Excellent points raised by Greg Hinz over at Crain’s.
Ask folks at City Hall whether new or old wards apply for purposes of voting, zoning and distribution of services and the like and, after a couple of shrugs, you’ll get a multipart answer fit for an SAT test. …
I have no idea how this can be permitted to stand.
[B]uildings burned across central Athens and violence spread around the country.
Cinemas, cafes, shops and banks were set ablaze in central Athens as black-masked protesters fought riot police outside parliament.
State television reported the violence spread to the tourist islands of Corfu and Crete, the northern city of Thessaloniki and towns in central Greece. Shops were looted in the capital where police said 34 buildings were ablaze.
via Reuters.
Does anyone think this cannot, will not, happen here?
BBC News has a few shots of Athens. On one of the photos there’s an interesting quote by on of the protesters.
“Even if they eat the flesh of the people, bankruptcy will not stop. It will just get worse. That is why we support a write off of the whole debt and to be free of the European Union.”
This is an interesting sentiment. Perhaps the protester is upset that he (or she) is young and did little by way of voting to create the debt problem in the first place. And yet they refuse to blame their parents and the voters of the previous generation who first caused and then continued down a path to bankruptcy.
It is either that or the protester simply doesn’t believe in taking any personal responsibility for decisions made; that debt is just something that one can just walk away from at any time. That running up a huge debt that you cannot afford to pay and walking away is just something that is completely acceptable.
Neither rational is good.
Our day is coming. How will our youth react to the misdeeds of their parents? Will they assign blame where it belongs or will they instead believe that just simply walking away is the best option?
The authors of the U.N.’s climate policy guide were red-faced two years ago when it was revealed that they had inaccurately forecast that the Himalayan glaciers would melt completely in 25 years, vanishing by the year 2035.
Rajendra Pachauri, head of the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and director general of the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in New Dehli, India, ultimately issued a statement offering regret for what turned out to be a poorly vetted statement.
A new report published Thursday, Feb. 9, in the science journal Nature offers the first comprehensive study of the world’s glaciers and ice caps, and one of its conclusions has shocked scientists. Using GRACE, a pair of orbiting satellites racing around the planet at an altitude of 300 miles, it comes to the eye-popping conclusion that the Himalayas have barely melted at all in the past 10 years. …
Some previous estimates of ice loss in the high Asia mountains had predicted up to 50 billion tons of melting ice annually, said Wahr, who is also a fellow at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. Instead, results from GRACE pin the estimated ice loss from those peaks — including ranges like the Himalayas and the nearby Pamir and Tien Shan — at only about 4 billion tons of ice annually.
Bristol University glaciologist Jonathan Bamber, who was not part of the research team, told the Guardian that such a level of melting was practically insignificant.
“The very unexpected result was the negligible mass loss from high mountain Asia, which is not significantly different from zero,” he told the Guardian.
via Fox News.
What the?! This is the problem with some (not all) scientists. There is the whole scientific method which is appropriate; but too many of these global warming folks seem to forget that you must rely on the results of testing (a/k/a observations) to enforce your conclusions. When the results (i.e. observations) are not in-line with your hypothesis (i.e. conjecture) then your hypothesis WAS WRONG.
i.e. Why is this guy — who was so clearly wrong years ago — still working at the U.N.? And how much are we paying him to be wrong all the time?
The problem with society and the media that they continue to give attention to these “scientists” who are wrong, and then wrong, and then wrong, again and again. We should not pay any attention to their their kooky ideas.
How this news story should read is:
Disgraced scientist, Rajendra Pachauri, once the former head of the U.N.’s IPCC and who was also the director of TERI has officially been proved wrong by actual scientific observations. Mr. Pachauri, once a prominent raising star in the scientific community is now selling cars in southern Kentucky. When contacted he stated, “I now realize I was wrong for many years issuing false reports based on bogus data but there can be no doubt that now is the time to get into a new Ford Feista which is both cute and gets great gas mileage.”
