Friday, January 04, 2013

WEALTHY, GREEDY CORPORATIONS POISED TO CURE CANCER: But Let's Tax the Hell Out of 'Em First

Oh, but that's right, progressives: corporations aren't people, so please don't use any of these innovations that will benefit all of humanity.

Merck & Co., Roche Holding Ltd. and Sanofi SA are working on cancer drugs that would enable a protein called p53 to perform its normal function -- causing badly damaged cells to self-destruct. Cancer cells disable p53, allowing them to multiply, but the drugs would reactivate the protein and kill cancer cells.

The companies’ research is being hailed by cancer specialists as a possible breakthrough because the resulting drugs could be used to treat many forms of the disease. Most cancer drugs on are effective against only certain types of cancer.

Merck, Roche and Sanofi are not yet testing their drugs in clinical trials against many kinds of cancer but Cellceutix, which was not mentioned in the Times article, said Monday it is already conducting such trials with a p53 drug called Kevetrin at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

The incessant class warfare waged by Obama and the Democrats is not only a tactic stolen straight from the Communist Manifesto, but it is also destructive of the civil society.

Class warfare dehumanizes the individual.

But we are all individuals. We are not segments, lumped together into random collections by income, race, gender or religion. We are individuals, each with our own unique characteristics, strengths and weaknesses.

Is the money that an investor could use to fund this cancer research better spent by government?

That's what the Alinsky-trained Democrats would tell us. And they are wrong.


Hat tip: Mark Levin.

THE ASSAULT HAMMER MENACE: It Must Come to an End

This helpful warning provided as a public service by The Looking Spoon:


Rumor has it that Chuck Schumer plans on introducing legislation to ban the carrying of concealed hammers.


Larwyn's Linx: Mark Levin--This is not America; it is no longer a Constitutional Republic.

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Mark Levin: America is longer a Constitutional Republic: Scoop
Harry Reid's filibuster plan and the Supreme Court: Exam
Snap Out of It, Patriots: Marcus

Boehner Reelected Speaker: Events
Calling Ceasefire on the Boehner Bashing: CDN
Inside the Conservative Rebellion Against Boehner: Breitbart

Should we ban assault hammers?: Q&O
IL Dems advance radical gun control bills: Fox
Dianne Feinstein Scales the Highest Peak of Hypocrisy: MB

Economy

And now the “rich” will pay…: Q&O
Subsidizing Stupidity: RSM
Obamacare-wary employers not hiring, cutting hours: Greenroom

How to Reduce the Debt Burden for Future Generations: American
Thank Bipartisan Committee Work for Corporate Welfare in Tax Bill: RS
Maxine Waters: We Need To Keep Raising Taxes On The Rich: WZ

Scandal Central

DHS: Congressional Oversight Remains Broken: Foundry
Did The DHS Just Award An Ammunition Contract To A Shell Corporation?: PrepperPodcast
Biden to Female Senator: Spread Your Legs, You're Going to Be Frisked: Blaze

Climate & Energy

AGW Bombshell? New paper may debunk human-caused warming: Watts
Fracking is Safe, Says New York State Health Department: Reason
EPA Rejects Arizona Haze Plan: CEI

Media

The 20 Most Annoying Liberals of 2012 (10th Annual): RWN
A Treasury of Quotes About Our 2nd Amendment: Kuznicki
FBI: More People Killed with Hammers, Clubs Each Year Than Rifles: FoxNation

Mark Levin slams ‘Crispy Cream Christie’ and Peter King over pork in Hurricane Sandy bill: Scoop
Alternate Headline for Current TV Deal: RSM
If I Were The Speaker Of The House: Boortz

Fred Barnes Almost Figures Out Who Barack Obama Really Is: Tatler
I Want My Al-TV, part 1: MOTUS
Rush: I’m stunned that the GOP still doesn’t understand who they are dealing with: Scoop

World

Egyptian magazine boasts that Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated Obama Administration: JihadWatch
Report: Syria fitting fighters with chemical weapons: DefTech
UK Textbook Wipes Israel Off the Map: Gatestone

