I Could Not Detest This Person More

bangs head repeatedly on desk ... I just can't stand it .,..  Breitbart gone, this vermin still extant. 


Thanks to Ace.

Talk Talk

DrewM. has a post up at AoS: Success At Nuclear Talks! Iran Agrees To....MORE TALKS!

Wow, more talks! That's so awesome. This is so much different than all the talking and inspecting of Iranian facilities we've been doing until now. No, this is nothing like the almost 10 years that came before. It's different because this time it's S-M-A-R-T.

See? You don't, do you? Because you're a wingnut.

*snip*

EXCLUSIVE: Must Credit Ace Of Spades HQ---Obama plan to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons uncovered!

Step 1-Talk to Iran
Step 2- ???
Step 3- Victory!

*le sigh*

Speaking of wingnuttery, there's confessional talk in the comments of this Stoaty Weasel post of conversion to same and how it came to be for some folk.


All this talk makes me weary made me think of this:



Prolly my favorite "garage" number - Music Machine MySpace.


Talk Talk
Music Machine (1966)

I got me a complication
And it's an only child
Concernin' my reputation
As something more than wild
I know it serves me right
But I can't sleep at night
Have to hide my face
Or go some other place

I won't cry out for justice
Admit that I was wrong
I'll stay in hibernation
'Til the talk subsides to gone
My social life's a dud
My name is really mud
I'm up to here in lies
Guess I'm down to size
To size

Can't seem to talk about
The things that bother me
Seems to be
What everybody has
Against me
Oh, oh, all right

Here's the situation
And how it really stands
I'm out of circulation
I've all but washed my hands
My social life's a dud
My name is really mud
I'm up to here in lies
Guess I'm down to size
To size

Talk talk Talk talk Talk talk Talk talk


Yeah, I know, I have strange musical tastes - from Gilbert & Sullivan to garage punk/psychedelia in 2 posts! :-D

What's With These Chicks?

And I say that as a chick myself.

Two terrific takedowns of female MSM journos this week, one the unabashedly liberal Maureen Dowd of the NYT, the other the allegedly conservative Peggy Noonan of Reagan speech-writer fame.

Jeffrey Lord, of the American Spectator, on MoDo -- The Unbearable Whiteness of Being Maureen Dowd:

So how does the Times stable of Op-Ed columnists stack up against the standards "White Mo" Dowd sets for the rest of us? You know, one's race being critical in order "to bring a fresh perspective" and avoid the "disgrace" of being "stocked with white men."

Of the eleven columnists the Times advertises as its team of Op-Ed page writers, nine are whites. Of those nine, seven are -- ouch! -- the disgracefully whitest of white men! Which is another way of saying 81% of the Times Op-Ed columnists are white (White Mo included) and 77% of the columnist team is, to use White Mo's phrase about the Supreme Court, "stocked with white men" -- guys like Frankly White Rich who are as white as sheets. If one is obsessed with viewing everyone and everything in America through the prism of race, then the 88% white New York Times editorial board and the white paper's stable of 81% white columnists clearly don't read their own editorials. No wonder Black Bob Herbert is so cranky all the time. One of the two black tokens on the Op-Ed page, Black Bob is forced to work with more white guys than David Duke. Black Bob would actually see more black faces if his white bosses let him take the company limo and its black driver over to New Haven to catch the next five-alarm. As for a wise Latina or Latino on the page? Nada.

That Times Editorial Board 15-2 ratio, however, is precisely the kind of thing that supposedly drives White Mo crazy. Or at least when it involves the Supreme Court or New Haven firemen and not her own turf. She somehow must hope the rest of us have forgotten that neither White Mo nor the whiteys writing those Times editorials with White Rosie wanted the only black man now sitting on the US Supreme Court to be there at all. Justice Clarence Thomas's very nomination, the Times foamed at the time in language worthy of The Birth of a Nation, was designed to "incite." Got that? You don't wanna put any black man on the Court who upsets the white massa's of the Times by going the uppity route.

Stuart Schwartz, at American Thinker, on Noonan -- Peggy Noonan, Sarah Palin Jealous:

You're Peggy Noonan and you're jealous. But it's not the normal kind of jealous, the kind reserved for girlfriends who can squeeze into size 2 jeans. No, it's the kind of jealous that hurts, that grabs your gut and twists, that has you howling with rage into your pillow in the middle of the night, screaming "It's not fair" like a two-year-old denied another piece of cake. It is Sarah Palin jealous...and it is consuming you.

