When big screens are outlawed, only outlaws will have big screens

Some people say California is a bellwether for the way the rest of the way the rest of the country will go, and with the way the economy and budget deficits have been going, I'm inclined to agree. That said, the rest of you might want to head out and buy that big screen Hi-Def teevee while you still can:

In their continuing quest to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, state regulators have uncovered a new villain in the war on global warming : your big screen TV

Couch potatoes, beware.

The California Energy Commission is considering a proposal that would ban California retailers from selling all but the most energy-efficient televisions. Critics say the news standards could take 25 percent of televisions off the market — most of them 40 inches or larger.

"The larger the television, the more at risk it is of being banned unnecessarily in California," said Douglas Johnson, senior director of technology police for the Consumer Electronics Association.

Association officials say the standards are not only unnecessary – because the federal government already regulates energy efficiency through the voluntary Energy Star program — but also ill-timed. The last thing our economy needs now is products taken off the market, they say.

But it's FOR THE CHILDRENâ„¢ you selfish bastards! Who cares if we wreck the economy, so long as we can stop temperatures from going up 0.5 degrees over the next century? And besides, would you rather have a sweet teevee or ensure that your children's children will be able to enjoy the Arizona Hissing Dungbeetle and the Northwest Pacific Wart-Mottled Trout* in their natural habitats?

*May not be acutal species.

Posted by: Sean M. at 12:51 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 286 words, total size 2 kb.

Some Perspective...

Machinist over at TSW nails what has been going on in the dextrosphere the last few weeks, vis a vis what we face as a whole.

When two kids get into a fight at a kids’ game, that reflects badly on today’s standards of sportsmanship.

When the parents turn it into a riot, that reflects so sadly on our culture and our standards of parenting.

To see two prominent bloggers get into a disagreement and carry it way past the point where either was thinking with the big head is sad. They both lost credibility and dignity in this.

Their true friends would have tried to part them or calm things down until the hosts cooled off enough to part ways and make their cases to those who came to their sites to learn, leaving the other to do the same. Some regulars tried to do just that, to their credit. But too many preferred to join with the trolls from both sites in stirring up a riot and making any reasonable outcome impossible. The original issue is not even discussed seriously now. Each day I go to mourn the losses on both sides and I find the delinquents are still at it, trying to stir up a rumble for their own purposes or entertainment.

The enemy is laughing, a pox on both their houses.

I missed much of the PW/Patterico war, but it has turned very ugly and VERY personal. Maybe we should realize our common enemy. That's all I'm sayin'.*

*Yeah, I know. I have attacked Allah (and Ace for defending and protecting Allah), but a link whore who goes out of his way to antagonize 95% of his readership and fellow travelers just for a hit count uptick is different from a nasty, vitriolic feud between two guys who openly admit they share the common foe that leads to what has developed over the last few days.

And besides, if anybody should be acutely aware of menacing comments left at another blog that could be misconstrued as threatening, it's Goldstein.

Posted by: eddiebear at 12:40 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
Post contains 345 words, total size 2 kb.

Shocka! Liberal Policies Hurt The Little Guys.

In this case, it's a janitor in Seattle who has saved his money and wants to upgrade his house.

The price tag: nearly $15,000 for a 60-foot strip of asphalt.

Seattle officials admit Barajas is an unintended target of a year-old city ordinance meant to force developers to provide infrastructure improvements in the city's 22 designated urban villages. Although the ordinance was directed at developers and not a private homeowner tearing down an existing house to build anew — and the sidewalk likely will be the only one on Barajas' street for years, if not decades — they say there's nothing they can do to waive the requirement.

"This is sort of a rare instance," said Bryan Stevens, a spokesman for the city's Department of Planning and Development. "... It may feel like a sidewalk to nowhere, but others will come."

That may be so, but spending thousands of dollars on a sidewalk — one unlikely to have much impact on pedestrian safety — is "like throwing away money," Barajas said.

Given the slow pace of development in his neighborhood, Barajas' sidewalk may have to be replaced by the time others come to the block.

Barajas, a janitor for King County Metro since 1990, and his wife, Maria, a housekeeper at a downtown hotel, have saved for 12 years to afford the down payment on their $250,000 construction loan.

"I just want something to live comfortable after I retire," said Barajas, 61, adding that the new house will be his teenage daughter's inheritance.

The financial sting of building a sidewalk is all the more painful because Barajas wouldn't need one if he lived on the west side of 32nd Avenue South, instead of the east side. That's because the western boundary of the MLK at Holly Street urban village is the center line of Barajas' narrow residential street.

