Employment

It's almost hard to believe that an organization that promises an active lifestyle, and regular openings in middle and upper-middle management would have any trouble recruiting people, but it seems to be the case for Al-Qaida.

Despite an intensive US-led manhunt, there has not been a credible lead on the Saudi-born al-Qaida leader in years. Bin Laden's nickname among some CIA hunters is "Elvis" because there have been so many false sightings of him.

I, personally, believe that "Elvis" left the building back in 2003, and anything relating to him produced since is bogus. Still, this would imply an opening in top management, too.

Decorum

Some controversy has sprung up over the violation of house decorum and rules covering the by the outburst of Rep Joe Wilson, reacting to the presidents claim that the proposed health control bill will not provide taxpayer subsidized health care to illegal aliens.

It may well not, eventually, as this report suggests:

"The Congressional Research Service has indicated that indeed the bills that are before Congress would include illegal aliens," Wilson said. "And I think this is wrong."

Indeed, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service study found that the House health care bill does not restrict illegal immigrants from receiving health care coverage.

House Republican Minority Leader John Boehner amplified the complaint that without proof of citizenship, illegal immigrants could be insured.

To be scrupulously fair, when any organization with the word "Congressional" is described as "nonpartisan", this should set off all the BS alarms within hearing. Also, it should be noted that the above mentioned report comes from Fox News, a known subsidiary of the Forces Of Darkness (tm) (r).

The report suggests that modifications are being considered that would fix this, and make Rep. Wilson, retroactively, wrong.

Also mentioned in the report:

House Democrats have left open the option to sanction Wilson for violating a House rule that expressly prohibits members from accusing presidents of lying. But they signaled a preference to move ahead without further distraction.

No mention of exactly when this rule was passed, but based on a notable lack of enforcement over the years, I'd have to guess it's a recent thing. No Democrat, to my recollection, has ever suffered any consequence, beyond a slight uptick in campaign contributions, from calling a Republican president a liar. I assume that Rep. Wilsons quick apology was the result of a personal visit by Rhambo Emmanual who explained to him the mechanics of such traditional Chicago parliamentary procedures as concrete overshoes, and the breathtaking vistas available from the bottom of the Chicago River.

Quote of the Administration

Jon Caldera calls this the best one-liner of the night:

There remains some significant details to be ironed out.

- President Obama, on his own health reform plan

I'm going to call it the defining statement for the entire administration, for as long as it lasts.

Fighting Robots

Fighting robots were first introduced in Denver in about 1986 at the local science fiction convention. The event was a smash hit, and is still put on today. The rules are fairly simple, and it's possible to build a competitive machine for $50 or so.

Others have gotten on board with events like Robowars and Battlebots, but the best thing to happen to the concept was when the military got into it. Today, the best toys are at DARPAs annual contests for the really serious end of things.
This baby looks to weigh 1-200 lbs, and has all the tactical bolt-ons any red-bloded American boy could want. The Critter Crunch, mentioned first, has 2 weight classes, 2 and 20 lbs. They also have an informal heavyweight class, which no one has built a machine for that requires your robot to fir into a 1-meter cube at the start, and top out at 100Kg max weight.

After seeing the 20 pounders go at each other with flame throwers and axes, a little thought makes clear that the larger class would necessarily be something the Army would be proud to own. It's also clear that the battle will have to be fought outdoors, and the audience will need to watch by remote TV. Backup cameras wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Air Fares

In England, the government is proposing higher taxes on air travel, to reduce air travel, to reduce their national carbon footprint. This would be in addition to what the airlines themselves do to the passengers, apparently for the same reason, and not because they're making too much money and need to reduce their tax liability.

Happy Days

Today was the last day of my short-term job, and I got a peek at the (preliminary) bill for the trip to the ER.

Next time I'm just going to lie down and see if whatever it is goes away by itself.

More Helath Care

This time some good news as technology marches onward. Arstechnica reports:

Detecting lung cancer could soon be as trivial as determining alcohol intoxication levels. A breath analyzer made out of functionalized gold nanoparticles may make lung cancer diagnosis noninvasive and portable.

The good news is that it appears to work in a fairly basic manner. Initial testing was don on people found to be fairly well along with the disease.

The authors neglect to mention if they will try to figure out how sensitive their sensors are to different stages of lung cancer. All of the cancer subjects in this study had primary stage-3 or stage-4 lung cancer, so the disease had already progressed significantly. It would be important to know if their sensors are useful in stages 1 and 2 of the disease, as being able to diagnose patients in earlier stages would vastly improve their chances of survival.

There is speculation that some other diseases might be detectable with this too.

Thanks to the Devils Kitchen for the pointer. Kitchen's over there, the workshop's over here.

Health Care

OK it's not actually about the proposed "Cash for Codgers" program being proposed, but it seems that not only is the weekend boding poorly for more than one of us, I'm on the list too.

I'm out working up a storm in upper 80s weather, when eventually I come in for a big slug of cold lemonade. This is followed by a near-faint and heartbeat measured at 180, which incurrs some soreness in the chest. This, in turn inspires the spouse to send me off to the ER.

At my age, if you walk into the ER and say the magic words "chest pain" you find yourself on a gurney being tested (EKG) almost immediately. In spite of no positive results, further tests are performed. Several blood tests, 2 X-rays, and a pair of PET scans. All of which are followed by a verdict of "clean bill of health. Just take it easy for the next few days."

The big, real heart attack will happen in a few days when I get the bill for all this.

McCain Feingold

The Supremes are soon to take a case regarding McCain-Feingold, and are presented with an opportunity to toss it completely. This would make elections more like they used to be (obfuscationary and corrupt) than they are now (obfuscationary and corrupt). Although having a donations line open that allows contributions from anyone, anywhere in the world probably lowers the bar about as far as it will go without doing photo ops with terrorists in return for a fat check.

