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 15th, 2009

The fisk of the day

by @ 20:45. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Robert Stacy McCain shows how a fisk is done by pounding overhead smash after overhead smash on the carcass formerly known as the head lizard:

Actually, it had sort of been brewing in my subconscious for a long, long time. . . .
(Ever since he went off his meds.)
Something just triggered it off, I don’t know what it was. . . .
(He ran out of commenters to ban.)
I actually fought against being classified as a right-wing blog for a long time. . . .
(He also fought being classified as a textbook case of borderline personality disorder, with less success.)

Memo to self – always try to stay on Stacy’s good side. It’s actually pretty easy to do if one is not an asshat.

PlaceboCare mini update – 12/15/2009

by @ 18:28. Filed under Health Care Reform, Politics - National.

I’m not sticking around for all the votes of the amendments, but there’s a few items to touch on (mostly courtesy my friends at The Weekly Standard:

  • Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) went back to his roots and said that dumping the Medicare-expansion option was good enough for him.
  • Michael Goldfarb reports that the White House has threatened Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) with closure of Offutt Air Force Base (home to the United States Strategic Command, which handles all military things WMD, space, and command-and-control related) if he didn’t jump on board.
  • Mary Katharine Ham broke out some classic movie cliff scenes in response to a quote from President Obama saying that the ‘Rats were on the precipice of an “achievement”. I’m partial to the use of the “Themla and Louise” one, as it was entirely self-inflicted just like PlaceboCare.
  • The Senate Doctors, Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) and John Barrasso, M.D. (R-WY) hammered home the pratfalls of going to that precipice, especially going there alone…
    [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pfr1SLC2sUM[/youtube]

Tuesday Hot Read – Mary Katharine Ham’s “Women and the GOP”

by @ 16:53. Filed under Politics - National.

When I make comments on Twitter about the need for Fox News to give Mary Katharine Ham her own show, it’s pieces like this one from the current edition of The Weekly Standard that form the main body of exhibits:

The storyline relies on a misunderstanding of Scozzafava, willful ignorance of the recent behavior of women voters, and denial of the GOP’s 2010 candidate field.

Scozzafava’s ouster had little to do with her sex and a lot to do with the fact that she was a “moderate” Republican only if you believe “moderates” are endorsed by Markos Zuniga of Daily Kos, support card-check and the stimulus, work closely with ACORN-entangled liberal advocacy groups, and are funded primarily by Planned Parenthood and the Service Employees International Union.

Scozzafava is far from the model for reasonable, moderate Republican women. She’s the kind of woman who calls the cops on a reporter for asking her policy questions. But she’s the woman liberals wish represented Republicans–because she’s a liberal herself, which is why she became an improbable fetish of the Fourth Estate.

If the media had cared to look beyond the fluky, three-way race in NY-23 for national implications, they could have considered women voters in battleground Virginia.

I could have just as easily taken the analysis of the voting patterns in Virginia, or the lineup of women in and running for prominent offices, or her calling out Carly Fiorina’s playing of the gender card in California’s Republican Senate race against her primary opponent Chuck Devore, but I don’t want to steal her entire work.

Here we grow again

by @ 15:12. Filed under The Blog.

Once again, Shoebox has come through with a high-quality guest-blogger who goes by the nom de blog Birdman. In addition to the brief bio he sent Shoebox, I’ll add that he has a lot of experience in Twin City-area politics. I’ll let his bio do the talking:

Born in ’61.
Happily married to my first wife.
Two children.
Sexual preference: A lot.

Believe truth is absolute, and that pursuit of truth is a life-long
enterprise.

You can learn all you need to know about the current political trends in
America by reading “The Road to Serfdom” by F.A. Hayek.

Favorite writers: George Will and Robert Bork.

Favorite movies: A Few Good Men and Oh God!

Roll change – back from the grave

by @ 13:30. Filed under The Blog.

I should’ve done this a couple months ago, but better late than never (I blame that overstuffed reader). Dean has reopened Musings of a Thoughtful Conservative.

More evidence Iran’s nuclear program is explosive, US to test missile defense on an Iranian attack scenario

by @ 11:49. Filed under War.

(H/T – Drudge)

The Jerusalem Post reports some rather disturbing items regarding the Mad Mullahs’ “peaceful” nuclear program:

  • In recent days, diplomats have been worried that Iran has been testing neutron initiators. As the Post puts it, “A neutron initiator begins the implosion that ends with a nuclear blast, and as a component of the nuclear cycle has no use in civilian or military programs unless in the production of atomic bombs.”
  • On Monday, The Times (of London) reported that an Asian intelligence agency found said neutron initiator work had been going on between 2003 and 2007, during which Iran claimed that its program was “peaceful”.
  • Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly, head of the Missile Defense Agency, said that for the first time, the agency would test a scenario based on an Iranian ICBM launch on the continental US.

Two quick reactions:

  • I agree with Mark Fitzpatrick, senior fellow for non-proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, who said, “If Iran is working on weapons, it means there is no diplomatic solution…. Is this the smoking gun? That’s the question people should be asking. It looks like the smoking gun. This is smoking uranium.”
  • One of the reasons the original Eastern European missile defense plans were the way they were was to intercept Iranian ICBMs inbound to CONUS. I’m sure John McKittrick could correct me if my impressions of the various BMD programs are wrong, but an SM-3-based system will not deal with that particular threat no matter where in or around Eastern Europe it is based.

The ball’s been dropped for too long, and I have absolutely no confidence that Obama will pull the trigger on any action against Iran.

Revisions/extensions (6:05 pm 12/15/2009) – John McKittrick pretty much confirmed my suspicions in a longer piece devoted to the BMD test, and noted the (ex-Army) THAAD also doesn’t handle ICBMs mid-flight.

He also gave the key difference between the January test and the previous ICBM BMD tests – unlike the side-on approach with the target launched from Alaska down the West Coast (to simulate a North Korean launch on CONUS), the target’s coming pretty much straight at Vandenberg from the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll. That’s a few extra thousand miles per hour in closing velocity.

NFC playoff picture – After Week 14

by @ 10:49. Filed under Sports.

If it’s December, it’s time to take a look at who’s where in the playoff picture. Everybody has 3 games left, and to be in the wild-card picture, a team has to be able to finish at least 8-8 and finish no worse than 6-6 in the conference (the worst that the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals can do) to make it through the tiebreakers. The St. Louis Rams, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Detroit Lions and Washington Redskins can’t make it to 8-8, while the Chicago Bears can’t finish better than 5-7 in the conference. That leaves 11 teams for 6 spots, with 2 already claimed.

In the playoffs

New Orleans Saints (13-0, 9-0 NFC, 1st in the NFC South) – The Saints, who have already claimed the NFC South crown and a first-round bye, are in the driver’s seat. However, unlike the also-undefeated Indianapolis Colts, they do not yet have home-field advantage locked up. In fact, if they and the Minnesota Vikings tie, the Vikings would win the tiebreaker based on a better conference record. The magic number for home-field advantage through the playoffs is 1.5 (any combination of Saints wins or Vikings losses, with a tie counting as a half). Given the schedule of the Dallas Cowboys (8-5) on Thursday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1-12) on 12/27 and the Carolina Panthers (5-8) on the road on 1/3, it is at least even money the Saints will finish 16-0.

Minnesota Vikings (11-2, 8-1 NFC, 1st in the NFC North) – The Vikings have not yet locked up the NFC North crown, but they do have at least a wild-card berth locked up. They can win the NFC North with a win or a Green Bay Packers loss (or two ties between the two teams) as they swept the Packers. Assuming they win the NFC North, and they and the Arizona Cardinals (who beat the Vikings) do not both finish 11-5, their magic number to lock up a first-round bye is 1.5 (any combination of Vikings wins or Philadelphia Eagles losses, with a tie counting as half). They have the Carolina Panthers (5-8) on the road Sunday, the Chicago Bears (5-8) on the road 12/28 (so much for ESPN’s hope that game would mean anything), and the New York Giants (7-6) at home on 1/3.

In the driver’s seat

Philadelphia Eagles (9-4, 8-2 NFC, 1st in the NFC East) – The Eagles already swept the New York Giants, beat the Atlanta Falcons, and would hold any tiebreakers involving the Minnesota Vikings (conference record) and/or the Arizona Cardinals (common opponents). They can get two more head-to-head tiebreakers and the three-way East tiebreaker with games against the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys. A win against the Niners (6-7) at home on Sunday (or a tie by either team in any remaining game and a tie/loss by the Giants, or one win in their other two games) gets them into the playoffs. If necessary, a win at the Cowboys (8-5) on 1/3 gets them the division crown based on winning either the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Cowboys (division record) or a three-way against the Cowboys and the Giants (games against each other). Beyond that, the magic number for the division is 2.5 versus the Cowboys and 0.5 versus the Giants. Sandwiched between the two games with possible playoff implications is a game against the Denver Broncos (8-5) on 12/27.

Arizona Cardinals (8-5, 6-3 NFC, 1st in the NFC West) – They blew a chance to clinch the NFC West last night by getting swept by the San Francisco 49ers. However, they did beat the Minnesota Vikings, so they do have a theoretical shot at a first-round bye (it requires a two-way tie; the Cardinals would lose in a 3-way tie with the Vikings and the Philadelphia Eagles). Their magic number to clinch the NFC West is 1.5 (any combination of Cardinals wins or Niners losses, with ties counting for half), as they swept the Seattle Seahawks, though a three-way tie would give the NFC West to the Niners based on games against each other. On the wild-card end of things should they degenerate to that point, their magic number is 3 against the Dallas Cowboys, 2 against the Atlanta Falcons, and 1 against the Carolina Panthers. They also hold head-to-head tiebreakers over the New York Giants (by win) and Cowboys (common opponents), and have to play the Green Bay Packers (9-4) on 1/3, but lose head-to-head tiebreakers to the Eagles (common opponents) and the Panthers (by loss). They also would have the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Falcons (6-7) via conference record unless they both finish 8-8 and the Falcons win their remaining conference game; in that case, the Falcons would take it based on the record against common opponents. Their other games are at Detroit (2-11) Sunday and against St. Louis (1-12) 12/27.

Green Bay Packers (9-4, 7-3 NFC, 2nd NFC North, 1st wild-card) – The Packers still have a theoretical chance to take the NFC North crown, but since they got swept by the Minnesota Vikings, it would take a total collapse (outlined above). They hold head-to-head tiebreakers against the Dallas Cowboys (by win), San Francisco 49ers (by win) and Atlanta Falcons (conference record), and have to play the Arizona Cardinals (8-5) 1/3, but lose the head-to-head tiebreaker to the New York Giants (common opponents). Their magic number is 1 over both the Cowboys and Giants. Their other games are at the Pittsburgh Steelers (6-7) Sunday and against the Seattle Seahawks (5-8) 12/27.

Scrambling to get in

Dallas Cowboys (8-5, 6-3 NFC, 2nd NFC East, 2nd wild-card) – The formula is deceptively-simple – win out and they’re in as NFC East champs by virtue of sweeping the Philadelphia Eagles (9-4). Unfortunately, not only do they have a horrid December record over the last several years, they also don’t have the tiebreaker against the Packers (lost to them) or the Giants (got swept by them). They did, however, beat the Eagles once (they play in Dallas on 1/3), the Falcons, the Panthers and the Seahawks, and hold the tiebreaker over the Niners (common opponents). Besides the Eagles to close the season, they get the New Orleans Saints (13-0) on the road Sunday and the Washington Redskins (4-9) on the road 12/27.

New York Giants (7-6, 5-4 NFC, 3rd NFC East, 3rd wild-card) – Their chances took a body blow when they got swept by the Philadelphia Eagles, but things could get very interesting in a 3-way tie in the NFC East. Outside of that, they do hold head-to-head tiebreakers over the Green Bay Packers (common opponents), Dallas Cowboys (swept them), Atlanta Falcons (beat them), and Seattle Seahawks (common opponents), have to play the Panthers (5-8) at home 12/27, and would lose the tiebreaker to the Arizona Cardinals (lost to them). Sandwiching the Panthers game are trips to the Washington Redskins (4-9) Monday night and the Minnesota Vikings (11-2) 1/3.

On life support

San Francisco 49ers (6-7, 5-4 NFC, 2nd NFC West, 4th wild-card) – They do hold all the tiebreakers against their NFC West foes (swept the Arizona Cardinals, have a better division record than the Seattle Seahawks, and have the best record against each other). They also would have the tiebreaker against the Dallas Cowboys (conference record), and have to play at the Philadelphia Eagles (9-4) Sunday, but would lose the tiebreaker to the Green Bay Packers (lost to them), Atlanta Falcons (lost to them) and Carolina Panthers (conference record). After Sunday’s game, they get Detroit (2-11) at home 12/27 and St. Louis (1-12) on the road 1/3.

