Monday, April 27, 2009

Medicare in a nutshell


The phone rings and the lady of the house answers, 'Hello.'

'Mrs. Sanders, please.'

'Speaking.'

'Mrs. Sanders, this is Doctor Jones at Saint Agnes Laboratory. When your husband's doctor sent his biopsy to the lab last week, a biopsy from another Mr. Sanders arrived as well. We are now uncertain which one belongs to your husband. Frankly, either way the results are not too good.'

'What do you mean?' Mrs. Sanders asks nervously.

'Well, one of the specimens tested positive for Alzheimer's and the other one tested positive for HIV. We can't tell which is which.'

'That's dreadful! Can you do the test again?' questioned Mrs. Sanders.

'Normally we can, but Medicare will only pay for these expensive tests one time.'

'Well, what am I supposed to do now?'

'The folks at Medicare recommend that you drop your husband off somewhere in the middle of town. If he finds his way home, don't sleep with him.


Via: Dave W..

Smart Power: White House caused NYC flyover panic


A jumbo jet braced by F-16 fighter jets buzzed Manhattan earlier today, setting off a city-wide panic. Many workers were evacuated from their office buildings as rumors of a 9/11-style terrorist attack raced through the city.

Hot Air has the video collection from which these stills were culled.




In the final video, be sure and note the panic as people sprint for cover ("Oh my God," one woman screams). I'm surprised no one had a heart attack.

It turns out that the White House wanted an updated file photo of Air Force One. Seriously.

The White House later issued an apology for the "confusion".

I guess that's why someone coined the term "Obamateur Hour".


Follow the apocalypse in real-time


Google Maps has the 2009 H1N1 Swine Flu map, which is updated in near real-time.


I guess it's too late to seal the border with Mexico. Horse. Barn. Door.


Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: Hey, the campaign's over!


Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email!

Nation


The West Coast Plot: An "Inconvenient Truth": Corner
The campaign's over, Obama; it's time to lead: ChiTrib (Kass)
Returning to original GOP principles: PJM (Florack)
Throwing those who guard us to the wolves: WklyStd (Kristol)
Murder charges for our SEALs?: DPGI
Madim Albright gets it all wrong: Sheik

Law


State vs. Federal Power: WSJ
Obama wages war against the CIA: Thompson
Change: dismantling Union transparency: Times

World


Forget Nukes -- watch out for Economic War: Fox (Egan)
'No body, no proof, no problem': Real Torture: IIA
Now the Democrats want the border sealed: Hill
Averting the Caucasus Jihad: Moscow Times (Hahn)

Economy


Is TARP a criminal enterprise?: Luskin

Media


Liz Cheney pummels MSNBC hack: Power Line
Civility and tolerance in the age of Obama: Malkin
Here's why Jon Stewart is a hack: PolClass

SciTech


Report: First Android Netbook to cost $250: Crave
Real World Passwords: Schneier

Fun


Vee Haff Vays of Making You Talk: Parkway


Sunday, April 26, 2009

RED ALERT: Feinstein's husband hits the jackpot again!

Put simply, Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) appears to have hit the taxpayer lotto three times now, all surely by pure happenstance.

Days ago, The Washington Times discovered that Feinstein intervened with the FDIC in 2008. At its face, it appears to be a blatant quid pro quo steering millions of dollars of foreclosure business to her husband's company.


Click to zoom

After her intervention, the FDIC awarded a contract termed "highly unusual", both because of the margins CBRE could earn and the fact that the company did not have significant foreclosure experience. Less than sixty days after the award, the FDIC received $25 billion in TARP funds.

And despite an obvious conflict-of-interest as "a member of the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee, Sen. Feinstein voted for appropriations worth billions to her husband's firms." The value of various defense contracts awarded to a company controlled by Feinstein's husband totalled $3.7 billion. In 2007, Feinstein resigned from the subcommittee after increasing scrutiny instigated on both sides of the aisle.

The Presidio Trust appears to be yet another of Feinstein's family bonanzas, in what I am sure is simply another happy coincidence.

The Presidio of San Francisco is a park on the northern tip of land in a highly desirable area, overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. In 1989, as part of a military reduction program, Congress closed the Presidio as an active military installation. And in 1996, Bill Clinton signed into law a bill creating an "innovative" public-private partnership that would control and manage development. That organization is called the Presidio Trust.

