For Whom is Boehner Working? Qui Bono?

Boehner may have barely squeaked out a deal with enough Republicans signing on to pass the House, but I had to chuckle at his tone-deafness when even the Senate Republicans told him to take his plans and kick bricks.

Why are the old-guard Republican leftovers in the House fooling around with this mickey-mouse stuff? You know who wins? The Tea Party types. As long as they sit there and hold their breath until they turn blue, the Tea Partiers get exactly what they want: no debt limit increase. Why WOULD they go for a deal? They understand why they were sent there to do.

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I guess they haven't been there long enough to know how to play the game. Good for them. Here's hoping we don't get much "power corrupts" action before the elections in 2014.
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If you think we have to Do Something to Avert Default!!! then you are getting your news from the wrong source. You should be reading Michael Shedlock because he knows what he's talking about when it comes to economics and he has good sources. Quoting something he quoted here:

The Treasury is not going to default in August, nor in subsequent months for that matter. An estimated $172.4 billion of tax revenue next month is more than enough to cover the $29 billion of August interest payments. For fiscal 2011, which ends Sept. 30, the Treasury is expected to take in revenue of $2.2 trillion, while only $214 billion is needed to service the debt.

Please Excuse My Cynicism

As grown-ups do not control enough of the Congress to force the President to accept a budget bill that is good for the fiscal future of the nation, you will have to excuse me until the details are clear. For now, I am going to go ahead and say the "deal" announced between the President and Congressional leaders is a big flaming bag of dog poo and I haven't even heard the overview.

When it comes out, of course, my cynical friends and I will exchange knowing glances and shake our heads.

Christians, please continue to pray for wisdom for our Elected Heroes

Back To School Time

I can't even check the headlines tonight. My Darling Wife is getting ready for the upcoming school year. This means I have two reams of paper to sort out to make sure the LAST school year's work for #2 gets filed away properly. She's sorting out the reams for #1's papers. #3 will be getting a short stack this year, but I think we'll only be keeping the better "art" projects from that pile.

Homeschool: also means homefiling of papers generated throughout the school year.

Government school: where somebody else worries about your kids' papers.

Things Caused By Fatigue, One More:

Did you know that, in addition to slowing your reactions to legally-drunk equivalence, being too tired can also give you a headache? Yeah, I had known but forgot. Until today. Glrgh.

What is a Root Canal Like? A First-Hand Perspective

The last time I was in a dentist's chair, I was being chewed-out for not flossing while they were drilling before the anesthesia had taken effect. That was a decade ago.

Today I went to a doctor who cares and it was totally different. The process is half-over and I'll update this page as the work progresses

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Updated 8/17/11: Click Here to see what it was like, having crowns put over these root canal fillings
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That Dentist a decade ago was filling #3 (top right first molar) with a big amalgam filling that probably should have been crowned. The filling broke and fell out over the years. It mostly didn't hurt, until the tooth BROKE while I was chewing one day. Then it mostly didn't hurt until . . .

July 15: whacked in the face by one of my children, right on the jaw by that tooth.

July 15-25: progression from dull ache to not so dull ache, nothing ibuprofen couldn't take care of. But it didn't get any better, and the cheek and a little section of gum started getting puffy. I called during the morning break at work to set up an appointment with a Dentist.

July 25: They thought it sounded worse than I thought it was. 35 minutes later I was across town meeting one of the nicest people I've ever met (the hygienist). I filled in two pages of new-patient paperwork and sat down on a dental chair in a pleasant dental suite. The place could have been a breakfast nook in somebody's kitchen (complete with picture window), but it had a dental chair in the middle and the cabinets are full of dental equipment . . . and there was no back wall, just a wide pillar. We discussed my dental history. She had a look at my hurting mouth and made some worried faces, and broke out a lead apron with a flap to go up under my chin. The digital x-rays took about 3 seconds each, from when she stepped away to when she was pulling out the sensor. Hm-clik, done. BIG image on the screen on a nearby counter top. She busted out a full-size digital camera with a special lens with a white plastic square (flash diffuser) around the lens, and took two pictures. The doctor came in and got the Cliff's Notes on my dental history, looked at the images, looked at the tooth, thought for a few seconds, looked at the tooth some more, and then (and this impressed me) took a few seconds looking around the rest of my mouth. She ordered another x-ray on another tooth that wasn't bothering me but she didn't like the looks of it. And she (billed to me as "the best Dentist in Austin!") said "I want you to get a second opinion."

They did everything required to get me set up with The Guy for root canals in Austin. If it can be done, they said, he can do it. Other endodontists send this guy their tough cases. The very best of hands. They called Walgreens and set up a prescription for antibiotic pills, billed me, and I was out the door.

Cost: $165 without insurance, $32 with insurance (thanks God for insurance!)
Generic antibiotics prescription cost: $13 without insurance - I can afford $10 to save my life!

July 27: the Endodontist's clerk called to confirm my appointment

July 28: Two more pages of new-patient forms and a bit of waiting, and then another room with a big window and no back wall. A shorter discussion of my dental history with another assistant. The doctor came in and got the Cliff's notes, looked at the x-rays and pronounced it "very likely" that the root canal would be successful. If Confidence could be bottled and sold, it would have been wiped off this guy's forehead. "I know what I'm doing" rolled off him like dust off Pigpen in the Peanuts cartoon. We talked for a few minutes. My disgusting gumboil had gotten bigger while I was taking antibiotics, and he was dead-convinced that the tooth needed operated on but Now to save it.

Remember: the last time I talked to a dental "professional" it was one step shy of hollering at me while he was hurting me. THIS tooth was the one THAT guy had worked on. I was a.f.r.a.i.d they were going to all of a sudden bust in on a painful spot.

They gave me nitrous oxide to chill me out, then gave me a bunch of shots right in my frikken JAWBONE! Yes it hurt, but when you are high on N2O you don't mind so much. The assistant gave me some sunglasses to block out their brightazz light and tapped her hand on my shoulder while the doctor shot me up. It was surprisingly helpful for her to do that. The nitrous, by the way, was delivered through a nosepiece, not a mask or up-your-nose cannula. It was like a fat necklace (hoses) with a little tiny cup for the nose. Very light and comfortable, not scary or claustrophobic. Small enough they could leave it on (and charge extra) during the whole operation. They left me to stew in my new juices for a few minutes and then came back in when my jaw was numb from front to back and from the middle of the top of my mouth to halfway up my face.

They placed a big rubber 'dental dam' on the tooth and it zinged a little - I am HARD to get numbed-up, according to all the Navy dentists that hurt me (all of them) when I should have been numb. These kind people gave me more laughing gas and a few more shots that were only scary but not so painful, and let it set up while they got the rest of their instruments lined up.

I prayed for myself and kept reminding me that these people knew their work, and they wouldn't be there if they kept hurting people. Knowing that you are in the very best of hands is cold comfort - but it was some comfort at least. They broke out the horrible-sounding zeeeeeeeee drill and all I could feel was pressure as the thing was grinding away what used to be a perfectly-good tooth. Pressure, pressure, a little cold from the coolant/rinse-out spray, and that was ALL I felt. I kept waiting for them to break through the part where the anaesthesia wasn't working, but they never did! I could feel the crunch when they poked through into the root canals with their tools, but it did not hurt. To be honest, the very most bothersome part was that I had to keep from swallowing some slightly funky-tasting drool in the back of my mouth until they were done, when they sucked it out for me with the vacuum suction tube thingy. They made a little tiny slit in my gums to let out the pus built up in there and put a couple of little stitches to hold a drain tube in place.

