Health Care

Pelosi says she has the votes, but Steney Hoyer, who actually counts them, says she doesn't. Evidently the idea of representative democracy has well and truly jumped the shark in D.C. as Pelosi says she'll pass this without a vote.

Now would be the time to strongly suggest to your congress critter that if he voted for this thing in the first place, against a nearly 60-40 popular disapproval, he's unlikely to be going back to Washington next year.

Of course if he or she votes for the Slaughter abomination, they should perhaps reconsider coming home. The peasants are revolting, as they say:

The Government as A Parasite

Geek With A .45 has a post up that compares governments with parasites, and cites examples in which the parasite ultimately kills the host.

At the end of the day, all government is parasitic. An ideal state is achieved when you have enough of it to provide the rule of law, but not so much as to become a host-killing nanny state. This would be a favorable symbiosis. Here's the tough part: How do you control the infection of government to the benefit of both bodies without the government bercoming the runaway parasite that ultimately kills the host?

Here in Colorado, we had a TABOR amendment which limited the governments growth in income to the increase in population plus inflation. The state was taken over by the Dems in 08, and with both houses, the governorship and the media, the voters were convinced to give this up, with predictable results.

Perhaps a constitutional amendment limiting government expenditures to a fixed percentage of the previous years GDP. If the government wants more money, they better do whatever boosts the GDP this year, or forgo the wish list for next year.

Geek cites an article here in which the lefts poster child, Sweden, is examined in some detail, and comes out looking not so wonderful. The official Swedish unemployment rate of 6% is examined, and it turns out they use many of the same techniques the US government uses to minimize the number.

A researcher at the main trade union, LO, recently left his job when he was not allowed to publish his estimate that close to 20 percent of Swedes are unemployed, either openly or hidden in labor-market projects, long-term sick-leave and early retirement.

The nasty catch seems to be that when a large percentage of the population is out of work, on some government subsidy or other, and sees no probability of finding work, then extending the government benefits becomes the most viable way of making a living, and there are always politicians willing to promise more government cheese in return for another term in office.

Quote of the Week

Robert Gibbs: Even if I have to personally break into the Smithsonian with a blowtorch and burn the Constitution, we will pass health care this week

Found at Curmudgeonly and Skeptical, the sites comments note that the Constitution in stored in the National Archives, but don't tell Gibbsey.

Gives you a nice grasp of the mindset of the people we're dealing with here, no? I had speculated earlier that I thought that nationalized health control was a done deal, requiring only the decision of whom to bribe and how much to give them.

Hey, hope springs eternal! Hell (D.C.) froze over, the Saints won the super bowl, and Ted Kennedy's Senate seat is now being warmed by a Republican. I know a fellow with 1 or two working pumpkin guns, so if we must, we can make a pig fly if we think that will help.

Battlefield Robots

There is an article in Pop-Sci that is breathlessly announcing the first commercial wireless human brain-computer interface. At the same time, Bayou Man notes that DARPA has developed a pretty fancy prosthesis with an eye toward control by implanted neural cortical control.

Put the two together, and what you have is the latest unmanned combat device for the battlefield of the future: An infantryman, teleoperated by someone at some remove from the actual battlefield. The first Terminators will not be completely autonomous.

Now think about the level of inspiration you would need to take up arms against such an enemy, and exchange fire with him, knowing that you are the only warm meat on the battlefield.

Lions And Zebras

Anyone who has ever watched one of those Discovery or National Geo shows knows how the African Savanna works. The Zebras in great numbers go about their business, eating and making more Zebras, and the lions hang out on the edges of the herd, occasionally taking one down for food.

The municipal savanna works the same way. The Zebras, in large numbers, travels as a herd to and from work, and the lions, in black and white vehicles, randomly pull a few of us down, to satisfy the municipal hunger.

