Voting Machines...

original comic of xkcd.

More Proof of How Far the Old Gray Lady Had Fallen

One instance in which the media unfairly caricatured a president was at a grocers’ convention in Florida during the first President Bush’s re-election campaign. I was among the pool reporters watching the president, who was unfailingly gracious in public, praise what his hosts claimed was a dramatic new supermarket scanner. The New York Times, on its front page, ridiculed him, claiming it to be yet another example of how out-of-touch he was with average American voters. In fact, the invention was new; it could instantly read a bar code that had been ripped up into small pieces and scattered over the scanner. The newspaper declined to post a correction, and its account lives on.

The NYT has its narrative and no amount of truth can penetrate that wall. President Bush was smart enough to fly jets. Smart enough to run an oil business. Smart enough to be President twice but to the Times and its readers, he will forever and always be that "moron in the White House".

Treasury Department Seeking Survival Kits For Bank Employees

Sorry but what the heck is the Treasury Department doing, seeking to acquire survival kits for its employees?

The Department of Treasury is seeking to order survival kits for all of its employees who oversee the federal banking system, according to a new solicitation.

These are not major league kits by any measure as they are "fanny pack" size but that just begs the question all the more, why? For what purpose?

The survival kits must come in a fanny-pack or backpack that can fit all of the items, including a 33-piece personal first aid kit with “decongestant tablets,” a variety of bandages, and medicines.

The kits must also include a “reusable solar blanket” 52 by 84 inches long, a 2,400-calorie food bar, “50 water purification tablets,” a “dust mask,” “one-size fits all poncho with hood,” a rechargeable lantern with built-in radio, and an “Air-Aid emergency mask” for protection against airborne viruses.

Based on the number of employees and the solicitation amount, these survival kits will cost $50 or less per. For what purpose? In the realm of Government, this is not a noticeable amount of money but it is also a weird thing for the Treasury Department to get. Who is requesting this purchase and why?

Happy Holidays from the Crew of the USS Enterprise (Next Generation)

Happy Holidays to everyone (make it so)!

AARP

The organization known as AARP is NOT what you think it is. It is not a retired persons advocacy group and has not been since at least 1999 when it officially changed its name from "American Association of Retired Persons" to AARP.

AARP, Inc. is still officially a non-profit 501(c)(4) but it is also a parent organization that wholly owns other 501(c) organisations as well as a number of for-profit organizations.

Two of the for-profit organizations focus on insurance and these companies generate the lion's share of AARP earnings. At least 46% of AARP revenues are generated by royalties on AARP endorsed insurance programs, the majority of this from their Medicare-related insurance products. This may explain in part why AARP was in favor of and supported the ACA (Obamacare).

Along with Medicare Advantage, AARP also earns paid endorsements for Medigap plans. Public records show that AARP earns 4.95% of seniors' premiums for every Medigap policy sold under its name. As a result of this arrangement, AARP directly benefits as Medigap enrollment increases. Around 91% of Medicare beneficiaries are also enrolled in some form of supplemental coverage (like Medigap). This is worth close to $700 million in revenues a year to AARP.

AARP is focused on selling (really earning from endorsing) insurance to seniors. They supported the ACA not because it was good for seniors but because it was good for their bottom line.

Is all of these insurance changes, the reduced coverage, the reduced networks, the increased costs really worth those meal discounts you get with your AARP card?

You can read the complete government report on AARP here.

I will not be giving AARP any of my money.

The House Benghazi Report

And what the media has not been telling you...

"The Administration's flawed perception that al-Qa'ida was on the decline contributed to inadequate Diplomatic Security protection in Benghazi. Evidence received by HPSCI largely confirms the findings of other investigations that, prior to the attacks, the State Department did not respond sufficiently to the deteriorating threat environment in eastern Libya. These failures were not due to inadequate reporting by the intelligence community about threats to U.S. and Western interests in Benghazi. The IC provided updates to relevant agencies, including the State Department, on the deteriorating security environment in Benghazi.

First, previous reports state that senior officials at the State Department, including then-Secretary Hillary Clinton, received numerous reports of attacks in and around Benghazi. Those same officials, however, did not approve repeated requests for additional security. We hope that other ongoing investigations, which focus on the State Department, will uncover the responsible officials and hold them accountable for this failure."

So, the State Department (Hillary Clinton) was informed that there were growing concerns and that there were escalating attacks in the area but the official line was and still is that it was all a spontaneous demonstration that just happened to take place on September 11th over some video that was released months before and no one really took any notice of.

R.I.G.H.T.

P.S. More good stuff here.

#dontforget

Getting stuff done in Washington...

This is how they get things done "the Chicago way". We don't need no stink-in laws!

Business don't create jobs!

Hillary Clinton let another of her personal truths slip out. That "business don't create jobs". Hillary has gone from school, into the law, into government. To her, government is the source of all. Individuals count for nothing, can achieve nothing, can accomplish nothing without the helping hand of government.

Hillary and her handlers are trying to back peddle on this and are claiming that she "miss-spoke". That is not the case. If you recall, Hillary is also the "it takes a village" to raise a child. Again, individuals can do NOTHING without the helping hand of government. She truly believes this and she also believes that she is the right person to be in control of that government.

Hillary believes this is her turn to be President. She was cheated out of it when Obama ran and won. Now it really, really is her turn and she wants it. Imagine a Hillary Presidency. All of the nanny state intrusion of the Obama administration, all of the lies of the Clinton (and Obama) administration and all of the conniving of the Clinton administration back with a vengeance! No slight will be too small to ignore. No opposition to small to crush. You think the IRS is weaponized now, these guys are pikers compared to what Hillary would do.

Our only hope (and it is a small one) is that the GOP pulls their heads out of their butts long enough to hold up a true fiscal conservative with a Constitutional federal government outlook to run. Anything less is just Dem-light and too many people will cry "enough" and let Rome burn just to get it over with quicker.

Another form of voter fraud uncovered...

Massive Non-Citizen Voting Uncovered in Maryland

...thousands of people in Frederick County who stated that they are not U.S. citizens on jury duty forms went on to cast votes in elections.

Maryland state law makes it easier for non-citizens, both those present legally and those in the country against the law, to vote. Maryland issues drivers licenses to legal and illegal aliens. Driver’s licenses in turn make it easier under the Motor Voter law to register to vote. Maryland also offers copious taxpayer-funded social programs to non-citizens in the state.

Hey, who cares how they win as long as they win, right?

Are they serious?

This is from the US Surgeon General's web site. Are they serious? Do they actually think, based on their actions, inactions, reactions and miss-steps of this past week, that ANYONE anywhere would take anything they say on the subject of how contagious Ebola is as true and accurate information?

• You can't catch it on the bus.
• You can catch it on the bus.
• Its OK to travel by air with a fever (less than 101) after treating Ebola patent.
• No she should not have traveled by air.
• BUT restricting flight from countries with Ebola is "off the table".

Lord, they have NO CLUE what they are saying and what they are doing. We have an Infectious Diseases CZAR but no one has seen or heard from her (other than to know that she managed to funnel a LOT of money to her husband's company). The CDC did not have the money to prepare for this (their MAIN job) but did have plenty of money to study why lesbians get fat and plenty of money for studies on the disease of guns. It is clowns from the top to the bottom!

