define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true); define('DISALLOW_FILE_MODS', true); No Runny Eggs » steveegg

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 posts by steveegg.

January 19, 2008

Video of the day for a Siberian Saturday

by @ 15:40. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Head on over to TheWisconsinSportsBar (appropriate place) to see how Tequila can help you become an alpha (or at least a drunk beta). My favorite line – “…and it also may be a major factor in getting your ass kicked.”

Remember the rule of 4, rookies:

One Tequila
Two Tequila
Three Tequila
Floor!

Testing a trackback for Beth

by @ 14:29. Filed under Miscellaneous.

It seems she’s having some problems with not getting trackbacks/pingbacks. Let’s see if this works.

January 18, 2008

A wee bit of housekeeping

by @ 16:20. Filed under The Blog.

I figured it was time to do a proper About & FAQ page. If you have a question that I didn’t answer, pipe up, and I’ll consider answering it.

PCTs no longer mandatory

by @ 14:31. Filed under Global "Warming".

(H/T – Michelle)

There is some good news for those of you in California. The nannies that run your state have gone from requiring thermostats you wouldn’t be able to override in a power “emergency” to allowing you to override those new thermostats to now dropping the requirement entirely (technical issues prevented me from getting the link to the story as of the writing):

But the agency backed off even more this week by announcing that the proposed remote-controlled thermostats would be dropped entirely from the 2008 edition of the building-efficiency standards.

Of course, the voluntary plan to stick these PCTs will continue unabated.

Revisions/extensions (7:57 pm 1/18/2008) – Missing link found.

Darshan Dhaliwal, Pubbie-only donor?

That is exactly what Raquel Rutledge, Jennie Tunkieicz, Ben Poston, and their editors at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel would want you to believe. In their story about how Dhaliwal sold unbranded gasoline as BP gasoline, they gleefully point out how closely he was tied to both Tommy Thompson and President Bush.

Just one sliiiiiiiiiiight problem; they never heard of Jessica McBride. Her very-quick search through the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign archives revealed a who’s-who of Democrats and liberals very-amply supported by Dhaliwal, including $17,000 to Jim Doyle (almost twice the amount given to both the Thompson state and federal campaigns combined) and a $500 donation to Louis Butler during his previous, failed run for the state Supreme Court.

I decided to run Dhaliwal’s various donations, both state and federal (the latter from the FEC), through the spreadsheet, and imagine my surprise to find the following over the last 16 years (14 on the federal side):

– $75,980 in donations to 58 Democrats and liberal-leaning candidates and committees overall
– $53,280 in donations to the Wisconsin (not federal) campaigns of 48 Democrats and liberal-leaning candidates and committees
– $21,800 in donations to 13 Republican candidates overall (no non-Republican conservative-leaning candidates or committees)
– $17,500 in donations to the Wisconsin (not federal) campaigns of 11 Republicans

Hmmm, why do you think the Fifth Column at Fourth and State only mentioned Thompson and Bush, and went out of their way to avoid any mention of Democrats or Loophole Louis? Could it be that the presstitute-‘Rat alliance has elections to ste…er, win?

Roll bloat – trolling through Blogrolling

by @ 10:45. Filed under The Blog.

Yes, I occassionally check through Blogrolling, but it isn’t nearly often enough. I probably have a couple of these on the Blogs 4 Bauer section of the roll, but since they have me on some version of their main rolls, and because I don’t have control over the B4B roll, it’s past time to return the favor (and also add them to the ever-growing feed reader):

Death by 1000 Papercuts
Making Ripples
MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
A Blog For All (Lawhawk is one of the B4B guys)
SodaBoy.net
One of these years, I will prune that bloated roll some. I’m sure I have some dead links on there by now.

January 17, 2008

Highway Robbery – The Illinois Tollway Chronicles

by @ 19:38. Filed under Politics, Taxes.

Drew Veeneman is just destroying the toll-road pols on the wrong side of the toll booths at the Sam Adams Alliance blog. Once again, since I don’t want to steal his thunder, I’ll point you in the general direction:

Part 1 starts with the corruption of the 1990s, and ties in George Ryan’s “brilliant” idea to flop on a campaign pledge to dump the Tollway Authority.

Part 2 runs with the fallacies of the I-Pass system, especially its enforcement of “violators” (read the post to see why I put that in scare quotes).

