World To End Tomorrow: Women and Minorities Hardest Hit

Casualty of the Climate Wars

It hurts to think we live in a world where these kind of people can cash their paychecks in the daylight. They should hide in shame:

A House resolution sponsored by representative Barbara Lee (D, Calif.) and cosponsored by House members including Keith Ellison (D, Minn.) and Carolyn Maloney (D, N.Y.) is pushing Congress to acknowledge the “disparate impact of climate change on women” and adopt “gender-sensitive frameworks” to address environmental change.

The resolution argues that climate change may have a particularly dire impact on women. Climate change, it says, exacerbates food scarcity, and “Food insecure women with limited socioeconomic resources may be vulnerable to situations such as sex work, transactional sex, and early marriage that put them at risk for HIV, STIs, unplanned pregnancy, and poor reproductive health.”

How about we wait until we have the first climate-change induced prostitute and then we'll address the problem.

Two women, in a bar somewhere, "I don't know, what do you want to do?" "I dunno, it sure is hot. Wanna become prostitutes?"

Speed of Light May be Variable

Cancel that subscription to Scientific American, I'll alert you when Science happens:

The speed of light is constant, or so textbooks say. But some scientists are exploring the possibility that this cosmic speed limit changes, a consequence of the nature of the vacuum of space.

The definition of the speed of light has some broader implications for fields such as cosmology and astronomy, which assume a stable velocity for light over time. For instance, the speed of light comes up when measuring the fine structure constant (alpha), which defines the strength of the electromagnetic force. And a varying light speed would change the strengths of molecular bonds and the density of nuclear matter itself.

A non-constant speed of light could mean that estimates of the size of the universe might be off...

OK so it looks like sometimes our understanding of the physical world can change. So far the only thing we know for sure, the only scientific fact that is set in stone and can not be negated or modified, the only one eternal truth is this: one hundred years ago the climate was at the one perfect spot that would ensure our survival. Any change from that 'sweet spot' spells our doom.

Swiss Army Knife of Faces

This one will be labeled 'sassy face' and as you can see, it fits a wide range of Obama photoshops, from 'hipster' all the way to 'urban hipster'.

I Blame Obama

Obamacare Waiver

I'm not surprised that Congressmen want Obamacare waivers for themselves. They know better than most what's in the bill, and they know a bad deal when they see one. Many conservatives oppose it, but I'm thinking it might not be so bad to let them opt out.

See, their exemption would cover their staffs as well. Then, all we have to do is get John Boehner to hire the entire population as unpaid interns. I know I'd accept a position, so long as it came with a workload comparable to Michelle Obama's at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

Syria Crosses the Line

You can't say they weren't warned. President Obama made it crystal clear that using chemical weapons against civilians would be crossing 'the red line'. But apparently Assad used sarin gas anyway, and now must face the president's wrath.

I suspect a strongly worded letter is in the works.

And darn it all, it's another distraction just as the President was preparing our next recovery-summer. If it's not one thing, it's another. Remember recovery-summer last year? (or was it the one before that?) It was going along fine until it got derailed by speculation in the chopsticks market. (or was it a potato famine?) Anyway, not the President's fault.

Mind: Blown

This exact same thing happened to me. Except that it wasn't in a park, it was on a card table in San Antonio Texas. And it wasn't my face in the puzzle, it was prairie dogs on a small hill, looking into the camera. Those are the facts as they were related to me, I wasn't actually there myself.

Planned Parenthood Cancellation Planned

Or maybe that title should be: Planned Parenthood Appearance Planned, because "planned" when used in the Planned Parenthood sense means: "terminated." Has anyone ever gone to Planned Parenthood for fertility treatments? I don think so. They should change their name to Planned Non-parenthood.

anyway...

via K-Lo:

Jay Carney today announced a schedule change: In order to spend more time in Texas, the president will speak to Planned Parenthood on Friday morning, not at the gala the night before as planned. I don’t suppose it’s because the first black president just got a primer on who the founder of the United States’ largest abortion provider, Margaret Sanger, was (the Margaret Sanger Award Thursday night is going to Ruth Westheimer).

