Random Nuclear Strikes

Just for you, buddy. (See comments to previous post.)

The pic at the top of this article.

The quote at the end of this article just killed me:

“That’s a conundrum, isn’t it?” asked Jodine White, 62, of Rocklin, Calif. “I don’t know what to say. Maybe I don’t want smaller government. I guess I want smaller government and my Social Security.” She added, “I didn’t look at it from the perspective of losing things I need. I think I’ve changed my mind.”

Oi Vey!  Maybe letting everyone vote is not such a good idea?

Bruce writes a bit about it here.  The main thrust is that since the cost of ID theft is borne by individuals and not creditors, creditors have no incentive to verify that the person applying for credit is on the level.  The solution is to put the cost on lenders:

Either give victims the ability to sue lenders who issue credit in their names to identity thieves, or pass a law with penalties if lenders do this.

Brad in the comments has the best idea:

Better than allowing the victim to sue: put the burden of proof on the lender to collect.

Eva impersonates Alice, and Bob issues credit to Eva. If Bob tries to collect from Alice, all Alice should have to do is say “that’s not me” and that should be the end of the conversation. If Bob believes that Alice is trying to defraud him, he can take her to court and convince a judge or a jury that he is owed money. This will dramatically tighten lending practices, but it will also massively curtail identity theft.

The further discussion of nuclear power start-up costs.  I first posted on this here.

If you have any interest in the economics of nuclear power, this is an interesting discussion.

Only possible with the help of idiotic government regulations and incentives.

If you smack your drug companies around too much, they will not become your servile bitches, they’ll just up and leave.  And take all those nice, high-paying bio-tech jobs with them.

Sheriff’s deputies have arrested a man who said he accidentally shot his girlfriend to death with a gun they used during foreplay.

Wow, serious 4 rules fail.  If you need to use a gun for foreplay, might I suggest one of these?  PS, I suspect this might be a not-so-clever lie to avoid a criminal charge.
(H/T Uncle for the Soap Guns)