They packed in a chemical to kill the germs in my tooth, packed in a temporary filling, shaped the filling, and rinsed my mouth. The endodontist gave me the old familiar "bite down and grind really hard" line, made one tiny adjustment to the temporary filling, and we were done. They pulled off the spit/bloody bits-catching bib and gave me some simple instructions. I went and paid at the front desk and they gave me some prescriptions to take to the pharmacy. I was able to drive home.

Cost: $1600 without insurance, $500 estimated with insurance (thanks God for insurance!)

I went home and took a handful of ibuprofen (note: TAKE IBUPROFEN BEFORE GOING FOR A ROOT CANAL) and found my medical insurance card. I took my scrips to Walgreens, waited a half-hour, picked them up, and went home.

Cost for pain killers, antibiotics (stronger ones) and special mouthwash: $42 with insurance (call my insurance company to see what it would cost without, they said).

Pain: not as bad as yesterday, even after the ibuprofen is worn off. The spot where they lanced my gumboil hurts because it is cut, and the one spot that bothered when they were placing the dental dam hurts because they probably cut that, too. My face hurts a LOT less, and the gum hurts LESS even with the cut they gave me. The tooth was dead enough already that it didn't hurt, so it still doesn't. A couple of tiny spots I can feel where they gave me injections of pain killing drugs, and that's it, and that's AFTER all the pain killers are worn off.

The Plan: Go back in a few days to remove the drain. Call if it gets crazy swollen but otherwise show up as planned. A few days later, go in for the other tooth, which turned out to also be infected, dead, and in need of a root canal. Then a little later go in and finish the first tooth, then the second tooth, then get permanent fillings on both teeth. This sounds . . . expensive.

Stay tuned!

Update August 1st: I went in to get the drain removed and the doctor was very happy with the way my mouth was healing. He gave me some topical (smeared on the gums) anaesthetic and pulled the stitches and was done in a minute. He asked if I were ready to get started on the other tooth. Sooner is better when it comes to root canals, he said and I agreed. The other tooth is the one right in front of the molars on the bottom/left (bicuspid, #20) and it also used to have a big amalgam filling. The filling was so old I had forgotten about it - I thought I had a dead tooth because it was gray! Then one day I noticed a Starburst a child had left in my truck and thought "why not" and ate it. It went from chewy to crunchy and I figured out there was a filling there. After seeing the x-rays, it makes sense why that tooth would sometimes hurt quite a lot.

They gave me Nitrous Oxide again and this time I remembered it was for pain I was about to go through and these are trustworthy people, so I went ahead and sucked the laughing gas down. Once again with the reusable stainless steely syringe and shots in the jaw, with the pats on the shoulder. Did I mention I am hard to get numbed in my teeth? They started drilling and it was somewhere between pressure and ache, so I made a noise. They broke out some more anaesthetic shots and after a couple more injections the doctor said "Tell me when you can't feel this anymore." After a few more seconds, I couldn't. He kept shooting me up. At one point he said to his assistant, "He's anesthetized." As he was saying this, he was giving me what would probably have been a pretty painful injection. He went to adjust his grip on the syringe that was stuck in my gums, and when he let go the syringe didn't move. I had to agree with him that I was numb. They ground out my self-placed temporary filling, the carious icky old tooth material, and down through the pulp. This time I could feel the rasping action when the endodontist was filing the inside of the root canal with his special files. It did NOT hurt, but I could feel the vibrations in my head; it was odd but not so bad.

Another temporary filling. More bite-bite-open, adjust, bite-bite-open, adjust, and we were done. Rinse. The next appointment was changed to "finish the first" instead of "start the second" and the doctor gave me a couple of ibuprofen to take (duh-me, I forgot to take ibuprofen before going!). They hadn't finished the paperwork so I walked out without paying anything (yet).

That was at 09:00 this morning. My jaw and tongue were numb clear into the middle of the afternoon, so I was super-careful at lunchtime so I didn't chew my tongue to ribbons. After supper I realized that I hadn't taken my next dose of pain meds, and I only took it because pain annoys me, not because it was really hurting. My mouth feels better now than it has in YEARS, the day of my second root canal in the space of a week. I am surprised.

Update August 4th: I went back in and they finished on #20. More nitrous oxide, more somewhat-painful shots in the jaw made less-bad by the nitrous. More waiting for the shots to take hold. I was pretty tired so I actually took a nap while they left me alone to get numb. They removed the temporary filling with the zeeeeeeee drill and picks, then cleaned out the root canal a little.

They have a special electrical tool that beeps to tell them when they have reached the bottom of the root canal. They want to plug the tooth, not leave a plug sticking out the apex, and not leave a hole in the apex so the tooth can get re-infected. So they measure. The endodontist said it was 22, which I take to mean 22mm or just a hair shy of an inch. The little probe connects to a metal tool they were using and when it reached the apex of the tooth it gave a bit of a zing, not really painful.

The doctor shaped the root canal with the drill and some files and more drilling and filing, and then put a sealant in the root pocket. It felt like getting another injection (which it was) but I was surprised by the zing because I was pretty well numb to everything else they were doing in there. They placed some gutta percha (read: a rubber plug) in the tooth with a liquid sealant. They took an x-ray. They put more stuffing in the root and took another x-ray. Then another x-ray because the first one didn't show the apices of the teeth. Then they packed in a temporary filling and took another couple of x-rays, one for them and one for the before/after images that will get sent to my regular dentist.

Pain: a little. They were poking around in there quite a bit. It hurts most where they injected pain killers - the tooth has no nerve and doesn't hurt. My jaw hurts right in the joint in the back where it got a shot or three, and it was held open for quite a while. If you have TMJ dysfunction you will recognize this pain: it hurts to open wide, but wide enough to eat is not too painful. I expect the joint pain to resolve by tomorrow.

Cost: $1018 before insurance, maybe $3-400 after insurance; they will get back to me after the insurance gets back to them. Oh, and there was a mistake on their records. Always double-check the records. I'll have to take a good look at the billing record when we are all done at the endodontist's office to be sure it is all correct.

Insurance: running out fast. These teeth will need crowns which do not come cheap. My company insurance pays out a max. of $2,000/year and picks up the majority of covered procedures. With another couple thou$ands worth of work still to be done (permanent fillings & crowns) I will be coming out of pocket probably a couple thousand ducks. This is not good, but it is better than losing a chunk of jawbone to infection, or not having a tooth.

Update August 10: Back in to finish #3, this time in the afternoon. I did remember to take ibuprofen before heading out from work. I took off sick from work and showed up 15 minutes early (Marines would say "on time") and was seen 15 minutes late, so a half-hour of waiting was involved. The assistant smeared topical anesthetic on my gums and let it sit for a few minutes while she got their equipment lined up. They gave me more nitrous oxide through the nosepiece and by now I had realized that sucking that stuff down does help, so by the time they broke out the big stainless steel syringe, the shots were uncomfortable but bearable. The endodontist was kind enough to apologize in advance, as well as after each injection he knew was painful. They left me for a few minutes while the shots went to work on my nerves. When the doctor came back in, he asked how I was doing, so I asked if it were normal for me to be able to feel #1 and part of #2 on my gums, but be numb out to #6 or #7. He said "we'll give you some more, just in case." and gave me some more. No nitrous this time, but my jaw was pretty well numbed by then, so it was more a sting than a bigfat PINCH like the first shots.

