Posted 1/31/2007 05:52:00 PM by Douglas

Detroit is hemorrhaging money, and it's not likely to stop. Ever:

An enormous gap still separates the performance of Detroit automakers from their foreign competitors - and it isn't all their fault.

The stupefying $12.7 billion loss that Ford Motor Co. reported Thursday for 2006 comes one year after General Motors' equally horrendous $10.6 billion loss for 2005.

But for all the bad decisions these companies have made by not listening to their customers, they aren't entirely to blame. Structural inequities between the U.S. and Japan - notably in labor costs and currency - account for a big chunk of Detroit's problems.

According to the latest calculations, the gap between Japanese and American carmakers' profits average out to about $2900 per vehicle, and the home team does not have the advantage.

Really, isn't it just a matter of time before the Big 3 are gone? What's incredible is that the Japanese carmakers are making money making cars in America! How can that be? Is Detroit really that backwards?

Here's one example of how knotty Detroit's labor problem can be:

If an assembly plant with 3,000 workers has no dealer orders, it has two options. One is to close the plant for a week and not build any cars. Then the company still has to give the idled workers 95 percent of their take-home pay plus all benefits for not working. So a one-week shutdown costs $7.7 million or $1,545 for each vehicle it didn't make.

If the company decides to go ahead and run the plant for a week without any dealer orders, it will have distressed merchandise on its hands. Then it has to sell the vehicles to daily rental companies like Hertz or Avis at discounts of $3,000 to $5,000 per vehicle, which creates a flood of used cars in three to six months and damages resale value. Or it can put the vehicles into storage and pay dealers up to $1,250 apiece to take them off its hands.

How long does it take these geniuses to figure out this won't work? Where's the rest of the money going on an American car?

Health care is the biggest chunk. GM, for instance spends $1,635 per vehicle on health care for active and retired workers in the U.S. Toyota pays nothing for retired workers - it has very few - and only $215 for active ones.

Other labor costs add to the bill. Contract issues like work rules, line relief and holiday pay amount to $630 per vehicle - costs that the Japanese don't have. And paying UAW members for not working when plants are shut costs another $350 per vehicle.

As the line gets more automated, less and less skilled labor is needed. This is a sad fact of life for 200 years now. But paying Union workers not to work is going to kill an entire industry. GM and Ford had a license to print money for most of the 20th century. This is the price for their complacency.

Posted 1/31/2007 05:49:00 PM by Douglas

No one wants to watch Miss America.

About 2.4 million viewers watched Country Music Television's prime-time crowning of Miss Oklahoma Lauren Nelson on Monday night, according to Nielsen Media Research ratings released Wednesday.

That's down from the 3.1 million people who watched a Saturday crowning in 2006 on CMT, and about a quarter of the viewers who watched the show in 2004, its last year on network television.

Deal with it. No one cares. And that was before they let the Okie win.

Posted 1/31/2007 05:29:00 PM by Douglas

I've been on record as being a fan of compact fluorescent light bulbs, but this crap from the nanny-state out in California goes too far.

Traditional light bulbs could be outlawed in California if groundbreaking environmental legislation being proposed by a state legislator is approved.

Democratic politician Lloyd Levine said his bill -- the "How Many Legislators Does it Take to Change a Light Bulb Act" -- would ban the sales of cheaper incandescent bulbs in favour of compact energy-efficient lamps.

Right off the bat, I want to punch Lloyd in the neck for the dumbest, most obnoxious bill title I've ever heard of. But it gets worse:

Levine said the ban, which would take effect from 2012, would save consumers money over the long-term despite the fact that energy-efficient bulbs are more expensive to buy.

True, but if consumers want to pay for incandescent bulbs, why not? Have the energy whores in Cali banned every Hummer dealer yet? I think not.

"When a consumer is standing in a store and they're confronted with two different products, they generally opt for the one that is cheaper and the one they've traditionally bought," he said.

"The problem is: The one they think is cheaper is only cheap at that moment in time. The other one is cheaper over the long run."

Which precisely explains why Hummers are selling like Hondas even with gas at $3 a gallon.

This sounds like a great way to set up a black-market light bulb smuggling ring into California. Maybe they can combine forces with the non low-flow toilet cartel.

Posted 1/31/2007 05:24:00 PM by Douglas

Idiots go to great lengths to try to ride in the HOV lane:

Violators sometimes use imitation occupants. Although Ashmore didn't spot any during Tuesday's demonstration, he previously has found "four mannequins, one inflatable doll and lots of stuffed animals in baby seats," he said.

Lambert said drivers even have put knit caps on pillows in an effort to fool the officers.

But something about this one got my attention:

The woman in the silver Hyundai got a ticket for driving alone in an HOV lane, even though she was carrying a passenger.

She was pregnant, the woman told Metro Police officer Scott Ashmore, who had parked his motorcycle at the crest of the T-shaped ramp of the Northwest Freeway HOV lane at Dacoma.

For purposes of high-occupancy vehicle lane enforcement, babies in child seats count; those in utero don't.

Maybe the driver was just quick with an excuse; maybe she really misunderstood the law. Either way, she's among growing numbers learning about HOV enforcement the hard way.

Pay your ticket and shut your fucking pie hole, whiner. Somehow pregnant women think they're owed some great favor for society for getting knocked up. And I'm not just talking about tax breaks. Why the hell do "Expectant Mothers" need their own parking spot at the grocery store? There are already 14 handicapped spots, then the "Expectant Mother" spot? What's next, the club foot parking, followed by the lazy eye parking? Then we get into the "mentally disturbed" parking, and believe me, you want to know where these guys area at all times.

The real tragic part of this infraction is when these HOV tickets get thrown into the abortion debate. If the state says the fetus isn't a person for HOV purposes, what's next?

Posted 1/31/2007 05:22:00 PM by Douglas

Maybe it's just me, but it would appear that Sea-Launch has had something a trifle more than an anomaly.

Posted 1/31/2007 05:16:00 PM by Douglas

Molly Ivans can't say that no more.

Molly Ivins, the irreverent nationally syndicated columnist from Texas who rankled conservatives and delighted liberals, died late this afternoon after a seven-year battle with breast cancer. She was 62.

A self-described leftist agitator, she infused her writings with both passion and wit. Her career spanned some 40 years, and in that time she thought nothing of calling President George W. Bush "Billy Bob Forehead," and current Texas Gov. Rick Perry "Governor Goodhair." Her columns drew such attention that her picture once graced billboards in North Texas above the words, 'Molly Ivins Can't Really Say That, Can She?' (That later became the title of one of her best-selling books).

Aside from being freakin' hilarious, Molly Ivans at the same time personified all that was good and shameful in Texas politics. Her voice was from the left, but her message was clearly Texan. I had the good fortune of hearing her speak in Austin when I was young and impressionable, and she spoke just like you'd expect her to: with a drawl that seems to say "these guys are all hat and no cattle."

She will be missed, but you know she's already kicking back with Ann with a drink in her hand. Maybe a cigar, too.

Posted 1/31/2007 05:03:00 PM by Douglas

What used to be British Steel was bought out by a huge conglomerate. From where? You guessed it. . . . India:

Indian firm Tata Steel has won the battle to take over Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus.

