Moon (Bats) Over Denver

Or all over Denver, as the case may be. Zombie (with an assist from El Marco) has documented many of the opening ceremonies in the Mile High City. The ones that began even before the opening of the Democratic National Convention.

Somewhere, there are mothers weeping.

Are We, As A People, Really This Dumb?

I really hate the "cry baby" portion of America…I really do.  Case in point: 'Zero' chance lottery tickets stun some players

When Scott Hoover bought a $5 scratch-off ticket in Virginia called "Beginner's Luck" last summer, he carefully studied the odds. Even though he figured his chances of winning were a long shot, he felt the odds were reasonable.

Hoover, a business professor at Washington and Lee University in Virginia, wasn't surprised when his tickets didn't bring him the $75,000 grand prize, but he was shocked to learn the top prize had been awarded before he bought the ticket.

"I felt duped into buying these things," Hoover said.

He discovered the Virginia State Lottery was continuing to sell tickets for games in which the top prizes were no longer available. Public records showed that someone had already won the top prize one month before Hoover played. He is now suing the state of Virginia for breach of contract.

The mind boggles. You really have to be an academic to not understand the concept of "scratch off" lottery games.  All you have to do is think about it for 10 seconds to realize even before the top prize has been awarded you can buy tickets that have "no chance."  For example, you may never visit the town the tickets is randomly shipped to, or you may never visit the particular store selling the top prize.  Therefore, all of the tickets you buy have "no chance" to win the top prize.

Somebody with a PhD in Business needs this explained to them?  Really?  (There goes Washington & Lee off the list of schools I'd willingly send my children.)

Of course I'd feel better if the story also contained a regular person style "voice of sanity" perspective.  No such luck.

In New Jersey, tickets for the "$1,000,000 Explosion" scratch-off game were still on sale last week, even though the million-dollar grand prize was already awarded.

Lottery ticket buyers outside a New Jersey convenience store were stunned to hear the news.

"Oh really? I didn't know that," one shopper told CNN. Another added, "That's just not right."

I forget….how many generations of imbeciles was enough?

More Vital Governmental Interests

Hot on the heels of the "Great Salt Debate" and the "Kiwi Conundrum" comes the "Swedish Snub"!

An eight-year-old boy has sparked an unlikely outcry in Sweden after failing to invite two of his classmates to his birthday party.

The boy's school says he has violated the children's rights and has complained to the Swedish Parliament.

The school, in Lund, southern Sweden, argues that if invitations are handed out on school premises then it must ensure there is no discrimination.

The boy's father has lodged a complaint with the parliamentary ombudsman.

He says the two children were left out because one did not invite his son to his own party and he had fallen out with the other one.

Meanwhile in Belgium, there are rumors that a man may have had a completely unauthorized bowel movement.

Interpol has been notified.

Canadian Lunacy

In yet another sign that Canada has completely lost it, a judge has overturned a father's decision to ground his twelve year-old daughter.

A Canadian court has lifted a 12-year-old girl's grounding, overturning her father's punishment for disobeying his orders to stay off the Internet, his lawyer said Wednesday.

The girl had taken her father to Quebec Superior Court after he refused to allow her to go on a school trip for chatting on websites he tried to block, and then posting "inappropriate" pictures of herself online using a friend's computer.

The father's lawyer Kim Beaudoin said the disciplinary measures were for the girl's "own protection" and is appealing the ruling.

Courts do not belong in the parent-child relationship in this manner. Period. One hopes that sanity will prevail in the appellate court. If not, parents in Canada are in serious trouble.

Two Modest Suggestions

Apparently, some of the less hinged protesters who are already planning their disruption of the Democratic National Convention are terribly afraid of a completely nonexistent weapon being used against them. Actually, they are afraid of two weapons. No, not the Nikon dragonfly. It is much messier than that…..

Political activists planning protest rallies at the upcoming Democratic Convention in Denver have their stomachs in knots over a rumor about a crowd control weapon - known as the “crap cannon” - that might be unleashed against them.

Also called “Brown Note,” it is believed to be an infrasound frequency that debilitates a person by making them defecate involuntarily.

Mark Cohen, co-founder of Re-create 68, an alliance of local activists working for the protection of first amendment rights, said he believes this could be deployed at the convention in August to subdue crowds.

“We know this weapon and weapons like it have been used at other large protests before,” he said.

Cohen, who described Brown Note as a “sonic weapon used to disrupt people’s equilibrium,” cited eyewitness accounts of its use during free-trade agreement protests in Miami in 2003.

“I think these weapons were mostly intended for military use and so their use for dealing with innocent protesters seems highly inappropriate,” he said. “The idea that they might be field testing them on people who are doing nothing more than exercising their first amendment rights is disturbing.”

