Kathy Shaidle was right, again. Not waiting for the asteroid.
Newsweek to stop publishing the actual magazine.
How’s That Hopey-Changey Thing Working Out For Ya?
Via email;
On Friday Oct. 5, the Department of Labor released it’s monthly employment report with some surprising results. Jack Welch’s knee-jerk tweet said out loud what a lot of professionals thought to themselves with regard to the string of data they had been showing a dropping unemployment rate. Most of this was due to people stopping looking for work, thus lowering the denominator part of the percentage calculation. The September number was just a drop too far in most people’s eyes, so they viewed it as “manipulated”. I was one of them. No longer, and here’s a confirmation just out today as to why.
The Philadelphia Federal Reserve released it’s monthly Business Outlook Survey, this AM, and, as is their custom, they included two special questions. Both were on employment practices and were designed to reflect businesses’ hiring and staffing changes. It confirms two features of Obamacare that are just now being discovered by the populace at large.
First, under Obamacare, companies with 50 or more full time employees are under all the mandates proscribed by the Bill and subject to each and every fine and tax, so proscribed. One new wrinkle with regard to just what is a full time employee. Per Obamacare, if you work 30 hours a week or more, you’re a full time employee. If you’re CEO of a company with 1,000 or more employees, there is only one way to dodge it, self-insuring. If you’re closer to that magic 50 level, is there a cheaper way around it? Everybody goes part time, or you hire temporary workers as needed. This worked so well in France, and they’re at 35 hours a week.
The chart is at the bottom of this page.
Yes, we now have a 30 hour work week. The income disparity is going to explode if this sticks.
Act Of Terror?
Related: “get the transcript”…..?
Hmm.
Wastebook 2012
Imagine, for example, a menu with items designed specifically to be eaten on the planet Mars? Though NASA doesn’t currently have any missions planned, the agency is spending about $1 million per year on that idea. Frankly it sounds delicious.
That aforementioned “robosquirrel” project is costing about $325,000 but a rattlesnake already thought it looked so real it bit the rodent robot’s head, according to CNN. Isn’t that adorable?
Or how about the chance to do your high school prom over again? $516,000 is going toward developing a video game meant to simulate the social experience, which, if done correctly, will be awkward and disappointing.
The full report is here.
Jim Messina’s Pathway Problem
Jim Messina is Barack Obama’s campaign manager. On the final few days of 2011 he produced this video. It presents various scenarios of how Obama can achieve the magical number of 270 Electoral College votes.
Messina now has a few problems though:
Reader Tips
Here’s a very cool time-lapse video of the Space Shuttle Endeavour being taken from LAX to its final home at the California Science Center. It would have been quite spectacular to live along that route.
Your fascinating reader tips are encouraged, as always, in the comments.
Santelli On Labour “Math”
h/t Melinda Romanoff
Dennis Miller’s Take on the MSM
Firemen in Chicago in 1871 were not carrying as much water as the media is for Obama.
— Dennis Miller Show (@DennisDMZ) October 16, 2012
I Blame The Tea Party
A member of the Broad Strata Community, foiled again…
Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, 21, was arrested for allegedly attempting to detonate what he thought was a 1,000-pound bomb at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in Manhattan, the Department of Justice and a U.S. attorney’s office said in a press release.
From the comments – “I blame that awful, offensive video of Obama making fun of rich people.”
The Phoney GM Narrative
On the private message boards of DennisMillerRadio.com SDA regular Gord Tulk added a post that Miller was so impressed with, he read it on-air. Here’s the post, republished with permission:
Posted by: Chris from GA at Oct 13, 12:17 PM
I was listening to some radio today (Saturday) and in a top-of-hour news brief it was reported that in his weekly radio address, Obama crowed about the success of the US auto industry thanks to his “rescue” of GM, and how GM is going to open a new research center employing 1500 people.
1500 people? Really? That’s the number of jobs that need to be created EVERY 8 HOURS, 7 DAYS A WEEK, just to keep up with population growth.
The “saved GM” meme is such BS (pardon the acronym). GM hasn’t been saved. Rather, it has been bodysnatched by the radical left and union lobby in the Democratic Party and turned into an anti-Corporate zombie company.
First they ripped off the bondholders to pay off the pension liability – breaking fundamental corporate rules to do so.
Then they make it build a worthless corporate halo electric car (the Volt) that actually isn’t a true electric car as it doesn’t even need the electric motor to run (look for these cars to have the electric motors removed or disabled when they reach the point where major repairs are needed at which point they become $85,000 Chevy Cruzes (the Korean-engineered car they are based on)) and, unlike a true halo car, provides no attraction on the showroom floor to support more mundane vehicle sales (think of how the Pontiac GTO helped to sell Bonnevilles).
And now having squandered the cash they got in the bailout on the Volt and other green nonsense, GM has the weakest product line in the industry and still has massive overcapacity issues. The result: it has fallen back on its bad habits – its customers have the worst average credit scores in the industry and they are offering huge rebates and – get this – are using sub-prime loans to move the metal.
Failure redux awaits.
Nothing is too big to fail. GM should have been allowed to fail, and so too, the pension plans. The broken shards would have been redeployed and by now would be operating on a sustainable financial footing, building vehicles that people want to buy.
Creative destruction will happen sooner or later no matter how many bailouts are attempted. In time this will be the lesson of the Obama bailout of GM.
Hopefully it will be learned.
Pre-Debate Reactions
We Don’t Need No Stinking Sparky Cars
The first intriguing fact is that the simple act of increasing battery capacity from 24 kWh in the basic BEV to 40 kWh like you find in an entry level Tesla Model S effectively eliminates the life cycle emissions advantage. While a BEV-24 will reduce emissions by roughly 16% over the life of the vehicle, a BEV-40 will only reduce emissions by 3%. If you upgrade to a BEV-60 to combat range anxiety you suffer an emissions penalty of 13.6% and if you upgrade to a top of the line BEV-85 the emissions penalty rises to 34.3%.
Your Moral And Intellectual Superiors
Reporters applaud Obama’s slam on Romney’s wealth.
Oberlin College: The Left’s Nirvana Realized
h/t Revnant Dream
This Is Awkward
Hashtag Of The Entitlement Generation
David Thompson dips into the ocean, finds water.
Reader Tips
On this day in 1793, Marie Antoinette lost her head to a sharp guillotine blade. Here’s a video remembrance of her. If that’s a little too morbid for your taste, here’s a slideshow of a beautiful part of North Vancouver that yours truly put together a week ago.
Your sharp & insightful reader tips are appreciated, as always, in the comments.
QOTD
Or put it this way: Obama says it was an act of terrorism … and then goes to a party in Vegas? That’s their new story?
— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) October 17, 2012
From the transcript at the Rose Garden, Sept.12th: (link fixed)
The United States condemns in the strongest terms this outrageous and shocking attack. We’re working with the government of Libya to secure our diplomats. I’ve also directed my administration to increase our security at diplomatic posts around the world. And make no mistake, we will work with the Libyan government to bring to justice the killers who attacked our people.
Since our founding, the United States has been a nation that respects all faiths. We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. But there is absolutely no justification to this type of senseless violence. None. The world must stand together to unequivocally reject these brutal acts.
Emphasis mine, Ms. Crowley.
2012 U.S. Presidential Debate #2
You can watch a live stream of the debate here. Your real-time comments before, during, & after the event are appreciated.
