WHO'S IN CHARGE OF THE GULF OIL SPILL FIX?

No.  BP's not.  No, the Gummint's not.

FREAKING PHYSICS is in charge.  Until we put the brightest and non-conflicted engineers, geologists and physicists on it, FREAKING PHYSICS will win.  Physics always wins. 

Even OJ couldn't break the laws of Physics and get away with it.  

THOSE WHO DO NOT READ HISTORY ARE DOOMED TO REPEAT IT

We are deploying thousands of Nat'l Guard to the Arizona Coyote Corridors.  

On the issue of added assets and emphasis on our border protection, great.  On the selection of military personnel as the instrument of providing this protection, not so much.

Immigration enforcement is a unique in law enforcement.  It requires observational, self-defense and language skills different from virtually any other discipline in law enforcement.  Basically the enforcement is directed against the arrestee because of the space he's occupying rather than the act he's committing.  The subjects who are illegally entering the country have little to lose and the ones who are committing crimes ancillary to the immigration (such as drug-running) are likely be dangerous, not only to enforcement types but to fellow-travelling illegals to  

Sending Guardsmen to do this work will have serious, sad and unintended consequences.

Anybody who doubts that need only read Joseph Wambaugh's last and final work of non-fiction "Lines and Shadows."  People who police the immigration trails without the specialized skills are not only ineffective but suffer profound personal harm from the experience..

This is poorly thought out.

MYTHICAL CAP ROOM

Oversimplified, the "Salary Cap" restricts gross payroll that that an NBA team can pay and applies fairly severe penalties to any team that goes over the "Cap".

So, when a team doesn't spend the entire permitted amount, it is said to have "cap room."  Hold that thought.


Now, the general estimate is that the NBA, as a league, is approximately $400M upside down, which would be an obligation of its member teams.


Thus, the question:  How can any team in a league $400M underwater be truly said to have "cap room."

COST INCREASES IN EDUCATION

If a University is being well run and is adequately funded one year, why should tuition ever increase more than the CPI for the next year?

(Note: this analysis does not apply to Community Colleges for a series of complex structural reasons.)

IF YOU'RE GONNA VISIT MY HOUSE......

..........at least don't wipe your ass on my curtains.


The President of Mexico bashed one of our sovereign 50 states on a matter of internal United States law and policy.  There should have been no cheers.  He should have been sentenced to three or four hours listening to Valerie Jarrett.  Very rude, and nobody made him pay the price.


Perhaps the preachy, presumptuous little fellow could perhaps better use his time trying to keep his people from reducing the population of the old, wonderful city of Juarez to zero with promiscuous drug killings.


I don't like the Arizona law.  I've already blogged on that but this is a matter for the United States to resolve in its family of  states.   Caldy, as they say in the city "tell your story walking."

INTERLEAGUE PLAY AND OUR PRECIOUS BODILY FLUIDS

Have I mentioned lately that interleague play is an abomination to the human spirit and threatens (with due credit to Colonel Batguano and Dr. Strangelove) our nation's precious bodily fluids?

I try not to do it more than once a year and the abomination is about to begin.

I'm done now.

SENATOR SPHINCTER

Anyone who reads here with any regularity knows I am no big fan of flippers in general or Arlen Specter specifically.  I will shed no tears at his departure.

Still, The Soros/DFA/Netroots types are making this sound like some big big lefty triumph.  For God's sake, people, Sestak's a flag officer in the United States Navy.  The White House tried to schmooze him out of the race because they didn't want Sphincter to be outside the tent pissing in, not because they thought they had any philosophical problem with Sestak.  What do you want to bet that BHO makes campaign appearances (plural) for Sestak in the Fall?

Good result, purge the flippers, but not any kind of move to the screaming socialist left.

