dispatches from TJICistan

If a picture is worth a thousand words, and we price words at $1 each , we only need 3 billion pictures to equal Obama’s bloated socialist budget … and here’s the first one.

tjic — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:14:05 +0000

The Atlantic passes along a graph pf what our insane federal spending looks like:

I’ve talked about my $0.8 trillion budget before, but here’s a rough visual representation:

A recap of how we cut spending and get rid of long term obligations

The total TJIC budget is $805 billion. I note that this keeps the essential functions of a state – a military, care of veterans, the courts, the national parks, federal marshals, border patrol, coast guard, mint, the presidency, statistics and censuses, diplomacy, etc. all fully funded.
In the first year, the social security “obligation” would be discharged by creating for everyone over the age of 65 to an annuity, and anyone between 40 and 65 a funded 401k plan. Funding would come from revenues raised by auctioning off radio spectrum, now-unnecessary office buildings, equipment, BLM land, etc.
To hand-wave some numbers: assume that 20 years of current benefits spending is sufficient to fund annuities that would pay the same level of benefits in perpetuity (the actual math is more complicated, because according to the actuary tables many recipients are going to die tomorrow, and many more have decades to live, but this is hand-waving, so live with it).
$580 billion in 1 year expenses times 20 years is approximately $10 trillion. The BLM holds 262 million acres. At $1k each, that’s half of the money right there. Sell of 50% of the federally owned offices and real-estate in DC, Manhattan, Boston, Las Vegas, and San Francisco, and we’ve made another 10 billion or more. Sell off the strategic helium reserve for another six bucks and 12 cents, etc., and pretty soon, we’re fully funded.
Transition over, we now need to come up with $805 billion / year.
I’d scrap the individual income tax, the corporate income tax, FICA, excise taxes, estate and gift taxes, and customs…which is to say, absolutely all current tax programs.
I’d replace this with a head tax, with an optional higher tier: everyone pays $2k. Those who want to brag pay either $5k or $50k. A public service campaign involving celebrities and sports heros broadcasts the message that if every citizen in the US payed $2k/year, we’d collect $600 billion/year.
To close the gap, we grant citizenship to 400,000 individuals who promise to pay at the $50k/year tier. As Joshua pointed out, we’d end up with a fair number of bankers from Singapore, China, and Russia.
Or, perhaps, we sell off 5 times as many slots to folks willing to pay at the a $10k/year level.
Are there 2 million in the Indian middle class who might want to live here?
Voila. Social Security solved. Unconstitutional programs ended. Progressive taxes killed. Free trade established. Farmer welfare ended. The budget cut by 70%. The middle class expanded.
…all done in the context of the current American system.

ready to be blasted into orbit

tjic — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:14:51 +0000

The other day NZC and I decided that, instead of going out for dinner on Guy’s Night, we’d buy some steaks and get all ~~medieval~~ 500 ° cast iron on them.

Whole Foods, while infested by loathsome yuppy scum, as usual, also failed us by having no T-bones of less than 2 lbs in size.

So we go them.

I picked first and got away with a 2.1 lb monster.

NZC took the 2.5 lb behemoth.

We did them up, and they were awesome. NZC carved off about 0.5 lbs for his daughter Jenny (who, inexplicably, talked her way into Guy’s Night). Take off another 0.5 lbs for bone, and NZC polished off … OM*G … 1.5 lbs of steak at a single sitting. Plus asparagus. Plus other sides.

Conversation at the time:

TJIC: NZC, you’ve got half a cow in you!

NZC: …and in 10 minutes, I’m going to have half an agave in me too!

I chowed down – I probably put away 0.8 lbs or so of steak – but still had 8 oz left over.

For breakfast, I always have 4 eggs. No carbs, about 300 calories. A good way to start the day.

Today, I was out of eggs.

…and there, in the fridge, was half a lb of steak.

Frizzled that bad boy up in a skillet.

I’m totally ready to be strapped into a Mercury or Gemnin capsule and be blasted into space.

Or, if DF can be reached to give me a ration of rum, I’m alternately ready to single-handledly re-establish the British Empire.

Onward!

juvenile anatomy humor

tjic — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:07:41 +0000

Background: I’ve got one friend who, for some reason that my brain has swapped out (and will probably never swap in), has just one testicle.

Also, friend X lives in a household comprised of:

himself
his girlfriend
his (formerly) male dog
his newborn son

~~conversation~~ monologue at the Res:

TJIC: X has one nut, and has one kid … Nick has two nuts, and has two kids …oh, crap … I’m not really sure that I’m up for having four kids.

Talking to X about the conversation later:

TJIC: repeats above story

X: LOL! … by the way, it occurred to me the other day that my kid has more nuts than everyone else in the house put together!

moment of objectiveness / neutrality / fairness

tjic — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:03:03 +0000

Let me go on the record as saying – as much as I think that Barney Frank and other free spending Democrats caused more than their fair share, over the last 20 years, of this mess – this recession was going to hit no matter who won the presidency in ‘08.

