Sorry I missed it

Posted on September 19, 2008 by Phil Kadath

Yesterday, the 2008 Ferrari California was unveiled
0012-rt-california.jpg

(clicken to embiggen)

Shades of the 250 GTO, sees I.

More pics here

Posted in Kewel! | 1 Comment

Yar!

Posted on September 19, 2008 by Phil Kadath

The blasted land lubber, Tim Blair, points the seagoing rapscallions towards a place for some eating called The Heart Attack Grill in dry and sandy place called Arizona.

After one of their Triple Bypass Burgers and some Flatliner Fries, even this old mermaid chaser would have to step back from the wheelhouse for a bit.

Alas, they have no ale to whet your thirst, but the wenches are mighty kind on the eyes.

Posted in Kewel! | 1 Comment

The Soundboard: End of Procrastination Edition

Posted on September 18, 2008 by Phil Kadath

I’ve been meaning to do a post on wholly inappropriate music since I got back from vacation, but things have gotten in the way.

First week, I didn’t do a music post. Second week was the Palin-abration. Last week, September 11th.

So I’m going to lay off on the listing of some of reggae music I repeatedly wholly inappropriately listened to while driving around one of the most un-reggae places on the planet, and just move on to the next subject. But seriously, the only time The Wailers disc ever left my deck was when I decided I wanted to listen to some Upsetter or Steppin’ Razor.

So now I have to say that I am rather excited about the upcoming release of the new release from The Cure, titled 4:13 Dream, hitting store shelves October 14th.

And in anticipation, I want to post up a song from each album of the trilogy

Circa 1982, from the Pornography album: 100 YearsNot my favorite live version, but it’ll do nicely.

From 1989’s Disintegration album: Disintegration

Anyone want to take a guess at the make and model of Smith’s guitar in this one?

And lastly, from 2000’s Bloodflowers album: Maybe SundayEnjoy!

Posted in Kewel! | 1 Comment

One stupid statement deserves another

Posted on September 18, 2008 by Phil Kadath

Kossite diarrhea-ist,  ShawnGBR, disagrees with the platitude

“There are no atheists in foxholes.”

And decides that, instead of listing the reasons why that is a stupid thing to say, comes up with his own stupid thing to say.

“There are no Libertarians in recessions.”

I hope he follows trackbacks, because then he’ll see just how dumb as a pile of shit he is.

Btw, ShawnGBR, I agree that there are atheists in foxholes. I may even know a couple.

Posted in Order of the imperial upraised middle finger. | 1 Comment

Consider me apathetic

Posted on September 18, 2008 by Phil Kadath

If a socialist system of laws falls in the forest and no one cares, does it make a sound?

Judges around the world have long looked to the decisions of the United States Supreme Court for guidance, citing and often following them in hundreds of their own rulings since the Second World War.

But now American legal influence is waning. Even as a debate continues in the court over whether its decisions should ever cite foreign law, a diminishing number of foreign courts seem to pay attention to the writings of American justices.

“One of our great exports used to be constitutional law,” said Anne-Marie Slaughter, the dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton. “We are losing one of the greatest bully pulpits we have ever had.”

From 1990 through 2002, for instance, the Canadian Supreme Court cited decisions of the United States Supreme Court about a dozen times a year, an analysis by The New York Times found. In the six years since, the annual citation rate has fallen by half, to about six.

If I were French, I wouldn’t want their court system to bring up the SCOTUS any more than I want our system to bring up the French courts decisions.

Until they adopt the US Constitution and our list of amendments to it, we shouldn’t worry about these things.

Posted in Academia and Other Nonsense | Leave a comment

Let’s Play: Name That Party!

Posted on September 18, 2008 by Phil Kadath

He’s 30 years old and in jail today for smuggling five illegal immigrants and an ounce of crystal meth into the country.

What is his father’s party affiliation?

Like you need that link to figure it out.

Posted in Too Stupid to Live | 1 Comment

Gotta whole lotta law

Posted on September 18, 2008 by Phil Kadath

Over 1.64 metric tonnes, to be exact.

Ever tried selling a grey squirrel, impersonating a traffic warden, importing Polish potatoes or disturbing a pack of eggs without permission? If you do, you will be breaking the law.

These are among the 3,605 new criminal offences created by the Labour Government since it won power in 1997 – almost one for every day it has been in office.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne has described the plethora of new laws as ‘legislative diarrhoea’.

The new offences are made up of 1,238 which were brought in as primary legislation – meaning they were debated in Parliament – and 2,367 by secondary legislation, such as orders in council and statutory instruments.

