What would you trade for dinosaur-powered space lasers?

Joanna:

In a perfect world, any defense or NASA expenditure could be justified with the words “Because it’s AWESOME! Eh? EH?”  If it makes a randomly selected 14-year-old boy drool around his braces, it gets funded.  Granted, we’d end up with an arsenal of dinosaur-powered space lasers run by ninjas and the Swedish bikini team, but at least it would have full funding.

I’d trade the entire Department of Homeland Security for dinosaur-powered space lasers any day of the week.  If I can get “ninjas and the Swedish bikini team” too, I’ll throw in the Department of Education.

And further wise words from one so young:

We ended up here because we stopped encouraging 14-year-old boys to be 14-year-old boys.

Yep. 50 years ago, we dreamed of going to the stars.  Today Our Betters dream of turning America into 1950s eastern Europe.

I prefer AWESOME.  Let’s do it FOR THE CHILDREN!

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 17:45:41 GMT | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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What happened at the summit isn’t important...

Jay Nordlinger:

This health-care summit was a bad idea for the Democrats for this reason: They have long benefited from a perception — a perception greatly abetted by the media: The Republicans don’t care about health care, they don’t know about health care, they are the Party of No.  All the ideas and caring are on the Democratic side.

It is not so, and it has never been so.  And now everybody knows it.

Everybody who watched C-SPAN, that is.  But most people don’t, and the ones who don’t will judge the Republicans by how the DSM reports the summit.

I’ll wait to see whether the Republicans manage to cut through the spin before accepting any sweeping claims about what “everybody” now knows.

LATER:
Instapundit:

Reader James Somers offers two ways to tell that the Dems lost the health care summit today:

If you look right now:

1.  It’s not the lead headline on CNN.
2.  It’s not the lead headline on the NYT.

If this had turned out the way it was supposed to, it would be leading both of those sites in 60 point font.

Yep.

Previously:

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 00:48:39 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Notice served

Got this letter today from my fuel oil vendor:

What this means is that beginning next month I’m going to see a $2.82 line item on my delivery ticket.  Lovely.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 18:43:49 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Coming headline: “BATFE Raids DHS”

USA Today:

The nation’s Homeland Security officers lost nearly 200 guns in bowling alleys, public restrooms, unlocked cars and other unsecure areas, with some ending up in the hands of felons...

Most of the misplaced weapons — including handguns, shotguns and military rifles — were never found. Most losses occurred because officers did not properly secure firearms,” says the Homeland Security inspector general report.

At least 15 of the guns ended up in the hands of gang members, criminals, drug users and teenagers...

Well, the obvious solution is for the BATFE to aggressively investigate the DHS’s poor weapons security and recordkeeping.

Thus making a start at keeping BOTH agencies out of our hair.

Via:  IP

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 17:22:22 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Blast from the past

WRAL.com^[1]:

Durham [NC] police arrested Duke lacrosse accuser Crystal Gale Mangum, 33, late Wednesday after she allegedly assaulted her boyfriend, set his clothes on fire in a bathtub and threatened to stab him.
...
Police charged her with attempted first-degree murder, five counts of arson, assault and battery, communicating threats, three counts of misdemeanor child abuse, injury to personal property, identity theft and resisting a public officer.

I expect K.C. Johnson to have something about this shortly.

Via: alexthechick
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Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 16:40:07 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Gone Bayh-Bayh...

So The Indianapolis Star and The Washington Post are both reporting that Indiana’s junior Senator Evan Bayh has decided to pass on a run for a third term.  I’ll probably have more to say about this, but a few points come to mind immediately:

So why this decision?  Short of the pending revelation of some yet-unforseen Dark Secret, I would speculate that Bayh’s internal polling is showing that the next campaign would be, for Bayh, a difficult one, and for the Democrats nationally, disastrous.  We’re talking loss-of-both-houses disastrous, which, if true, would also explain Mike Pence’s decision to stay out of the Senate race and remain in the House (in a Republican sweep, Speaker of the House trumps junior Senator).

I would also note that Bayh’s statement, which complains about the stalemate and lack of bi-partisanship in Congress, backhandedly endorses the wisdom of the Republican strategy of refusing to provide the super-majority Democrats with political cover.  Bravo.

Meanwhile, Scott at The Hoosierpundit offers a short list of possible Democrat candidates, but in a subsequent post notes that Indiana University student (and “healthcare activist”) Tamyra D’Ippolito, who had been attempting to challenge Bayh in the primary, was (as of the 12^th) only 1,000 signatures away from getting on the ballot.  Now read on:

Bayh declined reelection at the last possible minute so that no Democrat would be on the [Democrat primary] ballot for Senate in Indiana, and thus Democratic Party insiders (largely Bayh cronies) would pick who is on the ballot in November.

but...

If Tamyra D’Ippolito is on the ballot, then that’s all she wrote.  They can’t pick anyone else. She will be their nominee, period.

The deadline for signatures is Tuesday (tomorrow), noon.  Hey, tea partiers, wanna have some fun and see a real leftist as Democrat nominee?


Elsewhere (more links added 100216  †17:10 ‡23:15):

Previously:  A little nervous, Evan?

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 19:43:21 GMT | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Spread it around!

Commenter Rich Rostrom (over at Weasel’s place), on the prevention of political dynasties:

JW^[1]:  I’d go further: “No one shall be eligible for election to any office of the United States, or of any state, or of any territory, or any local or municipal government under the United States or any state or territory, whose spouse, or sibling, parent, grandparent, or parent’s sibling, by blood, adoption, or marriage (including former marriages), has previously served in that office by election; all seats in any legislative assembly or adminstrative commission being considered the same office.”

This would get rid of Senators Dodd and Bayh, and about 30 Representatives.

It would have prevented Senators Lincoln Chaffee, Al Gore jr., Liz Dole, Bobby and Teddy Kennedy, and a great many others in the past (there were five Senator Bayards from Delaware).  Also Pat and Joe II Kennedy (JFK was in the House for three terms).

One thing – the previous holder has to have been elected.  Otherwise, the opposition could appoint some relative who hates you to the office for a day, and then you’re blocked.

If spreading the wealth around is such a good idea, what about spreading the political power?

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Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 16:03:45 GMT | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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One afternoon at the office

Today they came out and marked the buried fiber...

(That’s the side of a 3' snowbank, at the edge of the parking lot.)

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 22:18:32 GMT | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Monty Python’s Global Warming

Or, what we’d be laughing at, provided the Pythons were (1) still in business, and (2) hadn’t morphed into a bunch of hidebound “progressives”.^[1]

Ladies and gentlemen, scripted by AoS commenter “Merovign, Strong on His Mountain,” I give you The BBC Interview:

more...

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 18:54:57 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Certainly a change from pizza...

Joanna:

My friend once commented that she had a vegetarian sandwich for lunch.  I asked her if it was a free-range or factory-farmed vegetarian.

She didn’t get it.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 21:48:25 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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