Terror TV Pays Al Gore $100 Million for U.S. Media Access: AIM
Morsi on Israel, 2010: "these blood-suckers... these warmongers, the descendants of apes and pigs": Commentator
O’Reilly Blasts Al Gore for Allegedly Dodging Tax Hike in Al Jazeera TV Sale: Blaze

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

The day Steve Jobs called AT&T for help with the iPhone’s radios: 9to5mac
Murder by Internet: IID
Twitter Now Valued At ‘More Than $11 Billion’, Eyes 2014 IPO: MediaBistro

Cornucopia

Top Ten Things That Didn't Happen in 2012: Cube
Classifying a Shape: Schneier
Homeless veterans rescue Ohio robbery victim: ArmyTimes

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: StrategyPage

QOTD: "Judicial Watch announced today that it has received documents from the U.S. State Department indicating that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was aware on September 27, 2001, that Anwar al-Aulaqi, the U.S. born terrorist assassinated by a U.S. drone in Yemen on September 30, 2011, had purchased airplane tickets for three of the 9/11 terrorist hijackers, including mastermind Mohammed Atta. Subsequent to the FBI’s discovery, al-Aulaqi was detained and released by authorities at least twice and had been invited to dine at the Pentagon." --Judicial Watch

Thursday, January 03, 2013

NEAT STOCK MARKET GRAPH: What goes around, comes around

That much is clear from this excellent chart spotted at Above The Market:

The largest contributing factor to equity returns is the P/E ratio. The expansion or contraction of the broad market P/E ratio creates secular bull and bear markets. The chart below from Crestmont Research breaks down the components of total return for the S&P 500 for ten-year rolling periods.


Yale Professor Robert Shiller’s 10-year Average Inflation-Adjusted PE Ratio, also known as CAPE, Shiller PE or PE10, provides the best longer-term market gauge available. PE10 is the stock index price divided by the average real earnings from the previous 10 years – the time period is designed to smooth out near-term noise in the data. The basis for this approach is the finding that earnings valuation ratios provide predictive power for long-term stock market returns.

It's science, dammit! Like global warming, only real!

FIGURES: Gore Turned Down U.S. Offer for Current TV In Favor of Despotic, Misogynistic, Anti-Gay, Anti-Semitic Slave State

And doesn't that just say it all?

The Wall Street Journal reports that Glenn Beck–who approached Current TV about a sale last year–was too right-wing for the network to even consider his offer. But an authoritarian-Islamist government that has criminalized homosexuality, discriminates against non-Muslims, prosecutes journalists, and has a “Not Free” rating from Freedom House? That was fine:


According to The Wall Street Journal, Glenn Beck’s media company, The Blaze, approached Current Media about a sale last year, but was told in the words of one source that “the legacy of who the network goes to is important to us and we are sensitive to networks not aligned with our point of view.”

"[W]e are sensitive to networks not aligned with our point of view?"

Qatar, where Al Jazeera is headquartered, therefore appears to align with Al Gore's point of view. It, according to human rights watchers:

Tolerates slavery: "...expatriate workers from nations throughout Asia and parts of Africa are routinely subjected to forced labor and, in some instances, prostitution..."

Promotes human-trafficking: "...men and women who are lured into Qatar by promises of high wages are often forced into underpaid labor..."

Severely punishes LGBT relationships: "...[Qatar] tend[s] to view homosexuality and cross-dressing negatively [and sex] between consenting [gay] adults in Qatar is illegal, and subject to a sentence of up to five years in prison..."

Allows no open practice of religions other than Islam: "The government uses Sunni law as the basis of its criminal and civil regulations. However, ...[f]oreign workers, and tourists, are free to affiliate with other faiths... as long as they are discrete and do not offend public order or morality."

Kudos to Time Warner Cable for dropping Current like a hot potato once the sale to Al Jazeera was announced.

Oh. And. Wait. Just. A. Second.

Doesn't the husky sex poodle known as ManBearPig want to have "skin in the game" (in the words of Joe Biden)?

