Saturday - May 19, 2012
ORGANIC JERKS?
Sometime during the past week I happen to see but didn’t read, an article in the health section of our paper claiming that health food may not really be all that healthy. But I wasn’t really interested and so ignored it but for the headline.
I try when possible not to over do the yummy stuff that has added to my girth. But that is I’m sorry to say, about as far as it goes. All the stuff that is supposed to keep me healthy and fit does not taste nearly as good as the stuff that health nazis say is gonna do me in. He writes as he enjoys a hot cup of PG-Tips xtra strong tea (with Jersey milk which has more cream in it then reg. milk. YUM!) and a strawberry crumpet loaded with real whipped cream.
Anyway, due to things that keep me much preoccupied here, I don’t check my email everyday. But I did this morning and was greeted by the following sent to us by Doc Jeff, and so thanks doc.
H/T Doc Jeff
Does organic food turn people into jerks?
By Diane Mapes
Renate Raymond has encountered her fair share of but a recent trip to a Seattle market left her feeling like she’d stumbled onto the set of Portlandia.
“I stopped at a market to get a fruit platter for a movie night with friends but I couldn’t find one so I asked the produce guy,” says the 40-year-old arts administrator from Seattle. “And he was like, ‘If you want fruit platters, go to Safeway. We’re organic.’ I finally bought a small cake and some strawberries and then at the check stand, the guy was like ‘You didn’t bring your own bag? I need to charge you if you didn’t bring your own bag.’ It was like a ‘Portlandia skit.’ They were so snotty and arrogant.”
As it turns out, new research has determined that a judgmental attitude may just go hand in hand with exposure to organic foods. In fact, a new study published this week in the journal of Social Psychological and Personality Science, has found that organic food may just make people act a bit like jerks.
“There’s a line of research showing that when people can pat themselves on the back for their moral behavior, they can become self-righteous,” says author Kendall Eskine, assistant professor of the department of psychological sciences at Loyola University in New Orleans. “I’ve noticed a lot of organic foods are marketed with moral terminology, like Honest Tea, and wondered if you exposed people to organic food, if it would make them pat themselves on the back for their moral and environmental choices. I wondered if they would be more altruistic or not.”
To find out, Eskine and his team divided 60 people into three groups. One group was shown pictures of clearly labeled organic food, like apples and spinach. Another group was shown comfort foods such as brownies and cookies. And a third group—the controls—were shown non-organic, non-comfort foods like rice, mustard and oatmeal. After viewing the pictures, each person was then asked to read a series of vignettes describing moral transgressions.
Some of you may have seen this on CNBC and so this is for those who didn’t as well as our foreign audience.
And btw ....... how’s this for silly and if anyone understands it, speak up.
I saw some bottled water with a label that read, drawn from organic land. WTH?
Posted by peiper
on 05/19/2012 at 02:27 AM
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Permalink • Wednesday - May 16, 2012
Palm Desert?
good grief I am homesik
freezing here and mostly cloudy
Posted by peiper
on 05/16/2012 at 12:57 PM
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Permalink • Wednesday - May 09, 2012
Sorta Better
MIL now home and resting comfortably. Good. Doctors drained more than 10 liters of fluid out of her abdomen. 22lbs and more, and the woman isn’t even close to 5 feet tall. Now she can breath again, and hopefully eat. We will wait and see how long it takes to come back. There is no cure for cirrhosis. Whether the effects are accelerating or not remains to be seen; this latest accumulation took almost a year to amass. Being a stubborn patient doesn’t help either. This is not an easy situation for any of us.
Posted by Drew458
on 05/09/2012 at 07:58 AM
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Permalink • Tuesday - May 01, 2012
Moon-a-geddon!
Skywatchers take note: The biggest full moon of the year is due to arrive this weekend.
The moon will officially become full Saturday (May 5) at 11:35 p.m. EDT. And because this month’s full moon coincides with the moon’s perigee — its closest approach to Earth — it will also be the year’s biggest.
The moon will swing in 221,802 miles (356,955 kilometers) from our planet, offering skywatchers a spectacular view of an extra-big, extra-bright moon, nicknamed a supermoon.
