Magic trick

Tonight's magic trick -- magician / comedienne Ursula Martinez puts a racy twist to the "Disappearing Handkerchief" trick, performed at the Montreal Comedy Festival [Note: BAFFNOD Warning - Boobies And Full Frontal Nudity On Display. Thus, highly likely not safe for work. Although that may depend on where you work, I guess. :)]:

The government giveth, ...

... and the government taketh away. From Zero Hedge, we learn that over 15 million folks may owe Uncle Sam taxes on the tax "credit" they got earlier in the year:

And you thought the government was not out to screw you. According to a research report released by the Treasury Department's Inspector General for Tax Administration, over 15 million people may own [sic] $250 (and in same cases more than $400) on the tax "credit" received earlier in the year, purely as a function of how the tax break was set up by the IRS. The payment will come as either a smaller tax refund or larger tax bill. As a reminder, Obama's tax break earlier in 2009 (first of many) provided individuals up to $400 and couples up to $800 in one-time benefits. It turns out that money may now have to be repaid. And as the credit impacted 95% of all wage earners, the number of people impacted is estimated at about 15.4 million. But at least it got these 15.4 million soon to be angry taxpayers to consumer a little more than they otherwise would in Q2. And now, it is time for another "one-time" jolt to the system. [emphasis added]

The breakdown of those impact is as follows:

* More than 6.3 million pensioners
* More than 1.6 million working dependents
* More than 2.5 million single taxpayers
* More than 4.1 million taxpayers filing jointly
* More than 687,000 Social Security recipients
* More than 87,000 taxpayers filing returns with ITINs

Doh! Read the rest here. Apparently, Obama and the Dems can't even give away other people's money without finding a way to take it back from them again.

The Warrior Song

Tonight's fire-and-brimstone musical interlude - The Warrior Song:

No good deed goes unpunished, U.K. edition

From the formerly Great Britain:

A former soldier who handed a discarded shotgun in to police faces at least five years imprisonment for "doing his duty".

Paul Clarke, 27, was found guilty of possessing a firearm at Guildford Crown Court on Tuesday – after finding the gun and handing it personally to police officers on March 20 this year.

The jury took 20 minutes to make its conviction, and Mr Clarke now faces a minimum of five year's imprisonment for handing in the weapon.

In a statement read out in court, Mr Clarke said: "I didn't think for one moment I would be arrested.

"I thought it was my duty to hand it in and get it off the streets."

The court heard how Mr Clarke was on the balcony of his home in Nailsworth Crescent, Merstham, when he spotted a black bin liner at the bottom of his garden.

In his statement, he said: "I took it indoors and inside found a shorn-off shotgun and two cartridges.

"I didn't know what to do, so the next morning I rang the Chief Superintendent, Adrian Harper, and asked if I could pop in and see him.

"At the police station, I took the gun out of the bag and placed it on the table so it was pointing towards the wall."

Mr Clarke was then arrested immediately for possession of a firearm at Reigate police station, and taken to the cells. ...

Read the rest of this injustice here. Mr. Clarke was convicted of this "offense" because

Prosecuting, Brian Stalk, explained to the jury that possession of a firearm was a "strict liability" charge – therefore Mr Clarke's allegedly honest intent was irrelevant.

Just by having the gun in his possession he was guilty of the charge, and has no defence in law against it, he added.

...

Judge Christopher Critchlow said: "This is an unusual case, but in law there is no dispute that Mr Clarke has no defence to this charge.

"The intention of anybody possessing a firearm is irrelevant." [emphasis added]

Now why in the world would anyone in that Godforsaken country ever turn in any gun in the future, given this result? In addition to having an insanely stupid "strict liability" law, there apparently is also neither intelligence nor decency among the crown prosecutors service. In addition, the timid jury evidently hadn't heard of jury nullification. Or were too gutless to do the right thing and acquit. If they will not stand up for their fellow peaceable countrymen, what good are they? Perhaps they don't realize that the next time, they may be the ones sitting in the defendant's dock, the subject of their government's oppression.

Unfortunately the Brits have allowed themselves to become disarmed and seemingly thoroughly emasculated, and so are unable to resist such tyranny and oppression with any modicum of effectiveness. Their fate at this point appears pretty much sealed, consigned to servitude to tyrannical and oppressive government, barring violent intervention by better men than themselves.

