Light Blogging Next Few Days

Come back when I'm recovered from the turkey overdose. My sister and her family is in town and we are going to be spending a lot of time at my Dad's place with all of them. I hope you can spend the holiday with someone you love as well.

Trying to post a list of what I am thankful for would take quite a while, but "everything" sums it up nicely.

Remember what Thanksgiving is all about people. And stay away from the maul if you insist on going out during recovery day black friday

Generate Electricity With Three Knot Water Currents

Traditional hydro-power systems need 6 knots or more for the water currents to be useable. This system requires <3 knots.

That means you can put it in almost any river or stream and get power.

Neat, eh?

Amazing New Technology Part 2: Military-Specific

At $8,000,000,000 each, the Gerald R Ford class of aircraft carriers do not come cheap, but they are pretty hip. The bigger flight deck incorporates advanced arresting gear and electromagnetic catapults. The only things that concern me are the tower, which is close enough to the fantail to give me willies about planes running into it, and the fact that the sound and feel of a steam catapult are going away (I wonder what the new ones will sound like?) The ships will be using about half of their new nuclear plants' output power, so there is plenty for new systems like dynamic armor or frikken lazer beems when they become available in the future.

The Intruder finally may have a worthy successor: first flight of the F-15K. The F-15K is the world's most capable long-range, multi-role fighter. It can perform air-to-ground, air-to-air, and air-to-sea missions during the day or at night, in virtually any weather. It can carry more than 23,000 pounds of payload, reach Mach 2.5, and incorporates the latest military technologies. These include the APG-63(V)1 radar, a helmet-mounted cueing system, infrared search and track, third-generation navigation and targeting systems, and weapons-control systems supporting advanced weapons such as the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), Harpoon Block II, Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response (SLAM-ER), Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) and AIM-9X Sidewinder missile.

The EA-18G Growler comes in on-time, and under budget. I have a special affection for SIGINT planes, having worked on the EP-3E when I was in the U.S. Navy. In other Hornet-related news, the F/A-18F is getting Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS) helmets for front and back seat. Hey, neat hat!

The V-22 Osprey an the MS-1 Ripsaw are both going to get M-134 gatling guns. One more step toward the rise of the machines, but it's pretty neat until they start to get all uppity on us.

New Technology Never Ceases To Amaze

These technological wonders are astonishing now. In 50 years if we are still here, you can feel free to laugh as we look back on these steps toward the future.

A milestone to delivering a 100kW weaponized LASER capable of shooting down planes or missiles: delivery of a production line produced 15kW LASER from Northrop Grumman to the USAF

A single parachute guide itself while delivering a very heavy payload.

Radiation Shield Technologies has done a little magic. They made a lightweight lead-free suit that blocks Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and X-rays, as well as nuclear radiation. Made from Demron, which I gather is produced from the woven tail hairs of unicorns.

Card Check: The Problem and The Proper Response

President-Elect Obama has said he is in favor of doing away with private ballots when company employees vote whether or not to unionize. That seems like a stupid idea to make a change for its own sake but it's worse than that. When the union pushers know who voted against them, they can get tough.

Marge votes against unionizing because she's industrious and gets frequent raises.

The day after the vote, she goes to the parking lot to get in her car and go home

and her car has been keyed.

Then the "Local 213" representative from the AFL-CIO comes to her desk the next day and asks if she wants to reconsider her vote. Politely. Friendly-like.

Yes, it happens.

********

Here's what I would say to John Thugissimo from the Local 213:
(delivered sotto voce, right in the ear of the main agitator for unionizing the workplace:)

The next time anything happens to me or mine, you, personally, will regret it. If ANY thing happens to my car, to my stuff, or to my lunch. If my wife's car gets damaged. If a threatening phone call comes in to my house. If somebody even randomly engages in a road-rage incident directed at me or my wife. If a child on the playground so much as calls my child an ugly name:

YOU, my friend, will find yourself in need of a set of new tires and a new paint job on YOUR car. Possibly new windows also. Come to my house and the tree in your front lawn will be on fire. Make a threatening phone call and I'll cut off water to your house with a chainsaw. Try to visit direct violence on me and twenty major-caliber Little Presents will be headed your way.

I'm not interested in collective bargaining, and I'm not interested in some thug trying to intimidate me into joining a union.

Do.

Not.

Mess.

With.

Me.

Are we clear?

********

If more people were willing to take that tone, and those actions, the AFL-CIO would be powerless even with public balloting.

In my humble opinion.

Britain Makes Being A Foreign Terrorist Easier

They want foreign workers to stop using their foreign documents for a UK-issued ID card. This makes things much easier for the foreigners in UK. All you have to do is go to the guy who sells the false ID cards, instead of having to invent a whole backstory and documentation.

Good job, Britain.

Well, at least they don't have mandatory ID cards for the citizenry. Yet.

Oh, did I mention that DPS dropped a request they put in to the Texas Attorney General? Seems some lawmakers had concerns with the idea of Drivers License/Insurance/Registration checkpoints randomly stopping people driving down the highways. You know, the kind that treat ordinary citizens like criminals and are illegal and hugely unpopular in Texas? Yeah, those.

"Papiere, Bitte."

So, Um, You Ah, Going To Use That 7 Trillion Dollars For Anything?

...or would you rather just give it to people who made bad decisions? You didn't really need 1/2 the nation's GDP did you?

No? Good! Carry on, no communism here!

Next up in line for a frikken handout: Everybody Else.

********

It's almost like they're trying to foment armed rebellion, but I'm still chalking it up to gross incompetence, until someone proves me wrong

********

They're trying harder now. Since yesterday, you went from being on the hook for $7.7T to $8.5T now. If you don't understand why this a bad thing, imagine the following scenario:

You make $50,000 per year. You owe $10,000 on credit cards. And you have just promised to lend $30,000 to your neighbor who never returns the tools he borrows from you.

Now consider, that is the current status of the economy of the United States of America.

Nice.

I Am Offended And I Will SUE!!!!1!1!!

Before it mysteriously vanished ::cast sidelong glances at my Darling Wife:: I wore a boonie hat basically all day, everywhere except the house. It is an excellent sun shade, umbrella, and protector of my poor widdle head from minor abrasions and contusions from a zillion sharp edges and protruding objects at work. When I got my check, I would wear the hat into the bank. Sometimes I would take it off, sometimes not.

zOMG! Now I am a scary b4nK r0bb3rZ with a hat on!

Hold on there.

The tellers at my bank know that I am as reliable as a Swiss clockworks, showing up at 17:45 every other Friday. With a hat. Now some pointy headed corporate policy maker thinks a Fedora is a sure sign of The Bank Robber? Get over yourself. While you're at it, come around to reality and arm your tellers and allow your customers to come in armed, and see if you ever get robbed again (hint: no you will not, and blood will not run in the streets).

This is, possibly, a worse insult to the customers of Golden One Credit Union than the "you're a criminal" law that put pseudoephedrine behind the counter.

BOO! GOCU customers, protest! Everybody else, complain!

Kurds Take Delivery of Tons of Small Arms.

From the Firearm Blog:

The Iraqi Kurds have taken delivery of three C-130 loads of small arms from Bulgaria. Without asking the Iraqi central government's permission first. The Iraqi government is not amused.

The arms are almost certainly for the use of the Kurdish independent militia (pesh merga) forces. The ones who are so effective we used their help in subduing the uppity muslims faithful islamists Tearawrists in Iraq.

This could be completely innocuous, by the way. They have probably been running low on supplies, what with living in a war zone and all. Maybe they're just buying new assault rifles for everybody, and they didn't want US-supplied "sand-jam-special" M4s. Then again, maybe they want to have their own little country, whether Turkey and Iraq like it or not.

We shall see.

How to Be A Real Estate Investing Millionaire!

...well, somebody is buying all those foreclosure houses.

After all, half of the houses selling these days are selling in foreclosure.

The fun part is that the bottom of the housing market is not yet. Prices still have at least 10% to fall, and in some places closer to 20%.

I hope you have a good, steady, recession-proof job. I pray I do, too.

A Frenchman Give You A Dose Of Truth

From Blackfive.net we have this gem of reality in what seems at times like an insane world:

American Troops in Afghanistan Through the Eyes of a French OMLT Infantryman, a translated opinion piece from a french Soldier who was fighting side-by-side with our men in the 101st. He was greatly impressed:

..."from what we have been given to witness, the American soldier is a beautiful and worthy heir to those who liberated France and Europe."