...The former vice president will pocket an estimated $100 million on the sale. According to the New York Times, which first broke the story Wednesday, Gore wanted to complete the sale before Jan. 1, 2013 to avoid getting slammed with higher taxes.

So not only is Al Gore making millions from dirty dirty Big Oil interests, but he’s cheating the government and trying to get out of his “fair share” of taxes!!

According to the Fiscal Cliff deal, earnings above $400,ooo will be taxed at a rate of 39.6 percent, up from the current 35 percent. That means Al Gore saved $4.9 million by selling out early – but I thought the wealthy don’t “need” or “want” those tax savings, right Obama?

If you hooked these Democrats up to Hypocrisy-Meters, you'd have to wear a helmet and goggles to avoid the shrapnel when the damn things exploded.

I would call Al Gore pond scum, but that would unfairly tarnish perfectly innocent and productive algae.


UK TEXTBOOK FINALLY ACHIEVES AHMEDINEJAD'S DREAM: Wipes Israel Off the Map

Consider this Exhibit 7,038 demonstrating that England is headed down the crapper -- and fast.

Ahmadinejad promised it. Now British textbooks are doing it. Israel has been wiped off the map by Garnet Education, an English-language teaching company in Britain, whose educational textbook 'Skills in English Writing Level 1', aimed at foreign students and immigrants to the UK, contains a map with "Occupied Palestine" in place of the Jewish State.

Speaking to the Algemeiner, the prominent American Jewish newspaper which broke the story, school teacher Liz Wiseman noted that the book is "one of the more popular and mainstream English language teaching (ELT) textbooks published by Garnet, which is quite popular and mainstream itself."


...Using textbooks as propaganda, however, is not a new story. In 2007, it emerged that the King Fahd Academy school in London was using textbooks encouraged by the Saudi Ministry for Education, which described Jews as "apes" and Christians as "pigs". According to the Evening Standard, pupils were allegedly heard saying they want to "kill Americans", praise 9/11 and idolise Osama bin Laden as their "hero".

In the same year, an investigation by The Times uncovered that Mahmood Chandia, a senior lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire, was teaching that music is a way in which Jews spread "the Satanic web" to corrupt young Muslims.

In 2010, it was revealed that the leading geography textbook for British school students encouraged students to ask questions such as "Why did the Jews seize land that is now Israel?" The textbook also sought to excuse terrorism, informing school students that "Palestinians feel powerless. They have no country, no government, no army and few resources - so they resort to bombing to make their point".

Sadly, these are but a few examples from many...

With "friends" like these characters and Egypt's leaders, keep Israel in your prayers.


CLIMBING MOUNT AWESOME: Plotting Super-Car Performance Through the Years

I've always wondered about this, going so far as to revisit what top automotive performers looked like in 1988. But Car and Driver has put together the ultimate set of comparison charts:

As far as we’re concerned, the Mercedes-Benz 300SL was the first supercar. Why the 300SL? Funny doors, of course—plus a tricky mix of brawn and performance with intangibles such as outlandishness and rarity. It was a wobbly road from that 220-hp, 138-mph gullwing coupe to today’s aluminum-and-carbon-fiber wedges, but we’ve mapped the progression of the defining exotic-car stats here with data from our test archives.


Shhh. No one show this chart to the kooks at the EPA: their heads might explode, and I don't want to be responsible for the resulting clean-up.


Hat tip: BadBlue Car News.

YOU CAN THANK ME LATER: A very special, hand-picked gift for your new member of Congress

If you've been struggling to find that special gift for your new member of the 113th Congress, may I be so bold as to suggest the following?


Yes, it's an exclusive, pre-packaged tar-and-feathers kit hand-selected by Doctor Ross.

Which is the only fitting gift for the tools that operate like this.


