Sleepless in Midland

What does the internet think?

This search engine, though some mysterious way, tries to analyze positive and negative attitudes toward words and phrases to tell us what the internet thinks. To find out, click What does the internet think? According to the disclaimer, "The results are merely a reflection of a majority in search term results for said search-engine(s)." And the results are indeed interesting and maybe even informative.

So let's give it a trial run and see what the internet thinks about layoffs, war on terror, swine flu, bird flu, global warming, WMD, weapons of mass destruction, and cash for clunkers. (The Google engine was used for simplicity.)

What does the internet think about this?

Query	Negative	Positive	Don't care
Layoffs	94%	4.8%	1.2%
War on Terror	36.5%	63.5%	0%
Swine Flu	74.4%	13.6%	12%
Bird Flu	27.5%	65.9%	6.6%
Global warming	54.6%	32.8%	12.6%
WMD	15.9%	55.7%	28.4%
Weapons of mass destruction	11.5%	73.6%	14.9%
Cash for clunkers	16.7%	83.3%	0%

Your results may vary.

Outsmarted by a squirrel -- varmints in the orchard

Oh that pesky rodent!

I'm trying to grow some pomegranate trees from seeds. And a wily squirrel has hijacked my orchard by smuggling some pecans into what was supposed to be my pom-patch.

The seeds were planted last fall, and when the seedlings started growing it was such a thrill to see about a dozen pomegranate trees spring up. I nurtured the little darlings. And they were durable, too. They survived a late freeze, a hail storm, and a dog romping all over them. My babies had some remarkable survival skills.

But as they grew larger something was oddly wrong -- the leaves didn't look anything at all like the leaves on the pomegranate tree that produced the seeds. Doh! These seedlings were pecan trees!

There is a pecan tree nearby, but the distribution of the pecan tree seedlings couldn't possibly be random. And the most rational theory is that a squirrel had secretly buried some pecans into that moist area that was supposed to be my future pomegranate orchard. And all my nurturing efforts have gone into raising some trees I didn't want. I think I know how those ex-husbands feel who end up having to pay child support for some handsome strangers' kids, in a micro sort of way.

But all is not lost. A couple of little pomegranate trees did spring up, plus another few came up in pots. So maybe there will actually be a fruit producing pomegranate tree in the back yard someday.

In the meantime, I'm onto that fuzzy tailed rat. You won this round you rascal. Congratulations. Now go ahead and get your prize, it's a tasty treat at the far end of that trap out there where your pecan tree seedlings used to be.

Bad GPS coordinates sent demolition crew to wrong house

Last weekend a neighbor down the street stopped by to use my phone to report her own phone outage. And when the service man arrived he phoned me to tell me that there was no house at the address we had given them. Oops, he had turned down the wrong street. He was staring at the vacant lot created when a house had been removed and written about on these pages. (See: Don't like your house? Move it out.)

Within about 20 minutes the neighbor called to report that the phone was back online. And we joked that it was a good thing this wasn't a demolition crew that ended up at the wrong house.

Well, lo and behold, that actually did happen to a house in Carroll County, Georgia. The owner lived in Atlanta, and he received a call from the yard man telling him his old family homestead was gone. According to the news story, the owner said the demolition crew relied on paperwork and GPS coordinates. But someone somewhere got something badly wrong. Here are the news links: Homeowner Says Crews Demolished Wrong House and Wrong house demolished, heirlooms lost in Carroll.

We don't have enough information to know what it was that sent the demolition team there, but damage was certainly done. And it's a mistake everyone would hope doesn't happen again anytime soon. Was it a bad GPS? The one in my car signals arrival when I'm about a block away from my destination, and the street numbers are way out of whack too, so maybe the one they used is equally flawed.

Along those lines, the City of Midland has a very proficient GIS department, and I've been told that one GPS manufacturer uses the city information to update that company's map database. So not all GPSes are on equal footing.

Schneier.com originally wrote about this incident and lamented the lack of incentives for people to authenticate sloppy or easily forged paperwork. But the civil justice system provides a very good incentive, and the demolition company's liability insurer, once they've paid a bundle for all of those priceless heirlooms, will surely be requiring some very stringent safeguards for any future demolition.

