Lawyers full employment act

 

Future litigant

It is now a crime in England to fail to show your children enough love.

The campaign to amend The Children and Young Persons Act, with sections dating back to 1868, was started in April 2012 by the charity Action for Children. A spokesman for the charity said the change was a “monumental step” towards protecting the young.

“I’ve met children who have been scapegoated in their families, constantly humiliated and made to feel unloved,” Sir Tony Hawkhead, the charity’s chief executive said. “The impact is devastating and can lead to lifelong mental health problems and, in some cases, suicide.

We are one of the last countries in the West to recognize all forms of child abuse as a crime. Years of campaigning have been rewarded. The Government has listened.”

I can’t believe the American Trial Lawyers Association hasn’t already jumped on this gravy train but I have no doubt they will, soon. If it’s a crime, surely it’s also a civil tort, and suits against parents twenty-year after will be the new asbestos. Sueeeee!

Fun quote of the day

 

I will not break the law unless I have to. I will not break the law unless I have to. I will not break the law …

Barack Husein O’Bama on his role as Chief Executive 

“As the president, my first obligation is to observe the law here in the United States and to make sure that it’s applied consistently.”

White House spokesman Jay Carney hastened to assure reporters that the president’s acknowledgement of his duty to obey the law of the land did not extend to immigration, the environment, Justice Department investigations or healthcare. “There, he’ll follow his conscience”, Carney (might have) said.

The center will not hold

 

Sanctuary

The era of global civil unrest is upon us.

Submitted by Martin Armstrong via ArmstrongEconomics,

All governments had better open their eyes for we are on the brink of a major convergence between both the Cycle of Civil Unrest, Civil War & Revolution and International War. Both of these models converge and as I pointed out at the Cycles of War Conference, this is the first time we have seen this convergence since the 1700s.

This is no plain modern event with civil unrest erupting because of an interconnected world. These are grassroots uprisings cross-fertilized perhaps from a world contagion yet they often have similarities – corrupt governments. Turkey, Ukraine, Thailand, Venezuela and Bosnia-Herzegovina are all middle-income democracies with elected leaders besieged by people angry at misgovernment, corruption and economic sclerosis. These days it is no longer just dictators who have something to fear from the crowd. This is the promise of Marxism that centralized planning and false promises are coming home and governments are too corrupt and incompetent to deliver what they have claimed for decades. Communism is dead. The socialistic agendas that have lined the pockets of government and filled the coffers of banks is over. The national debts are on average composed of 70% interest payments not programs to help the poor as marketed.

The debts that keep growing with no intent upon paying anyone back are draining the national productivity and turning the people into economic slaves. The standard of living has declined and it now takes two incomes to survive where one use to be just fine. Women won the right to work and lost the right to stay home.

The promises that you save for the future have collapsed into dust as interest rates have been driven lower making savings utterly worthless. There is no such thing as saving and living off your fixed income. The elderly are being driven back into the work force and the whole ideas that a generation believed in are vanishing before their eyes.

So it is no longer communists and dictators that are the targets. All governments are now the targets and when the economy turns down after 2015.75, the threat of civilization will be pulled apart by the self-interest of politicians clinging to power to the detriment of the people.

Years and years ago – 1968, I think, I saw Farenheit 451; its final scene, of Oskar Werner, Julie Christie and other refugees hiding in a wooded sanctuary, preserving society by memorizing and reciting books, has stayed with me ever since. These days, that image comes back to me more frequently, and stronger. I don’t know what thing wicked comes this way, but I believe that something is. Funny thing, much of the country seems to be reaching this same, ominous conclusion, at least if you consider the treatment accorded “preppers” (not preppies; they’re doomed – those who prepare for survival): they were the subject of ridicule as little as a decade ago – now, they don’t seem quite so crazy.

And these days, I take a certain comfort in having learned through the years to camp, hunt, dress game and use a saw and axe. What’s changed is that I’m slowly accumulating ammunition in various calibers and even buckets of Mountain House freeze dried food. Ammo lasts forever, freeze-dried’s good for 25 years, so if I never need it, I can pass it on to my kids. Either I’m growing senile – entirely possible, or there are bad things afoot. Hmm.