A press release on Rep. Nancy Pelosi's site describes the federal Presidio Trust Bill of 1996. The bill was introduced by Pelosi and Senators Boxer and Feinstein in the Senate.

The Philadelphia Independent Media Center's coverage was typical, expressing the left's outrage at the creation of the nation's "first privatized national park".

In 1999's "Plundering the National Parks", Diana Scott pegs the amount of federal tax dollars sent to the privately controlled Presidio Trust at $300 million.

According to the official Presidio Trust Act, all commercial lease management for the Presidio Trust is managed through CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), the commercial real estate firm that Feinstein's husband Richard Blum heads as chairman. That's right, despite an obvious conflict of interest, Feinstein's husband's company is managing all commercial development for this plum piece of real estate.

That's not all. In addition, The Sedway Group -- a subsidiary of CBRE -- was retained as a consultant by the Presidio Trust, though no mention was made in the official meeting minutes of Sedway's connections to Blum and Feinstein.

This looks like a beautiful gig: Sedway comes in and makes recommendations and CBRE gets to implement them.

In a nutshell, Senator Diane Feinstein's family keeps hitting the lotto, the taxpayer lotto, that is.

Washington is certainly a sleazy place, but Feinstein doesn't even appear to be trying to rise above the stench.

But today's Democrats are above the law anyhow, what with dozens of current ethical violations swirling about and an utterly disinterested mainstream media. So I suppose Feinstein doesn't have to even keep appearances up. Only a couple of bloggers will report on this egregious behavior, so it's like a tree fell in a forest and only a few idiot taxpayers were around to hear it.


Hat tip: Biggest Crime. Linked by: Jawa Report. Thanks!

R.I.P.: The American Health Care System. Died: this week.


The Democrats' War on Poverty is nearly 50 years old, yet we're told there's too much poverty despite trillions in wealth transfers of every type.

The Democrats have run the education system for nearly 100 years -- with monopolies like the NEA and the AFT teacher's unions, yet we consistently hear that education is broken and that schools need more money.

Government was responsible for securing the southern border since the era of LBJ and have intentionally failed; this has led to the presence of as many as 20 million illegal aliens in the country thanks to Johnson's policies including "chain migration".

Democrats were responsible for implementing Medicare and Medicaid, which along with Social Security, are in ruins with approximately $55 trillion in debt. That's nearly a half million dollars for every household in America.

I could go down a long list of things the government said it would do, but hasn't done. Because the Statist Democrats are liars.

And now the Statist Democrats are launching the most massive attack on the American people in the history of government.

They promise health care for everyone, but they will not -- and they can't possibly -- deliver it.

While our health care system is certainly imperfect -- because all humans are imperfect, including doctors, nurses, hospitals and insurance companies -- they are more perfect, more competent, more informed, more capable than all of the bureaucrats to whom they'll be forced to report: a bureaucracy that will make all decisions about your health care.

And it is easy to confirm the havoc that socialized medicine will wreak on American society. All you need to do is to look at how Democrats are trying to ram home socialized medicine: they're doing it as fast as possible with as little debate as possible, using a loophole to slip it through without amendments or consideration.

Democrats claim it will be more cost-effective and efficient. That's bulls***. The man who's had the least experience at running anything is going to unleash the most massive federal leviathan in history.

This has been the dream of the Statist Democrats since FDR: to force each and every one of you, whether you like it or not, into a strait-jacket form of health care. It controls you; the actual being, the person.

Nameless, faceless bureaucrats substituting their decisions for those of your doctor.

Deciding whether you will have an operation or not. Whether you will have an MRI or not. Whether you will receive a life-saving, life-extending drug or not.

And we know this, because this is what occurs in Canada and Britain and other centralized bureaucracies, where you simply can not have access to advanced health care, period.

Where will the new drugs come from, since we produce half of them? Where will the new medical technologies come from, since we invent roughly three-fourths of them?

Who will run the hospitals and what will they look like when the government unions run them?

Who will be responsive in a massive federal bureaucracy, where no one takes responsibility for anything, and yet they're all-powerful decision-makers for your family's well-being?