Farrah Fawcett

There was a time when you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting someone who knew Farrah Fawcett when she attended the University of Texas. It seemed that everyone who saw her there remembered her. Beautiful women have that effect, you know. There's a touching hometown tribute in the Corpus Christi Caller with some remarks from some of lifelong childhood friends.

Farrah Fawcett is probably best remembered to the rest of us for her role in "Charlie's Angels." The show had some entertainment value, but to jaded TV watchers it was merely a showcase for some gorgeous babes doing impossible things without bras. Although she had been in a few TV shows and commercials prior to that, once she became an Angel she skyrocketed to fame. She became so famous that she thought she could make the leap to movie stardom after just one season.

Didn't work out quite that way, though. However, she did have a few good TV roles. And the one most people will remember is the 1984 made-for-TV movie The Burning Bed, the movie about a battered women who took revenge. It's hard to say whether Ms. Fawcett was more popular with men or women before, but this movie made her a heroine to many feminists, and reaction to the movie probably convinced a lot of guys that women harbor some kind of secret kill-all-men fantasy. They don't, of course. [Don't be so sure. - ed.]

Those women skipped Small Sacrifices, the 1989 made-for-TV movie which is the one that made me a fan. Not because of the subject matter -- mom kills her children -- but because it took me by complete surprise. I would never have imagined an actress with her reputation accepting a role like that. It took courage. Not many people saw it, though.

Anyway, now she's gone, and 62 seems like too young an age to go. Anal cancer doesn't sound too pleasant, either. My hope is that she got good palliative care in her final days.

Finally, a memo to someone who desperately enjoys the spotlight, Kim Jung il. Poor guy just can't catch a headline. He staged an anti-American rally with 100,000 North Koreans and ended up on the back pages. Tough luck pal. Bad timing. You can't steal headlines from Farrah Fawcett.

Obamercial TV ratings

Last night President Obama and ABC teamed up for the prime time ObamaCare show, but the ratings weren't that hot. According to Race for Midweek Overnight Dominance in MediaWeek the ABC show came in third. Here's what they say the ratings were at that time slot:

#1 - CBS, rerun of "CSI: NY" at 5.1/ 9
#2 - NBC, "The Philanthropist" at 4.8/ 9
#3 - ABC, "Primetime – Questions for the President: Prescription for America" at 3.7/ 7

Last night ABC first had on "Wipeout" which scored 4.6/ 9, followed by "I survived a Japanese Game Show" which scored 2.4/ 4, and then the O'mercial with ratings of 3.7/ 7. Obama could have followed "Wipeout" for a bigger lead in, but then viewers might have been tempted to associate the name "Wipeout" with ObamaCare. Oh the decisions a President has to make!

In honor of the ABC Obamacare infomercial

The ABC Obamacare show is supposed to air tonight, and with an "I survived a Japanese Game Show" lead, the ratings should be huge.

There will probably be a few token questions from the opposition, but there's no avoiding the fact that Mr. Obama will be given an amazing opportunity to present his side of the issue in the most favorable fashion.

Pro-Obamacare factions are screaming "hypocrisy" over complaints about the TV show because Fox News did some Bush Administration personality profiles, but there's a big difference. This is a sales job.  No one expected a Fox show to convince a skeptical public to swallow a pill that will drastically change our health care system in the most expensive way. The Obama plan is presented as a way to provide insurance coverage for those people who are currently uninsured, and there's nothing wrong with that concept.  But this grand experiment is sure to affect medical care for everyone in the country. And ABC is helping make the sale. By the way, it's looking less like a pill than a suppository.

A note about the image: In honor of the Obama TV Network connection the old TV with the repetitious picture roll seemed a timely selection. There's a great do-it-yourself special effects page at PhotoFunia. Upload a photo of a face for placement in another photo.

Giving Bear Grylls credit when it's due

Bear Grylls came under fire when it was revealed that his "Man vs. Wild" TV show conquests weren't conducted on a level playing field.  He fudged, and that gave him the edge in his contests with the wild. See previously on these pages, The Wild Won and Bear Grylls up to his old tricks.

