Odds 'N' Ends

Lots of things to pontificate on, but covered everywhere (and mostly better than my musings).

For a little humor there's Delftman's The Guys' Rules.

rightwingprof has a tale of Feminists and chicken breasts.

Barking Moonbat Early Warning System hits The Perils Of Socialized Medicine.

The Dread Pundit Bluto leaks some information on NSA Datamining.

Sig94 has a piece on how absolutely depraved some in our society can be Testicles. Rope. Tree. Some Assembly Required. Caution: this post is on child abuse and could cause you to break things. This bastard is just evil.

And of course over at the Rott, Misha and the gang are conversing about the Seattle Publik Skools that have dictated that it was officially impossible for a protected minority to be “racist”

Enjoy.

UPDATE: I read this Friday and should have included it above. If you would like a very good explaination of how massive databases like the NSA's are used go to The Other Side of Kim and read Database ClueBat.

California High School Diploma Now Worthless

The great state of Kalifornia in it's effort to make all people equal has made a High School diploma from here worth less than the paper it is printed on.
Judge suspends exit exam

Thousands of high school seniors who have failed the state'’s exit exam could be eligible for diplomas anyway after an Alameda County Superior Court Judge on Friday suspended the test's requirements for the Class of 2006.

So as not to hurt their little feelings by depriving them of something they haven't earned, the state is going to make sure that any moron who managed to at least show up on campus enough days will graduate. You needn't have learned anything, just have been there.

The exit exam is a real ball breaker too. You only have five tries over three years to get 50% right. I know I'm an old fart, but the pass/fail line use to be 60%, and you only got one shot. Oh, and the test is geared to an8th grade level, so you only had five years to achieve this lofty level.

Starting this year, passing the language-arts and math test was to be a requirement for earning a high school diploma. But a lawsuit filed in February charged that the requirement is unfair to poor students and to those learning English who might not have received equal preparation.

What is the state of our schools that they cannot teach to an 8th grade level over five years, even in the poorer school districts? We spend around $10,000 per student per year. I would like to know what the money gets spent on. If they would stop the BS of teaching kids in their native language and put them in an immersion program there wouldn't be this inadequate preparation for learning in English.

I watched kids on the news protesting yesterday (a school day) that without a diploma, they wouldn't be able to get jobs or go on to college. I have news for these children, with this piece of paper that signifies nothing, they still won't be able to get a job or go to college (outside of our fine UC system that will be forced to honor these pseudo-documents).

The sad thing is that now all graduates from Kalifornia will be suspect. Did this kid really apply themselves and learn at least enough to pass the 8th grade, or is this one of those who got passed on so they wouldn't suffer the shame of not qualifying?

People might as well pull their kid out of school and enroll them in a commercial GED school. A diploma from them would be worth more.

My Job

This post is purely self pity and I apologize right now. I haven't posted here or at the other sites I visit much in the last week because I have reached one of those points in life where you feel you have just been beat down to the point that you have no energy left.

I am an Operator for an Independent Oil Company. I have worked in oil for over 30 years, starting as idiot, and moving though Rig Operator, Field Supervisor. Operations Manager (till the new owners bankrupted the company), then to a different company as a Site Operator.

The company I started with, Manley Oil Company in 1979 as a job till I figured out what I wanted to do. It was a family run business going into the 4th generation. The rules were simple. Treat your employees well, pay your debts, and prepare for the worst.

Oil, historically, has been a cyclical business. Bust periods, followed by short Booms. There were times where there weren't enough dollars coming in, even though production hadn't changed, that payroll couldn't be met. That goes back to the Manley rules. You kept your employees because in time things will turn, and you paid your debts to your customers, because it's their money and you took on the responsibility. The prepare for the worse was covered by a massive "War Chest". The Manley's set aside a large amount of monies during the good times, invested, but liquid to cover the busts.

All the Manley's passed on, the last way to young at 42, and we were bought by a small "investment" company. They listened to overly paid consultants rather than the people who had worked the field for decades and in less than 4 years managed to destroy a 116 year old company, thirty years of those were shared with me so to watch it go under was like a death in the family.

Shifting money to other parts of the company, overpayment of know-nothing consultants, and insisting the inadequate equipment recommended could be made to work, somehow, on top of record LOW OIL PRICES dried up all assets and killed us.

Which brings me to the reason for my malaise.

