When competency won’t answer the phone

Posted on May 22, 2008 by Phil Kadath

Just because someone is in charge does not mean they know what they’re doing. The previous Republican majority in Congress proved this quite well.

But compared to the House Democrats they look to be of practically genius quality

The House overwhelmingly rejected President Bush’s veto Wednesday of a $290 billion farm bill, but what should have been a stinging defeat for the president became an embarrassment for Democrats.

Only hours before the House’s 316-108 vote, Bush had vetoed the five-year measure, saying it was too expensive and gave too much money to wealthy farmers when farm incomes are high. The Senate then was expected to follow suit quickly.

Action stalled, however, after the discovery that Congress had omitted a 34-page section of the bill when lawmakers sent the massive measure to the White House.

That means Bush vetoed a different bill from the one Congress passed, raising questions that the eventual law would be unconstitutional. Republicans objected when Democrats proposed passing the missing section separately and sending that to Bush.
In order to avoid those potential problems, House Democrats hoped to pass the entire bill, again, on Thursday under expedited rules usually reserved for unopposed legislation. The Senate was expected to follow suit. The correct version would then be sent to Bush under a new bill number for another expected veto.

Lawmakers also will have to pass an extension of current farm law, which expires Friday.

Kevin at Wizbang is hopeful that the Republicans will be able to capitalize on this mistake.

I am not

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RNS Quote of the Day: 05/22/08

Posted on May 22, 2008 by Phil Kadath

This is just one of the problems with today’s MSM, but it is a very large problem, especially when it comes to pro-Global Warming Death Cult articles.

Newspapers employ “fact-checkers”, but their job is not to check facts but to avoid libel suits. Therefore they check that Gordon Brown really did say that, but if the article says that “The moon is made of green cheese” it will go straight through because the moon is not going to sue.

Michael Jennings

Found at Brian Micklethwait’s blog via Samidata

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I’m glad to be part of this group

Posted on May 22, 2008 by Phil Kadath

It seems that I’m not the only one to question the study being bandied about by the American Association of University Women

Carrie L. Lukas at the Independent Women’s Forum

The AAUW has put out another study arguing that there is no “boy crisis” in education. Their main argument seems to be that because both boys and girls are improving on many educational metrics, we shouldn’t have heightened concern about boys just because their rate of improvement has been slower than girls. It’s certainly true that girls improvement isn’t bad news for boys (education isn’t a zero sum situation, except if you are focused on college admissions) but it is interesting to imagine how the AAUW would be reacting if it was girls rate of improvement that was lagging behind boys. Somehow I imagine they would be a little more concern about it and they’d be happy to call it a “crisis.”

Not just a crisis, but probably an “education emergency” as well, with the appropriate accompaniment of wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Remember, when someone or a group of some ones say that “The Debate is Over”, the debate should have just only begun.

Posted in Academia and Other Nonsense | Leave a comment

I would like to know his motivation

Posted on May 22, 2008 by Phil Kadath

Not that it would make me wish him any less harm

Federal prosecutors say a Boeing employee has been charged with vandalizing a military helicopter at a factory in suburban Philadelphia.

Prosecutors say 32-year-old assembly line worker Matthew Kevin Montgomery was charged with cutting the wires on an H-47 Chinook helicopter. U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan says investigators are still trying to determine who damaged a second helicopter at the plant.

I’m sure that some locals here will try and blame it on frustration over losing the tanker plane contract, but since this guy is in Philly, I don’t think that is a reasonable excuse.

Posted in Too Stupid to Live | 2 Comments

These do not qualify as “medical supplies”

Posted on May 21, 2008 by Phil Kadath

The UN inaction

The United Nations will send nearly a quarter of a million condoms into cyclone-hit Myanmar to help needy survivors with no access to contraceptives, a UN official says.

So far, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said it had sent 72 800 condoms to survivors struggling to maintain their family planning after the storm hit in early May.

A total of 218 400 condoms would be delivered, UNFPA aid advisor Chaiyos Kunanusont said.

“We don’t want regular use of contraception disrupted. An emergency usually damages the health system, so people don’t have access to condoms and contraceptives,” said Chaiyos.

This is obviously a classic case of projection.

Because the only people I’ve ever heard about who get a hard-on when disaster strikes is the UN.

Posted in Order of the imperial upraised middle finger., Too Stupid to Live | 3 Comments

Fifty Pages of Common Knowledge

Posted on May 21, 2008 by Phil Kadath

Caleb at the Call Me Ahab blog has dissected the Forensic Science Graduate Group at UC Davis’ report

What Micro Serialized Firing Pins Can Add to Firearm Identification in Forensic Science: How Viable are Micro-Marked Firing Pin Impressions as Evidence (pdf)

What Caleb discovered is what he and and any other gunnie worth his salt already knew:

That firing pin serialization is expensive, easily made unreadable and will in no way stop criminals from using firearms to commit crimes.

This is an actual peer-reviewed document, not some press release piece thrown out there. While they did find that some types of laser engraving can transfer to cartridges, no single method transferred 100% of the encoded information to 100% of the cases 100% of the time. Most hovered around the 60% range of data transfered, and several methods had much lower averages than that. Couple that with the fact that all the encoding methods can be easily obfuscated in 6 minutes and 30 seconds (or less), it’s no wonder that the researcher’s final report says that there is no mandate for this technology.