A few more minutes for the shots to set up, then they got to drilling. The old temporary filling was drilled and picked out, then the root canals were cleaned out again. All FOUR of them. They used their electric beeping sensor to measure the canals and then did some shaping with hand and powered rotary files. They measured again with the beeping thing and the canals measured a little longer which was apparently expected. Mine came in at 20, 21, 22, and 24mm long. This time I did not get a zing from the measuring. The doctor had a funny long-straight-sided ring on, which I noticed as he was removing the temporary filling. It turns out that ring is a ruler. He measured each gutta percha to the exact-right length on his ring ruler, dipped it in sealant, and then jammed it into a root canal. This did not hurt, but there was some minor squeaking involved. Another x-ray was made, to be sure the fillings were placed properly. This film was at an angle and hurt a little to hold in place while they shot the picture, but it only took a moment.

They packed in another temporary filling and there was something done with a little butane torch on their workbench; I'm not sure what that was about but it seemed like a normal part of their deal. Bite-mash/grind on the marking stuff and no adjustments were necessary on this filling. Another final x-ray was taken so they could give my dentist a before/after shot.

I went and talked to the front office lady and she showed me my bill. Turns out they had charged me $245 to place the drain into my nasty abscess, and billed in error (and removed) a charge for the nitrous oxide I didn't use during the actual procedures.

Pain: not so much. A little tiny bit sore in the gums, but NOTHING like before the procedures. I keep reminding myself to take ibuprofen for the swelling to help it heal faster, because I don't need to take it for pain.

Cost: About $2800 all-up, with insurance "estimated" to pick up $2k.

The Plan: go back in 6 months to make sure it is all copasetic with my jaw. As soon as possible but no later than two weeks, get a crown on each tooth or have to get them done again.

Scary parts: The shots in the jaw. If you have the option of nitrous oxide gas to suck on while they are injecting you with novacaine, do it. The shots do hurt, but it is like somebody with sharp nails is pinching you in the jaw. Very small spots of pain, moderately-intense, but with a little bit of self-control you should be able to deal with it. You might want a stress squeezy ball or something, or maybe squeeze your hands or the arms of the chair. Don't jerk your head, it would probably make it worse.

Scary part: The drill. After you are numbed-up properly, this is "only" a horrible sound. There ought not to be any pain but there is some mild to moderate pressure, and you might notice some vibration when they use low speeds, or a funky ringing in your skull when they use high speeds. If you use nitrous oxide the whole time, or are otherwise sedated, this should be no problem at all.

Tip: try as well as you reasonably can to keep your lips out from between the dental dam and your teeth. They can't see your lips under there and your teeth will be used as a rest and as a fulcrum for leverage for their tools. If your lips are in the way, they will be bruised and/or cut.

Tip: don't read the waiting room magazines. One time I saw a dude sneeze into his hand, then place his hand right back on the cover of the magazine. In fact, just try not to touch anything in a doctor's waiting room. Ew.

Two root canals, and I am pleasantly astonished to say it was actually not that bad, and I felt better after they were done than I felt the day before.

Global Warming Scare: Can We Stick a Fork In It Yet?

The earth starts shedding heat into space far sooner, and does it at a far greater rate, than predicted by "computer models intentionally designed to show disastrous warming trends in the future" "computer models." Almost like someone intelligent designed the system?

“There are simply too many variables to reliably gauge the right number for that,” Spencer said. “The main finding from this research is that there is no solution to the problem of measuring atmospheric feedback, due mostly to our inability to distinguish between radiative forcing and radiative feedback in our observations.”

And (as heard on Rush on the home from the endodontist): Remember those polar bears drowning in the ocean because they couldn't find any more ice to climb onto? Those reports were also made-up and the scientist who proclaimed the problem is under investigation.

Alas for My Tooth!

I went to get a second opinion on my need for a root canal and ended up with a tooth opened up and the gums opened up. They left some antibiotic under a temporary filling and a drain stitched in place. I gotta go back later to get the root canal finished on one side and another one started. Currently not speaking to anyone (to avoid biting heads off) until the motrin kicks in.

Note to self: take ibuprofen BEFORE going to see the endodontist next time.

I knew my tooth was pretty well toast, but I felt like crying when they broke through to the root canals with their tools. Oh well, there's no turning back now.

Private Citizen vs. Civilian

It could be that government schools are failing us in this also, but I think *sometimes* it evinces an "us vs. them" mindset. There is a fire in Central Texas that injured two people (as of this afternoon): a firefighter and a sumdood. Earlier in the day on a the radio they called the sumdood a "civilian." The reporter I heard on the way home used a phrase which was a pleasant surprise to hear: "private citizen."

Policemen, firefighters, & EMTs, however militaristic they may be, are not military. They are citizens - public citizens. To an extent, they are not their own persons. Military personnel are effectively not citizens. They literally live by a different set of rules and are NOT at liberty to do as they please. A COP might be fired or suspended for not going to work - a solider can go to JAIL. In some particularly unpleasant circumstances, a soldier can be shot dead right there with no trial or appeals or nothing, just for refusing to do his duty. THAT is military. The opposite of military is civilian. The counterpart of Police is not civilian; the counterpart of Police is Private Citizen.

The only people who are able to call "all else" civilians are military people. Not your "only ones" in city-purchased wannaBDUs.

It is not proper, convenient verbal shorthand. It is both wrong and offensive.

Boehner Plan: Garbage

Gee, let's scrape $85B (average) per year out of a $1.4T deficit and call it a BFD, while not mentioning the fact that it cuts most of the Congress out of the decision-making process. Sounds good to me, eh?

And this is the LEAST worst of the alternatives the old guard elites in Washington, D.C. are considering.

Mark LeVin was in fine form this evening. As part of his upbraiding of the Republicans for failing to realize that they have to do what they can (but are afraid to) do, he compared the current debate to Washington suffering repeated setbacks in the US' war for independence. The Wall Street Journal, if it existed back then, would have been publishing editorials saying:

Let's declare victory . . . and surrender!

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Quote of the Day 07/27/2011 round II: The stooge running press interference for the President was asked where the President's plan is if he's so smaht. The response: Look I know that's the number one Republican Talking Point and the jerk was cut off mid-sentence with

"No, it's not a talking point, show us the plan!"

The President has no plan. He is waiting for Republicans to eat their own after the RINOs in leadership propose total garbage bills one after another, and hoping to come out on top of the pile of sh*t at the end of next November.

The Buck Stops Where It Stops

Interesting rumblings that an advisor to the President MAY have been personally briefed on us breaking international weapons treaties to see where the "Operation Fast & Furious" guns went. Very interesting indeed. The story has progressed from rogue agents in the BATFE, through acting Director Melson not throwing himself under the bus, to a national operation with Dept. of Justice complicity, and the FBI giving a nod to felonies being committed under the guise of an ongoing investigation. Now all the way to the White House?

