Stones Cry Out

Good morning. Verbose?

1. Desk jockey special forces.
2. Identifying a group by its fruitcakes, not the best of ideas at any time.
3. Market forces and education? Is that’s what in play here? 
4. Standing to let go? Jobs have physical requirements. Sometimes height is one of them.
5. The waiver in return for political contributions. There will be more favoritism in medical insurance/industry as the new bill takes effect. Those defenders (of the bill) might keep in that their party will not be in the White House forever.
6. AGW and CO2 hitting like “the atmosphere a sledgehammer“. Uhm, dude. When you hit air(!) with a sledgehammer the effect is not as spectular as you might wish. And the innumeracy doesn’t help your case either.
7. We’ve had “life imitates art” and the converse. How about “geography imitates art”?
8. Conservatives need to be less passive when hit by the “where are your intellectuals” jab. 
9. $50? I think the whole green movement is misguided in their attempt to foist less effective more expensive technologies on others by fiat and force of law. Make it better and then … It will sell. If you can’t make it better, keep working at it till you do. 
10. Having some fun with long multiplication. 
11. Speaking of academic subjects, this puts to point a common misconception of what Physics (modern) is about. It’s not about discovering the “what” of reality. Just the what about that which we can measure. That tree in the forest with none to listen? The answer isn’t “yes or no” … to borrow from Hofstadter, the answer is mu. That is that we have nothing to say about that except what would be measured if we did listen.
12. Of evil and evolution.

Socialism works as long as you have plenty of it. But when you run out of other people’s money to pay for it, look out.

Social Security will run a permanent yearly deficit when looking at the program’s tax revenues compared to what it must pay out in benefits, the program’s trustees said Friday in a report that found both the outlook for Social Security and Medicare, the two major federal social safety-net programs, have worsened over the last year.

Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund is now slated to run out of money in 2024, or five years earlier than last year’s projection, while Social Security’s trust fund will be exhausted by 2036, a year earlier than the prior projection.

The trustees stressed that exhaustion of the trust funds doesn’t mean the programs will stop paying all benefits. Social Security could fund about three-fourths of benefits past 2036, and Medicare could pay 90 percent of benefits past 2024 under current trends.

And assuming no other financial surprises in the meantime. We could keep raising taxes in a down economy, but raising taxes has always been the way out of the problem of the day, but with no thought for the impact down the road. Well, here we are, down the road, with the same problem.

I remember watching quite a bit of the Labor Day telethon when I was a kid.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — After 45 years, Jerry Lewis is retiring as host of the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s Labor Day telethon.

The 85-year-old comedian and Las Vegas resident issued a statement Monday through the Tucson, Ariz.-based Muscular Dystrophy Association calling it time for a "new telethon era."

He says he’ll make his final appearance on the six-hour primetime telethon Sept. 4 by performing his song "You’ll Never Walk Alone."

Lewis says he’ll continue as the association’s national chairman, a role he’s held since the early 1950s.

The first one was in 1966, and Lewis has really hung in there, long after I even forgot that it was still an annual event. Good on you, Jerry Lewis.

Good morning.

1. Open source money.
2. The PC and beauty.
3. Homework, not waste of time? The study showed, “not” in maths. I’d add that’s likely also true in hard sciences.
4. This man is amazing. Just two weeks after shutting down exploration and drilling in Alaska, he says he’s doing the opposite. Why isn’t he called on this crap. It’s hard to see how he could be less honest.
5. The “Wall” as you’ve never seen it.
6. No sex .. until after the divorce? Huh? That’s going to put a damper on most wedding nights.
7. Uhm, Joe pleased read Fernandez book No Way In, read accounts of the French resistance. (Note, I’m also against torture, I just think the pragmatic case against it is weak relies on ignorance of history).
8. Two points, Mr Rand is not a racist based on his suggested vote on the Civil rights act, and Ms McArdle puts the reason why succinctly. She raises also, an interesting point along side that … about markets and race and the need for the Jim Crow enforcement.
9. AGW and scientific method.
10. Putting the point to healthcare debates.
11. Christian influence on the Marvel/Cinematic Thor.
12. Two turbines, time and blood.
13. Ignorant educators. 
14. Plato’s Republic.

Good morning.

1. Fan and Fred backing up.
2. Carbon is not … 
3. Well, I tried to link this last week … but I think blogger ate it (on the linkee side). This is the essential budget problem.
4. Who to blame.
5. Passion and blogging.
6. What crime?
7. Thor, the movie, and an unusual take on the experience.
8. A look for Gandalf. Good or not?
9. 1930s pedagogy examined.
10. Humanizing the bicycle.
11. SEAL 6 and some experts consider some possibilities.

Good morning.