And not only does the moon’s perigee coincide with full moon this month, but this perigee will be the nearest to Earth of any this year, as the distance of the moon’s close approach varies by about 3 percent, according to meteorologist Joe Rao, SPACE.com’s skywatching columnist. This happens because the moon’s orbit is not perfectly circular.
This month’s full moon is due to be about 16 percent brighter than average. In contrast, later this year on Nov. 28, the full moon will coincide with apogee, the moon’s farthest approach, offering a particularly small and dim full moon.
To see it to the best effect, catch the moon low on the horizon with some intervening object in your foreground to enhance the optical illusion. Or just go sit on your roof and howl. Whatever floats your boat.
Posted by Drew458
on 05/01/2012 at 07:57 AM
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Permalink • Friday - April 27, 2012
Friday Fizz
I’m halfway through that advance copy of Jonah Goldberg’s The Tyranny of Cliches. Wow, what a great read. A fair part of it is a bit over my head because I neither have the Liberal Arts degree from a Jesuit college that he seems to, nor have I been reading National Review for the past 25 years. So when he delves into detail about Liberal roots, citing behaviors based on the tenets of philosophers like Hegel and Rousseau, dropping in untranslated “famous” Latin phrases, or casually mentioning what Buckley wrote about so-and-so in 1958 because he seems to assume we already knew ... I’m a bit lost, and come away feeling a little patronized. But those parts are in the minority, and the book does force you to think, and it’s one you absolutely will want to talk about. I think this is a book you will pass along to your Red State friends, and it’s certainly one you’ll want to read at least twice.
He has done what I’ve purposely avoided, which is to climb inside the Leftist mind and find out what makes it tick, back to Napoleon, Darwin, Spencer, and Marx etc. For myself, if the wind is right I can tell if the field ahead has horse apples in it, and I’ll just detour around. Goldberg jumps into the manure piles headfirst, identifies every grain of hay, grass, and oats, and jumps to the conclusion that the horse was piebald. And you read it, sit back and think a little, and realize he’s right. But a few little bridges, an extra paragraph or two between the analysiseses and the take-aways couldn’t hurt. Most of the rest of us aren’t so deep into the liberal dynamic to make those leaps with confidence. His whole intellectual and historical approach to decipher the statist ideology is enlightening, more so because he’s performing it on a group that these days claims to have neither history nor ideology. Obvious non-truth; they are bound lockstep to an unflinching ideology only slightly more flexible than Islam, one that hides behind stolen meanings, cliches that turn out to be logical fallacies, and various corruptions of history. At this point in the book it feels like the author is gentle enough not to believe that they are putting up a false front but actually believe the cliches, myths and ideology-free pragmatic ideology themselves. Ann Coulter, with her books Godless and Slander behind her, would not be hesitating to make the claim that the left knowingly does this all as a power grab because they have the temerity and arrogance to truly believe the rest of us can’t see through their BS, because they have the worldview of very small dishonest children. I’ll read to the end and see if he reaches that same conclusion, which is a bit ancillary to the theme of the book itself.
It’s also a fun read. I like his style. If you could get Ann Coulter to put down her shtick for a few minutes, slow down a little, dilute the venom in her inkwell 75%, and stop reaching for the rimshot every paragraph, she’d write just like Jonah Goldberg. He skewers the Left too, but in a softer and quieter way. Is it a Must Have for your Conservative library? Not sure yet, but it’s certainly a good one to add to your Wish List.