Update: Dems are now trying to say that there would be money for Ebola but the Repubs cut funding. FALSE! First off, Congress allocated CDC more money than Obama asked for AND the "cash strapped" CDC did manage to find some funds for the following "critical to their basic mission" items:

• it dumped $106 million into a swanky visitors' center in Atlanta, even though it already had one
• it bought $10 million worth of furniture for its lavish new headquarters
• spent $1.7 million to advise Hollywood on medical plots
• a $702,558 grant for the study of the impact of televisions and gas generators on villages in Vietnam
• $175,587 to the University of Kentucky to study the impact of cocaine on the sex drive of Japanese quail
• $55,382 to study hookah smoking in Jordan
• $592,527 to study why chimpanzees throw objects
• a $509,840 grant from NIH to pay for a study that will send text messages in “gay lingo” to meth-heads

Yep, not ENOUGH money! We MUST increase their budget! What a JOKE!

Even The NYT Now Lies For Bush!

From 2004 to 2011, American and American-trained Iraqi troops repeatedly encountered, and on at least six occasions were wounded by, chemical weapons remaining from years earlier in Saddam Hussein’s rule.

In all, American troops secretly reported finding roughly 5,000 chemical warheads, shells or aviation bombs, according to interviews with dozens of participants, Iraqi and American officials, and heavily redacted intelligence documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

But, but, but there were NO WMDs in Iraq! Everyone said so then and many liberals continue to say so to this day so the NYT must now also be considered part of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (thank you Hillary).

"more than 2,400 nerve-agent rockets unearthed in 2006 at a former Republican Guard compound."

Iraq produced 10 metric tons of mustard blister agent in 1981; by 1987 its production had grown 90-fold, with late-war output aided by two American companies that provided hundreds of tons of thiodiglycol, a mustard agent precursor. Production of nerve agents also took off.

But do not let it be said that the NYT does not try to stick to its core:

Much of the chemical stockpile was expended in the Iran-Iraq war or destroyed when the weapons programs were dismantled after the Persian Gulf war of 1991.

Really? How do you know the program was dismantled after the Persian Gulf war? The same source that told you there were NO WMDs there at all?

Sergeant Burns’s team had picked up an exceedingly rare weapon: a 152-millimeter binary sarin shell.

Yep, no WMDs.

Reached recently, Mr. Duelfer agreed that the weapons were still a menace, but said the report strove to make it clear that they were not “a secret cache of weapons of mass destruction.”

“What I was trying to convey is that these were not militarily significant because they not used as W.M.D.,” he said. “It wasn’t that they weren’t dangerous.”

So by 2004 even some in the government worked to down play the risks and volume of WMDs in Iraq.

In late 2005 and early 2006, soldiers collected more than 440 Borak 122-millimeter chemical rockets near Amara, in southeastern Iraq. And in the first nine months of 2006, the American military recovered roughly 700 chemical warheads and shells, according to data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

British forces also destroyed 21 Borak rockets in early 2006, including some that contained nerve agent...

In 2006: the American Army made its largest chemical weapons find of the war: more than 2,400 Borak rockets.

Others still contained sarin. “Full-up sloshers,”

Even the Senate's own report as flawed as it was, included that chemical weapons were found: The report, released in September 2006, claimed “another 500 filled and unfilled degraded pre-1991 chemical munitions” had been found — about one-sixth of the Pentagon’s internal tallies.

It is almost funny that years ago, the paper of record and every other MSM outlet was pushing the mime that there were NO WMDs in Iraq and Bush lied! Despite the fact that he used the same intelligence that every other country used and Congress used. Now, years later no apology from the NYT for getting it wrong. Instead the NYT thinks enough history has passed that it is safe to come out with an "evil US Government hid the truth and is killing solders due to chem weapons" story.

The old gray lady is never wrong and we have always been at war with Eastasia...

Most Ideal Liquid Ever Seen Is a Quark-Gluon Plasma

Perfect liquids, Wang explains, have the lowest viscosity-to-density ratio allowed by quantum mechanics, which means they essentially flow without friction.

One difficulty in using a jet as an x-ray of the quark-gluon plasma is the fact that a quark-gluon plasma is a rapidly expanding ball of fire—it doesn't sit still. "You create this hot fireball that expands very fast as it cools down quickly to ordinary matter,"

Only under extreme conditions, such as collisions in which temperatures exceed by a million times those at the center of the sun, do quarks and gluons pull apart to become the ultra-hot, frictionless perfect fluid known as quark-gluon plasma.

Over the past few years, researchers from the JET Collaboration have developed such a model that can describe the process of expansion and the observed phenomena of an ultra-hot perfect fluid. "This allows us to understand how a jet propagates through this dynamic fireball," says Wang.

"The determined values of the jet transport coefficient can help to shed light on why the ultra-hot matter is the most ideal liquid the universe has ever seen," Wang says.

Are you oppressed?

In America today, you have many different groups that will get worked up over any perceived slight and proclaim how they are being oppressed by (take your pick) the government, organizations, clubs, etc. A great deal of angst and gnashing of teeth will ensue with the aggrieved party proclaiming their "right" to do whatever it was they were doing and were told no. As has been discussed in the past, most people in America have it SO good, they don't know what to do with themselves. This coupled with the need to "make a difference" results in grandiose overstatements of problems that "must be solved". As Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit is fond of saying "I will believe it is a problem when the people that say it is a problem, act like it is a problem."

This, now this is a problem. 6 Iranians filmed a little video of them dancing and joking around to Pharrell Williams' song "Happy". You can watch the entire video and see that they are just having some fun. Nothing obscene or lewd takes place. See for yourself...

The group were arrested in May 2014, a month after their video— part of a global campaign launched by pop star Pharrell Williams — was viewed by more than 100,000 people on YouTube. During their incarceration, they were humiliated and forced to confess on national television. They apologized for making the video, and said they had been tricked into doing it. After the confession they were released on bail.

For this act of whimsy, the 6 involved were incarcerated until they confessed, then sentenced to six months in prison and to receiving 91 lashes. Another individual involved was sentenced to 1 year in prison and to receive 91 lashes. All of the sentences were suspended and the 7 put on 3 years probation. If they transgress for any reason within the three year period, they are subject not only to the punishment for the new crime but the punishment of the suspended sentence as well.

That is what oppression looks like. Convicted of having fun without a trial, held until they confessed, and open to jail time and a beating.

The Current Higher Ed "War on Women" or "How to protect your daughters"

If you follow the news at all lately, you must have heard about the epidemic of "campus sexual assaults" and that various groups [to include the White House] have been throwing around the figure / phrase that "one in 5 women will be sexually assaulted while in collage".

This number is based on some very shoddy statistical analysis of some very shoddy polling data that includes questions like "have you ever had a physical encounter that you later regretted". Answering yes to that question counts as a "sexual assault".

No one actually believes this figure because if people did believe it, it would be a crime to send your daughter to collage. If it became known that sending your daughter to dance class meant that over a 4 year period, she had a 20% change of being sexually assaulted, Does anyone doubt that DCF would be at the door of every parent that sent their daughter to dance class investigating them for neglect and for placing a child in a dangerous situation? No but that does not happen when you send your child to collage because NO ONE takes this figure seriously but it is a great talking point for ideological reasons.

This nonsense is wrong for at least three reasons.

First when you redefine something to be so broad that nearly anything qualifies, you have cheapened it for when it really matters. If anything is sexual assault and you have to take every incident seriously, many victims of actual sexual assault (i.e. rape) do not get the attention they deserve because you can't devote as much attention to each case. They get lost in the deluge.

