...The top Republican on the Senate Banking committee, said he has assurances that Democrats will adjust his banking regulation bill to address concerns that it perpetuates bailouts.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 16:08:14 GMT | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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“Any fool can hire a bulldozer, and many do.” - Charles G. Hill

Posted by: Old Grouch in Clipfile at 16:17:50 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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“There are some people who think that a massive, all-powerful, deficit-plagued, corrupt federal government is OK, so long as ‘our people’ are running it.

Those people are fools.” - R.S. McCain

Posted by: Old Grouch in Clipfile at 17:11:15 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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...This story is much more important than the accusation of fifteen racists among the thousands of protesters that day. This is now about the accusers. It’s not just that Congressmen Carson’s accusation of an extraordinary racist verbal assault by the tea party participants on March 20 doesn’t appear to have occurred, it’s that the accusers have now gone into the bunker and, having raised the incendiary subject, are doing everything they can to avoid the discussion.
...
When I offered a reward of $100,000 to be donated to the United Negro College Fund if anyone produced video and audio evidence that this occurred, I was accused of a publicity stunt (because everyone knows that the best way to get publicity in America is to accuse a civil rights icon of lying about racism). Rep. Carson himself suggested that my challenge was “a veiled attempt to justify actions that are simply unjustifiable.” Get it? He calls protesters racist and if you ask him to prove it, you’re a racist, too.

Needless to say, no one has claimed the $100,000.

...We have spent the last three weeks searching for any evidence that might support the allegations, without any help from the accusers. The primary accuser, Congressman Carson, who audaciously claimed the crowd screamed the “N-word fifteen times,” would not return our call.
...
Congressman Carson refuses to respond to our requests because he can’t answer questions that deserve answers...

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 15:30:58 GMT | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Crowbarring a 208-volt circuit produces a considerably brighter flash than if it had been only 120 volts.

*Blink*Blink*

Posted by: Old Grouch in Dear Diary... at 20:21:29 GMT | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Advice from all over:

When you try to tell the story as you want it to be, rather than the story that’s really there, you may wind up looking like an idiot.  (AKA “Shut up and listen, you might learn something”):

Newsboy:  “...So, there’s oil leaking from the well...?”

Rear Admiral Mary Landry [USCG]:  “No, [name redacted], what you see on the water -- contained by the booms -- is from the oil rig itself.”

NB:  “But if it was-- Wouldn’t that be an impossible situation, with the oil rig collapsed on top of the well?  You couldn’t get to it.”

ML (As though speaking to a very young child):  “The platform didn’t collapse on the well.”

NB (Disappointedly):  “But what if it had?  Wouldn’t that be an unprecedented environmental disaster?”

ML (As though she had over-estimated the child’s age):  “It did not.  The oil you see on the surface is residual from the explosion.  The rig fell next to the well.  There has been no leakage.  We are monitoring it closely.”

NB: (Looking crestfallen):  “Well, thank you.”

...There was a story a month or two back about how the Department of Education was trying to acquire 27 short-Barrelled shotguns.  It lead to alot of internet buzz and funny comments in web forums, but we never got any well-publicized followup.  Did the DOE acquire the guns?  Where are they now?  What specific cases were SBSs ever used by DOE agents?  Under what legal circumstances will it be DOE agents who go in guns ablazing, as opposed to some other agency?  The closest thing I could find to followup by the MSM was this WaPo “newsblog” post, stashed away in the back recesses of their website, with the reporter apparently satisfied with the DOE not returning her phonecalls.  For F&#$’s sake there’s a news story there...

Don’t tell me that a highly paid NY Times Op-ed guy is so much smarter than internet idiots when he was so obviously and provably WRONG on a rather major topic.

Posted by: Old Grouch in The Press at 18:39:16 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Re:McAfee botching damage control (Score:4, Informative)

by CountZer0 (60549) on Wednesday April 21, @03:48PM (#31929832) Homepage

I work in the financial industry, and this issue caused significant disruption to trading floors throughout Wall Street.  Traders are generally quite upset with McAfee right now, so it makes sense that their stock is dropping :)

  Re:McAfee botching damage control (Score:5, Funny)

by Cro Magnon (467622) on Wednesday April 21, @04:07PM (#31930170) Journal

You think it's dropping now?  Just wait until more of the traders get their computers working!

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 02:57:53 GMT | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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...but “alot” said.

Via:  Holmes
(No, not him.  Sorry, not that one, either.)

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 01:24:11 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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You guys are too smart for me.

Two minutes after I put the post up, Crucis came up with the right answer.  Yes, it’s a former drive-in theater (or “Twin Theatair,” as this one called itself).  While its official address was 2463 Hoyt Avenue (the street bordering the property on the north), the patrons entered from Prospect Street, to the right of the top-right corner.  The foundation for the two-sided screen is visible at the center, as are the foundations for each side’s projection booths/concession stands, halfway up the contours to the east and west.  (Nobody would build a drive-in with this configuration today: Two separate staffs are more expensive than two screens.)

Opened in 1950.  With a capacity 1800 cars (900 per side), the Twin was billed as “the world’s largest drive-in.”  Probably true at opening, although by 1955 there were five bigger, with capacities up to 2100.  The Twin operated into the 90s, the screen tower burned down in 1996.

The site won’t look like this much longer.  The property was acquired by Citizens Energy, and, as part of the redevelopment associated with the closure of the adjacent coke plant, will be converted to an amateur sports complex.

Elsewhere:

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 22:52:01 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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For context and background, read Looking East (and the comments), then Roberta’s April BlogMeet report.

Long story short: Roberta X’s second tower tour post included this long-distance photo of an example of our city’s industrial past...

...and a request for help in identifying it.  In her post she helpfully linked Google’s aerial view of the site.

This long-time Indy resident recognized the plant immediately (answer in the comments), but when I looked at the aerial view I was amused to notice another item in Indianapolis lore.  Thinking it might be fun to see how quickly people could identify it or discover its purpose, I printed off some copies and took them to Sunday’s BlogMeet.  It took less than five minutes for our astute panel to figure it out.  How about you?

Here’s the image of (most) of the site.

What’s that very different space in the upper left-hand corner?

Closer up:

Of course, you could probably go searching for the answer, but IMO it’s more fun to figure out what it is from the image alone.

No clue?  You’ll find some hints below the break.  Answer coming tomorrow.

more...

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 19:17:18 GMT | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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