Richard J. He Ain't - No I Really Mean It

Chicago's joke of a mayor threatened to shove a rifle butt up a non-sycophant reporter.

A few days after that, a California man decided to let the asshat hear what such a threat sounds like.
His Honor promptly called the coppers and had the guy arrested.

Now today he has the lack of clarity to enable this brilliance to fall out of his mouth:

"people maybe disagree with your political viewpoint, but they should never threaten anybody."

Too bad for the CA man that this will undoubtedly be settled in a Chicago Courthouse with a judge well in the pockets of the squid.

Soccer Is For Sissies

A Canadian Youth Soccer club has only verified what we already knew to be true: Soccer is for sissies.

When one team of achievers wins a game by more than five points - they lose the game.

All of the non-Western world watches and waits until this generation is of age.

Canada is doing it first, but, it is doubtful that this grand plan will not take hold elsewhere, ensuring that those that wish to excel will have those desires squashed.

From FoxNews: The club director, in an attempt to cover up the truth,

"told the Post the league is simply trying to make the game fair and that the new rule will eventually be replaced by a pre-season skill assessment to make fair teams

If he knows it is a bad idea, why do it ?
Is it because the adults are too lazy to do it right to begin with, or is this just his way of saying, "move along, nothing to see here", so that next year they can just continue to weaken the culture one game at a time ?

Floyd thought of the one way that this does help those that wish to excel:

So if the one team kicks the ball 6 times into their own goal is that a victory? It’s a conniving sumbitch’s dream!

Excel at underhanded, treacherous deception.

Is Gold Overvalued ?

A while back, someone smarter than I said that the reason for prices being higher for commodities today was inflation. He continued my education by pointing out that a suit of clothes that cost a man 1 ounce in gold in 1929 still costs the same 1 ounce of gold today.

That was told to me when gold was $300 U.S. an ounce, and I could buy a good suit for $300 U.S., so I had little reason to doubt it.

However, gold is now $1200 U.S. an ounce. In the twelve years since that lesson I can still buy a good suit for $300 U.S. (not Armani, but a suit of clothes good enough to wear to court)
Have there been that many improvements in clothes making technology ? Has there been that big an influx of new clothiers ?

If price is all about supply and demand, and it is when there is no government interference to skew anything, then what happened ?

In an effort to see what prices have been effected by inflation I looked at the staples from 1925 (gold valued at $20.64 U.S.):

Bread 9¢/lb
Butter 55¢/lb
Chicken 39¢/lb
Coffee 50¢/lb
Eggs 55¢/doz.
Flour 31¢/5 lb
Milk 28¢/1/2 gal.
Potatoes 36¢/10 lb
Sugar 33¢/lb

Assuming that there were no disproportionate adjustments in supply and demand and no change in government subsidy/taxation, this would translate to a current value of(gold valued at $1210 U.S.):

Bread $5.28/lb
Butter $32.24/lb
Chicken $22.86/lb
Coffee $29.31/lb
Eggs $32.24/doz.
Flour $18.17/5 lb
Milk $16.41/1/2 gal.
Potatoes 21.10/10 lb
Sugar 19.35/lb

Either we have done some incredible things when it comes to producing and distributing staples to the American populace or the government has subsidized foodstuffs to the point that we are all paying for the savings at the grocery store in higher taxes elsewhere or the price of gold is over valued or there is a reckoning coming of epic proportions.

The Law of Unintended Consequences

A Virginia woman suffocates her newborn. She is not charged with any crime.

You see,

“In the state of Virginia as long as the umbilical cord is attached and the placenta is still in the mother, if the baby comes out alive the mother can do whatever she wants to with that baby to kill it,” said Investigator Tracy Emerson. “She could shoot the baby, stab the baby. As long as it’s still attached to her in some form by umbilical cord or something it’s no crime in the state of Virginia.”

NO, there is no Unintended Consequence of a baby dying, that was the full intention of the law. That is WHY the law was written in such a manner.

As Uncle Di so aptly points out:

"Because the mother and baby were still connected by the umbilical cord and placenta, state law does not consider the baby to be a separate life." They're saying, in short, state law does not consider the baby to be a baby.

Put that way, something looks wrong.

The Unintended Consequence was that there would be reporters needing to resemble pretzels to write about it.

Our Lady of Guadelupe pray for us.

New guidelines for Pap Smears

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have come out to say that women do need to get cancer screenings until they are at least 21 years of age.

Why ? Because "the move toward fewer screenings will reduce unnecessary treatment in young women and protect them from future pregnancy complications.", says Dr. Alan G. Waxman

Yep, that's right, they suggest waiting until after the women reach 21 years of age because Doctors were to aggressive in their attempts to eradicate cancer.

Wouldn't it have been more prudent to issue new guidelines to Doctors suggesting less aggressive methods earlier than at age 21 ?

Imagine if, when The American Heart Association saw a need for new guidelines in CPR, they had just issued a press release suggesting that " one wait until help arrives", rather than changing the way CPR is taught.