We got creamed in bowling leagues. Both of them. By ringers. Sand baggers. I’m not upset; that’s just how it goes. Both my teams bowled our best, but we were outscored. That’s how this game is played. So I want to become good enough so that I can suck. In other words, I want to be able to roll at a level consistently below my ability, and be able to just win with that, and save the real stuff for the finals when it’s needed. Come on; the guy we played against on Cheap League was grinning the whole time, him and his “220” average, while he threw 9 strikes in a row for a 257 in the first game, then started the second game with an open only to strike his way through the remainder for another game of exactly 257, at which point he goofed off and gave us a “sympathy lay” to let us win the third game. But not the wood; even though we were up more than 120 pins halfway through the 10th frame and needed only 67 to take it. No, he and he fellow co-anchor pulled out 6 in a row EACH to finish up, which gave us the win by just 54, so no wood. Greed League was even worse, because there was no doubt we’d been bagged there. F’s team took us by 100+ each game and we all bowled well over average ... yet somehow we were giving the other guys handicap points, just like the baggers in Cheap League. It’s a pretty slick trick, and it’s how you win. And I want to be that good.
Posted by Drew458
on 04/27/2012 at 01:37 PM
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Permalink • Thursday - April 26, 2012
Thursday Notes
What does your favorite wine say about you? I have no idea, but I’m wondering. We were talking with Bill from bowling league last week, and he’s telling us how he loves barolo wine. Barolo is an Italian wine from the Piedmont in northwest Italy, an area just east of France and south of Switzerland. The Nebbiolo grape used to make this wine is fussy and potent. When the weather cooperates, barolo is fantastic wine ... for your children to drink. Generally it is extremely sharp stuff, and needs at least a decade to even begin to become drinkable. The good ones are mighty expensive, yet after 20 years of cellaring they’re still a crapshoot.
We tried a bottle, a 2006 vintage from Monchiero. $40, which is mighty spendy for us, but my wife got a 10% discount. It’s also dirt cheap for a decent barolo. After a mere 6 years, the wine was an explosion of leather and spice, with a touch of minerality in the background. Far and away the fullest bodied Italian wine I’ve ever had, it easily cleared the palette from the marinated hanger steaks we had with it. While 2006 was a good year for the region, 2004 was even better, and the good ones will cost you triple what we paid, if you can even find them.
“Mascarello’s 2004 Barolo Monprivato is an explosive wine with an almost Pinot-like expression of purity in its fruit. This round, sweet Barolo is extremely primary at this stage, with tons of dense fruit that almost cover the wine’s tannins completely. Subtle overtones of roses and tar develop in the glass, rounding out this majestic wine. Monprivato is one of the world’s very finest values in collectible, age-worthy wine, and the 2004 is another classic in the making. I was blown away by this wine’s sheer balance and harmony, both of which are remarkable considering the wine’s age. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2034.” - 96 Pts Antonio Galloni - The Wine Advocate
So maybe Bill is a big risk taker with way too much money to throw around. It is a helluva wine though, one to eat with your most intensely flavored meats. If I can find another bottle we’ll try it with some garlic and rosemary roast lamb.
My thought is that you if you like powerful and spicy wines you can get the carmenere grape from Chile, usually for under $15, $40 for the really top drawer stuff. And then drink them.
Woo hoo, the advantages of being a notable blogger. I just got an advance copy of the new Jonah Goldberg book, The Tyranny of Cliches. Fight the meme Jonah says. The bumper sticker sound byte sloganeering of the Far Left throws around all these overworked terms, but many of them have deeper, evil underpinnings, often filled with lies. Terms like Social Justice and Diversity. I’ll write up a review when I’ve read it, but this looks like it will be a nice addition to your Conservative library, if only to serve as a reminder that the first step in debating with Democrats is to call bullshit on everything they say, even their choice of words. Kick the ass of their pet phrases and their robotically parroted talking points will go up in smoke; since those are as close to reasoned thought as they can come, they’ll be reduced to infantile ad hominem and tantrums. This is going to be a fun read.
JJ from over at Summer Patriot / Winter Soldier writes that his semi-wildcat “JJ’s .280 Brit” cartridge is testing just fine. He built himself a rifle out of spare parts and had it set up on the cheap, and away he went. He was able to push a 7mm 140gr bullet to 2550fps with ease, safely getting more than 2600fps with one loading, giving him exactly the muzzle energy and velocity he wanted. More testing to come, and I’m certain that he’ll post on it when he gets back from his trip. Next will come the process of optimizing a load that gives him 2500fps, and fitting that new cartridge of his into an AR platform. I think it will work just fine. Being an AR shooter himself, and a fan of the 6.8 SPC, he’s been neck deep in the debate about a new cartridge for the old poodle shooter assault rifle for years (M-16) and figured that if it wasn’t for politics, the British had the right idea back in 1950. So he brought their old cartridge back to life, with just one or two minor modernizations. And so far it looks like them Limeys had it spot on, and all at fairly low pressures which are great for barrel longevity.