The study shows that the people promoting this technology are either inventors/investors trying to make a buck, or gun bigots hoping to further restrict access to law abiding citizens firstly through drastic increases in the initial cost of purchase and secondly through restrict what firearms can be purchased.

Both of these groups of people are telling blatant falsehoods to get this product stuffed into the market. The biggest one being that criminals are too stupid to disassemble the guns to remove the firing pins and ruin the laser etched serial numbers. Anyone who has sen the forensic photos of the internals of the rifles used in the North Hollywood bank robbery knows that to be a lie.

Now we can only hope that this report doesn’t get “lost” before the California State Legislature attempts to ignore it.

Posted in Have Gun, Will Travel | Leave a comment

More ADA Nonsense

Posted on May 21, 2008 by Phil Kadath

It is as though I was prescient with yesterday’s post, but a little bit off.

Court Agrees that Paper Money Discriminates Against the Blind

A federal appeals court yesterday upheld a lower court’s ruling that the U.S. currency system discriminates against blind people because bills of different denominations are the same size, shape and color and cannot be easily distinguished by the visually impaired.

In a 2 to 1 decision, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the existing currency system violates the federal Rehabilitation Act. The judges said that the Treasury Department must find a way to accommodate the needs of the visually impaired.

Some leading advocacy groups, including the National Federation for the Blind, have strongly opposed the 2002 lawsuit that led to today’s ruling, saying that most blind people have found ways to cope with the challenges presented by paper currency. They argue that there are other, more pressing needs to be addressed.

So what now? More money going into making money.

Can’t do Braille since a washing machine will take the dots out. They might be able to get away with Braille holes or serrated edges.

Any ideas on how to spend more money making the money.

Posted in Freaks, Mutants, and Morons | 3 Comments

I simply have no words

Posted on May 21, 2008 by Phil Kadath

That will express my utter disbelief of people such those as mentioned here

The problem at first was that the problem was ignored: For almost two decades, young people in the United States got fatter and fatter — ate more, sat more — and nobody seemed to notice. Not parents or schools, not medical groups or the government.

But since the alarm was finally sounded in the late 1990s, the problem has been the country’s reaction: a fragmented, inchoate response that critics say has suffered particularly from inadequate direction and dollars at the federal level.

“The sense of this as a national health priority just doesn’t come through,” said Jeffrey P. Koplan of Emory University, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and chairman of the Institute of Medicine’s 2004 study of childhood obesity. The top recommendation of that seminal report was for the government to convene a high-level, interdepartmental task force to guide a coordinated response.

How about there is no reason for a response from the federal government when it comes down to you, me or anyone else on the planet having a fat ass.

What kind of response would the fed be able to put together: A set of PSA’s that 99.999% of the populace will ignore or mock? Or is Koplan hoping that the fed will frogmarch tubby-fuckers to fat camp so as to improve their health for them?

Seeing as how that is what governments around the world are best at, I’m honestly wondering.

Found @ Some Poor Schmuck

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Well then

Posted on May 21, 2008 by Phil Kadath

I guess that there isn’t a problem with the estrogenically concentration of public education after this report from the American Association of University Women stating that they think things are just peachy.

I’m worried though that they may make plans to have the article’s writer, Valerie Strauss, stung up for betrayal of her sisters for including the factoids that girls get better GPA’s than boys and women get more Bachelor Degrees than men in this article.

Though maybe because she stuffed those facts near the end of the article, right before the high pitched whine about women making less gross income than men, they may just decide to beat her about with their comfortable shoes.

Posted in Academia and Other Nonsense | 1 Comment

Why didn’t I think of that?

Posted on May 20, 2008 by Phil Kadath

Did you enjoy every day of your elementary school years?

Were there days you just didn’t want to go?

Do you have children that don’t like their school?

Well, don’t look now, but here’s an out

Rebecca Maykish is 17 and dreads school so much that she stopped going regularly.

In fourth grade.

Those days off have come at a price to her school district and the Palmerton taxpayers who support it. Since 2004, the Palmerton Area School Board has authorized payments of more than $45,000 to help Rebecca make up for her missed school days. Rebecca’s mother, Barbara, has used the money for at-home tutoring and education software purchases. She has also spent it on modeling classes for Rebecca, subscriptions to teen magazines, and travel to New York and Toronto with a summer camp.

All of the expenses were approved by the district.

Ahh yes, the Americans with Disabilities Act. Yet another entitlement program that began with wonderful intentions, but is rampant with abuse.

I spent a number of years working with ADA clients, assessing their needs and helping them through the processes to get into programs and receive their freebies (though that was not a word I was allowed to use then) so that the federal government could “meet their transportation needs” according to ADA standards. In fact, I believe I can personally credit the ADA program with helping become the Libertarian minded asshole I currently am.

One of the last clients I dealt with had it in his mind that his disability (rheumatoid arthritis) had earned him a jump in status: From free cabulance rides to free new car.

And not just any new car, but a Ford Taurus SEL with the new at the time adjustable foot pedals (and power windows, locks, mirrors  and seats, leather of course, and A/C), all on the tax payers dime. He fought and fought and appealed and whined to everyone under from sea to shining sea.

He never got it while i was there, but it has been eight plus years and who knows by now.
Link found @ Some Poor Schmuck

Posted in Too Stupid to Live | 1 Comment