Where will Barack Obama be in ten years, when the rest of us are struggling with a massive, out-of-control, federalized medical system that doesn't give a damn about individuals and is busy rationing?

He will be retired as a very young man; a very wealthy young man, who will have imposed his Marxist ideology upon this society and then walked away from it.

The politicians don't last. But their policies live forever.

And in every successive election cycle, the Statist Democrats will use the health care system to bludgeon their opponents. They will use health care as a weapon, rewarding you by offering more benefits for your votes and punishing you with less benefits if you dare to vote against them.

So much power for a faceless set of bureaucrats who can't possibly have the best interests of your family in mind. And yet they're going to take those decisions away from you and your doctor. And they've been lying every day to justify what they're doing.

They've been lying about the number of people without health care. They've been lying about whether the public is satisfied with health care. They've been lying about every aspect of health care.

They unleashed the slip-and-fall lawyers on the medical system, causing untold higher costs for medical practitioners. They've attacked the health care system relentlessly, driving up costs just like they've attacked the energy industry and the automakers.

And even when they have complete monopolistic control of a system, like the educational system in America, they want more control. It's never enough. They want more money, more regulations. More. They need to "invest". They need to raise taxes. They need to repress. They need to compel.

Because the Statist cannot make the imperfect perfect, even though he says he can. The Statist is more imperfect than anyone else.

I ask you to consider something: what kind of persons can Obama and the Democrat leadership be, to think they can do these things when history tells them they can not?

What kind of a mind refuses to look at the evidence? What kind of person would refuse to look at Britain and Canada? Or engage in arm-twisting secretly, behind the scenes? And use brownshirts like ACORN and the SEIU to intimidate organizations and legislators alike?

They're going to rush socialized medicine through the system, without any debate or transparency... and it's going to be a complete disaster on multiple levels.

Call the so-called conservative Blue Dog Democrats now. Make your voice heard. Help us stop this rush to disaster.


Based upon: Mark Levin 4/24/09.

Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: United in Hate


Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email!

Nation


United in Hate: Dr. Sanity
Porter Goss Goes Nuclear: TWS (Abrams)
Dems Assault the First Amendment: BMW
Obama, Alinsky & Scapegoats: AT (Lewis)

Law


A steady descent into the Third World: JWR (Pruden)
The Obama prosecutions of 2013/17: Volokh
Let the Hearings Begin!: TWS (Emery)
Once upon a time, torture was good: Dogfight
SFPD to interview Ayers accuser: SF Wkly

World


Taliban noose tightens on Pakistan: NatPost
How not to prevent a Holocaust: OpCon
The End of the World as We Know It: Steyn

Economy


How Tea Partiers can make Washington shiver: WSJ
Earth Day Predictions of 1970: IHTM
Barney Frank's Meatloaf Impression: Reason
Barney Frank: a comforting force: South Coast

Media


“Analysis:” AP-Speak for “Hagiography”: Greenroom
NHS to cancer-stricken Granny: Die Already: TAB

SciTech


The Missing Link Between Seals and Land Mammals: LGF
The GhostNet Buster: Ottawa Citizen

Fun


Danny MacAskill: Inspired
Voca People: YouTube

Saturday, April 25, 2009

At last: Democrat-approved interrogation methods


Having revealed all of America's secrets regarding interrogation, President Obama has published an official list of "approved interrogation methods".

The following MAITS (or "mildly annoying interrogation techniques") have been approved by Democrats until its practitioners are prosecuted. Read it and weep, neocons:

Tickling rapidly with a feather (provided that tickling is performed by a child);

Allowing the detainee to watch only reruns of Gilligan's Island;

Limit dessert selection to Apple Pie Cobbler (whipped cream is not permitted);

Cancel the detainee's Delta Skymiles (interrogators may not alter the prisoner's Medallion status, however);

Have Michael Bolton perform in the detainee's cell;

Restrict club selection to irons at the Gitmo golf course, even on par fives;

Prevent thermostat that controls cell air-conditioning from being set lower than 72°;

Embroider prayer mats with tiny pictures of George W. Bush;

* * *

Keep it up, Al Qaeda, or the Democrats will really start playing rough. Can you say "Richard Simmons?"


Linked by: Unreligious Right. Thanks!