I would be very interested to see our total here, year by year, if anyone knows where to get that info.

Posted in Useful Idiots | 1 Comment

After 18 Months

Posted on September 18, 2008 by Phil Kadath

The University of North Dakota has finally implemented their “new security rules and procedures”.

Take a guess at what is not on the list: Yep, armed faculty or students.

A new security system, in the aftermath of the 32 people killed by a student gunman last year at Virginia Tech, went online over the weekend on North Dakota’s colleges and universities campuses.

According to UND Police Chief Duane Czapiewski,

NotiFind will allow UND officials to notify students, faculty and staff of any crisis, such as a shooting or a fire, through e-mail, text-messages and phone calls.

Faculty and staff are required to sign up for the network; students can opt out. The cost of the student’s registration is being picked up by UND, Czapiewski said.

The system became active over the weekend and by Tuesday, 55 percent of the students statewide had signed up, and 26 percent of faculty and staff, he said.

Wow! A grand total of 26% of the faculty, who are required to sign up for the system, have actually done so in a week.

I’m sure that the students there feel so much safer now!

Yeah, not really.

But Jae Baker, a senior majoring in accounting who started Females For Firearms on campus last October, criticized the new system Tuesday during a day she publicized her student group.

“I feel it’s another attempt at an illusion of proper security,” Baker said, citing the April 2007 case, in which a mad student shot to death 32 students on campus, then killed himself. Her group, assisted by Young Americans For Freedom, drew 32 chalk outlines on sidewalks across campus Tuesday to publicize the need for allowing students to bear arms.

The NotiFind system appears that it would be too little, too late, if the worst happened, Baker said. She has protested UND’s policy of banning all weapons on campus as a violation of her own right to defend herself, as well as to carry a gun.

“I can’t even have pepper spray in my purse,” she said. She knows of women who have been assaulted near campus and thinks UND needs to allow students, faculty and staff to carry weapons if they choose.

She also criticized a new policy this semester outlawing students keeping weapons in their on-campus apartments.

So the new policy is even more disarming than the old policy. And again, not eve 1/3 of the faculty, who are required to sign up for the system, have done so.

I think this isn’t really a news report. It is more like an advertisement for mass murderers.

Found via the Say Anything blog

Posted in Have Gun, Will Travel | Leave a comment

15 Minutes Ago

Posted on September 18, 2008 by Phil Kadath

I was pulling down my street after a night at work and listening to the local ScareAmerica affiliate’s broadcast of the Stephanie Miller show.

I tell you all this because about 15 minutes ago, Stephanie Miller stated as fact that Governor Sarah Palin actually did say the long known as fake “Lizards of Satan”. Now, The Miller show is a comedy show, but she was dead serious about this being fact.

When will they learn to check their sources?

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

RNS Quotes of the Day 09/18/08

Posted on September 17, 2008 by Alaska

The need to sustain capital is far outweighing what is now a luxury: to earn interest on capital.

and this:

The Treasury’s actions to support the credit market, including the massive $85 billion loan for American International Group, will be funded by special T-bill offerings. The first of these, with a very large $40 billion auction size, found eager buyers and a low bid of zero percent — memorable evidence of the stampede underway for Treasuries. The yield right now on the 3-month bill is 0.04 percent.

Emphasis mine. Major investors are converting everything they have to cash-equivalents. Remember, if you’ve got more than $100k in investments, you don’t want to just stash it in the bank because of FDIC limits — and even FDIC insurance is a bit shaky nowadays. So you go with “safe” Treasuries. But zero percent!!!! Daaaaamn. With transaction costs, that means these folks were willing to PAY FOR THE PRIVILEGE of being able to buy Treasury bills.

Both quotes taken from Econoday’s close-of-the-day “Market Reflections” from yesterday. I’ve met the founder and CEO of Econoday, and she’s a sharp cookie. If you’re just starting to pay attention to the financial markets because of the turmoil, Econoday’s Week at a Glance is a great place to start. Everything, and I mean everything, is explained and analyzed in non-technical terms.

Interesting times, indeed. Why, soon enough we could be back to this:

Ammunition as Money?

“Massachusetts also designated musket balls legal tender at four per penny [in the 1600s].”

So reports Robert G. Natelson, Paper Money and the Original Understanding of the Coinage Clause, 31 Harv. J. L. & Pub. Pol’y 1017, 1037 (2008), quoting 1 Jerry W. Markham, A Financial History of the United States 46 (2002).

–Eugene Volokh, the Volokh Conspiracy

Posted in Armageddon, Quote of the Day | 1 Comment