While filling up the gas tank, you decide to clean the windshield – and can’t squeegee the soap off the glass before the water has evaporated.
Author: Kevin
Your Moment of Zen
It’s been awhile:
Click for full-size (900×599)
Wow. Just… Wow!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3BUnHiv6AA?rel=0]
More Unintended Consequences!
Rate Shock: In California, Obamacare To Increase Individual Health Insurance Premiums By 64-146%
One of the most serious flaws with Obamacare is that its blizzard of regulations and mandates drives up the cost of insurance for people who buy it on their own. This problem will be especially acute when the law’s main provisions kick in on January 1, 2014, leading many to worry about health insurance “rate shock.”
Last week, the state of California claimed that its version of Obamacare’s health insurance exchange would actually reduce premiums. “These rates are way below the worst-case gloom-and-doom scenarios we have heard,” boasted Peter Lee, executive director of the California exchange.
But the data that Lee released tells a different story: Obamacare, in fact, will increase individual-market premiums in California by as much as 146 percent.
RTWT.
So Gun Control is Ascendant, Eh?
At least, that’s what The New Republic is spouting. Well, they’re saying the NRA is finished, which amounts to the same thing.
Of course, our side is pooh-pooing the idea. That’s because we understand that the NRA is not the pro-gun movement. It is, of course, the 800-lb. legislative gorilla, but it’s not the driving force – culture is.
Back in December, Salon cooed over the cancellation of Discovery Channel’s reality-themed shows American Guns and Ted Nugent’s Gun Country:
In the wake of the devastating school massacre in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, Discovery has canceled two gun-themed shows.
—
On Monday, the network announced that “‘American Guns’ concluded earlier this year,” adding, “Discovery Channel chose not to renew the series and has no plans to air repeats of the show.” Yet Deadline notes that Discovery is conspicuously not airing reruns of the show as well. The network is likewise bidding adieu to “Ted Nugent’s Gun Country,” with a confirmation that Nugent will not be returning any time soon.
They did allow, however:
Discovery has also recently 86′ed “Dirty Jobs” and “American Chopper.”
The New York Times also proclaimed in December of last year, Gun-Focused Reality TV Shows Get New Scrutiny After Newtown Killings. So where are we with “gun-themed” TV shows today, after Tucson, Aurora, and Newtown?
Add to that “reality shows” where everyday firearm use is normal:
And this list doesn’t include specialty “sportsman” channel shows like the Outdoor Channel’s:
and about a dozen others. But that top list? Discovery, History Channel, CMT, Animal Planet, Arts & Entertainment Television.
The re-normalization of America’s good gun culture proceeds apace. Which is why we have grassroots support and they have to get along with astroturf.
Unintended Consequences or “LOOPHOLE! LOOPHOLE!”
Fort Wayne, IN public school to cut part-timer’s hours in order to avoid Obamacare penalties:
Fort Wayne Community Schools is trimming the hours of more than 600 part-time teaching aides and cafeteria workers in anticipation of a projected budget shortfall and to satisfy the requirements of the federal health care law, a school official said.
Kathy Friend, chief financial officer for FWCS, said the school district is dropping 610 employees from 30 hours to 25 hours per week starting June 3, rather than provide them with health insurance as mandated by impending federal regulations. Offering all of the district’s 840 part-time employees health insurance would have cost $10 million, a price the district cannot afford, she said.
Friend said the decision to cut hours was also driven by the expectation that FWCS will have a tighter budget in 2015.
“We have to make the decision we’re making because of a budget situation, and we really have to make it because of the insurance issue,” she said.
“There’s not an easy answer to this problem.”
Beginning in January 2014, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, will require employers with at least 50 full-time employees to offer health insurance to employees who work at least 30 hours per week.
“This is not just an FWCS problem,” Friend said. “It’s something that almost all employers with part-time employees are trying to resolve.”
