Fish Fear Me

It's Alive!

I've always seen that "twins separated by birth" thing between Ginsburg and Lugosi, but who knew that at just the right angle Chief Justice Roberts bears a striking resemblance to Basil Rathbone?

Okay, lame attempt at humor aside, I'm disappointed that Obamacare was not struck down by the Supreme Court. I was hoping that the commerce clause argument would doom it and apparently it did, right up to the moment that the powers of taxation revived the beastly corpse(that would be corpse, Mr. President, not corps). 

It will take a little time and more than a couple shots of bourbon to go through the opinions for and and against. At first glance the constitutional arguments may not be all that bad from a conservative/libertarian perspective. Of course, that doesn't change the fact that as policy, Obamacare is a horrible disaster on the not so distant horizon, but that is a political issue. 

Because it's a political issue, that's where it will have to be fixed. The Supreme Court has shown that it is not going to save us from Obama's policies. That's our job as voters, and rightly so. 

So let's get on with that.

Question Of The Day

Why would a blurry picture of a squirrel under a bird feeder make Dave E. so freakin' happy?

No fair, Rob, you already know the answer.

Holy Moly, Nanny Bloomberg Is A Redneck

This should rock the Upper West Side, Nanny Bloomberg's crew was busted installing a redneck air conditioner in one of his SUVs:

Who’s full of hot air?

Mayor Bloomberg wants to maintain his politically correct credentials on global warming — but hates to get into a hot car when he leaves an air conditioned building.

The solution his aides came up with could easily have doubled as a stunt on David Letterman’s show.

In full view of bemused tourists and other passers-by, workers yesterday performed what looked like a comedy routine: They hoisted a standard room air conditioner to a side window of one of the mayor’s SUVs parked in the City Hall lot to see if it would fit.

From the picture and video at the link, it appears that Nanny Bloomberg is testing a side window install for his air conditioner. The internet record of redneck auto air conditioners goes way back, and he and his team should consider some of the other thoroughly tested and proven installation methods.

First off, there's the back window mount:

Then there are the advantages and disadvantages of a roof mount to mull over:

And finally, regardless of roof, side, or back window installation, one should think about the mobility one gets from installing a portable generator as well:

This is all quite thrilling to us here in flyover country. To think that the Nanny of New York City(New York City!) has embraced the finest in hillbilly technology has rednecks everywhere practically doing cartwheels.

Bubba Bloomberg. Kind of has a nice ring to it, don't you think?

Praising Arizona(The Decision)

So today was the Arizona decision, summary here. 

In principle I liked the three provisions that were struck down. It should be a crime for people to be in this country without permission and those laws should be enforced. However, immigration law and the related enforcement policies are clearly the purview of the federal government. In a way I'm sympathetic to the notion that the feds are failing to meet their obligations and therefore the states have a right to step in, but ultimately the remedy for that is through the political process. I might be persuaded to change my mind down the road, but at this point I think the Supreme Court got t right.

On the one provision that survived for now, checking immigration status of a person stopped or arrested, I think they got that right too. The question now is how will it be implented and how quickly a challenge will arise based on discrimination or other constitutional grounds. And you can bet your sweet britches it will challenged the second the opportunity arises. Which is fine really. If they can't find a way to implement it within the constitution it should get tossed too.

I'm not sure how big a deal it is that the one provision survived this SCOTUS term anyway. Okay, some local jurisdiction holds somebody for a crime and it comes back from ICE that he's here illegally. They can't charge him for that, only the feds can. So if the state charge doesn't pan out or even if he does some kind of state time, they have to put him back on the street if ICE doesn't want him. This provision will likely help ICE get its hands on illegals that are high priority, but beyond that I don't see the impact.

Decision Time

This is the big week for U.S. Supreme Court rulings. The two biggest left for the court this term are the Arizona illegal alien law and Obamacare. I know which way I want those to go, but I have no predictions on the directions the court will take, just a few observations before the crap hits the fan.

Can we wait until the actual decisions are handed down before labeling them as corrupt, partisan, illegitimate, the spawn of Satan, and whatever other despicable adjective can be conjured up? Hahaha...trick question. But really, I'm both amazed and disgusted at the preemptive strikes that have been coming from Democrats for months now, many of them brutally dishonest. Let's see what they actual rulings are before criticizing them. I know, that's just cah-razy talk.

The hysteria over partisanship on the court strikes me as pretty much infantile. If the court was led by a majority of five liberal Democrats, Democratic hacks would be solemnly intoning about the need to respect the court as a critical institution of our government(which it is) and it would be Republican hacks screaming that the court was illegitimate. To be clear here, I think most people on either side are not hacks, it's just that both sides have unprincipled and very loud voices that are motivated purely by partisan interests. When the court agrees with them it is good and wise. When it hands down a ruling they hate, the court is downright evil. It astonishes me at times how such blatantly unserious people are taken so seriously.

