How they get the celebrity news in Taiwan

The Lindsay Lohan saga, borrowing heavily from the Lady Gaga “Telephone” video, with a cameo appearance by Herbie, the Love Bug.

Brick

TJ

"A wise and frugal government which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government."

Thomas Jefferson

Enough

From the National Review Online:

August 11, 2010 10:30 AM

By Peter Kirsanow

The contempt for ordinary Americans displayed by the ruling class is reaching critical mass. There may never have been a time in American history when the governing, academic, cultural, and media elites have been more manifestly disdainful of the country’s values, traditions, principles, and people.

Individuals who express sincere concerns that the polices and practices of the elites are imperiling the nation’s economy and security are branded as racists and xenophobes by the anointed: A diminutive mayor who appears to conflate a talent for acquiring wealth with omniscience lectures that anyone who opposes the erection of a mosque on the site where 2,700 Americans were slaughtered by radical-Islamic terrorists must be motivated by religious intolerance; tea-party activists who protest the federal government’s insane spending spree are motivated not by horror at a $13,300,000,000,000 debt but by racial animus toward the chief fiscal incontinent residing in the White House; those who voted to maintain the central institution of civilization were actually voting for bigotry and oppression.

The same elites who lecture incessantly refuse to listen  to the racist rabble populating flyover country. They have no problem listening, apologizing, and bowing obsequiously to our declared enemies, but insist on acting imperiously toward their fellow Americans.

When thousands flooded town-hall meetings to express opposition to Obamacare, they got Obamacare shoved down their throats. When twenty states sued, calling Obamacare’s dictatorial provisions unconstitutional, legal elites scoffed that the Commerce Clause permits the federal government to compel the unenlightened to eat their vegetables. And when 71 percent of Missouri voters rejected the abominable bill, Robert Gibbs proclaimed that the vote meant “nothing.”

It’s certainly evident that it was, indeed, “nothing” to the ruling class. That class will pass a 2,000-page, $800 billion spending bill without even reading it. They will “redistribute” billions from disfavored groups to favored constituencies.They will rack up ethics charges like frequent-flier miles. They will take over giant car companies and financial institutions despite never having run so much as a pop stand. They will drop missile defense and open our borders because we’ve been on the wrong side of history all these years. They will shut down oil drilling in the Gulf, thereby sacrificing the livelihoods of thousands, without any empirical justification whatsoever. They will abandon our nation’s allies and embrace our enemies for no other reason than that it’s a different policy than George W. Bush’s. They will prosecute Navy SEALs but wink at the release of convicted terrorists. They will exhibit galactic ineptitude in cleaning the Gulf but assure us they can completely reorder the economy in response to the non-debateable evidence of global warming. They will raise our taxes so that our comparatives in the federal government can be paid twice as much as we are. They will sue Arizona for doing the job they refuse to do themselves. They will grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants by bureaucratic fiat. They will tell us what light bulbs to use, how much fat we may have in our diets, and how much water we may have in our toilets . . .

They’ll do this because they’re smart. They went to the best schools. And they agree with Rep. Pete Stark that “the federal government can do anything.”

Perhaps in the recent  past, with a compliant, JournoList-infected media providing cover, they could do anything. Not anymore. Americans have had enough.

Average citizens are showing remarkable levels of engagement — more than in 1994. They seem to actually like America. They will fight against spending the country into bankruptcy. They will fight against erosions of our freedom. They will fight against slow-motion surrender to our enemies. They will fight against corruption of our values. They will fight for what’s best about America.

This is a fight about first principles. I’ll bet on the great unwashed.

And then there was Little Oscar

George A. "Little Oscar" Molchan was the face of Oscar Mayer when I was a kid. He was usually in the Wienermobile commercials.

He was born June 5th, 1922 in Lanfair, Pennsylvania. He attended Columbia College in Chicago and worked for Pepsi Cola Distribution in Gary, Indiana from 1940 to 1951.
In 1951 he joined Oscar Mayer & Company and eventually retired in 1987. He worked at Walt Disney World for ten years at the Town Square Cafe as "Little Oscar." He died on April 12th, 2005 at the age of 82.

Cops have rights too

BMW makes motorcycles for police that are clearly superior to the competition.