The second major issue is that it allows groups to enact ever more ridiculous and restricting rules so that they can say that they take the problem seriously and "are doing something". For the most part, the rules don't actually address the core problem but since you have expanded the definition to include many more trivial incidents, you get to make your rules to address those, which is far easier.

Thirdly, when you do fail to solve the underlying problem and prevent sexual assaults, you get to claim that the problem is just too big to solve. You get "How can we be expected to solve a problem that affects 1 in 5? We reduced it by 15%! It is a start but we can and will need to do more!" Which will result in ever more ridiculous rules that will actually solve nothing.

I think that the way to put a stop to this nonsense is to go "full Alinsky" on collages and make them act like this problem is as prevalent and they claim.

I propose that the following actions be taken:

• If you enrolled your daughter in collage and you were not informed that she has a 1 in 5 chance of being sexually assaulted, sue them for failure to disclose a dangerous situation before accepting your money.

• If you have been sexually assaulted (male or female), sue them for failure to protect you from a dangerous situation that they were aware of.

• If you have been sexually assaulted, are of age and you have a CCW (concealed carry), and are not permitted to carry on campus, sue them for failure to protect you from a dangerous situation that they were aware of AND denying you the right to protect yourself.

• If you have not been sexually assaulted (male or female), sue them for emotional distress due to the fear you feel whenever you are on campus.

• Sue them to force them to create:
• Women only dorms (not floors but entire dorms) that forbid men entry.
• Men only dorms (not floors but entire dorms) that forbid female entry.
• Lesbian only dorms (not floors but entire dorms) that forbid non-lesbians entry.
• Homosexual only dorms (not floors but entire dorms) that forbid non-homosexual entry.
• Transgender only dorms (not floors but entire dorms) that forbid entry to non-transgenders.

This is because everyone has the right to feel safe and secure in their quarters and this would be the only way to ensure that.

• Require that all faculty and staff are barred from having any non-professional contact with students. Inappropriate contact (non-professional) is grounds for immediate dismissal. Same burden of proof as that used in student to student abdication.

• Require the installation and monitoring of all common areas by 24 / 7 surveillance cameras, campus wide with a 4 year retention policy.

• Require a level of security staffing commensurate with the problem. A 4 to 5 times increase in security staffing should do for a start.

• Require that any and all underage drinking result in immediate expulsion for all parties involved (as alcohol is a major contributing factor to sexual assault on campus). If they don't have these rules in place and/or don't uniformly apply them, sue them.

• Why not also sue to require all faculty and staff be required to wear body cameras whenever they are on campus?

• Sue them, sue them and finally, sue them. Hit them in the endowment. Imagine the impact on the economy if a large number of collage age women were to come into a few million each. That would be a stimulus!

It appears that something like this, to actually hit them hard in the wallet (hard enough to make them squeal) is the only way to stop this insanity. If this is done to a few of the larger collages (with their big, sweet endowments) others will take notice. Others will start to denounce those figures and their silly kangaroo courts and ridiculous rules OR they will go out of business.

This "joke" ad is actually more on target then they think. If I were an online collage, I would seriously think about making a serious and more subtle version of this ad.

There have to be a few lawyers out there that can see what a solid business opportunity this is! Collages, by their own admission, see a problem, have not informed their clients of this problem, have failed to take reasonable and appropriate measures to address this problem AND have boat loads of cash!

Go get them!

9/11/2014

Melissa, 31, was only in New York for one day to oversee her software firm’s merger.

She made a tearful call home to husband Sean Hughes in San Francisco – but missed him as he was still in bed.

The message she left said: “I just wanted to let you know I love you and I’m stuck in this building in New York.

Always remember, never forget...

Fast Food Workers Plan Thursday Strike, Really?

At a convention that was held outside Chicago in July, 1,300 fast-food workers unanimously approved a resolution calling for civil disobedience as a way to step up pressure on the fast-food chains.

“They’re going to use nonviolent civil disobedience as a way to call attention to what they’re facing,” said Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, which has spent millions of dollars helping to underwrite the campaign. “They’re invoking civil rights history to make the case that these jobs ought to be paid $15 and the companies ought to recognize a union.”

“They’re going to use nonviolent civil disobedience as a way to call attention to what they’re facing,” said Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, which has spent millions of dollars helping to underwrite the campaign.

Nonviolent "civil disobedience", sure... When unions are involved that is really a euphemism for "breaking stuff" and preventing customers from being serviced.

The unions are all in favor of these kinds of actions as they want to drive up minimum wage as many union contracts tie member pay to the minimum wage. Getting it raised is a back door way to get many union members raises without having to directly negotiate for one. If they can get some of these fast food chains unionized, that would be even better as it gets them a huge pool of new members to offset union losses elsewhere.

Mr. Obama added that if he had a service-sector job, and “wanted an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work, I’d join a union.”

The one thing they [unions and apparently the President] don't care about is the actual workers they are instigating. These jobs pay what they are worth and in this economy these folks should be more grateful that they even can get work. If you want a better job, get it / earn it. Forcing a business to pay more than a job is worth causes some combination of the following two actions a) raising prices to offset increased costs - putting the product out of reach of some customers and b) causing the affected businesses to reassess employee requirements and typically reducing staff / hours to compensate for the increased employee expenses. Are the unions going to back fill these people's paychecks if their plan succeeds? Not hardly. More likely this expected and foreseeable result of this plan would only end up with greater calls for unionization, further raising costs and costing jobs and suppressing businesses. When the foreseeable happens, it will be called "bad luck".

“They want to join,” Ms. Henry said. “They think their jobs should be valued at $15.”

Heck, who doesn't think their job should be valued higher than it is? If it actually was though, you would be getting it. What most people forget is "it is NOT your job", it is the business' job and they have chosen you to fill it, for now. It is worth what it is worth. If you get too expensive because you have outgrown the responsibilities of that job or are not productive enough that the business is not getting good value, they find someone else to fill it. If you have been doing a good job, you might get promoted to a better job but even that one (if that happens) is NOT yours! If I owned one of these franchises and some of my employees walked out when they had already agreed to work, I would be replacing them with others that valued the opportunity and the paycheck.

If you feel the need to blame someone, how about blaming the Government that has done everything in it power (and something not in its power) over the last 6 years to raise the costs of running a business. Between the EPA, the NLRB, Obamacare, the IRS and the other government agencies, this administration has declared war on business and then when they get the expected results point the finger at "greedy businesses" instead of at the mirror.

I may just have to get lunch at McDs tomorrow...

What is truth?

Another outstanding presentation by Andrew Klavan and Bill Whittle.

Einstein refrigerator

The Einstein–Szilard or Einstein refrigerator is an absorption refrigerator which has no moving parts, operates at constant pressure, and requires only a heat source to operate. It was jointly invented in 1926 by Albert Einstein and his former student Leó Szilárd and patented in the US on November 11, 1930.

How neat is that! A refrigerator with no moving parts.

Also.

And here...

ObamaCare Fun Fact #1947 (no subsidies for you)

All the millions of people who signed up for Obamacare on the federal exchange — and the true numbers were disputed — expecting to get tax credits as subsidies now will not get those subsidies.

Consumers who purchased health plans on an insurance exchange run by the federal government would see an average premium increase of 76 percent if the plaintiffs prevail over the Obama administration, according to Avalere Health….

The ObamaCare law (remember Nancy "we have to pass it to know what is in it" Pelosi) specifically states that the tax credits for insurance from the ObamaCare exchanges are only for those exchanges set up "by the states". The D.C. court has ruled that because of this specific wording, insurance purchased from the Federal exchange is not eligible for those tax credits / subsidies. So anyone purchasing health insurance from the exchange, in states that did not setup their own exchanges, "no credit for you". This will likely be appealed but it is the word of the law so unless Roberts decides to just make shit up again, another law will need to be passed to fix this "issue".