Go. Read the whole thing.

Wow. This is What Capitalized Medicine Looks Like:

I was reading the Notes of a Paramedic and I was frankly amazed at the sequence of events in the care of one patient.

An aging woman had chest pain for a couple of hours, and called for an ambulance.
In under 30 minutes, she was getting an ECG in hospital.
In another half hour, she was in surgery for a completely occluded Left Anterior Descending artery (she was lucky to be alive).

She has some tissue damage but still has a fighting chance. Because the people involved all get paid handsomely for what they do.

My friends, how much is it worth to you, to be able to live one more day with a decent shot at another 10 years?

In countries with socialized medicine, you don't get to put a number on it. You get your cancer treatments "free". . . and you get to stand on line while it progresses from stage 1 100% curable to stage 4 congratulations you're dead.

Hold on there.

It need not be that way.

NHS rationing health care need not happen.

This woman is going to have to pay medical bills for the rest of her life maybe.

But at least she will be alive, and that's worth it in my book.

My Church Is Almost Ready

... to get started on the new building!

For those that don't know, my church's building was set on fire by an aarsonist about 14 months ago. The next day, the people at the Weed Corley-Fish Funeral Home called our pastor and offered us the use of their chapel. It is an excellent facility, and what place is better to hold gospel preaching than a funeral home? At any rate, we started holding all our regular meetings there (3 meetings/week), and they have refused any payment from us in return for the use of their facility. In 14 months, there were 3 occasions, total, when they had to have us use another meeting place... they have been accommodating beyond any reasonable expectation, and were happy to help fellow Christians in a time of need. Pastor Burkholder recently felt led to get a secondary meeting place, so now we are meeting at another church's building (Skyview, which recently disbanded) for a fee per-use that doesn't even cover their electrical costs. Once again, Christians helping each other out.

We (my church) had for several years before the fire been saving up for a new building. We were meeting in a 55 year-old place that, even having been expanded to a total of 10,000 suqare feet, was getting cramped. Most Sundays, we had 160-ish to 180-ish people in service, and on the "big 2" days (easter/christmas) we would run well over 250. The church was situated in a built-out neighborhood, and there were about 50 parking spaces, if that. Parking would routinely overflow to the parking lot of the school across the street, who had authorized it years before. Also the streets were lined with cars. The fellowship hall had dividers and doubled as half the classrooms we needed for Sunday School. There was not enough room, and we were going to have to build a bigger place, with more parking, and we had saved up some money. Then the fire was set, and the insurance company put in a big chunk of money, and so we have "about" enough to make a new building, with parking. The contents... well, we might be meeting on folding chairs for a while ;), but we can make the building with what we have on the books.

We already had enough cash on-hand by the time a suitable location was found, that we paid cash for the land on which the new building would be erected. The place we bought comprises four acres in a business park near the intersection of highways 183 and 290 East, and if you get above the treeline, the entirety of downtown Austin is visible from there, including the Capitol building. We are planning a big white structure that will be visible from all over town, worth about $10,000/month in advertising, just by virtue of its location.

AAAaaaanyway, that all to say, we have a place to meet, but it is just raw land right now. We have held meetings there a few times, under the sky, but it's no good for rain or cold eh. The property was four lots and they are supposed to have been merged into one lot for tax-exemption purposes. The main holdup was the site plan. Without a site plan in Austin, you can't build a doghouse.

The site plan, pending deposit money, is approved!

A few weeks and I hope to see some dirt moving, and maybe by next Summer, we'll have our building up!

Yay!

P.S. Trinity has never, and will never have, "fund raisers", be they car washes, bake sales, or kids-on-the-street-begging. Our thinking is that God, who made the world, is able to provide for his own. We do not solicit donations, but if you feel like making a contribution toward the building of the church, directions can be found on the bottom of the announcements page on the church website.

Gasoline Prices: Falling TOO Fast, Now!

I had a funny feeling that my rule of thumb was breaking down. Now I understand that it was. The price of gas is falling faster than the price of oil!

While it feels like a good thing right now, it is actually not!

This means that the smaller refineries, and the ones that can't process heavy crude efficiently, will shut. The estimate in the above-linked article is 10% of the refineries in the country may close. That, my friends, is not going to help the price of gasoline to go any lower.

For now though, I am enjoying the gas they sell around here for $1.77/Gal. when the rest of the country is just now breaking $2. That is a full 50%+ reduction in my fuel bill in the course of just a few months. Breathtaking.

Enjoy the sunshine while it lasts my friends.

I Hate Mice.

Computer mice, that is. As long as they stay outside, the little fuzzy kind are fine with me.

For a couple of years at the house, I have been using a pair of Kensington Orbits that I got at the Goodwill Computer Works. The first one was a serial mouse in which I installed a white LED to light up the trackball. We wore it out. Then I installed a USB Orbit. That one, too, has finally given up the ghost. Prior to that, I was using a many-years-old Kensington Expert Mouse White which stopped working altogether one day; I think that one was subjected to ESD (fried). The USB Orbit has taken quite a beating, with both #1 and #2 playing their computer games with grubby hands.... one of the switches has begun operating intermittently. If you want to hold a left-click it won't hold, and if you want a single-click it will give you a double. Boo. Not fun, but useable with frustration.

Then I went to edit a photo in Photoshop and you NEED to be able to hold the left button down for some editing operations. FAIL.

So I went and dug in the computer stuff box and right now I am using a Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical USB mouse. It's actually quite a good mouse, as far as that goes. But I'm a fan of the trackball. No running out of table or mousepad with a trackball. No hunting for the trackball when you want to move your cursor without looking down at the input device (with a mouse, it can be several inches from where you expect it to be on your desk top).

I am (to be kind to myself) quite frugal. It may come as a surprise to those that know me, but in order to be happy with my input device at work (doing photo editing for hours every day) I went and spent $70 of my own money on a Kensington Expert Mouse Optical trackball. It's a thing of beauty. As always with a Kensington trackball, the rolling action is smooth as silk, the programmable buttons are VERY handy, and the scroll ring is much easier to use than the wheel found on some other models. 5 of 5 stars for this thing.

Some people have complained about gritty rolling of Kensington trackballs. They are doing it wrong. You CAN NOT have a perfectly clean ball and expect it to roll smoothly. It needs a very thin coating of oil on the ball to get the silky smooth operation. That film will build up naturally when the oil from your face (which you touch all the time without realizing it) gets transferred to the ball from your fingertips. If you can't stand the grittiness, do this: Clean the ball, clean the ruby rollers, and remove all the accumulated dirt from the well under the ball. Then rub your nose or forehead with your fingers and rub your fingers on the ball. Repeat the transfer of oil from your face to the ball until the ball is fairly well coated. Then install it back into the trackball base and roll it around a few times to coat the ruby rollers with oil.

It's pretty smooth now, right? Nice.

********

P.S. I am a trained electronics technician. I'm going to take a switch out of the dead serial Orbit and install it into the USB one. I have replaced switches before (heck, I think I replaced THREE in the old white Expert Mouse) and it's not that bad if you can solder at all well. God willing I'll have a working trackball again in under half an hour... It's no Expert Mouse, but it's better than a mouse-mouse any day.

edit/update: Great success! I replaced the switch after I got lunch in the oven, and I replaced the top housing as well, so the nicer of the two Orbits' housings would be the one in use. The date codes on these trackballs are 9 and 10 years old, and the one that failed had been modified. The one that was failing, the switch was replaced and it's back on line! Yay!

Rep. Joe Knollenberg: Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish!

Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R(INO)-Mich., said that your money is not your money. He actually had the unmitigated gall to say that the bailout money is not your money. Technically it's China's money right now, and your grandchildrens' money in 30 years when we are still trying to pay it back, but to me, that's close enough.

This sort of asinine thinking is what LOST the white house for the Republican party. They pushed left when the conservative base was looking for a push right, and I know of several people in my own little circle who either didn't vote at all this year out of distaste for McCain, or else they voted for Palin, and McCain wasn't the candidate in whom they were interested. Because they are hard-core (i.e. "normal people") conservatives and McCain is NOT.

If the Republican Party doesn't swing right, HARD, in the next 2 years, we are going to have an ugly 2nd-half of the Obama administration with Democrats in control of 2/3rds of the Federal Government.

