Boxing Day

Drop the gloves!

Comments

[Danube of Thought]

I'll re-post the piece by Samuelson. Doom. LUN

[peter]

Happy
St.
Stephen Day!

[sbw]

Why thank you! ... but I'm no saint.

[sbw]

It as been an interesting couple of days. The morning before Christmas, as my wife started to pre-heat the oven for a cake, it would not pre-heat. Thermostat probably. Sigh.

Fortunately, our son had just purchased a house across the street. We have spent the last two days cooking at a distance: Cake, roast beast, turkey, ham, rolls. It was just too far for the remote thermometer, dang it.

But, we managed very well. A good time was had by all. Repairman comes today at noon.

[narciso]

It's like an illustration of chaos theory;

http://www.ballot-access.org/2011/12/25/virginia-2011-independent-candidate-for-legislature-has-big-impact-on-2012-presidential-primary/

[Benjamin Franklin]

Ayn Rands predictions.......bwaaaaaaa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CySwQPvkuc8&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonsblog.com%2F&feature=player_embedded

[rse]

dot-

I was going to post my response to Samuelson here before I realized you were reposting. I got a bit delayed in finishing the book as various real time implementation policies and practices in the US and internationally all came to my attention in the last 2 months. Nothing has changed what I had previously described but there appears to be an almost manic desire to get things in place thoroughly and quickly. Probably so it will be a fait accompli if BO loses and Reps control both houses of Congress. Virtually everything confirms my template but I am getting detailed revelations I never thought I could slamdunk prove.

My point is that we have a political class and their cronies that has actively declared war on the people. They want to change us, control us, command us, and live like parasites off us. Both in the US but really all over the West including Australasia, the average person is no longer intended to be free to control his own destiny or really autonomous in any meaningful, historical sense of the word over the last 2 centuries. Few medieval monarchs had a more condescending attitude towards their subjects than the view of the typical bureaucrat in the documents I have. We are going to have to deal with that explosive reality because the intentions and the implementation mechanisms are explicitly declared and moving into place.

The Left knows what I have so painstickingly documented. It's their plan even if the implications are not appreciated. I have a generally dim view of politicians from either side of the aisle. I do not see Romney though ignoring this were he to win. I have to believe his days at Bain better equipped him to appreciate that intentions are not important on government policies. Actual effects are what matter. And the actual intended and likely effects of what is in store for us if what is intended is put fully in place will be horrific. ABO-OMG must be the watchword. This goes too much to the essence of what makes any economy function to be something politicos can reach a consensus on anymore.

[narciso]

Regrettably,rse, I don't think that Romney understands that structure, framework is the point of the exercise. It doesn't matter that RGGI, Obamacare doesn't work as advertised, the point is that impairs the economic system,

[Jane]

I agree with the American Thinker article except for the last sentence. If the Obamabots lose in 2012 they won't become catatonic, they will become violent.

I just don't see this country uniting for decades - Obama's longest legacy.

[Danube of Thought]

Samuelson is correct that neither Obama nor anyone in the GOP--other than Paul Ryan--has suggested anything that would remotely address the problem, and Ryan's proposals are quite unpopular (natch). The nibbling "cuts" from Boehner et al. are farcical.

Obama is quite likely to ride the short-term political benefit of doing nothing to a second term, and the long-term problem will simply continue to worsen. When the calamity finally comes, historians will view Obama, Bush II and Clinton pretty much in the same light: all could clearly see the looming problem; none did anything at all about it.

[rse]

I think history will show Clinton actively pressed down the accelerator in ways not yet appreciated but was thwarted in his intentions. It went into institutions and agencies and bureaucracies when Bush won and because he believed his intentions were good and his people as well, he failed to appreciate just how much his big govt domestic policies were pushing us to the brink. Obama knows what he meant when he said fundamentally transform and so do I. Turns out that term has been a radical war cry for decades. It's no accident so many of those books suddenly were brought back into print about 2009.

[Jack is Back! (A Ho, Ho, Ho Kind of Guy)]

Its Boxing Day at the JiB home. Open to all our friends and neighbors. No one has shown up yet but we have plenty of Prosecco, Wines, Beers, Lemonatas and waters. Plenty of shrimp, cheese, snacks, pies and Christmas pudding to put away.