The school district’s penalty for not providing health insurance to legally entitled workers would have been $2,000 for every one of its roughly 4,000 employees, regardless of how many hours they work. This was a price the district was not prepared to pay.
“We didn’t think it would be wise to spend $8 million and get nothing in return for it,” Friend said.
Peer Review! Peer Review!
Fascinating study on that topic, concerning psychological journals commented on by Instapundit.
“Ouch” is right.
Now do one on “climate science.”
.gov Austerity
Got this one via email:
A guy stopped at a local gas station, and after filling his tank, he paid the bill and bought a soft drink. He stood by his car to drink his cola and watched a couple of men working along the roadside. One man would dig a hole two or three feet deep and then move on. The other man came along behind him and filled in the hole. While one was digging a new hole, the other was 25 feet behind filling in the hole.
The men worked right past the guy with the soft drink and went on down the road. “I can’t stand this,” said the man tossing the can into a trash container and headed down the road toward the men. “Hold it, hold it,” he said to the men. “Can you tell me what’s going on here with all this digging and refilling?”
“Well, we work for the government and we’re just doing our job,” one of the men said.
“But one of you is digging a hole and the other fills it up. You’re not accomplishing anything. Aren’t you wasting the taxpayers’ money?”
“You don’t understand, mister,” one of the men said, leaning on his shovel and wiping his brow. “Normally there’s three of us: Me, Elmer and Leroy. I dig the hole, Elmer plants the tree, and Leroy here puts the dirt back.
You see with the government sequestering, they are not buying any more trees so Elmer’s job’s been cut … so now it’s just me an’ Leroy.
Had to Share This One!
From AR15.com:
Lt Col Louis Edward Curdes
Born: November 2, 1919 Fort Wayne, Indiana
POW: August 27, 1943 Benevento, Italy, P-38G mechanical trouble
Died: February 8, 1995 Fort Wayne, Indiana
Louis Curdes joined the Army Reserves on March 12, 1942. He was commissioned a 2nd Lt, and rated a pilot on December 3, 1942 at Luke Field, Arizona. He joined the 329th FG, but transferred to the 82nd FG, 95th FS, where he saw action over North Africa, Sardinia and Italy flying P-38Gs. On April 29, 1943 he shot down three German Me-109s and damaged a fourth near Cap Bon, Tunisia. Two more Me-109s fell to his guns near Villacidro, Sardinia on May 19. On June 24 he brought down an Italian Mc.202 over Golfo Aranci, Sardinia. Another Me-109 was damaged on July 30 at Pratice di Mare, Italy. His last two victories in the Mediterranean Theater were two Me-109s over Benevento, Italy. During that action he was forced down and taken prisoner. He escaped from the POW camp on September 8, 1943 and managed to survive behind German lines until crossing into Allied territory on May 24, 1944. He requested combat duty in the Pacific, and joined the 4th FS (Commando), 3rd FG (Commando) in August 1944. On February 7, 1945 he shot down a Dinah while flying a P-51D thirty miles SW of Formosa. This feat made him one of three aces to have shot down enemy aircraft of all three Axis Powers. On February 10, 1945 he shot-up an American C-47 which was attempting to land on a Japanese held airstrip in the Batan Islands, Philippines; a chain of small islands north of Luzon. The aircraft force landed and thirteen crew and passengers were rescued. One of the passengers was a nurse that he later married. An American flag was added to the German, Italian and Japanese flags painted on his P-51D. After the war he transferred to the Air Force. He was promoted to Maj on September 1, 1951, and retired from the Air Force as a LtCol in October 1963.
Talley Record: 9 confirmed, 2 damaged
Decorations: 2 DFCs, PH, 15 AMs
Truth is stranger than fiction!
Requiescat In Pacem
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKqT0-3JV5E?rel=0]
Dedicated to my uncles Charles, Bob and Jack.
Edited to add: Brigid has her say in her own eloquent and inimitable way.