Archive for 2015
December 16, 2015
REALITY IS SO LIMITING: Bob Zimmerman: The Democratic Party’s Disconnect From Reality.
TESTING THE 2016 Audi R8 V10 Plus. “The Plus’s combination of more-than-sufficient power, all-wheel traction, and launch control yields a zero-to-60-mph leap in 2.7 seconds, with 132 mph available in the quarter-mile after a brief 10.6 seconds. The run to 170 mph takes only 21.1 seconds. For reference, a $1.7-million Bugatti Veyron is going just 20 mph faster after 21 seconds of acceleration.” It’s amazing that we have cars nowadays with motorcycle performance.
NOT TOO OFTEN: How Often Should You Get Dental X-Rays?
AT AMAZON, Christmas Deals in Toys & Games.
QUEEN OF EXCESS? STRUGGLING YAHOO CEO MARISSA MAYER UNDER FIRE FOR $7MILLION GATSBY-THEMED HOLIDAY PARTY WHERE SHE SAT ON A WHITE ‘THRONE’ AND POSED FOR PHOTOS WITH EMPLOYEES.
Well, that could explain why the latest iteration of the My Yahoo homepage sucks so badly — perhaps all of its design money was diverted here?
YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK: This 475-Pound Gingerbread Model of the White House Took 11 Months To Build:
White House executive pastry chef Susan Morrison spent almost a year planning and constructing a gingerbread house to put on display at the White House this holiday season. Weighing in at a total of 475 pounds, the enormous gingerbread house consists of 250 pounds of dough, 150 pounds of dark chocolate, 25 pounds of gum paste, 25 pounds of handcrafted sugar poles, and 25 pounds of icing, according to Bon Appétit.
A scale replica of the White House, the gingerbread masterpiece has been in the works since January 2015. Morrison tracked down White House blueprints and even consulted an architect to make sure she got all of the details right. The gingerbread mansion will be on display at the White House for 30 days, and approximately 68,000 guests are expected to check it out. As Morrison noted in a chat with Bon Appétit, “Many people come into the Dining Room and cough on it and stuff.” So while the gingerbread mansion is fully edible—and looks delicious—Morrison wouldn’t recommend actually taking a bite.
Related: In 2012, Mars Inc. dropped king-sized Snickers bar as concession to Michelle Obama’s campaign against obesity.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: UMass brass cash in despite budget woes.
University of Massachusetts President Martin T. Meehan handed out hefty raises of up to $20,000 to his staff and other brass, including high-paid cronies of former President William M. Bulger, months after hitting up students for stiff tuition hikes, a Herald review has found.
The raises included a $19,000 increase for UMass Executive Vice President James Julian Jr., Bulger’s former top aide, who is now earning $371,384 a year — or about $221,000 more than what Gov. Charlie Baker makes, records obtained by the Herald show.
The salary hikes went into effect this fall, around the same time Meehan and other UMass administrators moved into plush new offices on Beacon Hill that the Herald reported costs $1.5 million a year more in rent than what UMass was paying at its old location.
The pay raises also came despite a budget stalemate between Meehan and the Legislature, which is refusing to approve $10.9 million in funding to cover a 3.5 percent pay hike for unionized UMass teachers and staff.
Payroll records obtained by the Herald show that in the president’s office alone, eight people, including Meehan, make more than the governor, who earns $150,000 annually. Ten employees in Meehan’s office make more than Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg and Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, whose annual pay is $102,000.
People are always cutting costs by replacing faculty with adjuncts, but nobody ever talks about cutting costs with adjunct administrators.
‘THAT’S INSANE’: DID TWITTER SERIOUSLY LOCK OUT ADAM BALDWIN FOR THIS?
Non shall question The Narrative.
“DONALD TRUMP HAS WON THE NOMINATION,” Roger Simon writes from Vegas: “All hail, Caesar! All hail, Trump!”
I’LL TAKE THE SANDWICH, THANKS: Death and Sandwiches.
LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY: Here’s a Rebodied Self-Driving BMW i8 That Comes With a Drone.