Following the person in front of you, turning left, across an otherwise busy roadway, through an otherwise large gap in the oncoming traffic, the lead person steps on the brakes as soon as he clears the intersection, slowing to about 5 mph, and leaving yours truly sitting across an oncoming lane of traffic. Pulling up close behind him to avoid being hit is not "following too closely" regardless of what the uniformed kid with the gun and nun-chucks (when did they start issuing those?) says.

Fortunately, the DA will always solicit a bribe in the form of "gimmie some extra money, and I'll knock the charges down to almost nothing". This implying that while following too close is a 4 point offense, worthy of $88, having a defective headlamp is, while only 1 point, worth $105.

You don't suppose it's really about just money, do you?

Dr Helen has a post on the topic as well, and the comments there are worth reading, too.

Death Of A God

Well, that may be stretching the case just a bit, but...

Some years back, D'wife bought an iTouchless 13 gallon trashcan, which, oddly enough, is not an Apple product.
Very mundane looking, but it has in the lid, sensors that react to anything getting close to it by opening the lid with a small motor. It was kind of pricey, MSRP being about $100, but with some shopping around, it can be had for around $75. Still sounds pricey? This thing has become my second favorite piece of kitchen automatia behind only the coffee pot. I liked it so well I fitted ours with teeth:
And named it Offler, after Terry Pratchett's crocodile god. If you set it too close to a walk path, the maw gapes open every time you pass. When the machines come after us, this thing will be at the forefront. Those teeth should be a factory option. On second thought, they should be standard. You should have to remove them yourself if they make you nervous.

Last week, Offler died. The little plastic gear, cast into the lid, snapped off, and while the sensor and motor still work fine, the lid remains shut. Replacement lids are available, and I got one, and I still have the old lid. That old lid is destined to become Something. What I'm not sure. A flag-raising B.S. alarm perhaps. D'wife is afraid it will become a rising pair of luminescent eyes, awaiting a trip to the loo in the dark. The mind races frantically, evincing the sound of stripped gears and dry bearings from inside the skull.

And best yet...Offler lives!

Disclaimer: No one ever gave me anything except my little dog Checkers.... No, wait, people have given me free stuff, including dogs, but never a carnivorous trashcan. If you get one, tell them I sent you. Maybe they'll give me one of their other widgets to test.

Postal Matches

The concept has definitely hit the big time, and no doubt will soon become a recognized Olympic sport.
Go here to shoot for the stars:

Or here to help suppress the Zombie uprising:
The weather is getting warmer, and you were looking for an excuse to go out to the range, and burn some ammo, now weren't you?

There are lots of other such matches out there, and most have in common that there is no prize, beyond bragging rights, for winning. My advice is that the targets are usually harder than they look, and what you think of as a bad target, may turn out to be quite competitive. Most, if not all of these can be shot with a .22, so cost shouldn't be a factor.

Take multiple targets. I usually find that my second target is the best. Take multiple guns, there's a class for everything. Take multiple people, the extra advice you'll get will be invaluable, or at least amusing. Besides it doesn't hurt to have a spotter. I don't know about you, but I have a hard time seeing holes smaller than about 1/2" diameter at extreme distances, like 25 ft any more.

Teachers Unions

The School board in a Rhode Island district, unable to get sufficient help from the faculty at a local high school, eventually responded by firing the lot of them. Shades of Reagan and the Air Traffic Controllers!

The President, in a move I certainly would not have predicted, came out in favor of the school board. Predictably, the two national teachers unions are livid.

“I ripped the Obama sticker off of my truck,” said Zeph Capo, a midlevel official at the Houston Federation of Teachers who trains classroom teachers. “We worked hard for this man, we talked to our neighbors and our fellow teachers about why we should support him, and we’re having to dig the knife out of our back.”

Bummer, dude. Like you, I had always thought that the teachers unions existed to keep mediocre teachers from being fired until they could get tenure.

Write-Only Memory (WOM)

Once listed as a failed idea from then-vibrant Silicone Vally, it apparently found a home in Sacramento. Seems once you get on the state's list of child abusers, there's no provision to ever get off, although the suggestion in the comments to get the assemblymen on it has a great deal of merit.

