Friday Follies

It's a mixed bag, today.  The only unifying theme is the folly.

Windmills paid subsidies not to generate power

We all know that wind power is unreliable - after all, anyone can see that windmills don't generate electricity when the wind doesn't blow.  Interestingly, they don't generate electricity when the wind does blow:

From the Sunday Times (not online; via commenters)

Wind farm operators in Scotland were paid nearly £900,000 to keep their turbines idle for a night because the National Grid did not need the power.

The payments, up to 20 times the value of the power the wind farms would have produced, were offered by the National Grid because it urgently needed to reduce electricity entering the system.
It was oversupplied with power on a wet and blustery night last month when demand for electricity was low.

It's obvious that the Underpants Gnomes are in charge of the green power programs:

1. Provide subsidies of 20x the already 5x inflated cost of the power.
2. ???
3. Profit!

Environmentalists are Sad Pandas

The public just isn't buying the ZOMG-thermageddon!!!1! schtick.  This makes environmentalists sad.

In recent years, public apathy and a political impasse on global warming has led some to a grim resignation — society might not take serious action on climate change until catastrophic events force our hand. For example, in 2009, Canadian scholar Thomas Homer-Dixon said, "I am convinced that we won't really address the climate change problem until it produces some major shocks or instabilities that mobilize broad populations."

Last week, Robert Stavins, director of Harvard’s Environmental Economics Program, expressed a similar view, at least as it relates to the United States. In an interview with Bloomberg news, Stavins remarked that, “It’s unlikely that the U.S. is going to take serious action on climate change until there are observable, dramatic events, almost catastrophic in nature, that drive public opinion and drive the political process in that direction."

Ya know, maybe if some of your ZOMG predictions ever came, you know, true - maybe you'd get some buy-in.  Just sayin'.  Oh, and quit playing shell games to hide the decline.

Now that's a catastrophe!

Let them eat kittens:

Just a few pages into the book, Herzog discusses a frantic phone call he received from a friend. This friend had heard, through the grapevine, that Herzog was adopting kittens from animal shelters and feeding them to his son’s pet boa constrictor. Herzog was appalled–he would never do any such thing, he told his friend, an avowed animal rights advocate.

But then, he started thinking about it. “Is having a pet that gets its daily ration of meat from a can morally preferable to living with a snake? And are there circumstances in which feeding kittens to boa constrictors might actually be morally acceptable?”

Dude, Lissa is going to come and kick your ass.

MSM: It's OK if a liberal president assassinates people

Duh. Just don't you rednecky Texans think you can do it.  That's totally different.

Boy, if they keep this sort of thing up, someone might start saying they're biased or something.  Oh, wait.

MSM: The Veterans are all loonier than a Canadian Dollar

Blackfive takes them to the woodshed.  My take:

That said, this article by Luke Mogelson in the New York Times Magazine (via PJ Tatler) entitled “The Beast In The Heart Of Every Fighting Man” is a travesty.  It’s subhead gives you a clue why:

The case against American soldiers accused of murdering Afghan civilians turns on the idea of a rogue unit. But what if the killings are a symptom of a deeper problem?

Let's see now:

The case against American soldiersTV News teams accused of murdering Afghan civilians knowingly airing forged documents during an election campaign turns on the idea of a rogue unit. But what if the killings are a symptom of a deeper problem?

There, I fixed it for you. Boy, if they keep this sort of thing up, someone might start saying they're biased or something. Oh, wait.

SWPL Progressive programs make SWPL cities even whiter

I guess that makes sense, in a way.

Portland should change its motto from “the city that works” to “the city that’s white.” Already the whitest big city in America in 2000, the city has gotten whiter still as poor people have been pushed from the inner city into the suburbs, as shown in this stunning series of maps.

The Antiplanner has covered this issue before, but it is worth repeating, partly because of The Oregonian‘s excellent coverage yesterday and partly because of what The Oregonian didn’t say. As Portland’s only daily paper pointed out, the city did little to help low-income minorities and did many things that hurt.

Seems their SWPL Light Rail system was so hideously expensive that they had to cut all the bus service to minority neighborhoods.  And they had to cut school funding in the inner city.  But remember, these people are all smarter and nicer than you or I.  It's "Smart Growth", don't 'cha know?

So where are the Toons now?

A cautionary tale to us all, to be sure.

Friday follies

Hacker brags about breaking into Army computers on national TV, hilarity ensues

Any by "hilarity", I mean "jail time":

A French hacker who boasted of breaking into the systems of a government security contractor on national television has suffered some unsurprising consequences.

The alleged miscreant, identified only as Carl, appeared on a programme called Complément d'enquête (Further Investigation) to demonstrate how he broke into the network of the French Army and Thales, the information security group, at the start of April.

He was arrested in Paris six days later on 7 April, reportedly following a complaint by Thales. Investigating police reportedly recovered credit card and bank account data from his computer.

Fifteen minutes of fame, baby.