Unemployment: A dismal progression

Today's multimedia - a month-by-month timeline of unemployment (click on image to view, or go here):

[Via Jim Sinclair's Mineset]

Talking piano

Tonight's interesting instrument - a "talking" piano. The inventor uses the piano's sounds to mimic speech. From the video description:

A "speaking piano" reciting the Proclamation of the European Environmental Criminal Court at World Venice Forum 2009. Unfortunately it's all in German, but what the piano says is all English, and it's really neat to watch. ...

Judge Napolitano on our current sorry state

Via Thunder Tales, comes this speech by former Judge (and current Fox News analyst) Andrew Napolitano:

Liberal blog learns to appreciate Bush

The times, they are a hope-and-changin'. Leftie blog HillBuzz has a change of heart on W:

We know absolutely no one in Bush family circles and have never met former President George W. Bush or his wife Laura.

If you have been reading us for any length of time, you know that we used to make fun of “Dubya” nearly every day…parroting the same comedic bits we heard in our Democrat circles, where Bush is still, to this day, lampooned as a chimp, a bumbling idiot, and a poor, clumsy public speaker.

Oh, how we RAILED against Bush in 2000…and how we RAILED against the surge in support Bush received post-9/11 when he went to Ground Zero and stood there with his bullhorn in the ruins on that hideous day.

We were convinced that ANYONE who was president would have done what Bush did, and would have set that right tone of leadership in the wake of that disaster. President Gore, President Perot, President Nader, you name it. ANYONE, we assumed, would have filled that role perfectly.

Well, we told you before how much the current president, Dr. Utopia, made us realize just how wrong we were about Bush. We shudder to think what Dr. Utopia would have done post-9/11. He would have not gone there with a bullhorn and struck that right tone. More likely than not, he would have been his usual fey, apologetic self and waxed professorially about how evil America is and how justified Muslims are for attacking us, with a sidebar on how good the attacks were because they would humble us.

Honestly, we don’t think President Gore would have been much better that day. The world needed George W. Bush, his bullhorn, and his indominable spirit that day ... and we will forever be grateful to this man for that.

As we will always be grateful for what George and Laura Bush did this week, with no media attention, when they very quietly went to Ft. Hood and met personally with the families of the victims of this terrorist attack.

FOR HOURS.

The Bushes went and met privately with these families for HOURS, hugging them, holding them, comforting them.

...

We hope someday to be able to thank George W. and Laura in person for all they’ve done, and continue to do. They didn’t have to head to Ft. Hood. That was not their responsibility.

The Obamas should have done that.

But didn’t.

Wouldn’t. ...

Read it all here. When the Left-o-sphere starts praising Bush, you know things aren't going according to the Hope-and-Change script. I'm wary of looking out the window, lest I see pigs flying. Can the end of the world as we know it be far off? :)

[Via StopTheACLU]

How Obama is bringing martial law to America

From Shannon Love, writing over at Chicago Boyz:

In my previous post, I listed some (but far from all) of the practical problems presented by trying in a civil criminal court an individual (1) who was captured overseas, (2) had evidence against him collected using covert means, with (3) no chain of evidence or custody, and (4) was harshly and physically interrogated with (5) all witnesses and methods being secret.

The greatest danger posed in the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) isn’t that he will go free. The greatest danger is that he will be convicted and that during his appeals the courts will ratify all of the extraordinary measures used to capture and convict him. The great danger is that the courts will ratify the rough, inaccurate and ambiguous norms of martial law as applying to all civil criminal trials.

After a couple of decades of these court decisions reverberating throughout the legal system, we could end up living under de facto martial law.

The Constitution recognizes only two types of trials, the civil and the military. The Fifth Amendment states:

No person shall be held to answer for any capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Until the Obama administration overturned two centuries of precedence, America had two systems of justice, the civil and the military. The military system played a very small and focused role. It served rough justice in the chaos of war and in places like the open sea in which no nation’s law governed.

For over two hundred years, those captured by the military outside the civil boundaries or caught carrying out military action on US soil, were tried by military tribunals. Up until the 1950s the military used drum head trials to convict and execute those found fighting in violation of custom and international law. Pirates were often hung at sea within hours of their capture. In WWII, anyone fighting disguised as a civilian faced summary execution with the approval of just three officers.

