I normally don’t care about the game

Posted on August 14, 2009 by Phil Kadath

But that would have changed if the Seattle Seahawks’ schedule were different this season.

Quarterback Michael Vick has signed a two-year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles, his agent, Joel Segal, confirmed to ESPN.com.

Vick arrived in Philadelphia Tuesday morning and remained there Wednesday evening. The Eagles will hold a news conference on Friday morning to announce his signing. The first year of the deal is for $1.6 million with an option for the second year at $5.2 million, sources told ESPN’s Chris Mortensen. Vick can also earn an additional $3 million in incentives over the two years of the contract, sources told ESPN.com’s Len Pasquarelli.

I’d spend big bucks to be able to make barking noises where Vick could hear them for two to three hours straight.

I guess, like all Seahawks fans, I’ll have to hope for a post-season.

Posted in Evil walks the earth | 1 Comment

The Soundboard: Missing Selections, 1st Edition

Posted on August 13, 2009 by Phil Kadath

Back again with the items I believe to be missing from Tom Moon’s book “1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die“.

The list of items I believe should be on here has gotten only slightly longer since last week, but again, they are only minor quibbles.

Today, I’d like to point out that his selections of Acid Jazz are as light as Truman Capote’s loafers.

How Clifford Gilberto’s debut “I Was Young And Needed The Money” was left off the list, I’ll probably never get to ask.

My favorite track of the disc is this one. I’ve described this in The Soundboard previously as one of the best driving tunes ever, stemming from one of my travels when I happened upon a freshly resurfaced patch of five lane interstate one night. The DOT had only lain the cat eyes out the even before and I crested multiple rises for just over eight miles that were set off the six forward projection lights on my Supra.

Somehow, I exceeded the speed limit by a great amount on all four passes through that stretch that evening while listening to this track. Eight miles in 03:17. You do the math (because I was too busy enjoying myself to look down).

Brasilia Freestyle – Clifford Gilberto

All I can say about this second selection is that you’ll wish he was too. I can easily picture him backing up Willie Hutch then or India Arie now.

I wish I was a Motown Star – Clifford Gilberto

Enjoy!

Posted in Kewel! | 2 Comments

Well-capitalized, eh?

Posted on August 13, 2009 by Alaska

Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) — It’s amazing what a little sunshine can accomplish.

Check out the footnotes to Regions Financial Corp.’s latest quarterly report, and you’ll see a remarkable disclosure. There, in an easy-to-read chart, the company divulged that the loans on its books as of June 30 were worth $22.8 billion less than what its balance sheet said. The Birmingham, Alabama-based bank’s shareholder equity, by comparison, was just $18.7 billion.

So, if it weren’t for the inflated loan values, Regions’ equity would be less than zero. Meanwhile, the government continues to classify Regions as “well capitalized.”

More here, with doom-n-gloom video worth watching from the head of the Congressional Oversight Panel.

Posted in Armageddon | Leave a comment

They’re talking about you

Posted on August 13, 2009 by Phil Kadath

The DHS report has come back out in a different form and with a little different language.

But it is saying the same thing: White male gun owners are bad.

Militia groups with gripes against the government are regrouping across the country and could grow rapidly, according to an organization that tracks such trends.

The stress of a poor economy and a liberal administration led by a black president are among the causes for the recent rise, the report from the Southern Poverty Law Center says. Conspiracy theories about a secret Mexican plan to reclaim the Southwest are also growing amid the public debate about illegal immigration.

Bart McEntire, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told SPLC researchers that this is the most growth he’s seen in more than a decade.

You can hit this link to the Sweetness & Light blog to see the graphs showing traffic to hate sites.

Don’t laugh too hard when you see that we’re months past its last peak.

Of course, not long into the above linked article, they mention McVeigh and the OKC bombing. Let me relay a little personal anecdote from that time in my life.

Continue reading →

Posted in Evil walks the earth, Order of the imperial upraised middle finger. | 5 Comments

Trivia Answer

Posted on August 13, 2009 by Phil Kadath

Kristopher wins the No Prize prize for correctly answering the question of the mystery projectile.

In the late 70’s and early 80’s National Cartridge built a few dozen thousand of the “Exploder” brand cartiridges in .380ACP, .38Spl, 9mm, .357Mag, 10mm, .41Mag, .45ACP, .44Spl and .44Mag.

In the .45ACP like the one shown, a 230gr projectile was hollowed out and opened up to accept a percussion cap and a quantity of black powder. I can’t remember exactly how many grains it was.

The theory was that the bullet’s impact would set off the cap and powder causing massive damage to whatever was hit. This was the 70’s and 80’s. They didn’t have computer modeling to design a better projectile. Hell, about all they had was inconsistent (aka: crappy) ballistic gel and clay to determine the effectiveness of what they sent downrange.

It worked, but only some of the time. The percentage of positive results was, of course, dependent upon what it hit. The cartridge I have is from one of the sessions when a member of my family and some friends ran the .45ACP and .41Mag rounds through a number of tests.

