Pages

December 10, 2016

In The News

The Dept. of Energy (DoE) was created during President Carter's Administration in 1977 with two goals - to eliminate our nation's dependence on foreign oil and to oversee and safeguard our nuclear weapons research. The 13,300 DoE incompetent civil service weasels with a $30 billion budget have done neither.
The global warming con may finally be facing a true reckoning. For many years, the warmists have behaved as if they are hiding something, as the Climategate emails, among many other signs, revealed. But so long as the greedy and power-hungry pols, lusting after taxation and regulation of all human activity via carbon taxes, could be reinforced by cowards afraid to buck the so-called scientific consensus (that doesn’t really exist) everything could remain hunky-dory.

While meeting with Al Gore calmed some warmist nerves, the actions of the Trump transition team at the Department of Energy are eliciting hysteria.
They couldn't handle their appointed tasks so they adopted ones that were far easier. Intimidating American citizens with Soviet-style mission creep implemented under the watchful eye of liberal administrations seemed the fun thing to do.



Liberals Are Hazardous To Your Health
This is true in more ways than one. And, oh yes, this did happen.
Suddenly it's clear not everyone benefited from the era of Hope and Change. The Washington Post reports that "for the first time in more than two decades, life expectancy for Americans declined last year". Princeton economist Anne Case said “this is singular. This doesn’t happen."
Perhaps the editors at the WashPo are stating to worry that they may not get to enjoy their 401k's.



Water, Water Everywhere And Every Drop We Regulate
The Environmental Protection Agency is the Corleone's dream. Their idea of "protection" is about the same as a mafia capo. But instead of RICO prosecutions, Trump has decided to take them down another way, a faster way. Dismantle them without indictments from the inside.
Personnel is policy, as they say, and despite his meeting with the High Priest of Climatology, Al Gore, president-elect Donald Trump’s pick of Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt to be the new head at EPA, shows Trump is serious about pulling back the curtain to expose climate fraud, leaving climate zealots as unsettled as the alleged “science” they trumpet.

"Pruitt’s concerns of EPA overreach also includes the agency’s controversial, “Waters of the U.S.” rule that significantly expanded the federal government’s regulatory reach to include ditches on private land. During the presidential campaign, Trump promised to address the regulation that he called one of the “most intrusive rules” and Pruitt could execute the new president’s goal to neuter its impact."
Neuter: transitive verb, #1- castrate, alter; #2- to remove the force or effectiveness of.
Either way, let's do this thing. Time's awastin'.



It's Fun Work But Someone Has To Do It

To rephrase the article just above this one, "Water, Water Everywhere And It's Going Up Your Nose."
Following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, psychologist and U.S. Air Force veteran Dr. James Mitchell was called back to national service. Along with a partner, Bruce Jessen, he was tasked with developing the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques, or EITs. Designed to elicit time-sensitive intelligence from hardened al Qaeda leaders, the EITs later became immersed in controversy. In 2014, Senate Democrats released a report accusing Mitchell of torturing suspects with EITs and producing no results.
There is another phrase that applies here,"If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

EIT works rather well on recalcitrant individuals with respect to generating compliance in response to legitimate requests for information. That being said, waterboard the assholes until they talk or let them grow gills.




FBI Investigates Missing White House Drapes


The Director of the FBI, James Comey, is personally supervising an investigation concerning the disappearance of three sets of White House drapes.

This afternoon at a Department of Justice press conference in Chicago, Director Comey issued the following statement:
"I think the Obamas were extremely careless. I think they were negligent. That I could establish. What we can't establish is that they acted with the necessary criminal intent," he insisted. "'Should have known,' 'must have known,' 'had to know' does not get you there. You have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they knew they were engaged in something that was unlawful."

H/T iOTW

Crap Is Just Another Word For Frigidaire

We finally finished out kitchen and dining room remodeling project just before my first knee replacement in November of 2013. We started in January by enclosing the porch and tearing out the brick and cinder block wall between the porch and dining room. We used three different contractors to do all the work and two of them lied to us causing delays in permits and shoddy workmanship. But after eleven months it was worth the wait and it was just in time for our daughter's wedding.