So now we learn that a nine year old fan of the show got separated from his folks on a horseback ride in Utah and used some tactics he learned from the show. Specifically, he marked his trail by tying bits torn off his yellow slicker to trees. Searchers were able to find him and get him home safely. It was a real happy ending, so here's a hat tip to Bear Grylls. His show may have actually saved a child. The kid was pretty resourceful and may have been found eventually anyway, but at the very least the tactic learned from the show probably reduced the search time. Link.

He's Barack Obama, come to save the day

Great new video from JibJab:

"When darkness had descended
all across the land,
A lone voice in the distance uttered
'Yes, we can!' "
...
He's Barack Obama
he's come to save the day!

It's so refreshing to find someone not afraid to poke fun at "The One." Watch this hilarious parody at Youtube.

In the meantime JibJab fans can learn how they did it at the JibJab blog. Given that it takes them three months to put one together, this action-hero-Obama was very timely as the real Obama waits patiently for a winner to emerge in Iran.

Fidel's kid falls for fake chica

Some guys can't get lucky even if they're privileged sons of a ruthless dictator.

Poor Antonio Castro Soto del Valle, son of Fidel Castro, just can't catch a break. According to the story, Cuban-born Luis Dominguez figured out what kind of woman would interest Antonio, adopted that guise, then hooked up with him on a social networking site. Miami Herald has the story:

''Guess where I am and I will make love to you without stopping,'' Antonio Castro Soto del Valle, Fidel's son and physician for the Cuban national baseball team, reportedly wrote ''Claudia'' during a January trip to Russia with his uncle Raúl. . . .

First, he worked out a profile of the kind of woman the 42-year-old Castro apparently prefers. Domínguez looked at photos of Castro's current and former girlfriends, then created a ''virtual woman'' to fit the mold -- Claudia Valencia (very common names in Colombia), a 26-27 year old brunette with blond highlights and a sports journalist who, like Antonio, follows soccer and technology.

Antonio lives the high life, and he's unlikely to get much sympathy from the Cubans who have been kept poor by daddy. Happy Father's Day, Fidel.  And Tony, next time maybe you'll have better luck with those 1-900 phone sex lines.

Via Graham Cluley who warns that less high profile computer users could be similarly vulnerable.

Photos - Airport Disaster Drill 2009

What a disaster!

Yesterday emergency responders experienced an airport disaster drill at Midland International Airport. See No Rain Delay for Airport Disaster Drill 2009 for more details, and today 88 photos from the event have been posted in an on line photo album.  The link is below.

But first an important message from the management. The people in the photos have been made up to look badly injured, and many people may not have seen anything this gruesome since Halloween. The management takes no responsibility for any heart attacks, strokes, brain freezes, faints, vapors, or any other condition that may result from viewing those images.

Proceed with caution to Disaster Drill 2009 Photo Album.

OK, just kidding. The people are smiling, laughing and talking, and it was a good time for all the volunteers. But the makeup really does look convincing, don't you think?

No Rain Delay for Airport Disaster Drill 2009

Every three years the Midland International Airport conducts a full scale mandatory disaster drill, and this was the lucky day. The previous drill took place on a bright, sunny day in June of 2006. But today the volunteers weren't so lucky, and for the first time in months, rain fell on this drought zone practically the entire time.

It was a bird strike -- a vulture was sucked into the right intake of a Boeing 737, and down the plane came for an emergency landing. The right landing gear was incapacitated, and the plane skidded to a stop engulfed in flames. That was the scenario, and the original plan was to have all the volunteer "victims" out on a runway to test the local emergency responders.

Remarkably, 120 volunteers showed up for the job at the CAF hanger at around 6AM not knowing whether they would have to work in the rain. Your trusty blogger was there, too, camera in hand. Badge 007 at your service -- licensed to shoot. (Check back later for photos.)

As the volunteers signed in they were given a card with a green, yellow, red or blue dot and a description of their symptoms. Then they went to moulage stations where they experienced the most remarkable makeover emerging with realistic looking cuts, burns, bruises and blood. The makeup wasn't so easily removed, either. One victim was covered with black makeup to denote burns, and he really had to put some effort into getting it off.

The rain didn't let up, and wise planners moved the exercise so that the volunteers were bussed to an empty hanger where they could lie down on reasonably dry cement.

It began as an emergency call on the radio which alerted all the local emergency services, and the first responders were the firefighters from the airport fire station. One Triage Officer began examining each of the passengers and tagging them. Eventually another Triage Officer arrived, however, they were so far ahead of the ambulances that one person could have done the job himself.