Soft tissue gave the biggest number of fails. But hard substances such as wood or drywall (walls/doors) or glass or sheet metal (a car door) gave it almost a 100% positive result. If it hit bone before hitting the soft tissue, you had an 80% positive result.

Continue reading →

Posted in Kewel! | 1 Comment

The ammo may be sold

Posted on August 12, 2009 by Phil Kadath

But I’m extending the trivia question in this post until Friday morning.

So far, no one has gotten even close.

I’ll try to get a better pic to help y’all out.

UPDATE: Here’s a better picture.

P8120003.JPG

Good luck!

Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments

You know who you are: Updated! and Bumped!

Posted on August 12, 2009 by Phil Kadath

To those of you who still live in the sorry space that is Rep. Jim McDermott’s congressional district and don’t support Obamacare, this is to let you know that he is going to be holding his first public town hall meeting on tomorrow in West Seattle.

August 12th @ 1900

At The Hall at Fauntleroy, 9131 California Ave SW.

Found via Ron @ Sound Politics

UPDATE: Baghdad Jim is a coward. Not that anyone here is surprised.

Via D.W. Drang and Liberty Belle

August 12th Meeting Features Congressman Jim McDermott

THIS IS NOT A TOWN HALL MEETING. This is the regular meeting of the 34th Legislative District Democrats, and will be conducted according to our by-laws and protocols.

Non-members are welcome but only members may speak and participate

The topic: An Update on Health Care Reform and How YOU Can Fight for Real Reform NOW!!! Featuring our own: Congressman Jim McDermott,M.D., 7th Congressional District, with: Lisa Plymate, M.D., 34th LD King County Committeewoman and Washington State Director of Doctors for America; Board member, PNHP, Craig Salins, Executive Director, Washington Public Campaigns, Dustin Lambro, Washington State Direct of Organizing for America.

So the topic is health care. Specifically the bills going through the House.

Hoever, don’t bother showing up if you’re not supportive of the bills is the House and don’t think he’s going to have another meeting on the topic.

Hit Drang’s and Belle’s links for more info on the planned protest.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

If one standard is good

Posted on August 12, 2009 by Phil Kadath

Two must be great! Again!

Do you want elections cleaned up by requiring that those wanting to vote be made to show ID?

You must be a racist bastard?

But if you want to attend the town meeting with Democrat Congressman Gene Greene (TX-29th), don’t be leaving your wallet at home!

Town hall meetings are one of my favorite ways to communicate with constituents. I have held hundreds during my years of service in Congress and always welcomed everyone to attend. Unfortunately, due to a coordinated effort to disrupt our town hall meetings, we will be restricting further attendance to residents of the 29th Congressional District and verifying residency by requiring photo identification. Whether individuals agree or disagree, we must maintain order to have a civil discussion of the issues. While I regret this restriction, it is necessary for the safety and consideration of our constituents. Those who do not reside in the 29th Congressional should contact their Member of Congress to voice any concerns that they may have on issues before Congress.

Ahh, the old “I demand you live in my district to be in my presence, but not to vote for me” trick!

Personally, I’d recommend bringing a map of the district as well just in case they want to quibble.

Newsbusters has his voting record on Voter ID laws here.

Posted in Freaks, Mutants, and Morons | Leave a comment

RNS Quote of the Day: 08/12/09

Posted on August 12, 2009 by Phil Kadath

Yes, she does infuriate on the regular.

However, she also regularly drops a gem.

Robert Wright notes that “we already ration health care; we just let the market do the rationing.”  This is a true point made by the proponents of health care reform.  But I’m not sure why it’s supposed to be so interesting.  You could make this statement about any good:

“We already ration food; we just let the market do the rationing.”
“We already ration gasoline; we just let the market do the rationing.”
“We already ration cigarettes; we just let the market do the rationing.”

And indeed, this was an argument that was made in favor of socialism.  (No, okay, I’m not calling you socialists!)  And yet, most of us realize that there are huge differences between price rationing and government rationing, and that the latter is usually much worse for everyone.  This is one of the things that most puzzles me about the health care debate:  statements that would strike almost anyone as stupid in the context of any other good suddenly become dazzling insights when they’re applied to hip replacements and otitis media.

Megan McArdle

I’ve never understood how the left can make this argument with a straight face. Whenever I get confronted with it in person, I ask them how it is better if the government does the rationing.

If they don’t decide they can’t honestly answer the question and just tell you to fuck off and walk away, the answer always contains the buzzwords “corporate greed”, and “the common good”, as though not being able to afford a medication is equal to some bureaucrat deciding that their weekly/monthly/yearly budget limit for services is getting close to maxing out.

To my knowledge, I think don’t know anyone who’d rather put their budget for something as important as medical expenses in someone else’s control.

Posted in Quote of the Day | Leave a comment

Compare and Contrast

Posted on August 12, 2009 by Phil Kadath

Over at the Gateway Pundit’s.

What a difference eight months makes.

Posted in Useful Idiots | Leave a comment