As expected "Obama administration says health care subsidies will keep flowing despite court decision." the king will not be denied. The law is for the "little people".

An Open Letter to Attorney General Eric Holder

“You are the first attorney general in the history of the United States to be held in contempt of Congress. This had nothing to do with your skin color, and everything to do with your failure to explain how the United States government provided guns to Mexican drug cartels that were eventually used to kill Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in 2010. This story may have disappeared from the headlines, but many of your fellow citizens are still upset our federal government would ever give guns to foreign criminals. Compounding this tragic error, neither you nor anyone else in the administration has explained what happened the night Terry lost his life. All we really know is that he was at the wrong end of a gun you approved handing over to drug dealers.”

That's right, it is not about race!

King Obama decrees again...

The law is what Obama says it is regardless of any silly words on paper.

The administration just took Obamacare away from the territories

The Obama administration just gave a Obamacare waiver to all US territories. How nice of them. In addition:

“The Department is committed to working with states and the U.S. territories in order to implement the health care law in a way that maximizes coverage options for consumers," the spokesman said. "As such, we are providing additional flexibility to the territories in order to implement the law in a way that recognizes their unique situations.”

Its good to be the king!

The true cost of a cheeseburger?

Here is an article in the NYT that discusses the "true" cost of a cheeseburger. In includes gems like:

...certainly not a consequence of selling harmful food at addictively low prices.

So now low prices are additive

it certainly isn’t the sum of the costs to the world; those true costs are much greater than the price.

Didn't you know that the dollar menu cheeseburger you just got from McDs affects the WORLD! You hater!

If we acknowledge how much burgers really cost us we might either consume fewer, or force producers to pick up more of the charges or — ideally — both.

The burger "actually" costs me exactly what I paid for it.

The big-ticket externalities are carbon generation and obesity.

There it is! The stable of the left, carbon foot prints! How DARE you engage in something that does not 100% account for the carbon foot print!

The cost of this carbon is hard to nail precisely, but the government’s official monetary valuation of greenhouse gas pollution is roughly $37 per metric ton of CO2 emissions. Many experts, however, double that rate; others multiply it nearly tenfold. So the monetary value of the carbon emissions produced by the average cheeseburger might range from 15 cents (the official government rate), to 24 cents (conservative independent sources) and $1.20 (high independent). The average of these three estimates comes out to 53 cents per burger.

So, when we can't place an exact number on something, we just make shit up! We then include the made up shit in our average so that we can skew the average high! How nice.

There’s some evidence that red meat intake may increase risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality, but like many of the speculative externalities discussed below, it’s impossible to assign a cost to this.

Again, there is a cost cause there might be a link cause it seems like there should be, cause some feel it is so cause darn it, may, might, could...

Correlation is not causation, of course, and it seems likely that foods high in sugar and other hyperprocessed carbohydrates are most responsible for high obesity rates, but burgers certainly played a role in rising caloric intake.

Correlation is not causation. Darn, accidentally included an actual fact! Don't worry, we will ignore it with the venerable "but"...

Some other costs are only vaguely calculable, and we have numbers, but the ranges are so great that they’re useless; what matters, though, is that the numbers are above zero.

Seems like most of what is included here falls into the "vaguely calculable" bucket and they were included so why stop? Is it because if you said the "real costs", the "social costs" of a burger were $1000 per instead of $4, you would be laughed at outright instead of in secret?

So what is the answer? He doesn't say but one can guess. If the "true cost" of a burger is more, why lets put a "social costs" surcharge on burgers and give the extra $4 per to the government cause they are just so good at managing the money they get now. What does it matter that this is all fluff, it is working so well for the "carbon credits" scam, why not try it here too? Who cares that the will reduce the food options for millions of low income people, they have proven (by buying these things) that they are not responsible enough to have this choice. The Government will, heck MUST step in and help them make the right choice.

God these people are insufferable! I wish it were possible to give them a taste of the world they want without dragging the rest of us into it.

The great civility of liberals

Virginia Democrat Offers Reward For Nude Photos of Big Game Hunting Texas Tech Cheerleader Kendall Jones…

Mike Dickinson, the Virginia liberal Democrat seeking the House seat currently held by Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., despite not being on the ballot, offered a $100,000 reward for nude photos and videos of Kendall Jones, the 19-year-old Texas Tech cheerleader who recently made news with a series of hunting photos on her Facebook page.

Yep, the Democrats are the "nice" and "civil" folks while the conservatives and Tea Party folks are knuckle dragging racists.

Trey Gowdy verses the IRS Commisioner at Congressional Hearing

Koskinen needs to be ripped a new one. The emails are "lost" even though there are specific policies on records and communications retention. The IRS would not accept that excuse from a citizen, it definitely should not work for them.

The WH was not involved, I call BS!

Weird Government: EPA Employees Told to Stop Pooping in the Hallway

EPA Employees Told to Stop Pooping in the Hallway

You read that right! A Deputy Regional Administrator was forced to send an email to EPA employees of Region 8 in Denver, Colo. warning them that defecating in the hallways was a health and safety issue and that it needed to stop immediately.

Obama wants to raise the minimum wage...

Congressional Budget Office released a report stating that raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 would help bring 900,000 people above the poverty level–at a loss of over 500,000 American jobs by 2016.

As a group, workers with increased earnings would pay more in taxes and receive less in federal benefits of certain types than they would have otherwise. However, people who became jobless because of the minimum-wage increase, business owners, and consumers facing higher prices would see a reduction in real income and would collectively pay less in taxes and receive more in federal benefits than they would have otherwise.

But, but, but it FEELS right to raise the minimum wage! Even though economists have stated that increasing the minimum wage will cost jobs, raise prices and increase government assistance outlays this NEEDS TO BE DONE because we have to do something!

Never mind that the something to do is never less government or less regulations so that business can create more and better paying jobs.

If raising the minimum wage was as simple as simple passing a law, why stop at raising the minimum wage to $10.10? Why not raise it to $20 or $30 or even $40 an hour? If (as liberals think) there is no cost to raising the minimum wage, that the only reason businesses pay minimum wage is due to greed, then really raise it. Raise it to $50 per hour. They won't do that though because if you say that, even a liberal understands that raising the minimum to $50 is ridiculous. They are just unable, intellectually to apply that same thought process to smaller rate increases. The get the absurdity of it but don't really (nor want to) understand why that is.

A business will pay its workers the minimum it can get away with while ensuring that it gets workers of sufficient quality to maintain the business at the desired level of production / quality. The more skilled the employees need to be and the more rare those skills are, the higher the wages need to be to get and retain that level of employee. Nuclear power plant technicians make more than burger flippers because the skill set needed to be the technician is far greater than the burger flipper and the pool of available employees is greater for the burger flipper. Forcing the employer to artificially pay more for the burger flipper than he or she is worth is a waste of money that would otherwise be allocated more efficiently. This is money that is not spent on hiring additional employees, upgrading equipment, paying more skilled workers more money to retain them or increased profits that go to the business owner or stockholders resulting in those stakeholders being able to increase their own savings or spending.

This is basic economics. That this reality is ignored by our elected representatives demonstrates a critical ignorance of economics and business reality in our political class or a crass moral outlook that places political expedience ahead of the actual welfare of the citizens of this country. I am afraid that these possibilities are not mutually exclusive.