For over two hundred years we were careful to keep a firewall between civil and martial law. We did so because civil and martial law are polar opposites. Civil law is focused on protecting the rights of the accused against the overwhelming power of the state. When there is doubt, the accused walks free. Martial law is focused on imposing a minimal order on bloody chaos. It was focused on allowing the military to complete its mission and win wars. When there is doubt, the accused is presumed guilty.

Now, Obama wants to bring martial law into a civil court room in Manhattan. In order to let a civil conviction of KSM stand, the higher courts will have to overturn almost all the current constitutional protections of the accused.

They will have to overturn the requirement for Miranda warnings. They will have to overturn the Fifth Amendment protection against self incrimination. They will have to overturn the right to face one’s accusers and to examine all evidence and evidence gathering methods. ...

Read the rest here. Isn't it interesting that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed will be tried in civil criminal court for his alleged involvement in the 9/11 attacks (I use the term "alleged" reservedly, given that KSM has reportedly admitted to masterminding the 9/11 attacks), while the alleged bombers of the USS Cole will be tried in military court for theirs? Of course, the 9/11 attacks occurred during the Evil Bush regime, while the USS Cole was bombed while a president from the Jackass Party was in power. Maybe that has something to do with it.

StopTheACLU has more commentary here.

As slow as a bullet

Tonight's slow-motion video, bullet impacts on various surfaces (unfortunately the video doesn't tell you what bullets, from what guns, on what surfaces, but it's still interesting to see):

Denial is not just a river in Egypt

From 321Gold, comes this Casey Research commentary on the impending commercial real estate crisis:

If You Thought the Housing Meltdown Was Bad

...wait until you see what's in the cards for commercial real estate.

That's right, the next train wreck will be in commercial real estate. Couldn't be worse than last year's residential market crash? That remains to be seen. But it's coming soon, probably as early as the second quarter of next year, and there's nothing that can prevent it. The government will intervene, trying desperately to delay the day of reckoning, and may even succeed. For a while. But make no mistake about it, that train is going off the tracks no matter what.

Every part of the sector - from multifamily apartment buildings to retail shopping centers, suburban office buildings, industrial facilities, and hotels - has accumulated a huge amount of defaulted or nonperforming paper. It's an impossible, swaying structure that cannot long stand.

...

Problem is, instead of trying to meet this inevitable challenge head on, asset managers have decided to believe in such phantoms as the tooth fairy, honesty at the Fed, and an economic turnaround powerful enough to bail them all out. De Nile is not just a river in Egypt.

To be fair, it's difficult to envision what an intelligent, aggressive response would look like, given the breadth and depth of the crisis, and the lack of resources available to deal with it. Miller recently met with a group of asset managers from a number of different, prominent banks. They reported that they're completely overwhelmed and can't even begin to cope with the sheer volume of problem loans on their calendar. It's so bad that they're now dealing with some borrowers who haven't paid a cent in a year and a half.

What do you do if, as Andy thinks is the case, 85-90% of the entire commercial real estate market is under water relative to its financing? What happens to a property when its value drops way below the loan, a seller can't get enough money to get out, a buyer can't raise enough money to get in, and the bank can't afford to foreclose? Simple. It just sits there, carried along on the bank's books at some inflated "mark to fantasy" price that makes the institution's balance sheet look passable. The industry even has a catchphrase for the situation: "A rolling loan gathers no moss."

In the case of a retail store, a bankrupt tenant walks away. Andy looked at just the part of Phoenix where his firm does business and found 90 vacant big box stores, with an aggregate floor space of 8 million square feet. If Christmas season is as lackluster as cash-strapped consumers are likely to make it, there will be many others to follow.

The hotel business is terrible. Overbuilding based upon travelers who went into debt to finance lavish vacations is taking its toll on tourist destinations. At the same time, business travel has seriously contracted. Flights into Las Vegas, which caters to both, have been slashed so much that even if every seat on every remaining flight were filled and visitors stayed for an average number of days, the hotels still couldn't break even. In industry parlance, banks are now engaged in "extend and pretend," i.e., giving hotels three- to six-month loan extensions in the hope that things will somehow improve in the near future. [emphasis added] ...