I helped a little on his project, using my tools to draw the pictures and figure out what powder loads would work and so forth. From what he wrote, it looks like my software was only off by 25fps, which is pretty awesome for a relatively inexpensive ballistics tool.
Posted by Drew458
on 04/26/2012 at 11:44 AM
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Permalink • Saturday - April 14, 2012
The Eagle Has Flown
Another one of Drew’s “six degrees of Kevin Bacon” posts, except, alas, no actual bacon was involved. And this one is only 2 degrees, so I won’t bore you to too many tears.
Hey, remember how we used to have an eagle on the back of our quarters? Did you know that the US Mint hasn’t made a quarter like that since 1999? And that they may never make another one? News to me, but that’s what happens when I look at my change. I got into that habit quite a few years ago, when the 50 State Quarters program started up. And sputtered along, forever. Then when it finally ended in 2010, Political Correctness swooped in and came out with another half dozen or so coins, depicting the various territories and possessions. Just to screw up everyone who had spent 10 years filling up those collector’s boards we all got back in 2000. I never bothered to save any of those, but every once in a while I still take a look at my change, just to see. Today I saw an odd looking one, with a band around the outside edge, a picture of some stone bridge in the middle, and the word CHICKASAW across the top. “Great”, I thought, “not just states and territories, but now we’re having 10 Little Indians.” Bad Drew. And wrong. Chickasaw doesn’t refer to the Native American tribe. No, it refers to the National Park in Oklahoma. Which I didn’t even know existed, having never been anywhere near Oklahoma. And when I looked it up online, I found out that I’d missed an entire year of this new series, and that the National Park Quarters - properly called the America The Beautiful Quarters - are going to continue for another 9 or 10 years. 2021 if all goes well, and then we’ll see what the Mint prints next. I guess their jobs are kinda dull and boring, but I get the feeling we’ll never see another eagle quarter in our lifetimes.
So I’m looking at the various coins in this series, and I see the one for Vicksburg, a 2011 issue, has some odd thing on it. Looks like a shoebox under some scaffolding, with smokestacks and cannons. WTH? Turns out that this is a rendition of a Civil War ironclad called the USS Cairo. Pronounced Kay-ro, like the corn syrup, not Ki-Ro like that sandy place in Eqypt. Not being a huge Civil War walking database, I’m not familiar with the ship design at all. Sure, the Monitor and the Merrimack, everybody knows them. The Union one looks like a wheel of cheese on a skateboard, and the Confederate one (which they called the CSS Virginia) looks like ... beats me. A doorstop or something. Very wedge-like. Actually, it looks like it had Stealth Design, 130 years before that concept existed. And the Cairo looks like that, just bigger. So, is this a Confederate ship? On a modern coin? Oh, the huge manatee if so, how utterly un-PC, in this modern day when any symbol or artifact of that whole short-lived nation has to be denied! So I looked it up, and again, I’m wrong. The Cairo was a Union ship. Wrong for the 3rd time Drew; the Cairo IS a union ship, because she still exists. Sorta kinda, mostly. In a museum in Vicksburg (duh). I never knew. Actually, the whole western campaign of that war is rather vague in my mind. All I know is that Grant took Vicksburg on the same day that Lee lost Gettysburg, and both events together pretty much cut the South off from everything, and it was all downhill from there.
But I had no idea one of these steam powered iron monsters still existed. Oddly designed barges covered in thick soft iron plates, low to the water, slow as turtles and about as seaworthy. Not that that was a problem for the Cairo, as it was a river ship, built for an fought in a river war. About which I know very little.