Posted by: eddiebear at 12:26 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 315 words, total size 2 kb.

Happy talk

Part 2,864 in the "Imagine the OUTRAGE if Bush had done this" series:

At a time when his Washington honeymoon is turning into a hazing, President Barack Obama and his team are launched on a strategy to sail above the traditional White House press corps by reaching out to liberal commentators, local reporters and ethnic media.

The highest-profile moments in the new approach have been well-noted, such as the president giving an interview to progressive radio host Ed Schultz and Obama calling on a reporter from the liberal-leaning Huffington Post at his first news conference.

Oh, wait. We don't even have to imagine it. Anybody else remember Jeff Gannon?

This is doubly lame because President Thin-Skin is apparently afraid that the notoriously conservative [yeah, right] Washington press corps are going to be mean and maybe ask a question a little harder than, say, "Is it difficult being the Smartest Man in the World?"  Uh-huh.

Posted by: Sean M. at 07:21 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 153 words, total size 1 kb.

Why I believe there is a God

All of that and she can kick your ass without breaking a nail. 

Posted by: alexthechick at 07:05 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 20 words, total size 1 kb.

Feel like beating me up/wishing me well?

You can do so here.

Posted by: Sean M. at 06:23 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 12 words, total size 1 kb.

New lefty hobby discovered!

Bankrupting the Palin family.  I just know that Excitable Andi is somehow involved with this.

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 04:05 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 19 words, total size 1 kb.

Dude Arrested For Multitasking

Not only was he banging a dog, but he hit the horse as well.

Coppes is also charged with abusing the girl's small Palomino horse. The bestiality charges each carry up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. If convicted, Coppes would not have to register as a sex offender.

The 25-year-old from Polk County is free on bond but has been ordered to stay away from his neighbor and her animals. He also faces a criminal trespass charge. He had faced a public sexual indecency charge but Arkansas law requires the participation of two humans for a conviction.

Posted by: eddiebear at 12:00 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 105 words, total size 1 kb.

Is there a reason this is being touted as A Good Thing?

Ed says, regarding the funds raised in February by the RNC,

Is $5.1 million a good number on its own?  I’d say yes, for a party that just lost a national election and faces off against a popular (for now) Democratic President.  It’s doubly impressive considering the fact that the RNC didn’t have much of a senior staff; Steele canned most of them, and has only now begun replacing them, including the person in charge of fundraising.

$5 million is not a good number, I don't care how you spin it.  Yeah, they beat the Democrats in fundraising, big deal, what does it say about people's faith in the GOP that they'd only give them $5 million as the Marxists in power nationalize everyfuckingthing?  The fact that everyone who isn't a liberal drone hasn't emptied their wallet into a big box with a little red, white and blue elephant tacked onto the side of it should be telling.  People won't donate to the RNC because they know it's a money sink, they've lost all faith in the party, and with damn good reason. 

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 11:39 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 195 words, total size 1 kb.

Yet Another Reason To Treat The Elderly With Respect

Cane-fu!

"You don't have to be powerful, you don't have to be fast," said Gary Hernandez, who runs the dojo here northeast of Tampa where the session was held and where he teaches cane fighting classes himself. "It's a piece of hard wood. It hurts."

The session starts simply enough, with seniors gathered on the red and black mat twisting this way and that, stretching with their simple wooden canes over their heads and behind their backs. They combine long rubber tension bands with their canes to do bicep curls, leg presses and chest rows - exercises aimed at keeping the seniors fit.

Fitness alone won't ward off those who might hurt them, though, and Shuey talks briefly of recent attacks on elders. His hazel eyes look severe as he points to the cane and delivers his message.

"When you put this little crook around someone's neck, their whole attitude changes real fast," he said.

And in a moment, Shuey shows it. With another instructor, Merle McAlpin, playing the bad guy, Shuey hooks the cane around his neck and thrusts it. The result is a guttural groan of pain from McAlpin.

 

When it's time for the students to try a bit later, Shuey shouts: "Be gentle!"

In the two-hour session, participants are taught a sampling of moves to use in different situations. The cane can simply be swung in circles, used to grab a foot or neck, and fashioned into a bat or poker. Advanced techniques even show a senior how to use a cane to ward off someone with a gun or knife.

It takes years to master cane fighting like Hernandez or Shuey, but they say they can teach a senior several crucial moves in an hour. Perhaps more importantly, though, it gives them confidence that can help them escape a dangerous situation.