The FBI is not so full of back stabbing political animals as the ATF, I understand. The FBI will lash out to protect itself, and it is possible, just possible, that they will lash all the way to a certain not-quite-round Office in the White House.

If President Obama or Secretary Clinton, or both, were complicit in these crimes, will they go to Federal PMITA Prison?

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Bonus birther joke: If you convict a President of a High Crime, THEN do you have I.C.E. deport him back to Kenya? :rimshot:

WTH Jerky!

You would be surprised how hard it is to maintain a 99.8% positive feedback score on eBay. It isn't any easier when you get "customers" like this one.

• Sumdood buys a printer and waits a week to go to checkout.
• Then they cancel checkout because they don't comprehend shipping costs are in ADDITION to the item's price.
• Two days later, they give us a negative feedback for not shipping the item...
• for which they claim to have (but they didn't really) paid!
• THEN they cancel the transaction with our company.

Thanks, [deleted]. You go ahead and open that package with no return address. Nevermind the smell, just open it.

You Might Be An Idiot If . . .

I saw a female in the grocery store with a barcode tatoo'd on the back of her neck. And it was a regular one, not one of the stupid AND geeky kind you can link to a web page about yourself.

If you have a barcode tatooed on yourself, you might just be an idiot. It does make a statement to other people, but not the one you intended, regardless of what you intended.

And No, I'm Not Clicking Your Ads

To the commenter who wanted me to click on their ads and hang out so they could get tuition money: Homey don't play dat. But I did pray for you and that's more than any click-throughs will ever get you.

So Apparently I Should Be In Agony Right Now

IF the Navy dentists hadn't ripped the top of the nerves out of my teeth, I'd be rolling around crying like a little girl. But they did, so I'm sitting here feeling like I've a bruised cheek on just a couple Ibuprofen tablets.

Bonus points for the day for getting to see disgusting infected-gums pictures in my mouth taken by the hygienist. ++bonus and thanks God for an office visit and a bunch of x-rays plus drugs for <$50.

Negative points for my car cutting out on the way back to work. Guess I shouldn't have called it old! LOL Well thankfully it started again and I found out the guys at work would have been rescue-buddies if I really needed them.

Pray for Our Nation

The stupid is very thick in Washington, D.C. right now. Faced with fiscal reality they are talking about fairy tales like it is still a booming world economy. We are out of money and they want to talk about cutting projected increases and will-not-happen future cuts around the edges.

People, we need to pray for our nation, because it is about to start getting ugly pretty quick here.

Doug Short Reads VFD?

Regular readers will recall my most recent "lost decade" post, in which I pointed out that the S&P 500 was not such a good place to make your money GROW long term. You can tell that either I am not totally off my rocker or Doug Short is right off with me, because he just posted about the same thing. Even a CD ladder, even with current (barely) interest rates, would be a much, much better place to put your money - and it has the significant benefit of not potentially losing money, and not requiring brokers' fees all the time.

Now, if you've got insider information *cough*Congressman*cough* maybe you can beat the market. For the average Joe, Certificates of Deposit are the sure bet.

My Car Is Old.

It occurs to me that, having made up a new maintenance schedule for my car, it may be getting to where even I consider it to be "old." 12 years and the original maintenance schedule ended at 150,000 miles which came and went a while back.

But it still runs like a top. Thank God.

I Got Nothing

No blogging material. The FAA shut down and nobody noticed, we're another day closer to running out of pennies from heaven as a nation, and some poor junky/singer just died. Plus, I have a toothache.

Other than that, nothing to say.

FAA Shutdown Costs uh, Saves Something About Money?

The Federal Aviation Administration is possibly shutting down. Air Traffic Controllers stay on the job, but pretty much everyone else kicks bricks until Congress can be bothered to re-authorize the FAA's funding.

Who loses?

• Tickets for air travel will be $60 cheaper because they can't collect taxes if the tax collector is out of a job.
• The other side of that coin is about $200M of taxes not being paid to the government, per WEEK.
• Up to 32,000 non ATC jobs might be put on furlough, which sucks for those employees
• If they make $1500/week, that's $48M we don't have to pay them per week

So what's the hold-up? Senate Democrats are unwilling to compromise on language about union rules and subsidizing rural airports in the authorization bill. Because unions' re-election contributions are more important than aviation safety for you the flying public, apparently.

It Takes A Team to Play Ball

So it's bad enough that you spent stimulus money on the BATFE program that illegally smuggled guns into Mexico, right? Well, no, it's not. The Department of State was ALSO selling guns to Mexican drug gangs, but -here's the kick in the nuts- they did it directly.

Pajamas Media says we made large-scale MILITARY weapons sales to a company tied to the Zs.

To rephrase, we have TWO major organizations in the Executive branch under President Obama that knew or should have known that thousands and thousands of military weapons were being delivered to narco-terrorist gangs in Mexico, and they continued to let it happen. One might wonder what the People (and the government) of Mexico would think about that. One phrase that comes to my mind is "Crimes against Humanity."

This all, by the way, is allegedly tied to an effort by the Democrats in the USA to get more control over guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens in the U.S.

Wow.
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Hat tip: Instapundit.

Don't Jump to Conclusions Today

Norway may have had their own 9/11 . . . or not, today. Sumdood bombed and shot up the capital. First instinct: muslim! -but hold on. They nicked him and he's a white guy with a non-muslim sounding name. But hold on - I still haven't seen a report of his religious affiliation.

Rumors that he's an anti-muslim . . . so he blew up his own country? Well, he does have crazy-eyes.

Saw One On The Road Today

The Audi R8 looks awesome in the wild. I've seen lots of photos of this car, but none of them impressed me one bit. Today I was on the road with one and let me tell you, that car is flippin sweet.

That is all.

The Best Laid Plans

A year ago a garage door spring broke and Bad Robot has been parking outside. Finally we have been free of extra expenses long enough to afford a new set of springs. +2 hours making measurements, springs probably to be ordered tomorrow. I meant to order them straight away last year but then something came up and something else came up . . .

. . . aaaaand now the right gearbox on the Power Wheels is dead. No go at ALL. Silver lining is this happened after 15 solid minutes of #2 "helping" me test the jeep. I think I may be able to bodge a scooter motor and gearset in there, but it will take some doing.

It seems the universe (or maybe just its Creator) has a funny way of undoing what I thought looked like a good plan when I laid it out. Well, roll with it or be smashed eh?

People Who Should Be Shot: One More

From the radio news out of Georgia today: There is a "father" in custody on charges of Aggravated Child Abuse. The child had a hand in a cast, and the Good Idea Fairy came by for a visit. Rather than have a doctor or some other person with a clue take off the boy's cast, the "father" decided to do it himself. He used his circular saw and did indeed get the cast off the hand. Also removed were the boy's thumb and index finger, as well as slicing the poor boy's palm open.

.
What.
.
the.
.
FUCK.

That [deleted] makes me want to spit nails. When I think of it, I want to punch this dude right in his [deleted] face. This right here is where the old-school "eye for an eye, tooth for tooth" rule comes into play. I would be satisfied if this [deleted] had to lose HIS two fingers as well as lots of hand function due to a sliced-open palm. [deleted] this guy. I hope he gets beaten-up severely while in jail.