I've seen a lot of talk about Bush v. Gore proving the current court's illegitimacy. The reality that many Democrats and hardcore progressives refuse to see is that Bush v. Gore was only necessary because an openly partisan and Democratic Florida Supreme Court intervened in the recount in an attempt to steal the election for Al Gore. Yes, I wrote that and I mean it. Al Gore and the Democratic Party of Florida shamelessly tried to steal the election with selective recounts in party controlled counties and ridiculously transparent attempts to divine voter intent to Al Gore's favor. They were aided and abetted in that disgraceful effort by the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court slapped them down, as it had every right and obligation to do. Funny how that aspect of Bush v. Gore never seems to come up.

I want to see Arizona's law upheld, but I know it has flaws and I admit the federalism issues are not so clear cut. I can see the court handing down a decision that seems like a victory for the Obama administration, but is really a long-term victory for federalism. We'll see. 

One thing for sure, it's going to hit the fan this week.

Bob's Your Uncle

The phrase of the week comes courtesy of Twins pitcher Liam Hendricks. The native Australian got roughed up again in another start for the Twins, this time on Thursday against the Pirates. He coughed up four runs in the first two innings and then gave up a two-run homer in the sixth. The phrase arrives whens he tries to describe why he is struggling so badly:

"Coming out to the game, I feel prepared," Hendriks said. "I've thrown well in warmups. And I get out to the game, and something changes. I give up a couple, I start getting into a groove and I start getting that little aggressiveness back. I need to start that from the get-go. It's just one of those things -- I throw well in a couple, and I just hang a pitch, and Bob's your uncle there."

I love that. I guess it's been around for a long time, but I've never heard it before. The origin is disputed, as is often the case in these things, and the meaning can change slightly depending on the context. In this case, it obviously means "there you have it," but it can also mean something along the lines of "it's all good." The latter is definitely not applicable for Twins fans here.

And so Bob's your uncle.

The Wedding Bundler

Getting married before November of this year? Well then don't miss your opportunity, courtesy of Obama 2012, to become The Wedding Bundler:

Let your friends know how important this election is to you—register with Obama 2012, and ask for a donation in lieu of a gift. It’s a great way to support the President on your big day. Plus, it’s a gift that we can all appreciate—and goes a lot further than a gravy bowl.

And the best part is you don't have to look like Jennifer Lopez or Mathew McConaughey to turn your gift registry into (romantic)comedy gold. 

Act now!

(via Instapundit)

Tell Me Lies...

Were you traumatized when you found out that Santa wasn't real? 

It seems to me that we've talked about this before here, but I can't find it. Anyway, I bring the question up because it's related to #5 in one woman's list of The 5 Most Brutal Lies You Tell Your Child. Here's the start:

5.”Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus.”

I’m amazed by the complaints of former children who still resent their parents’ attempts to create a magical Christmas. The lie (obviously a family tradition) once exposed casts a round, but dark, shadow over their relationship with their parents. For some, this experience shaped their parenting philosophy. This single fabrication has produced enough backlashes to merit a place on this list.

I don't remember that discovering the truth about Santa was all that brutal to me. I'd have to check with my siblings, but I don't remember it being much of a trauma for them either. It was just one of many growing up things that moved from oldest child to youngest in a slow-motion wave.

In my case I think I got suspicious when I realized one Christmas season that you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting a Santa Claus. Okay, I didn't really think "swing a dead cat," because that would make me a scary little 5-year-old and I wasn't that at all.  But I did realize that there seemed to be an awful lot of Santas hanging around each December and if you got up close they all looked a little different.   

I think finding out the truth about Santa wasn't that big a deal because by that time I also had some understanding of the concept of fiction as opposed to a lie. I knew cartoons weren't real. They were fun to watch, but not real. Fairy tales were fun to listen to or read, but they weren't real. "Who broke the glass?" Now that was real, and you better not lie.

So in that sense, even at that young age I think I shrugged off the truth about Santa as just another fun story that wasn't actually true. Sort of like "Jack and the Beanstalk" or "Wizard of Oz."

As far as kids today, I don't see anything wrong with treating Santa as real up to a certain age. Beyond five or six it is probably not healthy to keep asserting that he's real in the face of growing doubts from the child. The kid is going to find out from his peers anyway, and if the truth has been overly denied up until then, at that point I can see it being traumatic. For small kids though, I think the myth of Santa is fine.

Opinions? How did the truth about Santa hit you? 

Overheard In Minneapolis: Once Upon A Time Edition

Her: "But you know I can't cook."

Him: "Honey, it's Hamburger Helper. Don't overthink it."

Deluge

The Twin Ports of Duluth and Superior just got pounded with rain the last couple of days. The southwest to northeast band of showers, some torrential and violent at times, took its sweet time as it crossed the state and some areas saw as much as 10" more rain after an already very wet June. Each time I checked the weather radar yesterday and into this morning I was amazed to see the consistent beeline the storms were making at Duluth/Superior and on up the North Shore.  

There's lots of flood damage to roads and some homes, but thankfully it looks like the only fatalities were animals at the local zoo.

A few inches more rain also fell widely across the Mississippi watershed in Minnesota and Wisconsin the last few days. At this point nobody is ringing alarm bells in the Twin Cities, but I think points south are getting dicier and dicier.