It Can Always Get Worse

You've maybe heard that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was "angry that the world pictures Islam as a violent religion."  Not good, that we've got college students stupid enough to think that the solution to an image problem is a bomb.

But did you know also that the brothers were on welfare?  Yeah, our money funded their adventure.

And remember: About half of every dollar the government spends is borrowed. So yeah, we're going into debt to finance terrorists.

And we've got a president who proposed the sequester but who is now doing everything he can to maximize the impact of any slow down in the growth of government spending.

Makes you want to chant yes we can!

Unspeakable Crimes

Don't read the last two paragraphs in the quoted text if you would be upset at the method they used to kill the babies:

The judge in the case today threw out three of the eight murder charges against [Dr. Kermit] Gosnell.
“If we are going in this room to say a baby is born alive because it moves one time without any other movement, that is ludicrous,” defense attorney Jack McMahon said.

Although three of the murder charges were dismissed,  Gosnell still faces five other murder charges and other criminal charges in the case.

Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart granted judgment of acquittal for the first-degree murder charges of three babies in the case, identified as “Baby B,” “Baby C,” and “Baby G.”

According to the grand jury report, Baby C was “moving and breathing for 20 minutes before an assistant came in and cut the spinal cord, just the way she had seen Gosnell do it so many times.”

Kareema Cross, who worked at the clinic, testified to the grand jury that the baby was moving and breathing for 20 minutes before Lynda Williams cut the back of its neck.

How Things Get Fixed

What if the production workers at Tegu Toys make more than the new hires? Is that fair? And what if the managers at Tegu Toys make more money than the production workers?  Is that fair? And what if the president at Tegu Toys makes more than the managers? Is that fair? Yes yes yes yes and yes. It's fair, and it's good.

"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."
-Margaret Thatcher

via

Who's Your Dawg?

"Barack you my dawg"

(parenthetical): I pronoune that "dough-ugg"

Also, I pronounce the "h" in chaos.

Yeah, I'm a rebel.

Nature

If you keep making that face it will get stuck like that

I was watching a BBC nature show last night and it got me thinking... They were showing the brutal truth about nature, i.e. animals chasing down and killing other animals. But wouldn't it be nice to have a nature show where the victim always got away?

The film crews have admitted to staging some shots anyway (most likely they're the guys who point out the locations of limping antelopes to the lions) so why not have them interfere on the side of the little guy? It doesn't have to be blatant. They could "accidentally" blow their horn as the cheetah is doing its stealthy approach on a baby zebra.

Last night I saw a pride of lions going after a young elephant. They had the advantage because elephants can't see so good in the dark and the lions can see just fine. So before the elephant  knew what was happening he had lions hanging off of him like dreadlocks. If the cameramen had "whoops" turned on their lights, that elephant could have stomped the lions into throw rugs.

Or you know what? They could blatantly help the victims. They could fire potato cannons at the hyenas as they ran down the baby giraffes. They could tangle the crocodiles in nets, and tranquilizer dart most everything else.  I know I'd pay to see a panther stumbling drunkenly as it tried to chase down a baby monkey.

I'm just giving you ideas here History Channel. Make it happen.

Happy Earth Day 2013

It's here again, Earth Day, a day we set aside for feeling superior to our neighbors who "just don't get it." Note, we don't live any differently than our neighbors, in fact, we probably consume and pollute more than the average, but we get it, so we got that going for us, which is nice.



For years I just didn't get it. Then I realized: the only requirement for membership in the Earth Butterfly Rainbow Sparkle Sunshine Movement is a strong desire to feel good about yourself. And hey, I like feeling good. I can pull this off.

Speaking of the Earth Butterfly Rainbow Sparkle Sunshine Movement, is there a reason for gasahol, now that we know:

...a 2011 opinion from the Science Committee of the European Environment Agency pointed out what it called a “serious accounting error.” The carbon neutral concept does not consider vegetation that would naturally grow on land used for biofuel production. Since biofuels are less efficient than gasoline or diesel fuel, they actually emit more CO2 per mile driven than hydrocarbon fuels, when proper accounting is used for carbon sequestered in natural vegetation. Further, a 2011 study for the National Academy of Sciences found that, “…production of ethanol as fuel to displace gasoline is likely to increase such air pollutants as particulate matter, ozone, and sulfur oxides.”