Larwyn's Linx: Kicking the Can Over the Cliff

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Kicking the Can Over the Cliff: Taki's Mag
House Speaker Boehner Votes for Obama’s Marxism: AIM
Dem Cronies: How corporate tax credits got in the 'cliff' deal: Carney

2013: Welcome to Very, Very Scary Times: Hanson
There Will Not Be a Rebellion: Sensing
A Big Thank-You To Pat Toomey: HayRide

Is There Really a Difference Anymore?: RS
ISSA Finally Says It Like It Is: Denninger
Tea Party New Year's Resolution: Destroy RINO Establishment: AWD

‘House GOP in Disarray’ Isn’t Just Liberal Media Spin: RS
A Bad Deal Beats a Calamitous Outcome: Wehner
Ted Cruz Vows to Lead Opposition to Feinstein’s Gun-Grab Bill: RSM

Economy

Obama Returns to Hawaii at an Added Cost of Over $3 Million: Dossier
Obama Already Getting Flak for the Payroll Tax Hike: Geraghty
77% of American Households Will See Higher Taxes: Bloomberg

Game Theory And The Unfixable Fiscal Situation: ZH
Buy iPads With Food Stamps!: MB
Moody’s Warns of US Credit Downgrade, Citing Lack of Deficit Reduction: Sooper

Scandal Central

BENGHAZI: Obama Lied About Video 3 Days After CIA Eyewitnesses Confirmed No Protest There: CNS
Senators Got 154-Page 'Fiscal Cliff' Bill 3 Minutes Before Voting on It: CNS
Worst 2012 lawsuits argue for 2013 reforms: Exam

Climate & Energy

"Forget global warming, Alaska is headed for an ice age": Alaska Dispatch

Media

The Journal News Gets Guns after Aiding and Abetting Criminals: Loudon
To say that Republicans in Congress folded like a cheap suit is an insult to cheap suits: LI
2013: The culmination of Fascist America: WyBlog

Skin In the Game: Al Gore Sold Current TV Before January 1st to Save Taxes!: Sooper
Lateral Move: Driscoll
Al Sharpton Calls for Knife Control Alongside Gun Restrictions: NB

Two Bloodshot Eyes In One: Driscoll
Once More Unto the Cliff, Dear Friends: RWN
Shocker: Debbie Wasserman McLiar Pants messes up another TV interview: RedAlert

World

DEFENDING DEFENSE: Don’t Just Delay Defense Sequestration—Stop It: Foundry
The consequences of Gun Control on display in Great Britain: Stacy
What is Fatah celebrating today?: Glick

Institute for Policy Studies “fesses up” to 50 Years of Hard Core Subversion: Loudon
Iran to Citizens: Flee Isfahan: Beacon
No one wants used up peace fantasies: Hayom

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

Kia announces Google Maps integration for new car models: Slashgear
What The Tech World Looks Like To A Teen: BuzzFeed
IE zero-day used in targeted watering hole attacks: NetSec

Cornucopia

Bad Inventions: Coulter
No-Gym Workout: Sensing
The 50 Best, Most Notable, & Most Controversial Posts From John Hawkins In 2012: RWN

Image: Al Gore Sold Current TV Before January 1st to Save Taxes
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: ACTION: IL Senate President Ramming Through Total Gun Ban Bill

QOTD: "If you oppose taxing the lifeblood out of the people until their bodies are dried-up like beef jerky, well, you’re obviously a racist. Not that there’s any correlation. There doesn’t need to be a correlation in a world where feelings trump facts.

So quit hatin’, y’all! Let some air in this room! Raise that debt ceiling! Raise it so high we can’t even see it anymore! Let the clouds roll over our eyes and forever obscure the bad, evil, hateful truth for us! Let us pretend that the iron mallet of Western imperialist mathematics won’t strike us in the head! Let us hold hands, regardless of race, creed, gender, or sexuality, and pretend that math doesn’t exist! Math is for people who don’t like gay marriage and transgendered three-legged hamsters! Math is an illusion, and our feelings are the only things that are real!" --Taki's Magazine

Wednesday, January 02, 2013

STUNNING: Ohio State Researchers Discover Crippling Flaw in Batteries Powering Chevy Volts, Other EVs

Well, slap me on the butt and call me Nancy.

[Researchers at] Ohio State University [raised] new questions about the functional lifetime of a typical lithium-ion battery as used in a hybrid or battery electric vehicle.