Rep. Joe Knollenberg lost and was replaced by a Democrat. Good. I hope his constituents will get a chance to vote for a conservative in 2010.

Barack Obama's Birth Certificate Lawsuits Moving Forward

The supreme Court has agreed to consider the question (raised by a lawsuit in New Jersey) in conference. They may decide to hear oral arguments on the matter. If they do, the BO campaign will have to produce something slightly more substantial than "garbage" as a response.

Meanwhile, another lawsuit has been dismissed for lack of standing in Hawaii. If you are going to challenge people in court, you MUST do it properly. Failure to follow rules will mean you lose, whether your cause is just or unjust. Failure to even serve the respondents is just stupid, and I'm with the judge on that part. What I fail to understand is how the citizenry at large, every single one of us, doesn't have standing to challenge BO's citizenship. Maybe a class-action lawsuit is in order? Maybe not, but I pity the legal department down at the Vital Records department in Hawaii right now. I also feel bad for anyone trying to get some *other* type of vital records because this has got to be making it even harder. Yet one more class of people injured by BO's failure to present his Birth Certificate? Just kidding, just kidding.

So what can you do, if you are one of the People who cares about this? Well, I'm not sure what it's worth, but a Petition has been started online.

If you feel like it, go and put your name on the enemies list sign it

Obama Worship: Renaming A School

The first public school to change its name to Barack Obama's name has done it before he has even been elected by the electoral college.

A student of history will note the similarity to a certain empire *coughRomecough* that had cities named after the emperors as a sign of adoration, worship, or loyalty.

How many cities are there named Alexandria, Ceasarea, Constantinople, etc.?

... I'm still waiting, and remember not to be surprised by it when you see it:

Animal sacrifices to Obama. Coming soon, just wait.

Hillary Clinton to Be Secretary of State

Not only do we have another woman secretary of state (3rd world read: weak, dumb, ineffectual, no need to take seriously), we have one who is a socialist. Great.

Well, I guess that's a change.

But then, so is being kicked in the 'nads. Just sayin'.

One can hardly help noticing that this acceptance comes, what, a day or 2 after the Secretary of Health and Human Services position was filled. . .

Global Warming Comes To Atlanta!

The forecast for Atlanta's overnight low temperature is a whopping 25 degrees!

GLOBAL WARMENING!!!1! 25°C = 77°F! and it's Almost DECEMBER!!!

Oh, wait, what? That was 25°F?

Isn't that, like, a wintertime normal temperature?

Nevermind then.

Those Greedy Bankers Are Ruining The Economy!

~or~

Those Greedy Bankers Still Want to Have a Job Next Year!
__________

Pick the headline you prefer.

I was driving home last night and heard once again the banks are being blamed for not lending enough money to get the economy back on the insane inflationary schedule we had a year ago.

The banks are not the problem! It doesn't matter how much blame they catch from the Bush administration, the alphabet networks, or anyone else, it's not their fault.

For years and years, when it looked like everybody was going to have an ever-increasingly large number of dollars banks were making loans that were . . . not such a great idea. But hey, everybody was making payments, so what's wrong with a jumbo loan with a 0.8% interest rate? We're still making money because they're still making payments right?

Well now, they're not making payments anymore. A banker is a business man before he is a guy with a fist full of money to hand out. If he lends money that will never be paid back, he loses it. If he lends money to someone who may not pay it back he can do two things:

1) just be fine with losing a few billion dollars here and there

2) charge higher interest rates

1 is not going to happen in a capitalist society*. 2 is underway, which is why you can now get the same loans for 15% interest.

Why do they do that? Can't they see they are hurting the economy?

Look folks the bankers that lose money lose their jobs when they run out of money. If you lose your job as a banker, the economy takes a hit. If a bank closes, the economy takes a much bigger hit. Staying in business is one way of helping the economy. Also it's convenient for being able to get groceries to feed your wife and children. So, higher interest it is.

Of course, 30 years ago, 17% was not out of the question, when you also had to be super credit-worthy AND had a big down-payment.

If you are lending to someone with a bad risk of default, you charge higher interest. That way, you get a lot of interest money in the beginning of the loan, and it is hoped that they have at least covered your costs when they default on the loan. High interest loans are not bad bankers being mean to John Q. Public trying to smash the economy, people.

It's good banking. There used to be a saying "the only way you can get a loan is to prove you don't need it".

That kind of banking is back for a while. Get used to it.

********

*We don't have capitalists running the country and won't for a couple of years yet, which is why Bernanke et. al. are lending money at effectively 0% interest. They don't CARE if the taxpayer loses money, they just want all the numbers to be green instead of red. That is also why $350,000,000,000 of your tax dollars have disappeared in a month or two. Everyone with a lobbyist who needs credit to stay in business is borrowing from the Fed. The fed has finally screwed over the economy to the point that they have become the lender of ONLY resort, and the rest of us are left to put down a fat down payment on a loan with high interest from private banks... when a year ago it would have been low interest with no down payment. c'est la guerre.

Do Want: Charter Arms Rimless Revolver (CARR)

Charter Arms have released news that they are going to mass-produce revolvers designed to use rimless ammunition in the most popular calibers (.40S&W, .45ACP, 9mm) without using moon clips.

For those (like me) who already have too many calibers in the arsenal, but would like to have a revolver for the reliability and simplicity, this is just the ticket.

If I thought it would be properly appreciated, I would give one to my wife for Valentine's day... if I celebrated valentines day, that is.

Obama: The Official Change = All The Same Old People

So the candidate for hopechange hopes you will change the channel and not notice that he is apparently going to recruit everybody that used to be in the Clinton administration, to be in his administration.

Way to be imaginative. Dare to be different, eh?

It's understandable, though, because really, who has international policy experience in the Chicago political thug machine?

At least the Hillary may turn down the offer of the position of Secretary of State. After all, who ever heard of a former Secretary of State running for President? ::shudder::

Good Lord what a mess the next 2 years will be.

Oh, and by the way, Senator Stevens, thanks oodles and bunches for screwing the nation that much closer to a veto-proof Democrat Senate majority, you jerk. I hope something unpleasant happens to you in Club Fed for screwing up your country (if it ends up screwed. The whole thing could be a stalemate but probably not).

Woman Drops, Loses Grease Gun

Not a problem, unless you are talking about a woman astronaut in frikken outer space already

I could take this opportunity to make a highly politically incorrect joke about women and tools, but that would just be improper. (hehehe)

I know everybody drops tools, but if you don't want fun made of you, don't drop them into outer space, mkay? Just a little advice for all the aspiring astronauts out there.

Indian Navy Takes Advice From Vote For David

They sank a pirate "mothership" and left the peaceful members of the religion of peace Somali muslim pirates for sharkbait.

Good.

A few more like that, and they'll either lose through attrition or start getting a clue about the poor career choice "pirate" was.

Guerilla Marketing

Christian Style

Christians are launching balloons with gospel tracts over North Korea and littering the countryside with the message the good people under a bad government sorely need: Hope.

Not Barack-style hope. This one will actually do you some eternal good, and keep you out of Hell.

Good for them.

Democrat Congress Stalling The UAW Bailout On Public Pressure.

The bold leadership of the Congress of the United States has a slew of newly-renamed post offices. And a destroyed national economy. Really, that's about all the Democrats have managed to accomplish.

They wanted to give the United Auto Workers union Big Three carmakers a few billion more of my your our grandchildrens' dollars. The UAW's friends the Democrats would have kept paying the current, former, and un-needed auto workers for a few more months, and then the big 3 would go bankrupt, led by GM. The companies would be forced to restructure and become somewhat more efficient than having a 40% higher personnel cost than the local competition. But for some reason the stupid electorate is calling, saying they don't want to pay for it.

The UAW refuses to blink. This is the cause of the destruction of the US auto industry. The Bush administration refuses to admit that the union has gone from Necessary to Evil, so Dana Perino says "If Congress leaves for a two-month vacation without having addressed this important issue ... then the Congress will bear responsibility for anything that happens in the next couple of months during their long vacation,"

Uh, no. The union has prevented supplier integration and about a zillion efficiency improvements, and insisted on benefits for the UAW members that are way past "borderline ridiculous" and well into "outright suicidal". They continue to bite the hand that feeds, and now GM and possibly Ford and Chrysler is going to go down, hard. Laws and regulations preventing the closing of automobile dealerships are going to mean bubkis when the parent company goes out of business.