Tata's bid for the European steelmaker, which was created from the merger of British Steel and Hoogovens, beat that of its Brazilian rival CSN.

The takeover will create the world's fifth-largest steel group.

Well, bully for them. That's where the world's manufacturing base is moving: India and China. Pardon me if I don't celebrate the countries that brought about the Industrial Revolution, say, England and the United States, going tits up with their capacity to produce. On to the celebration:

Tata Steel's owner Ratan Tata hailed the takeover as "a moment of great fulfilment for all in India".

"When we first bid for Corus, many thought it was an audacious move," he said at a press conference in India.

"Tata has a global scale now.

"This is the first step in showing that Indian industry can step outside its shores into an international market place as a global player."

First step? I guess. But certainly not the last.

Posted 1/29/2007 05:46:00 PM by Douglas

Big blimp turns big brother. Where have I heard that before?

The prototype is called the High Altitude Airship, or HAA. Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems & Sensors in Akron won the $40 million contract from the Missile Defense Agency to build HAA in 2003. It is essentially another blimp. A giant one. Seventeen times the size of the Goodyear dirigible. It's designed to float 12 miles above the earth, far above planes and weather systems. It will be powered by solar energy, and will stay in a geocentric orbit for up to a year, undetectable by ground-based radar. You can't see it from the ground. But it can see you.

"The possibilities are endless for homeland security," says Kate Dunlap, a Lockheed Martin spokesperson. "It could house cameras, and other surveillance equipment. It would be an eye in the sky."

Of course! Is the blimp going to be in the shape of a huge banana? At least the funding would make sense.

Posted 1/29/2007 05:37:00 PM by Douglas

Milton Freidman day. Celebrate it before Bush's spending sends us all to the economic gulag.

Posted 1/29/2007 05:24:00 PM by Douglas

Damn, I wish this weren't so damn funny:

"I want the American people to know that I have not forgotten that our battle for freedom began in Afghanistan, rooting out the extremists of al-Qaeda and the Taliban," Bush said. "Today, I am ordering the deployment of the 325th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Private Tim Ekenberg, to the embattled Kandahar region."

"We will take whatever measures necessary to win," Bush added. "Isn't that right, Tim?"

Whatever happened to old Osama been Forgotten?

Labels: bush, onion

Posted 1/29/2007 05:32:00 AM by Douglas

And now, for absolutely no reason, here's a picture of the rail draw bridge over the Atchafalaya at Morgan City.

Christmas day, 2006.

And here's some pahoehoe on Kīlauea:

Chirstmas day, 2004.

Posted 1/28/2007 05:57:00 PM by Douglas

We need pretzels and increasingly attractive women, stat!

Traffic resumed along U.S. Highway 287 here Saturday after a stretch was shut down for more than 12 hours when a tanker truck carrying ethanol overturned and spilled.

The truck did not catch fire but the skidding tanker did create a small grass fire Friday, authorities said.

The driver of the truck apparently lost control Friday and was hospitalized overnight for observation, Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Clay Shelton told the Vernon Record.

Chillicothe is near the Oklahoma border, about 65 miles north of Wichita Falls.

Truck load of ethanol, eh? What would be a good chaser/mixer for that? A Dr. Pepper truck?

Posted 1/28/2007 05:52:00 PM by Douglas

After twenty plus days of continuous rain, I'm beginning to think that this is a little less unexplainable that I thought it once was.

Thirty-nine people over the past decade have committed suicide off the 155-foot-high Aurora Bridge _ eight in 2006 alone _ and counselors are regularly brought in to help office workers deal with the shock of seeing the leap or the bloody aftermath.

At least one woman, Sarah Edwards, drives on the left side of the street near her office ever since a body landed on the hood of a co-worker's car.

City and state officials, meanwhile, are adding suicide-prevention signs and telephones in hopes of reducing the death toll.

The "suicide bridge," as the half-mile span has been occasionally called since it was built in 1931, carries as many as 45,000 vehicles a day on one of the main north-south highways through Seattle, passing over a narrow channel connecting Lake Washington and Lake Union.

Some jumpers hit the water; others land on the pavement or other solid ground. Either way, they almost always die. (One person is said to have survived after landing in the water.)

How horrible. Your life's a mess and you can't even kill yourself off a bridge.

Enjoy your Starbuck's, dumbasses.

Posted 1/27/2007 02:09:00 PM by Douglas

Zawahiri to Bush: Bring 'em on:

TERROR group al-Qa'ida's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has defiantly mocked US President George W. Bush's plan to send extra troops to Iraq, saying he should send his entire army to be annihilated.

"In his latest speech, Bush said in his ramblings that he would send 20,000 of his soldiers to Iraq. I ask him: why send only 20,000 soldiers? Why don't you send 50,000 or 100,000?" Zawahiri says in the 15-minute recording.

"Don't you know that the dogs of Iraq are impatient to devour the carcasses of your soldiers?

"On the contrary, you must send your entire army to be annihilated at the hands of the mujaheddin so that the whole world will be rid of your wickedness."

OK, that's pretty unambiguous. Not quite a cryptic as Bush's take, but still, they make a clear point.

The United States Senate to Bush: Not so fast there, chief:

The Democratic-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee dismissed President Bush’s plans to increase troops strength in Iraq on Wednesday as “not in the national interest,” an unusual wartime repudiation of the commander in chief.

The vote on the nonbinding measure was 12-9 and largely along party lines.

Kinda interesting that the most outspoken supporters of Bush's escalation I mean augmentation is al-Qa'ida.

Still, a nonbinding resolution? Doesn't that have about as much teeth as a decree from the council of your local Cub Scout Den mothers? Geez those jokers are bunch of do-nothing ass clowns. The Senate, that is. I have nothing but the utmost respect for Den mothers.

Posted 1/27/2007 01:31:00 PM by Douglas

Last week I thought this story was a bit odd, but not quite blog-worthy. Pilot dies, plane landed by copilot. No big whoop, right? Then it gets weird.

Addison said the steward asked if anyone on board was a doctor. He didn't think much of that.

Then he says he saw two people pull the unconscious pilot from the cockpit and perform CPR on him.

"I was trying to calm myself, tell myself that I'd be alright. Then I got anxious. I started thinking about my wife and my child. Even more, I was thinking about the pilot and his family," Addison said.

Addison then heard another announcement. This time the flight steward was asking if anyone knew how to fly a plane.

It turned out, the man seated next to Addison was a pilot.

"So I leaned over and I said, 'can you handle this?' He said, 'I have a small plane. I'm going to go up there.'"

That man helped the co-pilot make an emergency landing. Addison said it was a hard landing, but it was a safe one.

The pilot died right in front of Addison. He said he died three minutes before the landing.

Addison also said applause from the 210 passengers rang out for the co-pilot and the passenger who stepped up and helped out.

Huh? Why would the copilot need "help" from a passenger with 50 hours of stick time in a Piper cub? Isn't this exactly the reason the copilot exists in the first place? So they can land the plane if the pilot, oh, ida know, dies?!?

Turns out, he died of natural causes. I would have guessed he had the fish for dinner.

