Science Marches On

Under the header of "Don't Confuse Me with the Facts," The Portland School Board has decreed that: 

"PPS [Portland Public Schools] will abandon the use of any adopted text material that is found to express doubt about the severity of the climate crisis or its root in human activities."

So who would have joined the likes of those persecuting Copernicus and Galileo? You decide. 

townhall.com/columnists/patrickmichaels/2016/06/05/portland-versus-oregon-n2173330

Running the TSA Gauntlet

TSA can be a zoo. I have been doing enough traveling to run into that particular nut house now and then, usually at Denver where recently I spent 1.5 hours winding my way through a line that started at the terminal doors, went past the baggage carousels, turned the corner down a corridor, hit the main terminal area, and then went through the normal TSA cordon zig-zags. It was a lovely experience.

Delta has now decided to do something about it, putting up $1 M of its own money to bring a little efficiency to the "system." They have added a newly-designed unloading station with 5 separate bays where 5 people at a time can load their bins. As each finishes they place their bin on the moving belt on the far side of the station, thus eliminating the problem of one guy dropping his stuff all over and blocking the rest of the line. Next, as the bag moves through the scanner, if a suspicious object is spotted, a separate belt kicks it out of the queue for close inspection while the rest of the bags proceed through. Finally, once through, the belt loops around and redeposits empty bins back at the original starting point obviating the need for a lackey to physically transport them by hand and instead focus on more important things, like say security screening. Efficiency gains of 25-35% are estimated from using the new system. 

We'll see how it works. It's entirely possible that the government will figure out some way to screw this up, but one hopes not. The question occurs, why couldn't TSA have figured this out sooner? Or not. OK, probably not. 

crankyflier.com/2016/06/02/instead-of-waiting-for-more-tsa-funding-delta-is-betting-1-million-on-improving-efficiency/

We're Here to Help

American elites love to love everything that Europe does. Well, how about this:

"The European Commission plans to attack citizens’ right to online privacy, insisting that state-issued ID cards should be used to log into platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and even Uber."

Actually, there are already signs of it here with "safe spaces" and "trigger warnings" and royal edicts from the White House and Federal agencies. Why is it that elites have such trouble seeing that the all-encompassing authoritarian state is still a pig no matter how much lipstick you put on it?

www.breitbart.com/london/2016/06/02/former-commie-ec-commissioner-calls-people-log-onto-youtube-national-electronic-id/

This Means War!

Obamacare is a disaster. We will really begin to pay the price next year, when Obama is out of office of course, and here is a minor example but one that touches on something near and dear to my heart:

As of December 2016, Obamacare dictates that all brewers must include a detailed calorie count on every type of beer they produce. Failure to comply with the new regulations means craft brewers will not be able to sell their beer in any restaurant chain with over 20 locations. Because this is a major market for selling beer, it hamstrings smaller craft brewers if they do not comply.

The compliance cost is estimated at $77,000 per brewery, which is a sizable amount of coin for a small craft brewery. So how much did Bud or Miller pay to get this slipped into the 3,000 page Frankenstein's monster of a bill? We'll never know, but since the craft brewing sector employs 440,000 nationally and has revenues of almost $56 billion, the more little guys the big brewers can run off, the better heir bottom lines look. Better healthcare is what Obamacare is all about? Ja sure - Crony Capitalism and government meddling at its finest! And messing up craft beer. Sacrilege!

townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2016/05/31/obamacare-is-coming-after-your-beer-n2171764

Islam: Religion of Peace

"On Monday evening, a barbaric horde of villagers set upon an 18-year-old Pakistani girl, who was beaten mercilessly and then set on fire after she declined a marriage proposal from her male suitor. Maria Abbasi, the deceased young woman, was a schoolteacher, responsible for molding the minds of children in notoriously undereducated northeastern Pakistan.

The attack wasn’t a simple execution. After beating her half to death, the villagers pinned the 18-year-old down and drizzled petrol all over her flailing body. Then they set her on fire until she burnt to a crisp."

www.dailywire.com/news/6221/pakistani-muslim-woman-turns-down-marriage-michael-qazvini

Iron Dome Puts to Sea

The Israeli Iron Dome anti-missile system is not perfect but darn close. As I noted in a blog piece from July 16, 2014, it saved Israel from massive casualties when Hamas launched a rocket barrage to terrorize the Jewish state. Now the Israelis are putting it on their naval vessels to defend against rocket attacks by small, fast patrol boats like the ones that say, Iran or its proxies might use. Like in the Persian Gulf, where U.S. Navy ships sail. Hello Pentagon - anybody listening?

www.defensenews.com/story/defense/international/mideast-africa/2016/05/18/israel-claims-intercept-success-sea-based-iron-dome/84540328/

Freedom Wins a Round

The U.S. Supreme Court just handed a 8-0 slap down to the Obama Administration. The Obamaites via the Corps of Engineers told a small Minnesota company that it had jurisdiction over its property because it was a "wetland" despite being 120 miles from the nearest river. This declaration made the property functionally unusable because of all the Corps' rules and regulations. Oh, and BTW said the Corps, you can't appeal this decision to the courts. Really?

Not surprisingly the Supremes disagreed with this imperial decree and unanimously said "Not so fast there fellers." As far as the Court was concerned, the agency had made a final order that was appealable, as a long line of Federal cases had held "... where such proceedings carry the risk of ‘serious criminal and civil penalties." If the Corps' action had been allowed to stand, then the Feds could have asserted jurisdiction to regulate anywhere water existed in the U.S., that is - everywhere. Grandiose does not begin to describe the designs of the Left. 

www.wnd.com/2016/05/supremes-slap-down-obama-in-wetlands-fight/?cat_orig=money