More IRS stonewalling

Watch these videos of IRS Commissioner John Koskinen in front a congressional committee. These interactions sum up the issue fairly well. Watch and then decide if you agree with the White House and the MSM that "there is no scandal here".

Jason Mattera, ‘You magnificent bastard’!

Jason Mattera, author and Daily Surge publisher caught up with Hillary Clinton and asked her to sign a copy of her book “Hard Choices”. He asks her to sign it for Christopher Stevens. Priceless!

Branco Cartoon – Men Overboard

Original available here...

And as a follow-on, Taliban-Bergdahl swap unpopular, so … blame Hagel

According to Buck McKeon, the chairman of the House Armed Services committee, the Obama administration’s briefers told [t]he gathered House members that the person responsible for the decision to make the deal was not President Obama but Chuck Hagel, the secretary of defense.

The administration’s claim that Hagel, not Obama, made the decision is at odds with what Hagel himself said on Meet the Press on June 1. “I signed off on the decision,” Hagel said. “The president made the ultimate decision.”

Taliban: Thank you President Obama!

A commander still with the Taliban, meanwhile, says the exchange of Bergdahl for five Taliban leaders gives the movement legitimacy and has boosted morale among the hundreds of fighters under his command. The prisoner exchange "shows we are able to deal directly with the Americans and also successfully," he tells Reuters.

Fighters rushed to capture Bergdahl after villagers informed them of his presence, and he was found walking alone, acting strangely, and cursing his fellow Americans, one commander tells NBC.

So President Obama traded 5 important Taliban leaders for one Army deserter. Just the latest "brilliant" decision in a presidency filled with brilliant decisions...

How many "strawmen" can Obama pack into one speech?

It sure looks like he was going for a personal best with this speech at West Point.

Not sure exactly who he was posturing against but he sure lined up the straw men for himself to knock down.

• He argues that America has never been stronger "relative to the other countries" in the world and "those that speak of America's decline are wrong". Sorry but those two are not mutually exclusive. America can be stronger then ever "compared to all other current countries" as well as have much less standing in the world than in the past. The country is in decline. Deficits are larger than ever. Regulations are more oppressive. Opportunities are less. The President has managed to upset nearly all of our allies and has shown himself to be soft to all of America's enemies.
• He also continues with (what everyone perceives as) an empty threat against Iran and its nuclear program. That ship has sailed. Iran knows full well that the President has no will to do anything and is simply posturing so that when Israel does have to do something, he has cover.

Obama has zero credit internationally. Kerry has zero credit internationally. Hillary has zero credit internationally. For that matter you could say the same for all three nationally.

Google, whatever happened to "Don't be evil"?

Today Google chooses to honor the marine biologist and “Silent Spring” author Rachel Carson. What happened to Google's motto of "don't be evil"? Because of Rachel Carson's radical environmentalism, millions of children have died from malaria and other mosquito born illnesses.

Her book was based on shoddy science and was more a story than documentation but as a story, it succeeded. It helped end the availability of the best weapon against the mosquito, DDT. There was and is scant real evidence that DDT was the cause of any of the issues described in her book. Its banning was an over-reaction to faulty science and and an interesting story that resulted in millions of people paying for her prose with their lives.

While critics of Silent Spring have tended to focus on the one-sidedness of Rachel Carson’s case or on those of her claims that have not held up over time, the fraudulence of Silent Spring goes beyond mere cherry-picking or discredited data: Carson abused, twisted, and distorted many of the studies that she cited, in a brazen act of scientific dishonesty. So the real tragic irony of the millions of deaths to malaria in the past several decades is that the three central anti-DDT claims made by Carson and other activists are all false.

For Google to honer her in this way is a travesty.

Is this still America?

A chilling message from the cartels: Billboards with hanging mannequins warning cops to choose 'silver over lead' appear in Texas

So we now have the Mexican drug cartels blatantly threatening US law enforcement to except bribes or die. But according to the Democrats we don't have a border problem. We don't have an immigration problem. We don't have a crime problem. We need to reduce our immigration restrictions, open our borders and stop deporting illegals.

In fact it seems that the only things the US Government wants to deport are German homeschoolers and guns (fast-n-furious anyone).

Howard Dean: “Republicans Aren’t American!”

So Howard Dean who represents the Democratic party (you would be hard pressed to argue otherwise) has stated that Republicans are not American. What was their (our?) great crime? Wanting a more honest and fair election process. You know, simple things like asking for a photo ID, like nearly every other country that has a public vote requires.

To Democrats any tightening of the voting process, in order to keep it honest is oppression. According to Democrats, there is no voter fraud. None what so ever. Nope, never happens. It is all a right wing lie!

French say world to end in 500 days!

In two languages, French Foreign Minister Lauren Fabius started the countdown Tuesday to climate change disaster, speaking in Washington before a meeting with American counterpart Secretary of State John Kerry.

“We have 500 days to avoid the climate chaos,” Fabius said in French.

 “And we have – as I said, we have 500 days to avoid climate chaos, and I know that President Obama and John Kerry himself are committed on this subject and I’m sure that with them, with a lot of other friends, we shall be able to reach success on this very important matter.”

OK, he didn't actually say the world will end in 500 days but he did pin an actual, near-term number on the count down to a "climate change disaster". So there will be calamity in 16 months.

So, build your ark and/or finish your prep cause according to the the French, the end is now...

In news of the impossible: Homeowner uses AR-15 to defend himself

Homeowner uses AR-15 to repel invader armed with pistol.

Can't be true! Must be a lie! Democrats and the gun-control lobby tell us that those evil looking, military style, black, "assault" rifles are NEVER used for hunting or self defense. Never, ever, ever!

Despicable Me

Young Gru: Mom, someday, I'm going to go to the moon.

Gru's Mom: I'm afraid you're too late, son. NASA isn't sending the monkeys anymore.

 

Incredible Watch Accurately Shows Solar System’s Movements On Your Wrist

This watch includes the 6 inner most planets on its face and the orbits are correct (i.e. takes the Earth one year to make a complete revolution on the watch). What an incredible feat of design and execution! This link includes more information including a video about the watch.

Holocaust Assignment gets Railto Unified School District in Hot Water

The school district says the purpose of the assignment is to help students develop critical thinking skills, and debate whether the Holocaust was a "propaganda tool that was used for political and monetary gain."

In an essay, students were asked to research the Holocaust and argue whether or not they believe it was real or fictional.

Right, because this topic is subject to "interpretation" and reasoned debate. It is not "settled" like Man Made Global Warming which [everyone who is anyone knows] is "settled science" and no more debate is needed.

The Fletcher Capstan Table

This is a very interesting table design, the table increases in size simply by rotating the top. The table leafs are hidden within the table where they appear and disappear as you spin the top.

The Second Amendment according to Common Core

In textbooks approved by Common Core, the Second Amendment is described as:

1) The Second Amendment: The people have the right to keep and bear arms in a state militia.

2) This amendment states that people have the right to certain weapons, providing that they register them and they have not been in prison. The founding fathers included this amendment to prevent the United States from acting like the British who had tried to take weapons away from the colonists.

These are just two examples of how common core is both "dumbing down" the second amendment as well as trying to redefine what it actually says and means, even as the Supreme Court has upheld it original meaning.

When the left can't get what it wants through laws, they try the courts. When they can't get what they want through the courts, they go to media and education. If generations are raised on ignorance of their rights, they won't miss them. For the left today, all belongs to the State except what the State allows you to keep.

