful country that looks like that.
“People in my income tax bracket.”
Ever notice how many of the leftists calling for soak-the-rich tax policies seem to be…rich?
Show of hands, now: How many of you think they actually expect their own incomes to be affected by their professed policies?
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September 26, 2011 7:34 pm | #1
Gibberish. He was drunk.
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September 26, 2011 11:15 pm | #2
“Cow jump over the moon?” WTF? Was he getting serviced by an intern at the time?
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September 27, 2011 12:16 am | #3
You know, there’s not a single solitary example on the planet, not one, of a country that is successful because the economy has triumphed over the government and choked it off and driven the tax rates to zero…
There is, equally, not one single, solitary example of a country that is successful because the government has “triumphed” over its economy, crushed all possible opposition and driven the tax rates to 100%.
There are some that have tried that route to “success” - the most notable current example being North Korea - but they all fail or change their direction, most very quickly.
Why? Simple enough - government, despite claims to the contrary by Democraps and other abysmal fools, does not create anything, aside from paperwork and regulations, resource-absorbent bureaucracy and a certain amount of cash-flow. It is therefore almost entirely counter-productive by its basic nature. It’s a net liability in economic terms, not a net asset. We should only tolerate it to the extent that we must, allowing it to do only the very few things it can do better or more efficiently than we can do them for ourselves.
Even a lying, conniving snake like ol’ Slick Willie knows this; he just likes to ignore it, I think because it amuses him to make asinine remarks like the ones he passed in his little TEA Party rant and watch the rubes dance around trying to argue with him.
It’s a senseless straw-man of a statement he made anyway - unless we manage to somehow devolve our nation into total anarchy, no one can seriously imagine that we will ever closely approach (much less actually achieve) a government tax rate of zero.
Gibberish. He was drunk.
Gibberish, yes - but he wasn’t drunk, he was just being ol’ Willie, the Prevaricator Of The Western World. He’s so full of shit, it’s a wonder his eyeballs don’t have a Full To Here line marked on them.
How many of you think they actually expect their own incomes to be affected by their professed policies?
Oh, they expect their policies to affect their “piece of the pie”, all right - the ones like W.J.Clintoon fully expect their incomes to go up.
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September 27, 2011 9:17 am | #4
Drunk? Maybe. Intoxicated? Likely.
Back years ago, I knew a fellow who claimed to provide cocaine to Roger Clinton.
He maintained that Roger claimed that all of the coke was not for his own personal use.
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September 27, 2011 12:59 pm | #5
Of course not. It was used to entice secretaries and maids up to the governor’s suite if the state trooper invite/escort didn’t work.
Keep Your Fingers Crossed For Me
Mark’s Hangout - Mark’s Hangout Blog - Amazon to Relaunch California Associate Accounts
With this compromise in place I was curious if Amazon would reinstate their California-based Associate accounts so I shot off an E-mail to Amazon to ask that very question. Here is the reply I recieved from Amazon on September 25, 2011:
Hello Mark,
As you may have heard, California Governor Jerry Brown has signed legislation repealing the law that forced us to terminate our California Associates.
We’re working to relaunch the Amazon.com Associates Program in California as soon as possible. In the next few days, we’ll reach out to all affected past Amazon.com Associates with information how to re-open their accounts.
We look forward to seeing you again soon.
Good news, indeed! Perhaps Amazon will go the extra mile and give California Associates credit for purchases made through their sites since June 29, 2011? Time will tell.
As soon as I am notified that my Amazon Associates account has been reactivated, I will put up the old links again, and start posting items I think folks will be interested in.
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September 27, 2011 1:02 am | #1
Cool beans!
I’ve been keeping that Amazon Prime account alive for just such an eventuality…
Charting the Flow
Presenting The Mother Of All European Bailout Flowcharts | ZeroHedge
Posted without comment.
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September 26, 2011 6:13 pm | #1
I don’t get it. Where’s Hitler?
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September 26, 2011 6:19 pm | #2
He’s already in the super-secret deep-underground bunker - right under that big, ugly blue-and-yellow sewer lid in the middle…
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September 26, 2011 7:21 pm | #3
Well. I was going to make an amusing reply to nemo’s question, but JSB’s sewer lid squashed my comment flat.
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September 27, 2011 6:44 am | #4
Where’s Hitler?
He retired to his ranch in Crawford, TX.
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September 27, 2011 9:21 am | #5
…retired to his ranch in Crawford, TX.
Not according to some people…
Hey, Google: How About “Don’t Be Corrupt?”
Google Tries to Change its Stripes [Reader Post] | Flopping Aces
The story “Google Cozies Up to GOP,” details efforts by the company to shed its left wing roots and image: “Google has long been known as Barack Obama‘s BFF: The company and its employees made the Top 5 list of contributors to the president’s 2008 campaign. Its executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, endorsed Obama and donated $25,000 to his inauguration fund. And Obama tapped Schmidt as an unpaid adviser. But that’s all so 2008.”
