Tuesday, 31 March 2009

Linkage

Add this to your “worry list”


Yet another kick-this-one-down-the-road problem that’s rapidly becoming unavoidable: Medical care for the elderly.

Coming in two years:  Not enough doctors.
Money is no good if there’s no place to spend it.

Coming in ten years:  Not enough money.
A federal Ponzi scheme with a population pyramid is sustainable, but a population barely at replacement birth rate is not.

But look on the bright side: Problem #2 will “solve” problem #1, provided  we continue “waiting!”

Via:  MOM

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Saturday, 28 March 2009

Linkage

Random Linkage - March 28, 2009


Some Saturday afternoon amusement:

Paco channels Shelley:

I met a commuter from Maryland,
Who said: Two vast and headless ears of stone
Lie on the Mall. Near them on a stand,
Half sunk, a shattered teleprompter sits...

Andrea has figured out the new taboos of (one sort of) science fiction:
Anyway, here are what I think are the new taboos in the sort of writing that gets people nominated for awards and written up in kewl mags but not read very much (not that actually being read by mundanes really matters, and their feeble minds would be too shocked by our ground-breaking scene of group sex with humans, robots, many-tentacles-beings, and hermaphrodites cloned from humanoid sheep, which climaxed with an orgasm-cannibalism scene)...
(But then there’s always this.)

introductory phrase goes here:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Donec quam felis, ultricies nec, pellentesque eu, pretium quis, sem. Nulla consequat massa quis enim. If you don’t get it, click the link. Via Megan via Attila Girl. Donec pede justo, fringilla vel, aliquet nec, vulputate eget, arcu. In enim justo, rhoncus ut, imperdiet a, venenatis vitae, justo. Nullam dictum felis eu pede mollis pretium. Integer tincidunt. Cras dapibus. Vivamus elementum semper nisi.
Fired too many people, huh?

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 18:23:31 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Thursday, 26 March 2009

Linkage

“I am the very model...”


DoggerelPundit channels William S. Gilbert:

I am the very model of a modern Media-Journalist,
I‘ve information biased, bogus, banal and paternalist,
I know the talking heads and every bureau puke and oracle
from A-B-C to C-N-N in order categorical;
I’m very well acquainted, too, with schedules for sabbatical,
I live to write a sentence that’s both simple and grammatical,
I’m good at leading questions, and my team puts out a lot o’ news,
With many damning facts for which, at times, fact-checking’s not in use!...
the rest...

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 15:22:15 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 90 words, total size 1 kb.

Linkage

Cat snips - 2



(I’d hunt up a couple more, but right now my “connected at 46K” modem won’t do better than 28K. Growl!)
Previously.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 00:09:13 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Friday, 20 March 2009

Linkage

Screwtape’s new recruit


Oh, this is priceless:

My Dear Wormwood,

I note with pleasure that you seem, in most respects, to have hit upon the proper balance between empty (though still plausible) protestations of your conservative bona fides, and the task of undermining anything in the way of genuine conservative principles...

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 17:49:40 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Thursday, 19 March 2009

Linkage

Cat snips


Happy 12th Birthday, Gracie
His name is Bruwyn: One pound. Bedcat. Investigating. Movie.
Cloud is settling in at Squeaky’s. [pictures]
Welcome Aqua. (Everybody say “Awww!”)
Fear of wastebaskets.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 15:18:53 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 29 words, total size 2 kb.

Linkage

The first rule of Australian internet censorship...

Josef K., call your office.
Pixy Misa:
The ACMA (which apparently stands for “petty-minded bureaucrats”) has a list of a thousand-odd sites that are banned in Australia.

This list is secret.

Also, it's just a list. The sites are banned, and viewing them is illegal, and linking to them incurs an $11,000-a-day fine, but no-one is allowed to know what is on the list...

So when, for example, popular Australian technical forum and news site Whirlpool found itself featuring a comment linking to a banned site, it also found itself facing a huge fine, and understandably removed the comment.

This even though the site in question has not been shown to be in breach of any law or regulation, and that the details of the site were made public by the original complainant, which is also not a breach of any law or regulation...
And, naturally, this is all “for the children.”

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 15:14:16 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Wednesday, 18 March 2009

Linkage

“A whirling vortex of SUCK”

(typography slightly enhanced - ed)

Kevin goes after Ruben Navarrette, Jr.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives estimates that 90% of the firearms confiscated in drug crimes in Mexico come from the United States, and some of the shipments can be enormous.
Which again illustrates graphically that the BATFE is a whirling vortex of suck at DOING THEIR JOB, doesn’t it? Instead of investigating “straw purchases” etc., they seem to spend an extraordinary amount of time screwing with manufacturers after changing the rules on them without warning, or pursuing typographical errors instead of, you know, known criminals because, I suspect, legitimate businessmen (unlike drug dealers) don't shoot at you when you screw with them. [links in original - o.g.]
Not to mention that (at least according to what we’re told) those firearms consist mostly of fully-automatic weapons (many from places like Korea and China), weapons which aren’t, you know, legal for general sale in the U.S., and which you sure don’t find at your average gun shop.

Anyway, read the rest, but keep in mind that Navarrette’s piece is just another case of our duplicitous government:  Ignoring the real problem in order to use an imaginary problem as an excuse to push its agenda, aided and abetted by a complicit MSM.


Via:  Mark

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 22:33:16 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Tuesday, 17 March 2009

Linkage

The housing bust, manufactured securities, and Martin guitars


“Monty” ties ’em all together :

I am a guitar player, and the “grail” of many acoustic guitarists is the pre-war Martin D45.  Some of these guitars have sold for upwards of $500,000.00.  Now, let’s say that I have one of these guitars, in excellent condition, and want to use it to plan for my retirement.  How can I treat it as a financial asset?

Well, let’s say that my friend Bob has been pestering me for years to buy it.  I don’t want to sell yet, but neither do I want to miss out on a potential sale should I want to sell.  So Bob and I draft an agreement...
Read the rest. [more] [and related]

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 20:18:26 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Saturday, 14 March 2009

In Passing

And you can stay off my lawn, too


Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Just between you, me, and the old, the late middle-aged, and the early middle-aged:  Isn’t it terrific to be able to stick it to the young? I mean, imagine how bad all this economic-type stuff would be if our kids and grandkids hadn’t offered to pick up the tab.

Well, okay, they didn’t exactly “offer” but they did stand around behind Barack Obama at all those campaign rallies helping him look dynamic and telegenic and earnestly chanting hopey-hopey-changey-changey.  And “Yes, we can!”
...
Because, as politicians like to say, it’s about “the future of all our children.”  And the future of all our children is that they’ll be paying off the past of all their grandparents.
- Mark Steyn
Old age and treachery, baby!

Via:  QandO via Daily Pundit.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 21:12:29 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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