Each tag had three perforated lines so that parts of the tag could be removed with the remaining portion indicating the category for that particular patient. The bottom line was green and said "Minor" so the follow up responders could look at that and move on to someone more in need of attention.

Moving up on the tag the removable lines were yellow for "Delayed," red for "Immediate," and black for "Deceased/Expected." Therefore the ones who got the most attention from the first responders were the reds and yellows who were placed on body boards and moved onto a pad of the corresponding color. The red ones got a ride in the first ambulances, then when they were all removed the yellows got their turn. And today they were taken to either Midland Memorial Hospital or Odessa Medical Center Hospital where hospital staff were also put to the test.

One high tech aspect of it was the bar code on each tag which was scanned at each point where the patient ended up.

As luck would have it, only 11 of the passengers drew the black tags, and the dearly departed were replaced by sand bags to denote their removal to the coroner. May they rest in peace.

Re: the 2006 drill see It Was a Disaster (Drill) and Airport Disaster Drill 2006 Photos.

Please check back later for photos of disaster drill 2009.

Updated: See 88 photos at Disaster Drill 2009 Photo Album.

He shoots hoops, he kills flies, he balances the budget!

Well, two out of three anyway -- worth a solid "D," but with grade inflation, "C."

By now we've all seen the clip of President Obama swatting a fly with his open hand. Watch it on youtube and listen to his remarks. "That was pretty impressive, wasn't it? I got him, I got the sucker. What do ya think, Gibbs? You wanna film that? There it is."

It's reminiscent of his hoop shot from the three point range during the '08 campaign. Click to watch. "I may not make the first one," he says. He made it and beams with pride, but he wisely avoids the second try.

He's obviously very proud of of those physical accomplishments, and those of us who questioned whether he was qualified to serve as President might wish he had stayed in sports. But he's probably not good enough to have attained any real sports fame, and along came politics, the narcissist's playground.

I really shouldn't criticize him for being so proud of his fly swat. He needs something to brag about, and it certainly couldn't be anything he's done since becoming president.A recent WSJ poll  revealed that 51% approve of his handling the economy, down from 56% in February and April. The 51% roughly equals the percentage of the popular vote he got in November, but there appears to be growing dissatisfaction. Or maybe it's a realization that expectations were too high to begin with.

His overall approval number is 56% telling us that a lot of people still love him in spite of his lack of success in the things that matter. But he can swat flies with his bare hands. We are sure to see more things like this as his team begins to stage little scenes at which Mr. Obama can shine. And maybe next time there will be some hand sanitizer nearby so he can clean up afterward. Did anyone shake his hand when the interview ended? Yuck!

California abandoned subdivision put to good use by Jesse James

Jesse James is a tattooed Southern California biker dude who had a motorcycle building show on TV a while ago. And he's back with a show called Jesse James is a Dead Man, a reality show in which he attempts dare devil activities.

One recent show was a contest in which he took a souped up car and tried to outrun six Orange County Police cars and a helicopter. It was titled Jesse James vs. the Cops, and unfortunately, the full episode is no longer on line, just this teaser video.

The events were car chase contests lasting 20 minutes or until he got caught, whichever was first to occur. And they looked every bit as realistic as the live action high speed car chases given to us as TV news from time to time. The cops used the spike strips -- strips of hollow spikes that break off in the tire. And they used the PIT maneuver which is a gentle bump to the rear fender nudging the chased car into a spin. A second police car then rushes in to block an attempted escape. When it was all said and done, Jesse won once and the cops won once.  (Typo corrected.)

However, the most impressive part of the whole show for this desert dweller was the abandoned community in which they held these matches. It was a fully built out subdivision, but it was vacant. The grass was dead, trees were dead, windows were broken, and there was no life there except for the folks involved in the show. It was a modern day ghost town.  It's a shame that the full episode is no longer on line, because it was a sobering sight -- scarier than Mr. James' dare devil antics.

Odessa Tea Party July 4, 2009

Remember the Taxpayer Tea Party that took place in Odessa on April 15? Here are some photos  for a reminder.