Tactically, I’m just thrilled that a Democratic president and congress was in place when it came time to pay the piper. They will get a large chunk of the blame, and even after the MSM does its damnedest to spin it, a lot of it will still stick to them.

If McCain (just another socialist, but one bearing the “Republican” label) had been president, and/or a Republican congress had been in place, the MSM would have worked day and night to pin 100% of the blame on that single election.

This way, at least there’s a small chance that the limited government / libertarian wing of the Republican party can emerge untarred and begin the massive government scale down that we need.

OK, that was your moment of fairness.

We now return to our regularly scheduled screeds.

good candidates need not apply

tjic — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:00:44 +0000

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editor…
Do colleges redline Asian-Americans?

The answer, of course, is “heck, yes” – American higher education is the most racist institution in the country outside of – perhaps – the KKK.

There are two effects going on:

First, modern blue-state left-wing intelligentsia is the most elitist, IQ-worshipping, meritocratic cultural subgroup in modern society … yet they hate to think of themselves in these terms, so they’re always looking for ways to play against type, so as to demonstrate that they don’t really believe in IQ, the genetic component of intelligence, etc., etc., etc. (They do, of course – check out the terms they use to disparage their political enemies).

Second, leftists tend to be – in the physical arena – craven cowards who detest the thought of violence, combat, splinters, etc. (as one example among a multitude, check out Douglas Hofsteader’s jihad against the horribly manly sport of boxing … I forget which one of his collections it’s in, but you can find it).

And, if there isn’t a Muslim getting upset about an academic course that mentions that Muhammad was a pederast, there’s always the 30 year old memory of black on campus violence to cause one to wet one’s pants.

(details)

Put these two together, and a bed wetting leftist can both cower before the angry black demographic, and demonstrate his man-of-the-people-we-don’t-care-about-IQ bonifides at the same time: all he’s got to do is rig the admissions process to penalize “over achieving, bookish, un-well-rounded ~~big nosed, money-grubbing~~ [ oops! - off by 30 years! ] nerds” and benefit under-prepared, less intelligent, less culturally-acclimated-to-academia demographic, and he nails two birds with one stone.

If I married an Asian woman, or adopted Asian kids, I’d be torn – would I name them “Tyrone” and “Shaniqua” so that they could get into Harvard even if they got mediocre SAT scores? … or should I give them Asian names, so as to give them a first-person demonstration of the corruptness of American higher ed?

Actually, it’s a moot point – last I checked, all the Ivy League schools still insist on an in-person interview, so that they can accurately gather necessary information.

desk, office, metal, gray – 1 each

tjic — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:27:00 +0000

NZC and I like to refer to a handful of items that one encounters in a typical week via military-style nomenclature.

e.g. “desk, office, metal, gray”.

Looking at the shop picture I posted last night of the recycled metal chest-of-drawers, I noticed that the grey/beige hulk was sitting in front of two other grey/beige hulks – the sets of lockers that I bought a while back off of eBay or Craiglist, or wherever.

…which reminded me of the two card catalogs, also from eBay.

…which made me realize that a very large percent of the storage in my shop is in the form of discarded office/industrial shelving / drawers.

If I had tried to make a set of Chinese apothecary drawers or a tool chest with equivalent storage capacity, I’d have to make 128 drawers (to replace the card catalogs) and another 30 or so for the newer drawers, and another 30 beyond that for the lockers.

There’d be something like 1,200 dovetails there, and probably $2 – $4k worth of wood.

And, it is indisputable that I’d have a better looking shop, and I’d have a lot more practice cutting dovetails.

…but for a guy who gets about 10 hours/week in the shop, and – while not uninterested in cabinetmaking skills – is interested in home repair and woodturning above cabinetmaking, it seems that hunting for desk, office, metal, gray – and similar – is the way to go.

Also, it’s a ton cheaper than option 3: buy a few of those huge circa 8 ‘ long Snapon toolchests…for the price of a nice new house in middle America.

Obama’s donor base drying up

tjic — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:40:34 +0000

http://www.thebigmoney.com/features/toda…
The days when Obama could solicit a record $89 million in campaign funds from the financial industry are over, the New York Times reports. After the White House’s months of harsh rhetoric and attempts to tighten regulation, even Wall Street’s big Democratic donors are turning on him. His proposals, especially the Volcker rule and the “financial responsibility tax” on bigger banks, are angering many in the industry.

Suckers.

It was clear to some of us that Obama was a business-hating socialist before the election.

But you fools fueled your own nemesis.

non essential personnel

tjic — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:35:33 +0000

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massach…
Nobody wins in Cambridge mayoral impasse
CAMBRIDGE – More than three months have passed since November’s election, but Cambridge is still without a mayor.
The nine-member City Council, which elects the mayor from within its ranks, has voted five times and can’t seem to decide among three candidates jockeying for the position.

Nobody wins?

Sounds to me like the voters are doing pretty well!

profession: legislator

tjic — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:34:19 +0000

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massach…
Governor Deval Patrick and Senate President Therese Murray plan to propose this week several ways to improve the Bay State’s business climate, saying they need to be more aggressive in steering the region out of its economic malaise.

