MuskegonPundit

Monday, December 23, 2013

Rich liberals "Rat space for thee but not for me"-----Rise in Micro-Apartments Raises Concerns Over Mental Health

These phoney elites are no different than the worst of the French aristocrats of the French revolution.
Off with their heads!
Rise in Micro-Apartments Raises Concerns Over Mental Health | The New York Observer:
"Even though Mayor Michael Bloomberg has championed the micro-unit, some experts are concerned that living in 250 to 370 feet spaces could be risky.

“Sure, these micro-apartments may be fantastic for young professionals in their 20’s,” Dak Kopec, director of design for human health at Boston Architectural College, told The Atlantic.
“But they definitely can be unhealthy for older people, say in their 30’s and 40’s, who face different stress factors that can make tight living conditions a problem.”

According to Mr. Kopec, the space-saving trend of tiny apartments can lead to increased claustrophobia, domestic abuse, and alcoholism."

I was there just before the "volcano blow"---10 Strange 20th Century Ruins

10 Strange 20th Century Ruins - Listverse:

Plymouth, Montserrat

Photo credit: Mike Schinkel

In 1989, the quiet Caribbean island of Montserrat was struck by a devastating hurricane, which damaged more than 90 percent of the structures on the island and devastated the economy. Refusing to give in to despair, the proud Montserratian people came together to repair the damage and rebuild their country. Six years later, the island’s long dormant volcano suddenly became active again. It’s a cliché, but sometimes life really isn’t fair.

In July 1995, the capital, Plymouth, was evacuated as a precaution, but a small number of residents were allowed back a year later. Then, on June 25, 1997, a huge eruption buried the town in lava, mud, and ash. Over 15 years later, the town is still buried—the tops of houses, cars, and even red telephone boxes can be seen protruding from the ash, which has been compacted to the density of concrete. In some places the ash is thick enough that the rooves of multi-story buildings are now barely above ground level. Nineteen people died when the ash engulfed Plymouth, and much of the population of Montserrat fled the island, never to return.

Seems "Detroit" is the new synonym for disaster------The next Detroit? Atlantic City and Las Vegas facing catastrophy

The next Detroit? Atlantic City and Las Vegas facing catastrophi - New York News:
"With the closure of the recent Atlantic Club Casino Hotel, rumors of the bankrupt Revel being sold to Hard Rock, more than half of the mortgages in Las Vegas under water, casinos opening up all around the country and online gambling legislation underway in various states, it seems as if the reasons for the very existence of Atlantic City and Las Vegas are in serious jeopardy."
....With this in mind, it seems the niche that Las Vegas and Atlantic City once offered as a gambling and entertainment hub is heading toward the dustbin of history.

Time will tell if these two cities will end up like Detroit.

However, the fact that they are losing their biggest industries to major competition, much like Detroit did, with depressed housing, casinos bankrupting/closing and businesses fleeing, makes their fate seem eerily similar.

Well, it is more powerful. Wasn't THAT the point--------100 Years Later, The Federal Reserve Has Failed At Everything It's Tried

100 Years Later, The Federal Reserve Has Failed At Everything It's Tried - Forbes:
"Under the Fed’s supervision, boom and bust cycles have continued.
Three of them have been severe: the Great Depression, the stagflationary period of 1974-82, and the current “Great Recession.”
Bank failures have occurred in alarmingly high numbers.
Depending on what measurements are used, the dollar has lost between 95 and 98 percent of its purchasing power.
(Amazingly, the Fed’s official position today is that inflation is not high enough, so the erosion of the dollar continues as a matter of policy.)

Using your kindness to support their greed------Michigan telemarketing firm takes huge chunk out of charity donations

Michigan telemarketing firm takes huge chunk out of charity donations | Detroit Free Press | freep.com:
"Associated Community Services has put its banks of script-reading phone solicitors to work for the veterans group, dialing into homes and convincing people to give up their credit card number and make a donation.

