Quick Hitts

In the last election the Democrats sent out guidelines on how to void military absentee votes before even opening them. Solders in the field often get their ballots after the election is over, or so close to the election date it was impossible for them to return the ballot in time. The Pentagon is quite aware of this problem, but to all appearances just doesn’t give a damn.

On July 8 Roy Blunt’s resolution, demanding that the Pentagon get their act together, has been pretty much ignored.

Robert Novak’s article provides the details.

Considering the injustices we already heap on them, why should be be concerned with them being able to vote in the country they’re allegedly defending? They’re only putting their lives and limbs on the line. And when they get home from “fighting for freedom,” if they want a smoke at the VFW hall we’re going to kick them out in the cold and the rain. And deny them heath benefits whenever we can. And send them to VA hospitals that are just embarrassing. So what’s the big deal?

The big deal, of course, is they are far more likely to vote Republican. So if the Democrats can’t actually interfere with their votes, they’ll just let the current, miserable situation persist.

You can bet that if they were more likely to vote for Democrats congress would turn themselves inside out to make sure that every vote was cast, received and counted.

Probably several times.

The EPA isn’t satisfied with applying ridiculous, expensive regulation on the sectors they already infest. Now they want to regulate pretty much everything else.

They just released a 564 page document that lays out their plan to get their claws into every sector of everything, all the time. (Note: The link loads a ridiculously large file.)

Coverage of all key vehicle, engine, and equipment sub-sectors in the entire transportation sector so that GHG emission standards are set not only for cars and light trucks, but for heavy-duty vehicles, non-road engines and equipment, including locomotive and marine engines, and aircraft as well.

If it rolls, floats or flies they want to control it. Hell, even if it’s stationary and has any kind of engine, they get to determine how it works. Because they’re such good engineers and all.

Or maybe not. This is one of many passages that highlights their ignorance:

Locomotives, as an example, have significant potential to recover energy otherwise dissipated as heat during braking. An 8,000-ton coal train descending through 5,000 feet of elevation converts 30 MW-hrs of potential energy to frictional and dynamic braking energy. Storing that energy onboard quickly enough to keep up with the energy generation rate presents a challenge, but may provide a major viable GHG emissions reduction strategy even if only partially effective.

Ahem. That’s the way diesel locomotives already work, and have for quite some time. The diesel engines don’t directly power the wheels. Instead, they’re tuned to operate at their peak efficiency and generate electricity for electric motors that run the wheels. When breaking, those motors become generators and the electricity is captured in a battery.

Any first year engineering student could have told them that. Perhaps they should hire one.

Considering how many planes we have in the air at any given moment, the controllers do a damn fine job of keeping them from crashing into each other. They appear to know what they’re doing, and how to do it. But the EPA thinks it knows better:

Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum (RSVM) allows air traffic controllers and pilots to reduce the standard required vertical separation from 2,000 feet to 1,000 feet for aircraft flying at altitudes between 29,000 and 41,000 feet. This increases the number of flight altitudes at which aircraft maximize fuel and time efficiency. RSVM has led to about a 2 percent decrease in fuel burn. Continuous Descent Approach is a procedure that enables continuous descent of the aircraft on a constant slope toward landing, as opposed to a staggered or staged approach, thus allowing for a more efficient speed requiring less fuel and reducing GHG emissions.

So they want to move planes closer together in mid air to save a miniscule amount of fuel. Brilliant.

They also included a blurb about contrails, which should give the tin-foil-hat crowd more to blather about:

Petitioners contend that aircraft emissions contribute to climate change also by modifying cloud cover patterns. Aircraft engines emit water vapor, which petitioners identify as a GHG that can form condensation trails, or “contrails,” when released at high altitude. Contrails are visible line shaped clouds composed of ice crystals that form in cold, humid atmospheres. Persistent contrails often evolve and spread into extensive cirrus cloud cover that is indistinguishable from naturally occurring cirrus clouds. The petitioners state that over the long term this contributes to climate change.

No proof, of course, they simply “contend” this contributes to climate change.

Two stroke engines are an inexpensive and simple way to provide power for lawnmowers, snow blowers, chain saws and the like. Four stoke engines burn cleaner and more efficent, but they are heavier, more complex and more expensive. Guess what the EPA is recommending. Yep.

I have a big lawn, and my lawnmower has a standard two stroke engine. It’s loud and manly sounding and tells everyone within a block and a half “Hey, I’m Mowing My Lawn.” In the entire course of a summer I go through about a gallon of gasoline. When it finally conks out, will I be forced to spend a couple of hundred dollars extra to replace it with a four stroke? Even if it lasts ten years it’s not a cost effective way to reduce the emissions of ten gallons of gas. But that won’t matter to the EPA. It’s not coming out of their pockets.

They also discuss requiring automatic transmissions for off road equipment.

They provide this example of just how far reaching their tendrils will be:

For example, consider a hypothetical 500 MW electric utility boiler firing a bituminous coal that is well-controlled for traditional pollutants. Such a boiler, operating more than 7000 hours per year (out of a possible 8760), can emit approximately 4 million tons of CO2 per year, or more than 580 tons per hour. Assuming a 100 tpy significance level (rather than the current zero level for GHGs), any change resulting in just 10 additional minutes of utilization over the course of a year at such a source would be enough to result in an increase of 100 tons and potentially subject the change to PSD. By contrast, to be considered a modification for NOx, the same change would require approximately 36 additional hours of operation assuming that the hypothetical source had a low-NOx burner, and 90 additional hours of operation assuming that the source also employed a selective catalytic reduction add-on control device.