Blue Dog Democrat Database: We Shall Fight Them


You know what really p*sses me off about Blue Dog Democrats? Besides the fact that they have to pretend they're Republicans to get elected, that is.

No, what really fires me up is that most of them have a "federal deficit clock" counting up on their websites.

Consider: in 100 days of the Obama administration, Democrats have already tripled the deficit. They've nationalized the banks and the auto industry. And despite running Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid into the ground (with $55 trillion in unfunded liabilities), they're now poised to shove socialized medicine down our throats, obliterating the finest medical system in the world.

Using a procedural loophole that inhibits debate and suppresses amendments, Democrats are bludgeoning socialized medicine into place (although a better name for their program might be "Illegal Alien Care") without a bit of transparency. That's change you can disbelieve in.

And let me repeat: the Democrats' socialized medicine program includes free health care for illegal aliens.

Folks, it's time to save our country. Call radio shows, write letters to the editor, tell neighbors, do whatever it takes to get the message out.

And call the Blue Dog Democrats: I've included the contact information for all of these pretenders, below. These faux-cons need to make a choice: either get with the program -- or face eradication at the polls in 2010. Call 'em now and relay the message. Make your voice heard.

To paraphrase Winston Churchill:

We shall fight them on the beaches,
We shall fight them in the city,
We shall fight them in the fields and in the streets,
We shall fight them in the hills;
We shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, America or a large part of it were subjugated and starving due to Marxist-Democrat policies, then our children will carry on the struggle until, in God's good time, this land is returned to the tenets of the Framers and the Constitution.

It's time to smash the Pelosi-Obama-Reid Marxists, before our children have to. Years from now, after Obama is retired and living the life of a wealthy jet-setter, our kids will still be paying off his ACORN/SEIU stimulus package. So call now, bookmark this page, call tomorrow and then call the next day and the day after that. Write it in your calendar if you have to. And stop the Democrats' disastrous and underhanded destruction of our health care system.
 
A
Congressman Parker Griffith
Alabama, 5th District Phone: (202) 225-4801
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords
Arizona, 8th District Phone: (202) 225-2542
Congressman Marion Berry
Arkansas, 1st District Phone: (202) 225-4076
Congressman Mike Ross
Arkansas, 4th District Phone: (202) 225-3772
Begich, Mark - (D - AR) (202) 224-3004
Arkansas
Lincoln, Blanche L. - (D - AR) (202) 224-4843
Arkansas
Pryor, Mark L. - (D - AR) (202) 224-2353
Arkansas

C
Congressman Joe Baca
California, 43rd District Phone: (202) 225-6161
Congressman Dennis Cardoza
California, 18th District Phone: (202) 225-6131
Congressman Jim Costa
California, 20th District Phone: (202) 225-3341
Congresswoman Jane Harman
California, 36th District Phone: (202) 225-8220
Congressman Adam Schiff
California, 29th District Phone: (202) 225-4176
Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez
California, 47th District Phone: (202) 225-2965
Congressman Mike Thompson
California, 1st District Phone: (202) 225-3311
Congressman John Salazar
Colorado, 3rd District Phone: (202) 225-4761
Udall, Mark - (D - CO) (202) 224-5941
Colorado
Lieberman, Joseph I. - (ID - CT) (202) 224-4041
Connecticut

D
Carper, Thomas R. - (D - DE) (202) 224-2441
Delaware

F
Congressman Allen Boyd**
Florida, 2nd District Phone: (202) 225-5235
Nelson, Bill - (D - FL)(202) 224-5274
Florida

G
Congressman John Barrow
Georgia, 12th District Phone: (202) 225-2823
Congressman Sanford Bishop
Georgia, 2nd District Phone: (202) 225-3631
Congressman David Scott
Georgia, 13th District Phone: (202) 225-2939
Congressman Jim Marshall
Georgia, 8th District Phone: (202) 225-6531

I
Congresswoman Melissa Bean
Illinois, 8th District Phone: (202) 225-3711
Congressman Joe Donnelly
Indiana, 2nd District Phone: (202) 225-3915
Congressman Brad Ellsworth
Indiana, 8th District Phone: (202) 225-4636
Congressman Baron Hill
Indiana, 9th District Phone: (202) 225-5315
Bayh, Evan - (D - IN)(202) 224-5623
Indiana
Congressman Leonard Boswell
Iowa, 3rd District Phone: (202) 225-3806