"You don't think about carrying it other than for somebody who needs help," said 63-year-old Joan Kirkman, a nurse from Zephyrhills. "But after taking this class, you realize you could do so much more with it."

Posted by: eddiebear at 10:45 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 350 words, total size 2 kb.

Why Don't We Yell That Obama Is Ambivalent About The Spread Of AIDS And Kill Jobs?

I mean, having the Government start buying and distributing Chinese made rubbers to poor nations most at risk of catching the disease is at best foolish, and at worst potentially disastrous.

Not only that, but the jobs The Messiah keeps claiming to want to protect are threatened by this deal.

In this case, Chinese condoms.

That’s the dilemma for the folks at the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has distributed an estimated 10 billion U.S.-made AIDS-preventing condoms in poor countries around the world.

But not anymore.

In a move expected to cost 300 American jobs, the government is switching to cheaper off-shore condoms, including some made in China.

The switch comes despite implied assurances over the years that the agency would continue to buy American whenever possible.

“Of course, we considered how many U.S. jobs would be affected by this move,” said a USAID official who spoke on the condition that he would not be named. But he said the reasons for the change included lower prices (2 cents versus more than 5 cents for U.S.-made condoms) and the fact that Congress dropped “buy American language” in a recent appropriations bill.

Besides, he said, the sole U.S. supplier — an Alabama company called Alatech — had previous delivery problems under the program.

It’s clear that Alatech’s problems over the years, which apparently have been resolved, may have driven U.S. officials to seek much less expensive foreign-made condoms in the first place.

But that’s cold comfort to Fannie Thomas, who has been making AIDS-preventing condoms in southeastern Alabama for nearly 40 years in the small town of Eufaula.

“We pay taxes down here, too, and with all this stimulus money going to save jobs, it seems to me like they (the U.S. government) should share this contract so they can save jobs here in America,” Thomas said.

Thomas and others at the Alatech plant said there aren’t many alternatives for them if it closes down, which is a likely result of the contracting switch.

In fact, the government is close to accepting condoms from two offshore companies: Unidus Corp., which makes condoms in South Korea, and Qingdao Double Butterfly Group, which makes them in China.

Condoms from those companies will likely carry the USAID logo — two hands shaking over red and white bunting

Posted by: eddiebear at 10:35 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 400 words, total size 3 kb.

Thank you Vermont!

If gay marriage is to endorsed by the state, do it like Vermont is doing, through the legislature.  No bullshit games with the judiciary, either through the legislature or referendum, s'all I'm asking.  I still think we're better off just having all civil unions, and leave marriage to the private sector, but I'm fine with this too.

In any case, looks like the Governor might veto it, but if the Senate vote is any indicator, it'd probably be overridden if he did, so I wonder if he'll let it ride?

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 10:20 AM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
Post contains 93 words, total size 1 kb.

How Long Before The Deciders Decide That Hugo Chavez Is A Bad Guy?

I mean, calling Dear Leader these words? That's definitely a no-no.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama was at best an "ignoramus" for saying the socialist leader exported terrorism and obstructed progress in Latin America.

"He goes and accuses me of exporting terrorism: the least I can say is that he's a poor ignoramus; he should read and study a little to understand reality," said Chavez, who heads a group of left-wing Latin American leaders opposed to the U.S. influence in the region.

Chavez said Obama's comments had made him change his mind about sending a new ambassador to Washington, after he withdrew the previous envoy in a dispute last year with the Bush administration in which he also expelled the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela.

"When I saw Obama saying what he said, I put the decision back in the drawer; let's wait and see," Chavez said on his weekly television show, adding he had wanted to send a new ambassador to improve relations with the United States after the departure of George W. Bush as president.

Posted by: eddiebear at 10:00 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 196 words, total size 1 kb.

Moron of the Day: WTF Is Wrong With Wisconsin?

I'm still waiting to answer fellow blogger and S&M aficionado Alice H.'s question about whether I make Wisconsin a better or worse place but I'll offer this story as exhibit A:

A 51-year-old Grafton man was arrested for drunken driving after he drove from Oak Creek to Wauwatosa with his air bag deployed Wednesday evening.

According to a Wauwatosa Police Department report:

The man had been drinking at On The Border, a strip club, and on his way out of Oak Creek, he struck a pole and damaged the front of his vehicle.

Why did he stop?  Did he realize his airbag was deployed or that he was obviously too drunk to be driving?  No, he ran out of gas.