Atlanta Falcons (6-7, 5-6 NFC, 2nd NFC South, 5th wild-card) – Atlanta holds only the head-to-head tiebreaker against the San Francisco 49ers outright by virtue of beating them, while they lost to the Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants, and would lose the tiebreaker to the Carolina Panthers (split, but the Panthers would have a better record against common opponents). Also, there is one and only scenario where they would have the tiebreaker over the Arizona Cardinals – they both finish 8-8 and the Falcons win their remaining conference game at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1-12) 1/3. Before then, they play the New York Jets (7-6) on the road Sunday and the Buffalo Bills (5-8) at home 12/27.

Being fitted for a toe-tag

Carolina Panthers (5-8, 5-4 NFC, 3rd NFC South, 6th wild-card) – First, they have to beat the Minnesota Vikings (11-2) on Sunday, the New York Giants (7-6) on the road 12/27 and the New Orleans Saints (13-0) on 1/3. Next, they must have the Giants (who they would have beaten), Atlanta Falcons (6-7, with whom they split), Dallas Cowboys (8-5, who beat them) and San Francisco 49ers (6-7) end up with at least 8 losses, with the Niners and/or the Giants (and/or the Arizona Cardinals if the Niners go 8-8 to win the NFC West) ending up at 8-8 along with them and the Cowboys. If that happens, no matter what the combination is, the Panthers would be in the playoffs.

Seattle Seahawks (5-8, 4-6 NFC, 3rd NFC West, 7th wild-card) – The good news is getting to 8-8 is easier for the Seahawks, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1-12) on Sunday, the Green Bay Packers (9-4) on the road 12/27, and the Tennessee Titans (6-7) on 1/3. The bad news is they do not win any division tiebreakers nor any head-to-head tiebreakers with teams that can finish 8-8. The only possible way for them to make the playoffs is if neither the Carolina Panthers (5-8) nor the San Francisco 49ers (6-7) get 8 wins, if the Dallas Cowboys (8-5), New York Giants (7-6) and Atlanta Falcons (6-7) finish 8-8, AND the Falcons win their remaining conference game to create a 3-way conference record tie between the Falcons, Giants and Seahawks, AND THEN it depends on strength of victory (which doesn’t look good for the Seahawks, seeing three of their victims have a grand total of three wins).

Fool Me Once….

by @ 5:50. Filed under Health Care Reform, Politics - Minnesota.

I’ve recorded for you the, at best, hypocrisy or, at worst, out right lying of Christan Romer. 

Ms. Romer has been an economist for a number of years.  Ms. Romer was selected by President Obama to be chair of the Economic Council of Advisers.  In this later capacity, Ms. Romer was one of the co authors of that fondly remembered document that promised that if we spent a bunch of money on a stimulus package, the unemployment rate would not move above 8%.  If you need a reminder, re look at this document.

Ms. Romer is also the person who as I pointed out here, argued on behalf of the administration, that stimulus spending would have a greater effect on the economy than tax cuts.  Of course, as I pointed out in the same post, Ms. Romer’s own published research showed just the opposite was the truth!

Yesterday, Ms. Romer pontificated on the cost saving efficacy of Placebocare.  As reported at Politico.com, Ms. Romer held a conference call that claimed:

health insurance reform legislation will lower health care spending in both the public and private sectors, reduce premiums, increase wages and provide substantial benefits to the economy. From a CEA report out today: “Reform will slow the growth rate of public sector health care spending and reduce the federal budget deficit over the long run: CEA estimates that by 2019, total Federal spending on the Medicare and Medicaid programs will be lower than it would have been absent reform. … CEA estimates that reform is also likely to reduce private-sector health care cost growth by approximately 1 percentage point per year.”  (CEA = Council of Economic Advisers)

So, we have Ms. Romer and the Council of Economic Advisers, who were wrong about unemployment and wrong about the effectiveness of the stimulus, now telling us that they have the benefits of Placebocare all figured out.  Not only that but they tell us not to believe the CBO.  They tell us that not only will Placebocare reduce the deficit but it will actually substantially bend the curve on health care cost increases!

What?  You’re having trouble believing that?  Just trust them, they’re economists!

Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me!

Amen!

by @ 5:19. Filed under Defending the American Dream, Miscellaneous.

I can’t figure out how to make the video link work so, just go and watch. No additional comments are necessary!

Amen!

Revisions/extensions (10:53 am 12/15/2009, steveegg) – Let’s see if the semi-hidden embed code works…

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