Friday, July 5, 2013
He's Like a Superhero!
Burglar gets a little surprise in Tulsa, Oklahoma:
TULSA, Oklahoma - A burglary suspect got quite the surprise Wednesday morning. Police say Robert Cole tried to break into a home, but ended up hogtied in the front yard.Read the whole thing, and watch the videos:
The picture is making its way around the Internet. Police say Cole was bum-rushed and hogtied by the homeowner, after he tried to break in to the house in the 2600 block of East 54th Street North.
"He's like a superhero," said Denay Houston.
Three Nickels...
Via reader Jim M.:
I'm not absolutely certain whether this is apocryphal or is a true story. Seems plausible...A father walks into a restaurant with his young son. He gives the young boy 3 nickels to play with to keep him occupied.
Suddenly, the boy starts choking, going blue in the face. The father realizes the boy has swallowed the nickels and starts slapping him on the back. The boy coughs up 2 of the nickels, but keeps choking. Looking at his son, the father is panicking, shouting for help.
A well-dressed, attractive, and serious looking woman in a blue business suit is sitting at the coffee bar reading a newspaper and sipping a cup of coffee. At the sound of the commotion, she looks up, puts her coffee cup down, neatly folds the newspaper and places it on it on the counter, gets up from her seat and makes her way, unhurried, across the restaurant.
Reaching the boy, the woman carefully drops his pants; takes hold of the boy's testicles and starts to squeeze and twist, gently at first and then ever so firmly. After a few seconds the boy convulses violently and coughs up the last nickel, which the woman deftly catches in her free hand.
Releasing the boy's testicles, the woman hands the nickel to the father and walks back to her seat at the coffee bar without saying a word.
As soon as he is sure that his son has suffered no ill effects, the father rushes over to the woman and starts thanking her saying, "I've never seen anybody do anything like that before, it was fantastic. Are you a doctor? "
"No," the woman replied, "I'm with the Internal Revenue Service."
Cute Puppy of the Day...
Via my mom, purveyor of cute puppy pics:
Seems to me that if you had enough photos like this, and you sprinkled them all over the Middle East, the conflict there would be over...because everybody would be holding a photo and smiling at each other....
Seems to me that if you had enough photos like this, and you sprinkled them all over the Middle East, the conflict there would be over...because everybody would be holding a photo and smiling at each other....
Thursday, July 4, 2013
America the Beautiful: Updated Lyrics...
By Tam, from View From the Porch:
Oh, beautiful for drone-filled skiesI don't think she's celebrating Independence Day, either...
A tax code so arcane!
A voting class on their fat ass
From Houston to Fort Wayne!
America! America!
You voted stuff for free
You made your bed, ye overfed
Go watch some more TV!
These People Are Going to Control Our Healthcare...
Imagine for a moment that you are a magician who performs at churches, schools, and even people's homes. In one of your acts you employ a rabbit. It's the only animal you use in your act. You have no employees.
Sounds like a perfectly innocent small business, doesn't it? The kind of business that you'd think would be completely free of government regulation and paperwork.
Wait a minute. You must be thinking that you live in the old America, the one founded by the liberty-loving Founding Fathers. That's not today's nanny-state America, the one enabled by low information voters. No, siree!
In today's America, that magician has to file a “disaster plan” for his bunny. It takes eight pages of bureaucratese just to describe what that disaster plan must contain.
Yes, I'm serious.
Sounds like a perfectly innocent small business, doesn't it? The kind of business that you'd think would be completely free of government regulation and paperwork.
Wait a minute. You must be thinking that you live in the old America, the one founded by the liberty-loving Founding Fathers. That's not today's nanny-state America, the one enabled by low information voters. No, siree!
In today's America, that magician has to file a “disaster plan” for his bunny. It takes eight pages of bureaucratese just to describe what that disaster plan must contain.
Yes, I'm serious.
Independence Day...in Egypt...
The news from Egypt has been interesting and sometimes downright exciting over the past few days. Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood leader, was leading Egypt down a path toward an Iran-like fundamentalist Islamic republic – and the people of Egypt said (rather loudly) “No!” If we are to believe the pronouncements of the Egyptian military that enabled Morsi's removal (and their actions are so far consistent), Egypt will get another bite at the apple – they get a “redo” on their constitution, and new elections. It will be fascinating to see how this plays out over the next six months to a year.
While reading this news, I caught myself having an odd reaction, and it took me a while to figure out what it was. It was envy, plain and simple. I'm envious of the chance the Egyptian people have now to rework their government into something more to their liking.
Today is Independence Day here in the U.S., ordinarily a day I would enthusiastically celebrate. Overeating and too much alcohol might be involved. I don't feel much like celebrating this year. The country whose independence I'd celebrate is slipping away, bit by bit. Another slip happened this week: Obama, acting like the dictator he clearly would like to be, arbitrarily decided to delay enforce a law – he delayed the implementation of Obamacare for large companies. He is exercising a power that our Constitution does not give him. Under the Constitution, a president doesn't have the power to simply override a law passed by Congress and signed into law by the president. Obama is doing it anyway, precisely as any tyrannical dictator would do. Now perhaps there will be a lawsuit filed to prevent him from actually pulling this off, but in these days of complicity by both political parties, I'm not confident that such a thing will happen.
