The Ben Hawken Blog

Getting Real About Rocks

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:21:00 +0000

After some careful analysis (i.e. staring closely), a moon rock on display in a Dutch museum has been reclassified as a piece of petrified wood.

Apparently curators had been told that the rings visible on the rock were something astronauts used to determine the age of the moon.

This revelation places the efficacy of all our precious minerals in question. For example:

-- Although still highly valued, the Porter Rhodes is actually a delicious piece of crystallized grapefruit.

-- Despite being flawlessly faceted, the Hope Diamond is actually an intricately folded piece of origami.

-- Although carefully studied for centuries, cryptolinguists failed to notice the Rosetta Stone was carved from an open-faced reuben sandwich.

-- The Samarian Spinel is actually a petrified tangerine.

-- The shard of granite believed to be a piece of the original Long Ya Men is actually a low-end bowling ball.

-- After years of reverie, the Hixon Ruby is now known to be a decomposing Fruit Roll-Up.

The real failure here, however, is the Dutch museum's inability to get out in front of this story. Had they acted quicker, they could have led the news with a story stating, "Rijksmuseum releases proof of forests on the moon!"

But what are the odds people in Amsterdam were [ahem] "distracted" in the middle of the day.

Being Wrong Never Seemed So Difficult

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:21:00 +0000

Wikipedia is admitting it has a problem. To borrow a phrase, it's a lot like a bear admitting he craps in the woods.

To see this familiar problem for yourself, look up any topic you are extremely knowledgeable about on Wikipedia and behold the surging ocean of grisly errors presented under the solemn factual auspices of closely cropped rows of text.

To address this, parent organization Wikimedia sponsored a conference for the army of consultants tasked with fixing this. The demographic info was not pretty:

A chart showed the self-reported demographics of Wikipedia contributors — more than 80 percent male, more than 65 percent single, more than 85 percent without children, around 70 percent under the age of 30.

No wonder the entries on female anatomy are exhaustively footnoted, while the basics of Carthaginian history or the sub-atomic processes at work during metaphase are written by a goat with cataracts somewhere in Belize.

Multitasking is a rel... hold on, just got a call...

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:20:00 +0000

Stanford University has released a study detailing the inability of most people to multitask effectively.

Although unsurprising, it overlooks the much larger danger of doing too many things at once.

The article went on to say a bunch of stuff about this topic, but 98.3% of readers never got past the second paragraph because they had to finish reading an e-mail, filling out a FedEx form and ordering thai for lunch.

The Last, and Possibly Least, of a Generation

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 02:58:00 +0000

Luckily I was on vacation and missed it, but last week the networks were consumed with live coverage of Ted Kennedy's funeral.

It is, by all reports, the single most extravagant ceremony in recent memory for a serially philandering alcoholic murderer. Which, in the modern age, is really saying something.

His was a life that can best be summarized by the insight that he could never accomplish anything meaningful due to the fact he was "muzzled by the facts of his life" and therefore incapable of ever taking the moral stand necessary to effect a lasting impact.

Unsurprisingly, our current president labeled him "the greatest legislator of our time." The reason, I imagine, is that if a first rate black hole like Ted Kennedy is "great," then that bodes well for how he hopes his own Manchurian Candidacy will be remembered.

I imagine Barry also appreciates a fellow empty suit who has been similarly stumped by simple questions like "Why do you want to be president?" As if there was another answer besides, "Because I want it." (check the comments section for a full transcript of his answer)

High praise came from all corners (for the same reason as Barry-O's), but this praise is only insightful if you can read the words left out of the official statements.

Shepard Smith:

In his nearly 47 years in the Senate, 3 days of which were spent sober, Ted Kennedy worked on legislation that affects every single one of us every day of our lives. And by "legislation" I mean wasted taxpayer money, and by "affects" I mean "I read whatever the teleprompter says."