Labels: Airplane

Posted 1/27/2007 12:48:00 PM by Douglas

Finally watched Idiocracy this week. My overall reaction to it was pretty close to the writeup on IMDB: It's not finished. The story kind of falls apart and there's enough holes from beginning to end to drive a truck through. What I found HI-Larious were the subtle details that Mike Judge picked to exemplify the overall "dumbing down" of our society. The fact that "smart" people talked "faggy", the ubiquitous advertising, and the "ghetto and valley girl" dialect that is spoken shows that it's not that big of a jump between today's dumb people and 2505's "super-dum" people.

So why did Fox Studios refuse to promote it and let it die at the box office? A theory:

On Labor Day Weekend, the slackest time of the year for movie-going, the Fox Studios dumped the most interesting American comedy of the year in 130 theatres without any advertising whatsoever. Idiocracy was written and directed by the paleoconservative Mike Judge (whom I profiled in VDARE.COM last spring). Judge is the creator of the highly successful television series King of the Hill, Beavis & and Butt-Head, and the cult classic film Office Space. So Fox killing Judge's Idiocracy made little sense on financial grounds.

Idiocracy turned out to be Borat for smart people—profanely funny, but with a much more thought-provoking message. (The DVD is being released in the post-Christmas shopping dead zone on January 9.)

Fox presumably decided to exterminate Idiocracy because its premise was explicitly based on the forbidden dysgenic theory of declining IQ.

I don't know about all that, but it's obvious they made no efforts to see that they got their money back on this one. It's safe to say this one won't achieve the cult status bestowed on Office Space (which didn't make any money 'till it went to DVD, either), but it's a solid Judge film and worth a look.

Posted 1/27/2007 12:30:00 PM by Douglas

Remember that guy that killed himself after he lost the "Hands on a Hardbody" contest two years ago? His family is ensuring such madness never happens again by establishing a charity to provide education and counseling to people duped by promotional stunts of car dealerships. Nah, just kidding, they're suing:

Family members of an East Texas man who committed suicide after competing for a "Hardbody Truck" are suing the dealership that sponsored the contest, alleging it allowed unsafe conditions leading to mental instability and death.

In the contest, whoever lasted the longest won a Nissan truck and other prizes. Vega was competing on Sept. 15, 2005, when he walked away, broke into a nearby store, took a shotgun and killed himself.

I hope the K-Mart he broke into sues his estate for damages and violation of federal firearms laws.

The lawsuit contends Vega became temporarily insane after standing for 48 hours with his hand on the truck without much sleep and consuming the high-energy drinks contest organizers provided.

"The term 'brainwashing' is best known from the techniques used by the Communist Army to break down (or induce insanity in) American troops ... This technique was simply sleep deprivation and stress — the very techniques used in this contest," according to the lawsuit filed Friday in Longview.

Chalala Gutierrez, Vega's widow; his mother, Rosita Hernandez; and his son, Richard Thomas Vega III, are seeking an undetermined amount in damages. It would be up to jurors to decide the amount, said their attorney, Blake Bailey.

Trey Patterson, owner of the dealership, said Friday he could not comment on the suit.

The lawsuit contends the dealership should have known conditions at the contest would cause contestants to lose control of their mental state, leading participants to harm themselves or others. Each year, contestants had wandered away without control or regard for safety.

Brainwashing? Give me a freakin' break. He wasn't held captive by the Red Army, he's trying to win a free car, and there by his own decision. Did everyone that didn't win receive grief counseling and/or blow their brains out afterwards?

Posted 1/25/2007 05:37:00 PM by Douglas

California bans buying power form dirty, high-polluting sources. In future news, California is shivering, in the dark:

California regulators approved rules Thursday banning power companies from buying electricity from high-polluting sources, including most out-of-state coal-burning plants.

The rules _ aimed at reducing emissions of heat-trapping gases linked to global warming _ could have a far-reaching effect on the energy market across the West.

While there are almost no coal-fired plants in California, the nation's most populous state, about 20 percent of the state's electricity comes from coal plants in other Western states.

The commission voted 4-0 to prohibit utilities and other energy providers from entering into long-term contracts with sources that emit more carbon dioxide than a modern natural gas plant.

The new standard is aimed at encouraging investment in cleaner energy sources such as wind and solar, while discouraging the use of coal and other high-polluting fuels.

Good luck with that, California. As soon as California figures out a way to repeal the second law of thermodynamics, I'm sure the rest of the nation will rejoice as well.

Posted 1/25/2007 05:28:00 PM by Douglas

Article One, Section 9:

The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.

2007:

I meant by that comment, the Constitution doesn't say, "Every individual in the United States or every citizen is hereby granted or assured the right to habeas." It doesn't say that. It simply says the right of habeas corpus shall not be suspended except by --

I've listened to it, and as smarmy as he is, he's 100% correct. The U.S. Constitution does not say you have a right to habeas corpus. Nor does it explicitly say you have a right to a Big Mac. It doesn't prohibit you from pooping in your neighbor's mouth, either. But isn't it obvious to the most casual observer, even an attorney, that if the suspension of habeas corpus is illegal, then it's an inherent right? I guess that would depend on what the definition of is is.

Posted 1/24/2007 05:49:00 PM by Douglas

Boeing vs Airbus, by George Will this time. I like this part.

The government-created European consortium decided to build the wrong aircraft, then built it badly.

Time will tell, but if I'm agreeing with George Will, I may have to go hector myself again.

Posted 1/24/2007 05:11:00 PM by Douglas

Don't have much on the SotU address. Horseshit, really. Earmarks?!? The real deficit is in the $50 Trillion range, and he's taking time out of my day to mention this crap?

So let us work together to reform the budget process, expose every earmark to the light of day and to a vote in Congress, and cut the number and cost of earmarks at least in half by the end of this session.

$9 Billion. You're hoping to play your cards right and cut blatant theft in the Congress by $9 Billion?!? $30 per American? Enjoy your ticket to Six-Flags, suckers, the debt rages on.

But what I really like is the comparison. For example:2006

As we make progress on the ground, and Iraqi forces increasingly take the lead, we should be able to further decrease our troop levels.

And now?

But the Iraqis are not yet ready to do this on their own. So we're deploying reinforcements of more than 20,000 additional soldiers and Marines to Iraq.

Hope it works out for him this time. Of course, if you want the really absurd, you gotta go all the way back to 2004, the first SotU address after Iraq's invasion.

The use of performance-enhancing drugs like steroids in baseball, football, and other sports is dangerous, and it sends the wrong message -- that there are shortcuts to accomplishment, and that performance is more important than character. So tonight I call on team owners, union representatives, coaches, and players to take the lead, to send the right signal, to get tough, and to get rid of steroids now.

Good to see not only is he hitting on the big issues important to all Americans, but when Bush calls an issue, it's resolved before the ink's dry at The New York Times.

And if you're a dork like me that likes to compare these things (and chances are, you're not), be sure and check out this handy tool created by none other than The New York Times. It's fun! It confirms "switchgrass" has only appeared once, much to the consternation of my portfolio.

Posted 1/22/2007 11:10:00 PM by Douglas

Brazoria, Texas, isn't the first place on earth that tries to enact the thought police. Just the latest. This way too moronic to address, so I'll cut to the chase:

Brazoria Mayor Ken Corley wants offensive use of the ``N-word'' to be punishable by a fine of up to $500 in his town.