The article discusses efforts Google has made to “reach out” to the GOP side of the aisle:
Among its many recent GOP hires is a lobbying firm led by Kyle Simmons, former chief of staff to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Rob Saliterman, a former spokesman for President George W. Bush.
“We have a strong story to tell about our business and we’ve sought out the best talent we can find to help tell it,” a Google representative says.
Yeah, and that strong story is that they are a pack of rent-seeking bastards whose unofficial motto, “Don’t Be Evil,” is every day, in every way, being exposed as the colossal joke that it is.
First “Attack Watch” and Now This
Petition to Repeal Obamacare Posted on White House Website | The Gateway Pundit
Essentially, the new White House petition website allows anyone to create a petition. Once it reaches 150 signers it becomes public. Once it reaches 5,000 the administration promises an official response.
** Supposedly, this petition will be officially listed once it gets 150 votes, and as you can see above, if it gets to 5,000 by October 22 then someone from the White House will issue some sort of response. But the real opportunity here is to show the White House just how popular a full repeal is.
0 comments
Remember when the Obama team was famous in lefty circles for its brilliant facility with the tools of the digital age? Judging from these tailor-made for mischief efforts, perhaps that belief was based on just as much as the notion that a perfectly creased pant would make a perfect president. Anyway, while Attack Watch falls silent under the weight of tens of thousands of bits of conservative snark, the White House offers us a new venue for, ah, creative response. Go on over and sign this petition, and maybe give some thoughts to what other petitions you might want to get started.
Post your suggestions in the comments.
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September 26, 2011 3:42 pm | #1
I’m number 623
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September 26, 2011 5:39 pm | #2
You have to register with the site. 10 minutes and no email confirmation.
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September 26, 2011 5:46 pm | #3
…10 minutes and no email confirmation.
Should we notify Attaack Waaaatch!!!, or give it a few more minutes?…
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September 26, 2011 5:59 pm | #4
Finally arrived and went straight to “suspect email” folder. Must be the “Whitehouse.gov”.
Number 689. Shared on Facebook with all 12 mostly lib. -
September 26, 2011 6:00 pm | #5
690
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September 26, 2011 8:14 pm | #6
627
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September 26, 2011 8:21 pm | #7
721.
And shared on Facebook. That’s a great way to get it going.
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September 27, 2011 8:09 am | #8
866
It’s not growing very fast.
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September 27, 2011 10:13 am | #9
918
Eventually We Can Reach The Communist Ideal, and All Live In Poverty Together
ACHIEVING EQUALITY THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY: Income Gender Gap Narrows As Male Earnings Fall.
And a lot of folks will be just fine with that. Much of the “equality and fairness” movement is fueled by nothing more than envy, and a hatred of the notion that somebody else might have more than you do.
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September 26, 2011 2:14 pm | #1
The fairness movement is fueled by the further notion that if someone has more than you do, he must have stolen it from you, so get it back by force if necessary.
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September 26, 2011 4:41 pm | #2
Someone, perhaps Mark Steyn but I really don’t remember, described the difference between Europe and America as the reaction of a poor man seeing a rich man’s sports car.
In Europe, the poor man says, “Someday I’ll drag you out of that car.”
In America, the poor man says, “Someday I’ll be able to buy one of those.”
But I am given to understand that we should emulate our Continental betters.
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September 26, 2011 5:29 pm | #3
…I am given to understand that we should emulate our Continental betters.
Might do so, if there were any - but there’s no such thing…
Income Gender Gap Narrows As Male Earnings Fall
There’s a whole pantsload of “FAIL” in that sentence…
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September 26, 2011 5:38 pm | #4
Might do so, if there were any - but there’s no such thing…
Reminds me of the no-doubt-made-up story of the English Lord asking the American cowboy, “Who is your master, my good fellow?”
“That son-of-a-bitch ain’t been born yet.”
dispensing with the middleman
It is far past the point for a special prosecutor and full criminal prosecution for those involved.
U.S. Gov’t used an ATF employee to buy weapons with taxpayer money & walk them — without help from straw buyers!
Oh and tell me that the current administration did not know and/or was not involved, because if you are that naive I have some gorgeous beach front property in Nevada that I can let you have for a good price.
(Via Of Arms and the Law)
Comments on this post:
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September 26, 2011 4:08 pm | #1
Per Section 925(a)(1) of the Gun Control Act (GCA) exempts law enforcement agencies from the transportation, shipment, receipt, or importation controls of the GCA when firearms are to be used for the official business of the agency.
Whose bright idea was that? We should remove the exemption.
Considering how responsible they’ve proven to be, the BATFE, and it’s agents, should not be allowed to purchase anything more lethal than a toe nail clipper. Nor should they be allowed to touch sharp objects. -
September 26, 2011 4:44 pm | #2
Get with the program, Genes. You don’t want to be the last thug on the hemisphere without a government-supplied weapon, do you?
I mean, what would your friends and family say, to know just how politically unconnected you are?
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September 26, 2011 6:13 pm | #3
Puts me in mind of a “signature” line I’ve seen elsewhere:
When The Man At The Door Said, “Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms”, I Naturally Assumed He Was Making A Delivery…
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September 26, 2011 7:33 pm | #4
Considering how responsible they’ve proven to be, the BATFE, and it’s agents, should not be allowed
You could just stop the sentence right there and it’d be good.