Keith Olbermann:

We don't have royalty, this is the closest thing we have to it. Or, said another way, feudal France didn't really have royalty either, they just had people who were related to each other, who could act indiscriminately without fear of being held accountable, and were never required to interact with the people from whom they demanded obedience. It's as much the tragedies, the failures as the story of redemption in Senator Kennedy's life -- and this despite pursuing a lifestyle for which he was never held accountable and, thus, could not possibly be redeemed.

Brian Williams:

The rest of us get to grieve in private. All of [the Kennedy family's] suffering it seems comes with live television coverage, making it all the more poignant. The kind of privacy he forced upon Mary Jo Kopechne while she died slowly in the Poucha Pond inlet and he limped home to sleep off a buzz.

James Carville:

Never in my lifetime ever has there been anything like this for somebody who's not President of the United States. You just sit back and tell yourself it was well deserved. He is, after all, the man who ran for President in 1980, against a Democrat president, and effectively destroyed his party's chances of remaining in power -- for the sole reason that his vanity could not wait until 1984.

Andrea Mitchell:

This driving rain, perhaps the perfect weather for such a sad day, tears of heaven coming down. Indeed, these are the tears of angels showing pity for a man headed for a place not even Dante was allowed to see.

Manchurian Messiah:

Through his own suffering, Ted Kennedy became more alive to the plight and suffering of others -- the sick child who could not see a doctor, but not the injured young woman he left sinking in the waters off the coast of Chappaquiddick; the young soldier sent to battle without armor, but he used his father's political connections to dodge the draft.

After combing the dictionary, I think "barftastic" is the perfect word for this.

The BHB Needs a Job Picking Lotto Numbers

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:51:00 +0000

The BHB has been accused of foretelling the future on occasion, and I suppose posts like this are the reason.

Case in point: As Bloomberg notes, things are continuing to go precisely as expected.

The first 12 months of the U.S. recession saw the economy shrink more than twice as much as previously estimated, reflecting even bigger declines in consumer spending and housing, revised figures showed.

“The current downturn beginning in 2008 is more pronounced,” Steven Landefeld, director of the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, said in a press briefing this week.

Does it still count as "change" if it's the type none of us "hoped" for? This is a serious question.

Required Reading

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 05:48:00 +0000

Every couple weeks, you'll see a sidebar story about "5 Sites You Should Read" or other helpful information about websites that can offer that critical piece of daily information you need.

An often-overlooked member of this category is SexyPeople.com.

A majority of readers use it to gaze into the past, but I find it most helpful to peer into the future.

For example, on the site I found my brother's future son, my own future children, and (amazingly) my dad.

07/25/09: Also Worth Noting

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 05:46:00 +0000

There are some things that will haunt my dreams as long as I live. Things like this.

* * *

Reason #94821 NYC is a great city: A man who has made a career prancing around in his underpants is a viable contender for mayor.

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An entire article about the acceptability of "the N-word" in politics? Is this really a topic everyone doesn't already agree on?

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Finally a stimulus job for which the BHB is qualified. And by "qualified," I mean, "less likely to fail at."

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Frankly, I've told weirder stories than this to get out of trouble.

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Why does Barry set himself up for ridicule by saying things like this within minutes of preaching the value of pro-choice social policies. Regardless of the politics at stake, it is absurdly dumb.

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If you are familiar with Star Wars IV, this action figure is a bit sad.

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If I've said it once, I've said it 37 times: Do not marry a porn star after being elected to public office.

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A sinmple solution for the sags and shifts that beset a 77-year-old body: Cut off the main attractions and start over.

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I remember being 10-years-old and really wanting candy, so who am I to judge this young man?

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Why do questions of class and race remain undiscussed or unresolved in any productive way? Because the types of people considered the "foremeost authority on race issues" are the ones who shout "I'll speak wit yo mama!" at cops. It's not a question of us being unwilling to talk about race and its roll in modern society, it's that the people who do most of the talking and who are exulted by peers and the media are raving morons -- a condition wholly independent of race.

* * *

The great State of Washington (and Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Vermont) apparently has no age minimum to go hunting alone. A four-year-old can LITERALLY wander into the forest and start shooting. Even TEXAS has a age minimum.

