We’re The Government And We’re here To Help

Frankly, I just shake my head when the left decrees that pretty much anything (health care) will be just super when the government takes it over. Whether by a new bureaucracy of by increasing regulation/rules/oversight, etc. Because, of course, there is almost nothing that government is really good at other than creating more government. Here's an object lesson: A guy tries to give discounts on gasoline purchases to senior citizens and local sports boosters.

The state government steps in an threatens to sue if he doesn't raise prices.

MERRILL, Wis. - A service station that offered discounted gas to senior citizens and people supporting youth sports has been ordered by the state to raise its prices. Center City BP owner Raj Bhandari has been offering senior citizens a 2 cent per gallon price break and discount cards that let sports boosters pay 3 cents less per gallon.

But the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection says those deals are too good: They violate Wisconsin's Unfair Sales Act, which requires stations to sell gas for about 9.2 percent more than the wholesale price.

Bhandari said he received a letter from the state auditor in late April saying the state would sue him if he did not raise his prices. The state could penalize him for each discounted gallon he sold, with the fine determined by a judge.

Keep in mind that the state of Wisconsin is considered to be very, very "liberal." Price hikes to the people, baby. Price hikes to the people. They're here to help.

(Want to lay odds that his competitors complained?)

Metric Martyrs Win Big

A little known (in America, at least) group of British die-hards has held out against the the raging tide of Euroweenie bureaucracy and stopped the drive to eliminate the traditional imperial measures of pounds and ounces. They call themselves the "Metric Martyrs" - and they appear to have scored a big win in the European parliament.

Britain is to keep its pounds and ounces.

Campaigners are celebrating after the European Commission abandoned its hugely unpopular plan to scrap the historic Imperial measures.

Brussels bureaucrats admitted that forcing traders to use only metric grams and kilos would not be 'good for business'.

The present dual labelling system, displaying both sets of measures, will now carry on indefinitely.

Neil Herron, director of the Metric Martyrs pressure group, hailed a 'monumental victory'.

He dedicated the triumph to the memory of his friend Steven Thoburn, the Sunderland green-grocer who died at 39 as he fought his conviction for selling bananas by the pound.

Mr Herron said: "People power has forced the Commission and the Government to abandon the enforced metrication programme.

"We have saved the pint, the mile, the yard, the foot and now we have saved pounds and ounces. We have stood toe to toe with the Government and the EU and won - and shown others that you can stop the tide of EU legislation."

Under Brussels plans dating back to the 1990s, it would have become illegal for UK shops to display the Imperial measurements after January 1, 2010, with traders facing fines of up to £2,000.

But Industry Commissioner Gunther Verheugan performed a spectacular U-turn when he spoke to a committee of MEPs on Tuesday.

He said research had shown that the intended ban would damage trade with the US, which uses Imperial measurements for many goods.

The metric system was adopted by France during the French Revolution. Don't get me wrong here, it is a very logical system and attempted to place a standard measurement system on all weights and measures. But it is not one whit less arbitrary than the imperial measurement system. It just has a standard decimal system rather than some of the more arcane rules that govern "imperial" measures (how many ounces in a quart?). (The United States does not use imperial units, exactly. There are differences.) The funny thing is that the "traditional" measures were based, roughly (and in varying degrees) on human attributes. Thus the inch was once defined as the width of an average man's thumb at the base of the nail. It is actually a fairly intuitively obvious system, even if it is arbitrary. The metric system is not easily related to the human body. (Then again, some of the antiquated measures are not either. How much does a stone weigh and how tall is a rod?)

You Should Have Stuck With The Squirrel

We here at Blue Crab Boulevard are saddened to have to report that Bullwinkle J. Moose's decision to jettison his long-standing partnership with Rocky the Flying Squirrel has ended badly. Oh, sure, there was a lot of paw and hoof pointing at the end with the two cartoon heroes blaming each other for the bad investments, the booze and the womanizing. (The acrimonious split of the two longtime friends didn't get a lot of press coverage because of the frenzy over Britney Spears shaving her… head.) But really, was Bullwinkle smart to have ditched Rocky and taken on the new sidekick, Bruno? We think the video speaks for itself.

(Actual story:

Bear kills moose in Alaska driveway

HOMER, Alaska - Odd sounds outside their home woke Gary and Terri Lyon early Sunday morning, so Gary got up to check it out. He looked outside and saw a 500-pound grizzly bear killing an adult moose in their driveway.

"I saw this wildlife spectacle of a full-grown brown bear on a moose and the moose fighting for its life," Gary said.

The couple put their dog inside, grabbed their cameras and started filming the attack as the grizzly battled the moose down the driveway, finally killing it. They posted the video on YouTube.