I was really bummed several years ago when the Indiana State Police launched their motorcycle officer program with Harley-Davidsons. The superintendent of state police at the time was a BMW rider, which makes it all the more alarming that the bid specs were written to favor Harley.

My Thorntown friend Larry Parker’s daughter and son-in-law’s two BMW dealerships, doing business under the name of BMW Motorcycles of Western Oregon, have contracts with several police agencies for authority bikes. I was pleased to notice that the police in Sierra Vista, Ariz. ride BMWs.

Here’s a BMW ad targeting police agencies that I found amusing. Especially the last sentence.

Offered without comment

At last!

As goofy as it sounds, I fulfilled a lifelong dream this evening – I saw the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile!

Shortly after she got home from work, Maria mentioned casually that one of her reporters came across the Wienermobile today and photographed it.

“Where was it?’

“At the Hays supermarket in Paragould. They were selling hot dogs for charity.”

“What?!?!? Is it still there?”

“I think so.”

“Get your shoes on, we’re going to Paragould.”

I’ve been fascinated with the Wienermobile since I was a kid in the 1950s and have always wanted to see it in person. I even have a link to the Wienermobile Blog over on the right side of this page.

It was 6:45 p.m. when we roared down our driveway and headed for Paragould. I worried that the event would be over and the Wienermobile would be gone.

Sure enough, as we approached the intersection of U.S. 49 and Kingshighway in Paragould, the Wienermobile rounded the corner and headed right at us. I whipped a U-turn in a parking lot and got behind it, handing my point-and-shoot camera to Maria.

We shadowed it at a steady 50 mph to just north of Goobertown, where I sped up and ran on ahead to get a shot when it reached Pine Log Road. I made it and that’s what you see at the top of this post.

There have been Oscar Mayer Wienermobiles since the General Body Co. of Chicago created the first one in 1936.

Wikipedia says:

There are seven Wienermobiles in existence currently, with each assigned a part of the country. The hotdogger position of driving the Wienermobile is an open position to U.S. citizens and the duration of the job lasts for one full year: from the first of June until the following first of June. Every March at Kraft and Oscar Mayer headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin there are final round interviews held for the hotdogger position. Each vehicle holds two hotdoggers, and twelve people are chosen from a final pool of 30 candidates brought to Oscar Mayer headquarters. The 30 candidates are screened across the country from over an average of 2000 applicants. Both current hotdoggers and Oscar Mayer recruiters visit college campuses across the country in search of the next round of hotdoggers. Only college seniors who are about to graduate are eligible for applying to this hotdogger position. Currently there are about 300 hotdogger alumni.

All are plated in Wisconsin and use the following vanity license plates:

• YUMMY
• OUR DOG
• IWSHIWR
• OH I WISH
• WEENR
• WNRMOBL
• BOLOGNA
• RELSHME
• LIL LINK
• BIG BUN
• WNR MBLE

Yeah, I know that’s 11 plates. No explanation about that from Wikipedia. The one we saw was WEENR.

Now do you get it, Bob?

The owner of the Phoenix Suns basketball team, Robert Sarver, opposes Arizona's new immigration law. Gov. Jan Brewer, released the following statement in response to Sarver's criticism of the new law:
  "What if the owners of the Suns discovered that hordes of people were sneaking into games without paying? What if they had a good idea who the gate-crashers are, but the ushers and security personnel were not allowed to ask these folks to produce their ticket stubs, thus non-paying attendees couldn't be ejected. Furthermore, what if Suns' ownership was expected to provide those who sneaked in with complimentary eats and drink? And what if, on those days when a gate-crasher became ill or injured, the Suns had to provide free medical care and shelter?"

It’s the humidity

It’s 95 degrees here and in Las Vegas. The difference is that the heat index here is 107 and in Vegas it’s 90.

Looking for a new eye doc

The eye doc proclaimed my right eye healed. That is after he remembered that he had seen me a week ago today.

Dr. R. Lowell Hardcastle gave me a followup exam this morning that involved dilating my pupils. After putting the dilating drops into my eyes, he left the room, saying he’d be back in a few minutes.

The walls are thin in that office and I could hear him in a nearby examining room with another patient. When he finished up and exited the other examining room, I supposed he would be back with me.