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South Korea is way ahead of us when it comes to consumer electroncis, but we are light years out in front in the pop music department. I mean... wow.

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Here's a religious icon that can bring science and theology together at last.

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If you like sports and electronic music, this song is pretty much the best thing ever. EVER.

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Someone cracked the code for KFC. Are congratulations in order? The obesity gods must be smiling.

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I get the feeling Joe Biden is as surprised by the things his mouth says as we are.

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A Seattle Seahawk's receiver who is upset at the skills given to his video game persona has vowed "I'm not playing Madden no more." So I suppose that means he is playing the game some more?

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If only all PSAs could be this engaging. And easily applicable.

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Sure you've seen (and been disappointed by) the most recent two Transformers movie, but let's take a look back at the original.

Getting to Know Your Next $1 Trillion a Bit Better

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 08:57:00 +0000

Not surprisingly, our president is "not familiar" with the healthcare bill that his campaign financers have written and ordered him to enact.

Perhaps nothing quite defines the Obama Era quite like this series of sentences:

As part of that effort, Obama hosted a conference call with leftist bloggers urging them to pressure Congress to pass his health plan as soon as possible.

During the call, a blogger from Maine said he kept running into an Investors Business Daily article that claimed Section 102 of the House health legislation would outlaw private insurance.

He asked: “Is this true? Will people be able to keep their insurance and will insurers be able to write new policies even though H.R. 3200 is passed?” President Obama replied: “You know, I have to say that I am not familiar with the provision you are talking about.”

If and when this bill passes, however, I can guarantee you'll hear him say "my bill" over and over.

But, if we're lucky, he'll at least get familiar with this video.

I am going to barf.

The Moon Landing: 40 Years Later

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:06:00 +0000

A mere 40 years ago today man walked on the moon and, for a mere 39.999 years, people have been debating how and if it was possible for mankind to do such a thing in 1969.

Amidst the believers in NASA, and those vocally citing evidence of a hoax, this insightful essay asserts a third possibility:

This third position postulates that humans did go to the moon but what we saw on TV and in photographs was completely faked.

Furthermore, this third position reveals that the great filmmaker Stanley Kubrick is the genius who directed the hoaxed landings.

This may seem absurd, but you need look no farther than Kubrick's IMDB page to find a definitive answer.

Faceoff

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:08:00 +0000

Well, this is nice. I'll just stare at the clock in the meantime.

A Compass Would Be No Use

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:38:00 +0000

This country is so deep into the backwoods of We-Are-So-Screwdsville that they can't even read the map anymore.

President Barack Obama may rely only on Democrats to push healthcare legislation through the U.S. Congress if Republican opposition doesn’t yield soon, two of the president’s top advisers said. [...]

House Democrats today unveiled legislation totaling about $1 trillion that would expand health care to millions of Americans over the next decade by raising taxes on the wealthiest households.

But don't worry, there's a perfectly legitmate way to pay for all of this.

Noted genius Charlie Rangel explains:

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel said lawmakers targeted high earners because it “causes the least amount of pain on the least amount of people.”

Has no one ever read Atlas Shrugged (which, I admit, sucked)?

In Rare Form

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:31:00 +0000

Finally some evidence regarding whether or not Sotomayor is racist or not:

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor firmly denied racial bias Tuesday at her Senate confirmation hearing.

Oh, well I guess that settles it.

Sure, it's easy to lie to the Democrat Senate, but it's something else entirely to have them life for you.

Democrats were protective, occasionally offering her opportunities to counter her critics. Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., noted, for example, that in 17 years as a trial and appeals court judge, Sotomayor had rarely been overturned by the Supreme Court.

And just to be clear: In the Obama Era, "rarely overturned" means OVERTURNED 60% OF THE TIME.

When Obama eventually appoints his dog to the Federal Reserve I can't wait to hear supporting arguments the Left puts together.

Also, can we get some kind of scale to demonstrate how terms like "rarely" relate numerically?

