48 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  2. “Progressive infrastructure“:

    CNN) – A data analytics company specializing in progressive causes is getting a new round of investment funding, including $2.25 million from liberal billionaire George Soros, the company said Thursday.

    Catalist maintains a massive database of over 280 million Americans that can be applied to political data analytics, helping successful 2013 campaigns like Bill de Blasio in New York City and Terry McAuliffe in Virginia to better target their messaging person by person.

    Creepy.
    Soros spokesman Michael Vachon:

    “Catalist is a vital part of the progressive infrastructure, helping hundreds of organizations better reach, educate, and persuade people.”

  3. Mkelley already linked to this in another thread, but it’s great enough to link to — or read — twice: Jonah Goldberg’s Obamacare Schaenfreudarama.
    Excerpt:

    The president has apologized, sort of. He says he’s “sorry” that people have found themselves in a bad situation because of “assurances” he made. But no one has lost their insurance because of the president’s assurances, they’ve lost their insurance because of the president’s law. If a captain has the lifejackets filled with cement, his assurance that “you can keep your lifejacket” is only half the crime. Obama knew the lifejackets wouldn’t work.

    Read the whole thing. Highly recommended.

  4. Re; Roger Miller
    I didn’t think Ovation Guitars went that far back until I looked it up. Must have been one of the very first ever made.

  6. Ovations are sort of considered “uncool” guitars in a lot of circles, but the intonation all the way up the neck is always (in my experience) perfect, and the tone is even, with no serious frequency “humps”.
    RT: Oprah “It’s My Thyroid” Winfrey:

    “There’s a level of disrespect for the office that occurs. And that occurs in some cases and maybe even many cases because he’s African American. There’s no question about that and it’s the kind of thing nobody ever says but everybody’s thinking it.”

    Yeah, thank god someone finally said it. Up until now, no one in America, and certainly no one in the African-American community, has suggested out loud that some people dislike/disrespect Obama because he’s half African-American. Good on her for bringing it up.
    (*face-palm*)

  8. Oprah can’t get past Obama’s skin colour, which is beyond pathetic. It exposes her lack of reason and her superficiality. I’m surprised that she has an audience at all.

  9. Re: Honduras drug gangs.
    What else are they going to do? The world done them wrong. Or was it the Americans?

  10. EBD, Ovation guitars uncool?!!! Ouch. I have one of the early Artist Balladeers which is nearly 40 years old. I also have a Gibson which has a darker tone and a Taylor which is more crystalline (as well as four other guitars) but the Ovation remains a favorite. I’m thinking that although the song “Dang Me” might date from 1964, the clip is likely at least two years later. The earliest Ovations did not look like that. The more modern Ovations (no longer made in the States) are prettier in some ways, with beautiful designs in the sound boards, but I don’t think the tone has changed much.
    Enjoyed the tune and a glimpse of that early Ovation. 🙂

  17. Black Mamba, LOL at the photoshopped pic of Justin Trudeau on Blazing Cat Fur…Very handsome!:)

  20. Oprah “It’s My Thyroid”
    Remember, she’s from Chicago, where ‘rewarding our friends and punishing our enemy’s’ still has a lot of sting to it,,,especially if she still has property or business interests there.
    She’s not just doubling down;
    She’s covering her huge butt. (it’s an easy target in more ways than one)

  21. Rita (11:54 PM), *I* didn’t say they’re uncool, I said they’re considered uncool “in a lot of circles” – I should have said “some circles”– because they’re associated with soft/MOR artists, even though (for example) Ray Davies plays one.
    Personally, I think they’re great guitars, especially for recording. Got one myself.
    RT: 16 American Cities Foreign Governments Warn Their Citizens about.
    Oddly enough, they all have one thing in common…

  22. Vancouver’s ban on the humble doorknob likely to be a trendsetter
    For some, the humble round doorknob is unremarkable and utilitarian, a simple tool, a means to an end. For others, it is a piece of art, an object of beauty, an architecturally significant adornment on the welcoming portal to a building. For others, it is so synonymous with ordinariness that a “knob” is a pejorative word for being dull or stupid.
    In Vancouver, the doorknob is heading into a setting sun. Its future has been date-marked, legislated out of existence in all future construction, a tip to society’s quest for universal design and the easier-to-use lever handle.
    And as it goes in Vancouver, so will it go in B.C., Canada, and perhaps even the world.
    Vancouver is the only city in Canada with its own building code, so the changes made here are often chased into the B.C. Building Code and Canada’s National Building Code, and then put into practice in cities and towns across Canada. Vancouver’s influence is wide. And as go the codes, so too goes the construction industry.
    Remember the regular toilet? Try to find one. Low-flush is all there is to be had. The incandescent light bulb? Sorry, just energy-saving fluorescent or LCD now in most stores.
    http://www.vancouversun.com/news/metro/Vancouver+humble+doorknob+likely+trendsetter/9173543/story.html?google_editors_picks=true

