Spring is Here!

Seems that Gaia might have Other Thoughts:

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LINCOLN IL
957 AM CDT FRI MAR 22 2013
...
A LATE SEASON WINTER STORM WILL LIKELY BRING SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL THIS WEEKEND.

A STORM SYSTEM WILL ORGANIZE OVER THE SOUTHERN PLAINS EARLY THIS WEEKEND, THEN LIFT NORTHEAST INTO KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE BY EARLY SUNDAY AFTERNOON. PRECIPITATION IS EXPECTED TO BEGIN SPREADING INTO PORTIONS OF CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST ILLINOIS SATURDAY EVENING, REACHING AREAS NEAR I-74 TOWARD MIDNIGHT, THEN OVERSPREADING THE REMAINDER OF THE AREA LATE SATURDAY NIGHT. THE PRECIPITATION WILL CONTINUE THROUGH MUCH OF SUNDAY BEFORE BEGINNING TO DIMINISH SUNDAY NIGHT.

CURRENT INDICATIONS ARE THAT A BAND OF HEAVY SNOW- IN EXCESS OF 6 INCHES- IS POSSIBLE IN A LARGE AREA FROM NORTHERN MISSOURI EASTWARD INTO CENTRAL INDIANA, WITH TEMPERATURES NEAR OR JUST ABOVE FREEZING MUCH OF THE TIME...THE SNOW IS EXPECTED TO BE VERY WET, MAKING IT DIFFICULT TO SHOVEL.

So, should we lay in supplies for the weekend?

(Al quote: Thanx to rdbrewer in the Award-Winning currently-holding-his-fund-drive so give already AOSHQ sidebar.)

Posted by: Old Grouch in Dear Diary... at 18:52:05 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Watch what they do, and act accordingly.

Glenn Reynolds:

If I were a Republican in Congress, I’d introduce a bill — tomorrow! — banning, and, in fact, criminalizing, such seizures in the United States.  That would be popular, and if the Democrats were dumb enough to oppose it, it would make people wonder what they were up to.

Bill Quick:

Neither Boehner nor McConnell would ever permit such a bill to reach the floor.

It might be too embarrassing to their Democrat friends.  And we certainly wouldn’t want anything to interrupt the ongoing GOP cave to the Democrats.

Concern over ‘‘embarrassing Democrats’’ is only a small part of it.  Such a bill will go unintroduced, let alone unconsidered, for the same reason that Rand Paul couldn’t get a straight answer out of Eric Holder about using drones to kill American citizens on American soil.

It’s called ‘‘keeping options open.’’  Because always remember, if the choice is between doing what’s right for the country and doing what’s necessary to maintain privilege, establishment Republicans and progressive Democrats are as alike as peas in a pod.

Tyler Durden:

This should leave any individual in Europe under no illusion that the political elite will enact whatever it deems fit to protect their positions in the name of the euro and their own positions of power.

MORE:
Sheila Bair^[1] whistles past the graveyard- loudly:

This would never happen in the U.S. because we respect the rule of law and we have a very strong agency called the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation that stands up for insured depositors and protects them.  And so having not just a single deposit insurance that’s in place, but a strong agency handling that program and standing up for insured depositors -- I think that is really crucial and this really underscores why they need that in the eurozone.

‘‘Rule of law,’’ huh?  Like this...?
Inverstors Business Daily:

Already Congressional Democrats are plotting the expropriation of Americans’ private 401(k) and IRA retirement savings accounts in favor of ‘‘a guaranteed income.’’  If bank accounts can be casually expropriated in Cyprus to pay for big-spending governments and bailouts, there is no reason a nice slice of the $19 trillion in retirement accounts [held by Americans] can’t get the same treatment.

If it happens, it will signal the end of individual freedom and the return of feudalism.

Another UPDATE (130322 16:50):
Instapundit reader Mark Jones:

Rep. Billy Long’s introduced resolution against a Cyprus-like raid on bank deposits is nice–certainly a lot better than no resolution on the point at all.  But it’s only a resolution.  Which means exactly nothing, legally speaking.  Congress passes resolutions all the time, on matters both profound and frivolous.  We need legislation, not resolutions...

Related:

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Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 18:00:43 GMT | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Biased by omission

Ira Stoll:

Sometimes the bias in Times news articles isn’t in what they say, but in what they leave out.

Mark Tapscott:

1,130 - Number of results for search term ‘‘Koch Brothers’’ on The New York Times web site.

64 - Number of results for search term ‘‘The Tides Foundation’’ on The New York Times web site.

