Monday, April 26, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Look for the Union label, then Vote the bums out! Updated
The Lone Star College will be holding it's trustee election on May 8th. There are three candidates which are being funded by and supported by the American Federation of Teachers, which currently infests the College district. The same union which also funded ACORN AFTER it was shown to be suborning tax evasion and criminal activity. The same union which has been accused of using college (and taxpayer) owned facilities to support other candidates and bond elections.
The three "Union Approved Candidates" are:
Linda S. Good
David Barnham
and Margaret Cox
I encourage you to go vote on May 8th, and make sure NONE OF THESE CANDIDATES WIN!
UPDATE: I am told that there is a fourth union supported candidate as well, Dr. Elizabeth Jensen
The Sample Ballot can be found here:
Red Ink: Texas Endorses the following
For Position 5
Gail Stanart
For Position 6
Bob Wolfe (incumbent)
For Position 7
Dr. Richard Campbell (incumbent)
The three "Union Approved Candidates" are:
Linda S. Good
David Barnham
and Margaret Cox
I encourage you to go vote on May 8th, and make sure NONE OF THESE CANDIDATES WIN!
UPDATE: I am told that there is a fourth union supported candidate as well, Dr. Elizabeth Jensen
The Sample Ballot can be found here:
Red Ink: Texas Endorses the following
For Position 5
Gail Stanart
For Position 6
Bob Wolfe (incumbent)
For Position 7
Dr. Richard Campbell (incumbent)
Thursday, April 22, 2010
What is wrong with this picture?
Houston is the energy capitol of the US, and probably the world. Tuesday evening at around 10PM, there was a blowout and explosion onboard an offshore rig operated by Transocean and under contract to BP, while cementing operations performed by Halliburton were underway. 11 men are still missing and the rig has reportedly just sunk. The US operations of all three companies are based here in Houston. Is it me or is something missing from this snapshot of the main page of the Chronicle Website taken just moments ago?
Monday, April 12, 2010
Assault with a deadly weapon a "right" according to Planned Parenthood
There have been a number of cases in which someone knowingly infected with HIV was tried and convicted of either attempted murder, murder, or assault with a deadly weapon (depending on the jurisdiction and the circumstances) of another person with which they had unprotected sex without disclosing that they are in infected with HIV. Planned Parenthood doesn't think that is an appropriate prosecution because according to them you have a right to sexual pleasure. So it is entirely up to you whether you want to disclose to your partner that you might be killing them if you have sex with them.
I guess the thrill of killing someone without their knowledge is just part of the sexual pleasure right?
I guess the thrill of killing someone without their knowledge is just part of the sexual pleasure right?
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
DUCK! Updated.
On April 8, 2010, asteroid 2010 GA6 will pass within the Moon’s orbit around the Earth at a miss distance of 0.9 mean lunar distances, 0.0024 Astronomical Units, or about 223,094 miles (359,034 km).
Its diameter is estimated to be between about 56 and 125 feet (17 m – 38 m), and its velocity relative to Earth is approximately 25,338 miles per hour
(10.88 km/s)
With an absolute magnitude of 26, you won’t be able to see it with the naked eye.
BTW, this asteroid was discovered April 5th 2010.
It is expected to POSSIBLY impact the Earth on April 6, 2074.
Update: 4/8/10
JPL has revised their orbital plots and they no longer list an impact in 2074, nor even a close approach on that date. They also have changed the date of this year's close approach to tomorrow, 4/9/10, instead of today. But it will still pass inside of the moon's orbit, only about 223K miles away. Now why was the original estimate so far off? I can only presume it was because they only had 19 observations to work from and the error band was still pretty huge. Either that or it really will hit us in 2074 and they don't want to cause a panic...=b
Monday, April 05, 2010
My theory of intelligences in paralell
I have observed that individual persons may exhibit exceptional intelligence, however groups of individuals, even those composed of individuals with exceptional intelligence, exhibit intelligence less than the lowest intelligence of the individual intelligences. I believe I have discovered the mathematical relationship that describes this behavior. The equation is incredibly simple:
1/IT=(1/I1 + 1/I2 +....1/In)
Discuss...
1/IT=(1/I1 + 1/I2 +....1/In)
Discuss...
Friday, April 02, 2010
How the Feds cut the coming lawsuit regarding the individual mandate off at the knees.
At least 12 state Attorneys General have filed a federal lawsuit that would contest the right of the Federal Government to mandate that the individual states pay a higher amount in medicaid payments. If successful, this would not however gut Obamacare. The individual mandate, backed by taxes for noncompliance to be collected by the IRS would still stand. An additional lawsuit would be required to strike it down. Since those mandates won't kick in until 2012, that lawsuit, while certain to be filed, is essentially on hold until someone is actually harmed by having to pay the tax. The Democrats know this and believe they have cut that lawsuit off at the knees. They inserted specific language into the bill that enjoins the IRS from enforcing the payment of those taxes by any means. I'm certain they'll be happy to take any taxes willingly offered, but they can't come after you if you don't pay that tax. The specific section of the reads:
So since nobody is actually to be punished for failing to pay the tax, it will be difficult to claim that anyone has actually been "harmed" by this requirement since it is completely voluntary. Since nobody can claim to have been harmed by this "nonmandate", then there can be no lawsuit.
It's a feature, not a bug.
Individuals who fail to maintain minimum essential coverage in 2016 are subject to a penalty equal to the greater of: (1) 2.5 percent of household income in excess of the taxpayer’s household income for the taxable year over the threshold amount of income required for income tax return filing for that taxpayer under section 6012(a)(1);67 or (2) $695 per uninsured adult in the household. The fee for an uninsured individual under age 18 is one-half of the adult fee for an adult. The total household penalty may not exceed 300 percent of the per adult penalty ($2,085). The total annual household payment may not exceed the national average annual premium for bronze level health plan offered through the Exchange that year for the household size…
The penalty applies to any period the individual does not maintain minimum essential coverage and is determined monthly. The penalty is assessed through the Code and accounted for as an additional amount of Federal tax owed. However, it is not subject to the enforcement provisions of subtitle F of the Code. The use of liens and seizures otherwise authorized for collection of taxes does not apply to the collection of this penalty. Non-compliance with the personal responsibility requirement to have health coverage is not subject to criminal or civil penalties under the Code and interest does not accrue for failure to pay such assessments in a timely manner.
So since nobody is actually to be punished for failing to pay the tax, it will be difficult to claim that anyone has actually been "harmed" by this requirement since it is completely voluntary. Since nobody can claim to have been harmed by this "nonmandate", then there can be no lawsuit.
It's a feature, not a bug.