So is there a reason for gasahol beyond just not wanting to admit it was a mistake? It's bad for the environment, gas prices, and food prices. It makes no economic sense, and no environmental sense. So are we still using it because we like the name? Gasahol? Or are we using it as a tool to out-smug our neighbors?

A New Normal for Denver

In Denver, it's the beginning of Utopia, smoke is thick, times are good, but then someone started shooting. And then it becomes noticeable - there are no responsible adults around:

"There was a gentleman on the floor, lying there, and he was not moving," Forduno said. "It was chaos."

Dean Zimmerman was among those who rushed to help the man who was lying on the ground saying, "man, I'm hit, I'm hit. He was cool about it." [cool about it, well yes, I suppose it's good to be cool about it]

Zimmerman was covered in the victim's blood after the man was taken to the hospital.
"I was talking to him, telling him, you're gonna be OK, you're gonna be OK," Zimmerman said. [yes, that's what the trauma surgeons do - say over and over, "you're gonna be ok, you're being really cool about this, you're gonna be ok, be ok]

Can you imagine being a cop, things need to be handled, people need to get moved, made safe... and you're herding cats, and a vague faced dude in a tie-dyed t-shirt is demanding,, "wait a minute, wait a minute, I feel like there's something I need to do and this will be ok. Just let me uh think for a minute."

OK, so we've identified one problem that can result from large numbers of people voluntarily invalidating themselves. To paraphrase Jaws: "We're going to need a bigger nursery."

Laff a Little

Other people's distress is always a hoot.

This reminded me of a goof that came to mind while driving to a job to replace a steering wheel on a piece of heavy equipment. We were in city traffic and my fellow mechanic, riding shotgun, picked up the new steering wheel to see if it came with a horn switch. Well, he noticed the guy driving next to us doing a double take and a new diversion was born. He pretended to panic, held up the wheel and asked "what do I do now?"

Turns out it doesn't really mater if you're on the driver's side; if you panic, they'll panic with you. He did it the whole rest of the trip. Then he kept the steering wheel we replaced and would reprise the game whenever we went out on two man jobs.

I think I finally had to ask him to stop. I figured it was only a matter of time before some frustrated commuter pulled out a baseball bat at a red light.

Peta, Come Save this Dog

See what they're doing? They're making this dog talk. Where are the shirtless Peta protestors? 

Is your dog hard to shop for? Consider getting him or her an assistant. Kittens make excellent assistants. Think of them as auxiliary pets.

I Fixed It

Fresh from his success in the health care arena, President Obama turns his attention to the world of art.

Scientists are struggling...

Scientists are struggling... See? Aren't you glad we spent the little bit extra for the good rope?

First the Economist, now Reuters, it seem the tide might be turning:

Often focused on century-long trends, most climate models failed to predict that the temperature rise would slow, starting around 2000. Scientists are now intent on figuring out the causes and determining whether the respite will be brief or a more lasting phenomenon...

..The change may be a result of an observed decline in heat-trapping water vapor in the high atmosphere, for unknown reasons. It could be a combination of factors or some as yet unknown natural variations, scientists say.

 The bad news - if we get a few warm years coming up, the warmist machine will go into overdrive to get everyone alarmed again, and will just ignore the unexplained cool interval. And somehow people will forget that it happened. See to me, we already have proof that the computer models don't work. We don't have to explain the "pause". It's already explained by the fact that the computer models are worthless predictors of temperature. They are good grant generators, nothing more.



Face down in the water. Very much like:

Monday Snow White

If you've read AWL for any length of time, you know that on Mondays we always post a new photoshop of Obama dressed as Snow White.  (a tradition that started when I ran out of legitimate photos of him dressed up as the Disney character)

This week I wanted to include John Kerry as one of the dwarfs but I'm still looking for suitable source images. That, plus I can't decide which dwarf to make him - was there a Leaky?

