Here it is… the stupidest thing you’ll read today

 blather, Crazy, dumbassery, Gah., I'm from the government, news, politics, religion, ಠ_ಠ  13 Responses »
Feb 252015
 

Astrology could help take pressure off NHS doctors, claims Conservative MP

level of stupid

He criticised the BBC and TV scientist Professor Brian Cox for taking a “dismissive” approach to astrology, and accused opponents of being “racially prejudiced”. …

“I do believe that astrology and complementary medicine would help take the huge pressure off doctors.

brosci

“Ninety per cent of pregnant French women use homeopathy. Astrology is a useful diagnostic tool enabling us to see strengths and weaknesses via the birth chart.

“And, yes, I have helped fellow MPs. I do foresee that one day astrology will have a role to play in healthcare.”

twaddle

I looked this dumbass up on Wikipedia. Apparently he’s for real. And apparently his interest in BS “alternative medicine” is real and not new:

Tredinnick supports alternative medicine including homeopathy and chiropractic.[9] In October 2009, he told Parliament that blood does not clot under a full moon; a spokesperson for the Royal College of Surgeons of England warned his colleagues would “laugh their heads off” at the suggestion.[10] In the same debate, Tredinnick characterised scientists as “racially prejudiced“.[9]

Health journalist Victoria Lambert has interpreted Health Minister Jeremy Hunt’s call for traditional Chinese medicine to be available on the NHS as an endorsement of Tredinnick’s call for integrated alternative healthcare. Tredinnick claims that “herbal medicine is not quackery”, is cost-effective and, unlike Western medicine, has been used for thousands of years in China.[11]

In July 2013, Tredinnick sponsored an Early Day Motion congratulating a farmer for his decision to use homeopathy.

Ye gods. And I thought American politicians trended towards derp.

 Posted by at 6:16 pm

Yay, I’m in the “Cool Kids” club again

 dumbassery, Forward!, I'm from the government, Meh., news, politics, ಠ_ಠ  11 Responses »
Feb 212015
 

Latter part of 2013, Obama’s promise “if you like your insurance, you can keep it” came to pass for me when my insurance company let me know that they were dropping my insurance because, screw you buddy, get Obamacare. But at least I did get new government subsidized insurance. Yay. So, all is well, yes?

Early yesterday, this was in the news:

Feds sent incorrect tax information to 800,000 people on ObamaCare

 

And then later yesterday, I checked my email:

From: Health Insurance Marketplace

Sent: Feb 20, 2015 12:41 PM

To: scottlowther@…

Subject: Important information about filing your 2014 Federal income taxes

Important information about filing your 2014 Federal income taxes

Because you enrolled in a health plan through the Health
Insurance Marketplace for 2014, you recently received an important tax
statement in the mail, called a form 1095-A. This statement has information you
need to fill out your federal income tax return. Unfortunately, your
statement contained incorrect information. We need to correct the monthly
premium amount of the second lowest cost Silver plan, which is shown in Part
III, Column B of the form.When the corrected statement is ready, we’ll send a message
to your Marketplace account on HealthCare.gov. Until then, please wait to file
your 2014 Federal income taxes. If you already filed your 2014 Federal income taxes and used
the incorrect Form 1095-A, additional information will be provided shortly.

Sigh.

 

 

 Posted by at 3:42 am

For all your Project Blue Book needs

 blather, history, Hmm..., I'm from the government, news, religion, science, science fiction, secrets, spacecraft  11 Responses »
Jan 192015
 

Project Blue Book was the US Air Force project to study UFO reports and try to make sense of them and determine if there was any sort of threat to the security of the US. In 1969 the project wrapped up with a “nope” and a shrug, but nevertheless kept a whole bunch of stuff classified. A lot of researchers have been driven to distraction by the classified status of the documentation and have spent years making FOIA requests. The National Archives has made a whole lot of these documents available on microfilm, but one feller went ahead and scanned them and has made them available as 130,000 pages of searchable PDFs.

Air Force UFO files hit the web

The files are supposedly available on the website “The Black Vault,” but right now all I’m getting is a “this page cannot be loaded” message. I’d bet good money that the site simply got swamped with an exceedingly large number of people who want to download the docs. Or, you know, reptillian overlords. Whichever.

 Posted by at 1:19 pm

This seems like an odd solution to a problem

 Crazy, Hmm..., I'm from the government, Meh., news, politics, ಠ_ಠ  5 Responses »
Dec 272014
 

French city installs anti-homeless cages around benches

OK, the problem sounds drearily common enough: the French city of Angouleme apparently has trouble with bums clustering in the city center, drunked up, causing a ruckus and camping out on the public benches. This being France, you’d think the local government would take the obvious solution of simply deporting the troublemakers to Algeria or Guiana  Quebec or Belgium or some other French-speaking third-world hellhole. But no, they took the benches and did THIS.

Buh? Wouldn’t it be easier to simply remove the things?

Replace them with these Japanese public park benches… they do their job, but don’t encourage bums camping out on them.

 

 

 Posted by at 6:48 pm

A red-letter day in the history of giving in to bullying

 AARRRGH, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., history, I'm from the government, news, ಠ_ಠ  19 Responses »
Dec 172014
 

A couple things happened today:

1) The Cuban regime was staggering, but thanks to the Obama administration deciding to give a boost to the Cuban economy, the Castro Commies will last a good while longer.

