Any other group of executives parasites would’ve been kicking their lunch pails down the road a long time ago.
Not Your Grandfather’s Flight Crew
The World Is Being Run By Crazy People
Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
CBC, July 2011 – Health officials in Vancouver say they will launch a pilot project later this year to distribute clean, unused crack pipes to drug users.
Times Colonist, October 2011 – The days of enjoying a leisurely smoke on a Greater Victoria park bench or at the beach could be numbered. The capital region will undoubtedly follow other municipalities in considering a smoking ban in outdoor areas such as parks, playgrounds, beaches and trails, local politicians say.
h/t Jacques
Western warrior
The eloquent Melanie Phillips:
Reader Tips
In tonight’s Tippity amusement Tommy Smothers, backed by the Boston Pops and his brother Dickie on upright bass, works himself into a state of Yo as he becomes The Yo-Yo Man.
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
The World Is Being Run by Crazy People
… and that is not hyperbole:
The trial for seven people accused of manslaughter in connection to an earthquake that killed more than 300 people in the Italian city of L’Aquila was pushed back Saturday to mid-October.
The seven — six scientists from the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV) and a member of the Civil Protection Agency — were members of a governmental panel that prosecutors accuse of giving a “rough, generic and ineffective assessment of the seismic risk” before the earthquake struck in April 2009.
… too bad they weren’t as skilled in predicting as Global Warming WWF scientists.
It’s Probably Nothing
Retirement programs for former federal workers — civilian and military — are growing so fast they now face a multitrillion-dollar shortfall nearly as big as Social Security’s, a USA TODAY analysis shows.
The federal government hasn’t set aside money or created a revenue source similar to Social Security’s payroll tax to help pay for the benefits, so the retirement costs must be paid every year through taxes and borrowing.
But read the whole thing.
The Children Are Our Future
That’s why I’m suggesting parents let them keep their soothers until age 28:
Fast And Furious
Uh oh.
More – Holder lied, people died.
Those pesky civilizational foundations
An advocacy group called Plan International recently released a study which that found that 31% of Canadian boys between the ages of 12 and 17 believe that a woman’s most important role is in the home, and that 42% of young Canadians believe that being a man entails taking more risks.
University of Toronto gender studies professor Joan Simalchik is surprised:
“That’s not what we see at universities and it’s not quite what we see in the real world.”
It’s commendable that she differentiates between the two, but you have to wonder whether gender studies professors who spend their days thinking about things like “gender patterning” should be considered the best judges of what’s going on in “the real world.”
Reader Tips
The late Frank De Vol was an American composer/arranger who, in addition to his Academy Award-nominated film scores, composed a number of familiar theme songs for hit TV shows including The Brady Bunch, My Three Sons, and Family Affair. Tonight, in his comedic role as the eponymous bandleader of “Happy Kyne and His Mirthmakers” on Martin Mull’s 1970s talk-show spoof Fernwood 2Night, De Vol delivers a scorching performance of Boogie Fever.
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
Free unicorns for all
Mobs of smelly socialist vermin are coming to a city near you to demand, like, you know, the complete and final overthrow of reality:
All debt must be stricken from the “Books.” World Bank Loans to all Nations, Bank to Bank Debt and all Bonds and Margin Call Debt in the stock market including all Derivatives or Credit Default Swaps, all 65 trillion dollars of them must also be stricken from the “Books.” And I don’t mean debt that is in default, I mean all debt on the entire planet period.
The manifesto of the Occupy Wall Street Resistance Movement, whose supporters include actress Susan Sarandon, also includes “demands” for a guaranteed living wage for all (even for those who don’t work), a $20/hr minimum wage for those who do work, the outlawing of all credit reporting agencies, the elimination of American border controls so that anyone from anywhere in the world could come, go, or stay in the US as they please, an immediate trillion dollar in spending on green initiatives, another trillion for infrastructure…
Sure. And free PhDs in economics for hairy, innumerate, self-obsessed brats.
Attention Shoppers
Bad Terrain for the Volt
What people really want to drive:
GM to boost Equinox, Terrain production at Cami plant
…
Cami Automotive Inc., already running almost flat out at three shifts a day and a Saturday overtime shift, will speed up its assembly line to squeeze out 50 more hot-selling Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain models a day, on top of the approximately 1,100 assembled now, industry sources familiar with GM’s plans said.
…it starts with the redesigned version of the Equinox, a mid-sized crossover utility vehicle. It’s now the fourth-best selling vehicle in the GM lineup. As of the end of August, its sales were up 48 per cent, second only to the Terrain’s 61-per-cent surge among GM vehicles.