I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that none of these will include “cutting the tax rates” and “cutting regulation”…

Murray said she will seek to streamline more than 30 agencies that promote economic development and create regional one-stop centers where all information about state programs and services will be available.

There are “30 agencies that promote economic development” ?!?!?

There are “state programs” ?

And “services” ?

WT* !?!?

What free market experience has Deval Patrick had?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deval_Patri…
In 1997, Patrick returned to Boston to join the firm Day, Berry & Howard, and was appointed by the federal district court to serve as Chairman of Texaco’s Equality and Fairness Task Force to oversee implementation of the terms of a race discrimination settlement

Answer: Almost none: he’s worked in two very large firms with lots of political connections.

What free market experience has Therese Murray had?

http://www.mass.gov/legis/member/t_m0.ht…
PROFESSION: Legislator.

Answer: None.

These people are nothing but jokes.

Asking them to design programs to better the business climate is about like asking me to design menstrual pads – I don’t understand the sector, I don’t understand the features, I don’t understand the problems, and there’s no way that the effects of my work will ever come back to make an impact on me.

I’m – apparently – a shop teacher now

tjic — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:04:22 +0000

Charlie is a local home schooled kid that I know. He’s around 11 or so, and he’s into comics, so he’s alright in my book.

…and his mom is a libertarian.

…and his dad is an anarchocapitalist (DF comment when he heard this: there are three of us in this town? You have got to be shitting me!)

So, anyway, when his mom asked if she could pay me to give Charlie shop lessons, I of course answered “Sure, payment in either .223 or specie works for me”.

No, seriously, I said “send him over, and let’s not talk money”.

Jenny has been my shop buddy for some time.

Today she and Charlie both ended up in the workshop at the same time, which worked out well, because when any one kid is in the shop, you can leave them alone for a few minutes at a time, but you can’t really get much of your own work done, and to even attempt it is to just court frustration. With two kids, you can shuttle evenly back and forth and keep them both occupied.

Today Charlie finished up a small balloon-powered boat that we’d started on last time, and then moved on to making a small display case for his iPod. He wanted a rectangular through mortise for the iPod cord, so we drilled out some overlapping holes and then I let him use a small file to clean it up.

Jenny worked on her first bowl.

and

Yesterday and this morning, before the kids arrived, I cobbled together out of some MDF scraps a small plinth with casters to support a sheet metal chest of drawers. Each drawer is a bit larger than 8.5 x 11, and was used as recently as the mid 1990s to hold inter-office mail for some public school teachers.

My mom grabbed the cabinet for her classroom when the administration threw it away, and then I grabbed it from her when she retired and emptied out her classroom. I spent a few hours wielding a heat gun and Goo Gone to clean all the stickers and 30 year old cellophane residue off.

The cabinet has a hollow base, and the plinth has blocks that tuck up inside the hollow base and prevent the cabinet from moving even a single mm.

The plinth is designed so that it rolls over the base of the floor-standing drill press. so that it occupies zero additional square feet of floor space … yet can be rolled out of the way in a moment if I need to drop the drill press table.

I cut and installed non-slip shelf liner in the top few drawers, then sorted my Sherline accessories into them and labelled them.

I’ve got some small combined wood / metal turning artsy-fartsy projects that I want to work on, and the Atlas is a bit over powered and under precisioned for my purposes.

Shop class is once per week (Sunday afternoons) so I may have more updates going forward.

14 year old girl news

tjic — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 14:47:28 +0000

Ann Althouse has a medium length (and quite interesting) post on how Sarah Palin has deftly maneuvered and (successfully) muscled for rank in the emerging modern small-government movements.

It concludes:

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2010/02/sar…
What I love about all this is the extreme contrast to the way Palin was mocked when she resigned as Governor of Alaska. I, myself, did not think it was stupid, because I pictured her doing something like what she is actually doing, but I certainly remember the derision. Her political career was over. She was “toast.”

In the original the word “toast” is a hyperlink. I looked at it and mentally bet myself 10:1 that it was a link to a post from our favorite 14 year old girl.

I was right.

Pfft.

For a while I wondered why the Atlantic kept the hyper-excitable, perpetually-menstrual Sullivan on the payroll.

Then I realized: everyone loves a train wreck.

I’ve got $5

tjic — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 14:31:16 +0000

Reader Steve R. writes in with this:

http://rawstory.com/2010/02/south-caroli…
Five-dollar registration fee for persons planning to overthrow US government
Terrorists who want to overthrow the United States government must now register with South Carolina’s Secretary of State and declare their intentions — or face a $25,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison.
The state’s “Subversive Activities Registration Act,” passed last year and now officially on the books, states that “every member of a subversive organization, or an organization subject to foreign control, every foreign agent and every person who advocates, teaches, advises or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States … shall register with the Secretary of State.”
There’s even a $5 filing fee.
By “subversive organization,” the law means “every corporation, society, association, camp, group, bund, political party, assembly, body or organization, composed of two or more persons, which directly or indirectly advocates, advises, teaches or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States [or] of this State.”

