March 30, 2010

Ryne Otis named Player of the Week

Congratulations to Taylor's Ryne Otis, Mid-Central Conference Player of the Week.

With at least one hit in each of Taylor's five games, Otis hit .625 and slugged at 1.500 in 16 at-bats. Between RBIs and runs scored, he accounted for 17 of Taylor's 42 runs scored during the week.

Otis hit home runs in three out of five games last week, including a blast that put Taylor up 4-1 against defending Big Ten champion Indiana

Nice!

Yays and Nays on Major Social Legislation

Keep the graphic in mind while you read a little hunk from PBS News Hour:

JIM LEHRER: Senator, as you know -- much has been made of this -- that, through history, recent history in particular, Republicans have opposed things like Social Security, Medicare, even civil rights legislation, but then, once they lost, they took some deep breaths and moved on, and then finally ended up embracing many of these major changes in -- in laws and in the way we do business here.

Is that going to happen with health care reform?

SEN. JON KYL: Jim, could I argue a little with the premise of your question?

JIM LEHRER: All right. OK. Sure.

SEN. JON KYL: The civil rights legislation was pushed by Republicans, as you will recall. It was the Southern Democrats who filibustered it, who fought against it.

The last...

JIM LEHRER: Excuse me. I was just thinking specifically of Senator Barry Goldwater, a colleague of yours in -- in -- from Arizona, who did oppose -- I'm not saying all Republicans. I didn't mean to suggest all Republicans.


The only thing bi-partisan about the health-care bill was the opposition to it, and no matter how many times people on the Left, like Jim Lehrer, try to paint Republicans as racists for opposing Obama, facts get in their way (not that they care).



March 29, 2010

Pelosi's Hail Mary

Did the Speaker of the House, the third in line for the Presidency of the United States, participate in planned slander

A Great Historical Tragedy

One of the great historical tragedies of human history is that nuclear power was discovered during a time of war.  A very interesting article by Kirk Sorensen on the mistake the USA is getting ready to make and how we should look forward.

We should stop the Department of Energy's effort to destroy the one tonne of uranium-233 that we already have. They don't think that that uranium-233 has any value to their mission and are going to spend $500M to mix it with uranium-238 and throw it away in the desert. That's a bad idea. We're going to need that one tonne and a whole lot more.

The next step is to get going on the research and development of the liquid-fluoride thorium reactor. This is the machine that can burn thorium as a fuel and only needs about a tonne of U-233 or other fissile material to start it up. The US hasn't invested any money to develop LFTR since 1974, the year I was born. Other countries are making investments. We need to get going before we get completely left behind on something that we invented.

We are preparing to destroy a very rare ton of U-233 -- a huge source of safe, clean energy.   We're going to chemically destroy it and bury it in the desert.

March 26, 2010

Nationalizing Charity

The Obama Administration is nationalizing banks, car companies, student loans... and now charity.  Joseph Rosenberger's article "Coercive Charity Destroys the Human Sprit" discusses why this is bad.

Davy Crockett agrees, as does Grover Cleveland.

West Virginia vs. Kentucky vs Earth Hour

Oh darn, I was going to watch West Virginia take out Kentucky Saturday night, but that conflicts with Earth Hour (where we're all supposed to turn off our lights and appliances at 8:30pm to save the planet).  Shoot... can't even DVR the game, can I, without another island sinking into the ocean.

Wait, I know.... I'll DVR Earth Hour.... just shift it to 3:00a.m. when my lights and appliances are off anyway.  Yes!  Game on!

March 25, 2010

Reaping the Whirlwind

Steny Hoyer, the House Majority Leader, is asking Republicans to stand up and condemn threats being made against Democrats who voted for the Health Bill.  Roger Simon has a nice letter in response, read the whole letter at the link, but below is a little bit of it:

You have reaped a whirlwind by subverting a democracy. Now you must deal with it. The Democratic Party is no longer "progressive" or "liberal." It is reactionary. And you and your cohorts have forever defined yourselves as reactionary politicians.