In 2011, the most recent year for which records are available, Associated Community Services raised $89,740 on behalf of the veterans group. But when the final check was cut, the charity received only $8,855 — a mere 10% — to put toward services for veterans. ACS kept the remaining $80,885 as payment for its fund-raising work, according to forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service."

"You didn't build that"-------RAUL CASTRO ISSUES STERN WARNING TO ENTREPRENEURS

News from The Associated Press:
"Castro appeared to justify all of the recent moves to clamp down on private enterprise.

"We're not ignorant of the fact that those pressuring to move faster are moving us toward failure, toward disunity, and are damaging the people's confidence and support for the construction of socialism and the independence and sovereignty of Cuba.""

Crunch--Take off drama as British Airways jet crashes into building: Aircraft bound for London clips its wing as it taxis at Johannesburg airport

Take off drama as British Airways jet crashes into building: Aircraft bound for London clips its wing as it taxis at Johannesburg airport | Mail Online:
" the B747-400 aircraft was cleared for takeoff on Runway 03L.

It said: 'It was confirmed to the SACAA that the air crew got instructions from the Air Traffic Control to taxi using taxi way B. The crew continued onto taxi way M which is narrower resulting in the aircraft impacting on an office building behind the SAA Technical hangers."

Will fewer power plants (as Obama has declared) make this better-------Some Michigan homes, businesses could be without power through Christmas

Some Michigan homes, businesses could be without power through Christmas | Detroit Free Press | freep.com:
"Utility crews are working overtime to restore power to the tens of thousands of homes and businesses left without electricity thanks to the weekend ice storm in Michigan.

DTE hoped to have most of its customers back on line by Tuesday, but Consumers Power said it could be a powerless Christmas for some of its electric customers, especially those around Flint."

We are told (by the left) to look to Europe for "progressive" ideas------Lessons from Dutch Welfare Reform

Lessons from Dutch Welfare Reform | Cato @ Liberty:
"Welfare advocates regularly urge Americans to look to the European welfare state as a model.
At least in the case of the Netherlands, they might be on to something.

The Dutch have just announced a massive reform of their welfare system, designed to reduce dependency and put a new emphasis on work.
For example, welfare applicants will now be required to prove that they spent at least 4 weeks actively searching for a job before they become eligible for any assistance.
And once they begin to receive benefits they will either have to work or perform volunteer community service.
Dutch welfare recipients would be required to take available jobs even if they had to move or commute up to three hours per day."

The Unstoppable March Toward National Bankruptcy: Who's To Blame?

The Unstoppable March Toward National Bankruptcy: Who's To Blame? - Forbes:
"Who is to blame?

Let’s start by picking the low-hanging fruit: “progressives,” a.k.a, Democrats. The Dems always want more federal spending, higher taxes, more government. Indeed, there is no major area of economic activity over which they want less control. Whether it’s food, energy, housing, health care, retirement, finance, transportation, education, etc., they always want to expand the government’s scope and power.

The Democrats have led the way toward bigger government. They always succeed in getting Republicans to blink every time the debt ceiling is reached, because whereas Republicans are ambivalent and divided about Big Government, progressives are united and utterly committed to it. They do not vacillate; the Republicans do, and so they buckle."

This explains much.......

"Duh-of-the-year"---------Homebuying franchise calls Detroit one of 10 'riskiest' markets for investment

Homebuying franchise calls Detroit one of 10 'riskiest' markets for investment | MLive.com:
"DETROIT, MI - HomeVestors, a Dallas-based home-buying franchise, has named the 10 best real estate markets in which to invest, as well as the 10 riskiest, as part of its Local Market Monitor analysis.
Detroit was called one of the 10 riskiest, joining Los Angeles, Gary, Providence, Buffalo, Toledo, Cleveland, Birmingham, Ala.; and New Haven, Conn.. as "speculative" markets. "