As the article points out, there is no evidence - whatsoever - that such a thing exists. Mythbusters debunked it. Snopes has not at this point as far as I can tell. But hey, it's early yet.

Oh, as to the suggestions mentioned in the title to this post: Brown trousers or a cork. Have fun, kiddies.

Anti-Semitic Rant Hosted By Official Obama Website

My headline sounds like pure hyperbole.  Unfortunately it's true.

Obamanism is the cure for Clintonitis that has devastated America and I hope Jews all over US rally around Obama and support him to win both the nomination and the Presidency because after he wins, he would help the Jews and Israel as well as settle the Middle East problems.

However, if Jews betray Obama and he loses, Africans worldwide would consider it a betrayal to the whole African people and will never forgive world Jewry.

In retaliation, (eye for eye, remember!) Africa would consider expelling all Jews from Africa who have been mining African Gold and Diamond and enriching themselves for many centuries.

It was African gold and diamond that built international finance, trade and banking that the Jews (Rothschild, Warbug, Rockefeller and others) dominate.

It was African gold and diamond that built Jewish banks and wealth worldwide.

The Obama campaign has since removed this hate-filled screed, but did so without comment and after it had been up for over a month.  Only when the Right-o-Sphere blogs noticed did they discover a conscience.

The simple removal of the offending material is not enough.  In fact it falls pitifully short.  It is incumbent upon the Obama campaign to either,

A) Show this was the work of someone who hacked the Obama website.  Hell, even blame the Clinton campaign as long as you can prove it.  Or,

B) Publicly expose who the writer of this material is, and disavow, disapprove, and denounce them.  Oh and fire them outright if they are drawing a salary.

Ignoring this will be tantamount to approval of it.

Soaking The “Rich”

One commenter has made several comments favoring taxing the "rich" at a 90% rate. He speaks glowingly of the tax rates of 90% during the Eisenhower years. Actually, it is just a tad more complicated than the commenter explains it. Using the historical tax rate tables from this site the highest tax bracket was reached in 1952-53. The rate of 92% applied to incomes of $400,000 or more. Here's where the fun starts. Using this official inflation calculator published by the US Federal Reserve, that $400,000 income in 1953 would be $3,105,617.98 in 2007 dollars. 

But the latest tax proposal already on the table from Charlie Rangel declares that anyone with an income of $150,000 is "rich" today. That is somewhat less than $20,000 in 1953 dollars.

So that "fair" 90% tax rate would take all but of $15,000 from today's "rich" leaving them with an after tax income close to the poverty line.  Actually less than poverty level for a family of four, as mine is. You would literally be better off quitting work and going on welfare.  

Fair? Or enslavement to the state?  

A World Gone Mad

Due to European Union environmental regulations as well as British law subservient to those rules, a local council in Britain had to spend a little money to relocate four newts before a building project could go forward. How little a sum, you ask?

£60,000. To move four newts which are locally plentiful.

Legislation protecting an endangered species of newt is to be challenged after a council was forced to spend £60,000 moving four of the creatures.

Officials at Cheshire County Council are writing to the Government and European Union chiefs to challenge the rules governing great crested newts.

Councillor Barrie Hardern, who has written to Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, said the newts had to be given a new habitat as a part of a planning application for building work at Fallibroome High School in Macclesfield.

He said: "Around £15,000 per newt seems a ludicrous sum of money to me.

"They are a legally protected species under EU regulations because there are parts of Europe where they are quite rare.

"However, in Cheshire we have in the order of 16,000 ponds and newts are widespread and locally abundant.

"The EU regulations together with UK legislation carry substantial fines if we do not protect the newts as part of planning applications. I am very concerned about taxpayers' money being used in this way."

There are an estimated 400,000 of that particular species of newt in Britain. Around $120,000 of taxpayer's money thrown away to send four of the newts to a new location.

Utter madness. 

Life Imitates April Fools Hoax

Last April, I got snagged by what turned out to be an April Fools Day hoax. I linked it on April 5th, the byline stated April 3rd, but it had been originally published - as a joke - on the 1st. Only now, less than a year later, it is no longer a joke. The hoax was that outdoor barbecues had been banned - or rather taxed heavily - out of concern for global warming. But it isn't funny any longer, folks. The EU is debating banning outdoor propane heaters right now.

Patio heaters could be banned by the European Union over fears that they are contributing to global warming. 

Euro-MPs will today vote on energy efficiency proposals to phase out the sale of the popular gas-burning appliances which are increasingly found outside bars, cafés and restaurants since the indoor smoking ban.

Fiona Hall, a Liberal Democrat MEP, has led the calls for the ban, which is expected to be endorsed by the parliament in Brussels.

"Patio heaters are scandalous because they are burning fossil fuels in the open sky, so producing vast quantities of CO2 with very little heat benefit," she said.

