Busy, busy today so tonight's ONT is the Diet version - same bad taste but fewer calories.

And if you thought you saw an earlier ONT, well that was just a side effect. Seriously don't do drugs kids.

Colors by Sex

Okay it's an old stereotype that guys can't distinguish colors very well but given that 7% of men are colorblind and a good number of women are tetrachromats who can actually see four distinct ranges of color (instead of the usual 3) maybe it's true. Next science will prove that men physically cannot see dirt smaller than 0.25 inches.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:31 PM | Comments (787)
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You may remember the case of the Christians who were handing out leaflets at a Dearborn Arab Festival last year. Well, the case made it to a federal appeals court and the city's chief of police will be surprised the 1st Amendment is operative in his jurisdiction.

The 2-1 decision comes less than a month before the next festival in Dearborn, which draws thousands of people to Warren Avenue in the heavily Arab community.

The festival had offered George Saieg of Anaheim, Calif., a free booth in 2010, but said he and his followers could not freely walk sidewalks with literature about converting Muslims to Christianity.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the restriction was unreasonable, especially when vendors and pedestrians were allowed on sidewalks during the festival.

Dearborn and its police department "violated Saieg's First Amendment right to freedom of speech," judges Karen Nelson Moore and Eric Clay said. "Absent an injunction, Saieg will continue to suffer irreparable injury for which there is no adequate remedy at law."

Seems a civil suit for damages against Dearborn's Barney Fife is in order. Make the bastards pay for this garbage. It's the only way they'll learn.

Via Joshua Treviño

Posted by: DrewM at 05:33 PM | Comments (140)
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Payback!

President Obama will not be able to make recess appointments over the week-long recess to commemorate Memorial Day, after Republicans forced Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to keep the chamber open for pro forma sessions every three days.

“President Obama has been packing federal agencies with left-wing ideologues, but thankfully he won’t be able to for at least the next week," Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC, said in a statement emailed to the Examiner. "The House will not be sending an adjournment resolution to the Senate, we will remain in pro forma session, and no controversial nominees will be allowed to circumvent the confirmation process during the break.”

...When Democrats took over Congress in 2007, Reid blocked Bush from making any recess appointments by holding such sessions, which could last as little as a few seconds, with the clerk opening the chamber and a Senator striking a gavel to close it.

You may remember some of Obama's greatest recess appointments....Craig Becker to the NLRB and Donald "The Rationer" Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Posted by: DrewM at 04:52 PM | Comments (94)
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Oh, it's on.

This is something Pawlenty needs to be careful about. You can try too hard to manufacture toughness and buzz.

Yes, Obama should shut up about Medicare if he's not going to put out a plan (though he won''t) but it's not like Obama is just vacationing in Europe. He's conducting the country's business by meeting with allies, attending the annual G-20 summit and then heading to Poland to meet with central European leaders. You know, doing the stuff that's part of the job Pawlenty wants so badly.

Any election with an incumbent is a referendum on the incumbent. The challenger needs to keep the focus there and be seen as a plausible alternative. Talking smack on Twitter is not presidential. If T-Paw wants to go down this road maybe he should set his sites at a more realistic level...Fox News Contributor.

I've been liking Pawlenty a lot more this week and this isn't really going to change that but it's an unforced error. It'll be forgotten soon enough but an error none the less.

Just to be clear...I want a candidate to take on the Cult of Obama. I just want them to do it in a way that Obama, not them comes out worse for it. Calling a basic part of a President's job "a pub crawl" is a swing and a miss.

I appreciate the idea, just not impressed by the execution of it.

Posted by: DrewM at 01:40 PM | Comments (456)
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Taking the night off. Let the comedy-masters do the entertaining.

Before posting, I did say to someone, "Yeah, I'm not thrilled about the 30 idiotic worf/patrick ewing/I wouldn't rape that" jokes.

Gee, what a shock. Predicted each one. The trifecta of predictable nastiness.

Maybe that's not actually humor, see, if it's been said six thousand times before and wasn't funny then, either.

Maybe there's some other motive present.

They have it posted on other websites, like NRO; go put your bon mots over there. See if you can make it through the approval queue.

Posted by: Ace at 01:02 PM | Comments (698)
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He continues running on the plank of flattering discredited but undeterrable conspiracy theorists who desperately wish that someone prominent would validate them and tell them they're right, and not wrong, like everyone else tells them.

So, a bit of a match here, between people who really want to hear the specific words "You were right all along" and a cunning hustler who really needs a core of passionate supporters for a possible independent run.

Everyone wins, especially 1, delusional crankery, and 2, Barack Obama.

Former news outlet WND goes on to DSK that chicken further, with bombshell revelations about layering (discredited; Adobe experts say so) and kerning (who knows, that's their new crap to be thrown at the wall).

Of course the most compelling new testimony comes from a "YouTube poster named orangegold1."

Wait wait wait -- YouTube poster orangegold1?

The YouTube poster orangegold1?

They got YouTube poster orangegold1 on board now?

Why wasn't I informed immediately? This changes everything.

Make sure you check out orangegold1's favorited video of Amazing Chi Power, which ponders where on the electromagnetic spectrum Chi power might lie.

He also seems to have a bare-bones beginners' knowledge of some graphics program (not Adobe) that he thinks he's an expert in.

"i have no idea how i did this!" he exclaims.

Yeah. I believe you.

Crankery and foolishness, but people will go to great lengths to protect a wounded ego. No one ever went broke telling those desperate to believe exactly what they needed to hear.

Always Trust Content From Jerome Corsi, Joseph Farrah, and YouTube Poster organgegold1: Trump says I didn't say that at all.

“I am proud of the fact that I was able to get President Obama to release his birth certificate. President Clinton couldn’t do it, Senator Mc Cain couldn’t do it—no one else could do it! Frankly, many people were surprised that it took so long for this to happen. Is his birth certificate legitimate? I hope it is for the good of the country, but that’s for experts to determine—not me. I have not read the book written by Jerry Corsi nor did we discuss whether or not the birth certificate was computer generated or in any way fabricated. I merely asked him how his book was doing and wished him good luck.”

Thanks to Freedomplow for this tip.

World Net Daily

Where credibility comes to die.

Update: The Amazing Chi Power video now seems to be taken out of orangegold1's favorites. It's here.

Posted by: Ace at 11:52 AM | Comments (246)
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It's not the big ID case but some of the same issues are in play, namely whether or not federal immigration laws preempt state action.

The ruling, delivered by Chief Justice John Roberts, rejected the arguments of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which argued that Arizona's effort is preempted by federal immigration law.

"We hold that the Arizona law is not preempted," wrote the Chief Justice.

This ruling is not on a more controversial Arizona immigration law, which is still working its way to the Supreme Court; it gives police more power to detain and stop illegals, a move that prompted economic boycotts of the state by a variety of groups.

In this case, the Court went against arguments of the business community and the Obama Administration, which maintain that federal law has the last say on immigration.

The "Legal Arizona Workers Act" would allow the state to revoke business licenses if they don't use the E-Verify system to check the legal status of their workers.

"Of course Arizona hopes that its law will result in more effective enforcement of the prohibition on employing unauthorized aliens," wrote the Chief Justice.

It's not exactly on point with the ID case but it certainly lays the groundwork that states can create laws which leads to "effective enforcement" against illegal aliens.

The Supreme Court works in mysterious ways but it's interesting and hopeful to say the least.

On the other hand: Lyle Denniston at SCOTUS Blog doesn't think this bodes well for the ID law.

The decision technically did not go beyond the specific Arizona law at issue but, between the lines, seemed to have some broader themes. There was even a hint that ArizonaÂ’s more controversial alien control law — now widely known as “S.B. 1070″ — may not fare as well as its worker control law now has, particularly its provision that gives police wide authority to arrest and detain any individual that an officer believes is an unlawful alien. Arizona is preparing to file a new appeal, probably during the summer, to try to revive S.B. 1070 after key provisions were blocked in April by the Ninth Circuit Court.

The Court majority on Thursday — 5-3 on the main points, 4-3 on less significant points — rejected claims by business and civil rights groups that Arizona’s four-year-old Legal Arizona Works Act intrudes upon federal immigration policy on aliens’ employment. In legal terminology, the Court ruled that federal law did not expressly or by implication “preempt” the state statute. Not the least significant of the Court’s declarations was a resuscitation of a 1976 precedent, DeCanas v. Bica, speaking broadly of a federal-state partnership on restricting aliens’ jobs. But that ruling came down ten years before Congress passed a sweeping new law that generally pushed aside state efforts, except for what had seemed since then to be a fairly narrowly worded exception.

The provision, centrally involved in the new decision, barred states and local governments from enforcing “any law” that imposed punishment on those who hired unlawful aliens, but it made an exception for punishment imposed by “licensing and similar laws.”

Still, if the court had ruled the other way, the AZ ID law would be in big trouble.