9 REALLY inappropriate snowmen [SLIDESHOW] |

9 REALLY inappropriate snowmen [SLIDESHOW] | The Daily Caller

This is really weird-----Individual Mandate | HHS Says Obamacare Is a Hardship

These morons are officially declaring that their own proclamations have made individuals "hardship" cases worthy of another wave of their "wand".
This is like the Woody Allen movie "Bananas".
Except it's real.
Barry's in Hawaii... if you need to call....
Individual Mandate | HHS Says Obamacare Is a Hardship:
"Thus, the Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary is now exercising her authority to grant a “hardship” exemption to the individual mandate to purchase health insurance.
The Administration announced that those who have had their previous policies canceled will now qualify for a “temporary” hardship exemption (no exact time frame is given) from the individual mandate.
Thus, as the law allows, those who get a “hardship exemption” are now able to purchase a catastrophic plan—typically only available to those under age 30.
This is supposed to be beneficial because catastrophic plans have cheaper premiums, as Secretary Sebelius estimates, on average about 20 percent lower than other plans available on the exchange.
Under the Affordable Care Act, however, catastrophic plans have the highest deductibles allowed—$6,350 for self-only coverage—before the plan pays benefits.
In addition, catastrophic plans are not eligible for subsidies in the exchanges."

History for December 23 - Sled, Fed, Dead. Brave, Brilliant, Doh!

History for December 23 - On-This-Day.com
1823 - The poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" by Clement C. Moore (" 'Twas the night before Christmas...") was published.

1913 - The Federal Reserve Bill was signed into law by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. The act established 12 Federal Reserve Banks.

1948 - Former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were executed in Tokyo. They had been found guilty of crimes against humanity.

1968 - Eighty-two crewmembers of the U.S. intelligence ship Pueblo were released by North Korea, 11 months after they had been captured.

In 1947, John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley of Bell Laboratories unveiled the transistor. They shared the Nobel Prize for this invention, which led to a revolution in communications and electronics.

In 1975, the US Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act.

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Comisars at Salon.com love Barry's "power wand"-------Crush GOP obstruction, and reduce inequality now!

Wait til his regime's end is near.
Fear for our country!
Crush GOP obstruction, and reduce inequality now! - Salon.com:
"An executive order hiking pay for federal contractors’ employees could help 2 million low-wage workers"

President Obama’s last speech on income inequality was by far his best. He linked rising inequality, and declining social mobility, to the growing low-wage work swamp, in which one in four workers makes little enough that they qualify for public assistance.

“We know that there are airport workers, and fast-food workers, and nurse assistants, and retail salespeople who work their tails off and are still living at or barely above poverty,” he said, adding, “It’s well past the time to raise a minimum wage that in real terms right now is below where it was when Harry Truman was in office.” Obama supports hiking the federal minimum wage from $7.50 to $10.10, but such a push is stalled for the time being by congressional Republicans.

Obama didn’t mention the one move he could make himself: issuing an executive order mandating that federal contractors pay their workers a higher wage. Back in August, the New York Times editorialized on behalf of such a move, pointing to new research showing that hundreds of billions in federal contracts go to firms paying low wages and offering no benefits. An estimated 2 million low-wage workers are employed by federal contractors, making the federal government the largest employer of low-wage workers in the country.

“In effect, tax dollars are being used to fuel the low-wage economy and, in the process, worsen inequality,” the Times argued.

Congressional progressives joined the clamor this month, with Reps. Keith Ellison and Raul Grijalva writing a letter that Ellison personally delivered to Obama asking him to use an executive order to hike wages for these workers. “We believe the federal government should set a positive example and pay workers a living wage,” the duo wrote. “You have the ability to make a living wage a reality for millions of Americans, which will benefit their families and also spur needed economic growth.”

The Badpiper Thunderstruck

▶ The Badpiper Thunderstruck - YouTube: ""

'via Blog this'

Cracker Barrel does a 180: ‘Today, we are putting all our Duck Dynasty products back in our stores.’