"She tore apart the chest cavity, ripped out the heart and ate it," Gary said. "It was like she knew that's what kept it alive."

Authorities removed the moose, but were worried that the bear might come back for seconds. They were right and the Lyons are having to lock their doors against the bears. Which could lead to a whole other play on words, but we'll be nice. Just this once.)

UPDATE: My youngest son, who is 11 years old, just saw this and commented, "Must have been the wrong hat." The lad shows real promise.

Secret Deals And Trial Balloons

Selective leaks about details of a secret agreement being hammered out between Republicans and Democrats of Capitol Hill are being floated as trial balloons. The first headline about the secret negotiations appear to be heading in a direction I predicted last year: first secure the border, then a lot of other things become possible. But hardliners - from the left - appear to be getting help from Harry Reid to derail any potential deal.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration and key senators are struggling to agree on draft legislation to secure the U.S.-Mexico border before putting millions of illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship that could take 13 years.

Even then, immigrants would have to leave the country and pay large fines before gaining legal status.

Officials familiar with the discussions say that despite concessions by both Republicans and Democrats, a final agreement may not come before the Senate opens debate on the issue next week — if at all.

Still, the outlines of a possible deal have taken shape in almost daily secret talks attended by two members of President Bush's Cabinet. As contemplated, the proposal would bar undocumented immigrants from gaining legal status until the administration beefs up border security and implements a high-tech identification system for temporary workers. The same trigger would apply to new immigrants seeking temporary visas as guest workers. Such measures are expected to take up to two years.

Even after that, officials said it could take more than a decade before the 12 million men, women and children estimated to be in the U.S. illegally could get permanent legal status, or green cards. First the government would clear an existing legal immigration backlog, a task estimated to take eight years. Then the government would begin processing green cards for the 12 million here illegally, expected to take another five years.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, has been leading negotiations with Republican senators and White House officials in hopes of cutting a bipartisan deal on the issue before the Senate wades into an explosive immigration debate. But some Democrats are hesitant to embrace conditions they successfully opposed when the Senate debated the issue last year.

To jump-start debate, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he will move Wednesday to bring up a measure from 2006 — either a Senate-passed bill or one approved by the Judiciary Committee. Both are regarded as much more liberal than the one being forged in the current round of bipartisan talks.

Open border activist elements of the left stand a fair chance of completely scuttling any chance for an agreement by getting Reid to force the issue before a draft can be hammered out. And so the citizens of this country will have to put up with more illegal immigrants with potentially lethal intentions getting past a wide-open border. Reid's tenure in the leadership of the Senate will not be remembered fondly by the Democrats in the very near future. The vast majority of voters in this country want the borders secured before anything else is even discussed. Even the NPR poll released today states quite clearly where the voter's sentiment's are. By pandering even further to the far left, Reid is running the Democrats up onto the rocks.

But immigration is also a difficult issue for the Democratic leadership in Congress. Like the president, the business community and their Hispanic constituents, Democrats favor an earned path to legalization.

But that's not where most voters stand. When given a choice, 57 percent of poll respondents favored requiring illegal immigrants to re-enter the country legally; only 39 percent favored a path to citizenship. Those numbers included a majority of both Democrats and independents.

Reid's continued push to the left will bite the Democrats in 2008. By all means, carry on.

The Cheap Shots Become More Contrived

When I first read about this foofraw being generated by the a few of the left wing blogs over at Memeorandum, I thought immediately of the rank hypocrisy. After all, the same folks hyperventilating about this say not a single word about the real, live former klansman in their own party. Ed Morrisey nailed this one down tight, however:

It's more than a little ridiculous to say that using this quote indicates some kind of support for the KKK. It's an anecdote used by people to talk about military strategy, as Poe clearly did, instead of some invocation of racism. It's not particularly bright of Poe to quote Forrest — especially since the quote is essentially meaningless as well as fabricated — but discussing Forrest's military acumen (which was considerable) doesn't mean people support the Klan, a point that is rather obvious when considering authors such as Catton who catalogued Forrest's strategic thinking.

For instance, do lawyers who reference Hugo Black support the Klan as well? If not, why not? Poe referenced Forrest's military strategy, not his views on race. Referencing Black's viewpoint on law should also then connect to his activities in the Klan … right? That's the Carpetbagger standard.

Besides, if Carpetbagger wants to note latent Klan support, why doesn't he mention Robert Byrd? Byrd has been in the Senate for almost fifty years now, and he filibustered the Civil Rights Act when it first came to the chamber in the early 60s. He worked as an organizer for the Klan as a young man. Here's a direct link to Forrest's organization … but Carpetbagger seems less interested in actual connections between the Klan and a Democrat than using silly quotes as some sort of revelation about a Republican.