A couple of Buckeye engineers found that, over time, a battery's lithium accumulates on the sheet of copper that serves as a "current collector" that transfers energy. With lithium ions traveling between the anode and cathode, lithium was previously thought to collect only on the anode's surface as the battery ages.

The issue of battery life and energy retention has been a major one as automakers offering electric-drive vehicles need to assure potential buyers that the newfangled car's battery life will equal or exceed the timeframe of typical vehicle ownership. General Motors gives an eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty on the batteries in the Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in (longer in California), while Nissan has said the battery pack for the all-electric Leaf will have 80 percent capacity after five years and 70 percent after a decade. Nonetheless, Nissan has been getting flak from a group of Leaf owners in Arizona who said their cars' battery capacity was shrinking more quickly than advertised. Perhaps OSU's research will help future electric vehicles avoid similar complaints...

Brainstorm! If you bundled campaign contributions for President Obama and would like to start a "green energy" company, I've got just the thing. Name your company something cool ("Lightbringer" comes to mind) and claim you're going to solve this very problem. The Department of Energy, I'm guessing, would be champing at the bit to send you $100 million or so of the taxpayers' loot.


Hat tip: BadBlue Car News.

REPORT: Tomorrow, John Boehner will either resign or be fired

Ron Meyer of CNS News has the latest dirt in the Boehner soap opera:

I have confirmed with a group of Congressmen that House Speaker John Boehner will not be reelected Speaker tomorrow.

He will either resign or be forced out tomorrow.

Only 17 members are needed to block Speaker Boehner's election tomorrow. A Speaker needs an absolute majority of all votes cast for a specific person.

If no one has a majority, the House is speakerless. I've confirmed these rules with the House Parliamentarian.

Boehner may be a competent ladder-climber but he is a horrible Speaker, especially in times as dangerous as these.

• Instead of forming alliances with the Constitutional and Tea Party conservatives who brought him to power, he instead waged war against them.

• Instead of taking advantage of the GOP's historic, sweeping victories in 2010, he bypassed the new Congress and cut a secret deal with Democrats that led to yesterday's "Fiscal Cliff" debacle.

• Instead of standing on first principles, he became the leader of the "Democrat Lite" movement, which can no longer be substantially differentiated from the Marxists running the Democrat Party.

• Instead of eloquently explaining to the American people the fiscal abyss we are facing and the certain impact of "financial repression", Boehner instead bumbled through a series of public appearances where he seemed to be negotiating with himself.

• And rather than operating as a strategist, a leader, and a statesman, Boehner allowed himself to be bullied by antique media and the Democrats (but I repeat myself).

We need a fighter as Speaker. I nominate Allen West, Paul Ryan, Sarah Palin or Jim Jordan.


Update: Close your eyes and imagine having a Speaker who can articulate his principles like this.

KINECT PLUS PROJECTOR: On-The-Go Touch Interface

For all of its well-publicized stumbles, one of Microsoft's major victories is the Kinect, which turns the human body into a user interface. While it's been used primarily for Xbox video games, the Kinect technology package can do considerably more.

The OmniTouch project—a joint project between Microsoft Research and the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University—mounts a rig containing small pico projector and a Kinect-like 3D scanner on the user’s shoulder...
...The projector displays graphical images onto virtually any surface, while the 3D scanner’s depth-sensing capabilities transform the projection into an interactive, multi-touch-enabled input—and, thanks to some technical trickery, there’s no special calibration or training required.

You can imagine such a system projecting a full-sized QWERTY keyboard on a random flat service to allow faster keying on, say, a tablet computer.


Hat tip: BadBlue Tech News.

AL GORE'S CURRENT TV IS NO MORE: Assets sold -- and Gore will serve as adviser -- to... wait for it... Al Jazeera

The New York Times' Brian Stelter reports that Al Gore's Current network was just acquired by Al Jazeera and will dissolve as an independent entity. And Gore will serve as an adviser to Al Jazeera.



