Now is the time at SDA when we justapose!
h/t Jim O.
Nevada: Not Broke Enough
h/t Jim O.
h/t Jim O.
Y2Kyoto: State Of Anorexia Envirosa
As I noted in December – accounts of western governments (from the local to the federal) kneecapping the very infrastructure upon which modern metropolitan life depends – including reliable electricity, food production, and the transport of essential goods – are so routine now, one can hardly keep track;
Dozens, and potentially hundreds, of gas stations around California are choosing to shut down rather than comply with a state mandate that would require owners to purchase new equipment to reduce vapor emissions at the pump.
The requirement, known as Phase II in the state’s Enhanced Vapor Recovery Program, is set to go into effect in April. It requires gas station owners to individually purchase tens of thousands of dollars of equipment designed to prevent harmful vapors from escaping into the air when gasoline is pumped.
But smaller retailers say that the requirement puts an unfair burden on businesses that don’t sell enough gasoline to offset the extra cost – and that don’t contribute much to the problem in the first place.
Is There Nothing That Obama Can’t Do?
Drudge – OBAMA BOOM AT FOXNEWS… RATINGS SOAR… NIGHT OF 1/28/09… VIEWERS…
FOXNEWS OREILLY 3,891,000
FOXNEWS HANNITY 3,034,000
FOXNEWS BECK 2,306,000
FOXNEWS SHEP 2,299,000
FOXNEWS GRETA 2,155,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN 1,581,000
CNN COOPER 1,559,000
CNN KING 1,420,000
CNN BLITZER 1,490,000
CNNHN GRACE 1,435,000
MSNBC MADDOW 1,398,000
I should start a pool for the day that Hannity overtakes The Factor…
The Sound Of Settled Economics
Living with the left is to be trapped in a permanent state of deja vu;
This week, more than 200 notable economists — including three Nobel laureates — signed an open letter in The New York Times challenging President Barack Obama’s false suggestion that all economists agree a bailout is needed. It was titled: “With all due respect Mr. President, that is not true.”
So though Nobel laureates can’t reach anything resembling a consensus, your former community organizing/car-dealing/ambulance-chasing congressperson has the intellectual capacity to digest a $900 billion piece of legislation in mere days.
Amazing.
Related: The 40 Year Wish List – “Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it’s an opportunity to do things you couldn’t do before.” – White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel
John Lennon: Not Dead Enough
Another Imagine Generation sighting…
School district Supt. Zoe Watson said the decision was made by principal Erik Millett after two parents complained about their children having to sing the anthem.
“Sometimes we have students whose parents, because of their beliefs, don’t want their children to participate,” Watson told CTV Atlantic.
But some in the community said that the decision may have been made because of Millett’s personal beliefs. Millett ran for the Green Party in the last federal election and his website describes him as “actively involved in the peace movement.”
Update… just part of a natural progession!
Featured Comment
Speaking of terns and er, unthreshed barley straw which of course you weren’t but: My brother, the farmer of the family, heard that barley straw put in small sloughs stopped the formation of blue-green algae so he raked up a quantity of said unthreshed barley straw and dumped it in a slough on his farm. That was in in the heat of the summer. A couple of days later he checked to see if it was working as he had been told. Instead he found hundred of terns make a horrendous sound of slurred piping, flapping about uncontrollably and seemingly unable to fly. It seems the unthreshed barley in the straw had fermented and he had left no tern unstoned for miles around.
The First American Prime Minister In Waiting
After listening to Ignatieff’s State Of The Probation address the other day, I lean towards the The Great Pompous Twit myself, but valid points nonetheless…
Reader Tips
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our Thursday night wild-card show, here is astronaut Michael Fincke presenting his International Space Station Tour, II, III, IV (2009, ½ hour).
On another topic, those of you in the process engineering field will undoubtedly be familiar with the broad range of block valves that are commonly available for use in our projects. Nevertheless, a colleague today sent me this image of a rather unusual block valve, which I thought you might find interesting.
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
Y2Kyoto: Snow Birds
“Patriot-Ledger article oddly fails to address the issue of long-term prospects for rare Arctic birding opportunities in Massachusetts under global warming.”
“On December 29, 1989 the Japanese Nikkei Index reached 38,957”
Just yesterday I heard someone from the opposition benches state to news media that if Canadian banks refused to loan money out, the government should force them to.
Well, we know how that turned out. (Or we would if there was a modicum of competence in our major news media – Canadians have to go online to learn of the Community Reinvestment Act’s role in creating the housing bubble.)