Exactly how fucked up would I have to be to make Wisconsin's idiot problem worse?

Posted by: Moron Pundit at 10:16 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 144 words, total size 1 kb.

Budget about to be cut on missile defense

I think we all knew this was coming, if the Democrats are forced to choose between frivolous pork projects and paying off their corrupt political cronies or funding veterans' health care and defense programs, I think we all know who they try and deny funds to first.  I'll be interested to see what Cuffy thinks about this. 

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 10:14 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 65 words, total size 1 kb.

Okay, Jon, you go first

Am I the only one who always hears troubling rumbles of totalitarianism behind proposals like this?

JONATHON PORRITT, one of Gordon Brown’s leading green advisers, is to warn that Britain must drastically reduce its population if it is to build a sustainable society.

Porritt’s call will come at this week’s annual conference of the Optimum Population Trust (OPT), of which he is patron.

The trust will release research suggesting UK population must be cut to 30m if the country wants to feed itself sustainably.

By the way, that's about half of the current UK population. The other half, it would seem, will have to go.

So, Jonathon, who has to go, and how do you propose getting rid of them? Are you going to somehow create a ranking system for which people (or "undesirables") are first in line for mandatory sterilization? And, by the way, how many children do you have? Big Brother would like to know.

Posted by: Sean M. at 09:55 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 162 words, total size 1 kb.

Obama to Convert US to Metric System

In another move to help strengthen the flagging US economony and unfreeze the credit markets, President Obama today announced that he was issuing Executive Decree #4, instructing the US government and all contractors to henceforth work solely in the metric system.

"Today the United States declares its unity with the rest of the world," Obama read from his teleprompter to a group of silently awestruck reporters.  "With this move we not only give a strong boost to our economy, but we also help to raise, maintain, or keep from sinking the test scores of our struggling math students.  This one change impacts every single aspect of our lives in America for the better!"

He noted that the change was also green.  "Instead of cars getting an atrocious gas mileage of 20 miles per gallon, now they get 850 kilometers per hundred liters!"

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hailed the changeover as essential to efforts in diplomacy.  "Now traveling Americans can easily and quickly change from US Dollars to French Francs, German Marks, or the UK's Euro without having to worry about confusing and contradictory currency conversions based on the length of King George's fingers."

Vice President Joe Biden, who had pushed for the move since before the inaguration, told reporters that "now I know how many ounces make a furlong: six hundred!" 

The White House announced that Secretary of Energy Steven Chu will also take on the role of "Metric Czar", as he is the only "scientific-type dude" who understands the conversions between the various and sundry units.

To mark the announcement, Obama issued another of his patented wisecracks, remarking that "as my Economic Advisor Larry Summers is fond of saying, the metric system is so simple that even math retards and women can use it!"

Posted by: plebian at 06:17 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 303 words, total size 2 kb.

Thank Gaia For Science!

I mean, now I have an excuse to keep drinking.

The effect of alcohol on bone mineral density (BMD) was "larger than what we see for any single nutrient, even for calcium. It's not ambiguous. It's very clear," according to Dr. Katherine Tucker of Tufts University in Boston.

Men who had a glass or two of wine or beer daily had denser bones than non-drinkers, but those who downed two or more servings of hard liquor a day had significantly lower BMD than the men who drank up to two glasses of liquor daily.

The women who drank more than two glasses a day of alcohol or wine had greater BMD than the women who drank less.

Posted by: eddiebear at 12:09 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 121 words, total size 1 kb.

Tommy Lasorda Is Awesome

I just love how he has this much energy to do interviews.

Posted by: eddiebear at 12:07 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 16 words, total size 1 kb.

Leaving America?

When I find myself kinda sorta agreeing with the twat Rod Dreher, I immediately begin to question what I'm thinking, but seriously, what the fuck is this nonsense about bailing on the US?  And I would have said he was full of shit but I see a bunch of commenters at Hotair and other sites saying the same things.  Where the fuck did this come from?  Do you really think you're going to find liberty elsewhere? 

We have all the tools at hand to push back the left and authoritarians, all this talk about leaving is for the lazy and cowardly.  They're giving up the fight for liberty for security, and it's shameful.  All I have to say to those people,

All you people threatening to leave or quit, quit being a bunch of goddamn pussies, we haven't lost yet.  There's already a serious backlash against the statists, and it's getting bigger yet.  This isn't the time to flake out and leave, this is the time to get ready for the counterattack so we can push these fucking Marxists out once and for all!

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 11:19 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 186 words, total size 1 kb.