Well, there's another one coming up very soon. Elizabeth Woolridge and Matt Pippen will be putting it together. And it's planned for Independence Day, July 4, at the Buffalo Wallow/Memorial Gardens in Odessa, Texas, from noon until 2 pm.

This is truly a grass roots organization, so be sure to visit the Odessa Tea Party website to show your support.

Letterman - desire to ridicule political opposition overrides sense of decency

Greg Gutfeld nailed it with this:

Here's my take on Letterman's obsession with Sarah Palin:

-ideology clouds what you find funny. If you're a lefty, then a Palin joke is priceless. If you're a righty, it's lame. That's just the way it is. ...

He's right. That's just the way it is. Letterman can get away with poking fun at Sarah Palin and her daughter because his audience eats it up, his ratings spike, sponsors pay more and CBS makes money.

There are probably a lot of conservative satirists who would love to play by Letterman's rules, but if conservatives have a sense of decency they enter that arena with one hand tied behind their backs. And besides, there's no market for it. For example, we would never hear a comedian say something like this:

When asked what he thought about Letterman attacking Palin's daughter, Kelly Frank said, "Oh, so now it's fun, is it? I could give Letterman a list: Top ten to twenty reasons why people should stay away from famous people's kids!"

Wouldn't happen. Never. No one could ever stoop to that level.

Strange things show up on Google Maps

There are probably hundreds of unusual images a patient searcher could find on the satellite photos on Google Maps. A few of these unusual images were compiled at Map of Strange, and they are indeed usual. Here are a couple (captions added).

Here are links to the boat on the roof and the time warped parking lot.

Via Madville.

In the classified ads

Free ammo for eight bucks! it's either the first sign of the much hyped hyperinflation or the result of a severe ammo supply shortage.

In any event, the whole world has turned upside down, I tell ya. By golly when I was your age "free" meant two-fifty, tops.

What's in it for Erin Brockovich?

She's a celebrity. They made a movie about her. She gets headlines wherever she appears, and that's what happened when she spoke in Midland yesterday.

The movie, you will recall, was about a multi million dollar lawsuit involving some very likable victims against a power company accused of polluting the ground water. (Aside: Just wondering out loud -- have Hollywood movie producers ever given the green light for a movie in which the plaintiff's attorney is the villain?)

The local issue is hexavalent chromium found in well water in an area outside the city limits, and to learn Ms. Brockovich's motive we go to CBS7 which tells us this:

Saving lives is Brockovich's proclaimed goal in this case; she says that's why she's here.

"It isn't about a lawsuit, we're here to get them organized and united," said Brockovich.

That's probably not very reassuring to potential defendants, and a casual search reveals that she signed on with plaintiffs' law firm Weitz & Luxenberg in September '08. The NY Post tells us this:

Brockovich, 48, has entered into an exclusive consulting agreement with the New York law firm of Weitz & Luxenberg - which specializes in asbestos-exposure lawsuits - and will be involved in bringing the firm cases, investigating claims and helping them take on polluters.

(Emphasis added.)

Watch her in a commercial for Weitz & Luxenberg in this Youtube video in which she boasts that the firm has "won billions in settlements for victims."

Weitz & Luxenberg were active in the Vioxx litigation. Remember Vioxx? 2004: Merck Faces Flood of Vioxx Lawsuits After Drug Recall; 2007: Plaintiffs Find Payday Elusive in Vioxx Cases; and surely not related to the previous one, but ... 2009: Weitz & Luxenberg is no longer accepting Vioxx cases. They are, however, taking chromium cases.

And in the meantime, Ms. Brockovich has been busy. Just last April she was in Michigan conducting a similar meeting with residents about Birds Eye Foods plant wastewater discharges. Saving lives is a lot of work when there's a potential defendant with deep pockets.

Finally, here's a local news roundup:
MyWestTexas.com
CBS7.com
KWES.com
PermianBasin360.com.

School lunches around the world

The sign in the South Park Elementary school cafeteria says "School food is good food." They wouldn't lie, would they?

Here's a site with photos of school lunch plates from around the world called, appropriately enough, School Lunch From Around the World. Some of it looks pretty good, too.  Well, as good as a typical frozen dinner, anyway.

And maybe the kids in other countries are get better school lunches, but when test time comes around our kids can still manage to stay off the bottom.

Via geekpress.