1. The net and democracy.
2. Rembrandt re-invention of Western iconography of Christ.
3. Predators.
4. Oil production, two states compared.
5. Speaking of which, when rich people keep harping on how it’d be such a wonderful thing to push gas prices higher … seems to me they should just stay locked in that ivory tower of theirs.
6. That GM bailout thang. 
7. Single sex dormatories in colleges.
8. Obamacare big or little change in US healthcare?
9. Somebody on the left defends Chomksy’s stupidity. 
10. An interesting programing language noted.
11. Dungeons and Dragons, as practiced in the 19th century.
12. Looking at Rand and her ontology.
13. Art, doing it right.
14. Mileage and gas prices. Oddly enough, it is knicknamed in our household “the scooter”.
15. Do you or don’t you trust the government to keep their hands of your Roth? Put me in the “don’t” category.

Before last week’s Republican debate in South Carolina, a lot of people probably hadn’t heard of Herman Cain. But he made a big splash at the debate and as a result support for his candidacy is growing. Still, not a whole lot is known about him other than he was once the CEO of Godfather’s Pizza. Over at National Review, Robert Costa has an excellent profile of Cain that is worth reading. I’m not going to venture a guess about his future prospects but I will say that I’ve been intrigued about him since the debate and this article helped shed some light on who he is and why he could be the type of candidate that we need for President.

Wait times to see a doctor are getting longer. Fewer new doctors are being added. New regulations make insurance payments slower. This is what ObamaCare will bring us.

No, it’s not a wacky prediction or wild guess. It’s exactly what’s happening in Massachusetts under RomneyCare, of which ObamaCare is a carbon copy. It’s not a prediction; it’s an observation.

Good morning.

1. I linked to a google anti-trust discussion a while back, here’s more grist for that mill.
2. So, would you be more likely to hire a person from a vanilla liberal arts college or someone from this one?
3. Two years ago, a class (not the NSA/CIA) predicted where OBL would be found. 
4. Mr Obama backtraks on yet another stupid idea.
5. Philosophy and Islam.
6. The Obama bounce.
7. Yah! That’s my question too. Kit? That’s an interesting notion.
8. So. Question. Do they know that is wrong to say that? If not, why not? If so, isn’t that perjury?
9. Talking about the inactivity/activity thang in the Obamacare court challenge. More here.
10. Liberals apparently, can’t understand English. Yes, we know homo sapiens are in the Kingdom animalia. The question remains is whether within that kingdom “man and animal” is normally understood to mean “homo sapiens” and “not homo sapiens”. For anybody but kindergarden lawyers it is.
11. Putting to the point crux of the entitlement debate.
12. So. Imagine the reaction if Bush had said the same thing. Observe the reaction to Mr Obama’s statement. So, you can drop the pretence that the media is not biased.

Good morning. Our office area took a power hit last night. Things are partially back here at the office.

1. Libertarian? Seems to me that someone is confused by thinking anarchy is a libertarian ideal.
2. The hear/see/speak no evil crowd and an airline incedent.
3. I think it was more complicated than that (replacing ugly with beauty). I think the artistic aesthetic which judged art for its beauty got replaced by one that judged based on emotional and visceral “impact”. I think that is a mistake in approaching art, but one nevertheless which prevails in many circles today.
4. What I fail to see is the American left repudiated and rejecting this movement in any public way.
5. An anniversary.
6. Rationing of medical care.
7. Them angry cows.
8. OK then, in the view of the left racism (!) is a primary driver of thought. More seriously, I think there is some basic truth to the notion that while the right views the left as naive the left views the right as evil. 
9. Speaking of which, this is more the reality of what drives the right, the Presidents “clinging to guns, god, and yada yada” is not.
10. One of the better remarks on the dogs of war photo essay.
11. Mythbusters, and I’ll note that unsuppressed guns as sound effect in movies don’t sound like the real thing … so you shouldn’t expect suppressed ones to do so either?
12. Mythbusters of another sort.

In addition to the doctor shortage the US is going to have when us Baby-Boomers hit retirement, Obamacare is going to make the problem even worse, based on current trends, how socialized medicine "works" elsewhere, and the government’s own numbers.

In 2005, when the press was enamored with Cindy Sheehan, Chris Matthews suggested she run for Congress. Yeah, how about now? Cue the crickets chirping.

Seal Team Six was an evil, secret, assassination squad manipulated by Dick Cheney. At least, that’s what it was when a Republican was President. Today, under a Democrat, they’re heroes, and not associated with Obama or Biden in the slightest. What a difference a "D" makes.

And speaking of contrasts, we have Nancy Pelosi on bin Laden, then and now.

Michael Barone notes that, to get bin Laden, Obama relied on policies he decried.

You know that kids that had George W. Bush in their classroom on 9/11? This is a good TIME magazine article on what they were thinking at the time when Bush was given the news, and what their reaction is now.

Over half of the country pays no income tax. But "the rich" still don’t pay "their fair share", eh?

While the bin Laden story stole the front page, the Conservatives in Canada won historic victories. Later, the Liberal Democrats in England suffered their worst losses in 30 years.

The conventional wisdom on salt intake may not be right after all.

