A play-doh offensive update

It's pretty simple. Get yourself to the post office and pick up a 12"x12"x5" military flat rate box and then to your neighborhood Target, Long's Drugs, Walmart, whatever and fill it with school supplies and clothing. Crap that you probably hated getting for Christmas but would definitely make the day for a child in Afghanistan. OK, you can throw some toys in there also so that Afghani kid doesn't think Americans are a bunch of cheerless Scrooges.*




Said box will be sent to Camp Phoenix in Afghanistan where our troops will distribute these boxes and others like it to schools, villages and clinics in and around the Kabul area.

Our buddy Mongo has set up a FaceBook group with the details including the address/mailing information, here.

Other updates can be found here.

Supporting the troops is more than a bumper sticker.


* A colleague at work who has returned from Afghanistan working as a community affairs officer told us that while there is no shortage of soccer balls, what is really appreciated is pumps to keep them inflated. Just a hint.

Quickies (UPDATED)

(please scroll to bottom for update)


A round up of articles and blog posts that have caught our eye over the past few days:



Leslie over at Temple of Mut warns: America is addicted to wars of distraction.

And with specific concern to the most recent flare-up over race relations, she is exactly right. The ruling class wants us to take our eyes off the ball and we can't afford that to happen as W.C. Varones confirmed with his post.

"Tainting the tea party movement with the charge of racism is proving to be an effective strategy for Democrats. There is no evidence that tea party adherents are any more racist than other Republicans, and indeed many other Americans. But getting them to spend their time purging their ranks and having candidates distance themselves should help Democrats win in November. Having one’s opponent rebut charges of racism is far better than discussing joblessness."

Go to the link to find out who said it for, you know, the full "context".


Awwwww... Journolist lefties hate Keith Olbermann too.

Aside from the egregiousness of conspiring to smear and push an agenda at straight news sources, the take-away from the Journolist email disclosures is what a bunch of insufferable jerks these people are.


And speaking of Journolist lefties, Harrison over at his newly minted Capitol Commentary blows the lid off of the Journolist membership. You guessed it.... no Aleutians.


B-Daddy has an excellent post on the cynicism of using a toddler's death here in San Diego as an excuse to push a sales tax increase. Related at post: coming up with the finances for a new library and a shiny new city hall. City hall employees can work out of Quonset huts at Morley Field for all we care.

But it's all about civic pride, you say. Civic pride is an efficiently operated municipal government that does not try to guilt its constituents into a tax-hike. That and great breweries and a winning football team. We're two-thirds of the way there, now. Let's make this happen!


We're probably out for the rest of the day but may check back in with an update if anything piques our interest.


(UPDATE #1): We've been invaded?

The Cowles Mountain Corollary

Last month we were hiking up Cowles Mountain here in San Diego and observed something that concerned us and has us doubting we'll ever hike up Cowles Mountain again and, in fact, we may even speak out against hiking Cowles Mountain.

It all has to do with the people that hike that trail to the summit which is the highest in the city of San Diego and it has to do with the type of people they are. You see, the people that hike up Cowles Mountain are overwhelmingly white. Sure, there are a few Asians, Hispanics and even some blacks sprinkled into the mix but it's a decidedly monochromatic crew that is nearly void of any Aleutians. We don't think we need to remind anybody of what it says about a group that does not have sufficient representation of Aleutians as determined by the ubiquitous "they".

We are ashamed we did not come to this realization sooner. It never occurred to us the significance of the transgression with whom we might be consorting and it took days of soul-searching to ensure ourselves our hearts did not harbor the same sentiments of these so-called "hikers".

Looking back on it now, we're disgusted. If you're asking.... no, we never did wear a fanny pack but for a couple times a month we took up with these extremists and their SPF 30 and walking sticks. Walking sticks! A sure sign. Some tried to disguise themselves with pony-tails or even tie-die t-shirts but we know better now.

Having said that, we are renouncing Cowles Mountain hiking activities and the regular meetings that occur there on Saturdays, Sundays and the weekday late afternoons and evenings. It's high time to recognize these people for what they are. Hiking while white can no longer be tolerated.

