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Journal Journal: The GOP's red state kickbacks are as ugly as anything the Dems do 39

When Congress threw ethanol producers a gigantic bone by expanding the Renewable Fuel Standard through the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 by annually increasing the amount of ethanol that fuel refiners are required to blend into the nation's gasoline supply, they blithely made the crucial assumption that Americans' gasoline consumption would continue to increase indefinitely. Thanks to heightened fuel efficiency and slackened driving habits, however, Americans' demand for gasoline has actually decreased, meaning that refiners would have to blend gasoline with ethanol well above the E10 level that is considered safe for most of the older cars and trucks on the road today in order to comply properly.

The GOP can just take all its pious capitalistic talk and cram it someplace useful. Ethanol is to the GOP what all these crappy green energy and global warming scams are to Democrats.
What a pile of crap.

User Journal

Journal Journal: "Facts Are Stubborn Things . . . As Thomas Piketty Is Beginning to Find Out" 19

Emphasis original:

The charges are devastating, and there is plenty to back them up. And again, let's be abundantly clear: The Financial Times is accusing Thomas Piketty of dishonesty, of making up his arguments, of actively trying to mislead readers and actively trying to mischaracterize inequality trends. This mischaracterization leads to policy prescriptions on Piketty's part that are both entirely unrealistic in their design and implementation, and, more importantly, are wholly unsupported by the actual data on inequality . The main thrust of Thomas Piketty's book is entirely undermined, and his arguments and conclusions are annihilated. It is hard to imagine a more comprehensive refutation.
. . .
The second thing we ought to note is that neither Giles, nor Giugliano, nor the Financial Times would have discovered that Piketty's books is fundamentally flawed if they listened to Paul Krugman, who famously said on his blog that "if you think you've found an obvious hole, empirical or logical, in Piketty, you're very probably wrong. He's done his homework!" Yes, that was a real statement by Paul Krugman, and yes, it ought to haunt him for the rest of his lifeâ"and beyond. We now know that it is more accurate to say that Piketty fudged his homework. I doubt that Krugman knew that Piketty's conclusions were pretty much made up out of thin air-if he did, there is truly something rotten in the state of economics-but the point is that Krugman tried his damnedest to ensure that no one would take a critical eye to Piketty's data and conclusions.

And this is the same parade of no-talent rodeo clowns that embrace anthropogenic global warming (or whatever the term of the week is), abortion, ObamaCare, and pretty much every other intellectual cock-up going today. May God require of these idiots their idiocy.

User Journal

Journal Journal: Axl Rose listed as best rock vocalist? 4

Link

Congrats to Axl Rose.

Apparently Michael Sweet, Bruce Dickinson, Rob Halford, Tarja Turunen, Geoff Tate, Rey Parra, James LaBrie, Ronnie Dio, Dave Mustaine, Ozzy Osbourne, Alice Cooper, James Hetfield, Trevor McNevan, Jon Sumrall, Mark Slaughter, Jani Lane, Joe Elliott, Brendan Small, Bon Scott, Steven Tyler, Jeff Scott Soto, Eric Bloom, Robert Plant, David Lee Roth, Sammy Hagar, Brad Delp, Robin Zander, Tom Keifer, Jack Blades, Tommy Shaw, Dennis DeYoung, Paul Stanley, Daniel McMaster, Jason McMaster, Ian Gillian, Ryan Clark, Amy Lee, Chris Jericho, Andi Deris, James Paul Luna, Jesse James, Jimi Hendrix, Steve Perry, Steve Augheri, Joan Jett, Lenny Kravitz, Lita Ford, Cristina Scabbia, Kevin Dubrow, Klaus Meine, Vince Neil, David Coverdale, Phil Anselmo, Ralf Scheepers, Bret Michaels, Freddy Mercury, Steven Pearcy, Rob Zombie, Tommy Christ, Sebastian Bach, Ted Nugent, Justin Hawkins, Ian Astbury, Jim Morrison, Roy Orbison, Maynard Keenan, Rik Emmet, Dee Snider, Peter Steele, Weird Al Yankovic and George Fischer were all unavailable for the "contest".
User Journal

Journal Journal: Verbiage: Umbrella fixed

A good umbrella is always appreciated. I've gone through a few, and lately purchased my second Shedrain umbrella from Amazon to replace the first that i had lost.

Somehow, this one managed to break before i could lose it. It worked perhaps once, but then would no close properly and was broken on one part. So, i sent an email to Shedrain asking for help:

I bought item 2052-CHAR on 3/19/14. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007NDTFGM/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01)

Starting with the second use, one of the metal joints that extend the canopy detached from the rest and the umbrella no longer open or closes properly. ( i apologize for the poor explanation, i do not know how to explain it.) I can send a picture if you would like,

Is there a way to fix something like that? I would like my umbrella to work again. It's a pretty neat umbrella.