I consider Gore joining forces with Al Jazeera a powerful merger of propagandists.


Train Carrying Biofuel Crosses Border 24 Times Without Unloading to Exploit Obama "Green Energy" Loopholes

But, hey: it's not like the U.S. is running trillion dollar deficits or anything.

A cargo train filled with biofuels crossed the border between the US and Canada 24 times between the 15th of June and the 28th of June 2010; not once did it unload its cargo, yet it still earned millions of dollars. CBC News of Canada was the first to pick up on this story on the 3rd of December 2012, and began their own investigation into the possible explanations behind this odd behaviour.

CN Rail, the operator of the train, stated their innocence in the matter as they had only “received shipping directions from the customer, which, under law, it has an obligation to meet. CN discharged its obligations with respect to those movements in strict compliance with its obligations as a common carrier, and was compensated accordingly.” Even so, they still managed to earn C$2.6 million in shipping fees.


During their investigation CBC managed to obtain an internal email which stated that the cars of the train were all reconfigured between each trip but that the cargo was never actually unloaded, because “each move per car across the border is revenue generated”, the sale of the cargo itself was inconsequential.

The cargo of the train was owned by Bioversal Trading Inc., or its US partner Verdero, depending on what stage of the trip it was at. The companies “made several million dollars importing and exporting the fuel to exploit a loophole in a U.S. green energy program.” Each time the loaded train crossed the border the cargo earned its owner a certain amount of Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs), which were awarded by the US EPA to “promote and track production and importation of renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel.” The RINs were supposed to be retired each time the shipment passed the border, but due to a glitch not all of them were. This enabled Bioversal to accumulate over 12 million RINs from the 24 trips, worth between 50 cents and $1 each, which they can then sell on to oil companies that haven’t met the EPA’s renewable fuel requirements...

When we get an adult in the White House, the first order of business should be to nuke the EPA's budget from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.


Hat tip: LVN.

Larwyn's Linx: When In The Course Of Human Events...

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

When In The Course Of Human Events...: Denninger
Senate Tax Bill Passes House: Ace
Something funny happened on the way to tyranny: Owens

Obama's Tax Evaders of the Year: Malkin
We already gave up on the Constitution: DC
US Marine Pens Viral Letter to Anti-Gun Sen. Feinstein: GWP

Why the 2nd Amendment: Williams
Obama's Leadership Failure: Samuelson
72-hour disclosure rule, R.I.P.: Twitchy

Economy

Senate Bill Is $600 Billion Tax Hike: Foundry
Obama's 'messianism' makes economy a secondary concern: York
Hey House Republicans, Here’s What Obama is Saying Today: RS

Deficit 'fiscal cliff' bill actually spends $330 billion more: Times
President rejects his bipartisan commission: Mankiw
Each year taxpayers fund more single-parent families: ¡No Pasarán!

Obama Deal Adds $4 Trillion to Debt Over 10 Years: Mish
President Obama Hails 'Cliff' Deal, Warns of Next Fiscal Fight: ABC
Texas Judge Rules State Can De-Fund Planned Parenthood: LifeNews

Scandal Central

Make America (And Congress) Pay Their Bills; Stop Congress From 'Fixing' Their Financial Mess: Strata
Senate passes massive tax cut which raised taxes over $600 billion in middle of night without reading the bill: LI
Congress approves fiscal crisis bill: Fox

Climate & Energy

The age old battle of the thermostat – the ‘Goredian’ Knot of global temperature: Watts
No Regulation? No Problem: Stossel

Media

You Have Been Drafted: TL in Exile
Ready to Face a Gunfight, Armed With a Slingshot?: DC
Gallup: Record number of Americans oppose handgun ban: HySci

Allen West Calls Senate ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Compromise “Illogical and Disrespectful” To Americans: Shark Tank
NYT Op-Ed: Let's Give Up On The Constitution: Wolf Howling
Professor calls for abolition of Constitution: CDN

Irony: New York Paper That Revealed Legal Gun Owners Hires Armed Security: WZ
Group claims hacked subscriber database of NY newspaper which published gun permit map: LI
Sources: Enough Republicans Willing to Unseat Speaker Boehner: Breitbart