Smile, you're on Candid Camera

So don't steal that iPad:

If you’re looking for the perfect place to commit a stealth crime, you could do a lot better than ISC West 2011, one of the biggest security trade shows.

...

For some reason, though, a man who entered the hall at the Sands Expo and Convention Center last week, dressed in a Philip Rivers San Diego Chargers T-shirt and using a fake badge, decided to press his luck, despite the presence of cameras up and down every aisle, many of them with overhead capabilities and the ability to zoom in on even the tiniest detail.

They have the video there.  Fifteen minutes of fame, baby.

Save the planet with a "carbon neutral" brasiere

What cup size does Mother Gaia sport?  Hey, don't save the Planet, save the Ta-Tas!

Oregon Legislature gets Rickrolled

Well played.  So very well played.

Friday Follies

Giving up booze causes cancer

Some "scientists" write a "scientific article" about how drinking is connected to cancer.  Hilarity ensues.  Ouch.

Church of England to Prince William: She might get fat; deal with it.

OK, they didn't actually say that.  Still, this is the last you'll hear from me about marriage happenings in Her Britannic Majesty's Scepter'd Isle.  Srlsy.

Giving Up not playing Nintendo 3DS causes cancer headaches. 

Or something.  The "scientific" results as reported in the UK Sun (note: Page Three is NSFW) are, err, "exhaustive" (sample size = 1).  Results are published anyway.  Hilarity ensues.  Thar's one righteous "science," right there.

Government shutdown immanent; Women and Children hardest hit.

Whatever.

Lightbulbs.  

It seems they suck the darkness out of the room.  Or something.

Friday Follies - Government Motors' electric boondoggle

The People's Automotive Collective #1 is marching shoulder to shoulder towards GOSPLAN's glorious five year target for renewable energy automobiles for the masses.  Hilarity exactly what you'd expect ensues:

Consumer Reports offered a harsh initial review of the Chevrolet Volt, questioning whether General Motors Co.'s flagship vehicle makes economic "sense."The extended-range plug-in electric vehicle is on the cover of the April issue — the influential magazine's annual survey of vehicles — but the GM vehicle comes in for criticism.

"When you are looking at purely dollars and cents, it doesn't really make a lot of sense. The Volt isn't particularly efficient as an electric vehicle and it's not particularly good as a gas vehicle either in terms of fuel economy," said David Champion, the senior director of Consumer Reports auto testing center at a meeting with reporters here. "This is going to be a tough sell to the average consumer."

The magazine said in its testing in Connecticut during a harsh winter, its Volt is getting 25 to 27 miles on electric power alone.

Look at that again: "25 to 27 miles on electric power".  It seems that winter in the Northeast (note: bastion of liberal quiche-eating, electric car buying target customers) is, err, cold.  When batteries get cold, they don't work well.  Man, that sure snuck up on everyone!  But don't worry, Northeast liberals - you can freeze in the dark!

Champion noted the Volt is about twice as expensive as a Prius.

He was said the five hour time to recharge the Volt was "annoying" and was also critical of the power of the Volt heating system.

"You have seat heaters, which keep your body warm, but your feet get cold and your hands get cold," Champion said.

But don't despair, quiche eaters.  An air conditioner compressor probably takes as much juice as a heater, so the Government Motors Chevy Volt will probably be as bad a fit for all those potential customers rednecks south of the Mason-Dixon line.

What's the old engineering joke?  It's slow, expensive, and feature-poor, but other than that it's awesome!

Boy, I'm sure glad that we don't have a Village idiot from Texas in charge.  Just think about what might go wrong ...

Friday Follies: Eco Hypocrites

Whenever a conservative gets caught in (say) a sex scandal, the press justifies its gleeful coverage with it's not the act, it's the hypocrisy.  Here are some stories about progressives where - strangely - the press isn't interested.


BBC pushes environmental agenda; refuses to buy carbon offsets

Auntie Beeb pushes Anthropogenic Global Warming hysterically, most recently last night, where their discussion on Radio 4 about the psychology of climate change "deniers" - where the science was (by the rules of the discussion) assumed to be "settled" that mankind's burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, wrecking the climate.

So someone wondered whether they bought carbon offsets for their people when they flew.  And that someone submitted a freedom of information act request to find out.  The reply?  No:

The BBC does not buy carbon offsets for its journalists' airline tickets because - "in considering such questions, the BBC must balance our environmental policies against our responsibility to our licence fee payers, and we do not believe buying offsets represents good use of licence fee income."

They have better things to do with their dough, ya see?  But all you proles, line up for the lower carbon lifestyle.  Remember, lefties, it's not the act itself, it's the hypocrisy!

Hat tip: Bishop Hill.

We need more wind power!  And aid to the poor because it costs too much to heat their house!

Progressive policies are a delicious desert topping and a floor shine!  Her Britannic Majesty's Parliament is debating whether to move forward on EU targets for the amount of electricity generated by wind power.  During the coldest winter in memory.  The Rt. Hon. Philip Davies, MP hits the nail on the head:

The bottom line is that these policies will produce for Britain the most expensive electricity in the world if we carry on down this particular route. Is it morally or politically acceptable, particularly at a time of national austerity when families are struggling to pay their bills, for the Government to keep raising them just to meet an EU target? I do not think it is. It will hit the poorest people in our communities first.

