Secret Service reports the President has been removed to the safety of a golf course… developing…
Update: Officials have now pinpointed the epicenter.National Earthquake Center reports the quake occurred in the region known as “Bush’s Fault”.
The Sound Of Settled Science
Scientists chasing a particle they believe may have played a vital role in creation of the universe indicated on Monday they were coming to accept it might not exist after all.
But they stressed that if the so-called Higgs boson turns out to have been a mirage, the way would be open for advances into territory dubbed “new physics” to try to answer one of the great mysteries of the cosmos.
[…]
Under what is known as the Standard Model of physics, the boson, which was named after British physicist Peter Higgs, is posited as having been the agent that gave mass and energy to matter just after the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago.
But it’s way too soon to give up.
“There are many models out there; we simply need to be nudged in the right direction,” added Gagnon, an experimental physicist.
All we really need to know about models, we learned in climate science.
h/t Kevin
Absolutely
Let’s think outside the box! (h/t Paul)
The Tolerant Left
“Why couldn’t Stephen Harper die instead of Jack Layton. 🙁 “
Related – “Oh, that liberal media!”
Carter vs. Reagan: A Lesson from History
It is often said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. In America these days there appears to be a growing uncertainty amongst those who want President Obama defeated in November 2012 as to who would be the best Republican candidate.
Obama’s foot soldiers in the mainstream media are convinced that Jon Huntsman is the best candidate for the GOP. Any serious person should be most wary of their opinions because their ultimate goal is clear.
But still, the question of whether a true conservative candidate is electable is running through the minds of many on the Right. Several recent polls suggest that the likes of Bachmann and Palin cannot defeat Obama. However, if we look back 31½ years ago, something very interesting can be found. Back then, 7 months before the election, polls indicated that Jimmy Carter lead Ronald Reagan by an enormous 25 percentage points. Yet we all know what eventually happened.
The America of 2012 is arguably in a lot worse financial shape than in 1980. Indeed, life was not grand back then either, with unemployment & interest rates through the roof. While the latter is not the case right now, the former definitely is. Plus, America’s overall fiscal position is in much worse shape, with its debt at truly frightening levels.
Can a true conservative candidate get elected President in 2012? With America’s financial situation in terrible shape, and getting worse, and a sitting president unwilling to deviate from his Far Left Spend-Spend-Spend mantra, the odds seem probable.
h/t Mark Levin & Ken Kulak
Gotta Stop Gettin’ Oil from those Evil Dictators
Oh wait, it’s from Canada.
The view from the No Progress Cave Dweller Wannabes (who somehow always ignore how much energy it takes to run their computers & servers). Oh, whatever!
A quick reminder for the no progress hypocrites.
Reader Tips
See over traffic – and small houses – in the naugahyde-interiored behemoth known as the Futurliner.
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
The Delusions of the Left may be coming to an end
Janet Daley has just published a stunning column that gets to the heart of the aftermath of the UK riots. It begins as follows:
There is no national debate about the epidemic of riots and looting that spread through our cities like a bush fire. Out there in the real world, where people go about the normal business of life, there is no sign of the heated argument that the media is so determined to air. In fact, I cannot remember a time when there has been such crushing unanimity on a matter of public importance: the answers to the questions of why this happened, what went wrong when it began to happen and what needs to follow in its aftermath are considered so blindingly self-evident as to be beyond rational disagreement.
And then continues later:
What real people know – and have known for quite a long time – is that the great tacit agreement which once held civic life together has been deliberately blown apart. There was a time within living memory when all reasonable grown-ups were considered to be on the same side. Parents, teachers, police, judges, politicians – decent citizens of every station and calling – formed an unspoken confederacy to uphold standards of behaviour within their own communities. But their shared values and expectations about human conduct were systematically undermined by a post-Sixties political ideology that preached wholesale disrespect for authority, and legitimised anti-social activity in the name of protest.
What real people saw on their television screens this fateful summer seemed to them to be the final vindication of their instinctive judgment: they may have been shocked but, on some level at least, they were not surprised that it had come to this. What else were these terrible events but the definitive disproof of a doctrine that had subverted adult authority in all its official and unofficial forms?
You can read more of Daley’s great work on her blog.
Life After Granite
Some years ago, I started to notice the granite counter tops.
In our grandparent’s generation, only shipping magnates and Hollywood stars could afford homes in which the most mundane of functional surfaces doubled as displays of wealth.
Today’s middle income neighborhoods are paved with them.
Granite counter tops never struck me as evidence of wealth creation. (For one thing, too many civil servants buy them.) Instead, they seemed to me a signal that something was going very wrong in the wage-to-wealth creation ratio: that people were either spending more than they were being paid, being paid more than they were worth, or most likely – a combination of both.
It got so I couldn’t see one without thinking that debt was accumulating; if not with the home owner, then somewhere up the chain.
Lots and lots of it.
***
Update: Read this if you think this is about the falling price of granite..
Who Is John Paulson
“And why should the Globe and Mail care?” (h/t Adrian)
Jack!
Dies at 61.
Keep it civil please. The mans politics might be anathema to most everyone here but a family did lose a a father and husband.
