Political Correctness

James Taranto notices things:

• "This is the last Slate article that will refer to the Washington NFL team as the Redskins. . . . Changing the way we talk is not political correctness run amok. It reflects an admirable willingness to acknowledge others who once were barely visible to the dominant culture, and to recognize that something that may seem innocent to you may be painful to others. . . . So while the name Redskins is only a bit offensive, it's extremely tacky and dated--like an old aunt who still talks about 'colored people' or limps her wrist to suggest someone's gay."--David Plotz, Slate.com, Aug. 8
• "Colorado Gun Rights Activists Claim Another Scalp"--headline, Slate.com, Nov. 27

Science Toys

Cool, and probably something you would get tired of playing with after the first week. But I can see this being a practical tool after much refinement. I mean, this would be much cooler if the resolution was upped by a factor of 100. Then, add brighter colors and the ability to play audio and you'd really have something to amuse your cat with. (and face it, isn't that the direction almost all new inventions migrate? towards becoming very expensive cat toys?)

Don't get me wrong. I still want one.

Comet ISON Approaches Sun

This video isn't a simulation. It covers ISON's travels from from Nov. 20 to Nov. 22, 2013, and it was shot from the STEREO A spacecraft parked in the Lagrangian zone. We, on earth, won't be able to see the fireworks as ISON reaches its closest point to the sun on Thanksgiving day. (the sun would blind anyone except Chuck Norris) Will it burn up? Will it flare up brightly but survive a slingshot around the sun? We just don't know.

Here are ways to observe ISON for the sun encounter. If it survives and makes the turn, it may be visible again in December. Its brightness will depend on how much survives the heat of the sun.

ISON is named after the organization that discovered it in 2012 -- the International Scientific Optical Network.



So ISON will either flare up but survive, burn up, or break up. Or it could be eaten by the dragon who lives behind the sun. (Scientists don't all believe that there is a dragon living behind the sun, but those who do are certain that he's there because of man made global warming)

Exciting stuff.

 President Obama "misleads" comet ISON

Well, here's the best video I could find of the climax. It seems ISON won't be zipping by us in December. According to NASA it broke up like a Tom Cruise marriage on its way around the sun. It fell apart like a Michael Moore diet plan? It burned up like Barbra Streisand's pool guy? (you get the idea)

EnviroVegan

So now Al Gore is a vegan. All he has to do now is find a more righteous way to poop and he'll be better than me in all aspects of existence. (course, it could be he's a vegan in the same way he's an environmentalist -- talk the game all day long then sneak off to burn carbon like a dump fire) If he follows his pattern with carbon, he'll boast of being a level six vegan, (forgoing any food with a consonant in its name) while eating great slabs of beef.

Also, it could just be that he noticed that all he's eaten for the past 3 years is doughnuts.

Peace in Our Time

Neville Chamberlain, and why those who refuse to study history are doomed to repeat it.

Lying to the Zombies

Well, they're zombies so I guess it's ok to lie to them.

Next Dr. Who

(clickabiggen)

Zero Tolerance Policy

This Is Getting Out of Hand

President Obama lies to a Lada full of oranges.

President Obama Lies to an Emu

Gabjillions

Russell Simmons, mathematician:

Yes, we initially wanted single payer, and we had to compromise back in 2009 for the Affordable Care Act. But, it is a damn good piece of legislation that has already saved hundreds of thousands, if not millions of lives. So, let us not give up now.

 Of course, Russell meant to say "billions, if not trillions" 

Also, found a photo (in photoshop) from back when the prez was first pushing Obamacare:

"If you like your plan you can keep it, period."

 

Here, make your own:

You can have him lie where ever you like. I sometimes like to make a photo like a French movie; where you can't really be sure what it all means:

Awwwww

h/t: lumberkid

Not Mine, Wish it Was

You seen those terrible portrait tattoos? When will people learn that skin and ink isn't a medium friendly to portraits?

Well sometimes it works if you have the right subject:

found on a Russian Live Journal page

It's Like This

So say you're in a bar. You're generally happy. You look - the guy next to you seems pretty much contented as well. You've got your beer. He's got a drink and is eating some of those pickled eggs; don't ask me why.

And everyone seems to be ok, until someone notices that there are people who haven't got drinks. The problem is pointed out and debated and in the end we all pretty much agree that we'd like for everyone to have access to beer at least.

So the bar owner thinks it over and using the logic of Obamacare, he climbs up on the bar and announces How It's Gonna Be: The waitresses are going to go around and collect your beverages and snacks and we're going to start over. A new menu is going to be made. There will be some changes, for instance, you can no longer just order a beer. Now pickled eggs come with the beer package. Or, you may choose the Beer, Egg, and Nachos option. Your waitress will inform you what is available in your section of the bar.