I do not understand why the people who propose these green policies are so shy about it. Anyone can say that they are in favour of green energy. It is like asking someone, "Would you like a Rolls-Royce car?" Most people would say, "Yes," but if one were to ask, "Would you like a Rolls-Royce car? You'll have to spend the rest of your life living in a tent to pay for it?" they might say, "No." If we ask people whether they are in favour of green energy, they say, "Of course we are-it sounds marvellous." However, if Huw Irranca-Davies were to ask them whether they were prepared to pay astronomical bills in order to pursue that, I think that he might get a different answer.

Funny that - Progressive policies impoverishing the masses.  Who'd have seen that coming?  But all you proles, line right up and do as you're told!

But silly MP Davies, someone else will pay for it.  Until you run out of other people's money.  Which you have.

Hat tip: Bishop Hill, again.

Those are some righteous "Green" Diesel-Voltaic solar cells

Longtime readers will remember a post about how the Spanish Government's solar power subsidies were so lucrative, it paid for companies to set up big banks of lights (powered by diesel generators) so they could run the "solar" cells all night.  Well, if something can't go on forever, it eventually stops.  And by "eventually", I mean "today":

Sunny Spain became the world’s top solar power producer. Since 2002, about €23-billion has been invested in Spain’s photovoltaic (PV) industry, which sucked up €2.7-billion in subsidies in 2009 alone, or more than 40 per cent of the freebies doled out to the country’s entire renewables sector.

When the Spanish economy went into the toilet in 2008 and 2009, austerity measures were put into place. At first, it appeared the solar industry would be spared the worst of the cutbacks. That changed a bit, but only a bit, in November, when a royal decree reduced tariffs by up to 45 per cent on new PV plants; existing plants would remain untouched. Then – whammo! – a new royal decree landed with a thud just before Christmas. While it didn’t change the tariff, it retroactively limited the number of production hours that PV plants could qualify for the subsidies.

Spain’s solar industry lobby group, the Asociacion Empresarial Fotovoltaica, estimated that the second decree would effectively reduce tariffs received by PV plants by 30 per cent, forcing many of the PV companies to default on their debt.

In other news of the unexpected, you can't grow orchids in your back yard in Massachusetts.  But don't worry, we have all our Top Men working on this, right now:

As predicted was inevitable, today the Spanish newspaper La Gaceta runs with a full-page article fessing up to the truth about Spain’s “green jobs” boondoggle, which happens to be the one naively cited by President Obama no less than eight times as his model for the United States.

Top men.  Almost Philosopher Kings.  Strangely unable to learn, though.  But all you proles, line right up and do as you're told!

Hat tip: Jo Nova.

Note to the liberal press (redundancy alert): we'd take you more seriously with all your it's the hypocrisy, stupid posturing if you'd spend just a little time policing the other side.  Proudly "green" companies that refuse to pay what they say everyone else should, "Progressive" policies that will make the poor poorer, and "Smart" politicians who can't learn from someone else's fail (and who are dead set to make their own, bigger fail here) are low hanging fruit.

No need to thank me, it's all part of the service.

Friday Follies

There's a cornucopia of folly for you, today.  Allow me to offer up the bleeding turkeys for your enjoyment.

Harvard Law professor says the Fed.Gov can make you buy what they want you to

And since it's Harvard Law, you know that it's wicked smart.  Wicked, wicked, wicked smaht:

Prof. Fried: Yes. We hear that quite a lot.  It was put by Judge Vinson, and I think it was put by Professor Barnett in terms of eating your vegetables, and for reasons I set out in my testimony, that would be a violation of the 5th and the 14th Amendment, to force you to eat something. But to force you to pay for something? I don’t see why not.  It may not be a good idea, but I don’t see why it’s unconstitutional.

Glad they can make me eat it, though.  Neener neener.

"Smart" Diplomacy seizes Spanish Internet domain
Man, it sure is nice that we don't have Chimpy McHitlerburton telling the rest of the world to get their own danged Internet. Oh, wait:

It appears that Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division, and their incredibly sloppy domain seizure operations, have moved on to the next phase -- as was promised by both ICE boss, John Morton, and IP Enforcement Coordinator, Victoria Espinel. The timing on this one is particularly bizarre -- and politically stupid.

That's because the the domain seizure is for the Spanish streaming site Rojadirecta. Yes, ICE seized the domain name of a foreign company. And it gets worse. Rojadirecta is not just some fly-by-night operation run out of someone's basement or something. It's run by a legitimate company in Spain, and the site's legality has been tested in the Spanish courts... and the site was declared legal. The court noted that since Rojadirecta does not host any material itself, it does not infringe.

So, a full-on trial and legal process that took three years in a foreign country, and involved a series of appeals leading to a final judgment.... all totally ignored by a bunch of US customs agents.

