Quote of the Day, Wal*Mart edition

Heh:

But hey, TrailerParkTrashMart, thanks for opening the market up for every other brick-and-mortar firearms retailer in the country, and eliminating your loss-leader negotiating position to sell firearms below cost just to drive littler guys out of business. Firearms makers can now tell you to kiss their ass when you want their product cheaper year-over-year. That just ended too, whether you figured it out or not. Sam is probably spinning in his grave, and his half-wit kinfolk heirs clearly haven't the wits to run a roadside chicken stand. If he were alive, he'd kick their asses, then disown them all.

... 

I'll still visit your stores though.
Just to use the bathroom.
80-20 my turds land in the middle of the floor though, or in the sink bowl, every time.
Have fun with that. I sure will.
Be a real shame if something that simple caught on nationwide.

Remember, guys, the enemy always gets a vote. ;)
And I'll be eating a lot more ethnic foods, and voting often.
Got a hankerin' for some Panda Express broccoli beef today...

"Cleanup on Aisle 2..."

The whole thing is as good.  The Raconteur Report: purveyors of quality rants since 2008 ...

Color me unimpressed with the Solstice

I wrote about this 7 years ago, but it's still fresh.

--------------------

Neolithic SWPL

My sister-in-law took this picture, nearer the Winter Solstice than the Summer one.  It was a cold day in England, with a wind howling out of the north.  The result was a brilliant photo and a tag line just as good: It looks just like Stonehenge, but without all the people.

Today, of course, the freaks are out in force (well, here; the show's over by now over there).  Now you have to pay big bucks (err, pounds sterling) to go there on the summer solstice, and brave the freaks trying to recreate a sanitized and sepia-hued imaginary Neolithic.

The times, of course, were brutal.  The stones were all brought to the site and assembled by hand, using stone tools.  Whatever you can say about that society, "freedom loving" is not part of it.  It must have been rigidly hierarchic, as were all of the very ancient agricultural societies.

For a small class of people to be able to devote the time needed to accurately predict the solstice, and then design the Henge to capture that meant that most of the society must have lived by the sweat of their brow.  The surplus was skimmed to support ancient Neolithic SWPL vanity projects.

Now it's High Speed Rail, but the game still involves skimming the surplus from the productive to fund the schemes and dreams of an elite parasite class.  And so here's a Midsummer's Day monument to the actual workers, who produce the surplus that's traditionally skimmed:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. 

May it not be that the days are shortening from this point onward, in the ways that count the most.

Quote of the Day: Ignorant class war edition

The Antiplanner takes Politico hack Richard Florida to task, for not understanding that he is making things worse, not better:

In fact, the real problem is that most of the policies advocated by progressives such as Florida, from high-speed rail to urban density, are aimed at making cities comfortable for what he calls the “creative class” (meaning the college educated) while shutting out the working class. Because he doesn’t understand this, many of his prescriptions will only exacerbate the political divide. 

Rather than say cities should be responsible for paying for their own projects, as Trump urges, Florida is more interested in social policy. Using growth boundaries to increase density drives out the working classes who can’t afford housing. Increasing the minimum wage to $15 drives out working class jobs. Building light rail to downtowns while letting streets crumble favors white collar commuters over blue collar workers. Agreeing to the Paris accords on climate change makes middle-class people feel good while it threatens working-class livelihoods.

This is actually how it goes with most of the SWPL policies beloved by the Establishment: they make things worse for the Middle Class while throwing benefits small or large to the Establishment, and the Middle Class has had about enough of it.  The Global Warming scam is only the biggest example, but anything labeled "green" or "smart growth" or the like is reliably a means to make the lives of the Establishment better at the expense of the Middle Class.

The fact that so many of the Establishment simply refuse to see such a basic fact tells you all you need to know about their perceptiveness.

What will Obama's climate policy do to your electricity rates?

Quadruple them.  How do we know?  Because he said he wants the USA to get 28% of its electricity from renewables (vs. the current 4%)*.  There are multiple countries in Europe who get 30% of their electricity from renewables.  Guess what their electricity costs (and no fair peeking at the title of this blog post).

* The plan seems to exclude hydro power, which provides some more of our electricity.

Thoughts on the Amtrak accident

By now you've heard of the Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia.  At least eight are dead and many more are hurt.  I expect that this will soon fade from the news because unlike airplane crashes, train accidents seem not to get the 24/7 over hype that you get from, say, a Malaysia Air crash.