And then what happens? 3 Million Jobs Lost In 2009?

NO.

The airlines that went bankrupt, are they shuttered or are they still flying?

Oh, that's right.

The auto companies that don't survive in current form will reorganize and continue making cars. It is to be hoped that, unlike the airline industry, the auto industry turns around and tries on a PROFITABLE business model, but they may not. At this point, it looks like a matter of when, not if, this will happen. The sooner it happens, the sooner recovery can begin, for GM and the USA as a whole.

It looks like the house of cards is finally collapsing, and those who were profitable before will have a hard time, but those who had moronic business models will be blown away like chaff, and good riddance.

Oh, I almost forgot the reason I started this post:

UNION MEMBERS: Do you remember who was supposed to be your best buddy, Republicans or Democrats? And on whose watch is this million-union-jobs-lost turnaround happening?

THE DEMOCRATS! Remember that in November, 2010, won't you please?

What Did You DO?

We're tight on cash right now so this was all I did to celebrate.



I also sent emails to a couple of people who might not have known about the holiday, and posted to a couple of bulletin boards about it.

So... how did you celebrate National Ammunition Day"

Financial Market Credit Freeze Still On. (Welcome to the Depression)

You may not have connected the dots when the $700B bailout went from one thing to the other, when the one thing didn't free up the credit market.

(scroll down halfway through the article)

The frantic efforts of the government to get the economy skyrocketing again will fail, because there is a glut of capacity in every sector but energy. Inventories of everything that "they" just keep right on making are rising. And the good are sitting, waiting for buyers.

Ya know what happens when stuff sits and nobody buys it? The price falls until there is a buyer.

Ya know what happens when nobody is borrowing money? There is less money (fewer dollars, not just fewer transactions) in the economy.

Ya know what those last two paragraphs are definitions of? Depending on whom you ask, either one of those is the definition of...

drumroll please...

Deflation

That's it, I'm calling it. I called it before, but this is the no-joke, I mean it this time, O-Fisshul Calling It Now Call.

The world's economy is in deflation.

Have a nice day. And good luck keeping your job.

P.S. I'm glad I didn't decide to be an over-the-road truck driver a couple of years ago, when every one of them was getting a good job for good wages. Family considerations were behind that decision then. Now, it's looking like not such a good industry in which to be, generally speaking.

It's National Ammunition Day!

Go out and celebrate!

(what's National Ammunition Day?)

More News From The Place Where England Used to Be

Ron Crosby, chairman of the Prison Officers' Association at Wymott, and deputy chairman Howie Probert said the test of the decency agenda is: "Would we as members of the prison service like our children to be treated in the same manner as prison staff treat prisoners today?"

You know what? My children get corporal punishment for backtalk, lieing, and bad attitudes. They are more severely punished for disobedience and meanness. Good manners and behavior are expected of them at all times, and lack thereof is punished. Well-doing is rewarded with praise and small rewards.

That is EXACTLY how prisoners should be treated.

Respect. BAH!

Found via News of the Weird which, if you are not reading weekly, you should.

Reality Tries To Stage A Comeback

Found via Uncle

So it turns out, according to official studies & whatnot that...

When folks go on a killing spree, they don't want to be shot
They want to find disarmed victims so they can kill as many as possible
So they seek out "gun-free zones" to which to (gasp) bring their guns
The signs, they do nothing to stop this..
And when they even SEE armed resistance, they mostly off themselves.

So police are taking a [deleted] clue from the last few dozen high-profile shootings and changing tactics in various jurisdictions around the country.

They are training to engage the Goblins instead of standing around watching while they kill people until SWAT shows up.

Sure, it may result in a couple of police killed, but they sign up and get paid to be at risk to protect the public. Is that really worse than 32 people slain while the police run the other way? Really?

My commentary: Good, it's about time.

Please note: concealed (heck, or open) carry of personal weaponry by citizens can put a stop to mass-murderers' shenanigans by exactly one police response-time interval, if a citizen is enough of a lover of self and countrymen to stand up and put his neck on the line.

The police are charged with enforcing laws... but it is your duty to fight crime as well. Make sure, if it is a GUN fight, that you have yours.

Carry your guns, people!

Voters Reject Fluoridation of Drinking Water All Over the Place.

Good.

This should be banned. If you don't know why, click the link and go to the website in the article.

More News From The Place Where England Used to Be

Man makes an old house inhabitable again

Makes it self-sustaining with off-grid electric power

Applies for a permit to call it a house.

Denied.

Because it had only been lived in for 3 of the last 4 years?

Now he has to render it uninhabitable again, at the point of Royal guns.

Britons, are you really electing people like this?

Make a stink big enough to get this overturned people, and do some good with your votes next time you get to the ballot box!

Qantas Passengers Trapped On Plane for 24 Hours...

... and the airline has rules about crew shift lengths, so they rotated the cabin crew at the end of shift.

From Stuff.co.nz.

Now let me give you all an idea of what a red-blooded American MAN does in a situation like this:

1) Proceed to an exit aisle
2) Turn the big handle on the door
3) Kick the door open
4) Wait for the slide to deploy
5) Say "WHEEEEeeeeeee" going down the slide
6) Walk to the terminal and get a rental car (try to avoid the police, who will be unhappy with you)
7) Spend the night in a hotel room
8) Sue the airline for false imprisonment if you're feeling froggy. Try to get your face in front of a camera for the nightly news.

My timeline goes something like this: 1 hour delayed, irritated. 2 hours, the airline has a choice: tell me we are taking off in the next hour (and do it), or refer to the above sequence of steps.

Sure it would be a bit complicated what with the police and airline all upset at you, but what's better: stuck in an airplane for a day or a jail cell for a night and being declared the flying travellers' hero? I bet it would only take one person down the slide, to trigger about half the plane going down the slide in the next 5-10 minutes.

Do that a few times and the airlines will start to get the hint, people.

[deleted] flying. I'm driving.

UAW is Pissing in the Pot.

The Democrats, of course, couldn't care less. The right-thinkers consider it a deal-breaker.

The UAW has a pretty ridiculous level of commitment from the Big 3 auto makers in Detroit. The average hourly wage of a laborer, considering benefits and agreements, is $74/hr. Toyota's package is something in the low $40/hr range.

My friends, there is NO way to have a competitive price structure on finished goods if your personnel overhead costs are DOUBLE what the competition has. No small part of the problem: they have a pool of several thousand workers for each company, paying around $30/hr just to sit on their tails, put out of a job due to advances in technology (and weak management pimp-hands at the contract table).

The union is going to drive the companies to bankruptcy (which incidentally is where they belong) and then, according to Speaker Pelosi, the managment would have an unfair advantage over labor. You know what I say about that advantage? Good. Maybe management will grow a pair and tell the UAW to kick bricks when the contracts are renegotiated.

Otherwise, Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai are all going to get some pretty sweet prices on used auto manufacturing equipment.

Regarding the "bail-out" proposals for the auto makers: $25B three ways is just over $8B each. That sounds like a lot of money, right? Well, it does, until you consider that GM has $16B in cash right now, and they are projected to last <1 year on that.

And the unions have no intentions of conceding ANYTHING.

Global Warming: Literally Made-Up "Science!"

If you don't have temperature data for a month, just use the previous month's data. Surely no-one will notice.

...and if they do, well, we can just ignore them anyway...

Obama STILL Hasn't Answered This Question.

"Sir, will you please provide documentary evidence of your citizenship in the United States of America?"

Say what you will about Dr. Alan Keyes, but the man can think straight on occasion, and this is one of those occasions.

He is trying to prevent California from filing their Electors' votes until Barry provides proof of citizenship.

Good.


The supreme Court said Average Joe (Berg) did not have standing to file the suit, so a couple of California Electors have now brought suit.

...and Barack Obama STILL hasn't produced his "born here, can be President" birth certificate...

... and you STILL don't have a problem with that?


The campaign dismisses these lawsuits out of hand, but to several serious people, the following are pretty big concerns:

"Hawaii Revised Statute 338-178 allows registration of birth in Hawaii for a child that was born outside of Hawaii to parents who, for a year preceding the child’s birth, claimed Hawaii as their place of residence," the document said. "The only way to know where Senator Obama was actually born is to view Senator Obama's original birth certificate from 1961 that shows the name of the hospital and the name and signature of the doctor that delivered him."