That was then. The Cairo served with distinction, and left it’s mark on history: this is the first ship ever to be sunk by an electronically detonated mine. Or two. Yup, the Rebs rigged up some kind of floating explosives, managed to get close to her side, and hit the plunger. BOOM. And the Cairo sunk in 12 minutes. Fortunately everyone aboard got off safely. But they never had a chance to grab any of their stuff, and with a war on, they had no chance to go back later. And then I guess they forgot. And the Cairo sat in the river mud, lost, for more than 100 years. She was found in 1964, and retrieved in 3 pieces. Since then restoration work has been ongoing, fits and starts, and a whole museum sprang up to house the ship and the treasure trove of artifacts that it contained. The ship is not in any kind of pristine condition, but what’s left has been set up as a great big exhibit, and you can walk right on in. Just don’t try to take anything home as a souvenir, because you’ll get busted in the worst way.
The USS Cairo today. The ship had five boilers and twin rudders, which you can see in the picture at left next to the big old hole blown in her stern that sunk her. On the right picture you get a sense of the scale of this iron beast. It was not a cheese box on a skateboard by any means, measuring 175 feet long and 52 feet wide. It was driven by a gigantic paddle wheel, centrally mounted amidships, and protected by armor plate. The Cairo was the first of more than half a dozen similar ships, called City Class Ironclads. She carried about a dozen really large guns, 36 pounders and 42 pounders, but was so slow (3-4 knots) that a little 12 pound field piece had to be installed on the top deck to deter pirates from just walking aboard as she putted along the narrow rivers and backwaters.
There is a ton of information online about this ship ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Cairo
http://www.hnsa.org/ships/cairo.htm
http://www.asme.org/about-asme/history/landmarks/topics-m-z/water-transportation/-143-uss-cairo-engine-and-boilers-%281862%29
http://americathebeautifulquarters.statequarterguide.com/mississippi-america-the-beautiful-quarter/
http://www.nps.gov/history/museum/exhibits/vick/cairo.html
http://steamboattimes.com/civil_war_ironclads.html
http://web.me.com/john.varela/home/2011%20NOLA/2011%2520NOLA.html
See what happens when I look in my pockets? 
Posted by Drew458
on 04/14/2012 at 05:16 PM
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Permalink • A Link To Follow
Via Right, Wing-Nut, Insty, et al ... a worthy quick read regarding the latest attack in the Democrat’s War On Women Motherhood.
I am the counterweight to the state. Therefore, I am dangerous. I am subversive simply by existing. My love for my children is a dominant force that works its way into their psyches and that trumps the state-run schools and the state complicit media world.
The Left’s problem with Ann Romney is that she represents the triumph of the individual. No wonder they hate her so much.
Posted by Drew458
on 04/14/2012 at 02:00 PM
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Permalink • Friday - April 06, 2012
Light Daze
The holiday is upon us, so my posting will be light from now until Monday. Happy Easter, happy Passover to everyone.
Another so-so week in bowling league. We got 5-2 on Greed League to maintain our lock on 3rd. I threw a 575 series. We’ve fallen from 1st to 3rd in Cheap League, and we split 3-4 last night so we’ll probably fall further. No worries, that one is fun league and we did hold 1st place for 4 weeks. Good enough.
Here are some fun bits and links sent in by Doc Jeff, and another video by Steven Crowder, and some stuff I read this morning you might like ...
Total change of subject: the government’s war against US manufacturing.
Next up, it’s Hammer Time. Charles Krauthammer takes on Teh Won’s inane remarks the other day concerning Obamacare vs SCOTUS. Hit him again Chuck, hit him again!!
Lastly, John Fund has fun with it too, and the whole darn thing can be summed up in one magnificent Ramirez cartoon (stolen from Theo’s of course):
Whadda maroon. (both dark red and stupid!)
That’s all folks!
Posted by Drew458
on 04/06/2012 at 08:13 AM
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Permalink • Monday - March 26, 2012
Your Daily Gump
"Momma always said ... stupid is as stupid does.”
Girl Accidentally Shot While Jumping on Bed
Chicago - A Southwest Side man was held on weapons charges Sunday after a gun he allegedly stowed between two mattresses accidentally went off, wounding a 4-year-old girl jumping on the bed.