Even though as many people are killed by trains.  Maybe more: at least 1400 dead in the last decade.

Passenger rail is a big problem, for several reasons: It's slower than air travel on all but a handful of routes (say, Boston city center to New York city center), and that's mostly because the TSA screening processes at airports add 60-90 minutes to the travel time.  This even applies to new rail technologies, like Japan's new Tokyo-Osaka 500 kph mag lev line. It's less convenient than air travel - the train only goes where there are tracks (duh!) while the airplane can fly to any place with an airport.  There are also many more departures by air than by rail, so the traveler will have many more options on when to go.  Lastly, it's much less expensive.  While rail ticket prices are competitive with air, they are heavily subsidized by government.  After all "sustainability" means "as long as the grants keep coming".

Can you think of any other mode of transportation that is still around despite that it is slower, less convenient, more expensive, and no safer than an alternative?  The question is why is it still here?

The answer is that rail projects give big shot politicians prestige projects where they can, say, entertain visiting big shots in the grand new terminal or on shiny new high speed trains.  High speed rail (and Light Rail) take money away from other transport projects that would, say, help the poor (e.g. increased urban bus frequency) to flatter the egos of those feeding from the public trough.  It's actually the best example I can think of why "Technocratic Government" (management by the highly educated) is a mirage.  A true technocratic government would kill Amtrak subsidies tomorrow and allocate the funds to something that would provide real value.

India cracks down on Greenpeace

Expect to see more of this sort of thing:

Indian Home Ministry places curbs on each foreign donation
Following an Intelligence Bureau (IB) report that alleged foreign-funded NGOs were creating obstacles to India’s economic growth, the Home Ministry has clamped down on Greenpeace, an international campaign group present in 40 countries.

...

In a letter dated 13th June, the Ministry has directed the Reserve Bank of India that all foreign contributions originating from Greenpeace International and Climate Works Foundation — two principal international contributors to Greenpeace India Society — must be kept on hold until individual clearances are obtained from the Ministry for each transaction.

Quite frankly, India has correctly identified the problem, which is rich Progressives in the west trying to keep the Emerging World's populations poor and hungry.  Good for them taking action against Greenpeace.  Now Europe needs to do the same thing:

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato), and former premier of Denmark, told the Chatham House thinktank in London on Thursday that Vladimir Putin’s government was behind attempts to discredit fracking, according to reports.

Rasmussen said: “I have met allies who can report that Russia, as part of their sophisticated information and disinformation operations, engaged actively with so-called non-governmental organisations - environmental organisations working against shale gas - to maintain European dependence on imported Russian gas.”

What - a bunch of Euro dirty hippies in cahoots with Socialist military intelligence?  That's crazy talk.

Boarder cross

I have to say that I've been enjoying the Olympics. The snow board race is a lot of fun to watch. It really highlights just how many of the events are individual time trials - a lot of the fun of snowboard cross is that you have a half dozen competitors on the piste at the same time.

Fed.Gov manipulating economic statistics

The poor (and women, minorities) hit hardest:

Poor people in Britain are suffering from a far higher inflation rate than the rich, according to research released today by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) that shows the impact of soaring food and energy bills on those with the lowest incomes.

The thinktank said the least well off had experienced a higher cost of living than the wealthy for the past decade, but that the difference had widened sharply since the long, deep recession of 2008 and 2009.

In a study that coincides with the release of new official data today, the IFS said its analysis using the retail prices index (RPI) showed that the poorest fifth of households had faced an inflation rate of 4.3% between 2008 and 2010, compared to 2.7% for the richest fifth of households. RPI inflation has continued to rise in 2011 and stood at 5.2% in April.

5% inflation in Her Majesty's Scepter'd Isle, compared to a measly 1.5% in the USA.  Boy, we sure do a better job than in Blighty, right?  Well, take a look at the culprit in the UK:

... that shows the impact of soaring food and energy bills on those with the lowest incomes.

And what, pray tell, isn't included in the US inflation rate?

Here and around the world, the prices of everything from cotton to coffee have risen. The Department of Agriculture forecast for food costs in 2011 calls for an increase of 3 percent to 4 percent. And, the price of fuel is up -- a lot.

