Quickies

A round-up of news items, articles, columns and blog posts that caught our eye this past (two) week(s):




Can we please get the recall started.

Fire officials suspect an electric hybrid car may have sparked an overnight blaze in a garage in Barkhamsted on Center Hill Road.

Homeowner Storm Connors and his wife, Dee, said they awoke to the sound of a smoke alarm around 4 a.m. The couple said they have lived in the home for nearly 40 years. They built it and raised their children there, so when the flames took over their attached garage Thursday morning, burning it down to its beams, the couple started to panic. They said they were worried they were going to lose their home and the memories inside.

Officials said they can't rule out that the couple's brand new Chevy Volt hybrid had something to do with the blaze.

Too expensive, no range, no giddy-up and now they try to burn your house down. What's not to love about these things?





The Dark Horse Battalion, the 3/5 Marines out of Camp Pendleton, returned home this past week.

We lost one of our own from this outfit this past November.






Surrendering again, this time on assimilation: France's illiberal burqa ban went into effect this week.

Our previous thoughts on the matter can be found here and which included the following:

A Burqa ban is not needed in this country because we have not capitulated to the extreme elements of the Muslim community or other immigrant groups and because our belief in American exceptionalism has led to a robust American culture that is centered around the rule of law, property rights and freedom of speech and religion.

We don't care what you wear, only what you believe and it pretty much starts and ends with those 3 or 4 constitutional freedom principles spoke of in the paragraph above.




ObamaCare waiver-mania update: No update as the Department of Health and Human Services still hasn't bothered to update their list which now numbers over 1,000 business and union entities representing over 2.2 million Americans that have been granted a one year coverage exemption.




Miserable hack: AG Eric Holder dragged kicking and whining into keeping Gitmo open and resuming military tribunals on the same day President Obama announced his candidacy for President:

The AG, however, felt compelled to wag his middle finger at Congress, the CIA and the American people: "Members of Congress simply do not have access to the evidence" to determine where the trials should be held.

Asked by reporters whether Congress reflected the will and wisdom of its 300 million constituents, Holder smoldered: "Do I know better than them? Yes."

He next accused critics of using the trials to "scor[e] political points."

Critics which would include many, many members of his own party.

We will declare a BwD nation holiday the moment this hack steps down from his current position.




Awww... Newsweek pans Tina Fey's autobiography.

For a person who owes 80% of her name-recognition value to the fact that she bares a physical resemblance to Sarah Palin, why should anyone be shocked at the lack of depth contained therein.




Baltimore sportswriter shocked, shocked that the folks that run the Preakness and its drunken infield bacchanalia are embracing the fact that it is a drunken infield bacchanalia.

Maybe the Maryland Jockey Club knows more than I do about their fans, but targeted drunken, shirtless idiots to Preakness just seems wrong. If anything they should be trying to cover up that these are the biggest fans of the Preakness and start trying to use the history of this legendary race to draw more horse racing fans.

Here in San Diego, we see you the Preakness and we raise you the aptly-named, mid-July Over the Line Tournament out on Fiesta Island. For those opposed to such proceedings we have a bit of advice: Don't go.




KT on leadership:

I could have sworn the president already submitted a budget. No, really! He gave a speech about it and everything. Now he's going to give another speech about another budget, presumably for the same country and the same year. Where the last one spent money like crazy, this one is supposed to be all grown up and stuff.

I wonder if anyone else will notice the change

.




Change

Not to worry as Secular Apostate advises: "We’re still printing money! Pretty soon, there should be enough for everybody to have a whole bunch."



OK, gang. That's it for today. We're launching a ship this evening. We hope to have pix and vids of the proceedings posted some time tomorrow.