Jarquise Upton, of the 6400 block of South Artesian Avenue, was charged with one felony count of unlawful use of a weapon by [a] felon in connection with the accidental shooting, police said. He was also charged possession of ammunition and theft of lost or mislaid property, both misdemeanors, police said.
The girl, 4, was jumping on a bed at Upton’s address about 12:20 p.m. Saturday when the gun discharged, police News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro said.
The gun was hidden between two mattresses, Alfaro said.
She was taken to University of Chicago Comer’s Children’s Hospital, where she was treated for a gunshot wound to the ankle, Alfaro said. She was listed in good condition early Sunday.
Jarquise???
Oh please.
We don’t believes
It was her ankles. Or her knees.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/26/2012 at 12:42 PM
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Permalink • Sunday - March 25, 2012
From the outside, looking in
O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us
An foolish notion
They are six men and three women, aged between 51 and 79, and two of them have been in the same job since Ronald Reagan was in the White House.
They and their predecessors have handed down decisions that have changed the course of US history, from rulings on slavery to judgements on the Florida ballot recount which confirmed George W Bush’s victory in the disputed 2000 presidential election.
Now President Barack Obama’s political legacy is in the hands of the nine justices sitting on the US Supreme Court as it begins to consider, tomorrow, the legality of his health care reforms.
As the downfall of communism was to Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and Pope John Paul II, so the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known by its critics as Obamacare, is to Obama.
Obama staked everything on forcing the law through Congress, against strident opposition. It enshrined, he said as he finally signed it, “reforms that generations of Americans have fought for and marched for and hungered to see”.
But this second anniversary may be its last: it may yet all be undone.
Beginning on March 26, three days of oral arguments will be heard before the Supreme Court regarding the constitutionality of Obamacare. In legal challenges brought by 26 of the states there are four questions being considered.
At the heart of all the complex legal arguments lies the continuing debate in America about the proper role of government.
Opponents ask: if the government can force citizens for their own good to purchase health insurance or pay a penalty, what’s next? Could they be required to purchase green vegetables, green vehicles, or even green tea?
If Washington can force such laws upon America’s protesting states, what was the point of all that fuss throwing off the rule of King George III, 236 years ago?
Where the lines should be drawn between such necessarily conflicting forces as individual liberty and governmental control, and between the power of the federal government and the power of the states, are not simple matters to decide. Ask anyone in Britain what they think of laws handed down from Brussels and you have an idea of it.
At first glance I figured this was yet another bash-job of us stupid and brash Yanks on this side of the big pond, but the more I read, the more impressed I was with the author’s insightful understanding of the issue, and his clear and concise presentation. I’d never seen the like in an English paper covering a distinctly American situation. Amazing.
I got down to the end of the short essay and found that the author is a former campaign strategist for Bush and McCain. So I guess it’s not from the outside at all, after all. My apologies to Mr. Burns’ long ago Louse.
Though the appointed-for-life justices on the Supreme Court should be blind to the polls and the politics behind the legal arguments, four members of the court are perceived as leaning in a conservative direction, four as being liberals (including both women appointed by Obama), and one is viewed as a swing vote.
These six men and three women will have a voice in determining not only Obama’s long-term legacy, but also his short-term future as the November election looms.
Yeah, just think of that. Should the Nine give the whole thing the toss, since the very core premise it’s all built on is in error, then that means that the entire first year and a half of his term was wasted. You know, when he wasn’t playing golf or taking vacations. All the man did was go on about the health care bill, every damn day. Every. Damn. Day. It will not bode well for November.