Benghazi, Obama's Watergate but Worse!

Remember, no one died in Watergate.

With the release of new emails it is spectacularly worse — so bad in fact that it has made a full investigation with an impeachment trial necessary for the protection of our republic.

Previously unreleased internal Obama administration emails show that a coordinated effort was made in the days following the Benghazi terror attacks to portray the incident as “rooted in [an] Internet video, and not [in] a broader failure or policy.”

The levels of criminality involved in this are mind-boggling.  Everyone from Ben Rhodes to Hillary Clinton to Jay Carney to Susan Rice to Mike Morell to Barack Obama and on and on must explain themselves minute-by-minute. American “liberals” and their media consorts should search their souls. People died here.

And in closing, I could not have said it better:

Anyone who now considers Benghazi a “fake scandal” is a either a complete liar or a moron.

Democratic Fundraiser Pleads Guilty

A wealthy hotel executive and Democratic fundraiser who supported Hilary Clinton for president pleaded guilty Thursday to charges he secretly funneled more than $180,000 in illegal campaign contributions to three unnamed candidates and coached someone to lie about it.

Magnetically Actuated Micro-Robots

Wong-Foy’s robotic workers have already proved capable of building towers 30 centimeters long from carbon rods, and other platforms able to support a kilogram of weight. The robots can work with glass, metal, wood, and electronic components. In one demonstration, they made a carbon truss structure with wires and colored LEDs mixed in to serve as the lab’s Christmas tree.

Video: When Will I See You Again? by The Three Degrees

Just a good song...

$0.77 gender wage gap a myth, admits White House

“Seventy-seven cents captures the annual earnings of full-time, full-year women divided by the annual earnings of full-time, full-year men,” Stevenson clarified. “There are a lot of things that go into that 77-cents figure, there are a lot of things that contribute and no one’s trying to say that it’s all about discrimination, but I don’t think there’s a better figure.”

For years, the White House and others have continued to push the "women make $0.77 for every dollar that men make" AND claim that this discrepancy is due to gender discrimination even though that claim has been debunked almost since the moment it was first used. Well the White House has finally admitted that this "gap" is not the result of discrimination and is not a "apples to apples" comparison.

It has been shown time and again that when you properly account for occupation, experience and education there is NO gender wage gap. It does no good to compare ALL women's salaries to ALL men's salaries because generally, men and women do jobs in different ratios. There are more women nurses than men. There are more men as garbage men then women. These different careers pay different scales based on market demands. Additionally, women spend more time (generally) out of the work force then men as a lot of women take time out of their careers having kids. This affects their length of experience. The Democrats know this just as well as we do but they continue to say it because it makes a good sound bite and too many people don't question it.

I strongly suspect this brief interlude of honesty will not last and before long both the White House and Democrats will be back with the this old, worn lie.

Has the EPA been doing illegal human experiments for years?

Either the EPA is sponsoring horrific human experiments, or they are lying to the Congress about the toxicity of air pollution.

If the testimony in Congress by Ms. Jackson and the opinion of Jon Samet are sincerely held they are committing a criminal unethical and immoral act by exposing unknowing individuals to lethal. harmful or carcinogenic air pollutants in violation of American and International Law.


Either the EPA is lying about the toxicity of small particle air pollution which is a fraud on the citizens and misconduct in a position of trust.

OR

The EPA is funding and sponsoring and Medical Schools are complicit in unethical and immoral/illegal human experiments.


What’ll it be?

Yes, which is it? Is the EPA complicit in illegal human experimentation or have they lied for years about the dangers of small particle are pollution?

Yet another Obamacare success?

After spending over $300 million on its exchange, the state of Oregon has failed to enroll a single person online.

Somewhere along the way Oregon managed to sign up 44 people for Obamacare, but not through the internet.

Whats $300 million among friends, right?

President Obama "“It's a website where you can compare and purchase affordable health insurance plans, side-by-side, the same way you shop for a plane ticket on Kayak, same way you shop for a TV on Amazon.”

Except its not.

After months of scandal, Maryland to scrap its $125.5 million state health exchange which won praise from President Obama.

Yesterday, after spending at least $125.5 million on its design and implementation, the Washington Post reported Maryland state officials have deemed the site “broken beyond repair,” and will scrap the entire project.

This could be said for the entire "Obamacare" project except the money spend was / is way, WAY more and more people got hurt and the folks (Democrats) that voted for this fiasco still have not admitted defeat. Why should they? They still have more of our money to spend on it.

Someone who’s not "David Gregory" convicted of stupid DC gun law violation

Mr. Witaschek’s court proceedings, which to date have spanned nearly two years and now appear likely to continue into the appellate stage.

the case centered on a single inert piece of ammunition, which rested on Mr. Witascheck’s desk in the District

the saboted lead balls have no powder or propellant attached, so are not “live…”

The primer on the shotgun shell had already been struck by the firing pin. Mr. Witaschek kept the misfired shell on his home office desk as a memento from a hunt.

Ultimately, Mr. Witaschek was sentenced to time served, a $50 fine, and is required to enroll with the Metropolitan Police Department’s firearm offenders’ registry within 48 hours.

So, David Gregory (and his associates) specifically asked if they could possess and show an illegal 30 round magazine on TV while filming in D.C., were told NO, did it anyway and face no repercussions for their clearly illegal act but a man with unusable ammunition components that he did not know were illegal has to spend 2 years and unknown dollars fighting this stupidity and is still convicted.

It was later determined by the Office of Attorney General, in no uncertain terms, that Gregory and NBC clearly violated D.C. laws by possessing the magazine. The MPD delivered a Warrant and supporting Affidavit to OAG, a document OAG has refused to provide to Legal Insurrection in response to our Freedom of Information Act request, and which we are now fighting in court (with the help of Judicial Watch) to obtain.

Notwithstanding this determination that Gregory and NBC News violated the law, the OAG opted not to prosecute Gregory or anyone at NBC because, among other things, “prosecution would not promote public safety in the District of Columbia nor serve the best interests of the people of the District to whom this office owes its trust.”

I wonder what could have caused the "book" to be thrown at Mr. Witaschek but Mr. Gregory gets completely off even though Gregory was warned what he was planning on doing was against the law but chose to do it anyway? It could not have had anything to do with Mr. Gregory's politics and public profile, could it? No, that is just crazy talk... 

Tiananmen Square

I was thinking on "true to power" the other day and how the modern left with their various causes fend at being "the little guy" going up against "the man". With their various "slut walks" and "OWS" type events, they get all puffed up. Look at us, look at how brave we are. Poppy cock! It is not brave to shout at groups or businesses or even politicians in America. You will not get dragged off to a small, dark cell.

The gentleman in the photo (on June 5, 1989) was brave. He was literally "speaking truth to power". He faced death, lifetime imprisonment, torture, only the Lord knows what, for following his conscience and standing in front of that tank (and tank column).

The other hero in this picture is the driver of that tank. He was very likely given orders to push on but he stopped. He took as big a risk or maybe bigger in not moving forward. As a military man, he likely disobeyed a direct order and may have been killed for that.

There are conflicting stories of the fate of the individuals involved, mostly the civilian. He is either free and in hiding, in prison, or executed. He is either known or not known. There appears to be no information on the solders in the tank.

I do wonder what really happened to these two heroes of that day, the citizen with his groceries and the solder in the tank. That sort of bravery deserves to be remembered.

