Presto Agitato

You Suck at Photoshop

He Tricked Us!

Well, hooray:

The four-year legal battle over former NYSE Chairman Richard Grasso's $187.5 million compensation package ended Tuesday when a New York appeals court dismissed claims against him of excessive pay and the state's top prosecutor said the case was closed.

"We have reviewed the court's opinion and determined that an appeal would not be warranted," Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's spokesman Alex Detrick said. "Thus, for all intents and purposes, the Grasso case is over."

So let me get this straight: The NYSE sued Grasso, but then they changed their legal status in a way that effectively extinguished their claims?

Now we know why Grasso was worth so much to the Compensation Comittee: Because everyone else on the Board was too stupid to run the place.

F-ing the Exam

Here's a novel way to get an "F" on a test:

A British high school student received credit for writing nothing but a two-word obscenity on an exam paper because the phrase expressed meaning and was spelled correctly.

The Times newspaper on Monday quoted examiner Peter Buckroyd as saying he gave the student - who wrote an expletive starting with f, followed by the word "off" - two points out of a possible 27 for the English paper.

"It would be wicked to give it zero because it does show some very basic skills we are looking for, like conveying some meaning and some spelling," Buckroyd was quoted as saying.

Given the modern idea of "education," I'm sure the meaning in question was to-the-point.

Buckroyd said the student would have received a higher mark if the phrase had been punctuated.

Heh.

Quote of the Day: Love Is the Law

Branigan's Law is like Branigan's love: Hard and fast! — Zapp Branigan, Futurama

Idiots

Really cute idiots, but still:

Animal rights protesters have launched a series of angry campaigns against A-list carnivores. They are shifting their focus from celebrities who wear fur to others who encourage the "exploitation" of animals by eating them. In its latest campaign, Peta – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which became infamous for dousing fur-wearers in red paint – has launched an attack on the singer Jessica Simpson.

Ms Simpson was singled out for ridicule after she was spotted wearing a T-shirt bearing the slogan "Real Girls Eat Meat", believed to be a light-hearted dig at her boyfriend Tony Romo's vegetarian ex-girlfriend, Carrie Underwood.

Okay, so I'm not much of a fan of Jessica Simpson, but I may have to change my mind.  You know, ignoring the music.  And the acting.  And....

Heller's Kitchen

It seems that Michael Bloomberg is living in fantasy-land:

The New York City law which most obviously violates the right to arms is the complete ban on air guns. The venerable Daisy Red Ryder BB gun is contraband. Heller and the Supreme Court's previous major Second Amendment precedent, United States v. Miller (1939) forbid the prohibition of arms "typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes."

Air guns are ubiquitous almost everywhere except New York City, and are used almost exclusively for law-abiding purposes. Pursuant to Heller, regulation of air guns might be fine, but prohibition of all air guns is not.

Red Ryders?  Seriously?

Not So Cunning

From John Podhoretz, quoting Justice Scalia in Heller:

You cannot ... use the words of the first half of the Second Amendment to change the meaning of the second half. The prefatory clause can only clarify what follows it. It cannot logically reverse it.  As [Scalia] says later, about an argument made in part in a brief filed by academic linguists that the Second Amendment allows an individual a gun to serve in a militia and to hunt game but for no other purpose:

A purposive qualifying phrase that contradicts the word or phrase it modifies is unknown this side of the looking glass (except, apparently, in some courses on Linguistics)….[I]f “bear arms” means, as the petitioners and dissent think, the carrying of arms for military purposes, one simply cannot add “for the purposes of killing game.”  The right “to carry arms in the militia for the purpose of killing game” is worthy of the mad hatter.

Yikes!

A Poem

Via e-mail:

A WOMAN'S POEM

Before I lay me down to sleep,
I pray for a man who's not a creep,
One who's handsome, smart and strong.
One who loves to listen long,
One who thinks before he speaks,
One who'll call, not wait for weeks.
I pray he's gainfully employed,
When I spend his cash, won't be annoyed.
Pulls out my chair and opens my door.
Massages my back and begs to do more.
Oh! Send me a man who'll make love to my mind,
Knows what to answer to 'how big is my behind?'
I pray that this man will love me to no end,
And always be my very best friend.