Philosopher Kings, right there.

Meghan McCain: The Rich Man's Snooki

Ouch.

How not to dispose of live hand grenades

San Francisco Po-Po bomb disposal robot drops, runs over grenade.



EPA to regulate drinking water

I guess that the air you breathe isn't enough:

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson told a Senate panel that preventing children from being exposed to contaminated water could spare them from autism.
Jackson made the remark on Wednesday at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works in response to questioning by Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), who asked if a recent executive order by President Barack Obama about regulations and the regulatory process means that the EPA can put any rules in place if “the benefits outweigh the costs.”

It's for teh childrens!  And so, a musical love song from EPA Commissioner Jackson to America:



I'll Be There For You (Songwriters: Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora)

I guess this time you're really leaving
I heard your suitcase say goodbye
Well as my broken heart lies bleeding
You say true love is suicide
You say you've cried a thousand rivers
And now you're swimming for the shore
You left me drowning in my tears
And you won't save me anymore
I'm praying to God you'll give me one more chance girl

I'll be there for you, these five words I swear to you
When you breathe, I wanna be the air for you
I'll be there for you
I'd live and I'd die for you
I'd steal the sun from the sky for you
Words can't say what love can do
I'll be there for you

I know you know we've had some good times
Now they have their own hiding place
Well I can promise you tomorrow
But I can't buy back yesterday
And baby you know my hands are dirty
But I wanted to be your Valentine
I'll be the water when you get thirsty baby
When you get drunk, I'll be the wine

I'll be there for you, these five words I swear to you
When you breathe I wanna be the air for you
I'll be there for you
I'd live and I'd die for you
I'd steal the sun from the sky for you
Words can't say what love can do
I'll be there for you

I wasn't there when you were happy
And I wasn't there when you were down
Didn't mean to miss your birthday baby
I wish I'd seen you blow those candles out

I'll be there for you, these five words I swear to you
When you breathe I wanna be the air for you
I'll be there for you
I'd live and I'd die for you
I'd steal the sun from the sky for you
Words can't say what love can do
I'll be there for ...

I'll be there for you, these five words I swear to you
When you breathe I wanna be the air for you
I'll be there for you
I'd live and I'd die for you
I'd steal the sun from the sky for you
Words can't say what love can do
I'll be there for you ...

If we criminalize everybody, we'll need more police

The Austin, TX police chief has a nifty idea to increase the size of his department increase the number of fines for the city "reduce" drunk driving: lower the legal limit for blood alcohol to below what it takes to be drunk:

A campaign to create a new category of driving while intoxicated is being promoted at the Capitol as one way to curb growing problems in Texas’ system of punishing drunken drivers.

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo, among the supporters of the change, said the idea behind a new offense of “driving while ability impaired” — DWAI — would cover drivers whose blood-alcohol content is between 0.05 and 0.07.

Of course, this is half the old limit (0.10).  It seems that lowering it didn't solve the problem, so he wants to lower it again.  Heck, why not save yourself another round of this game, and lower it to 0.00?  The punch line, of course, is that nobody knows if the law would even work at all:

Bill Lewis, the legislative director for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which has led the charge in recent years to toughen Texas DWI laws, said the group has not reviewed or endorsed the proposed new charge of DWAI. He added, “I don’t see how it would hurt.”

And that's someone on the Chief's side.  Damning with faint praise, right there.  So what's driving this?  It seems that the current laws aren't working:

The reason is that thousands of drivers arrested for DWI are being allowed to plead guilty to lesser crimes such as reckless driving or obstructing a roadway. Such plea deals allow them to escape alcohol counseling and driver’s license restrictions, according to testimony before the Senate panel in July by police officials, prosecutors and judges.

People aren't being prosecuted under the existing laws, so how about a whole new law that will criminalize more people?  I guess that this makes some sort of sense in Austin.

Really, this is so much like gun control laws that you'd laugh, except a lot of folks are going to find themselves in handcuffs for driving while impared in Austin.

Idiots.

Friday Follies: Kill the children for Mother Gaia edition

It seems that the guy behind the very funny Blackadder TV series made a film that's even funnier: children who are skeptical of the whole Global Warming Climate Change Climate Disruption ZOMG Thermageddon schtick get blown up in class by their teacher:

The reaction across the world to this "Comedy" was predictable, and it seems that the Grown Ups rapidly took over running the company responsible, pulled the video off Youtube, and put up this message:

Of course, it's a pretty typical non-apology apology:

Many people found the resulting film extremely funny, but unfortunately some didn’t and we sincerely apologise to anybody we have offended.

See?  If you didn't like the film, they're sorry you don't have a sense of humor (unlike "many" other people).  Or something.  Fear not, some places do not shrink from saying this explicitly - that the problem is you:

It’s only offensive if you have a sense of humour failure

Yeah, OK then!  I mean, you don't want to be accused of not getting the joke (wink wink).

Ooooh kaaaay.  Let's count the FAIL, shall we?

