Thoughts & Musings
Little help with OEMC
Howdy – more than I could explain in a Twitter DM (now referred to as an XDM.) Background I have been thinking about the data that OEMC must have and how it might be reported to the public. So I submitted a few FOIA requests. The first – I admit – was a little...
Right-Thinking Chicagoans Need a New Plan
If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got As the nation experiences the excitement of a new presidential administration, we here in Chicago are confronted daily with yet another failure of our moronic local government....
Can Chicago’s Media Expose Mayor Brandon Johnson?
Are There Any Smart People at the Intersection of Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Media? In days of old it was the media's job. Twenty-five years ago every mayoral candidate had to sit down for a full hour every Sunday morning and be prepared for an in-depth discussion...
Reviewing the Impact of Mail-in Voting on Chicago
What's really going on with mail-in voting in Chicago? According to the Chicago Board of Elections' database, as of early August there were 2,115,542 registered voters in Chicago. Of those, 1,570,753 were in active status. Two addresses share the title of having the...
Invictus
Corrupt Civil Rights Leaders Won’t Support School Choice
So says Juan Williams: “The civil rights challenge of this generation is education,” Williams said. “Dr. King would never allow anybody to buy his silence, to buy him off.” He charged that unions are paying off civil rights leaders like Reverend Al Sharpton so that...
Sun to Flip its Magnetic Field Soon
The sun’s magnetic field is expected to flip in the next three to four months and it could lead to changes in our climate, storms and disruption to satellites. This solar event only happens once every 11 years and signals what physicists call the Solar Maximum - a...
National Debt (Strangely) Unchanged for 70 Days
The U.S. national debt for the past 70 days has been stuck at exactly $16,699,396,000,000, CNSNews.com reports, citing the Daily Treasury Statement for July 26.“That is approximately $25 million below the legal limit of $16,699,421,095,673.60 that Congress has imposed...
More Bankruptcy Coming (to a city near you)
The top 10 biggest U.S. cities on the brink of pension bankruptcy. #1 Philadelphia - Unfunded liability of $9 billion, $16,696 per household, only 1 year before the pension accounts are empty #2 Chicago - Unfunded liability of $44.8 billion, $41.966 per household,...
Feds Ask Web Firms For Account Passwords
The U.S. government has demanded that major Internet companies divulge users' stored passwords, according to two industry sources familiar with these orders, which represent an escalation in surveillance techniques that has not previously been disclosed. If the...
Welfare-Funded Groceries Shipped to Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Haiti
Food stamps are paying for trans-Atlantic takeout — with New Yorkers using taxpayer-funded benefits to ship food to relatives in Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Welfare recipients are buying groceries with their Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards and...
IRS Chief Met with Obama 2 Days Before New Targeting Rules
The Obama appointee implicated in congressional testimony in the IRS targeting scandal met with President Obama in the White House two days before offering his colleagues a new set of advice on how to scrutinize tea party and conservative groups applying for...
Da Mare’s Private Road to McCormick Place
A $43 million busway built to whisk conventioneers between downtown hotels and McCormick Place has turned into “the mayor’s road” and should be opened to taxicabs in exchange for a surcharge, Ald. Robert Fioretti, 2nd said Monday. Fioretti suggested turning the...
IL Public Pension Debt at $133 Billion
Ten U.S. states have public pension liabilities that are at least as big as their annual revenues, according to a Moody's Investors Service report released on Thursday that found the Illinois pension bill was equal to 241 percent of its revenues. ... According to...
Survey of 15,000 Law Enforcement on Gun Control
The survey, which was conducted in early March 2013, received 15,000 responses from law enforcement professionals. It found that the overall attitude of law enforcement is strongly anti-gun legislation and pro-gun rights, with the belief that an armed citizenry is...
Defend Yourself from Crazy People
This is blatantly lifted from Second City Cop. No need to correct perfection. - - - - - - - Here's some brilliant freaking idea coming out of a "police executive" group. Confronting an attacker leads to less casualties: The speed and deadliness of recent high-profile...
FBI Admits Warrantless Cellphone Tapping
FBI investigators for at least five years have routinely used a sophisticated cellphone tracking tool that can pinpoint callers’ locations and listen to their conversations — all without getting a warrant for it, a federal court was told this week. The use of the...
Chicago’s Felons with Guns Go Free
Do you know where Chicago ranks in terms of enforcement of the federal gun laws? Out of 90 jurisdictions in the country, they ranked 90th. Why doesn't NBC News start with, "Shocking news on Chicago. Of all the jurisdictions in the country, Chicago's dead last on...
Lockheed Martin’s Desalination Graphene Filters
Lockheed has developed a special material that doesn't need as much energy to drag water through the filter. Graphene is a substance made of pure carbon. Carbon atoms are arranged in a regular hexagonal or honeycomb pattern in a one-atom thick sheet. This special...
China Economy to Overtake U.S. by 2016
China's economy expanded last year at 7.8pc - its slowest pace in more than a decade - and recent data has fuelled concerns that any rebound in the country's growth is losing steam. However, the OECD was upbeat, predicting in a new survey of China's prospects that the...