The company I now work for, is a little bigger and pays better. The problem is that after three years I am seeing the same pattern that wiped out my last company. Maintenance has be deferred for years, basic regulation requirements have been fudged, and even when the price of oil was at $60/bbl. we were told there wasn't money to buy needed minor equipment.

Two months ago the sh*t hit the fan and we had an injection well go bad. You may have heard it on the news "The Blob That Ate L.A.". That was my company. "deferred maintenance" had caught up to us and we started pumping water and mud up in the middle of a street in downtown Los Angeles.

We haven't produced a drop of oil from my site since, and the workover crew (@ about $18K/day x 6 days/week) don't know if they can fix the problem.

Moral sucks. Of the 6 guys that work at my site, the new foreman is struggling to deal with the problem, the guy who got passed over for foreman is pissed and looking for a new job, the guy who's in his 70's is going to retire in June, the guy who had a new job 6 months ago and was convinced to stay is now wondering why, I'm working with a bunch of dissatified people, and the guy under me is an ass with no experience and argues about every step of every project.

I actually love working in the industry, I enjoy fixing things and making them work the way they are suppose to. But losing my old company and then watching this one rapidly disintegrate has worn me to a nub. I am looking to make a big change in my life. I need to go to a company that wants to do things right and I feel this is my chance to get the heck out of Kalifornia. I've had it with the PC crap, the taxes and living in what is becoming more and more a Socialist over-regulated society.

I want to live in the land of the free, and with my business Texas looks like the place to go. I have started perusing the industry sites for an Operator's position around Dallas (I'm a little leery of the Gulf coast and hurricanes). If anyone knows someone in the oil biz, I'm a dedicated worker with 2 sick days in the last 5 years and I usually have to be told to take my vacation or lose it.

I fell better getting this down, but I gotta go back to work tomorrow.

Iran Threatens to Pull Out of Nuke Treaty

TEHRAN, Iran -
Iran renewed its threats to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty on Sunday, with its president saying sanctions would be "meaningless" and its parliament seeking to put a final end to unannounced inspections of its nuclear facilities.

Sounds a little familiar, doesn't it? Wasn't it about 4 years ago we were going through the same thing just a few hundred miles to the west of Iran?

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said:

"If a signature on an international treaty causes the rights of a nation be violated, that nation will reconsider its decision and that treaty will be invalid,"

In this case, I guess unilateralism is OK. I certainly don't heard any hue and cry about the "cowboy" in Iran not abiding by the wishes of a majority of nations and endangering the world, even though his expressed goals are the destruction of Israel, the United States and the establishment of the Caliphate. Maybe it's just me, or does someone have the answer of how he plans to do this with just the development of electricity.

The Western nations want to invoke Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter that would allow economic sanctions or military action, if necessary, to force Iran's compliance. Russia and China, the other two permanent Security Council members — all of whom have veto power — oppose such moves.

Once again proving that the U.N. is going to prove to be a toothless entity. Any time someone with economic ties with a rogue state sees there profits threatened, the whole house of cards comes crashing down into a bunch of weak and meaninless resolutions that threaten that we'll hold our breath until we turn blue if you don't do mind us.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad again:

"It's clear that any action by the U.N. Security Council will leave a negative impact on our cooperation with the IAEA," he said, adding that such action would "change the path of cooperation to confrontation."

In other words, if you don't let us do what we were going to do, we'll just do it anyway.

Unless someone takes the threats made by this madman seriously, right now, the Middle East is going to be the not so Cold War of the 21st century. Mutually Assured Destruction is not factor considered by someone who beleives dying for Allah (piss be upon him)is going to get him a ticket to Paradise.

Hawaiian Gas Cap Pops Off

Back in September just when the price of gas was starting to heat up, the state of Hawaii decided to head off the problem by taking control of prices by regulating with a price cap. After eight months with the government dictating how much to charge, what do you suppose happened?

From: Chron.com

With the average price for regular in Hawaii rising above $3.38 per gallon Friday, lawmakers have sent to Gov. Linda Lingle a law to suspend the cap that sought to keep the oil companies in check and give a fair price to customers.

Whoops, who would have thought that the government would end up costing the people more that if they had kept their hands off?

"It's ridiculous. Prices jumped up 20 cents in the last couple of days," said Calvin Reddick, who paid $15 for just over four gallons of gas for his Volkswagon Beetle. "Usually when you have a cap, it's supposed to freeze prices off. Obviously, their idea of a cap is different from mine."

Obviously, they have no idea how the market works.

One study by an economics professor showed the gas cap cost consumers 5 cents more per gallon.

