Isaac Schrödinger

I've Never Had It

A cute photo to end the month.

The Big Zero Speaketh

Mr. Spreading The Wealth shows us what he really thinks.

Legal Alien Suffering

Mwalimu Daudi, an Instapundit reader, sends in a miserable story about legal immigration. After providing the relevant text, Prof. Reynolds asks:

Why is it that the Big Government party is so eager to make people who actually obey the law feel like suckers, anyway?

They simply appeal to the irresponsible.

Can't pay your insane mortgage?

Don't worry, the government will give you money!

Have a kid but the father is outside the picture?

Don't worry, the government will be the daddy!

Crossed the US border without bothering with all the asinine paperwork?

Don't worry, the government treats the future beggars-voters quite well!

And so on.

Another thing: The processing time for immigrant applications is spectacular. I filled out the application for Canadian citizenship last year. I provided all the relevant information, documents and the fee. It took Immigration Canada five months to tell me that I had submitted everything properly.

From then on, it would take a further 12+ months for them to provide or deny me citizenship; assuming, of course, that they don't misplace my application.

Crazy Women

Continuing with the theme from yesterday's post, today we have this:

How The Light Gets In gives 56 different men the opportunity to speak. It offers the same opportunity to just 11 women. Alongside the talks are evening events featuring a well-chosen and original roster of musicians, DJs and comedians. The gender balance here is markedly better. Did two different people organise these two sides of the festival? Perhaps women are considered fine as light entertainment, but unnecessary when it comes to the serious stuff.

We no longer live in an age where female thinkers, writers, philosophers, academics, artists, theorists, activists or politicians are rare. The discrimination is obvious. All you have to do is count.

David Thompson writes:

Because anything but exact gender parity in any given sphere must, simply must, be proof of “cultural femicide” and “the erasure of women from public life.” It’s obvious, see? Thank goodness we can count on Bidisha to fight back.

Of course. Women in the US have more jobs than men, yet it is men who are at the receiving end of over 90% of work-related deaths. Proof positive of the super-secret, evil matriarchy.

Read the rest. Thompson does an excellent job of destroying the 1:1 gender ratio nonsense parroted by feminists.

Confused and Unpleasant

A few women at my work were upset about the upcoming prom for their kids. You see, they had received a tip sheet from the school about appropriate behavior before, during and after the prom for the kids.

One tip was that it's usually agreed to share the cost of the limo and other amenities during the prom night. One woman said in a huff, "You know I'm a feminist but a guy better pay for that!"

Because some people are more equal than others.

Another tip was for a guy to open the door of the limo and allow the lady to enter first. Another woman burst out, "That's sexist. If I was going out with a guy and he opened the door of a car for me, I'd punch him!"

Of all the things a woman could hit a guy for! It's amazing to hear the opinions of such women. They've grown up in Western culture and their idea of sexism is male chivalry. There are girls in Asia whose parents refuse to provide education for them and limit their lives to the confines of their residence. Why? Because they're not lucky to be born a male. Then they get married off, often, to a complete, uncaring stranger.

And so it goes on for these miserable souls.

Back to Canada: How utterly perplexing for guys to live among these feminist creatures.

Don't open the car door for your female date.

Possible Reaction: What a jerk!

Open the car door for your female date.

Possible Reaction: POW!

Can anyone make sense of this?

S. R. Tendulkar

He is the greatest cricket player of the modern age. Yesterday was his birthday.

in 2003 he aggregated 673 runs in the World Cup, the most in the tournament's history; in 2008 he went past Brian Lara as the leading Test run-scorer; and in the following years he crossed 13,000 Test runs, 30,000 international runs and 90 international hundreds. At well over 36 years of age he broke a 40-year-old barrier by scoring the first double-century in one-day cricket.

And on and on.

Caturday: Hitler Edition

Well, there aren't any cats in the video but there's a reference!

No Obama, NO!

The Big Zero takes things a bit too far.

War Without End

Raymond Ibrahim: Was Marco Polo an ‘Islamophobe’?

Polo also confirms that Muslim leaders — not just today but from of old — have relied on Muhammad’s account of a lusty paradise to lure young men into becoming “martyrs.” Based on his account of the Shia assassins, who, in accordance with “the description Muhammad gave of his paradise,” dedicated their lives to assassinating and terrorizing their opponents, simply to enter into “paradise, where every species of sensual gratification should be found, in the society of beautiful nymphs”.

Muhammad = Evil version of Hugh Hefner.

Best Article Title Ever!

Unfortunately, I don't get any monetary benefit from it.

Still cool, though. Via Instapundit.

Need A Light?

I don't know exactly why but I like this photo.

Free To Choose

Vox Popoli:

They say that a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged; in like manner, a libertarian is a conservative who realizes that the government is the biggest mugger of all.

Indeed.

The Slick One

Glenn Reynolds:

When Clinton was yammering about the danger of domestic terrorists, Osama bin Laden was planning 9/11, and Clinton wasn’t doing much.

Of course. For him, Republicans were the enemy.

Bill Clinton will be remembered for two things: Lewinsky and Laden. Unfortunately, he was too busy screwing the wrong person.

Pakistan's Best XI

Ahsan Butt provides the list.

He has picked perfect openers. The middle order is solid. The first choice bowlers are all there but we get a strange note near the end. Fazal Mahmood?

I think that Shoaib Akhtar should be in his place. Of course, he's an idiot but his ability at peak form cannot be denied. Imagine a Pakistani team which has Imran Khan and Wasim Akram as first-change bowlers and the opening duo is Shoaib Akhtar and Waqar Younis!

I still remember the early 90s when Younis was annihilating opponents in Test matches. Akram and Younis would simply divide up the wickets between them. The other Pakistani bowlers didn't even have to bother. And in the late 90s, we got the heir to the throne, Akhtar, firing down thunderbolts on the pitch. The fiery Waqar + Akhtar combination would be hellish for any opposing team from any era.

How can it not be? One can't make a judgment about how to play a shot if one doesn't even see the ball.

In The Public School

A good reason to keep education out of government hands:

I had a high-school history teacher who was an avowed Marxist. I was not, to put it mildly. My confrères told me to go along to get along. Few of them bought the teacher’s line, but they were willing to repeat it for a grade.

One day, we students showed up and there was no teacher. Very unusual. We waited for some minutes until he finally came in. I said, “What’s the matter, Mr. X, was the lecture late off the wire from Moscow this morning?” to general laughter.

For the first and only time in my school career, my father had to come in, as I was tagged as a disciplinary problem.

Pure gold.

Don't Punish the Rich

Greg Mankiw:

How much of the increase of the the reported incomes of the superrich might be attributable to cuts in their marginal tax rates? Let's do some very rough calculations to illustrate the possible magnitude of this phenomenon. I will start my analysis before the first in the series of major tax reductions, which was the famous Kennedy tax cuts.

Over the past half century, the top marginal tax rate has fallen from 91 percent in the 1950s and early 1960s to 35 percent today. Thus, the amount a person gets to keep at the margin has risen from 9 percent to 65 percent, that is, by a factor of 7.2.

That factor is about to decline very soon.

Solid State Disk

Get one if you can. I got the OCZ Vertex last year and it was the best upgrade decision of the last decade. The decade before? Boosting RAM to 96MB from 32MB on my Windows 95 setup.

Here's a video to demonstrate the difference between a mechanical hard disk and a lightning fast SSD.

No Music For You

Yahoo News via Jihad Watch:

Rock, rap and love songs once filled the airwaves in Somalia's war-torn capital, one of the few pleasures residents had. But Islamist militants ordered music off the air Tuesday, labeling it un-Islamic in a hardline edict reminiscent of the Taliban.

Stations immediately complied, fearful that disc jockeys would face the harsh punishment militants mete out here: amputations and stonings. The edict is the latest unpopular order from the Islamists, who also have banned bras, musical ringtones and movies.

Legalized Theft

California has been going down the toilet and a small story of a brutalized and hemorrhaging business illustrates this well.

Tweaking 7

I used TweakUI with Windows XP and now I've got the God Mode folder for Windows 7. Other good tweaking applications are provided here.

Cahlifornia

A nice, powerful, dramatic shot.

The Epic Power of Cores

Tom's Hardware:

Dell advertisement points out what the power of a quad core processor can do for you.

It's truly astonishing.

Solid Lead Screen!

This is one of the funniest videos I've watched this year.

The Illogic of Obama

Mark Steyn:

The Obama administration came into office promising to press the "reset" button with the rest of the world after eight years of the so-called arrogant, swaggering Texan cowboy blundering his way around the planet, offending peoples from many lands. Instead, Obama pressed the ejector-seat button: Brits, Czechs, Israelis, Indians found themselves given the brush. I gather the Queen was "amused" by the president's thoughtful gift of an iPod preloaded with Obama speeches – and, fortunately for Her Majesty, the 160GB model only has storage capacity for two of them, or three if you include one of his shorter perorations.

Obama's behavior towards American enemies is understandable: his combination of foreign policy idiocy and ignorance rivals that of JFK. Basically, he seems to thinks that he'll make peace with thugs by laying down weapons and bowing before them.

But what is odd is his treatment of allies. Why act like a buffoon towards them?

Epic Blend

This is so very painful. I've never bought anything from Apple but still that was uncalled for.

Two Generations

Amazing how the older one puts up with it:

Dash is 3 months old. He's not so bright, but he loves everyone and everything. He doesn't comprehend that Misty can't play with him. He's constantly running after her and trying to get her to join in. When he tuckers out he curls up with her, if he finds her before he passes out in the water bowl or under a table. She does a wonderful job putting up with him.

Back To The Stupidity

BBC News via Jihad Watch:

A Lebanese man sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for sorcery has been given a temporary reprieve, his lawyer says.

What "magic" did he perform?

Mr Sabat, who is in his 40s, was the host of a satellite TV programme in which he predicted the future.

Well, he ain't good at it. Otherwise, he would have seen this coming.

Addicted To Sex

Ann Althouse:

Is "sex addiction" one of these things that's going to be treated under the new health care regime, even as Medicare patients are given pain pills in lieu of hip replacements and heart valves?

Quite possible. I have no doubt some resources would also go towards, er, cosmetic surgeries.

Anyway, the comments there are excellent.

From Robin, a lengthy excerpt:

Many women don't realize how much men crave sex: if the sex isn't happening, the man feels there's something deeply wrong in the relationship -- and he won't feel any emotional closeness with her. And many men don't realize how much women crave emotional closeness: the emotional/relational intimacy isn't happening, she feels there's something deeply wrong and doesn't (usually) want sex.

This results all too often in a vicious circle of two lonely people craving what they aren't getting, and lashing out at each other for failing to give it. She nags all the time, he's a selfish bastard who only uses me for sex, whatever.

Basically, the line about "men give love to get sex, and women give sex to get love" has a lot of truth in it. Mix in large quantities of selfishness, and you get a recipe for disaster.

Robin provides an elegant solution for breaking this vicious cycle.

Suffer No More

Hourglass syndrome? Only at work. I have the proper prescription at home.

Money in Midi

Nicely done.