A MAN'S POEM

I pray for a deaf-mute gymnast nymphomaniac with large boobs who owns a bar, a golf course, and loves to send me fishing hunting and drinking. This doesn't rhyme and I don't give a shit.

The End

Yeah, that sounds right.  What?

A Query

According to Senator Obama:

Barack Obama criticized the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision ... striking down the use of the death penalty in cases of child rape.

“I disagree with the decision. I have said repeatedly that I think that the death penalty should be applied in very narrow circumstances for the most egregious of crimes,” Obama told reporters at a press conference in Chicago.

Doesn't the fact that both candidates felt the need immediately to criticize the ruling give the lie to the Court's claims of an "evolving standard of decency" and "national consensus" against the death penalty for brutal child-rapists?

Ding, Dong!

Outstanding news:

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, the justices' first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history.

The court's 5-4 ruling struck down the District of Columbia's 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under the Second Amendment. The decision went further than even the Bush administration wanted, but probably leaves most firearms laws intact.

Because this was a case about D.C., which is controlled by the federal government, it does (technically) leave most firearms laws intact.  But given the sweep of the ruling and the reality that the Incorporation Doctrine is here to stay, the most-restrictive state and local laws cannot survive.

One dissent is very interesting, though:

In a dissent he summarized from the bench, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that the majority "would have us believe that over 200 years ago, the Framers made a choice to limit the tools available to elected officials wishing to regulate civilian uses of weapons."

Well, yes, Justice Stevens: Limiting government power was precisely what the Bill of Rights was intended to do.  (Shouldn't a Constitutional lawyer know that?)

Excuse me while I do the Happy Dance.

Update: From the beginning of Justice Stevens' dissent:

The question presented by this case is not whether the Second Amendment protects a “collective right” or an “individual right.”  Surely it protects a right that can be enforced by individuals. But a conclusion that the Second Amendment protects an individual right does not tell us anything about the scope of that right.

Savor that!  The Court is unanimous that the Second Amendment is an individual right.  Happy, happy dance!

Update II: Courtesy of The Breda Fallacy:

(Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.)

Okay, so only American citzens living in the United States get to do the happy dance about Heller, but still....

Rise of the Machines

Drew Carey on NAFTA:

How about a robot politician to rail against foreign trade?  ¡Si, se puede!

(I'm not saying that Obama is a hypocrite or anything....)

Damnable Fiat

One has to wonder if the Supreme Court thinks there are any limits to its power:

The Supreme Court has struck down a Louisiana law that allows the execution of people convicted of a raping a child.

In a 5-4 vote, the court says the law allowing the death penalty to be imposed in cases of child rape violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

"The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion. His four liberal colleagues joined him, while the four more conservative justices dissented.

Excuse me?  What does "proportionality" have to do with whether or not a punishment is "cruel and unusual"?  Of course, proportionality is a judgment for legislatures, not nine Great Oracles for whom there are no electoral consequences.  This is not "the rule of law;" this is simply the imposition of the Court's will over the people.

Update: From Alito's dissent:

The Court today holds that the Eighth Amendment categorically prohibits the imposition of the death penalty for the crime of raping a child. This is so, according to the Court, no matter how young the child, no matter how many times the child is raped, no matter how many children the perpetrator rapes, no matter how sadistic the crime, no matter how much physical or psychological trauma is inflicted, and no matter how heinous the perpetrator’s prior criminal record may be. The Court provides two reasons for this sweeping conclusion: First, the Court claims to have identified “a national consensus” that the death penalty is never acceptable for the rape of a child; second, the Court concludes, based on its “independent judgment,” that imposing the death penalty for child rape is inconsistent with “ ‘the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.’ ” ... Because neither of these justifications is sound, I respectfully dissent.

The majority admits that its judgment of "national consensus" (which they claim is the basis of their ruling) is tenuous to say the least.  Nonetheless, they so rule.  With all due respect for the tender feelings of former Justice O'Connor, such a ruling is inexcusable and deserving of public condemnation.

