This explains the chip on Obama's shoulder!

Apparently, Dear Leader made comments recently to the effect of "insulation is sexy," but his home in Chicago is a largely uninsulated brick edifice with wall and window R values of about 1. I must conclude the Obamas' marriage is loveless, and this would explain his consistent attacks on his political opponents.

Or something like that.

Till grits do you part.....

Apparently, a woman in Louisiana retaliated against her sleeping soon to be ex-boyfriend by throwing grits on him, causing second degree burns. I would guess that, even in Louisiana, this is not a good way to try to "make up". Maybe if they were cheese grits....

On the serious side, those who live in sin are 3x more likely to have domestic violence than those who get married....taking the milk from the cow without paying does not appear to be the best way to domestic bliss.

Revoke his tenure....

One of the most irritating things about President Obama's "professorial" air is that he doesn't actually know very much, and what he does "know," he tends to get dead wrong. In his recent diatribe against bankers, he demonstrates this very clearly; on the one hand, he's blaming "irresponsible lending" for the current economic difficulties, and on the other, he's beating on bankers to get them to loosen lending standards and make more loans. Either he is unaware, or doesn't care, that these statements--made in the same speech--are contradictory. They used to teach "logic" at Harvard Law, but that's not apparent in Dear Leader's rantings--or TOTUS's, if that be the case.

In the same way, he's blithely "forgotten" that TARP (or more accurately, "TRAP") was not wanted by most sound banks, who literally had to be forced by former Treasury Secretary Paulson to take the money. Not exactly the kind of "help" that the financial industry needed, and hence it's no surprise that another seven million people lost their jobs even after "TRAP" was passed and implemented.

And now he's mad that bankers--who also warned about the CRA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other issues--are also against the "reform" plan for financial services. Given his accuracy rate in the rest of his speech, I'm inclined to think that the surest way to be right is to disagree with him.

All Aboard?

Well, if an article Mitch links regarding Minnesota's new commuter rail line is indicative, I think I'll pass. After only three weeks, the locomotive had a breakdown, and commuters were left quite literally in the cold.

Given that a well maintained diesel engine is incredibly reliable (most ships have only one, despite the need to power through storms), this is not exactly good news for the program. The news gets worse, though; all five locomotives have had the same part, a throttle housing, replaced.

In short, somebody really screwed up in procurement, and this was compounded by failures in maintenance. Thankfully for the riders, a private company sent one of its own locomotives along the only transcontinental railroad line built without government subsidies (thanks Mr. Hill!) to pull the carriages to warmth. As Mitch notes, commuter rail has the best chance of success, but it doesn't appear that they're doing too well right now.

And if you really wanted to make rail work, I still think you'd put a small diesel (say the Cummins unit Dodge uses for pickups) in each carriage and have each one power itself--and others in case one engine has difficulties. You'd reduce the weight of the train by up to half, double its efficiency, and greatly improve its reliability as well.

Mystery meat in the school lunch program?

You bet it was, and is. Apparently, most fast food chains and upscale markets are far more picky about what kind of meats they use than the USDA School Lunch program. So if you wondered whether you were eating "strawberry tart without so much rat in it" in 5th grade, well yes, absolutely.

My favorite part is the fact that even Campbell's soup would not accept certain chickens being served at school cafeterias; given that the classic use of an old hen is in soup, it says a lot when a soup-maker won't use them, but the school lunch program will.

This surprised him exactly why?

Apparently, a young man trying to live as a woman was turned down for a job by a local McDonald's, and is now taking his (ahem, not "her") case to the press and possibly the courts. Somebody seriously need to take this boy aside and tell him that if his appearance induces nausea, there is an obvious reason he isn't going to be hired at "Chez Mac."

Side note: due in part to the loving care they received from their late grandmother--enjoying brie and chai with them by age three--my children would probably inform me that it would make perfect sense that a McDonald's worker would induce nausea. After all, doesn't their food do just that? It's just truth in advertising, after all. :^)

A question not asked

President Obama is creating what he bills as an ambitious small business jobs program from $200 billion not needed for the TARP program. My question; exactly what in the law allows him to appropriate this amount of money for his pet projects without the express approval of Congress? It seems to me that Article 1 of the Constitution gives Congress the right to appropriate money, not the President.