Edit: Due to the inability of some to prove that they aren’t anything better than Muslims celebrating 9/11, I’ve decided to lock this thread. Go elsewhere to express your vitriol.
Why the Berry’s Future May be Black
From the Toronto Star (aka Crvena zvezda) no less:
RIM’s woes partly based in Canadian telecom policy
…
RIM was never shy about trumpeting its perceived competitive advantages. For years, co-founder Mike Lazaridis promoted the data efficiency of RIM’s BlackBerry, while emphasizing that wireless spectrum is a finite resource. From RIM’s perspective, efficient use of data makes its devices more attractive to wireless carriers, which incur lower costs when compared with bandwidth-hogging devices such as the Apple iPhone.
The emphasis on spectrum scarcity and the value of currying favour with telecom carriers is very much a product of the Canadian marketplace. Bell, Rogers, and Telus dominate our wireless market, resulting in longer consumer contracts than those found elsewhere, among the highest roaming fees in the world and expensive wireless data costs…
The government response to RIM’s troubles should therefore not focus on assisting the troubled, but still-profitable BlackBerry maker. Rather, it should recognize that the policies that resulted in an uncompetitive telecom market have implications that extend well beyond pricey consumer cellphone plans.
For better or worse, RIM is very much a product of its environment. Addressing RIM’s woes requires establishing policies that ensure that the next Canadian tech giant emerges from a more globally competitive market where conserving Internet use and prioritizing carriers over consumers are not viewed as competitive advantages.
What We Really Need Is Democracy
With a party of Jew-hating totalitarians to vote for;
On Thursday, a team of 15 to 20 armed al-Qaeda terrorists (members of the Palestinian Popular Committees, an al-Qaeda affiliate) snaked through tunnels from Gaza to Sinai. From there, they hiked 200 kilometers over land, either ignored or facilitated by Egyptian army forces. They were thus able to sneak into Israel through the porous border at Eilat — porous because Israel has not needed to worry much about its Egyptian border for the last 30 years.
At around noon, the terrorists took up positions along the highway and opened fire at buses and cars. One detonated a suicide belt. In all, eight Israelis were killed and 30 more wounded. The terrorists shot to death a family of four who were just out driving in their car — father, mother, and their 6- and 4-year-old kids (“resistance” against the “occupiers,” as Islamists like to say). Barry Rubin counts this as al-Qaeda’s first successful terrorist attack against Israel.
From here, the story gets more frightful.
Read the whole thing. But hey, how ’bout that Libyan thing!
Reader Tips
“The only difference between the rich doctors and us, is that they have fancy chairs, fans, servants, x-ray and other fancy gadgets.” Indeed.
Your tips in the comments.
Put on a happy face
In an article published in the Globe and Mail on August 19, Gerald Caplan sneers:
Mr. Levant – a prince in the Empire of the Sun – devoted a column to (Geert Wilders) and a cringe-worthy 44-minute interview on his nightly show on Sun TV, must viewing for several Canadians…
Reality just smiles back:
“…the rookie Sun News battered CTV News Channel Aug. 18, by bettering it in every time slot between 1 p.m. and 10 p.m…..In addition to the Sun’s dominance over CTV News Channel in that period, Sun News topped CBC News Network with its Canada Live, Daily Brief, Byline and Charles Adler programs.”
The Left’s Civility on Display
Do you remember President Obama’s call for civility earlier this year?
Apparently Democrat Congresswoman Maxine Waters never heard that speech:
Nous N’Avons Pas Besoin De Ventilateurs Géants Putrides
A wind farm slated to be built south of Montreal has been cancelled after popular opposition and an unfavourable environmental review persuaded the provincial government to kill the plan.
That’s English for “they were looking for an excuse”.
Less ≠ more
Golden goose develops persistent cough:
In 2007, 390,000 tax filers reported adjusted gross income of $1 million or more and paid $309 billion in taxes. In 2009, there were only 237,000 such filers, a decline of 39%. Almost four of 10 millionaires vanished in two years, and the total taxes they paid in 2009 declined to $178 billion, a drop of 42%.
Yes, spread the wealth:
Those with $10 million or more in reported income fell to 8,274 from 18,394 in 2007, a 55% drop. As a result, their tax payments tanked by 51%. These disappearing millionaires go a long way toward explaining why federal tax revenues have sunk to 15% of GDP in recent years. The loss of millionaires accounts for at least $130 billion of the higher federal budget deficit in 2009.
A Cold Shower on the Heated Climate Rhetoric
Rex Murphy has a stellar editorial on Al Gore and the other Climategate fraudsters. h/t chutzpahticular
A Double Helping of Steyn
To help you combat the insanity that is American politics these days, Mark Steyn comes to the rescue with his priceless wit:
- King Barack of Decadence sure seems to have problems with optics of late. If memory serves, isn’t Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad an optometrist? Maybe he could help.
- WGN’s Milt Rosenberg has an extended length interview with Steyn and even gets him to read a few passages from his new book. A most telling quip by Steyn: “What does 24/7 mean to public sector employees in Greece? They work 24 hours per week, 7 months per year.”