Wetsuits with style

Most wetsuits are plain black, but some actually have some style. Bydiddo designed a wetsuit with a difference. This prototype looks like a body with the skin peeled off. But, I don't know, might that one look too appealing to a shark?  "Mmmmm, human, and it's already skinned!"

Shark attacks are down worldwide. But why take chances? With shark season approaching, maybe a better design to deter sharks might be a wetsuit painted like a skeleton so a shark might think, "Where's the beef?" Better yet, a skinless "Terminator."

Check out some of the other interesting objects at Bydiddo.

What this country needs is more euphemisms

Homeland Security Czarista Napolitano recently informed us that the word "terrorism" will be replaced with the phrase "man-caused disasters." Why stop there?

By way of a Shire Network News podcast we are provided with a top nine list of these masterpieces of the bureaucratic mindset. Alas, the author of these gems, Doug Payton, has them posted at Considerettes, to wit:

9 - The term "tax cuts" will now be called "Unamerican Activities".
8 - "Paycheck Bonus" shall become "A Congressional Oversight".
7 - "Disagreeing with President Obama" will now be called "Racism".
6 - "Affirmative Action" will be replaced with "Universal Diversity Adjustment".
5 - "Financial Collapse" shall now be known as "Republican Party Evil Master Plan".
4 - "Supporting Israel’s right to exist" will now be called "Racism".
3 - "Militant Islamists" are to be referred to as "Misunderstood Peaceniks".
2 - "Western Civilization" will now be called "Racism".
1 - "Socialism" will henceforth go by the name "Capitalism".

Turn photos into cartoons

Here's a useful site. Upload your own photos and turn them into cartoons at BeFunky.com.

 

A sample above -- a real dog and the cartoon version. (Keen observers will notice that the dog has captured a bird.)

The Somali Cruise - sort of like a safari

Turn the table on pirates on this unusual cruise:

We sail up and down the coast of Somalia waiting to get hijacked by pirates. We encourage you to bring your 'High powered weapons' along on the cruise. If you don't have weapons of your own, you can rent them on the boat.

Most cruises offer a mini-bar
We offer a mounted Mini-Gun

Read more at Somali Cruises. Is it real? Nope.

Via linkfilter.

Maybe they will call it a "Chummer"

Chinese company to buy Hummer. Source and excerpt:

An obscure Chinese construction-equipment maker plans to buy Hummer -- a brawny symbol of America across the globe -- from General Motors Corp. in a deal that presages the future shape of the international auto industry.

[ ... ]

Yang Yi, Tengzhong's CEO, emphasized the attraction of the deal in a statement on the firm's Web site. "The Hummer brand is synonymous with adventure, freedom and exhilaration, and we plan to continue that heritage by investing in the business," he said, while also hinting at more fuel-efficient products.

Oh those freedom loving Chinese! June 4, 2009, marks the 20th anniversary of that nasty business at Tiananmen Square. However, today the square is under tight security to prevent any commemoration of the event.

"Breaking Bad," such a guilty pleasure!

Season two of AMC's Breaking Bad ended the other day with Walter White and Jesse Pinkman both losing people they held dear.

For those who aren't familiar with the story, Walter White was a hen pecked high school teacher who missed out on the good life long ago when his former business associates made millions without him. He was too proud to ask them for help when he was diagnosed with lung cancer, so he used his expertise in chemistry to cook a batch of meth of a quality not seen before in Albuquerque. With Jesse as distributor they eventually earned nearly half a million dollars each.

There's more to it than that, of course. And there is a cast of characters in the show that provide some excellent entertainment, not least of which is Hank, a mid level DEA agent hot on the trail of a drug kingpin not realizing that it's his own brother-in-law.

Bryan Cranston has gotten lots of critical acclaim for his role as Walt. But those critics need to take a second look at Aaron Paul. Mr. Paul really knocked the ball out of the park with his portrayal of Jesse, the drop out stoner who stumbled into the job of a big time drug dealer, the job of a lifetime for some, perhaps.  But the Peter Principle applied, and it was way too big for Jesse.

So the second season ended with Jesse facing the horror of having his lover choke to death on her own vomit while he was in a drug induced stupor in bed next to her. And Walt is left alone as his wife takes off with the kids in disgust over the lies he told to keep his secret life secret. She doesn't even want to know the truth at this point. He could never say "no" to her, but she didn't have that inhibition. He was doing it all for the family, and he lost the family as a result -- an ironic punishment but a satisfying drama.