The price, of course, has gone up. You complain but are told that your old beer was substandard; it didn't come with a pickled egg, so of course it was cheaper. Plus, we now have to subsidize the food and drink for those who can't afford it. The waitress doesn't care that you don't want, and won't eat, the egg.

You look, and the guy next to you is fuming. He wants a pickled egg but finds that in this section of the bar you can't get a gin and tonic with a pickled egg. The waitress tells him he can get a gin and tonic with nachos, in fact, now everyone must get nachos. But he doesn't want nachos.

Off in the back room Jack Nicholson is trying to get a side order of toast but he's drowned out by the commotion that's spreading through the bar. It seems that the people who have already had their tables cleared can't get the waitresses to take their replacement orders. And some people can't afford the new prices and must join the ranks of the drinkless.

And all this is because some people weren't getting served.

Course, this is just a hypothetical bar. This would never happen in a real bar. In a real bar, they would look at the problem and attempt the simplest, most direct, solution possible. These people don't have drinks. That's the problem. Let's see if we can't solve that problem without ruining everyone's Saturday night.

It is a problem that some people are uninsured. I'm all for making healthcare accessible to everyone. If we have to pay a bit more in taxes, well ok, though I'd rather it came from the federal government spending less on Braille road signs and bongo drum subsidies.

You solve problems by identifying, analyzing, and attacking the problem. If your first impulse is to change everything, you're asking for trouble. Changing everything might solve the problem. But it also might not, and it might just create more problems than it solves.

Quit building utopias Mr. Obama. You tell um Jack:

Cuter than Barry Goldwater

As most of you know, every Tuesday, without fail, I pretend to post a Cute File. This Tuesday I actually do post one. Which is this. Here. This is it.

(language warning - also check out the related dog-diary that comes up at end)



See? Much cuter than Goldwater. But then none of those pets could come up with this:

Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies.

or this:

I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!

thanks to lumberbrudi and others, sorry, forget who sent what

Literally Flabbergasted

David Foster Wallace I can understand, but Alexander Pope? Louisa May Alcott? My head literally caught fire upon learning of their transgressions. I think I may have registered Mark Twain's misuse of literally, but he was long dead by the time I noticed so it was virtually impossible for me to go back and slap him around for it.

The Fraud Continues

It's kind of clear that even the latest White House excuses are lies. The Obama fix isn't just a poor fix, it's a lie.

This is a little long but you can put an apostrophe at the 3:30 minute mark; crux-wise that is

via NRO

Mer Kubjelle

Only thing to make it better: mer kubjelle  (more cowbell)

Girl Gone Wild

If we allow wanton ice stomping, pretty soon there will be no more ice left to stomp.

Bad Idea?

You never wanted to work in retail anyway.

BTW, did you hear the president this morning? You can try to keep your insurance until after the next election. (maybe) Odd isn't it? How everything seems to coincide with elections?

OK, one last one:

I Help When I Can

I thought I'd try to improve on the do-what-you-want Obamacare ads. We'll see if the White House is interested.

Real Obamacare Ad

You have to click to see the original but the shortened version is: "Yahoo, I've got my free birth control! Let the promiscuity begin!"

That's right, well and for a significant number of people it's true, it's as if the controlling factor in the decision to have sex with a stranger is the availability of birth control. "Lets hope he's as easy to get as this birth control,"  emphasizes that Susie doesn't really know him yet. Well yes, Susie, lets hope he's as easy to get as you, and the birth control, are.

See? Sounds like an anti-Obamacare ad, right? That's what Planned Parenthood thought too. They tagged the ad as slut-shaming. But no, this was a pro-Obamacare ad and it can be better characterized as slut-celebrating.

Now it's none of my business what Susie and Nate do. I don't care, really, I don't. But it says a bit about Obamacare doesn't it: support our socialism and get the freedom to act irresponsibly. Everything is free and the world is your oyster. And the ad is aimed at young people, who haven't learned yet that nothing is free.

Same is true of Gargolying Bro Sam. Yes, by all means climb up on the keg. The medical bills will be taken care of so that makes drunken acrobatics a reasonable thing to do.

And Susie, don't forget that being covered means you'll never have to pay for chemotherapy. Why don't you start smoking? Nate smokes and he's ok. In fact let's all smoke and have sex with strangers perched on top of beer kegs! (Just like Alec Baldwin!)

Let me correct myself here. I say socialism but I know it's not. (yet) I firmly believe that the administration is trying to break health care so badly that we have to go to single-payer socialism. But that's not what we have yet.

Socialism is where the government owns industry. What is it called when industry is still privately owned, but government controls every aspect of it? What's that word?

Obamacher

If you like your 60's pop star you can keep her.*

*or if she was an inferior pop star, an improved one may be substituted.

Spike Lee

From NRO:

A couple in Sanford, Fla. has sued director Spike Lee for mistakenly tweeting their home address as George Zimmerman’s during the height of the investigation of the death of Trayvon Martin. Lee sent the tweet to his 240,000 followers in February 2012.

