Sadness Engulfs Them

Posted on March 10, 2009 by Phil Kadath

I’m sure that there are some very unhappy union bosses in Michigan right about now.

They deserve to be a whole lot less happy, but I’ll take what I can get.

Unionized workers at Ford Motor Co. have approved contract changes that include freezing wages and cutting benefits in a move aimed at helping the automaker remain competitive. The United Auto Workers said Monday a majority of hourly workers voted in favor of modifications to the 2007 contract with Ford, eliminating cost-of-living increases and cash bonuses.

The agreement is expected to be a model for Chrysler LLC and General Motors Corp., which need to bring their labor costs in line with those of foreign auto companies’ plants in the U.S. as a condition for the $17.4 billion they have received in federal loans so far. Under terms of their loan agreements, progress must be made by March 31. The companies are seeking an additional $21.6 billion in government aid.

Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford, which has not sought government funding as its rivals have, is the first U.S. automaker to come to an agreement with the union. The company said that it did not want to be at a disadvantage should its competitors negotiate lower labor costs with the UAW.

…..

The UAW said 59 percent of Ford’s production workers and 58 percent of skilled-trades workers voted for the concessions. At least two local unions rejected the measures.

Because it means less money is going into the hands of the UAW. And anything that means less money for the union is “Bad”.

Thankfully, the employees figured out that a job in the hand is worth a million PSI of union hot air and very likely saved their jobs and most likely, their employer’s company.

Posted in Order of the imperial upraised middle finger. | 2 Comments

More red meat for the masses

Posted on March 10, 2009 by Phil Kadath

Watchmen spoilers are included inside a Brian Doherty post at Reason.

Titled “Rorschach Doesn’t Shrug”, it explores the Randian histoty of the character. Definitely worthy of a few moments of your time.

Posted in Kewel! | Leave a comment

Shot down in flames

Posted on March 10, 2009 by Phil Kadath

Again.

Yesterday the SCOTUS tossed out New York City’s lawsuit against the makers of feminine hygiene products in which NYC stated that the manufacturers were responsible for tens of thousands of cases of toxic shock syndrome per year.

Wait. That’s not right.

Oh wait. Here it is.

Yesterday the SCOTUS tossed out New York City’s lawsuit against the makers of ball point pens in which NYC stated that the manufacturers were responsible for the mental anguish caused by the misspelling of words. The numbers of words misspelled easily exceeds the hundreds of millions per year.

Damn. Wrong again.

Ahh, now I’ve got it.

Yesterday the SCOTUS tossed out New York City’s lawsuit against the manufacturers of thong underwear in which NYC stated that the manufacturers were responsible for millions of tens of thousands of unwanted pregnancies per year.

Ahh, fukit! Here’s the story.

Posted in Freaks, Mutants, and Morons | 1 Comment

Here’s the D.C. Plaintiffs

Posted on March 9, 2009 by Alaska

From a Gun Rights Examiner article about the D.C. lawsuit just filed by Calguns and SAF:

Tracey Ambeau Hanson (her gun was rejected because it’s the wrong color) and Paul and Gillian St. Lawrence.
 

Thank you, folks! 35 million Californians are gonna owe you a huge debt of honor…. Wanna help pay their legal fees? DONATE! 

Posted in Have Gun, Will Travel, Heroes, Comrades and Brothers | 1 Comment

Calguns Foundation on Offense, Files Suit in D.C.

Posted on March 9, 2009 by Alaska

Remember when D.C., after Heller, adopted huge chunks of California’s firearm laws — including the Roster of “safe” handguns — on the assumption that they were Constitutionally sound? Well, in conjunction with Alan Gura and the Second Amendment Foundation, this complaint was just filed in D.C. alleging that the California “Safe” Handgun Roster, as adopted by D.C., is unconstitutional:

There are three guns and issues at issue in this case.

1. An XD-45 Tactical Bi-Tone which couldn’t be rostered because it’s a different color than its rostered functional identical equivalents.

2. A Para P13 that was once rostered but fell off when Para Ordnance didn’t pay the annual fee.

3. A Buntline style High Standard 9 shot .22 revolver – the same gun that the Supreme Court ordered DC to register in DC v. Heller.