If I were Prez, I’d be going through the agencies with a chainsaw. Ideally the BATFE, the federal Department of Education, the FDA, and other agencies wholly unjustified by a “naive” reading of the Constitution would have their budgets zeroed and every employee fired. If that turned out to be unfeasible for some reason (constraints on executive action in the face of Congressional budgeting, for instance), all employees would be required to sit on folding metal chairs in a cafeteria, not speaking, sleeping, or doing anything. And they’d have to raise their hands and ask permission to go to the bathroom — with an escort. The escorts and proctors wouldn’t even cost anything, I’ll bet. There’d be volunteers lined up to humiliate the jackbooted jackholes.
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September 27, 2011 1:11 am | #5
There’d be volunteers lined up…
Dibs on first in line - I’d even bring my own cattle-prod, Taser and shotgun (just to maintain discipline and order, of course…) -
I’d like to work the Department of (Mis)Education location first-off - those people have a lot to answer for…
So, what the hell are you waiting for? Free ice cream?
The man is asking for something in return, and really, it’s owed big time.
Let’s give a little back, shall we?
Surber has the details.
She’s got a nice ass, too.
What will be the last tweet on Twitter be about?
Evidently, it’s the s7.addthis.com scripts etc. that’s causing the slow DP page loads for me with Firefox / Lucky Leper.
Chef Mojo, It think you will like this clever idea.
Two cups per pint. Two Pints per quart. Four Quarts per Gallon.
Couple that with a Pints A Pound The Whole World Round and you got a whole lot of info in that simple graphic.
Fwiw, I am making a basic brine per Ruhlman’s Ratios and had to go to the internet to see how many pints to a gallon. Looking at that graphic, had it been hanging in my kitchen it would have saved me a lot of time.
DP takes from 30 sec to a minute to load, and then if I make a comment and go back to the main page it takes another half minute. I have to have a lot of free time to visit my favorite blog. So I am visiting you less often.
Haverwilde, I had the same issue. I’m now blocking the s7.addthis.com scripts using the Ad Block Plus add-on in Firefox.
I understand, Haverwilde. I’ll try to see if I can find a better fix. I’m thinking about saying to hell with the archives and just installing the latest Wordpress, but I’ll have to think about it, and discuss it with Clayton first.
In the meantime, blog traffic is up a thousand pageviews a day, on average, so….
Try it now. I took the social widgets off the front page. It seems to be faster.
Loads much faster for me.
Can you keep the current old, customized WordPress and database and what-not as archives.dailypundit.com, and set up a new WP installation as dailpundit.com? The new DP would have a prominent pointer to the old DP and all would be good.
You could accomplish much the same without setting up the archives subdomain, but you would need to play games with your apache configuration file or equivalent in order to point these links to the old WP installation and these other links to the new. Not hard to do, but your hosting service would have to give you that level of access, and not all do.
The former approach would cause problems with search engines finding your content until they rescan, and you would probably still lose rank. You could simply submit the new subdomain to alleviate the first problem. Google is sometimes good about changed domains and such; depending on the phase of the moon or some such they may push some button and change the years of history from DomainX to DomainY and you don’t lose anything. Or they may not. I have no information about Yahoo or Bing doing that.
There might be issues with hosting costs (two databases, two server roots).
For what it’s worth, I’ve been unable to connect for a couple days. Maybe I just wasn’t patient enough. It’s working fine now.
Wow, what a difference! It is almost instant now. Thanks.
Why the Impossible Happens More Often
Judson, every now and then you do come up with something useful and intriguing. Thanks - I’m not yet sure I agree entirely with the “hive mind” slant expressed, but it’s definitely worth thinking about.
Texans: any truth to the leftist talking point:
From the Texas Engineering Extension Service and Wildland | Texas Forest Service website:
“Since its inception in 2003, TFS’ Rural Volunteer Fire Department Assistance Program has awarded 716 fire engines, 5,168 pieces of fire equipment, and 21,673 sets of protective gear to fire departments across the state. Nearly 14,000 firefighters have received full grant funding for much needed training.”
What’s kind of interesting is that searching for “Texas volunteer fire department funding” in Google only returns a couple of links from some leftist retard sites crooksandliars and another one called opposingviews. As usual they’re instigating another lie and counting on its repetition to make it become accepted fact. They keep trying to demonize their sworn enemies by using the Goebbels Theory of Propaganda.
Not true. As best as I can find from the Texas state budgets on line:
2010-2011 Texas Forest Service budget was $38.5 million.
2012-2013 Texas Forest Service budget was $81 million.
Thanks, Tx & bb!
__t_i_m_o_t_h_y__,
That rocks! I love it so much, I might get it tattooed to my forearm!
At the very least, it’s going in my kitchens. Thanks!
Glad you like it Chef!
I am keeping it in mind as I work my way through Ruhlman’s Ratio’s book and will try to imagine other visual aids for those ratios. I am not very good at that sort of graphic insight, but I am lucky to have friends who do that sort of thing for a living.