Violence is to be condemned, but so is the desecration of a great democracy.

Exactly.  I could hardly believe it this weekend when the Sunday shows twisted around 180 degrees and said the passage of this bill over the will of the public would be a winner in November.   The people in Washington D.C. are insane, on both the Right and the Left and they need to be voted out of office ASAP.

March 24, 2010

Robert Culp has died

Robert Culp has died at 79

Nonviolent Resistance

Shikha Dalmia writes about Resisting ObamaCare, Gandhi Style

Dec. 31, 2013. That's when the individual mandate will go into effect. If ObamaCare hasn't been repealed by Congress or nullified in court by then, its opponents would be justified in urging Americans to refuse to buy coverage or pay fines and dare authorities to come after them.

By some estimates, Uncle Sam will need to hire an additional 17,000 IRS agents or so just to enforce the coverage mandate. But even if a few million Americans simultaneously refuse to abide by it, they could easily overwhelm the system. Self-rule or swaraj, Gandhi said, requires a collective understanding of the immense capacity of citizens to "regulate and control" the coercive apparatus of the state through mass nonviolent resistance.

We'll see how the courts rule and proceed from there.



March 22, 2010

What's in the Bill and when does it start?

The Wall Street Journal gives some details of what's in the bill and when each part kicks in.

2010

Coverage

Subsidies begin for small businesses to provide coverage to employees.
Insurance companies barred from denying coverage to children with pre-existing illness.
Children permitted to stay on their parents' insurance policies until their 26th birthday.

2011

Coverage

Set up long-term care program under which people pay premiums into system for at least five years and become eligible for support payments if they need assistance in daily living.

Taxes and fees

Drug makers face annual fee of $2.5 billion (rises in subsequent years).

2013

Taxes and fees

New Medicare taxes on individuals earning more than $200,000 a year and couples filing jointly earning more than $250,000 a year.
Tax on wages rises to 2.35% from 1.45%.
New 3.8% tax on unearned income such as dividends and interest.
Excise tax of 2.9% imposed on sale of medical devices.

Cost control

Medicare pilot program begins to test bundled payments for care, in a bid to pay for quality rather than quantity of services.

2014

Coverage

Create exchanges where people without employer coverage, as well as small businesses, can shop for health coverage. Insurance companies barred from denying coverage to anyone with pre-existing illness.
Requirement begins for most people to have health insurance. Subsidies begin for lower and middle-income people. People at 133% of federal poverty level pay maximum of 3% of income for coverage. People at 400% of poverty level pay up to 9.5% of income. (Poverty level currently is about $22,000 for a family of four.)
Medicaid, the federal-state program for the poor, expands to all Americans with income up to 133% of federal poverty level.
Subsidies for small businesses to provide coverage increase. Businesses with 10 or fewer employees and average annual wages of less than $25,000 receive tax credit of up to 50% of employer's contribution. Tax credits phase out for larger businesses.

Taxes and fees

Employers with more than 50 employees that don't provide affordable coverage must pay a fine if employees receive tax credits to buy insurance. Fine is up to $3,000 per employee, excluding first 30 employees.
Insurance industry must pay annual fee of $8 billion (rises in subsequent years).

Cost control

Independent Medicare board must begin to submit recommendations to curb Medicare spending, if costs are rising faster than inflation.

2016

Taxes and fees

Penalty for those who don't carry coverage rises to 2.5% of taxable income or $695, whichever is greater.

2017

Coverage

Businesses with more than 100 employees can buy coverage on insurance exchanges, if state permits it.

2018

Taxes and fees

Excise tax of 40% imposed on health plans valued at more than $10,200 for individual coverage and $27,500 for family coverage.

—Sources: House bill; Kaiser Family Foundation

March 17, 2010

Dangerous Drugs

An Interesting article.

I want my 66 Chevy back

Car dealerships install back doors in cars so the horns won't stop honking if you're late on your payments?  How rude!  All the more rude now that the inevitable has happened and someone hacked the system and shutdown over 100 cars in Austin.