I crap you not: I am going to fill out this form, cut a $5 check, and mail it in.

I’ll keep you updated.

reality catches up with T J Rogers

tjic — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 14:28:41 +0000

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/…
OSLO – Arni Hole remembers the shock wave that went through Norway’s business community in 2002 when the country’s trade and industry minister, Ansgar Gabrielsen, proposed a law requiring that 40 percent of all company board members be women…
But as the dust has settled, researchers are grappling with some frustrating facts…
Early evidence from a little-noticed study by the University of Michigan suggests that the immediate effect has been negative on [ improving the professionalism of the boards or enhancing corporate performance ].

Color me shocked.

Jeez, if only someone had told us, say, 15 years ago that politically correct boards are a stupid, ill-advised way to compete.

sick sad world

tjic — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 12:27:48 +0000

A column in the NYT talked about the phenomena of people watching accident videos on youtube. Specifically, ice skating accidents.

And provided links.

Once there, you’re presented with a sidebar of related ice skating accident videos.

I learned something.

When you type “motorcycle accidents” into the search bar, you’re presented with type-ahead suggestions.

The first is “motorcycle accidents fatal”.

The second is “motorcycle accidents funny”.

This is somewhat disturbing to me.

sometimes

tjic — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 20:11:33 +0000

Sometimes you’re in a bookstore and see a Cosmopolitan magazine with an article title on the cover blaring “Five Ways to Touch a Naked Man”.

And you think “I could really hassle my male friend with this … but that would be what the kids call ‘homophobic’”.

My advice: ruthlessly suppress that instinct, and go for the gusto!

conversation

tjic — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 20:08:52 +0000

DF: Did you see Obama’s speech in New Hampshire?

TJIC: No, I missed it.

DF: When he was reading off of the teleprompters he was stilted and boring – and when he went off script, he was incoherent and babbling.

TJIC: Wow. So his famous speaking skills are gone. Well, he was elected for two reasons – is he at least still black?

the most flattering thing said about me today

tjic — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 20:03:33 +0000

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CoyoteBlo…
Thirty seconds spent perusing Heavy Ink founder Travis Corcoran’s blog should have convinced them this would not end well.

Perhaps I should subtitle my blog “Musing of an Irish gentleman“.

a conversation that didn’t actually result in lunch plans

tjic — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:11:05 +0000

TJIC: Greetings abhumans!

NZC: There are not abhumans here, just ab-me.

TJIC: What’s the lunch plan?

NZC: The women folk aren’t here and there’s a message on the machine – E wants to go to brunch at Johnn D’s.

TJIC: Ugggh – that place is a magnet for pretentious 24 year old douchebag hipsters.

NZC: Hey! I like Johnny D’s

TJIC: Of course you do – you fit the demographic perfectly!

NZC: You know what I don’t like? You!

TJIC: but then again who does ?

NZC: Not many, and fewer ever day.

TJIC: That’s not true! There are no positive integers less than zero.

NZC: How can I argue with that?

TJIC: I’m sure you’ll find a way.

NZC: I want to find a way, because I hate you.

TJIC: Pfft! I’m going to go practice guitar now. Call me when something useful has emerged from the chaos.

epic snowstorm

tjic — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:26:24 +0000

Apparently the seat of the national government is snowed in and everone is trapped in their houses.

I predict that with government officials unable to govern and convene press conferences, nationwide the economy will be stable and mass layoffs will be put on hold.

…at least until the plows get out there and let the politicians and bureaucrats back into their offices.

class

tjic — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:08:29 +0000

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massach…
US Representative Patrick Kennedy – who faces a Republican challenger and slipping popularity, according to a new poll – threw the Kennedys’ first stone at newly elected US Senator Scott Brown, calling his candidacy “a joke.”

It’s good to see that the Kennedys haven’t changed.

Multitudes are marching to the big kettle drum. Voices callin’, voices cryin’.

tjic — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:07:01 +0000

http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/201…
MTV’s hit reality show [ Jersey Shore ] put put the spotlight on the style of a group of 20-something Italian-Americans, self-professed “guidos” and “guidettes,” as they partied and fist-pumped their way through a Seaside, N.J., summer.
And now their style – heavy on gravity-defying hair and deeply revealing tops – is catching on among a non-”guido” audience…

I recall reading a prediction about this somewhere.

Oh yes… I think it was in Revelations. Somewhere in between “Satan and his double edged sword” and “four living creatures covered in eyeballs”…

(subject line hattip)

the American Dream

tjic — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:59:29 +0000

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/love_…
A group of immigrant high-school students got a senior prom that could happen only in America. When the yacht “Fantasy” set sail for a three-hour cruise around Manhattan last June, the liquor started to flow and bartenders served drink after drink to the chaperones — including some 15 teachers and the principal …
Finally, a buxom chemistry teacher, 25, wrapped herself around a boy as they danced slowly. They locked lips…
It wasn’t only a spectacle on the upper-deck dance floor… A large TV screen projected the action on the lower level…
The school is one of 10 in the city supported by the Internationals Network for Public Schools, a nonprofit whose motto is “Opening doors to the American dream.”