Take a basic brine for instance. 20 lbs water to 1 lb of salt. How do you make a picture that combines the ideas of ‘brine’ and a 20:1 ratio in a way that is a aesthetically pleasing as the cups/pints/quarts/gallon poster?
__t_i_m_o_t_h_y__, I don’t think visually either, but often need to come up with some catchy or memorable visual presentation. (Several of my clients have art departments or at least a few people who “do graphics”, so you’d think they could find someone — anyone! — better than me at this. But they come out of different budgets, or there’s company politics, or …)
Anyway, I often find that cruising Google Images can give me ideas. 99% of the hits for “brine ratio” or whatever will be useless but some might give you ideas. For instance, Magic the Gathering has two cards with “brine” in the name. Maybe you can take the Brine Elemental, change the points at the bottom to 20/1, and put in text about how brining makes the dreadful monster tender and flavorful.
A graphic of a person lying on the ground showing all his fingers and toes (all 20 of them), saying, “Look what I have to do to remember my brine ratio.”
@SteveF
thanks for the idea!
@YKW
LOL!
It’s probably a good thing the brining water:salt ratio ain’t 21:1.
I just figured the 21st, um, digit was for, um, making water.
Some Singularity/SF stuff that might be of interest.
Already brined too.
Correction to the Texas wildfire funding numbers:
“Total 2010-2011 Biennium Forest Service/Wildfire Fighting Budget: $109 million.
Total 2012-2013 Biennium Forest Service/Wildfire Fighting Budget: $196.2 million.
So the Texas legislature authorized, and Governor Rick Perry signed, an 80% increase in wildfire fighting and prevention funding for the 2012-2013 biennium.”
I got this from:
http://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=8337
Fair warning. I started adding some gold related stuff today to my portfolio today. I fully expect that, as a result, gold prices will plummet. You can all thank me later.
Oh, and I’ll be going out of town around September 23rd so make sure to short the market around that time. The “Centauri Effect” and all don’t you know.
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/09/08/2174996/longshoremen-storm-wash-state.html
Since the cops are union thugs too, what are the bets that the hostage guards get charged with someting.
H/T
http://www.sondrakistan.com/?p=10389
Obama to Lay Out $450 Billion Jobs Plan in Prime-Time Speech
My guess is that Obama and company pretty much are aware that their “plan” is shit but they are betting that the Republicans will fight to block it and that would be to Obama’s political advantage.
So, what if they don’t fight it?
Massive Power OUtage in San Diego
Night and Day.
By what I have read on the Internet this morning, Obama was lame, the same, has no shame and was pantsed like the helpless little baby that he is.
On the other hand, listening to the news late last night, for the first time in months (I normally do not watch TV or news anymore), the speech was a stem winder, the Republican leaders are ready to go for it, and he really kicked ass and took names.
I do note, though, that ABC, especially on the after hours shows, keeps wandering off the reservation. They actually called out Hoffa on his remarks - and played them on the air.
I will stick with the internet. It is biased, opinionated and wrong a lot of the time, but it is right far more often than the news - and it does not yell at me.
Two items:
First. Power is back on in San Diego. Yay!
Second: Reports from South Korea indicate that a U.S. recon plane was forced to land back in March due to North Korean deliberate interference with its GPS systems.
The technical term for this behavior is called “Meaconing”. It is also considered an act of belligerence, but not an actual act of war. Funny how no one in the MSM or the government saw fit to mention it or respond to it. Not.
Those who are retired, have dogs, and are concerned about dieting should read this if they are interested in the real truth:
Sorry, this came to me unattributed, so I can’t give you a source. I posted it because it made me wonder what the real truth is about what kind of diet Obama supporters are on.
What if Sarah Palin challenged B.O. to be the Democratic nominee for president and won?
Would you vote for her over the republican nominee?
I would–just to see Karl Rove’s world implode.
Just picked up the three books in The Dream Trio for my Kindle. Now to find time to read them….
Thanks, Bill, for making them available in this inexpensive format. Seems like a heck of a way to reissue older items and extend their long tail of sales.
The Ogabelini Snitch Police are baaaaaaack!
Introducing…AttackWatch!!!
“Get the facts. Fight the smears.”
Yes, that’s right, citizens. Those that work against peace simply don’t know any better. They need to be taught, and rehabilitated. And it’s up to you, as part of AttackWatch!!!, to spot such people and report them. By doing this, you can protect society from harmful ideas and misinformation. We’re less interested in actions than we are in attitudes; we must help protect society against its own worst interests.
(So, are they paying fifty credits a week?)
Fascinating! Up till today, the NASA SLS was drawn with the orange foam insulation like on the shuttle ET.
Now, with the press release today, we have an interesting “new” paint scheme. Shades of the Apollo Saturn V!
A comment here:
Yeah, and while they’re at it, maybe consider renaming the “Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle” to, well, just about anything else?
Yes, I know a more accurate name would be the “Multi-Cultural Muslim Feel Good Butt Plug for our Chief Executive Orifice” but couldn’t we just go with the original “Orion”?