Even though Lee apologized over Twitter and settled, the lawsuit contends that Elaine and David McClain have continued to be the victims of harassment and hate mail, which forced them to temporarily move out. The elderly couple is seeking more than $15,000 for “substantial injury,” and reserves the right to seek punitive damages as well.

Do you think Spike Lee is aware that he was possibly helping to facilitate a murder? What do you think would have happened if he had publicized the right address? Would he have realized his contribution in the event that a fire bomb was thrown?

I understand that he's embarrassed to have put innocent people through this unwarranted harassment, but would he have been ok with it if he had only gotten the address right?  

Wish I'd Thought of This

Now that everyone's got government grade health care, President Obama can get back to his hobbies.

No, not my photoshop. (from a Russian Live Journal Page)

A Lie is a Lie

 Drudge linked story. A Colorado woman was a big Obamacare supporter, when it was first proposed:

She was shocked further to learn that for the same coverage she would pay 35 percent more and have a higher deductible.

“Our premium for next year is going up to over $1,000 a month for two of us and we’re two fairly healthy individuals,” Wagner said.

“This is yet the most recent issue,” said U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colorado.

DeGette sits on the committee that oversees Obamacare. She insists the Wagners are the exception, not the rule. [a lie]

“As we work through all of this I think that a year from now people overall are going to be very, very happy with the way the Affordable Care Act is working,” DeGette said...

...Nationwide at least 3.5 million people have received the cancellation notices.

It will be more like tens of millions. The law says that if copay or deductible change, or coverage changes from what it was in 2010, the policy is null and void and must be replaced with one that meets the Obama mandates.

They always knew the system couldn't handle this. Costs can't go down by adding people (who presumably can't pay, or can't pay much) and mandating more coverage for everybody.

Of course costs have to go up.

Now U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette advances the Lie 1.1 : “As we work through all of this I think that a year from now people overall are going to be very, very happy with the way the Affordable Care Act is working,”

DeGette probably knows that's a lie. The idea now is to break the system so badly that we must go to single payer. The Obamacare supporters  who are left at this point are: 1.) Cynical manipulators who are spinning whatever lies they can in order to keep this farce moving forward, towards collapse. 2.) Gullible and well meaning people, who can't believe their Obama would lie; and certainly can't believe he would continue to lie at this point.


The excuses they're pushing today aren't working. They claim that all those cancelled plans were substandard, and the replacement plans are real insurance plans. This isn't working because we knew what our old insurance was and we were happy with it. The government didn't improve anything by mandating that breast pumps be free.

Don't buy tomorrow's excuse. Whether they blame contractors, or insurance companies, or free-loading citizens, the real message is, "Please continue buying this until it's too late to turn back."

It's for Their Own Good

California seems to be spreading:

A ban on touching during recess at a B.C. elementary school has shocked parents, who call the new no-touch policy "ridiculous."

For most kids, recess is a chance to run around and goof-off with their friends, but a new ban on touching at a school in Aldergrove could put a damper on playtime...

...Julie Chen, a mother from the school, says she does not understand the motive behind such a strict ban.
"I can’t imagine little kids not being able to hug each other or help each other on the playground," Chen told CTV news. "Not tag, no hugging, no touching at all."

What would we do without nannies?

h/t: lumberbrudi

Babysitting in Russia

Like we should criticize. The diaper-over is an American invention I believe.

via

Back in the Day

Things are so much better these days. It seems that US border agents used to 

patrol the line and take the shoes of anyone unfortunate enough to cross their path.

Is it Photoshop?

I get that question every once in a while. Is it Photoshop? Or did Obama really name a Park Service boat Titan Uranus ? My usual response is to flip a coin (heads is photoshop) and add, "You can tell because pixels."

Well, yeah sometimes I can tell. But now there's a tool that is probably better: Foto Forensics.  You need to read their tutorial but it looks like a useful site.

What I want is a site that can prove that this picture:

 

is, pixel for pixel, a direct copy of that photo of a kid with chocolate all over his face titled: I Don't Know Who Ate the Pudding Mom.

Got These?

I've got dozens of products like this. The least effective was "bitter apple", which most of our dogs found delicious. Now that I think to count: 4 of our last 5 dogs thought bitter apple was the perfect sauce for coffee table.

The one abstainer was the pug, who didn't feel like investing the energy in gnawing. If it was one of her energetic days, she might lick a table leg. She thought chewing was too mainstream.

Ten Figures of Speech

10 Figures of Speech from Max Tohline on Vimeo.

 h/t:NRO

Glorious New System

 (slight language warning)

Paraphrasing Peggy Noonan:

 "It's wrong to compare Obamacare to the Titanic. The Titanic had at least three good days, and the captain chose to go down with the ship."