Link of the Day: Executive Orders – a Pre-9/11 Primer

[High Praise! to Heritage.com]

The Use and Abuse of Executive Orders and Other Presidential Directives

A level-headed discussion on the use and abuse of Presidential Executive Orders, from February, 2001 – back when the world still made sense. I have a lot more faith in this discussion than any of the hot-headed fuming that’s come out in the last couple weeks.

The good news – Executive Orders are subject to judicial review

The bad news – Obama has complete discretion to not enforce laws or prosecute offenders:

“one may argue that a particular President is “abusing his discretion,” but even in such a case, he cannot be compelled to prosecute any criminal charges.”

[Think you have a link that’s IMAO-worthy? Send it to harvolson@gmail.com. If I use your link, you will receive High Praise! (assuming you remember to put your name in the email)]

Wisdom of the Day: Candy Biden Caveman Shooter

Jon Gruber: Under Oath, Under Schmoath

I’ve been watching the Gruber testimony so you don’t have to.  Here are some of the interesting revalations that have come out:

  • Jon Gruber isn’t his real name. The name on his original birth certificate is Jon Goebbels.
  • Michelle also paid him to lie about the benefits of her school lunch program, and she paid him off in Hostess stock.
  • He originally got involved with designing healthcare plans because he was disappointed that MIT’s plan didn’t cover essential services like Viagara and Columbian prostitutes.
  • Much like the case with Elizabeth Warren, he was originally hired at MIT because he claimed to be 1/32 lesbian on his father’s side. His only proof, which was accepted unquestioningly, was his Indigo Girls collection. He had both band members in near mint condition displayed in his cellar.
  • On the weekends and holidays, he routinely entertains himself by pushing the wheelchair bound elderly off cliffs.  He also likes to dress up as a doctor, sneak into an abortion clinic and see how many procedures he can complete before getting caught.  His buddy Gosnell used to get a kick out of it and let him take home trophies.
  • After viewing Michael Moore’s movie about healthcare, he went to Cuba for some elective surgery. The care there was so exceptional, one can barely see the lobotomy scars or the burn scars on his nipples left by the leads from the car battery.
  • Upon close examination, the model he used to predict lower healthcare costs under Obamacare was the same as the model used to generate the global warming hockey stick, only he turned the output upside down.
  • He finally admitted that his favorite film of all time is Logans’ Run, except the ending ruined it.
  • In addition to being obsessed with healthcare, he is also obsessed with finding the perfect recipe for Soylent Green. The files in his office contained his recipes for Soylent White, Soylent Black, Soylent Yellow, Soylent Red, Soylent Swarthy and Soylent Diverse. A note in the margins indicated that Soylent Diverse was best if it contained no White at all.
  • The UN commissioned him to devise a similar healthcare plan to ‘take care’ of Israel.

Random Thoughts: Humility, Starbucks, and Torture

For me, humility is pretty hard. Takes a lot of effort not to not feel superior to everyone. At least I try to be humble, unlike others.

Is it just me, or do Starbucks cups and lids have a decently high failure rate in keeping a watertight seal? Need more innovation there.

Torture is one of those things we’re against in the abstract but okay with in specific cases.

“Should we torture people?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Should we torture Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?”
“Oh yeah. Go to town on him.”

“I don’t like how police are behaving so I’m going to riot and burn stuff until you want even more police.”

It takes quite a bit of googling and research to realize I’m famous.

One of the problems with the Swift programming language is often when googling for information on it, I get result about Taylor Swift.

Waterboard someone enough and they’ll admit it’s not torture.

You made 24 a hit show and suddenly you’re against torture? Whatever, America.

Resident Evil 4 is a good example of how good story and writing have absolutely nothing to do with good gameplay.

“Everyone other than me is an idiot.” -basis for most of progressive legislation