Will the States play along?

Idaho and Virginia have both passed bills to sue the federal government should ObamaCare pass and require individuals to buy health insurance whether they want it or not.  37 other states are working on similar bills.

Picking the Lock

Minnesota Rep. James Oberstar has fallen off the "No" list and says he will support ObamaCare.  Rep. Dennis Kucinich from Ohio fell into line earlier today.

I feel like I'm in one of those Hollywood movies where the bad guys are decrypting the nuclear keys, with character after character falling into place as the heroes rush pell-mell across the screen trying to stop the coming disaster.

Mrs. Clinton's New Crystal

Not only is the State Department spending $5.4 million on new Crystal stemware, but they've snubbed American manufacturers by giving a no-bid contract to a firm in Sweden to make the Crystal (complete with the American Seal stamped into the glass).  No wonder jobs are so hard to find, with people like this running the country.

March 16, 2010

Jobs for Favors is a Federal Crime

In two instances, one in Colorado and one in Pennsylvania, the Obama administration reported offered White House jobs to politicians if they would drop primary challenges.  This is a federal crime.  Gibbs, the White House spokesman, has refused to answer questions about these two instances on February 22nd, March 1st, March 9th, and March 12th... each time saying he will investigate and each time saying he doesn't have any information to share.

March 15, 2010

Living in Infamy

How will these Indiana Congressmen vote on the Health Care Pseudo Bill?

Joe Donnelly (IN-02)
DC Address: The Honorable Joe Donnelly
United States House of Representatives
1530 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-1402
DC Phone: 202-225-3915
DC Fax: 202-225-6798

Brad Ellsworth (IN-08)
DC Address: The Honorable Brad Ellsworth
United States House of Representatives
513 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-1408
DC Phone: 202-225-4636
DC Fax: 202-225-3284

Baron Hill (IN-09)***
DC Address: The Honorable Baron Hill
United States House of Representatives
223 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-1409
DC Phone: 202-225-5315
DC Fax: 202-226-6866

Will they tag their name to a fake bill, in full knowledge that their vote will be used in an unconstitutional way for a bill their constituents do not want?  Do these men want their names to live in Infamy?  Do they think Indiana residents will forget?

Health Care RoadMap

The President wants a simple up-or-down vote on the Health Care bill... but here is the process the Democrats are using:

1.  The Democrats will pass the House Health Care bill (2300+ pages with the Public Option, etc... everything they want in the House).
2.  The bill then goes to the Rules Committee where it will be stripped of House content and Senate content will be inserted (or whatever content the Democrats in the Senate and the House have agreed upon).
3.  This new bill will then go to the Senate as a Budget bill and be passed by reconciliation where only 50 votes are needed to pass it.
4.  Since the House and Senate have passed the "same bill," the President will sign it into law.

It doesn't matter, evidently, that the bill the House passed was not the bill they voted on.  It  doesn't matter that nobody knows what the House Rules committee is inserting into the bill.  So the process that begins today is both the Slaughter trick (the house passing the Senate Bill without voting on it -- they vote on a Bill the House likes, then remove the content and insert the Senate Bill), and then will use reconciliation to get through the Senate.

Everyone on the Hill knows this is what's going on... and they seem to think we don't care.

March 14, 2010

Peter Graves has died

Actor Peter Graves (lower left, in the original "Mission Impossible" TV Series) has passed away at age 83. Peter Graves was the younger brother of James Arness (Matt Dillon of Gunsmoke)... who survives at age 86.

2010 NCAA Men's Bracket

2010mens Bracket

March 11, 2010

Merlin Olsen: A wonderful life

Merlin Olsen has passed away at age 69.  Not only was he a fantastic football player (14 Pro Bowls and the Hall of Fame) and a popular actor, but he also received his master's degree in economics in the off season while playing for the Rams, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Kappa Phi from Utah State University.


