Academic alleges garden talk reflects the “crisis in white identity in multicultural Britain” ...
Left frets over Iraq mission creep The president's expansion of the U.S. military mission in Iraq is conjuring up two dirty little words for anti-war Democrats: Mission creep. Just two months ago, when Obama announced he was going to send up to 300 American troops to Iraq, he emphasized that they would only have an advisory, non-combat role. On Friday, however, U.S. fighters bombed terrorist targets in northern Iraq. Hours before, the president had announced he was authorizing such strikes as well as the airdropping of aid to Iraqi refugees stranded on a mountaintop. The White House has stressed that the two missions — the airstrikes and the airdrops — are narrow and discrete. But neither has an end-date, prompting concern from some Democrats and liberal anti-war groups. “I oppose open-ended military commitments, which the president’s actions in Iraq could become,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “I am deeply concerned that these actions could lead to prolonged direct military involvement, which I would strongly oppose,” he added. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), another senior Democrat on the committee, said he supported the president’s actions, but “as one of only 23 senators who opposed the war in Iraq, I do not believe this should be an extended campaign involving US ground troops.”Even Elizabeth Warren has been forced to make a statement on the subject. Naturally, she supports Obama's decision.
For a location open 24 hours: The cost of human cashiers, not counting benefits, $15/hour * 24 hours * 365 days/year = $131,400
For a location open 6AM to Midnight: $15/hour * 18 hours * 365 = $98,550.
For the machine to be cost effective, all it needs to do is cost less than $100,000 a year to buy and maintain.
A recent article at the Huffington Post makes the claim that if McDonald's MCD +0.26% doubled its employees salaries it would only cause the price of a Big Mac to go up by 68 cents. The implication here is that 68 cents isn’t much money, so they should do it. There’s a few things missing from this. One is that the article itself alleges that doubling wages would lead to a 17% increase in costs. And I guess this is obviously supposed to seem like a small amount? It doesn’t look that way to me. What do people expect will happen when prices go up 17%? If McDonald’s could raise its prices by that much without lowering demand they would. No, what would happen is people would shop at those stores less, there would be less profit and less McDonald’s stores to hire workers. Doubling of labor costs will simply increase a fast food restaurant’s incentives to adopt technology like this. And if fast food wages doubled everywhere it would spur the development of these technologies even faster.
Obama says puzzled by second-guessing of pulling out Iraq troops: "As if this was my decision"
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) August 9, 2014It's hard to know which is worse: That Obama believes the nonsense he's peddling on #Iraq. Or that he doesn't - and says it anyway.
— Stephen Hayes (@stephenfhayes) August 9, 2014Obama: I really wanted to keep troops in Iraq in 2012 but my speech writers wouldn't let me.
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) August 9, 2014This new Obama line “I never wanted to leave Iraq, Maliki made me” strikes me as maybe not 1000% accurate.
— Max Fisher (@Max_Fisher) August 9, 2014
"He's not a humanitarian president."...
Another dispatch from the world of higher education....
This is the Tailgate of a Chevy 4X4. I took the Pic just a few hours ago Riverside Rhode Island. Started jawin’ with the owner, another riled Redneck with plenty to say bout Government.
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer made an attempt at humor over his title Wednesday by telling an audience at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit that he does not “whip people.” “First of all, let me tell my friends from Africa, I do not whip people,” the Maryland Democrat told the crowd, receiving muffled laughs. “And if you watch ‘House of Cards,’ it is not accurate.” Wednesday’s event, titled “Dialogue with African CEOs,” was hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus, The Daily Caller reported. Mr. Hoyer’s speech covered initiatives meant to boost economic growth in Africa.Imagine, if you will, if the House Republican Whip had made such a joke. MSNBC would be having a serious of aneurysms and Think Progress would have the torches and pitchforks out for the next six months. But the Hoyer "joke" hasn't made the mainstream media at all. Shocking, right?
I know, I know, it ain't over until it's over.
But the question remains, for how long will national money keep pouring in to help a Democratic challenger in a Republican-majority district who has so little chance of winning based on the evaluation of every single independent election analyst?. (Hover over the district in the link to see all analyst ratings.)
Also, there's a wider national significance.
Accordingly, despite the general distrust of the defendants expressed by the plaintiff, the Court has no factual basis to concur with that distrust, not only as to the defendants but seemingly every component of the Department of the Treasury (and presumably of every component of the Executive Branch of the federal government), and therefore concludes that the issuance of an injunction will not further aid in the recovery of the emails, if such recovery is possible, but will rather only duplicate and potentially interfere with ongoing investigative activities.True the Vote attorney Cleta Mitchell has downplayed the ruling, saying that the judge merely denied their request for expedited assistance. True the Vote filed suit against the IRS last year after the agency denied True the Vote's application for tax-exempt status. True the Vote is seeking immediate recognition as a 501(c)(3), and more than $85,000 in damages; they claim that they IRS targeted their organization because of their openly conservative agenda:
Ebola's spread to the United States is "inevitable" due to the nature of global airline travel, but any outbreak is not likely to be large, US health authorities said Thursday. Already one man with dual US-Liberian citizenship has died from Ebola, after becoming sick on a plane from Monrovia to Lagos and exposing as many as seven other people in Nigeria.
Social psychologists and police officers tend to agree that if a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken. This is as true in nice neighborhoods as in rundown ones. Window-breaking does not necessarily occur on a large scale because some areas are inhabited by determined window-breakers whereas others are populated by window-lovers; rather, one unrepaired broken window is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows costs nothing.The squeegee men and similar public displays of lawlessness were held in check even after Rudy left office -- until now. The election of uber-liberal Bill DeBlasio ushered in a new era of the bad old days, as The NY Post reports:
They were the ultimate symbol of the lawlessness and blight of the 1980s and early 1990s — and now they’re making a comeback. Squeegee men are menacing motorists across New York City, including spots near the Holland, Lincoln and Queens-Midtown tunnels, as well as the Queensboro Bridge, The Post has learned.
Moments ago, 2 rockets fired from Gaza hit southern Israel. Terrorists have violated the cease-fire.
— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) August 8, 2014After three days of quiet, the Israeli military said, at least 18 rockets were fired at 8 a.m. and in the hour afterward. Two were intercepted by Israel’s antimissile defense system over Ashkelon, the military said, while 14 others fell in open ground, causing no injury or damage, and two landed short in the Gaza Strip. The military also reported two launchings of rockets or mortar shells from Gaza before dawn. ... Just at 8 a.m., as television correspondents stood on the beachside road in Gaza City to do their live reports, the first rocket was fired. The signature white plume of the Israeli interception was visible in the air for miles. A few more booms were heard in the next 15 minutes, but they hardly disrupted the trickle of donkey carts on the street.Ynet reports:
