Well, I’m back in town.

1. Belief in Santa Claus? This is really really dumb. Do people doubt that Julius Caesar existed? Do they write articles about it? Is that something that needs defending. Wiki doesn’t doubt he exists. But apparently journalists are clueless. I suppose you could wonder about the tense “exists” vs “existed” … which depends only on your faith in the Resurrection or lack thereof. But he was a historical personage of that there is basically no doubt.
2. Youth and passing into maturity (or not).
3. Half a point in defense of the young boy who kissed his classmates hand. Half a point for pointing out that the act was problematic. Loss of a point (or two) for not realizing the scope of the infraction was minor at best.
4. But the victory dance was done, the web site is fixed, mission accomplished and all that. How can that be?
5. Privacy and law.
6. More silly science … newsflash! People with low impulse control have … (wait for it) poor impulse control.
7. To give the same source its due … things going bang are cool right?
8. Verse and photo.
9. In favor of min wage increase.
10. Not so much in favor of same.
11. A dialog.

G’day

Links:

1. David, err, Jonathan and Goliath.
2. Uhm, I say it all the time. Apparently I’m not “men”.
3. Not incorrect, not misleading, … a lie.
4. Judo with the liberal correctness enforcer.
5. Or you could just recall details of the life of the actual St. Nicholas of Myra.
6. Whe “throw the bums out” becomes the sole objective.
7. Natalie Cole and the test tube.
8. Disposing of nuttery on both sides with respect to Mr Mandela. If you ask me, he was a prophet (which occupation has nothing to do with prediction of future, but has everything to do with upsetting applecarts and pointing out flaws in the status quo).
9. Sarin and Syria … was it another Benghazi mythmaking exercise?
10. Doc Smith.
11. A problem looming for Obamacare?
12. Speech, freedom and the law.

An amusing list

Some weeks ago, I noticed someone (on a blog) wondering what comics might be made into movies that might work but which haven’t. I’ve a few suggestions

• (web) Girl Genius.
• (not-web) Cerebus.
• (web) Schlock Mercenary.
• (web) Quantum Vibe.
• (not-web) Artesia?

Woops. Missed one.

1. Hollywood cougars. I’m guessing that fooled you.
2. Most everyone will pay more and we won’t like it. It has been remarked that “the horrible web services” aren’t the problem with Obamacare. That’s right. It’s just the horrible think hiding worse things. The Democrat gambit is that you pay more and they tell you they are giving you a subsidy to help you pay for it and you won’t notice your bottom line is worse, your deductible is worse, and you are paying for coverages you don’t want. So, will the pretend subsidy blind you to the flaws? How stupid are we? Dem answer -> really stupid. Are we? Time will tell.
3. Science, really good at noting the obvious.
4. More importantly lying is part of the political culture.
5. An expert on “women in the workplace” speaks, except in a short review of his career, he spent a whole year or two in the workplace in ’68 and ’69. Expert indeed.
6. A tech review of healthcare isn’t impressed.
7. Let’s see, the UN “is going after Assad” for war-crimes because the atrocities on both sides are rampant. If crimes are symmetric why would the justice seeking be asymmetric?
8. The all powerful loofah.

Sam Harris, says in his book The End of Faith that faith and religion are “the most prolific source of violence in our history.” The three-volume Encyclopedia of Wars, which chronicles some 1,763 wars that have been waged over the course of human history, begs to differ.

For those wars, the authors note the causes of each. Consider this; they categorize 123 as being religious in nature, which is an astonishingly low 6.98% of all wars. However, more than half of them, 66, were fought in the name of Islam. Take those out, and the percentage of non-Islamic religious wars is a mere 3.23%.

So the next time someone tries to use the Crusades as a way to paint religion as the primary source of all war, just ask them, “Is that the best you can do?” Takes quite a bit faith to believe that.

What if I told you that ice levels in Antarctica have reached 35-year record highs? What if I told you that the rise in the surface temperature of the earth has been markedly slower over the last 15 years than in the 20 years before that? And what if I told you that the lull in warming has occurred even as greenhouse gases have accumulated in the atmosphere at a record pace?

Well figure out what you would do if I told you, because I’m telling you. And I’ll tell you this as well; many climate scientists aren’t sure what to do. They’re trying to come up with explanations, but so far they’re just theories plucked out of thin air.

When the facts don’t fit the theories, scientists claim that they will rework the theories. Well, so far, we’ve seen little reworking and more digging in. And here’s another “what if”; what if the media gave this as much attention as they did stories of a spot here or a point there where warming is occurring? This isn’t weather, as they love to say; this is a pause in the warming of the climate that they’re having trouble figuring out. What if people were told about this, or is liberal orthodoxy in the media having a chilling effect?

Ok. Thanksgiving in the bag.

1. In other news, mixing heroin and meth still bad too.
2. “not many decades ago …. ” and they were right too.
3. The more you know, the worse it looks. Apparently.
4. Some vocals worth your time.
5. More here.
6. There may be good arguments against materialism, but those aren’t them.
7. The “three” things it needs? How about “not being a hoax?” As a better reason than those three.
8. I see. It’s not “if you like your plan you can keep it” … What he meant to seay was “if you don’t like our plan, you’re screwed.”
9. Defining “fixing” down. So a billion dollars to a no-bid friend’s company … that went well, eh?
10. Humor.
11. It’s always the quiet creeps that you have to watch out for … or how geology imitates child sex abuse, eh?
12. Hobby Lobby vs Ms Obamacare.
13. Heh.
14. Why would he say that? For the same reason Pauline Cael wondered at the Reagan electoral victory.
15. Nork.

Hurricane Katrina caused unimaginable devastation to the city of New Orleans and to the state of state of Louisiana itself, but it did provide an opportunity to push the reset button on some of the city’s and state’s policies. One of these resets has occurred in the area of education.

Last year, Louisiana’s legislature established a voucher program for poor kids who would otherwise be stuck in failing public schools. It received bipartisan support, and is part of a larger set of reforms statewide; that reset button. Here are some of the results:

• Last spring, Louisiana’s graduation rate reached an all-time high, with 72.3 percent of students graduating from high school on time, up from 64.8 percent in 2005.
• About 85 percent of students using Louisiana’s vouchers are black. In Louisiana, where 45 percent of blacks remain in poverty, this can only be a good thing economically, both for the kids for whom many more doors open when they have a high school diploma, and for the state economy, as more workers with a better education helps deal with unemployment.

When he was in Louisiana this month, President Obama said these words in a speech. “Let’s give everybody a chance to get ahead, not just a few at the top, but everybody. If we do that, if we help our businesses grow, our communities thrive and our children reach a little higher, then the economy is going to grow faster. We’ll rebuild our middle class — stronger.”

Now that sounds great, and it’s exactly what the school voucher program is doing; giving everybody a chance to get ahead. Which is why it’s rather incongruous of the President’s Department of Justice to be suing the state to essentially halt the program, on the grounds that if poor black children leave terrible schools for better ones, those failing schools become less diverse?

And here we get to the crux of the matter. To the Left, results don’t matter if they are achieved by proving liberal policies wrong; in this case, the idea that the government is the best educator of kids. Further, diversity has not been negatively impacted, and in some cases, has improved, so they’re making stuff up just to protect their orthodoxy, and hurting school children in the process.

Don’t listen to this administration’s rhetoric, watch what they do. Their politics are more important than the outcomes.

G’day

1. And the fossil record clearly shows all those mass die offs every time the globe warmed far hotter than it is now, which it has done many times … oops, what do you mean it doesn’t? Hmm. So, then what’s the point of the article?
2. A “seems to have forgotten” moment that will likely never again be forgotten by at least one individual.
3. Disagreeing with Aristotle (and I think the founders who I suspect agreed with Aristotle).
4. Although I think the above post author would agree with this.
5. So, do you agree? Was it illegal or  just unprincipled?
6. Related to the above.
7. Cool. (HT)
8. And he’d be right.
9. A certain running back, back in the news.
10. Another person who envies the VA system.
11. The press and a prophet.
12. Stupid if true.
13. Ditto.
14. Obamacare and it’s implementation. Hypocrisy?