You're Peggy Noonan and you're jealous. You are a card-carrying member of the intellectual conservative elite, a PBS-anointed expert on family values who worked for both Ronald Reagan and Dan Rather, a talented speechwriter and wordsmith. And you are fuming: Sarah Palin refuses to be yesterday's news. You just can't get her out of your mind.

And, what's worse, everyone continues to talk about her. You've tried everything, using your mainstream media platforms, your Wall Street Journal columns, and powerful friends -- so many of them -- to savage her, to give her a rhetorical beating so fierce that it would bring a smile to the face of Vince McMahon -- if you knew who he is, and if you had ever watched a WWE wrestling match, which he heads. "She is a complete elite confection. She might as well have been a bonbon," you wrote, your $300 manicured fingers shaking on the keyboard.

Read 'em both -- they're worth it.

Sarahcuda

Victor Davis Hanson -- at NRO.

Russ from Winterset -- at AoSHQ.

Andrea Harris (two different links) -- at Spleenville HQ.

The Anchoress -- at First Things.

Mark Levin -- at marklevinshow.com (show of 07/03/09).

Tim Blair -- at The Daily Telegraph.

Doctor Zero -- at HotAir's Greenroom.

Jay Valentine -- at American Thinker.

MataHarley -- at Flopping Aces.


What they said.




UPDATE 07/07/09: Ouch. That's gonna leave a mark.

David Kahane -- at NRO.

A Peek Into The (Your) Future

From Yahoo News:

Spokane Residents Smuggle Suds Over Green Brands

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS, Associated Press Writer

SPOKANE, Wash. – The quest for squeaky-clean dishes has turned some law-abiding people in Spokane into dishwater-detergent smugglers. They are bringing Cascade or Electrasol in from out of state because the eco-friendly varieties required under Washington state law don't work as well. Spokane County became the launch pad last July for the nation's strictest ban on dishwasher detergent made with phosphates, a measure aimed at reducing water pollution. The ban will be expanded statewide in July 2010, the same time similar laws take effect in several other states.

But it's not easy to get sparkling dishes when you go green.

Many people were shocked to find that products like Seventh Generation, Ecover and Trader Joe's left their dishes encrusted with food, smeared with grease and too gross to use without rewashing them by hand. The culprit was hard water, which is mineral-rich and resistant to soap.

(Ed. - Shocked! Shocked!! I tell you ....)

As a result, there has been a quiet rush of Spokane-area shoppers heading east on Interstate 90 into Idaho in search of old-school suds.

*snip*

Phosphates — the main cleaning agent in many detergents and household cleaners — break down grease and remove stains. However, the chemicals are difficult to remove in wastewater treatment plants and often wind up in rivers and lakes, where they promote the growth of algae. And algae gobble up oxygen in the water that fish need to survive.

While traditional detergents are up to 9 percent phosphate, those sold in Spokane County can contain no more than 0.5 percent.

*snip*

Among other states that have banned or are banning phosphates in dishwasher detergent are Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Michigan, Vermont, Minnesota, Illinois, Massachusetts and New York. A bill on Capitol Hill would impose a nationwide ban.

The Soap and Detergent Association, which represents manufacturers, initially fought the bans. But as the movement gained strength across the country, the association asked legislatures to delay bans until July 2010 to allow for a uniform rollout of products.

The industry has been working to develop better low-phosphate detergents, said Dennis Griesing, vice president of the manufacturers group.

"This is an irrevocable, nationwide commitment on the industry's part," he said.

For his part, Beck has taken to washing his dishes on his machine's pots-and-pans cycle, which takes longer and uses five gallons more water. Beck wonders if that isn't as tough on the environment as phosphates.

"How much is this really costing us?" Beck said. "Aren't we transferring the environmental consequences to something else?"

Ahhh, coming to Michigan ... I can hardly wait. "A bill on Capitol Hill would impose a nationwide ban." -- There's one o' them now for pretty much everything I can think of, isn't there? I went through 20+ years, 3 kids worth of hand dish-washing: Couldn't have a dishwasher, as there was no place big enough to put it. Moved and finally got one 2 years ago .... Arrrrgggh.


P.S. A certain Badger questions Brit environmental chimney rules (see comments).


UPDATE: Ace -- Spain's Experience Proves That Obama's "Green Jobs" Are In Fact Lost Jobs

This is a simple enough matter: If you make the cost of energy more dependent on manpower -- "more jobs" -- it inflates the cost of energy. This is not rocket science, here. If a shirt costs $4 to make when I have one guy making it, sure, I can have three guys making it in a less efficient manner, and sure, I'll have created two jobs. Trouble is -- the shirt now costs $10 to make and I can sell less of them.

