February 8, 2012
It's Probably Nothing
Forzanuova's current cry is "Moneta di popolo!" As far as I can make it out, the communists are wanting that to be a fixed allocation to citizens of internal money, and Forzanuova isn't even bothering to call for a national currency - it seems to want to issue local currencies. It sure looks like an increasing number of shopowners, farmers and those all-important truckers and cabdrivers are willing to go with it.
See, this is why you should not try to really collect taxes in Italy. If the local shopowners sign up and accept the script, that's it. Game over. You]ve got small business against big business and rural against city, and they might well develop a dual monetary system. All those lovely policies about limiting cash transactions become ever so theoretical.
Chokin' In The Boys Room
School officials at Spanish River High School thought they had found an environmentally-friendly, cost-saving solution for their bathrooms when they installed Falcon Waterfree urinals in their boys bathrooms...
h/t Jason
Reader Tips
In tonight's Tips music old-time country warbler Kitty Wells asks her no-good, cheating, soon-to-be-divorced husband the solemn question, "Will Your Lawyer Talk To God?"
Well, no ma'am, not directly, but he will have a series of lunch meetings with God's lawyer and bill your ex for it.
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
February 7, 2012
Operation Fast and Furious
It's not the cover-up, it's the crime;
Operation Fast and Furious was specifically conceived so that “walked” guns would be recovered at crime scenes in Mexico. Their serial numbers would be provided to the ATF by Mexican authorities for tracing. Regardless of motive, the entire operation was premised on weapons being recovered at crime scenes in Mexico, and law enforcement agencies are well aware that criminals primarily abandon weapons only after they’ve been used in serious felony crimes such as murder or attempted murder.
Operation Fast and Furious was conceived knowing that Mexican nationals would be sacrificed in significant numbers if the tracing operation had any chance of working.
Operation Fast and Furious allowed more than 2,000 weapons to “walk,” indicating that those in charge of the operation were willing to let thousands of Mexican nationals die in an effort to identify the ringleaders of a cartel’s weapon acquisition team.
And it could only happen under a Democratic administration, because only a Democratic administration could rely on a free pass by media.
Via Instapundit
We Don't Need No Stinking Sparky Cars
Related - It's Half Time, America! (Extended segment here.)
h/t Marc
Now is the Time at SDA When We Juxtapose
...for the most part, China has behaved responsibly in the World Trade Organization, G20 and climate-change negotiations...
...China tells Europe to take its carbon tax and blow it out a jet engineChina, which lectured everyone else about their responsibility to curb greenhouse gas emissions at the latest UN climate conference, says there’s no damn way its planes are paying the carbon tax that will be collected on all international flights in and out of European Union next year...
Before anyone starts screaming I not attacking the Chinese for being soft on global warming. I'm just pointing out how deluded many of our great and good are about the Dragon.
But Think Of The Museums!
“I would rather see Israel, a living Israel condemned, than a dying Israel receive the sympathy and condolences of the international community.”
The Sound Of Settled Science
Germany has now plunged into raucous discord on the heated topic of climate change.
One of the fathers of Germany’s modern green movement, Professor Dr. Fritz Vahrenholt, a social democrat and green activist, decided to author a climate science skeptical book together with geologist/paleontologist Dr. Sebastian Lüning. Vahrenholt’s skepticism started when he was asked to review an IPCC report on renewable energy. He found hundreds of errors. When he pointed them out, IPCC officials simply brushed them aside. Stunned, he asked himself, “Is this the way they approached the climate assessment reports?”
Vahrenholt decided to do some digging. His colleague Dr. Lüning also gave him a copy of Andrew Montford’s The Hockey Stick Illusion. He was horrified by the sloppiness and deception he found. Well-connected to Hoffmann & Campe, he and Lüning decided to write the book. Die kalte Sonne cites 800 sources and has over 80 charts and figures.
The Problem With The Four Word Solution
A Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench justice has ruled the Public Service Essential Services Act to be unconstitutional.The decision by Justice Dennis Ball was released Monday in the case against two Saskatchewan labour laws. The Saskatchewan Federation of Labour (SFL) launched the constitutional challenge against The Public Service Essential Services Act and the Trade Union Amendment Act, two pieces of legislation passed shortly after the Saskatchewan Party first came to power in 2007.
Related Workers Rights! - Nobody needs to own a Caterpillar plant.
Update: Poll spotting!
Sanctimonius Prius Driver Extends Her Duties to Judge & Jury Too
h/t EBD
Reader Tips
Some people swear that Parisians are the world's most impatient and aggressive drivers, others say it's the Greeks. Tonight, we pull over to make a convincing case that it's The Chechens.