For example, something like this.

07/17/09: Also Worth Noting

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:23:00 +0000

I refuse to believe that I'm the only one that gets really confused every time I drop someone off at the airport. As I enter the airport area I see a sign with an arrow that reads "Arrivals," and my first thought is, "Yes, I am arriving at the airport; I will go that direction." And it never works out. I can't possibly be the only person that does this.

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What is this world coming to when you can't have a voodoo high priest remove your "spiritual grime" (for a mere $621) without ending up dead. Freaking Republicans.

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Three years ago, at age 66, a woman in Spain became the oldest woman to give birth for the first time (to twins). At the time there was intense criticism over whether or not this was a responsible thing to do to the children. Today Maria Bousada definitively answered this question, and her critics, by dying. Her brother will not disclose the cause of death, but experts indicate a rare but easily diagnosable element claimed her life: Raising a pair of 3-year-old boys when you are almost 70.

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Ok, yes, the Eternal Moonwalk site is amusing.

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This story is tailor-made for cable news and, rightly so, the word "outrage" is being used with great frequency. But members of college fraternities across the country are calling it by a different name: "Tuesday."

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Reuters notes that "Four Russians, a Frenchman and a German ended a simulated 105-day space trip" in a hermetically sealed compartment. The experiment was to research how the 500 day trip to Mars might impact the human body and psyche. The real achievement, however, was how the participants survived the smell of "Four Russians, a Frenchman and a German."

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The BHB has long since warned all of you about the threat posed by both robots and monkeys. Now, however, the threat has evolved in ways that even I could not foresee -- bionic monkeys. Eventually the bionic monkeys will discover this technology, and then we are all SUPER screwed.

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There's a lot of research discussing how most of Asia and large sections of Europe traces itself back to Genghis Khan, or how much of the world descends from Mohammed, but I think this story is under-reported.

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To be fair, Obama's proposed universal healthcare plan might not be so bad afterall -- this organizational chart demonstrates how its streamlined infastructure will work when you need it most.

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If you are a woman living in an Arab country and you've grown tired of your all-black wardrobe, some soon-to-be-executed tailors are creating the exact same garment, but with some sequins snazzily glued to the fabric. Unsurprisingly, the clerics have cited this as an unforgivable abomination.

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Arguments about the legality of deploying for war for this new reason are going to become a lot more common, although they might not receive a lot of media coverage.

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Do you enjoy video games AND night vision goggles? You are in luck.

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Are you as outraged as I am about the myths the media perpetrates about proper hydration techniques? Thankfully LifeHacker.com puts this dispute to rest.

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Sotomayor's nephews are as interested in her as I am.

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Rumors of Dave Chappelle sightings are not exaggerations.

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A computer glitch sent some Bank of America customers a notice claiming they owed $23 quadrillion in fees. It's funny now, but in 10 years when Obama-nomics have raised the national debt to this level, it will be kind of depressing.

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A very angry Wes Pruden notes in his Washington Times column that it remains to be seen "whether the senorita is "wiser" than white folks, as she assures us she is, or not quite ready for prime time, as her record on the appeals court suggests."

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Finally, something else (besides a love of glass figurines and/or boxes of old gift wrap) to give junk collectors hope.

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Sometimes I wonder if io9.com was created just to absorb my spare reading time.

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White aligators! Cory music! Amazing!

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When it comes to Sea Pig (not a typo), there is a very fine line between cute and terrifying.

A Referendum

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:29:00 +0000

It's easy to dislike Sarah Palin, and this NYT article (predictably) makes it even easier. Even the LAT gets in on the act.

But I ask this: She is clearly unlikable, she is clearly underqualified (not that that is a deal breaker anymore, right Barack?), she is clearly unelectable -- so why the raging antagonism?

The level of wrath this also-ran continues to endure is not proportionate to her level of clout, accomplishments or foreseeable potential.

That leaves me to wonder what it is about her that makes so many people feel threatened. Historically, whenever a superpower begins to direct its might on a notably weaker party, it is a clear sign that the superpower is in decline.