11 Steep Hollow sells

11 Steep Hollow Road

By far the largest numbers of transactions being reported lately are rentals (I’ll pull the statistics for the month and get some exact numbers, but it’s very interesting), but 11 Steep Hollow Road (off Cognewaugh) reports a sale price of $1.150 million on a $1.349 ask. That’s just about exactly where customers I showed this to back last fall thought it should land, and I agreed. Looks like the owner did too.

This sold back in 2000 for $1.145 million and the buyer put some money into landscaping and put it back in the market in 2007 at $1.949. That was never going to happen and in 2008 it was rented out, and stayed rented until this past year. Time and tenants weren’t kind to the property and it needed a complete refit, from new kitchen and baths to walls shifted and probably a new roof and windows.

While the land is mostly swamp, there’s a large, dry side yard that accommodates the septic field below and a great pool and courtyard in back that absolutely comes alive in spring (with flowers, not just biting bugs). This will once again be a very pretty house when its restored, and at this price, there should be money to do that.

No doubt reader Art Layton would have preferred to wait for trained hostage negotiators to rescue him

 

Peter Tesei’s solution to Greenwich crime

Gunman enters Dollar General store and starts herding customers into rear room before licensed pistol owner shoots him dead. It’s never a good sign when folks are shoved out of sight during a robbery – in fact, most times they all end up dead, which is probably why the police here are calling the good Samaritan a hero.

ORRVILLE — Law enforcement officials are calling Marlo Ellis a hero in the wake of Thursday’s shooting at the Dollar General in Orrville. Ellis shot and killed Dallas County resident Kevin McLaughlin after McLaughlin entered the store, reportedly shouting and waving a gun. Authorities said that as McLaughlin was leading a group of people into a break room, Ellis turned and used his own pistol to shoot McLaughlin. Ellis’ weapon was concealed according to Sheriff Harris Huffman. McLaughlin was pronounced dead shortly after the shooting. Dallas County Sheriff’s Department chief deputy Randy Pugh said McLaughlin’s motive is still unclear, but the death appeared to be a case of self-defense. “We don’t know what would have happened, but we know what could have happened,” Pugh said. “We see every indication that the shooting was a case of self defense.” He said Ellis was properly certified to carry a concealed weapon. Though, Ellis may have broken the law by entering the store with a weapon. A sign at the store’s entrance says the Dollar General does not allow the open carry of firearms, but neither the sheriff’s department nor District Attorney Michael Jackson say they plan to press charges against Ellis.

When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.

Williams College and its war on its alumni

Goodbye to all that

Here’s a report of Williams College’s admission decisions this year. I have absolutely no doubt that it is identical to the colleges many FWIW readers attended themselves.

http://communications.williams.edu/news-releases/3_27_2014_admission/

Williams College Admits 1,150 students for class of 2018

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., March 27, 2014—Williams College has extended offers of admission to 1,150 applicants for the Class of 2018. They were selected from a total applicant pool of 6,316, for an overall acceptance rate of 18 percent.

Of the admitted students, 566 are women and 584 are men. Ninety-nine students are non-U.S. citizens, representing 46 different nationalities. Among American students, 49 percent are students of color, 165 students are African American, 218 Asian American, 166 Latino, and 10 Native American. Sixteen percent (179) would be among the first generation in their families to attend college.

Among the admitted students living in the U.S.: 29 percent hail from the Mid-Atlantic; 19 percent from the West; 18 percent from the Northeast; 11 percent from the South; 8 percent from the Midwest; 6 percent from the Southwest. Six students are from Puerto Rico and one student is from Guam.

Let’s parse those numbers: 1,150 total, less 99 foreign born = 1051, 49% (515) of whom are “persons of color”. That leaves 536 openings for white boys and girls, 18% (48) each for children living in the northeast. Ch0ate, Exeter, Brunswick, Greenwich High, Rye High School, and on and on: 48 boys, 48 girls.

Essentially, Williams is telling its alumni and all white children from privileged backgrounds to forget applying. That’s the school’s choice; it’s a private institution and can do as it pleases, but I wonder whether the endowments of schools like Williams are large enough to survive the complete cut-off of alumni donations? If not, how do they intend to fund the education for all the “persons of color” they now prefer?