Update II: Unsurprising but lawless.  Maybe the Court would prefer this?  (Especially the part where the remove a man's genitals and burn them in front of him.  How's that for proportionate?)

Update III: Details of the crime.  This is about the rape of an eight-year-old girl, so consider yourself warned.  And yes, I know that's three references to NRO.  Nobody else seems to be on this.

Getting in Gear

Now here's something:

[W]hile the aviation industry contemplates its ethanol-algae-palm oil future, jet engine manufacturers are taking care of business now, developing engines that will make air travel cleaner, quieter, and more efficient. Not in 30 years, but in five or six. 

Pratt & Whitney has one they'd like you to check out. It's their next-generation Geared Turbofan, a $1 billion, 20-year project. In a major vote of confidence, Mitsubishi has chosen the Geared Turbofan to power its forthcoming 70- and 90-seat MRJ regional jets, and Bombardier will use it for their CSeries planes currently in development. If all goes well, the engine will see regular service starting in 2013.

What I don't understand is why it took twenty years to make this happen, nor (ignoring the FAA) what could possibly require another five to get this thing into service.  P&W has been making a geared-and-decoupled turboprop engine (the PT6, which decouples the propeller from the engine core — the engine can idle with a stationary propeller) for fourty-five years, now.  The leap to geared-coupling of the turbine and compressor sections seems fairly small, assuming quality metallurgy.  Heat being the major issue, of course.

But no, I'm not buying the "green" angle.  This is about money: $1.5m annual savings per airplane.  That's my kind of green!

Journalism At War

According to al Reuters:

U.S. President George W. Bush's Justice Department improperly injected politics into hiring programs, a department investigation released on Tuesday found.

A report by the department's inspector general and office of professional responsibility said members of a screening committee were asked to weed out "wackos" and ideological "extremists" who sought work in a competitive honors program for entry-level attorneys or as summer interns.

It said the committee rejected applicants with liberal or Democratic affiliations at a much higher rate than those with Republican, conservative or politically neutral backgrounds.

One candidate, a Harvard student fluent in Arabic who was at the top of his class, was put in a "questionable" category evidently because of his membership in the Council on American Islamic Relations civil-rights group.

Excuse me?  CAIR is a "civil rights organization"?  Err....

Banning members of terrorist-supporting organizations from employment with the Department of Justice seems like a ne plus ultra good idea, no?

Update: It turns out that CAIR real agenda wasn't the only thing the reporter misrepresented.  Shocking!

Fiat Currency

Heh.

Lift is for Wussies

Revenge

(Click on cartoon to go to the xkcd website.)

A Big Wet...

I could kiss John McCain for this:

Sen. John McCain is calling for construction of 45 new nuclear reactors by 2030....

45!  Holy cow!

As usual, McCain manages to screw it up with bogus science and bad economics, but still.  But I wonder: How is this going to play in Nevada?

Weekend Fun

"San Francisco Tower, Continental 456 at the marker with X-Ray.  We have a wheel-well fire warning; please scramble the trucks to meet us, and save us some fish at the Wharf."

The Air Farce Loses a Round

The GAO has ruled against the Air Force (and Airbus):

Congressional investigators have granted Boeing’s protest of a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract awarded to Northrop Grumman Corp. and Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co.

The Government Accountability Office decision is not binding, but it puts pressure on the Air Force to re-examine the contract and could help Boeing capture part or all of the award. The was confirmed by the offices of Sens. Patty Murray, R-Wash., and Pat Roberts, R-Kan.

One hopes that this will lead to an official reconsideration of the careers of a couple officers.  You can't change the rules after the bids are in and expect to keep your job.  I also note that this is the second time the Air Force has fucked-up the bid process on the new tankers, the first time in Boeing's favor.

Update: Much more info here:

The GAO said the Air Force

• didn't assess the relative merits of the two contending airplanes in accordance with its stated criteria.

• gave Northrop extra credit for exceeding certain performance parameters, when this was expressly not allowed.

