The John Belusi classic Animal House has been vindicated, from Bloomberg:
Let’s start with studies showing that fraternity members tend to earn more money after college than other graduates do, even if the record shows their grades aren’t as good. That’s quite a tradeoff: Slack off in class, party more — then still earn more money. Sign me up!
Hat tip: Instant Glen.
Go ahead, explain to me how additional government regulation would have solved this problem.
Two Amtrak maintenance workers were using opioids or cocaine when they were struck and killed south of Philadelphia last year by a passenger train whose engineer had marijuana in his system, according to federal officials.
The Congressional response Is tragically predictable..
The revelation and the nationwide opioid epidemic led House Democrats on Tuesday to ask Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao to require transportation industry workers — truck drivers, bus drivers and railroad operators — to be tested for four prescription opioids.
The trouble of course is that these things have been regulated for quite some time now, as even the article suggests. Since we see that the government regulation in place has worked so very well, the obvious question that springs from this is what good additional regulation what do? Obviously, none. But when all you have is hammers, every problem is a nail.
Keep in mind that this is a government-run rail system. Can you imagine private entities where this occurred not being driven out of business by the government? But since this is already a government-run system, nothing at all will happen.
Just go about your lives, citizens. Nothing to see here. Oh, and do continue to use public transit. We have to save the planet.
Say what you will about the NFL… I will in all probability accept what you say without argument.
However I will say this also. It is probably one of the last places on Earth that is run on pure meritocracy. In other words, you either produce or you’re gone. The ones who can produce very well get paid very well.
It seems to me that the claims of Colin Kaepernick that the reason he’s not getting a job in the NFL because of racism are on their face the highest grade of fertilizer, given that the number of successful ( multi-millionaire) black players is higher in fact then any other racial subgroup.
I’ve said I’ve said it before and I will say it again Colin Kaepernick’s level of play, his skill-set simply wasn’t there and his mouth didn’t help the situation at all. He deserves what he gets.
That said it seems to me that what is being demanded in cases such as Kaepernick’s is the end of pure meritocracy in sports, in the name of “equality”.
And mind you, that situation is in large part separate from his publicly expressed anti-American attitude that is drawn so much ire from the fans.
It seems to me that the American public is reached a threshold in the recognition that their culture their values their very lives are under attack. The reaction to the NFL is part and parcel of a reaction to all of that on many different fronts… The NFL being only one of many.
I’ll be discussing this one further as time goes on of course.
When it comes to the Second Amendment, there seems to be two minds thought. The sane and the free who either exercise or abide by the god given right to keep and bear arms, and the demented who proclaim that the mere procession of of firearm will cause instant insanity and mass murder, from the demented brain of Senator Chuckles Schumer, via the New York Post:
The city could turn into the Wild West ?if an NRA-backed plan becomes law and allows any tourist with a concealed-weapons permit to carry a hidden gun in New York, Sen. Chuck Schumer said Sunday.
“How low can you go?” Schumer (D-NY) said of the National Rifle Assocation, referring to its support of the proposed “Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act,” which would override New York’s strict gun laws.
The easterner Owen Wister Chuckles spin a scary tale of the Wild Wild West, mean while the Wild Wild West seems rather peaceful, from Station Gossip:
In Texas People Take Their Guns Everywhere with Them (9 pics)
The country adopted an “open carry bill” in 2015 that allows people to carry arms openly in public places. The law went into effect on January 1, 2016 and now it is common to see lots of people wearing guns on their person while shopping or eating out.
So open carry seems to work in wild west Texas, home of J.R. Ewing and George W. Bush, but Chuckles seems to think New Yawkers are too stupid to allow to carry concealed.
Harvey Weinstein has been thrown to the rats. Barack Obama not so. In the following video New York Slimes reporter Jodi Kantor does very job of laying what is known about Affair Weinstein and what is conjecture. Then a brief mention is made of the former First Daughter’s, Malia Obama’s, internship with Weinstein, at which time CBS hostess, Gayle King, instantly presents conjecture as if it were fact, “If [President and Mrs. Obama] they would have suspected this, they would have never done it”, video:
It would be comforting to believe that loving parents would never have thrown their daughter to a predatory wolf. Of course protecting children, either born or unborn, never has exactly been a priority for President Obama.