Man, now there is a motto.

…although it might be better applied to the liquor than to the nonprofit…

“The Press”

tjic — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:55:20 +0000

http://www.gormogons.com/2010/02/tea-wit…
The Czar has often said that the press is pretty much a fourteen-year-old girl. They bop around from crush to crush, think they know everything, go straight to hysterical tears when someone turns on them, and especially see the world as whether you’re in or you’re out at the moment.

Good point.

I’ll merely call attention to the fact that he mispelled Andrew Sullivan’s name.

Unless “The Press” is some sort of Jersey-Shore-style nickname?

BSG finale

tjic — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:24:03 +0000

Because I watch TV via DVD, I see everything (well, everything that I watch – about five or six shows total, about three of which are on the air) a year after normal people.

I saw the BSG finale the other day.

I’ve got much to say about it, at some point, but for now, I’ll just mention that that night I fell asleep and had dreams of fighting Centurions.

I was quite annoyed that the 12 gauge slugs from my Bennelli M-1 weren’t knocking them down, even while Starbuck’s woefully underpowered 9mm submachinegun had killed them in the episode.

So I did a tactical retreat to the attic where (in real life) I’ve got my .50.

That worked.

If only real life problems were so easy to deal with!

news from JWZ and his nightclub (”the difference between big government progressivism and communism is just a matter of scale” remix)

tjic — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:14:07 +0000

http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2…
Remember that citation we got last month, which may or may not have been for “failing to keep the sidewalk clear” at 12:45 AM on New Year’s Eve? Well, the court date was this week. Barry showed up at 8 AM and spent many hours waiting first in one line, then being told to wait in another line, and then a third line, where finally the clerk looked at the ticket, typed in its number, and said, “This ticket is invalid.”
“What does that mean?”, Barry asked.
“It means you don’t have to do anything. Here’s your receipt, zero dollars due.”
“But, invalid how? What makes it invalid?”
“Look, I’m not going to play detective here”, she said.
After some more non-answers, he was finally told to come back on Thursday, where he wasted another half day trying to get a whole gaggle of clerks to explain to him what was invalid about it. As far as we can tell, from the not-very-communicative hints that were dropped from behind the bulletproof glass, “invalid” means either: the citation was never entered into the system in the first place; or at some point, someone reviewed it and clicked the “Invalid!” checkbox.
(You’d think that if someone manually invalidated your citation — meaning that you didn’t do anything wrong, and it was wrong for you to have gotten the citation in the first place — they might do you the courtesy of calling to let you know that you don’t actually have to show up at 8 AM and waste half your day. But no, that’s apparently not how it works.)
So, my assumption is unchanged: that the issuance of this citation was pure harassment. Officer Bertrand wrote it knowing full well that it would not be prosecuted, and that he would never have to defend his claims in front of a judge. I believe that Bertrand and Ott showed up at DNA Lounge on New Year’s Eve with the intention of citing us for something, and when the only thing they could come up with was something that they knew wouldn’t stick, they wrote us this “fake” ticket solely to flex their muscle and waste our time.
We have heard many stories of this kind of thing happening to operators of other venues over the past couple of years: tickets that, once you get to the front of the hours-long line, turn out to not really exist at all.
Most people are relieved when this happens to them, because it means they “got off easy”.

JWZ, to the best of my knowledge, continues to be left of center.

The issue, I imagine, is that big intrusive government is a dandy thing – it just “needs to be done right”.

See also: “communism is a great idea, it’s just never been tried”.

See also: TJIC’ ongoing rant comprising the two closely related points that:

(a) if when you attempt to implement “wonderful communism” and every single frickin’ time you get mass murder, starvation, and gulags, then that is communism

(b) if when you attempt to implement “wonderful big-government progressivism” and every single frickin’ time you get high and inefficient taxes, corrupt police, a hide-bound bureaucracy that would rather deny citizens services than allow them to be efficiently provided, subsidies to the rich via farm subsidies and publicly run symphonies, and more, then that is big-government progressivism.

tower of meat

tjic — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:50:40 +0000

Your mission, should you choose to accept it:

Go the Burger King website.
Select the triple whopper.
Up the number of beef patties from 3 to 5.
Click the “more” button on the right hand side.
Up the bacon to 5.
Add 5 “steakhouse patties”.
Add 5 “steakhouse XT”.
Add 5 “Whopper Junior patties”.
Contemplate the sheer awesomeness of a 6,880 calorie burger that has almost half a pound (197 grams) of saturated fat, over 1 lb of total fat, and 18 times the USRDA of sodium (8,990 mg).