K
Congressman Ben Chandler
Kentucky, 6th District Phone: (202) 225-4706
Congressman Dennis Moore
Kansas, 3rd District Phone: (202) 225-2865

L
Congressman Charlie Melancon **
Louisiana, 3rd District Phone: (202) 225-4031
Landrieu, Mary L. - (D - LA) (202) 224-5824
Louisiana

M
Congressman Mike Michaud
Maine, 2nd District Phone: (202) 225-6306
Congressman Collin Peterson
Minnesota, 7th District Phone: (202) 225-2165
Congressman Gene Taylor
Mississippi, 4th District Phone: (202) 225-5772
McCaskill, Claire - (D - MO) (202) 224-6154
Missouri

N
Nelson, Ben - (D - NE) (202) 224-6551 **
Nebraska
Shaheen, Jeanne - (D - NH) (202) 224-2841
New Hampshire
Congressman Mike Arcuri
New York, 24th District Phone: (202) 225-3665
Congressman Mike McIntyre
North Carolina, 7th District Phone: Phone: (202) 225-2731
Congressman Heath Shuler
North Carolina, 11th District Phone: (202) 225-6401
Hagan, Kay R. - (D - NC) (202) 224-6342
North Carolina
Congressman Earl Pomeroy
North Dakota, At-Large Phone: (202) 225-2611

O
Congressman Dan Boren
Oklahoma, 2nd District Phone: (202) 225-2701
Congressman Zack Space
Ohio, 18th District Phone: (202) 225-6265
Congressman Charlie Wilson
Ohio, 6th District Phone: (202) 225-5705

P
Congressman Chris Carney
Pennsylvania, 10th District Phone: (202) 225-3731
Congressman Patrick Murphy
Pennsylvania, 8th District Phone: (202) 225-4276
Congressman Tim Holden
Pennsylvania, 17th District Phone: (202) 225-5546

S
Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin
South Dakota, At-Large

T
Congressman Jim Cooper
Tennessee, 5th District Phone: (202) 225-4311
Congressman Lincoln Davis
Tennessee, 4th District Phone: (202) 225-6831
Congressman Bart Gordon
Tennessee, 6th District Phone: (202) 225-4231
Congressman John Tanner
Tennessee, 8th District Phone: (202) 225-4714

U
Congressman Jim Matheson
Utah, 2nd District Phone: (202) 225-3011

V
Warner, Mark R. - (D - VA) (202) 224-2023 **
Virginia

W
Kohl, Herb - (D - WI) (202) 224-5653
Wisconsin

** Indicates member of budget committee




Hat tip: TCUNation.

Democrats dismantling the legal system, piece by piece


Would it be okay for you to break into an empty home because you needed a place to stay?

Would it be acceptable for you to invade a family's home because they had a spare bedroom and could be looking for a live-in nanny?

Or would it be reasonable to crash a party at the Playboy mansion because Hef had plenty of extra food, free drinks and lots of gorgeous females hanging around?

And would it be fair to sneak into the local YMCA to lift weights because you didn't want the hassle of signing up and paying membership fees?

Would it be justifiable to sneak onto a large corporate campus and steal food, office supplies and computers?

No?

So why do Democrats believe in open borders, allowing millions of non-citizens to illegally enter the country without sanction, while American taxpayers fund their health care, food, living expenses and other social services?

Put simply, when it comes to Democrats, laws do not matter.

In fact, the entire legal system -- like the Constitution -- is "living and breathing" (i.e., malleable) when it benefits Democrats; they endlessly claw for more power, more influence and more personal rewards.

At this very moment, Democrats are rushing socialized medicine through Congress without debate, without vaunted "transparency", without an impact analysis and without a word of protest from the mainstream media.

And the Democrats' new socialized medicine plan includes free health care for illegal aliens.

We must fight these bums tooth and nail. And me must throw them all out in 2010. Every last Democrat must go. And you hack "Blue Dogs"? You're first on the list.


True Tales of Canadian Health Care


Anonymous writes (partially redacted to protect the author's identity):

I am an American living and working in [Canadian City]. Please do not use my name, but I am a Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Consulate here... working in the... visas section. I could get in big trouble professionally for telling you this.

