Month: January 2013

Anticipating the upcoming Great California High-Speed Rail Disaster of 2013+.

“+” because this is going to crash and burn for years.

Let me summarize this LA Times article discussing the looming …singularity… of fiscal destruction.

  • California wants a high-speed rail system which will apparently solve all of their problems (“Then why don’t they have one, already?”  “Because shut up, that’s why”).
  • This is scheduled to cost 68 Billion dollars.  $68,000,000,000.
  • It will cost more.
  • Meanwhile, the state is deep in debt – and it’s an open question whether Jerry Brown and his Merry Band of Democrats have actually managed to stabilize revenues.
  • For example, I am waiting (with more than a little morbid curiosity) to see what California’s actual 1Q 2012 tax revenues are like.  I suspect that they’re going to be… memorable.
  • But let’s get back to the high-speed rail.  It’s not built yet.
  • That’s fine; construction isn’t supposed to start for another six months…
  • Oh, wait, not all of the land for the railway has been purchased, yet.
  • Oh, wait, none of the land for the railway has been purchased, yet.
  • Which is why the start of construction has already been delayed.

Continue reading Anticipating the upcoming Great California High-Speed Rail Disaster of 2013+.

Worthless Obama Job Council at risk from equally worthless second-term agenda.

Hey, remember Obama’s Job Council?

(pause)

Well, don’t feel bad; neither does anybody else. It’s uncertain whether said Council will be reauthorized when its charter runs out… what? No, not largely because it almost never meets and doesn’t really do anything when it does meet except make some executive order suggestions that had precisely zero effect on the unemployment rate. No, the Council is probably most at risk because Barack Obama doesn’t actually really think that job creation should be a priority anyway:

Among the council’s recommendations were to reduce government regulations. But in his second term, Obama is expected to pursue a slew of mandates via regulations, most notably on climate change.

The council’s winding-down could be seen as emblematic of a shift in emphasis by the administration. While Obama fought his reelection campaign primarily on “kitchen table” issues and a promise to strengthen the middle class, he has turned increasingly toward traditional progressive goals such as gun control, environmental protection and immigration reform in recent weeks.

Continue reading Worthless Obama Job Council at risk from equally worthless second-term agenda.

I’m…. with the President on this one, actually.

(Via Hot Air Headlines) I’m as shocked as you are, honestly.

Football’s first fan isn’t sure he’d let his son play the game, in light of the impact it takes on its players.

“I’m a big football fan, but I have to tell you, if I had a son, I’d have to think long and hard before I let him play football,” President Barack Obama tells The New Republic.

I have two sons, and in light of recent research I am going to think long and hard before I let them play football. I find the spate of recent wrap-your-kids-in-gauze policies that our culture glories in to be essentially silly, but I am not going to pretend that regularly getting hit on the head cannot have long-term consequences simply because liberals tend to be the ones pushing out contrary-evidence research findings.  Especially since these are my kids that we’re talking about; if I don’t think that something’s safe for them, then it’s not and the subject’s closed.

Then again, I’d rather watch hockey than football anyway.

Moe Lane

PS: To clarify, I’m not saying Change the sport.  I’m saying I don’t think that I want my kids playing the sport unless it changes.

Reminder on redistricting.

People who whine about Republican redistricting absolutely HATE it when you bring up Section V of the Voting Rights Act, and will resolutely ignore (if you let them) the racial gerrymandering that it more or less mandates.  So be sure to ask those people point-blank if their redistricting ‘reform’ position means that they’re going to openly advocate for eliminating majority-minority districts – and do that preferably when they’re in front of an audience with a decent amount of minorities in it.

Personally, I’m not fond of gerrymandering.  But the aforementioned Democratic whining on the subject mostly comes down to white Democrats whining about Republicans because they don’t have the guts to criticize minority Democrats; so I can’t say that my sympathy for the whiners’ plight is overwhelming, sorry.

QotD, ….HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Edition.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (bolding mine):

As the president accepts the resignations of some of his top lieutenants in the Cabinet, the White House and especially the Office of Presidential Personnel will expend tremendous effort in finding qualified, suitable successors. Surely, the president and his staff have prepared for the current process for months.

(pause)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Via Hot Air Headlines.

Moe Lane

PS: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

New York gun owners planning to ignore New York gun registration?

Never give an order that you know is going to be disobeyed. It merely makes it easier for people to ignore the next order, too.

New York Governor Cuomo the Junior may have rushed through his new gun control law with such speed that police will avoid its restrictions only through the blessed miracle of selective enforcement, but he may have a little trouble getting the state’s firearms owners to attend his party. The new law requires owners of those scary-looking rifles known as “assault weapons” to register their property (amidst assurances that, oh no, the registration lists will never be used for confiscation), but gun rights activists are actively urging gun owners to defy the new mandate.

Also… check out Reason’s URL link itself.  Surely that’s not intentional.

Surely.

Via Hot Air Headlines.