Is WEDC a Kleptocracy or an Idiocracy?

The way I see it, there are only two possibilities:

1. WEDC was designed to be an opaque slush fund to transfer public dollars to Scott Walker's cronies in the private sector (in which case, mission accomplished); or

2. Scott Walker and his cronies in charge of WEDC are completely unqualified for such high-level positions of responsibility.

Either way, a lot of voters in Wisconsin ought to be feeling a great deal of buyer's remorse. High-speed rail would have been far less expensive to Wisconsin taxpayers than WEDC and would have created a lot more jobs.

I can't add anything else to what Tim Morrissey pointed out on the subject.

The best quote about homophobia and misogyny that I've seen

"We want to hit a homosexual in the mouth because we are afraid that we might be homosexual; and we want to hit the woman or shut her up because we are afraid that she might castrate us, or take the nuts that we might not have to start with."

Black Panthers co-founder and open carry advocate Huey Newton, in a speech given in 1970.  He was decades ahead of his time in so many ways.

Mal de Mali

The United States is providing aerial refueling for France's military efforts in Mali and may start transporting troops from other African nations to support the effort.  The U.S. cannot provide direct support to Mali's government because it came to power in a coup, not through democratic means.

I find this deeply disturbing.  The U.S. is once again helping France to re-take one of her former colonies from insurgents and hand it off to an unpopular, inept dictatorship. The motive this time is to prevent Islamists from using Mali as a base to export jihad to other nations in the region. Fifty years ago, we were concerned about communism spreading from Indochina (Vietnam) throughout Asia.

While the French airstrikes have allowed the "government" to quickly retake urban bases, "The Islamists seemed to be pulling back further north into the trackless desert wastes and mountain fastnesses of the Sahara, from where some military experts fear they could carry on a hit-and-run guerrilla war against the government."

Sound familiar? 

Perhaps we should all learn the French word for quagmire: bourbier.  The venerable French newspaper Le Monde is already using it.

Quote of the Day

"Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?" - Paul Shawcross, Chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget, responding to a petition calling for the United States to build a Death Star. (h/t, Greenlee Gazette)

Making the most of the opportunity to trumpet the technological accomplishments of our military, Shawcross goes on to brag about "the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is supporting research on building Luke's arm, floating droids, and quadruped walkers."

Schoolhouse Rap

Math teacher Jake Scott from Silver Spring, Maryland, has come up with some well-produced rap videos to help his students learn about quadratic equations and trigonometry. I suspect these kids are too young to remember Multiplication Rock.
h/t NPR.

The NRA Jumps the Shark

Owning an assault rifle did not make Nancy Lanza safer in her home.

Having armed citizens in the crowd did not stop Jared Loughner's killing spree.

Yet, the NRA keeps peddling the same snake oil that an armed society is a safer society, this time washed down with a chaser of unfunded mandate for our cash-strapped schools.

Too many children are already killed accidentally by guns in their homes (or in their parents' cars). Having more children in close proximity to guns at school on a daily basis will inevitably result in more tragedies.

All the NRA cares about is boosting gun sales.  It's only a matter of time before they advocate arming schoolchildren.

Am I the only one who thinks that Wayne LaPierre could have modeled for the creatures in They Live?

'Tis the Season

I've had this song stuck in my head since Friday, so I thought I would share it. It seems especially appropriate today, as Madison is seeing the season's first light dusting of snow (we had some flurries last month, but nothing that accumulated).

At first, I assumed the video creator was not from around here, since "ShopKo" (a discount store chain headquartered in Green Bay and found in the Upper Midwest) is misspelled, as is "Negaunee" (a city in the Upper Peninsula), but since they also misspelled "cheer" and "Santa Claus" I can't really make any geographic assumptions. I traded in my own rusty Chevrolet last year for a newer used Ford, and it's been many years since I've driven a car as beat-up as the one described in the song, but this always brings back memories of skidding on the snow back when I was a much less experienced and responsible driver.