RACIAL PROFILING NOT NEW

From our friends at Delancey Place:
 
In today's excerpt - the Long Walk. In January 1864, the U.S. Army forcibly removed between 8,000 and 9,000 Navajo Indians from their traditional lands in the eastern Arizona Territory and the western New Mexico Territory to internment camps in Bosque Redondo in the Pecos River valley. They had been conquered by a campaign whereby the U.S. Army had systematically destroyed their crops and other food sources, and old and weak among the Navajo had to either surrender or die. During the Long Walk, at least 200 died  or were kidnapped along the 300-mile trek that took over 18 days to travel by foot. Their settlement in Bosque Redondo had such catastrophic consequences in death and disease and was so disastrously expensive that the U.S. returned them to a reservation in their original homeland in a second "Long Walk" in June 1868:

"Most of them were guilty of nothing more than being Navajo. The errant young men responsible for most of the raids represented but a small percentage of the tribe. Yet now the many would pay for the malefactions of the few; now all the [Navajo] would finally suffer for the trouble caused by its most incorrigible members. It was the poorest Navajos, the ladrones, who had surrendered first. They were the sickest and weakest, the ones who had lacked the wherewithal to hold out. Now they had less than nothing - not their health, not their animals, not even a country. ...

"Now they had food, too, if that's what you called the rations the [U.S. Army] provided along the march. The bacon was rancid and caused the Navajos to retch. They had coffee beans but no means to grind them. The daily ration of wheat flour was virtually useless. Although there was nothing particularly wrong with it, most Navajos had never seen flour before and didn't know what to do with it. So they just stuffed it into their mouths, uncooked - and naturally grew sick. ...

"Kindness may have been the [U.S.] policy, but as almost always happens in the escalating confusion of a refugee evacuation, the best intentions slipped. Army command devolved into chaos. Soldiers raped women, denied rations, and pushed elderly marchers to the brink of death. Cruel guards occasionally shot those who couldn't keep up and left them to rot where they lay. And soldiers looked the other way as old enemies of the Navajos - the Zuni, the Jemez, and the New Mexicans - had their fun with the helpless trains of emigrants, stealing women and children away in the night. The slave raids became so prevalent that an American officer circulated a warning that all
guards 'must exercise extreme vigilance or the Indians' children will be stolen from them and sold.'

"Hundreds of Navajos succumbed to sickness, exposure, and exhaustion. The erratic spring weather for which New Mexico is famous only worsened the ordeal. On March 21 a blizzard fell on a party of nearly a thousand marchers. Army quartermasters were not prepared for the storm - they had not procured enough firewood or blankets to go around. Many of the Indians were nearly naked and some developed frostbite. By the time this unfortunate column reached the bosque, 110 Navajos had died."

Author: Hampton Sides
Title: Blood and Thunder
Publisher: Anchor
Date: Copyright 2006 by Hampton Sides
Pages: 446-448

GOLF CARTS ARE DAMN DANGEROUS

Click Here

Using only Emergency Room Statistics, The University of Alabama Birmingham concluded that there are in excess of 48000 golf car accidents a year and about 12000 people are seriously injured in them.  Given that not all these people go to ER's, this number is probably ridiculously low.  the Stats were compiled through 2005.  Since Gas has gotten more expensive and more peeps have retired, the number of cars is probably up and the number of accidents should be correspondingly up.

Also, the study didn't count the ones that were picked up by the Coroner/Medical Examiner.

Oh, more than half of these injury accidents didn't happen on golf courses.  Of course we've eliminated some accidents in this category by variously naming them "Neighborhood Vehicles"  

Happy Trails, Neighbor.

A HIT LIKE THIS WOULD REALLY RUIN MY WEEK

click here

NO DOUBT BECOMING THE BIGGEST DIVA IN NILES, ILLINOIS

click here

CUZ, WHA'ZZUP?

First my old business partner is President of the United States and now my cuz is the Prime Minister.  What are the chances of that?

A NATIONAL TREASURE GONE

Ernie Harwell is dead.  If you know, you mourn.  If you don't know, I can't explain it to you.

AN ANON SENT THIS IN IN RESPONSE TO "OHIO" BELOW

Make it stop.  You're hurting me!  Ya think the "artist" might have gotten on the outside of a few brews before this "performance?"

TIN SOLDIERS AND NIXON COMIN'

Great Protest Song. (click)

"Four dead in Oh-High-Oh."