In order to refute either of the last two sentences, Palin's opponents are forced to admit she's a force to be reckoned with, and I don't think anyone believes that.

It seems as if the critics feel she has somehow betrayed them. She was a woman with a great deal of local power and a chance at great national power, but she was a conservative. Granted a brainless, the-world-is-7000-years-old-and-dinosaurs-are-a-myth type of conservative, but politcally red nonetheless.

And it was as if placing a woman in office who refused to tow the line on pro-choice ideology and who talked voluminously about putting family and kids first was some type of betrayl. It was something akin to the reaction we would have seen had been J.C. Watts and not Barry -- but much, much angrier.

The vitriol aimed at an irrelevant factor like Palin has nothing to do with her political career at all, but it is instead a referendum on what the press and the Left see as the acceptable role of women in society.

It appears that there is far less tolerance than anyone suspected for conservative values female political actors, i.e. the pundits felt Palin was betraying them by rejecting the blood and sweat they had spent fighting for pro-choice laws, or that she was confirming the sexism causing gender-based wage discrimination by talking about how her first love was being a mom and her career came second.

And, thanks to her nasty habit of never finishing a sentence without mentioning God, Palin also confronted their ideas about the secular society and the emphasis placed on human-powered achievement.

The scathing referendum the media has held on Palin has amounted to a gaggle of teenage girls shouting "HOW DARE YOU!" at the insolent friend that has decided to controvert every bylaw of their clique.

This fact makes Palin amusing, if not quite charming. But, no, I never used the word "likable" or "electable."

According to Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 23:24:00 +0000

There were some critics of the misguided economic stimulus plan who said that the plan was so fatally flawed that it seemed as if the president (and, specifically, his handlers) were purposefully creating terrible legislation.

When the economy got worse as a result of its implementation, this criticism was renewed, but, the pundits assured us, this continued meltdown was simply an unintended, unanticipated consequence.

So, who was right?

Helpfully, Barry-O settled the debate.

Bloomberg notes:

President Barack Obama said his $787 billion stimulus bill “has worked as intended.”

Fantastic.

07/11/09: Also Worth Noting

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 08:40:00 +0000

Quote of the week: "Sharpton has never met a conspiracy he didn’t embrace, and possibly grope."

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Casual Friday? How about My-Business-is-in-Your-Face Thursday? No thanks.

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Years ago, when an accident like this took place, we called it natural selection. Now it's some kind of tragedy.

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Our president has been very busy at the G8 Summit. And by busy, I mean -- well, you get it.

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This movie

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If you ever are feeling lazy, this story will make you feel even lazier.

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A group of black teenagers attacked and mercilessly beat a white couple after a Fourth of July party while shouting "This is a black world!" Luckily for the teenagers, this does not qualify as a hate crime because the beating was handed out by minorities who, we're told, are not capable of being racist because, after all, racism is something that only white people are capable of feeling.

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If you do have to die, there are worse ways than falling into an industrial vat of chocolate.

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Corny? Yes. But not the worst special effects you'll see this summer.

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Criticism that America's litigious nature has made a career in law enforcement unappealing is underscored by the training offered to new cadets in Philadelphia. On the day of their police academy graduation they attend a training workshop entitled, "What can get you fired?" Sure, they could be learning some additional law enforcemnt techniques, but no.

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To understand how willing crazy people like North Korea and Iran are to obtain and use nuclear weapons, it helps to consider the sacrfices they are willing and eager to have their citizens endure to reach such a goal.

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As noted last week, this song is fantastic. Equally entertaining is the English translation of the lyrics. And the dancing of the backup singer on the choruses, of course.

Let the Games Begin

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:48:00 +0000

Every day the judicial philoshophy of Sotomayor becomes clearer, and it is not pretty.

In addition to her oft-boasted belief that judges can create laws and policy from the bench, she has shown an alarming eagerness to, in the words of one expert, "overstep the traditional role of appellate judges." I.e., change the decisions of lower courts as she sees fit.

