And In Other News

Hat Tip to Tom Elia at The New Editor.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled reality.
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About those comments

I've been using Haloscan for comments for years. Sadly, Haloscan is shutting down in a couple of weeks and all those comments will go away. I did export them, 2,986 snarkolicous comments in all. Hopefully I'll find a way to import them here and at the backup site (which I need to update anyway).

Update: Ok, all the Haloscan stuff is gone. Now to get the blogger comments working again.

Obama's SOTU speech summary

It's Bush's fault and I'm doubling down on my failed "Health Care" (i.e. bailout for insurance companies & big pharm) and the job killing "Cap & Tax" bill that the American people have clearly stated they are against.

Obama forgot Option #3

Yup, Option #3 looks like the right one. Charles Krauthammer also nails the utter cluelessness of the democrats in the wake of the recent miracle in Massachusetts.

To recap the video, Mr. Krauthammer states that our Dear Leader left out option #3 when discussing how his term in office will be seen. His record so far is one of mediocrity at best, and he doesn't show any indication of improvement. So, he will probably be a mediocre one term President, with ratings that high only because of a fawning press.

Originally published at the Urbin Report.

Quote of the Day

"It’s not that the democrats are playing checkers and the Republicans are playing Chess. It’s that the Republicans are playing Chess and the democrats are in the Nurse’s office because once again they have glued their balls to their thighs."

-- Comedy Central's Jon Stewart

So Stewart is saying that the Republicans won in Massachusetts because the democrats not only dropped the ball, they dug a hole and buried it.

One of the key factors in the democrat's success in the 2008 and 2006 elections was the Republicans going out of their way to piss off their core voters.

So, political victory appears not to depend on the excellence of one party over the other, but the greater incompetence of their opponents.

Liberal Double Standards

The following is post I made to Facebook thread, promoting Pat Robertson voodoo dolls. There was much indignation at my suggestion that there be an accompanying Danny Glover doll for his assertion that the earthquake hit Haiti for crimes against Gaia.

The people of Haiti are in much more immediate danger from the sadly uniform governmental corruption that all too common in the third world than either climate change (natural or induced by human action) or the “wrath of God.” What I find disturbing is that both Robertson and Glover are using this human tragedy of Biblical Proportions (I’m using the term as a reference of scale, not to indicate any possible cause) to promote their own political/religious agendas. Was what Robertson said provocative enough to cause a great deal of people to smite him verily across the cheek with the back of their hand? Clearly so. I’m not knocking the voodoo doll idea. I’ve got a few myself and Robertson has a history of making public statements that provoke that kind of response. So does Glover, although generally with a different set of people. (The Pink Pistols probably are horked off at both, but they are a pretty broad minded group in general). One difference between Robertson and Glover is that, based on past disasters, Robertson’s group will likely be one of the first groups to get aid supplies into Haiti. After Katrina hit shore, his group got aid into the area before FEMA, the Red Cross and the state government. So while Robertson often says things that sound like someone seriously off his meds (go ahead, stick another pin in), his actions show that he remembers the Christian concept of “Hate the sin. Love the Sinner.” That puts him head of a lot of other TV preachers, such as that uber-jerk Jim Baker. That aside, both Robertson and Glover are jerks for using this human tragedy to promote their own political/religious agendas. The same holds for anyone who blames an earthquake on: the hunting of whales, communism, greed on Wall Street, the Grays or my personal favorite, the Bavarian Illuminati. You can argue the level of jerkiness, but the basic label still applies.

I expect that most leftists will not be able to see reason on this topic.

Originally posted at the Urbin Report.

Monday Book Pick: The Man of Bronze & The Land of Terror

The Man of Bronze and The Land of Terror by Lester Dent.

The first two Doc Savage novels.

The first Doc Savage novel I read was The Land of Terror back in either 1971 or 1972. It was a Bantam reprint that I picked up at store in Panama City just outside the Balboa Gate. Since then, I have read over 160 of the original 181 Doc Savage novels, as well as several by Philip Jose Farmer (licensed or otherwise) and Will Murray. IMNSHO, Doc Savage was the greatest of the Pulp Era Heros.