Of all places to be the arguable tipping point in the war protest movement, Kent, Ohio would not have been in anybody's top twenty.  Not real sure how we explain this to our grandchildren except to say "And on the seventh day, Nixon created Nick Saban (who was a freshman at Kent St. in 1970).

Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'. We're finally on our own. This summer I hear the drummin'. Four dead in Ohio. Gotta get down to it. Soldiers are gunning us down. Should have been done long ago. What if you knew her and Found her dead on the ground? How can you run when you know? Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na. Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na. Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na. Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na. Gotta get down to it. Soldiers are cutting us down. Should have been done long ago. What if you knew her and Found her dead on the ground? How can you run when you know? Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'. We're finally on our own. This summer I hear the drummin'. Four dead in Ohio. Four dead in Ohio. Four dead in Ohio. Four dead in Ohio. Four dead in Ohio. Four dead in Ohio. Four dead in Ohio. Four dead in Ohio. Four dead in Ohio. Four dead in Ohio.

ANOTHER BRILLIANT WAY TO PUT DEDICATED PEACE OFFICERS BEHIND THE 8 BALL

This is an Honest-to-God section of the Arizona Immigration ("Safe Neighborhoods" Law, tongue, meet cheek)

36              G. A PERSON WHO IS A LEGAL RESIDENT OF THIS STATE MAY BRING AN ACTION

37        IN SUPERIOR COURT TO CHALLENGE ANY OFFICIAL OR AGENCY OF THIS STATE OR A

38    COUNTY, CITY, TOWN OR OTHER POLITICAL SUBDIVISION OF THIS STATE THAT ADOPTS

39    OR IMPLEMENTS A POLICY OR PRACTICE THAT LIMITS OR RESTRICTS THE ENFORCEMENT

40 OF FEDERAL IMMIGRATION LAWS TO LESS THAN THE FULL EXTENT PERMITTED BY FEDERAL

41     LAW.           IF THERE IS A JUDICIAL FINDING THAT AN ENTITY HAS VIOLATED THIS

42      SECTION, THE COURT SHALL ORDER THAT THE ENTITY PAY A CIVIL PENALTY OF NOT

43     LESS THAN ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS AND NOT MORE THAN FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR

44              EACH DAY THAT THE POLICY HAS REMAINED IN EFFECT AFTER THE FILING OF AN ACTION

45    PURSUANT TO THIS SUBSECTION.

In other words, some true believer can sue "Any Official" (that would include a rank and file officer) of a law enforcement agency for failure to find illegals and cause Federal Immigration Law to be brought down on all Illegals' haids.  So we train police officers to use discretion in investigating stuff and then we may sue them if we don't like the way they exercise that discretion.

I had no idea Arizona hated cops this much.   Good luck gathering police intelligence from the hispanic community.

OUTRAGEOUS IMMIGRATION RALLIES

I heard there were "immigration rallies" going on all over the country. My understanding of an "immigration rally" is where Fukudome gets a bunt single, Ramirez doubles and Soriano homers.

A GOOD SISTER AND A GOOD CITIZEN

I have seen some interesting things written and heard some interesting things reported about President Obama's conversation with Trish Viniard, sister of State Senator John Sullivan and eminent Quincy educator.  Most of them are suppositions or, at best, poor contractions.

I was literally standing between Trish and the President when she spoke.  She told him him her brother was John Sullivan and that John was there.  She told him in some detail how hard John had worked for him.  He interrupted her and said something to the effect that "You don't have to tell me how much he's done for me...he's one of my best friends!"  Then the President simply said "I didn't see him".  At this point I interjected that, yes, John was in the building.  The President said something pleasant to Trish and moved on but his expression changed.  He went about three groups down the rope line and then threw his now-famous U-turn, scattering photographers and staffers, trotted back up to the microphone and tossed out some love for Senator Sullivan.

At no time did Trish say anything like "You forgot to mention/introduce my brother."  She didn't say anything that one shouldn't say to an honored guest or to the President of the United States.  She gave him information and he, after a little reflection, decided to act upon it. 

(THE SEX TAPE) WAS NOT A GOOD IDEA

Ya Think?