Archive for 2012
October 5, 2012
BECAUSE SHE HAS ENOUGH MONEY NOT TO WORRY ABOUT FUEL PRICES: Daryl Hannah Arrested in Texas Protesting Pipeline. (And I see from the picture she’s acquiring the weird cat-face of people who have too much plastic surgery. HOW can anyone think that looks good?)
SNACKING TOURISTS FINED AFTER ROME DECLARES ‘WAR ON THE SANDWICH:’ Because “The Battle of the Grains” had already been taken.
CREEPY BUT INTERESTING: Alexander J. Motyl on the moral complexities of Soviet art. I find socialist realist art disturbing on a number of levels, but I have to admit it’s also very engaging to look at. It’s also educational. This is how communists saw themselves, or at least how they wanted to be seen by others. Meanwhile, here’s a striking anti-communist installation in Prague.
OBAMACARE FUN FACT #1: BREASTFEEDING: All employers must now provide a “reasonable break time” and a “private place other than a bathroom” for employees to express breast milk for at least one year after childbirth. Employers with fewer than 50 employees “may” be exempt if they can demonstrate compliance would result in an “undue hardship.” [Section 4207, Affordable Care Act].
Other than a bathroom? So a special breast feeding lounge or something? I have absolutely nothing against breast feeding (quite the contrary), but this is a regulation that the federal government needed to impose on business owners in this economy? Really?
In addition,in defining the “essential health benefits package” that all health insurance policies must offer (under section 1302 of the Act), the Department of Health & Human Services has issued regulations requiring free coverage of breastfeeding supplies and counseling.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Will black voters give Obama what he needs in Southern swing states? “Black voters who do go to the polls are near-certain to vote for Obama. But in Virginia and North Carolina, concern is rising that the black voters who sealed the deal for Obama in 2008 will stay home.”
FIFTY SHADES OF SEX TOYS: Ahhhhh, sweet capitalism. 50 Shades of Grey author, EL James, strikes while the iron is hot (so to speak), partnering with a sex toy manufacturer to offer book-inspired trinkets such as handcuffs, riding crops, and bondage kits.
THE STUPID, THE STUPID, IT BURNS: Apparently Romney’s motorcade passed a hill where someone else was flying a confederate flag. Note how the reporter’s bad grammar biased phrasing implies it was Romney’s motorcade flying the flag. This is how you know they’re not sure of victory. In fact, they’re scared to death. And they should be.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: How To Steal The Space Shuttle: A Step-By-Step Guide.
Hugo Drax could not be reached for comment.
NEW FRONTIERS IN TRAVEL: Fakers Use Wheelchairs to Dodge Airport Lines. “When security lines get long at Kennedy International Airport, workers brace themselves for a rush of wheelchair requests. A lot of passengers have realized that because no actual proof of an ailment is required to request a wheelchair, anyone in a hurry can do so and zip straight to the front of the line.”
THE HISTORY OF DEBATE CONSPIRACY THEORIES, including Mitt Romney’s handkerchief/cheat-sheet, but also including one that I — I’m sorry to say — started.
GENDER, CLASS, HISTORY — EH. I’M SHORT AND I LIKE HIGH HEELS: In fact, there’s a pair of shoes in my closet that looks almost exactly like that picture. And I’ll be skinny enough to wear them again, before I’m too old. Get thee behind me, carbs.
JIM LEHRER THINKS HE DID A FINE JOB MODERATING THE DEBATE. He’s kind of saying I meant to do that: “The moderator should be seen little and heard even less.” But he claims that’s what he’s “always said,” so I’ll believe him. He says he’s glad he “finally I had a chance to demonstrate it.” If that’s a good idea, why not more of it? Sit the 2 men down at a table for 2 hours and see what happens. I’ve seen it done. The moderating effects of no moderator may be greater than anything a real moderator would do. I like that Obama and Romney together spontaneously created the no-moderator effect. It’s a general thought experiment of mine: Start with the premise of nothing. What is better than nothing? Consider the possibility that better than nothing is a high standard. Please perform that thought experiment on all your decisions. Especially if you work for the government.
OBAMA CAMPAIGN ACCUSED OF THREATENING NAACP OFFICIAL FOR CRITICIZING PRESIDENT:
David Lowery, the president of the South Suburban Branch of the NAACP in Chicago, says Louis Raymond, the Illinois political director for Obama’s campaign, threatened him during a recent phone conversation, according to a local news report.
WBBM Newsradio’s Mike Krauser, who first broke the story, reports that the threats came after Lowery told the campaign that he doesn’t “personally support the president because he’s not addressing issues important to the black community.”
According to the report, Raymond, the campaign official, responded: “You know what? I know everything about you. We’ve been watching you, and since you don’t support Obama, we’ll deal with you.”
Lowery filed a police report after the conversation.
The Obama campaign claims Lowery misunderstood the phone conversation.
Perhaps what was said was, “Don’t think we’re not keeping score, brother.”
DESMOND TUTU AND THE JEW-HATERS: “Sorry, Walter, but there’s no reason to believe Tutu didn’t know whom he was in bed with–and many good reasons to believe he approves. The great hero of apartheid has a long and inglorious history of anti-Semitism—as Google auto-fill confirms.”
