No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Archive for December, 2007

December 22, 2007

Story of the day

by @ 7:05. Filed under Miscellaneous.

(H/T – Michelle)

The Daily Mail has a wonderful story of a woman who woke up after 6 weeks in a coma to discover she gave birth to a healthy baby boy. That’s just where it starts, and since I can’t do it justice, just go there and read.

Roll bloat – sewing confusion edition

by @ 6:41. Filed under The Blog.

I have to thank Mary Katharine Ham for letting the TownHall faithful know that her father also blogs. Do add Right Angles (not to be confused with Right Angle Blog, also on the bloated roll to the right) to the long-and-ever-growing list of blogs worthy of your time.

December 21, 2007

Videos of the day

by @ 19:54. Filed under NRE Polls, Politics - National.

We’ll take a very quick break from playing Hack-A-Huck and play Hack-A-Hill.

First up, Erick from Red State:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuCL3MO8g30[/youtube]

Next, Bryan and Michelle from Hot Air:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h6Wab4QRt8[/youtube]

Guess that calls for a fresh NRE Poll:

Which video is best?

Up to 1 answer(s) was/were allowed

  • Hot Air's remix with fresh gifts (58%, 7 Vote(s))
  • RedState's remix with prices (33%, 4 Vote(s))
  • The original Hillary holiday video (8%, 1 Vote(s))

Total Voters: 12

Loading ... Loading ...

The Huck-A-Boom has officially turned into Huck-A-Bust

by @ 13:02. Filed under Politics - National.

When Rush Limbaugh spends the first hour of his show crushing a candidate (Jim Geraghty has a multipart liveblog), they stay crushed.

Guess Huckabee truly is a uniter (H/T via Jim – Brian Maloney) – “The good news for Mike Huckabee is that he’s doing one hell of a job of reuniting significant portions of the old Reagan coalition. The bad news is that it’s increasingly arrayed against him.”

Whether it stays together after the Huck-A-Bust is complete, nobody knows.

Revisions/extensions (1:12 pm 12/21/2007) – Jim asks whether it’s fatal. It’s the death blow that was never taught to Chuck Norris. Specifically to the guy from another campaign that brought up the Iowa pastors; there are a lot more parishoners than pastors, and the parishoners are a lot less forgiving.

December 20, 2007

It’s a Shillary Christmas at B&E

by @ 19:32. Filed under Politics - National.

In honor of Hillary Clinton’s holiday regifting greetings, Jim over at bRight & Early has a couple of songs worthy of Charles Henrickson and doug from upland:

I’ll Be In Your Wallet
The Clinton Song (Social Programs for Everyone)

We do need the tune to sing it to though :-)

Is Conservatism cracking up?

by @ 18:17. Filed under Politics - National.

I don’t know whether I will be revising and extending my remarks back in May and June on the question of whether conservativism is out of gas, but Jim Geraghty makes a pretty strong case for it being in the process of cracking up.

I’m still trying to formulate my thoughts, and I’m hoping that January doesn’t make me reconsider those remarks.

Tancredo tanks, endorses Romney

by @ 16:42. Filed under Politics - National.

Well, I guess flipping does have its advantages.

NFL Week 16

by @ 15:53. Filed under Sports.

Bank on these, as the drive to profitability continues:

Green Bay (-9) @ Chicago – Yeah, I know, they won round one. Favre kicks ass in Chi-Town, however, and this game means something for the Pack.
Kansas City (+5) @ Detroit – 6-2 to a losing record; priceless.
Washington @ Minnesota (-6.5) – The Vikes are only starting to run out of steam. The Skins are already there.
Pittsburgh @ St. Louis (+8) – Everything says to take the Steelers except their record against suck-ass teams.
Dallas (-11) @ Carolina – Now that TO has banished Romo’s worse half, the ‘Boys late-season fade will take a 1-week hiatus
Cleveland (-3) @ Cincinnati – The battle for Ohio is over.
Houston @ Indianapolis (-7) – Stat of the week; Indy has won all five home meetings by at least 9 points. Take the over-45.
NY Giants @ Buffalo (+3) – PaulNoonan nailed it
Oakland @ Jacksonville (-14) – Math lesson: Win-and-in + Pro Bowl snub + weak opponent coming off their Super Bowl = blow-out
Philadelphia @ New Orleans (-3.5) – Rule of thumb; go with teams that have something to play for.
Atlanta @ Arizona (-10.5) – How bad does Arizona suck? They lost out to a 1-win team. Take the under-44.
Tampa Bay (-6) @ San Francisco – Viva Garcia!
Miami @ New England (-22) – Lightning will not strike twice.
Baltimore @ Seattle (-10 – line from MGM Mirage) – Rookie QBs and knockout defenses do not mix well.
NY Jets @ Tennessee (-8.5) – Standard rules regarding the Jets apply.
Denver @ San Diego (-9) – It will be a Bolt Christmas.

December 19, 2007

Tancredo dropping out?

by @ 17:33. Filed under Politics - National.

The rumors that Tom Tancredo will drop out of the Presidential race tomorrow have been swirling around the ‘Net all day. Richard Miniter at Pajamas Media throws some gasoline on this fire. First, he points out that Tancredo does not have to decide now whether he will either run for his seat again or run for the soon-to-be-open Senate seat held by the retiring Wayne Allard in the next few weeks as Colorado does not have a January requirement to file for candidacy. Second, he may well endorse Fred Thompson.

A date which will live in famy (not infamy, Patrick)

by @ 17:08. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Attention. Attention Wisconsin bloggers, blog-readers, and Packer fans. On December 30, 2007, the Badger Blog Alliance will be holding a Holiday Party at Papa’s Social Club, 7718 W. Burleigh St. in Milwaukee. This party will begin at noon, and will feature a host of your favorite bloggers and pizza during the Packers-Lions halftime. Dickie has a pair of big-screens and several smaller TVs, so you won’t miss the game.

If you’re attending, please let Fred know at the link above (I’ve disabled comments).

For you out-of-towners, and those of you who haven’t been to any of the Drinking Rights; the easiest way there is:
– US 45 to Burleigh (that’s north of I-94)
– East on Burleigh (that will be a right for those coming from the south, a left for those coming from the north)
– Look for Papa’s Social Club and Mama’s Pizza on your left about 2 miles down the road (if you see Lowe’s, you went the wrong way).

For those of you who will be rolling in from the North Shore, I recommend taking your choice of Brown Deer Rd., Good Hope Rd., Silver Spring Dr., or Capitol Dr. west to 76th, then a left to Burleigh and a quick right (Papa’s will be on your right in less than 2 blocks).

Buh-bye, .500 glass ceiling

by @ 15:54. Filed under Sports.

Revisons/extensions (3:54 pm 12/19/2007) – Bumped to the top after noting the Viqueens couldn’t cover Monday in the worst of all possible outcomes.

I’m getting greedy now; break-even is but a few games away (depending on the vig) since I went 11-5 (and a mere 1-1 on the over/unders):

Green Bay 33 (-9) @ St. Louis 14 – Is there a record Brett Favre doesn’t hold?
Detroit @ San Diego 51 (-11) – Let Duh Lions hit the floor.
Chicago 13 @ Minnesota 20 (-10-LOSS) – Fragging turnovers. Guess the man the head barkeep calls Purple Jesus hit the rookie wall.
Denver 13 @ Houston 31 (+2) – It’s a road of horrors for the wild ponies.
Cincinnati 13 @ San Francisco 20 (+9) – The BenGALS are toastified.
Arizona 24 @ New Orleans 31 (-4) – Just pass, baby.
Atlanta 3 @ Tampa Bay 37 (-14) – New coach, same result.
Baltimore 16 (-4) @ Miami 22 – And then there were none, part 1
Buffalo 0 @ Cleveland 8 (-6) – Just run, baby.
Jacksonville 29 (+3.5) @ Pittsburgh 22 – Fred Taylor still has it
NY Jets 10 @ New England 20 (-23-LOSS) – Damn snow.
Seattle 10 @ Carolina 13 (+8) – Upset special of the day gets Sister Toldjah healthy.
Tennessee 26 (-4) @ Kansas City 17 – Just the right amount from Vince Young.
Indianapolis 21 @ Oakland 14 (+11-WIN) – At least it’s a moral victory, Eric (and because of the long 11 I took, a win for me).
Philadelphia 10 @ Dallas 6 (-11) – Westbrook is very smart; instead of scoring with just over 2 minutes left to make it a 2-score game and give the Cowboys a chance to score again and again, he sat down at the Dallas’ 1 because the Boys were out of timeouts.
Washington 22 @ NY Giants 10 (-5) – Jeremy Shockey perfectly illustrated the G-men’s season. Unfortunately, I was counting on him to salvage the Yahoo half of my fantasy football year.

That pushes the year-to-date record to 110-103-11 ATS and 18-11-1 O/U. Hopefully, you’ve been taking the over/unders, and your Man is only charging a 10% vig; then you’re only a pair of 12-6 weeks away from making money. Without the over/unders and the 10% vig, it’s a pair of 12-4 weeks. At 15% vig, you’d need the over-unders and a pair of 15-3 weeks (or without them, you’d need a pair of 15-1 weeks). At 20%, you’d be screwed, blued and tattoed.

Come to think of it, I’m screwed, at least without a good post-season.

Can anyone tell me the differences between Bush and Gore/Kerry?

Once again, Bush proves there is precious little difference between “compassionate ‘conservatism'” and outright lieberalism by signing a piece of Bravo Sierra called the “Energy Independence and Security Act”, which has three major provisions – eliminate every vehicle that is either all-wheel-drive or marginally-utilitarian in nature (and thus kill what is left of the American auto industry), cram compact flourescent lightbulbs down our throats, and mandate higher food prices and worldwide hunger through the conversion of most of America’s cropland into corn-a-hole production. Notably absent from said bill is any effort to actually increase domestic production of energy, be it unlocking ANWR, unlocking the coal deposits that Clinton locked up for the benefit of the ChiComs, or allowing new nuclear plants to start up with a little less tape. The Senate may as well have had ratified Kyoto.

Actually, there are a couple of differences:

– We would be preparing for lives of dhimmitude under Sharia law.
– Lawgivers-In-Black would constitute an absolute majority on the Supreme Court.

Time’s “Man” of the Year is…

by @ 7:27. Filed under Politics.

(H/T – Free Republic)

Vladimir Putin. Algore Goracle is deeply saddened, as those who are merely facilitating Communism’s return like him and those creating homosexual characters in childrens’ fiction like J.K. Rowling lost out to someone actually creating a one-man comeback for Communism. Well, Time has a history of honoring Communists (Iosef Stalin, Deng Xiaoping and Mikhail Gorbachev all twice, Nikita Khrushchev once) and despots (throw in Adolf Hitler).

R&E (7:34 am 12/19/2007) – Pinged into bRight & Early’s First Cup

December 18, 2007

Video of the day

by @ 11:24. Filed under Miscellaneous.

It isn’t Friday, but it’s time for a very special HamNation starring Carolyn Washburn as Nurse Ratched.

If you’re neither laughing nor crying during the watching of that, please proceed to the nearest medical examiner.

Warning label (added 2:39 pm 12/18/2007) – Those of you with weak stomachs, don’t play the video. You will get sick.

December 17, 2007

The ghost of E. Michael McCan’t lives

Kevin Fischer has the details of how the Milwaukee County DA’s office declined to pursue any case against the Franklin School District for holding a mandatory indoctrination session for high school students of voting age the Friday before they attempted the 3rd-largest referendum increase in state history. I could’ve swore Paul Bucher filed charges against a Waukesha County school district for similar actions (again, if memory serves, that was settled without a trial).

Pure misuse of TIF district

by @ 18:20. Filed under Business, Politics - Wisconsin, Taxes.

Just because I’ve been focusing a lot on the Presidential race, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been keeping an eye on the local stuff. I only hope I have a Shorewood reader or two so this one can get sunk. According to JSOnline’s DayWatch, the Shorewood Village Board is expected to vote on an $800,000 TIF district to provide the seed money to allow Lakewood Financial Services to put a new facade on a 5-story office-and-apartment building they own on Oakland Ave. Unlike the dead plan to put a House of Blues and an arcade in the former Pabst Brewing complex, I won’t say that this won’t get repaid in short order; it will. However, there’s still a couple things quite fishy here.

First, I’ll take the village’s claim that this will turn a $3,500,000 building into $5,756,000 one, plus provide a boost to surrounding properties of $305,000. Unless I’m missing something important like the owner putting some of its own (or privately-borrowed) money in this, that’s a 383% net return on valuation from nothing more than a new facade. That is simply too good to be true.

Second, let’s run through the developer’s numbers. There are 44 apartments that go for $850/month, and 7,500 square feet of office and commercial space that go for $12/square foot/month. The developer is claiming they’ll be able to up that to $1,050/apartment/month (a $300/month increase per apartment) and $18/square foot of office and commercial space/month (a $6/month increase per square foot) solely from the effects of that facelift. That’s $58,200 per month coming in solely on the basis of the improvement, something I’m sure would cause reputable lenders would literally trip over themselves to offer $800,000 in conventional commercial loans on that promised revenue stream. Again, assuming that the facelift is $800,000 and the developer isn’t kicking in its own or privately-borrowed cash, one has to question why they’re running to Shorewood to be the banker.

Going back to the village’s claims, the increase in revenue (42.3%) doesn’t exactly jive with the expected reassessed value (64.5%). Now, I’m not in the real-estate business, so I do expect a bit of disconnect between increased rent and increased assessed value, but that’s not exactly adding up.

It’s been a while since I’ve been in the area, but the Shorewood portion of Oakland isn’t exactly blighted.

41 Taliban die of sleep depravation and airstrikes, but mostly airstrikes

by @ 13:24. Filed under War on Terror.

(H/T – Weasel Zippers)

I don’t know whether I should be complaining about the AoS commenting system since I hit the CPU Quota Exceeded error again, but since he isn’t on this one yet, I’ll jump in with the details from CTV:

Canadian military officials say they’re happy with a weekend raid carried out by coalition forces that reportedly caught the Taliban completely by surprise.

About 70 Taliban fighters were asleep in a compound when Canadian, Afghan National Army and British Ghurka soldiers attacked.

Forty-one Taliban died, with no coalition or civilian casualties reported in Operation Sharp Sword.

Airstrikes were used on the insurgents.

Good flying and hunting, men.

And the hits just keep on coming for Romney

by @ 9:59. Filed under Politics - National.

The man who may be kingmaker in Iowa, Rep. Steve King, endorsed Fred Thompson. What’s interesting is while Michelle Malkin had it right all along, MSNBC tried to push Mitt Romney. They pushed so hard, reps from Team Romney were in the back room bewildered when King delivered the coup de grace to them.

Guess when Huck-A-Boom turns into Huck-A-Bomb (or is it -Bust?), it will be a case of last man standing instead of returning to the default.

Romney shoots himself in both feet

by @ 7:33. Filed under Guns, Politics - National.

(H/Ts – Bryan and Michelle)

Shot #1 – Romney came out in support of the ever-so-meaningless 1994 “Assault Weapons” ban. The quote of the day – “But, but I would, I would look at weapons that pose extraordinary lethality"¦.” The odd thing is, I’ve fired both the MAK-90 (AK-47 clone firing a 7.62x39mm round) and a rifle firing a .30-06 Winchester round, and because the Winchester round is much longer (they’re both the same diameter), the hunting round is a lot deadlier. In the Hot Air comments section, MadisonConservative takes a very good whack at the other things that the Brady Bill said made rifles soooooooo dangerous.

Shot #2 – Romney wrongly claimed he got the NRA’s endorsement in the 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial election. While he did get a “B” grade from the NRA, not only did they stay out of the endorsement game in that race, but they gave his opponent an “A”. I will guarantee that he won’t get the NRA endorsement this time either.

Quick flashback to the YouTube debate. Several of the candidates were asked what their favorite gun was. Here’s how I recorded Romney’s answer: “To Mitt – But my son does (probably BB Ryders).”

December 16, 2007

Roll bloat – Penance edition

by @ 9:20. Filed under The Blog.

I have absolutely, positively no excuse for missing PheistyBlog before now. Mea culpa maxima.

Damn that .500 glass ceiling part drei

by @ 8:29. Filed under Sports.

The theme of the week was .500, as that was what I was aiming to smash. Unfortunately, it turned out to be my target:

Chicago 16 @ Washington 24 (-3) – How far have Duh Bears fallen? Todd Freaking Collins lit them up.
Oakland 7 @ Green Bay 38 (-11) – The bad news; Eric never made it up to the Frozen Tundra.
Dallas 28 (-11.5-LOSS) @ Detroit 27 – At least I told you to take the over. Odds of a house-cleaning in Detroit are now even.
Minnesota 27 @ San Francisco 7 (+9) – Where, oh where did the Niners’ offense go?
Carolina 6 @ Jacksonville 37 (-11) – Yeah it was ugly; not quite as ugly as me, but still ugly.
Miami 17 @ Buffalo 38 (-7) – The loser train rolls on.
New York Giants 16 @ Philadelpha 13 (-3) – I see the problem with my call; McNabb played.
San Diego 23 @ Tennessee 17 (+1.5) – Damn overtime.
St Louis 10 (+7) @ Cincinnati 19 – No Bulger, no win.
Tampa Bay 14 (-3) @ Houston 28 – I was pleading for help here. I didn’t get it.
Arizona 21 @ Seattle 42 (-7) – Bad Warner’s back.
Pittsburgh 13 (+10) @ New England 34 – I should’ve stuck with the road comment here. Nobody’s beating the Pats until 2008.
Cleveland 24 (-3.5) @ New York Jets 18 – Also insert J-E-T-S S*CK! SU*K! SUC*!
Kansas City 7 @ Denver 41 (-7) – Yep, it was in Denver.
Indianapolis 44 (-10) @ Baltimore 20 – Nothing like having every 4th pass attempt be complete to the end zone.
New Orleans 34 (-4.5) @ Atlanta 14 – Crater, baby!

8-8 ATS, 1-1 O/U leaves the season 98-99-11 ATS and 17-10-1 O/U at the end of business Monday. Unbelievably, the over-unders have locked in an above-.500 finish. Even more-incredibly, the early returns on Week 15 have left a mark on that glass ceiling.

Revisions/extensions (8:55 am 12/16/2007) – I need to learn how to count; that’s 9-7 ATS, which puts me over that .500 mark at 99-98-11. Take THAT, The Man!

December 15, 2007

Rest in peace, Triticale

by @ 9:27. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Nick has the details:

Very sad news for the blogosphere. Tom’s brother let me know that The Wheat and Rye Guy, Triticale, died last night, having never regained consciousness. He had Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), and it had spread to the brain…. His brother Walter told me that Tom was being cremated, and that a memorial would likely be held in the spring, after some time has passed, so people can celebrate his life, instead of mourn his loss.

This one’s tough to take. Triticale was a regular at Drinking Right, and to find out that he went rather suddenly, it’s just tough. My thoughts and prayers for his family.

December 14, 2007

The pussification of Japanese society

by @ 14:57. Filed under Miscellaneous.

(H/T – The Florida Masochist via bRight & Early’s First Cup)

Because I don’t want to think about the Huck-A-Boom sweeping through the Giuliani firewall of Florida, and Thompson’s and Romney’s last stand of South Carolina, right now, I’ll go international for today’s sign of the apocalypse – 40% of Japanese men sit to pee. That’s an almost-300% movement in the wrong direction from 1999, and it’s fueled by the younger Japanese. The ChiComs and Krazy Kim are licking their chops as there is no sign of the samurai returning.

To paraphrase Popeye, “Tha’s all I can stands, and I’ll stands ever more.”

December 13, 2007

NFL Week 15

by @ 18:55. Filed under Sports.

I’m on the run after last week’s debacle (recap later), so I’ll make these down-and-dirty quick, with no explanations:

Green Bay (-9) @ St. Louis – Take the over-45
Detroit @ San Diego (-11)
Chicago @ Minnesota (-10)
Denver @ Houston (+2)
Cincinnati @ San Francisco (+9)
Arizona @ New Orleans (-4)
Atlanta @ Tampa Bay (-14)
Baltimore (-4) @ Miami
Buffalo @ Cleveland (-6)
Jacksonville (+3.5) @ Pittsburgh
NY Jets @ New England (-23) – Take the over-45
Seattle @ Carolina (+8)
Tennessee (-4) @ Kansas City
Indianapolis @ Oakland (+11)
Philadelphia @ Dallas (-11)
Washington @ NY Giants (-5)

If you missed yesterday’s Center-Right Coalition meeting…

by @ 8:10. Filed under Law and order.

…you missed a very good discussion of the State Supreme Court with Rick Esenberg. Fortunately, you don’t have to rely on me to do the summarizing; he’s got a good one up, specifically on the One Wisconsin Now attempt to muzzle Judge Mike Gabelman and several of his supporters for talking about some of the same decided cases that Justice Louis Butler talked about not too long ago.

Interestingly, on my way home from that (after a stop at the Matt Kenseth Fan Club HQ/museum to see the last car to win a “Car of Yesterday” race in NASCAR’s top series), Vicki McKenna and Judge Gabelman talked about just that. WISN holds McKenna’s archives a bit longer than Mark Belling’s, but I don’t know how long this link to that half-hour will last.

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