“I can’t hardly keep them in stock,” Jonathan Wiest, sales manager at Davis-Moore Chevrolet in Wichita, Kan., said of the Equinox. It is one of the top three performers at his dealership, alongside the larger Traverse crossover and the Silverado pickup…
The plant is in Ingersoll, Ontario; I’d like to hear Premier Dalton “‘Tricity” McGuinty’s comments.
Predate: Consumer Reports was not impressed by the Chevy Volt–this in particular will be of interest to many Canadians and northerly Americans:
…Our engineers complained that the air from the heater was tepid, leaving them uncomfortably cold. The electric seat heaters help, but not enough. When the temperature dips below 26 degrees [F], the engine will turn on even during the electric portion of a trip to produce more heat…
Not So Good at Hand-Loading
Reasons for Dragon train-crashing:
China Bullet Trains Trip on Technology
SHANGHAI—China celebrated its bullet trains as the home-grown pride of a nation: a rail system faster and more advanced than any other, showcasing superior Chinese technology.
However, China’s high-speed rail network was in fact built with imported components—including signaling-system parts designed to prevent train collisions—that local engineers couldn’t fully understand, according to a review of corporate documents and interviews with more than a dozen rail executives inside and outside China…
Getty Images
At 8:37 p.m., Train No. D301 rammed into the back of No. D3115, which was nearly stationary on the tracks, in Wenzhou. The accident killed 40 people and injured at least 190. The impact sent four carriages plunging 65 feet off the elevated rail line
Why China won’t conquer the world
Its young are incapable, its old are exhausted, and box-ticking bureaucrats make life hell. China, a superpower? First it needs to grow up, says acclaimed author Xué Xinran
“Perception Is Reality”
Now is the time at SDA when we review: Anyone who believes that dangerously naive political “maxim” is either a fool or a liar. Reality is reality. Everything else is just seven second delay.
You can read the full Noonan piece here.
Not Waiting For The Asteroid
CTV’s “markets reporter” Bridget Brown – your moral and investment superior!
“Some investors aren’t confident with what gold is backed by – or if its backed by anything at all, as compared to something like the US dollar.
Investors are comfortable that the US dollar is backed by the American government, so that no matter what is happening to the US economy, something like the US dollar is backed by the Federal Reserve, that’s going to be around a year from now. That’s a much more comfortable investment for them.
Watch, and wonder. (h/t Jason)
This Is Awkward
Langmann, C. “Canadian Firearms Legislation and Effects on Homicide 1974 to
2008.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence, In Press, Accepted Sept 30, 2011.
ABSTRACT
Canada has implemented legislation covering all firearms since 1977 and
presents a model to examine incremental firearms control. The effect of
legislation on homicide by firearm and the subcategory, spousal homicide is
controversial and has not been well studied to date. Legislative effects on
homicide and spousal homicide were analyzed using data obtained from
Statistics Canada from 1974 to 2008. Three statistical methods were applied
to search for any associated effects of firearms legislation. Interrupted
time series regression, ARIMA, and Joinpoint analysis were performed. No
significant beneficial associations between firearms legislation and
homicide or spousal homicide rates were found after the passage of three
Acts by the Canadian Parliament: Bill C-51 (1977), C-17 (1991), and C-68
(1995). Nor were effects found after the implementation of licensing in
2001, and the registration of rifles and shotguns in 2003. After the passage
of C-68, a decrease in the rate of the decline of homicide by firearm was
found by interrupted regression. Joinpoint analysis also found an increasing
trend in homicide by firearm rate post the enactment of the licensing
portion of C-68. Other factors found to be associated with homicide rates
were median age, unemployment, immigration rates, percent of population in
low income bracket, Gini index of income equality, population per police
officer, and incarceration rate. This study failed to demonstrate a
beneficial association between legislation and firearm homicide rates between 1974 and 2008.
Emphasis mine.
Reader Tips
In tonight’s Tippity amusement, from the 1964 German film Freddy und das Lied der Prärie (“Freddy and the Song of the Prairie”), Austrian-born actor Freddy Quinn sings the heroically romantic ballad Gib Mir Dein Wort (“Give Me Your Word”).
Der comments are open for your Reader Tips
Let’s Just Get it Over With …
… and rename the IPCC the WWF:
The scientists whose names appear below have not only been examining one of the world’s most important questions for the IPCC. They have a documented, public relationship with professional lobbyists who have a strong interest in influencing this matter. (For readers who are just tuning in, the WWF believes it is “nearly impossible to overstate” the threat posed by climate change – see here, backup link here.)
The people on the list below either played some role in the 2007 Climate Bible or are helping to write the next IPCC report which is expected to be completed in 2013. In many cases, they’re doing dual duty.