The case also raises the circumstances of Obama's time during his youth in Indonesia, where he was listed as having Indonesian citizenship. Indonesia does not allow dual citizenship, raising the possibility of Obama's mother having given up his U.S. citizenship.

Any subsequent U.S. citizenship then, the case claims, would be "naturalized," not "natural-born."

...which explains why there are 15 States with currently pending or "in the works" lawsuits about this matter.

Senator, WHY not answer the question?

Liberalism Is A Mental Disorder

No, seriously.

So says Dr. Lyle Rossiter, author of the new book, "The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness."

of course, he probably would have called it "Liberalism Is A Mental Disorder," but that was already taken.

The New Tolerance: Breaking Up The Enemy's Meetings

The Pro-Israel side holds an event and you go disrupt it, complete with signs, violence, and death threats.

That's some Tolerance right there.

At least the police actually arrested one of them for assault. You know, unlike in Canada, where the victims are told they are being intolerant.

Hooray for the Religion of Peace!

More News From The Place Where England Used to Be

The inmates are about to be given the keys to the asylum Schoolchildren are being given power over their teachers.

What fools. Maybe I should have tagged this one with Brownshirts Ascendant, too.

More News From The Place Where England Used to Be

I don't know when, or where, this happened, but it is a symptom of the current craziness in UK.

Are You Saved?

Are you sure?

Does the prospect of being killed in the next two minutes cause you to wonder (or fear) what might happen to you afterwards?


It need not. Listen.

BDI Baltic Dry Shipping Index: A Sign of the Times.

BDI is the index that shows how much it costs to ship goods on cargo ships.

Look at the last 6 months:

Off the cliff. Looking at that, some commentators have gone so far as to start talking about riots in the streets and overthrown governments due to food shortages and starving children. Shades of TEOTWAWKI, even.

Looking at short-term numbers, it is easy to see how one can think so.

My gut feeling for this recession/depression has been that we would return to sanity. That is to say, return to what prices and supply/demand was like in 2002-ish. The economy MUST fall pretty hard, and around the world at that, in order to reach these levels. The governments are trying to make money cheap to borrow so the outstanding credit will expand again, and it will not work. There is oversupply in everything except energy, and the prices (and, unfortunately, supplies and the jobs to provide the supplies) must fall back to levels that make sense without the easy credit bubble which has now burst.

The BDI used to ride around 1000. Then commodities started skyrocketing this year and to a lesser extent in previous years, and we added another zero to the BDI. Note the trend on the 15-year chart:


That shows a bit of an overshoot in the correction, but it shows me a correction back to the traditional level of the BDI.

And it looks like the correction may have stopped.


Or at least slowed drastically. It is to be hoped that we are seeing the beginnings of the end of the recession already: stabilization of prices.

edit: something is wrong with the middle image or else it's my computer. Click on it to watch the BDI falling off a cliff like all the other economic indicators have done.

Pseudoephedrine Dosage for Infants by Weight

Click the link below for proper dosing information.

You may have found this blog searching for the proper dosage of decongestant you should give your baby. The drug companies and pediatricians are working against us and say "oh, it's so dangerous that you might overdose your baby, you shouldn't even give them any over-the-counter cough and cold remedies" and "OTC remedies aren't even shown to work anyway"

Bull.

You know from previous children that Sudafed was THE medicine that helped them feel better, get rest, and give you a break from the torment of a congested/coughy/sneezy crying baby.

You know better.

I was bent out of shape about not being able to get the most effective medicine when I wrote this post, but if you will scroll down, you will find the information you were looking for spelled out plainly.

I hope your baby feels better soon.

Somebody Lent the British Navy a Clue. Finally.

They took a small craft with a small compliment of muslims terrorists pirates on board, killing a couple of them.

You know, instead of letting their crewmen be taken hostage, like the last time.

Blah blah the situation is different sure, but come ON! You surround them with rigid-raider craft and they SHOOT at you? That's a sinkin' right there. They boarded the boat. Why, to see if they had rigged it with bombs? Frikken SINK that thing and shaZAM you keep sailing. Maybe pick up a few wet rats after they drop their small arms and bombs eh.

Oh well, it all came out alright, and I'm obliged to give a grudging Bravo Zulu to the Royal Navy and Marines for at taking a few muslim pirates off the water.

Oh, how do I know they are faithful islamists? Look around the world and tell me how many armed conflicts and open-seas piracies don't involve the Religion of Peace these days.

You can count them on the fingers of one foot.

News From Texas: Childrens Bill Of Rights - BOO!

There is a proposal starting to pick up steam to get a Texas Childrens' Bill of Rights passed.

This is an horrible idea.

The only right the state needs to enforce with regards to children is their right to life, and the state has abrogated its responsibility in that!

Now some jerk in Dallas wants to tell me that my children have the "right" to nutritious meals, the "right" to health care, the "right" to blah-blah blahs.

You know what? I have a right to rear my children the way I please. This subject reveals either ignorance or evil on the part of its proponents. Either they don't realize that the State has no business telling me how to treat my children, aside from "don't hurt/kill them" (ignorance) or they think the state DOES have the right to tell me how to treat my children.

RIGHTS are against the State. You have a RIGHT not to have the State come jack you up. Your children have (basically) no rights of their own, and their priveleges devolve from the rights of their parents, as parents, to rear them as they see fit.

The STATE has no rights at all. The state has responsibilities TO the people.

For the state to declare the rights of my child is a huge step in the wrong direction. Okay, your child has the right to a quality education. Sounds great. Who says what's quality? An objective observer sees that homeschoolers excel across the board by all measures. Barry Obama says homeschooling is a fraud. Whose standard wins? Does my child's right to a quality education mean you take my children and force them into an underperforming government school? Public education is not quality... do you really think that will be admitted to and written into law? My favorite is the "dignity" business... children have a right to dignity. Against the state, yes... against the parent, no. I can, will, and DO burst in to my childrens' rooms unannounced and when they get older I will rifle through their things and read their diaries. When they get out of line, corporal punishment is the rule. These things, according to some people who lack perspective, violate the Dignity of my children. People who think that way, fail to see that children left tho their own ways bring their mothers to shame.

Yes, this is a religious question after all. A Christian who lives according to the Bible will rear excellent children. A lazy person will not, nor will a selfish person. The humanist who worships only himself has no standard to live up to and so can expect the State to provide him one if he can't figure it out on his own. A humanist requires a bill of rights for children. A good Christian family does not.

Remember that America's Constitution is for "a moral and a religious people, and that it is wholly inadequate to the governance of any other"

$10B Detroit Bailout? Excuse the F Outta ME?!

From Local 4 / Clickondetroit.com:

So the city of Detroit is falling off the financial cliff. Well, that's to be expected when you can hear the sucking sound from 10 miles away. When the major revenue streams for your city are all drying up (Ford, GM, Chrysler) and you are a leftist utopia-aspirant type city, replete with public trough gimmes and social welfare programs, you are in trouble.

So the city wants to hold their hands out to the taxpayer (read: You and Me). To the tune of $10,000,000,000. They can't keep their financial house in order, so the city would like to take money off of MY books and food off my children's plates and give it directly to city employees to put food on their childrens' plates?

[deleted] you, Detroit is all I have to day to that idea. My children are worth more to me than yours, so hands off my wallet.

spread the wealth around. Don't get me started.

&&&&&&&&

This nicely illustrates the crisis in which we all find ourselves. The choice is clear. Pull yourself up by your bootsraps, deleverage and start using capital vs. credit in the future, OR turn into a socialist nightmare, where everybody pays everybody else's bad debts at gunpoint and the whole thing goes to [deleted].

You may guess which I would prefer.

&&&&&&&&

By the way, in the event you got here looking for news about the major industry in Detroit, here's my commentary on bailing them out with my childrens' money:

[deleted] them, also. They need to fail and have a company take over their assets that isn't bound by contract to union members who are willing to send the company to the grave to get the last penny of benefits from their employers.

