Books, movies, politics, and whatever I want

Archive for January, 2011

Monday Book Pick: Diversity Lane

Monday, January 31st, 2011

Diversity Lane by Zack Rawsthorne.

The web comic now in dead tree format! Great strip, on my short list of web comics to check daily. Rawsthorne captures the liberal mindset in brilliant one panel cartoons.

Monday Book Pick Archive

Quote of the Day

Monday, January 31st, 2011

“To translate it into UNIX system administration terms … the post-modern, politically correct atheists were like people who had suddenly found themselves in charge of a big and unfathomably complex computer system (viz. society) with no documentation or instructions of any kind, and so whose only way to keep the thing running was to invent and enforce certain rules with a kind of neo-Puritanical rigor, because they were at a loss to deal with any deviations from what they saw as the norm. Whereas people who were wired into a church were like UNIX system administrators who, while they might not understand everything, at least had some documentation, some FAQs and How-tos and README files, providing some guidance on what to do when things got out of whack. They were, in other words, capable of displaying adaptability.” — The Cryptonomicon

A Breitbart Hat Trick

Sunday, January 30th, 2011

Breitbart.tv has three hits here.

O’REILLY’S CATCHES JON STEWART WITH DECEPTIVE EDIT

Money Quote: “If Stewart was a journalist I would pound him into pudding. But he’s not. He’s a comedian.”

TEA PARTIER SCOLDS MATTHEWS ON HARSH RHETORIC.

“MSNBC’s host doubled-down on his charge that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is a “balloon head” yet refused to answer his guest’s question about Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) and his famous assertion that Guam was tipping over. Meanwhile, Matthews again mis-characterized Rep. Bachmann’s statements about slavery and claims she said that the forefathers eradicated it, something she did not say. ”

MAHER FALSELY CLAIMS PALIN SAID ‘SOVIETS WON SPACE RACE’

Tommy Christopher, Mediaite: When Palin says “their victory in that race to space,” she’s clearly referring to the specific milestone of launching an artificial satellite into Earth orbit, as opposed to the larger “Space Race” that it precipitated.

Quote of the Day

Saturday, January 29th, 2011

“Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent…the greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.”

– Justice Louis Brandeis Olmstead vs. United States, United States Supreme Court, 1928

Quick Round Up

Friday, January 28th, 2011

Let’s take a look at what’s going on in the world.

U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Rose More Than Estimated Last Week to 454,000

“Unexpectedly” is the word used to describe this jump by those not paying attention.

Social Security now seen to run permanent deficits.

Well ahead of schedule.

Obamacare waivers skyrocket to 729 + 4 states; 4 new SEIU waiver winners

They don’t want Obamacare? They must be racists!

Foreclosure activity up across most US metro areas.

“The foreclosure crisis is getting worse as high unemployment and lackluster job prospects force homeowners in an increasing number of U.S. metropolitan areas into dire financial straits.” Hmmm…didn’t they hear our Dear Leader say that we have “broken the back of the recession”? Maybe they are just afraid of the violent tone of his rhetoric.

Oh, and to wrap it up. Sage advice from Doug Powers.

“Note to those in the 18th congressional district of Texas: When a woman who once asked if NASA’s Pathfinder took pictures of where Neil Armstrong planted the flag on Mars calls you ill-informed, it’s time to hit the books.”

In other news, the government chocolate ration is being raised from 30 grams to 25 grams.

Biofuel from Coffee grounds

Thursday, January 27th, 2011

Amazing stuff coffee. In addtion to it’s other amazing properties, including being good for the roses, the grounds can be used to produce biofuel.

The estimates are the coffee ground biodiesel industry could generate as much as $8,000,000 in profits annually using waste from Starbucks stores here in the United States  alone.  Ok, probably less given falling crude oil prices, but I’m still a big fan of any domestic fuel souces.

To add to the overall awesomeness of coffee, at the end of the biodiesel extraction and conversion process, the leftover grounds can be turned into fuel pellets for wood stoves and boilers.

Not only does coffee keep you moving, it can keep your car moving and heats your home!