What next for this band of bad boys? We'll have to wait for the 3rd season.

Updated 6/8/09: Johah Goldberg liked it, too. "I recently finished the second season of Breaking Bad, and I have to say I think it's probably the best series on television since the demise of The Wire."

For the gun collector who has everything, a Dillinger soap gun

It's a Dillinger escape gun -- a bar of soap in the shape of a revolver reminiscent of the fake gun John Dillinger used in a jail break.

Buy it at Etsy: "The refreshing scents of eucalyptus and mint help you fight Public Enemy Number One, bad body odor."

The Laffer Curve is getting renewed attention

Last year Arthur Laffer, Stephen Moore, and Peter Tanou authored a book titled The End of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy - If We Let it Happen.

The other day a talk the authors gave about it was bradcast on C-SPAN. It's quite a delight to watch, and they do a good job of explaining in simple terms the problems we are facing, and they make no bones about how President Obama's policies will make it worse, whether it's the goal of energy independence, government run industries, or the "tax the wealthy" mentality.

They are right, of course. Mr. Laffer's ideas about taxes in the early '80s helped usher in a long era of prosperity, and only the most hard core political opponents even attempt to deny that lower taxes have been proven to lead to prosperity. On the other hand, high taxes hurt the economy. And the "wealthy" will figure out a way to avoid taxes. The issue isn't political, it's economic.

In the talk Mr. Laffer provides an image that anyone can grasp. If you tax people in place "A" higher than place "B," then people in "A" will move to "B."  That's why Mr. Laffer moved from California to Tennessee.  An example Mr. Laffer gives of how the wealthy avoid taxes is Warren Buffet who until recently was supposed to be worth $66 billion. His wealth is unrealized capital gains in Berkshire Hathaway stock, and he won't pay any taxes on it unless he sells it. So if Mr. Buffet says he pays less taxes than his secretary then he's probably telling the truth. And Mr. Buffet could donate his stock to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to avoid ever paying any taxes on it.

The talk is available online here. If you watch it pay attention at around the 23 minute mark where you can hear the most remarkable compliment/complaint I've heard about Barack Obama. Here's a partial transcript, Laffer is talking:

"This man Barack Obama is one of the most impressive human beings I've seen in my life in politics I'm awe struck. He's an awesome man, he represents so much that is wonderful about our country. A black African father, a white American mother, if that's not the melting pot I don't know what is. ... He went to Columbia University, did extraordinarily well then. He then went to Harvard Law School, became editor of the Harvard Law Review -- you don't get that by affirmative action, you got to really be good. ... This man is really cool. ... But he's wrong on every single issue."

Mr. Obama is known to be somewhat thin skinned, so maybe that's the way to criticize him. Butter up his ego and make it very personal, then slam him with the truth about his policies.

Eric's back

Great taste, less filling.

Back from hiatus, it's the new and improved Fire Ant Gazette. Check it out.

You kids get off of my lawn!

Remember Dana Carvy's grumpy old man? "When I was your age seat belts were for sissies. When we had a car wreck we flew right through the front windshield, and we liked it!"

Well, meet Donald Mills, the crabby geezer who writes The problem with young people today is .... He nails them where it hurts: the piercings, the G__ D___ cursing, or most recently, the video games. Sample:

Well I have news for them. They may be able to throw a 50 yard pass on the “Madden Football,” and kill a man with their bare hands on the “Splinter Cell” but turn the games off and these young people would be hard pressed to pick their own noses without an instruction manual, cheat codes and parental assistance.

The only positive is it keeps them off the streets and out of the way of decent old folks out for a Sunday stroll.

Funny stuff. But Mr. Mills is probably some young whipper snapper just teasing his contemporaries while reinforcing the old timer stereotype at the same time.

More realistic advice comes our way via linkfilter, and it's etiquette advice for people 25 and over. The post is four years old so the advice to "Take your headphones off while interacting with clerks and passersby," needs updating -- hint, cell phones. Otherwise the advice still rings true.

Finally, to get those kids off the lawn try the Sonic Nausea. (Use indoors at your own risk.)