But the proposal has been attacked by publicans, who say bars and pubs need the heaters for customers driven outside by smoking bans.

The trade has invested £86.5 million in heaters over the past 12 months and a ban could cost pubs, cafés and restaurants an estimated £250 million a year in lost business.

Oddly enough, one of the members of the UN Convention on Climate Change is saying that Fiona Hall is completely wrong in her quest:

"The overall impact of outdoor heaters on global warming and greenhouse gas emissions is very minimal," said Dr Eric Johnson, of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Who's laughing now? While the joke worked because it was believable, now that reality has caught up, what will they do next April?

A Clash Of Green

Beggars belief, it does. California prosecutors are pursuing charges against a couple on behalf of their aggrieved neighbor. The neighbor alleges that his solar panels are being shaded by the couple's sequoia trees. No, I really am not making this up.

Talk about a clash of cherished green values.

In a case with statewide significance, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office is pursuing a Sunnyvale couple under a little-known California law because redwood trees in their backyard cast a shadow over their neighbor's solar panels.

Richard Treanor and Carolynn Bissett own a Prius and consider themselves environmentalists. But they refuse to cut down any of the trees behind their house on Benton Street, saying they've done nothing wrong.

"We're just living here in peace. We want to be left alone," said Bissett, who with her husband has spent $25,000 defending themselves against criminal charges. "We support solar power, but we thought common sense would prevail."

Their neighbor Mark Vargas considers himself an environmentalist, too. His 10-kilowatt solar system, which he installed in 2001, is so big he pays only about $60 a year in electrical bills. He drives an electric car.

Vargas said he first asked Treanor and Bissett to chop down the eight redwoods, which the couple had planted from 1997 to 1999 along the fence separating their yards. Later, he asked them to trim the trees to about 15 feet.

"I offered to pay for the removal of the trees. I said let's try to work something out," Vargas said. "They said no to everything."

He installed the panels.

After several years of squabbling and failed mediation, Vargas filed a complaint with the Santa Clara County district attorney arguing that the trees reduce the amount of electricity he can generate. In 2005, prosecutors agreed.

They sent Treanor and Bissett a letter informing them that they were in violation of California's Solar Shade Control Act and that if they didn't "abate the violation" within 30 days, they would face fines of up to $1,000 a day.

The law in question was signed into effect by Jerry Brown in 1978. Elsewhere in the state it is widely ignored. This is a nasty little situation. It appears that the solar panels were installed after the trees were planted. This essentially puts the people who have trees at a distinct disadvantage. I could see this being used - intentionally - as a weapon against people, and that makes it a real problem.

May The Force Be…… Something Or Other….

Last year I posted about a couple of Brits who were petitioning the United Nations to recognize their religion. Said religion being that of Jedi. Yes, Jedi. As in the George Lucas Star Wars movies Jedi. Well, a bit more than a year on and two bothers in Britain have opened their very own church of Jedi.

A Jedi "church" has been born in a galaxy far far away - North Wales.

The Holyhead chapter of the self-styled Jedi Church, which claims up to 400,000 members worldwide, has sprung up thanks to brothers Barney and Daniel Jones, both Star Wars obsessives.

The "church" is only one of a handful around the planet, said hairdresser Barney, 26, the Anglesey Order Minister, also known as Master Jonba Hehol.

"Some people think it will be quite interesting but lots of people will ridicule us because it seems quite nerdy but we've had a good reaction so far," he said.

"We think of it as proper lifestyle enhancement and it should be taken seriously - it can't be bad if it makes life better.

"We live normal day-to-day lives.

"We are trying to take away the humour of it all and bring more structure so people take it more seriously."

The "religion" was born as a result of a nationwide joke in the 2001 census when nearly 400,000 claimed their belief system was Jedi.

And now Barney and musician Daniel, 21 - or Master Morda Hehol, self-appointed UK "church" leader - are getting their new "religion" off the ground.

"It's serious," said Barney.

They have organized their religion around the teachings - and I am not making this up - of a movie prop.

"We will have teachings based on Yoda - the 900-year-old grand master - as well as readings, essays submitted, meditation and relaxation, visualisation and discuss healthy eating.

"Quite nerdy" doesn't quite describe it. "Seriously in need of a life" is closer.

The Magic Of The Theater

I thought that Yale Dean of Student Affairs Betty Trachtenberg was, well, nuts, when she demanded that student theatrical groups remove all prop weapons from their productions. In fact, I had fun with that whole incident. Little did I realize that Trachtenberg was actually a little ahead of the curve on that particular bit of madness. Because the British government have taken it a step further.

They are demanding gun lockers for plastic weaponry.

A village amateur dramatic group performing Robinson Crusoe has had to tell police about the use of plastic swords because of health and safety fears.