Read the whole thing here.

The Golden Age of Video

Tonight's music video mashup - The Golden Age of Video, by Ricardo Autobahn:

Combat Barbie

Not your average British soldier:

Lance Corporal Katrina Hodge, the soldier dubbed ''Combat Barbie'' after being crowned Miss England, is joining fellow beauties to launch the Miss World 2009 Festival.

(Photo: Sky News. More photos here)

L/Cpl Hodge, who was drafted in to compete in the Miss World contest after Rachel Christie relinquished her title following her arrest over an alleged nightclub brawl, said she planned to join comrades on the frontline in Afghanistan.

The 22-year-old soldier has already served in Iraq but said she was hoping to join the effort in Afghanistan after stepping down as Miss England in July next year.

She said: ''It is something I want to do'', adding: ''People just do not appreciate the Army enough.''

(Photo: TheInsider.com)

L/Cpl Hodge said she thought of ''everybody involved'' after marking Remembrance Sunday with two minutes' silence alongside some of the 119 other contestants vying to become Miss World.

She told how she hoped her role as an all-action beauty queen would be positive for young people who only saw digitally-enhanced models in the media.

L/Cpl Hodge, whose parents live in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, added: ''We are taught in training that we are first and foremost a soldier. When I am a soldier I have my hair scraped back and no make-up.

''I hope it bodes well that I am seen as a more natural beauty. Me having one day to get ready for this role shows that.''

She said her comrades were delighted for her, adding: ''They all love it and think it's fantastic.''

She added: ''It's been an absolute whirlwind - in 24 hours my life has changed.

''It's been weird but fantastic weird, because I really want this opportunity.''

L/Cpl Hodge added that she had been due to be sent out to Afghanistan before she was crowned Miss England.

She was previously given an award by her unit in the Royal Anglian Regiment for her actions during a posting in Basra and has earned the nickname ''Combat Barbie''.

She said she would be ready when called upon, adding: ''I am not leaving the army. I will still be going to work - I have just got promoted.''

She said she hoped her title as Miss England would help raise funds for various military charities, including Help for Heroes. ...

Article here.

Like, get a room

Tonight's horny game show host:

The new faces of day labor

Today's dose of doom and gloom, from the Las Vegas Sun:

It sounds like a George Lopez joke.

“Times are so bad that I saw an Anglo day laborer standing outside Home Depot the other day.”

Except it’s true.

In the latest sign of the Las Vegas Valley’s economic free fall, U.S. citizens are starting to show up in the early mornings outside home improvement stores and plant nurseries across the Las Vegas Valley, jostling with illegal immigrants for a shot at a few hours of work.

Experts say the slow-starting but seemingly inexorable trend is occurring nationwide.

“It’s the equivalent of selling apples in the Great Depression,” said Harley Shaiken, chairman of the Center for Latin American studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

But it is not only a sign of the times, they add. If the numbers of citizens among the day laborers in cities across the country continue to grow, it’s likely to increase the ire of followers of TV host Lou Dobbs and others who will see illegal immigrants as stealing food off the tables of the nation’s native-born or naturalized poor. ...

Read the rest here.

Pole dancing perils

Tonight's pole dancing video, from the Russian pole dancing championships:

Landing a job like getting into Harvard

From a CNN opinion piece, on the difficulty of finding a job:

... The exclusion of these so-called "discouraged" workers from statistics means that the official number of unemployed severely understates the weakness in the labor market. If you include these workers, the unemployment rate would rise to 13 percent, or 21.3 million.

If these workers were to apply for the 2.4 million jobs available, the odds of securing a job would be 11.2 percent, or roughly the same as getting into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

It gets worse. Another group excluded from the official unemployment report is the growing number of part-time workers who would prefer to have a full-time job. These workers are forced into part-time jobs or are forced to take part-time hours because no full-time work is available.

During the current recession, workers who are "part time for economic reasons" have grown from 4.6 million to 9.3million.

Adding part-time workers to the number of officially unemployed and the discouraged workers, as labor market expert Leo Hindery, Jr., has observed, results in a rise in the real unemployment rate to 19.2 percent, or 30.6 million people.

