The people who are “Occupying Wall Street” are trying to come up with a manifesto. Being the kind, democratic collectivists they are, they are letting anyone participate. I put a few highly radical things in there just to see if they get removed. But I couldn’t resist the temptation to add this:
10. It is impractical for millions of American men, women, and children to be without health care for any reason. Â [This text should not be edited.]
Implement universal, comprehensive single-payer health care systems at the state level. Align federal incentives, Medicare and Medicaid policy, and the VA to support the states in doing this.
Repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with something better.
Free baths for smelly hippies.
My addition in bold. It’s juvenile, but so is the entire document, and unlike me, they are serious. At least you know what these people would impose on others if they ever got any real power. The fact that there are people out there who believe things like this:
Teach character building classes from grade one, measure success based on drive/interactions with others, not only final outcome.  Impose universal morality for parents who do not participate in raising their children. Remove children from households with parents who refuse to educate them properly. Provide for re-education of parents in how to properly raise their children for the happiness of the Party.
are the reason I own guns. I may or may not have added that last bit about re-education of parents for the happiness of the Party, but I would note it hasn’t been removed, and the rest of that sick statement was the product of someone else’s sick mind.
I was interested to see this post over at Extrano’s Alley that the NYPD commish was bragging that they had the ability to take down aircraft. I’m thinking unless they picked up an SA-7, or some cheap and only likely marginally effective Soviet or Chicom AAA armored vehicle, that a Stinger or some other such MANPAD was awfully expensive for even a city as large as New York. Nonetheless, you never know, given enough budget and reckless abandon, what city officials will purchase. So I at least gave them the benefit of doubt that perhaps the NYPD got their hands on the mother of all toys.
Turns out that the NYPD commish bought his own bullshit, and was referred to the Barrett .50 cals in his department’s inventories. If they had a couple of Ma Deuces strapped to an SUV, or even a mini gun, I might concede that perhaps they have the ability to take out a rogue aircraft with the right kind of gunner, if it’s moving slowly enough, and they don’t mind raining lead down on large parts of the city when they miss (which will be most of the rounds). But if the M82A1Â is what the commish thinks is his anti-aircraft kit, he’s a lot dumber than I thought.
Despite its backing by the billionaire Warren Stephens family, Las Vegas copyright lawsuit filer Righthaven LLC warned today it may have to file for bankruptcy because of a series of setbacks in its litigation campaign.
Personally, I think the CEO of Righthaven, and his Stephens Media masters need to be personally ruined for doing what they did. But nonetheless, I find this highly satisfying.
Looks like things continue to go badly for the copyright troll Righthaven, as documented by Clayton and the Righthaven Victims blog. Couldn’t have happened to nicer people. I hope Clayton and others affected can get some of their settlement money back, if not from Righthaven directly, than from their puppet masters at Stephens Media.
Did you catch the Turkish Oil Wrestling bit? I would certainly never want to train with anyone who didn’t have experience with cage match, or who did not draw me in with the allure of his mustache. Also check out their promotional DVD, where we are introduced to yet another instructor, who notes, “My other day job is as a research scientist. I have a PhD in biochemistry.” It’s vitally important than when you find yourself stalked by a gang of angry ninjas, you be capable of knowing just what the bullets are going to do to his telomeres.
There are many people who are NRA certified instructors who have day jobs. I don’t want to disparage those many folks who do a great job of providing basic pistol instruction, but who don’t do it full time professionally. But when you’re claiming to offer advanced tactical training, up to the level received by special forces, most of which, by the way, is completely inapplicable to civilian self-defense, you better be able to back it up. This is more evidence ADE are selling snake oil.
That seems rather insane for the mayor of a city that sucks down electricity like it’s going out of style. Gotham consumes about 50 million megawatt-hours of electricity per year. However, if you dive deeper into the facts surrounding electricity and New York, you’ll find out why Bloomberg, being the class A asshole that he is, feels he can lecture the rest of the country on energy. The facts make it easy for Bloomberg to bad mouth coal, but it displays a profound lack of understanding on his part on the energy mix in various parts of the country, and why things are that way.
First, it helps to understand a bit about electricity, how it’s generated, and how it’s transmitted. If there’s one thing that’s universally true about the hippy subspecies belief system, is that if you protest and believe hard enough, we can derive all our power from one hundred percent green unicorn farts. The truth is a bit more complicated. In an electrical distribution system, supply must always equal demand. When supply does not always equal demand Very Bad ThingsTM happen. In order to make sure this is the case, engineers conceptually divide power generation between base power, and peaking power. Â Base power is roughly the power required when demand is relatively normal. It’s usually generated either by large coal fired power plants, nuclear power plants, or hydroelectric power plants, depending on what part of the country you’re in. These plants tend to be quite large and efficient, as they will usually operate at, or very close to their overall capacity. When electricity demand exceeds the power demand that can be supplied by base generation, power companies start firing up peaking stations. These are generally smaller, less efficient plants that are powered by petroleum, or more often these days, natural gas. Peaking stations tend to be located much closer to communities that are actually consuming the power being generated.
