Pat Robertson can leg press 2000 pounds! Wow!
In keeping with the recent theme here, a story about job losses:
Law enforcement officers busting illegal methamphetamine labs once was a common sight across the United States.But such raids don't happen as frequently anymore — not since most states and the federal government put severe restrictions on the sale of over-the-counter medications containing pseudoephedrine, the key ingredient in methamphetamine, reports CBS News Correspondent Bill Whitaker.
Drug enforcement agents report the number of meth labs in the U.S. has plummeted.
"Yes, drastically down, in fact," says John Fernandes of the Drug Enforcement Administration. But, he adds, "Unfortunately there is an explosion of meth use."
The epidemic of meth use is still rampant because the drug is still plentiful on America's streets. Why?
"They just came across into Mexico to start production," said Fuillermo Gonzalez of the Tijuana Police Department.
I'm just waiting for the union backlash...
OK, this really doesn't have much to do with immigration, more the predictable result of the futile measures to curb drug use. Making drug production harder in the U.S. just makes the profits more enticing for smugglers.
I'm arguing about immigration over here, in case you care, and there's no reason you should.
According to Diane Carman, The Da Vinci Code is all about the patriarchy keeping women down, or something. Take any opportunity to make a point about the evil of men.
"Mining our collective wisdom since 2001." Some selected answers...
Q: Should I be worried about this red bump on my arm?
A: You should be more worried about the lump on your kidney.
Q: My wife suggested that I get this new haircut, how does it look?
A: It's fine -- but what's up with the pedicure?
Q: I'm interviewing with AT&T, can you put in a good word for me?
A: Already taken care of.
Q: Where did I leave my keys?
A: Inside pocket of your gray jacket (it's hanging in the front closet).
Q: What should I get my wife for her birthday?
A: Blue sundress from Calypso. Size 12. Also note that she likes to have her toes licked.
Q: Can I substitute margarine for butter in my Toll House cookie recipe?
A: We know that you've been smoking pot.
I'm sure you can think of more questions.
The local news outlets are thick with versions of this story today:
In a relentlessly critical report, University of Colorado investigators said Tuesday that the professor who likened some of the World Trade Center victims to a Nazi repeatedly fabricated his research, plagiarized others' work and strayed from the "bedrock principles of scholarship."Four of the five members of the investigative panel said ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill should be suspended without pay, though one said he should be fired. University officials said they expect to decide his fate by June 8 and refused to speculate about what might happen.
The irony is that he won't be punished for his moronic political stance (not that he should), but his high profile rantings drew attention to his questionable academic record, and that seems to be his undoing. If he hadn't uttered a whole bunch of inflamatory political statements, which weren't really related to his academic work, no one would have been the wiser. He's beyond defense now.
As our favorite lefty Boulder resident Gary Farber adds:
It came to the attention of everyone that you were a lying, dishonest, sack of... stuff, who was particularly scummy about misrepresenting yourself as an American Indian, and then further lied a lot when the tribes called you on it. Insofar as you are a leftist, you are a disgrace and you make leftists look awful by association insofar as we don't disown you. Go slink off somewhere and forge some more artwork somewhere where we'll never have to hear from you again.And for the record, I believe this is my first and only post on Mr. Ward Churchill, whom after more than five years of living in Boulder, I am long past thoroughly sick of ever hearing about.
And, BTW, you should read the rest of Gary's post for other local news, such as the rash of mountain lion sightings in urban areas, and prairie dogs carrying bubonic plague. And of course, the locals concerned with saving the prairie dogs.
For you folks not familiar with prairie dogs, here's the only info you need to know: They are rodents, and they destroy useful vegetation. Cutish, I suppose, but prolific breeders and hard to eradicate. Out here in the West there are groups devoted to saving the critters and their habitat, which is sort of like New York City residents working to preserve rat habitat.
Now I suppose someone will tell me there really is a group in NYC dedicated to saving the rats.
Illegal immigrants are a (ill defined) problem. So, as per typical Bush methodology, the federal Government will solve the problem by spending a lot of money. Also, less privacy means more security, ergo, national ID cards!
What I do know is that if Hillary is the next president, she’ll be able to lay claim to a number of vast, extraconstitutional powers championed by right-wingers like, uh, John Podhoretz. Among those powers is the ”inherent executive authority” to wiretap at will and, perhaps, to seize American citizens on American soil and hold them without charges for the duration of the war on terror — in other words, forever.The ’90s weren’t that long ago. And I remember a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth over misused FBI Files and suspicious IRS audits. Over the last four and a half years, many of the same wailers and gnashers have cheer-led the concentration of unreviewable power in the executive branch, as if George W. Bush would be the last president ever to wield that power. And now, lo and behold, there’s the mistress of Travelgate warming up in the on-deck circle. Join me in a bitter chuckle.
Funny, that didn’t make me feel better.
Which is what I've been saying for a while now. It's also why whenever Democrats or Republicans are the minority party in DC they sound so much more libertarian.