March 10, 2010

Google Bike Paths

Google maps has added a wonderful feature of choosing "Bicycling" rather than "By Car" under "Get Directions".

An old trick done large

Corey Haim has passed away

Sadly, Corey Haim has passed away at age 38.  He's the one on the right, above (the other guy is Corey Feldman).  I remember Haim from movies like, "The Silver Bullet" and "Lucas" and "The Lost Boys" and "Watchers."  Recently, he'd been on a reality show, "The Two Coreys" with Corey Feldman where Haim's drug problems played a big part.

Rest in peace.

Fishing is the least of it

Dave Poff has an interesting article of links about this fishing brouhaha and how it's just the tip of the Obama iceberg with respect to the president's plan to manage the nation's waterways.  The plan, which would not be going before Congress but would rather be signed into law with an Executive Order (the sweep of the emperor's hand), creates nine regions, each region containing states along a coastal area to be managed by an associated regional group via national guidelines (kind of like how our school systems work now...).  Indiana is in the "Great Lakes Region" since we touch Lake Erie.  Will the Federal Government thus manage Indiana's water?  Here's what the document says,

consideration of inland activities would be necessary to account for the significant interaction between upstream activities and ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes uses and ecosystem health.

So yes, the inland water in Indiana and 33 other states would be managed by these new regional governing bodies.  Should we worry?  Well, it's one thing for a President like Teddy Roosevelt to say he wants to keep our waterways safe -- Teddy was a hunter and outdoorsman.... ever see a picture of President Obama with a fishing pole?  On skis?  Camping?

I did see a picture of him walking in the surf once.

March 9, 2010

Two-Tier Health Care Systems

I was initially opposed to the growing number of people who demanded Congress and the President must enroll in whatever government run health care is passed, but I've come around to that point of view after reading about the poor fellow in England who died of thirst in his hospital bed -- even after he called the police for help getting a drink.  But as James Lewis says, it shouldn't be just Congress and the President who have to enroll in ObamaCare, it should be all federal and state employees, without exception:

In Britain, Gordon Brown does not go to his local NHS clinic to get substandard medical care, nor does he go to the scandalously dirty hospitals in the Midlands. In Brussels, the European Union bureaucrats would just sneer at medical care for ordinary folks. They get nothing but the best. That hypocrisy is all over the American ruling left as it is emerging today

More and more "no" votes in Congress seem to be bending to "yes" as the back-door bribery continues.  Will the newest bribes ever be written down like the Senate care bribes were?  I doubt it.  If ObamaCare passes, we may start out with fine health care because we currently have fine health care -- but down the road, how long will it be until we, too, have people dying of thirst in hospital beds while those who pass this bill (against the clear will of the voters) get tender loving care in spa-like Congressional hospitals?

Question 9

Question 9 on the 2010 Census form is "What is Person 1's race?"  There are many options, but a growing number of people on every Census (over 20 million people on the 2000 Census) have been answering that question by selecting the "Other" box and writing in "American."  That's what I intend to do.  It is a truthful answer and it lets the government know I reject its efforts to classify Americans by race.

March 8, 2010

Norwell 47, Elmhurst 64

Elmhurst stopped the Norwell boys and Norwell girls this year at the sectional level.  Who knows what will happen next year with Elmhurst on the chopping block.

March 7, 2010

1973 International Harvester Wagonmaster

Because you know you wanted one...

137 years of Popular Science Magazine

Google and Popular Science have scanned in every page of every issue of 137 years of Popular Science.  Hit the links to browse at either site.

March 5, 2010

No Jail time for Lynch in the Siela trial

The trial in the accidental shooting of Landon Siela is over

"I never thought I would see a case where somebody dies and somebody doesn't go to prison," Judge Don Daniel told Lynch. "I don't believe putting you in prison would accomplish anything for anybody."

A moment's misjudgement and a lifetime of sorrow.