I want the original Orion.
Me too WTQ.
Unbelievable: http://antzinpantz.com/kns/archives/48698
Probation for murder.
Intrade finally has the chances of El PresidentAA+ winning re-election at less than 50%.
They have chances for the Pomeranian winning the election in the same neighborhood as for Biden winning.
Teach both Theories?
Koly Hornhole!
While poking about in the interwebtubes, I see that Scarlett Johanssonn (there may be an extra letter or two in there) is all torqued off about leaked nudie pics.
That she took with her cell phone.
Man. How sad is that? I mean, I have a Kodak. I have some spare time. Sheesh. Put two and two together, Scarlett. Call me, next time you you just can’t stand your booty being unphotographed any longer.
An update on Focardi-Rossi’s upcoming e-cat test. Apparently it’s still on schedule, but with an updated design. Take a look here and here; check out the videos as well.
I remain cautiously optimistic. A lot of the comments that I’ve read are from people who make pretty fair points about how this could all be the newest Piltdown Man scandal. But I just keep imagining if it’s actually real…
We’ll know soon enough.
I had one of those “Aha!” moments tonight. Looking around at all the things that are collapsing, and the complete denial of so many who are willfully blind and ignorant, I begin to see the exquisite cruelty and horror of Cassandra’s curse.
The question remains. After Troy falls, will there be an Aeneas and a new Rome?
I’m going to bed. Perhaps tomorrow will look better.
*CLICK-FLASH*
^ that’s the light bulb over my head suddenly switching on.
I just figured out why Sarah Palin hasn’t officially declared yet–what she has been “waiting to see” before deciding. Can’t believe I never thought of it before now.
Joe McGinness.
to any physicists on the site.
Is it possible to build a ‘ZapRapBlaster’ that I could put in my car so that when somebody pulls up near me in their car blaring rap ‘music’ that makes my car shake, I can intercept the signal and make Ethel Merman’s version of God Bless America come out over their speakers instead?
Thanks in advance.
I have something like that, but instead of Ethel Merman it makes a sound like clunk-clank-BOOM! HTH.
I think you’d need an EE for that.
As the Tool Time guy always said, more power! You just need more wattage and speakers that are directed outward from the sides of your car. God Bless America was Kate Smith’s standard, but if you have to have Ethel, Get a copy of her 1979 classic, “Ethel Merman Does Disco”.
Well, if you’re going for acoustic assault, blast a soundtrack of crying babies at speaker-damaging volume. It’s hard-wired into the human nervous system as one of the most distressing sounds in the world.
No, not very easy, unless it’s coming over the radio. If it’s radio waves then you could overwhelm the signal with your own local signal:)
@Barry. Thanks
@SteveF.
As a former Contra-Bass player in a drum and bugle corps, I totally dig the acoustic assault angle. However, with rap blasters, I think shaming is the appropriate strategy. The difficulty is in determining how to musically shame somebody who puts the finishing touches on their daily toiletries by pulling their pants down below their ass before heading out the door to blast their rap music at me. Neil Sedaka comes to mind…Barry Manilow? hmmmm
@Lorenzo
I think there was a scene in Mars Attacks where somebody mounted a big old speaker on their car roof and blared out Slim Whitman’s Indian Love Call. If there is not an elegant, underhanded, devious and sinister way to shame the bastards, I will definitely go the massive speaker mounted on the car roof route. I could then sell the thing to a local ‘ice cream man’ when all the rappers are eliminated.
@Alfred Centauri
Somewhere on God’s green earth is a general who hates rap music who has fully funded this project in the interests of national security.
Somewhere there is a bureaucrat that has funded this on the off chance that there really is an aggressive, more advanced, alien race that can only be killed by playing Slim Whitman music.
FACT CHECK: Are Rich Taxed Less Than Secretaries?
Of course, the above is not news. What is news is that it is from an AP article at NPR.
Tax the Rich?
Where, by Rich, I mean of course anyone with more than me.
These folks would do well to read the “tramp speech” from AS. Particular this part.
I want to get two diesel horns off the top of an F3. Aim one to the right and the other to the left and couple them to a 20 gallon air tank. That should do the trick.
Maybe two of these: http://www.hornblasters.com/products/details.php?i=caboose-228-air-horn-kit&gclid=CMSqvaSGrKsCFWYbQgode0ZY6A
Hey Bill,
I thought you might find this interesting. I found it through Instapundit.
http://madgeniusclub.com/2011/09/19/no-smelly-yucky-boyz-allowed-in/
Its an essay on why there isn’t much written for boys these days. As an author, I thought it might appeal to you.
It was worth reading the whole thing just to get this paragraph.
“The more I look at this issue, the more I think we’re trapped in a writers’ version of this story. A bar in a Texas town decided to vastly enlarge its premises. The local Baptist church campaigned against it, held prayer meetings about it… and lo, two days before the grand opening it was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. The church celebrated until the bar-owner sued. At which point they became vehement in their denial that they were responsible. And the judge, faced with this said “I don’t know what I’m going to decide here, but on one hand I have bar-owner who believes in the power of prayer, and church congregation who say they don’t.””