"It's not a particular problem in Brazoria," Corley said, "but it's a national problem."

"I just think it would be great if this little town of Brazoria, with 2,800 people leads the way in fighting against this offensive language," Corley said. He said if that ordinance passes, he may ask for the ordinance to be expanded to include other racial slurs.

The ordinance wouldn't forbid anyone from saying the word, Corley said, but just using the word in an offensive or aggressive manner. Violators would be charged with disturbing the peace, he said.

<< SNIP >>

The ordinance would allow the "N-word" to be used as a friendly greeting, he said.

So the ordinance allows "friendly" N-words, but fines "offensive" N-words? Has it occurred to the good mayor that someone will have to make the distinction between "friendly" and "offensive?" Who makes that call?

I'll admit, when I'm sitting in traffic next to the little 16 year old suburban white girl with her windows down and the ©rap music blaring, I'm kinda offended when I hear the N-word has become every other word in the lyrics to the music she's listening to. If I'm in Brazoria, can I have her locked up?

Posted 1/22/2007 05:54:00 PM by Douglas

Another Texas college backs down on the Bush Lie-berry.

The University of Dallas withdrew its bid for George W. Bush presidential library today, citing the library site selection committee's exclusive talks with nearby Southern Methodist University.

Last month SMU emerged as the apparent winner for the library with the announcement of the negotiations, putting it ahead of the other two finalists, the University of Dallas and Baylor University in Waco.

Despite the withdrawal, University of Dallas President Frank Lazarus said today he did not consider the bid a failure because it had "propelled us onto the national stage."

So competing for the library on a 'national stage' is better than actually 'winning' it?

Connecticut, I'm looking in your general direction. Why the hell are you so damn quiet??

Posted 1/22/2007 05:45:00 PM by Douglas

Glacial evidence in the past 100 years would indicate that something is up with the increasing global temperature, but is it really a slam dunk between human's use of fossil fuels and global warming? Now some scientists aren't so sure.

Scientists long have issued the warnings: The modern world's appetite for cars, air conditioning and cheap, fossil-fuel energy spews billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, unnaturally warming the world.

Yet, it took the dramatic images of a hurricane overtaking New Orleans and searing heat last summer to finally trigger widespread public concern on the issue of global warming.

Someone please explain the connection between green-house gasses and Katrina? I know many people would love to make the connection, but they're all equally full of shit, and if we caused Katrina, why were there only five hurricanes in the Atlantic in 2006, and only one of which made landfall in North America? Hell, look at the hurricane tracks all the way back to 1851. For every 1886, there's a 1883. 2005's snapshot in time is supposed to be incontrovertible evidence that this is man-made? That's horseshit. But it goes on:

In their efforts to capture the public's attention, then, have climate scientists oversold global warming? It's probably not a majority view, but a few climate scientists are beginning to question whether some dire predictions push the science too far.

"Some of us are wondering if we have created a monster," says Kevin Vranes, a climate scientist at the University of Colorado.

Well that government grant money ain't free, and you don't get a check to cash by disagreeing with the status quo.

For example, last summer, Ralph Cicerone, president of the National Academy of Sciences, told the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce: "I think we understand the mechanisms of CO2 and climate better than we do of what causes lung cancer. ... In fact, it is fair to say that global warming may be the most carefully and fully studied scientific topic in human history."

Vranes says, "When I hear things like that, I go crazy."

Is it guilt? Are they just trying to retain what's left of their credibility? Who knows. But I've got a stack of Newsweek and Time articles from the 1970s espousing the future destruction of the planet from global cooling that I'd love to post as soon as I find the time. And a scanner.

Labels: global warming

Posted 1/22/2007 05:45:00 PM by Douglas

It's that time of year again, kids. The presidential State of the Union drinking game. Ensuring you're sucking the color out of the carpet before the Democratic response since 2002.

Isn't it about time this president gets behind a ethanol initiative that his frat buddy friends can really endorse?

Posted 1/22/2007 05:32:00 PM by Douglas

Name another company that reported an additional $5.3 Billion in sales today, yet whose stock dropped 3.4% because a bunch of bean counters at Wachovia have a bee up their ass? If you guess American's largest exporter, you'd be right. The good news:

US aerospace giant Boeing has won a $5.34bn (£2.7bn) order for 39 passenger jets from General Electric.

Boeing said GE Commercial Aviation Services, the aircraft leasing arm of GE, would take delivery of the planes between 2008 and 2010.

GE plans to buy 24 single-aisle Boeing 737-800 aircraft and 15 Boeing 777s, the aerospace group added.

GE's aircraft division has a fleet of 1,450 planes, which it leases to more than 230 airlines.

Cha-ching! So what's up Wachovia's arse?

Wachovia Securities downgraded the Boeing Co. to market perform from outperform, based on the firm's belief that the commercial aircraft order cycle has peaked.

The investment firm also cited concerns about potential delays in Boeing's 787 program. Boeing stock fell 3 percent during the first two hours of trading Monday.

Weigh Boeing's "potential" delays with AirBus' confirmed inability to make, market, and sell their new monstrosity. So suck it Wachovia.

Posted 1/22/2007 05:00:00 PM by Douglas

I remember the day when you could tube down the river, drunk off your ass, and happily enjoy your sunburn. That was before New Braunfels was taken over by Nazis.

A slate of new ordinances poised for City Council approval are meant to rein in rowdy tubers on the Comal and Guadalupe rivers before the summer tubing season arrives, city leaders said.

The City Council planned to consider rules today to curb alcohol use by banning open alcohol containers at several riverfront parks and by limiting the size of coolers on the rivers to those that hold only a six-pack.

What?!? Tube the river with only a six-pack? If I'm going to be sitting in water for three hours, it's my god given right to drink my weight in cheep, domestic beer. Six-pack? Shit, why don't I just stay at home and sit in the tub?

---

Update: Thanks to the long-time reader that knows I don't know how to spell. Your "editor" check is in the mail.

Labels: New Braunfels

Posted 1/21/2007 05:50:00 PM by Douglas

It may just be me, but I just can't wait for the State of the Union next week. I'm still in awe of last year's soliloquy:

We must also change how we power our automobiles. We will increase our research in better batteries for hybrid and electric cars, and in pollution-free cars that run on hydrogen. We'll also fund additional research in cutting-edge methods of producing ethanol, not just from corn, but from wood chips and stalks, or switch grass. Our goal is to make this new kind of ethanol practical and competitive within six years.

I guess I still have five more years before my switch grass futures go through the roof, eh?

Posted 1/21/2007 05:47:00 PM by Douglas

George Bush is a genius. Only a genius could find a single aspect of American life that's untaxed and propose a tax for it.

"Today, the tax code unfairly penalizes people who do not get health insurance through their job," Bush said. "It unwisely encourages workers to choose overly expensive, gold-plated plans. The result is that insurance premiums rise and many Americans cannot afford the coverage they need."

The basic concept of the plan is that employer-provided health insurance, now treated as a fringe benefit exempt from taxation, would no longer be entirely tax-free. Workers could be taxed if their coverage exceeded limits set by the government. But the government would also offer a new tax deduction for people buying health insurance on their own.