Come one, come all.

daddy, Mrs JiB doesn't know the poem but I do from my English Grandfather (the song-writer). He used to tell us that poem during our walks on the beach. I believe it is was in honor of the end of the Franco-Prussian War, which like most in Europe used Belgium as a main battlefield.

[Browning was good, but not that good.]

Poem written in 1838, JiB.
============

[glasater]

Browning's poem "My Last Duchess" is one of the best poems I have ever read.

[Neo]

Well, now we learn that as the global insolvency wave finally moves to China, a bankruptcy is now called something even less scary: "deferred loan payments"

2012: Year of the China Syndrome

[Extraneus]

Boxing Day is traditionally a day following Christmas when wealthy people and homeowners in the United Kingdom would give a box containing a gift to their servants.

[Extraneus]

Doom, you say?

Rasmussen poll shows most voters want gov’t spending reduced

[Danube of Thought]

Somebody call the Identity Teenager: according to E.J. "Baghdad Bob" Dionne, Obama will be the Identity Conservative in the 2012 election. LUN

[Danube of Thought]

The problem, Ext, is that if you ask whether they want spending reduced in a way that diminishes their own entitlements, you get a wholly different response. Everybody wants to get to heaven, but nobody wants to die.

[Jack is Back!]

Kim,

Thanks for that bit of chronology.

After further discussing with Mrs. JiB, she points out the Belgian Revolution of 1830 from the dominance of the protestant Dutch. It was during this time there was the ill-lived 10 Day Campaign where the Dutch army crossed the border and took Hasselt and Antwerp. Nothing on Ghent however but it could commemerate their subsequent retreat. Best guess.

[Barbara-Lurking]

glasater, Thanks for posting the link to that interesting poem; I wasn't familiar with it and enjoyed the dynamic it portrayed.

While I have your attention,
is there anyplace in WW that offers you-pick strawberries in season (as opposed to out-of-season)? 8^)

[As good as his geography, I hoped his history.]

Excellent, JiB, better historical analysis of literature than I was able to find with google, bing, or dismayingly, Ask Jeeves.
=====================

[Extraneus]

Yeah, I know, but just like libs use polls to move public opinion, if we keep telling people that they're for lower spending, maybe it'll have a chance in hell of happening.

Granted, the Samuelson civil strife alternative is more likely.

[Frau Sankt Stefan]

In a letter to the editor of our local McClatchy paper, a writer observes that Americans have a right to assemble but not a right to occupy as is being practiced by the loony left. But then:

"Everything is permitted to those who act in favor of the revolution."
1792-Collot d'Herbois at French Convention

[Jane]

EJDionne is a moron.

[rse]

Plus he uses a condescending tone to say things that are either idiotic or obvious, Jane.

[Ignatz]

--Granted, the Samuelson civil strife alternative is more likely.--

No scenario ends well for the left.
The grand experiment of the 20th century is crashing to earth in this one and no matter how they try mathematics cannot be denied.
They must have not only the wealth but the assets of a majority of the people for their dream to survive and of course a majority of the people will go on strike rather than hand over their property; that's not a recipe for success.

[RichatUF]

The Samuelson article was a downer, in the "the problems are too intractible" sort of way. It was a nice touch that an Apocolypse kit was being advertised on the left side bar as well. Whenever more money ends up in DC, the savants think of ever better ways of spending it, so I'm not sure that a package of tax hikes gets us where we want to be (and the history of that sort of internationally defined "austerity measure" would seem to militate against it as well). Not sure...DOOM! it is.

EJDionne is a moron.

Haven't finished his, but yeah, he's a idiot.

[RichatUF]

I should have stopped reading: Obama will thus be the conservative in 2012, in the truest sense of that word. He is the candidate defending the modestly redistributive and regulatory government the country has relied on since the New Deal...

Good grief.

[Danube of Thought]

"They must have not only the wealth but the assets of a majority of the people for their dream to survive..."

And of course even were they to seize all of that wealth and all of those assests, their dream would not have the slightest chance of surviving--and it's not even close. Each succeeding phalanx of corrupt politicians seeking to hold power in their own interest will happily sacrifice the nation's long-term interest in their quest. Only the ones in power at the moment the dam finally bursts will suffer in any consequential way. No one can foresee when that moment will arrive. When it does, there will likely be some Ceausescu moments in America.

[daddy]

Doom, Doom, and even more Doom!

[Captain Hate]

EJDionne is a moron.