An analysis by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism estimated that island motorists paid $54.9 million more than they otherwise would have in the first five months under the cap.

Hi. We're from the government and we're here to help. Is there any other group on the face of the earth that can take a bad situation and make it worse (well, yeah, the U.N.). Of course if they hadn't tried it in Hawaii, then how would we know how lucky we were it didn't happen to us?

But research by cap supporter Rep. Marcus Oshiro indicated the limits saved drivers $33 million.

You just have to know which numbers to use and which to ignore. Please note that these numbers are $87.9 million apart. Somebody's pulling numbers out of their ass, and being the people are screaming and the program was stopped, I think it might be Rep. Oshiro, who now has to defend his position on this.

Rather than forcing down gas prices with a lower price ceiling, the state's mostly Democratic Legislature suspended the cap and gave Republican Gov. Linda Lingle, who had opposed any regulation of gas prices, the power to bring it back if she decides fuel has gotten too expensive.

That way, legislators passed on responsibility for any price control to the governor.

They take the chicken's way out. They have just suspended the cap and dumped responsibility on the governor. They don't have to admit they were wrong, and if prices still stay high, they blame the governor for not reimpossing the cap.

At the same time, the law provides for computation of a hypothetical gas cap using a new formula expected to be about 16 cents a gallon lower than the current one. The revised calculation will include prices from low-cost Singapore, and it will disqualify the highest-priced market from the average of the four regions.

If at first you don't succeed....Just rewrite the rules and try again. Government always thinks they could run business better than the actual people who do, it never works, but they'll keep trying til they bankrupt us all.

An Alternative to Cinco de Mayo

While I have usually enjoyed celebrating Cinco di Mayo in the past, with the demands for rights from the border crashers this year I am not in the mood to hoist a Carona in honor of the Mexican's defeating the French this year.

For a good reason to hoist a Tuborg or Carlsberg in honor of this day, head on over to the Rott for a good reason to honor this day. Happy “Den Femte Maj”

United 93--Review

I had to go by myself to see the movie, the wife just knew she wouldn't be able to watch, and my boy had already made plans to see it with some of his friends.

In one way this was good. When I left the theatre, I wasn't in much of a mood to talk about the film. In the truck coming home, I couldn't even listen to the radio, it just seemed jarringly intrusive with the thoughts going through my head.

When I called my wife to let her know I was on my way home, she asked if I liked the movie? For about 5 seconds, I was silent. What words could you use to explain the feelings that were jolting through you after watching the horror of that day unfold before you, watching what the passengers on this flight must have felt going through this nightmare. The only answer I could give was that it really wasn't about liking the movie, it was the act of remembering that day that so many seem to want to forget, even deny.

What I did like was that there were no major stars. If Bruce Willis had been in this, the focus would have been on how he reacted and lead the passengers. By going with unknowns, the focus stayed on the fact that this was just a group of everyday people that were caught up in this situation, not by their choice, but reacted to it in the best way they could. They knew the plane was going to be used as a weapon and kill them and G-d knows how many others if they did nothing. They decided they would prevent the plane from being used to kill others, even if it meant they would die trying. That makes them heroes.

The only political slant that I noticed in the film, was that the only person to council doing nothing was the passenger that had a slight European accent (German?). I wrote that off, having never heard that anyone on the calls made from the plane stating that some Euroweenie was telling them to just do what the terrorists said.

It is a hard movie to watch. From the time the door to the plane closes, you know the fate of the people inside. You know there won't be any miracle or unreal movie hero to change the outcome. You do know that through the actions of these common people and the sacrifice they were willing to make that perhaps hundreds of other lives were saved.

The movie isn't glorious or rah-rah America. It is solely a depiction of what the War on Terror is about.

Anti-Boycott

Y'all have heard that the illegals plan to boycott all businesses tomorrow, May 1st, in a show of economic clout. If you care about this issue, delay any purchase you planned to make today until tomorrow, and then spend like crazy.

Show these people that the voice of 290 million citizens is a lot stronger than the voice of 20 million illegals. If you see a business that is closed tomorrow so that it's illegally workers can have the day off, drop that company off your list of places to patronize.

United 93--Too Soon?

Tomorrow I'm going to go see United 93.

I have heard the arguements that it's just too soon. I don't understand how this can be too soon, outside of just never wanting to think about it. It has been over 4 years since this attack on the United Staes occured and there are, still, people that do not want to deal with the reality that a group of animals were willing to hijack innocent passengers flying on an airplane and crash them into a building of innocent office workers, IN THE NAME OF ALLAH.

