Quote of the Day...

As seen on the “Book of Face”, via The Smallest Minority:

Obama wants Catholic institutions to provide birth control and abortions.  Does this mean he will force Muslims to serve alcohol and bacon?

Awesome.

NSA Spying Linkfest...

Zero Hedge has an enormous collection of links about the NSA spying “petty scandal”.  It's informative, but depressing...

Obama Cashes a Check...

Via my mom:

President Obama walks into a local bank in Chicago to cash a check. He is surrounded by Secret Service agents. As he approaches the cashier he says, "Good morning Ma'am, could you please cash this check for me?"

Cashier: "It would be my pleasure sir. Could you please show me your ID?"

Obama: "Truthfully, I did not bring my ID with me as I didn't think there was any need to. I am President Barack Obama, the President of the United States of AMERICA !!!!"

Cashier: "Yes sir, I know who you are, but with all the regulations and monitoring of the banks because of 9/11, impostors, forgers, money laundering, and bad mortgage underwriting not to mention requirements of the Dodd/Frank legislation, etc., I must insist on seeing ID."

Obama: “Just ask anyone here at the bank who I am and they will tell you. Everybody knows who I am."

Cashier: "I am sorry Mr. President but these are the bank rules and I must follow them."

Obama: "I am urging you, please, to cash this check. I need to buy a gift for Michelle for Valentine’s Day"

Cashier: "Look Mr. President, here is an example of what we can do. One day, Tiger Woods came into one of our bank branches without ID. To prove he was Tiger Woods he pulled out his putter and made a beautiful shot across the bank into a coffee cup. With that shot we knew him to be Tiger Woods and cashed his check.  Another time, Andre Agassi came into the same place without ID. He pulled out his tennis racquet and made a fabulous shot where as the tennis ball landed in a coffee cup. With that shot we cashed his check.  So, Mr. President, what can you do to prove that it is you, and only you, as the President of the United States?"

Obama: Obama stands there thinking, and thinking, and finally says, "Honestly, my mind is a total blank...there is nothing that comes to my mind. I can't think of a single thing. I have absolutely no idea what to do and I don’t have a clue.”

Cashier: "Will that be large or small bills, Mr. President?

U.S. Population Changes Over Time...

This is a fascinating animated graph by Bill McBride at Calculated Risk.  Amongst other things, it makes obvious the reasons for the current and future insolvency of the Social Security system.  Way back when, before FDR, there were vastly more people of working age than of retirement age.  Today, not so much.  In the future, even less.

Of course there are many other repercussions of the demographic changes as well.  For instance, think what it means for healthcare costs, or number of doctors needed per capita, or economic growth, or any of dozens of other topics.

Study this for a while and you'll understand a lot about the dynamics that are affecting this country.  It might also make you rethink opposition to immigration (the vast majority of immigrants are under 30 years old)...

Sex Offenders...

Instapundit notes that the slide show of child sex offenders on this page (at the end of the article's text) is dominated by women.  He's wondering why schools are sometimes reluctant to hire male teachers.

Me?  I'm wondering where these women were when I was in high school...

What the Hell is Happening to My Country, Part 49,928...

The federal government now seems to be channeling the Mafia...

We thought we needed to leave California to escape big (and incompetent) government.  Now I'm wondering if we were thinking broadly enough...

Quotes of the Day...

These quotes are all from a single article, and mostly what makes them notable is who said them.  Read the quotes first, then click on the link to see who said them – and read the whole piece:

If Americans are worried about money in politics, there is no larger concern than the Clintons, who are cosseted in a world where rich people endlessly scratch the backs of rich people.

I never thought I’d have to read the words Ira Magaziner again. But the man who helped Hillary torpedo her own health care plan is back.

You never hear about problems with Jimmy Carter’s foundation; he just quietly goes around the world eradicating Guinea worm disease. But Magaziner continues to be a Gyro Gearloose, the inept inventor of Donald Duck’s Duckburg.

Clintonworld is a galaxy where personal enrichment and political advancement blend seamlessly, and where a cast of jarringly familiar characters pad their pockets every which way to Sunday.