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
February 6, 2012
The Decline And Fall Of The American Empire
A few months before last February’s citywide elections, Hal Baskin’s phone started ringing. And ringing. Most of the callers were candidates for Chicago City Council, seeking the kind of help Baskin was uniquely qualified to provide.
Baskin isn’t a slick campaign strategist. He’s a former gang leader and, for several decades, a community activist who now operates a neighborhood center that aims to keep kids off the streets. Baskin has deep contacts inside the South Side’s complex network of politicians, community organizations, and street gangs. as he recalls, the inquiring candidates wanted to know: “Who do I need to be talking to so I can get the gangs on board?”
h/t EBD
Dwain Lingenfelter: Just Visiting
From left, FMC’s Robert Simpson, QC, MRU’s Pam Simpson and Rubiela and Dwain Lingenfelter at Sien Lok Society of Calgary’s Chinese New Year Banquet.
(h/t Doug)
The World Is Being Run By Crazy People
The Thomas de Quincey school of Canadian gun control. (h/t Kevin)
Y2Kyoto: The $ierra Club
The Sierra Club disclosed Thursday that it received over $26 million from natural-gas giant Chesapeake Energy Corp. between 2007 and 2010 to help the group’s campaign against coal-fired power plants.
JDL Rally For Freedom
With Paul Weston from the New Freedom Party in England.
Following in the footsteps of *Geert Wilder’s *Freedom* Party* of the Netherlands, Mr. Weston’s goals are to counteract the spread of fundamentalist Islam in Britain.
Event will be Monday, February 20, 2012 in Toronto. More info here.
Great Moments In Socialism
As has been exhaustively explained everywhere, including this blog, Greece is currently running a primary deficit--meaning that even if they defaulted, their budget wouldn't balance. And since defaulting would cut off the flow of credit, they'd actually be worse off than with almost any of the austerity plans proposed by their creditors. So watching them threaten to walk away is somewhat reminiscent of that famous moment from Blazing Saddles.
Reader Tips
When the summer's over and the winds begin to blow, what do we want? Football.
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
February 5, 2012
Simple Test to Determine if You're a Racist
Duluth, Minnesota Mayor Don Ness insists that there's now a simple test you can conduct to determine if you're a racist:
Step #1: Remove all face coverings, including but not necessarily limited to niqabs, goalie masks, and motorcycle helmets.
Step #2: In a well lighted room, stand in front of a mirror.
Step #3: Carefully look at your face.
If you determine yourself to be white aka Caucasian, honkey, cracker, gweilo, haole, hakujin, and/or macamba then YOU ARE A RACIST!!! It matters not what you think, nor how you treat others, you are forever guilty of racism!
QOTW
"The only thing that sets them apart from the Muslim extremists is that Sun Media will be charging you admission." - John Miller, the Jack Kevorkian of journalism.
One gets the sense that traffic there's a little slow.
Come back Luftwaffe, all is forgiven.*
Pranab Mukherjee and other Indian ministers tried to terminate Britain’s aid to their booming country last year - but relented after the British begged them to keep taking the money, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
"There was a horrified silence."
Christopher Monckton of Brenchley;
When I visited the House of Lords’ minister, Lord Marland, at the Climate Change Department a couple of years ago, I asked him and the Department’s chief number-cruncher, Professor David Mackay (neither a climate scientist nor an economist, of course) to show me the Department’s calculations detailing just how much “global warming” that might otherwise occur this century would be prevented by the $30 billion per year that the Department was committed to spend between 2011 and 2050 – $1.2 trillion in all.
A Special Message From The Canadian Auto Workers
In a letter sent to the Premier of Ontario...
CAW Women's Program Director Julie White called on the provincial government to actively consider the establishment of a long gun registry and to take a "principled and public stand" against the Harper government's proposed legislation (Bill C-19) to dismantle the registry and demand the existing records be maintained.
Via James, who notes that you can thank CAW President Ken Lewenza here for their efforts to simplify your car shopping.