Well, I’m exercising again (too much work for quite a bit there). It would feel better if I wasn’t so horribly out of shape.  … Links?

1. Tools for staying in power, kind of like suborning the IRS to harass opposition groups. Makes you feel good doesn’t it.
2. More not-feel-so-good news about our government “for and by the people”.
3. Obamacare, bending that cost curve … since 2003, err, wait!?
4. Fertilizer pollutants and a possible solution.
5. This is making the rounds. I don’t understand very well his objection. Legal != moral. Do what is right and let the cards fall. What else can/should a man do but that?
6. This too is making the rounds. Looks like lying and playing the victim card scored the liar thousands of dollars and some fame and notoriety. Yet another strikeout for the (liberal) press.
7. Way way better than pigs in space.
8. A non-mistake by the Administration. Heck, even a stopped watch is right twice (or once depending) a day.
9. Synchronization.
10. Mona Lisa re-imagined.
11. Mr Matthews backhand criticism of the President.
12. A debated noted.
13. For those who think there are no non-religious arguments against SSM. Think again.
14. Mr Thomas in a heartbeat.

Yo. No excuses this week. I’m home and I’m off work.

1. Obamacare satire (HT).
2. Less humor, more insight on Obamacare here.
3. ROTFL, geesh. Maybe he’s right, it’s not about ideology it’s about inclusion in the “Democrat team”.
4. GQ skewers Obama for the Holidays.
5. Ten points to consider when thinking about immigration. Look carefully at #1 if you think “open borders” is anything but a joke.
6. 2nd Amendment and knives.
7. America, where if it’s really weird, we will build it.
8. Remember carbon credits.
9. Smelling a rat.
10. Zoom.
11. Progressive taxation.
12. I disagree. You’re both being racist. A good definition of racism is using race as a criteria where it is unwarranted. You aren’t being “tribal” unless you are part of that tribe. If you are using color of skin to judge suitability for a job, that is racist whether you decide to give the job or withhold it on that basis.
13. Curious chemistry.

I’ve written before about the problems big cities are facing when it comes to Cadillac pensions. San Bernadino, California and Detroit, Michigan declared bankruptcy largely due to this. And now comes word that another California city may follow in their footsteps.

Desert Hot Springs , a resort town of 26,000 warned that it will run out of money by March due to burdensome salary and pension costs. That would make it the third California city along with San Bernardino and Stockton to succumb to that. Amy Aguer, the interim director of finance, said nearly 70 percent of the city’s budget was consumed by police costs, most of which were spent on salaries and pension payments.

Now, part of this problems is the California public employees’ pension program, Calpers. The cost charged for participating keeps going up. Karol Denniston, a bankruptcy attorney in San Francisco said, "Calpers keeps increasing costs and many of these cities have cut costs down to where there is nothing else left to cut." And I’m sure that contributes to the problem, but I really don’t think it accounts for 70% of Desert Hot Springs’ budget.

But the main thing is, if they do go under, who gets paid? Do the pensions get cut in order to pay off creditors? That’s a difficult question to answer. It’s a case of competing promises. The root causes of all of this, though, are those initial promises. Russell Betts, a council member, stated the obvious when he sad, "It’s obvious we can’t continue with salaries and pensions that are in the stratosphere, no matter how much love there is for our police department.” Sure, it’s obvious now, when the problems arise. But if you’d said anything like that years ago, you’d have been labeled as someone who “hates” the police, or public workers in general. “We should be paying our police more than our football players!”, some might shout, even though I’m sure that Desert Hot Springs doesn’t have a national football team. But anyway…

That’s a nice sentiment until you have no money left. I’m not suggesting what Desert Hot Springs should be paying its cops, nor suggesting that such pensions aren’t deserved. It’s just that when you overpromise, sooner or later someone’s got to pay the piper. And even if it’s shared pain between pensioners and creditors, promises get broken.

The solution is to state the obvious before having to break those promises. The problem is that there are too many voters and council members who think that government money is limitless, which is only true until it isn’t. Sure, stating the obvious – that we should live within our means – may get you called ‘heartless’, among other choice adjectives, but it must be said.