Kantor laid out a process for sound reporting. In, in the same studio at the same time, King than ignores every principle Kantor described s blind rush to defend the former president. King barks too quickly. King does not know what the former president knew, and much less what he suspected. Given that Malia Obama is protected by the Secret Service, it is reasonable believe the government knew something. Further, the former president has a history getting sealed court records unsealed.
Today is Columbus Day. So Christopher Columbus has become the social justice warrior target du jour(1). Another day, another SJW outage. The latest outrage, and latest brain flatulence, from the New York Post:
NEW YORK — Is it time to say arrivederci to Christopher Columbus?
A movement to abolish Columbus Day and replace it with Indigenous Peoples Day has gained momentum in some parts of the U.S., with Los Angeles in August becoming the biggest city yet to decide to stop honoring the Italian explorer and instead recognize victims of colonialism.
Ok, Columbus Day has devolved into yet another government paid holiday for our overpaid federal employees, and scaled down version of Saint Patrick’s Day for our Italians.
However, if comes down to either Italian-American Day or Indigenous Peoples Day, I vote for the Wops. The Italians gave us one of our national food, to wit pizza. Our indigenous peoples gave us what tobacco and gaming casinos(2). We all have to eat. Nobody needs to smoke or gamble.
Moreover, just like a infant with soiled nappies, there is no making a social justice warrior happy. It is was no time to bother.
For observations about Columbus, the man not the holiday, see a previous post. Unlike two years ago, today is wet.
1. Look mom, I am typing French.
2. If our indigenous people want Indigenous Peoples’ Day, I say the price should be closing down all the cigarette shops and all the gaming casinos.
It amuses me no end that so many leftists in this country have conniption fits about the fact that Americans can hold and utilize firearms and yet they don’t seem to have any problem at all with the little gargoyle in North Korea having nuclear weapons.
Wasn’t the idea about saving lives?
The death toll in Las Vegas while tragic was minuscule in comparison to what we see on a monthly basis in Chicago.
I thought the idea was about saving lives.
The Bitsblog Nina Burleigh Award, for being a political whore goes to Ashley Judd. Background on Burleigh, from Wikipedia, 1998:
“I would be happy to give him[B.J. Clinton] a blowjob just to thank him for keeping abortion legal. I think American women should be lining up with their Presidential kneepads on to show their gratitude for keeping the theocracy off our backs.”
2007:
“I said it (back in 1998, but a good quote has eternal life) because I thought it was high time for someone to tweak the white, middle-aged beltway gang taking Clinton to task for sexual harassment. These men had neither the personal experience nor the credentials to know sexual harassment when they saw it, nor to give a good goddamn about it if they did. The insidious use of sexual harassment laws to bring down a president for his pro-female politics was the context in which I spoke.”
Feminists don’t care how a man acts. Rather they only care about his political positions.
Ms Judd is a feminist, from Rush Limbaughm on Inauguration Day, speaking of her President:
I am a naaaaasty woman. (cheers) I didn’t know devils could be resurrected, but I feel Hitler in these streets. A mustache traded for a toupee. Nazis renamed the cabinet. I am not as nasty as your own daughter being your favorite sex symbol, (cheers) like your wet dreams infused with your own genes but, yeah, I’m a nasty woman. A loud, vulgar proud woman.
Limbaugh speaking of a Judd encounter with Harvey Weinstein:
Weinstein was staying at the Peninsula in Beverly Hills and she got a meeting, long time ago, was a budding actress. She was gonna get to meet Harvey Weinstein. She gets up there and he’s in a bathrobe and asks if he can either give her a massage or if she wants to watch him take a shower. And she said it’s Harvey Weinstein, I can’t insult him, but I gotta find the fastest way out of there. So she was sexually harassed. And Weinstein is a prototypical liberal and you’ll find pictures of him and Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton all over the place.
So Ms Judd feels free to insult her President, as is her right, but she found herself unwilling to offend a sexual predator, a man who might give her a role in a movie. Ms Judd may choose to describe herself as nasty, her right. I call her weak.
As to Mr. Weinstein either he become expendable, as former successful movie producer, or is collateral damage in the attempt to kneecap any future presidential run for Mrs. Clinton.