Stupidity in human form.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel today said he wants state lawmakers to approve a statewide handgun registry. …
Rep. Brandon Phelps, who has championed efforts to pass a concealed weapons bill in Illinois, said the mayor’s office called him Thursday morning to let him know the registration proposal would be introduced.
“Number 1, my first response was I don’t know why you’re trying to do this statewide because we don’t want your policies on us downstate,” said Phelps, a Southern Illinois Democrat from Harrisburg. “Number. 2, it’s never going to work. They’re trying to go after criminals. They’re never going to register their guns. They won’t pay the fee. “
Phelps called Emanuel’s initiative a “slap in the face of every law-abiding gun owner.”
via Chicago Tribune.com.
It’s been shown time and time again that gun registries simply do not work. The greatest national experience was Canada’s long gun registry.
Department of Justice reported to Parliament that the system would cost $119 million to implement, and that the income generated fromlicensingfees would be $117 million. This gives a net cost of $2 million. At the time of the 2002 audit, the revised estimates from the Department of Justice were that the cost of the program would be more than $1 billion by 2004/05 and that the income from licence fees in the same period would be $140 million.[6]
In February 2004, documents obtained by Zone Libre of Télévision de Radio-Canada suggest that the gun registry has cost around $2 billion so far.
So we know that a registry is crazy expensive and becomes another government boondoggle.
Well, maybe it’s still worthwhile because it really reduces crime.
Former Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Julian Fantino (who was opposed to the gun registry) stated in a press release in 2003:
We have an ongoing gun crisis including firearms-related homicides lately in Toronto, and a law registering firearms has neither deterred these crimes nor helped us solve any of them. None of the guns we know to have been used were registered, although we believe that more than half of them were smuggled into Canada from the United States. The firearms registry is long on philosophy and short on practical results considering the money could be more effectively used for security against terrorism as well as a host of other public safety initiatives.”
Well ok, maybe he was really really biased. Perhaps other police really thought the registry was a great idea?
In April 2011, a survey was conducted by the Edmonton Police Association. Its members voted 81 percent in favour of scrapping the long-gun registry.
Well, at least law abiding citizens who do register their guns will know that their data is safe right?
John Hicks, an Orillia-area computer consultant, and webmaster for the Canada Firearms Centre, has said that anyone with a home computer could have easily accessed names, addresses and detailed shopping lists (including make, model and serial number) of registered guns belonging to licenced firearms owners. Hicks told the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH) that “During my tenure as the CFC webmaster I duly informed management that the website that interfaced to the firearms registry was flawed. It took some $15 million to develop and I broke inside into it within 30 minutes.”
The Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters questioned the security of the gun registry after a home invasion that seemed to target a licenced gun collector. The OFAH argues that, in the wrong hands, a database detailing the whereabouts of every legally-owned firearm in Canada is a potential shopping list for criminals.
Given that any handgun registry would likely include all of the guns owned by police officers (& county sheriffs, state troopers, etc.) means that a whole big batch of government bureaucrats and anyone who wants to hack into the database would have the name, address, and list of owned handguns of everyone law enforcement officer in the state.
This could be the dumbest idea from the Rahmfather yet.
“Gunbattles have occurred in broad daylight on streets and in other public venues, such as restaurants and clubs. During some of these incidents, U.S. citizens have been trapped and temporarily prevented from leaving the area,” the travel advisory said. …
More than 47,500 people have been killed in Mexico since late 2006 when President Felipe Calderon took office and sent the Mexican armed forces to crush powerful cartels battling for lucrative smuggling routes to the United States.The State Department advisory noted that 130 Americans were reported murdered in Mexico last year, up from 111 in 2010 and 35 in 2007. Among recent atrocities have been a fire set by masked gunmen in a casino in Monterrey, Mexico’s industrial capital in Nuevo Leon, that killed 52 people, mostly women.
via Reuters.
Yikes!