Something Else That Never Happens To Me

On my commute to work this morning I looked down a long hill and saw lots of flashing lights at the bottom. From about a mile or two away I knew something bad was happening and I wanted to avoid it if possible. I saw as I drew nearer that the circus was in the left part of the road so I merged to the right lane. I thought that the other drivers on the left lane would do likewise, as we all came up and saw that there was a traffic stop underway in the left-turning lane coming up to a light.

There was a light, 5+ car lengths, a truck with an unhappy driver, a car length, a Police cruiser, a few more lengths, and another cruiser. BOTH Police cars had their brightasheck LED lightbars going full tilt.

As I pulled up to the scene, another pickup pulled in behind the second cruiser. I thought "how nice, somebody to help" thinking they were coming to rescue their soon-to-be-arrested buddy's truck. Then another car pulled in behind the pickup. And another. And another. By the time I went on around the bend, EIGHT cars were in a line behind this traffic stop in-progress, and would have to wait for someone to shoo them away or else a clue to pop into their heads before they would go around and make their left turns.

Remember there was a MILE to react to this. For more than a full minute these sheeple were blissfully ignoring the mess they were going to get themselves into. I wouldn't be surprised if their Condition White minds never even saw the police lights up ahead.

Contact and cover: Sometimes the Cover guy gets a good laugh at the fools around him, I suppose.

Pardon Me Miss, Your Crazy Is Showing

I saw a lady tonight who is so skinny I could certainly have encircled her wrist with my thumb and pinky, and I bet my thumb and index finger would be more than long enough to contain her biceps. When my Darling Wife and I describe such a person, we hold up a single pinky finger.

To be so thin is not natural. Either you have been physically ill for a long, long time, or you are anarexic, bulemic, or both. And it's probably the latter. If you are 35 years old and a stiff breeze would carry you away, you have a mental problem. And you know what? Everyone in the world can see it with the possible exception of you and your willfully-ignorant male companion.

The sad part of the story though, is that she had a daughter with scared eyes.

Single-Minded Male -HEY Something Shiny!

Women: have a mental check list
Men: have genuine intention to do their honeydo list but . . . also have one-track mind.

Human Relations Pro Tip: If you women want your man to do something he is not currently in process of doing, wait until he is at a stopping point, grab him by both ears, look in his eyes and say "Do THIS, Now." Wait until he responds with more than one syllable to be sure he accepted his new programming, and then remind him once more -sweetly, with batting of eyelashes- if he doesn't start right away.

Telling him twice more is nagging and cancels the program.

Telling him when he is doing something else does not count as having told him, regardless of whether or not he acknowledged with a grunt. Telling him a month ago was pretty much a waste of breath.
********

In related news, I'm off to work out and then I have to process some photos from a trip my Darling Wife took. I got halfway through them and the

Are You Sure You Want To Go There Sir?

The Republicans in Congress are proposing a way for the President to keep on spending, but limits the amount to an arbitrary percentage (too much) of GDP. A limit on the power of the purse is a limit on the power to destroy* and must not be tolerated! A socialist wishes for absolute power for the Leader. Why SHOULD Obama sign a limit on his own spending? I mean, aside from that little question in November 2012. He has said he would rather be a really good one-term president than a two-term president. Let's let him think he's really-good and then show him the door in 2012, eh?

********
Of course, that means we'd need a Republican to stand up and show the nation a contrast in front of a camera. Cain could do that, maybe Bachman, but at least half the field of GOP candidates are all sticks in the mud on camera, and that is a problem.

********
*"The power to tax is the power to destroy"

Yes, Communities SHOULD be Able to Ban Mosques . . . or Strip Clubs . . . Or Churches

IF all you wanted when you set up your subdivision was a nice place for people to vacate at eight and repopulate at six, sleep, and go do it again the next day, you may have zoned it for houses. Some places don't have zoning ordinances.

Then what happens when (fill in the blank) decides to erect a place to do their thing that does not fit in with your community's culture? A democrat (note the small "d") says: you get to ban it, as a community. The alternative is to not be able to ban anything. If we won't give official preference for religions, we should treat religions like other organizations: if the community doesn't want you as a neighbor, you're not allowed in.

The subdivision/bedroom community next to mine had a new neighbor announce they were going to move in. A strip club, less than a thousand feet from the nearest house. There was a huge protest from basically everyone within hollering distance, and the people behind the strip club took a hint. They weren't interested in controversy, they wanted profits (vs. years of legal battles to obtain said profit with controversy). No strip club there, next story. But in Tennessee, the neighbors are protesting against an adversary that doesn't give two cents about public sentiment. If you are willing to build a mosque over the objections of the local neighbors, that proves their point that you are in it for more than just a place to worship your made-up god, which is what Cain was trying to say on the Fox interview but he didn't get the right words out.

Not said (but reported): B4nz 4 m0sQ@s! zOMG!
Said perhaps less than perfectly well: Communities should be able to pick their neighbors. Once again, Herman Cain agrees with me and is right, although the easy line to demagogue makes him sound not only wrong but intolerant.

And of course, as the perceived slight in this case is against islam, it cannot be tolerated. Because tolerance means tolerating everything and everyone who agrees with you. Only.

This is Broken.

Broken: the USA's patent system. The patent office is overwhelmed with new claims and rubber stamps them if the paperwork is in order, regardless of merit. The courts would rather defer to the US patent office than overturn a granted patent. This leads to companies doing things like patenting digital messaging and then trying to profit by suing everyone who has a middling-deep pocket who does anything involving computers.

Broken: cell phone company customer service. If you have to take your cell phone company to court to get an itemized bill, and they show up in court and say they are right because they trust their own billing computers, then the whole thing is just begging to be destroyed by a class-action suit based on common business practices.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Depressed? Howabout some surgery to implant electrodes in your brain. We'll guarantee a shockingly good attitude! That way the robots will be able to FORCE you to like their overlordship!

They will know you are depressed because they can learn by reading the text on your facebook in your diary.

They took our jobs! The Future was supposed to be a time when we would have more spare time, and work less. You can work less when robots are the manual laborers.

(and this is super-amazing to me) . . . or you can kick back and work none while a robot 3D prints your new house in a day, complete with plumbing and electrical installed.

Robots with a sense of touch? What do they need to feel? You don't need to feel a human's head when you smash it in your robot hands! I guess it would probably be more gratifying, though.

And of course, we'll be able to print you up a new head or something, now that we're figuring out how to 3D print human tissues.

We'd better teach these robots some manners before we give them guns, or they'll . . . wait we already have automatic robot guns. Well, um . . .

"I for one welcome our new robot overlords!"

My Darling Wife is concerned that robot house printers and robot manual laborers will put a bunch of people out of work. You still hafta earn a living, right? Well . . . what do you do if nobody has a job because robots do everything including making the robots? You frikken kick it and live the good life!

. . . in theory. Of course, as the saying goes, Communism works -in theory. I never watched Matrix or Terminator or Meet the Robinsons . . . what could possibly go wrong?

I Love Work

. . . I could watch it all day!