The idea that restricting money to politicians to keep them more pure is right up there with keeping guns out of big cities to keep the violence down. We all know how well that's working out in D.C. and Chicago.

Better idea would be to let pols take money from anyone they want, as long as they publish the source on the internet, say within 24 hours. To illustrate the futility of that, just imagine the sudden proliferation of PACs with names like "The Sweetness And Light Group For Mom And Apple Pie", wholly funded by, say, Mexican drug cartels.

Of course if the pols had less money to spread around, and fewer opportunities to spread it, the price of a vote would drop. As someone said:"When politicians control buying and selling, the first things bought and sold are the politicians."

The Most Ethical Congress

In time for the Labor Day weekend, when no one reads what little news gets published, it seems that Charlie Rangell, chairman of the Ways and Means committee, which writes your tax laws, has discovered some $660K of assets that he forgot to mention in violation of the house ethics rules. This would normally be reason to loose the hounds and demand that he step down from his committee chairmanship, if not resign his seat in the house, except that he has significant protections from such a fate.

First, of course, is that he's a senior member of the "most ethical party evah", which invokes the memory of Edwin Edwards who famously claimed that "Unless I'm caught in bed with a live boy or a dead girl, this job is mine as long as I want it."* Pelosi, who is in charge of keeping order in the asylum, as yet sees no reason to act.

“Unless they find $90,000 in his freezer, like they did with Jefferson, we’re going to wait [for the outcome of a House ethics probe],” said a Democratic aide familiar with Pelosi’s thinking on the matter.

It also seems that Mr. Rangel, no fool he, has given money from his re-election war chest to the members of the ethics committee. This is known as pre-paid legal help, or in less savory circles, as bribing the judge ahead of time.

Secondly is that Rangel is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, making the chairmanship of the committee a "black" chairmanship, which would be difficult to pass on to a white man. Even worse, the next ranking Democrat on the committee is Pete Stark.

The next Democrat in line would be Pete Stark, an outspoken 77-year-old liberal with a firebrand reputation and a penchant for intemperate cracks – like calling Blue Dog Democrats “brain dead.”

Click the link, or save yourself some time by just scrolling down two posts to the Quote of the Day from Mr. Stark.

The next available black member is 4th on the seniority list, and the next available democrat who actually knows something about finance is currently sitting at number five, so I'm not holding my breath for a favorable outcome on this one.

*It is worth noting that Mr Edwards was a bit optimistic on that one as he is currently serving time in the Federal Joint for corruption. Bush the Second refused to consider pardoning him.

Your Tax Bucks At Work

Shamelessly stolen from Argyle Sweater, who is taking over the spot vacated by The Far Side:

There may well be some truth in this. Last Friday, driving down Broadway, we encountered a resurfacing effort over a 2-mile stretch. This is the sort of thing where they put 1 to 2 inches of asphalt over the existing roadway, roll it flat, and paint new stripes.

Last year, this would have involved the usual collection of heavy equipment, one orange cone at each cross street, and two flag people, holding a sign marked "slow", one at each end. The drill is that you notice the flagman, and try to remember to look both ways before turning across the new asphalt so as to avoid becoming part of it under the roller.

This year there were no less than 4 flagmen.

I keep hoping that the principle might find application to the engineering field.

Meantime, the effects of revising the methodology in calculating the unemployment rate, firat applied in July, are now evident. Thanks to Innocent Bystanders for the graphic.
The result is to shift the curve downward about half a point. Unfortunately, it still looks like the apex is going to appear sometime around spring of next year. I hope everybody stashed enough acorns to make it that long.

Quote of the Day

Found in a video clip at Powerline:

" The larger the national debt, the wealthier we are as a nation."

Rep. Pete Stark D-CA

I suspect that Mr. Stark has been in the house (since 1973) so long that when he says "we" he means the congress, not the country or the population. For him, a large national debt is equivalent to a high limit on the credit card, which he doesn't have to pay off.

Squandering an Opportunity

Mark Tapscott, here, goes on at some length about the opportunity to press for federal term limits on the part of the Tea Party. Frankly I thing almost any political grouping should be pushing for this, although, I suppose, if your party holds a majority, and you never expect to lose it, then term limits might not sound like such a good idea. Here's the money quote:

What I do know is this: Any candidate for Congress who opposes term limits cannot be trusted to put the national interest ahead of his own selfish political interest.

Federal Term Limits are included in Randy Barnetts bill of federalism. This collection of proposed amendments contains a number of things, some better than others, and calls for a demand for a constitutional convention to consider them. Keeping in mind that the congress will NEVER let a convention happen, if enough states ask for one, the congresses reaction is to actually pass the proposed amendment to defuse the issue. Thus, you can be assured that your state legislatures demand for a convention will not actually be met, but you will get a chance to vote the amendments up or down.

Gitmo Fun

I like the Rolling Stones. Here's a tribute to them featuring Gitmo and Barny the dinosaur.

I liked it.

Secret Master Of The Universe

Headlines shamelessly swiped from Drudge today:

SHOW THEM THE MONEY: Dealers Still Waiting For 'Clunker' Cash...

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Obama aides see need for more troops in Afghanistan...

Senate Dem Push Back Climate Bill's Schedule Amid Health-Care Debate...

White House blasts Cheney in interrogation feud...

RASMUSSEN POLL: Obama Approval New Low at 46%...

Blame Bush for woes...

Evidently when Bush left the white house, he took the Sooper Sekrit All-Controling remote control with him without telling Barry, and is now down in Texas pushing the buttons amid gales of maniacal laughter from Cheney and Rove.