They want to control a boiler down to the minute. Amazing.

There are 70 categories and subcategories they want to regulate.

EPA has already promulgated NSPS for more than 70 source categories and subcategories and we could add GHG emission standards, as appropriate, to the standards for existing source
categories.

And just in case they feel like it, they can change what is and isn’t considered a global warming gas on a whim:

EPA can add or delete pollutants from the list consistent with certain criteria described
below.

They want to regulate anything that emits a total of 10 tons of global warming gasses per year. A single Taco Bell generates that much methane just from burrito farts. Expect them to add burrito farts to their list.

It’s interesting to note they’ve nearly abandoned the phrase “global warming” and replaced it with “climate change.” They use “global warming” a mere 27 times in 564 pages. “Climate Change” appears 212 times.

This is yet another example of a government agency run amok. If they get their way expect everything to be more expensive, more complicated, and more of a pain in the ass.

For more examples of EPA incompetence, psudo-science, and downright fraud, check these past articles on The Hittman Chronicle and The Facts:

Bottom Fishing

The EPA Report

Keith John Sampson, a communication-studies senior at Purdue who supplements his income by working there as a janitor, was reading a history book (which is also in the school’s library) during a break. “Notre Dame vs. the Klan” details the story of how Notre Dame students physically attacked the KKK and literally ran them out of town on a rainy night in 1927.

Two cowardly race-baters made an anonymous complaint about his despicable behavior of, um, reading a book and the $106,00 a year affirmative action officer declared him guilty of racial harassment and told him he should be fired.

For reading an anti-Klan book.

They eventually dropped that charge, and are now charging him with, well, something. No one will say what his offense is, as this reporter discovered.

He tells the story in his own words here.

But political corrections and rampant far-left stupidity doesn’t exist in higher education, we’re told. Uh uh. That’s a baseless complaint, and anyone who makes must watch Fox News and listen to Rush. Oh, and they’re racist, too. Definitely racist. That’s the ticket.

Ask any number of police officers and government officials – a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand – to list what they fear the most.

I guarantee that not a single one of them would list “A man covered in barbecue sauce.“

Most of us associate religious whack-jobbery with Christian and Muslim fundies. At first glance it may appear that mainstream Christian denominations have grown up a bit, and are not quite as goofy as the fringes.

A mass of wacky catholics have stepped up to correct that misconception.

Webster Cook, a student at University of Central Florida, walked out of mass with the cracker the priest gave him. Some are claiming it was an act of protest. He says he wanted to show it to a friend who was curious about the ritual. Whatever his motives it’s unlikely he expected the resultant shitstorm.

The Diocese wants the cracker back so they can take care of it properly and respectfully. Father Migeul Gonzalez likened it to a kidnapping, and said it was like asking the kidnapper to return a loved one to the family. Susan Fani of the local Catholic diocese said, “If anything were to qualify as a hate crime, to us this seems like this might be it.”

Cook received enough death threats that campus security was called to protect him.

Over a cracker.

P.Z Myers blogged about it with an article titled “It’s a Frackin Cracker!” In the article he asked if someone could send him a consecrated cracker so he could hold it hostage and desecrate it. As a result he and his employer received a torrent of death threats.

Over a cracker.

The Muslims who wanted to behead a woman for letting her students (their kids) name a teddy bear “Mohamed” now have some Christians to compare notes with.

I haven’t received any good threats in a while, so I’ve done something that should incite both Catholics and Muslims in one swoop.

Saturday I went to the store and picked up a box of Teddy Grams. On Sunday I went to a Catholic Mass and slipped two of them into the hands of a drunken priest with thick glasses. He looked a bit confused while he blessed them and returned them to me.

I took them home and named each of them Mohamed. Then I dipped one of them in bacon fat and fed it to my dog. (I don’t have a pig handy.) I’ve got the other one in a safe place, and am waiting for suggestions on the best way to desecrate it.

More Wackyness:

After this post on the Catholic Exchange, which announced that Catholic League president Bill Donohue was going to contact the state legislature to see what could be done, Doris Rodriguez commented: “How utterly sad and tragic that a grown man with so much responsibility and influence among our youth can resort to something so childish and immature!”

Right, because freaking out over a glorified Ritz is the adult, mature thing to do.

From the blog Vive Christus Rex: “…the Eucharist IS our God” Your god is a cracker?

From the same source, a list of all the things he needs to do to be saved, including written aplogies to everyone and six months of sensetivity training. Eveidently he needs to learn how to respect childish stupidity.

From Magic City News (So nice to believe in magic): “Myers needs to be fired and possibly even arrested.”

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Hillary has told Obama she just won’t have time to campaign for him unless he helps pay off her $10 Million campaign debt. She’ll also need a private jet to get around.

Obama wrote her a personal check for the maximum allowed contribution: $2,300. Now she wants him to send an e-mail blast to his supporters begging for money to pay off her debt. Yeah, that’ll work.

It’s a pity she can’t afford to pay her own bills. After all, she and Bill only have $35 Million dollars.

My first reaction when I saw this clip was “Meh.”

Then I saw it was a Joss Whedon Project. Which means I want to catch every moment of it.

Note to the Unsmartenized: Joss is the creator of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Firefly/Serenity.

Note to those who still don’t know what I’m taking about: Go buy the DVD to Firefly. Don’t rent it, because it’s four disks and you’re going to want to watch them over and over again. It is simply amazing.