JBD

OBAMA, DUDE, YOU JUST CRACK ME UP! HERE'S JBD'S PLAN FOR K-12 EDUCATION.

His big plan to get the economy moving? Government spending on infrastructure.

Yeah, that's funny in and of itself, but here's the part that sent me rolling:

This hits very close to home for me. The Goddess of Love, KC Jones and I spent nearly 10 years working on school modernization and computerization. In fact, he's still doing it.

The buzz phrases "school reform" and "classroom modernization" and "class size reduction" and "computers in classrooms" are used every election to get bond issues passed so school districts can further fatten up their payrolls and add to their overhead.

Lots of money is spent on planning and designs and consultants, then even more is spent on plaster and paint and air conditioners and doors and lights and computers and networks and you name it. There is never enough, so they go back to the state for more so that they can "fully leverage their modernization dollars".

From the E-Rate program, to the Digital High School initiative, to previous rounds of modernization, to No Child Left Behind (which actually at least tried to set standards), to special ed, and to any number of other grants, programs and bonds, the end results are always the same - lots of money spent, no measurable impact on student performance,  bigger bureaucracy, higher payrolls, and always another call for more of the same.

No. Enough. Here's the definitive plan for K-12 education (click where it says "more", below):
more...

Posted by: JBD at 05:27 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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LAST ACTION FOR OUR NON HERO

Now that Arnie is panicking and looking for a way out of the fiscal Armageddon that we elected him specifically to prevent, he should take a lesson from and see his future in a city not far from Sacramento.

The web site that I got that link from has lots more inside government goodies. I'm going to check it regularly for more "belly of the beast" dispatches.

We must banish unions, especially public employee unions, ASAP. If we don't, we will never recover financially, and we will head down the same road to socialism as Europe.  See you on the barricades, parasites.

Can't be done, you say? Check this out. All it takes is leadership.

Posted by: JBD at 10:23 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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THE PROPHET MOHAMMED? NEVER HAD A DINNER.

Catching up on my Spengler: in this column he links to and analyzes a recent statement by an Islamic scholar who says that the Prophet Mohammed never actually existed, at least not in the way the huge majority of Koranic Islamist believers profess to know him. You know, the guy who can't be made into a cartoon without causing worldwide riots? Yeah, that guy, the true "root cause" of most of the trouble in the world.

This is good news. I always thought that there was no force or logic in the West that could change the fanatic Muslims. The only way to change them was from the inside; for Islam to have its own Reformation. This may be the first sign of that happening.

more...

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STIMULUS = INFLATION

Following up on this post, here is a link to somebody who actually knows what they are talking about who makes the same point.

Government spending does not "stimulate" the economy. Period.

Posted by: JBD at 08:19 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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IT'S NOT A BUSINESS PLAN, IT'S A DISNEY SCRIPT.

Jim Manzi at NRO explains the difference between what GM submitted to Congress and a real business plan.

The difference? A business plan is required to show how the company will make money. What GM gave congress is a political document designed to help politicians make socialism sound like business.

Without, you know, all that annoying profit.

Pathetic. Bankruptcy is the only answer, because nothing else describes their current condition.

Happily, the unions are panicking. I say that unless they can show some value that is added by workers belonging to the union, they should be eliminated from the discussion. Since there is no value added by unionism, they are not a party to the discussion.

Period.

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SLAPPED ME TO SLEEP, THEN SLAPPED ME FOR SLEEPIN'.

You sue the bartender to force him to sell you strong alcoholic drinks you can't afford.

You sue that same bartender again when he didn't prevent you from driving home drunk and causing a massive wreck.

Now you're going to sue him one more time because he didn't tell you that the liquor you were drinking would get you drunk.

It's not my fault. It's never my fault.

Posted by: JBD at 01:51 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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AT LAST, THEY ARE BUILDING MY ELECTRIC CAR

Electric cars have always been a favorite of mine, and I've been waiting for somebody to bring to market the idea most famously used in the lunar buggy - build the motors into the wheels.

Well, the Frogs have done it, and have even gone several steps beyond that as well. Not only does each wheel include the motor, it includes a dynamic brake (non-friction) as well as a caliper brake (mechanical) and an active electric suspension as well.

So the only component of the drive system contained in the body of the car is the battery. The link includes a short video of the prototype.