If GM, Ford, Chrysler, et. al. could have cut union benefits they would be in great shape to retool and sell the dinky little cars everyone wants now. Instead they allowed themselves to be bound to the UAW and now they are going to fail. The only question is how much of your tax money is going to go into the current and retired union worker's health care and wages before the Big Three are finally declared Oficially Dead and allowed to fail. I'm sure an Asian company not bound by stupid American union labor rules could use that equipment to realize very good capital gains. Even better, some American entrepreneur could buy it all and ship it to a right-to-work state (Texas comes to mind, San Antonio or Austin would be great! ) where workers don't have to be in a union, and then they could really churn and burn, and ALL the money goes to America, instead of the profits going to Japan or Korea or wherever.

When Mommy's Sick, Everybody Feels It.

My Lovely & Talented Wife was feeling under the weather today, and didn't cook breakfast or (gasp! ) even lunch for the chirrun. #3 didn't want anything to do with that lowly store-bought baby food until hunger got the best of him. At supper-time, #2 came out with his preference for supper... chicken.

Raw chicken.

Sealed in a three pound vacuum sealed package from the grocery store. "I want to eat this. Will you cook this?"

Both the Wife and I did an admirable job of refraining from laughter, and I went and helped him to pick something that required less cooking.

He had a carrot instead (this was after he had already had a turkey sammich) to finish filling his little stomach.

To me, that right there is a sign of a wife doing a good job keeping the kids in some good home-cookin'.

Thanks honey, and keep up the good work!

Minnesots's Version of Hanging Chads: Look I Found More Ballots!

Hey here are 7 in the back of my car that didn't get counted!
Here are a couple more I found in my couch cushions!

Good job ACORN, keep it coming and Frankin will have his election stolen for him yet!

Jerks.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-ino)

The people voted and said no to queers calling themselves o-ficially married in California.

The court overturned it.

The people did it again.

Governator Schwarzenegger says he wants the courts to do it again.

Good job, Californians. Way to not elect whassisface when Gray-out Davis got kicked out. You went with the Famous Guy even though the conservatives warned you he was a Republican In Name Only (RINO).

Now look what happened. Will of the people? Pshaw! Tradition that goes back to the beginning of the world? Regressive!

This is the governor you deserve.

How do you like it?

Oil Futures Below $58.

Good.

Look for gas to be under $2.30 nationwide...

Oh, wait!

My rule of thumb continues to prove itself.

New Federal Mortgage Plan Does Not Go Far Enough.

HEY! I failed to meet my obligations too! How come those guys over there are getting "help" with their mortgages and not me?

I didn't even read the story. The headline and first paragraph irked me enough.

How about, you made your bed, now you get to lie in it?
How about, you signed the note, now MAN UP and get a job at McDonalds after you get off from your job at Intel, and PAY YOUR OWN FRIKKEN MORTGAGE?

Help indeed. Help this. You either knew, or should have known, that you were getting in over your head (sometimes WAY over your head). A person with some dam' sense would not have made a deal they couldn't afford!

Oh, boo-hoo, you got laid off. Whatever happened to savings? You didn't have any available credit you could charge up with mortgage debt while you looked for a menial job to cover the loose ends, and another low-paying job to pay the mortgage? What, you've got circumstances and you are so special, you can't get 2 jobs? BAH. There is a family or a church nearby that will let you stay with them while you try to get on your feet. Suck up the hit on your credit, or arrange a workout with your bank, or else BE QUIET about you didn't get some "help" when some other people did.

[/rant]

I was listening to the radio today and they said there was going to be a program to "help" homeowners who had missed 3 payments, to keep their houses. What about the homeowners who busted their hump and got a second job so they could do the honorable thing and make their payments on time? What about the ones who canceled their $200/month TV/Internet/phone package, sold their $400/month car and got a beater to drive, stopped eating out, stopped going to the movies and concerts, stopped taking extra car trips, and generally cut their costs and scrimped and saved and PAID THEIR MORTGAGE ON TIME, EVERY TIME???!!

?

Oh, them.

!

No help for them.

The Forgotten Man, indeed.

Oh, by the way, we'll just up their tax burden to pay the mortgage notes for the folks who couldn't quite figure it out on their own. Thaaaaanks. I'm sure they won't mind that at ALL.

The New Federal Mortgage Plan Does Not Go Far Enough is the headline. The headline is what doesn't go far enough. It should read:

New Federal Mortgage Plan Does Not Go Far Enough Towards Socialism to Shut Up the Socialists and Pacify the Lazy-A$$ Whiners Who Can't Won't Pay Their Own Bills.

********

No really Dave, go ahead, tell us how you really feel!

To quote Mr. Scrooge:

BAH! HUMBUG!

The Eyeballing Game

You will try it.

You will enjoy it.

You will not do as well as I did.



The game before, I got a 3.59 but forgot to get a screenshot. DOH!

Photos from the Recent Obama Rallies:

HA!





I had never heard of Granite Grok before today, but I'll be bookmarking the site. If you like my blog, you will likely like Granite Grok.

Ammunition Price Increases

If it seems as if cartridges have doubled in price recently, you are not going mad.

They have.

The rush to stock up before President Obama puts a kaibosh on the whole industry, and the war(s), and the military converting to lead-free, will continue to drive the price up for the short and mid term future.

The world recession/depression will be bringing the prices of the materials and shipping down soon, though.

Keep buying, and remember:


(image from Granite Grok)

6.8x45mm Kramer for the AR-15 Crowd: WIN!

From The Firearm Blog

Take a 5.56 x 45mm case, and blow the neck out to 6.8mm. Insert a 115gr. bullet and you've got a relatively high-mass chunk of metal headed downrange to some Goblins. The changes required to convert your existing AR to the 6.8 x 45 Kramer "Urban Combat Cartridge"? A barrel. Maybe an upper but I'm not sure about that. Magazines, bolt faces, and extractors are the same thanks to the 5.56 parent case.

This, my friends, is a Good Thing.


.223Rem/5.56NATO vs. 6.8x45 Kramer
Photo from Defense Review

(I still say, give me an AR (15 size, not 10 size) chambered in .30-06 with a 20" barrel, and a piston operating system, but this is a good second choice! )

A Second Economic Stimulus Package!

Well, the first one was a huge boon to the online porn industry. No, seriously. Also a bunch of credit card debt was paid down. Economic stimulus, not so much.

However, I bet the second stimulus package they are currently kicking around will be pouring money into the small arms industry. I happen to know of at least one family that would use some of that cash to stockpile ammunition, and maybe a few soon-to-be-verboten politically-incorrect arms as well.

...you know, hypothetically

(if you are flush with guns & ammo, you may wish to consider some fresh ivory grips for your carry piece...)

This is Strength?

"The actions were needed to "keep the company strong and facilitate its ability to complete its restructuring process successfully," the government said."

So explain to me like I'm a 2nd Grader: how is a company strong if it needs $150B from the taxpayers to keep it from folding like an oragami demonstration?

Just sayin', that's all...

Finally Mopping Up the Bad Guys?

As it appears the scale of our War On Terrorism™ is about to be drastically scaled back, we are increasingly hitting known targets before the drawdown/pullback/redeployment begins when BO takes control. The latest dozen or so are an excellent step in the right direction.

So... why not sooner? ::shrugs shoulders::

Arms Shipment to Zimbabwe Stopped by . . . Dock Hands?

I found this at The Firearm Blog.

The Dock Hands in South Africa are refusing to offload a shipment of 3 Million rounds of 7.62x39mm (AK ammunition) and RPGs headed for Zimbabwe, from China.

The South African government seems uninterested in even trying to stop the repression of the will of the people to be free from Mugabe's tyranny. So, finally, the good people have said "enough" and the dockers in SA are refusing to offload the shipment. Their union is behind them 100% apparently, and a hasty court challenge to the SA government's permission of the shipment is underway.

Let us hope that the shipment gets diverted to the USA, where I would be happy to lighten the load by a case or ten of cartridges.

Vive la Resistance!

November 4th: Obama Victory Day?

Of all the stupid . . .

You know who else declared national holidays for special events in the lives of their rulers? The Romans. They also worshiped them as gods and sacrificed animals to them. Then the empire sort of collapsed a little bit. At least I don't think it's Obama's idea to make his election day into a national holiday in celebration of his historic-to-racists victory.

The Brownshirts Ascendant

?

This video is incomplete.

It purports to show a man arrested simply for wearing a T-shirt supporting a different political group than the one holding a party in the street.

It also (to me) shows a man who is possibly drunk, mildly combative, and already well into his confrontation with the police.