Not so. Instead I had to listen to some woman from their corporate office jabbering nonstop about insurance procedures for another half-hour.

Finally, after sitting there for 40 minutes, I decided I’d had enough. I stepped into the hallway where I could see the woman sitting in Hardcastle’s office still rattling on. Fixing my dilated pupils on the doctor, I announced, “I hate to interrupt, but I have to be somewhere at 10:30 (it was 10:10 a.m. at the time).”

A chubby officious little woman hustled me back into the examining room, saying, “The doctor will be with you in a minute.”

“I hope so,” I said. “I’m ready to walk.”

Hardcastle came into the examining room about 5 minutes later, apologizing for the interruption from “corporate.”

I acknowledged his apology and pointed out that I very much mind that they took my time to have their little chat.

I don’t doubt the guy’s competence, but his distant brusque manner and disregard for a patient’s time is unacceptable. I’m done with him and with that practice.

The good news is that now, more than four hours later, my eyes are back to normal and I a fresh set of contact lenses in for the first time in more than a week. That means I can finally see my computer screen properly.

Trip stuff

Some random thoughts, recollections and observations from my ramble through the West last month:

I did the whole 17-day, 5,414-mile ride without ever once consulting a paper map. I either trusted my Garmin Zumo 550 or, during the brief period that it wasn’t working, followed a friend who was being guided by GPS. On at least one occasion, I found the Garmin route to be quicker and more straightforward than a route suggested by someone who had lived in the city in question for several years. The GPS routinely took me easily to addresses in unfamiliar cities without the hassle and safety issues of trying to follow a map in the top window of my tank bag. I lost the Glare Stomper sunshade in the early morning darkness of July 26 in Las Vegas. I had taken it off and apparently not secured it properly a day earlier when I removed the GPS to fiddle with it inside the house. I remember feeling something fly off of the bike and hit my right leg moments after I got onto the freeway and I’m pretty sure that was my sunshade. I managed without it for the rest of the trip and bought a replacement from Cyclegadgets.com when I got home. $20 and change.

Riding across the Mojave Desert from Barstow to Las Vegas in 100+ degree heat, I noticed several disabled cars and trucks along the roadside . Obviously, the extreme heat takes its toll and finds weaknesses in automotive systems. I also noticed that several of the folks who were stuck had umbrellas to protect themselves from the blazing hot sun. The California Division of Agriculture maintains inspection stations at the state line on every major highway. The concern is that someone will bring fruits or vegetables into the state that carry insects or disease that could damage cash crops in California. When I entered the state from Oregon on I-5, the traffic was light and I paused only momentarily while the inspectors asked the driver in front of me if they had any fruits or veggies. When they saw me on my bike, they waved me through without questions. But when I left the state at the Nevada state line, California traffic was backed up two or three miles at the inspection station. That might have been just an inconvenience for people in air conditioned vehicles, but motorcyclists trapped in that line on a crazy-hot summer day, it could be life-threatening. I made a mental note to never, ever enter California on I-15. I did it on I-40 on a Sunday back in July, 2002, and don’t recall any hassle there.

Free Wifi at McDonald’s is a very handy thing. I had expected to make extensive use of it with my netbook, but that’s not how it worked out. I carried my netbook buried deep in a saddlebag and it was kind of a hassle the few times I dug it out at a McDonald’s. I used the Wifi on my iPod Touch instead to check and send email and scope out the weather ahead. I carried the iPod in a jacket pocket, so it was just a matter of taking it out, turning it on and signing on to the McDonald’s server – a process that usually took less than a minute. Also, I was usually trying to get as many miles behind me as possible, which mitigated against taking the time to get out the netbook and boot it up.

I have the XM satellite radio premium traffic feature on my Garmin Zumo 550, mostly because it includes a basic weather feature. However, I saw no evidence of the traffic feature as I rode around the east and south side of the San Francisco metropolitan area. I know there aren’t a lot of cities in the U.S, where this feature is functional, but I’d certainly expect it there. WTF?

Existential nihilism on a Jonesboro side street

My little Olympus point-and-shoot has its limitations but it does make it possible for me to have an 8 megapixel digital camera with me at all times, including this afternoon when I noticed this discarded bedding behind what used to be a Howard Johnson’s motel.

For Steve

I think my son Steve is in here somewhere…

Can’t see, dammit!