Until Harry Truman wrote his memoirs, the ex-president struggled on an Army pension of $112.56 a month. “I could never lend myself to any transaction, however respectable,” he said, “that would commercialize on the prestige and dignity of the office of the presidency.” So quaint, Packer wrote, observing, “The top of American life has become a very cozy and lucrative place, where the social capital of who you are and who you know brings unimaginable returns.” 

The Clintons want to do big worthy things, but they also want to squeeze money from rich people wherever they live on planet Earth, insatiably gobbling up cash for politics and charity and themselves from the same incestuous swirl. 

Ouch! Who dumped on the Clintons?  Hint: it's someone whom you'd expect would be leaping upon the Hillary bandwagon right about now, winding up for 2016...

Smoke in Lawson Valley...

Update at 3:20 pm: the smoke has mostly cleared now.  We believe the fire at I-8 and Los Coches was the source of the smoke.

Original post: Just went outside to fire up the grill, and immediately noticed the strong smell of smoke.  In a broad smear to the WNW of our home there is moderately thick smoke.

The CalFire twitter site notes a fire in La Cresta, near I-8 and Los Coches; that may be the source.  The Lyons Peak cameras on HPWREN aren't telling me anything.

Please leave a comment if you have more information...

Big Brother...

Mark Steyn: Idiot Big Brother...

What the Hell is Happening to My Country, Part 49,927...

From the Weekly Standard, Matt Labash writing about the “Brony” phenomenon:

But Bronies represent a novel variation on the theme: Like so many American men, they wish to be forever suspended in childhood. Except this time, they want to be 6-year-old girls. Bronies have, in fact, come to embody what pop sociologists call the New Sincerity Movement. The thinking goes that the smirky ironic detachment of recent decades—​pretending to embrace low-culture totems for laughs​—​has grown stale. Now that the Internet has fragmented the culture into a million pieces, helping every maladjusted shut-in to realize his natural level of eccentricity, the only way for a self-respecting hipster or a Zuckerbergian alpha-nerd (the tribe that now runs the world) to distinguish himself is to enthuse over his enthusiasms without detachment or apology. Even if that means grown men writing Twilight Sparkle fan fiction or cutting bad electronica songs with titles like, “I Might Be a Brony.” You might find it funny, but they’re not joking.

Read the whole thing, then weep for my country...

“You Ignorant Slut!”

Said the AGW skeptic to the credulous warmist:

Please...

Via my mom:

 

I've had days like that...

The Life of a Parcel...

In one short video, with the boring bits mercifully edited out:

Three-Shear Image Rotation...

Nick Berry has the best explication of three-shear image rotation I've ever seen – something any programmer could understand...

Orbital Mechanics Primer...

Just in case you're planning to launch your own satellite...

Surprise!

My mom recently sent me the snapshot at right, with someone catching McDonald's in an apparent admission.  I'm sure most people who have eaten at McDonald's would smile and chuckle.

But it reminded me of a surprise Debbie and I got a few months ago.  I've forgotten the context, but somehow we were on the road, headed home late at night, and hungry.  We didn't want to take the time for a sit-down meal, and the only fast food places we knew were closed.  So we decided to grab a burger or something at McDonald's.

We hadn't looked at a McDonald's menu in years and years – and really didn't expect to do so ever again.  I saw couple of things on the menu that sounded appealing: a chicken-and-bacon wrap, and a mango-pineapple smoothie.  So I ordered them.

They were quite good.  Surprise!

I've had that same combination a couple of times since then, and I still have the same reaction: a convenient and inexpensive treat on the road.

Now, mind you, I don't think the wrap and smoothie are the best in the world.  I'd prefer more have more dark chicken meat, a bit more bacon, and the smoothie not quite so sweet.  But for the modest price and consistent quality, I'd say it was quite a bargain.

So to my own surprise, I'm now an occasional patron of McDonald's...

Elvis Has Left the Building...

So to speak...

Obamacare: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Jack-booted Obamacare thugs will be knocking down the doors of servicemen's homes, along with many others.

George Orwell: “Told ya!”

California: You Will Earn 3% on Your Retirement Savings...

If I were still employed by a small business in California, this would really piss me off – the nanny state telling me that it knows how to save for my retirement better than I do.  The proof is their guaranteed rate of return: a whopping 3%. 

Oh, vey.

We gotta get out of here...

California, a Hacker's Best Friend...

What could possibly go wrong?