40 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  3. The media revolutionaries
    By removing government barriers to increasing the supply of housing, the government aims to reduce housing prices, in accordance with the basic laws of supply and demand.
    But the protesters will have none of it. If construction increases, that means that contractors will get rich. And that, they maintain, is unacceptable. From their perspective, the government has to lower housing prices without increasing supply.
    http://carolineglick.com/

  4. Mamba: Don’t worry, EBT took a sabatical to do a bit of self-promotion exposure.
    Oh look! there he is now, performing under the pseudonym ‘Larry Griswold’.
    What some guys won’t do to be the center of attention!

  5. I won’t comment on this one:
    Warren Jeffs: Polygamist Leader Says God Demands Judge’s Removal
    Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs was unsuccessful Monday in a third attempt to remove the Texas judge overseeing his child sex assault case – this time based on the claim that God demands a change.
    The head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints filed a motion purporting to quote God as saying state District Judge Barbara Walther should “step away from this abuse of power against a religious and pure faith in the Lord.”
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/01/warren-jeffs-polygamist-leader-god-demands-removal_n_915002.html?ir=Canada

  7. How pathetic that in today’s show business the super-star men use CGI or stunt doubles so they don’t chip a finger nail. Check out Harold Lloyd who Christopher Lloyd paid tribute to in Back To the Future. Harold did pretty well all his running and climbing in the keystone-Kops movies,and in the “Safety Last” movie he did those stunts after he lost almost all of his thumbs. Harold was gripping an object where his thumbs got near something that came down and cut them off. There was another Star in the 1920’s, harold ran full speed in chase scenes and not one bead of sweat or runny make-up.
    The opening scene in BTTF has a 8×10 picture of Lloyd hanging from a clock with his trademark straw hat.

  8. This seems quasi-cannibalistic to me: Link.
    Stolen from Neo-Neocon

  10. Soylent Multi-coloured.
    Ken, the Tutankhamun DNA story at your link is interesting too.

  11. Ich Bin Ein Allo Pepsi.
    H/T Socialist/fascism in Canada mit der sunglasses.
    …-
    “Stasi Chic
    Exhibition Unmasks the Art of the East German Spy Disguise”
    “What did East German spies wear to work? Archival photographs uncovered by a Berlin-based artist reveal disguises that included fur hats, upturned collars, and, naturally, sunglasses. The images from the Stasi secret police course on the ‘art of disguising’ provide a sometimes absurd perspective on what the Cold War era spies considered inconspicuous.”
    http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,777716,00.html
    …-
    “‘Secret shoppers’ to hunt for laggards on bilingualism”
    “Secret shoppers working for the official languages commissioner, Graham Fraser, are to fan out across the capital in mid-August to test whether they can get service in French.”
    http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Secret+shoppers+hunt+laggards+bilingualism/5179136/story.html

  12. PET Cemetery Report.
    H/T Taliban Jacques Bloc Separatist.
    …-
    “The real story of the US debt deal is not the triumph of the Tea Party but the death of the Socialist Left”
    “… to focus on the Tea Party is to ignore the tectonic political shift that’s taken place, not just in America but across Europe. The majority of citizens in nearly all the world’s most developed countries simply aren’t prepared to tolerate the degree of borrowing required to sustain generous welfare programmes any longer.”
    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyyoung/100099357/the-real-story-of-the-us-debt-deal-is-not-the-triumph-of-the-tea-party-but-the-death-of-the-socialist-left/
    …-
    “Far from broken, US a political beacon”
    “THE world is badly misinterpreting the US debt crisis – it is not a sign of the weakness of US politics, but its strength. This crisis, more than anything, demonstrates why America is not Europe.
    European governments have found nothing easier than raising their national debt limits, until their debt gets more, or less, beyond their ability to service it.
    If the US was Europe, raising the debt ceiling, rather than threatening government spending, especially entitlement programs, would be as easy as apple pie. It is true that the US is still in a deep fiscal hole. It is also true that this deal has its good and bad points, and is only one episode in a huge, panoramic drama.
    And taking the game right down to the last day or two certainly showed a willingness by all sides to flirt with disaster.
    But here’s one crucial lesson about government debt. It’s far better to have a political crisis about getting into it before you have an economic crisis about how you pay it.
    This negotiation has been an astonishing victory for congressional Republicans.”
    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/far-from-broken-us-a-political-beacon/story-e6frg6ux-1226106212199