My blogging has been less than prolific this week, partly because I don’t have much to say and mainly because I can’t see worth a damn.

The episode of conjunctivitis I had in my right eye over the weekend forced me to put my contact lenses aside and use the glasses that make computer use a real challenge.

They’re graduated multi-focals and force my head into a really uncomfortable position to see the computer monitor through the very bottom of the lenses. They’re only slightly better with the netbook. I can hardly wait to get back to my contacts and reading glasses so I can see stuff properly.

The guys at Grass Roots BMW called this morning to say my new right combination switch is in and to schedule time on the 19th to replace the faulty one they installed in early July. I’m hopeful that the heat wave will break by then and I won’t have to make the trip in 100+ degree weather.

Thanks, Paul

Thanking Paul Tibbets for what he did 65 years ago.

BTW, he drove a Toyota in the latter days of his life. It wasn’t personal.

Cool!

ICE agents ordered not to do their job

Here’s an interesting detail to inject into the discussion about why the Feds aren’t enforcing immigration laws. Notice that the no-confidence vote was unanimous. Also notice that the Lamestream Media has not and likely will not report this story broken this week by the Washington Examiner.

 

Immigration enforcement union took a no-confidence vote in its leadership

By: Joel S. Gehrke Jr.
Special to the Examiner
08/04/10 5:35 PM EDT

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents believe overwhelmingly that their department leadership has become so politicized as to compromise the effectiveness of ICE and the safety of American people. Their union has released a letter announcing its recent unanimous “vote of no confidence” in ICE agency heads, accusing them of “misleading the American public” regarding illegal immigration in order to further a pro-amnesty agenda.

In June, the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council — an AFL-CIO affiliate — and affiliated local councils cast a unanimous 259-0 vote of no confidence in ICE Director John Morton and Assistant Director Phyllis Coven. In a letter announcing the vote, the National Council criticized the directors for “misguided and reckless initiatives,” and said their leaders have “abandoned the Agency’s core mission of enforcing United States immigration laws and providing for public safety, and have instead directed their attention to campaigning for policies and programs related to amnesty.”

Janice Kephart at the Center for Immigration Studies has the letter, which includes several biting indictments of ICE failures by ICE agents. For instance:

Senior ICE leadership dedicates more time to campaigning for immigration reforms aimed at large scale amnesty legislation, than advising the American public and Federal lawmakers on the severity of the illegal immigration problem, and the need for more manpower and resources within the ICE ERO to address it. ICE ERO is currently overwhelmed by the massive criminal alien problem in the United States resulting in the large-scale release of criminals back into local communities.

Kind of puts the Arizona illegal immigration enforcement in perspective, doesn’t it?

While ICE reports internally that more than 90 percent of ICE detainees are first encountered in jails after they are arrested by local police for criminal charges, ICE senior leadership misrepresents this information publicly in order to portray ICE detainees as being non-criminal in nature to support the Administration’s position on amnesty and relaxed security at ICE detention facilities.

The majority of ICE ERO Officers are prohibited from making street arrests or enforcing United States immigration laws outside of the institutional (jail) setting. This has effectively created “amnesty through policy” for anyone illegally in the United States who has not been arrested by another agency for a criminal violation.

Good to know.

Fuel efficient? NFW.

By what stretch of the imagination is a Ford Explorer a “fuel efficient vehicle?”

I found this bloatmobile parked in one of the “Reserved for fuel efficient vehicles” spaces in front of Best Buy this afternoon.

The 2011 Explorer is expected to deliver 18 mpg in the city and 26 mpg on the highway, the best of any iteration of the model. Older Explorers, like this one, guzzle even more gas.

I gave the owner a break and blurred the license plate, but he/she knows who they are.

Fortunately, there was still a space left for my 30 mpg 1995 Honda del Sol.

104º but it feels like 112º

It’s 104 degrees with a heat index of 112 and it’s only 3:35 p.m. It will almost certainly get hotter over the next few hours.

I’m reminded of a Dave Barry column years ago in which he wrote about “when birds are bursting into flames in midair and nuns are cursing openly on the street…”

This is that kind of heat wave.

I decided to stay home for lunch rather than banish the dogs to the back porch while I drove downtown to dine with Maria. They deserve all the air conditioning they want, being stuck in fur coats as they are.

Here’s what the National Weather Service has to say about it:

Issued by The National Weather Service
Memphis, TN
3:12 pm CDT, Wed., Aug. 4, 2010

AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 PM CDT THURSDAY.

* HEAT INDEX READINGS HAVE CLIMBED TO AROUND 115 DEGREES THIS AFTERNOON AND WILL AGAIN ON THURSDAY. SOME HEAT INDEX READINGS MAY APPROACH 120 DEGREES ESPECIALLY ALONG AND SOUTH OF INTERSTATE 40.

* THE HIGHEST HEAT INDEX READINGS WILL OCCUR BETWEEN 10 AM CDT AND 6 PM CDT EACH DAY.

* HEAT INDEX READINGS OF 115 DEGREES OR GREATER CAN BE DEADLY TO MOST PEOPLE IF THE PROPER PRECAUTIONS ARE NOT TAKEN. THIS IS A VERY DANGEROUS SITUATION. YOUNG CHILDREN... ELDERLY PEOPLE... THOSE WITH ILLNESSES OR HEART CONDITIONS... AND THOSE WHO WORK OR PLAY OUTDOORS ARE MOST AT RISK.

* OVERNIGHT LOWS WILL LIKELY NOT DROP BELOW THE UPPER 70S ACROSS MUCH OF THE AREA... AND MAY NOT DROP BELOW THE MID 80S IN DOWNTOWN MEMPHIS. THIS WILL MAINTAIN ELEVATED HEAT STRESSES AT NIGHT FOR THOSE WITHOUT AIR CONDITIONING. PROPER PRECAUTIONS SHOULD BE TAKEN TO STAY COOL DURING THIS DANGEROUS AND PROLONGED HEAT WAVE.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING MEANS THAT A PROLONGED PERIOD OF DANGEROUSLY HOT TEMPERATURES WILL OCCUR. THE COMBINATION OF HOT TEMPERATURES AND HIGH HUMIDITY WILL COMBINE TO CREATE A DANGEROUS SITUATION IN WHICH HEAT ILLNESSES ARE LIKELY. DRINK PLENTY OF FLUIDS... STAY IN AN AIR-CONDITIONED ROOM... STAY OUT OF THE SUN... AND CHECK UP ON RELATIVES AND NEIGHBORS.

&&

More Information

... POTENTIALLY DEADLY HEAT WAVE WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THURSDAY...

.THE HOTTEST AIR OF THE SUMMER HAS SPREAD INTO THE MID SOUTH. THE HOT TEMPERATURES IN COMBINATION WITH HIGH HUMIDITY WILL RESULT THE CONTINUED DANGEROUS HEAT WAVE. HEAT INDEX READINGS WILL CLIMB TO AROUND 115 DEGREES THIS AFTERNOON AND THURSDAY. SOME HEAT INDEX VALUES COULD HIT 120 DEGREES.

OVERNIGHT LOWS WILL FAIL TO DROP BELOW 80 DEGREES IN SOME LOCATIONS... AND POSSIBLY THE MID 80S IN DOWNTOWN MEMPHIS WHICH COULD SET AN ALL-TIME WARM MINIMUM TEMPERATURE RECORD AT MEMPHIS. THIS WILL RESULT IN EXTREME HEAT STRESS ON THOSE WITHOUT AIR CONDITIONING AND THOSE WITH PROLONGED EXPOSURE TO THE OUTDOORS. PROPER PRECAUTIONS FOR YOUR SAFETY SHOULD BE TAKEN TO STAY COOL.

This is serious stuff and I pity the poor bastards who are suffering through this without air conditioning. CNN counts nine heat-related deaths in the South and Midwest so far, but I expect there will be more. Considering that much of our electric distribution system got rebuilt about 18 months ago after the January, 2009 ice storm, and much of it was hurry-up patchwork just to get the grid back up, I’m pleased and surprised that we haven’t had any power outages. Things could really get ugly if the A/C shuts down.

It occurs to me that I could shift the office window air conditioner down to the bedroom and run it with a generator if need be, but I hope it doesn’t come to that. I don’t expect it and I’m not panicked, but it’s always a good idea to think ahead and anticipate worst-case scenarios.