Here is the press release that went over the wire minutes ago. …

–Gene Hoffman, Chair, the Calguns Foundation.

Here’s the money quote from the SAF’s press release:

Her husband sought to own the same type of handgun that the Supreme Court had ordered District officials to
allow Dick Heller to possess. However, that particular model is no longer manufactured, and its maker is no
longer available to process the handgun’s certification through the bureaucracy.

Gene Hoffman continues…

Special thanks to the following Calgunners.

1. Brett Thomas/the_quark: Realizing that Heller’s gun wasn’t registerable in DC.

2. Ivan Pena/Ivananimal: Making a personal sacrifice to this case.

3. Two CGN’ers who wish to remain nameless: They want to remain “lowpro” but they were indispensable helping pull these guns together.

These things take a lot of work and a lot of money. The work on the CGF side is all volunteer. With that I would ask each and every one of you to consider a donation to the Calguns Foundation to help us offset expenses so far and moving forward. We plan to bring this to a victory and repatriate the decision to California.

And thus we begin the CGF offense.

–Gene Hoffman, Chair, the Calguns Foundation.

Have you DONATED yet?

Posted in Have Gun, Will Travel, Kewel! | 4 Comments

Breaking News in California: UPDATED

Posted on March 9, 2009 by Alaska

In a matter of hours, Calguns will have some very interesting news for residents of our benighted state.

Part of the tease is the below photo. These are apparently recently and LAWFULLY (!!!) transferred assault pistols semi-auto handguns. (That’s These are some of my favorite things.jpgCalifornia transfer paperwork — the DROS, or Dealer Record of Sale, below each gun. Also note the pesky damn required lock.) Calguns has been chipping away at California firearms laws for a while, but now it’s not chips but chunks of the law that are falling.

More details as I know them…. Click to embiggen.

UPDATE: So, I have it on good authority that these particular pistols were transferred successfully. Given the Calguns/SAF lawsuit filed in D.C. today directly targeting the California “Safe” Handgun Roster, I’d bet that the pictured pistols are an “in-your-face” thumb-nose to the California Bureau of Firearms, which probably doesn’t realize yet that these guns were sold on California soil. They’ll be Exhibit A in whatever lawsuit ends up being filed in California to overturn the Handgun Roster, post-Nordyke. But that means the current owners (and the FFLs who transferred the guns) are risking jail time — on behalf of us all. DONATE to help their eventual legal defense, won’t you?

So don’t go running out to buy these in Cali on the argument the Roster’s unconstitutional just yet, folks. That doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to buy these guns under a different theory (NeRF!) in a few weeks, though…. Stay tuned.

Posted in Have Gun, Will Travel, Kewel! | 5 Comments

RNS Quote of the Day: 03/09/09

Posted on March 9, 2009 by Phil Kadath

In an update to this post from last week, on the subject of liberals not understanding the idea of “Going Galt” continues. Though it now seems to be getting popular among the liberal blogs.

Not that they are going to do so, they just hope that more fiscal conservatives do so. And quickly.

They also do not like the Tea Parties on little bit. Here’s Oliver Willis (Occupation: Toole) stamping his fat little feets. Never mind that he is cherry picking events. He’s always right, don’t you know.

And so I’d like to leave you all with a couple of quotes on the subject.

The first is a comment at Insty, written by a recently laid-off citizen of North Carolina on the fact the state is having “Cash Flow” problems and can’t get refunds out to their citizens on time.

They might want to be careful. Some of us “too busy to protest because of work” types are suddenly becoming alarmingly un-busy. And alarmingly not very happy about it.

Anonymous

The other is one you Serenity fans will recognize. You should read this Stephen Green/Vodka Pundit PJM article where it is included within.

Let’s be bad guys.

Jayne Cobb

Black clothes. Black rifle. And flying the black flag. I’m ready to be a bad guy.

Posted in Quote of the Day, Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Data Check

Posted on March 9, 2009 by Phil Kadath

One of the principle arguments for turning the nation upside down with a single-payer/socialized medicine program is the whine that “Over 50% of American bankruptcies are caused by medical expenses.”