It’s called protecting friends and punishing enemies.  And speaking of ‘‘friends,’’ recall that the Times holds that Pulitzer Prize for not reporting Stalin’s genocides.

LATER (130312 02:00):
Ace:

The media and supposedly ‘‘non-partisan’’ groups like Common Cause (actually bought-and-paid-for liberal front operations to give a ‘‘nonpartisan’’ veneer to liberal politicking) say that Big Money in Politics is bad.

Well, that sounds neutral, doesn’t it?  They’re not favoring a particular party in claiming that; there’s Big Money on the left as well as on the right.  Presumably they’re against all of it; that’s what makes this neutral.  Right?

...Given that Tides Foundation, a leftwing group founded by radicals, is donating five times as much [to political causes] as the Koch Brothers, we’d expect at least as many mentions of Tides, right?

But of course not.  Tides is permitted to operate in secret, with scarcely a mention; the Koch Brothers have the Scare Campaign ginned up against them.

The ‘‘Neutral’’ goal here is a lie.  The agitation is not to drive Big Money out of politics.

It’s about stopping money from supporting conservative initiatives and candidates only.  Soros & Ilk are to be exempted...  After all, Soros and Tides aren’t really even funding ‘‘politics’’ -- they’re just funding Common Sense Practical Solutions^(TM).

Yep.

Posted by: Old Grouch in The Press at 16:16:02 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Here we go again...

(via Insty ‘‘It would be better P.R. to schedule these only in July’’, via Washington Examiner)

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 17:14:02 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Got your boots-n-shovels?

From the NWS:

A WINTER STORM WARNING IS IN EFFECT FROM 3 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 7 AM WEDNESDAY.

HAZARDS:  SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW.  TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 4 TO 8 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE BY EARLY WEDNESDAY.  ROADS WILL BECOME VERY SLICK AND HAZARDOUS LATE TODAY AND TONIGHT.  WIND GUSTS UP TO 30 MPH.

TIMING:  LATE THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH TONIGHT.

DISCUSSION:  LOW PRESSURE OVER NORTHERN ARKANSAS WILL STRENGTHEN AS IT MOVES NORTHEAST INTO THE OHIO VALLEY AND MERGES WITH A LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM ALOFT MOVING SOUTHEAST FROM THE NORTHERN PLAINS.
RAIN POSSIBLY MIXED WITH SNOW WILL OCCUR TODAY CHANGING TO ALL
SNOW BY LATE AFTERNOON.  HEAVY SNOW ACCUMULATIONS ARE POSSIBLE TONIGHT.  WINDS OF 20 TO 30 MPH LATE TONIGHT WILL CAUSE BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW.

Whee!

LATER (130306 15:03):

Posted by: Old Grouch in Dear Diary... at 19:45:06 GMT | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Clipfile - March 4, 2013

(Via:  Insty)

Posted by: Old Grouch in Clipfile at 16:50:53 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Playing the ‘‘supervision’’ game

Gem of an idea, found in the discussion of Jazz Shaw’s Hot Air post on the Voting Rights Act litigation:

At one time there was a need for the Voting Rights Act, but it’s an antiquated law now, rendered irrelevant by the advance of time, demographics, attitudes, and communications.

I tell you what we do need... A ‘‘Second Amendment Rights Act.’’  And I can think of a bunch of states that ought to come under a greater than standard scrutiny when passing laws that relate to this right.

Dusty on March 3, 2013 at 1:18 PM

I agree with Dusty.

We also need a ‘‘Voter ID Act’’...

Lourdes on March 3, 2013 at 1:24 PM

How about a ‘‘Freedom of Speech Act?’’  That one could apply federal monitoring to any state entity (I’m looking at YOU, universities, but also the Indiana Court of Appeals (More on the latter here.)) that attempt or have attempted to limit First Amendment rights on spurious grounds such as ‘‘hatred’’ or ‘‘unfairness.’’^{[1 UPDATE]}

Hey, this could get to be fun!

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Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 23:26:37 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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When you can’t do your job, then...

Pair o’headlines from the UK:


Seems to me that ‘‘broad coalition of UK health organizations’’ who uttered the alcohol proposal could better spend their time straightening out the NHS.  But then calling on the government to limit other people’s liberty has always given the ruling class more jollies than getting their own houses in order.

Related:

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 20:03:33 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Clipfile - February 25, 2013

Posted by: Old Grouch in Clipfile at 20:01:07 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Decision loop... loop... loop...

Over at Freefall, machine intelligence meets Asimov’s First Law:


Backstory starts here (more or less).
BTW, Florence is not a dog.  No.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 19:27:41 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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