I can't improve upon that statement other than to clarify that he's *not* the AoS type of moron.

[Rick Ballard]

Rich,

It would take no great genius for the GOP candidates to pick up the 'sustainability' club and beat the Democrats senseless with it. I would find it particularly enjoyable to have a key phrase compendium from RSE's research available for utilization in making arguments concerning the absolute necessity in reducing the numbers of those with their trotters in the trough in order to achieve a greater degree of economic equality for the truly destitute. By the same token - there is no reason that Ryan's Roadmap can't be renamed A Roadmap to A Sustainable America with every provision pushed on that basis.

I don't mind a brief wallow in The Slough of Despond but it isn't really that deep and wading out of it doesn't require all that much effort.

[RichatUF]

No one can foresee when that moment will arrive. When it does, there will likely be some Ceausescu moments in America.

Maybe I ought to go drink heavily.

[Appalled]

To those who howl doom, doom, doom, what are you doing to prevent it? Or do you hold yourselves responsible in some wAy in our careening tOwards a dire end?

[daddy]

Thanks Kim, JiB for the Browning sleuthing efforts.

Here's a beautiful new shot of a storm on Saturn.

[Ignatz]

Browning did produce some beautiful poetry;

The Superposed Midas;

The M2 50 caliber Machine Gun;

[Cecil Turner]

To those who howl doom, doom, doom, what are you doing to prevent it?

Personally, I'm refusing to vote for anyone with a "D" by his/her name. It may not be sufficient by itself, but if everybody did it . . .

[boris]

"what are you doing to prevent it?"

Coming from you that question is FUBAR.

[Benjamin Franklin]

"Coming from you that question is FUBAR."

That sucking noise....................?

[Gmax]

Appalled, due to his super discernment, voted to put Obama and his minions into office. Not once have I heard him say that such a decision subjected all of us, to a disaster. To lecture anyone about what they are doing for this go round is hubris of the highest order. Here is what I am doing, I am considering my choice this time around CAREFUL for its impact on us and our offspring now in the future. Might well suggest you try it for a change...

[sbw]

Dionne corrected:

Obama is defending a tradition that sees government as an essential actor in the nation's economy [by playing favorites], a guarantor of fair rules of competition [by breaking them], a countervailing force against excessive private power [by substituting excessive government power], a check on the inequalities that capitalism can produce [by substituting the inequalities government can produce], and an instrument that can open opportunity for those born without great advantages [by guaranteeing mediocrity or worse for everyone].

Dionne is a poor deluded child who has jumped the shark.

[RichatUF]

Rick-

That is a good idea, although I'm not sure any of the GOPers will seize it. I'm going to step off the DOOM! train though...70% of the county thinks were are on the wrong track, Obama doesn't poll better than the mid-40's, Obamacare is still unpopular. A modest reduction in gas prices (probably the reason Obama's numbers have popped up a bit) only goes so far when all of Europe, China, and Japan are going to be to be in various states of economic crisis. Also, the media can spin the shrinking of the labor force as the means of reducing the unemployment rate, but those people are still unemployed, and in places like Ohio, it is the Obama Administration obstruction of nat gas that is hampering job creation.

[narciso]

As Dionne has reminded us, he's from Fall River, MA, and sense is not a particularly plentiful commodity, over there.

[Frau Sankt Stefan]

Coincidence? "FUBAR" and a carpy troll appears.

[rse]

I am horrified by what has been and is being attempted but if I had just had the evidence of what is planned, the reflex to deny it would make the story harder. I think most of this would be going forward under McCain or Hillary but in less of the overt, frenzied push that caught my attention.

As it is, the confidence that goes with having broken it up and using euphemisms and promoting people on what they are willing to do instead of what they know made people sloppy against someone who sees things by how they function. We have a tremendous capacity to be great again. We still have a growing population and we know what works. We are going to understand what was really behind the tragedies of the 20th century and stop pushing the same bad ideas under different names. We have to have the debate that is coming and we will. It would only be doom if this were still unknown and that is no longer the case. I am actually quite hopeful but then I know how unambiguous and damning the story is.

I do believe we will ultimately come out of this stronger because it is so unacceptable.

[Benjamin Franklin]

Frau kacken gehen can narcissy me, but she changes her handle more frequently than her dishwater.