What a rail road screw job from someone who used to claim to be a conservative. This example of "robbing Peter to pay Paul" is going to benefit one group: Insurance Companies. Instead of taking steps to reform how the system is administered, this is only going to change where the money is coming from. Yeah, I know that more than $15,000 a year may be a bit pricey, but what the hell does "gold plated" mean? Does Bush know how much crappy insurance costs? I've got the cheapest HMO my employer offers, and it's not much less than this "gold plated" cap.

Posted 1/21/2007 05:45:00 PM by Douglas

So it looks like the Methodists weigh in on Bush 43's lie-berry going to SMU.

A group of Methodist ministers from across the nation launched an online petition drive Thursday urging Southern Methodist University to stop trying to land George W. Bush's presidential library.

The petition, on a new Web site, http://www.protectsmu.org, says that "as United Methodists, we believe that the linking of his presidency with a university bearing the Methodist name is utterly inappropriate."

"Methodists have a long history of social conscience, so questions about the conduct of this president are very concerning," said one of the petition's organizers, the Rev. Andrew J. Weaver of New York, who graduated from SMU's Perkins School of Theology.

I know!! How 'bout The University that Doesn't think he's a Total Idiot? Wherever that might be.

Posted 1/21/2007 05:37:00 PM by Douglas

Californians are out of their mind, example 487: They want to make it illegal to spank your own kid.

Democratic Assemblywoman Sally Lieber said such a law is needed because spanking victimizes helpless children and breeds violence in society.

"I think it's pretty hard to argue you need to beat a child," Lieber said. "Is it OK to whip a 1-year-old or a 6-month-old or a newborn?"

Lieber said her proposal would make spanking, hitting and slapping a child under 4 years old a misdemeanor. Adults could face up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Because your parents in jail for spanking you is much better than getting your butt busted for mouthin' off the 8th time they told you to stop.

Look, is anyone going to advocate beating children? No, that's not what this is about. It's about spanking and state control of parenting. Ain't no one above an ass-whoopin', I don't care how old you are.

Posted 1/21/2007 05:29:00 PM by Douglas

I am dangerously insane. Is there a self-help group for YouTube?

Posted 1/20/2007 04:08:00 PM by Douglas

Here we go again. Spiraling ever closer to their own obsolescence, the U.S. Mint's third try at a dollar coin.

The Houston children will be among the first Americans to view the coin, which is set to begin circulating Feb. 15. The coin, featuring the likeness of Washington on one side and the Statue of Liberty on the back, also will be unveiled in Chicago.

In approving the Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005, Congress lauded the program as an educational aid for the American public, many of whom, leaders contended, are unfamiliar with presidential history. The program is modeled loosely after the series of 25-cent pieces that featured the nation's states.

And we all know how much we learned from that! We learned that Wisconsin has cows, Texas is obsessed with the shape of their state, and both Kansas and North Dakota like buffaloes. We also learned that the Mint made about $5 Billion in seigniorage from the state quarter program. So let's try it with dollars! Hey, whatever works. We need the dollar coin, so maybe third time's a charm.

I'm personally looking forward to the day I can tip a stripper a dollar emblazoned with the likeness of Bill Clinton.

Labels: seigniorage

Posted 1/20/2007 03:53:00 PM by Douglas

I'm no conservationist, but doesn't the same doctrine that says you should leave nature alone and let it live its live still apply when it's about to die? Take, for example, this story, or as I call it, "Teenage Frozen Comatose Turtles!"

Three dozen sea turtles are getting a little tropical vacation under heat lamps after being rescued from a cold front that caused the water temperature in an arm of the Gulf of Mexico to plummet 18 degrees in 48 hours.

"Four more coming in!" Sea Turtle Inc. curator Jeff George shouted over a din of volunteers and onlookers who, as of noon Friday, had found 36 turtles lying on the beach.

The turtles, all juveniles, had been left comatose by the rapid temperature drop this week in the shallow bay where the young feed.

So if they're coming up on a public beach, I'm supposed to leave them alone. I don't have a problem with that, nor do I have any ill will towards them. But if the temperature drops, as it does in the winter, and they freeze, why do they now warrant protection?

I was a dumb teenager and was close to a coma on many different occasions. Some people are lucky and some people aren't, just like turtles.

I just don't think you can have it both ways.

Posted 1/20/2007 03:43:00 PM by Douglas

China can now shoot down satellites from the ground. This isn't going to end well.

The Bush administration demanded again Friday that China explain why it conducted a test of its growing anti-satellite capability last week, successfully destroying an obsolete orbiter in a move that alarmed many U.S. allies and brought diplomatic protests.

The United States, Canada, Australia and Japan have questioned China's motives in launching a ground-based missile that destroyed one of its aging weather satellites about 500 miles above Earth.

Beijing has declined to confirm the test but has said it supports the peaceful use of space. U.S. officials said no country should conduct tests that advance the potential for wars in space or result in explosions that create large areas of debris hazardous to other satellites.

Pretty scary. But if they could get the one that brings us MTV, CNN and FoxNews, I don't think I'd complain.

Posted 1/20/2007 03:32:00 PM by Douglas

What if there were no more smart people to run the world?

Combine these groups, and the top 10% of the intelligence distribution has a huge influence on whether our economy is vital or stagnant, our culture healthy or sick, our institutions secure or endangered. Of the simple truths about intelligence and its relationship to education, this is the most important and least acknowledged: Our future depends crucially on how we educate the next generation of people gifted with unusually high intelligence.

How assiduously does our federal government work to see that this precious raw material is properly developed? In 2006, the Department of Education spent about $84 billion. The only program to improve the education of the gifted got $9.6 million, one-hundredth of 1% of expenditures. In the 2007 budget, President Bush zeroed it out.

Conventional wisdom says smart people don't need any help because they're smart, so I don't think would come as a surprise to anyone. But it gets interesting when you consider the consequences of what will happen if this group of people don't develop their intellect.

We live in an age when it is unfashionable to talk about the special responsibility of being gifted, because to do so acknowledges inequality of ability, which is elitist, and inequality of responsibilities, which is also elitist. And so children who know they are smarter than the other kids tend, in a most human reaction, to think of themselves as superior to them. Because giftedness is not to be talked about, no one tells high-IQ children explicitly, forcefully and repeatedly that their intellectual talent is a gift. That they are not superior human beings, but lucky ones. That the gift brings with it obligations to be worthy of it. That among those obligations, the most important and most difficult is to aim not just at academic accomplishment, but at wisdom.

Sad, really how few people would make that distinction, or even realize there's a difference. I'm amazed almost daily at how one of the most basic human instincts, curiosity, has been almost obliterated in those less than 25 years old. Even engineers. Not that our educational system is completely responsible for this, but it isn't doing much to reverse. What's going to happen to a world that just caters to the middle and doesn't distill the best it has to achieve greatness? Look around. After all, this no-talent ass-clown won a best actor award. Notice the crowd laughing, hysterically.

Posted 1/20/2007 03:10:00 PM by Douglas

Schadenfreudian slip: n. Accidentally admitting that you wanted someone to fail. "I'm so glad you didn't get that house! Whoops! Schadenfreudian slip!"

I like it!

Posted 1/20/2007 02:48:00 PM by Douglas

It's been a while, but it looks like Houston bashing is making the rounds again as some kind of response to Bush 43's energy policy. Remember, he's from New Haven.