Frozen pink dwarf planet spotted beyond Pluto

This is the third such dwarf planet discovered in recent years. Until recently, scientists thought that this area of space (just outside our solar system) was void of objects of any size but now, after this third discovery are re-assessing that theory.

Also mentioned in this article: In a separate discovery published in Nature, a team led by Felipe Braga-Ribas of the National Observatory in Brazil found a pair of rings around an asteroid-like interloper in the outer system named Chariklo.

Other than the gas giants, this is the first object found that also supports rings.

A (brief) history of the lawless ACA

Here is a (partial?) chronological list of the various delays and waivers of the ACA law by the Whitehouse that occurred WITHOUT authority as the Whitehouse does not have the right to change law, only the responsibility to enforce the law.

• Nov. 15, 2012: Exchange deadline delayed. The Department of Health and Human Services gave states an extra month to decide whether they would set up their own health insurance exchanges — a decision they announced just one day before the original deadline.
• July 2: Employer mandate delayed. The administration declared that it wouldn't enforce the fines in 2014 for businesses with more than 50 full-time workers who don’t offer health coverage. The fines were pushed back to 2015.
• Nov. 21: Open enrollment delayed for 2015. The administration pushed back next year’s enrollment season by a month.
• Nov. 27: SHOP delayed. Online enrollment for the federal health insurance exchanges for small businesses was delayed.
• Dec 12: Enrollment deadline extended. Customers on the federal enrollment website were given nearly two more weeks to sign up for coverage effective Jan. 1.
• Dec. 24: Enrollment deadline extended. In a message on HealthCare.gov, customers were told they could get help finishing their Jan. 1 applications if they were already in line on Dec. 24.
• Jan. 14: High risk pools extended. The high-risk insurance pools, which originally had been slated to close Jan. 1, had already been extended once.
• Feb. 10: Employer mandate delayed. This time, businesses with between 50 and 100 workers were given until 2016 to offer coverage, and the mandate will be phased in for employers with more than 100 workers.
• March 14: High risk pools extended. The special, temporary coverage for people with serious pre-existing conditions — which was only supposed to last until the health insurance exchanges were in place — was extended a third time for another month.
• March 25: Final enrollment deadline extended. The March 31 deadline — the end of enrollment for 2014 — will be loosened for people with special sign-up circumstances.

So much for the ACA being the law of the land, it is more like silly putty, to be stretched and pulled however Obama feels is convenient!

More "But there is no such thing as voter fraud!"

Last week Al Sharpton embraced convicted vote fraudster Melowese Richardson at a “voting rights” rally in Cincinnati. The United States Department of Justice under Eric Holder has done nothing to Melowese Richardson 410 days after she admitted on camera that she committed multiple federal felonies by voting six times for President Obama’s reelection.

Voting is both a right and a privilege. If you don't "feel" like going through the effort to vote on election day, you don't care enough to vote. The voting window should be reduced and absentee voting should be more tightly controlled / restricted. It is a disgrace that Iraq can run a cleaner vote that we can in America.

You Can't Tell the Players without a Score Card

Why would the Washington Post embarrass itself by republishing a thoroughly discredited attempt to link the Koch brothers to the Keystone Pipeline? Because that is a Democratic Party talking point, and the Post is a Democratic Party newspaper. But the truth is a little worse than that. 

Who is Post reporter Juliet Eilperin? Among other things, she is married to Andrew Light, who writes on climate policy for the Center for American Progress. The Center for American Progress is an Obama administration front group headed by John Podesta, who is a “special advisor” to the Obama administration. CAP’s web site, Think Progress, has carried out a years-long vendetta against the Koch brothers that has focused largely on the environment. Ms. Eilperin’s conflict in writing about environmental issues has already been a subject of controversy at the Post. The paper’s ombudsman should examine this latest example of Ms. Eilperin throwing facts to the winds in her eagerness to promote her (and her husband’s) far-left agenda.

And there it is...

File Under the "what the hell were they thinking" Department

Abortion nonprofit rewards donors with horrific ‘token of thanks’...

Talk about mistaken "optics", this is just plain twisted. For now, the original web page is still up at this link so that you can see that this is real. I think I understand what they are trying to say but their choice of visual is so off that I can not believe someone within their organization didn't try to stop this. Regardless of how you personally feel on this subject, I know their "intent" is / was to keep this procedure safe but their choice of "gift" appears to be glorifying this practice and making light of the procedure.

I think that this is an occasionally medically necessary procedure that has been elevated to the feminist's version of the Holy Grail. At its foundation, this is the destroying of another human life. Making this "choice" is a terrible burden on a woman and these sorts of "antics" make light of what SHOULD be a wrenching decision. A woman should not be approaching this decision with the same sort of flippant attitude that goes into selecting a lipstick color. Far too many of these procedures occur in this country. Fortunately, overall the yearly incidents are down but sorry, "fewer than last year" is just not good enough. The right answer is "only as many as was necessary and no more".

Some would say that I have no standing as am not a woman. If that is the case then there would be no standing for the ASPCA either. Having the right to do something does not make doing that thing right.

Video: Lay Down by Melanie (Safka)

Really great song and a fantastic voice!

Melanie does this version with the Edwin Hawkins Singers

But there is no such thing as voter fraud!

Pia Farrenkopf, shown in a high school photo, on Wednesday was found mummified inside her garage of her Pontiac, Mich., home. She’s believed to have died in 2008 — but voting records show she cast a ballot in 2010.

I wonder what the odds are that it was a straight "D" party line vote...

Obamacare...

Stunning new details concerning the disastrous launch of Obamacare in Massachusetts — released by state health officials only after persistent inquiries by the Herald — reveal what experts say are even more alarming calamities in the early development of the failed website than previously reported.

The new findings come as the Connector is seeking to project an image of greater transparency and openness as it scrambles to enroll Bay Staters in health insurance. That made the unearthing of the report all the more troubling to Gonser.

Branco Cartoon – Running Interference

#greenfail

Report: DC’s green-approved buildings using more energy

But, but, but WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING! ANYTHING! The world is DYING and you JUST DON'T CARE!

Who cares if it is the wrong thing, or the inefficient thing, or the too costly thing. It is all about a) being able to SAY you did SOMETHING and b) if you can stick it to those evil corporations in the process, you get bonus points.

The only reason the world can support a bunch of whinny, b*tchy, environmentally conscientious, (and let us not forget) power hungry, busybody nut jobs is because of the society that is made possible by capitalism and Democracy.

These busybodies "feel" that everyone should be working to save the planet, that everyone should be earning a "living wage" (whatever the hell that is), that everyone should have "affordable housing" or "affordable healthcare" and all sorts of other things that are described in these vague, malleable terms that give them the maneuvering room to never have to call their crusade "done".

In this case/example it is a bunch of green building initiatives that are directed at saving energy and reducing our "carbon footprint". Of course it increases the costs of construction and there are the extra permits and fees and assessments and evaluations and all sorts of other things that are not free. What does it matter that the results of all of this "effort" is a more expensive and less efficient building? At lest we care! We did SOMETHING! Our conscience is clear and we can sleep at night. What does it matter that the result is worst that if we had done nothing at all and everyone had continued with the status quo?

If the world could be powered by smug, there would be no energy worries.

Do you think there is much concern for the environment when you are worried about keeping your family from starving? Do you think there is much concern for what is dumped into the rivers when you don't even have electricity? If you have to spend all of your time and energy staying alive, you have no time for feel good, "do something, do anything" activities. These things are only possible because a certain critical mass of the population does not have to be involved in a daily life or death struggle. That this situation is the case is a good thing. that this situation is used by those that think they know better than everyone else and "believe" that they should be telling everyone else what to do is the shame of it all.