World

The smoke screen has lifted. Sen. John Kerry officially nominated for Secretary of State.: Loudon
More on the Links between Obama and Saddam Hussein: Pipes
France: 1,200 Cars Burned; Police Attacked Over New Years: Atlas

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

Teen Solves Quantum Entanglement Problem for Fun: Wired
Armed robbers hit Paris Opera Apple Store, initial reports put heist at over $1.3M: 9to5Mac
Windows 8 Even Less Popular Than Vista: Slashdot

Cornucopia

How class warfare weakens America: Ryan
Happy New Year, 2013: MOTUS
'Oompa Loompas' sought by police over Norwich assault: BBC

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: 90 Miles From Tyranny

QOTD: "The "fiscal cliff" is a massive failure of presidential leadership. The tedious and technical negotiations are but a subplot in a larger drama. Government can no longer fulfill all the promises it has made to various constituencies. Some promises will be reduced or disavowed. Which ones? Why? Only the president can pose these questions in a way that starts a national conversation over the choices to be made, but doing so requires the president to tell people things they don't want to hear. That's his job: to help Americans face unavoidable, if unpleasant, realities. Barack Obama has refused to play this role.

Instead, he has cast the long-term budget problem as a question of whether the richest 1 percent or 2 percent of the population should pay more in taxes. Not only that, but he has insisted that the higher taxes be paid by raising rates, as opposed to reducing various tax breaks (deductions, exemptions, preferential rates) enjoyed heavily by upscale Americans. The obsession with rates is bad policy (higher rates may threaten risk-taking, work effort and hiring) but qualifies as good politics: It signals Obama's macho; he's tough on the rich, who are implicitly blamed for the nation's budget and economic woes...

...Of course, Obama would offend many Democrats if he entertained benefit cuts in Social Security and Medicare: higher eligibility ages, higher premiums for affluent elderly, structural changes in the health-care system to reduce costs. Just as many Republicans don't want taxes raised a penny, many Democrats don't want benefits cut a penny...

...Unfortunately, much of the media have accepted the Obama narrative that it's only Republican rigidity that frustrates negotiations and leads to deadlock. This means, of course, that there's even less incentive for Obama and congressional Democrats to engage in genuine bargaining.

The result is that we're not getting the debate we deserve and that budget choices are being made mainly by default. Just as important, the periodic, ugly confrontations over budget policy -- the paralysis and bitterness they involve -- corrode confidence and weaken the economy. A weak economy creates few new jobs, and the lack of jobs is the nation's No. 1 social problem. Obama's abdication of responsibility may be in his political self-interest, but it is profoundly hostile to the national interest." --Robert J. Samuelson

Tuesday, January 01, 2013

CHART: Putting the Senate Cliff Deal In Perspective

Well, this certainly puts the Senate's tax hike in perspective, to wit:

"One of those occasions when one picture really does speak a thousand words."

With Obama's trillion-dollar deficits, year after year after year, I wonder what the over-under for economic collapse is in Democrat circles?


Hat tip: Allahpundit.

Democrat Mayors Celebrate the Success of their Gun Bans

More Democrat success stories:

• In gun-free New York City, Bloomberg -- the idiot mayor, not the news service -- celebrated as nine people were shot in the wee hours of January 1.

• In gun-free Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel high-fived his Democrat buddies and reveled in achieving 532 killings and 2,670 shootings in 2012 -- the highest total of killings since 2008.

• In Baltimore and Washington D.C., both of which ban "assault weapons", Democrat leaders celebrated a grand total of 305 murders.

Would you put a sign on your front door advertising the fact that your house was a "gun-free zone"? Of course not. Yet these exceedingly dim Democrats do just that at their city gates.

And only the law-abiding suffer as a result.


Image hat tip: The White Sepuclchre.

The 5 Most Mind-Blowing 3-D Printed Objects Of 2012

The 3-D printing revolution is in its infancy, but you can sense the promise from some of the coolest builds of 2012.