Time to blink

Snow’s still on the ground, the spring market, according to some non-experts, has yet to begin, but homeowners are beginning to slough off some of their misperceptions about their house’s value.

 

186 Lake Avenue

186 Lake Avenue is an example, cutting its price today to $5.550 million after hitting the market at the beginning of the month at $5.9. Of course, and as is the case with the second house discussed below, this is not the first go round for this property, so the owner isn’t just coming into the land of doleful discovery.

It sold new for $6 million, in 2005, was put up for sale at $7.5 in 2012, dropped to $6.250 in the begging of this year, expired unsold and came back on at the aforesaid $5.9. This house has two things going against it, besides price: it’s at the lower end of Lake which, although offering convenience, subjects it to the daily traffic jam at the Lake Avenue rotary and it is the exact duplicate of the house a few doors up on the right. It’s my understanding that ladies hate to arrive at a ball wearing a dress identical to the hostess, and perhaps they have the same disinclination to share houses.

105 Dingletown Rd

Further north and east, that old warhorse 105 Dingletown has suffered the ignominy of yet another price cut and now asks $3.450 million from the $3.9 million it wanted this morning. In fact, this is beginning to look like a very attractive buy. This is a 1919 home, with two acres still remaining, on a good street. It obviously wasn’t worth the $7.5 million demanded in 2008 and again in 2010, nor the $5.5 asked in 2012, or the $4.750 of 2013. I say “obviously” because no one bought it, but at around $3 million? I’d certainly take a new look.

Put a cork in it, Barry

Obama wants to ban farting as part of his global warming campaign.

Next up: mandatory criminal background checks and registration of all citizen’s hands and feet

Criminals at large

Starting April 1st, Connecticut will require  complete criminal background check  to purchase a “long gun” – defined as a regular rifle (not a scary gun – they’re banned completely) or shotgun. This is supposedly a response to gun crime, yet FBI statistics show that more murders are committed with hands and feet than with long guns. 728 vs.679, out of a population of 300+ million. By comparison, in 2011 3,880 Americans died from the recreational use of dihydrogen monoxide, which remains unregulated.

Again – and again and again and again – these rules are designed solely to harass gun owners and hunters and have nothing, absolutely nothing to do with preventing murder and mayhem on our streets. Harassment, and the never-slaked thirst of witless politicians to demonstrate to voters that they’re “doing something” about whatever is the passion of the day.

Thank you, Scott Frantz.

Just in time for summer

Stanwich Club parents recklessly expose their children to deadly cyanogen chloride

Whole Food mommies relax: it’s almost impossible for pee pee to turn a pool deadly.

On Wednesday, we wrote about a scientific study showing that pee in a pool’s chlorinated water can yield a toxic chemical called cyanogen chloride. That substance has recommended exposure limits from the World Health Organization and is also considered a chemical warfare agent. The yields from the pool water in the study were not anywhere near deadly or even conclusively harmful. But the next question that bubbled up in Ars readers’ minds was: How much pee would it take to develop a deadly Olympic-sized swimming pool?

As it turns out, the concentration of uric acid in pee is, to our calculation, about 112 times that of the uric acid concentration used in the experiment. If we could assume a proportional yield of cyanogen chloride just from using more uric acid, we could actually achieve toxic levels of cyanogen chloride for an Olympic pool of 10mg/L chlorinated water… for an equivalent quantity of urine. That means if each person is peeing 0.8L of the highly concentrated urine, their entire day’s yield, into this pool, you’d need about three million people peeing in that pool. If you could get at that pool without dying of either suffocation or drowning in other people’s urine, you could probably pull off death by cyanogen chloride poisoning or at least a pretty good coma.

However, there’s a problem. The researchers in the paper showed that for a concentration of 0.33 millimoles of chlorine per liter (about 15 mg/L), the dilute concentration of uric acid (5×10-5 moles per liter) eliminated all of the free chlorine. Hence, if we want chlorinated water that can actually turn all of the uric acid we’re peeing in it into cyanogen chloride, we need a more concentrated chlorinated solution.

If an approximately one-hundredth-strength-of-pee concentration of uric acid uses up 15mg/L chlorinated water, we need super chlorinated water-—on the order of 1500mg/L, or roughly half a liter of chlorine per liter of water.