As President Bush readies a new plan on global warming, environmentalists say an 18-lane highway going up in Houston speaks volumes about how people in his home state of Texas view the planet.

Not really. The Katy Freeway, Bush's position on global warming and the way Texan's look at the world don't really have that much in common.

I-10 West to Katy is a mess. Katy is a huge population center for Houston, and I-10 is major east-west interstate route. I don't know if rail would ease commuter congestion, but something had to be done, and this has very little (if not nothing) to do with Bush.

Texas has a long history of putting energy interests ahead of conservation. The nation's second most populous state also generates greenhouse gases as one of the world's largest oil-refining and petrochemical manufacturing centers.

Huh? Yes, that's true, but what's the point? Pollution is an unfortunate byproduct of industry, but to demonize it like this means you'd have to denounce all its advantages, too.

"Texas has always been pretty far over on the side of exploiting natural resources and not worrying about the consequences," Richard Murray, a political science professor at the University of Houston, said. "Texas generates a huge amount of carbon dioxide because we are such big energy consumers."

And producers. And I know for a fact that the other states without the luxury of huge oil and gas deposits appreciate heat and electricity that comes from Texas.

The sprawling Houston metropolitan area, home to more than 5 million people, caters to drivers. Multi-deck parking garages are affixed to most large apartment complexes and there are drive-through lanes at pharmacies, banks, dry cleaners and coffee shops like Starbucks Corp..

Right. Because Houston is the only city with urban sprawl, the only place with drive-through services, and of course, the only place on earth you'll find a drive-through Starbucks. Pure genius. Look, urban sprawl isn't the best thing on earth, but it's certainly not unique to Houston. It's everywhere, and it exists because (wait for it:) most people don't want to live on top of each other.

But this article is all over the place:

Bush has pushed for the use of alternative fuels like hydrogen and ethanol and in his State of the Union address a year ago decried America's "addiction" to oil.

I don't have it in me to rant about ethanol today, but I'm sick to death of hearing about our "oil addiction," and ethanol isn't going to do a thing to reduce CO₂ emissions. It actually creates more.

I just have one request. If you're a hack journalist looking to make an ad hominem attack on the president, please, leave Houston alone. It's not a perfect place, but it's not the epicenter of the world's problems, either.

Posted 1/16/2007 05:59:00 PM by Douglas

What if you put out all the Severe Weather Warnings and the weather never comes? What then? Surely TV weather isn't just about scaring the crap out of old people, is it? I give you Houston's Channel 2

"It's around us, it's near us, but we're just really not seeing a thing," KPRC Local 2 meteorologist Anthony Yanez said.

"As long as we stay above freezing, if we get any kind of rain it will fall as rain and not freezing rain," Yanez said.

No shit?!? If it's raining, it's raining, and if it's freezing, it's freezing. But! If it's freezing and raining, it's freezing rain? Slow down, Einstein.

Since they've been telling us we're all going to freeze to death on Tuesday and yet I somehow managed to survive the Nightmareish Frozen Hellscape '07™, what should I do now?

Yanez said Houston avoided the messy weather on Tuesday but Wednesday could be a different story.

"This is a 24-hour threat," Yanez said. "Just because we're really fortunate and we're seeing great conditions this morning does not mean that tomorrow morning is the same. We cannot let our guard down."

An ice storm warning for most of southeast Texas will go into effect at 6 p.m. and last through at least 9 a.m. Wednesday. One-tenth to a half-inch of ice is possible.

Oh shit, really?!? I guess I need to stockpile rum, salt and flour in my ammo bunker now. I should be running along. .

You know what we called this weather when I was kid? Cold. And these fuckers wonder why we don't listen to them anymore.

Posted 1/16/2007 05:57:00 PM by Douglas

Chances are, you're not very bright, and neither is your kid, I don't care what his report card says.

Today's simple truth: Half of all children are below average in intelligence. We do not live in Lake Wobegon.

It may vary due to sample size, but the very definition of "intelligence quotient" means that not everyone can be "above average." And who the hell wants to be, anyway? Someone has to be left to buy lottery tickets and extended warranties.

Posted 1/16/2007 05:40:00 PM by Douglas

Tuesday fun links! I found this guy gods knows where, but he's got some pretty silly stuff linked on his page. I think he's a D/FW radio guy, but still, I lost at least an hour, and not everything there is SFW, so be careful. Starters (all SFW):

• I'm hesitant to hand out superlatives and there are a lot of strange videos on Youtube, but this is the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Did he say ham?
• Don't miss this site if you're a guy that's ever wanted a British woman to say to you "I'm going to beat it like it owes me money."
• Ever noticed signs that say 0.4¢ when they mean $0.4? Well guess who else doesn't know the difference between a penny and a dollar? Verizon. It's about ½ an hour, but I kept listening because I knew they would eventually get it. Let me save your time: they don't.
• That's one dirty kitty, said the chimp.
• Wanna see a laughing German midget? Me neither. Personally, I don't think the camel is that funny.

That's all I have to say about that. . . .

Posted 1/16/2007 05:36:00 PM by Douglas

More crazy cat blogging. This time, from SNL this weekend. Yup, you guessed it, laser-cats make a come-back!

Posted 1/15/2007 05:45:00 PM by Douglas

While the Houston Chronicle is trying to be helpful and give South East Texans tips for driving on the ice we'll most likely see tomorrow morning, I'd like to offer up my own suggestions after witnessing drivers in this city for the last decade. So here they are, Enthalpy's tips for driving on icy Houston roads!

1. Don't. Really, are they waiting for you at the ER? Stay home, flapjack, you don't have one sick day every decade?
2. The ground is warm, the bridge isn't.
3. Don't hit your brakes when you realize you're on ice. The overpass isn't that long, and you'll get over just fine if you don't try to stop.
4. Your SUV doesn't make you invincible. That front wheel drive car has a much better chance of getting over that giant mix-master with ½ inch of ice on it. I've done it.
5. You AWD car may come with traction control, but it doesn't come with a brain.

I'm starting to bore myself, so I'll quit, but why do I think I'm going to hear about 40 car pile-ups tomorrow?

Posted 1/15/2007 05:34:00 PM by Douglas

Wow, the phone company getting by without actually giving you phone service. Why the hell did this take so long and when is Verizon going to pull its head out of its ass?

Within a few months, AT&T is expected to start charging $19.95 a month for "naked" DSL, meaning you don't have to buy any other AT&T (T) service, including phone, to get that rate. It currently charges $45 for a stand-alone broadband subscription.

AT&T also is developing $10 DSL for new subscribers who also buy AT&T-branded phone service.

AT&T plans to offer both services for at least 30 months. The clock starts as soon as the media giant starts selling them in any of the 22 states where it is the incumbent local phone company, including California, Florida, Illinois and Texas.

Wow, actually giving people what they want for a competitive fee? It's almost like the free market is in play in public utilities. Oh wait:

Why so cheap? Three words: Federal Communications Commission.

The FCC, which has broad regulatory control over the U.S. telecommunications industry, recently approved AT&T's acquisition of BellSouth. To get needed votes from the FCC's two Democratic members, AT&T agreed, reluctantly, to offer these DSL bargains.

