Come for the Politics, Stay for the Pathologies



Thursday, August 18, 2011

Janeane, isn’t that sort of uh…racist?

Ah! Our adorable little Jannie Garofalo! She’s up to her crazy, angry progressive girlfriend hijinks again.

Garofalo also said successful businessman Herman Cain is either being paid to run or is suffering from Stockholm syndrome because he is a "person of color" running as a Republican in the party's presidential primary.

"[He's] in this presidential race because he deflects the racism that is inherent in the Republican party, the conservative movement, the Tea Party certainly. [In] the last 30 years the Republican party has been moving more and more to the right, but also race-baiting more. Gay-baiting more. Religion-baiting more," Garofalo said

"But, Herman Cain, I feel like, is being paid by somebody to be involved and to run for president so that you go like 'I love that, that can't be racist. He's a black guy, a black guy asking for Obama being impeached.' Or 'it's a black guy whose anti-Muslim. It's a black guy who is a Tea Party guy.'"

I dunno, isn’t it a little, uh… racist to assume that a “person of color” is unable to think for himself, Janeane? Especially a very successful one with a BA in mathematics and a MS in computer science? Or do you just think that all “persons of color” need to be told how to “think right” (think “right” - that’s just a figure of speech, don’t get your bundies grundled) because they are completely unable to grasp the complexity of your progressive world?

But then, maybe it takes a comedian and provocateur  educated in History and American Studies (what exactly does “studies” include, I wonder?) to recognize a victim of Stockholm syndrome.

And as I’ve mentioned before, Jannie, nice tats:

Janeane%20GarofaloJaneane Garofalo Tattoos Portrait Tattoo 1j34UY7c5uEl

For the record though – just my uneducated opinion - I don’t think you got your money’s worth from the cosmetic surgeon. Looks a little, eh…stretchy around the mouth. But with your style sense, I don’t think you really have to worry about it.

janeane_GAROFALO style_B-GR_04

And that ends my lesson in “American Studies” for the day.

File under: she-Dewey from hell/mean girl politics

 

Update: Video from Anonymous Commenter. Thanks!

Ask yourself: would your dog pee on your leg? I guess if your dog owns you, it does help explain that whole “angry woman” thing.

 

Friday, August 12, 2011

Hoping For a Hybrid? Seriously?

hope for a volt You doltHope for a Volt? You dolt.

This article reminds me of something, but I just can’t quite put my finger on what it is right now: What to do if your hybrid’s battery dies?  Here are a few excerpts:

You might think that a hybrid vehicle's electric motor would be a godsend if you ran out of gas; it could provide enough power to get you to a gas station. But Chevrolet's Tahoe and Silverado hybrids, for example, completely shut down if they run out of gas. There's no coasting—and no limping to a gas station on the battery, even if the main battery is fully charged…

GM's official word is that driving its big "two-mode" hybrid trucks without gas leaves the large propulsion battery vulnerable to damage, so it protects the expensive (estimated at more than $5000) battery shutting down the vehicle.

And they are not the only ones who do this “to protect the expensive battery.”  The Nissan Altima does the same thing.

The Toyota Prius and the Lexus CT200h and Lexus HS 250h  will allow you to run on battery power, but not for long: careful (i.e., slow) driving might eek out another 2 miles. But then the battery runs out and the real fun begins:

However—and this is important—the Prius won't let you drive the main battery down to absolutely no charge. When the battery becomes discharged to a certain point, the car is programmed to fire up the gasoline engine, which normally would recharge the battery as it charges the car. If you're out of gas, though, the Prius will try (and fail) three times to start the engine, and then it will go totally dead. Once this happens, a fault code must be reset in the car's engine computer before it can be started again.

Resetting the engine computer requires a technician. And apparently towing a dead Prius can be an issue too:

Since there is no conventional neutral in the transmission, pushing a dead Prius will be more difficult because the electric motor/generator system is also being turned. That leads to a bit of a problem in some hybrids: If they are flat-towed by a tow strap, they could generate electricity that could overheat the motor/generator.

But good news: not all hybrids are as bad as some of the other hybrids:

Kia's Optima Hybrid is designed to run without the electric drive system being very noticeable to the driver. So like the GM and Nissan hybrids, it will stop if it runs dry of gasoline. But, on the plus side, you don't need any code to restart the Kia (which also uses a belt-driven combination alternator/starter).