Advantages:

• No gas, engine, tranny, drive shaft, exhaust, or suspension in the body.
• No tune-ups, oil changes, coolant, tranny fluid, power steering, power brakes, or any other fluid systems to fail, leak, rot, contaminate or pollute.
  
• One wheel dies, you still have 3 to get you where you need to go. I wouldn't be surprised if it could still go on just one wheel in a pinch. You could also program to use just 2 wheels for economy or overdrive at speed.
  
• Fixing the bad wheel is simply a matter of swapping it out.
• Independent-drive, independent suspension all-wheel drive full-time - the ultimate in traction and handling.
• Can independently customize for different driving conditions through software - comfort, speed, performance, economy, etc.

Disadvantages:

• Kiss a curb too hard and you're looking at a $5,000 wheel swap-out.
• It's from France.
• The curse of all electric cars - batteries
  

Vive la France! I want me one. Hope they bring it to America.

Via Instapundit.

Posted by: JBD at 01:45 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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THESE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO WILL CAUSE OBAMA'S FAILURE

You've just got to love this bestiary of liberal goodie-grabbers. There is no way Obama can please these people, and they will tear each other apart to grab a piece of the pie.

Once the country sees the liberal agenda in action, sanity will return, and these whackos will be chased out of DC, with Obama not far behind.

Posted by: JBD at 12:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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LITTLE MISS ATTILA

This lady is always good for some entertainingly-written conservative observations.

Cool name, too. She just changed the design of her website - the previous one was very eye-catching, this one less so, but it now features a caricature by cartoonist Chris Muir., who specializes in digital T&A with a conservative twist.

So she's got that going for her, which is nice, conservative bona-fide wise.

Posted by: JBD at 12:32 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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TAX LAWYWER TRIES TO BAIL OUT UNIONS

In this post, the author, a tax professor, tries to scold the media (actually, just the NY Times - big surprise) and politicians for overstating the cost of labor in the Big Three automakers. He's constructing a straw man.

He (and others) observe that current production line workers don't actually make the $70 per hour. This is entirely irrelevant to the fact that the costs cited in those articles were fair comparisons, showing that other companies making cars in North America can do so profitably because they don't have to pay ridiculous union-driven overhead.

The Times writer he spikes uses a lazy formulation "...the average worker was paid..." rather than the more accurate "...the cost per worker in wages and benefits averages $70..." The prof asserts that his causes people to think that current unionized auto workers get paid $70 per hour, which unfairly enrages those who don't get paid that much, making it harder for us peons to support a bail-out of the Big Three.

What makes costs for the Detroit 3 so much higher are all the legacy pensions and benefits for the unionized retirees and job bank workers. This translates to a higher cost per car, which in some cases actually exceed the price they get. It is this business model we should not bail out, which he sort-of-kind-of says later in the post, using the ass-covering tactic known as the modified limited take-back.

I don't think anybody actually thought that individual autoworkers made $140,000 per year in wages and benefits. Anybody who did is a moron. All the articles I read that used these comparative figures never said that, which shows I'm smart not to read articles by the NY Times, but instead I to go straight to the original sources.

No matter how you slice it, Prof, we cannot bail out the Big Three in their current models. As I said before, individual product lines and brands are profitable, so let them emerge from bankruptcy free of the unjustly enriched unions.

Via Instapundit.

Posted by: JBD at 12:18 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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SPEND YOUR OWN MONEY AND SEE YOUR OWN DOCTOR? ONLY IF YOU SUE.

Here's a story about some people who want to voluntarily give up their Medicare coverage and pay for their own health care. But thanks to rules instituted by the Clinton administration, they can't do that and still receive their Social Security payments.

Anybody want to explain to me the logic of that?

Posted by: JBD at 11:37 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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KILL THE C.R.A. BEFORE IT DOES MORE DAMAGE

Here's a nice review and analysis in support of killing the Community Reinvestment Act, the Democrats in-house drug dealer.

UPDATED 12/7: And here is a rebuttal by famously former leftist who thinks his fellow conservatives are wrong to blame the CRA.  So what does he use as an argument? An ass-covering report by one of the CRAs government-employed defenders. Read the comments to that post to see where this argument breaks down.

I would add that we need to permanently bar Congress and the Federal government from being involved in housing for any reason whatsoever. Every housing program ever tried by the Feds has led to disaster.