[PD]

I started reading The Monster: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America--and Spawned a Global Crisis by Michael Hudson today. I like to read the achknowledgments first, so I did. He indicates a lot of appreciation for those who took the risk of sponsoring his work, noting the difficulty of getting "in-depth" journalism to print because most publications want everything kept brief.

The book has an index, so I thought to take a look. Since this is about the mortgage crisis, let's check under "Frank, Barney." A ... B, ... Huh! Nothing.

Oh, yes. This will be in-depth, all right.

[Ignatz]

--Frau kacken gehen can narcissy me, but she changes her handle more frequently than her dishwater.--

SOB

[daddy]

Yay,

The AdvoCare V100™ Multivitamin Independence Bowl is just about to kickoff on channel 627.

Heels were 3 and 5 in the stinky ACC Conference, so hopefully they OD'd on AdvoCare V100 Multivitimins (and untraceable steroids).

Yippee! Touchdown Tarheels.

[Danube of Thought]

"To those who howl doom, doom, doom, what are you doing to prevent it? Or do you hold yourselves responsible in some wAy in our careening tOwards a dire end?"

I reject such false choices.

What I am doing is using my vote to prevent it, while recognizing that in a democracy that may not be sufficient.

I do not hold myself responsible; I hold responsible those who voted for Obama, and those who will do so in 2012.

[PD]

and those who will do so in 2012

Thus voting for America's most toxic asset.

Amazing what people will do.

[So there, Frau, you piker.]

At the rate I comment here, and the rate at which I do dishes, I change my dishwater more often than I change my handle.
===========

[Danube of Thought]

"Maybe I ought to go drink heavily."

I think you may be onto something.

[hit and run]

In case there was any question: a well-brined turkey slow grilled for 8 hours in outside temps that went from 15 to 22 can produce some of the most succulent meat you have ever tasted.

I've just come in from digging a 50 yard path through the 2 foot deep snow from the house to the fire pit (and digging out the fire pit itself).

We shall have fire tonight.

Now I am off to split and drag the wood from the barn to the pit. About another hour before dark,so I must get cracking.

Burn baby burn.

[Danube of Thought]

Gallup:

"According to the latest Gallup tracking poll, more Americans approve of the job that President Obama is doing than disapprove for the first time since this summer. The latest Gallup survey shows that 47 percent of Americans now say they approve of the way that President Obama is handling his job. This is a 5 percent improvement since the Dec. 16-18 Gallup survey and marks the first time the president's numbers have been in positive territory since July."

In other words, what this man has done for the past three years is pretty much what 47% of Americans wanted.

[hit and run]

RichatUF:
Maybe I ought to go drink heavily.

DoT:
I think you may be onto something.

I am convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt.

::pssshhhhhhht::

That's the sound of me opening another PBR.

That's right, I'm drinking PBR tonight.

[Rick Ballard]

Rich,

If Romney wasn't surrounded by brain dead oligarchs busy building Maginot Lines he might start talking about his experience at Bain Wrecking & Salvage as a guide for making American government sustainable again. It's neither a difficult nor a complicated pitch but I have very sincere doubts regarding the ability of his advisers in all respects.

I'm positive they all have impeccable credentials though.

[Frau Sankt Stefan]

So right, Iggy. SOB to the SoB.

Kim, pikers peak at my place.

LUN

[daddy]

Boo.

Heels down 14-7.

Doom, doom, doom!

[Frau Klimazwiebel]

Just to clarify, I did not mean that the LUN is a place for pikers.

[Danube of Thought]

How lovely to be lectured by this addleheaded simpleton:

"The thugs behind this summer’s riots were no worse than Britain’s bankers, the Archbishop of Canterbury suggested yesterday. Delivering his Christmas sermon at Canterbury Cathedral, Rowan Williams claimed society had been torn apart by the violence that erupted in August."

[Danube of Thought]

"If Romney wasn't surrounded by brain dead oligarchs busy building Maginot Lines"

He's surrounded by the people he has chosen to have around him.

[Extraneus]

I do not hold myself responsible; I hold responsible those who voted for Obama, and those who will do so in 2012.

At this point, I'd advocate a hearty slap at McCain, too, but just thinking of that a*hole makes me want to drink heavily with Rich, so maybe I shouldn't.

Either way, another Republican loser who can't beat up Urkel from Family Matters will have me in AA by this time next year regardless.