Yes, I know it would have been nice to have Obama looking a little further to his left but I went with this particular face because of the smile. The angles look OK if you just imagine that the wig is a bit off center. (a condition that wasn't at all uncommon when the president would put on the real costume, I'm told)

Hope everyone's taxes went well. I did OK though I might have to sell another kidney to come up with the money this year. If you know anyone looking for a kidney, send them my way. Alternatively, you could shop my Amazon over there on the left, or buy one of those fine My Work Here is Done coffee mugs or t-shirts.

Liberty

 clickabiggen

A Break from Taxes

via

Brother Bird-donkey

Brother Bird-donkey and Sister Moon wish you a happy Thursday.

With apologies to Ashley Judd, I present to you the North American Birdonkey, or, bird-donkey as they're called in the south. I exhibit him not to embarrass Ms Judd but to point out just one more reason why every rural household should be allowed at least one shotgun.  (and some would say the species is a good argument for legalized flame throwers) 

Yes, at first glance they're cute, especially when they're babies. But you can't imagine the carnage, should a flock of these guys become interested in your garden. A dozen Birdonkies can decimate an acre of corn in five minutes. When they're done the field looks like Michael Moore's beard after a Smorgasbord, only minus the sausages.

Trust me, the Birdonkey isn't the peaceful creature of Ms Judd's imaginings. 

Sequestration Medicare Cuts

You may have read about cancer patients being turned away because of sequestration cuts to Medicare. When I first heard about this I remember wondering just who made the decision to save money in the life-and-death area of the enterprise. I mean, if you are tasked with cutting your budget 2%, wouldn't a competent administrator look to save in areas where a cut will do the least damage?

I mean, if I run the fire department and I have to trim the budget, does it make sense for me to first eliminate water as an expense? Does it make sense for ICE to start releasing prisoners right off the bat?

So OK, liberals and government workers want to make a minor cut look like the Boston Massacre, and it's stupid, but that's not what this post is about.

This post is about what happens to Medicare next year, when Obamacare starts getting real:

...while the total effect of sequestration for the fiscal year 2013 will be $3 billion, this is the same amount Obamacare is supposed to reduce Medicare spending this year. But, as reported by Heritage, if “Medicare patients can’t access vitally needed care because of $6 billion in total reduced Medicare payments, they’d better prepare for next year. That’s when Obamacare cuts an estimated $41 billion out of Medicare—in addition to the Medicare sequestration cuts of $9 billion that year. . . . By 2020 Obamacare will reduce overall Medicare spending by more than $100 billion a year.”

I just got billed $500 for heart tests for which I used to pay around $100. Premiums are going up. Doctors are going bankrupt, retiring early, and restricting Medicare patients. Obamacare is a cobbled together mess that will make things worse, not better. It's a platypus. Put together by a committee, and an embarrassment to both ducks and beavers. All we can do now is try to limit the damage while we wait for the left to realize their mistake.

XK... you know the rest

Ever get the feeling that half your work on the computer is for the computer?

XKCD

Nork Air Force Has Gone to Full Alert Status

Science!

In scientific news this week:

According to some estimates, the [Horizon oil] spill pumped nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over the course of nearly three months, but within several weeks of being plugged, many areas of the Gulf were oil free. According to University of Tennessee researcher Terry Hazen, the Gulf has a "greater-than-believed" ability to clean itself up after an oil spill. He presented his research Monday at the American Chemical Society's national meeting in New Orleans.

"The bottom line from this research may be that the Gulf of Mexico is more resilient and better able to recover from oil spills than anyone thought," Hazen said in a statement. "It shows that we may not need the kinds of heroic measures proposed after the Deepwater Horizon spill, like adding nutrients to speed up the growth of bacteria that breakdown oil, or using genetically engineered bacteria. The Gulf has a broad base of natural bacteria, and they respond to the presence of oil by multiplying quite rapidly."

Well who knew? It's good news though I'm astonished at how much new stuff Science is finding out these days. We find out there's another radiation belt we didn't know about. Then we discover that our environment switches genes on and off. Now this news about natural bacteria being awesome oil eaters. I guess there is not much in Science that is fixed in stone.

Except the temperature. The only thing that Science knows for sure is that the temperature was exactly right about 100 years ago. Now of course, the temperature is almost a little hotter and we're all going to die. But thank goodness civilization lived long enough to find that one exactly right temperature. I hope Mr Obama chisels the number into some sort of monument so that, should humans evolve again from the wreckage, they won't have to waste their energy determining The Proper Temperature and they can get right down to blaming each other about just who is responsible for ruining everything this time.