CHRYSLER
Dodge Caravan (minivan) Windsor, ON
Chrysler Town & Country Windsor, ON
Chrysler 300 Series (car) Brampton, ON
Dodge Challenger (car) Brampton, ON
Dodge Charger (sport sedan) Brampton, ON
FORD
Ford Edge Oakville, ON
Lincoln MKX Oakville, ON
Lincoln MKT Oakville, ON
Ford Flex Oakville, ON
Ford Crown Victoria (car) St. Thomas
Lincoln Town Car St. Thomas
GENERAL MOTORS
Chevrolet Impala (car) Oshawa, ON
Chevrolet Camaro (car) Oshawa, ON
Chevrolet Equinox (SUV) Ingersoll, ON
Buick Regal Oshawa, ON
GMC Terrain (SUV) Ingersoll, ON
INTERNATIONAL TRUCK
9200 Series Chatham, ON
LoneStar Heavy Duty Truck Chatham, ON
ProStar Heavy Duty Truck Chatham, ON
PACCAR
Kenworth Medium Duty Trucks Ste. Therese, QC
Peterbuilt Medium Duty Trucks Ste. Therese, QC
Reader Tips
Since 1895 London has been home to an annual series of summer concerts, spread out over the course of eight weeks from July to September, called the Proms. Originally staged in public spaces (promenades) with the intention of educating English commoners about the pleasures of classical music, the Proms have since become a more widespread cultural tradition. In tonight's selection, from the 2009 edition of the most popular concert in the series, the traditionally looser, almost giddy annual finale known as The Last Night of the Proms, throngs of jolly pink revelers join the rather impressively attired Sarah Connolly in a rousing performance of Rule Britannia.
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
February 4, 2012
Honey, I Finished The Internet
Twenty cats in sinks. (h/t Mike)
This Is Awkward
Arab SPRING! - Libyan militia accused of torturing to death ambassador to France (h/t Adrian)
We Don't Need No Stinking Giant Fans
SDA gets results!
David Cameron has been hit by a major protest by Conservative MPs over the Government’s backing for wind farms, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose.
More Pavilions At Folkfest
Imams from across Canada and the U.S. have issued a moral ruling condemning honour killings, domestic violence and misogyny as "un-Islamic."
Because "illegal" just didn't carry enough weight.
Those Cuddly Chicoms!
Whew!
China says it does not intend to ‘buy’ Europe
As for the Canadian oil and gas sector...As for cuddly...
Things You See on America's Left Coast
But there are some nice sights too!
Wow, That Was Fast
Mark Steyn provides a clear picture of why so many Moderates and Center-Leftists are frightfully scared to ever deviate out of the role assigned to them by those on the Far Left.
The whole Susan G. Komen Foundation backtracking is discussed here by Dana Loesch.
O, Sweet Saint Of San Andreas
Look at the people in the video below. Look at their self-satisfied little faces. These are the authors of the toxic sugar article. They are idiots. I do not say that to be insulting, but as a statement of fact. The woman on the right, in particular, should not be trusted with a pair of scissors. She calls herself a "medical sociologist" and works at UCSF. This should disqualify her from going anywhere near a scientific journal. She thinks that sugar is a poison because it is fermented to make alcohol. If you read the Daily Mail, alcohol is made by "distilling sugar". This is what we're up against: cretinous arguments made still more ludicrous by a woefully uneducated media.
Read the whole thing. Then send it to 3 random reporters.
Reader Tips
In tonight's amusement en route to the Tips we cross the Atlantic and then head north to watch Finnish babe magnet Tapani Kansa woo fellow vocalists Terhi Panula and Anu in a scorching Finnish TV performance of Pelkkää Tulta ("Pure Fire").
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
February 3, 2012
Not Waiting For The Asteroid
Other accounts noted that in addition to threatening the United States, Khamenei said this: “The Zionist regime is a cancerous tumor and it will be removed.” While we don’t know how or why a mention of this element of the speech managed to get excised from the account in the Times, it’s a question worth pondering.
Right To Die
Give the left enough rope, and they'll hang themselves.
Y2Kyoto: Is That An Icicle In Your Toga?
Or are ya just dying to see me?
Snow fell in Rome today for the first time in 26 years as freezing temperatures took the death toll across Europe to more than 150.
Related heat.
That's What You Get for Doing Business With Leftists
Hybrid car owners bite the hand that feeds them. Precisely what did large corporations think would happen when they started courting and targeting liberals and socialists?
ht to myself (my apologies to the eye-sensitive folk, I haven't changed the background yet)
Chicoms To The West Of Us, Marxist To The South
Here we are ....
Beijing-based PetroChina said it has completed the acquisition of a 20% stake in Shell's 100%-owned land and assets in Groundbirch, in northeastern British Columbia. PetroChina didn't disclose the value of the deal and Shell declined to comment.
h/t Adrian
The Decline And Fall Of The American Empire
If the economy is improving...
Church And State
"For God so loved the world, he gave you me..." *