Nice line. Pulls the heartstrings and causes a need to feel warm and fuzzy by “doing something” about it.

But, like most liberal propaganda, it is a lie.

The figure comes from a 2005 Harvard University study saying that 54 percent of bankruptcies in 2001 were caused by health expenses. We reviewed it internally and knocked it down at the time; an academic reviewer did the same in 2006. Recalculating Harvard’s own data, he came up with a far lower figure – 17 percent.

…..

A more recent study by another group, approaching it another way, indicates that in 2007 about eight-tenths of one percent of Americans lived in families that filed for bankruptcy as a result of medical costs.

…..

A good part of the problem is definitional. The Harvard report claims to measure the extent to which medical costs are “the cause” of bankruptcies. In reality its survey asked if these costs were “a reason” – potentially one of many – for such bankruptcies.

Beyond those who gave medical costs as “a reason,” the Harvard researchers chose to add in any bankruptcy filers who had at least $1,000 in unreimbursed medical expenses in the previous two years. Given deductibles and copays, that’s a heck of a lot of people.

Moreover, Harvard’s definition of “medical” expenses includes situations that aren’t necessarily medical in common parlance, e.g., a gambling problem, or the death of a family member. If your main wage-earning spouse gets hit by a bus and dies, and you have to file, that’s included as a “medical bankruptcy.”

When I asked the lead author, Dr. David Himmelstein, about his definitions of medical bankruptcy back in 2005, he said, “It’s a judgment call,” and added that any death, for example, “to our mind is a medical event.”

So if you die without a large enough amount of life insurance and your family has to file for Chapter 11 because of a lack of income, your death gets put into the pile of statistics being used to force your heirs to get rationed care via Uncle Obama.

Makes those goofy tests they preform before issuing your policy sound a little less goofy.
Lies, damned lies, and statistics. Indeed.

Found via RTftWC

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Pathetic

Posted on March 9, 2009 by Phil Kadath

There really is no other word that can accurately describe 34% of the US population.

George Lakoff, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, recently stated that “the moral mission of government is simple: no one can earn a living in America or live an American life without protection and empowerment by the government.”

Thirty-four percent (34%) of voters nationwide agree with Lakoff’s assertion while 46% disagree in a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Twenty percent (20%) are not sure.

Half (51%) of Democrats agree with the professor while Republicans and unaffiliated voters strongly disagree. Republicans reject Lakoff’s statement by a 3-to-1 margin, unaffiliateds by a 2-to-1 margin.

And thanks to the Democrats, soon that 34% will be right as the Obama Administration devolves the US government into a Central Planning office.

Posted in Useful Idiots | 1 Comment

Unequal Protection

Posted on March 9, 2009 by Phil Kadath

When The Wife and I bought our home back in November we took a look at the papers during the closing signing. When we saw how much we’d be paying in interest over the course of the loan we made the decision to pay it off even faster than originally planned by monthly over payments targeted straight at the principle of the loan.

We’re on course to have our 30yr paid off in 15.

But after seeing this, I think a lawyer might be cheaper.

For many Minnesota Muslims, it’s been virtually impossible to buy a home, because Islamic law forbids the paying or charging of interest. To help close the home ownership gap among Muslim immigrants, the state’s housing agency has launched a new program offering Islamic mortgages.

Islamic law does make exceptions to the ban on interest, if one’s family is at stake. But the exceptions are open to interpretation and for many observant Muslims, conventional mortgages are strictly taboo.

…..

The program is targeted at low-to-moderate income families. Qualified applicants have to complete first-time home buyer education classes. The goal is to help Muslim home buyers build wealth and reap the benefits of home ownership.

The deal is called “Cost Plus Sale” and from what I can find, they’ll be paying 10% less than The Wife and are by paying ours off in half the time under our prime rate loan.

I don’t care about private institutions doing this. I can decide whether or not to do business with them because of their business practices. This is straight up discrimination because of one’s religion or lack of.

I hope the state of Minnesota pays long and deep for this when someone in that state grows a pair and hires a lawyer.

Posted in Useful Idiots | 3 Comments