I think another 3 minutes on the front end of this video are necessary to make a proper judgment, but IF it shows a man being arrested for wearing a shirt, well, that's . . . interesting.

I'm not even 1/2 convinced that's the whole story, though, so I reserve judgment.

I am reminded of the woman who apparently made up an attack including scratching a B in her face, and blaming black thug Obama supporters. That one smelled even fishier than this one so I didn't even mention it.

::shrugs:: we'll see what happens, I guess.

So, You Say Oil Comes From Dinosaurs Fungus?

There has been an astonishing discovery. A fungus that converts cellulose to useful (fuel-type) hydrocarbons. This is astonishing for two reasons.

1) Current production of bio-diesel fuels requires turning the cellulose from plant waste into sugar via enzyme digestion. THEN the little critters turn it into fuel. This skips that very tricky step altogether, potentially.

2) Evolutionists like to say that oil comes from gajillions of years-dead dinosaurs. All evidence to the contrary has just got a new roommate. If this fungus turns plain plants (not dead/buried plants) into oil, are we so sure about the fossil part of "fossil fuels?"

Christians take note: science once again allows you to harmonize current state-of-the-art biological research with the Biblical young-earth timeline.

Pretty neat, huh?

Deflation: Told You So.

Those who do the family grocery shopping have been noticing a doubling of the prices of the stuff you need to live on. Everyone has seen the price of gas double.

This was all part of the recent bubble economy caused by lowering interest rates so low that people who should have been perpetual renters, turned into home buyers. The economy drove like mad and prices skyrocketed.

Now, the prices of homes are falling back to sanity, and demand for new homes and new everything else is falling off a cliff. The producers of 'stuff' are reducing their output drastically, and soon the prices of 'stuff' will follow demand right back down to where the prices were before the bubble began inflating.

There will be less demand for borrowing large amounts of money to build equipment to make stuff. This leads to less overall money in the economy, otherwise known as:

Deflation.

Leading to lower prices for everyone. Somehow, it doesn't seem like a terrible thing that prices of milk, cheese, corn, wheat, gasoline and natural gas are all going to fall to what they were 5 years (or more) ago. Until you consider that the gains made since then created jobs that are currently being lost in their hundreds of thousands in the USA alone.

Too much of that sort of thing will turn the nasty recession we are already in into a genuine Depression.

Which, if you had been reading Mish for the last, oh, couple of years, you would have known was coming. To the laity at CNN it comes as a surprise.

Look for more stories in the same vein as that CNN story in the coming months, along with lower prices on pretty much everything you need to buy to keep living, and remember:

I told you so.

********

When the Fed started making noises about printing 2.5 TRILLION new dollars to ensure the Depression would happen halt the current contraction, one of the guys where I work was concerned about inflation. I told him it is going to be deflation (at least, deflation before inflation) and he was incredulous. W.S., what do you think about my deflation-is-coming theory now?

McCain Can Still Screw Us Up.

Senator McCain is an independent-minded moderate Democrat, in Republican's clothing. He's entirely too squishy on "quote conservatives"' favorite issues.

And BO is already playing to that quality...

How many senior Republicans does it take to get a bill hailed as "bipartisan?"

And if all you need is a few soft heads to follow McCain's bipartisan shenanigans, you end up with a rubber-stamp Democrat Senate. That is the last thing we need.

I am seeing and hearing lots of stories about the Republicans needing to get their message changed, but there are 2 ways it could go: right and wrong. They just LOST an election that was a referendum on how sucky a candidate they fielded, and WON several key conservative ballot initiatives all over the country.

Republicans and independent conservatives, take note:

Contact your Republican Senators and tell them they need to lurch to the RIGHT, not the soft-headed middle or the obamanist left. RIGHT. Hard-core conservatism won a landslide victory for Reagan, and it would have won it for Fred if he had even halfway tried to get the nomination.

Take the conservative road to victory, and the muddle-minded middle will go for you. Take the "moderate" line and they will stay home or vote for the more-left candidate that promises them rainbow unicorns along with the same lame social agenda you are touting as a "new tone".

Bah. May God help us.

Michael Savage, are you going to start up that new party or what? Now is the time, when the Republicans are licking their wounds and wondering at which left turn the party departed from its base.

Muslims: Now Denying Established Historical Facts!

Mohammed made up Islam out of whole cloth, so he could get both kinds of booty and run the show however he pleased.

He is said to have had a dream that he went to Jerusalem and ascended to heaven from the place where the Al-aqsa mosque is. This, too, was imaginary - completely made up to suit his ends.

These days, children in the middle east are reared in schools that drum propaganda and Koran into their little skulls full of mush, instead of pesky things like true history.

Little wonder, then, that, after they successfully got the cowards at the head of Israel's government to abandon the holiest Jewish site in the world, they now claim that it's got nothing to do with the Jews at all. Nope, the temple(s) never existed. Just another Jewish lie. 100% Islamic, is the new claim about the history of the Temple Mount.

Aww, sure, why not? If the Jews won't defend the place where God himself once dwelt from the infidels, why even claim the muslim claims are false? ::shakes head::

Well, they missed their Messiah entirely. This is actually small potatoes compared to that. Anyhow, the temple will be rebuilt, but it won't be used quite how they hope it will (hint: read Revelation).

Obama: Let the Fun-Making Begin!

During his first press ring-kissing conference, BO said he recognizes the "enormity" of what they are about to do to the economy. He uses that word but I don't think it means what he thinks it means.

I do think however that he was telling the truth, albeit unintentionally.

Lifting from dictionary.com's entry for enormity, here is a pertinent part of the comments from the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language's Usage Panel.*

"Fifty-nine percent of the Usage Panel rejects the use of enormity as a synonym for immensity in the sentence At that point the engineers sat down to design an entirely new viaduct, apparently undaunted by the enormity of their task. This distinction between enormity and enormousness has not always existed historically, but nowadays many observe it. Writers who ignore the distinction, as in the enormity of the President's election victory or the enormity of her inheritance, may find that their words have cast unintended aspersions or evoked unexpected laughter."

He also said there had to be "...a international effort"... [sic] to prevent Iran having t3h b0mb. We were listening at work, and I said "AN" and my cubicle buddy said "AN, an".

This has the potential to be a fun few years.

********

*The AHD is the only dictionary serious English speakers should use. It is the best, and put together by people who care deeply about the language.

Putin: President for Life. Yawn.

from Yahoo! news:

He was president for the maximum time possible. Now he's got something of a puppet president and he holds the office of Prime Minister. And his pal Medvedev had this brilliant idea to cram unpopular Constitutional changes down the throats of the good people of Russia, in such a way that Putin can serve a further 12 years as president.

Hmm.

So it turns out old pooty-poot might not feel like giving up control of the old bear just yet? Really? GOSH! who would have thought...

Oh, wait. That's right, he never stopped running Russia. So now they're trying to change the constitution so he can rule for another 12 years. Good. Fine. Great.

It makes me think about a Constitution that Russia had earlier, when it was the RFSFR and, later, the USSR / CCCP. They had this constitutional provision that prisoners were entitled to humane treatment. Of course, the prisoners in Gulag were tortured, starved, even outright murdered, for literally no reason aside from the insatiable need of the State for more laborers. When a person was quite broken by their torturers, they would be given a paper to sign (along with their "confession") that said they were aware of their constitutional rights, and had been well treated. Most would sign and hope their treatment in Gulag would get better at the next station (it didn't, ever.)

The people were not allowed to read the laws of their land, so of course they were ignorant of the laws, and quite surprised they had not only the right to fair treatment, but even the right to protest!

If someone wanted to exercise their constitutional right to protest the treatment they had received, they were free to write a higher authority and await a hearing on the matter... in the same prison, under the same deplorable conditions. This was not necessarily a survivable affair. The fun part was, if you complained of being forced to sleep on a bunk with three other people (that was wide enough for one) in a room designed to sleep 7 that held 50, they might decide to put you in a less-crowded cell. By yourself. For months at a time. In a cell with an uncovered window facing a Siberian winter. With the walls sweating and the air freezing, with a wood-plank bed and no blanket, and maybe a piece of wet bread to eat for your daily meal. And either the rats would eat you to a painful, infected end, or you would freeze to death, or die of starvation, and then the State wouldn't have to deal with your protest: problem solved!

All that to say,

The Russian government has a history of blatantly ignoring constitutional restrictions and seeing them twist it to make Vladimir President for Life, should really come as a surprise to no-one.