AT&T is required to roll out the $19.95 offer within one year and the $10 rate within six months. Gene Kimmelman, public policy director of Consumers Union, says he expects AT&T to move faster.

Under the terms of the FCC agreement, AT&T is required to offer naked DSL for $19.95 in markets that are at least 80% upgraded for broadband. That describes many of AT&T's biggest markets, says Kimmelman, who helped negotiate the settlement.

So in exchange for letting SBC and AT&T get back together, the FCC (who broke them up in 1982) ekes out a 30 month deal to give consumers crappy DSL without a landline? I'm so glad the government is again looking out for the consumers.

Posted 1/15/2007 05:23:00 PM by Douglas

More cat pix, and the Fark forum it originally came from. But for the mother lode of cat pix, gotta go here. Don't click on that one if you have dial-up. Or a life.

Posted 1/14/2007 06:54:00 PM by Douglas

For some reason, these are funny today.

Posted 1/14/2007 06:50:00 PM by Douglas

I don't care where it came from, it's still a great picture.

The stunning video and photography gained by the high altitude flying WB-57s during shuttle launches may soon be a thing of the past, as NASA evaluated whether to cancel the use of the two aircraft.

Known as WAVE (WB-57 Ascent Video Experiment), the ability to have the additional resource of unique ascent - and to a point, re-entry - photographic capability was debated during Thursday's PRCB (Program Requirements Control Board) meeting in Houston, in a cost over benefit evaluation.

Sure it's expensive, but how else are you going to get pictures like this? I think the PR would be worth it, if they played their cards (pictures) right.

Posted 1/14/2007 06:43:00 PM by Douglas

Senator, Vietnam Vet, Republican and member of the Foreign Relations and Select Committee on Intelligence committees Chuck Hagel

Let—let’s start with some alternatives. Seventy-nine recommendations made by the Baker-Hamilton Commission report. One of them focuses right on what I’ve always believed will, in the end, be the result of Iraq and the Middle East, and that’s a political settlement. That means some kind of effort be made—and I didn’t hear much about this on Wednesday night in the president’s speech—to try to focus our efforts on a political accommodation, resulting in a political resolution, resulting in a political settlement. The Middle East is in more trouble today, more combustible, more dangerous than at any time since World War II. And you can measure that in, in Lebanon, Israel, the Palestinian states, Iran, Syria. And to say that we are going to feed more American young men and women into that grinder, put them in the middle of a tribal, sectarian civil war, is not going to fix the problem.

Ok, so Chuck's chattin' up the talking heads trying jump start his '08 presidential campaign, but still, this can't be good for 43. But then it got ugly.

This speech given last night by this president represents the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam.

Oh, no, not the "V" word!?! He's officially the 500,000th person to compare Iraq to Viet Nam! Someone give that man the prize turkey!

Posted 1/13/2007 07:25:00 PM by Douglas

Nine months later and the mysterious severed head still doesn't have a body. Or a murder charge.

It may be one of the strangest cases homicide investigators have ever seen in Amarillo.

They had a head, but no name and no body.

When an Amarillo solid-waste employee started a compressor on his trash truck March 27, he saw a head in the hopper of the truck. The discovery led investigators to days of searching the city's landfill for the body to match the head, but they found nothing.

Now, about 8½ months after the discovery, investigators are still puzzling over the death of the man, who they only know as a white male, about 38 to 58 years old.

Bizarre. So it hasn't been ruled a homicide, but it's hard to imagine that this isn't part of some kind of crime.

Posted 1/13/2007 06:58:00 PM by Douglas

From Thursday:

Victory will not look like the ones our fathers and grandfathers achieved. There will be no surrender ceremony on the deck of a battleship.

What the hell?! Doesn't anyone proof-read these things? I can't wait for Tony Snow to tell me it was an aircraft carrier.

Posted 1/13/2007 06:48:00 PM by Douglas

Thankfully, alert gauchos were able to save the llama before it was swept into the blades of the turbine.

Posted 1/11/2007 05:52:00 PM by Douglas

That's one giant pussy:

Here, KITTY KITTY KITTY. Goliath, a 20-pound stray whose girth got him stuck in a pet door while trying to plunder some dog food, is back with his owner.

His name isn't really Goliath, but it's close. It's Hercules, says owner Geoff Ernest, who was reunited with his tubby tabby Thursday at the Oregon Humane Society.

Gresham resident Jadwiga Drozdek found the feline stuck in the dog door of her home a few days ago, helped free him and gave him a plate of food on her patio.

Just what he needs. Food.

While at the Humane Society, Hercules was diagnosed with Feline Immunodeficiency Virus, similar to HIV in humans.

That's gotta be an awkward moment with the pet-sitter. "My cat didn't have AIDS when I left. . . . what the hell did you do?!?

Hercules reminds me of the second fattest cat I've ever seen. Diana:

Yeah, that's a sloppy MSPaint copy/paste of a picture, but I don't care. Maybe my granny didn't want to look like a flagrant dumbass as the vet tech does in the above picture with Goliath? Who knows, but I'm just tired enough not to care. So screw you, Nobel academy (because I know you're a frequent reader.)

Posted 1/11/2007 05:52:00 PM by Douglas

How disgusting is this?

An Air Force staff sergeant who posed nude for Playboy magazine has been relieved of her duties while the military investigates, officials said Thursday.

In February's issue, hitting newsstands this week, Michelle Manhart is photographed in uniform yelling and holding weapons under the headline "Tough Love." The following pages show her partially clothed, wearing her dog tags while working out, as well as completely nude.

"This staff sergeant's alleged action does not meet the high standards we expect of our airmen, nor does it comply with the Air Force's core values of integrity, service before self, and excellence in all we do," Oscar Balladares, spokesman for Lackland Air Force Base, said in a statement.

Manhart told Playboy that she considers herself as standing up for her rights.

"Of what I did, nothing is wrong, so I didn't anticipate anything, of course," Manhart, 30, told The Associated Press. "I didn't do anything wrong, so I didn't think it would be a major issue."

Manhart, who is married with two children, joined the Air Force in 1994, spending time in Kuwait in 2002. She trains airmen at Lackland.

Come on, hot, 30 year old moms! How many hotter 19 year olds that have spent the last seven grand of their trust funds on fake boobs and collagen injections are getting rejected for Playboy so some 30 year old mom can get some time on the glossies because her Uncle Gary molested her when she was eight and she's never "felt pretty"??

There are way too many 'eager beavers' who can't even rent a car to give so much attention to someone with this much baggage:

But then again, Playboy has subsisted on their own contraversy since its inception, so maybe this will move some issuse for them. Or at lease some knuckles.

Posted 1/08/2007 05:29:00 PM by Douglas

What the hell is going on? Dead birds in Austin, unusual stink in New Jersey, and chemical spill in Sugar Land. This is too freakin' weird. Should I be heading to Devil's Tower for some reason?

Posted 1/07/2007 04:43:00 PM by Douglas

Camp stove from a couple of beer cans. Please, someone with more patients than me try this and report back so I don't have to read this whole page and/or burn my eyebrows off.

Posted 1/07/2007 04:23:00 PM by Douglas

Funny, but I have a problem with the logic.