The Carnon Downs Drama Group, at Perranwell, Cornwall, must lock up its two plastic cutlasses, six wooden swords and a toy gun when they are not in use and appoint a "responsible guardian" for them.

The group said it informed police about the use of replica weapons after studying new health and safety guidelines and new legislation to crack down on violent crime. Later this month, about 700 people are due to attend six performances of the group's pantomime, featuring several swashbuckling sword fights.

Seriously, seriously demented, folks. This is PC on steroids. And this is exactly why British men are rebelling against the tyranny of the forces of the Politically Correct by building ever more lethal rubber band weaponry:

(H/T to Lars Walker over at Brandywine books for that gem of a video. In the credits at the end of the video, I'd only offer one small correction: "I am become death, the destroyer of floppies.")

And We’ve Arrived

I riffed off of Mark Steyn's latest column in The Orange County Register just yesterday. While he examined the particular level of insanity of those who refuse to breed to save the planet, I asked how long it would be until some of them went further. Steyn found on already today. No, it is not retroactive birth control yet. But it's getting close.

Here's one for Jonah's Liberal Fascism files. Bigshot eco-panjandrum lays down the law:

Hillman, senior fellow emeritus at the Policy Studies Institute, says carbon rationing is the only way to ensure that the world avoids the worst effects of climate change. And he says that the problems caused by burning fossil fuels are so serious that governments might have to implement rationing against the will of the people.

"When the chips are down I think democracy is a less important goal than is the protection of the planet from the death of life, the end of life on it," he says. "This has got to be imposed on people whether they like it or not."

That item comes from Kate at Small Dead Animals. Who also posts this gem of a video. Back in April, Naomi Wolf, crying her name as it were, explained how to get a fascist America in ten easy steps. I countered that using the example of global warming. I think I was all too right.

UPDATE: Rich Horton isn't even sure it takes ten steps.

The Plot(s) Sicken

Good lord. The New York Post reports some poll results that should make thinking people very nervous.

November 24, 2007 — Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe the federal government had warnings about 9/11 but decided to ignore them, a national survey found.

And that's not the only conspiracy theory with a huge number of true believers in the United States.

The poll found that more than one out of three Americans believe Washington is concealing the truth about UFOs and the Kennedy assassination - and most everyone is sure the rise in gas prices is one vast oil-industry conspiracy.

Sixty-two percent of those polled thought it was "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that federal officials turned a blind eye to specific warnings of the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

Only 30 percent said the 9/11 theory was "not likely," according to the Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll.

I cannot find the poll itself. I'm hoping that the poll is just plain wrong here. It was bad last year, but this shows an enormous deterioration. This is madness writ large. Without the raw data from the poll, it is impossible to judge how good the poll results are or how much overlap there is in the groups of conspiracy theorists. I would like to see all that before I write anything further on this matter.

American Victim Idol

On October 30th I asked what was wrong with George Washington University. That was in response to a report that swastikas had been drawn around campus - particularly in front of the dormitory doors of Jewish students. Recall also that only a short while before the swastika incidents that a leftist group had tried to smear campus conservatives by posting hoax anti-Muslim fliers around campus. It turns out that the latter incident has rather a lot in common with the former. Because what is wrong with George Washington University is beginning to look like an episode of a new reality television show, American Victim Idol.

A student at George Washington University has admitted drawing swastikas on her own door, university officials say:

After evaluating evidence from a hidden camera positioned in response to the swastika postings in Mitchell Hall, University Police have linked the student who filed the complaints to several of the incidents.

Following a final interview with investigators today, the student admitted responsibility for those incidents.

The student in question is an 18-year-old freshman. The GW Hatchet reports:

Using footage from a hidden video camera, the University Police Department linked freshman Sarah Marshak with the vandalism. She will now appear before Student Judicial Services and could face federal and District charges, a spokesperson announced Monday afternoon.

In an interview with The Hatchet Monday afternoon, Marshak, who had been a reporter for this newspaper, categorically denied drawing the swastikas on her residence hall door.

Marshak saw six swastikas on her residence hall door, where she lived alone.

GWU failed to take action against seven students who perpetrated an anti-Muslim hoax against Young America's Foundation last month. Marshak's hate hoax began Oct. 23, and FBI agents were called to assist in the investigation.

Robert Stacy McCain points out that it is a longing for fame on the part of the "victim" - and the quickest route to that 15 minutes is by being lauded in the press as a victim of "hate crimes". Even if you have to inflict them on yourself to make it happen. What's also going wrong at GWU is an administration that fails to stomp - hard - on cretinous people who have been caught red-handed faking hate and trying to smear others with their actions. You reap what you sow, folks. The administration of GWU failed to take action against the real purveyors of hate and have, as a result, promoted faked hate as a means to publicity and fame.

Welcome to American Victim Idol.