Bonus activity:

click “add to order”
enjoy the popup you get which says “would you like anything else with that?”

strange but true: a new reason to hate FDR

tjic — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:27:51 +0000

Mr. Redacted writes:

Another reason to !@#$ FDR’s skull
http://volokh.com/2010/01/27/barack-obam…

which points us here:

A fascinating post from Prof. Sarah B. Lawsky, on TaxProf.
I hadn’t known that FDR “paid taxes at the rates in effect when he took office, even as statutory tax rates increased,” on the theory that applying the higher taxes “violated the Constitutional provision that states that the president’s compensation ’shall be neither increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected.’” (The post includes a copy of FDR’s claim form on the subject.)

So the bastard destroyed one of the freest countries the world has ever seen, built a socialist state on its wreckage, and then refused to pay all the new taxes he pushed through?

We need to get all John Varley on the guy: invent time travel, travel back in time to April 1, 1945, and when he goes to the bathroom, swap him out for a protein robot that returns to the sitting room and declares “I have a terrific pain in the back of my head” and then dies.

Back in the present we will then use advanced medical technology to restore FDR to full health … before torturing him almost to death.

Several times.

HeavyInk is on the front page of Boing Boing

tjic — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:11:33 +0000

I’m not a fan of all of the writers at Boing Boing, but I do like Mark Fraunfelder (we’ve talked through a Make Magazine / SmartFlix connection), and I’m thrilled to have this

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/04/law…
Law firm demands retailer destroy all copies of Olivia Munn comic, retailer refuses
By Mark Frauenfelder

Travis of Heavy Ink says: “Thought you might be interested to hear that lawyers are threatening HeavyInk to remove a parody comic about Olivia Munn. We’re fighting back.”
Click the image on the right to see the law firm’s letter.
Legal challenge to HeavyInk: ‘destroy all copies of Celebrity Showdown Olivia Munn’

it was very nearly perfect

tjic — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:47:29 +0000

http://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com…
I was mildly disappointed that a flaming midget clown on a tricycle never pedaled furiously through the meadow yelling “Verboten!”. Other than that, it was very nearly perfect.

LOL!

wherein TJIC gets a bit pedantic about firearms

tjic — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:45:21 +0000

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/instapund…
PRESS GENIUSES: ABC says Grenade Launcher – FOX says 37mm Cobray Grenade (Flare) Launcher. Flares are not grenades.

I can’t say that I’m 100% on board with Insty here.

Let the record show that the DoD started using the 40mm M-203 grenade launcher (either underslung on an M-16, or stand alone, with its own stock), and the civilian market cloned the design, but made it 3mm smaller so as to not be backwards compatible with government issue 40mm grenades.

3mm, for those not used to metric, is 1/8″.

Basically, there’s no way to tell a 37mm flare launcher apart from a 40mm grenade launcher by eye.

The one way you can do it is to try to load a 40mm grenade – one will take it, one won’t.

On the other hand, empty 37 mm cardboard flare tubes, black powder, primers, and ball bearings are all readily available, so if anyone wanted to make a 37mm grenade, it’d be the work of 45 minutes.

It’s even legal – you’ve just got to have a Class 3 license and pay your $200 destructive device fee to the BATF.

a modest proposal

tjic — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:19:32 +0000

http://armsandthelaw.com/archives/2010/0…
ATF agent sues agency, and it sues him
Some interesting developments over at Clean Up ATF. An agent had infiltrated the Hell’s Angels and Aryan Brotherhood, they managed to find out where he lived, and he and his family got credible violent threats. The agency agreed to put him in the LEOs’ version of witness protection and kept screwing up. When he pointed that out, his superior retaliated by withdrawing what little security he did have, and his house promptly was burned to then ground. He sues for breach of contract, ATF moves to dismiss, and loses the motion.
Then, apparently, ATF gets a US Attorney to sue him for having published a book that allegedly damaged its reputation. (I guess the expiration of the Sedition Act limited the remedy).
At the bottom of the page is a link to the court’s order denying the motion to dismiss. Skim thru to p. 25, where the court lists the allegations of the complaint. Pretty spectacular.

I love the first comment:

I’m trying really hard to care when an agency devoted to enforcing unconstitutional laws turns on one of its own, but it’s not happening.

If I had my druthers, the house of every employee of the BATF would be burned to the ground.

…and a copy of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights would be left near the wreckage.

Arlington survey

tjic — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:12:01 +0000

The town government has a survey here basically asking us if we want to be analy raped with or with out lube.

I’m only three pages in and already I’m seeing lies.

For example:

Question 7:
Currently the Town operates an engine company at each of its three stations, as well as one(1) ladder truck, and one(1) ambulance. Eliminating an engine company for a portion of the year could save approximately $200,000. However, when an engine is out of service, this reduction would have a negative impact on our response time to emergencies and overall fire fighting, our rescue services, and our mutual aid agreement.
Eliminate an engine company for a portion of the year (Save $200,000)

Desirable
Acceptable
Unacceptable

About five years ago we paid an outside consulting firm $30,000 of stolen tax dollars to see if we needed three firehouses.

The consulting firm did a bunch of research and then delivered a report that said “no, you can achieve benchmark standard response times using just two of the firehouses”.

