NATALIE SOLENT: Don’t Worry: Be Happy! “Pernickety people might argue that once the ‘right’ to demonstrate is dependent on your organisation falling within the authorities’ definition of a ‘community organisation’, then it is no longer a right. Really, though, who can be bothered with such far-fetched ideas? We have the assurance of a local politician that good sense will prevail.”
Archive for 2011
September 4, 2011
TAR AND FEATHERS, AT LEAST: Parents of seven told: Your children are too fat, so you will never see them again.
Though if it were my kids, I’d at least consider necklacing. But that’s probably only appropriate for a second offense. But tarring and feathering? Frankly, that’s a mild punishment for this degree of overreach. The state does not own your children, and taking them for such absurdities is piracy.
UPDATE: Prof. Stephen Clark emails: “I’m will to bet that the majority of those who think that obesity justifies the removal of children from their parents would also agree with the usual pieties expressed concerning all the detrimental effects of poverty: Should parenthood be means tested? To be consistent, they should argue so. I’ll wait….”
PUSHING BACK TWICE AS HARD: Gibson goes on the offensive: Guitar maker’s CEO vows fight, says feds’ raids went too far.
CLIMATE MCCARTHYISM strikes again. “Not content with attacking Spencer and Braswell for their heresy, the Climate Inquisition has forced the resignation of the editor of the Journal of Remote Sensing. Better still, they seem to have given him the full Rubashov treatment and forced a confession . . . ‘Should not have been published.’ Even though it passed peer review, and finds lots of company among scientists and other journal articles.”
This sort of behavior doesn’t make the whole global-warming position more convincing.
UPDATE: The real problem, via the BBC: “Dr Spencer is a committed Christian as well as a professional scientist.” Obviously untrustworthy, then.
DON SURBER: Media Controversy Backfires: “The Pima County Republican Party of Tucson, Arizona, should thank the local news media for making their gun raffle a success — by misidentifying what the gun was and just what the event was. The controversy was stirred by a media that does not know the difference between a Glock 19 and a Glock 23 or for that matter, an auction from a raffle. The news media made it seem as though Republicans were selling the very gun Jared Loughner used to shoot Gabrielle Giffords in a rampage in which he killed six people and wounded 13 others.” No agenda there.
Plus this: “People in Arizona own guns. People in New York City do not understand. Arizona’s homicide rate in 2009 was 5.4 per 100,000 residents. New York City’s was 6.3.”
UPDATE: “Thanks, Brady folks!”
AUDIO: Gibson CEO on Federal Raids.
THE BEATINGS REGIME UNCERTAINTY WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES THE RECOVERY TAKES PLACE: Maxine Waters Threatens To “Tax Banks Out Of Business.”
UPDATE: From the comments: “The most corrupt member of the House forgot to add, ‘Except for banks my husband invests in.'”
SO, WHERE EXACTLY ARE all those “green jobs” we were promised?
AT AMAZON, bestsellers in Automotive. Also, power inverters — “the poor man’s generator.”
UPDATE: Reader Bill Rickords emails:
Glenn, your readers should know that there are two kinds of output from these devices. If you have something that is delicate or needs clean current they need to get a PURE SINE WAVE inverter. Otherwise the cheaper ones put out a SQUARE WAVE and it’s a bit noisy and some motors may not run well with it.
I have some medical issues and have to use an oxygen concentrator to provide additional oxygen to help breathing. The device manufacturer said if I use it in the car to get a PURE SINE WAVE version. Anything delicate or electronic controlled will likely need such.
I have a 1000 watt one in my car to power various 110 volt devices while traveling etc. Works great.
Yeah, we’ve discussed that here before but it bears repeating.
LIBYA REBEL LEADER admits to Al Qaeda ties.
FRANK TIPLER TO NEAL GABLER: I gotcher “big ideas” right here.
UPDATE: Reader Matthew Akin writes:
I hope the futurists realize that the single biggest threat to future longevity and freedom from disease right now is government involvement in medicine. It would be an interesting exercise to graph the the percentage of medical accounts receivable paid for by government programs vs. the innovation in drugs and devices. I am willing to bet that they are inversely proportional. (Also, the graph shouldn’t just be limited to the US, I’d like to see one for each country and then for the world as a whole.) We are already in a dystopian future as far as medical devices and drug innovation goes. It is coming to a standstill. This might just put the dates back a bit for when we conquer aging and disease. People are always talking about the big ideas, like conquering aging. Well, that goal will only to come pass after a lot of smaller, less sexy victories that just aren’t being done anymore.
Indeed. I wrote about that very problem in this column.
WELL, THAT’S HELPFUL: Exercise Tells Stem Cells To Become Bone, Not Fat.
IMPORTANT ROMANTIC ADVICE: “If you like someone, for the love of God, don’t hook up with his twin!”
THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, WE’D BE WAGING UNDERCOVER WARFARE AROUND THE WORLD. And they were right! “When Obama came into office, he cottoned to the organization immediately. (It didn’t hurt that his CIA director, Leon E. Panetta, has a son who, as a naval reservist, had deployed with JSOC.) Soon Obama was using JSOC even more than his predecessor. In 2010, for example, he secretly directed JSOC troops to Yemen to kill the leaders of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.”
GAUGING HURRICANE RECOVERY with the “Waffle House Index.” “Green means the restaurant is serving a full menu, a signal that damage in an area is limited and the lights are on. Yellow means a limited menu, indicating power from a generator, at best, and low food supplies. Red means the restaurant is closed, a sign of severe damage in the area or unsafe conditions. . . . During Hurricane Irene, Waffle House lost power to 22 restaurants in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. By Wednesday evening, all but one in hard-hit coastal Virginia were back in business.”
PENELOPE TRUNK: Voices of the defenders of grad school. And me crushing them.
ANN ALTHOUSE: Did a 24-year-old Cincinnati man die of a toothache because he didn’t have health insurance? No.
“Let’s be honest. It’s sad that he died, but let’s be clear about why he died and not demagogue it.”
DON’T MESS WITH . . . TUNISIA?