1. Teachers blowing up kids in class because they think the wrong thoughts.

2. Thinking that #1 is just a hoot, and that all Right Thinking People will giggle.

3. Thinking that once you post a video to Al Gore's Intarwebz, you can turn it off or something.  Youtube is taking these down as fast as they can, but people keep putting it back up even faster.  Dudes, the Internet interprets censorship as damage, and routes around it.  I heard that somewhere.

4. Thinking you can get away with a Aw shucks, we wuz just joshing attitude.  Perry de Havilland once wrote:

The problem I have with this whole discussion is that it grants what is a monstrous totalitarian perspective a polite hearing rather than the sort of response it truly deserves. It strikes me to just dignify the proposition "the state should spay women and castrate men" with "wouldn't it be better if we just find a way to reduce the fuel we burn?" is to in effect tolerate the intolerable. A far better response, and dare I say a more ethical one, would be "your policy will indeed reduce the world's population because people like me will put a 10mm hole between the eyes of totalitarian scum like you."

I'm partial to .30 caliber myself, but I do remember to say it with a smile.  If the person I'm talking to objects, my reply is "Jeez, can't you take a joke!?"

It might be different if this were a one-off, and outlier, a black swan.  Sadly, it's pretty typical.  I'm a little mystified as to why the Green Left is so anti-children, but that's what .30-06 is for.

UPDATE 1 October 2010 18:58: DirtCrashr has a recommendation on what you can do.

UPDATE 1 October 2010 19:30: This is pretty lame spin from the Green Freaks. I've found out where it came from, and it isn't pretty ...

UPDATE 1 October 2010 19:38: To Gillian Anderson (who starred in this film) and to Radiohead, who provided the music, all I have to say is Dance, Monkey!

UPDATE 1 October 2010 20:03: With a tip o' the уша́нка to the late, lamented Politburo Diktat, I leave a comment over with the Greens.  Feel free to go leave your own.

Friday Follies: Establish Meltdown

Awhile back, I described how the Internet is breaking the "business model" of the current political parties, and how that reshaping of the political landscape is turning a bunch of Old Guard Dinosaurs into losers:

When you hear talk of "teabaggers", or how "dumb" Palin is, or how Brown won "because he stood in the cold shaking hands outside Fenway Park", you know that you're talking to one of the people that the Internet is turning into a loser, as their political business model collapses around them. They'll all be gone in ten years.

Well, add Karl Rove and the Republican Senate Campaign Committee to the list. While their visceral reaction to Christine O'Donnell's primary win in Delaware was quickly retracted, but for a brief, shining moment, we saw their real core. Not especially attractive, and not particularly smart of them to show us.

Robert Stacy McCain tells us how it works:

Let me say a few word about The Backstabbers — not just those faithless former servants who are now disparaging Christine O’Donnell, but the entire category of Republican campaign aides, consultants and operatives who specialize in tearing down their former employers (and each other).

If you really want to know the nature of that hive of scum and villainy, RTWT. Plus, he has a musical interlude which is absolutely superb, and which hits center mass.

Neo-Neocon looks at the emerging pattern:

Take one attractive woman politician on the right.

Dig into every facet of her past, especially quotes related to her Christian religious beliefs.

Mock and revile her, preferably distorting what she said.

In particular, make it seem as though she is intent on legislating those beliefs.

Do it quickly, as soon as the person is nominated, before she has a chance to counter the growing “narrative.”

But she wonders if the people doing this have any credibility. The answer, of course, is "only with their hard-core fellow travelers". As I said earlier, the country looks like it'd be happy to vote for the Village Idiot rather than this lot.

Of course, the Democrats are just as bad, and even more clueless, because they think this trouble that the Republicans are having will actually benefit them. "Follies", indeed. Carteach0 looks at this - what's been said, but more importantly, what hasn't been said, at least publicly:

Career politicians are afraid. Very afraid. At least, the smart ones are, the ones not already lost in an internally generated sea of arrogance, indifference, privilege, and self importance. The politicos who are paying attention and have their eyes open are seeing a ground swell of citizens involvement they can't control and manipulate, and it frightens them badly. They are striking out in terror, turning cannibalistic, and scrabbling at the hard stone walls of the political tombs they never noticed themselves building.

I approve.

Me, too. The Dinosaurs sniff a change on the breeze, and roar their defiance.

A $5 Million wedding?

The sum which two married people owe to one another defies calculation. It is an infinite debt, which can only be discharged through all eternity.

- Goethe

I hear that Chelsea Clinton is getting married, and wish her all happiness.

Long time readers are waiting for the "but", the part where I snark. I won't for a second snark on Miss Clinton's hopes or chances for happiness. If anyone in the public eye deserves someone who will cherish her, she's the one, and it's fervently to be hoped for.

But.

If I were to be the father of the bride, and were to spend $5 Million on a wedding ceremony, I'd want sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their frickin' heads.

Well, I would.



No word if Miss Clinton's wedding dinner features sea bass ...