So where does solar and wind, the favorite source of power for hippies, fit in? Well, it can provide power when it’s available. It can help carry the load of the overall system when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining, but because it can’t provide reliable power, it’s utterly useless as a means of providing either base power or peaking power. It can only act as a supplement to the existing power system, and not as a replacement. It can’t even be a significant percentage of power, due to the unreliability of it. The hippy vision, when applied to reality, is an electricity system when you have it available sometimes. We have no way of storing the kind of power a city like New York demands for times when wind and sun aren’t in a mood to give us power. The only remedy in that case is shutting electric consumers off until demand equals supply.
Due to where New York City is located, and due to the fact that New York generates enough wealth to afford sky high electric utility rates, it depends very little on coal as a source of power. Compared to about half for the rest of the country, New York generates less than one fifth its power from coal based plants. New York State also generates far more base power with natural gas than many other energy markets, thanks largely to all of those fracking gas fields in Pennsylvania and Western New York.
But this is largely luck. Hydroelectric power isn’t available in every market. Nuclear power plants are horrendously expensive, and can only be located near significant sources of cooling water. Natural gas is not plentiful and cheap in every energy market. In contrast, coal can be shipped in huge quantities by rail, and used just about anywhere. For parts of the country that are not lucky enough to be located near large pockets of natural gas, near hydroelectric dams, or near major oil pipelines, the only viable alternative to coal is nuclear power, and the greens hate that too. Not to mention that it’s really expensive to build nuclear plants. I’d like to see if folks in Albuquerque, New Mexico would feel OK paying New York and Chicago prices for their electricity.
There is no alternative universe where electricity plants that run off green unicorn farts can provide our energy needs. Demagogues like Bloomberg do not understand the practicalities of electric generation and distribution. He does not understand his city’s power mix is largely an accident of geology. All he knows is his city only uses about 15% coal, so everyone else should too. The message from Main Street USA should be to tell Mayor Bloomberg to go back to New York City, and stop lecturing the rest of country on topics he knows nothing about, and are none of his damned business anyway.
Based on the tone of this article, I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to feel sorry for those engaged in “Chicago’s rich and beloved artisanal ice cream scene.” Instead, I’m rolling my eyes and telling them to cry my a freakin’ river. Sympathy is the last thing these folks get from me in this case.
Apparently, the darling of this “artisanal ice cream scene” is in trouble with authorities for operating without the correct licenses and distributing her products to supermarkets without following basic food safety guidelines set by the state. Instead of thanking her lucky stars they don’t appear to be going after her with massive fines for said operations, she’s crying to the media that she shouldn’t have to follow these food safety regulations that also apply to “massive creameries,” aka her competition.
She laments that she is being asked to test for bacteria, use a pasteurizer, meet state mandates for labeling of what’s in her food products, and get the licenses that all businesses in her field are required to have. The article leans toward demanding an exemption for small makers who are selling the same way those evil “massive creameries” sell. Except what happens when people end up sick from this artisanal ice cream? Will the people who demand more regulations when it happens be willing to turn a blind eye because it’s a small producer who willing ignored the law?
The story does raise some reasonable issues that most people can sympathize with, like the fact that you can’t possibly wash a strawberry enough to bring it in line with bacteria tests without seriously degrading it. But the maker only wants the exemption for herself so she can use “fresh organic cream blended with local and often organic produce like basil and strawberries she picks herself.” She doesn’t raise the fact that maybe it’s a problem when no ice cream maker can use strawberries that any sane person would consider “clean” enough to eat.
In an ideal world that embraces the compromise of real world politics, she would be free to continue to sell her products however she sees fit to make them as long as there is some kind of label that clearly states she isn’t honoring state food safety guidelines. Until that ideal world happens, I say good for the regulators for making a damn fine point: “Indeed, IDPH confirmed that these small operations are governed by the very same rules that apply to billion dollar ice cream companies.”
If changes to the regulations apply to one, they should apply to all. (via Ian Argent)
No, it not so dangerous. But I tried to cook Americium, Radium and Beryllium in 96% sulphuric-acid, to easier get them blended. But the whole thing exploded upp in the air…
Do yourself a favor and stop. No, it is very dangerous, and you pretty clearly don’t know what you’re doing. I guess what we need is careful tracking, registration, and regulation of nuclear materials. It’s common sense. Well, except we already do? There’s no system that’s so idiot proof that nature will not provide a better idiot, who will find his way into the papers. I think it’s fair to say that our opponents in this issue will never recognize this.