... Read all about it!

Yo! One of the SLOBS (San Diego Local Order of Bloggers... featured in the right-hand margin) got picked up by the Daily Caller for his piece on the rather handsomely compensated public officials of Bell, CA. We'll link to the article at his home base.

Goooooooo.... now.

Congrats, Tim!

Radio KBwD is on the air

You know the band but you may not know the song.


Ladies and Gentlemen, from Dublin, Ireland and off their debut album, Boy, it's U2 performing "Electric Co."

All your health care are belong to us Pt. III

The hit machine that is Dr. Donald Berwick (President Obama's hopeful for heading up Medicare and Medicaid and who will now be subject to Senate confirmation) keeps on rolling (Pts. I and II can be found here).

If the terms "rationing", "regime" and fascist pig somehow offend you with respect to ObamaCare, we suggest you listen to the man himself.

Doc?

"For-profit, entrepreneurial providers of medical imaging, renal dialysis, and outpatient surgery, for example, may find their business opportunities constrained."

You can pretty much kiss medical innovation good bye because innovation costs money (with the hope of a return (see also, evil profits)) and we now worship at the altar of cost containment.

"One over-demanded service is prevention: annual physicals, screening tests, and other measures that supposedly help catch diseases early."

We love showing this quote and those similar made by other ObamaCare acolytes to women in our age group who have benefited from early detection. Let's just say that their reaction is usually less than favorable.

"I would place a commitment to excellence—standardization to the best-known method—above clinician autonomy as a rule for care."

"Health care has taken a century to learn how badly we need the best of Frederick Taylor [the father of scientific management]. If we can't standardize appropriate parts of our processes to absolute reliability, we cannot approach perfection."

"Young doctors and nurses should emerge from training understanding the values of standardization and the risks of too great an emphasis on individual autonomy."

"Political leaders in the Labour Government have become more enamored of the use of market forces and choice as an engine for change, rather than planned, centrally coordinated technical support."

"The U.K has people in charge of its health care—people with the clear duty and much of the authority to take on the challenge of changing the system as a whole. The U.S. does not."

Translation: All your health care no longer belongs to you. That physician-patient relationship? Forget it. Standardization is simply code for rationing. Rationing of medical goods and services that have passed through the bureaucratic wickets of Berwick's "people" who will, with missionary zeal, enforce equality over quality.


Follower update: Nickie Goomba and What Makes Us Right are in the house.

How's that transparency working out for you?

Well, the miserable hack that runs the Justice Department has sufficiently politicized his realm and ObamaCare will usher in the inevitable politicization of the Department of Health and Human Services along with Medicare and Medicaid, so who's next on the docket?

For at least a year, the Homeland Security Department detoured requests for federal records to senior political advisers for highly unusual scrutiny, probing for information about the requesters and delaying disclosures deemed too politically sensitive, according to nearly 1,000 pages of internal e-mails obtained by The Associated Press.

The department abandoned the practice after AP investigated. Inspectors from the department's Office of Inspector General quietly conducted interviews last week to determine whether political advisers acted improperly.

The Freedom of Information Act, the main tool forcing the government to be more open, is designed to be insulated from political considerations. Anyone who seeks information through the law is supposed to get it unless disclosure would hurt national security, violate personal privacy or expose confidential decision-making in certain areas.

But in July 2009, Homeland Security introduced a directive requiring a wide range of information to be vetted by political appointees for "awareness purposes," no matter who requested it.

Career employees were ordered to provide Secretary Janet Napolitano's political staff with information about the people who asked for records — such as where they lived, whether they were private citizens or reporters — and about the organizations where they worked.

If a member of Congress sought such documents, employees were told to specify Democrat or Republican.

This, despite President Barack Obama's statement that federal workers should "act promptly and in a spirit of cooperation" under FOIA, and Attorney General Eric Holder's assertion: "Unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles have no place in the new era of open government."