In other words, dialing up a pizza from Domino’s is just as bad, probably even worse, than lighting up in a bar. If smokers can’t force bar and restaurant workers to inhale their fumes, then surely people too lazy to cook or pick up their own dinners shouldn’t be able to force drivers to risk their lives delivering food. No worker should ever have to choose between his safety and his livelihood. How many innocents must die bearing midnight snacks for the gluttonous and slothful before we put a stop to such irresponsible behavior?

Idiot legislators don't see this as an example of their overstepping practical reality. They see this and think "ya know, that's a really good idea. Those pizza guys have had a free walk long enough."

Posted 1/07/2007 04:08:00 PM by Douglas

100 things from 2006. Mostly pointless, but I still like the story about the cat treeing the bear.

Posted 1/07/2007 03:52:00 PM by Douglas

In a desperate attempt to stay out of Chapter 11, Ford puts a new shine on two of its old turds.

The challenge from Ford Motor Co.'s top brass was daunting: Take an old car and a bland one and make them better. Don't change their basic frames and footprints, but make them look and feel new. And by the way, the future of the company is at stake, because if they don't sell, the automaker could run out of money.

That's what Ford designers and engineers faced when they set out to update the aging Focus small car and the slow-selling Five Hundred full-sized sedan.

The company will unveil new versions of both models this week at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. A lot is riding on them when they hit the showrooms later this year as 2008 models, especially if consumers continue to shift from trucks and sport utility vehicles to cars.

It'll be a sad day when Ford becomes the 21st century's buggy whip manufacturer, but I can't muster a tear for a company of that size that brought it upon itself. I've owned two Fords in the past decade, and it was obvious they didn't care about their car market when SUVs were making 100% profit. So now that high gas prices are driving the market back towards economy, they're finding out the hard way they people don't want to buy a Ford car now anymore than Ford wanted to sell them one five years ago when their SUV sales were a license to print money. So I can be sad at the decline and death of an American institution, but not so much when it's a result of their own hauteur and greed.

Posted 1/07/2007 03:13:00 PM by Douglas

When I first saw this linked from Fark a few weeks ago, I thought it was joke. Not particularly funny, but a joke, none the less, due to its poor photoshoping and laughable 'technical' specifications. It may turn out to be a joke, but now the MSM vying to be the butt.

More specifically, Montreal artist Cesar Saez hopes to send a 1,000-foot long banana dirigible into the southern sky next year to make giant loops over the Lone Star State.

"I want to bring some humor to the Texas sky," said Saez, 38, well known in Quebec for his public works of art.

"It's an artistic statement and a spectacle. One thing I love is the issue of truth or hoax, and I love the ambiguity," said the Argentina-born artist.

Ha ha! Yeah, that's a good one! No one knows if you're crazy or just stupid. Stop! My side is killing me!

Good luck with your publicity stunt, attention whore.

Posted 1/06/2007 02:33:00 PM by Douglas

What an interesting and useful use of your bandwidth.

By the end of this year, the contents of all 1,800 courses taught at one of the world's most prestigious universities will be available online to anyone in the world, anywhere in the world. Learners won't have to register for the classes, and everyone is accepted.

The cost? It's all free of charge.

The OpenCourseWare movement, begun at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2002 and now spread to some 120 other universities worldwide, aims to disperse knowledge far beyond the ivy-clad walls of elite campuses to anyone who has an Internet connection and a desire to learn.

Well, duh. It's not like the enlightenment of the world is cloistered away in some dark hall somewhere guarded by monks with swords. As stated in Good Will Hunting:

Will: You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for a buck fifty in late charges at the public library.

This information is out there, with or without MIT. Are they going to confer degrees to people that have absorbed their material? That's the real question.

Posted 1/03/2007 05:57:00 PM by Douglas

Spiders on drugs. Silly, but funny.

Posted 1/03/2007 05:13:00 PM by Douglas

"Thou shalt have justice — more than thou desirest." Revenge is dangerous business, as it will punish the guilty, so will it claim the innocent.

Heaven knows what scores this particular man may have had to wipe out; very likely his whole family had been murdered; and after all, even a wanton kick to a prisoner is a very tiny thing compared with the outrages committed by the Hitler régime. But what this scene, and much else that I saw in Germany, brought home to me was that the whole idea of revenge and punishment is a childish daydream. Properly speaking, there is no such thing as revenge. Revenge is an act which you want to commit when you are powerless and because you are powerless: as soon as the sense of impotence is removed, the desire evaporates also.

How true. Most of us recognize this trait as what most adults call "growing up." Changing the things we can, accepting the things we can't and having the wisdom to know the difference.

Still, another example that Orwell's true genius was in his NON-fiction.

Posted 1/02/2007 05:19:00 PM by Douglas

You're on Notice, Suckers!

Posted 1/02/2007 05:14:00 PM by Douglas

Ever come across a word, look it up and shrug and think, "now that's a word I'm not going to remember 'till the next time I hear it." If only there was a place to keep track of these words and easily look them up at your leisure. Enter the Wordie. I've only got a dozen (because I've spent the last half hour searching for a word I can't spell close enough for even google to find.) But here's the start of my list.

Posted 1/01/2007 05:45:00 PM by Douglas

Louisiana is sinking.

Researchers have known for years that the swampy land under south Louisiana is sinking (potholed streets and wobbly porches and floors are visible evidence of that) but a lateral movement of the land into the Gulf enters largely unstudied terrain.

Flood protection planners have their work cut out for them as they choose between often competing theories about what is causing Louisiana to lose land at alarming rates. Since the 1930s, more than 2,000 square miles of coast sank or eroded.

Some scientists believe oil and natural gas extraction in the middle and late 20th century caused much of the sinking; others say the land is caving in because the Mississippi River and other waterways were straightjacketed by levees, which stopped floodwaters from replenishing the soil.

Sure, blame the oil companies. There's 100 things wrong with what's going on in Southern Louisiana. Oil companies don't even make the top ten.

Posted 1/01/2007 04:27:00 PM by Douglas

Some people take skee-ball way too seriously.

A man who was at a Sugar Land Chuck E. Cheese with his 4-year-old daughter was shot multiple times Sunday night in the parking lot after an argument inside with another man, police said.

The shooting happened about 8:30 p.m. at 2303 Town Center at the Southwest Freeway, said Barbara Brescian, Sugar Land Police Department spokeswoman.

Apparently, the two men knew each other, she said, and the suspect was at large Sunday night. The victim was flown by Life Flight to Memorial Hermann Hospital.

Should have gone with the wax lips instead of the mustache comb.

Posted 1/01/2007 04:23:00 PM by Douglas

What would New Year's be without celebratory gunfire?

An infant was nearly hit after a stray bullet pierced the roof of his home in southeast Houston just after midnight, according to televised news reports this morning.

About a dozen family members had gathered at the home located on Ashburn near Santa Fe to celebrate the new year when a bullet whizzed by the infant who was in a car seat.

Four other children were in the room with the family, but no one was injured. Police believe the shot came from neighboring celebratory gunfire.

Freakin' idiots.

Posted 1/01/2007 12:31:00 AM by Douglas

Happy New Years! Here's a pict from the Louisianan excursion. This is the end of the Morgan City Levee. And here's my Chevy by the Levee. Such that it is.