Friday, November 20, 2009

A Road in Bolivia


Papa B writes:

Don't complain about the traffic in Atlanta... you could be driving to work in Bolivia.

We have seen some pretty scary roads, but this certainly gets my vote for ‘Number One.’

A Road in Bolivia




















Papa B never checks Snopes -- and neither did I -- but it's too good to verify.


Larwyn's Linx: ACORN L.A.'s Program for Tortured Teens

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. You can also install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget..

Nation

ACORN L.A.'s Program for Tortured Teens: BigGov
American Buffoon: Spectator
Princeton, Columbia cancel free speech: PJM

Breitbart to Holder: Investigate ACORN or else: BigGov
Dems to deliberate 10 hours before nationalizing health care: GWP
Marriage vs. the Obama/Pelosi Nanny State: AT

Obama's Expatriate Years: AT (Lifson)
Waxman admits current health bill a ploy: Riehl
What about the 255 million?: LegalIns

Economy

Three examples of government-induced failure: PJM (Blumer)
UCLA students protest tuition hikes as Cali begins to fold: Breitbart
Married couples face extra tax in Senate health care bill: Times

$1 Million per Stimulus Job: Bombs & Dollars
Granholm gives SEIU $3M while braying for new taxes: BlogProf
$100 Million is Landrieu's Going Price?: SIGIS

TARP audit finds Geithner gave away the farm: CBS
Surprise: Now Pap Tests Should Be Delayed, Too!: TAB
Blue State Boom Times: Pontiac Silverdome goes for $583K: BlogProf

Media

LAT columnist beclowns himself with style: Patterico
Andrew Sullivan's Palin-Induced Psychosis: AmPower
Sis Goes to a Sarah Palin Book Signing in Grand Rapids: MoneyRunner

'Going Rogue' - My Book Report: Ace
Bernie Goldberg Responds to Jon Stewart’s “F*** You”: GWP
Bumper-Sticker Outrage of the Day: Snapped Shot

‘60 Minutes’ Runs 15 Minute Segment on Resurrecting Iraqi Marshes– Forgets to Thank George W. Bush: GWP
Bring Your Own Camera: InstaPundit

Climate & Energy

An Inconvenient Release: Watts
Sunoco Oil CEO Says U.S. Policy Threat to Refiners: BMW
Scrubbed CRU Data Hacked, Recovered And Released: CBullitt

World

Another vast conspiracy: WSJ
Al-Qaeda Somalia in US: Supporters Blamed For Ohio Arson: PJM
Pakistani intelligence aids Mullah Omar's move to Karachi: Times

Meet Jan Schakowsky, Leftist Thugs' Useful Idiot: NSN
Chavez now making clouds abort from the presidential palace: Fausta

Sci-Tech

Google has its own plan for Netbooks: CNet

Cornucopia


Obama gets Black Belt to go along with Nobel: Powers
U.S. Deports Lou Dobbs: Onion
Call a Limo: JWF

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Old School Dogfood Ad


If I didn't know better, I'd think this was part of a plot to overthrow the human race.

Either that, or a cry for help from my dogs.


Is $6,300 a fair value for gold?


Today an ounce of gold sells for $1,143 an ounce. Seven or eight years ago it sold for less than a quarter of that price. But what is a fair price?

Ambrose Evans says it may be $6,300.

[Société Générale] sees an eerie similarity between [today's] decision of India’s central bank to buy half the IMF’s entire sale of gold, and the move by France’s central bank to start converting dollars into gold in 1965 — which was, of course, the start of the slippery slope leading to the collapse of Bretton Woods and the closure of the US gold window under Nixon.

In the gold mania that followed, the price rose to levels that matched the US dollar monetary base (it reached 140pc at the peak). If that were to occur today after Ben Bernanke’s go at the printing press, gold would have to reach $6,300 an ounce. The US owns 263m ounces of gold while the Fed’s monetary base is $1.7 trillion. Simple equation.

Gold has had its ups and downs, of course. It is trading today at roughly the same real price as in the mid-13th Century — when an ounce bought a light suit of chain mail.

It doubled in the late Medieval bubble, before crashing 90pc over the next 500 years after the Spanish gold discoveries by Cortes and Pizarro in the New World, and then the finds in California, Australia, and South Africa — bottoming around 1930.

Commenter 'Capitalist' refutes this contention.

