Al is a buffoon on the grandest of scales, it’s those peeps cheering him on that are the real problem.

Hat Tip to   for the link.

Video link below the fold.

  Read the rest of this entry »

Hat Tip to Hot Air for the link:

From Hot Air:

Video: Moron wants to fine chefs for cooking with … salt

First it was trans-fats and taxes on soft drinks and now this bunk.

Ortiz admits that prior to introducing the bill he did not research salt’s role in food chemistry, its effect on flavor or his bill’s ramifications for the restaurant industry. He tells me he was prompted to introduce the bill because his father used salt excessively for many years, developed high blood pressure and had a heart attack.

“I think salt should be banned in restaurants. I ask if a dish has salt in it, and if I does, I get something else that doesn’t have salt,” Ortiz tells me, before going on to say that he has eaten, and expects he will continue to eat, among other things, ham, cheese and bread in restaurants, all of which contain salt…

Regardless of the intent, and accepting its sponsor’s claim that it is part of his campaign to improve the public’s health, the bill exhibits profound ignorance not only of matters of taste — literally — but also of the chemistry of cooking.

“It’s a preposterous notion,” says baker extraordinaire Michael London, whose Mrs. London’s Bakery has been a Saratoga Springs institution for more than three decades. “Not using salt would make breads insipid and anemic,” London says. Besides lacking flavor, saltless bread would also have different texture, density and other characteristics as a result of its altered chemistry, London tells me…

“That [bill is] insane,” says Christopher Allen Tanner, a culinary professor at Schenectady County Community College in Schenectady. “You can’t make hams without salt, you can’t make bacon without salt,” he tells me. “There would be no pickles, no relishes, no — no just about everything.”

Posted at 4:37 pm on August 21, 2009 by Ed Morrissey

When our founders created the federal government, I’m pretty sure they didn’t anticipate having its power reach into their carriage houses.  Thanks to a particularly asinine piece of legislation called the Consumer Protection Safety Improvement Act, though, we now have federal inspectors threatening to start investigating yard sales and church bazaars.  They say they’re just going to focus on thrift stores and Craigslist … for now:

If you’re planning a garage sale or organizing a church bazaar, you’d best beware: You could be breaking a new federal law. As part of a campaign called Resale Roundup, the federal government is cracking down on the secondhand sales of dangerous and defective products.

The initiative, which targets toys and other products for children, enforces a new provision that makes it a crime to resell anything that’s been recalled by its manufacturer. …

The crackdown affects sellers ranging from major thrift-store operators such as Goodwill and the Salvation Army to everyday Americans cleaning out their attics for yard sales, church bazaars or — increasingly — digital hawking on eBay, Craigslist and other Web sites.

Secondhand sellers now must keep abreast of recalls for thousands of products, some of them stretching back more than a decade, to stay within the bounds of the law.

And I’m sure that Thomas Jefferson and James Madison would be especially proud of this report from McClatchy:

Staffers for the federal agency are fanning out across the country to conduct training seminars on the regulations at dozens of thrift shops.

Yes, because when America was founded by men like John and Samuel Adams, George Washington, Jefferson, and Madison, it was to ensure that we could send federal inspectors “fanning out across the country” to stop people from reselling their old junk.

What did we ever do before the CPSIA protected the US through its throngs of federal nannies?  How did we ever survive garage sales in the past 233 years?  Oh, yes: we used our common sense as consumers.  Gee, those were the good old days, weren’t they, when our government treated us as though we had a lick of intelligence and maturity?

I’m not the only one waxing nostalgic, either:

“Many toys have small pieces that could be dangerous,” she said. “My son played with army men, Lego blocks, all kinds of things with little parts. A toddler can put anything in his mouth. Parents need to have common sense. Ultimately, the parent needs to really evaluate and be watchful of what the child is playing with. We as consumers have to be careful. It really comes back to us.”

Nonsense, Nancy!  We’re not qualified to make our own decisions and exercise our own discretion any more.  We need CPSIA federal inspectors to get between us and those dangerous thrift stores, Craigslist entries, and church bazaars.

It’s the era of Hope and Change!  We’re all idiots!  And that’s why the government is here to help.

Good news: EPA set to shackle economy with ruling on global warming

Economy booster: California looking to ban plasma TVs

So what would national bankruptcy mean?

H/T to Hot Air and United Conservatives of Virginia for bringing this to my attention. Click on the picture for the video.

RIP Mike.

Update April 8

Hot Air has a link to the video of the ceremony.

Video: Michael Monsoor awarded Medal of Honor

I don’t watch TV for the obvious reasons, so I know nothing about this guy. It looked to me like he was trying to slap the FED around just a little. Can you do that?

H/T to Michelle Malkin and the Hot Air folks for bringing this to my attention. We’ve got more cracks in America than those in the infrastructure now don’t we?

Be sure to read the comments for this one at MM’s site. You might just learn something…

This is interesting...

China threatens ‘nuclear option’ of dollar sales

The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US treasuries if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation.

Two officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning - for the first time - that Beijing may use its $1.33 trillion (£658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress. Shifts in Chinese policy are often announced through key think tanks and academies.

Described as China’s “nuclear option” in the state media, such action could trigger a dollar crash at a time when the US currency is already breaking down through historic support levels.

Link HERE

My thoughts on this: Thanks, but no thanks, we already have all the help we need…..

Sometimes a little bit of attitude is a good thing. This is kind of extreme, but nice all the same. After all, humor is a good thing, right?
H/T to ALLAHPUNDIT at Hot Air.

This is the part you didn’t see on your TV sets or anywhere else in the Lame Stream Media.

This is my reality. The MSM provide illusions that only distract me when I’m not ignoring them in the first place. Nice job Eagles!

You can get it here also: