Learn his deadly technique for a mere $19.95!
Etheridge has already proven how effective it is…
IowaHawk brings us Bob Etheridge’s martial arts secrets!
June 22nd, 2010LinkSwarm for Father’s Day
June 20th, 2010A few links for whiling away the day:
- The Feds shut down crude-oil sucking barges ordered by Gov. Bobby Jindel in order to verify they had fire extinguishers and life vests.
- The rabbi who filmed Helen Thomas on what he learned: “Where before I saw a foggy anti-Israel, anti-Jewish link, it’s now clear. This feeling is not about statehood. It’s about an ingrown, organic hate.”
- After last year’s championship riots, you would think that the Los Angeles Police Department would have learned a thing or two. They did, but not enough.
- Problem: Citizens hate congress spending money like drunken sailors on a meth binge with Bill Gates’ stolen credit card. Solution: Congress just refuses to pass any budget whatsoever, so they can spend even more.
Now go call your father…
NRA Selling Out on Free Speech to Obama/Pelosi/Reid?
June 14th, 2010So the reports go that they’ve cut a deal on the anti-free speech DISCLOSE Act. Pelosi and company are besides themselves with joy.
Members might want to contact the NRA at all levels to know this is a very bad idea. You can also call them at 1-800-672-3888.
Spine! Who’s have thunk it?
June 14th, 2010Today the University of California at Irvine announced they were apologizing to 11 members of an Islamic student group arrested for interrupting the Israeli Ambassador’s speech for “violating their civil rights.” Or at least that’s the sort of headline you’ve come to expect out of both the People’s Republic of California and the University of Political Correctness.
The funny thing is, it didn’t happen this time.
Instead, UC Irvine suspended the Muslim Student Union for a year. Wow, spine! At a California university! Who’d have thunk it?
Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-NC) Feels Free to Assault People Asking Him Questions
June 14th, 2010You’re a congressman walking down the street when a student asks if you support the Obama agenda. Do you: C.) Bat his camera aside, grab his wrist, demand to know his name, and refuse to let go?
I though the student showed great restraint in not kicking him in the nuts, which he would have been legally justified in doing when Congressman Etheridge refused to let go.
(Hat tip: Breitbart.)
LinkSwarm for Sunday, June 13
June 13th, 2010A few random links to while away your day:
- It must be hard for the New York City teacher’s union, the United Federation of Teachers, to make ends meet, what with the $183,603 per year they have to pay for office space. That is to say, their office space in Boca Raton, Florida.
- “Environmentalists, like feminists, are just another arm of the Democratic establishment: ‘running dogs’ to be loosed or reined in as politics require. It is thus unnecessary to pay attention to what they say, since it’s just politics anyway.”
- “Europe’s Lehman Bros. is actually Europe.”
- Lifestyles of the rich and famous drug lords, including lots and lots of guns.
- When you’re Barack Obama, and Maureen Dowd (of all people) says that Joe Biden (of all people) has better relations with the press than you do, you may have a problem. Also this about Obama: “he is an elitist, too, as well as thin-skinned and controlling.” However, I’m not buying Dowd’s attempts to defuse the “media as Obama worshipers” problem: “The press traveling with Obama on the campaign never had a lovey-dovey relationship with him. He treated us with aloof correctness, and occasional spurts of irritation.” However, if that was the case, I don’t recall seeing a single report from the mainstream media in all of 2008 that mentioned it, which rather confirms the idea that the media buried any negative reporting during the campaign because of ideological solidarity and wanting him to win, doesn’t it?
- California’s Proposition 14 may have just insured that Green and Libertarian Party candidates never get on the general election ballot.
- Wednesday before Dutch election: Geert Wilders is irrelevant. Friday after Dutch election: Geert Wilders is a kingmaker.
- Am I just going to link to every damn Mark Steyn piece that comes down the pike? Why yes. Yes I am.
(Hat tips: Instapundit, Real Clear Politics, NRO’s The Corner)
City of Austin: How dare you do what you want with your own land?
June 11th, 2010Once again the City of Austin is living up to its reputation as a Nanny State busybody who can’t keep its nose out of other people’s business. In this case it’s decided that Joe Del Rio can’t dig under his own house.
Joe Del Rio, the retiree who excavated a huge pit underneath his East Austin home that prompted a raid by SWAT and bomb squad officers last month, is suing the city for taking his private property by filling in the hole, his lawyer said Thursday.
Earlier this week, Austin city officials had ordered the collection of tunnels and rooms, which they have characterized as a 35-foot-deep multilevel underground structure, filled with concrete to prevent Del Rio’s house from collapsing. Work crews for a private contractor were scheduled to begin filling in the underground space this morning, which officials said would take about 33 truckloads of concrete.
A spokeswoman for the Public Works Department said the estimated cost of filling Del Rio’s pit is about $61,500. The city will pay for the work and then bill Del Rio, Sara Hartley said.
In a mid-May report, city engineers, citing deep excavation under load-bearing walls and scant reinforcement of walls in the pit, declared that Del Rio’s home was “in imminent danger of collapse.”
Demolishing the home, they said in the report, would almost certainly cause a cave-in, so filling in the pit was the only option.
Here’s a Google Street View of the House.
There are also pictures, but they offer a considerably less-than-comprehensive view. (Notice how the photos from the City of Austin Code Compliance Department are carefully chosen not to give you a good idea of the layout of the space, but to make it look as ugly and haphazard as possible.)
Note that nowhere in the article does it say that Mr. Del Rio’s house is a danger to anyone but Mr. Del Rio himself. So the City of Austin comes in with guns drawn, seizes the man’s house, and is about to spend $61,000 and bill Del Rio to perform work he doesn’t want to save him from himself.
I’m not saying that Del Rio’s excavations were necessarily the smartest move in the world, and I’m not advocating people go out of their way to flaunt building codes. But government exists to protect citizens from being victimized by others, not to protect people from themselves. Unless Mr. Del Rio’s actions are a danger to others (say, if he was undermining a city street), the City of Austin should leave him the hell alone.
(Hat tip: Fark.)
At least Helen Thomas still has one friend standing in her corner
June 10th, 2010I look forward to Helen’s forthcoming endorsements from Hamas and Al-Qaeda. Then again, since it’s getting harder and harder to parody this stuff, I wouldn’t put it past them. Maybe all those jokes about her working for Al Jazeera will actually come true…