I’ll keep this updated with the links to additional parts.

As a cheddarhead who occassionally has to go to (or through) Chicagoland, I hate having to choose between trying to time the lights on the Skokie Highway (and inevitably failing) and ultimately going through the heart of Chicago (if I have to go beyond) or hacking off an arm to pay for the tolls (which Rod Blagojevich doubled for cash users immediately upon getting into office) that pay for stuff like a helipad, custom office chairs for all, and marble floors at Taj Mahal Authority Drive. Worse, the special State Police unit designated for the tollways are starting to actually run speed traps (fortunately, I haven’t been nabbed yet).

Roll bloat – the mean dogs edition

by @ 18:50. Filed under The Blog.

Like Ace of Spades HQ, Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler comes with a major language warning. Let’s just say I’m a fucking fan of rottweilers, especially ones that bite various liberals in the ass.

Snow cream? Let it snow!

by @ 16:58. Filed under Weather.

Since, like Wisconsin, it’s snowing in Maryland, Michelle Malkin brought out her family’s snow cream recipe. If only I had more than a dusting here, I’d try it.

Pic of the day

by @ 13:50. Filed under Politics - National.

Shamelessly stolen from the Pheisty Joey, so please, give her some hits…

nancys-white-house-grill-thumb.jpg

Depressingly-true read on the long-term impact of blogs

by @ 7:36. Filed under The Blog.

If any of you are under the delusion that someday in the mid-to-long term future, a historian is going to stumble across your blog and say, “What brilliant insight into the beginning of the 21st Century so-and-so has,” I suggest grabbing your favorite comfort food or drink before heading over to Jib’s reality check. As for me, I’m under no such illusions. I know whatever little impact my words have will fade over time.

I do have to further address a portion of what Jib noted, specifically how easily links die. I’m as guilty as causing links to die as anybody else. The first several months, this place was on Blogger. I eventually moved off of Blogger, and originally cobbled together a redirect. Eventually, I used a different workaround that drives those that click on the No Runny Eggs link at my Blogger profile directly here, but that also killed the original norunnyeggs.blogspot.com address. Those posts are still here (the early archives), and also on Blogger’s server.

I was a lot better with the second move, from the norunnyeggs.eggstor.com domain to the norunnyeggs.com one. Because I maintained the eggstor.com domain, I could use a more-advanced redirect, and once I also moved the eggstor.com domain, I was able to finally have a seamless transition. Still, I had certain links that were broken, mainly pictures that were hotlinked to the norunnyeggs.eggstor.com.

Revisions/extensions (3:13 pm 1/17/2008) – I’ll repost a bit of a semi-revisit comment I left over at Jib’s place:

As for what is likely to be saved, I wouldn’t count on stand-alone “diaries” to make the macro-archive cut. That’s where the personal desire to archive comes in, just like it has with diarists through history.

I’m very torn on whether to include a further comment from Jib. It is very good; however, I do not want to steal the discussion.

January 16, 2008

If at first you don’t succeed,…

by @ 18:45. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin, WTPA.

…try, try again to get a handle on taxes and spending (H/T – Kevin Fischer).

I wish I could believe that this would make it through the Senate, but I have my doubts that it will even make it out of the Assembly.

The prediction of the week

by @ 18:37. Filed under Politics - National.

Hear MKH now, believe her Saturday night…

“Fred wins South Carolina because, the way this race is going, a prediction now is as good as a prediction Saturday morning, and the more seemingly unlikely, the better.”

The corn-a-hole whores are back

by @ 15:26. Filed under Corn-a-hole, Politics - Wisconsin.

(H/T – Mark Belling)

As the title says, they’re back, and they’re worse than ever. Not only will Senate Bill 380 require that a significant portion of fuel sold in Wisconsin be made from overpriced corn, which has already started to ripple price increases through the entire food chain, but starting in 2015, permanently park most of the vehicles currently on the road by mandating that percentage of corn-a-hole be higher than what the fuel systems in those vehicles can handle.

Especially egregious is the role that Luther Olsen (RepubicRAT), whose brother is in the process of making his fortune in the ethanol business, is playing.

I’ll just hit “publish” now before I start unleasing an AoS-worthy string of expletives.

Revisions/extensions (2:49 pm 1/17/2008) – Allow me to continue with a further rant brought up from the comments….

(Current engines) “can” (be modified to run on E25, E85, E100, et al), but how much is that going to run me? $500? $1000? Why should I have to pay to retrofit my 2004 Subaru (or 2009 non-flex-fuel Chevy, or 2002 Saturn, or…you get the idea) just so I can keep my car on the road while burning more fuel?

Why should I be forced to buy a new lawn mower, or a new snow blower, or a new chainsaw, or a new boat engine (assuming, of course, they’ll be able to handle E25; many of those already have problems handling E10)?

I’m (barely) able to afford this “upgrade”. What about those that can’t? Are we going to tell them, “Tough luck. Hop on that bus so we can throw more money down that rat hole. Oh, and relearn the ‘joys’ of push mowers and shoveling.”? Are we going to force those that can pay for the “upgrade” to pay twice, thrice, and even more so the poor can stay in the 21st Century? Oh hell no.

Miss my roll, miss a lot

by @ 14:28. Filed under Miscellaneous.

There is a reason why that roll on the right side is as bloated as it is; there is a lot of good stuff from the people on it. Just in case you’ve missed some of the recent brilliance, I’ll point you in the right direction…

4-Block World has the Packers’ offensive flow chart for the NFC Championship Game.
silent E speaks has started awarding something called the “Farting RINO Award” (complete with lit fart)
An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings delivers a pair of wicked-good cartoons.
Blue Crab Boulevard has yet another reason to keep up on security updates, specifically Microsoft Excel 2003.
Boots and Sabers goes behind the scenes with Katie Couric, while Ed Driscoll channels Don Henley with that same clip.
Caledonia Unplugged brings news that an outstate RINO wants convicted sex predators to live wherever they please upon release.
Daily Dollop matches up the candidates to various games.
Atomic Trousers has some sage advice for the NIGA.
Fred File (that would be the Thompson campaign’s blog) delivers the 2-year smackdown on Paul D. Clement’s overlawyering candy-ass. (disclosure; I’m a Marbleheader Fredhead)
Hot Air notes the race war between Obama and Clinton is ON!
JunkYardBlog found out that the Party of the Sheeple isn’t exactly having grilled cheese sandwiches on the Hill.
Right Angles (specifically, Jon Ham) wonders whether Mountain Dew and MoonPies are next on Pelosi’s ban list. (they can pry my Dew from my cold, dead right hand)
Michelle Malkin and her readers pimp up Mao. (I’m sort of partial to Gene Simmons KISSifying Mao).
RealDebateWisconsin wonders whether 6 teens sitting together at lunch too busy texting to actually talk to each other is progress.
Sister Toldjah and James Wigderson are both running caption contests using the same Breck-on-a-chair pic. (mine – “When 5-inch stilettos just won’t do….”)
Slublog notes that only ‘Rats and Huckabee (who may as well be a ‘Rat) can get away with having pastors harangue the faithful for political gain.
Charlie Sykes takes a peek into the egalitarian future by going to some old fiction.
The American Pundit takes a look across the pond to see the cavity-ridden dental future under HillaryCare by any name (even Romney’s).
The Autopsy dissects why there is no Republican front-runner.
The Jawa Report puts 2 and 2 together on Huckabee and push-polling. (I knew I saw that playbook before, specifically from Russ “I’ll take the high road” Slimeroad and friends in 1998).
Tom McMahon points out that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
VodkaPundit lets us know the father of TABOR punted a presstitute who had no respect during morning prayer during his first session as a member of Colorado’s legislature.
Weasel Zippers relays a warning from Michael Chertoff that Europe is rapidly turning into a security threat to the US because of Islamokazis (well, a stopped clock is right twice a day, so why can’t Lettuce-Head occassionally be right?)

Now, go read.

The fraud-enablers in Madistan know no bounds

by @ 12:02. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

You do remember the exposing of hundreds of thousands of Social Security numbers on tax booklets by the Department of Revenue last year, right? The “good news” is they only exposed about 5,000 S.S. numbers this time around.

The bad – The Department of Health and Family Services jumped on the bandwagon, with 260,000 Senior Care recipients having their S.S. numbers printed on the outside of a brochure.

The ugly – The University of Wisconsin-Madison left 205 employees’ S.S. IDs hanging out in the ether. Worse, unlike the DOR, the DHFS and the contractors involved, UW is not going to offer credit-monitoring assistance despite the greater and continuing likelyhood of those numbers falling into the wrong hands.

Buh-bye, Skyway Airlines and 400 jobs

by @ 11:48. Filed under Business.

The first major bit of fallout from the privatization of Midwest Air Group is falling now, with the completion of the shift of the operation of Midwest Connect flights from Midwest Air Group subsidiary Skyway Airlines to Utah-based SkyWest and the attendant reduction of the highest-paying 7/20ths of Skyway jobs. For the moment, Skyway will live on as the official ramp and caterer of Midwest, as well as the customer service reps for Midwest Connect outside of Milwaukee, thus temporarily saving the jobs of 750 Skyway employees.

I wonder whether the lower business tax and less-suffocating regulatory climate in the mountains had anything to do with that. If that’s the case, instead of a minor expansion of those support services to cover other airlines allegedly planned, expect another 750 pink slips to come flying out of Minneapo…er, Texa…er, Oak Creek.

January 15, 2008

CoverItLive – revisited and a couple for the wish list

by @ 22:19. Filed under Miscellaneous.

I’ve now done several CoverItLive liveblogs, including a pair that ended up being overloaded the other weekend, and I finally was on the viewer end of one. I’m still pretty impressed with it, and I’ve been reassured by the crew in Toronto that the next version is in the pipeline. I do, however, have a couple of wishes for the wish-list:

– Allow auto-approval of comments from people that already have an approved comment. Having to approve every single comment slows things down when things are hopping.
– Allow commenters to stick in a URL along with a name. It helps to figure out who is who.

Roll bloat – It’s not (just) the legs edition

by @ 19:33. Filed under The Blog.

It’s not just the legs that may or may not be E.M. Zanotti’s at the top of American Princess that got her on the roll (thanks, MKH), though that definitely helps. Somebody that is just a pair of legs does not peel off a wicked-good dissection of why John McCain’s fade began in Michigan.

Presidential Pool – SECOND LOOK AT MITT!

by @ 18:33. Filed under Politics - National.

Allow me to state for the record that the title is a play on Allahpundit’s use of the “SECOND LOOK AT…” schtick. I am still firmly in the Fred Thompson camp, and I’m more-likely to jump back on the Duncan Hunter wagon than the Mitt Romney one if Thompson were the first to bolt from the campaign. However, if it came down to Romney versus Rudi McCabee, there is no real doubt I’d go onto the Romney boat.

The right end of the blogosphere is all a-twitter, from Michelle Malkin to Allahpundit to Mary Katharine Ham to Erick at RedState, over Romney-backer Dean Barnett’s piece in today’s New York Times basically complaining that we don’t know the “real Mitt Romney”. I don’t doubt for a minute that Romney is a nice, decent family man. However, Barnett inadvertantly points out the fatal flaw in the Romney campaign; he hasn’t been true to himself. Specifically, Barnett called Romney’s early focus on the social end of conservatism false. While Barnett asserts that this focus was the sole source of of the flip-flop “meme”, it’s Romney’s own record and words that bring the truth to the charges.

What would be worse is a suggestion that there be a refocus completely away from the social conservative end, in what Erick terms “unleashing the real Mitt Romney”. For better or for worse, Romney has made his bets. To change those this late in the game is going to simply reinforce the flip-flop, and if his campaign believes that is the only hope left, they may as well save the remainder of Romney’s fortune and concede. They can, and should, augment their existing messages with a stronger message that Romney knows business.

However, they’re even flubbing that. Once again, Romney is hitting up against the flip-flop card. Back in October, when he was the “inevitable early-stater”, he was unabashedly pro-business. His message, and more-importantly, delivery, on that back then was powerful enough to impress both MKH and me; indeed, my words were, “Romney blew me away.”

Now, he’s jumped on the “middle-class tax cut” canard. I remember a certain ex-President promising a “middle-class tax cut”, only to abandon it the moment he took the oath of office. I know that ex-President isn’t from the same party as Romney, but the principle of “fool me once” seems to ring true.

Even in the economic area, Romney has a major flaw; he is all-too-willing to force a public-private intrusion into private decisions. Specifically, there is precious little difference between MassachusettsCare and the various Democratic “universal” CubaCare mandates; the only significant difference is that Romney at least allows insurance companies a taste of the mandate.

He is also wedded to the idea that the federal government be very-actively involved in research and development; indeed, that is the push of his newest ad. While the rest of the world does exactly that, they also have the suffocating taxes to go along with it. Morever, even with all of that government involvement, most of the breakthroughs in the last 50 years have come from the United States, and most of those breakthroughs have come without a whole lot of government intervention. Coincidence? I think not.

Ultimately, we’re not electing Mr. Congeniality. We have tried that before, most recently in 2000. Like Romney after him, George Bush promoted himself as somebody who could work with Democrats. I believe we all know how far that got him when he found out that the Washington ‘Rats are an arrogant, stubborn bunch completely unwilling to work with anybody except on their terms.

We’re also not electing a manager who bends over parallel to the ground in the slightest of breezes. For all the good that Romney has done out of government, that field of grass is his legacy as a politician.

Cross-posted at the TownHall version of this place.

January 14, 2008

Writers? We don’t need no steenkin’ writers!

by @ 20:07. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Yesterday was supposed to be the first episode of Season 7 of “24”, with today being the first Monday with Jack Bauer before Congress and Tony Almeida fucking with the air traffic control system. However, since the writers and the studios can’t pull their collective heads out of their collective asses, the fine folks at Blogs4Bauer have stepped up to the plate.

The following takes place between 8 am and 9 am and between 9 am and 10 am….

$10 at 10 for Fred

by @ 18:41. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Some of the Fredheads over at the Fred File came up with the idea to kick in another $10 to the red truck’s tanks at 10 pm local. Sounds like a good idea.

So, if you didn’t hit your $2,300 limit yet, and you have $10 floating around that wallet, donate that $10 at 10 pm local.

Revisions/extensions (8:18 pm 1/14/2008) – The re-revised goal of $1,000,000 by midnight Eastern tonight has been busted, as the truck had $1,000,932 in it at 8:15 pm. The $10 at 10 is still on.

Voluntary voter ID – where do I sign up?

by @ 13:18. Filed under Elections, Politics - Wisconsin.

(H/T – Owen)

I do not know how anybody who is not interested in stealing votes from legitimately-registered voters can be opposed to AB547, a bill that would allow registered voters to request that they be required to produce identification to cast a ballot. Indeed, this is a bipartisan proposal, with Christine Sinicki among those introducing the bill and Julie Lassa and Jeff Plale (my state Senator) among the Senate co-sponsors.

I want my vote protected whether I show up at the polls at 7 am or 7 pm, and this is a good way to do so.

Talk like Jack Bauer today, dammit!

by @ 11:56. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Even though the writers’ strike has blown up Season 7 of “24” (dammit, Fox!) the fine folks at Blogs4Bauer are still having Talk Like Jack Bauer Day today (thank you). For those of you who don’t know how to talk like Jack, B4B has a handy guide. Go read it, or I’ll use this rusty pen knife on your eyes. I’ll start with the right eye, and move to the left.

If you don’t feel like talking like Jack after reading that, I’ve got a wet towel that I’ll shove down your throat, all the day, only I’ll hold onto the end of it. When your stomach starts digesting the towel, I’ll yank it back out, and take your stomach lining with it. Now, you will talk like Jack Bauer, won’t you?

The NFL glass is half-full

by @ 11:48. Filed under Sports.

Even though nothing is above .500, and the “money” 2/3rds of my playoff predictions slid under the .500 mark, it’s still half-full. Let’s review what went right and wrong:

Seattle 20 @ Green Bay 42 (-7.5/under-43.5-LOSS) – No pick-sixes, but when the Packers either score touchdowns or turn the ball over, and they score six times, it’s almost all-good. Mental note – snow does not stop the Packer offense.

Jacksonville 20 (+13-WIN/over-50-WIN) @ New England 31 – Number of punts – 2. I do believe I told you to take the under-4.5 on that.

San Diego 28 @ Indianapolis 24 (-9.5/under 46.5) – I guess the Bolts just have the Dolts’ number.

New York Giants 21 @ Dallas 17 (-7.5/over 46.5) – I wonder if TO has castrated Romo yet. Stat of the weak – 1-3 against the over/unders. I don’t know the last time I chunked that up that bad.

2-2 against the spread, 1-3 against the over/unders and 2-2 straight-up leaves the playoff record at 3-5 ATS, 3-5 O/U and 4-4 SU. Dammit; I have to sweep the rest of the playoffs to make any money.

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