In the end, we need a pool that is two parts water to one part chlorine and would probably burn the eyeballs out of your sockets and make your skin peel away from your bones (this calls for a pool boy who can only be criminally sadistic). If you and three million other people could get at this pool and unload your pee into it before your bodies melted, before the crowd crushed you to death, and before you drowned from the massive tidal wave of pee… yes, you could feasibly die of cyanogen chloride poisoning originating from chlorinated water and pee.

Of course, it is exactly this kind of risk that the EPA will insist be prevented and regulated against. Imagine if you also tossed a radioactive banana into that pool! Sheer terror at the swim club.

An American success story

 

Get your Tootsi Frootsi ice cream, before it melts

Little Italy’s on the brink of extinction From an original 50-square blocks to three, and those three are on the way out. The NY Post article provides a voice to the nostalgic but it seems to me that this is really a story of assimilation, with the Italians succeeding and dispersing, as the Jews who replaced the Germans in the lower East Side did, and even – proving that there is a merciful God – the Irish did when they left the bogs and shanties of what would become Central Park and moved out of the city to afflict proper towns like Greenwich. It’s all change, and it’s all good. Besides, the yuppies’ spawn need someplace to live.

Aboard USS Gloria Steinham

 

Message: We care

Navy proposes banning cigarette sales on its ships, bases. “We’re a military of social justice and reform now”, Admiral Joseph Porter told FWIW, “not merely a tool of imperialistic force.

“That’s why, faced with a declining budget and limited funds,we’re spending a billion dollars converting our fleet to clean, all-natural vegetable oil instead of nasty, stinky old bunker fuel, which is just loaded with CO2.

“And before we send our Marines ashore to have their legs blown off and their lungs riddled with shrapnel,” he continued, “we want them in tip-top condition. If they survive, they’ll thank us when they’re seventy, and our political leaders will thank us now. Dismissed.”

UPDATE: How could I have forgotten? Libertarian Advocate reminds us that the U.S. Navy adopted this as its official recruiting video in 1978:

UPDATE II: Upon reflection, G&S did it better, and far earlier, as my reference to Admiral Porter hinted.

Canada has idiots too – somehow, that’s reassuring

 

First Prize!

Canadian high schooler discovers radiation in the produce section of her local supermarket, wins prize.

“Some of the kelp that I found was higher than what the International Atomic Energy Agency sets as radioactive contamination, which is 1,450 counts over a 10-minute period,” she said. “Some of my samples came up as 1,700 or 1,800.”

Can’t blame the poor little girl, who is probably having glow-in-the-dark nightmares now. But one would hope someone, like say her science teacher, would do a little research. So, 1700 counts in 10 minutes. Here is the part in which we divide. 1700 counts in 10 minutes is about 170 counts a minute, which is a little less than 3 counts a second. The Potassium-40 in a 150g banana? Around 20 counts a second.

For a full dose of what passes for discussion in the moon bat world, go to the original article and read the comments. In a sea of hysteria, a few, a very few commenters attempt to explain the ridiculousness of this “science” project and the absurdity of giving her an award for her work. Here’s a typical (non) response to that:

Barry:

Most of the frozen seafood is coming in from asian country’s including from areas around Fukushima Japan! Read the labels and see this for yourselves! Anyone concerned about these facts that would like to remove the radiation from their body should do a radiation detox with the mineral called Zeolite that has been proven to safely remove both radiation and heavy metal from the body! For more information on zeolite and how it removes radiation do a Goggle search for the single word Zeolite.

There’s no way of proving it, but I’m guessing that Barry is just as worked up about global warming as he is his radioactive seaweed, and blames the evil “banksters” for both. Oh dear.

I expect to hear outrage from Hollywood stars

 

Allah at the Gates of Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin, removes Bible from its crest  Been there since 1592, but this is the brave new world.

Obama: “Trust us, we’re the government”

 

We predicted this

NSA metadata can be used to predict individual personality types solely from phone calling patterns.

“At the end of the day, the vast majority of the use of this data is extremely positive,” said de Montjoye, citing the utility of metadata in city planning, emergency response and other areas. He said he wanted to help researchers and the public develop a better “understanding of what can be done as well as the limits of privacy. This is really why we do this.”