2) Sony has decided to yank the release of “The Interview” thanks to threats from North Korean hackers.

3) New Regency has decided to pull the plug on a new Steve Carell movie “Pyongyang” just out of fear.

Huzzah, ladies and gentlemen. You can now expect to see more espionage and terrorism since it has been demonstrated to be a success way to get what you want.

 Posted by at 8:30 pm

Huh. I wonder why the cops are so twitchy these days?

 Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Hmm..., I'm from the government, news, politics, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  7 Responses »
Dec 122014
 

Public defenders appear in ‘kill cops’ rap video

Two Bronx public defenders – government employees, paid by the taxpayers – voluntarily appeared in a rap video that suggests that “For Mike Brown and Sean Bell, a cop got to get killed.”

[youtube rl_yK4TZ7Yk]

Gee, I wonder why the police in some areas seem to see enemies everywhere?

 

If for some reason you have a burning desire to witness the artistic masterpiece that is this particular “music” video, it’s here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV_FizTIxM4

 Posted by at 11:06 pm

Here’s an eyebrow raiser

 Hmm..., I'm from the government, news  14 Responses »
Dec 112014
 

Treasury Department Seeking Survival Kits For Bank Employees

The survival kits must contain:

  • a 33-piece personal first aid kit
  • a reusable solar blanket
  • a 2,400-calorie food bar
  • 50 water purification tablets
  • a dust mask
  • a one-size fits all poncho with hood
  • a rechargeable lantern with built-in radio
  • an “Air-Aid emergency mask” for protection against airborne viruses.

Survival kits will be delivered to every major bank in the United States including Bank of America, American Express Bank, BMO Financial Corp., Capitol One Financial Corporation, Citigroup, Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Company, and Wells Fargo.

Buh?

 Posted by at 12:06 pm

Hashtag barf

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Forward!, Gah., Hmm..., humor, I'm from the government, Meh., news, Obamazombies, politics, ಠ_ಠ  14 Responses »
Nov 232014
 

Finally, at long freakin’ last, a Twitter hashtag has come along that has actually punched through my disdain and engaged my interest:

#ThanksMichelleObama

This is where public school kids go to post photos of the news and improved lunches that they’re getting, based on new “health guidelines” driven by noted  dietician Michelle Obama. You know, for kids.

I think public school food has always been bad, certainly so since the Department of Education took over and began the task of ruining education in this country. But a lot of these… yeesh. I can state confidently that my cats would promptly try to bury a lot of this “food.”

Perhaps most interesting of all is how the Obamas seem to be losing the younguns.

 Posted by at 12:14 am

Behold The Power Of No

 awesomeness, blather, Hmm..., humor, I'm from the government, politics, youtube  5 Responses »
Nov 222014
 

On the one hand, law enforcement folks doing their jobs deserve respectful treatment. On the other hand, law enforcement folks doing something that’s *not* their job, such as demanding to impede travel or inspect private property at “immigration” checkpoints *far* from the border, deserve a firm but non-threatening “NO.”

Americans have the unquestioned right to travel from state to state without  the fear of unreasonable search and seizure. This includes answering pretty much *any* questions that do not arise from Probable Cause. This video collects a number of such incidents. Interestingly, a lot of the border agents here demand that the drivers “pull over there” for further intrusion… and when the drivers just keep telling them “Nope, I’m’a gonna go on my way unless you whip out a warrant,” they eventually just relent.

This is obviously not a universal. If the police pull you over for speeding or running a red light or having a tail light out… that’s permitted. The drunk driving checkpoints I guess have passed Constitutional muster (though I wonder what happens to *sober* drivers who pull over but otherwise refuse to play along). But it *seems* from these and a few other videos that the border agents know they don’t have the legal authority they are pretending that they do, and just give up if the driver is sufficiently stubborn.

So, once again, cats show us the way.

Obviously, the great majority of folks who find themselves in this situation will just answer the questions and be on their way in moments. But it’s interesting to ponder what would happen if this sort of passive resistance became the norm. One result *might* be that the agents would become so tired and dispirited that they’d simply stop trying. And that would be awesome.

[youtube u4Ku17CqdZg]

And as it turns out, the Bible happens to be effective in this situation. Depending on your location, keeping  a King James, a Book of Mormon, a couple issues of Watchtower or a copy of Dianetics in your car might do wonders towards speeding your way through unwanted checkpoints. Finally, a practical use for religion!

[youtube WFxijuRjX1U]

 Posted by at 6:35 pm

Seems somehow relevant today.

 blather, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Hmm..., I'm from the government, news, Obamazombies, politics, ಠ_ಠ  6 Responses »
Nov 202014
 

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey

The “labor force participation rate,” basically the percentage of the civilian population over the age of 16 who actually have jobs, is 62.8 percent for October, 2014. This means the *actual* rate of unemployment in the US is nearly forty percent; the only reason why it is generally listed as being much lower is because most of the unemployed have stopped looking for a job, and are thus no longer considered unemployed (it doesn’t make a lick of rational sense, but this is politics we’re talking about here).

And the rate has been dropping steadily:

latest_numbers_LNS11300000_2004_2014_all_period_M10_data

So clearly, what the US needs is Even More low-skilled foreign workers flooding in.

Yay, imperial fiat!

 

 Posted by at 10:54 pm
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