We wanted good but reasonably priced appliances and chose the Frigidaire Professional line for all our appliances in our new kitchen.

That was a terrible mistake.

Within eighteen months the Frigidaire oven's electronic control board (ECB) got fried after we used the self cleaning feature. We only used this feature one time. I complained to Electrolux, Frigidaire's home company, and they sold me a new ECB for $157. So a $920 oven now cost me $1,077. And we are afraid to use the self cleaning feature again.

Later that year (2014) we found a piece of, oh I dunno, rubber or latex or some kind of plastic on the floor of the Frigidaire dishwasher. It was partially melted by the heater coil. Eventually I figured out that it was a gasket that fell off the bottom of the washer's door. A new one cost me about ten bucks.

Last summer the ECB for the Frigidaire microwave oven went kablooey for no reason. It was on it's own protected circuit with no other outlet attached. I threw the blasted thing out (wasn't about to plunk down whatever for another board for a low quality appliance) and bought a nice stainless steel LG microwave at Home Depot for $170. That was $400 out the window, that's what we paid for that overpriced piece of garbage.  It went to the curb. Metal scrappers picked it up in a heartbeat.

Now last month (October 2016) the ice maker in the Frigidaire refrigerator went nuts. Some sort of plastic fitting and a white electrical cord fell out of the ice maker. After that, half the time the ice comes out in great chunks, not separate cubes like it used to. This clogs the machine and makes it almost impossible to take the tray out as the big chunks of ice cause the tray to jam inside the ice maker.

I will have to call a repair man to fix this. I have no idea how much it will cost me.

I complained again on the Frigidaire Face Book page. "Oh contact us and we'll see what we can do..." Bull. This is what I am doing. I will make separate blogs that will educate the public about the crap that Frigidaire makes.

Every single Frigidaire kitchen appliance I bought broke down or failed in some way within two and a half years. Every one.

These appliances cost me thousands and thousands of dollars. 

They are the alleged top of the product line.

 They are CRAP.

Do not purchase Frigidaire appliances.

If It Sounds Too Good To Be True...

...it usually is.

Here is an advertisement for a linux-in-a-flash-drive where you can upgrade your PC, laptop or tablet for around $25.
Xtra-PC is a small thumb drive you simply plug into your computer’s USB port and it instantly transforms your old computer to like new. It works with any computer (Mac or Windows) laptop, desktop, and netbooks made in 2004 or later and it is hands down the fastest, easiest solution to getting yourself a new computer without spending $400, $500, $800 or more – guaranteed.
IMHO you've gotta be really desperate/gullible to go for it. But I am curious.

Has anybody heard any evaluation on this?

Wrapping Xmas Gifts

This morning while eating my breakfast I watched my wife as she was wrapping Christmas presents.

 Clad in her dressing gown, her lovely brow was furrowed and her gaze locked on the small items she was preparing for ornamentation. The implements of said ornamentation were carefully arrayed over the dining room table: bows, paper, ribbons, transparent tape and of course her scissors.

Such was her concentration that you would think she was preparing for a moon launch or the invasion of a hostile country (more on that later).  Over the past year I have made it clear that as we are preparing to live on a fixed income she must dial back her generosity; our children are older and for the most part, entirely self sufficient. Although my request did not fall on deaf ears, I suspect that they are somewhat hearing impaired.

My wife loves to wrap gifts. She will stand there for hours, transforming plain boxes into artfully decked parcels that are a delight to the senses. The gifts are festooned with colorful paper and fabric; our  relatives and friends are transported while removing the wrapping in order to gleefully purview the precious contents thereof.

Removing the wrapping, now there's the rub.

I watched in horror as my soul mate wrapped a gift in layer upon layer upon layer of paper. It looked like she used the entire Sunday edition of the NY Times. And the tape.

There must be a gene, a common thread of DNA that influences the female psyche to bestow upon gifts the same level of protection afforded the Third Reich by the Siegfried Line. The wrapping can be defeated, but only after careful planning and an inordinate allocation of resources.

I have searched in vain for any government or university sponsored research that reveals the number of fingernails lost per yard of tape applied to gifts.

Both my wife and my sister have this compelling need to engulf presents in a sea of tape. This is an unbridled passion, a forbidden love of tape. I believe this has international implications and have named this affliction, "L'amour de la bande."