That’s kind of like how those of us who were against this huge set of promises we often call ObamaCare were treated. We’re stating the obvious, but we’re being called ‘heartless’, all because we don’t want to go bankrupt. We’re already going bankrupt, that much is for sure, but we’re rather not hang another boulder around our neck while trying to stay above water. As I’ve mentioned before, federal pensions and existing entitlements alone cost more than we take in in taxes. Among the many promises that ObamaCare will not fulfill is that it will reduce the deficit. We can’t afford that.

I feel like I’m council member Cassandra sometimes, warning of danger that is obvious to anyone who would see, but not being believed, in spite of so much evidence surrounding us. Website glitches are sideshows. Economic realities will bury us.

Quite busy busy busy, ’tis the season I guess. How about you?

1. Intrusions of sorts. To what end? I understand why Google or Target wants to know lots about you, … to sell you stuff and make money. Why does the state want to know? Perhaps the critical question is what reasons for wanting to know are valid and what are not? I suspect, like what constitutes a right left and right will not come to easy agreement on that question.
2. To that point? 100% free and voluntary, yah, right.
3. National character and pride of place demonstrated. Rightly it seems too.
4. Woodland creatures prepare for the zombie apocalypse.
5. Cutlery for the season.
6. UN treaty trumps local laws? Hmmm.
7. Remember those remarks in September about security and the government health insurance exchanges …
8. Discovery!
9. A contrast.
10. Setting the mood.
11. Whose money was spent, eh?
12. Wow.  Serious mad skillz.

James O’Keefe has been exposing fraud with his Project Veritas for years. The oxen that have been the target of his goring have been of the variety that liberals tend to hold dear, which is why, while saying they don’t like fraud, they typically try to marginalize him. And when that doesn’t work, people like Rachel Maddow just make stuff up.

The latest group to find themselves in front of the cameras of Project Veritas are the ObamaCare “Navigators”, those 50,000 folks who will, if you need it, give you help in getting signed up for the Healthcare Exchanges. Once those exchanges are actually, y’know, working. They’ll get you the lowest premium, even if they have to tell you to commit fraud.

And it’s not just the fraud that is of concern. Enrollment information is being shared with a political group called Battleground Texas, one that is trying to get more Democrats elected. There’s more in the video, and O’Keefe says this isn’t the last of what he has. Hopefully he’ll get to the issue of no federal background checks being required for these folks.

O’Keefe’s undercover videos were a major reason that fraud was uncovered in the group ACORN, and it seems like these Navigators are cut from the same cloth. In fact, in some states, they’re one and the same, with former ACORN people forming more groups under different names and supplying people to work as Navigators.

Yup, if you liked ACORN, you’ll love the ObamaCare Navigators, because both groups seem to have the same agenda. And competence.

G’day

1. Creativity in science and a reply. I’ve been reading David Bently Hart’s new book … in it he remarks that science is an ascetic discipline (mental), in which the discipline is to hold and perfect your thinking to certain methodologies. Perhaps the best way to consider creativity in science, similarly, as  constrained creative process. To narrow down further, you can make a creative chess move, but that isn’t freely open to creativity your movements and options are constrained by the rules.
2. And here just this weekend, I was joking that if we get a new dog, we’d name him/her “lunchmeat”.
3. Obamacare compared.
4. Liberty for all.
5. A search and rescue in the White House.
6. I might have to read this to find out what “exact numerical solution” might mean.
7. Uhm, … duh. Next on from our science reporter, the sun rises in the east and moving air is called “wind”.
8. Categorizing the senseless.
9. Heh.
10. In flight repairs of a unique sort.
11. Why are we married? A conversation.
12. Old salty sea stories.
13. Teaching and competition.

Woops.

1. A legal debate noted.
2. A legal question posed …
3. and one remark on that front from another lawyer.
4. Splitsville.
5. So, there was this zebra and this donkey and they walk into a bar ….
6. Or more likely the “core idea” is not actually a good one.
7. Says the guy who doesn’t take raw garlic when he gets a cold.
8. If there’s no there there, why the NDA?
9. An extreme embarrassment for the administration and their now obvious lack of anything resembling competence.
10. Just change the words and it’s not racism.
11. Archaeology and spice.
12. Logic.