I don’t understand you Ambrose. You seem to understand the problem and yet you continue to advocate the wrong solution... A few months ago I suggested to you that you couldn’t hope to understand the current so-called “crisis” without understanding the systemic problems at the heart of our monetary system:

- Fiat money, under which currency is backed by nothing more than taxpayer largesse

- Fractional reserve banking, under which banks are permanently insolvent, as they lend out laughably named “call deposits” 12 times over and cannot possibly meet their liabilities to depositors

- Central banking, under which the most important price in the economy which determines capital allocation – the interest rate – is set by a soviet-style bureaucracy

- Endemic moral hazard, which permits fractional reserve banking to occur, and which is created by deposit insurance, bad education, and the fact that the central banks and the government stands behind the banks with the promise of more money printing and more taxpayer largesse

- A total misunderstanding of the nature of inflation, which is not simply increases in the CPI, but increases in the money supply. Inflation has already occurred when new money is created out of thin air through the central bank or the fractional reserve mechanism. Those who can get hold of the new money first are enriched at the expense of those who don’t or can’t. This is why it is fraudulent. It is also destructive: new supplies of money have gone into asset prices in recent decades, causing massive misallocation of resources as there has been little or no competition for capital. A large bust was inevitable as a result.

This has all been set out by Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian school of economics, who called the current “crisis” correctly and well in advance.

And yet you, Ambrose, who are smart enough to know all this, continue to advocate … more inflation! More counterfeit money printing, more injustice against savers and taxpayers, and more dislocation of the economy.

Why oh why do you do this? What is it that so terrifies you about deflation?

Deflation, in the current environment, would simply be the process by which the previous injustices of inflation are rectified. It is the process by which malinvestments caused by the previous inflation are put right and scarce capital is reallocated to the most productive resources.

In a normal state of affairs, where money is represented by an objective, quantifiable value such as gold, a continuous, moderate level of deflation would be the norm, as competition and continual efficiencies in production are reflected in a gradually falling general price level. This is a great thing! It is part of what makes capitalism work for everyone, from the richest to the poorest.

And yet you, for some unfathomable reason, continue to oppose this. You support a system which enriches those who are best able to second-guess the level of government profligacy (and immorality) at the expense of those who won’t or can’t...

That may be a tad reactionary, since we've lived with fiat money for decades. But given the current situation (in which the Treasury Department is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Goldman Sachs), one can hardly blame him.


Gold: We're #1!


With the value of the dollar plummeting faster than Barack Obama's approval ratings, folks everywhere are scrambling to hedge their exposure to paper money. Which generally means they're buying -- cue Gordon Liddy -- Gold.

Tyler Durden offers a view of gold holdings by country and, as anyone who's ever seen Goldfinger knows, we rule.

Tyler says that the combined official holdings for all countries totals up to around 30 thousand metric tons, which at today's spot value of $1,143 amount to a gajillion dollars.

Or $1.1 trillion using the current value of today's dollar. Which will be a gajillion soon.


You know it's rush hour in Atlanta...


You know it's rush hour in the ATL when Google Traffic Maps depicts four or more metro roads in black.

Black, of course, is the universal symbol for waiting so long in your car that your bladder distends into the size and shape of a volleyball.


California's leaders 'haven't begun to think how screwed they are' when oil prices rise


Gregor MacDonald thinks that "California's leaders haven't begun to think about how screwed they are with higher oil prices" on the way. Underemployment in Cali is running at 20% (19.9, actually, but we'll round up if it means we make the headlines at Hot Air!). The conventional unemployment figure in the state is 12.2%.

MacDonald believes California's energy policies are nonsensical. Mandating energy efficiency standards for televisions, for instance, when businesses are felling the state and its budget deficit has ballooned again to $6 billion for the current fiscal year.

Drill offshore, and onshore, for oil and devote every penny to the construction and maintenance of new Rail and new Solar and Wind power... it is no longer rational to avoid the extraction of State oil and gas in the name of the environment, when nothing could be more destructive to the California environment than its present vehicle fleet, which spews out 6000 tons per day of CO2. In fact, any policy which does not attempt to radically dislocate California’s automobile-based transport system now has to be regarded as the most environmentally destructive policy of all.

Ignoring the ludicrous contention that carbon dioxide is a toxin (that plants, uhm, require in order to survive), MacDonald does have some excellent suggestions for the People's Democratic Utopia of California.