If anyone is aware of a program, or medication, that addresses this condition, please let me know.

December 9, 2016

Bennu The Destroyer


In yesterday's post we talked about a satellite that is keeping an eye on various heavenly objects that sail through our solar system at frightening speeds. These meteoroids (small) and asteroids (large) are in an orbit about the Sun so they have a go at us every so often. Once meteoroids hit the Earth's atmosphere they become meteors. Once asteroids hit our atmosphere they are called  SHTFeroids. These objects range in size from microscopic to Texas.

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft was launched by NASA several months ago to maintain a Game of Thrones type "Black Watch" on a celestial White Walker, Asteroid Bennu. OSIRIS-Rex will patrol the heavens without ceasing, be exposed to bad food and radiation and can never marry. This will be one pissed off satellite in a few years.



If the asteroid Bennu (with a diameter of 1640 feet) is a perfect sphere, it would have a volume of 85,602,045 cubic yards. However, asteroids are not planets and most are not shaped like them. Some asteroids are shaped like hemorrhoids; these are known as assteroids.

Some asteroids, such as Eros pictured below, are shaped like massive Idaho potatoes. But  Eros is of the planet destroying variety; it is over 21 miles across, seven miles wide and seven miles thick. It is thought to have the mass of 700 trillion french fries.

Eros, delicious baked Eros

Astronomers are still seeking a sour cream planet.

On the other hand, NASA has provided pictures of Asteroid 1999 RQ36 that indicate that it is shaped very much like a chicken McNugget; it  is 560 meters across (1837 feet) so it is a little larger than our friend Asteroid Bennu, which is only 500 meters (1640 feet) across.

Crispy, crunchy, tasty, deep-fried 1999 RQ36

A cubic yard of rocks can weigh anywhere between 2,400 and 2,900 lbs. and scientists have estimated that 1999 RQ36 weighs 66 million tons. Operating under a federal grant, NASA scientists have calculated that it would take 57 years and 202.8 billion barrels of vegetable oil to cook a McNugget the size of Asteroid 1999 RQ36 in a fryer the size of Lake Mead. Yes, I calculated the amount of oil (at 42 gallons per barrel) it would take to fill Lake Mead. I am strange that way.

However, Asteroid Bennu is different. It is indeed shaped like a rabbit turd as shown below in this NASA photo.

Asteroid Bennu

Rabbit turds are spherical. This means that more calculations are forthcoming, prepare yourselves.

Turds ala' Oryctolagus Cuniculus 

It is a very disquieting thought that a 500 meter turd traveling at .0000000006% of the speed of light could destroy a healthy chunk of our planet. But since they are spherical  we can estimate the weight of a 1600 foot rabbit turd comprised of space dust/rocks. NASA states that Asteroid 199RQ36 has the same density as water so we'll use instead the weight of water which is 1728 pounds per cubic yard. This is lighter than rocks.

Since time is of the essence (and I'm getting bored with this) we'll blow through the math. So let's see, a sphere with a radius of 250 meters has a volume of 85,602,045 cubic yards and .86 tons per cubic yard (weight of water) gives us a 73.6 million ton asteroid.

Now allow Asteroid Bennu a low celestial speed so it won't get a ticket. That's 25,000 miles per hour in a school zone which is 11,176 meters/second; that produces a kinetic energy of 4,169,823,402,272 megajoules. One ton of TNT will release about 4184 megajoules of energy.

At that speed, if Bennu crashes into the Earth, it will yield a release of energy equivalent to a 997 megaton hydrogen bomb. That's 568% more powerful than the 57 megaton Tsar Bomba nuclear device detonated by the Soviets in 1961.

The next graphic shows the estimated blast radius of a 100 megaton hydrogen bomb if dropped on NYC (surface detonation). The yellow circle is the overpressure radius, everything not a bunker is either flattened or damaged. The red circle is the temperature zone which sends most combustibles into a combusted state. Everyone within about a four or five mile radius of ground zero(fireball country) is either people vapor or charcoal.

 A 100 megaton bomb in an air burst would kill almost 11 million people and injure another 5 million. The fall out, if any, would sweep through the entire Northeast.