Quinn pulls out an old line:
Gov. Pat Quinn gave Mayor Rahm Emanuel something he wanted Monday: the power to use cameras across nearly half of Chicago to nab speeding drivers and fine them as much as $100. Questions linger about the effectiveness and scope of the speed camera plan, but the governor sought to frame the issue as being about protecting children, not raising revenue. “I think that youve got to understand that if you save even one life, you are saving the whole world,” Quinn said during an appearance at a high school on the Far South Side.
via Chicago Tribune.
Reminds me of the Simpson’s:
Seems like the Gazette’s missing the real story here:
A group of unemployed tradespeople, many with union cards, have been picketing Near West Side construction sites for more than a month, demanding that community workers get a share of both local building jobs as well as permanent retail positions.
via Gazette Chicago.
From what I can tell from the photos, not a single non-union person was there standing around doing nothing (a/k/a protesting.) All the non-union people were working hard building something.
“Hundreds” of qualified tradespeople in and around the area who “worked on jobs in Roosevelt Square, Fosco Park, and the Engine 18 firehouse” are available to work, Loving said.
Just exactly what are these hundreds of “tradespeople” qualified to do? I’m pretty familiar with the area — I’ve lived in and around the area since 1988. I don’t see a whole lot of pick-up trucks with tools in the back driving around in the area. I do see a lot of $500 cars with $5,000 kicker boxes in the back.
And on and on it goes. It’s basically a PSA for Brother Dickens. I wonder how I can get the Gazette to give me 300 words to do with what I want.
The minister and community organizer said he has seen “a lot of dashed hopes” since the area began its current renaissance. “Our people are not working,” Loving added. “Jones College Prep is going up even as we speak. That’s an $85 million project, but we’re not working on that. How’s that happening? All I’m saying is that we need jobs.”
What kinda skills do these people have?
Bro. Byron Dickens was protesting to make sure local residents get a fair share of jobs.
So is this really the issue? Because there was a lot of news about how Costco got that site. And the truth is…
Alderman Robert Fioretti (2nd Ward) earlier predicted Costco can be expected to bring 600 construction jobs, and full- and part-time retail jobs once the 50,000-square foot store opens.
Fioretti said the first day of Costco’s hiring fair this coming spring will be exclusively for 2nd Ward residents.
Oh, that. That’s right, I remember now. Costco said it would give preferential hiring to residents in the 2nd Ward.
… Dickens and Loving said they are out tomake sure the neighbors get their share of those jobs.
What are they talking about?! If the local folks are really qualified they have first chance at those jobs. The even have an entire exclusive day to apply before anyone outside the area can apply.
Jeesh!! I mean, what’s it going to take to make you satisfied?
Loving said the patience of some of the unemployed is wearing thin.
Uh oh. What does that mean? Ya know what I think? I think that the good Brother Dickens is tied into the whole “protest movement” that we’ve been hearing so much about lately. His job is to keep the people angry and on edge so they can be “mobilized” for a major event when the time comes.
We’ll see.
My throat hurts from laughing.
Illinois has so many requests for Firearm Owner’s Identification cards that state police can’t process them in a timely manner. In addition, people calling the state police to ask why they haven’t received their FOID cards are put on hold for as long as 35 minutes, if they’re lucky enough to get through to an answering machine that puts them on hold. I tried the number 12 times, received a busy signal 11 of those times and got the answering machine once. After 20 minutes on hold, I hung up.
Under law, the state has 30 days to process FOID card requests. I’ve been waiting 50 days for a response to my application. …
According to Monique Bond, spokeswoman for the state police department, Illinois had a record number of FOID card applications in the last three years. Last year, 321,437 people applied for FOID cards, 287,552 in 2010 and 326,008 in 2009. … ”There has been a 16 percent increase in FOID cards applicants in Chicago, which Bond attributed to a Supreme Court decision overturning the city’s gun ban.
Richard Pearson, executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association, laughed when I asked if he had heard complaints about the state’s tardiness in responding to FOID card applicants. “The governor isn’t staffing the FOID processing center of the state police department,” Pearson said. “He’s not replacing people as they retire. And that’s because he’s not enthusiastic about the idea of gun ownership.
via Southtown Star.
Would anyone believe that politics is not playing a role?