I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO USE FOR THIS CAR, but it sure looks cool.
Archive for 2009
May 15, 2009
WHERE WAS THIS STUFF WHEN I WAS A KID? Some amazing backyard waterslides that I would have killed for. “This personal water park has three slides and inflates in less than 3 minutes.”
UPDATE: A warning from reader Matt Locke that captures the difference between having kids and being one:
Just saw your post on the backyard slides…we bought one 2 summers ago when it was about 98 degrees and humid. I have 4 kids and they love it. The downside…trying to put it away. I easily spend 1 hour trying to fold it and get it into a Rubbermaid container I bought especially for it (forget trying to get it into the bag it came with) and that’s after dragging it to the driveway where I leave inflated for hours to dry off cause if you don’t it kills the grass, and flip it over and over to try and get the water out of the inside as it gets water in there too. I wouldn’t take another one if you gave it to me…but if I was kid, I’d be all over it.
Ugh. Yeah, I see the downside.
THE HILL: Panetta Fires Back at Pelosi. (Via John in North Carolina).
UPDATE: Bill Quick: “Hmm. Panetta is Obama’s guy, installed to prevent the CIA from launching attacks on the president. So this can mean only one thing: Nancy Pelosi is being given a taste of the White House Whipping Stick. Hey, you got any more popcorn over there?”
TAXPROF: Would Obama be fired for audit threats if he worked for the IRS? Obama: “President Crowe and the Board of Regents will soon learn all about being audited by the IRS.”
That’s not really funny, and it’s not as if Obama has done much to enhance the credibility of the tax system so far. . . .
UPDATE: Reader Jay Stannard writes:
I want Obama to threaten me with a tax audit. Please! Because if he does, the IRS will never audit me. I’ll claim it’s politically motivated.
Not as good as Geithner’s protection, but I’ll take it.
Let me know how things work out.
ANN ALTHOUSE ON MILITARY COMMISSIONS, Obama is like Bush. More from Jon Stewart.
CLAUDIA ROSETT: A world sliding into danger.
NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: A nanorod breakthrough.
BUT WILL SOCIALIZED MEDICINE PAY FOR THEM? Tiny implants for treating chronic pain. “A tiny injectable implant, smaller than a grain of rice, might one day take the place of large neural stimulators used to treat chronic pain and other neurological disorders. The novel device, under development by MicroTransponder, a Dallas-based startup, owes its small size to the use of RFID (radio-frequency identification) technology like that used to tag clothes to prevent shoplifting.”
TALKING POINTS MEMO: In Limbo: Dawn Johnsen’s Nomination Stalls Thanks to Democrats. So I guess my efforts to explain to Republicans why they shouldn’t block her have been kind of beside the point . . . .
FASTER, PLEASE: More on prospects for a Star Trek-style warp drive.
HOW ABOUT THAT? Health Care Leaders Say Obama Overstated Their Promise to Control Costs. It’s like you just can’t trust this guy or something.
WHAT DOES “UNSUSTAINABLE” LOOK LIKE?
HALF SIGMA: It’s cheaper to own a car than to use mass transit. Conclusion: “A walkable neighborhood, or an entirely walkable city like Manhattan, is a luxury good for rich people (a luxury good that I personally have been willing to pay for) and not an affordable alternative for regular middle class people, and especially not for regular middle class people with children.”
LIKE A 100 MPG CROC: Foam car to enter Automotive X-Prize competition.
IN THE MAIL: From Ed Husain, The Islamist: Why I Became an Islamic Fundamentalist, What I Saw Inside, and Why I Left.
MICKEY KAUS on the latest immigration developments.
THAT NORMAN HSU Hsure got around. I like the Obama picture. Plus this: “Hsu’s 1,700-square-foot apartment on Wooster Street also boasted a massive, stainless-steel wine cooler in the living room. The walls were hung with photos of a beaming Hsu alongside top-tier Dems, including then-candidate Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy. Hsu, who has confessed to running a Ponzi scheme, is being tried in Manhattan federal court for allegedly channeling illegal campaign contributions through other people.” I guess he’s one of those greedy “speculators” the Obama Administration is warning us about. . . .
UPDATE: Link was wrong before. Fixed now. Sorry!
THE HILL: Reinventing Sen. Chris Dodd:
The Chris Dodd reclamation project is in full swing, but even Dodd admits it’s an iffy proposition. Facing all-time low approval ratings as he heads into the 2010 election, Sen. Dodd (D-Conn.) is reinventing himself to the voters he’s represented for almost 30 years.
The old Chris Dodd would have been on all the cable news and Sunday morning talk shows and shaking hands at glitzy D.C. events. The new Chris Dodd is doing more local events, keeping a low national profile and hoping that he has enough time to recover before Election Day. But he also candidly admits it could be too little, too late. He acknowledges he’s been beaten down pretty hard, and while others say the party is rallying around him, Dodd said he hasn’t made significant progress yet with Connecticut’s voters.
I hope a lot of Connecticut “Tea Party” folks start showing up at those local events.
PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: Obama’s what? “In what meaningful sense has any aspect of Obama’s systematic dismantling of capitalism been conservative?” I’m gobsmacked that anyone would even make that claim.
THE NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIALIZES ON JOHN MURTHA’S SHADY CONNECTIONS: “Mr. Murtha and two subcommittee colleagues, Peter Visclosky of Indiana and James Moran of Virginia, received more than $4 million in campaign contributions from contract hungry PMA Group clients, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. In two recent budgets alone, the three earmarked $137 million for PMA Group clients. It is time to follow the money — all of it.”
CHARLES BABINGTON: Obama’s barbed words worry corporate world. “Relations between President Barack Obama and U.S. corporate leaders have grown tense in recent weeks, with business groups bristling over his sharp rebukes of lenders and multinational companies in particular. Executives and trade groups that praised Obama’s outreach during his post-election transition period say they have felt less welcome since he took office in January.”
Maybe a little due diligence before making all those donations and endorsements would have been a good idea? . . . .
ARE WE HEADING FOR “OBAMALAISE?”
I prefer baconnaise!
BUREAUCRATICS KILLING ASTHMATICS with new CFC-free inhalers. But they’re environmentally friendly!