Have we a prayer? I know I’ll be making mine. And yet, it so upsets me to realize that I can’t with any faith say what the black robes will decide. It’s a crapshoot, and that’s very upsetting.
h/t to Peiper, who only had time to send me the link. His wife is somewhat improved, but not out of the woods yet, so we won’t be hearing much from him for the time being.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/25/2012 at 01:51 PM
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Permalink • Wednesday - March 21, 2012
A Supreme Bitchslap for the EPA
The Supreme Court handed down a major win for both property rights and due process rights today in the case of Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency. At issue was the EPA’s use of so-called administrative compliance orders, which are government commands that allowed the agency to regulate the use of private property without also subjecting its actions to judicial review. In a 9-0 ruling, with the majority opinion written by Justice Antonin Scalia and separate concurring opinions filed by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Justice Samuel Alito, the Supreme Court declared that these EPA actions must be subject to judicial review.
Four years ago, Mike and Chantell Sackett bought property to build a home near a lake in Bonner County, Idaho. After obtaining local permits the Sacketts began work, pouring in some land fill. But their work came to a screeching halt when they were visited by officials from the Environmental Protection Agency. The couple was slapped with a compliance order asserting that the land is subject to the Clean Water Act and that they had illegally filled protected wetlands. They were told to stop filling in the lot, and to restore it to its pre-construction condition or face thousands of dollars in potential liability.
The Sacketts sought to challenge the EPA’s finding in court, but were told that that they needed to go through a permitting process first, and only after the EPA moved to enforce the order could they seek judicial review.
Today, a unanimous Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision and found that the Sacketts may bring a civil action under the Administrative Procedure Act, which provides for judicial review of “final agency action for which there is no other adequate remedy in court.”
Justice Alito, concurring:
The position taken in this case by the Federal Government—a position that the Court now squarely rejects—would have put the property rights of ordinary Americans entirely at the mercy of Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) employees.
The reach of the Clean Water Act is notoriously unclear. Any piece of land that is wet at least part of the year is in danger of being classified by EPA employees as wetlands covered by the Act, and according to the Federal Government, if property owners begin to construct a home on a lot that the agency thinks possesses the requisite wetness, the property owners are at the agency’s mercy. The EPA may issue a compliance order demanding that the owners cease construction, engage in expensive remedial measures, and abandon any use of the property. If the owners do not do the EPA’s bidding, they may be fined up to $75,000 per day ($37,500 for violating the Act and another $37,500 for violating the compliance order). And if the owners want their day in court to show that their lot does not include covered wetlands, well, as a practical matter, that is just too bad. Until the EPA sues them, they are blocked from access to the courts, and the EPA may wait as long as it wants before deciding to sue. By that time, the potential fines may easily have reached the millions. In a nation that values due process, not to mention private property, such treatment is unthinkable.
Volokh Conspiracy: “He urges Congress to clarify the scope of the CWA so that property owners will at least have a clearer indication of the scope of EPA authority over their land. Despite these limitations, the decision is a significant victory for property rights, and a rare case of unanimity on an important property rights issue.”
It’s just as upsetting to me that the government would allows such an Act to be written in the first place as it is that they would, showing an utter lack of either common sense or common decency, take the Act all the way to the Supreme Court TO GET THEIR WAY. This is NOT what the federal government of the US of A is supposed to be like. I call for a general flogging of the case’s lawyers, the dingbats at EPA who went on an uppity hissy fit forcing their crap down citizen’s throats, and a double lashing for the rat bastards in the Legislature who authored this crap. Writing and enforcing law should not be “We’ll do whatever we want, and we’ll get away with it until the Supremes shoot it down, in half a dozen years or so, maybe.” Tar, feathers, horsewhip; some user creativity required. The next bunch gets the tree and the rope.
Perhaps I am remembering the details wrong, but I think the Sackett case was one where the EPA forced them to quit building because they had a “wetland” on their property, which was caused by a drainage culvert being jammed up? And then when they cleaned out the culvert and all the water drained away, and then they put in some fill dirt to level the ground off, and the EPA condemned them for destroying a “wetland”. Asshats. But I may be thinking of some other case, and some other outrageous action by the EPA. Lord knows they’ve got plenty of that to go around.