(seen on a coffee mug behind the counter in Maintenance Control at my squadron)

• Cut a hole, install a fan, grille, and screen to ventilate the Power Wheels Jeep's drivetrain compartment
• Fabricate a hold-down for the 5x bigger than stock Power Wheels' battery (vs. the "gravity holds it there for me" version I had in there)
  
• Block up the Power Wheels' gearboxes so they don't flop around like frikken fresh-caught salmon*
• Changed the oil in Bad Robot
• Changed the transaxle gear oil in the Hot Rod
• Wire in the new home theater receiver & speakers
• Relocate a couple of DVD players

. . . and that was between breakfast and dinner today. Anyway, the point is, when I am not trying to figure out some problem that keeps me from enjoying my stuff, and nobody is whinging about how long I am taking at the work, I actually LIKE working, especially working on cars. Who wants to sponsor my education to get an ASE certification?
Anyone?
Bueller?

********

* #2 reports that after I installed the fan, the Jeep turns much better than it did before. I ran with my gut feeling and said it was probably more from stabilizing the suspension than installing a fan.

Treading Thin Ice

Greek debt is selling with a 1/3 return "guarantee." IF Greece pays it back, your $100 would get you $133 when the bond matures.

IF

If MY credit cards suddenly jumped from 5% to 33% I would like to think I'd stop charging them up so fast. Then again, I don't have to run for re-election.

Charts
More charts

Busy. Bring Motors Or . . . Don't.

Instead of blogging I've been all evening trying to climb the learning curve on Power Wheels repairs. The Zoo drove clean through one set of drive wheels on the $25 Jeep, so today I installed a $50 set of replacement wheels. Then the motors started smoking. Short-term, I'm going to try to get some ventilation/cooling fans in there. Long term, I need motors.

You have to understand there is a whole subculture dedicated to making a kid's toy carry a man at street-legal-car speed. There exists a body of knowledge with its own lexicon. It takes a couple of hours to get up to speed *ahem* enough to know what you don't know.

I know I think I need some motors and that it looks like another $50 might be going into this jeep. And it needs a front end sag repair as well, when #1 is riding.

Oy. At least the replacement/upgraded battery was free.

THIS is What I'm Talking About!

Japanese scientists grow spiffing new natural replacement teeth from stem cells . ADULT stem cells . . . in mice. Sign me right the [deleted] up for this research study. Today.

I've been waiting for just this sort of thing for many years. Maybe in my lifetime I'll be able to get a fresh set of teeth, grown right in my jaw. I'd be willing to pay a LOT of money for that, right out of pocket.

Hat tip: Instapundit

Happy Economic Collapse Birthday To Yoooooou!

On August 2nd, the country will explode into fiscal chaos unless the Republicans cave and give the President a go-ahead to raise taxes on employers during a depression recession. This is a huge great BFD.

On August 3rd, the President will be attending a 50th birthday party/re-election fundraiser where you can spend a few dozens to a few tens of thousands of dollars to party like it's (the dot-com boom of) 1999

Tone-deaf? Or a big middle finger?

It's on the Y Chromosome. It Must Be.

Today at work, one of the men went nuts for about 15 seconds on a fart soundboard, to the amusement of all present. All males.

Just now, #4 (at 1 year old) ripped a 15-second fart himself, and we both laughed about it.

Definitely Defiantly Definately!

Definite
–adjective
1. clearly defined or determined; not vague or general; fixed; precise; exact
2. having fixed limits; bounded with precision
3. positive; certain; sure

Definite is the root word in Definitely.

Definitely
–adverb
1. in a definite manner; unambiguously.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
2. unequivocally; positively.

Definitely is an adverb created by adding the letters "L" and "Y" to "Definite."

Defiant
–adjective
characterized by defiance; boldly resistant or challenging
adverb: defiantly

Definately (Difinitly, Definetly, Difinately, etc. ad nauseum)
All of these are gross misspellings based on your mispronunciations of a word you may not even comprehend. For the love o' Pete, get it right!

• What you meant: I'm going to be there, 100% fo' sho'!
• What you typed: I'm defiantly going to be there!
• What others read: I'm going to be there and you can't stop me!

Ways to look like a fool, one more: Missepl definitely. Yes it was intentional. See how dumb it looks?

One For The "Malice" View?

5000+ guns were allowed to flow into Mexico, funded in part by the Obama stimulus package, and hundreds of Mexicans and a few Americans have died as a result.

The purpose? To get more-stringent gun control laws on the books in the USA. Allegedly.

First Reports: Maybe You'll Want to Hold Off There, Jimmy

Morning news report: 16th street locked down in the heart of downtown Austin, bomb squad responding to a "car full of guns"

Evening news report: Sumdood left a home-made safety device on the seat of his car* where it was parked on the top level of a parking garage. Dude now in trouble for not paying his making-a-metal-cylinder tax.

********

*Sound suppression: it's for safety.

Pure Honesty From President Obama!

Pure honesty, that is, if you ascribe to the "well-intentioned blundering" theory vs. the "malice" theory of explanation of the Obama administration's actions.

• Interviewer: "What is next? What if you don't get a deal?"
• Obama: (sounding despondent) "I don't know."

Pure honesty: not so fast edition:

President Obama, Monday: we shouldn't be saying irresponsible things for short-term political gain
President Obama, Tuesday: Seniors won't get their social security checks if Republicans don't cave endoftheworldzOMG!!!1!

Obama = UAW

The United Auto Workers pushed and pushed and finally they got to a point where they were making unreasonable, unprofitable, even impossible demands on the car companies which employed their members. The US car companies would have gone under completely but Uncle Sugar stepped in and bailed them out.

President Obama is reportedly threatening to veto a short-term national debt limit increase, saying "Don't call my bluff." He is now in the middle of the process of cutting off his own nose to spite his face, just like the UAW did. But the President is forgetting (or intentionally ignoring) that there is no Uncle big enough to bail out Uncle Sugar himself.

Bad Bad News for Both of You

For my daughter, who doesn't much like riding her bicycle, because it should be in works-passingly-well condition once the rear tire is inflated, and

For my gentle reader, because rebuilding the rear wheel and truing that cheap chinese almost-circle of steel took 3 hours and no blogging for you!

Boat Analogies: Worse Than Car Ones

The President's TelePrompTer trotted out a couple of new analogies this weekend. Fancy new nautical boat-y analogies. They are terrible, even worse than the car-in-a-ditch analogy he has already driven the wheels off of.

People worry both about their own situations AND how the boat is being steered, especially when you are steering it the wrong way and we are sitting broadside to oncoming swells.

"If everybody gets in the boat at the same time" . . . IT SINKS, derP!

Obama The Closet Deficit Hawk

The Plan is working great so far:

1. Get elected as a tax & spend socialist? Check
2. Don't have a budget for a couple of years? Check
3. Run right up on the last minute for debt limit increase? Check
4. Totally fail to increase debt limit by demanding things the other guys refuse to grant?
5. Be limited "by no fault of your own" to only what taxes the government takes in?

Automatically-balanced budget, by design, and nobody loses political capitol! It's really quite brilliant. Democrats can point the finger at Republicans for refusing to get rid of tax breaks. Republicans can point the finger at Democrats for wanting to increase taxes on employers of The Working Man. The President can shrug and look innocent. AND we get a balanced budget! Oh, plus the Treasury just keeps on cutting those benefit checks whether it's legal and we have the money or not, and they can call it a 0% interest loan on paper. Who loses!?