Michelle Obama, thinks of women as a democrat cattle class. That is they should just shut up and do as told, just like cattle. Inez Feltscher Stepman, Federalist:
“As a white woman, I personally find this [lack of a unanimous female vote] to be extremely disappointing,” laments Lauren Levinson on the popular fashion and beauty site PopSugar. “No matter what your stance on the economy, foreign policy, or other issues, we women must rally together to elect a candidate in 2020 who openly respects our gender, takes sexual assault seriously (and hasn’t been accused of it), and will actively campaign on behalf of women’s rights, be it the choice to have an abortion or equal pay.”
Points:
One, white men do not vote a unified block, and nobody dares to suggest they should. So why does Ms Levinson want to deny to women the some power to think for themselves as men.
Two, why does Ms Levinson simple dismiss economics, save for so-called equal pay, and foreign policy. Are women voters not suppose to care about their husband’s or children’s ability to support her family.
Three, Ms Levinson is confused. Women are not a gender, a property of nouns, but rather a sex. Ms Levinson confuses a god given trait with a mere social construct.
Four, as to sexual assault, the term is so vague as render it meaningless. Needless to say, specific crimes should be reported to the appropriate legal authorities.
Five, does Ms Levinson support the right of a mother to kill her unborn child without either the knowledge or consent of his father or does Ms Levinson support equal rights for women? Ms Levinson has make up her mind.
Six, it is already illegal for a employer to pay the different sexes different pay for doing equal work. Men and women receive different pay because they tend to do different work.
Say what you will about San Juan mayor Yulin Cruz. She just isn’t very smart. She got duped by CNN and Anderson Cooper effort to make her look like a fool. See the photo.
Mayor Cruz is complaining about the lack of federal response which if she would only turn around, she would see. Maybe Mayor Cruz wants us to believe that is she doesn’t look at the aid, it does not exist.
Hat tip and reax, American Thinker.
Anderson [Cooper] didn’t ask why supplies that are so desperately needed by the people were being used as a photo prop instead.
He also didn’t comment on the fact that nine days after Hurricane Maria hit, “Less than half of the 8,000 members of the Puerto Rico National Guard are on duty” according to the Washington Post. Or how the Teamsters Union, a branch of the Democrat Party, refused to deliver supplies, instead using the hurricane as contract negotiating leverage.
Obviously, Mayor Cruz believes in the Ray Nagin and not Ronald Reagan school of leadership. If as Mayor Cruz says “people are dying”, then confiscate the idle trucks and muster up some citizens for truck driving duty.
San Juan Mayor Yulin Cruz, the Bitsblog Boob of the Day.
My thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by the Las Vegas shooting last night.
That said, I can’t help but think that it only would have taken one good guy with a gun to save most of the lives involved.
I’m in the process of going through some of my older emails and trying to catch up. In my defense, I was without cell service for a while because of a broken phone.
Now that I’m catching up I’m starting to come up with some real gems that have been sitting in my inbox for a while. As an example this little piece of crap from Useless Toady.
It’s it’s an article entitled
“Rigged: Forced into debt.Worked past exhaustion. Left with nothing.”
The article’s author is Brett Murphy. No not the actor, as this one is an economics major at UC Berkeley. Frankly I can’t think of anyone less qualified to speak on matters of Economics than anyone having anything to do with UC Berkeley. That point aside…
Los Angeles — Samuel Talavera Jr. did everything his bosses asked.
Most days, the trucker would drive more than 16 hours straight hauling LG dishwashers and Kumho tires to warehouses around Los Angeles, on their way to retail stores nationwide.
He rarely went home to his family. At night, he crawled into the back of his cab and slept in the company parking lot.
For all of that, he took home as little as 67 cents a week.
So, before this guy even gets three paragraphs into the article I have to call BS.
$0.67? Who’s going to work for that? Obviously this was a One-Shot low point brought on by factors that the author doesn’t bother to mention.
16 hour days? I would be most interested in knowing how they manage to pull that one off, since you’re only allowed to drive for 11 hours in a 14 hour period.
Now this is an extremely long article and I’m not going to bother quoting any more of it here, particularly given the already described half-truths and outright lies. But suffice it to say that the central character in the story is the supposedly victim of a trucking company leasing arrangement.
And, before you start getting tuned up about that, I’ll say upfront that leasing arrangements generally speaking don’t work to the advantage of the driver. I have a number of friends in the business who have signed on to lease agreements that I now hear are finding out it’s something they shouldn’t have done.