The Clean Water Act prohibits “the discharge of any pollutant by anyperson,” 33 U. S. C. §1311, without a permit, into “navigable waters,”§1344. Upon determining that a violation has occurred, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may either issue a compliance order or initiate a civil enforcement action. §1319(a)(3). The resulting civil penalty may not “exceed [$37,500] per day for each violation.” §1319(d). The Government contends that the amount doubles to $75,000 when the EPA prevails against a person who has been issued a compliance order but has failed to comply. The Sacketts, petitioners here, received a compliance order from the EPA, which stated that their residential lot contained navigable waters and that their construction project violated the Act.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed, concluding that the Clean Water Act precluded preenforcement judicial review of compliance orders and that such preclusion did not violate due process.
Ok, rope and tree for that bunch. Extra high and springy branches, so they dance better for our enjoyment. It’s their DAMN JOB to know better. “precluded preenforcement judicial review” means “do as the government says, right now, or get fined. You DO NOT have a right to a hearing.” and that this DID NOT violate due process (which means “you get a hearing"). If it weren’t a “green” issue, the loonies on the left would be screaming “NAZIS!!!!111!!” and they’d be right for once.
Justice Scalia does a big old eyeroll on his keyboard at the audacity of the EPA’s actions here in the first place: the Wetlands Act is limited to “navigable waterways” (although it doesn’t say navigable by what - perhaps a duck, or a miniature canoe?) and the adjacent wetlands that feed them directly. The Sackett’s gigantic 2/3 of an acre is several pieces of property away from Priest Lake in Idaho, and those properties already have houses on them. So step off, eh?
However, this is a limited decision. All that SCOTUS ruled on is that the Sackett’s do have the right to a hearing. They did not rule that the EPA is completely full of shit in this case, nor that it is run by uppity enviro-nazi bastards with powers unchecked, nor that their Acts and Rules are tyrannical. But I’m pretty sure Scalia knows it. Today at least, they blunted one of it’s fangs. Slightly.
Oh, how I long for the day when SCOTUS will grow a big hair pair and render decisions like “Go piss up a rope. PS, we’ve decided that your entire agency is unconstitutional, so you’re all fired and your rules are completely void. Have a nice day. The end.” All the more reason to get any flavor of Conservative into the White House, because some of those Black Robes are really getting ready for the big forever dirt nap.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/21/2012 at 03:56 PM
Filed Under: • Environment • Government • Judges-Courts-Lawyers • Miscellaneous •
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Permalink • Tuesday - March 20, 2012
In this corner, Steve Crowder
Steve Crowder pimps for UFC / MMA.
Meh. Not my thing.
Though I respect his efforts to get it legalized in New York.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/20/2012 at 03:22 PM
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •
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Permalink • Thursday - March 15, 2012
Poor Peiper
No, I’m not picking on him, nor am I saying that he’s in dire financial straits.
I just happened to be reading a post at American Thinker on how US Attorney General Eric Holder has proven himself to be a racist YET AGAIN with the whole voter ID thing in Texas and South Carolina, and I followed a link to an earlier story on relative poverty.
I know that Peiper does not own a television. And I know that he’s had some maintenance issues with his little house over there in England. And it is a little house, not one of those sprawling McMansions. I don’t think his place has central air either. Not that you need air conditioning in England very often. But by the standards shown at the above link, regardless of income or financial security, his lack of consumerism rates him as being poor.
So send him some money today. Put it in the PayPal box on the side here, and I’ll forward it to him. First chance I get. I promise.
Yes there are poor people in America. Some of them live in cars or out on the streets. Some of them are crammed into tiny run down apartments. Some of them aren’t getting much of any help from anyone, even the government. But very very very few of them go hungry, and just as few or even fewer sleep without a roof over their heads. Being poor in America still means living better than almost all the regular folks in China, India, or any country in Africa, a really large chunk of South America, Central America, and Indonesia. And waaaay better than the actual poor in those lands. In America a great many of our poor are fat, and sit around all day playing X-box video games on their wide screen HDTVs, and can’t decide which fairly new car to drive to go pick up the assistance check. In the rest of the world, being poor means living in the mud, nearly naked, and on the edge of starvation. Relative to them, our poor are rich.
America sucks, don’t it?
Posted by Drew458
on 03/15/2012 at 11:58 AM
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