That same day, i received a reply:

Hello,

Please send a few pictures and I will see how we can help.

Thank you,

I responded with

Sure, attached are pictures taken from my phone.

And here's a video on Youtube: http://youtu.be/Ll96m4v99ng

I love my mac. :)

If you want any other images, just ask.

And attached 7 images. To which he responded:

Hello,

Thank you for the pictures. I do not think you would be able to repair the umbrella. Please send it to the address below and we will repair/replace it and ship it back to you.

ShedRain Corp
Attn: Dept W
8303 NE Killingsworth
Portland, OR 97220

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you,

I sent it in a little bit later and received back a fixed umbrella. Not only was the broken part fixed, they added a number of hooks between the two coverings. So far, it is working nicely. My only cost was the price of shipping it to them.

It seems they gave back the same umbrella because my name, address, and phone number were still on the handle (taped on sheet of paper).

--

When i post the emails i send, i am "afraid" that i sent something silly, or feel apprehensive about sharing the personality i add to my emails, which can change by whom i am sending it to or simply the mood i am in. I know it's not a problem (until someone proves me wrong in the comments :) ).

--

Unrelated side note Started Book 5, Chapter 9 in LoTR.

User Journal

Journal Journal: Fed up 12

Zero Hedge

Of course, the direct implication here is also very clear, if very sad: the rich who can afford college, will end up becoming even richer thanks to the better-paying jobs their degree affords them, while everyone else will either drown under the weight of student loans, or simply be relegated to far less-paying jobs during their career. And while the Fed can be confused about this conclusion, not even the Fed is confused that it itself is the reason for this record and increasing disparity between rich and poor.
So the next time you curse someone for making college so expensive you need hundreds of thousands in debt to pay for it, or are cursing the fate that made you into a 40+ year old debt slave, aim those curses where they belong: Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke and now, obviously, Janet Yellen. Because for all the "confusion" about America's record wealth divide that French socialists have to reprise the role of Karl Marx in the process selling blockbuster books to a new generation of pre-communists, the fundamental reason for the greatest class divide in history is a very simple three letter word: the Fed.

I'm guessing that the Progressive gravy train crashes spectacularly.

User Journal

Journal Journal: "I'll be your Virgil through this latest ring of ObamaCare hell" 2

Ilya Shapiro introduces an all star panel:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/05/09/video-of-the-cato-institute-panel-on-the-origination-clause-challenge-to-the-obamacare-individual-mandate/
What's fascinating is that, for all anybody with a plural brain cell count knew that ObamaCare was a river of lies, seemingly nothing could stop the evil.
User Journal

Journal Journal: I know it's early, but... 6

20-9, 8 game winning streak, the best record in Baseball, and a 5 game lead in the AL Central.

HOW BOUT DEM TIGERS!

And for the record, Brad Ausmus is a far superior manager to Jim Leyland.
User Journal

Journal Journal: Verbiage: Storium

I found Storium from it's Kickstarter page , via a write up on MakeUseOf's rss feed. (As an aside, i just saw makeuseof's homepage, wow that's ugly!)

In short, one user makes a story and at least one user plays it. The story is in a world and presents challenges, the players decide how to respond and can play some cards defining their strength sand weaknesses. That is, the storyteller does not have complete control of the story, perhaps just the direction. More information can be seen on the How to play page.

I pledged the $10 for the beta access to check out what it is, and i am thinking of becoming a member. The only benefit of member is that the first year is $20 instead of the expected $25. Truthfully, the $5 saved doesn't justify the gamble, but i am enjoying the game.

As of right now, the Kickstarter project has only 12 hours left. Doe this form of storytelling interest you?

Update: Changed "at least two users play it" to "at least one user plays it".
Changed "i just saw the homepage, " to "i just saw makeuseof's homepage"

User Journal

Journal Journal: This is Jeremiah Cornelius good 9

My tinfoil hat melted. Ron Paul puked. Good times:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-07/guest-post-false-eastwest-paradigm-hides-rise-global-currency
A taste:

Clearly, Putin and Russia are just two more puppet pieces on the globalist chessboard, pitted against other puppets in the West in a grand theater designed to distract and divide the masses through chaos. As Kissinger points out, in crisis there is opportunity.
What is the goal? Theyâ(TM)ve already told us, openly, on numerous occasions.
The first great prizes of the New World Order are a global currency and centralized economic control. The elites are not satisfied with quiet dominance of individual economies. They want complete political homogenization and the end of all sovereignty. Period. With a global currency in place, the steps towards global government become quick and small.

My observation: people don't scale. Stuff just keeps falling apart, for all the efforts to build The Bigger, Shinier Things.

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