  14. Adolf’s Brown National Socialism (nazis) = Joe’s Red Communism.
    The Brothers of Socialism Keep It All In The Family.
    …-
    “Adventures in German Radicalism”
    “Leftist Terrorist Turned Neo-Nazi Says Was Stasi Informant Too”
    “Horst Mahler was a leader of the German radical left in the 1960s and ’70s. Now he’s a member of the radical right, sitting in jail for denying the Holocaust. But he’s reportedly verified reports that he informed for Communist spies in the ’60s.”
    “Horst Mahler, a former far-left lawyer now doing time in prison for Holocaust denial, has admitted to another strange twist in his head-spinning political career: He worked as an informant for East Germany’s secret police — the Stasi — from 1967 to 1970.”
    http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,777938,00.html

  15. The Paul Ryan plan would have given Medicare enrollees a voucher for private insurance but the Democrats killed his proposal. This fraud as highlighted here is ongoing.
    “Consider some of the fraud schemes discovered in recent years. In Brooklyn, a dentist billed taxpayers for nearly 1,000 procedures in a single day. A Houston doctor with a criminal record took her Medicare billings from zero to $11.6 million in one year; federal agents shut down her clinic but did not charge her with a crime. A high-school dropout, armed with only a laptop computer, submitted more than 140,000 bogus Medicare claims, collecting $105 million. A health plan settled a Medicaid-fraud case in Florida for $138 million. The giant hospital chain Columbia/HCA paid $1.7 billion in fines and pled guilty to more than a dozen felonies related to bribing doctors to help it tap Medicare funds and exaggerating the amount of care delivered to Medicare patients. In New York, Medicaid spending on the human-growth hormone Serostim leapt from $7 million to $50 million in 2001; but it turned out that drug traffickers were getting the drug prescribed as a treatment for AIDS wasting syndrome, then selling it to bodybuilders. And a study of ten states uncovered $27 million in Medicare payments to dead patients.
    These anecdotes barely scratch the surface. Judging by official estimates, Medicare and Medicaid lose at least $87 billion per year to fraudulent and otherwise improper payments, and about 10.5 percent of Medicare spending and 8.4 percent of Medicaid spending was improper in 2009. Fraud experts say the official numbers are too low. “Loss rates due to fraud and abuse could be 10 percent, or 20 percent, or even 30 percent in some segments,” explained Malcolm Sparrow, a mathematician, Harvard professor, and former police inspector, in congressional testimony.”

  16. “We have negotiated with terrorists,”; “This small group of terrorists have made it impossible to spend any money”; leaders have “guns to their heads” in trying to negotiate deals; “The arsonists must be stopped”; the deal would take away the…party’s “weapon of mass destruction”
    Quotes from an article about more Christian conservative Norwegian terrorists?
    Shockingly no. Just a bit of light hearted banter from the Democratic Party describing political opponents. The ‘new tone’ I believe it’s called.
    http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/60421.html

  17. Matt Hillier, “The ‘new tone'” of civility, isn’t that what they’re calling it?

  18. Off with the Red Shirt; on mitt der Brown Shirt.
    Socialism crumbles.
    The socialist brothers/sisters locked into their death struggle.
    H/T Taliban Jacques Bloc Separatist.
    …-
    “Léger poll: Montreal drivers fear using bridges, tunnels”
    “New NDP Leader was long-time member of Bloc Québécois
    Turmel was card-carrying Bloquiste until quit in January 2011”
    http://www.newswatchcanada.ca/

  19. Oi, Snagglepuss, stop confusing me with EBD. It’s defamatory to her and obsequious flattery to me, so neither one of us likes it.