Reinforces my belief that if engineers built bridges the way legislators wrote laws, the United States would end at the first creek west of Plymouth Rock.

Be Prepared

To cite the Boy Scout's marching song*, it seems a Nordic ferry with 1000 passengers, anticipating more global warming, got stuck in heavy ice off Stockholm.

"Suddenly in the loudspeakers there's a voice saying that all passengers must immediately move to the front. Of course at that moment the passengers got worried and wondered what was happening," Nystrom said.

After moving the passengers to the bow of the boat, it was discovered that the tow rope had been left behind.

*Humor alert.

McDonald v Chicago

Sorry for misspelling the name previously.

Best summary yet is at Politics, Guns & Beer. Sample:

FELDMAN: Here’s my first argument.
SCALIA: That argument sucks.
FELDMAN: Ordered liberty?
SCALIA: We haven’t used that since 1937.
FELDMAN: Have too.
SCALIA: When?
FELDMAN: Uh, here’s my second argument.
SCALIA: You just argued against your first argument.

It was, as I noted earlier, not a real good day for Mr. Feldman. The transcript, which I linked earlier is still a good read. I get the impression that when you go in to argue before the Supreme court, that you may safely assume that most of the justices have already read your prepared arguments, and half of them would like to have a Christmas tree erected before the bench, about which your guts will be wrapped in fine old Germanic tradition.

Economic Advice

Trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome is a definition of insanity. Of course if you cut yourself, you will bleed a bit. Another cut, bleed a bit. If you do it ofter enough, in quick succession, however, you will die, which, I suppose, is a different outcome.

To the leaders in California, Greece, Michigan, Spain, Portugal, New York and other places, here and all over the world:

If you do what the Marxists tell you to do, you will get the results the Capitalists warn you that you will get.

MacDonald v Chicago

The whole thing is here, all 65 pages of oral arguments. My overall impression was that Gura and the NRA (Clement) are on the winning side, and Feldman (Chicago) was getting roundly beaten by the justices.

Now, think of this, too: That when you have the First Amendment, or some of the other amendments, there is always a big area where it's free speech versus a whole lot of things, but not often free speech versus life. When it's free speech versus life, we very often decide in favor of life. Here every case will be on one side guns, on the other side human life.

The above from Justice Bryer, who seems to have a problem with the notion of self-defense.

In other areas, the arguments got off onto the notion that since the Framers wrote the Second amendment to prevent the Federal government from disarming the state militias, should the second be interpreted to prevent the states from disarming their own militias. Feldman (Chicago) said yes, which got him painted into the corner of saying that possession of militia arms was OK, but not small pistols.

JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: What -- in which ways has ordered liberty been badly affected?

MR. GURA: Justice Sotomayor, States may have grown accustomed to violating the rights of American citizens, but that does not bootstrap those violations into something that is constitutional.

This should appeal to Justice Sotomayor. The justices are big on the concept of "ordered liberty", and lean toward anything that promotes it. While the phrase "self defense" does not appear in the constitution, the concept is understood to be broadly supportive of ordered liberty.

Don't let the 65 page number daunt you, they are double spaced, and in large type, limited to 25 lines per page.

ACORN Absolves Itself

If you must be investigated for criminal wrongdoing, it's best to keep the whole thing inside the family.

Frankly, I had not expected anything very much different to happen. ACORN works very hard to get those people in, and everybody involved knows what quid pro quo means.

Traffic Management

Congestion in the mountains is motivating legislators to look into radical new ways to relieve it. This new plan involves adding a lane in the direction of greatest demand, during the times of greatest demand.

This is exactly the opposite of their position on the Sante Fe corridor, where rush hour congestion is dealt with by effectively narrowing a 3-lane road to two.

Of course they could cover their butts by designating the 3rd lane an HOV lane. Don't know what it's like now, but back when I went skiing, hardly anyone went alone.