Which means his ideas are certain to be ignored, residents will continue to flee, and a state default is on the way. So unplug that big screen, Granny, you're wastin' juice!

Larwyn's Linx: How do you solve this problem without Sarah?

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. You can also install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget..

Nation

How do you solve this problem without Sarah?: Doc Zero
Fear and Loathing of Sarah Palin: Hanson
Hundreds wait all night to meet Palin: BlogProf

Culture of corruption: Holder, terrorists, Covington & Burling: Malkin
Will 2010 be the perfect storm?: AT
Hoekstra on KSM trial, Ft. Hood shooting: Nice Deb

Holder's Testimony: Corner
Ohio taxpayers paying to defend government snoops: Malkin
A tale of two community organizers: AT

NY-23 was stolen: Hoffman
The Gift of Freedom: Imperfect America

Economy

Dems to Tax Cosmetic Surgery: LegalIns
Mortgage delinquencies hit another record in 3Q: Yahoo!
Jesse: Blacks can't vote against ObamaCare: S&L

Work site arrests of illegals fall dramatically under Obama: Times
Teachers' Union Blocks Bonuses: JWF

Media

Andrew Sullivan's Mixture of Weed, X, and Steroids Results in Super-Mutation Rendering Him Immune to Irony: Ace
Palin gives Oprah highest ratings in two years: NewsBusters
HBO's Terror in Mumbai: Finally, an Unapologetic Look at Jihad: PJM (Toto)

Newsweek Cover of Palin Is Sexist, So Says -- Media Matters???: BlogProf
TFatt: Never Missing An Excuse To Attack Trig Palin: LegalIns
Maybe He Wasn't Bowing: Denny

Common cause with theocratic, homophobic, misogynistic psychokillers: Dr. Sanity
New Children's Book Pokes Fun at the Left : JWF

Climate & Energy

F*** You, You Gaia-Worshipping Enviro-Weenie Hippie Douchebags!: Doubleplusundead (eh, language warning)

World

Reading Bin Laden His Rights: Power Line
In the USSR, this used to be known as a 'show trial': Ace
Your Form Guide to the Dictator's Cup: Shadowlands

Iranians and Saudis Fight a Proxy War in Yemen: PJM
Muslims must quit British Forces, says Iranian envoy: Times (UK)
Proof that Fort Hood Shooting was Muslim Terrorism: INN

Will U.S. sell F-22 Raptors to Middle East 'friends'?: BMW

Sci-Tech

AT&T loses first legal battle against Verizon ads: CNet
Linux Bug #1: Bad Documentation: Linux Today

Cornucopia

States of the Union: A Small Core Sample of America: American Digest
6 Things Your Body Does Every Day That Science Can't Explain: Cracked
Andrew Sullivan, Between the Lines: TNOYF

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Achtung! BMW plans Z2 convertible!


Auto Motor Und Sport has exciting news.

Der Vorgänger des BMW 5er verkörperte den Stil der Greta Garbo: unnahbarer Blick, kühle Ausstrahlung. Das soll sich mit der Neuauflage ab Anfang 2010 ändern. Mit Z2 Roadster und der IAA Studie M1 Vision kommt dagegen Schwung ins Sportwagengeschäft.

Licht und Schatten lagen beim BMW 5er noch nie so eng beieinander wie jetzt. Das gibt sogar BMW Group-Designchef Adrian van Hooydonk offen zu - und sieht darin überhaupt keinen Nachteil: "Wir haben speziell mit diesen beiden Elementen gearbeitet, um das Auto im Vergleich zum Vorgänger gestreckter und leichter wirken zu lassen."

I suppose I could use Google Translate to interpret the paragraph, but that would be too easy. Employing my trusty, 1977 version of the Ouija board, I offer instead this rendering:

BMW announced its plans to manufacture the Z2 Convertible, an affordable compact drop-top with stunning performance. The powerplant -- a twin-turbo 3.6-L V-6 -- generates 625bhp and propels the vehicle to 60mph in 2.9 seconds.

Best of all, the proposed MSRP of the vehicle will be $25,000, which includes leather seats, a Bose 12-speaker premium sound system and a touch-screen, integrated navigation system.

Note: My Ouija board never lies.


Blackmont Capital: Unemployment Could Reach 15%


Nearly two weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that unemployment had reached 10.2% and under-employment (the so-called "U-6" figure) had reached a shocking 17.5%.