Friday Follies: Don't taze Granny

Ah, the use of "less lethal" force against bedridden grandmothers:

Understandably alarmed — and probably more than a little disgusted — by the presence of uninvited armed strangers in her home, [grandmother] Lona [Vernon] ordered them to leave. This directive, issued by a fragile female octogenarian confined to a hospital-style bed and tethered to an oxygen tank, was interpreted as “aggressive” behavior by Officer Thomas Duran, who ordered one of his associates : “Taser her!”

“Don’t taze my granny!” exclaimed Tinsley. According to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Tinsley’s “obstructive” behavior prompted the police to threaten him with their tasers. He was then was assaulted, removed from the room, thrown to the floor, handcuffed, and detained in a police car. At this point, the heroes in blue turned their attention to Lona.

The tactical situation was daunting; at this point, the police had only a 10-1 advantage over a subject who — according to Duran’s official report — had taken an “aggressive posture” in her hospital bed. The sacred imperative of “officer safety” dictated that the subject be thoroughly softened up in order to minimize resistance.

Accordingly, one of the officers approached Lona and “stepped on her oxygen hose until she began to suffer oxygen deprivation,” narrates the complaint, based on Lona’s account. One of the officers then shot her with a taser, but the connection wasn’t solid. A second fired his taser, “striking her to the left of the midline of her upper chest, and applied high voltage, causing burns to her chest, extreme pain,” and unconsciousness. Lona was then handcuffed with sufficient ruthlessness to tear the soft flesh of her forearms, causing her to bleed.

And had her thrown into a psychiatric ward for a week.


Any bets on whether, should the tazing have proven fatal to Mrs. Vernon, Mr. Tinsley would be facing Manslaughter charges?

Here's hoping that the lawsuit is successful in bankrupting the town of El Reno, OK. If the town is forced to shut down due to the extreme folly of its elected officials and their duly appointed employees, perhaps other communities will notice.

Dans ce pays-ci, il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres. (In this country it is wise to kill an Admiral to encourage the others."

- Voltaire, Candide

Well, at least she didn't have a pistol, and nobody died.

Via Aretae.

When Green goes Brown

There's big money to be made flogging "green" solutions to our problems, and politicians and businesses are scrambling to get a piece of the green pie. The industry is maturing, meaning we're starting to see big green bets go sour.

For example, Kevin Rudd won the last election in Australia by running on a very aggressive program to fight global warming. As Prime Minister, his grandiose plans ran into a wall as the recession and ClimateGate spurred popular resistence, and the whole thing is now been put on hold. Surprisingly, "doing nothing" seems to cost rather a lot:

Kevin Rudd has delayed – sorry, extended – his climate change policies, but we’re still stuck with a redundant Climate Change Department:

Taxpayers will fork out $90 million a year to keep more than 400 public servants employed within the federal Climate Change Department – despite most now having nothing to do until 2013.

More than 60 of them are classified as senior executive staff on salaries between $168,000 and $298,000 a year. Their salary bill alone will cost an estimated $12 million every year.

Rudd has created a Department of Magnificent Uselessness in response to a crisis that never existed and against which he will take no action. This is absolutely beautiful.

Unsurprisingly, Rudd's polls are falling off a cliff, as both the right and the left now despise him:

Australian polls have plummeted, and the credibility gap I mentioned earlier has already translated into votes. Whether people agree or disagree with the Emissions Trading Scheme, no one is impressed when a leader hypes something in the most hyperbolic and inflammatory terms, then bails suddenly, as if it was not a big deal.

The front page of The Australian today:

KEVIN Rudd’s personal standing has taken a hammering after his decision to dump his climate change policy last week, and for the first time since 2006 the Coalition has an election-winning lead.

Curiously, while the Labor Party dropped 8%, the Greens primary vote (10%) didn’t pick up a single point. The Coalition (the main opposition) gained just 3% (to 43%), so most of the rest of the disillusioned voters went to “others and independents”. All the commentators are writing it up to the “Climate” issue.

Hey PM - maybe you can hang out with Harry Reid in whatever place it is that washed up old politicians who get thrown out of office go?

Back in the world of business, the UK is aggressively rolling out windmills to generate power. Lots of windmills. They're building them out at sea, even though the towers seem to be sinking into the sea bed. There's a good reason they're built there: build them on land, get sued:

The 150-acre farm was the answer to Julian and Jane Davis's dreams of a quiet life in the country.

He would grow crops while she planned to build a wooden chalet to run reflexology, therapy and counselling sessions.

Their rural peace was shattered, however, when eight giant wind turbines were erected nearby.

Their constant roar was so bad that the couple and their 20-year-old daughter Emily say they were forced to move into a rented home five miles away.

Mr and Mrs Davis have launched a High Court writ claiming £380,000 compensation from the owners of the 320ft turbines, the builders and the landowners.

They're suing for around $75,000 per windmill. But the company will no doubt make it up in volume.

But that's just a down payment. Wait until the companies are hit for bird deaths:

On Aug. 13 [2009], ExxonMobil pleaded guilty in federal court to killing 85 birds that had come into contact with crude oil or other pollutants in uncovered tanks or waste-water facilities on its properties. The birds were protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which dates back to 1918. The company agreed to pay $600,000 in fines and fees.