Just sayin', that's all.

Obama Supporters SORELY Dissapointed.

Stock market is down TWO DAYS in a ROW!

Ah thot you was gwine to FIX da ecuhnumy! What up NOW Prezdint Buhrock?! DANG Fust ah gots my howse paymet bill, 'n den I got my gasleen paymet bill, den de stawk mahkit is falz? Wug GiveZ?

HAHA the news casters on KEX 1190's news break were scratching their heads as to why the stock market continues to slide off a cliff! Wow it's going to suck when we get there, but it's going to be fun telling all the lefties "I told you so" all the way down the road lined with Good Intentions.

Obama: Bad for the Stock Market.

He has said he wants to tax capital gains more heavily.

People who make lots of money on capital gains do not like this.

So they are selling out of the stock market.

Look for record lows (again) soon.

What I Want For Christmas:

Ammunition. Lots of it.

You all may feel free to purchase for me any quantity of the following calibers:

.30-06 Springfield
.40 S&W
7.62x39mm
.380 ACP
9mm Parabellum

In that order. Do not worry about the different types or weights of bullets if it is all too confusing. Just don't get anything labeled "Blazer" OR "Glaser" brand. If it says Cor-Bon, Federal, Winchester, Speer, Gold-Dot, DPX, Barnes, or Hydrashock, you are in good shape. If the man at the counter says it's good and it costs about what the other boxes of the same quantity go for, it's probably fine. For the 7.62x39mm literally anything is fine, including the absolute cheapest stuff you can find in a box (no bags! )

If you absolutely INSIST on buying me something more expensive than a case or two of cartridges, get me any kind of an SKS billed as "shooter" grade or better, up to "Very Good" Save the money for ammunition, and avoid buying me a "collector" grade piece. You could also get me any model Glock handgun in .40S&W or 9mm and I would not throw you out of my house. If those are too icky and scary, a nice, tame, pump-action 12 gauge shotgun like a Mossberg Maverick (well under $200) or any flavor of the Mossberg 500 series or Remington 870 series will do nicely. Bonus for getting ammunition to go with it.

Please call the dealer to place your order if you purchase an SKS. They may not have one in stock.

In the alternative, you may give me cash. Know that it will be used on something from the above lists.

That is ALL I want for Christmas this year. I am 100% serious.

These sorts of things may be found at online stores like Ammoman (linked above), Surplus Bunker, AIMSurplus, J&G, SamCo, Ammo-Connection, CheaperThanDirt.

Thanks to Kim for the links at the bottom of the page.

S.B. 1, H.B. 1, Signed January 1

The title of this act shall be "Change"

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Barry says: "Okay, we're done here folks, let's go home!"

~or~

Goodness you Young People are stupid. The property-owners only restriction was a good idea.

That is all.

********

For those who don't know me personally, don't think I'm bitter (or clingy). I'm not perturbed in the least. God knows what he's doing, and he knows better than I do or you do who our president should be. Romans 8:28 still applies, AND the Conservatives are going to be coming out of the woodwork in the next few years, FINALLY.

********

This should be fun good different.

I Call Shenanigans!

You would think, in a precinct with only 19 registered voters, they would leave the vote fraud alone.

You would think.

But 111% voter turnout isn't half bad!

And of course BO got almost 3x the votes McPalin did.

Democrats Intimidating Republican Voters Already

Voting has been going on for a couple of hours only, and already the shenanigans have begun to surface.

In Philadelphia the Democrats are the majority. SIX precincts have thrown Republican poll monitors out of polling places. Because a liberal judge said the Democrats could toss them out due to their minority status!

It's described as chaotic, and video is supposed to be out already. Not on the nightly news or daytime breaking news though I'll bet, because the alphabet networks are all in the tank for the One. And as we all know, if it's good for the One, it's good per se.

Nice, eh?

Oh, by the way, I guess Obama wasn't as prepared as he should have been for the vote. He took 15 minutes behind the curtain to cast his ballot. My wife took longer than me and she took probably less than a minute (and that carrying a baby!) But then, we took lists of candidates and propositions we were voting for/against, having done our homework.

But then again, you never know how many times he voted, since his buddies in ACORN could have him registered 14 times, so...

The Brownshirts Ascendant

If you expose the One as an America-hating "spread the wealth around" type, you should be killed.

Hmm. I bet this jerk Charles Bouley is probably against the right to keep and bear arms, as well.

Just wow.

A Controversy Obama Could End In A Single Day

So, Barry, were you born here, or not?

The truth will eventually out. And if it turns out he was NOT qualified to be President, BO will either be in a steaming pile of sh!t in the USA, or he'll coincidentally be on a junket to Kenya and just *oopsy* never come back.

smrstrauss THIS is what I was referring to. I think WND phrased it better than I did, and the whole mess is not even necessary.

As I said, however, it detracts attention for a moment from his rather thoroughly unmasked Marxist tendencies, and the fact that he quite happily would destroy the greatest nation on earth in the name of progress and equality.

Obama Willing to Crush US Economy.

The SF Chronicle put this on their website and didn't make a big splash about it, about the same time BO was talking about all you bitter-Americans clinging to your guns and religion. They didn't completely bury it because they knew it was a bombshell. They also didn't launch the bomb themselves. What does that say about a newspaper?

Obama has no problem with bankrupting coal-fired power plants.

That would be the coal-fired plants currently supplying half the energy in the USA.

HALF.

There is NO substitute for HALF the energy supply in the country. I am a huge fan of solar, and in particular solar-thermal energy myself, but the infrastructure is not there yet.

When gas spiked to double what it had been earlier this year, you know what BO said? He wished it would have happened more gradually. NOT that he wished it hadn't happened.

You know what he said about the price of electricity under his cap/trade carbon emissions global warming hoax plan? The cost of electricity "necessarily would skyrocket." He said it calmly, in a matter-of-fact way, and didn't seem to have a problem with it.

You know what happens when electric rates skyrocket, and half the energy supply in the country is removed over the course of a year or two? Your life sucks.

If you want your life to suck, be sure to vote Obama this Wednesday!

Oh, wait, surely he would spread the wealth your way. Surely the companies would NOT leave the country and take their money with them, and he could spread their wealth your way. Surely.

Of course Obama would take care of you, personally.

Wouldn't he?

Evil, GREEDY, Big Bankers INSIST on PROFITS vs. The Common Good!

Finally (from the Wall Street Journal)

The fools running the show want to give money to banks, whether or not they need it, whether or not they want it. Even if they were profitable and not in trouble. The people running the banks that EARNED a big-@$$ paycheck, object.

Why?

Because, as a condition of giving that money to the banks, the Fed doesn't want the banks to give bonuses and fat paychecks to anybody. You know, they want to break the law and require unwilling accomplices to break contracts, costing the heads of the banks LOTS of money.

FINALLY they are pushing back. Since it temporarily looks like the sky is not falling tomorrow, the capitalists and NON-SLAVE, NON-SUBJECT type Free Americans are resisting the naked attempts to socialize their industry and remove their profit incentives. They turned out to be self-interested after all, and God bless and help them for it. I was a little afraid I was the only one pissing into the wind here, but now I see again that there are others who will shout for their own defense also.

Good.

Note to the uninformed: money is fungible. If you use the bailout money to bail out customers, and non-bailout money to give bonuses, there is no way to tell which color of dollars went where. Then Barney Frank can open his fat socialist yap and b!tch and moan about corporate greed. Will somebody PLEASE vote that man out of office for me? Thanks.

China: The Economy is Failing There, Also.

...because everyone else's is.

They make about half of everything made in the world in China. When the world stops buying things, demand falls and manufacturers have to close down.

In China, they are closing by their tens of thousands. I know they have a couple of billion people over there, but still, losing a few hundred thousand jobs can't be a good thing for ANY country's economic outlook.

When the world economy comes back, China will be back on top also.

You don't think China will feel the heat?

Ask Mish
Look at the Naked Captialism
There is also a Calculated Risk that it will affect the interest rates here in the US of A, although I wouldn't be surprised to see Bernanke try to artificially hold them down. Because he understands the economy so well, you see? Keynes was right! Do it HARDER!

::shakes head:: This could be ugly. At least we can (and should) thank God that the corn grew high this year. You know, compared to the dust bowl we got the last time economic indicators were this bad.