ROMNEY BACKS OFF 47 PERCENT COMMENT: On the Sean Hannity show last night, Mitt Romney said:
Clearly in a campaign with hundreds, if not thousands, of speeches and question-and-answer sessions, now and then you’re going to say something that doesn’t come out right. In this case, I said something that’s just completely wrong. I absolutely believe, however, that my life has shown that I care about 100 percent and that’s been demonstrated throughout my life.
Probably not a bad strategy to try to put the remark behind him with independent voters who are more receptive to Romney after his stellar debate performance. But of course the comment will be continually resurrected by the Obama campaign, and will certainly come up again in the upcoming VP debate between Biden and Ryan.
RED STATE CALIFORNIA: With gasoline now over $5.00 a gallon in some regions (including a San Jose station I drove by yesterday), “California is now a red state, at least from the perspective of retail gasoline prices,” George Savage writes at Ricochet, linking to the above map of regional gas prices from GasBuddy.com. Why is California gas so expensive?
California has made itself a closed market for auto fuel by mandating expensive seasonal gasoline blends, purportedly to reduce air pollution–nobody ever compares the contribution made by special fuels to those from automotive clean air technology generally. Each seasonal changeover presents one more opportunity for a supply-disrupting refinery mishap and skyrocketing local prices, such as the current fiasco, which is sending local prices to $5 per gallon and climbing.
Of course, gasoline wholesalers in adjoining states would be more than happy to boost their profits by selling to California retailers, reducing our pain at the pump. However, doing so is illegal.
At Power Line, Steve Hayward adds:
But President Obama could order the EPA to waive the gasoline regulations, and allow out-of-state gasoline to be transported and sold in California, delivering at least 10 to 20 cents a gallon of price relief, and perhaps much more. Oh, that’s right: Obama wants higher gasoline prices, [and so does the MSM — Ed] so don’t hold your breath. (Note: After Hurricane Katrina, the Bush administration waived the EPA’s boutique gasoline regulations to assure adequate supplies and stable prices while the Gulf Coast refineries got back up and running.)
Memo to GOP SuperPACs: why not place a few spots on TV in California telling people to “Call the White House: Tell President Obama to give us relief at the pump!”
Incidentally, just a reminder:
NOW THAT IT’S PASSED, NANCY, I FOUND OUT WHAT’S IN IT: Remember former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s comment about Obamacare, “We have to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it”? Well, Nancy, I’ve now finished reading the 2700+ page “Affordable” Care Act. So I’m going to start posting a few of the stranger, little-known provisions for our readers’ enjoyment. I’m going to call them “Obamacare Fun Facts”– because this should be fun. Hold onto your hats, folks.
THEY MUST ALL BE BEHEADED: Riot fear over kinky Last Supper. “An art exhibition showing Jesus as a transvestite surrounded by gay, lesbian and transsexual disciples has been put under armed police guard over fears it could provoke a riot.”
SHE WAS NOT CALLING RYAN OUT: Woman who asked Ryan questions about economic plan shocked to find herself used in Obama statement. And she’d like the president to answer the question Ryan answered. I would love that, too — completely, directly and with no spin, please!
IT’S ILLEGAL TO “DISTURB” A MANATEE: Could someone please pass a law saying that it’s illegal to “disturb” ME? :) A woman in Florida caught frolicking with/riding a manatee finds herself referred for criminal prosecution.
JUST LAUNCHED: The Harvard Conservatives website.
AT AMAZON, it’s the Office Electronics Outlet.
Also, today only: Save up to 40% on Logitech’s Top of the Line Gaming Mouse and Keyboard.
PROGRESSIVE NIRVANA: INALTERABLE, UNACCOUNTABLE “EXPERT” BOARDS: Such as the Independent Payment Advisory Commission (IPAB) that received a good amount of attention in Wednesday’s presidential debate, and is addressed by George Will’s most recent column. Will highlights two extremely bizarre aspects of IPAB that get far too little attention:
(1) The IPAB itself can be disbanded only by a 3/5 supermajority of both houses of Congress, AND
(2) only if the resolution to disband is introduced between Jan. 1- Feb. 1, 2017, and approved (by 3/5) before Aug. 15, 2017. That is a maximum 8.5 month window. After this time period, any attempt at disbandment is not allowed under the statute.
Of course whether Congress can do #2– prevent itself and future Congresses from repealing an ordinary statute–is debatable. There are likely constitutional challenges that would raise very interesting questions.
But aside from all that, the salient point is this: Progressives adore “expert” panels like the IPAB because they believe they are better able to make tough decisions about how to cut Medicare spending than our elected representatives. And they love these unaccountable expert panels so much that they attempt desperate measures like “entrenching” them statutorily, writing language that purports to make these boards hard to repeal–and impossible after a very narrow window. This isn’t very “progressive” at all, because such entrenchment presumes that future generations can’t govern/decide for themselves, and nothing can ever be altered or improved. Typical hypocritical, control-freak progressivism.