Math: Told you so.

So the meme of “Paul Ryan represents Obama’s most horrifying nightmare: math” has already reached Lol Cat level.

Well, it doesn't take a genius to look at various budgets and programs and realize that X+Y = Fail.

But there are a lot of people that depend on keeping the illusion going.

Sophisticated as Hell an example

So Spear of JayG's Handgonne was also doing some correspondence with Stingray of AtomicNerds.

It seems Stingray took a bit of umbrage at the lack of familiarity and decided to reply in a textbook, no... triumphant, example of Sophisticated as Hell.

Hats off to all around.

Learning about the Red Queen's Race...

Look at the following charts on US education spending and results.

Here and Here.

A couple points.

The US is number 1 in per student education spending. Some lists have us as 2 or 3 behind Switzerland and the like.

The US is low to middle in results. Spending a lot more than other countries have to spend for the same result.

And finally... US per student education spending keeps going up, to little or no improvement.

So soaring costs to tread water at the same mediocre results.

Yes, I can see why Mr. A things this is a model for the nation's medical system. Though in the US you can send you kids to a private school, if you don't mind paying for public too (vouchers are evil!), which sadly, is more "liberal" than the proposed medical takeovers.

How dare you try to help! That's what the government is for!

So in Philly a woman is facing a 600 dollar a day fine.

Her crime? Feeding needy children.

Remember this next time a liberal screams about how charity doesn't work and is a smokescreen. Gee it's almost like the State is actively trying to crush competing methods of helping those in need.

Jay G has more.

You see, this is a private charity. This is exactly what we mean when we say that the government is not there to take care of you.This is a church set up to help the poor - something they've been doing for hundreds if not thousands of years. And yet, because the government hates competition, they're hitting her with ridiculous fines to try and stop her from feeding hungry kids.

You know something? If this had happened in Mitt Romney's Massachusetts, I bet it would have been front page news three days running. Since it's happening in Democratically controlled Phillie; not a peep. This is exactly the kind of thing that you think they'd want to happen - after all, it is "for the children"... Yet because her house isn't zoned properly (WTF? Is there a "free lunch" zone?), someone dimed her out to the local warlords. Really. Someone ratted her out to the authorities because she was feeding hungry kids.

But you know what? When you give a hungry kid a lunch, their parents don't get dependent on the government and therefore more likely to vote for whoever's in power. They are not beholden to one party or another to receive this food; they simply show up and eat.

The Progressive idea of charity is taking money from someone else at gunpoint then doling it out to a captive population with the implicit threat of "vote for us or else." So of course they have to remove any competing means of support.

And note, despite keeping strict paperwork and having bi-weekly visits from a state inspector, the woman in question is still being punished... for feeding needy children.

Man, wonder what the statists think of Langar, guess they'll be going after the Sikhs next. And the soup kitchens. Until they all are subject to "common sense" regulation.

Though the Sikhs are in enough hot water in the eyes of the progs. Just consider the Kirpan.


Speaking of Langar, Sean D. Sorrentino celebrates "diversity" with some very staunch American Patriots. And read Sean's comment in his own post for more information on the Kirpran.

Redshirts and SF Debris...

So I've been watching the scifi reviews on SF Debris

The guy has a good style and an interesting perspective onto the plot, behind the scenes, and symbolism of the various shows.

But I was struck by how got awful the various Star Trek series were. Especially Voyager.

This meshed quite well with Scalzi's latest book: Redshirts.

Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It’s a prestige posting, and Andrew is thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship’s Xenobiology laboratory.

Life couldn’t be better…until Andrew begins to pick up on the fact that (1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces, (2) the ship’s captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations, and (3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed.

Reading the book while watching these reviews, especially Voyager's Latent Image serve as great examples of the creative failures that are technobabble and killing of bit characters for increased drama.

The voyager episode I link is particularly blatant about it, but that vast majority of the episodes all work that way.

And while Scalzi's satire has elements from the whole of the Star Trek franchise (such as being the fleet flagship), scifi geeks should be able to readily recall the Voyager's ship class.

Now that's Testing and Evaluation.

Aviation week has a short piece on the 4477th Test & Evaluation Squadron

A very interesting read on what it was like to fly and test "procured" Russian aircraft, complete with stuff like the "BOMB EXPLODE" switch, the superior abilities of inferiority made Russian flares, and the near miracles done by the maintenance staff.

They had to keep planes flying with no support documentation, no plans, and no supply chain.

Well that was refreshing II

After a month of what was basically a drought, we had two days of rain.

That made for a cool day today, and a nice early evening with a slight breeze.

Ideal to go out onto the patio and enjoy a nice whiskey, a good cigar and some steak.

I'm not bad at grilling, but my father can still out do me. Even with leftover steak.