What is an "Assault Weapon"?

An excellent YouTube video on semi-automatic firearms.  I found this by visiting the new NRA blog, http://nssf.typepad.com/.

 

Blog Updates

I've updated my blog with a few items today.

There are additional links on the right that correspond to the Google Reader feeds that I've shared.  Also, my Google Calendar is available to be viewed.

Also, the "Voices from the war in Eastern Congo" blog post has been updated to disable the auto-play of the embedded flash video.  This was causing some problems in some browsers and is highly annoying.  Let me know if you're still receiving errors.

SNL Skit on the Bailout

UPDATE: November 28, 2008: It appears YouTube has pulled the SNL skit from their website. It's likely a copyright infringement. I'll see if I can't find another version from a NBC approved site.

This would be hilarious if it weren't so true.  Okay, it IS hilarious. 

Don't Bail Out the Big Three by Daniel J. Ikenson

 

 

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Don't Bail Out the Big Three by Daniel J. Ikenson

via Cato Recent Op-eds on 11/20/08

One day before the CEOs of General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler told the Senate Banking Committee that their industry faced imminent collapse without an emergency infusion of $25 billion, a new automobile assembly plant opened for business in Greensburg, Indiana. Although the hearing on Capitol Hill received far more media coverage, the unveiling of Honda's latest facility in the American heartland speaks volumes about the future of the U.S. car industry—and shows why the proposed bailout of Detroit's Big Three is so misguided.

The intellectual arguments against an auto industry bailout are well established. Taxpayers should never be forced to subsidize any company, let alone a poorly run company. Subsidizing the Big Three would be tantamount to subsidizing failure. That's bad policy.

Corporate bailouts are clearly unfair to taxpayers, but they are also unfair to the successful firms in a particular industry, who are implicitly taxed and burdened when their competition is subsidized. In a properly functioning market economy, the better firms—the ones that are more innovative, more efficient, and more popular among consumers—gain market share or increase profits, while the lesser firms contract. This process ensures that limited resources are used most productively.

[bio_box]

Some iconic U.S. automakers are now in dire straits, but the car industry itself is not in crisis. Even if one or all of the Big Three failed, there would still be plenty of strong auto companies operating throughout the United States. The Big Three currently account for slightly more than half of all light vehicle production and slightly less than half of all light vehicle sales in the United States. The rest of the U.S. auto industry includes Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Kia, Hyundai, BMW, and the other foreign nameplate producers who manufacture vehicles here. These companies employ American workers, pay U.S. taxes, support local businesses, contribute to local charities, have genuine stakes in their communities, and face the same cyclical contraction in demand as do the Big Three. The difference is that they have been making more products that Americans want to buy and will endure this recession without any taxpayer assistance because they have more efficient cost structures.

The decline of the Big Three is hardly a recent phenomenon. Detroit has been losing market share for decades. It has not produced a top-five selling passenger car in years. Detroit's once-popular SUVs and large pickup trucks have fallen out of favor with consumers. The Big Three failed to sufficiently diversify into reliable, efficient, and aesthetic passenger cars when they were earning big profits and had the money to do so. Their bloated cost structures have given non-Detroit competitors a $30-per-hour advantage in labor costs.

Want proof that automobile production remains alive and well in the United States? Just look at the success of Honda's operations in Ohio, Toyota's in Kentucky, Nissan's in Tennessee, BMW's in South Carolina, and Hyundai's in Alabama, as well as the proliferation of new plants across the country, such as the new Honda facility in Indiana and the new Kia plant in Georgia.

[pullquote]What we are witnessing…is an attempted shakedown. [/pullquote]

If one or two of the Big Three went under, people would lose their jobs. That's what happens in an economic recession, when less competitive firms are forced to contract. But the number of job losses wouldn't be anywhere near as large as Detroit is telling us. Realistically, the failure of one or two major auto producers would improve prospects for the firms and workers who remain in the industry. If GM fails, the market shares of Ford and Chrysler (not to mention those of the foreign nameplate producers) are likely to increase, as they compete for GM's former customers and best workers.

The bailout sought by Detroit would interfere with the adjustment process, while doing nothing to make the Big Three more competitive. A $25 billion infusion for companies that are losing $6 billion each month is not a rescue plan; it's an expensive way of kicking the can down the road.