  21. Posted by: macd at August 2, 2011:
    “New NDP Leader was long-time member of Bloc Québécois
    Turmel was card-carrying Bloquiste until quit in January 2011”
    I went to the Newswatch site macd linked and read the Globe and Mail article. There were nearly 500 comments then and, now, there are over 1000!
    I’m posting this because I read many pages of the comments, and was altogether pleasantly surprised at the sanity of the early posts: E.g.,
    [Begin quote] CheeMiss
    4:49 PM on July 30, 2011
    What boggles my mind is that the devout & swing NDP voters, who claim that they are the party that protects the most vulnerable, seniors and workers income rights, the down trodden, etc., why is it that these voters/members NEVER came down hard on Layton & Chow for giving themselves raises during austerity times & their huge, un-transparent expense accounts & supported tax increases on the very people that they claim to protect, to cover all their salaries, expense accounts and the union thugs pay increases.
    In other words, vote for me, so I can tax you to death, toss you 50 bucks a month, while I live high off the hog at your expense.
    Someone needs to explain this to me. I seriously don’t get it. Why are the NDP voters not complaining that their leaders spend tax dollars, ON THEMSELVES, like drunken sailors?
    If this was PM Harper, who has the responsibility of running ALL of Canada, who already keeps his expense account very low, these very same people would be screaming bloody murder. Yet to these two, not a peep! Something is really wrong with this party mentality. [End quote]
    I couldn’t read all the comments, so I skipped to the last page. Hmm, quite a different flavour. (My blood pressure rising . . .):
    [Begin quote] jamesmclaren
    6:17 PM on July 30, 2011
    Wow. Perusing the comments it appears that the Cons have launched a major troll attack on the issue of Jack Layton’s health and are trying to make it into a political issue. How low can you go Tories? Pathetic.
    JringJring
    12:24 PM on July 30, 2011
    Stephen Harper announced Jack Layton’s terminal illness last month, if you remember. He said “Quebec’s love affair with Layton will soon be over”. I think Harper is evil and his comments are straight from hell. [End quote] (Maybe this person just misspelled his/her name, as in “Jar-Jar”. . .)
    Comparing the large number of early-in-the-comments, sane, intelligent, personally compassionate, NOT lefty comments—a lovely surprise—to the unhinged, touchy-feely, stupid, later comments: obviously, the left-wing tom-tom went out and the NDP-type crazies—and utter dolts—“rode to the rescue”.
    Personally, I’m very sympathetic to Jack Layton and his family. I’ve been there: my heart goes out to them at this harrowing time. But . . . when I see the mean-spirited and vicious invective of his political supporters, directed at those with whom they disagree, I remember why I don’t vote for politicians like Jack Layton. And folks like his, ever-so-nice supporters call reasonable, conservatives/libertarians “terrorists”?
    Evil? Yup, it’s out there all right, but not where NDP types think it is. Good Lord, deliver and help us.

  22. Dalton is sure determined to ensure that Ontario residents will have the highest electricity rates in Canada.
    “Ontario’s Liberal government has entrenched the legal rights of 1,800 proposed renewable energy contracts – making it impossible for a new government to cancel them.
    …There’s no question Tim Hudak’s irresponsible plan to dismantle our programs and destroy our clean energy economy is something that’s creating a great deal of instability in our economy right now,” Duguid said.”
    I guess guaranteeing Ontario’s have-not status will be Dalton’s legacy.
    http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1033581–ontario-liberals-entrench-1-800-renewable-power-projects?bn=1

  23. http://www.canada.com/technology/Bureaucrats%2Burged%2BKent%2Btake%2Bglobal%2Bwarming%2Bseriously/5189562/story.html
    New Environment Minister Peter Kent has been briefed by the bureaucrats in Ottawa,and told the IPCC line on Global Warming,complete with rhetoric about Canada failing to meet it’s Kyoto commitments.
    The war against these bastards is far from WON, we’ve only won a few skirmishes,in the Halls of Power in Ottawa,the same mindset still prevails.
    If Kent follows the advice of the trusted top civil servants, we can expect no relief on taxes or stifling of business initiatives.

  24. EU’rat has lost his senses:
    “Astonishingly,” he writes, “since our summit the cost of borrowing has increased again for a number of euro area countries. I say astonishingly, because all macro economic fundamentals point in the opposite direction.”
    …-
    “EU ‘astonished’ at soaring costs for Italy and Spain”
    “Market fears are “totally out of line” and “ludicrous”, said Van Rompuy”
    “EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Spain and Italy’s record borrowing costs are ‘astonishing’ after a eurozone deal reached less than two weeks ago, EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy said on Tuesday (2 August).
    Italian and Spanish 10-year bonds dropped in value, while German bunds rose on Tuesday, pushing the difference in costs (yields) to 381 and 397 points, respectively – a record high since the euro was introduced 12 years ago.”
    http://euobserver.com/?aid=32675
    …-
    “23. wretchard”
    “The news here is his “astonishment”. That is what is truly significant because it speaks to the the mental model of the ‘pilots’ of the EU overwater flight. Like the Flight 447 pilots, they can’t understand why their airplane is falling out of the sky.
    They’re following all the prompts of their Brussels flight control system and still the altimeter is spinning crazily toward sea level. Never fear. Nose up. Nose up.
    The problem of course is that what really matters isn’t what Von Rompuy thinks — although he may imagine it does — what matters is what the Eurozone does. Right now Spain and Italy are headed for the deck. If that reality doesn’t adjust to Von Rompuy’s mental model, then his mental model must adjust to reality.
    When that will happen, if that will happen — these are the questions. I think what he hopes will occur is that the “world” will wake up and see things as he does. The ocean will be reasonable and understand it shouldn’t be there and recede according to his wishes so the flight keeps its absolute altitude. The other option is that he may realize they’ve been doing the wrong thing from the start.
    What are the odds either way? The other interesting thing is that Von Rompuy, has for the first time of any European leader, placed the locus of the world’s economic crisis on events in the US. There’s only a deficit in America, or local conditions in America are ruining their party. But the reality is far different. Europe has demons of its own and sub-prime countries which are tanking.
    If “world leaders” are thinking this way, I’d bet on a head on collision with reality sometime in the near future.”
    http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2011/08/02/16062/#more-16062