[Climate modelers have failed at being 'predictive natural scientists'.]

Cool, Frau, that second story at your link is what is lighting up the blogosphere today.
==================

[I'm told there are 11 dimensions to them.]

Er, lighting up the climate blogosphere. If we must have internets, then there must be blogospheres.
============

[Danube of Thought]

Ext., remember that in 2008 the alternatives to McCain were Huckabee and, yes, Romney. I believe there are Republicans who are not losers, but they have not elected to run for the presidency.

[daddy]

"The thugs behind this summer’s riots were no worse than Britain’s bankers, the Archbishop of Canterbury suggested yesterday."

Well DoT,

2 weeks ago the moron said Jesus would be hanging out with the rioters, so look on the bright side; since the ArchBishop is now saying that the Bankers aren't any worse than the rioters, he's actually saying that Jesus might also have been hanging out with the Bankers. Maybe by Easter Sermon he'll tell us Jesus would have been hanging with the Spice Girls and pounding RedBull and Vodka with Prince Harry.

Here's to hoping he he also tells us whether Jesus would have been an Arsenal or a Manchester United fan.

[jimmyk]

The problem, Ext, is that if you ask whether they want spending reduced in a way that diminishes their own entitlements, you get a wholly different response.

I suspect the right question is never asked. "Would you be willing to cut your own entitlement if your taxes would also be lowered so that much of what you lose in entitlements you'd gain back in after-tax income?" You can even do this with SS/Medicare for anyone under age 55 or so.

No one really believes that others' entitlements will be cut along with theirs, so they resist giving up theirs. By the same token, they don't believe that their taxes will be lower. But posing the question in a way that links the two is more likely to elicit an informative response.

[daddy]

Doom, Doom and more Doom.

Heels down 24-7 and just got intercepted.

[Danube of Thought]

I think that a problem, jimmyk, is that it would very likely be necessary to get income tax revenue from the 47% who now provide none at all. But even to suggest such a thing today is near-suicidal.

[Extraneus]

At the end, yes, it was Romney, Huckabee and McCain - all candidates the Democrats were pretty happy with. When they thought they had the perfect candidate in McCain and were cruising to victory, he chose Palin and they went ape-shit. But before it came to that, we had Fred, a true conservative, and Giuliani, a world-class ass-kicker who probably would have pummeled Obama in debates and throughout the campaign. Somehow, though, we ended up with McCain. And this year, we'll probably somehow end up with Romney, partly based on an electability argument supported by the MSM (and the establishmentarians), and what evidence is there that he'll make Obama even slightly uncomfortable? Has he done so yet, besides poking fun at the 12th vacay?

Giuliani blew it on his own, but I think Fred was taken out by the MSM. They were able to convince Republicans, their enemies, that he was tired, lazy, and lacked the "fire in the belly," etc. But a look at Fred's schedule in those days had him in 6 or 8 cities in a single day. Maybe he could have gone for it if people would have simply voted their consciences, but Republicans seem to get squeamish about candidates the left doesn't like. And they loved McCain before he got the nomination.

Bottoms up!

[daddy]

ADN today tells us that The US Department of Agriculture gave $500,000 Taxpayer Dollars to help develop a "biomass energy system at the Alaska Brewing Co. in Juneau."

Heels now down 31-7. Ops normal:)

[Cecil Turner]

But posing the question in a way that links the two is more likely to elicit an informative response.

That's part of the problem. The other part is that it's asked as an either/or, when in fact benefits will have to go down. There's no doubt about that, the question is how and whether we pretend it's not a problem until the system collapses under the weight of its own debt.

[RichatUF]

hit and run-

Cheers and enjoy. I got my lasagne baking in the oven.

Rick-

Maybe he'll hit upon the Goldielocks Optium-I'm sure the biggest feelers in the muddle can understand that trillion dollar deificts as far as the eye can see and some 50 million on food stamps is unsustainable and unhealthy.

Disappointed that energy has taken a back seat, space policy is nonexistent (and wow, Russia has had 6 launch failures this year and we're spending about $60 million a seat), and the GOPers can't even articulate an attack on Obamacare.

However, we go into the campaign with the candidates we have and not the candidates we wish we had.

[jimmyk]

I think that a problem, jimmyk, is that it would very likely be necessary to get income tax revenue from the 47% who now provide none at all.