Investment firm Blackmont Capital believes that the worst is yet to come.

...The graph of unemployment with the default rates is meant to show that the rate of unemployment will continue upward for some time once default rates have peaked. You will see this in the 1980-1984 period, the 1990-1994 period and lastly the period of 2000-2004...

The basic assumption generated with this study results in a rate of ascent in the rate of unemployment once high yield default rates peaks. I will have applied an average of these three periods discussed going forward in our three base cases.

This rate of ascent is shown in the graph with the subsequent higher unemployment rate. It does carry upward for some time and will lag the turning point of the high yield default rate peak.

...Lastly we provide an overview of my unemployment projections based on three scenarios. The base case number one takes the view that high yield default rates are peaking and will start to drop from this level now. The rate of unemployment ranges from 10% to 11.5% with this given scenario. In the base case number two, I am using a composite of both peaks in 1991 and 2002 to suggest that default rates may carry upward one percent more. The resulting effect on unemployment targets will range from 11% to 13.5%. In our final analysis base case number three will use the peak at 13% in default rates established in 1991. Unemployment rates in this scenario show a range of 12.5% and 15% before possibly peaking.

A simple back o' the napkin calculation for the total under-employment rate if the latter model holds: A U-6 figure of 26% to complement the 15% unemployment rate.

We got the change, but hope just left town.


The aftermath of Halloween: the police reports


Chewie gets around.

Biden's Motorcade Involved In (Another) Crash


The motorcade of Vice President "Slow" Joe Biden was involved in its second accident in recent weeks. A cab driver and two police officers assigned to Biden's security detail were hurt in the accident.

Little more than a week ago, Biden's motorcade killed a pedestrian in Washington, DC.

By my count, Biden has now killed or wounded four times the number of individuals that Dick Cheney hurt in his shotgun mishap.

In related news, The Daily Show, Late Night with David Letterman, Dana Milbank, Andrew Sullivan, Drink Progress, TPM Bloatwire, 528.com and TFatt were busy writing material mocking Sarah Palin.


Barack Obama's Device to Implement Government-Run Health Care


Dale Brumfield sends along this apt description and illustration:


Computer (A) tells faceless bureaucrat (B) that patient needs hip replacement surgery, who thumbs through 2,000-page health care index (C) to see if it is covered procedure. Wind from fanning pages (D) powers eco-correct wind-powered vacuum (E) which sucks wallet (F) from American taxpayer’s pocket (G). Wallet travels through tube (H) and drops into “Big Pharmacy” slush fund bucket (I). Weight of wallet tilts TV (J) playing endless loop of President Obama saying, “If you like your current health coverage you can keep it.” Angered by president’s message, taxpayer’s blood pressure (K) raises meter, tripping lever (L) and rolling ball (M) into basket (N). Basket compresses bellows (O), injecting taxpayer with mandatory H1N1 vaccine (P) and ejecting thousands of pink slips (Q) for health insurance industry employees. Basket also trips switch on eco-correct twisty fluorescent bulb (R), which slowly melts ice block (S). Water collects in funnel (T), tipping lever and raising calendar (U), postponing surgery by six months and revising cost matrix (V), showing physician (W) that a double-foot amputation costs less than a hip replacement. Patient (X) has both feet amputated instead of hip replacement, saving government program $72.

If only it really were that straightforward.


Obama's support dropping nearly as fast as value of the dollar


Quinnipiac's latest shows the President's approval rating dropping below the 50% benchmark. And I'd wager he's going to break 40% faster than it took him to reach 50.

President Barack Obama's job approval rating is 48 - 42 percent, the first time he has slipped below the 50 percent threshold nationally, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

Of course, with the value of the dollar dropping precipitously on a daily basis, it's truly a race to the bottom.

One telltale sign: when even the microscopic island-state of Mauritius tells us to shove our currency -- and instead buys two tons of gold at $1,115 an ounce -- well, that pretty much tells you where both are headed.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

California: drowning in so much red ink, state actually considered seceding to avoid paying its bills


California's budget woes are so daunting that the state actually considered seceding from the Union. Worse yet, California is only the first in a series of states confronting inevitable defaults (short of declaring war on the public sector unions that have eviscerated their balance sheets).

Facing a $21 billion dollar shortfall for the remainder of this fiscal year... with another $14.5 or so billion in 2010-2011, California is getting few headlines on this issue simply because it has become so rote. Just for perspective, as recently as August, the Department of Finance figured this latter number at $7.4 billion. Whoops.