Excellent. Even when it's not his department, the miserable hack is somehow involved, even if peripherally.

Under the FOIA, people can request copies of government records without specifying why they want them nor are they required to provide any personal information about themselves other than their name and a suitable mailing address so those copies can be sent to them.

Anything related to an Obama regime policy priority, however, was subject to a review as was any information requested by lawmakers (Republicans, perhaps?), journalists, and activist and watchdog groups.

And irony of ironies, the internal DHS email request made by the AP for their investigation was submitted for review by the political advisers.


What grade would you give the regime for openness and transparency?

Gold is kind of like health care

Gracious. The hits just keep on coming. Yet another installment for our running archive Nancy's Nuances: a journey of discovery.... things we're finding out about ObamaCare after the legislation has passed.

Those already outraged by the president's health care legislation now have a new bone of contention -- a scarcely noticed tack-on provision to the law that puts gold coin buyers and sellers under closer government scrutiny.

The issue is rising to the fore just as gold coin dealers are attracting attention over sales tactics.

Section 9006 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will amend the Internal Revenue Code to expand the scope of Form 1099. Currently, 1099 forms are used to track and report the miscellaneous income associated with services rendered by independent contractors or self-employed individuals.

And some perspective from the small business angle:

Pat Heller, who owns Liberty Coin Service in Lansing, Mich., deals with around 1,000 customers every week. Many are individuals looking to protect wealth in an uncertain economy, he said, while others are dealers like him.

With spot market prices for gold at nearly $1,200 an ounce, Heller estimates that he'll be filling out between 10,000 and 20,000 tax forms per year after the new law takes effect.

"I'll have to hire two full-time people just to track all this stuff, which cuts into my profitability," he said.

No one gives a damn about your profitability, Mr. Heller. Profits are evil. In fact, why are we fussing around so much about this. If gold is so popular, let's just declare it a right.

Affordable gold for everybody!

Graphic of the day

Let's take a break from all this seriousness, shall we, with... the history of nuclear bomb testing.





And, no, Kraftwerk did not provide the audio for this graphic.

Exit question: Considering our locale here in San Diego, how is it we're not glowing?


H/T: Information Dissemination

Your math equation of the day

Horribly inept Gulf oil spill response > Refudiate

Not so random thought of the day

Some reaction to the reactions to the Codevilla essay:

We've read where some people are perplexed that Codevilla did not come out and call the "country class" the "tea party". Before getting into what we think is the biggest reason Codevilla did not go there, let's first recognize had Codevilla labeled the country class as the tea party it would've been far too easy to write off his outstanding essay as a partisan political piece when it's no such thing but rather a cultural critique of current American society that is merely playing out through politics.

The biggest reason Codevilla did not do this is because the two simply do not equate to one another. If you consider yourself a tea partier then you most certainly are in the country class but the reverse will not necessarily hold true. We imagine there are some liberals out there that oppose conservative policies that are none the less appalled by the breadth and scope of Bailout Nation, that were horrified by the manner in which ObamaCare was shoved through sideways and are angered by the behavior of the Justice Department with respect to its handling of the New Black Panther voter intimidation case and its hypocritical open-season policy on the state of Arizona.

We say "imagine" because we hope there are some of those liberals out there as we just haven't heard from any of them yet.

Well-meaning liberals that are not politically-connected and thus not the recipients of the spoils system are in the same boat as the rest of us - living in an America where the government-union elites and the legislative upper class at the federal, state and local levels - the "ruling class" as it were, is increasingly unaccountable to the electorate.

As Codevilla pointed out, perhaps no one moment better captured this attitude of arrogance and contempt than when Speaker Pelosi was asked by what authority did the Constitution have to mandate health insurance coverage. "Are you serious? Are you serious?" Serious as a heart attack, Madam Speaker. That she marveled at the chutzpah of someone actually calling into question her authority and legal jurisdiction was palpable.

So, while there is certainly some overlap, Codevilla's cultural essay was both wise and factually correct to not do anything so narrow and tone deaf as to equate the country class with the tea party.