It is asinine in the extreme to say that quoting someone means that the person doing the quoting endorses that person's viewpoint - unless that is exactly, explicitly stated. (In this case, the quote is fabricated as well.) I don't endorse the viewpoint of many of the people who I post about and run quotes from. Trying to project what you assume to be someone's secret, unconscious thought process is even more foolish and says quite a lot more about your mindset than about your victim's. But, as AllahPundit points out, there is no reasoning with this kind of sophomoric "gotcha" logic, either. The hyperventilating screeching will go on no matter how you try to reason with these folks. Now, if they denounce Robert Byrd and run him out of the Senate for what he, in fact, did as opposed to what they have projected onto what someone else said, we'll talk. Otherwise there is no point.

This Is A Departure

I purposely waited today to write very much about the arrest of six people in a plot to attack US Army soldiers at Fort Dix. I wanted the news reports to clarify what was really known. This morning the reports stated the men were from the former Yugoslavia. Now, in what is somewhat of a departure for the AP these days, the men are being identified specifically as 'Muslims" (which is, in this context, incorrect, I think). They are not all from Yugoslavia and three of them are in the country illegally.

FORT DIX, N.J. - Six foreign-born Muslims were arrested and accused Tuesday of plotting to attack the Army's Fort Dix and massacre scores of U.S. soldiers — a plot the FBI says was foiled when the men took a video of themselves firing assault weapons to a store to have the footage put onto a DVD.

The defendants, all men in their 20s from the former Yugoslavia and the Middle East, include a pizza deliveryman suspected of using his job to scout out the military base.

Their goal was "to kill as many American soldiers as possible" in attacks with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and guns, prosecutors said.

"Today we dodged a bullet. In fact, when you look at the type of weapons that this group was trying to purchase, we may have dodged a lot of bullets," said FBI agent J.P. Weiss.

"We had a group that was forming a platoon to take on an army. They identified their target, they did their reconnaissance. They had maps. And they were in the process of buying weapons. Luckily, we were able to stop that."

Authorities said there was no direct evidence connecting the men to any international terror organizations such as al-Qaida. But several of them said they were ready to kill and die "in the name of Allah," according to court papers.

Investigators said they infiltrated the group with an informant well over a year ago and bided their time while they secretly recorded the defendants, five of whom lived in Cherry Hill, a Philadelphia suburb about 20 miles from Fort Dix.

"This is what law enforcement is supposed to do in the post-9/11 era — stay one step ahead of those who are attempting to cause harm to innocent American citizens," U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie said.

Weiss saluted the unidentified New Jersey store clerk who noticed the suspicious video as the "unsung hero" of the case. "That's why we're here today — because of the courage and heroism of that individual," the FBI agent said.

In addition to plotting the attack on Fort Dix, the defendants spoke of attacking a Navy installation in Philadelphia during the annual Army-Navy football game and conducted surveillance at other military installations in the region, prosecutors said.

One defendant, Eljvir Duka, was recorded as saying: "In the end, when it comes to defending your religion, when someone … attacks your religion, your way of life, then you go jihad."

I think the correct term here is islamist jihadi. This is political terror using religion as a mask. Regardless, the AP is more or less playing this straight for a change. To me that indicates that this plot was a) serious and b) enough convincing detail was given to the reporters that they are not trying to use a smokescreen for a change (calling them "militants" or some such PC-speak.)

I kind of wish they had not published what tipped the FBI, however. Every time you do that, you are teaching the killers how to avoid a pitfall. Now we need to know how exactly the three who were here illegally got here. Still think stepping up border security is a bad idea?

J-I-H, A-D-I, M-O-U-S-E

Hamas has decided to rip off the Disney Company and infringe on the trademark of that company's signature character, Mickey Mouse. Only this mouse is a wee bit different than the squeaky-voiced cartoon character. This squeaky-voiced jihadi Mouse preaches hate and murder.

A giant black-and-white rodent — named "Farfour," or "butterfly," but unmistakably a Mickey ripoff — does his high-pitched preaching against the U.S. and Israel on a children's show run each Friday on Al-Aqsa TV, a station run by Hamas. The militant group, sworn to Israel's destruction, shares power in the Palestinian government.

"You and I are laying the foundation for a world led by Islamists," Farfour squeaked on a recent episode of the show, which is titled, "Tomorrow's Pioneers."

"We will return the Islamic community to its former greatness, and liberate Jerusalem, God willing, liberate Iraq, God willing, and liberate all the countries of the Muslims invaded by the murderers."