This has meant that instead of hearing an appeal she has scoured the evidence of the case itself, in a sense re-opening a closed investigation, and come to her own (often biased) conclusions about the merits of the evidence, witnesses, etc.

Sotomayor and seven mostly Democratic colleagues voted to set free a convicted murderer who did not contest his guilt but had been tried on what the court called the wrong murder charge. In another, she joined an opinion that cited flawed jury instructions in throwing out a man's conviction for enticing someone he believed was a 13-year-old girl into sex.

And when she threw out a life prison term for a convicted heroin dealer, ordering that he be resentenced, Sotomayor wrote that judges should not show "slavish adherence" to the "literal terms" of then-mandatory sentencing guidelines.

One of her fellow judges rebuked this practice, noting that "appellate courts are not factfinders."

Although her liberal supporters in the legislature have no problem with creating erroneous law out of thin air, the White House should be prepared for a fight at her confirmation hearings.

After proudly ruining the careers of 19 firefighters without giving it a second thought, Sotomayor will have to face (likely for the first time in her life) the consequences of her bad decisions.

Republicans will call two New Haven firefighters to testify in the confirmation hearings of Sonia Sotomayor next week, making clear the GOP's intent to place affirmative action at the center of the Senate battle over Sotomayor's nomination.

A Judiciary Committee press release lists Frank Ricci and Ben Vargas as expected Republican witnesses. Ricci was the lead plaintiff in Ricci v. DeStefano, the controversial case in which Sotomayor ruled the New Haven fire department acted constitutionally when it discounted the results of a qualifying test for promotion

The reaction to this is pretty predictable. Instead of a mea culpa for such a legal abomination, Sotomayor's supporters have another plan:

Supporters of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor are quietly targeting the Connecticut firefighter who's at the center of Sotomayor's most controversial ruling.

On the eve of Sotomayor's Senate confirmation hearing, her advocates have been urging journalists to scrutinize...firefighter Frank Ricci.

With all of this in mind, should this CNN poll surprise any of us:

Sonia Sotomayor will begin her confirmation hearings next week with some of the highest levels of public opposition of any Supreme Court nominee in the last two decades, according to a new poll by CNN and the Opinion Research Corporation.

The Obama Era: Doing its Best to do its Worst!

Hackers vs. the BGM-109A

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:33:00 +0000

News out of D.C. reports an ongoing cyber attack staged against the U.S.

The US State Department said Thursday its website came under cyberattack for a fourth day running as it tried to prevent further attacks. [...]

According to computer security experts, a dozen US government websites, including those of the White House, Pentagon and State Department, were targeted in a coordinated cyberattack which also struck sites in South Korea.

South Korean lawmakers were quoted as saying Wednesday that South Korea's intelligence service believes North Korea or its sympathizers may have staged the attack.

I recall a quaint time in world history where an attack on a country was not ignored. It was a time when violence perpetrated by an enemy would be addressed in such a way that the enemy was no longer capable of perpetrating additional violence.

Now, however, we nicely (but firmly) ask them to "cut it out."

It's not difficult to determine where these attacks originate, and it's even easier to send a couple dozen cruise missiles to that precise location.

Also of note, among the attacked sites were whitehouse.gov and state.gov. How much sensitive information really exists on these sites? If these cyber warriors actually manage to crack Barry-O's password and login to the "Employees Only" section of the site, can they really get acess to launch codes or black ops manifests? It seems unlikely.

So let's focus on the cruise missiles.

Sinking Like a Rock

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:50:00 +0000

Oh noes!!!

Barry's approval numbers are at an all-time low, and his disapproval numbers are at an all-time high!

Who could have foreseen this completely foreseeable outcome!?!

Hint: The BHB.

A Strange End to a Very Strange Life

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:30:00 +0000

Michael Jackson's funeral marked the end of a sad, strange saga.