They are no more than flees on society's back and could they but be shaken off, we would all be the better for it.

BridgeGate!

I just saw (yet another) news story on the NJ BridgeGate scandal. Oh the horrors! So, this is the most important story for the Saturday morning, national news to cover? What about Benghazi? We still have not found out who gave the stand-down order, even after all this time. We still don't know where the President was that night. We still don't know [officially] why a video was blamed for the attack even though documents (that were finally) released show that the administration KNEW that it was a terrorist attack and not a "spontaneous demonstration because of an offensive video" as they repeatedly said.

We still don't know a lot of things about this administration and what they are doing with: Obamacare, Fast n Furious, Benghazi, the NSA, the IRS scandal, etc., etc., etc. but all of the major news networks will leave no rock unturned to get to the bottom of a staffer of the NJ Governor (who has already been fired) working to get a little political payback against a local Mayor.

Sad...

Harry Reid: All Obamacare horror stories are lies!

That is right, according to Harry Reid, ALL Obamacare horror stories are lies! All those stories about people that got their insurance cancelled, lies. All those stories about increases in premiums, lies. All those stories about loosing your doctor and your treatments, lies. Hey America, you are all just a bunch of HATERS and LIARS according to Harry Reid.

He just can't imagine, in his safe bubble of entitled politician privileges that regular folks actual have an issue with being denied care, denied their doctors and being denied a policy due to the law that we just had "to pass in order to see what was in it". What was it the President said? "If you like your plan you can keep your plan, period!" and "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor, period!". When that turned out to just not be so, instead of an "oops, sorry", we got "it was a junk plan anyway, not a real plan". Well it was real enough for those folks that had them and were paying on them. Now that the exchanges are a disaster and the new plans are crap, as the reality of Obamacare comes to light, Harry says you are all just lying liars.

P.S. In case you all didn't know, according to Harry, all of these EVIL lies are being financed by those EVIL Koch brothers! Lets ignore all of the millions and millions of dollars that Soros spends on left wing policies and politics, no, let us instead focus on the drips of money that come from the Koch brothers. Harry, you are either too ignorant to have your job or a lying crook. Which is it?

Can, you know, can you tell the truth and be fair?

This is an older video but still funny and still on point.

[Wrap up of segment on getting out of jury duty.]
Diane Sawyer: "You know, I wanted to sit on a jury once and I was taken off the jury. And the judge said to me, 'Can, you know, can you tell the truth and be fair?' And I said, 'That's what journalists do.' And everybody in the courtroom laughed. It was the most hurtful moment I think I've ever had.

Short answer: Sometimes the truth hurts.

I find it quite funny that she does not understand why everyone laughed! They really are that clueless...

Video: Oooh Child by The Five Stairsteps

Great song...

Branco Cartoon – What Difference Does it Make?

by A.F. Branco

Today is "White House Equal Pay Day"

Today is the day, in 2014 that women staff of the White House have to work to earn as much as male staff did in 2013. So much for the Democrat "War on Women" mime that it is all the evil GOP oppressing women.

Though the president is quick to trot out the easily disproved "fact" that women only earn $0.70 for every $1 that a man earns, the White House is the exception that makes the rule. Women there actually DO earn less than men ($0.88 for every $1 a man earns).

It is easy to poke fun at the White House for this but in all seriousness, there could be legitimate reasons for this discrepancy. The male staffers could be more experienced. They could actually work longer hours or have greater responsibilities. They could be better negotiators. The point is, if there is a valid reason for this difference at the White House, why can there not be valid reasons at other places where there is a straight dollar for dollar difference? Why is the White House given a pass but no other business?

If the Founders of Feminism Could See it Now...

Take this feminism test at this link. It is 5 samples of feminism at work today, one of which is a made up story. See if you can tell which one. It won't take long, I will wait...

I believe that the real leaders in the original feminist movement would be appalled at where their movement is today. What started out as a struggle for fair and equal treatment and to be given the opportunity to try for a thing, not an unequal leg up or hand-out but the honest and fair opportunity to earn "it" ("it" being what ever a woman wanted to try that was at one time not available to her because she was a woman) has morphed into this thing that is demonstrated by the examples at the above link is disgusting.

This week, at the winter Olympic games, women are competing in ice hockey, at the ski jump and other sports that just a few years ago they were barred from. Things like those, allowing women the opportunity to try to anything, to earn their right to be anything, is what Feminism was about. Today it is more and more a group of perpetually aggrieved, delicate little hot house flowers that read slights into every action and event for the purpose of gnashing their teeth and crying "poor me".

I am not sure which is worst, the fact that these women get any attention at all for these rants or that this "philosophy" is actively promoted in higher education and that students go into debt to be subjected to this warped thinking.

Shameful and disgusting.

eMail Joke: Disown me, please

A man was telling his buddy "You won't believe what happened last night. My daughter walked into the living room and said, "Dad, cancel my allowance immediately, forget my college tuition loan, rent my room out, throw all my clothes out the window, take my TV and my laptop. Please take any of my jewelry to the Salvation Army or Cash Converters. Then, sell my car, take my front door key away from me and throw me out of the house. Then, disown me and never talk to me again. Don't forget to write me out of your will and leave my share to any charity you choose."

"Holy Smokes," replied the friend, "she actually said that?"

"Well, she didn't put it quite like that. She actually said, 'Dad, meet my new boyfriend-- Mohammed. We're going to work together on Hillary's election campaign!'"

Your federal government at work.

Justice Department lawyer Bradley Heard was in court today trying to stop Kansas from ensuring that only citizens register to vote.

So, not only do Democrats want felons, the dead and illegals to vote (and vote often) by fighting any/all voter ID laws but they also want to make it so it does not matter. To allow foreigners to be able to register to vote as well. If they are on the rolls, you can't stop them from voting...

Sweet Irony

Really, did Woman's Day magazine really give Bill Clinton their "Red Dress" award?

Had it been the "blue dress" award, they could have had Monica present it!

Where is the justice?

Eight Police Officers Fire 103 Times At Two Unarmed Women Delivering Newspapers . . . Commission Rejects Calls For Any Officer To Be Fired Or Even Suspended

Let’s recap what these officers did and will now only be required to take a little more training. Police were searching for Dorner. Two women happened by the police delivering newspapers in a blue Toyota Tacoma pickup truck. (Dorner was driving a charcoal Nissan Titan pickup truck). Without clear identification and without any appearance of a weapon, the police fired 103 times at the truck. 

A Commission has now completed its investigation of the officers and found that the officers were not a serious fault in trying to kill two innocent unarmed women and unleashing a wall of lead on a vehicle.

So, it is perfectly legal for the police to fire repeatedly at completely innocent and unarmed citizens for no justifiable reason.

I am not sure which is worst. That all eight officers don't even get a slap on the wrist or the fact that they fired 103 times and managed to hit one person, once.

These are the "highly trained professionals" that are to be trusted with guns over me? Really? Oh, and look, the commission found that they did nothing wrong. 103 bullets at innocent people and they did nothing wrong. As others have noted, if a citizen pulls a gun on a cop, even when the cop does not announce themselves, WATCH OUT but they can shoot at citizens with impunity.

So what that they were in an intense situation, that is their job! They voluntarily put themselves into harms way for the privilege of wearing that badge. They are trained to deal with intense situations. This is inexcusable. They should not only be fired but likely brought up on charges for attempted murder.

What a country...