“Turning Japanese”
The U.S. National Debt was $930 billion in 1980, or 33% of GDP. Today it is $10.7 trillion, or 76% of GDP. The National Debt has grown by 1,150% in 28 years. With the planned fiscal stimulus (taxing future generations), the National Debt will reach 100% of GDP during the Obama administration. When Argentina’s economy collapsed in 1998, their National Debt as a percentage of GDP was 65%. The Great Deniers say we are not Argentina. They say we are safe because the U.S. dollar is the reserve currency of the world. This is like jumping off a 20 story building and as you pass the 10th floor someone yells out the window asking how you are doing. You answer, “Good, so far”.
[…]
It is unambiguous, after examining the data, that we have borrowed ourselves to the brink of disaster. Both government and consumers have leveraged themselves to an untenable level. The only logical way to resolve this quandary is to reduce spending, pay down the debt, and increase savings. This is what consumers have begun to do. With consumer spending accounting for 72% of GDP, we are experiencing a serious recession due to the decrease in consumer spending. The excesses are being painfully wrung out of the system. This process is unacceptable to the socialist politicians who are in domination of the United States today. The government and Federal Reserve have already committed $8 trillion of taxpayer funds to bailing out criminally negligent insolvent banks. Now the Obama administration is going to spend in excess of $1 trillion in an effort to stimulate the economy. They insist that it must be bold and swift. How about well thought out, deliberative, and effective?
Just a couple of excerpts from a sobering, excellent article. A must-read that we need to send on to our intellectual superiors (of all parties) in Ottawa.
h/t Mike K.
A related, Canadian viewpoint (pdf) – ” we’ve been pumping stimulus into our economies for years now, to the point where they are more stimulated than a grade three class on Ritalin.”
Three Years And 355 Days Planet Saving Days* Remaining
The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.
“He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.”
New York City: Not Broke Enough!
Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
Islam Invents* The Zero
Local Muslims want the monastery of Mor Gabriel to be appropriated and divided up among the them. They say there used to be a mosque there and have a case with the Turkish Court.
The monastery was founded in 397 AD.
Islam was founded in the 7th century.
*Jury’s still out, actually.
Bam!
The door!. Now, go to sleep.
Related – smell the bipartisanship! 11 Democrats cross floor to join Republicans in opposing Obama’s 800B bucks of pork.
Ignatieff Tainted By Anti-Chinese Web Of Hate
Via someone who will make it her life’s work to never let anyone forget;
“Our community is deeply concerned with Mr. Kinsella’s comments. Kinsella repeats the most vulgar and offensive stereotypes by associating the meat served by Chinese restaurants to cat meat. He has hurt the feelings of the Chinese people and disrespected the Chinese culture,” continued Yuan.
“This is not the first instance of such intolerant remarks by Mr. Kinsella therefore we call upon Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff to fire Mr. Kinsella as his senior strategist and apologize to the community.”
(click for full size image)
I think I smell human rights complaint…
You can email the good professor at Ignatieff.M@parl.gc.ca or contact the office with your concerns.
Update – Ignatieff advisor in alleged cover-up.
“One of the most disgusting pieces of biased reporting I have seen from CTV”
Reader Tips
Welcome to the Wednesday edition of SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight for your listening pleasure we present Gillian Welch singing Gram Parson’s Hickory Wind.
The thread is open for your Reader Tips.
A Republic, Ma’am – If You Can Keep It
California: Not Broke Enough!
Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
Blagojevich – Less Than Meets The Eye?
I know you’ll find this hard to believe, but media reports may not be providing the full story on the Blagojevitch case;
I listened to much of day two of the Illinois Senate impeachment trial of Gov. Rod Blagojevich. This was the day when the smoking gun would be revealed, in the form of four audio tapes just released by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. Despite the claims in some of the television and print media, the tapes were no smoking gun.
The tapes purport to show Blagojevich extorting a campaign contribution from a horse race track owner in exchange for Blagojevich signing legislation favorable to the race track. But all the tapes actually show is Blagojevich’s chief of staff urging Blagojevich to pressure the race track owner to pay up on a previously promised campaign contribution, and Blagojevich trying to confirm that the payment will be made. Nothing on the tapes states that Blagojevich would refuse to sign the legislation, already passed by a substantial majority in the legislature (including many of the Senators voting on impeachment), if there were no payment. You may be able to make the connection, but these tapes don’t do it. We would need much more evidence to show extortion or even conspiracy to extort.
[…]
The other thing that jumped out when listening to the tapes and hearing [FBI agent] Cain’s testimony in response to questions from Senators, is how truncated are the excerpts. With an Assistant U.S. Attorney at his side, Cain repeatedly refused to answer questions as to how the excerpts were selected, what else was on the tapes, or who else (including Senators voting on impeachment) was on the tapes (Transcript, 292-293) When Cain refused to answer if any other Senators were on the tapes, the transcript indicates that an unidentified person at the Senate trial said “Thank God.” (Tr. 293) So we may have potential targets of, or witnesses in, Fitzgerald’s investigation voting on whether that most famous target, Blagojevich, stays in office. Great.