It is easy to praise his remarkable professional accomplishments, but impossible to ignore what he did recreationally. Both of these facets are pitched against the sad fact of a fatally injured psyche which produced the bursts of genius fueling the former, while also stirring a darkness which compelled the latter.

This sad conflict (which is not, by any means, unique to just him) was nowhere more apparent than his funeral, a spectacle accurately refereed to as a "macabre circus."

Jackson did not unite world culture or overcome racism like his eulogizers claimed, but he was a musical talent with very few peers. And incredible talent and achievement are things we ought to respect and admire, even while we are wary of those who bear it.

Perhaps one of the few balanced statements about his life is this: Jackson will be remembered as the most celebrated man you would never leave alone with your children.

When Many Types of Failure Can be Considered Success

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:30:00 +0000

In the midst a historic string of bad legislation, it's interesting to hear what Barry-O's supporters (the ones that can be honest about what's happening) have to say about it.

Unfortunately, there is a problem. This is not, as many Republicans argue, that neither issue requires forthright action. Both do. The problem is that the bills emerging from Congress are bad and Mr Obama does not seem to mind.

The cap-and-trade bill is a travesty. Its net effect on short- to medium-term carbon emissions will be small to none. This is by design: a law that really made a difference would make energy dearer, hurt consumers and force an economic restructuring that would be painful for many industries and their workers. Congress cannot contemplate those effects. So the Waxman-Markey bill, while going through the complex motions of creating a carbon abatement regime, takes care to neutralise itself. [...]

It creates a vastly complicated apparatus, a playground for special interests and rent-seekers, a minefield of unintended consequences – and the bottom line for all that is business as usual. [...]

The president has cast himself not as a leader of reform, but as a cheerleader for “reform” – meaning anything, really, that can plausibly be called reform, however flawed. He has defined success down so far that many kinds of failure now qualify.

Please mark that last sentence as the official motto of the Obama presidency.

Saving Energy Will Cost You Money

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:45:00 +0000

The primary problem with the energy policies espoused by beloved scientist Al Gore and the angry four year old we call a president, is that they have very little to do with environment and everything to do with power and revenue.

The first evidence of this has shown up in Missouri, and you can be sure you'll see it elsewhere in very short order.

Some Missouri residents and businesses soon could see a new charge on their electric bills — a fee for using less energy.

Though it might seem illogical, the new energy efficiency charge has support from utilities, most lawmakers, the governor, environmentalists and even the state’s official utility consumer aadvocate. The charge covers the cost of utilities’ efforts to promote energy efficiency and cut power use.

Thus, if you actually do use less energy (like we're told we must, or the earth will explode), you must pay for the privelege of being responsible. And what are the odds that environmentalists are on board with this idea!? Afterall, it's not like these people have jobs, so you can understand their eagerness for a new revenue stream.

In case you're not aghast enough, there's another wrinkle to the story:

The commission last week approved a program in which St. Louis-based AmerenUE can offer credits to businesses that voluntarily shut down or scale back their electricity use during peak demand.

AmerenUE will be able to recoup the cost for the program that starts Thursday by increasing the rates it charges business customers.

Not only are people penalized for using less energy in their day-to-day life, they also get penalized again to pay for enegy-saving (i.e. money saving) upgrades made by the power plants to their own infastructure.

Peer into the future of a country powered by the Obama energy policy.

The Health of Healthcare

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:32:00 +0000

After looking to Hollywood for hundreds of millions of dollars, our president need look no farther than the Sunshine State to see a stunning example of why his healthcare plan is a colossal miscalculation.

Bloomberg notes,

With California mired in a budget crisis, largely the result of a political impasse that makes spending cuts and tax increases impossible, Controller John Chiang said the state planned to issue $3.3 billion in IOU’s in July alone. Instead of cash, those who do business with California will get slips of paper.

The California morass has Democrats in Washington trembling. The reason is simple. If Obama’s health-care plan passes, then we may well end up paying for it with federal slips of paper worth less than California’s. Obama has bet everything on passing health care this year. The publicity surrounding the California debt fiasco almost assures his resounding defeat.