Comment spam is at an all time high here over the last 24 or so. I've closed comments on all but a few recent posts, so if you see something older which you think needs a comment send it to me at walter@thishereblogname.com.
Grant McLennan died last weekend, of a massive heart attack while asleep. He was 48. He was one of the two songwriters comprising the Go-Betweens.
The Go-Betweens were one of those bands which were widely influential amongst musicians and should have been enormously famous, but never really were. They found moderate success in the 80's, but split up in 1989. Eleven years later they reunited, and put out several more records, which (remarkably) were as good as ever.
Robert Christgau's remembrance here.
Atrios tries to tell us choice and competition are not good for health care consumers.
Which seems to be an argument in favor of the status quo.
I notice Thomas Dolby has been blogging for a few weeks now. Yes, that Thomas Dolby. Interesting stuff.
Of even greater interest is that he's on tour for the first time in some fifteen years, and he's scheduled to play in Denver on the 23rd. Now if we can just find a sitter...
Addendum: I've changed the masthead (is that what it's called? It's the script right under the blog title) to celebrate Dolby's show.
Whatever you call it, I frequently change the thing. Not many people guess the references, but Google would probably know. My favorite in the history of the blog, "Here comes your man." That was a couple of years ago.
This blog might not be an A-lister, but when the big bloggers need a favor, they come here first. Just got an urgent missive from Jeff Goldstein, which I'll present in its entirety, with minor editing:
Hello,allWalter. Apologies for themass emailpersonal message, but I'm a very busy man-- this being Cinco de Mayo and me being both a lush and a fiend for really good guacamole.Anyway, I'm writing to let you all know that I'm running a fundraiser for protein
wisdom. Hosting, DSL costs, and the need to move into a bigger house have prompted me to do this for only the second time since my blog started in Dec of 2001 (true, I took 18 months off in between, but that's just nitpicking, isn't it?).I realize this is supposed to be a hobby, etc., but I spend enough time on it that I don't feel too terrible about asking readers to help me buy an enormous mountain estate. Once I can pay off my school loans, of course.
If you can find a way to mention it on your site
sor direct people to my site to help me out, I'd greatly appreciate it. My post is here:
http://www.proteinwisdom.com/index.php/weblog/entry/20268/...and will remain up through next weekend.
And don't think I'm doing this out of greed. I'm not.
I'm doing it because I'm Jewish. Which, surprisingly, hasn't convinced Howard Dean to cough up any dough so far. The poseur.
Best,
Jeff GP.S. If your readers at Walter In Denver can come up with enough cash I could see my way into letting you and the kids spend some time in the new guest house. Especially if you are handy with yard work.
Now's a good time to give something back for all the free pie.
I've got a new gig this year. Well, same line of work, but a new locale. I'm working with At Impact Golf School.
So, if you're near Denver and need help with your game, see me.
Thank you reading this short commercial announcement. Back to regular blogging
There's only one possible libertarian response to immigration alamists, and it looks like this:
Americans have recently been informed that Mexicans are sneaking into the US, picking tomatoes, working in factories, founding plumbing companies, and generally making us look lazy. Apparently this behavior has been going on for some time; it’s really surprising that no one noticed before now. (There are two Mexican Ph.D. students in the lab where I work… I’m surprised they have time to take the jobs of hard-working American tomato-pickers, since no matter what hour I go to the lab they’re at their benches designing gene-therapy vectors.)From an economic point of view, this means that Mexicans who would have been assembling parts for American companies in Juarez are now assembling them in Houston. Obviously, the economic effects on American-born computer programmers in Seattle will be catastrophic.
It just gets better from there. I wish I had written it. RTWT already.
Colorado State Senator Steve Johnson (R, Fort Collins) on Tom Tancredo's forthcoming book:
"Oh my God! He's written a book. It's like Mein Kampf against illegal immigration."
Death penalty proponents like to say that it has never been established that an innocent person has been executed in the United States. That may no longer be the case. Arson experts have found that Texas executed a man whose crime may not have been a crime at all. The fire for which he was executed appears to have been an accidental one. Junk science and inadequately trained experts are the culprit.
Yesterday I was listening to a radio talk show host discuss immigration. He pointed out that a lot of illegal immigrants are hired by home owners to do casual labor. He then asked his listeners to imagine they had a grand piano to move, an illegal would do it for $40, and an American citizen, perhaps the kid next door, for $100. Would the listener save money by hiring the illegal or do the right thing by hiring the citizen?My response, if I had been able to get through, would have been that I would have done the right thing—by hiring the illegal, who almost certainly has more need for the money than the kid next door.
Excellent answer, although to be precise the best answer might be to hire whomever will do the best job, weighted for price. But if altruism is your goal...
Tens of thousands of marchers are exected to take part in immigration rallies in Denver later today. Could be true, because so far commuter traffic is light.
Of course, my commute takes me right through the march...