The same thing happens with energy. These "green jobs" simply represent additions to the most serious cost of producing anything, namely, human labor. Yes, I can "add" green jobs by forcing energy producers to produce energy less efficiently and more expensively. Taking it to an extreme, I can simply pay ten million people to jog inside giant hamster-wheels 24 hours per day, producing electricity in that manner.

So sure, I'll have "created" ten million jobs.

Trouble is, now I am selling a kilowatt of energy for a thousand bucks, thus destroying all industry that relies on energy, which is to say, all of them.

Let's Just Make This Post A Leetle Bit Longer, 'K?: From (aptly-monikered) commenter George Orwell, at the Ace post link above:

23 I have seen the future. And it doesn't work.

This won't be a tyranny of jackboots and bayonets, it will be more like having every human interaction resemble a visit to the DMV. I sympathize with the common posts here, talking about buying ammo and guns, stocking up on gold and canned food. But it will never come to that. Modern industrial society will not take up arms in any sort of civil war when virtually everyone is guaranteed three squares, cable TV, and a few hundred square feet to call home. Taking up arms would be useless at any rate, in the modern West. The new soft tyranny will not consist of Khmer Rouge retreads herding people like cattle. It won't consist of bans, conscription and book-burnings. It will instead tax and regulate everything so extensively that you won't be able to flush the toilet without considering the extra penalty you will incur on your water/energy/air bill. They won't prohibit you from flushing. You will just have to pay an extra dollar or two when you exceed your water quota. Mulitply that by thirty days and you start to see your bills mount. Like smoking, your activities won't be proscribed. Just restricted to the nth degree. You can smoke, it's not illegal. Just not in a bar. Or in a public park. Or in your backyard. Or within 300 yards of a school or hospital. Or in your car if you have windows down. Or up, as the smoke has to leave the car eventually. Or if you get any medical care paid in any fraction by government managed bureaucracies like Medicare. They won't prohibit sale of tobacco, just raise the price of a pack to $35 dollars with taxes. See? No tyranny. Just intelligent management of public risks.

Why go on about smoking? Because the very tactics the anti-smoking fascists used on tobacco have been applied elsewhere and will apply to the future, whether we are talking about energy or cigars. Wanna see a glimpse of the Nation Below Canada in twenty years? Imagine every business treated like tobacco companies. Enjoy.

Posted by: George Orwell at March 27, 2009 05:03 PM

Oh Hell, Longer Still: Two more extremely worthy links.

Kevin Jackson/The Black Sphere: Obama Jobs Plan Calls For More Tea

White Lily At Home: “Joe the Dentist:” A Case Study in Marginal Wealth Taxation


What is this place, and why am I in this handbasket?

Wow

Miracle Under 137th Street: Subway Save For Ages
Navy Vet Pulls Seizure Victim Under Train, Both Escape

From WCBSTV Website:

(CBS) NEW YORK - In an incredible case of heroism and bravery, a man who fell onto subway tracks early this afternoon and a good samaritan who then jumped on the tracks to save him miraculously suffered only minor injuries after an oncoming subway train actually ran over them.

The incident happened about 1 p.m. at Broadway IRT station at 137th Street when a 20-year-old man apparently tumbled onto the tracks after suffering from a seizure.

Another subway passenger, 50-year-old Wesley Autrey, was standing on the platform with his two daughters whom he was taking home so he could go to his construction job. When Autrey saw the man fall, he quickly took action and left his daughters to jump on the tracks and bring the man to safety as an oncoming train approached.

More at the link above. Amazing quick thinking and astonishing bravery. I am in awe of such persons.

UPDATE: Aftermath of the heroic rescue, from the NY Times:

Moments after the train came to a halt, Mr. Autrey recounted yesterday, Mr. Hollopeter asked if he was dead. “I said, ‘You are very much alive, but if you move you’ll kill the both of us.’ ” Both men emerged from the episode with little more than bruises, but Mr. Autrey also emerged a star.

Mr. Autrey, a 50-year-old construction worker, said he knew something was different when he showed up for work later on Tuesday. His boss, he said, bought him lunch — a ham-and-cheese hero — and later told him to take yesterday off.

Then yesterday morning, as he walked to his mother’s apartment in Harlem, “a stranger came up and put $10 in my hand,” he said. “People in my neighborhood were like, ‘Yo, I know this guy.’ ”

Once at his mother’s apartment, he held interviews in the living room with some of the national morning news programs.

There are some nice words from the rescued man's father, as well as word that Donald Trump has a check "waiting (for him)." I hope this is just the tip of the iceburg for good things coming to Mr. Autrey.