Obama Administration granted 39 new waivers last month from Obamacare, bringing the total to just shy of 1,500
The Obama Administration granted 39 new waivers last month from Obamacare, bringing the total to just under 1,500.
Category: Points of Information
Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.
“Dominate. Intimidate. Control.”
“Dominate. Intimidate. Control.”
Now, thanks to TSA Chief John Pistole’s determination to “take the TSA to the next level,” there will soon be no place safe from the TSA’s groping searches. Only this time, the “ritualized humiliation” is being meted out by the serpentine-labeled Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) task forces, comprised of federal air marshals, surface transportation security inspectors, transportation security officers, behavior detection officers and explosive detection canine teams. At a cost of $30 million in 2009, VIPR relies on 25 teams of agents, in addition to assistance from local law enforcement agencies as well as immigration agents. And as a sign of where things are headed, Pistole, himself a former FBI agent, wants to turn the TSA into a “national-security, counterterrorism organization, fully integrated into U.S. government efforts.” To accomplish this, Pistole has requested funding for an additional 12 teams for fiscal year 2012, bringing VIPR’s operating budget close to $110 million.
New Jersey Township threatens to fine diner owner if he doesn’t remove American flag banners
Our government at work: A New Jersey Township has threatened to fine a diner owner if he doesn’t remove a string of American flags.
Lost for 87 years, the Bornean rainbow toad has been rediscovered
Lost for 87 years, the Bornean rainbow toad has been rediscovered.
Environmental terrorists destroy genetically modified test plots of wheat and potatoes
Leftwing civility: Environmental terrorists destroy genetically modified test plots of wheat and potatoes.
On the night of 9 July, half a dozen masked attackers overpowered the security guard watching over test fields in Gross Lüsewitz, near Rostock. They then destroyed a field of wheat resistant to fungal diseases and a field of potatoes engineered to produce cyanophycin, an amino acid polymer that could potentially be used to make plastics. . . . Two nights later, a dozen attackers threatened guards with pepper spray and bats at a demonstration garden in Üplingen, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. They destroyed a field of potatoes and trampled wheat and maize.
SpaceX has broken ground on its Falcon Heavy launch site
SpaceX has broken ground on its Falcon Heavy launch site.
Police close girls’ lemonade stand
Our government at work: Georgia police shut down a girls’ lemonade stand because they lacked a business license, peddler’s permit and food permit.
US might lose its top credit rating even if debt limit agreement is reached
The day of reckoning looms: The U.S. might still lose its top credit rating even if a debt limit agreement is reached.
Cats cause global warming
How did Al Gore miss this important fact? Cats cause global warming!
Long, cramped road trips ahead for US astronauts
And in a related note: Long, cramped road trips ahead for US astronauts.
Astronomers have found two new brown dwarf stars only 15 and 18 light years away
Astronomers have found two new brown dwarf stars only 15 and 18 light years away.
Most brown dwarfs have reached surface temperatures below the “oven temperature” of about 500 Kelvin (about 230 degrees Celsius), may be even as cool as the temperature at the surface of the Earth. The search for these elusive neighbours of the Sun is currently in full swing. It cannot be excluded that ultracool brown dwarfs surround us in similar high numbers as stars and that our nearest known neighbour will soon be a brown dwarf rather than Proxima Centauri.
NASA awards a key piece of ISS management to Florida
NASA awards a key piece of ISS management to Florida, not Houston.
The story reports that politics were not involved, but I am suspicious. Since all ISS management and operations come out of Houston, why send some of that management to Florida?