12 Year Old Victoria Grant on Banking

Replace "Bank of Canada" with "The Federal Reserve" and "Canada" with "United States", and her thesis applies here.

With talent and insight like that, she'll be "The One Percent" of her generation, as everyone should aspire to be.

Note that she isn't anti-bank, or anti-capitalist; she is anti-corruption, anti-crony capitalism, and pro-economic sanity.

My youngest son participates in a debate club (NCFCA), and many of those kids sound just like Victoria here. Their debate coach says (with a wink) that he expects "his kids" to rule the world (as opposed to merely winning the next debate round). They will be The One Percent, and they will get there through hard work, superior knowledge (but I repeat myself), and ethics. See if they don’t. They might do it even if the government takes and artificially redistributes 99% of their earnings. They understand that wealth redistributes itself without government intervention. Even the "evil" corporations would come by it fairly and honestly if the government would quit (un)leveling the playing field all the time.

(Hat tip to Primordial Slack)

Demi-God, or Demagogue?

I imagine a hypothesis in which Man releases a miniscule percentage of trapped CO2 into the atmosphere, which causes runaway climate change.

And everyone believes me without any verification.

Around world, Obama's presidency a disappointment

That is the headline from an AP news story that was highlighted on Drudge Report today.

In Europe, where more than 200,000 people thronged a Berlin rally in 2008 to hear Barack Obama speak, there's disappointment that he hasn't kept his promise to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, and perceptions that he's shunting blame for the financial crisis across the Atlantic.

In Mogadishu, a former teacher wishes he had sent more economic assistance and fewer armed drones to fix Somalia's problems. And many in the Middle East wonder what became of Obama's vow, in a landmark 2009 speech at the University of Cairo, to forge a closer relationship with the Muslim world.

In a world weary of war and economic crises, and concerned about global climate change, the consensus is that Obama has not lived up to the lofty expectations that surrounded his 2008 election and Nobel Peace Prize a year later.

That's because you don't award the Nobel Peace Prize to someone on a lick and a promise -- duh! And yet, when I think of Obama's presidency, I am disappointed for exactly the opposite reasons. He has done too much along those lines.

• You don't close a military prison unless you're sure you have no need for it anymore, as I'm sure Obama discovered upon taking office.
• Shunting blame for the financial crisis across the Atlantic -- what, to the twilight Euro zone? Say it ain't so! I hate to admit it, but he got that one partly right.
• Armed drones are one thing, but if forging a closer relationship with the Muslim world means appeasing Islamic extremists, then no.
• War weariness will not be addressed simply by calling home the troops. Wars happen because of cultural differences and human ambition. Those things won't go away by ignoring them, or by creating one world government. Dream on.
• Economic crises will not be addressed by creating class warfare, nor by imposing the same old, same old collectivist non-solutions. Maybe they were "progressive" 150 years ago, but now they're just a cruel joke.
• Climate change will not stop whether we impose a "sustainable" world government or not. The climate has always changed, and it always will. The idea that humans can affect climate on a global scale is not verifiable, and is most likely false. Having the premise wrong guarantees that we'll get everything else wrong for as long as we cling to that cockamamie hypothesis.

The rest of the world seems to think The United States can bail them out of the doldrums, but that isn't going to happen. The United States has its own recipe for prosperity and the pursuit of happiness -- The Constitution of the United States -- if only we would follow it. If the other nations of the world were to adopt similar forms of government, they'd be a lot happier too. But they haven't. Most of them have embraced the same collectivist claptrap that Obama wants the US to embrace, with entirely predictable results. There's some real diversity for you: Compare the results, and go live where you think you'd be happiest. And please, take Barack Obama with you. What? You're still here?

Cher doesn’t want to breathe the same air as Romney and his ‘racist homophobic women hating tea bagger masters’

According to Twitchy Entertainment, Cher said, "If ROMNEY gets elected I don't know if I can breathe same air as Him & his Right Wing Racist Homophobic Women Hating Tea Bagger Masters."

You lost me there, Cher... Let’s see... First of all, Romney isn’t Tea Party. Second, despite what you may have read in the dead-tree media, Tea Party is neither woman-hating, nor racist. Third, if we really were homophobic, we probably would not be "tea-baggers".

Read the article...

Can 33 Kilo Volts Deter Crime?

A lot of social engineering is devoted to the deterrence of crime. I have to wonder if it's worth it, after reading this: 

A would-be copper thief was gravely injured early Saturday morning when he attempted to steal copper wiring from a live Edison vault, according to authorities. 

The story continues:

Officials say the suspect is “extremely grave” and that it’s likely he was burned by 33,000 volts of electricity.

(Read the entire story...)

Think about it: You have a man who wants to steal copper. Copper is much less valuable than gold. Copper thieves sell it by the pound to scrap dealers. But this Poindexter is not deterred by thirty-three thousand volts of electricity? That is 275 times higher than the voltage of ordinary  house current, which is already quite lethal. If 33KV  doesn't deter someone, then I really don't know what will. It isn't as if he wasn't warned: If you have ever spent any time around high tension equipment, you know that it hums and buzzes; corona discharges snap and spark. And it's loud, too -- it's all very intimidating.

That smoldering bozo is lucky an arm or a leg didn't simply explode -- being turned instantly to steam when he contacted the hot wiring -- assuming the electrical disruption didn't reset his brain, or send his heart into instant fibrillation. What a maroon.

US Navy Presidential Ceremonial Honor Guard Drill Team

Our U.S. Navy Ceremonial Guard Silent Drill Team was invited to compete in the International competition in Norway . The Navy competed against military units from all over NATO and won first place.

And now for something completely different: This drill team didn't do so well...

Happy Sinko dey Kwatrro

What if G.W. Bush had said something so culturally clueless? Do I even have to ask? No, Mr. 57 states gets a pass. But this is cute.