(Source: my fevered imagination)

Well the Car Needed a Good Cleaning Anyhow

#1 made some poor choices over the last couple of days, and this morning we left church early because she was feeling sickly. Good thing, too. Halfway home, she told us all about her new acquaintance ralff. Fortunately there was a towel to catch most of it, but . . . well, not all of it.

My Darling Wife, of course, couldn't do anything when we got home but clean the car. This meant me taking the (heavy) seats out, but it was time anyhow. It didn't look so messy with all the chairs installed but man! It's amazing what you get when four children ride in the back of a car without detailing the interior very often.

Quote of the Day 07/09/2011 (Irony Edition)

I of course age not, but it is interesting to see my children getting older -Me, this morning

They grow like amazing little people-weeds, and whisper that I am getting closer to my final reward every day. :sigh:

Another Lost Decade

Mish's analysis of the latest economic report (which by the way surprised everyone but him) is full of fabulous charts and graphs, including the kind everybody can appreciate: A Lost Decade in full swing and getting worse.



I don't guess it is proper to say I "like" posting up lost decade graphs, but they do illustrate a point: this economy is in depression, still, and when it gets worse it will be a

(wait for it)

double dip.

********

The last link is different now. The Dow Jones index is up about 8% in the last decade- not horrible. The S&P index however . . .

Because You Are ALL Horrible People

Is this another law we didn't used to need? Make it a FEDERAL offense to fail to report a missing or dead child? Really?

Jokes To Make Women Shake Their Heads

The second thing in as many days that a woman would probably not get. What am I, a chauvinist pig? Well . . .

I was walking by a conversation between two co-workers (both male) who were talking about a metal object. One of them referred to it as aluminium. As ours is a different sort of company, I stopped and interjected myself in the discussion:

VFD: Aluminium? What are you, British?
Dude1: ::fake accent:: if I wahs, would vat be a probrum foh yuuu?
VFD: Yeah, I would smash you right in your crooked teeth!
Dude1: !!!
VFD: That's a British joke, get it?
Dude2: LOL!!!

Good for the Gander

A point I have made repeatedly over the last few days in personal conversation is that it seems rather the opposite of Justice for Ms. Anthony to be convicted of Lying to The Only Ones when she was delcared Not Guilty of the crime they were investigating her allegedly having committed.

Neal Boortz is on the radio and I am selling junk on eBay, because he can phrase things better than I can. He put my sentiment into exactly the right words today. He was saying that he (as a juror) would never have convicted Anthony of the crime of lying to law enforcement officers because

"If they can lie to me, I can lie to them."

Exactly. Yes Virginia, the Police can say anything and everything to anyone they please during an investigation, and you are expected to tell them the truth or else. Is this fair? It is, if Jury Nullification can be introduced in a courtroom!

Quote of the Day 07/07/2011 (Translated)

President Obama: "everybody acknowledged that we have to get this done before the HARD deadline of august 2nd"

Translation: "I really really want to get this done before the Republicans go back to their home districts and get hammered by their constituents and come back and stonewall me big time"

There is no such thing as a "hard deadline of August 2nd." It is a desperation move to claim any such thing. God willing, the Republicans won't fall for it. You are praying for your country, aren't you?

Justice Finally Served: We Kill You Back Edition

So there was this guy who was here for a lifetime but technically not one of us, then he decided to rape/mutilate/murder a girl. Fast forward another lifetime and his appeals have run out, so his lawyers tried to say "Oh, the injustice of it all, that he was not allowed to speak to the consul from the country of his citizenship!"

You know what? That he did the deed is incontrovertible. You don't get to do what he did and live, that's all there is to it. Especially in Texas where, as was famously said, " . . . we kill you back."

Huge ++bonus points to Governor Perry for standing firm in the face of those who think the death penalty is too icky for modern times and allowing this Goblin passage over the river Styx.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Did You Hear The One About The Guy Who Set Himself On Fire?

The family "protective" services took his children and ruined his marriage, just like they are designed to do, and like happened millions of times before. But this time the guy wrote a really long, somewhat persuasive manifesto before setting himself on fire in protest.

I think I might have preferred to shoot a few people through the head, personally, and then maybe a quick trip to the back hills of Peru might be in order. But this guy immolated hisse'f and . . .

The
Press
Totally
Failed
To
Report
The
Story

You never heard of Tom Ball, but you know all about Casey Anthony, because the system whereby news of consequence is disseminated in the mainstream press has broken down. Not-guilty hot chick? Headlines. Dead white man? Meh. Spike the story.

I Don't Have That Problem

Ladies feel free to skip this post, you won't get it.

When I go drain the lizard, it's over the top, not through the front. It seems to me that all the complicated tailoring on the front of a set of tighty-whiteys is there to give Mr. Johnson some lebensraum. Some people apparently use that hole for access/egress though, and I don't get it. WHY would you yank your crank through that uncomfortable labyrinth instead of just pulling the whole shazam down and out of the way? So I was underwhelmed when Neal was all excited about finding that Hom came out with left-handed underpants. For $20 each.

Sure it's old news, but hey, how often do you get a chance to combine Mr. Johnson and the term lebensraum in the same sentence? I was tending some personal business in the head today and thought that up and LOL'd but good.

Yes, I was laughing hysterically alone in the bathroom by myself.

Interior Security

Some of us have been joking about this for a while, but it's not funny. What do you do to prevent terrorists sewing up bombs inside their bodies to get past airline security? How do you keep them from blowing up the airplanes? Do you strip everybody naked and see if there are any surgical scars? How about a fMRI scan for everyone? Give everyone a little EMP inside a bomb blast container and sorry charlie if you had a pacemaker?

You do profiling and have no-fly lists that make sense, plus strong visa requirement enforcement overseas before they get here, and that's about all you can do. Arguably, you talk to the militant islamists in a language they understand (do the war hard, and with pork products) but that won't be happening under BHO's Presidency.

We MUST ACCEPT some level of risk. Otherwise you end up with padded light poles on the sidewalks of London. Otherwise you get stuff like VIPR searches minding your business for you, and then you STILL can't stop somebody with a bit of plastique explosive sewn up inside them. The world is dangerous. You can't prevent hazard, no matter how much liberty you abandon in the quest for security. Therefore (drumroll, please):

Trading liberty for security is a pointless, fruitless exercise.

Just Putting This Out There

Trust your instincts. It works for driving, and it works for reporting.

When everyone else was ganging up on DSK for raping a hotel maid, it smelled fishy and I let it lie without comment. Now the sub-headline is she's a tool of the internationalist elite and he's being prevented by her unprosecutable charge from running for President of France. But that was a private story, then a foreigners' story.

This here is local, but it still smells off somehow. I don't know whether to believe it but wouldn't put it past the current head of State . . . and I don't know quite what to make of the story, either. I usually skim Vanderboegh's long posts if I bother with them at all, but instinct led me to read this one and glad I did. Regular readers know I almost never link something and say "Read the whole thing" but that is today's homework assignment:

Federal TSA agents grope everybody at a high school prom (and other assorted outrages). To prevent the great terrorism!!! Read all about VIPR and tell me why I almost didn't forward this one.