...I had numerous opportunities to work on cases in which Canadians were attempting to emigrate to the U.S. primarily for medical procedures. In one case, a U.S. citizen father was petitioning for his [Canadian adult] son to join him in [state]...

...His son had a non-Hodgkins lymphoma, and was unable to obtain the necessary treatments in Canada. In the U.S., two physicians had examined him and basically concluded that, because the disease had not spread above his neck, that he could be saved. In Canada, this young man was under a death sentence. Once I was satisfied that his medical costs would not be borne by U.S. taxpayers, I got him his visa and (hopefully) another chance at life.

* * * * * * * * *

[There was another] case of a young Canadian mother, in tears, who had recently given birth to a child with cerebral palsy. Her husband, a U.S. citizen working in Canada, was able to transmit U.S. citizenship to his infant son and he was petitioning for his wife so that the family could move to Chicago. Why? So the boy could get the treatment that he needed in the U.S., which was superior to that in Canada.

* * * * * * * * *

[We all] had several cases of nurses, doctors, and [X-ray] technicians who emigrated to the U.S. for professional reasons. Sometimes it was for the opportunity to earn more money (one doctor, earning about $85K annually Canadian, had a job offer at a clinic in Buffalo for $300K U.S.). For others, it was a chance to to do what they were trained to do - in the U.S., [an X-ray] technician has the equipment and facilities to ply his trade, whereas in Canada the opportunities to do so are quite limited.

* * * * * * * * *

I realize that this is all anecdotal and not statistically based, but in my experience the only Canadians who are satisfied with the system here are people who are healthy. I do not mean that in a snide attempt to be funny, I am serious - it is a good program for young healthy couples with one or two children who need vaccinations and routine appointments.

However, if you get sick, this is not the place to be.

Lastly, a comment - U.S. health care is a good value for the money. Would you rather have 2009 health care at 2009 prices, in the U.S., or 1970 health care at 1970 prices? The answer is obvious, and even our own Congress knows it. I am pretty sure that Ted Kennedy would not choose to have his brain cancer treated anywhere but the U.S., and the same is true for John Kerry's prostate cancer.

Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: Gingrich crushes Gore

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email!

Economy


A Tripartite Social Democratic Agenda: Hammer
Busted: Barney Frank Speech Ties Him To Housing Collapse: Gateway
Kickin' Butt at a Tea Party: Scott N.
Inhofe Warns TARP Recipients on ACORN: B&M
Regulators fell one bank, spare a rival: WSJ
Government bullying a serious matter: PJM (Rubin)

National Security


Al Qaeda, Oil Facilities, and a Global Economic Crisis: EnSec
Administration's loathing of the military accelerates: BH
McCain Does A "Napolitano": Bloviating Zeppelin

Socialized Medicine


Obamacare: UK denies “free” maternity care: Surber

Climate


Gingrich schools Gore: C-SPAN
Dear Greens, You Want To Save the Earth?: AmerDig
Al Gore's Money-Making Scam Exposed: JWF
Lisa Jackson Steals $11,000 from Every American Household: Heritage
Waxman buying votes on Carbon Scam: Examiner

World News


Rupert Murdoch on Israel: Shayne
Video: UAE Royal Tortures Victim: Jawa
Friends of Barack: Surber

Law


Tyranny Rising: Assault on Firearms: Langbert

Media


44's Poll Numbers Trail Those of 43: Gallup Covers It Up: HNN

Tech


1950's educational film: Facebook, electronic friendship generator: ManiacWorld
So Long, GeoCities: We Forgot You Still Existed: PCW
Rate of Fire: The Automatic Handgun: Military

"I think we have an excessive degree of concern right now about home ownership and its role in the economy. Obviously, speculation is never a good thing. But those who argue that housing prices are now at the point of a bubble seem to me to missing a very important point. Unlike previous examples we have had, where substantial excessive inflation of prices later caused some problems, we are talking here about an entity — home ownership, homes — where there is not the degree of leverage we have seen elsewhere.

This is not the dot-com situation; we have problems with people having invested in business plans for which there was no reality. People building fiber-optic cable for which there was no need. Homes that are occupied may see an ebb and flow in the price at a certain percentage level, but you’re not going to see the collapse that you see when people talk about a bubble. And so, those of us on our committee in particular, will continue to push for home ownership."

-- Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), 2005

Friday, April 24, 2009

Giant Mystery Blob Discovered Near Dawn of Time


A startling discovery is shaking the very underpinnings of space science. An exclusive photo depicts an enormous space "blob" that exists at the very edge of the universe.

A newly found primordial blob may represent the most massive object ever discovered in the early universe, researchers announced today... The gas cloud, spotted from 12.9 billion light-years away, could signal the earliest stages of galaxy formation back when the universe was just 800 million years old...

...Himiko holds more than 10 times as much mass as the next largest object found in the early universe, or roughly the equivalent mass of 40 billion suns. At 55,000 light years across, it spans about half the diameter of our Milky Way Galaxy...

Lyman-Alpha blobs remain a mystery because existing telescopes have a hard time peering so far back to nearly the dawn of the universe.

Himiko sits right on the doorstep of an era called the reionization epoch, which lasted between 200 million and 1 billion years after the Big Bang. That's when the universe had just emerged from its cosmic dark ages and had begun brightening through the formation of stars and galaxies. Hot, energized hydrogen gas from that time period has allowed astronomers to begin seeing some objects — as much good as it does to squint at such fuzzy blobs.

...[New] research hinges upon the future success of a risky repair mission to the aging Hubble. Astronauts are slated to blast off with the space shuttle Atlantis in the attempt next month...

To be fair, the illustration is my own depiction, representing a gaseous blob of enormous proportions.

Click here to see a grainy photo of the real primordial blob.


Woman


Dave W. sent this one in... and it's good blackmail material I can threaten him with.

One day, long, long ago, there lived a woman who did not whine, nag or bitch.


But it was a long time ago, and it was just that one day.

The End

 

Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: Crossing a Red Line

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email!

National Security


Outrage: Some torture more acceptable than other: Protein Wisdom
White House: No independent interrogations probe: Examiner
Goss: Obama Decision "Crossed a Red Line": WklyStd
Pelosi: I Don't Know Nothin' About Waterboardin' No Jihadis: Ace
He's got the launch codes, but not the clearance: CFP

International Affairs


Welcome To The Real World, Professor Obama: LegalIns
Team Obama Will Release Photos of Abused US Detainees: Gateway

Law & Crime


Change You Can Believe In: Limiting Defendants' Rights : JWF
Barack Obama, Legal Scholar: AT (Lasky)

Activism


The Ron Paul Nutbags' Tea Party Nightmare: LGF

Energy and Climate


Obama's Red Sea: Driessen
Your Energy Future Is In Good Hands: LegalIns

Economy


Wall Street’s 1929 Scams Return in Geithner Plan: Bloomberg
Feds Threatened BofA Execs to Conceal Merrill Problems: LegalIns
Cuomo's letter on regarding BofA/Merrill concealment: Instapundit

Media


Fact-checking the Times: JOM
How to produce high approval ratings for Obama: AT (McCann)
AP’s “Glass Half Full” Interpretation of Latest Poll: Flopping Aces
MSNBC's Maddow suffers catastrophic ratings drop: BaltSun

Tech


Massive Botnet infects 2M PCs: Dark Reading

Culture


And Spengler Is...: Spengler
Gold investor booted from Kitco due to conservatism: Langbert
Two novels Obama should read: Gingrich

Bloggers now outnumber Lawyers: Yahoo!:

"...Demographically, bloggers are extremely well educated: three out of every four are college graduates. Most are white males reporting above-average incomes. One out of three young people reports blogging, but bloggers who do it for a living successfully are 2% of bloggers overall. It takes about 100,000 unique visitors a month to generate an income of $75,000 a year. Bloggers can get $75 to $200 for a good post, and some even serve as "spokesbloggers" -- paid by advertisers to blog about products. As a job with zero commuting, blogging could be one of the most environmentally friendly jobs around -- but it can also be quite profitable. For sites at the top, the returns can be substantial. At some point the value of the Huffington Post will no doubt pass the value of the Washington Post..."

100K monthly unique visitors translates to $75K annually? What the...? Perhaps someone far wiser could explain to me what I'm doing wrong.