Monday Book Pick Archive

Avatar spoilers

This is a comment I left on a review of Avatar on Dark Worlds blog that raises issues with the lousy science in Avatar:

Then there is the subject of evolution on Pandora. All the animals have six limbs. Four up front and two in the back. All of them, including the Pterodactyl like creatures. Four wings and pair of legs. Four eyes as well. One pair above sightly farther out than the inner pair.

Everything except the Terminator Smurfs. Two eyes, and four limbs.

Radically different biology, yet they could mesh their nervous system with the local animals.
Did the Terminator Smurfs braid their hair to protect the nerve bundle or did it grow like that naturally.

Oh, why did the Pterodactyl like creatures naturally develop stirrups for the Terminator Smurfs?

With all the "scientists" they had on that planet, why didn't any notice that the Terminator Smurfs obviously didn't evolve there?

Also published at the Urbin Report.

Blast From The Past

From Living In The Surreal World on May 11, 2007:

What the Republican Party needs to get through their collective skulls right now is the fact that the age of politics as usual is over.

No more compromise. No more deals. No more bipartisanship.

There must be a radical clean up of the mess that the Left has created. The partisans of socialism must be systematically removed from our public institutions. And if we are to have a future as the core nation of our civilization we must make a special effort to clean out the Augean Stables that our educational establishment has become under the tutelage of the Left.

And we must with volume and clarity tell the spoiled brats who imagine themselves to be the heirs of Marx and Lenin to grow up or get out.

Of course, if those idiots would just die, it would be nice too.

What are your questions on this block of instruction?
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Quote of the Day

You ever come across raccoons in the outdoor trash can at 11:30 or so at night? As soon as they’re exposed by the beam of the flashlight (by the way, how much CO2 does the beam of a flashlight put into the atmosphere?), they turn on you with fangs and paws and let you know what follows will be a short conversation with very little talking involved.
Currently, climate scientists are raccoons hip-deep in statistical garbage and you should approach them with caution because they are unarmed (with facts) and dangerous.

-- Dennis Miller

Gripe of the Day

It's snowing in Texas and the Transnational Socialist elites are getting together in Copenhagen to whine about Capitalism Anthropogenic Global Warming.

Private jets and limos. Nothing is too good for the self appointed saviors of Mother Gaia.

Of course Mother Gaia can't tell them to shove off.
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Facts don't matter to Palin haters

Ask most people on the right on why they don’t like our Dear Leader and most will be able to articulate specific policy issues they disagree with. OK, often they sum it up with “He’s a Socialist,” but when pressed, they can cite actual policies and give details.

Ask a typical hater of Gov. Sarah Palin why they don’t like her, and most can, at best, deliver quotes made by Tina Fey, and try to attribute them to Gov. Palin. If you press them for details, they tend to get angry and often blame you for attempting to insert reality into their irrational hatred that makes them feel all warm and fuzzy.

Proud ignorance is sadly a common feature of Obama supporters.

Originally published at the Urbin Report

A few simple questions

I found this list of questions on flickr.

If George W. Bush had been the first President to need a teleprompter installed to be able to get through a press conference, would you have laughed and said this is more proof of how inept he is on his own and is really controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?

If George W. Bush had spent over a million dollars to take Laura Bush to a play in NYC, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had reduced your retirement plan's holdings of GM stock by 90% and given the unions a majority stake in GM, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had made a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches, would you have thought this embarrassingly narcissistic and tacky?

If George W. Bush had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had visited Austria and made reference to the non-existent "Austrian language," would you have brushed it off as a minor slip?

If George W. Bush had filled his cabinet and circle of advisers with people who cannot seem to keep current in their income taxes, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to "Cinco de Cuatro" in front of the Mexican ambassador when it was the 5th of May (Cinco de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried again, would you have winced in embarrassment?