  25. Heinz is closing its Leamington Ontario plant, by JUNE 2014, one of its largest plants in North America, displacing 740 employees and devastating the Essex Ontario County farming community whom supplied over 200.000 tons of contracted field tomatoes at over $90.00 per ton per year.
    Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and its partner on the deal – 3G Capital — bought Heinz for $28 billion US in February.
    Folks that is the Free market at work, so let’s not despair.
    Why not simply use our purchasing power and STOP BUYING products of Companies which abandon Canada.
    Bick’s Pickles Ontario – Sold to SMUCKERS
    Hershey’s Chocolates – Smith Falls Ontario – closed Ontario plant
    Heinz the ketchup Maker- Leamington Ontario – Closed by Warren Buffet & 3G Capital.
    Canada needs an Internet site listing the Canadian Plantclosings for those Canadians wishing to BOYCOTT those brands, still on Canadian shelevs.
    Effectively putting the “Free Market” to work!

  26. A very beautiful analogy for Obamacare:
    […no major federal initiative has failed so thoroughly upon its unveiling since the ballistic-missile program’s first years in the 1950s produced a succession of explosions and failures to launch. “The last time something blew up on the runway like this, […] things were literally blowing up on the runway.”]
    http://www.nationaljournal.com/political-connections/obamacare-s-problems-could-haunt-democrats-for-years-20131115

  27. EBD, I re-read your comment afterwards and realized I had misunderstood. When I first read what I thought was a slight on Ovation guitars, I thought: how could Glenn Campbell be uncool? (It was the fact that Glenn Campbell had one which persuaded me to buy this rather strange-looking instrument–apart from the fact that it sounded really good to me).
    http://www.ovationtribute.com/Artists/Artists/pages/BRIAN%20MAY_jpg.htm Brian May is shown playing one–though I can’t recall an actual performance. Like a promo thing.
    I didn’t understand the link you put in the closing lines of your comment.

  28. Roger Miller was a genius for music. Whether it was a novelty song, ballad, or Broadway show tune he could do it all. He was the only country and western singer/songwriter to win a Tony for his writing on Big River.
    Check out his other songs. Amazing lyrics and musicality.

  29. Ovation guitars.
    In the mid 70s I owned a 6 and a 12 string.
    They may, as EBD claims, be even all the way up the neck but I found that they lacked resonance; didn’t sustain well. Didn’t project well.
    Then I got a new Martin D28. OMG, in comparison.
    But I could never quite get the signature bell tones on tape.
    That was probably my first key lesson in weak link theory.
    I was using a cheap omni-directional Shure stage mic. Duh.
    I’m trying to not make the same mistake with my nascent hobby, photography.
    $$$ groan $$$.
    I still have the Martin but haven’t clapped eyes on it for 20 years. Note to self.

  31. A place like that plant must have used an awful lot of electricity. I would be curious to know how much their power bill had to do with the decision. If it was part of the reason it is the governments fault that they were basically forced to move to stay competitive.

  34. RE: Honduras Drug Gangs
    When I lived there Hondurans had a saying: “Cuando el tiempo de Carias no se mataban en Olancho”.
    Basically it meant that when the right-wing military dictator Tiburcio Carias ruled Honduras, even in the most unruly parts of the country nobody dared commit murder. I was told that under the dictator Carias you could even sleep out of doors on a park bench anywhere at night and never fear being mugged.
    Also when I lived there (partly under a different military dictatorship) there was very little gun control — almost everyone carried a gun including women. Hence the very liberal gun law was an equalizer — not too many criminals ran around shooting people, or they got shot back! And nobody went to jail for shooting in self-defense. I don’t think the asshole coward MS-13 gang would survive in an environment where most of the civilian population were armed.
    But times have obviously changed in Honduras since democratization and misapplied “human rights” — probably tightened gun control laws, civilian police (instead of military), and waning legal support for people who kill in self-defense is nice on paper, but the brutal gangs end up winning.
    Civilians have to have the right to blow out a gang member’s brains if he extorts and threatens death, like they were able to in the past. And the military has to be brought back into policing — in Mexico for example only the military has had any success in dealing with the drug gangs. The Mara Salvatrucha cowards would probably lose their hold on the city of San Pedro Sula overnight and go whimpering back to their weasel holes if they had to face an armed civilian population and military police…

  35. @john
    You are correct, I believe the first Ovations were around 68 or 69? I think the song is from 64, but the show is from about 72 or 73?