Cracker Barrel does a 180: ‘Today, we are putting all our Duck Dynasty products back in our stores.’ | Twitchy:
"Message received from Phil Robertson supporters, loud and clear:

Dear Cracker Barrel Customer:
When we made the decision to remove and evaluate certain Duck Dynasty items, we offended many of our loyal customers.
Our intent was to avoid offending, but that’s just what we’ve done.
You told us we made a mistake.
And, you weren’t shy about it.
You wrote, you called and you took to social media to express your thoughts and feelings. You flat out told us we were wrong.
We listened.
Today, we are putting all our Duck Dynasty products back in our stores.
And, we apologize for offending you.
We respect all individuals right to express their beliefs.
We certainly did not mean to have anyone think different.
We sincerely hope you will continue to be part of our Cracker Barrel family.

Some of Robertson’s supporters, however, still have a question:"

Your tax dollars at work--------This new Obamacare rap video is nuts

Seriously folks.
This is what your government is spending your tax dollars on.
And it's their insider, big contributor buddies who are gettin' the loot to make these idioti-videos.

This new Obamacare rap video is nuts « Watchdog.org:
"BOISE, Idaho — It’s President Barack, bizzle.

The public relations war over President Barack Obama’s signature health care plan continues, with the act’s proponents pushing young people to sign up for the law to subsidize care for the elderly, a crucial component of the plan.

The latest video push comes from Get Covered, a firm backer of Obamacare.
Enroll America, a nonprofit group, runs Get Covered.
Enroll is staffed with top Democratic operatives, as revealed by Florida Watchdog’s Will Patrick earlier this year.

Get Covered’s video is a spoof of Snoop Dogg’s — or is it Snoop Lion?— 2004 smash hit, “Drop it Like it’s Hot.”"

This could be really BIG----Scientists successfully reverse aging in mice

Seems they didn't try it on MJ.

Scientists successfully reverse aging in mice | DVICE

"What if we discovered a way to not just stop it, but to reverse it?

Scientists at Harvard think it’s possible. They developed a natural chemical that successfully turned old mice into young mice.

It seems crazy, but the Harvard team’s experiments revolve around what happens to cells as we get older.

.....The team injected two-year-old mice with this younger version of NAD. After a week, they took tissue samples of those mice. Those samples appeared younger, more like that of six-month-old mice. To put that into perspective in human years, that’s like taking a 60-year-old grandfather and turning him into a 20-year-old college student.

That’s impressive. What’s even more impressive is that there aren’t many adverse side effects to using NAD to reverse the aging process because it already naturally occurs in the body: all we’re doing here is giving it a boost."

Hayek on why Obamacare won’t work

Imagine if government took over housing for those in need......
Oh.
Been there.
Wrecked it.
Hayek on why Obamacare won’t work | AEIdeas:
"~Nobel economist Friedrich Hayek, from his book “The Use of Knowledge in Society,” explaining why a decentralized market system is superior to central planning….. and why Obamacare won’t work.

"If we can agree that the economic problem of society is mainly one of rapid adaptation to changes in the particular circumstances of time and place, it would seem to follow that the ultimate decisions must be left to the people who are familiar with these circumstances, who know directly of the relevant changes and of the resources immediately available to meet them.
We cannot expect that this problem will be solved by first communicating all this knowledge to a central board which, after integrating all knowledge, issues its orders.
We must solve it by some form of decentralization."

Re-Education Camp

Re-Education Camp | National Review Online:
"Having leaned on A&E to suspend their biggest star, GLAAD has now moved on to Stage Two:

“We believe the next step is to use this as an opportunity for Phil to sit down with gay families in Louisiana and learn about their lives and the values they share,” the spokesman said.

