...and they can have it back anytime!

“Multiculturalism is Canada’s gift to the world.”


Via: Protein Wisdom

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 19:42:40 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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I-35W bridge: another datapoint

The gusset plates were undersized:

The collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge may have originated with the failure of gusset plates that were sized a half-inch too thin in the original 1960s design, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said Tuesday.
...
The NTSB also warned bridge engineers nationwide... to review the designs and recalculate maximum loads on the estimated 12,600 similar steel deck truss bridges.
...
The sizing error occurred in the original design process at Sverdrup & Parcel, a St. Louis firm that was later acquired by Jacobs Engineering. Because original work papers are missing, investigators don't know whether it was a math mistake or other miscue, [NTSB chairman Mark] Rosenker said.

He said no deficiencies have been found in the bridge's steel or concrete.

- Star-Tribune, January 15, 2008

UPDATE 080117 15:21: Glenn Reynolds points to a Popular Mechanics story which includes this curious sentence:

The findings confirmed forecasts by investigators from three months after the collapse—plus engineering experts in the immediate aftermath— and underscored the dire state of America’s crumbling infrastructure.

’Scuse me, but how does a design mistake made during the Johnson administration (and not caught until now) have anything to do with the overall state of America's infrastructure today? Less spin, please.

Links to previous posts after the break...
more...

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 18:59:16 GMT | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Fire them all

The Hill:

The leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee are calling on President Bush to back away from threats to kill funding for lawmakers’ pet projects.

Poor babies!

The pre-emptive warnings from the top Democrat and Republican on the panel are the clearest signs yet that President Bush could face a bipartisan backlash if he uses his executive authority to wipe out the more than $7 billion in earmarks.

And as Everett Dirksen used to say^[1], “a billion here, a billion there...”

Bush... has indicated he might direct officials at federal agencies to ignore the nearly 9,000 member projects written in the bill’s report language...

Yeah? Come on, George! Show us you've got the guts!

The executive order... would roil already poor relations between the White House and the Democratic Congress —

That's not a bug, it's a feature.

... not to mention infuriate many Republicans touting the projects to their constituents.

Those “Republicans” need to be “infuriated” (not to mention slapped upside of the head, reminded of party principles in a LOUD voice, and then tossed out of office).

A spokesman for Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.)...

Ah yes, Senator Pork himself!

accused the Bush administration of hypocrisy...

snicker!

...for considering an executive order telling federal agencies to ignore earmarks since no such order was issued during Republican control of Congress...

So because Bush didn’t do the right thing before, he shouldn’t do the right thing now?

Byrd’s counterpart, ranking Republican Thad Cochran (Miss.), agrees that such a plan would hinder the appropriations process.

“hinder the appropriations process” == “get between the boodlers and their boodle”

“Just as Congress takes the president’s budget request under very careful advisement...

Stop it, I’m dyin’ here!

...so should the president honor the report language Congress writes to accompany bill text,” said Margaret McPhillips, a spokeswoman for Cochran.

...as she struggled to maintain a straight face.

“Requiring all budget specifics to be included in bill text would be highly inefficient

...because then they'd be right out there, in front of God and everybody!

...and would cripple an already difficult budget process.”

Bwahahahaha!

...
But the move could create a sharp backlash within Bush’s own party...

...nothing compared to the backlash he’ll get if he lets all this pork go through.

...and anger senior Republicans touting their projects back home, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.)...

Sounds like a good target for some letters.

Oh, to hell with it. Just fire them all.


-----
^[1] Or maybe not:

"Oh, I never said that. A newspaper fella misquoted me once, and I thought it sounded so go that I never bothered to deny it."

Posted by: Old Grouch in Rants at 17:31:03 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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"Monthly Traffic" is stuck

...and has been, for almost a month.

(Just in case you were wondering.)

Posted by: Old Grouch in Administrivia at 18:20:43 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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The perfect China story

...including “all the threads of the modern, Chinese narrative”:

• Social Issues
• Sex
• Corruption
• Mass Incidents
• Ants

Now, read on...

Via boingboing via Lileks.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 17:41:11 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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You know, this January is turning out

Feeling poorly for some time. Saw a doctor a few weeks ago, who sent me to a specialist, who booked me into hospital for tests.

It’s cancer. - Tim Blair

Fortunately, the “medical advice is very positive.”

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 23:49:46 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Farewell, Professor Frisky

Laurence and Gina lost their fluffy orange fellow on Wednesday.

If I had to pick, I think that, after Edloe (who was in a class by herself), Frisky was my favorite of Laurence's crew.

More, with a picture.

Later:  Elisson offers a 100-word story, and a touching tribute.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 00:02:18 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Old news

Feminists caught with double standards. Film at 11.

Via: IP

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 17:14:52 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Delicious irony

(Both Florida and Indiana give special discounts (called “homestead credits”) to property taxes paid by state residents. Non-residents don’t get them.  Tax dodge gone wrong?)

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 16:43:03 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Colorado, again

Associated Press story posted at cbs4denver.com

A tactical law enforcement team broke into Tom Shiflett's home and took his 11-year-old son to hospital for court-ordered medical treatment for a minor head injury.

Garfield County's [Colorado] All Hazards Response Team raided the home Friday night, a day after Jon Shiflett fell after grabbing the handle of a moving car. The child was returned to the family at about 2:30 a.m. Saturday, hours after the raid.

“Inappropriate is not nearly strong enough a word. It was gross irresponsibility and stupidity,” said Ross Talbott, owner of the Apple Tree Mobile Home Park south of New Castle who rents to the Shifletts and who witnessed the raid. “Is this Russia? I don't know what we're coming to when they think your kid needs medical help and they send a SWAT team.”

But...

Use of the Garfield County All Hazards Response Team (AHRT) was appropriate to seize Tom Shiflett's son for medical care because of Shiflett's confrontational history and repeated lack of cooperation, according to Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario.

“I wouldn't have done it if I didn't think we would have been able to accomplish it with just the deputies we had on duty,” Vallario said. “The end result of what happened was based on (Shiflett's) decisions, not mine.” – Glenwood Springs Post Independent

But...

Vallario said Shiflett was arrested in 2005 on suspicion of felony menacing after chasing someone down the street with an ax...

The 2005 arrest was never prosecuted... Vallario said he didn't know why the decision [not to prosecute] was made.

Shiflett said he did.

"I was completely within my rights under the Make My Day law," he said.

That Colorado law allows homeowners to use deadly force defending themselves from an intruder who is considered to be a threat.

Shiflett said he picked up the ax and chased the man out of his yard after 40 minutes of listening to his threats. He said he was the one that called the sheriff's office. – Glenwood Springs Post Independent

From Phil Dean's comment at Instapundit:

Based on the facts we know, I don't agree that the raid was necessarily excessive. Consider: the police have to enforce the court order. They sent two deputies to knock on the door and ask. They were unsuccessful. THEY STILL HAVE TO ENFORCE THE COURT ORDER. Now, whether this particular court order was reasonable or not is a separate issue, but that's not the cops’ doing. And as far as “accountability” goes, they can also be held accountable for NOT executing a court order pertaining to the health and safety of a child. Just another one of the damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't scenarios that make modern law enforcement so much fun.

Except, as somebody remarked recently, the “I was just following orders” defense was ruled invalid internationally at Nuremberg, and domestically with Watergate.
Notice also the silence from the Child Protection people who requested the order, and the judge who issued it.

Another datapoint making Colorado a less attractive place to live.

Previously: Welcome to the Peoples Republic of Colorado. Your papers, please.

Via: Instapundit

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 16:21:58 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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