  25. Wow, I thought that it was only the Conservatives that are heartless monsters. The two top-rated comments following the story are also quite good.
    “Navistar confirmed Tuesday that it intends to close its Chatham, Ont., truck assembly plant.
    The company said in a statement Tuesday that the plant has been idled and employees have been on layoff status since 2009 “due to the company’s inability to reach a collective bargaining agreement with the Canadian Auto Workers.”
    “It’s troubling…without that facility truck manufacturing in Canada is taking another blow,” Canadian Auto Workers president Ken Lewenza said ahead of the announcement.
    Lewenza said the only good thing about Tuesday’s announcement will be that it finally brings closure for the workers.”
    Nice. I’m betting the workers and community would have preferred that the union worked in their best interest by getting them a contract rather than having the plant closed down.
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2011/08/02/wdr-navistar-plant-closure-expected.html

  26. Turmel has fessed up to why she was a BQ supporter.
    ” “Ms. Turmel got a (Bloc) membership card in support of a friend, Carole Lavalee,” said NDP spokesman Karl Belanger in an e-mail. “She was not an active member of that party and was merely supporting her friend.”
    Sure,that sounds normal. I think that it won’t be the crime but the cover-up that does her in. OTOH,she isn’t a white male English speaking conservative,so the media attention will be minimal.
    http://www.torontosun.com/2011/08/02/ndp-downplays-interim-leaders-separatist-ties

  27. Our CBC Mole reports: CBC eats caw crow, gizzards and all.
    But: “The CBC, though, said Tuesday they are now showing the photos on their websites and television news.”
    Fire. Them. All.
    …-
    “Toews blasts CBC”
    “Broadcaster hasn’t published IDs of suspected war criminals”
    “A senior Conservative cabinet minister has blasted the CBC for refusing to publish the photos and names of 30 suspected war criminals living in Canada illegally.
    Public Safety Minister Vic Toews sounded off against the CBC during a Winnipeg radio show on CJOB Tuesday.
    “I have long since given up trying to understand the state broadcaster, or the CBC as we know them more popularly,” Toews said. “I find it so fascinating that they refuse to put the names of the individuals and pictures of the individuals on their network given that these are individuals who have been found by a tribunal not to be admissible in Canada and legal warrants have been issued for their arrest.”
    “But Toews didn’t pull any punches Tuesday, and also criticized the CBC for its handling of the Afghan detainee documents issue.
    “I find it ironic that the CBC was always so quick to try to implicate our Canadian armed forces in war crimes in Afghanistan and never hesitant to mention that, but in this situation, when we actually have rulings from tribunals, they’re reluctant to involve themselves.”
    The CBC receives over $1 billion in public funds every year from Canadian taxpayers.
    Toews said there is no question with the 30 individuals on the ‘most wanted’ list, as it has been dubbed.
    “They have no right to be in Canada,” Toews said. “And for the state broadcaster not to acknowledge that and work with law enforcement agencies is very disappointing.””
    http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/2011/08/02/18501641.html

  29. “Oi, Snagglepuss, stop confusing me with EBD. It’s defamatory to her and obsequious flattery to me, so neither one of us likes it.”
    Posted by: ebt at August 2, 2011 11:25 AM
    It’s also defamatory (or is that sexist of me somehow?) to confuse EBD – who appears to be AWOL, BTW, just FYI – with a female woman of the girlular variety.
    Indy – the spider? Heh.