Posted by: DrewM at 11:24 AM | Comments (65)
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"I worship the ground Paul Ryan walks on," Cheney said.

However, this may be the real takeaway: He says he hopes Ryan doesn't run because "that would ruin a good man who has a lot of work to do."

That actually sounds like a reluctance to support dressed up as a compliment.

Ryan's plan is, in fact, dangerous. Dangerous and necessary. Or something like the Ryan plan is necessary-- even Obama's cutting trillions from Medicare, to cut from the "waste fraud and abuse" category of "treating seniors," not that the media ever mentions that.

So I disagree with Cheney, if that's what he meant to say.

Click on the link for Cheney's brief explanation of his finest moment.

No, not shooting his friend in the face, and then, later, having that friend apologize to him for having such a big, clumsy shootie-face.

No, I mean telling Pat Leahy to attempt a well-nigh-impossible reflexive sexual act.

Posted by: Ace at 10:48 AM | Comments (121)
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I'm going to cut Obama a break and not follow the Tory lead at the Telegraph in calling this a snub.

The fact is, this is unwarranted and embarrassing. For God's sakes, they already gave him the Nobel Peace Prize for successfully not blowing up the planet his first three weeks as President.

Now they want to toss him a Royal scientific award?

For what? Metabolizing? Possessing the properties of mass and inertia? Going three-for-three on width, height, and depth?

Come on. Come on. This isn't Obama's fault; this is the fault of a brain-damaged "elite" looking to toss unwarranted honors at him and, inadvertently, subject him to further mockery.

They can't even see that. Their heads are so far up their asses it doesn't occur to them for a split-second that maybe there's something ridiculous about all this.

Sources close to the state visit said members of the Royal Society were “deeply offended” by the snub and had accused Mr Obama of being obsessed with his “street cred”.

The US President was offered the chance to receive the King Charles II medal, which is awarded in “exceptional circumstances” to heads of state who have “made an outstanding contribution to furthering scientific research in their country”.

Oh shut up you imbeciles.

A British government source close to the Obama visit said: “The Royal Society was really keen to do something with Obama and they expected him to be very honoured by the medal.

“Instead they received a very short response from his people saying that it would be better for him to visit a state school.

“The inference they took from that was that he was more interested in cultivating his street cred than in building links with British scientists.”

Congratulations, President Obama. You made the right call. That makes it three: Turning down a completely risible fake medal, successfully producing valid ID, and making a no-brainer decision about killing the United States' most elusive enemy.

By the way-- "street cred"? What the hell? These morons want to give him an unwarranted medal for existing, and when he doesn't show up, they go right to a quasi-racial put-down?

That's a real 180 there, isn't it? We love you we love you we love you... oh, you're not coming? You suck, darkie.

Pick one of the two poles of schizophrenic obsession and stick with it.

Thanks to Andrews Dad.

Hey, Brainiacs

In case you didn't notice, 2009 and 2010 did, in fact, happen.

Turn the page, Pointdexter. Turn the page.

Posted by: Ace at 10:06 AM | Comments (158)
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Proponents of crappy science and economics hit hardest.

In a blow to clean energy advocates throughout the Northeast, Gov. Chris Christie said this morning that the state will pull out of the regionÂ’s cap-and-trade program by the end of the year.

"This program is not effective in reducing greenhouse gases and is unlikely to be in the future," Christie said at a press conference in the Statehouse.

...Under the program, power plant operators buy credits at quarterly auctions for the carbon dioxide they emit. Proceeds are then to be used to pay for renewable energy initiatives. The program had raised more than $860 million through March.

But several states, including New Jersey, have raided their portion of the proceeds to fill budget gaps. Christie took $65.2 million from the stateÂ’s Global Warming Solutions Fund to balance the current budget.

As is usually the case with Christie, all the right people are mad.

“It’s a failure,” Christie said. “RGGI has not changed behavior and it does not reduce emissions.”

Opponents say power companies have passed along the costs to comply with RGGI by raising electric bills. The Sierra Club says the increase is less than half of 1 percent of the average household bill.

“Christie is taking the side of corporate polluters and the coal industry over the environment and health of the people of New Jersey,” said Jeff Tittel, director of New Jersey Sierra Club. “As part of his attempt to become a national politician he would rather pander to the National Republican Party then do what is right for the people of New Jersey.”

Oh, just one half of one percent? Sure it doesn't work but hey, it's cheap!

Posted by: DrewM at 08:23 AM | Comments (419)
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