Imagine an explosion ten times more powerful. That would be Bennu.


It Bennu ever hit NYC, I've a 50/50 chance of surviving in Syracuse, probably less. To see what effect a nuclear device will have on your location, go here. There's a 100 megaton limit.

Then there's the matter of all the Bennu ejecta that would make its way into the atmosphere. In 1883 the eruption of Krakatoa sent enough volcanic ash and monkey dust into orbit to eliminate summer the following year. Climatologists now state that the eruption affected the world's climate for perhaps a century. Although climatologists are a skittish lot that would flay the living flesh off their own children in order to get a lucrative government grant, comparing Krakatoa to Bennu would be like farting in a hurricane.

December 8, 2016

Just Sit Back And Enjoy The Show

Lemme see. Those huge rocks hurtling through the solar system are usually hitting anywhere from 25,000 to 160,000 miles per hour. If the satellite spots this rock when it's a million miles away, that  gives us maybe 40 hours to perhaps only six and a half hours to figure out what to do.

Somehow I don't find that very comforting.
A spacecraft is currently on its journey towards an asteroid, where it will collect and return samples that experts believe may hold the building blocks of life.

The asteroid, Bennu, crosses Earth's orbit once every six years and is set to pass between the moon and our planet in 2135. 
 
Scientists are worried the 0.3 mile (500-metre) wide asteroid's orbit could be tweaked by Earth's gravity as it passes by, causing it to smash into our planet later in the century.

Now Nasa has explained exactly how the spacecraft is built to be able to see the asteroid from as far away as a million miles (1.6 million km) and as close as just a few feet.
Story here:

December 6, 2016

Democrats: The Party Of Paper Assholes

My father had a phrase for people that were easily offended. He said that they had "paper assholes." As a young kid I couldn't figure out what he meant, but as I matured I realized that if you had a paper bunghole you had to be very careful how you wiped yourself. Paper bungholes are very delicate and could not stand any abuse else they tear.

I don't know if he picked this phrase up in the Navy during WWII, but this was my Dad's reaction to overly sensitive whiners. He couldn't stand them and his sons were brought up in accordance with this philosophy. Lord I miss him.

But my Dad would have said it applies to so many people today. We now have a n entire generation of people who have paper assholes. They're called Democrats.
Disgruntled Democrats Want A Constitutional Convention To Leave The Union

On Tuesday, disgruntled Democrats held a forum to discuss the possibility of replacing the Electoral College.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) conceded that Democrats could not get rid of the Electoral College due to the way the United States Constitution is written.

“I don’t think we can sustain our American democracy by having the majority ruled by the minority. And so the question is how to fix this since the Constitution is written in such a way that it’s almost impossible to amend,” Lofgren said.
Remember the media's reaction to the Texit initiative last summer to leave the Union? Liberals pooh poohed the notion that Texas would secede, but now that their panties are all wadded up around their torn posteriors they're thinking the same thing.

More here.

December 5, 2016

Sackernick

If ever there was an NFL player whose on field achievements mimicked the so called accomplishments of the White House's  Kenyan Avenger, it would be Colon Sackernick. Colon because because his head's up his ass and Sackernick because grass stains are usually not fatal.

If this clown were a Native American he could write a book, "They Buried My Ass On A Bended Knee." 
Kaepernick sets record on his knees—
San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick broke a 50 year-old NFL record on Sunday by ending the game with 4 yards passing and 5 sacks.

Kaepernick took a knee before the game and at least five times during the game.

Colin Kaepernick's day ends with 4 pass yards and 5 sacks. First QB in NFL history with 5 sacks and fewer than 5 yards in a game.

— Michael David Smith (@MichaelDavSmith) December 4, 2016

Colin Kaepernick sets a new historical low, benched by 49ers after throwing for 4 yards in three quarters https://t.co/J6WrEBYjAL pic.twitter.com/rUgbr87iz9

— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) December 5, 2016

This may be a new record for a Castro-supporting quarterback.

Congrats to Colin Kaepernick for extending his NFL record for consecutive losses by a socialist QB to 7

— Josh Earnst (@NotJoshEarnest) December 5, 2016
A big H/T to Gateway Pundit.