• failed to show that the A330 could refuel all of the Air Force aircraft it needs to service.

• misled Boeing about its failure to meet certain performance parameters, while giving fuller information to Northrop.

• dismissed a Northrop failure to agree to an aircraft maintenance plan as only "an adminstrative oversight" when it was a material requirement.

• made unreasonable estimates of the cost of constructing runways, ramps and hangars needed for the larger Airbus jet, which led to the conclusion that Northrop offered lower total program costs — when in fact Boeing's overall cost was lower.

• inappropriately rejected Boeing's estimate of its non-recurring cost to develop the program, using an "unreasonable" model to increase that cost estimate.

Ouch.

Quote of the Day: Charitable Taking

The act of reaching into one's own pockets to help a fellow man in need is praiseworthy and laudable.  Reaching into someone else's pocket is despicable and worthy of condemnation. — Walter E. Williams

A Fool and His Money...

...were lucky to get together in the first place:

Is it the ultimate in digital audio/video technology?  Or just a viral marketing ploy?  Either way Denon is making waves with their AKDL1 Dedicated Link Cable, a Cat-5 cable designed for select Denon receivers, which costs $499--and no, that's not a typo.

You really need to see some of the comments over at Amazon.  Heh.

The Smoking Gun

If we wish to be compassionate with our fellow man, we must learn to engage in dispassionate analysis.  In other words, thinking with our hearts, rather than our brains, is a surefire method to hurt those whom we wish to help. — Walter E. Williams

A couple weeks ago, the news was that new claims for unemployment had dropped unexpectedly but the unemployment rate jumped unexpectedly.  How is such a thing possible?

Two obvious explanations are:

1. The end of a recession, when people aren't losing jobs so much as before but previously-frustrated job-seekers are once again "in the market", looking for work.  (The "unemployment rate" doesn't count people who are so frustrated that they've stopped looking for work); and
2. High-school and college students are looking for summer work, but the recent hike in the minimum wage has caused the market for their services to dry up. 

Mark Perry has the smoking gun:

Accoding to BLS data on unemployment rates by age, it looks like almost all of the .50% increase in May unemployment to 5.5% from 5% in April was due to increases in the jobless rates for young workers in the 16-24 year age group, especially the 16-19 year group (see chart above). For workers 25 years and over, the jobless rate has remained pretty stable at around 4%, compared to large increases from April for 16-19 year workers (+3.3% to 18.7%, the highest rate since 1993) and 20-24 year olds (+1.5%).

From the Patterico's Pontifications blog: Who does this age group represent? How about high school and college students coming into the job market for the summer.

And what do many such job seekers get paid? Minimum wage – which Congress increased last year from $5.15 to $5.85, and which will increase again next month to $6.55, and then again next year to $7.25 (see chart below).

It's not like Congress wasn't warned.  But no: Showing that they care about workers is much more important than actually caring.  It's the Congressional way.

Straight Talk My Ass

McCain is trying to woo the (Hillary) Clintonistas with this crap:

Bower said he'd liked McCain's answer on judges, in which he "pointed out that he supported Bill Clinton with both Ginsberg and Breyer."

One wonders if even John McCain believes his own bullshit.

Traffic Management, Danish Style

Guardian ad Litem

More Drew Carey:

I'm not opposed to the government declaring that some parental decisions are unsafe and impermissable (e.g. this), but this steps over the line.  I have no problem with parents choosing to allow their kids a small drink of wine with dinner, or with parents choosing, on the advice and under the supervision of a competent M.D, "medical marijuana" for a sick teenager.

For that matter, I can't see any reason why alcohol and marijuana are treated differently by the government.  The "gateway drug" argument is bizarre and statistically incompetent.

Living the Dream

Ritchie Randazzo's dream came true, but now he has a few more:

A beloved Park Avenue doorman who won $5 million in the state lottery wants to move on up - and into the elegant, pre-war building where he works.

That way, "I'll have the doorman open the door for me," says Richie Randazzo, 44, a bachelor who lives in a two-story home in Brooklyn.