It takes years and years to make a mess as terrible as the California debacle, but the recipe is simple. All that you need is two political parties that are always willing to offer easy government solutions for every need of the voters, but never willing to make the tough decisions necessary to finance the government largess that results.

California has engaged in an orgy of spending, but, compared with our federal government, its legislators should feel chaste. The California deficit this year is now north of $26 billion. The U.S. federal deficit will be, according to the latest numbers, almost 70 times larger.

The federal picture is so bleak because the Obama administration is the most fiscally irresponsible in the history of the U.S. Obama has taken George W. Bush’s inattention to deficits and elevated it to an art form.

The Obama administration has no shame, and is willing to abandon reason altogether to achieve its short-term political goals. [...]

Back in the 1980s, Reagan’s own economist, Martin Feldstein, spoke up when he felt that the Reagan administration was pushing the deficit too far. Where are the economists with such character today? Apparently, the job description for economists has transformed from recommending policies that are defensible to defending whatever policies that the political hacks in the West Wing dream up.

As bad as the California legislature has been over the years, it has never entered a fiscal crisis like the one that we face today and then doubled down with a massive spending increase.

The Obama Era: When ostensibly good intentions are all that really matter. Even when they're historically moronic.

Affirming Action

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 01:33:00 +0000

Our president, in a completely surprising move, doesn't think affirmative action is really such a big deal.

President Barack Obama says he's never believed that affirmative action is as much of an issue as it's been made out to be.

He later added, "But it certainly is helpful to have an institutionalized way to remind America of its racist past when you're running for president on the 'If You Don't vote for Me You're Racist' platform."

But if you really want to hear someone get mad about affirmative action, I direct you to this happy guy.

07/04/09: Also Worth Noting

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 22:26:00 +0000

If you dont like this song, I have no time for you.

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Gary Coleman is at the center of a domestic violence case. He was not the one inflicting the violence.

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NYC, I am ashamed of you. Air guitar? Really?

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I'm trying to think of something positive to say about inventing useless stuff just for the sake of inventing it. I'm sure it's helpful eventually, right?

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The e-mails exchanged by the South Carolina governor and his girlfriend are pretty tame. I always imagined that if a corny white guy was cheating on his wife with an exotic Brazilian reporter, things would be a lot more exciting.

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Once upon a time we waged a brutal, pitched conflict with the Soviets, and today we hammer out cyberspace treaties with our enemies. Remarkable. This seems like the right time to mention a remake of Red Dawn is in the works. I'm depressed by both developments.

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Somewhere in this family-wide time lapse photography there is a joke, but I can't come up with it.

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If you aren't delightfully amused by this piece of political satire, then go back to your cartoons. Notice I didn't say "brilliant" or "accurate" or "rational" -- I said "amusing."

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Apparently the entire planet is one single ant colony. Not figuratively, but literally.

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Japan is well underway with a project to create "super tuna" for eventual commercial harvest. Don't they recall what happened when they tried something similar with otherwise normal lizards?

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I've seen a lot of people get beat up (for example), but never for this reason.

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This makes me feel safer: "President Barack Obama says he is 'not reconciled' to the idea of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon within a year." I can't wait to gauge his level of reconciliation when Tel Aviv or Boston is a smoking crater.

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I know I've asked this rhetorical question before, but, I'll offer this querry again: Do you know what happens when you give clearly insane people an unlimited supply of money? This. It takes a lot for me to look at cake but still not be hungry.

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If you enjoy The Soup, then you're probably as excited as I am for this show.

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In an effort to remain solvent without needing to do anything absurd like cut spending, New Jersey has decided to increase taxes on the people who pay the most taxes to start with. It's a brilliant tactic that will, of course, cause all these taxpayers to leave. When you notice NJ for sale on e-Bay this October, you'll know why.

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Sure, it's a time of mourning, but that doesn't mean Al Sharpton (the reverend, keep in mind) can't honor the memory of the King of Pop by grinding on some random skank.