Actually, “the next step” is for you thugs to push off and stop targeting, threatening and making demands of those who happen to disagree with you.
Personally, I think this would be a wonderful opportunity for the GLAAD executive board to sit down with half-a-dozen firebreathing imams and learn about their values, but, unlike the Commissars of the Bureau of Conformity Enforcement, I accord even condescending little ticks like the one above the freedom to arrange his own social calendar. "
.....In the early days of my free-speech battles in Canada, my friend Ezra Levant used a particular word to me: “de-normalize”.
Our enemies didn’t particularly care whether they won in court.
Whatever the verdict, they’d succeed in “de-normalizing” us — that’s to say, putting us beyond the pale of polite society and mainstream culture.
“De-normalizing” is the business GLAAD and the other enforcers are in.
You’ll recall Paula Deen’s accuser eventually lost in court — but the verdict came too late for Ms Deen’s book deal, and TV show, and endorsement contracts.

Wait until self described homosexuals get federal "protection"------Second lawsuit in a month filed against Mary Free Bed by a nurse alleging race discrimination

Soooo.
Two years later.
After she didn't get her promotion.
She remembers this shocking, painful fact.
And you know she's gonna win big.
Who needs facts these days.
Second lawsuit in a month filed against Mary Free Bed by a nurse alleging race discrimination | MLive.com:
"In October 2011, she says she was told by her supervisor not to care for a patient because “no black employees were allowed to care for” that patient.
Foster says she complained to the director of nursing, but was told only, “What do you want me to do about it?”
She says she received the same response from the vice president of clinical services.
The lawsuit also alleges that Foster was denied a promotion to nursing supervisor and she believes the decision was based on her race and complaints of racial discrimination."

It was never about health. It was about power---New York City Extends Smoking Ban To E-Cigarettes

Quite simply, rich, thin, rich, morons.
Did I mention "rich"?
They don't understand E-cigarettes and they don't like the look.
The "look" is important.
Doncha tink?
Plus, banning stuff we don't like is fun!
Doncha tink?
New York City Extends Smoking Ban To E-Cigarettes : The Two-Way : NPR:
"New York's City Council has approved extending the city's strict smoking ban to include electronic cigarettes, which emit a vapor.
The measure was pushed by outgoing Mayor Michael Bloomberg and backed by public health advocates in the city.
It comes just weeks after New York became the first major city to raise the age for buying tobacco to 21.
Earlier this month, New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said that "more research is needed on electronic cigarettes," but that "waiting to act could jeopardize the progress we have made over the last few years."
Reuters describes e-cigarettes as "slim, reusable metal tubes that contain nicotine-laced liquid in a variety of exotic flavors such as bubble gum and bacon.""

The Age of Intolerance

The Age of Intolerance | National Review Online

.......every other show seems to involve snippy little Pajama Boys sitting around snarking at each other in the antiseptic eunuch pose that now passes for “ironic.”
It’s “irony” as the last circle of Dante’s cultural drain; it’s why every show advertised as “edgy” and “transgressive” offers the same pitiful combination of attitude and impotence as a spayed cat humping.

Such a pansified culture is going nowhere.
I hasten to add I don’t mean “pansified” in the sense of penetrative sex with other men, but in the Sarah Silverman sense of “I mean ‘gay’ like ‘retarded.’”
Miss Silverman can get away with that kind of talk because she’s a Pajama Boy–friendly ironist posing as a homophobic disablist.
Unless, of course, she’s a homophobic disablist posing as a Pajama Boy–friendly ironist. Maybe we should ban her just to be on the safe side.

Is the "inner city" finally getting it? --------Al Sharpton's Chicago Town Hall Erupts into Revolt Against Machine Politics

Al Sharpton's Chicago Town Hall Erupts into Revolt Against Machine Politics:
"On Thursday, a town hall meeting hosted by Al Sharpton and the National Action Network to address gun violence exploded into a revolt against “Chicago Machine” politics, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and the aldermen in City Hall, with panel and audience members calling to vote out their elected officials.

One 82-year-old preacher even called for “Tea Party” style meetings in some of Chicago’s south side communities such as Altgeld Gardens and Trumbull Park."

A Whooper From the IRS.
A political firestorm erupted this year over IRS employees’ extra scrutiny of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status. Lois Lerner, director of the IRS’ exempt organizations division, wrongly told reporters on May 10 that she first learned of employees targeting these groups in 2012 from media reports on conservative organizations that complained about delays. But a Treasury inspector general’s report released four days later showed she knew about the flagging of conservative groups nearly a year earlier, and that she tried to correct it.

