The Audacity of Hos...

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The Audacity of Hos
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Hurt myself laughing...

Quote of the Day...

According to Matt Latimer, George W. Bush said this:

If bullshit were currency, Joe Biden would be a billionaire.

Awesome!

Via Powerline...

Sub-Pixel Rendering...

I've run into this a few times before, but this is one of the best examples I've seen.  At left you see two YouTube icons in their natural, tiny state.  If you look closely, you'll see subtle differences between the two – and you'll probably agree that the right-hand version looks better.

At right are the same two icons in a magnified view.  The artist who created the right-hand icon used color to trick our eyes into perceiving crisper letters with better contrast – but without changing the color we perceive.  To the best of my knowledge this process has never been automated (though intuitively it seems like it should be possible); it remains in the realm of art.

To me the process seems almost like magic.  I wouldn't have the faintest idea what colors to try!

Some Healthcare Perspective...

Thomas Sowell has long been one of my favorite conservative commentators.  He happens to be black, and amongst blacks a voice like his is quite unusual.  I just read an excellent piece he did on Obamacare.  A teaser:

There was a time, within living memory, when most Americans did not have health insurance-- and it was not the end of the world, as so many in politics and the media seem to be depicting it today.

As someone who lived through that era, and who spent decades without medical insurance, I find it hard to be panicked and stampeded into bigger and worse problems because some people do not have medical insurance, including many who could afford it if they chose to.

What did we do, back during the years when most Americans had no medical insurance? I did what most people did. I depended on a "single payer"-- myself. When I didn't have the money, I paid off my medical bills in installments.

The birth of my first child was not covered by medical insurance. I paid off the bill, month by month, until the time finally came when I could tell my wife that the baby was now ours, free and clear.

In a country where everything imaginable is bought and paid for on credit, why is it suddenly a national crisis if some people cannot pay cash up front for medical treatment?

Now...go read the whole thing!

Dog Found! Update: Owner Found, Too!

Update:

Pam wrote to tell me that she found the owners of this poor, lost fellow.  Hooray!

Original:

One of our neighbors in Lawson Valley reports that she's found a Great Pyrenees dog that's in desperate need of being reunited with its owners.  Contact her at 619/659-9335 (Pam) or contact Steele Canyon Veterinarian after today.

The photo at right is another Great Pyrenees, not the one Pam found...

They Do Run, Run...

See the lamestream media run.  Run, lamers, run.

Now if only they met the same fate as in the childhood tale...

Click the picture to enjoy the full snarkly goodness.

Via my mom...

Imagine...

TJIC has a story about a bad experience at the post office.  My immediate thought on reading this was “This is the kind of service we can look forward to with Obamacare!”...

Ships at Sea...

When I was in the U.S. Navy last century (in the '70s), we just barely knew where our ship was.  We certainly didn't know where all the ships in the world were.  We frequently encountered other ships – especially private cargo shipping – by complete surprise. 

My, how things have changed. 

Now you can go to a web site and find the location of every ship in the world, along with a lot more information.  For free you can get the position of every ship as of 24 hours ago (in Google Earth!), along with basic information.  For a fee you can get much more detailed, realtime information.  The screenshot at right shows the ships near San Diego as of yesterday.

Amazing!

Gallantry in Afghanistan...

The British award one of their finest, 24 year old Lieutenant James Adamson:

Lieutenant James Adamson was awarded the Military Cross after killing two insurgents during close quarter combat in Helmand's notorious "Green Zone".

The 24-year-old officer, a member of the 5th battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, revealed that he shouted "have some of this" before shooting dead a gunman who had just emerged from a maize field.

Seconds later and out of ammunition, the lieutenant leapt over a river bank and killed a second insurgent machine-gunner with a single thrust of his bayonet in the man's chest. 

Read the whole thing.

I'd sure like to see more about our heroes in the U.S. press...

Forget Waterboarding – Here's the Real Torture...

U.S. Condemned For Pre-Emptive Use Of Hillary Clinton Against Pakistan

Got Em!

Short report from Fox News:

Navy Seals from US Special Operations Forces conducted a raid in southern Somalia on Monday that killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, one of 4 co-conspirators wanted in the 2002 bombing of an Israel owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, two senior U.S. military officials told Fox News.