Now that’s just priceless.
DCP
Thanks, but I am not thinking about over-powering the sound, but dis-inter mediating it; I would like the sound that comes out of the rapper’s speakers to be the problem–not my speakers overpowering his.
My wife showed me this pic and said, “this is why men die before women.”
I looked and looked, but I couldn’t see what it had to do with life expectancy.
Finally, I figured it out. The guy’s overweight. He’s obviously eating too many carbs.
That’s it, isn’t it?
Morning,
I have seen this quoted several places but it appears to originate wit the Gainesville Tea Party -
http://gainesvilleteaparty.org/hot-topics/economy/standard-and-poors-downgrade-simplified/
Why S&P Downgraded the US:
U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000
New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000
Let’s remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget:
Annual family income: $21,700
Money the family spent: $38,200
New debt on the credit card: $16,500
Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
Total budget cuts: $385
Very interesting.
DCP
Also very old. I posted it a few weeks ago, and begged everybody to give it wide distribution.
Stark fact of reality: generally speaking, people believe one thing or another that is important to them because they want to believe it, not because they are led to that belief via evidence and reason.
And don’t forget, scientists are people.
http://orgtheory.wordpress.com/2011/04/18/when-evidence-isnt-convincing/
Oh, the horror.
Escoffier uses volume measurements instead of weights.
Next thing you know, they’ll tell me that I need a permit to have people over for my daughter’s birthday party.
Hey, I know how to fix this: have the couple say that they’re studying the Koran.
* where E#=E#
Unstated in the equation is that it does not apply to the wild card race. Which means that despite my broken heart, my Rays can still wreak havoc if they squeak in.
@Alfred Centuari
Given this
and then a discovery of faster than light particles
Would you then ridicule Einstein?
Answer: you would not.
Why then are criticisms of evolution not a legitimate object of debate that should be encouraged (on federalist principles) to be taught in public schools?
As a purely didactic tool, don’t you find the theory of epicycles powerful?
Why then not criticisms of evolution?
__t,
I don’t ridicule Newton though his theory of gravitation is wrong.
And, I won’t ridicule Einstein when his theory of gravitation is shown to be incomplete (not if, but when or if STR must be modified.
That’s how genuine science works, right?
Moreover, I welcome criticisms of evolutionary theory and associated evidence.
But, I don’t welcome the teaching of pseudo-science. Evidently, that not so subtle point (and the message of the cartoon) has proven elusive to you.
To me, the cartoon reeks of the elitism I see in the global warming crowd. The same ‘the science is settled’ mockers that will not even consider a contradictory idea and who denigrate those with opposing views.
Many don’t ; hence my short fuse.
Consider that David Berlinski over at Commentary wrote a fascinating article in February 2006 that examined the scientific search for the cause of life. The article (behind a pay wall, now) is still relevant as one of the scientific experiments cited in it has been re-done using modern techniques and more amino acids have been found to have been produced (thereby, possibly under-cutting Berlinski’s critique).
However, there are those who would not allow Berlinski’s criticisms to be taught in school because he is a critic of evolution and Darwin. These people are denying students a view of a very rich debate.
Ditto for Dembski.
Evolution like gravity exist. It makes no sense to suggest otherwise. We can watch it in a test tube, and in the common viruses.
Are there holes in the huge universe of evolutionary processes? Of course. Is there room for a rich conversation about macro and micro evolution, certainly. But to throw out that evolution is only a theory and has holes, and we need to teach the alternative, and then follow up by a suggestion that the earth is 8000 years old, then you are denying students an education.
The sharper students will learn that authority figures lie to them. On the one hand you can argue that the taxpayer should not be paying for that bit of learning. On the other hand you can argue that that is the best use of tax dollars.
Actually Steve, it may well be that only the dumbest kids are unaware from their first school experience that adults are irrational, arbitrary liars. The sharper students already learned that from their parents.
You’re both wrong. Kids come out of school today believing the most outrageous nonsense because they have been taught it is true.
Have you actually talked to a teenager or young adult lately?
Yeah, yeah, Steve, I know you grow your own, but I suspect that, if they aren’t being suborned by the educrats into believing lies and idiocy, it has more to do with the adult male in their lives than their inborn ability to fend off the lies of the entire educational system on their own.
Oh, I agree with the more cynical, depressing view there. I was trying to look on the bright side, difficult though it may be to find.
Don’t tell commentary, but I found a link to Berlinski’s 2006 critique.
@Alfred Centauri and Halverwilde
I cannot debate evolution; I don’t know enough. I do however know enough to rely on minds better than mine to inform my opinions. Fundamental to that guidance is trust and the fastest way to lose that trust is via the condescension evident in that cartoon. Berlinksi is not magic, alchemy, phrenology or astrology–his is a fine mind. He could be wrong, but his and critiques like his should not be banned from discussion in school.
(Bold, mine).
I think the linchpin of our talking past each other is on the difference between ‘teach’ and ‘indoctrinate’
No, we don’t need to ‘indoctrinate’ the alternative, but we do need to teach it. From that knowledge of alternatives comes the habit of asking questions of others and ourselves.