But, poor guy, the only unit available will cost him $9.95 million.  Ah, well, there are other dreams:

Randazzo's new riches have given him the freedom to concentrate on one of his passions - women.

"I want a good Italian woman - or Swedish or Irish or Chinese," he said. "I'm always looking. It's a hobby of mine."

My boy!

Reasonable Force

Used to be that British police generally didn't carry guns.  That was probably good, considering this story:

A man was handcuffed, arrested and dragged before a court after falling off the settee with laughter while watching Have I Got News For You.

Christopher Cocker, 36, was enjoying the BBC1 show when a joke made by panellist Paul Merton had him doubled up with laughter.

He collapsed on the floor - but the thud startled his downstairs neighbour who, believing he had collapsed, called police.

There's a bit more to the story than that, but no excuse for pepper-spraying him, handcuffing him, strip-searching him, and throwing him in jail.  And police will need to explain exactly how they were "protecting the public" by subduing the guy.  Sheez.

The Incredible McCain Girl

Bwahahaha!

(But, um, Ann Coulter is not a Democrat.  I swear it!)

Scared Straight

You're not allowed to offend anyone, but this is apparently OK:

OCEANSIDE, Calif. (AP) - On a Monday morning last month, highway patrol officers visited 20 classrooms at El Camino High School to announce some horrible news: Several students had been killed in car wrecks over the weekend.

Classmates wept.  Some became hysterical.

A few hours and many tears later, though, the pain turned to fury when the teenagers learned that it was all a hoax—a scared-straight exercise designed by school officials to dramatize the consequences of drinking and driving.

...

Michelle de Gracia, 16, was in physics class when an officer announced that her missing classmate David, a popular basketball player, had died instantly after being rear-ended by a drunken driver.  She said she felt nauseated but was too stunned to cry.

Um, have school officials in Oceanside ever heard of the phrase "Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress"?  I'm betting this little exercise in poor judgment will get very expensive.

(But I have to give the reporter credit for proper use of the word "nauseated."  Nicely done!)

I Reject Your Reality....

The consequences of choosing to ignore reality can be quite severe:

Doctors treating the 12-year-old are likely to face pressure to report the pair to police and social workers after criticism from nutritionists concerned that the couple's commitment to veganism took precedent over their daughter's wellbeing.

The girl, who has eaten no meat or dairy since her birth, is said to be suffering from a severe form of rickets, as well as several fractured bones.

Rickets is usually caused by a lack of Vitamin D and causes a softening of the bones in children, which can lead to deformity and fractures. It is common in developing countries where malnutrition is widespread.

If this child were, say, a dog or a horse, the "owners" would face criminal and civil sanction for animal cruelty.  This is child abuse, pure and simple; there may be mitigating circumstances (people really can be that stupid), but it should still be a matter for intervention and criminal sanctions.  I'd start with a rubber hose....

The War on ... Hot Dogs

From the Drew Carey Project:

Identifying the Enemy

Pakistan is accusing NATO of killing Pakistani troops in an operation on the Afghani border.  NATO and the U.S. respond:

Pakistani and U.S. officials have given widely differing accounts of an event that threatens to further sour relations between key allies in Washington's war on terror - a partnership already unpopular among Pakistanis.

To support its version, the coalition on Thursday took the unusual step of releasing excerpts of a video shot by a surveillance drone circling above the mountainous battle zone.

The grainy, monochrome images show about a half-dozen men firing small arms and rocket-propelled grenades from a ridge at coalition troops off-camera in the valley below.

According to the voiceover in the video, the ridge is in Afghanistan's Kunar province, about 200 yards from the Pakistan border and close to the Gorparai checkpoint.

Neither the checkpoint nor any other structures are visible in the video excerpts.

The voiceover says the coalition forces were on a reconnaissance mission and returned fire as they tried to break contact and move to a point where a helicopter could pluck them to safety.

The video shows the "anti-Afghan militants" moving to a position identified as inside Pakistan and the impact of a bomb which the voiceover says killed two of them.

The survivors then fled into a ravine, where three more bombs were dropped, nearly three hours after the clash began. The voiceover said all the militants were killed.

