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De Omnibus Dubitandum - Lux Veritas

Monday, February 27, 2012

Observations From the Back Row

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Times Square Billboards: ‘Don’t Believe the Liberal Media!’
The Media Research Center (MRC), a watchdog group that tracks liberal bias in the news, had two massive billboards erected in New York City’s Times Square on Tuesday. The billboards say “Don’t Believe the Liberal Media!” and they are expected to be viewed by 1.3 million onlookers over the next four weeks, according to the MRC.

Tesla libel suit against Top Gear fails again
Tesla and the company's lawyers are nothing if not determined. After a judge smacked down the electric vehicle manufacturer's libel suit against the BBC and Top Gear for comments made about the range of the Tesla Roadster, the automaker rallied with a second, amended lawsuit. It didn't take long for the the same judge to nix the new case, too, saying the amendment was "not capable of being defamatory at all, or, if it is, it is not capable of being a sufficiently serious defamatory meaning to constitute a real and substantial tort." That sound? It's the smack of the judicial backhand. The judge went on to say drivers know a manufacturer's claim about range is dependent on driving conditions and habits. The dustup, as you may recall, began when Top Gear put the Tesla Roadster through its paces on the show's test track. While Jeremy Clarkson lauded the car's acceleration, the segment claimed the vehicle ran out of juice after just 55 miles of abuse. That figure is far south of the 200 mile range Tesla claims for the vehicle. CEO Elon Musk called the show "completely phony" not long after the segment aired and brought out the legal guns. The rest, as they say, is history.

My Take - For those who missed it, the Tesla Roadster will turn into a brick if the battery is allowed to drain.   It can't be recharged and it can't even be pushed.  The cost to replace it is around $40,000.  RK

Obama's Federal Green-Car Fleet Promises Fall Flat
Well, color me surprised: yet another of the Obama administration's renewable-energy promises, borne of wishful green thinking and populist political appeal, meeting with resistance from that darn inconvenience that some might call reality. Bloomberg reports:
…….So, they're scaling back on the hybrid and electric cars, because -- gasp -- they're just not that practical. But, the Obama administration does include vehicles that can use both E85 ethanol-based fuels and gasoline in it's definition of alternative-fuel vehicles... except, the special ethanol fuel isn't really practical, either:
…..The way this administration is experimenting on green energy projects with taxpayer dollars, you'd think we had money to burn instead of a more than one hundred percent debt-to-GDP ratio. And you know something -- I bet they would, literally, burn taxpayer dollars, if they thought they'd release less carbon than traditional gasoline.

The government-imposed California dust bowl
Of all the problems within California — pension and budget deficits, high unemployment, an over-eager environmentalist agenda and a failed taxpayer-funded green energy firm — add a government-made dust bowl to the list.  Yes, California farmers who produce much of the produce that our nation depends upon are being strangled by a government imposed water shortage. To understand this situation, you first need to know that two-thirds of the state’s water comes from Northern California while two-thirds of California’s population is in the southern part of the state. But the most disconcerting part of the water problems in California involves the very middle of the state — the Central Valley.

The Onerous Effects of Over-Regulation
We keep hearing that the economy is in a “jobless recovery.” What’s holding American companies back? Why aren’t they hiring more people? High taxes draw a lot of attention, and rightly so. They depress investment and discourage innovation. But escalating regulatory costs also undermine our economy. And small businesses, which fuel so much economic growth and hire so many people, often wind up particularly hard hit by them. You don’t have to be a doctrinaire conservative to realize this. The Economist, the London-based news weekly -- and a supporter of President Obama's candidacy in 2008 -- highlights the problem in its latest cover story, “Over-regulated America.” And they note the irony: "The home of laissez-faire is being suffocated by excessive and badly written regulation."……. But while it’s entertaining to ridicule them -- and it’s certainly well-deserved -- we shouldn’t overlook the bigger rules. Take these three major new regulations from 2011:

Are the Navy SEALs Too...White?
I don't know about you, but I'm getting pretty sick of this war on the white male. According to TIME, the Navy SEALs are too white and don't resemble real seals. Seriously. In nature, most seals are black, with relatively few white ones. The Navy's SEALs have exactly the opposite problem -- they're overwhelmingly white, with hardly any blacks. So they're trying to do something about it. What? I don't even know where to start on this one. Great, racist analogy TIME. The real question is: Why does it matter what color the skin of a Navy SEAL is so long as they complete the training to become a Navy SEAL in the first place? TIME wonders how in the world an elite volunteer force could ever be made of up mostly white males.

My Take - I had a cousin that made a career of the U.S. Navy...as a Navy SEAL. They didn't call them SEALs then. They were Under Water Demolition Teams, or Frogmen.  I will say this. If you volunteer; if you finish the training, especially Hell Week, then you become a Navy SEAL. That is it...period. No one has to volunteer, and no one has to finish the training; you can ring out any time and the pain and suffering that it takes to become a SEAL all stops.

No amount of recruiting will make a man a U.S. Navy SEAL if it isn't in him and no amount of political correctness can change that unless they have separate qualifications for different groups. They wouldn’t be U.S. Navy SEALs then.


Czar of the Day
Afghanistan Czar - Richard Holbrooke, who was a former Governor of New Mexico, an ultra liberal anti-gun pro abortion supporter of legal drug use. Wished to repeal the 2nd Amendment. Died in Dec. 2010


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