Christopher Hitchens–an athiest–is an exemplar of this habit of mind:
The grace that Hitchen’s shows is in actually taking the time to learn a dogma he does not acknowledge as his own; a grace the author of that cartoon lacks.
cheers.
We know that evolutionary change takes place. The process of the differentiation of the species is not as clear. When the mechanism is not clear it opens the way for alternative hypotheses to be developed. If any one of these alternate hypotheses provides for a process where the hypothesis can be tested and evaluated using a scientific method, than by all means discuss that alternative. If, however, the alternative relies upon a supernatural causation, then that is not science, it is religion.
If or when the scientific community finally throws up their hands and admits that A Prime Mover must exist in the whole process of the creation of life and the differentiation of the species, it still will not be science, it will be religion.
So if your view is that alternatives must be taught, that is fine with me, so long as there is a scientific basis for that instruction, otherwise, it has no place in a formal educational discipline, because “god did it” isn’t science.
Teh Stupid™ is strong in the Bay Area.
Agreed. And well said, with some caveats, drawn directly from that cartoon.
Before Chemistry, there was Alchemy*. Before Freud there was Phrenology. Before Astronomy, there was Astrology.
Why the conceit that it stops here with us? With our knowledge? with our way of interpreting our existence?
If it does not end with us and you imagine a man much like yourself looking back at your way of thinking–isn’t it simple manners to not mock yourself?
Sorry to be such a pain in the ass to so many, but manners matter and the casual dismissal of those we disagree with should be taken with extreme care.
*Alchemy–much later was proved–you can create gold.
Bill, you got a good crew here.
cheers all, thank your for your patience.
You can maybe watch subspecies develop in a test tube but if there has ever been a new species of anything develop from a common genus, enlighten me. Please.
As for viruses, what domain of life do they fit into?
arcs, I am not sure what your point is.
Can I point to a new species? It all depends on the definition of species, doesn’t it?
I watch with interest the news on the three types of bears we have in Alaska–black, brown(or grizzly) and polar. Genetic studies suggest that the polar originated in the Irish brown bears eons ago. They will cross breed, so are they the same species?
On my island there are almost no brown bears, primarily blacks. So when we see a black bear with the round ears and hump of the brown, we are pretty sure there is crossbreeding going on there too.
Wolves: European, timber, red, coyote, dogs–different species or just subspecies. They are all cross fertile so are they the same?
Viruses
OK, Bill, Gov Moon Beam signed the Amazon agreement. Let us know when we can throw some sales your way. Please.
Haverwilde, I only suggest that evolution has not been seen and is not proven by subspeciation. Is there anything at all that proves a common ancestor for any two separate, distinct forms of life unable to crossbreed?
I have no other point at all.
I will. As of yesterday, though, Amazon had not reactivated the California accounts.
arcs, I just don’t get these arguments. We don’t see evolution? What do you call the fossil record from single cells through all the variations that have come and gone throughout history?
And how would you expect to find the one or handful of organisms in which a viable mutation occurred?
Absence of proof is not proof of absence.
And, as Haverwilde points out, the religious-based alternatives are not science. That stance is not absence of proof. It is denial that proof is even necessary.
Arcs, what would prevent speciation (once you’ve adequately defined species) by the mechanism of Darwinian evolution? Is there something you would expect to prevent speciation within the well understood model of physically caused mutation affecting the expression of genetic material? What would that thing be?
An ad hoc but reasonable definition of species would be: a group of living organisms which reproduce with other members of the group and which cannot reproduce by their own means with organisms which are not members of the group. I can immediately think of several objections to this definition, but for my purpose, it will do.
What, then is speciation? As a first attempt to characterize speciation, it is something that cannot have occurred according to the definition given above until a descendant of the group can no longer reproduce with other members of the group. This truth immediately reveals a problem for the new species. It’s only member has no one to reproduce with. The new species will immediately die out through failure to reproduce. Clearly, more is involved than the loss of ability to reproduce with members of the parental species. For speciation to occur there must be not one, but two members of the species which evolve in parallel such that when the first member loses its ability to reproduce with the parental species, the other member must have evolved a characteristic sufficiently changed from the parental species that the first member can still reproduce with it.
Immediately, further inadequacies in the definitions above, become obvious, but I’m just not going to talk about them because I’m not writing a thesis and they can be ignored for my purpose.
The point is that for speciation to occur, two evolutions must occur in parallel, one for each sex, whereas for a new characteristic to develop there is no need for this parallel development. Speciation, therefore, is less probable than development of new characteristics, so it will be slower.
Beyond that, however, there is nothing in our understanding of the laws of nature that would prevent it from occurring. The hypothesis that speciation does not occur by Darwinian evolution would require some new hypothetical principle that would prevent it, which, far from being merely unproven as you claim is true of Darwinian speciation, has not yet even been conceived. The new principle, after being hypothesized, would also have to be scientifically proven. In the meantime, Darwinian evolution does explain speciation.
