Here's the report from the IG of the SEC on why they blew it on Bernie Madoff, with trenchant (well, obvious) comments by one Joel Zand. This will, of course, be a trial exhibit in every suit by any fool who gave money to Madoff, and tries to get it back from the taxpayers.

In the Mail

Instinct? Are women born this way? Are men born this way?

In the Mail

More about union thugs.

My blog has moved to here.

This is Ford begging Congress to give it our money.

Wow. The McGuire Sisters. Brings back some very early memories. I was 4 or 5 when this was a hit. I would walk around the house, singing this song at the top of my little lungs, driving my family to something far beyond distraction. It's one of those things were you say "holy moly, I haven't retrieved this from my memory bank in 50 years!'
Didn't their career end when one of them was caught dating a mobster?

This is not a 'blawg,' but I am a lawyer, and, since I keep my eye on legal doings, this blog may seem so at times. Like this week, when lots of interesting legal stuff has come to my attention.
Like this decision from the Second Circuit from last year, which I just stumbled upon. I find it interesting for a reason I will, for now at least, keep to myself.

The indictment of Barry Bonds.

This is my real blog.

I just found out through bitter experience what are the effects of to doing nothing but watching television all day long for 5 days in a row. I couldn't move my neck (the site of my surgery) so it was too difficult to read. I had only two options: stare at a television screen turned on, or stare at it turned off. I should have saved the five bucks a day. Fifty seven channels and nothin' on - that's whether or not the set is turned on.
Of all the annoying things I saw, one stands out. All day long, a bunch of hucksters whose ware is something cutely named "The Scooter" hawks it to elderly shut-ins. The Scooter is a cheap-looking motorized wheelchair. The ad never mentions the price of the damn thing. Why? Because they can't be bothered with customers who are going to pay for it themselves. To get one, you "pre-qualify" with them, and then submit your application to whatever government agency pays for stuff like this. Seemingly, they are so good a predicting who will be eligible that if you're turned down, they'll just give you the damn thing.
Since I'm a taxpayer, i.e., a purchaser of countless numbers of these widgets, I wonder how much per unit it costs me for an item that the government purchases from a company with enough money to buy a googleplex of television ads a day to get people to demand that the government get them one, and just give away the ones that the government won't buy. At least fools who fall for frauds like Avacor and herbs that are supposed to imitate the effects of Viagra are parting with their own money. Uh, well, I hope they are.

Hillary's latest lie: yesterday, she told a gathering of blacks in a Selma church that her "life had been changed" by a speech by Martin Luther King, Jr, in 1963.
So, we can add that one to the rest of them in the pile. She attempted to join the Marines after moving to Arkansas with Bill, but was rejected because she was a woman. She was named after Sir Edmund Hillary, who climbed Mount Everest 6 or 7 years after she was born (when she was caught on that one, she gracefully attempted to dodge the charge by claiming it was her mother who was the liar. Growing up in the Chicago suburbs, she was a Yankees fan. Sure! To many more to mention, but I can't leave out my favorite: "The American people are tired of liars and people who pretend to be something they're not "(this last one being a lie only through the implication that she believes it herself).
The ironic thing about the Selma lie is that it wouldn't have been discoverable as a lie if she had resisted the temptation to make it more believable by adding an unnecessary detail: the year. You see, she was a "Goldwater girl" when he ran for President. That was 1964! That would be the year he opposed the passage of the Civil Right Act. That means that if she saw an MLK speech in 1963, it took an unusually long time for it to "change her life, " didn't it?

A view from the other side of the pond: why Obama is a loser.

New Blogger has been such a mess. To make a long story short, I've had to abandon this blog and move to http://www.jimeo.blogspot.com/.

In the mail

Letters! We get letters!

There will be no special bilingual programs in the schools, no special ballots for elections, all government business will be conducted in our language.> >>>> >>> Foreigners will NOT have the right to vote no matter how long they are here. Foreigners will NEVER be able to hold political office.> >>>> >>> Foreigners will not be a burden to the taxpayers. No welfare, no food stamps, no health care, or other government assistance programs.> >>>> >>> Foreigners can invest in this country, but it must be an amount equal to 40,000 times the daily minimum wage.> >>>> >>> If foreigners do come and want to buy land that will be okay, BUT options will be restricted. You are not allowed waterfront property.> >>> That is reserved for citizens naturally born into this country.> >>>> >>> Foreigners may not protest; no demonstrations, no waving a foreign flag, no political organizing, no bad-mouthing our president or his policies, if you do you will be sent home.> >>>> >>> If you do come to this country
ILLEGALLY, you will be hunted down and sent straight to jail. Harsh, they say?.................> >>>> >>> The above laws happen to be the immigration laws of " MEXICO " !

I don't have time to look up whether all of this is true. But a lot of Amercans think its all true, and wonder why not one of their elected representatives seems to care.

How Liberals Argue

An Emailer to Steve Sailer describes their favorite debating techniques. Most of them are there: the Exception that Disproves the Tendency, the Argument from Anecdote, etc. He left one out, though: when all else fails scream, and if that doesn't work, scream.

Blogger, continued.

OK. I can reach this one again! I couldn't reach it yesterday.
P.S. this is my other blog. I still can't tell which one Blogger thinks is really mine.

Blogger

I don't know what the hell is going on with this New Blogger nightmare. I have set up two blogs, because I never know which one I'll be able to reach from the dashboard. I don't even know which of blogs this post will appear on when I hit "publish" after typing this sentence.

Helping Lara Logan

Read this. Then this.
P.S. And why was I not surprised to discover that she came to journalism from swimsuit modeling?

In the Mail

A lot of people - perhaps most people I know, anyway - agree with the
sentiment of this emailer:

5 million of our older Americans have not signed up yet for their Medicare, Part D, drug plan------they are old and confused. We are NOT going to grant them an extension. However, 12 million illegal aliens are in our country and we are going to allow them to stay, protest, procreate, receive support monies, attend
schools, avoid paying income taxes, have our teachers take 300 hours of
ESL(English as a Second Language) training at our expense, etc.

WE MUST REALLY DISLIKE OUR OLD PEOPLE......OR WE
MUST REALLY LOVE TACOS!!!

If it ticks you off, pass it on!!

Don't forget to pay your taxes......12 million illegal aliens are
depending on you!

There are an awful lot of votes out there for any politician who wants to run out and lead this parade. But except for the occassional, obscure congressman in a border district, no one ever even tries.

Barbaro...

...was finally euthanized yesterday, allowing sports reporters and headline writers across the nation to show us their sentimental slop chops once again.
I get some head-shaking grins from the ones who seem to believe that Barbaro bravely struggled for life and jokers like this who think that Barbaro's owners are candidates for beatification because they spared no expense to help Barbaro wage his courageous fight. Snap out of it. Barbaro had no say in the matter. His owners kept him alive not for love, but for money: had they managed to get him there, Barbaro would have been worth $30 Million at stud. If Barbaro were a gelding, they would have shot him right on the Pimlico racetrack.