Well, maybe we've been saved by the natural variation. The temperature hasn't gone up in the last 15 years despite a huge increase in atmospheric CO2, so maybe Science will take notice.  (science actually is taking notice, and the climaticians, climate-politicians, are wildly spinning - let's hope science writers take notice)

Sums it Up in 30 Seconds

If you want a reason to resist the Lean Left liberal establishment, you'd be hard pressed to find a more persuasive 30 seconds. No lady. My kid is my kid until she's old enough to be on her own. You want communal kids, send yours over to my house this weekend; it's time for yard work again.

Margaret Thatcher, RIP

Socialists cry "Power to the people", and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean—power over people, power to the State.
-Speech to Conservative Central Council (15 March, 1986)

There's a ton of quotes, if you're interested.

You know, if you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything, wouldn't you, at any time? And you would achieve nothing!
-Interview for Press Association (10th anniversary as Prime Minister)

A Rookie Mistake

North Korean war plans have been revised after one brave 

general pointed out that the trebuchets  were all pointed backwards.

Posted With No Comment

This speaks for itself, but I really should remind everyone that Obama has claimed to be a good B-ball player. Anyway, best bit: at the end, when he finally gets a basket, someone yells, "Yes we can!"

"Yes we can.... eventually." Proud Obama supporters must have overheated their brains imagining excuses for the exec. Oh, the wind caught it, the sun was in his eyes, he's wearing street shoes, somebody did something to that ball... Sadly, he seems to have been wearing street shoes when writing Obamacare as well.

(yes, I know it was written by a large coalition of special interests and utopian seeking government workers) OK, so like I say, posted with (almost) no comment.

Preparations for War

 

Un makes um.

Evolution of Tools

Siskel & Ebert Door to Door

This reminded me: David Letterman used to be funny. Sad to see Roger Ebert go. He was a big liberal but he and Siskel were great together. They showed that in America you could make a living by going to the movies.

I Disagree

Parabasalian Symbionts

 (clickabiggen)

Here, are two new genera of small-to-intermediate size and complexity, represented by the type species Cthulhu macrofasciculumque and Cthylla microfasciculumque from Prorhinotermes simplex and Reticulitermes virginicus, respectively. I'm just sayin.

I guess after today I can no longer brag about never having compared the president to parabasalian symbionts of the lower hindgut of a termite.

Krauthammer Keeps Hitting That Nail on the Head

via NRO

Brainz!

The soi-disant Scientist in Chief wants to spend 100 million mapping the human brain:

At a speech this morning at the White House to outline a new science initiative, President Barack Obama named himself "Scientist-in-Chief."

"I’m glad I’ve been promoted Scientist-in-Chief," Obama said to laughter at the White House. "Given my grades in physics, I’m not sure it’s deserving.  But I hold science in proper esteem, so maybe that gives me a little credit."...

..."As humans, we can identify galaxies light years away, we can study particles smaller than an atom.  But we still haven’t unlocked the mystery of the three pounds of matter that sits between our ears.  (Laughter.)  But today, scientists possess the capability to study individual neurons and figure out the main functions of certain areas of the brain.

 Well,  I can save him a few bucks. Above is his mapped brain. Sure that's simplistic -- billions of neurons and only three functions. But underneath it all is the need to regulate and control. So there's that. Plus, he's only in this mode 15% of the time. The other 85% he's all:

***Update:
The Drudge  graphic made me want to put a little more effort into it. Just a little. So here's our president - with what doctors call hypertrophy of the ruin-everything area:

 

Soooo Close

Two for Twenty Two, That Reminds Me

Obama shoots baskets very much like he lowers my health insurance premiums, creates jobs, lets me keep my own doctor, cuts regulations, and stimulates the economy -- except for the two baskets he made.

A Little Caffeine

It's just easier than drinking 32 separate cups one after another.

This is the Last of It

President Obama is seen here wheeling the last bits of America to be sold 

on the streets of Moscow. Ha! April fools! There won't be that much left.