Originally posted at Urbin Technology

Update: Crude prices have reversed the downward trend that was in place when this article was first posted (December 2008).  They are now pushing $100 a barrel and don’t show any signs of slowing down.  Starbucks brand biofuel made right here in the USA is starting to look like a good business opportunity.

Mr. Reynolds points out the obvious

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

“YOU WANT A “SPUTNIK MOMENT?” HERE’S YOUR FREAKIN’ SPUTNIK MOMENT: US Budget Deficit to Pass $1.5 Trillion This Year.

Yup, Mr. Reynolds nails it in one.

John Stossel’ State of the Union address

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

President Obama fulfilled his constitutional duty and gave his report on the state of the union last night. Here’s mine:

We’re in deep trouble. You know why. Our debt has passed $14 trillion, and yet our current spending plans will make that worse. The U.S. debt will reach Greek levels in just 10 years.

But do not despair. If we make reasonable cuts to what government spends, our economy can grow us out of our debt. Cutting doesn’t just make economic sense, it is also the moral thing to do. Henry David Thoreau had it right when he “accepted(ed) the motto … that government is best which governs least.”

So what should we get rid of? We start by closing the Department of Education, which saves $100 billion a year. Education ought to be in the free market. It’s insane to take money from states only to launder it through Washington and then return it to states.

Next, we should close the Department of Housing and Urban Development: $41 billion. We had plenty of housing in America before a department was created. Let’s get government out of that business.

Then we eliminate the Commerce Department: $9 billion. A government that can’t count the votes accurately should not try to negotiate trade. Trade should be free. Free trade creates prosperity. And since trade should be free, we should eliminate all corporate welfare and all subsidies. That means: agriculture subsidies, green energy subsidies, ethanol subsidies and subsidies for public broadcasting. None of these is needed.

I propose selling Amtrak. Taxpayers will save money, and riders will get better service. Why is government in the transportation business? Let’s have private companies compete to run the trains.

And we must finally stop one of the biggest assaults on freedom and our pocketbook, the war on drugs. The drug war is really a war on our own people. The ends do not justify the means.

Now the biggest cuts. Republicans propose to cut discretionary nonmilitary spending. Good. But why stop there? That’s only 15 percent of our budget. We must cut more. That means cutting Medicare, Social Security and the military.

I know. Medicare and Social Security are popular, but they are unsustainable. We must privatize Social Security and slowly replace Medicare with vouchers.

And that brings me to Obamacare. The only way to cut costs and still have medical innovation is to free the market. So I propose that we repeal Obamacare immediately. Then we must do more: We must repeal all government interference in the medical and insurance industries, including licensing. All that impedes competition.

Now, military spending. Do you recall what candidate Obama said about the war in Iraq? “I will bring this war to an end in 2009. So don’t be confused.”

But I am confused. We’re two years past 2009, but we still have 48,000 troops in Iraq. We must shrink the military’s mission to truly national defense. That means pulling our troops out of Germany, Japan, Italy and dozens of other countries. America cannot and should not try to police the entire world. We can’t afford it, and it’s not right.

Those cuts will put America on the road to solvency. But that’s not enough. We also need economic growth. Our growth has stalled because millions of pages of regulations make businesses too fearful to invest. Entrepreneurs don’t know what the rules — or taxes — will be tomorrow. This discourages hiring.

All destructive laws must go. I again propose the Stossel Rule: For every new law passed, we must repeal two old ones.

We need to progress to an America that cherishes individual freedom. That means a government limited by the Constitution, one that protects our shores and our persons but otherwise stays out of our way. We should take seriously the words of another president, Thomas Jefferson, and embrace “a wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned — this is the sum of good government.”

That’s my State of the Union address.

Source, HT to Dissecting Leftism

Quote of Day – Classic Edition

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

This was the Quote of Day on July 23, 2010, but it rings so true right now it bears repeating.

“It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now … Cutting taxes now is not to incur a budget deficit, but to achieve the more prosperous, expanding economy which can bring a budget surplus.”

President John F. Kennedy in 1962.

Wise words our Dear Leader and the congressional democrats should pay attention to.

What ever happened to the Anti-War Movement?

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

Seems it was mostly the “Anti-GW Bush” movement.  War and stuff is just dandy with most of them as long as it’s a democrat doing it.