Since 9/11, the news agencies have put a moritorium on showing the planes flying into the Twin Towers. The films of people jumping to their death from the windows of the towers was censored from the beginning, with the thinking that "we the people" might get really upset. Well this movie is a chance to see what our enemy is willing to do to us in order to acheive their caliphate. Would I have been "upset" by the people jumping from the building so as not to burn to death, damn straight, and I think we should all have watched, just to make it clear what happened that day.

I will post tomorrow on my thoughts on this movie.

Congats to my Blogfather

My Emperor, Darth Misha I, and the man who served as an example that one man howling in the wilderness could make a difference, has reached the milestone mark of 5 million hits.

His tell it as it is style has obviously hit a cord in the bogosphere. There is no moderation, except spam or someone who just writes DNC memes without trying to back them up. He likes the rough an tumble discussions and only jumps in to prevent "friendly fire" or to clarifiy his point.

Congratulations Misha, hope to celebrate 6 mil shortly.

UPDATE: Due to a Denial Of Service attack on Word Press for hosting The Aniti-Idiotarian Rotweiller, Arron's CC , Instapundit, Power Line, Hugh Hewitt, the server has been spotty. Another momentus occurance this day. The DOS has been tracke back to Saudi Arabia see Michelle Malkin

Gas Companies are Price Gouging

The average profit on a gallon of gas for the oil companies is $0.09. For some reason people are convinced that this is an outlandishly high margin.

Now let's look at another factor in the price of gas. This is paid to someone who does nothing to find, produce, refine, transport, or market the product. It would certainly seem fair that they claim, on average, $0.42 per gallon.

How is it that someone who has no stake in bringing the product to market should make the largest profit in the selling of that product. Unless you were born yeaterday, you can probably figure it out, it's the government.

What was the purpose of taking this amount of money? They claimed that it was to maintain the roadways that the oil comapnies, and consumers, needed to use this product...the roads, bridges, ect.

Now, what are these funds that the goverment, state and federal, using these funds for? Seems like everything but. As the funds grew and, believe it or not, they couldn't spend the money fast enough, they did what all governmant entities do when they realize that they have "extra" funds, they rewrote the law to release the funds to unrelated projects.

Your taxes that were originally earmarked for highway maintainance and improvement, are now syphoned off to pay for education, drug programs, health care for the poor (illegals), and a lot more than they told us in the original bills.

I have been dodging the same pothole on the freeway going to work for over three yeaars. The street I live on has "been at the top of the list" for over 15 years for resurfacing, because "it is beyond salvations with a slurry seal".

If these things were fixed, in a timely manner, I might not be upset about the monies I've forked over for these repairs. but being they don't get fixed, I am being lied to. If you want funds for a specific project, you tell me, don't just take my money and use it for whatever you want with what's left over of you decide should be used someplace else.

This is taxation without representation, You took my money to accomplish something, with my approval, but then decided that those monies should go to somewhere else, without my approval. You do not know better than I do, Congress, state or federal, is suppose to represent me, not tell me what is for the "better good" and direct funds that way without my say so.

Tyson Foods Supports Slavery

While putting out a press release stating that they are not really supporting the illegal immigration rallies, Tyson Foods is closing 9 of their plants on May 1st, so that anyone who wants to attend the festivities will not miss work.

The only thing they are supporting here is their ability to hire slaves at wages so low that are so low that no American could work for them and be able to have anything close to a life.

If Tyson were forced to penalize the workers that don't show up on this day, they would have to fire most of their staff, which should tell us that this type of business counts way to much on employing people that shouldn't be employed here in the first place.

I would suggest that the government do a raid on Tyson's plants on May 2 and shut them down again for the next few days, plus nail their CEO's that ignore the law.

The UN has a Plan

Note: This is a post that I stuck in the draft file in February and forgot to publish. I was doing a little housecleaning and decided that, though late, it still should be posted.

They have finally decided to draw back the curtain and come right out with their plans for the world. U.N. pushing to end nation-states

The plan calls for dramatically strengthening the United Nations, by implementing a laundry list of recommendations, including these:

# Eliminating the veto and permanent member status in the Security Council;

So we might as well just get rid of that.

# Authorizing global taxation on currency exchange and use of the "global commons;"

We know best who would get the money you earn.

# Creating an International Criminal Court;

Forget your Constitutions, WE can write a better one for you.