Yes, but many of those do pay FICA/Medicare, which is where some of the biggest problems are. It is true for probably about a quarter of the population that the tradeoff is more "Would you give up your goodies in exchange for actually having to work (or work harder) for a living?"

[rse]

kim-

Looking through the new plans for what math American schoolchildren will be allowed to know unless there parents are very alert and knowledgeable the planned activities will be priming them to model assuming causal relationships between data that may very well only exist in the modellers' stipulations. In addition it will prejudice them into accepting models as indicative of real scenarios. A couple of years of this nonsense and models=reality will be their permanent filtering worldview.

Malleable and manipulable are the 2 adjectives that best describe the effects of what is being federally mandated for the classrooms. Really dynamite once you realize the machinations that have already occurred on Climate change and AGW.

[Jim Miller]

It is not quite true that no one wants to cut his own entitlements.

Senator Lugar did a fine job in cutting back farm programs after the 1994 election -- and Lugar is a farmer.

On a more modest note, I would happily give up next month's increase in social security, if that change were directed entirely to deficit reduction.

Nor am I alone in this willingness. It is not well known, but many people do not sign up for welfare benefits of one kind or another, because they don't think they need them -- and because they prefer to be as self-sufficient as possible.

All that said, it is true that Americans tend to prefer less government in the abstract, while preferring that many present programs be expanded

[Captain Hate]

I can't wait until ArchIdiot Rowan exits on his broom or magic carpet to spend his worthless life stumping for sharia law or some such other daft undertaking. Good riddance.

Btw has there been any discussion in my absence of Duke and Duke's Virginia branch playing "let's change the rules and not tell Noot's people about it" as stated by Moe Lane at RedState?

[Extraneus]

Lugar in the News

Sen. Richard G. Lugar, facing a tough battle for renomination in his own party next year, said Republicans could lose his seat in Indiana if he isn’t the nominee.

“If I was not the nominee, it might be lost,” Mr. Lugar said in an interview that aired Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

The six-term senator is facing a primary challenge next year from Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock, who is trying to capitalize on tea party activists in the state who feel Mr. Lugar is too moderate and too willing to work with Democrats.

In the CNN interview, Mr. Lugar warned that tea party activists overreached in some Senate races in 2010.

“They were people who claimed that they wanted somebody who was more of their tea party aspect, but in doing so, they killed off the Republican chances for a majority,” he said. “This is one of the reasons why we have a minority in the Senate right now.”

Mr. Lugar, 79, disagreed with a recent article in The Washington Times that described him as the Senate’s most vulnerable incumbent.

Well at least he's electable.

[Danube of Thought]

Of course, the whole point in their paying FICA and Medicare is that they're supposed to get it back--a fiction that has lately been exposed quite baldly.

JimM, the only way something you pay in can be "directed entirely to deficit reduction" is that if no spending in any category increased by so much as a penny. Otherwise, what you pay just goes into the same pot, where it is commingled with all other tax money.

As David Ricardo pointed out after the Napoleonic Wars, the only way a deficit is reduced is if revenues exceed expenditures.

[PD]

I notice the AdvoCare bowl commercials by the coal industry pointing out that 50% of our electric generation capacity is powered by coal.

I wonder if any of the coal-hating viewers who own electric cars are making the connection between that and their "green" lifestyle.

[Extraneus]

Pelosi Slips Quietly into Hawaii Resort; $10,000 a night suite...

And a bonus pic with Obama's birth witness.

[Extraneus]

Chile daily must pay readers for exploding churros

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) -- Chile's Supreme Court has ordered a newspaper to pay $125,000 to 13 people who suffered burns while trying out a published recipe for churros, a popular Latin American snack of dough fried in hot oil.

The publisher of La Tercera must pay individual damages to 11 women and two men ranging from as little as $279 to $48,000 for one woman whose burns were particularly severe.

The high court's ruling was announced Monday, seven years after the readers burned themselves while trying out the recipe.

Judges determined that the newspaper failed to fully test it before publication, and that if readers followed the recipe exactly, the churros had a good chance of exploding once the oil reached the suggested temperature. Grupo Copesa, which publishes the paper, said it will abide by the ruling.

Days after the recipe was published in the paper's "Woman" magazine in 2004, hospitals around the country began treating women for burns suffered when the dough boiling in oil suddenly shot out of kitchen pots.