Funneling $25 billion to the Big Three would amount to a waste of taxpayer dollars and also a tax on the successful auto companies, such as Honda and Toyota. Indeed, bailing out Detroit would discourage the successful companies from opening new facilities in the United States.

To dampen criticism, Congressional Democrats speak of a bailout "with strings attached." But even a strings-attached bailout poses problems.

First, Congress doesn't know enough about the auto business to dictate operational conditions. "Strings" that cap executive compensation will chase talent away. Strings that force Detroit to produce high-mileage vehicles when gas prices are plummeting will lead to a repetition of past mistakes.

Second, strings will make it easier for the Big Three to come back for more federal aid after they blow through the first $25 billion. Their CEOs will be able to say that they complied with the conditions of the original bailout, which happened to make matters worse for them.

Bailing out Detroit is unnecessary. After all, this is why we have the bankruptcy process. If companies in Chapter 11 can be salvaged, a bankruptcy judge will help them find the way. In the case of the Big Three, a bankruptcy process would almost certainly require them to dissolve their current union contracts. Revamping their labor structures is the single most important change that GM, Ford, and Chrysler could make—and yet it is the one change that many pro-bailout Democrats wish to ignore.

The Big Three, the United Auto Workers (UAW), the Michigan Congressional delegation, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid all know that $25 billion is nowhere near enough money to fix the problems ailing Detroit. The politicians must know that bankruptcy is the better course for auto companies and their workers (indeed, it could save 100,000 jobs). But they also know who fills their political coffers, and the UAW leadership is opposed to Chapter 11 because its labor contracts would be deemed toxic and abrogated by a bankruptcy judge.

The U.S. auto industry needs a shakeout, not a bailout. What we are witnessing, unfortunately, is an attempted shakedown. Let's hope it doesn't succeed.

 

 

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Google Launches SearchWiki for Custom-Ordered Search Results [Google]

I think Google really has plans to dominate the world. This is awesome.

 

 

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Google Launches SearchWiki for Custom-Ordered Search Results [Google]

via Lifehacker by Kevin Purdy on 11/21/08

Some logged-in Google users are seeing an interesting new feature enabled on their results pages this morning. SearchWiki adds two buttons to the right of each result that let users move their favorite or most relevant results to the top spot or kill out a result entirely for their page only, as well as add notes for yourself on certain results and add entirely new results to that crucial first page. You (and other users) will be able to see the changes your username has made, along with aggregate numbers for other users' actions (x voted up, x removed). While they're just for your information right now, Google engineers have said they might consider letting group decisions impact global results. I don't have SearchWiki enabled in my account yet, so I can't tell if the "I'm Feeling Lucky" results work with the re-ordering (so cool if so). Check out Google demonstration video below, and tell us what you dig and don't about SearchWiki in the comments. Screenshot from Google Operating System.

SearchWiki: make search your own [Official Google Blog via Googling Google]

 

 

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Mitt Romney: Let Detroit Go Bankrupt

Mitt Romney has an Op-Ed piece on the auto industry:

Let Detroit Go Bankrupt

By MITT ROMNEY

Published: November 18, 2008

IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won't go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.

Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.

I love cars, American cars. I was born in Detroit, the son of an auto chief executive. In 1954, my dad, George Romney, was tapped to run American Motors when its president suddenly died. The company itself was on life support — banks were threatening to deal it a death blow. The stock collapsed. I watched Dad work to turn the company around — and years later at business school, they were still talking about it. From the lessons of that turnaround, and from my own experiences, I have several prescriptions for Detroit's automakers.

First, their huge disadvantage in costs relative to foreign brands must be eliminated. That means new labor agreements to align pay and benefits to match those of workers at competitors like BMW, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Furthermore, retiree benefits must be reduced so that the total burden per auto for domestic makers is not higher than that of foreign producers.

That extra burden is estimated to be more than $2,000 per car. Think what that means: Ford, for example, needs to cut $2,000 worth of features and quality out of its Taurus to compete with Toyota's Avalon. Of course the Avalon feels like a better product — it has $2,000 more put into it. Considering this disadvantage, Detroit has done a remarkable job of designing and engineering its cars. But if this cost penalty persists, any bailout will only delay the inevitable.

Second, management as is must go. New faces should be recruited from unrelated industries — from companies widely respected for excellence in marketing, innovation, creativity and labor relations.