What do you want to bet that the anti-Afghan militants were Pakistani troops?  Remembering that the Taliban was created by Pakistan in an effort to have at least one friendly neighbor, and given Pakistan's politics and the history of rogue behavior within the Pakistani government and military, it would be no surprise to discover Taliban-friendly elements operating within Pakistani commando units.

In the Public Interest

Apologists for large government often argue that government must act broadly in order to protect us from each other.  Neverminding for the moment the obvious questions of cost vs. benefit, but who protects us from the government?

A judge awarded more than $4.2 million to a late Nevada rancher's estate after finding that the U.S. Forest Service engaged in an unconstitutional "taking" of water rights out of hostility to the rancher, a property rights activist.

...

In the early 1980s, the Forest Service began to notify him he was in violation of his federal grazing permit. In 1983, the Forest Service sent him 40 letters and agency officials made 70 visits to his ranch.

Smith, based in Washington D.C., said the cancellation of Hage's grazing permit because of overgrazing and trespassing did not violate the Fifth Amendment because a grazing permit is a license, not property.

However, Smith said, the taking occurred when the Forest Service made it impossible for Hage to maintain irrigation ditches, which deprived the ranch of water and made it unviable.

The government demanded that he maintain the ditches using nothing more than hand tools. ...

Note that it took almost twenty years to get a ruling in this case, and the original plaintiff is dead.  So it goes when you challenge the government; they have more money than you do, so don't hold your breath.

Doing the Math

Rep. Roy Blunt calculates the cost of Republican vs. Democrat energy policies.

Nice Work, If You Can Get It

Educating the Public

From:

For years, Kevin Jensen carried a pistol everywhere he went, tucked in a shoulder holster beneath his clothes.

In hot weather the holster was almost unbearable. Pressed against his skin, the firearm was heavy and uncomfortable. Hiding the weapon made Jensen feel like a criminal.

Then one evening he stumbled across a site that urged gun owners to do something revolutionary: Carry your gun openly for the world to see as you go about your business. ...

Oh, Baby!

The guy in the next cube over wants to know why I'm crying.

(Okay, so the Desert Eagle is a bit much.  But still....)

(h/t: Leslie)

Thank You, Mr. Helper

I’m beginning to remember why I moved out of Minneapolis 15 years ago:

The Minneapolis City Council and Mayor R.T. Rybak approved changes Friday, to the city’s vehicle idling ordinance that aims to reduce air pollution. The ordinance limits most vehicle idling to three minutes, except in traffic.

"Most of the air pollution in Minneapolis comes from vehicles and cutting down in idling is one easy thing we can all do for our environment, our health, and the health of our neighbors," said Mayor R.T. Rybak.

Idling “big diesels” (limited to five minutes under a previous ordinance) is necessary in the winter in order for the driver to catch some sleep without freezing to death.  It burns very little fuel and therefore creates very little pollution.  But no matter; truck drivers simply have to sleep anywhere but in Minneapolis.  For the environment.

Mayor Ryback explains that he's only being helpful:

"In these times of high gas prices, it’s a way for people to save fuel.  If you’re sitting in an idling car, you’re getting zero miles a gallon.  That’s not good for your pocketbook or the environment."

So they're trying to help me by forbidding me to choose how I shall spend my money (e.g., on reasonable comfort in a Minnesota winter) and which stresses I shall put on my car's engine and transmission.  Gee, thanks.

My Kind of Guy

Spike Lee is angry about the the shortage of black actors in some of Clint Eastwood's historical movies, but Eastwood is having none of it:

"What are you going to do, you gonna tell a fuckin' story about that?" he growls.  "Make it look like a commercial for an equal opportunity player?  I'm not in that game.  I'm playing it the way I read it historically, and that's the way it is.  When I do a picture and it's 90% black, like Bird, I use 90% black people."

And more pithily:

"A guy like him should shut his face."

You gotta love the old coot.

Challenging Gustatory Techniques

To make war upon rebellion is messy and slow, like eating soup with a knife. — T.E. Lawrence

(I'll finish the Nagl book yet.)