Before concluding:

So running a hybrid out of gas doesn't necessarily mean you can drive it on battery power alone, and killing the battery in a hybrid may or may not mean a lengthy charge time at a dealer. It all depends on which hybrid you own. No matter which one you're driving, though, reviving it when it's dead is seldom as simple as finding some gas, pouring it in the tank and turning the key. Perhaps, then, a bit of range anxiety isn't a bad thing.

I wonder if these pesky little inconveniences could have anything to do with the worst-than-abysmal sales of Government Motors’ Chevy Volts last month? Sure, they’re expensive,  even with the the very generous $7800 tax payer funded rebate. But still, 125 units, for the whole month? Wow, that makes them seem like white elephants. Come to think of it, they are, by definition, white elephants.

edselThe Edsel, up till now the Auto industry’s biggest White Elephant.

So what is it that this whole electric car fiasco reminds me of again? Oh yes! Now I remember: the EPA guidelines for cleaning up a broken CFL (aka curly fry light bulb)!

 

Download and print a three-page
PDF version of this overview and the
detailed recommendations
(91K, about PDF
en espaƱol (30K, about PDF)

 

Naturally-Yours-cfl-bulb-breaksCall the Hazmat team! Clean up in aisle 2.

There are three pages of instructions for the cleanup, but to get the gist, all you really need to see is step #1: “Have people and pets leave the room.”  For a broken light bulb. I think that qualifies the curly fry light bulb as the poster child for “white elephants.”

I know what you’re thinking:  you won’t need the hazmat team’s number on your speed dial because you’re very careful and won’t be breaking any of those curly-mercury bulbs. Think again: Do you have any downlights in your ceiling? How about flood lights?

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission, the taxpayer funded bureaucracy that protects you from products that other federal funded bureaucracies require you to use, issued a recall notice yesterday for Philips curly-mercury floodlight bulbs. It seems that the glue that holds the glass and mercury in the socket doesn’t work. When the glue  (made in China) fails you’d better not be under it, because the curly-mercury bulb (made in China) does a free-fall from the sky!

hazmat13911…911…911…Curly-Mercury Light Bulb Suicide! Cleanup in My Living Room!!!

But nobody ever said that making our big old carbon footprints small enough to walk lightly on the planet would be easy, now did they?

So, a big thank you to everyone involved in the adoption of these profligate new mouse traps (both hybrids and the CFLs) that perform half as well as the originals they are intended to replace and cost up to 1000 times more. Thank you Congress! Thank you GE. Thank you EPA! Thank you idiot, ideological MSM! Thank you,  all you sheeple who are too busy, too lazy or too dumb to think for yourselves! Oh, and a special shout-out to Al Gore, the political, spiritual, and material leader of these flacks.

agore-stoneheng-final-watermarkIn Global Warming we Trust: and the money just follows

H/T Instapundit

 

You might also be interested in:

I Don’t Care about the Debt Ceiling: the Sky is Falling

Blinded by the Light

CAFE Curtains for Detroit

Skepticism: All that’s Right with the World

Monday, August 8, 2011

A PSA brought to you by the ‘Tea Party Downgrade’ echo chamber

Politicos, celebrities, donors and close friends – about 200 in all - gathered to eat, drink, dance and celebrate President Obama’s 50th birthday party last Thursday. The party, which was closed to the press for obvious reasons, came in the midst of the stock market crash and bad economic reports, and ahead of the historic downgrade of the U.S. credit rating.

bdaycake Per MOTUS: add 6, divide by 100 to get our GDP

According to unofficial reports, guests danced barefoot in the grass to the strains of Hip Hop music streaming from inside the White House. Reportedly, the electric slide was a popular dance, but no doubt the Dougie was performed as well. Michelle Obama has immortalized it as part of her “bust a move” campaign against childhood obesity:

 

I feel compelled to warn you, however, that under certain circumstances “doin’ the Dougie” may be hazardous to your health.

For example, here are the top ten reasons not to ‘Dougie’ in traffic:

  1. You could get hit by an ice cream truck
  2. You could get hit by an ice cream truck
  3. You could get hit by an ice cream truck
  4. You could get hit by an ice cream truck
  5. You could get hit by an ice cream truck
  6. You could get hit by an ice cream truck
  7. You could get hit by an ice cream truck
  8. You could get hit by an ice cream truck
  9. You could get hit by an ice cream truck
  10. You could get hit by an ice cream truck

Remember that.  But in case you’re not convinced:

 

h/t curmudgeonly via Larwyn’s Linx

This public service safety announcement has been brought to you by  “the Tea Party Downgrade” echo chamber.