The new management must work with labor leaders to see that the enmity between labor and management comes to an end. This division is a holdover from the early years of the last century, when unions brought workers job security and better wages and benefits. But as Walter Reuther, the former head of the United Automobile Workers, said to my father, "Getting more and more pay for less and less work is a dead-end street."

You don't have to look far for industries with unions that went down that road. Companies in the 21st century cannot perpetuate the destructive labor relations of the 20th. This will mean a new direction for the U.A.W., profit sharing or stock grants to all employees and a change in Big Three management culture.

The need for collaboration will mean accepting sanity in salaries and perks. At American Motors, my dad cut his pay and that of his executive team, he bought stock in the company, and he went out to factories to talk to workers directly. Get rid of the planes, the executive dining rooms — all the symbols that breed resentment among the hundreds of thousands who will also be sacrificing to keep the companies afloat.

Investments must be made for the future. No more focus on quarterly earnings or the kind of short-term stock appreciation that means quick riches for executives with options. Manage with an eye on cash flow, balance sheets and long-term appreciation. Invest in truly competitive products and innovative technologies — especially fuel-saving designs — that may not arrive for years. Starving research and development is like eating the seed corn.

Just as important to the future of American carmakers is the sales force. When sales are down, you don't want to lose the only people who can get them to grow. So don't fire the best dealers, and don't crush them with new financial or performance demands they can't meet.

It is not wrong to ask for government help, but the automakers should come up with a win-win proposition. I believe the federal government should invest substantially more in basic research — on new energy sources, fuel-economy technology, materials science and the like — that will ultimately benefit the automotive industry, along with many others. I believe Washington should raise energy research spending to $20 billion a year, from the $4 billion that is spent today. The research could be done at universities, at research labs and even through public-private collaboration. The federal government should also rectify the imbedded tax penalties that favor foreign carmakers.

But don't ask Washington to give shareholders and bondholders a free pass — they bet on management and they lost.

The American auto industry is vital to our national interest as an employer and as a hub for manufacturing. A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs. It would permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs. The federal government should provide guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing and assure car buyers that their warranties are not at risk.

In a managed bankruptcy, the federal government would propel newly competitive and viable automakers, rather than seal their fate with a bailout check.

Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, was a candidate for this year's Republican presidential nomination.

Voices from the war in Eastern Congo

We often hear about the atrocities that occur around the world as if they have been relegated to the history books.  Our politicians bicker over whether what our brave soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors are doing in Iraq.  Then occasionally there will be a soundbyte on what the UN is (not) doing in Darfur.  The politicians of the world hold their meetings and talk.  They fly to foreign countries and deliberate.  The Security Council meets and fingers point as to whether other countries have a right by law to intervene in the matters of sovereign nations. 

Meanwhile millions are displaced, hundreds of thousands are murdered... and the politicians continue to talk. 

The conflict in Rwanda has spilled again into the Eastern Congo.  The entire region of Angola, the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi  is ready to ignite...

Medecins Sans Frontieres has a special report coming out on the atrocities currently committed in the Congo.  You can watch the trailer now at www.condition-critical.org:

Nasa's taste test - Astronauts will soon drink their recycled urine

Yummy!

 

 

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Nasa's taste test

via BBC News | World | UK Edition on 11/14/08

Astronauts will soon drink their recycled urine

 

 

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American Airlines getting in on that cellphone boarding pass fad

It appears American carriers are getting into electronic boarding passes that can be displayed and scanned from a smartphone. Just be sure your battery is charged up!

 

 

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American Airlines getting in on that cellphone boarding pass fad

via Engadget by Samuel Axon on 11/14/08

Filed under: Cellphones, Transportation

American Airlines has joined its peers at Continental in offering boarding pass barcodes that you can download to and display on your BlackBerry, iPhone, G1, or whatever have you. Presently the airline is only offering the option on domestic, non-stop flights departing from O'Hare -- LAX and Orange County will start on the 17th. Some eastern yanks might be asking, "What, no JFK or Logan? Where's the east coast love, AA?" Don't get too bent out of shape, boys and girls -- tech-savvy business travelers love their BlackBerries, so we could see this pop up just about everywhere before long.

[Via Mobilitysite]

American Airlines getting in on that cellphone boarding pass fad originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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USB 3.0 to Transfer 25GB in 70 Seconds [Hardware]

Firewire is DEAD. (That's an obvious Apple dig). Seriously, though, the alleged speeds for USB 3.0 are amazing.