This wasn’t the result that the town bureacrats wanted, so they 86′ed the study and poured a bunch of money into renovating one of the decrepit firehouses.

Asked why they ignored the study, the answer was “Oh, the study was poorly done”.

Asked why they didn’t demand their money back if they got an inadequate product, they answered … well, no, they didn’t answer at all.

So, now we find this back on the table, but the survey is lying and saying that closing the fire house would have a negative effect.

This whole survey, by the way, is intended to justify an 11% tax hike. A helpful graph shows that the town government expects its expenses to grow from $113M this year to $138M in 2015.

That’s 4% per year growth … even when the rate of inflation is around 2.8%, and the taxes automatically go up 2.5% each year.

So, if we only allow town spending to rise at the rate of inflation, and we boost taxes at the normal rate, in 2015 the budget gap will be $1.8 M … but according to the scare figures the town is handing out, the budget gap is going to be almost 10 times that, at $16M.

$1.8M could easily be financed by cutting some of the stupid programs we have in town.

experience

tjic — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:19:22 +0000

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/instapund…
The good news is that, when it comes to reshaping the U.S. mortgage market … or any market for that matter …, the Obama administration’s top guns are bringing to bear all of the brisk, rough-’n'-ready entrepreneurial know-how they picked up in their previous careers as university professors, nonprofit activists, and holders of political sinecures.

Zing!

resolutions

tjic — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:18:15 +0000

Oops. Seem to have skipped this last weekend.

Current progress :

write a novel – 0 pages done
lathe – 3 items partially done
remodel the bathroom – no action
learn guitar – 2 lessons, daily practice
corporate debt by $100k – $54k down, on schedule
start brand 3 – in progress
Lose 50 60 lbs – 14 lbs down, on schedule

Need to kick start the ‘novel’ and ‘lathe’ tasks.

Sigh.

On the other hand, I’ve decided to up the ante on the weight loss by 20% – going for 60 instead of 50.

In health related news, took some vital stats this AM.

blood sugar: 94 MG/DL
blood pressure: 139 / 84
resting pulse: 52 BPM

Blood pressure (specifically, systolic) could be lower – under 120 would be nice. I’m happy with everything else though – for a guy who’s out of shape, 94 MG/DL and 52 BPM seem decent.

( That 52 BPM will climb during the course of the day – pound back a few let-me-dive-into-this-database-bull-!@#$% motivational caffeinated beverages, and – oh yes – it will climb! )

The chain in those handcuffs is high-tensile steel. It’d take you ten minutes to hack through it with this. Now, if you’re lucky, you could hack through your ankle in five minutes. Go.

tjic — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:39:03 +0000

Had a T-bone for dinner.

Decent, but I experimented a bit with the cooking (5 minutes on each side, zero oven time, no rest) and it was a bit rarer in the middle than I would have liked. As in “absolutely rare”. I also blame the thickness of the steak – it was a big one.

Anyway, when done, I cut the uneaten meat off the bone, bagged it as leftovers, and took the bone down to the shop so as to ~~evenly~~ divide it for the pups. Clamped it in the machinists vise, selected which hacksaw to use (used hacksaw frames are a buck or so at a used tool store or a flea market, and new ones are only slightly more … if you don’t have three set up with various blades, you’re missing out) and sawed right through the really serious bone in … like, two-and-a-half strokes.

Man, knowing how absolutely easy it is to cut up the bones of a large mammal … that’s a tidbit of scary knowledge.

the other senator from Massachusetts

tjic — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 03:19:56 +0000

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/poli…
WASHINGTON — As anger at last month’s Supreme Court decision that gutted decades of campaign finance laws continues to build on Capitol Hill, Senator John Kerry joined calls for Congress and the states to amend the Constitution for only the 28th time in its history, a dramatic step he said was necessary to restore restrictions on corporate influence in politics that were struck down in the ruling.
“We need a constitutional amendment to make it clear once and for all that corporations do not have the same free speech rights as individuals,” Kerry testified at a Senate hearing today.

Indeed.

Incorporated bodies like the New York Times and the United Auto Workers should definitely not be able to influence national politics by spending –

wait -

what’s that you say?

Oh, alright, never mind.

But, seriously, whenever anyone argues that we need to ammend the constitution to shrink the free speech rights that we have, I’m pretty much immediately off the bus.

TJIC responds to Obama’s speech

tjic — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 03:07:29 +0000

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/poli…
NASHUA — Promising jobs and asking for patience, President Obama pitched his economic plan to a receptive New Hampshire audience, defending his plan to cut deficits and ease unemployment even as lawmakers back in Washington picked apart his budget blueprint.
“Because there’s no magic wand that will make economic problems that were years in the making disappear overnight, it’s easy for politicians to exploit the anger and anguish folks are feeling right now,” Obama told a crowd of about 1,600 at a Nashua high school, acknowledging that “folks here in New Hampshire have been tested by the last two years.”