Lerner, the IG report said, was briefed in late June 2011 about employees singling out groups applying for 501(c)(4) status with “tea party” or “patriot” descriptors. The status is for “social welfare” organizations that can be involved in politics as long as it is not their “primary activity.” Lerner raised concerns and “instructed that the criteria be immediately revised,” the report said. She also learned in early 2012 that the IRS had sent the groups letters asking “unnecessary” questions — as determined by her office — such as the identity of donors. But when questioned by reporters just days before that report was released, Lerner said that “we started seeing information in the press that raised questions for us and we went back and took a look.” Lerner retired from the IRS in September.

Sooo, those who said "gay marriage" would open the door for polygamy weren't nuts after all------Move over Sister Wives! Utah polygamist with FIVE wives and 24 children to get his own TLC reality series

Move over Sister Wives! Utah polygamist with FIVE wives and 24 children to get his own TLC reality series | Mail Online: "
A pilot episode featuring Brady Williams and his family drew good ratings on the network in September
The Williams family are among an estimated 15,000 independent polygamists in the West who don't belong to an organized, fundamentalist Mormon church

TLC has announced it will air a full series about a progressive polygamous family from Utah that starred in a one-hour pilot earlier this year.

The cable TV network said Thursday it will produce nine, one-hour episodes about Brady Williams and his five wives and 24 children.
The first episode is set to debut March 9."

What a story! ---------Korean War pilot who landed blind dies at 83

Korean War pilot who landed blind dies at 83 | The Detroit News
Los Angeles — Kenneth Schechter, a Korean War pilot who landed his plane while blinded from a wound, has died. He was 83.
Schechter died on Dec. 11 in Fairfield, Calif., his son, Rob Schechter, told the Los Angeles Times. He had prostate cancer.
Schechter was a 22-year-old Navy pilot when an enemy shell sent fragments into his eyes and blood running down his face during a March 22, 1952, bombing mission.
Schechter suddenly was semi-conscious, flying a smashed-up Skyraider at 200 mph over the Korean coast.
“Instinctively, I pulled back on the stick to gain altitude,” he wrote in an account for the 2001 book, “Chicken Soup for the Veteran’s Soul.” ‘’When I came to, sometime later, I couldn’t see a thing. . I felt for my upper lip. It was almost severed from the rest of my face.”
“I’m blind! For God’s sake, help me!” he cried into his radio. “I’m blind!”

His friend and fellow pilot, Lt. j.g. Howard Thayer, had already spotted the plane climbing and knew something was wrong.
Over the next 45 minutes, he helped talk down the plane. At one point, Thayer dumped his canteen over his head to wash away the blood. For a moment he saw the controls but then everything went dark.
“Get me down, Howie,” he radioed. “Get me down.”
Thayer guided the plane toward the coast, intending for Schechter to bail out and be picked up in the water but Schechter refused. He had seen another pilot drown in the same waters after a bailout.

“Jump out in that icy water blind? You’d have to be insane,” Schechter said in a 1995 Times interview.

With the nearest air base 30 miles away, and the bleeding Schechter slumping in the pilot’s seat, Thayer looked around for someplace to land — even a rice paddy. He finally remembered a rutted dirt Army landing strip dubbed the Jersey Bounce that had been used by reconnaissance planes.
As they approached, Thayer told Schechter to lower his wheels.
“The hell with that!” Schechter replied. He thought a belly landing would be safer on the uneven ground.
Thayer, flying a few feet from his friend, kept up a running commentary as the plane came down.
“We’re heading straight,” he said. “Hundred yards to runway. You’re 50 feet off the ground. You’re level. You’re OK. You’re over the runway. Twenty feet. Kill it a little. You’re setting down. OK, OK, OK. Cut!”
Schechter was safe. It was his last flight before he left the Navy months later. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1995.