The Los Angeles Times manages, after twenty paragraphs, to accidentally trip over the central issue:

The state's financial problems predate the current recession and the gimmicks used to paper over the deficit, experts say. Year in and year out, state government spends roughly $10 billion more than it collects in tax revenue.

Thank heaven for experts.

California, having somehow already carved out from what used to be a federal republic the ability to print its own currency [Ed: its recently printed IOUs], seems to have considered some additional and very drastic measures to avoid paying its debts. The Governator's own finance director apparently considered actual secession to short-circuit the state's obligations and continue enjoying the long established pattern of deficit spending they have hitherto established.

California's finances have been so bad that the governor's finance director, Mike Genest, told a budget forum in Washington last week that back in February he had combed through the U.S. Constitution to research whether California could legally declare bankruptcy -- or revert to some kind of territorial status. (Neither was realistic, he determined.)

...What emerges are the haunting sounds announcing the first death rattles of bloated state budgets and a glimpse of the eventual fate of tax-and-spend economies.

In the end, California's problems probably boil down to a lack of imagination. After all, with the right kind of government lawyers, it should be easy to pen an opinion letter authorizing a quick departure from the Union followed by a hasty (and debt free) re-annexation. Presto-chang-o! Debt-be-gone.

Or you can stop pouring cash into cushy social programs, stop paying your civil servants $200,000 per year and quit giving out 90% lifetime pensions at age 50-55...

Aren't Democrat-ruled social Utopias great? I can't wait to see what happens in New York and Michigan!


Larwyn's Linx: Best Idea Ever -- 'Ban Government Employee Unions'

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Nation

Stop Bowing, Stop Apologizing: Examiner
SEIU, Socialists Threaten Lieberman’s Home: GWP
Finally: Jihadist-enabling lawyer Lynne Stewart ordered to jail: Malkin

Honest Liberals on Mob-o-Care: AT (Lewis)
Administration stonewalling Congress on Hasan?: Hot Air
Obama Names ‘Devout’ Muslims to Security Posts: INN

Obama - Palmer re-examined: NewZeal
Why the Left fears Sarah: AT
Interview with VA-8 GOP candidate Matthew Berry: JIP

Economy

'Ban Government Employee Unions': AT (Moran)
47% to pay no income tax whatsoever: Zero Hedge
Cops Raid NY Newspaper Circulation Offices: McClatchy Watch

NAACP, La Raza Rip Obama for Job Losses: GWP
Checking the ObamaCare Math: PJM
Obey slams Obama for stimulus job reporting errors: PolDaily

Grim milestone: National debt now tops … $12 trillion: Hot Air
Stimulus money went to 440 non-existent districts: BlogProf
Illinois’ Gov And Senator Think Terrorists Bring ‘Good-Paying Jobs’: BigGov

Media

Fact Check This, Associated Press!: AT (Cashill)
Smearing Someone Who Knows Someone Who Knows Sarah Palin: LegalIns
The Pinchurian Candidate: Driscoll

The even more offensive Newsweek photo of Sarah Palin: Malkin
Hey, who’s up for six minutes of “teabagger” jokes on MSNBC?: InstaPundit
Malkin visits Orange County conservatives: AmPower

CMPA Reports Fox Fair and Balanced: BizzyBlog
Palin is here to stay: Examiner
What's on YOUR reading list?: SIGIS

Climate & Energy

‘The Light of Day’ Exposes the Green Movement’s Roots in Tyranny: BigGov
Climate Theology: Gore offers eco-salvation to followers: 'I'm offering you the choice of life or death": Nelson
Obama's 'half-hearted climate efforts' welcomed by skeptics: Climate Depot

World

Open Letter to the Chinese Premier: Denninger
Cuban Blogger Beaten by Regime Thugs — This Time, the World Notices: PJM (Gomez)
U.S. rips expansion of Israeli settlement: Times

Barack Obama still wants to visit old hometown Jakarta: Australian
Muezzin not welcome sound in Switzerland: Maktoob
An International Women's Brigade for Afghanistan: PJM

Sci-Tech

Are nations hiring criminals for botnet attacks?: Infoworld

Cornucopia

Japanese mortified by Obama's bow: Fox
Obama's Home Teleprompter Malfunctions During Family Dinner: Onion
Prison Security Simply Put: SondraK

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Banned Obama-Mao T-Shirts


China Hush has details on the despairing Chinese entrepreneurs who were stuck with inventory they couldn't sell during the President's visit.