Yet, the government's measure of inflation, the Consumer Price Index, barely registers an increase in the prices consumers are paying. Economists don't expect an inflation increase of more than 1.5 percent this year, "even if food goes up 3 percent and energy goes up 10 percent," says Bill Hampel, chief economist for the Credit Union National Association.

...

What gives? Don't food and fuel prices count in the tabulation of the index? Not really.

So who pays a (much) higher portion of their income for food and gasoline?  The poor.  So why isn't the Left screaming bloody murder about this?  Because the social programs (New Deal, Great Society) are all teetering on insolvency.  A lower CPI means that they go broke less quickly.  Sharp eyed readers will note that with inflation at 1.5% and GDP growth around 2%, these programs cost less in real terms.  That savings can be applied to other Lefty programs - say healthcare.

And so the Left is immiserating the poor and the elderly ("Chained CPI" is a blatant attempt to further reduce CPI for Social Security) in order to feed the maw of the Progressive Superstate.  For Social Justice™.  Because Shut Up.

And for some reason, these SWPL jerks feel more noble than the rest of us ...

Who hates Global Warming now?

Why, the UN IPCC, who publishes all those ZOMGThermageddon!!!!11!!!eleventy! reports you've been reading about in your daily fishwrap.  But even the IPCC is walking back from the Global Warbeninz ledge:

Unnoticed, the IPCC has slashed its global-warming predictions, implicitly rejecting the models on which it once so heavily and imprudently relied. In the second draft of the Fifth Assessment Report it had broadly agreed with the models that the world will warm by 0.4 to 1.0 Cº from 2016-2035 against 1986-2005. But in the final draft it quietly cut the 30-year projection to 0.3-0.7 Cº, saying the warming is more likely to be at the lower end of the range [equivalent to about 0.4 Cº over 30 years]. If that rate continued till 2100, global warming this century could be as little as 1.3 Cº.

Remember how we were all going to burn up?  Remember how everyone who didn't believe the IPCC reports was a beastly Denier, because Science®!? OK, here's the IPCC (Science®!) saying what we beastly Deniers™ have been saying.

What, you don't like it, Mr. SWPL Enviro-weenie?  Are you denying Science®!?  Oh, and can you spell "shadenfreude"?

Hey all you SWPL Deniers - get off of my lawn!

Boston SWPL types find out what Big Government means to them

It means that the Boston Pops has crummy concerts:

Before you whine about an airline temporarily losing your luggage, think of poor Boujemaa Razgui. The flute virtuoso who performs regularly with The Boston Camerata lost 13 handmade flutes over the holidays when a US Customs official at New York’s JFK Airport mistook the instruments for pieces of bamboo and destroyed them. Razgui, a Canadian citizen who lives some of the time in Brockton, had flown last week from Morocco to Boston, with stops in Madrid and New York. In New York, he says, an official opened his luggage and found the 13 flutelike instruments — 11 nays and two kawalas. Razgui says he had made all of the instruments using hard-to-find reeds. “They said this is an agriculture item,” said Razgui, who was not present when his bag was opened.

Hey Boston SWPLs: remember, Government is the thing we choose to do together, so suck it.  Way to crush indigenous musical traditions!  You did this together, all Shouder To Shoulder like and everything!  Well done, you!  And the reaction of Customs?

Our calls to US Customs and Border Protection were not returned Tuesday.

Yeah, I'll bet.  They should have said that Government is what we choose to do together, so suck it.

Razgui, who’s been performing with The Boston Camerata since 2002 and is scheduled to play with Camerata Mediterranea in February, says there are perhaps 15 people in the United States who play these sorts of instruments. “And now they’re gone,” he said. “I’m not sure what to do.”

Dude, find a gig in Europe.  Introduce it with a comparison of "NSA = Satsi" - you'll get a standing ovation.

Rockelbel - Canon in D

This is Classical music inside baseball, but what absolutely delightful (although very SWPL) inside baseball it is.  Well played.  So very well played.



Very funny, in a classical-music-meats-Mr.-Bean sort of way.  It gives me hope for Classical music that this Youtube video has nearly seven million views.  The Piano Guys have taken an old stuffy classic, stripped off the Symphony Hall trappings, and made it fresh for a new age.  And Youtube viewers get that, and respond to it.  Well played, indeed.

And since friend and frequent commenter libertyman is likely to head off to Amazon to buy this (excellent) album, you can find it here.

And for my original (and quite SWPL and straight, other than the field artillery - srlsy) presentation of Mr. Pachelbel and his most excellent Canon, see here.