The odds of any one of these 30 million securing one of the 2.4 million full-time jobs available is 8 percent, the same as the admissions rate of the Ivy League gold standard, Harvard University. ...

Read it here.

The Great Recession hits the Upper East Side: "This isn't supposed to happen here"

From PBS, on life on Manhattan's Upper East Side today:



From the video's description:

In Close to Home, Bikel sets up her cameras in the hair salon she's patronized for 20 years. It's an intimate space where she has come to know well the surprisingly diverse clientele -- from athletic trainers and housewives to high-end bankers, actors and opera singers. Despite expectations that this neighborhood is a secure bastion of privilege, these days, when clients get in the chair, they offer a window into the country in recession: Some are broke, others don't have a plan, and they're all looking to commiserate.

Deborah Boles, the owner and sole hairdresser at Deborah Hair Designs, started the business in 1985. "I wanted a place where people can go and they can feel comfortable," she says. "They know they belong here." But it's all on the line with the current downturn -- clients come less often; some skip coloring or skip the trim -- and as Deborah watches neighboring businesses go under, she wonders how long she can survive.

Barbara, Deborah's sister, helps out at the salon, but she has been struggling with her own economic crisis. After buying a home in Florida at the height of the market, she now has a subprime mortgage that she can no longer afford. Unable to pay the exorbitant interest, she has had to take in four tenants, each with their own stories of foreclosure and unemployment.

(If the video doesn't display, go here to view it on the PBS website)

[Video link via Fernando Aguirre's Surviving in Argentina blog]. The video is about 55 minutes, but worth watching. Mr. Aguirre notes that the sentiments and stories are similar to what folks in Argentina experienced back around the time of their economic collapse in 2001 and subsequently, and analogizes to his own country's situation:

... Please do take the time to watch the video, its worth it. I know, its NY, one of the most spoiled cities in the world, but some of the stories are so similar.

The man that lost his job as a construction manager, a well paid job, and was now driving people around to put food on the table, that’s something we saw spread in 2000 and I’ve commented before.

People, I know its impossible for you to see the similarity because you didn’t live it, but it’s there. It’s so familiar, the only difference is the language. [emphasis added] ...

...

Want to do this in stages? OK, lets call this stage B) of the crisis.

On stage A) people can’t deny any more there’s a crisis, they lose their jobs, which was a big surprise. Then the neighbor and the brother, and the guy across the street. More and more people lose their jobs. But its ok, isn’t it? Only bums are unemployed. Because a hard worker, with skills, experience and college graduate, that kind of people always find jobs…. Right?

Stage B: That’s today. That’s the video. Surprise, surprise, in spite of the skill, right attitude and fervently hunting for jobs, there’s simply no jobs to be found! People start digging into their savings or getting worse into debt. It’s a moment where people finally get it. Things have changed. You can now go months, even years without finding a job… so you just apply for anything, desperate to make a buck. And for now that works…

Stage C: There’s no more “help wanted” signs. Not even crappy jobs. Its hard even for the remisero types, there’s so many of them now.

This is all old news for us, this was us in 2002, 20003. [emphasis added]

People still get fired and it’s worse for the +40 guys. Educated, hard workers, with decades worth of managing experience, but they are not wanted any more, they are too expensive to have around, and why keep them around for other jobs when you can get rid of them and hire a kid in his early 20’s to do the same job? There no need for that type of guy any more. Just one boss now, and lots of 20 year olds working on minimum wage. That’s the recession plan to keep business afloat.

No BS here folks, never that. I’ve had people as old as my father, almost getting on their knees begging for a job. A job I didn’t have to offer because my own situation wasn’t much better. “Your family moved to Spain. Maybe there’s a job there. Anything, just anything. Driving a truck, cleaning, I’ll do anything at all”. It was sad and embarrassing to see the father of a friend to that. A man that a year ago had an executive position in a factory.

Stage D: Crime. All this brings the real danger, what you sure noticed worries me the most. Crime, everywhere and in every possible way. The bastards get more creative, more violent and why would they not. There’s no jobs anyway, things have changed, people are desperate and police can hardly keep up. ...

Read the rest of his comments here.

High speed, in slo-mo

Tonight's high speed video:

A thank you to all veterans ...

... for your service, on this Veteran's Day.

A history of the holiday is here.