# Creating a standing army under the command of the secretary-general;

If you don't like our constitution we need a way to make you like it.

# Creating a new Economic Security Council;

For Our economic security, oops, did I say that out loud?

# Creating a new People's Assembly;

Which will have no power, but will give the peons a place to vent and think they matter.

# Regulating multinational corporations;

All profits will go to US.

# Regulating the global commons;

See above.

# Controlling the manufacture, sale and distribution of all firearms.

You don't get any.

There it is. Laid out bare. The Useless Nitwits have declared that they should run everything. These asshat's can't even handle the small projects they've taken on and they think they can run the entire planet?

We are down to two choices:
1) Make these bozos realize they are an organization to negotiate stability between governments as per the original charter.

2) Kick their asses out of the US and stop our funding our own demise.

Feds To Remove Gas Tax For 60 Days

This is good news right? Well, you need to look at the second part of this provision. They plan on making up the lost revenue by shifting the tax onto the oil companies, which will create a saving to the public of 0, nothing, nada.

What people don't seem to realize, and what the government hopes you won't figure out, is that companies do not pay taxes, consumers pay taxes.

Oh, yeah, companies fill out tax forms and write checks to the government, but you have to remember where the company got the money in the first place. They got it from you, the consumer. When you bought their product, the price of whatever tax they were going to have to pay was already figured in.

So, after they pass this boondogle and you try to figure out why the price doesn't go down, don't blame the oil companies, think about it and blame congress. If you can't see through this, you are as easily fooled as they think you are.

Guard the Borders Blogburst

Swing by GuyK's place,Charming, Just Charming, and read some facts about illegals that you most likely won't hear through the MSM. And while your there,stay and visit a spell. He has a great site.

Just Weird

A lady in Germany opted to use her own vehicle to transport her dead mother cross country.

"The corpse was on the back seat without a seat belt, which in this case didn't really matter. But it was covered up with clothing. It is a misdemeanour."

Read the story here.

Why Does Gas Cost So Much?

Day after day I have to listen to everyone moan about the price of gas. It's always the Big Oil companies collaborating to drive the price up. Well when you read the article below, you will learn that oil companies have little control of the price.

Read The O'Reilly Fiction by Mac Johnson.

If you would like to hear Mac debate O'Reilly on this topic go to Expose the Left

We're Having a Crusade? Part I

Just when we were starting to think old OBL had forgotten about us, he pops up with a new tape. This time he is really pushing the "Crusade against Islam" line.

I hate to break it to him, but he doesn't know what Crusading is.

A Crusade Against Islam

Rule and Regulations for the Practice of Islam in the United States

Registration listed below must be completed by no later than the 30th of next month.

1. All Muslims in the United States are to report to the nearest police station and register with authorities. Failure to register by this date will result in arrest.

2. All Mosques must obtain a license to practice and Imams associated with each Mosque must register as such. Failure to obtain this license shall cause the Mosque to be confiscated and sold. Any Imam directing prayer at any mosque, not registered with that mosque shall be arrested.

3. Sermons may be recorded and/or monitored at any time.

4. Call to Prayer if heard off of registered property, or loud enough to disturb the neighborhood is forbidden.

5. Wearing of traditional Muslim garb out side of houses and mosques is forbidden and punishable by fine on the first offense and arrest for the second.

6. Any Muslim found with a weapon shall be arrested. This includes all fire arms, ceremonial knives, or any other weapon considered to be dangerous.

7. Muslims right to vote is rescinded.

8. Any Muslim attempting to convert a person to Islam is subject to arrest.

There will be future regulations enacted following this initial registration. You will be notified by mail of additional rulings.

Prince Harry

From: DNA World

“If I am not allowed to join my unit in a war zone, I will hand in my uniform,” he was quoted as telling senior officers before his passing-out from Sandhurst military academy.

Three cheers for the Prince. Third in line to the throne, he could easily been held back from deployment to Iraq, but is insisting on shipping out with them.

Too often we criticise the royals for being out of touch with the real world, but when you think back, they do serve, and they do go to war. His Father served in the Royal Navy during the war for the Falkland Islands.

So G-d speed Prince Harry, may you serve honorably and come home safely.

Mary McCarthy-Traitor - Continued

Well, it didn't take long for the MSM to rush to the defense of McCarthy. There argument is a convoluted stream of illogic along the lines of "she didn't do anything illegal...but, if she did she had really very good reasons".

Ace of Spades has been on this much better that I could ever do. So if you would like to follow the twisting and turning coverage of this go here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.