[Extraneus]

Rocky Road: Ice cream spill freezes Ind. traffic

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) -- Police say 40,000 pounds of ice cream have spilled from a semitrailer in Fort Wayne, Ind., closing two lanes of southbound Interstate 69 at the start of the holiday weekend.

The Journal Gazette and WPTA-TV report the spill happened about 4 p.m. Friday and was expected to take as long as six hours to clean up completely. One southbound lane remained open.

Police say the truck was trying to enter the interstate from a ramp when it tipped, spilling cartons of vanilla, caramel praline crunch and other flavors of Edy's ice cream onto the interstate.

Police say the truck driver had minor injuries and was taken to a local hospital to be checked out.

Just doing my part here.

[jimmyk]

Of course, the whole point in their paying FICA and Medicare is that they're supposed to get it back--a fiction that has lately been exposed quite baldly.

Once the Medicare tax was uncapped there was no longer a even a pretense of this. For SS it's not so farfetched--at least there's some relationship between what you put in and what you can expect to get back. It's just that the rate of return gets lower and lower for each age group. It looks to be a pretty raw deal for anyone under 50 now, so it's hard to understand why it remains so sacred.

[PD]

I'm not sure I understand the wisdom of a marketing campaign aimed primarily at guys that describes the product (a pickup truck) using the word "Nutcracker."

[Extraneus]

What we didn't already know about this story...

Mass. woman says TSA confiscated frosted cupcake

PEABODY, Mass. (AP) -- A woman who just flew back home from Las Vegas says an airport security officer confiscated her frosted cupcake because he thought the icing on it could be a security risk.

Rebecca Hains said the Transportation Security Administration agent at McCarran International Airport took her cupcake Wednesday, telling her its frosting was enough like a gel to violate TSA restrictions on allowing liquids and gels onto flights to prevent them from being used as explosives.

"I just thought this was terrible logic," Hains said Friday.

Hains, who lives in Peabody, just north of Boston, said the agent didn't seem concerned that the cupcake could actually be explosive, just that it fit some bureaucratic definition about what was prohibited. She said he even offered to let her eat it away from the airport security area.

Jane or TC or Rocco might want to comment, but I believe that's pronounced "Peabd."

[Extraneus]

In case people don't want to open the link:

Hains ultimately surrendered the cupcake. But she said the encounter highlighted a lack of common sense by the agent and the ludicrousness of TSA policies.

"It's not really about the cupcake; I can get another cupcake," she said. "It's about an encroachment on civil liberties. We're just building up a resistance and tolerance to all these things they're doing in the name of security, when it's really theater. It is not keeping us safe."

Whenever cupcakes are in the news, I'm on it.

Bottoms up!

[PD]

Bottoms up!

You eat your cupcakes upside down?

[Jack is Back!]

Jane,

That cupcake story kept us from fling back with a Yule log.

[Sara]

"Would you give up your goodies in exchange for actually having to work (or work harder) for a living?"

I know many seniors who would gladly give up their so-called poverty-level "goodies" to work. The trouble is finding employers willing to hire anyone over the age of 50 or is not bi-lingual English/Spanish.

[jimmyk]

Sara, I wasn't talking about seniors, I was talking about people on the dole, though that tradeoff is going to be relevant for people in their sixties deciding whether to retire or not, since it seems inevitable that the SS retirement age is going to get pushed back yet again.

[PD]

It's also conventional wisdom that S.S. is the third rail of politics. But when I've asked my Mom about S.S. reform, she tells me that all the retirees where she lives understand it has to happen.

[Extraneus]

Newt's Christmas message

[Jane]

"Peabd."

I have never seen that spelling - yet you nailed it.

[Danube of Thought]

"Browning did produce some beautiful poetry..."

Which included the legendary B.A.R.--it had its flaws, but the .30-'06 round was a proven battlefield stopper. It was a rudimentary weapon, but there sre those who love it.

[narciso]

A little perspective on the supposed big scoop;

http://legalinsurrection.com/2011/12/what-a-day-2/

[narciso]

Of course, the notion that this constitutes a scoop when the Justice Department is arming a paramilitary organization, against the Me xican Govt, when we've deposed the key figures
that kept Salafism in check in North Africa,
not to mention the fiscal 'unpleasantness'
also should be kept in mind,

[Captain Hate]

I hope Lugar loses in the primary by a landslide. What a worthless POS; no different than Crist or Specter.