Civility Watch: "So when does Seal Unit 6, or whatever it’s called, drop in on George Bush?"

"Democrats blame Bush for high gas prices"? No, not now; back in 2006. And in 2008, Nancy Pelosi blamed the "oil men" in the White House. They’re much quieter now.

A reform to watch: Indiana lawmakers OK broadest voucher plan in US.

It’s so very sci-fi-sounding, but some physicists believe that something from emanating from the sun is now causing radioactive decay to occur faster.

Worst of all, if the decay rates of matter are being mutated then all matter on Earth is being affected including the matter that makes up life.

The mutation may go so far as to change the underlying reality of the quantum universe—and by extrapolation-the nature of life, the principles of physics, perhaps even the uniform flow of time.

In fact, some evidence of time dilation has been gleaned from close observation of the decay rate. If particles interacting with the matter are not the cause—and matter is being affected by a new force of nature-then time itself may be speeding up and there’s no way to stop it.

And finally, a history lesson from Tom McMahon. (Click for the blog entry.)

Good morning all.

1. Two for history of tragic mistreatment of man, mainly here but this is not unrelated (but that will need translation).
2. Heh.
3. Four views on the assasination of Mr bin Laden.
4. Speaking of which, Mr Obama backs capital punishment.
5. Reading a budget.
6. Brandon has a smart set of links.
7. Stupid human tricks in the Middle East. Or is it just plain evil?
8. Peter and Paul and their super sneaky plan.
9. The pissing match continues. So, which is more important raising taxes on the rich and middle classes or cutting spending?
10. Suprising only the economists.
11. Yah, that’s ’cause they’ve discovered summary execution works just fine. Just make sure yah shoot ‘im dead before he can surrender.\

Good morning … and I hope everyone had a festive Mother’s day.

1. The green vision exposed, or what they want everyone’s day to mostly be consumed with doing. Actually, they don’t want this, they just don’t realize that the consequence of what they want.
2. Job growth and health care waivers. That healthcare plan is such a winner, both a drag on corporate growth and innovation in healthcare. Perhaps the only (good) thing it will do is ultimately is shorten the careers of a lot of Democrats.
3. Another “good idea” the Dems fronted and its consequences.
4. While in education, some teachers are so out of touch they haven’t noticed there’s a recession going on and government tax income took a big hit.
5. Vicious kitten fight, or something like that.
6. The cult of the body.
7. When you hear about GM profits … some background you likely won’t hear.
8. Race and movement in the US.
9. So, with what animal do you want to identify? 
10. Banal evil.
11. An interesting conjunction in liturgical and secular calendars, the Sunday of the Myrrhbearers fell on Mother’s day.
12. One liberal’s attempt to demonize the special forces noted.
13. Science and the Jesus prayer.

Good morning.

• An analogy, think of supermarkets run like schools. Sounds horrible, yes? OK. So why is schooling any different, eh?
• An odd shaped microscope, with an interesting take on lens. Kinda fly-eye like.
• So. They say Mr Obama is smart. …. So how does a smart man suggest something like this? Hmm?
• Somebody else doesn’t think torture “works.” Riddle me this, batman. In WWII and the Philippines (Marcos regime) when a person in one resistance cell was captured and was going to be tortured. Why did the rest of the cell all have to move, get to new location/cover, and basically run like hell? Hmmm? If torture didn’t work … then nothing useful would come of it and you could just stay where you were. And let me point out for the crowd that thinks that “thinking torture works” means we should do it (or that I’m advocating its use). That doesn’t follow.
• Portal and the DIY crowd.
• Here are some “hopey/changey” suggestions for the CIA and Petraeus.
• Real dogs of war.
• Being a journalist in Belorus.
• More liberal rhetoric and the deflation of the violence “mainly” on the right meme.
• A book suggested.
• A pessimistic view of Pakistani affairs, read the last link there (3 conjectures) too.

Well, I survived the week (from a cycling perspective). I’d really backslid for some time now (4-6 months) as far as riding. I was down to about 1-2 hours a week (yikes) + an hour in the gym doing weights. This week, not including the weekend, I’ve done an hour in the gym + 4 on the bike … and hope to get two more in. It’s a start.

Good morning.

1. Russia and the EU. Speaking of Russia, a favorite film over there (and btw, I like it too … and the Japanese original).
2. Pictures from Moscow.
3. Economics parry and thrust. Point, parry, riposte. I thought the parry lacked any real substance, and mostly relied on insults. Odd that.
4. Prop 8 and Judge Walker, is the last paragraph’s argument valid or not? Why?
5. A measure of ideology.
6. OK. The left likes to dismiss Consitutionality claims regarding the individual mandate as without merit. So …. read this and tell me why they are as you claim, “without merit.”  (HT: Volokh)
7. One suggestion why the SEALS were given the kill directive when encountering Mr bin Laden.
8. A Christian responds to the event.
9. Best beer ad ever? 
10. Probe B and relativity tests.
11. Inflation and indexes.