As far as proof goes, in science, nothing is proven. That no known examples of the failure of conservation of momentum in the collision of billiard balls have occurred does not prove that momentum is always conserved in the collision of billiard balls. The “law” is a mere extrapolation of observation, not something logically rigorous. So, in explaining speciation by Darwinian evolution, we are extrapolating what we have already observed in the knowledge that if speciation does not occur by Darwinian evolution, that is something that will have to be explained with a new principle. Speciation is explained by Darwinian evolution, it is just unobserved. It is unobserved, period, no matter what explanation for it you do advance. Beyond the new principal that would prevent it from happening according to Darwinian evolution, another would be needed to explain how it does occur. This also would have to be proven in the absence of observed occurrences.
Science does not advance through the adoption of new arbitrary hypotheses that would serve merely to prevent a known explanation from working.
I cannot imagine why anyone would claim that Darwinian evolution is not the correct explanation of speciation without something more than the mere objection that it has not been observed driving the objection.
Bill, YKW, I’m pretty much in agreement with everything the two of you wrote. I only differed with Haverwilde by saying evolution has not been observed. Subspeciation has been observed but subspeciation does not prove evolution as fact.
We can all say that evolution must be true, if we want, because what else could there be for reasoned explanation? That, however, makes it truth by convention.
I think that mis-states my position. If you substitute “rational” for “reasoned,” then yes: I am open to a rational alternative to evolution. “God did it” is not an alternative I regard as rational. If you can suggest a rational alternative, I’d be more than happy to take a look.
arcs, I suspect that you are using the word “evolution” to label a concept quite different from that which Bill is labeling.
The fact (or phenomenon) of evolution is this: the evidence is that life on this planet has, over time, proceeded from simple to complex; the evidence is that species have come and gone; the evidence is that species that exist today didn’t exist in the past and further, that species today share traits that point to a common ancestor. These are observational facts, not theory.
A scientific theory of evolution is, like a scientific theory of gravity, an attempt to explain the observational facts without appeal to the mystical, the supernatural, etc.
So, as I wrote to timothy earlier and as Bill wrote above, rational criticism of evolutionary theory, i.e, the mechanisms proposed to explain the fact of evolution, is welcome and healthy as long as the mechanisms are natural.
Appeal to the supernatural, the mystical, the unexplainable in principle is not science and thus cannot be part of any scientific theory.
If, for example, an observation led to the conclusion that energy was not absolutely conserved, it would be concluded that energy is not absolutely conserved, not that a miracle had occurred.
If it is found that the 2nd law of thermodynamics does not hold over time, it would be concluded that the 2nd law of thermodynamics does not hold over time, not that God works in mysterious ways.
If it is found… well, you should have the picture by now.
Your definition of evolution is too limited. Evolution is the process by which life adapts to changing conditions (survival of the fittest). It is how bacteria can become immune to modern medicine. It is the process where by the birds Darwin studied had developed to take advantage of environmental niches. And lots of other examples…..
It is the extrapolation from this basic process of evolving that the larger theory of species development and change was developed.
So that is why I state categorically that evolution exists. It is more a law than a theory. (It is the further extrapolation that we seem to be discussing.)
The more we learn, the more exciting the whole process is becoming. The belief that the human pelvis appeared because of the human head size made child birth dangerous, is apparently wrong based on recent finds; the discovery of fossils of ape-like beings with a human type pelvis, but also ape-like feet. The pelvis design was thus already in the vast genetic pool of the primate group of beings before the appearance of early man. It would be natural for that design to be the one that humans developed because it made childbirth easier and increased survival.
Indeed, Alfred, it seems to be the case that faster-than-light motion has been found to occur by muon neutrinos. If verified, it will be concluded that Special Relativity does not hold in all cases not that (for example) Thor intervened with a FTL bolt of lightning*.
Of course this is such a major theoretical upset that a whole lot of verifying is in order. I’m not one to bet against SR and Quantum Electro-Dynamics which have made predictions that are verified to 11 significant figures.
*Although the Thor thing would be cool.
Which is my criteria as well.
Which–metaphorically speaking—happened at the beginning of the evolution debate when a compatriot of Darwin’s (who’s name escapes me) argued that ‘God put all those dinosaur bones there before he created man.’
Gold Poised for Steepest 3-Day Decline in 28 Years
You can’t say you weren’t warned!
Geomagnetic solar storm in progress
Brace for impact.
BBC Speechless As Trader Tells Truth: “The Collapse Is Coming…And Goldman Rules The World”
How refreshingly honest.
That reminds me of the days when I was pointing satellite dishes for a living. You knew when you had one of those big old C-band/Ku dishes pointed just right; the sunspots barely affected them.
But sometimes, no matter how well dialed-in you were, you got wiped out anyways.
So will there be a Black Swan sighting on October 6? Or will it be a bust?
For anyone that hasn’t picked up Bill’s Dream Trilogy, allow me to say that the first two are riveting, and the attack cattle alone make the third (Dreams of Life and Death) a must read.
North Carolina Governor Beverly Purdue gives me yet another reason to fire her in 2012.