Children call in to the show, many singing Hamas anthems about fighting Israel.

Israel has long complained that the Palestinian airwaves are filled with incitement.

An Israeli organization that monitors Palestinian media, Palestinian Media Watch, said the Mickey Mouse lookalike takes "every opportunity to indoctrinate young viewers with teachings of Islamic supremacy, hatred of Israel and the U.S., and support of 'resistance,' the Palestinian euphemism for terror."

Yeah, that generation of Palestinian kids will really be a laugh a minute when they grow up, won't they? "Hey kids, What time is it? Time to kill the joooos." That is a seriously sick culture.

More Information On Herod’s Tomb

The leader of the team that discovered what is believed to be the tomb of Herod held a news conference today at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Professor Ehud Netzer revealed the details of the find, which wasn't in very good condition, having been rather severely desecrated, probably during the first Jewish Revolt (66-72 AD). 

The long search for Herod the Great’s tomb has ended with the exposure of the remains of his grave, sarcophagus and mausoleum on Mount Herodium’s northeastern slope, Prof. Ehud Netzer of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Institute of Archaeology announced today.

Herod was the Roman-appointed king of Judea from 37 to 4 BCE, who was renowned for his many monumental building projects, including the reconstruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, the palace at Masada, as well as the complex at Herodium, 15 kilometers south of Jerusalem. .

Herodium is the most outstanding among King Herod’s building projects. This is the only site that carries his name and the site where he chose to be buried and to memorialize himself — all of this with the integration of a huge, unique palace at the fringe of the desert, said Prof. Netzer. Therefore, he said, the exposure of his tomb becomes the climax of this site’s research.

The approach to the burial site - which has been described by the archaeologists involved as one of the most striking finds in Israel in recent years - was via a monumental flight of stairs (6.5 meters wide) leading to the hillside that were especially constructed for the funeral procession.

The excavations on the slope of the mountain, at whose top is the famed structure comprised of a palace, a fortress and a monument, commenced in August 2006. The expedition, on behalf of the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was conducted by Prof. Netzer, together with Yaakov Kalman and Roi Porath and with the participation of local Bedouins.

The location and unique nature of the findings, as well as the historical record, leave no doubt that this was Herod’s burial site, said Prof. Netzer.

The mausoleum itself was almost totally dismantled in ancient times. In its place remained only part of its well built podium, or base, built of large white ashlars (dressed stone) in a manner and size not previously revealed at Herodium.

What is believed to have been Herod's sarcophagus has been smashed into hundreds of pieces, so somebody sure was unhappy with the late king. The Jewish rebels hated Herod for having been a puppet king for the despised Romans.

Tossing Back A Few Beers

Malaysian officials are planning to toss back a few beers. Specifically, they plan on tossing the beers into the sewer. Just a few.

About 196,000.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian customs officials plan to send more than 196,000 cans of smuggled beer gurgling down the drain after confiscating them from a gang that specialized in reselling duty-free drinks to pubs and grocers.

Officials cannot auction off the beer, worth about 287,000 ringgit ($84,040) with 1 million ringgit ($292,900) owed in unpaid duty and sales tax, because the sale would affect the domestic market, the Star newspaper said Tuesday.

The smugglers worked with freight forwarders and haulers over six months to obtain duty-free beers meant for shops in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, customs officials told the paper.

Each of the 8,178 seized cartons was to have been sold for 30 ringgit, or about a third of the market price, customs official Madrina Alwi said.

The word we are getting from our informants is that the rats in the sewers of Kuala Lumpur have invited all their friends over for the festivities which are expected to last for days. Yet another drunken rat rampage should be in the news shortly. However, just for the record, there is absolutely no truth to the rumor that our informant is camping out in the sewer under the customs offices.

He missed his flight.

“Wake Up, It’s Time For Your Lizard Spit injection”

The Telegraph reports that scientists have discovered a new wonder drug to help combat diabetes that is made from - no kidding - synthetic lizard spit.

Diabetes sufferers could avoid complications including heart disease, kidney failure and blindness thanks to a new drug based on the spit of a giant poisonous lizard.

Scientists have developed a new treatment for the disease following the discovery that a chemical in the saliva of the pink and black Gila monster contains a chemical in its saliva, which is similar to a human hormone that helps regulate blood sugar.

Exenatide, which works by stimulating the pancreas to produce more insulin in response to raised blood sugar, was launched in the UK last week under the brand name Byetta. A chemical in the lizard’s saliva called exendin-4 was shown to act in a similar way to the human hormone glucagon-like-peptide-1 (GLP-1).