Make Our Navy Great Again

President-elect Trump has a full plate in front of him. Everything in this country has turned to shit under the stewardship of the cartoonish Kenyan Avenger. And that includes our Navy, once the most vaunted fighting fleet in the world.

From Military.com:
The Navy's littoral combat ship is costing taxpayers billions more than budgeted, failing survivability assessments, and may never live up to the original vision for the program, a panel of Navy and government oversight officials told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday.


USS Independence and USS Coronado

The hearing, which focused on continued testing and acquisition of the small surface vessels, came at the close of a 12-month period in which five of the eight littoral combat ships in service have suffered major mechanical and engineering casualties. Navy officials have ordered dramatic program overhauls and reviews of ship employment and training in response to the breakdowns.
Not only are these almost half a billion dollar tuna boats broken, they are not expected to survive in a hostile war environment. Shock tests on the USS Milwaukee had to be canceled this past summer as it was feared that further testing would severely damage the ship. And these tests were well below expected combat conditions.

Davy Jones is rattling around in his coffin at the Naval Academy, just achin' to plant his bony foot up some admiral's ass. This is a disgrace.

December 4, 2016

**********


Blind In San Francisco

There is a special kind of blindness that liberals exhibit. Or maybe it's a cognitive disconnect between what they say and do on one day and what they say and do on the next. Whatever the cause, it's maddening to witness it.

Take the death of Kate Steinle, a beautiful, 31 yr. old San Francisco woman who was murdered by an illegal alien, a Mexican, Francisco Lopez. Lopez, a known narcotics trafficker with a half dozen arrests, was released by San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi who refused to honor a request from ICE authorities to detain him. Ms. Steinle's Father is suing San Francisco and the federal government for their willful acts leading to the death of his daughter. On December 2nd, the feds and the City of San Francisco asked Mr. Steinle to drop the lawsuit.
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — The U.S. government and the City of San Francisco are asking Kate Steinle’s family to dismiss the wrongful death lawsuit in a hearing on Friday.

Kate Steinle was shot and killed in July of 2015 on Pier 14 along San Francisco’s waterfront. Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, an undocumented immigrant, has been charged in the murder.

Lopez-Sanchez was released from the San Francisco City Jail in Apil.

The family of Kate Steinle filed the federal lawsuit in May of 2016 against former San Francisco sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, Immigration and Custom’s Enforcement, and the Bureau of Land Management.

The lawsuit seeks to hold the Bureau of Land Management, ICE, and former Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi accountable for providing “the means and opportunity for a repeat drug felon to secure a gun and kill Kate,” according to the complaint.
Lopez was freed on these grounds:
Lopez-Sanchez has five felony convictions for entering the United States illegally and was released from federal prison earlier this year and sent to San Francisco because of a 20-year-old warrant in a minor marijuana case. Federal immigration authorities were not alerted when his charges were dropped, and Lopez-Sanchez was freed to the streets under San Francisco “sanctuary city” law that limits turning over illegal aliens for deportation.

Now just the day before asking for relief from this lawsuit, the City of San Francisco passed a resolution, a "middle finger" to President-elect Trump, stating the following:
HEREAS, On November 8, 2016, Donald Trump was elected to become the 45th President of the United States; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That no matter the threats made by President-elect Trump, San Francisco will remain a Sanctuary City. We will not turn our back on the men and women from other countries who help make this city great, and who represent over one third of our population. This is the Golden Gate-we build bridges, not walls; and, be it

FURTHER RESOLVED, That we will never back down on women’s rights, whether in healthcare, the workplace, or any other area threatened by a man who treats women as obstacles to be demeaned or objects to be assaulted. And just as important, we will ensure our young girls grow up with role models who show them they can be or do anything; and,
So on Thursday the City comes out with an in-your-face pledge to a) break the law and b) protect women and the VERY NEXT DAY asks the family of a murder victim who was killed because they broke the law - to drop the law suit seeking to hold them accountable for their reckless actions. It sounds like the City by the Bay figures it is a woman's right to be killed in front of her family - sounds very Sharia-ish, doesn't it?

Forgive me, but I am praying to Saint Andreas to give that fault line a little nudge. Just a little one.

More here and here.