Epic smackdown is epic

Goober is on fire.  Nice use of graphics to enhance the post.  Nice double barreled shot into the wahmbulance, Goober.

Oh, and this is pretty epic, too.  Check it out while you're over there.

Why do Environmentalists hate wildlife?

2cents emails to point out this shadenfreudalicious story: Solar Plants Are Burning Bird's Wings.

Two months ago, 34 birds were found dead or injured on the site of the Ivanpah solar plant owned by BrightSource Energy in east San Bernardino County, California. Almost half suffered from singed feathers after running afoul of the plant’s reflected beams of sunlight, according to a report from The Desert Sun. This was not an isolated incident: another 19 were found dead at the 500-megawatt Desert Sunlight plant, which is also located in California.

So what’s going on here? Why are birds dropping like their winged-brethren, flies, around these plants and what can we do?

The Californian desert has become a popular place to build solar energy plants because of the abundant space and, of course, the sun. However, the region also serves as one of the four major north-to-south trajectories for migratory birds: the Pacific Flyway. So while it seems like an ideal locale, birds who fly over these structures face some new and unusual hazards.

When it comes to death by solar farm, birds typically die in one of two ways. In the first, the glimmering sheer of solar panels might trick birds into thinking they are actually part of a body of water. And so the birds, especially waterfowl in this scenario, dive towards the panels, looking for moisture and food, only to find themselves, bones broken, dying in the middle of the arid California sand.

Blunt force trauma aside, others feel the wrath of the harnessed sunlight. At the right (or really, wrong) angle, the potent radiation bouncing off solar mirror’s are enough to burn a bird’s fragile wings, abruptly sending the creature downward towards the ground and impending death. They’re like tragic avian Icaruses, except without an easily digestible moral lesson behind their fatal crashes.

Windmills chop up nearly 100,000 endangered species birds a year (just in this country), and now solar is killing more.  Why can't we have some wildlife-friendly electricity generation?  Say, some nice safe coal plants?

Hey all you SWPL Greens - stop screwing up the Environment!  Some of us are trying to live here!

The beginning of the end of the Obama regime

I think that we're starting to see the end of Obama's effective control over his constituents.  Supporters are a politician's stock in trade, and we're now at the point that Obama will start shedding them.  There's quite a good chance that his Lame Duck tenure will have started with his address to the Nation on Syria.  This will be a short analysis of Obama's various constituencies and what's going on with them.

Coastal "Elites" and Wannabes

Perhaps more than any, this was Obama's natural support group.  The people that are impressed with things like the Harvard Law Review naturally gravitated to Obama.  A different (although touchy) way of describing this group is SWPL.  SWPL types love African American Presidents of the Harvard Law Review, for example.

This group is at risk now.  Their motivation is feeling superior to everyone else - Smart Uber Alles is their watch word - but they harbor a terrible fear: they have a huge inferiority complex when it comes to Europe.  Remember all the "Thank God Obama was elected; now I don't have to apologize to everyone in Europe anymore" clap trap that we heard in 2008?  Well guess what the Europeans are saying about Barry?

AFP - A Syrian caricature shows US President Barack Obama smile and pluck the petals of a daisy, as he wonders, "Should I bomb? Or shouldn't I bomb?"

As Obama delays a strike against President Bashar al-Assad's regime thought imminent just over a week ago, Syrians on both sides of their civil war are resorting to black humour, sharing jokes and cartoons via mobile phone and the Internet.

After saying he had the authority to act on his own to strike Syria for its deadly use of chemical weapons near Damascus on August 21, Obama then referred the matter to Congress for a vote.

Now, with the prospects of a quick congressional vote diminishing and Obama cautiously welcoming a Russian initiative that would see Assad hand over his chemical arsenal, an imminent decision by the president is even less likely.

That apparent hesitation to act has given both pro- and anti-Assad Syrians a field day.
One Syrian posted a picture of Obama on Facebook with a biting caption that reads: "When Congress gives me the green light to strike, I will ask my wife Michelle and my in-laws. If they say it's alright, I'll go ahead!"

This is only the beginning.  Obama's foreign policy is a disaster, and will infuriate Europeans.  The not-so-smart ones will be mad because a weaker America will force them to spend more on their own defense as the world becomes more dangerous.  The smart ones will be mad because they (rightly) perceive that their influence over the American SWPL types gives them actual power - by getting the USA to act in their interest.  A weakening America weakens them.  Get used to apologizing for our idiot President next time you're in Klosters, yuppies.

