Say Anything Blog

This normally uninterestng article shows the value of a steel bumper vs. the fancy plastic crap that you get on cars nowadays:

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that most bumpers on midsize cars do little to prevent costly damage to vehicles ... only three midsize vehicles ... sustained less than $1,500 in repairs from each of the four crash tests.

In one test of the front-end at 6 mph, four vehicles ... had damages of more than $4,000.

By comparison, the Institute conducted similar tests on a 1981 Ford Escort and found the front-end test only caused $86 in damages.

What they don’t mention is that the $86 repair cost makes the Escort a total loss.

I saw this listing of top 10 worst point drops for the Dow and thought it was interesting when compared vs. president.  GW Bush and Clinton are at 5 and 4, respectively, with 2 of Bush’s worst days being a direct result of 9/11:

Fast Facts: Top 10 Worst Point Drops for Dow Jones Industrial Average
The following are the top ten worst day of losses for the Dow Jones industrial average. From left to right are rank, date, points down and percentage down:
1 — 9/17/01: -684.81 points, -7.13 percent Bush 43
2 — 4/14/00: -617.78, -5.66 Clinton
3 — 10/27/97: -554.26, -7.18 Clinton
4 — 8/31/98: -512.61, -6.37 Clinton
5 — 10/19/87: -508.00, -22.61 Reagan
6 — 3/12/01: -436.37, -4.10 Bush 43
7 — 2/27/07: -416.02, -3.30 Bush 43
8 — 7/19/02: -390.23, -4.64 Bush 43
9 — 9/20/01: -382.92, -4.37 Bush 43
10 — 10/12/00: -379.21, -3.63 Clinton

The most interesting thing to me is that Bush 41 “it’s the economy, stupid” had no days in the top 10.  On top of that, the recovering economy that Clinton interited didn’t have any days during his first term in the top 10.  Infact, 3 of the 10 worst days occurred after Y2k, but before 9/11 (the 2000 recession which extended into 2001).

All I’ve got to say is WOW:
11 Dead, Over 100 Hurt at Kite Flying Festival in Pakistan

A 16-year-old girl and a school boy, 12, died after their throats were slashed by metal kite strings in separate incidents. Two people were electrocuted while they tried to recover kites tangled in overhead power cables, Bano said.

A 13-year-old boy fell to his death from the roof of his home as he tried to catch a stray kite, and a 35-year-old woman fell off the roof of her home trying to stop her son from running after a stray kite, Bano said.

You’ve gotta love this headline from the KC Star (McClatchy):

Part 1: Hot fuel for you means cold cash for big oil, retailers

(The heading on their main website left “retailers” off and only blames “Big Oil")

When gasoline gets hot, it expands. But U.S. fuel pumps don’t adjust for the bigger volume, and it’s costing American consumers about $2.3 billion a year.

So when retailers (both small & large, but rarely owned by “Big Oil") overcharge for fuel due to erroneous dispensing systems, then we should blame the large oil companies.

One could also draw the conclusion that, since the Bush administration invited energy companies to provide input regarding US energy policy, any overcharging of gas is Bush’s fault. Afterall, he and Cheney are in bed with “Big Oil”, right?

I figure that if you really care that much about this, quit buying fuel at stations with above ground storage tanks. If you’re smart enough to understand that hot fuel costs more, you should be smart enough to look around to determine if the statin uses above ground or subterranean tanks before buying fuel.

A database of fuel temperatures at 1,000 retail stations compiled by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, obtained by The Star, reveals that fuel in this country is sold at nearly 65 degrees when averaged year-round and across the entire country.

(vs. the 60 degree standard)

Via Drudge:

Humans’ beef with livestock: a warmer planet

It’s not just the well-known and frequently joked-about flatulence and manure of grass-chewing cattle that’s the problem, according to a recent report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Land-use changes, especially deforestation to expand pastures and to create arable land for feed crops, is a big part. So is the use of energy to produce fertilizers, to run the slaughterhouses and meat-processing plants, and to pump water.

Livestock are responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions as measured in carbon dioxide equivalent, reports the FAO. This includes 9 percent of all CO2 emissions, 37 percent of methane, and 65 percent of nitrous oxide. Altogether, that’s more than the emissions caused by transportation.

Eat more Deer: It’s free, low in fat, and helps reduce auto insurance costs.  (Though I doubt that PETA and other eco-terrorist groups would want that conclusion drawn from this article.)