The process of higher mathematics tells us that means each bird death costs a little over $7,000. So how many birds are killed by windmills? Whooo, boy:

Anyone who has investigated the issue of bird mortality and windmills has heard of Altamont Pass, an area of rolling grasslands near San Francisco studded with 4000 wind turbines. Marching across the landscape in platoons and columns, the turbines, each with its whirling blades, resemble supersize barbed wire fencing. Estimates put the number of birds killed annually at Altamont Pass at 4,700, about 1,300 of them raptors (Golden Eagles, hawks, Burrowing Owls and other birds of prey).

That's a cool $32 Million, right there. For one wind farm.

The environmental business is fixin' to get vapor lock on this. You have to do one thing, but that thing is entirely prohibited.

Infinite Loop. n. See Loop, Infinite.

Loop, Infinite. n. See Infinite Loop.

That sound you hear - over the roar of the turbine blades and the screams of falling birds - is the sound of hippy's heads exploding. And I think that stuff is toxic.

Friday Follies: Careful about those lawyers

Dr. Michael Mann, of "Hockey Stick" fame, has had enough. A group called "Minnesotans for Global Warming" did a very funny song ("Hide the Decline") in which the Good Doctor was, shall we say, prominently featured.

Dr. Mann's lawyers has sent the group a letter demanding the video's removal, as it “[leaves] viewers with the incorrect impression that he falsified data to generate desired results in connection with his research activities”. Youtube has pulled the video; presumably it's sharing a room with all the Hitler parodies.

The group, however, is not taking this lying down. Bring it on, they've told Mann:

“Minnesotans 4 Global Warming hope Mann will proceed with his lawsuit so that the legal discovery process will force exposure of data and methods Mann has still not released and that the official whitewash inquiries refuse to investigate.”

Hoist, meet petard.

Friday Follies: Cut your Carbon Footprint (but not too much) edition

Why, oh why do we have to go all the way to Oz to get local news? Paula lets us know of the travails of Christopher Potter, student at the University of Massachusetts. She tells us that, to protest Global Warming Climate Change and reduce his carbon footprint, he's been sleeping in a tent. In between episodes of fighting off the local Campus Cops, he finds his real problem:

Christopher has limits to his high-mindedness, however, and has allowed himself leeway when it comes to charging his i-pod:

Though he doesn’t live inside, he says he charges his electronics with “dirty fossil fuels,” because “right now there’s no escaping them, and it makes us all contribute to climate change, unfortunately.”

Yes son, they "made" you do it. Damn those evil Mac bastards.

When asked what he wants to do for a career, Potter says he wants to continue pushing for clean electricity.

Good for you, son. We'll keep a spot under a highway overpass warm for you.

Damn those evil Mac bastards. Quote of the day, right there.

Friday Folly: Don't pester the natives

The attitude that Europeans often take towards America is a never-ending source of amusement. Convinced that they are smarter and more sophisticated than we are, they get them into all sorts of hot water, requiring us to periodically rebuild their economies or give old Jerry a proper thrashing. You'd think that this would instill a certain amount of self-awareness in the continent's educated elite.

Sadly, you'd be wrong.

I have to say that I love the BBC show Top Gear, shown here in the Colonies on BBC America. I've posted about them before, approvingly. However, they recently fell into the euro-sneer trap, in an episode where they set out to intentionally antagonize the locals. The locals were suitably antagonized, and the Top Gear team found - to their astonishment - that they had to run for the hills.

Err, mission accomplished, guys.



Let's see: set out to be as antagonistic to the locals as they could? Check. Underestimate the local's level of initiative when antagonized? Check. Overestimated their ability to sweet talk the loals who they intentionally antagonized? Check.

What's funniest about this - funnier even than the panic so clear in the video - is the sense that these guys are absolutely certain that they're smarter than anyone in Alabama. Where I'm from, thay don't look very smart. Or polite.

Via #1 Son, who knows a thing or two about smart. And polite.

Don't blame DHS

This analysis misses the mark:

Your Department of Homeland Security, so hard at work securitzing the homeland it doesn't have time to do basic vetting of its employees:

A New Jersey fugitive wanted on insurance fraud charges since 2007 was working for the immigration division of the Department of Homeland Security in Georgia, despite a nationwide alert for her arrest, Essex County prosecutors said yesterday.

Bzzzt! Wrong, but thank you so much for playing.

Look, I know that the folks over at Reason love to hate on the Fed.Gov and everything, but this case is not the poster child they're looking for:

A spokesman for the immigration service said background checks are conducted on employees before they are hired and criminal history checks are performed every 10 years. Buchanan's most recent check was conducted in 2005, before charges were brought. Agency employees are also required to report any contact they have with law enforcement officers, the spokesman said.

So let's see: was Ms. Buchanan wanted when she applied for her job? No. Was she wanted when she had a second background check? No. Reasonable people can argue whether the background check should be ten years or less (or more), but it looks to me like DHS did their due diligence.