If George W. Bush had mis-spelled the word "advice" would you have hammered him for it for years like Dan Quayle and potatoe as proof of what a dunce he is?

If George W. Bush had burned 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to go plant a single tree on Earth Day, would you have concluded he's a hypocrite?

If George W. Bush's administration had okayed Air Force One flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing widespread panic, would you have wondered whether they actually get what happened on 9-11?

If George W. Bush had failed to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans, would you want it made into a major ongoing political issue with claims of racism and incompetence?

If George W. Bush had ordered the firing of the CEO of a major corporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?

If George W Bush had proposed to double the national debt, which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, in one year, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had then proposed to double the debt again within 10 years, would you have approved?

So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive? Can't think of anything? Don't worry. He's done all this in 8 months -- so you'll have three years and one month to come up with an answer (November 2012)

Taxs found so far in the 1900+ page democrat "heath care" bill

If you thought Health Care was expensive now, just wait until it is "free."
Here is a list of the new taxes you will be paying found so far:

Employer Mandate Excise Tax (Page 275): If an employer does not pay 72.5 percent of a single employee’s health premium (65 percent of a family employee), the employer must pay an excise tax equal to 8 percent of average wages. Small employers (measured by payroll size) have smaller payroll tax rates of 0 percent (<$500,000), 2 percent ($500,000-$585,000), 4 percent ($585,000-$670,000), and 6 percent ($670,000-$750,000).

Individual Mandate Surtax (Page 296): If an individual fails to obtain qualifying coverage, he must pay an income surtax equal to the lesser of 2.5 percent of modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) or the average premium. MAGI adds back in the foreign earned income exclusion and municipal bond interest.

Medicine Cabinet Tax (Page 324): Non-prescription medications would no longer be able to be purchased from health savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs), or health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs). Insulin excepted.

Cap on FSAs (Page 325): FSAs would face an annual cap of $2500 (currently uncapped).

Increased Additional Tax on Non-Qualified HSA Distributions (Page 326): Non-qualified distributions from HSAs would face an additional tax of 20 percent (current law is 10 percent). This disadvantages HSAs relative to other tax-free accounts (e.g. IRAs, 401(k)s, 529 plans, etc.)

Denial of Tax Deduction for Employer Health Plans Coordinating with Medicare Part D (Page 327): This would further erode private sector participation in delivery of Medicare services.

Surtax on Individuals and Small Businesses (Page 336): Imposes an income surtax of 5.4 percent on MAGI over $500,000 ($1 million married filing jointly). MAGI adds back in the itemized deduction for margin loan interest. This would raise the top marginal tax rate in 2011 from 39.6 percent under current law to 45 percent—a new effective top rate.

Excise Tax on Medical Devices (Page 339): Imposes a new excise tax on medical device manufacturers equal to 2.5 percent of the wholesale price. It excludes retail sales and unspecified medical devices sold to the general public.

Corporate 1099-MISC Information Reporting (Page 344): Requires that 1099-MISC forms be issued to corporations as well as persons for trade or business payments. Current law limits to just persons for small business compliance complexity reasons. Also expands reporting to exchanges of property.

Delay in Worldwide Allocation of Interest (Page 345): Delays for nine years the worldwide allocation of interest, a corporate tax relief provision from the American Jobs Creation Act

Limitation on Tax Treaty Benefits for Certain Payments (Page 346): Increases taxes on U.S. employers with overseas operations looking to avoid double taxation of earnings.

Codification of the “Economic Substance Doctrine” (Page 349): Empowers the IRS to disallow a perfectly legal tax deduction or other tax relief merely because the IRS deems that the motive of the taxpayer was not primarily business-related.

Application of “More Likely Than Not” Rule (Page 357): Publicly-traded partnerships and corporations with annual gross receipts in excess of $100 million have raised standards on penalties. If there is a tax underpayment by these taxpayers, they must be able to prove that the estimated tax paid would have more likely than not been sufficient to cover final tax liability.