That’s the current forecast for December 30th in Redondo Beach at Accuweather.
That Pesky Constitution
It just keeps getting in the way of the agenda and “progress.”
The Dishonest “Tax Cut” Debate
My thoughts, over at PJM.
An Exciting Night
I power washed the patio, balcony and stairs on Sunday, and didn’t get the washer put away, leaving it on the patio (which is upstairs, above the garage — our living area is upstairs and the bedrooms down).
Early this morning, about 1 AM, Patricia was awakened by noise on the patio. She thought she heard someone testing doorknobs, and there were other noises. Suddenly, the security light at the bottom of the stairs came on.
I got up to see what was happening, looked out the kitchen door, and saw a fire on the patio. I ran outside in bare feet, turned on the hose, and put it out. What you see below is the charred remains of the power washer.
Patricia called 911 while this was happening, and they sent a fire truck, even though it was under control. The firemen came, looked at it, and we all stood scratching our heads trying to figure out how it had seemingly spontaneously combusted. But the fire was out, and they shrugged and left.
After we got to bed, I think I figured out what happened. He or they were probably kids looking for an easy house to burgle, couldn’t get in, saw the washer, wondered what it was or how it worked, and picked up the nozzle and pulled the trigger. I had left it plugged in, and the power on. Even with power on, it doesn’t do anything unless the pressure in the hose drops when the trigger is pulled. Unfortunately, there was no water hooked up to it, because I’d turned off the hose and disconnected it when I finished spraying on Sunday, so probably the motor started running attempting to pressurize the non-existent water, which also acts as a coolant. I’m guessing that they held it on long enough that the motor overheated and caught the plastic case on fire, at which point he/they panicked and ran down the stairs.
I’m guessing they won’t be back any time soon, though I suppose we should report it to the police, just for statistical purposes. Normally, it’s a pretty safe neighborhood. This is the first burglary attempt of the house while we were home, as far as I know, in the almost twenty years that we’ve lived here.
[Early afternoon update]
Patricia points out that I’m understating the noise level (I was still half asleep). We actually heard things being shoved around up there, and the patio table was definitely in a new position. If it wasn’t burglars, it was very strong, aggressive and curious raccoons. I’m still going with human-caused disaster.
Evil Versus Evil
Thoughts on the continuing academic cover up of the evil of communism. We should have the goal of making Marxists as much of a social pariah as Nazis, both on and off campus. Including the idiot Che admirers.
Am I Crazy?
Repeal DADT for non-combat roles, but keep it in place for combat troops. What’s wrong with that? OK, I know what’s wrong with that — it is politically incorrect. But it conforms to military polling. Unless you think that’s irrelevant.
A Sad Anniversary
I think that today is the thirty-eighth anniversary of the day that Gene Cernan climbed back into the LEM and headed off to lunar orbit with Jack Schmitt to meet up with the command module for the trip back to earth (perhaps depending on what time zone you use). Humans haven’t walked on the moon since, for many reasons, but foremost because too many people think that the only way to return was the way we went the first time, with massive government expenditures and a big rocket. This false perception has held us back for almost four decades now.
Not That Many Shopping Days Until Christmas
I really appreciate the shopping that people have been doing at my Amazon link (over there in the left sidebar) — it really helps reduce the stocking coalage, especially the Kindles (though the cameras and printers and laptops are great, too).
But for that Tea Partier in the family, all of Bill Whittle’s Firewall videos have been compiled into a DVD, so it’s a great stocking stuffer, too. I don’t get a direct cut, but I’d like to see Declaration Entertainment succeed, because I’d like to do well by doing good consulting with things like the solar fiction movie that Bill wants to make.
[Update a while later]
If anyone else is having trouble using the Amazon box, like my commenter, this link
“No Labels”
Is a racist organization. It’s so much fun to turn the Alinskyites’ own weapons back on them.
The Weakness Of The Case For ObamaCare
Some useful thoughts from James Taranto:
In defense of Marshall, he runs a political blog and is not a lawyer. But our sense is that he accurately captures, as well as mirrors, the prevailing mentality of those on the progressive left who are lawyers. They refused to take seriously the argument that ObamaCare is constitutionally infirm, and they are now realizing that was a mistake.
We recall a conversation with a young liberal lawyer we met at an event in late March, a few days after the House passed ObamaCare. When we pointed out that there were likely to be court challenges to the new law, particularly the mandate to purchase insurance, she was dismissive. She asserted that the constitutional questions were well settled. When we offered arguments to the contrary, she did not engage them but became emphatic to the point of belligerence, insisting that it was “crazy” to harbor any doubts about the constitutionality of ObamaCare.
Our position was not that ObamaCare was clearly unconstitutional or that it was likely to be struck down, merely that there were serious constitutional arguments against it that had some possibility of prevailing. This modest claim so shocked our new acquaintance that an initially pleasant encounter turned rancorous and left us feeling she had insulted our intelligence.
Don’t worry, we got over our hurt feelings. But the dismissive attitude we encountered in that conversation and again in Marshall’s post leads us to think that the pro-ObamaCare side may not be prepared to mount a convincing legal defense. If there were five Stephen Breyers on the Supreme Court, they wouldn’t need to. But there are only four. If the Obama administration’s lawyers are to win over Justice Anthony Kennedy, they’ll have to do a lot better than arguing that the other side’s case is stupid, crazy and laughable.
And yet, based on the evidence, they don’t seem to be capable of it. Remember Crazy Nancy’s cackles of “Are you serious?! Are you serious?!” Yes, we were.
This is just a special case of the general proposition that the left, because it has cocooned itself in academia, the Beltway and the mainstream media, and excluded those with other views, isn’t used to actually having to defend its views, and when confronted with actual arguments against them, has to resort to “hater,” “racist,” “wingnut,” etc. It’s arguments, such as they are, are hothouse flowers that can’t survive in the wild. And probably won’t survive the SCOTUS, either.