5. ...Luc Fusaro’s 3-D-printed running shoe [is a] custom-fabricated concept that can theoretically shave 3.5 percent off a sprinter’s time--enough to change his or her position on the medal podium. Using a nylon polymer powder and an additive manufacturing process known as selective laser sintering, Fusaro can turn a 3-D scan of an athlete's foot into a custom-fitting, bare-bones athletic shoe with no extraneous material and a super-lightweight structure...


4. ...a Japanese exhibit provid[es] a glimpse of the photo booth of the future. Rather than providing the usual short reel of head shots, this imaging booth takes 3-D scans of visitors and then turns that data into a 3-D printed figurine. It’s you, in three dimensions...


3. ...At a New York hacker conference back in July, a German security consultant known only as “Ray” made something of a mockery of one of law enforcement's most important accoutrement: the handcuff. Using plastic handcuff keys that he printed from CAD files on a 3-D fabricator, he wowed the crowd be easily popping open sets of cuffs designed by multiple European security firms...


2. ...A University of Southern California professor has devised a layered fabrication method he calls Contour Crafting that he believes could be used to print entire buildings. Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis isn’t the first person to suggest 3-D printing structures like this, but his method is novel in that it would also add plumbing, electrical wiring, and other infrastructure as the structure is built, layer by layer, from the ground up...


1. ...then there’s Defense Distributed, a.k.a. the Wiki Weapon Project, the initiative cooked up by a University of Texas Law student and some of his buddies to 3-D print a working firearm...


One of the impacts of this new technology: some believe that "regulation or banning of firearms... will soon be impossible."


Hat tip: BadBlue Car News.

JUST LIKE LINCOLN: the most dignified, presidential and high-minded president of any president, ever

Like David Gregory, when I think of President Obama, I immediately think, "Lincoln!"

• This morning, without even waiting for a compromise deal to pass both the House and the Senate, President Obama was already ridiculing Republicans. Congratulating himself, he took credit for breaking the Republican Party's longstanding pledge to oppose tax increases: "[This is] one of the most consequential policy achievements of the last couple of decades."

• Yesterday, before the Senate had worked out its own deal early this morning, the president held what "had the feel of a campaign event" complete with cheering "middle class workers". During the event, Obama "took shots at Congress and Republicans" and issued "a stern warning to the GOP" that he would not tolerate any spending cuts.

• And before the deal was signed, Obama "gloated that if Republicans accepted this deal it would amount to a surrender on taxes" in a move that seemed "designed to sabotage a deal he allegedly wanted."

As Robert Samuelson wrote in today's Washington Post:

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office puts it this way: "...the United States cannot sustain the federal spending programs that are now in place with the federal taxes (as a share of GDP) that it has been accustomed to paying."

Until Obama conspicuously and consistently acknowledges these realities in straightforward and unmistakable language -- something he hasn't done and shows no signs of doing -- he cannot be said to be dealing honestly with the budget or with the American people. The main reason that we keep having these destructive and inconclusive budget confrontations is not simply that many Republicans have been intransigent on taxes. The larger cause is that Obama refuses to concede that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are driving future spending and deficits. So when Republicans make concessions on taxes (as they have), they get little in return. Naturally, this poisons the negotiating climate.

Obama wants the country to go over the fiscal cliff. He wants the deficit to reach 200 percent of GDP (the course it's on), which means a certain economic collapse.

He wants these things.

How else can he foment a crisis ("Never let a crisis go to waste", in the words of his former Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel) and "fundamentally transform America" (in his own words)?

I believe we have a very troubled individual running things. And what is even more troubling is the fact that about 50 percent of American voters have no earthly idea where's he's taking us. Nor do they care.


KEWL: Car News Channel Added to BadBlue

For those unfamiliar with it, BadBlue is a real-time news service not dissimilar to the Drudge Report. But BadBlue uses social networking, not a human editor, to promote stories to the front page.

In addition to political, technology, and financial news, the service has added a car channel to track automotive news.

If you're into cars, check it out:


The address is http://BadBlue.com/Cars.