And what do we know about Ms. Buchanan? Other than that she is wanted for an insurance scam? She didn't change her name, or go on the lam. She showed up for work every day. That's some sly fugitive, right there.

I have this crazy idea - how about employers shouldn't have to keep snooping into their employees private lives, because if said employee is wanted by the Po-Po, Officer Friendly shows up at the place of work and arrests her? Crazy idea, I know.

Now, Nick Gillespe probably isn't responsible for the headline "Can DHS Protect Itself Against Criminal Employees?" But still, this is only half a step up from mouth breathing. There's plenty not to like in DHS, but this ain't it.

Martha Coakley: dumb as a rock

No, not because she claims "foreign policy experience" because her sister lives in Europe*. Not because she's yet another corrupt Massachusetts political hack backed by corrupt unions like the SEIU, but because she doesn't see a link between this:

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, talking about criticizing the father who punched out the guy he caught molesting his 4-year-old son in a supermarket men's room (and, who was subsequently arrested for his morally just actions).

"All I'm saying is that...we really try and discourage people from self-help."

... and this:

The security guard who fatally shot a patient who was attacking a doctor in a Massachusetts General Hospital psychiatric clinic said today he had done what anyone would have done and he was happy that the doctor was recovering.

"I just did what anyone would have done, ma'am, that's all," Paul Langone said in answer to a group of reporters' questions as he walked to a car outside the family's home in Reading.

...

Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said Thursday that, based on a preliminary investigation, Langone may have saved the life of Dr. Desrosiers and others and the shooting appeared legally justified.

Desrosiers was pinned to the floor and being stabbed by Carciero at about 2 p.m. Tuesday in the hospital's bipolar clinic on the fifth floor of a building at 50 Staniford St. As clinic colleagues fled, another doctor tried to pull the 250-pound Carciero off her, but fell back when the patient slashed at him, authorities said.

Langone, an off-duty security officer carrying a concealed handgun, may have been her only chance, authorities said. He entered the room, ordered Carciero to stop, and when he didn't, fired multiple shots, hitting Carciero twice.

Memo to Attorney General Coakley: pick one, and only one. You can either have citizens engaging in self-help, or you can have dead murder victims.

Duh.

But that isn't what makes this story the winner of this week's Friday Follies. That honor does not go to Coakley, but to the idiot Democrat citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, who are going to send this moron to the U.S. Senate. You couldn't assemble enough brain cells to feed a zombie if you collected every Democratic voter in Massachusetts.

To those readers from freer and smarter climes, pity those of us surrounded by these fools.

* You think I'm making this up?



Tina Fey could not be reached for comment.

Friday Follies - The Nobel Prize Committee

Yes, I should have posted this last week (sorry, I was busy). The advantage of being a procrastinator is that the last week has showing that, rather than being embarrassed for getting the Peace Prize after only being in office for 10 days, the Obama administration is delighted.

The old saying goes, if you look and listen closely, a man will show you what he is.



You're So Vain (songwriter: Carly Simon)

You walked into the party
Like you were walking onto a yacht
Your hat strategically dipped below one eye
Your scarf it was apricot
You had one eye in the mirror
As you watched yourself gavotte
And all the girls dreamed that they'd be your partner
They'd be your partner, and

You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't you?

You had me several years ago
When I was still quite naive
Well, you said that we made such a pretty pair
And that you would never leave
But you gave away the things you loved
And one of them was me
I had some dreams they were clouds in my coffee
Clouds in my coffee, and

You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't you?

I had some dreams they were clouds in my coffee
Clouds in my coffee, and

You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't you?

Well, I hear you went up to Saratoga
And your horse naturally won
Then you flew your Lear jet up to Nova Scotia
To see the total eclipse of the sun
Well, you're where you should be all the time
And when you're not, you're with
Some underworld spy or the wife of a close friend
Wife of a close friend, and

You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't you?

Friday Follies - Roman Polanski

I have a special Saturday Redneck all ready for Roman Polanski, but it's still Friday. So I'll try a new weekly post: Friday Follies, for the biggest FAIL story of the week. To introduce this, let's have a big round of applause for Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, with some advice for Mr. Polanski.

Young girl, get out of my mind
My love for you is way out of line
Better run, girl,
You're much too young, girl

With all the charms of a woman
You've kept the secret of your youth
You led me to believe
You're old enough
To give me love
And now it hurts to know the truth, Oh,

Young girl, get out of my mind
My love for you is way out of line
Better run, girl,
You're much too young, girl

Beneath your perfume and make-up
You're just a baby in disguise
And though you know
That it is wrong to be
Alone with me
That come on look is in your eyes, Oh,

Young girl, get out of my mind
My love for you is way out of line
Better run, girl,
You're much too young, girl

So hurry home to your mama
I'm sure she wonders where you are
Get out of here
Before I have the time
To change my mind
'Cause I'm afraid we'll go too far, Oh,
Young girl