Unions

The Unions are mad because Obamacare will kill their health care plans.  These were won through hard negotiations with Management (in other words, actual union work) and now the Democrats are going to tax them into oblivion.  Unions are all about pocketbook issues with their members, and while the Union Management will certainly back the Democrats, rank and file will (justifiably) wonder just what they're getting from all this "political influence".

Women

George W. Bush got a big boost after 9/11, as "Security Moms" saw actions they interpreted as protecting them and their families.  Bush lost these votes in the aftermath of his incompetent response to hurricane Katrina, as his perceived incompetence led them to think that when a disaster strikes, he's an empty suit.

Obama won women by a significant margin.  As he is seen as lurching from one knee jerk policy to another, he turns this demographic off just like Bush did.

Discussion

None of these groups are likely to start registering Republican anytime soon, but each is taking a hit where it hurts thanks to Obama's policies.  Whether it's SWPL types and their vanity, or Union workers looking at after tax pay, or women wondering whether their families will be safe, each group will be less enthusiastic about the Democratic Party in general and Obama in particular.  This should be a testable prediction: we should see lower turnout in each of these groups in the elections next year that we would expect in a normal off-year vote.  It doesn't have to be a big reduction - even a 5% drop in these groups will make an enormous impact.  Demoralization will be the norm.

2013 has been a disaster for Obama, with major losses in gun control (a fight he didn't have to pick) and now foreign policy.  If this continues (and according to this analysis, accelerates) in 2014, then Obama will have negative coat tails (as in fact he had last year).  All this spells lame duck.  It just started.

The rent (seeking) is too damned high

Liberals like to say that "government is the things we do together". Libertarians like to say that government is the use of power to take money and privilege from unfavored groups to give to favored groups.

Historians call these transfers "rents" and the desire for them "rent seeking". Rents and rent seeking seem to have been with us since the very dawn of history.

In my last post, I stated that the institutions of society have been corrupted; we can lay 90% of the cause on rent seeking.

Rents come in many forms, and cash money is perhaps the least valuable. The most insidious rents are in the form of restrictions on the population: licensing requirements are the chief villain here. Why on earth should you need a license from The Man to cut hair? The reason you do is that the barber's association lobbied government (sought after rents) for restrictive licensing to reduce competition.

The rent they received is a loss of some of your freedom.

This sort of thing almost always is sold as "protecting the consumer", although it's almost always impossible to demonstrate a net benefit to the consumer. Instead, histerical straw man arguments are raised.

Remember when the outgoing Clinton administration imposed new purity rules for well water? When the Bush administration revoked them as being excessively expensive and scientifically dubious, remember the cries of "arsenic in the water supply will ZOMG kill teh children's!!!!!!one!!"

So here's the question: who was seeking rents in that episode?
The answer, of course, is that it was the professional environmentalism lobby that was seeking a rent in the form of a reduction in your freedom. If its too expensive to purify water, it's not possible to live, and people won't be able to develop their land.

The wetlands protection act under Bush pere is one that resulted in precisely the same rent being extracted from people living east of the Mississippi river. Too little water, too much water, it doesn't matter. The rent extracted from you is the same, and it's "paid" to the same people.

There is an orgy or rent seeking happening today, occurring at levels that would have been seen as scandalous in prior years. Now it's a yawn - what, are you a rube? Don't you know that this is how the game is played?

In my post I asked what was the dynamic causing the American people to become enfeebled. There were some good comments as to why (and you should go read them). My thought can be expressed in the form of the Two Things:

1. Rent seeking and rent payouts are proportional to the size of government.

2. As American government approaches the size of European government we will see the effect of regulatory rent seeking cause our economic performance to approach what has been seen in Europe (GDP growth of ~ 1% a year for a decade or more).

The rents are what have enfeebled us. The worst of the situation is that they are largely invisible and fall most heavily on those willing to invest private capital. And by "invest" I mean invest in production. Leftists like to use the term when they mean "consumption".

And so to my point, that the Tea Party reaction of 2010 wasn't about financial rents and arguing about an extra 5% marginal tax rates. It was about the non-financial rents that make it difficult or impossible to start or expand a business, and the onerous Regulatory State that is blocking what used to be called the "American Dream".