“Exploit” ? Are there any examples of politicians (presumably Republican politicians) “exploiting” the “anger and anguish” of folks stuck in a crappy economy? The one thing I see is Republicans, who (theoretically) ideologically oppose big wasteful government are arguing “see…this is exactly the big wasteful government we’ve been telling you about!”.

But things could have been much worse, Obama said, if his administration had not gone ahead with the financial bailouts and $787 billion stimulus program so reviled by his Republican opponents. “Because of the steps we took, the markets have stabilized. No one’s worrying about another Great Depression like they were a year ago. The worst of the storm has passed,” Obama said.

I stand by the bank stabilization, for reasons that I outlined back at the time.

…but is there any evidence that keeping GM alive, and buying off union votes with specially crafted legislation that preserves their jobs and pensions while screwing the non-unionized folks they worked right along side, is “stabilizing the markets” ?

While Obama repeated his calls for bipartisanship, his message had an accusatory undertone toward Republicans, who have succeeded in holding up health care overhaul and many other items on Obama’s wish-list.

So bipartisanship is apparently defined as “agreeing with the pro-Democrat, anti-Republican strategies that I love and you hate” ?

During a question and answer session, the president almost mockingly welcomed GOP ideas

Wow – the Globe is describing Obama’s tone as scornful and mocking – why, oh why wouldn’t Republicans want to extend a hand to such a great sportsman ?

He noted that they voted nearly unanimously against the Recovery Act

The “recovery act”, by the way is “the stimulus” – which is to say, a massive pork barrel of fraud, waste, and stupidity. We’re doing everything – bailing out bloated state governments, replacing dumbwaiters, and buying door mats.

So – Republicans voted against it?

Sounds good to me!

“It’s one thing to have an honest difference of opinion on something. There’s nothing wrong with that,” Obama said, in shirt sleeves and gesturing companionably to the audience “It’s another to walk away from your responsibilities to confront the challenges facing this country because you think it’s good short-term politics. That’s what we can’t afford.”

If by “Republicans walking away from their responsibilities”, he means that they’re voting against his FDR-style alphabet soup of new programs and spending, then I support that 100%.

The president detailed a plan to help expand lending to small business through tax cuts and assistance to community banks. Under the program, $30 billion in returned cash for the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) would be made available to help smaller banks lend to local businesses.

Two years ago my biggest problem was lack of capital – I would have borrowed a million or so on top of the 3/4 of a mill that I was already in hock for.

However, given Obama’s budget, his spending, his attempts to drastically increase entitlements, the spectre of massive tax hikes in the near future, and more, I am no longer looking for capital.

Instead I am:

laying off all of my salaried staff
keeping my hourly staff fixed
paying down my debt as rapidly as possible
trying to figure out how – aside from taking a government job – to make money in a hostile business climate

Obama’s plans are creating a world so uncertain that I refuse to take on any debt at all. I’ve been throwing away solicitations to borrow funds for the last few months.

“We’re going to start where most new jobs do – with small businesses,” Obama said. “These are the companies that begin in basements and garages when an entrepreneur takes a chance on his dream, or a worker decides it’s time she became her own boss.”

What’s the point of creating wealth if we’re going to return to confiscatory rates of taxation?

Heck, with a massive debt hanging over our heads, growth is going to be a lot slower, and it’s going to be hard to create wealth in the first place.

Back in Washington, Republicans gave the small business initiative a sour reception, saying the returned TARP money should be used to pay down the deficit, estimated to reach a record $1.6 trillion this year and $1.3 trillion next year.

Indeed.

To do otherwise is get the government in the business of borrowing money from Chinese to hand it to banks, in the hopes that they’ll loan it to small businesses that will create jobs.

Why, exactly, do we need the government in that loop?

There’s capital to be had – if small business want to borrow and the Chinese want to lend, it will happen on its own.

The American people don’t need to cosign these debts.

“special interests”

tjic — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:35:58 +0000

http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/arch…
“We need to stand up to the special interests, bring Republicans and Democrats together, and pass the farm bill immediately,” Barack Obama

The gods of logic are weeping.

cognitive dissonance

tjic — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:11:43 +0000

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/us/pol…
it would be a terrible mistake to borrow against our children’s future to pay our way today

That’s Obama telling us that deficit spending for current consumption is a bad idea.

I agree.

…but WT* !?!?

I continue to think that the Republicans should introduce a balanced budget amendment. It should (a) phase in gradually, maybe only taking full effect 15 years out; (b) be override-able by a super majority of both the House and the Senate (say, 80% of each).

The former point is so that the voting on it isn’t derailed by catastrophic images of granny going hungry next year.

The latter point is so that we’re not forced (”forced”) to repeal it in 10 years when some major hit occurs – the ammendment can survive a massive war, a recession, etc.

tautology

tjic — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:06:50 +0000

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/world/…
Justice Minister Paul Denis said, “We may be weakened, but without laws the Haitian state would cease to exist.”

This is exactly the point that DF and I make so often.

Except:

(a) about the United States

(b) we mean it in a positive way

(d) burritos are involved