Allison's Albums

What Good Is High School?

2010-12-15T10:17:00.000-06:00

"'High school never prepares you for college,' she said, disgusted.

It does prepare you to get into college, though."

Institutionalized schooling=always "preparing" you for the next level of school. Rarely preparing you for career and life.

Men! They always say they’ll call you after they’ve f**ked you, but never do!

2010-12-14T09:24:00.001-06:00

Daily Pundit shares Nikki Haley's gutsy confrontation with Obama about the money her state's spent on Yucca Mountain. Excellent! (Go read it there.)

Althouse: The rent-a-Christmas-tree business.

2010-12-10T22:43:00.001-06:00

"But 'eco-minded consumers' are people with money to spend on their own good feelings about themselves. It doesn't matter what's really 'green,' only what they think is green."

Ann Althouse, talking about renting live Christmas trees, but really, encapsulating the drive behind ALL "green" businesses, products, and impulses.

Obama honors Nobel winner with statement about himself | Washington Examiner

2010-12-10T22:38:00.001-06:00

Hard to be humble when you're so perfect, eh, Barry?

Eide Neurolearning Blog: Smart Games! Better Reasoning and Speed - PC, Board, and Nintendo DS

2010-12-06T08:04:00.000-06:00

Rush Hour and Set are super fun games and now we know, via the Eide Neurolearning Blog that they make you smarter, too!

Robert Frommer: Arlington's crackdown on local business' free speech violates Constitution

2010-12-02T10:28:00.001-06:00

Robert Frommer has an article in the Washington Examiner about his work for the Institute for Justice on the behalf of a small business owner.

Arlington's crackdown on local business' free speech violates Constitution explains how the owner had a mural painted but the local fascists "would not let Wag More Dogs open until it hid its offending artwork away from the community. More than one year had passed since Kim first signed the lease for Wag More Dogs’ building."

"Desperate to get her business up and running, Kim agreed to cover the painting with a series of ugly blue tarps. Those tarps have now been up for over three months; if Kim takes them down, Wag More Dogs will immediately be forced to close and will face hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in fines."

Boy, those blue tarps are sure an improvement! Thanks, Local Fascists, for protecting us from a mural of doggies!

Wondering About Wikileaks?

2010-12-01T09:04:00.001-06:00

A lot has been written about the Wikileaks release of diplomatic material lately--so much, in fact, that it is simply too much to take in. So, as a public service, here's the bottom line information to know about the Wikileaks scandal.

First: What do the documents say? Roger L. Simon reports, "Because we know sifting through over a quarter of a million documents can be time-consuming for the average citizen and therefore somewhat daunting, Pajamas Media has hired a dozen dolphins from Sea World to go over the voluminous material. Working non-stop for several days, they have boiled it down to its essence."
Search Amazon.com for Roger L. Simon

Second: Does it really matter? Mrs Du Toit comments on Jay Tea's article None Dare Call It Treason "Assange is the grown-up equivalent of the boy who is tossed a little girl's diary (that he acquires in a cruel game of hot potato), and then reads it out loud to embarrass and shame her. The other boys just wanted to taunt her, but wouldn't have gone so far as it read it, as the other boy has done. The boy scans the pages for commentary that are the most inflammatory, attempting to portray that the whole diary is full of such things. No reasonably intelligent child is shocked that the little girl has private thoughts, or has bad things to say about some of her classmates. The only real revelation is who she has a crush on this week, not that she has one. Anyone who is surprised by the type of information contained in the diary is a fool, so there is a silver lining to what the boy has done: He allows us to identify the fools among us... for failing to grasp that being tossed the diary doesn't give someone arm's length protections to disclose the information, and that people say dumb and/or silly things (or inflammatory things that can hurt others) in private."

And third: What kind of person does this? Michael Totten has braved Julian Assange's blog archive to find out. Warning! Pretentious twaddle ahead! "The truth is not found on the page, but is a wayward sprite that bursts forth from the readers mind for reasons of its own...."
Search Amazon.com for Michael Totten

Fans Flock to Mourn California, 1849-2009

2010-11-30T11:49:00.000-06:00

"Let's not remember California as a bloated, rotting freakshow corpse hanging above a filthy public pension toilet," it said. "Let's remember the good times...."
Iowahawk Link
By way of Is California's Decline Just More Right-Wing Propaganda? on Reason.com where Tim Cavanaugh says "Fiscal conservatives aren't against California. Reality is. The state has lost a third of its manufacturing base in a decade, its budget is structurally unbalanced, and its political leaders believe you can get out of bankruptcy by fining jaywalkers. You don't need to be a Republican or a Democrat to understand that these problems are real."

Father Loses Custody Because He's Agnostic

2010-11-28T23:53:00.003-06:00

I left the following comment on an article at Amy Alkon's Advice Goddess Blog: "I was disgusted watching this report! Not only has this man's civil rights been trampled, but what about the rights of the children? We in this country too frequently use the 'it's for the children' excuse--but we don't really mean it. This christianist woman and judge think what they are doing is for the children, no doubt, but if they truly had the kids' best interests at heart they wouldn't be interfering with the kids' relationships with the father!

How about he sues for full custody on the grounds that his ex-wife is a controlling, vindictive, hateful, superstitious woman bent on 'alienating affections?'"

Search Amazon.com for Amy Alkon

Long Term Costs of TSA's Security Theater?

2010-11-28T23:20:00.004-06:00

Roger Cohen in the NY Times, by way of Excellent Column . . . - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine: "America is a nation of openness, boldness and risk-taking. Close this nation, cow it, constrict it and you unravel its magic."

Gives You Such A Warm, Secure Feeling, Doesn't It?

2010-11-24T22:21:00.001-06:00

Mythbuster's Adam Savage describes his experience going through the TSA's back scatter machine with, mistakenly, 2 twelve inch long steel razors that were neither questioned nor confiscated.
Watch the video at the link.
Via Instapundit.

Neither Safe, Nor Free

2010-11-24T10:11:00.000-06:00

The TSA is molesting nuns and children and irradiating those they don't molest. And neither the irradiation nor the molestation is keeping us safe. The terrorists know exactly what the TSA is doing and will compensate. Meanwhile we've given up a little more of our freedom so that we can feel a little more safe. But the truth is that giving up freedom for safety ensures you lose both!