Seriously? We Have Been Doing This?

I'm astonished the government has been operating this clandestine program.

No, not NSA spying.  That is not surprising. 

I mean the subsidies from NASA to billionaire owners of corporate jets.  You didn't know?  See what I mean?

The lagniappe?  After sucking down all that heavily discounted jet fuel, now Google is encrypting, so the NSA can't spy on them any more!  It's a beautiful thing.

Creepiest Card Trick

Orson Welles (creepy enough already) does a card trick with Angie Dickinson. When he asks her to "stroke the cards, very gently, that's it, yesssss...." I got a little creeped out.

Nod to Jacob Grier @jacobgrier

Castrating Lambs Can Make You Sick

So, this news story says "castrating lambs with teeth can kill you."

That doesn't make any sense to me. I thought ALL lambs had teeth.

Oh...wait. You mean.... EWWWWWWW!

Nod to the Blonde. Next time she calls Bob Lee her "little lamb" I'll know what she is actually thinking.

Men Are Evil

I took my younger son skating a few years ago. Went to the men's room. As I was coming out, a woman with a very angry face and holding a young boy's hand shouted at me, "What were you doing in there?"

Stunned, I mumbled that I was using the bathroom. She kept yelling, "You aren't supposed to. It's against the rules!"

Turns out the skating rink wouldn't allow men to go to the men's room alone. You were supposed to go with your son. (What if you had a daughter, you ask? You were supposed to tell a clerk, who would stand guard. What if you were there by yourself? Not allowed; you could only go to the rink if you were accompanying a child).

WTF? What is this? WSJ article gives some perspective.

In this forum, notice that no one worries about men who have daughters, only strange men who are pedophiles. Yet nearly ALL actual sexual abuse of children is the fault of family members. (And don't get me wrong, it's not like most men abuse their daughters, either. Extremely rare)

Women are very strange. They have plenty of good reasons to dislike men. Why are they making up absurd new reasons?

Consider the following comment, from this forum:

Well, I am a mom of two boys 8 and 5. I won't let them go to the mens bathroom alone any where unless their dad is with them. I think people just don't trust older men alone. I don't. Those are the one's that you always hear taking a little boy or something and leaving with them. And they are in the bathroom alone...and then I send my kids in there. I'm afraid they may be checking my kid out lol. idk, it's always been an issue for me. I was touched when I was little by my own grandfather. My grandfather was a well respected man in the community, he was asked to play pro golf after winning state championship in Texas, he was the manager over half of the Exxon plant in Texas. So this is why I wouldn't even trust a well respected man with a child. Maybe I am a bit over protective but if I can save my kids that kind of stress I have done my job. Until they are old enough to say no and fight a grown up, I will be that way. You really have to think about what could go on if you send a kid in a bathroom alone. You don't know who is in there. You don't know who they are or where they have been or if they have done something or are looking for someone. My kids do play outside and do kid stuff but when we are in public it's very different. Hope this helps some and may help you understand more what some people may feel about their kids. Boys and girls both. It's a crazy world so be careful. Now, yes she could have put her grandson in the stall that wasn't a changing stall in the bathroom but I'm sure that this may be why she had him with her.

I'm amazed. "You always hear"? In fact, you almost NEVER hear of this. It never happens, statistically, not compared to the frequency of abuse by familty members. She documents that in her own case the abuse was her grandfather, a family member. And concludes that ALL men want to abuse children. Ma'am, I'm sorry you were abused. But you are a dangerous lunatic.

(Nod to Angry Alex)

Angus tries to be a one armed economist

People, I'm trying!

I want to go on record as being bullish on 2011 for the US economy. I want to predict average growth for the year of 4.2%.

Yes, de-leveraging is not over. Yes, housing probably has not hit bottom. But, my view is we are poised for a semi-robust expansion.

But I'm afraid to come out and say it.

Why?

Well I'm not proud to admit this but I'm afraid of the House Republicans and the crazy sh*t they will no doubt try and pull. Yes I know, checks and balances and all that, but they worry me.

If they go after the Fed, throw a lot of heat and light on rolling back HCR and the financial oversight bill, and try to shut down the government over the debt ceiling, we could be right back into economic doldrums.

Look, I am not a big fan of the Fed or of HCR as currently constituted, but my advice to the Republicans would be to wait until after 2012 when the economy should be much sounder and maybe you also have the Senate to try and make your move.

The biggest thing Washington could do right now to help the economy would be to take a 14 month vacation.

Ziggy Stardust & the Spider from Slazenger?

There is a parody of this going around the interwebs; I can't understand why.

From the bathroom of Procrustes

Here's an aphorism way better than any that came from his bedroom:

The Grand Game! Edition--The Nation

The Nation is...well, they are even more batshit crazy than usual.

What is your favorite absurdity?

(Nod to RB)

.

I just picked out Mungowitz's Xmas present!

More info here.

Merry Chistmas Mr. Mungo!

K-Olbermann Favors Dems over Repubs! Who Knew?

This is garbage. You can watch Olbermann, or not watch him. But why in the world should he be prevented from making small, fully disclosed contributions well within the law? MSNBC donates millions of dollars in free air time to shill for Dems, just as Fox donates tens of millions of dollars in free air time for Repubs.

As Angus and I might have said in college....why can't we just all get a baung?

Foot in mouth disease, ecclesiastical edition

Regarding AIDS, the head of the Catholic church in Belgium recently said:

"I would not at all think in such terms. I do not see this illness as a punishment, at most a sort of inherent justice, a bit like how we are presented with the bill for what we do to the environment."

Regarding Gentiles/Goyim (aka non-Jews) the head of Shas’s Council of Torah Sages and a senior Sephardi adjudicator recently said:

"Goyim were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world – only to serve the People of Israel,”

“Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap. We will sit like an effendi and eat.

That is why gentiles were created,”

Thank you gentlemen, for clearing up a few mysteries for us.

China loves Federer

Let me just let Roger tell it:

“[Fans are] very creative here in this country giving gifts,” Federer said Thursday. “Obviously many think of my twin girls. Many think of Switzerland, maybe give me a cow or something like that. Others create great books about me and my career, places where they've been, pictures they've taken with me, souvenirs that I've signed for them, they've taken pictures of it. It's very nice.

"It's very different, to be honest. Not everywhere do I get such nice and creative gifts. I always need to pack in the extra suitcase to take all the gifts back. That's the only small problem, but it's a good problem to have, so I'm happy about it.”

Holy crap, people. Has China gotten so far ahead of us that they've made a cow that fits in a suitcase? Like the giraffe in the DirectTV commercial? Thomas Friedman will have a heart attack when he hears about this!

Pity poor Connecticut

There is an old joke in economics:

"I pity the poor econometrician who must use a dummy for sex and a proxy for risk".

Porfirio Diaz once said:

"Poor Mexico, so far from God but so close to the United States"

People, I pity the poor Connecticut voter, who has as her Senate candidates Vince McMahon's wife and one Richard Blumenthal, who repeatedly lied about his military service and, in response to a debate question asking how his lawsuits against Connecticut companies affected job creation said:

"Our lawsuits, our legal actions, actually create jobs".

So you have a creepy showman's consort or an uber-creepy serial fabulist.

Good luck to the Nutmeg State voters, they'll need it.