Why would Obama do this? A reasonable question, and this one has a clear answer. It's not the excuse that Obama is giving; that's just political cover. The real reason is that his fellow Democrats are afraid of getting creamed in the 2014 election cycle – because they're afraid of the electorate's backlash when they find out what Obamacare will cost them once it's implemented. This is especially true of some key Democratic constituencies: young people and minorities. When these groups have to start writing the checks to pay for Obamacare, they're not going to be happy campers.
So Obama waves his magical, tyrannical wand...and kicks the problem down the road another two years.
I'm envious of the chance the Egyptians have to adjust their government to something better. We Americans need that chance. We need a second Independence Day. That's an Independence Day I would love to celebrate!
While reading this news, I caught myself having an odd reaction, and it took me a while to figure out what it was. It was envy, plain and simple. I'm envious of the chance the Egyptian people have now to rework their government into something more to their liking.
Today is Independence Day here in the U.S., ordinarily a day I would enthusiastically celebrate. Overeating and too much alcohol might be involved. I don't feel much like celebrating this year. The country whose independence I'd celebrate is slipping away, bit by bit. Another slip happened this week: Obama, acting like the dictator he clearly would like to be, arbitrarily decided to delay enforce a law – he delayed the implementation of Obamacare for large companies. He is exercising a power that our Constitution does not give him. Under the Constitution, a president doesn't have the power to simply override a law passed by Congress and signed into law by the president. Obama is doing it anyway, precisely as any tyrannical dictator would do. Now perhaps there will be a lawsuit filed to prevent him from actually pulling this off, but in these days of complicity by both political parties, I'm not confident that such a thing will happen.
Why would Obama do this? A reasonable question, and this one has a clear answer. It's not the excuse that Obama is giving; that's just political cover. The real reason is that his fellow Democrats are afraid of getting creamed in the 2014 election cycle – because they're afraid of the electorate's backlash when they find out what Obamacare will cost them once it's implemented. This is especially true of some key Democratic constituencies: young people and minorities. When these groups have to start writing the checks to pay for Obamacare, they're not going to be happy campers.
So Obama waves his magical, tyrannical wand...and kicks the problem down the road another two years.
I'm envious of the chance the Egyptians have to adjust their government to something better. We Americans need that chance. We need a second Independence Day. That's an Independence Day I would love to celebrate!
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Quote of the Day...
From Glenn Reynolds, writing at Instapundit:
I mean, he’s only a Senator, and there’s no IQ test for that job...Hah!
When's the Last Time...
When's the last time you heard a religious leader calling on devout women to go have sex with soldiers to improve their morale?
Yes, I Miss Him Yet...
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
San Juan Mountains, 2013...
We'll be headed for the San Juan Mountains of Colorado within the next few days, returning at the end of July. Our route both ways will also take us through the Utah red rock country. All the posts related to this trip (including, we hope, lots of wildflower and scenery photos – and maybe some wildlife photos as well) will be tagged as “SJM2013”. You can view them all anytime you'd like by clicking here. Bookmark it and visit often!
Note that we're not certain about the quality of our Internet access where we're staying (at 11,000' in the mountains near Silverton, Colorado), so the posts may be a bit irregular, as we get a good cell signal...
Note that we're not certain about the quality of our Internet access where we're staying (at 11,000' in the mountains near Silverton, Colorado), so the posts may be a bit irregular, as we get a good cell signal...
Would You Want to Know?
Huntington's disease is a genetic disorder that invariably leads to death, after causing cognitive, psychiatric, and muscular problems. The onset is usually in the middle of adulthood. There is no cure.
The children of someone with Huntington's disease have a 50% chance of having the disease themselves. A genetic test is available (for about $300) that can tell whether any individual will develop the disease.
Imagine, for a moment, being a 20 year old child of a parent diagnosed with Huntington's disease. Would you want to take that test, and know whether you were going to get Huntington's disease 15 or 20 years down the road?
When I first read that question, I thought “Of course I'd want to know! What idiot wouldn't?!?” I can think of all sorts of life choices I'd make differently if I knew I would die early. Then I read that 95% of people at risk don't get the test. This fascinating Freakonomics podcast explores the reasons why most people at risk don't get the test.
Myself, I think they're all crazy...
The children of someone with Huntington's disease have a 50% chance of having the disease themselves. A genetic test is available (for about $300) that can tell whether any individual will develop the disease.
Imagine, for a moment, being a 20 year old child of a parent diagnosed with Huntington's disease. Would you want to take that test, and know whether you were going to get Huntington's disease 15 or 20 years down the road?
When I first read that question, I thought “Of course I'd want to know! What idiot wouldn't?!?” I can think of all sorts of life choices I'd make differently if I knew I would die early. Then I read that 95% of people at risk don't get the test. This fascinating Freakonomics podcast explores the reasons why most people at risk don't get the test.
Myself, I think they're all crazy...
Broken Government...
Here's another sad story from the overflowing annals of our broken government. A farm's bridge washes out in spring floods. The contractor estimates the repair costs at $7,000 – but notes that a permit will be required. The repair would be made with a couple I-beams and some concrete blocks. The engineering firm's estimate for a design and analysis that will meet permit requirements (but not the construction itself!): $25,000. Oh, and it will take two years to get the permit.
The farmer's tentative solution to this dilemma: hire a couple itinerant Mexicans and fix it when nobody is looking.
I'm with the farmer on this one. What business does the government have telling me how to build something on my own farm?
The farmer's tentative solution to this dilemma: hire a couple itinerant Mexicans and fix it when nobody is looking.
I'm with the farmer on this one. What business does the government have telling me how to build something on my own farm?
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