From a national security perspective, the use of metadata remains a powerful tool for finding links between people, including potential enemies. However, despite the reassurances of Ruppersberger, President Barack Obama and others that the data isn’t “personal,” it lends itself easily to creating windows into private lives.

Look, it’s not as though Obama weaponized the IRS, say, to hurt his political foes, or decided to run the country by executive fiat rather than obey the law of the land, so what could possibly go wrong here?

Governor Dannel and his Hartford pussies should take heed

 

I’ve got ’em – do you?

Connecticut ranked 46th in ability to resist zombie attack. Not enough guns, too many “can’t we all get along?” types. Move to Wyoming, while you still can.

Bible Studies in Hollywood

 

And ye shall dine on tofu burgers, and parsnips of the earth – and no more dancing with boys!

No meat at the party for “Noah” premiere because, says the producer, Noah was a vegetarian. I certainly don’t care about how a band of nut cakes in LaLa Land interprets the bible (although Genesis 9:2 wouldn’t seem to lend itself easily to a stricture against eating meat*) but it is sort of humorous that film stars, not noted for their piety and strict adherence to either the Old or New Testaments, rely on selected readings to support whatever their latest fetish is.

What would happen to Hollywood if these same people gave heed to the prohibitions in Leviticus against shrimp cocktails, oysters on the half-shell and homos in bed together? The industry would shut down overnight.

“But all in the seas or in the rivers that do not have fins and scales, all that move in the water or any living thing which is in the water, they are an abomination to you.” (Leviticus 11:10)

“They (shellfish) shall be an abomination to you; you shall not eat their flesh, but you shall regard their carcasses as an abomination.” (Leviticus 11:11)

“If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.” (Leviticus 20:13)

“You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.” (Leviticus 18:22)

 

*1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.

2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.

3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.

Look back in anger

 

Here’s to you, America

Matthew Continetti reviews Harry Reid’s long,long history of nepotism and graft. That history is all there, with links to the relevant supporting data, but I think Continetti’s concluding paragraph sums it up neatly:

“I must study politics and war,” John Adams said, “that my sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, and naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.” In Harry Reid’s America a man must win political office so that his sons may have the liberty to practice law and register as lobbyists, engage in rent-seeking and government relations and crisis management and communications, in order to give their children a right to live in Brooklyn, to enroll in the New School, to visit the Vermont Studio Center, to have cronies finance their off-off-off-Broadway shows, to enjoy their allowance from grandpa. This is the arrangement put before the voters this coming Election Day; this is the “system” rigged to benefit the family Reid; this is the configuration of power that Charles and David Koch want to disrupt. How awful of them. How “un-American.”

Indeed I shall

LuLu’s Anal Bleaching for Kids – really?

Brother Anthony sends along this story, with the notation, “I think this is something you should share with your readers.”

Lulu’s  Cuts & Toys Hair Salon is the victim of a terrible prank.

A person who controls a wifi near the “combination hair salon and toy store on the increasingly stylish Fifth Avenue strip of Park Slope” called LuLu’s has given his or her network a positively vulgar name. It is a name that threatens to sully the posh and sophisticated reputation of a shop that charges $26 to give your child a new lease on life via his or her tresses ($10 for just a bangs job). It is a name that is not good for kids. On the Google Group bergenbtwn4and5, LuLu’s owner Brigitte Prat shares the story of how her brand is being attacked (probably by a high person who thought it would be funny to satirize the presumed bourgieness of the children’s salon):

PLEASE HELP! Unfortunately someone near by has named their WiFi a really awful name referring to my shops, “LuLu’s Anal Bleaching for Kids”. I’ve tried calling Time Warner and Verizon and they can’t seem to help. I have reached out to the 78th Precinct and my lawyer, but they can’t help either because I don’t know who it is. You can see the Network from both of my establishments, you can see it on your smart phone from my stores, my house, or standing in front of 417 & 426 Bergen Street as well as across the street. This is really disturbing and I’m lost to what to do without knowing who it is. Any other ideas on how to handle this? Brigitte

Tear jerker

6’10” basketball player adopts 8-year-old with cancer.  I’m not much of a basketball fan, but I’ll be rooting for Michigan State tonight.