  37. An interesting thing about ovation guitars is that their inventor/designer was Charles Kaman, a helicopter designer and founder of Kaman Aerospace. He died a few years ago, but his company goes on.

  39. “Now is the time that Newsbusters juxtaposes, Small Dead Animals-style, “The Curious Case of Kirsten Powers,”.
    …-
    “When Obamacare Mugs a Liberal”
    “California has been waging a war against independent contractors for the past 20 years, and President Obama’s administration has made it clear through their actions how much they hate small business in general. But in forcing so many people out of individual health insurance policies, they apparently never bothered to consider how many of those individual policy owners would be journalists.
    Now is the time that Newsbusters juxtaposes, Small Dead Animals-style, “The Curious Case of Kirsten Powers,” featuring back to back clips assembled by their in-house video producer Bob Parks, featuring a liberal who was just mugged by her president. As the video’s title implies, the result was Powers going from “ObamaCare Cheerleader to Victim”:”
    http://pjmedia.com/eddriscoll/2013/11/15/when-obamacare-mugs-a-liberal/

  40. EBD You closed your comment with this sentence:(RT: 16 American Cities Foreign Governments Warn Their Citizens about.) I realize you were replying to someone else’s comment. (Easy to confuse Ovation players.)

  44. “A Calgary developer who was secretly recorded discussing a plan to defeat members of city council has filed a $6-million defamation suit against Mayor Naheed Nenshi.
    Documents filed in Court of Queen’s Bench allege Mr. Nenshi distorted the comments made by Shane Homes CEO Cal Wenzel for political gain. Mr. Wenzel also pointed to an interview with CBC Radio where Mr. Nenshi insinuated the video was a scene “out of the movie [The] Godfather.” Asked if he was calling Mr. Wenzel The Godfather, Mr. Nenshi replied: “Maybe.”
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/nenshi-hit-with-6-million-defamation-lawsuit-by-calgary-developer/article15476263/

  45. AGW Diary.
    More snow, please; and, help MP Randy to keep those wind turbines turning.
    …-
    “Activists fight pipeline and oil sands expansion
    Prince Albert Daily Herald”
    “Protesters link arms in front of MP Randy Hoback’s office on Saturday to symbolize a “united wall of opposition” across Canada to risks posed by pipelines and oil sands expansion as part of a nationwide day of action.”
    …-
    “Alberta highways in poor winter driving conditions, travel not recommended” (globalnews)
    …-
    “James Madden, forecaster for Exacta Weather, said: “An exceptionally prolonged period of widespread cold is highly likely to develop throughout this winter and last into next spring.
    “It will be accompanied by snow drifts of several feet and long-lasting snow accumulations on a widespread scale.
    “This period of snow and cold is likely to result in an incomparable scenario to anything we have experienced in modern times.
    “A scenario similar to December 2010 is likely to develop, but on a more prolonged scale in terms of overall duration.”
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/10453549/First-snow-of-the-winter-expected-for-many-next-week.html

  46. Ahh! Whenever I type out a person-to-person response to a non-Reader-Tip comment I segue to any subsequent Tip with an “RT:” (“Reader Tip”) just to….de-couple it from the previous statement(s). Everything after the “RT”, in other words, is unrelated to the previous part of my comment.
    I should just type “Reader Tip” instead — otherwise it’s sounds like I’m responding to someone who’s nick is “RT.”

  47. Vancouver is going to ban doorknobs for crying out loud? Exactly what business is it of government whether doors have knobs or handles? This nonsense is just more bureaucratic parasitism. Fire. Them. All.
    It’s one thing to have a building code to make sure buildings don’t collapse, although it’s probably unnecessary since builders can still be held responsible for their actions (following St. Lawrence Cement, Supreme Court of Canada, 2008) and since regulators cannot be held responsible for their incompetence, negligence or malfeasance (Cooper v. Hobart, Supreme Court of Canada, 2001). So why bother with regulations at all?
    Construction codes didn’t seem to work in the case of a section of highway in Laval, QC, although that was likely built by government rather than the private sector.
    It’s quite another thing to have a building code that dictates building styles, colours, not to mention minutiae like doorknobs versus handles. Worthless parasitic bureaucrats all.
    If people accept being told they have to have a handle rather than a doorknob, they’ll accept being told they have to eat All-Bran for breakfast rather than Cocoa Puffs, and they’ll give up all their freedoms without a fight.

  48. From ZeroHedge:
    Today’s administrative state gives too much power to unelected bureaucrats – who are protected against any meaningful control by voters. They can alter, manipulate or change the law almost at will. The result is a breakdown in the rule of law and an arbitrary system in which the government operates, not according to predictable standards and meaningful rules, but according to political whim and in arbitrary, day-to-day, ad hoc manner.

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