  30. Black Mamba loves flattery, the more obsequious the better, wants to know where EBD went, suspects o says:

    (And who doesn’t like obsequious flattery, may I ask?)

  31. (And who doesn’t like obsequious flattery, may I ask?)Posted by: Black Mamba
    I don’t. It is too much like ass-kissing and brown nosing which is cringe worthy at best and vomit inducing at worst. Genuine compliments are OK, though.

  32. Everyone says that, but… there’s a scene in Reversal of Fortune where von Bulow/Irons says something very over-the-top to Derschowitz/Ron Silver’s wife, and she raises her eyebrows and asks something like: “Does that ever work?” “Flattery?” he replies: “Always”.
    One of the many reasons I’m looking forward to getting rich. I want to compare and contrast.

  33. Left-liberalism*/socialism: Defeat falls out of their mouths.
    H/T Liberal leader Basement Bob Rae*.
    …-
    ““They have now become full-blown terrorists,” he said”
    “Tina Brown, editor-in-chief of Newsweek, who told MSNBC that Republicans “are the suicide bombers in all of this.””
    ““The GOP,” he declared, “has become the Wahhabis of American government,”.
    “Republican leaders “put guns to our heads.””
    “Democrats shame themselves with terrorist rhetoric”
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/commentary/neil-reynolds/democrats-shame-themselves-with-terrorist-rhetoric/article2117351/
    …-
    *Mao Stlong’s nephew:
    “Bob Rae blasts Harper ‘jihadis'”
    http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/2011/02/24/17396346.html

  36. how does that go ? Blessed San Andreas hear my prayer ? it’d be ok if you were in the lane getting the extended green light, but I predict a few bullet-ridden cyclists clutching a ‘flashlight-like device’ in one hand and a double-whip, light foam, decaffinated, mochachinowhatchamacallit in the other….
    Motion Sensors Adjust Pleasanton Traffic Signals For Bicyclists
    August 2, 2011 10:53 AM
    (AP)
    Reporting Susan Kennedy
    PLEASANTON (CBS SF) – The City of Pleasanton has mounted a device that resembles a large hand held flashlight mounted on poles at a half a dozen intersections so that traffic signals can be adjusted in real time to accommodate bicyclists.
    Bike riders know how tough it can be to judge the timing on traffic lights at large, busy intersections. Nothing can be more frightening than an unexpected yellow then red as several lanes of traffic rev up to go.
    Enter a device with a name that sounds like something out of a sci-fi novel, the Intersector. Senior transportation engineer Joshua Pack said the microwave motion sensor wasn’t originally intended to promote bicycle safety.
    “Light bulbs went off and we had that ‘a-ha’ moment,” he said.
    Besides providing other data about traffic behavior, the Intersector can also distinguish between cars and bikes regardless of lane, and then extend a green signal about 13 to 15 seconds so the cyclist can clear the intersection.
    Pack said bike riders have given the Intersector rave reviews since the first one was installed at Foothill Road and Stoneridge Drive in January, 2010.
    The city has since installed 6 more, and 4 additional devices have been ordered that will replace the existing video and sensor systems as that equipment reaches the end of its useful life.
    Pack said the first intersection that will use the device exclusively to promote bike safety is at West Los Positas and Muirwood Drive just west of Interstate 680.
    (Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
    37.677090 -121.916223

  38. Late to the party – but what a great entertainer! It’s interesting how people in the audience both love and hate to be scared.

  39. dmorris @ 4:28 p.m.:
    “If Kent follows the advice of the trusted top civil servants, we can expect no relief on taxes or stifling of business initiatives.”
    I suspect ALL the Conservatives, perhaps as much as other parties, are prone to following too much advice from “top civil servants”. The civil servants do have knowledge about how to get stuff done, but I would not be surprised if they made serious attempts to forestall any efforts by the elected government to cut back the size of the federal bureaucracy.
    A principled party wouldn’t fall for it, because its platform would be based on the notion that the proper function of government is to protect individual rights through police, military and courts. That doesn’t mean everything else has to be chopped immediately, or even within one term (Canada Pension Plan payments will surely have to continue indefinitely, as one example). But the government should have an idea as to what can go and an approximate timeline for it all.

  40. Thank you, Mr. Mamba, despite my many abilities I am not a qualified blog sexer and so I welcome your correction.
    And I certainly don’t like obsequious flattery. If you’re going to flatter me, it better be hard-headed, ruthlessly realistic, objective and frankly critical flattery. Why, yes, it is remarkably principled of me to think so, how good of you to notice.

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