Republicans Have Obama Over a Budget Barrel

The Republicrats in the House of Congress have the President by the short-hairs but he may not be bright enough to realize it. The latest news is that there will be no deal on a short-term increase of our debt limit, but maybe we can work out a short-term deal. Got that? Good.

The nation would REALLY be thrown into a sour economic state if we were to default on our outstanding minimum credit card balances treasury notes. It would be far better for us as a country to tell every Federal agency to go find something else to do for a while* while we put ALL the incoming tax revenues to continuing debt service. But there is an alternative to paying our national bills: default.

Continue to spend money like a drunken sailor on social welfare and corporate welfare programs and "invest" in money-pit pipe dreams like nationwide high-speed rail and whatnot. Let the people who fund our nation's deficit spending be told "sorry, tough tits" and just don't pay them. Surely they will just continue to fund our nation's excessive spending, right?

Right? I mean, then, we could NOT pay our bills and continue spending! Hooray! Oh, the brilliance of The Obama!

The Republicans know they hold the reins of this power. They know the people want less spending and no tax increases. The Republicans can stand by for an electoral defeat in 2012 if they cave. Still, how much confidence have you that they will stand firm and force the President to concede?

What a sad state of affairs in which to find our Great Experiment!

********
*This could, of course, all be a New World Order plot. The something else the few-million unemployed workers may be encouraged to do by the MSM could very well be Greek-style riots in the streets. Then, of course, Something Must Be Done and God only knows what they would try to ram down our throats at that juncture . . .

Not My Problem!

When O.J. Simpson was running from the Police, he interrupted my television show and I asked my folks "Who's OJ Simpson?"

Today the question is "Who's KC Anthony?"

Some woman caught a case and was declared not guilty of killing her child by the people who heard all the evidence from beginning to end. WHY is this national headline news, and WHY do the national pundits care? It's just another little-kid-mudered case. Oh wait, sorry I forgot to factor in the "Hot Defendant Variable" which in this case is somewhat higher than normal and "Cute Female White Child Involved Variable" which in this case is "Affirmative." Also in play is the "Possibly-Crazy Biatch" card, which applies to at least the defendante and her momma.

Get off my airwaves. Go be crazy in front of somebody else. Stop covering this and get back to how The Obama is destroying my nation. Oh, wait you don't want to talk about the bad stuff going on in D.C., even though you are a "reporter"? Oh well cover this non-story then, and I'll just change the channel. As usual.

I can't help but note that, as with the O.J. case, nobody is making much noise about going out and finding the real killer. . . .

Racism And Christianity: Not Compatible.

• You can't be a Christian and not believe in the Bible
• You can't believe in the Bible and be a racist
• Therefore, you can't be both Christian and racist.
  

Racism: the belief that one "race" or ethnic group is superior to another, biologically
Culturism: the belief that one culture is superior to another

I caught flak for telling The City on an Official Form that my "race" is Human. I changed it to reflect my skin color, though that is arguably inaccurate (if you look at my grandparents' skin color and national origins). Down on the inside, I stand by the original entry on the form. Because I believe what my Bible tells me:

"God ... giveth to all life, and breath, ... And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth"

Black man? My brother
Brown man? My brother
Yellow man? My brother
White man? My brother

Trace that family tree back far enough and you end up with the same mother and father for all of us. Geographic necessity may have caused some minor variations to help us adapt to our surroundings, but when you cut our throats we all gush the same red blood.

So if you say something bad about the ever-hated Jew because his "ethnicity" is marked on the form as Jewish, you are a dumb ass and really ought to spend more quality time in your Bible. If you look down on the black man, or say the white man is out to get you, ditto. Excuse me if I do not share your enthusiasm on the subject.

Now, if you say that a culture which denigrates women and promotes fatherlessness, drug use/abuse/dealing, crime, and the like is of equal value to a culture which elevates women and motherhood, values the two-parent (opposite sex) married family foundation, discourages drug use and frowns on crime, you are a fool. And probably a government-educated fool at that.

Independence* Day, 2011

Happy 4th of July everybody. Let's all try to pretend for a day that we do not live in a socialist kleptocracy, okay?

*********
*...speaking of which, how independent are we of England when China is buying illegally-high amounts of our sovereign debt through English markets? Whatever would we DO if China didn't buy up all our debt?! Stop taking so much money from the People at gunpoint? The horror!

Oh well, hey where are the fireworks? Oh, banned. Where are the gun shooting galleries? Oh, banned. Well, at least the air conditioner with the federally-approved refrigerant works great, thanks God.

Another Reason to Read Mish:

Remember the scary headline from mainstream economists saying China was going to dump U.S. Treasuries and blah blahs about a new world reserve currency being something beside the US Dollar?

Well, Michael Shedlock pooh-pooh'd it at the time, and now it turns out instead of buying less US debt, China was buying more than previously disclosed.

"Unexpectedly"

Saturdays: When the Real News Hits

Things have gotten worse to the point that every day there is some horrible news coming out. It used to be that they would wait until the Saturday newspaper was printed to release the really bad stories . . . the least-read day of the week gets the least outrage, and you can say you covered it when really you spiked a story.

Am I the only one who winces a little when waiting for search results to come up the first time I check headlines on a Saturday anymore?

Well anyway, if you want most of the headlines worth reading you need to visit at least Instapundit and then maybe Fark.

Fun examples:
Instapundit: Boots on the ground in Somalia after drone attacks . . . make that war #6 on Obama's watch.
Fark: A cancer that can help make zombies . . . or something like that.

Much Too Close To Home

Praising the Constitution: Good!

Praising the Constitution at its burial: sadly accessible satire. Also good thinking, as one would expect from TSM.

Because Those People Are Inferior, You See

The same court that upheld the ability for the Federal government to force you at gunpoint to buy health care payment insurance has handed down another humm-dinger.

The people of Michigan passed a law that said they won't discriminate against, or show favoritism toward, protected classes - including "minority" ethnicities. That is, we won't grant contracts for road projects to you because you are a hispanic woman owned business, and we won't count it against you when you apply to college because you are a white man.

The court has ruled that this puts minorities at a disadvantage. Because, we can only suppose, those people are not as able as the rest of us to do (fill in the blank) without the almighty government helping them out. They just couldn't do it without us, don't you see?

This is racism, plain and simple. The days when "affirmative action" had arguable merit in the United States are past.

K.I.S.S. Your Scrollbar (Instead of Whatever is Next to it!)

I use Firefox 3.something at work on a relatively large monitor, and the buttons for controlling the browser are frustratingly small. I had already found and happily installed the Kempleton Large theme and my buttons on the huge screen at work are back to a usable size; the scroll bars are still easy to miss. This is especially bothersome when another application (Photoshop) lives juuuust off the edge of the screen (tool dialogs are on the next screen) and missing the vertical scroll bar takes me all the way out of the browser.

I looked around online and started to get discouraged. I found some people recommending changing the code inside Firefox to change scrollbar width. I kept looking. It turns out, the vertical scrollbar width is an "advanced" Windows setting. Changed. Fixed. Wonderful.

That, and the fact that IT Buddy has been able to implement some long-wanted changes to our in-house software in the last couple of days, has got me pretty happy about the computery stuff at work lately. Like the song says: it's the little things . . . that meeeean alot!