Time to impeach Dear Leader. He's obviously not taking his oath to uphold the Constitution seriously.

How NOT to dispel a stereotype

If you're Italian and proud of your ancestry, and detest the stereotypes too often applied to Italians, it would be a good idea NOT to make death threats against MTV producers.

"Hey, we're mad youse making a TV show about sayin' bad things 'bout us Italians. Knock it off, or we make-a you some concrete shoes and dump you in the Hudson!"

Along similar lines, my brother had a friend in college whose family once made dinner reservations with another family at a New York City restaurant, only to find the restaurant vacant when they got there. Not being part of the famous "families" of their names, they hadn't reckoned on the restauranteurs taking precautions when they got a reservation for "Gambino and Columbo."

My stereotypes of Italians, for what it's worth, are people making some seriously good food....I would guess that won't get me too many threats.

A new genre of doggerel

"Pieku," or a haiku about pie. I may or may not have coined the name, but I'll proudly contribute a sample.

Take lard and flour, mix
well and roll. Add filling, bake.
Yummy, not kosher.

Speaking of Barnum's Law,

...check out this little bit by Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, who has evidently forgotten exactly which political party actually DID support slavery in the 19th Century. Hint; Harry, it wasn't the Republicans.

In honor of Barnum's Law

...as modified by Scott Adams; never underestimate the power of stupidity. This thought came to me while I was considering why people would conspire--breathe together--to get socialized medicine to the United States (and its long lines for basic care), to cut payments to oncologists (while smoking up a storm in the White House), and destroy our economy with cap & trade.

I had thought that it was unthinkable that people would knowingly do collectivist action if they understood the history of the 20th Century--and it is--but yet we should not underestimate the power of stupidity and human sin.

Again, there's that "history of the 20th Century."

Ewwww......

Michelle Malkin links to a Gateway Pundit report on Comrade Obama's "Safe Schools Czar," Kevin Jennings. Apparently, he's got an extensive history with the GLSEN, the "Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network," and that group has put forth a reading list of recommended books for youth of various ages.

The content is generally about young children having sexual relations, often with adults. Now there is a primary fact here that Kevin Jennings, if he truly has anything to do with this list, shouldn't be anywhere near any school anywhere in the country--he should be on Megan's List instead.

More tellingly, the number of books specifically about relationships between children/teens and adults of the same sex would suggest to us that, ahem, GLSEN's own work suggests a strong link between homosexuality, pedophilia, and pederasty. They can deny it all they want, but what does their reading list tell us?

Fill up the whole card!

Fraters Libertas tells us that if you want to fill up your card quickly with "Buzzword Bingo" (thanks Scott Adams), you could do little better than to use this speech by our President.

Just make sure the little ones aren't listening when you stand up and shout....um..."Bingo." If meaningless buzzwords created jobs, Obama would have full employment in minutes. Unfortunately, it's not that easy.

Scooped the Muckraker!

Another 10 year old child tased by the police, this time in Pueblo, Colorado. Now in their defense, the child was wielding a pipe and was wreaking havoc in the house, but are we seriously to believe that police could not handle a ten year old, even a large one?

Gone, apparently, are the days when a standard requirement for police officer was stature and strength--such as the famous requirement that England's "bobbies" be at least six feet tall. By choosing officers without regard to their ability to subdue unarmed suspects without the use of incapacitating and lethal force, are we setting up a situation where the Taser and the Glock are going to be used needlessly?

Now this is classic

Apparently, Senatrix Boxer (D-CA) is saying that any probe of the leaked "Climategate" emails ought to involve a criminal probe. She is apparently slow enough on the uptake to forget that Congress, and United States justice in general, does not have jurisdiction over emails stolen in England by people apparently living in Russia.

She also is fairly slow on the uptake to realize that the emails contain clear evidence that climatologists were defrauding the governments of the world by fabricating, hiding, and destoying evidence, and by exerting political pressure on the peer review process.

That would, of course, be something punishable in United States courts, though I don't anticipate Senatrix Boxer pushing for the prosecution of people like NASA's James Hansen, however much that would be deserved.