Ten days ago President Obama signed the Execute Order for Nabhan, who since 2006 was on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists. He was also wanted for the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Kenya in 1998.

They called it operation Celestial Balance: at least two AH-6 Little Bird helicopters deployed from one of two U.S. Navy vessels near Somalia's coast strafed a vehicle Nabhan was using to go back and forth between meetings.

Intelligence operatives had been monitoring Sabhan prior to the attack. The helicopters passed once, firing on the vehicle, and then circled back around to retrieve the body so they could make a positive identification, according to an official.

The attack in Mombasa took place on Nov. 28, 2002 - involving a suicide bomber that blew up the lobby of the Israeli owned Paradise hotel. On the same day the attackers unsuccessfully attempted to shoot down an Israeli owned Boeing 757 civilian jetliner run by Arkia. They fired surface to air missiles and missed.

Nabhan's Somali group, Al- Shabaab, has links to Al Qaeda.

Excellent!

And thank you, President Obama, for taking action on this.

Quote of the Day...

From Shikha Dalmia of the Reason Foundation, in an altogether excellent post about Obama's speech on health care:

If there was anything bipartisan about the speech it was that he embraced every bad big-government idea from both sides.

Ouch!

Yes.

Stark Raving Mad...

Pete Stark (Democrat, California) is one of the first people I think of when I hear the phrases “idiot politician”, “thick-skulled nincompoop”, or “waste of oxygen”.  Listen to this video and you'll understand why.

But why, oh why, does he keep getting re-elected?

Pedros...

Michael Yon has another excellent post, this time about the medical rescue teams knows as “Pedros”.  Lots of photos at the link...

Motherhood in the Animal Kingdom...

Via Jim M.  Don't miss the last one!

The Female Perspective on Shopping...

Via Jim M.:

A woman was in town on a shopping trip. She began her day finding the most perfect shoes in the first shop and a beautiful dress on sale in the second. In the third, everything had been reduced by 50 percent.  Then her cellphone rang.

It was a female doctor notifying her that her husband had just been in a terrible car accident and was in critical condition and in the ICU. The  woman told the doctor to inform her husband where she was and that she'd be there as soon as possible.  As she hung up she realized she was leaving what was shaping up to be her best day ever in the boutiques.

She decided to get in a couple of more shops before heading to the hospital. She ended up shopping the rest of the morning, finishing her trip with a cup of coffee and a beautiful chocolate cake slice, compliments of the last shop. She was jubilant. Then she remembered her husband. Feeling guilty, she dashed to the hospital.

When she arrived at the hospital, she saw the doctor in the corridor and asked about her husband's condition. The lady doctor just glared at her and shouted, "You went ahead and finished your shopping trip didn't you! I hope you're proud of yourself!"

She ranted on: "While you were out for the past four hours enjoying yourself in town, your husband has been languishing in the Intensive Care Unit! It's just as well you went ahead and finished, because it will more than likely be the last shopping trip you ever take! For the rest of his life he will require round-the-clock care. And he will now be your career!"

Feeling guilty, the women broke down and sobbed.

The lady doctor then chuckled and said, "I'm just pulling your leg. He's dead. Show me what you bought."

Ouch.  But (if you're of the male persuasion)...doesn't it sound, well, plausible?

BPotD, Again...

An American native in Pakistan (via Botany Photo of the Day).

Gorgeous!

More photos at the link...

Taxing Medical Technology...

The Obamacare bills currently wending their way through Congress all have provisions in them that would tax the medical technology that has done so much to extend our lives and reduce our suffering.  Just on the very face of it, this sounds incredibly stupid to me.  Taxes always discourage innovation and development, because they reduce the financial rewards to entrepreneurs.  Our overlords may not like it, but those evil financial rewards really are the engine that drives the amazing economic machine that is America.  The medical technology industry is but one example.

Amazing for now, at least.  The bills, if enacted, will do their bit to make America's economic machine less amazing.  Smart entrepreneurs will gravitate to other industries where they can make more money.  If our policies are bad enough, they may even migrate to other countries with less stupid policies.

2012 can't come soon enough.  Let's hope the mid-term elections next year send such a clear signal to the liberals that our drift towards socialism is turned around...

Good discussion at TigerHawk...

At a Tea Party in Quincy, Illinois...

Courtesy of Instapundit, who attended:

Two Trillion Tons...