23 AND COUNTING. THAT’S HOW MANY ACTIVE FOIA LAWSUITS JUDICIAL WATCH HAS NOW AGAINST THE STATE DEPARTMENT. The latest one was filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the government failed to comply with the FOIA regarding the non-profit transparency watchdog group’s Aug. 18, 2015, request for the employment documents for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, and deputy chief of staff, Huma Abedin. Why do you suppose the State Department wouldn’t want the public to see what Mills and Abedin told the government about themselves?
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Plus: Up to 60% off select Audio Accessories stocking stuffers.
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MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Democrats’ Terror Compassion Gap. “Democrats are supposed to be the party of compassion, but lately a lot of Americans are feeling as if the Obama administration doesn’t much care about them. The reason is terrorism and the way Obama and Hillary Clinton have responded to it.”
VIA SEN. FRANK NICELEY, AN EXCELLENT FRANK CAGLE COLUMN ON TRUMP AND THE GOP:
What I don’t understand about the Republican establishment these days is that they fail to recognize that Trump uses outrageous statements to garner attention, but he taps into issues of real concern to the American people. But if you want to stop Trump, don’t attack him; appeal to the people who support him. Offer sensible solutions to problems he has identified, rather than his half-baked, unrealistic rhetoric.
For example, when the Syrian refugee controversy erupted Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz suggested that maybe we could take only Christian refugees from the Middle East. They were excoriated for the idea. President Barack Obama stood in the Oval Office and said America could not have a religious test for admission and it was un-American. He should know better.
The 1965 immigration reform act, which still governs, has specific criteria for the admission of refugees: people fleeing religious persecution. Who is facing more religious persecution than the Christians in Syria and other areas controlled by ISIS? Beheading, buried alive, machine gunned. Any country has the right to decide who can be admitted and who cannot. Until 1965 Third World immigration was prohibited. There are Christian relief agencies in the Middle East that could help vet refugees facing persecution and help them resettle here.
Did Bush double down, make the case and provide an alternative to Trump’s bellicosity? No, he just attacked Trump’s idea to stop Muslim immigration temporarily, instead of making the issue his own. Trump’s plan? How would that work? Offer anybody getting on the plane a ham sandwich and bar anybody who didn’t eat it? His half-baked idea is about as practical as his plan to have Mexico pay for the border wall.
I think a Trump presidency would be a disaster. While he talks a good game, he has no practical way to carry out his promises. Like Cas, he will say anything to grab attention, get a headline and get on television. But his success should be a warning to the political establishment. The American people are fed up with political correctness, and if you do not provide sensible solutions to the issues Trump has raised, don’t be surprised when he stands on the podium as the GOP nominee.
Yep. And Cas Walker, long dead, is still remembered in Knoxville.
NEW GLOP CULTURE PODCAST ONLINE AT RICOCHET, with Jonah Goldberg, Rob Long, and John Podhoretz, who eventually wind up discussing the little known cult science fiction movie opening this week. Along with a reminder of how soul crushingly grim science fiction movies were pre-Star Wars, when they had been co-opted by Hollywood to discuss their grim predictions of crushing overpopulation and environmental horrors in the 21st century — and forty years later, look like the Reefer Madness movies of the 1970s.
LOOKING TO MAKE YEAR-END CHARITABLE DONATIONS? Consider the Institute For Justice and, of course FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. 2015 was a particularly important year for FIRE, and I fear 2016 will be more of the same.
IT WILL HAVE BROADER IMPLICATIONS: Cheap LIDAR coming for driverless cars.
TIME FOR AN INTERVENTION BY JEFF BEZOS: WashPost Reporter: GOP Debate Is ‘a Bunch of Old White Men Yelling At Each Other.’
Ishaan Tharoor, foreign affairs reporter for the Washington Post “formerly wrote for Time magazine, where he romanticized Occupy Wall Street, in multiple articles, while throwing softballs while interviewing anti-conservative Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas.”
MAGICAL THINKING: Victory! New York stops sale of toy guns, levies massive fines.
FASTER, PLEASE: Advances In 21st Century Medicine.
COMPANY UNVEILS AIRPLANE DESIGN WITH SEATS ON TOP OF AIRCRAFT: This would be a lot more fun if it had twin 50-caliber machine guns attached.
CHRIS MATTHEWS NOT AMUSED WHEN ASKED IF HE STILL HAS ‘THRILL’ UP HIS LEG: Tells interviewer to “Go to Hell.”
So where the muse for the mentor of both Obama and Hillary resides, in other words.