 

 

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USB 3.0 to Transfer 25GB in 70 Seconds [Hardware]

via Lifehacker by Adam Pash on 11/13/08

USB 3.0 will be unveiled next Monday, and so far the new specs for the protocol look incredible, promising 25GB transfers in a mere 70 seconds. To put that in perspective, the same transfer would take 13.9 minutes with the current USB 2.0 protocol and 9.3 hours on USB 1.0. Looks like the future of wired syncs and backups is bright and blazing. [via]

 

 

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Lake Charles sunset

Lake Charles sunset, originally uploaded by C. Bond.

I'm just testing direct blogging from Flickr.

The Government Bailout is a Free-For-All

Worst fears of the planned socialistic bailout of industry by the U.S. Government are being realized.  Lobbyists are in their element right now in Washington trying to secure tax-payer monies for a myriad of various industries... gee, who saw that coming?

The article from IHT:  Lobbyists swarm the U.S. Treasury for a helping of bailout pie

South Park Does Election 2008 -- Good Stuff

The first 2 1/2 minutes of the clip are funny as well as about 6:30 into it.  :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWrxuNFtlNE

SOCIALISM IS STILL BAD NEWS

Someone sent this to me from the following site: http://www.khouse.org/

SOCIALISM IS STILL BAD NEWS

Most Americans might not really appreciate this, but the U.S. Constitution does not entitle anybody to health insurance.
It's true.
The Constitution does not require Congress to take money from those Americans who possess more and hand it over to those with less. It doesn't even encourage Congress to subsidize farmers or pay for prescription medications. It just doesn't.
In Article I Section 8, the Constitution does say:

"The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States…"

It goes on to talk about securing patents for scientists and establishing postal offices and roads and supporting armies and maintaining a navy. It says nothing about feeding all the downtrodden. There were plenty of poor people back in the days of the Founders, and they did not once mention using taxes to feed 'em. Apparently, providing for the general Welfare did include maintaining roads and hiring judges and keeping the peace, and did not include buying tuna fish for single moms.
Does that mean we should let the poor starve to death? Should we leave our grandparents without support or health care? Of course not. It just was never supposed to be the federal government's job to take care of these things. Here's why:

- Congress is not an industry. It does not produce anything that can be sold. It must take money from the people in order to pay for anything.
- Governments are by nature wasteful. It's easy to overspend money when the funds come from somebody else's hard work.
- Governments are run by imperfect humans and are therefore subject to mismanagement. For this reason, it is best to keep them small and easily managed, with very specified responsibilities.
- Governments are run by imperfect humans and are therefore subject to corruption. For this reason, it is best to keep them out of trouble by limiting their power. (Lobbyists and special interest groups could just go home were Congress kept within its constitutional limits.)
- Bigger government means more bureaucracy, more government fingers in private lives, and less liberty.

Socialism is corrupt by nature. As soon as Congress started taking money from taxpayers to give it to somebody else, the whole idea of private property was compromised. My property is not really mine if the government officials can stick me in jail for not giving some of it to them.

As George Mason University economics professor Walter E. Williams wrote recently:

"Whatever Congress wishes to give, it has to first take other people's money. Thus, at the root of the welfare state is the immorality of intimidation, threats and coercion backed up with the threat of violence by the agents of the U.S. Congress. In order for Congress to do what some Americans deem as good, it must first do evil. It must do that which if done privately would mean a jail sentence; namely, take the property of one American to give to another."

But...if the federal government did not take care of poverty, of health care, of the elderly, then who would do it! Who would take care of all these things that need serious attention?

We would, of course. We the people.

We are caring for people every day in communities all across this great nation without any government involvement. Unfortunately, we Americans have gotten so spoiled, we're in danger of losing the ability to properly govern ourselves. We think that "freedom" means license to do whatever we want to do. We think that "general welfare" means adding on to that massive government feeding trough. As we have stopped obeying God's Word and controlling ourselves, as we have gone lax in caring for our own families, young and old, we have found ourselves in an increasingly deep hole, surrounded by a growing number of government officials, along with red tape and high taxes, and... the poor still with us.

Let's get back to taking responsibility for ourselves, to doing what is right ourselves, and maybe we will find the federal government shrinking as a natural result.

Why You Drink

This was forwarded to me today and I thought it was worth sharing.