The item was selling like hot cakes in a Beijing souvenir shop until the government cracked down. “The Industry and Commerce Bureau came round last week and told us that if we sold this T-shirt we’d be closed down” said one hawker on a popular tourist street who preferred not to give his name.

He lamented the loss of business. “People are coming here every day asking for those T-shirts,” he added.

A business revealed that they received a phone call from the Beijing city government, asking them to immediately stop selling them. There were also inspectors visiting the store to confirm that t-shirts have come off the shelf.

Businesses were also informed that once Obama leaves mainland China after the end of his visit, they can continue selling “ObaMao” t-shirts again...

DC residents, of course, are under no such restrictions.

Ukrainian Super-Flu: "People are dying... [it's] killing doctors"


Is the Ukrainian 'super bug' a mutated swine flu?

British scientists are examining the strain of swine flu behind a deadly Ukrainian outbreak to see if the virus has mutated... A total of 189 people have died and more than one million have been infected in the country.

Some doctors have likened the symptoms to those seen in many of the victims of the Spanish flu which caused millions of deaths world-wide after the World War One.

An unnamed doctor in western Ukraine told of the alarming effects of the virus... 'We have carried out post mortems on two victims and found their lungs are as black as charcoal.

...President Yushchenko said: 'People are dying. The epidemic is killing doctors. This is absolutely inconceivable in the 21st Century... Unlike similar epidemics in other countries, three causes of serious viral infections came together simultaneously in Ukraine: two seasonal flus and the Californian flu.

'Virologists conclude that this combination of infections may produce an even more aggressive new virus as a result of mutation...'

My daughter woke up this morning in pigtails. Should I be worried?

Media Complicit in Hawking Health Reform Propaganda That Will 'Result in the Loss of Lives'


Yesterday the 'U.S. Preventative Services Task Force' issued new guidelines regarding the age at which women should begin having mammograms.

The task force claimed that most women in their forties don't need mammograms and should therefore start the exams beginnng at age 50.

The American Cancer Society and the Susan G. Komen for the Cure organization, however, both reject these new guidelines.

At the Brown Cancer Center, Dr. Lane Roland said if the recommendations are adopted by the public and physicians, it will result in the loss of lives... The government task force making the recommendations consisted of 16 government-funded physicians and scientists. None was an expert on breast cancer detection and prevention.

Linda Douglass, White House Health Reform communications director, decried objections to the task force guidelines. She stated, “This is a typical scare tactic designed to protect the health care status quo of rising costs, unaffordable coverage and unfair insurance company practices,” she said.

Yet, despite the rampant opposition to the new recommendations by admitted non-experts, more than 1,000 news outlets picked up the story.

If this were the only case of the media reporting pro-rationing tripe, it could be forgiven as an aberration. Put simply, this is only the latest in a long line of similar public relations efforts.

Drugs as good as stents for many heart patients: last year, MSNBC and other news outlets reported that angioplasties were likely overrated, claiming "there's more evidence drugs should be tried first and often are just as effective."

The study was funded by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and other groups.

Study: Pill as good as chemo for some patients, in December of last year, a new study claimed that a "cancer treatment that comes in a pill is as effective as the standard chemotherapy for some lung patients."

Generic hearts drugs are equivalent to brand-name counterparts: late last year, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that generic cardiac drugs were as effective as brand-name heart medications. The study closely followed the release of another study that demonstrated similar practices could be ineffective and unsafe.

Surgical masks are nearly as effective as high-end respirators: last month, a study claimed that surgical masks were nearly as effective as (high-end) N95 respirators in preventing the spread of flu among health care workers.

All coincidences? I think not.

Consider this the media's covering fire for ObamaCare's inevitable rationing protocols.


Dreams From My Shot Glass


El Marco writes:

While China bans Oba-Mao T-shirts and cracks down on consumers and producers, it’s an entirely different story in the U.S. Capital. The popularity of Obama iconography around the world is indisputable, but who can match the audacity of those who cater to the cult of Obama just a few blocks from the White House? T-shirts, shot glasses, and even condoms are all freely available and sales are unrestricted in Obama’s new neighborhood in Washington, D.C.



Ironic that these trinkets represent the undeniable success of the very free market system our current President seems to despise.