The Fed needs only to secure the currency, protect us from attack, and protect personal and property rights, and the market will take care of the rest.

Posted by: JBD at 11:19 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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SNORKELING IN DEEP CREEK

From the always outdoorsy KC Jones, who adds "Alcohol may have been involved."

Posted by: JBD at 07:36 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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THE PARTY OF THE RICH

Guess who?

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TOO RIGHT. GUV'NOR! A BRIT BASTES OBAMA FOR GOREBASM

Add this full-throated boo to the growing chorus of anti-warmists.

More here.

Posted by: JBD at 10:21 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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SPENGLER DELIVERS THE MELTDOWN POST MORTEMS.

This one has a totally appropriate Trading Places reference.

This one explains how Wall Street used credit cards to pay the minimums on its credit cards.

Posted by: JBD at 07:55 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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CRAZY LEGS & KC JONES CELEBRATE TURKEY DAY IN MARYLAND

Here are two of the people I love most in the world, standing on the deck of KC Jones' place in Maryland this Thanksgiving.

Jacqueline "Crazy Legs" Mayer is my second mother, as would follow as KC is my Brother of choice (as contrasted with my brothers in blood, White Lightning, Louie and Doodle.)

Of all the things I am thankful for, the love and friendship of KC Jones has to be at the top. Without him, I would not have gone to CSULB, which means no Theta Chi, no Goddess of Love, and no Gooses.

I often say the The Goddess of Love fell to Earth to rescue me from a horrible fate, that of living with myself. KC Jones made sure I was close enough to her landing zone for her to find me, and he then did whatever he could to make sure we got together and stayed together.

For no man have I a greater love. Joyfully I sing his praises. Most likely "Blue Moon".

Posted by: JBD at 10:03 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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DOING MY JOB SO I DON'T HAVE TO

My pending pension disaster hobby horse has a new home. Written by someone who, you know, actually knows what the hell he's talking about.

Also added it to the blogroll - see, over there -->, on the right sidebar, below the comments. These are links to the websites I visit every day, and from where I kipe all my material.

Just so you know.

Posted by: JBD at 09:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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EXPANDING ON A THEME - A DIET, NOT SURGERY

Responding to this article by NRO's Jonah Goldberg:

Hi JG, longtime NR and NRO reader, owner of LF, rare commenter.

I'm an executive-level manager of a medium-sized private business, with customers in manufacturing (including auto), airline, petrochemical, military and food processing industries in North America and Europe. We work in the "lean enterpise" sector of supply chain management systems. I'm a devotee' of Thomas Sowell and Julian Simon.

You write:

These are loopholes by any other name, and still well inside the box. Real stimulation requires permanent changes, so that individuals and corporations can make long-term plans, and investors can fund those plans with some confidence. These alternate "stimulus" solutions, Reganesque and politically savvy though they sound, merely delay the inevitable final reckoning.
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ENCOURAGING SIGNS OF INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN THESE TRYING FINANCIAL TIMES.

From the Goose: Pinky & the Brain in Russia and Germany. His comments:

During a post-meal coma, I was searching youtube for various things. I came across the "Pinky and the Brain" theme song in many different languages. My two favorites are the German and Russian versions.

In German, complete with translated floating cue lines!


The Russian version sounds almost like a propaganda film. I particularly enjoy the final "Narf!" (or lack thereof).



That short taste of chesty Soviet bravura made me want more. Here's my favorite - turn up the sound, chug a shot of vodka, put on your boots and your huge Soviet Naval officer's cover, and sing along, Tovarish!



Hey, it's not John Phillip Sousa, but even I felt like firing missiles at Cheyenne Mountain after listening to this:



Lucky for us the Russkies are primarily a culture of Godless mobsters, clever punks, brooding thugs & romantic drunks. [Careful there! Sounds awfully Irish! - Ed.] With music like that, they should be able to beat the snot out of anybody, which they did as long as they were defending the Motherland. But every time they try to act like The Brain, or Ernst Stavro Bloefeld, their internal contradictions gut their strength, and it's back to the lab after another failure. Their latest romances with Chavez and Ahmadinijad are doomed to failure when those two thugs end up like Il Duce.

Posted by: JBD at 01:33 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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