See Sad News from Purdue

Doctor's Advice


March 4, 2010

The Karate Kid - Official Trailer (2010)

The directory of the original "Karate Kid (1984)" (John Avildsen) was also the director of the original "Rocky (1976)." I read a nice article once about how Avildsen's brilliance showed in how he made the "Karate Kid" the exact opposite of "Rocky."

The hero is young, not old; quick witted, not mentally slow; the girlfriend is rich and pretty, not poor and plain; she's outgoing, not withdrawn; the Karate Kid's teacher is calm and not at all ambitious, while Rocky's manager is washed up and looking for the big win; the Kid's training scenes are set to light music and all shot among nature, while Rocky's theme was all big horns and shot on the docks and in the city.

Opposite setups, but both great fight movies. I wonder if the new one (with Will Smith's son Jaden as the Kid and Jacky Chan as the teacher) can live up to the old.

Update: (I found the article I refer to above): At 25, "The Karate Kid" still packs a punch

March 3, 2010

Five reasons why 24 is awful this year

1. President Allison Taylor (Cherry Jones) is no David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) and worse, she's no Charles Logan (Gregory Itzin). Her character seems little more than a prop, neither great, nor evil... just blah.

2. The addition of Katee Sackhoff as Dana Walsh has been a terrible disappointment. Fresh off of Battlestar Galactica, the kiss-ass and take no prisoners Starbuck has turned into a weak and mousy CTU agent, afraid to stand up for herself against a bully ex-boyfriend, afraid to stand up and ask her fiance for help, afraid of having her past uncovered... just afraid of everything and perfectly willing to let the country she serves and her fiance fall because her own personal issues are more important to her.

3. The new head of CTU (Mykelti Williamson's Brian Hastings) is no Bill Buchanan (James Morrison). Like Dana Walsh (see 2), he's perfectly willing to let the country fall as long as it doesn't hurt him politically. Bill Buchanan understood his assets: what Chloe and Tony and Jack were capable of and how best to use them. He had contacts and could put the right people in place for an operation. He supported and trusted his agents (to a fault, to be sure). Brian Hastings doesn't know or trust his agents and within a few hours of crisis had no one capable to field for an op but the newly minted grandfather, Jack Bauer.

4. The wonderful Annie Wersching returns this year as agent Renee Walker. Instead of internalizing and coming to terms with her experiences from last year, where she had to resort to torture to obtain information to save the country, she has instead gone mad. Facing a tough assignment and in a tight spot, she flipped out and stabbed an asset 17 times and couldn't stop with the knife until she had also stabbed Jack. Where last year, like Starbuck, she was a woman to be reckoned with, a woman who could take you down with a leg sweep or an elbow punch, this year she's as broken and useless as Dana Walsh (see 2).

5. The plot, so far, is little different than any of the previous seasons. There have been no surprises other than characters letting the viewers down. I can understand plots where characters turn out to be double agents, but there's been none of that this year... it's all been weak characters, bowing to bullies except for the perennial good guys Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) and Chloe (the always wonderful Mary Lynn Rajskub), who have gone from being super-capable, to now being super-powered.

March 2, 2010

5 Ugly Truths Americans Will Have to Face

John Hawkins speaks the list few want to face

  1. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will be cut
  2. Our Military spending will be cut
  3. Taxes will be going up
  4. The economy will not get better
  5. America's power will lessen across the world

Unless we stop growing the government. 

March 1, 2010

Replacing Bayh

It's interesting, isn't it, that the democratic Daily Kos poll, leaves out Marlin Stutzman when examining who the republicans should run to replace Evan Bayh

Though Hostettler performs better in the poll, many GOPers are lining up behind Coats. House GOP Conf. Chair Mike Pence, who passed on a SEN bid, has endorsed Coats.

I don't think so.  23 of 33 of the Indiana State Senators have endorsed Stutzman.  Coats had his time.  He quit, moved away and has been lawyering, lobbying and voting in Virginia for the last decade.  I think I'd rather have a farmer in office than another lawyer.

Don't Judge Too Quickly