In healthy humans, GLP-1 triggers the production of insulin in the pancreas when blood sugar levels get too high. In those with Type 2 diabetes the signal to make more insulin is weak or missing.

Researchers developed a synthetic version of exendin-4 which can be injected into patients. In trials almost half, 46 per cent, of patients given exenatide on top of existing treatment metformin were able to control their blood sugar level adequately, compared to only 13 per cent of those given placebos.

We can't wait for the side effects of this one. When diabetes patients begin lying on rocks to sun themselves, we'll be suspicious. One serious question: who thinks of this stuff? Who actually sits around and asks, "I wonder what we can do with lizard spit? I know, let's give it to diabetics!"

Six Arrested In Plot To Attack Fort Dix

Six people, all from the former Yugoslavia, have been arrested for plotting to attack Fort Dix, the US Army base in New Jersey. The plot was reportedly broken up in the planning stage after the suspects attempted to buy automatic weapons from an arms dealer who was working with the Feds.

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. - Six nationals of the former Yugoslavia were arrested on charges they plotted to attack the Fort Dix Army base and "kill as many soldiers as possible," federal authorities said Tuesday.

The six were scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Camden later Tuesday to face charges of conspiracy to kill U.S. servicemen, said Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey.

Five of them lived in Cherry Hill, about 10 miles east of Philadelphia and 20 miles southwest of Fort Dix, he said.

A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because documents in the case remain sealed, said the attack was stopped in the planning stages.

The men were arrested while trying to buy automatic weapons in a sale set-up by law enforcement authorities, the official said. Authorities believe the men trained for the attack in the Poconos and allegedly conducted surveillance at other area military institutions, including the Army's Fort Monmouth, the official said.

Apparently, the six are not too terribly bright since attacking a large military facility like Fort Dix would not end well for them. But I'd still rather see things like this broken up before they actually try to pull off an attack.

More French Festivities

Rioting has continued in France overnight and the AFP has already taken its first shot at Nicolas Sarkozy with their headline for a story about the violence:

Sarkozy holidays as fresh violence hits French cities

PARIS (AFP) - France's president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy relaxed Tuesday on a yacht in the Mediterranean ahead of launching his radical reform programme, while back home "anti-Sarko" protestors burned cars and clashed with police in cities across the country.

Sarkozy boarded the yacht in Malta with his wife Cecilia and their 10-year-old son Louis on Monday at the start of a three-day break, far from the hectic post-election atmosphere in Paris.

The family arrived on the island on a private plane after the 52-year-old right-winger's election victory on Sunday. He won 53 percent of the votes to 47 percent for his Socialist rival Segolene Royal.

Sarkozy had pre-planned the break to recover from his gruelling campaigning and to mentally ready himself for France's highest office.

He takes over from President Jacques Chirac on May 16.

In his last major public ceremony as head of state, Chirac on Tuesday laid a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier in Paris to commemorate the Allied defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.

Sarkozy's election triumph has sparked protests across the country, many of them violent. They began late Sunday and continued Monday night, prompting the leader of the defeated Socialists to appeal for calm.

Overnight Monday some 500 youths shouting "Sarko, fascist!" went on a rampage in the Bastille district of Paris, burning 10 cars, looting two stores and smashing windows, police said.

More than 200 people were detained during four hours of clashes in which protesters threw stones and other projectiles at police, one of whom was injured. Fifteen people remained in custody on Tuesday.

Mind you, Sarkozy is merely the president elect and can't do anything about the violence, but they take the swipe at him anyway. Expect that to get worse as his presidency actually starts. But it is interesting that the "youths" have reappeared in the reporting. Meanwhile, in today's Washington Post, EJ Dionne points out that the election results in France and elsewhere in the world should be giving "progressives" pause.

Is Europe moving right? Is the democratic left in trouble?

The decisive victory of Nicolas Sarkozy over Socialist S?gol?ne Royal in France's presidential election on Sunday was the most recent example of the battering that moderate-left parties are taking from the forces of globalization and discontent over immigration.

A few days earlier, Britain delivered a rebuke to outgoing Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labor Party in local elections. Last September, Sweden's Social Democrats were voted out of power, a blow to the progressive spirit in light of the country's standing as a model egalitarian society.

Earlier in 2006, in the land of single-payer health care, Canada's Conservatives under Stephen Harper came back from near-death 14 years ago to form a minority government. In 2005, Germany's Social Democrats lost their majority, though they cling to a share of power under Christian Democratic Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Interesting. So the rioting "youths" in France are just disgruntled progressives! They're progressively torching as many right wing, capitalist lackey Citroens as they can find. There's nothing like the smell of French-fired Renault in the morning. It smells like electoral defeat.