The rent (seeking) is too damned high, whether it's the Barber's association or the Environmental movement, or the Ivy League.

Environmentalists are the 1 percent

This pretty well sums the situation up:

The question, however, comes down to which is more important, jobs for the blue-collar worker or preserving the environment. The environmentalists all say the same sort of thing, that mining companies cannot be trusted, that they will spoil this wonderful and beautiful area, and anyway there are jobs created by tourism.

...

What’s distressing in this debate is the extent to which the terms are set by the environmentalists. They say that mining companies cannot be trusted, and they don’t seem too interested in jobs for locals. The mining companies are accordingly forced to explain that their processes will not harm the environment, while the environmentalists do not seem as compelled to talk about the jobs that won’t be created. Maybe someday this will be reversed. After all, environmentalists engage in wild exaggerations and so cannot be trusted, and they have a history of not caring about jobs for poorer people.

As a former mayor of Ely put it, “It would be easy to conclude that this effort [by the environmentalists] is really the 1 percent trying to prevent the 99 percent from having a fair shot at a fair share.”

Yup.  And environmentalists are racist, too.  As Orwell might have said, their opposition to good paying blue collar jobs comes is a bourgeois illusion bred of money and security.

A litmus test for "smart" progressives

SWPL, educated progressives like to claim that they're smarter than your average bear.  What makes them insufferable is the way they look down their noses at other people who deviate from Progressive Received Wisdom™.  Exhibit A for the prosecution: evolution.

Progressives love to snicker at people who reject evolution.  After all (say the progressives), isn't the scientific evidence overwhelming?  And still these people cling to their old ways.

Irony seems not to be part of the Progressive Received Wisdom™.  Self reflection also seems to be lacking from their canon.  If you, like me are heartily sick of their smarmy faux superiority, Aretae has given you a pocket take down which will turn the tables, forcing the progressives to follow the hard scientific logic of evolution to a place where their Progressive Received Wisdom™ will spontaneously combust:

• In mammals, the costs of bearing young are distributed disproportionately among the sexes.
• In mammals, correct game theory play for reproduction between men and women are different.
  
  ...
  
  In mammals, if the brains of males and females were identical in interests or capabilities, it would be a failure of evolution to function.
  
  ...
• With 25 year generations, the out-of-Africa diaspora of the human race occurred around 4000 generations ago.  There has been a lot of time for different subpopulations (races) to optimize differently.
• Given that evolution works on the brain, the brains of different human subpopulations should be optimized differently as well.  Finding out how is the question, not whether.

All of this is pure scientific logic, leading inexorably to what progressives will consider to be some very Double Plus Ungood conclusions.  At which point you can just smile and ask "What?  Don't you believe in evolution?  Or does it violate the commandments of your progressive scriptures."

Err, only if you are as nasty as I am.  And don't care if you don't get invited back to the Right cocktail parties.  RTWT, which is simply awesome.  Foseti says the same thing, differently, although he's not as nasty and snarky as I.  Neither of these will ever be taught in the schools.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

That sure was a fun film.  Fun with depth, but not too much depth, and not depth that challenges SWPL assumptions.

I liked it anyway, rather a lot.  Go watch it - it was nominated for a Golden Globe. The nice thing about well done films in the "adequately predictable" category is that it's the acting that makes them stand out.  It's particularly good here.

Also, it makes me want to go visit Jaipur.  That's not bad, either.

It seems that I'm gripping the pistol wrong

I don't ever grab my "package" when I shoot.  I didn't know that I was doing it wrong.  Huh.



I shall have to give this a try the next time the Lads and I venture to the Range.  "I'm better than you at soccer" seems a jolly good affront. 

(via)

Debate predictions

1. There will be no knockout punch.

2. The idiot Media will debate each other over which of Romney's many "gaffes" were the actual knockout moment, when ZOMG ROMNEY HAS BLOWN IT THIS TIME FOR SURE!!!1!

3. Romney will look Presidential.  This will not be by accident: he needs to close the deal with all the people who voted for Obama as the Hopey-Changy guy so that they could feel good about their SWPL outlook.  They have buyer's remorse, and so Romney doesn't need a knock out, he just needs to look and sound the part so that they can vote for him.

4. In 1992 it was "It's the Economy, stupid."  This year it's "Don't scare the SWPL folks".

5. I will watch something else tonight.