Here’s another article (this time from McClatchy) about how the military is full of poor, uneducated rubes, is failing miserably at recruiting, and has resorted to filling it’s ranks with old folks, criminals, and by bribing foreigners with citizenship. (You may need to log in to view the article, but it’s free)

Meanwhile the rich shield their children from the horrors of military service.

WASHINGTON | Fighting nearly four years in a two-front war has put unprecedented stress on the Army and the Marine Corps.

In addition to raising questions about whether an all-volunteer force can be maintained over the long term, it also draws attention to how the sacrifice from American society is not being distributed equally.

It then goes on to perpetuate the scare tactics of bringing back the draft…

That means Army recruiters will have to sign up an additional 7,000 men and women every year, when they are already struggling and standards have been dropped to meet current quotas.

What irritates me the most is when these reporters mentions that no one in leadership has advocated bringing back the draft, then spend a great deal of time discussing it and interviewing ‘experts’ who think that the draft should be reinstated. To me, this is dishonest reporting intended to stir up fears among readers. (more...)

House Passes Resolution Opposing Bush’s Plan to Send More Troops to Iraq

As far as I’m concerned, the following Republicans had better not make it through their next primary election:

Castle

Coble

Davis, Tom

Duncan

English (PA)

Gilchrest

Inglis (SC)

Johnson (IL)

Jones (NC)

Keller

Kirk

LaTourette

Paul

Petri

Ramstad

Upton

Walsh (NY)

I may have missed some. The whole Roman/Italics is a bit hard to discern. They should have just color coded them: Republicans who voted Yea should be yellow.

I was also glad to see a couple of Democrats on the side of the troops and their commander, Petraeus who requested the surge.
Petraeus Supports Troop Increase in Confirmation Hearing

Hot Air has a post about a documentary on the 2nd amendment.  I’d like to see it and then post a review, but for now you’ll have to settle for links to other reviews.  If someone has more time than me and want to watch it and review it first, that’s fine by me.
Website
Amazon DVD reviews

Are Saudis waging an oil-price war on Iran?

the Saudi oil minister has steadfastly refused calls for a special meeting of OPEC and announced that the nation is going to increase its production, which will send the price down even farther.

since Iran sells gasoline at a rate ... around 33 cents a gallon ... Iran is paying about $1.50 per gallon to subsidize domestic gasoline consumption ... eating up most of the state-run oil company’s discretionary funds.

Long term, traders say that the Iranian oil will become even more expensive, if not impossible, to extract because Iran does not have access to up-to-date exploration and drilling equipment.

Read the whole thing, though it’s a bit long, I found it to be informative

I wasn’t aware of this strategy (strategery?), but if it’s really going on, it goes to show how complex & multifaceted the US approach to Iran has been.

Follow up:
It's also quite possible that the Saudis are simply trying to reassert their control over the oil markets, discourage oil sands development and other emerging deposits that are unviable below a certain price, pacify consumer nations (such as the US), and show Russia that they can stop the gravy train whenever they feel like it by manipulating prices.

MIAMI - Former dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega hopes to immediately board a plane for Panama when he is released from prison on Sept. 9, and he plans to fight his conviction back home in the slayings of two political opponents, his attorney said.

Read the whole thing

I remember when the US went to Panama to remove Noriega.  It’s one of the first military operations that I remember.  At that time, I didn’t realize that he would one day be released.  I wonder if he had to reimburse us for the cost of apprehending him…  not likely.

BALTIMORE—Federal agents taking a break from an unrelated assignment yesterday arrested 24 illegal aliens at a Fells Point 7-Eleven after the men attempted to solicit “underground” employment from the agents.

This, to me was the best part:

CASA officials invited other immigrant advocates and faith leaders to protest the arrests, which they say unfairly targeted Hispanics…

Since the majority of those caught on immigration violations are hispanic, the system obviously descriminates /sarcasm

read the whole thing it’s pretty funny

Hit US television show ‘24’ under fire from Muslim group

Hit US television show “24” came under fire from a Muslim group, which accused the program’s makers of fuelling anti-Muslim prejudice with its latest storyline.

In an effort to be realistic, television shows should be allowed to use real appearing bad guys.  In order to be fair, we should require that each group appear in shows proportionally to the number of Americans killed by each terror group in real life.

When Canadians start flying planes into and blowing up buildings, we’ll start making movies about Canadian terrorists.  Until then, I guess were stuck with CAIR crying about how showing Islamict terrorists isn’t fair.