Now, of course being from Berkeley, he blames all the right people for the problems faced by this particular driver. Greedy shipping companies, greedy trucking companies, greedy leasing companies, and so on. Just the kind of thing that you would expect from the abject morons coming out of UC Berkeley.
What the article doesn’t mention however is this whole chain of events started because of the myth of global warming.
That’s right…. California in its Infinite Wisdom decided to outlaw the trucks these people were making money with. Granted, these owner operators weren’t rich by any stretch of the imagination, but they were making a comfortable living with the trucks that they had. The ones that were paid for.
And Along Comes the California government and outlaws the trucks they had to supposedly save the planet. Now, if you want to stay in that business you need a truck. You also need the capital to buy a new truck which of course the majority of the drivers at the time did not have. The trucking companies want to stay in business as well and the only way that they’re going to be able to do that is front the capital for these guys to get newer Vehicles. So they bought the trucks and leased them back to the drivers. A less than optimal situation for both driver and Company, but it was the only choice to keep the freight moving. Governmental intervention forced them into this position.
Of course the newer with all the mandated anti-pollution garbage on them are not nearly as reliable and on a cost per mile basis are far more expensive to run and insure. More expensive in fact than any of the estimates of the time they came out.
And so nobody’s making money from the LA ports anymore comparatively speaking as a direct result of anti-pollution laws laid down by the California government. And as I say this being the biggest factor of all in these troubles somehow managed to slip by our government educated leftist writing this article.
All this goes directly to what I’ve been saying for 10 years now… If you wanted to screw up an already screwed up economy even further, can you possibly imagine a more effective way of doing it then messing with the hours of service all in the name of safety of course, and messing with the reliability of the trucks that ship every good and commodity in this country,by means of the EPA?
I’m going to leave you with two points about all of this. We have all observed that as goes California with regards to the global warming myth so goes the rest of the country eventually. The problem is that they are experiencing in the transportation industry in California is Raising prices uncontrollably. And of course the government doesn’t care.
The second point is that we now see chatter out in California about outlawing the internal combustion engine entirely and going all electric for both cars and trucks anywhere in the state of California.
Leaving aside for the moment the issues involved with having to replace every gasoline fired vehicle in the state of California what about the trucks? The technology isn’t even there yet for either cars or trucks. I have serious doubts that it ever will be. Even making the overlarge assumption that it will be, the cost that will be imposed by this nonsense is astronomical.
And what about the environment that were supposedly trying to save? Ask the question of how many nuclear power plants they’re going to build in California and how many dollars are going to be spent building out the infrastructure which will never be able to handle the additional load imposed by electric vehicles, will generally end the conversation with any proponents of this nonsense.
Now, as for the truckers out in California, we see an upcoming scheduled protest just after the first of the month, against the federal government as regards to electronic logs. And we see protest being set up in Fresno and other California towns. Of course the demand is for governmental action on the matter. It is certainly an understandable reaction to an overbearing all powerful governments. But it’s misguided.
The problem here is governmental intrusion. Adding more governmental intrusion is not going to solve their problems, it’s going to make them worse. The solution to the issue is getting government out of the way.
Alas, I think as a culture we have lost the idea and the ideal that governments should be restrained and minimalized. What we’re seeing right now is a direct result.
Edith Macias is an ignorant, vulgar, rude, unpatriotic, thief, video:
Hat tip: Paul Mirengoff, Power Line.
Ms Macias accuses her country of mass genocide, but declines an invitation to leave. Ms. Macias is entitled to her opinion, such as it is. However, I fail she how she can promote the changes she claims to support, by insulting every person who deigns to hold an opinion different than her own.
I have little use for the United Nations, and would love to see the rats’ nest exiled from Turtle Bay. That said, this video is beautiful, professional diplomats stunned into silence by the truth, video:
Hat tip: Professor William A. Jacobson, Legal Insurrection.
In shades of Laura Bush, First Lady Melania Trump donated children books, including several Dr. Seuss Titles, to fifty some schools, from Washington Examiner:
Surely, no one would think to politicize this simple gesture from the first lady, right?
Meet Cambridgeport Elementary School librarian Liz Phipps Soeiro, who rejected the donation this week in an extraordinarily condescending and ungracious open letter to the first lady.
It appears Ms Soeiro never read, or at least comprehended Emily Post.
Edit(DL)
