Guy punches a robber, and makes him clean up the blood:
Ace, Bookworm and Jim have the video,
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Archives for December 2011
The amazing Medellin escalator,
a Stairway to Comuna 13 Heaven?
For generations, the 12,000 residents of Medellin’s tough Comuna 13, which clings to the side of a steep hillside, have had to climb hundreds of large steps authorities say is the same as going up a 28-story building.
Now they can ride an escalator, in what the mayor of Medellin said is the first massive, outdoor public escalator for use by residents of a poor area.
“It turned out very well,” said Mayor Alonso Salazar.
Mr Salazar said officials from Rio de Janeiro plan to visit the Colombian city to see if such an escalator would work in that city’s favelas, which also cling precariously to hillsides.Comuna 13 residents came out to celebrate and study the $6.7 million escalator which officials say will shorten the 35-minute hike on foot up the hillside to six minutes. Use of the escalator is free.
The escalator will certainly make the residents’ lives easier, along with that of the police on the beat.
However, I would also be glad to hear that free market measures, including property rights and the legal structures that support them, rule of law and less bureaucracy and corruption, were granted in Colombia, Brazil, and throughout Latin America. Now, that would be an escalator out of poverty!
Read Hernando de Soto’s books, for more on property rights for the poor.
Of course, one thinks of Stairway to Heaven, which has nothing to do with the news, other than the title,
Many thanks to all the visitors who purchased items through my Amazon links. I really appreciate it!
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A couple of New Jersey items, re: Lautenberg & Corzine
Frank Lautenberg, Senator for my district,
Sen. Charles Schumer’s brother-in-law was quietly nominated this month to a federal judgeship in New Jersey
What no one mentioned is that McNulty, 57, was the last-minute choice of Lautenberg, who had been leaning toward other candidates until surprisingly submitting McNulty’s name to the White House.
Lautenberg and his aides have given no public explanation for the decision to go with McNulty even though the latter had never been publicly touted as a contender for the job, which carries life tenure and a $174,000-a-year salary.
Now comes the good part,
People involved in the judicial-nomination process in New Jersey told The Post they believe the surprise nomination was a naked political maneuver by the 87-year-old Lautenberg to stay in Schumer’s good graces. Lautenberg is worried that party elders will try to push him out of his beloved Senate seat because of his advanced age — something that Schumer, one of the party’s top opinion makers and fund-raisers, would be able to stop.
A reader emails:
While such naked nepotism is usually reserved for filling the village dog catcher’s job, that’s not the aspect of this that caught my eye. This is: Sen. Lautenberg is 87 years old and is so pathetically desperate to remain attached to the federal teat that he would do something so obvious as this. I know the Obama economy is pretty ugly, but what’s the matter Frank, afraid you won’t be able to find a job if you get pushed out?
Please leave me anonymous if you mention this, I’m an at-will government employee in an adjacent navy blue state.
The addiction to power — and, even more, to a feeling of importance — is stronger than the addiction to heroin or cocaine. And more destructive, to society if not to the addict. . . .
And an update on our former governor,
Surprise! Obama Still Pocketing Corzine Cash, according to the New York Post,
Before the MF Global episode, Corzine had been a key figure for Wall Street contributions to Obama and was openly being considered for the top spot at the Treasury Department in a second Obama term.
Corzine is not the only connection between MF and Obama. Three other MF honchos, including Corzine’s second-in-command, Brad Abelow, and his wife have given $5,000 to the president’s re-election campaign and another $30,800 to the DNC.
In addition to Abelow, the other MF donors are former board member David Schamis and Joseph Patt.
Did Jon remember where the money went yet?
Yes.
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The Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean
ARGENTINA
Argentina Deputy Commerce Secretary Found Dead
As Argentina Seizes Newsprint, Press Freedom Suffers
BRAZIL
Brazil Police Seek to Indict Chevron, Transocean Staff
Mystery Of Amazonian Tribe’s Head Shapes Solved, via GoV.
COLOMBIA
Rescuers End Search for Colombian Blast Survivors
CUBA
American Not in Cuban Prisoner Amnesty
60 Minutes Fails to Note Why Invasive Lionfish Dominate Cuban Coral Reef
Political arrests on rise in Castro´s Cuba
LATIN AMERICA
THE MEANING AND IMPLICATIONS OF THE LATIN AMERICAN CARIBBEAN SUMMIT
Iranian Regime TV Beamed in the Americas
Headquartered in Madrid, Spain, Hispasat claims it reaches 15 million homes in Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean. In addition to this new Iranian line-up, they also carry programming for another state sponsor of terror, Cuba. Cuba Vision Internacional (CVI), one of Cuba’s propaganda arms of the Cuban Communist party, is broadcast via Hispasat systems.
Intelsat is a owned by a several private equity firms including one based in Chicago, Illinois. They have several offices in the United States, including one large office right here in Washington, DC.
Iran and S. Arabia launch 2 tv channels in Spanish, via MEXICO
MEXICAN EX-OFFICIALS WORK FOR US INTELLIGENCE
“Underwater” Santa Claus a Hit in Mexico
PUERTO RICO
US-based Excelerate to develop liquid natural gas port off Puerto Rico
VENEZUELA
Venezuela, Iran Linked to Alleged Cyberattack Plot
The Region: Obama preaches, dictators sneer
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The Artist: The best movie you haven’t seen yet
Maatkare reviews The Artist,
‘The Artist’ Review: Ode to Classic Hollywood Crushes Soulless Modern Films
A fun movie, starring Jean Dujardin, who looks like someone mixed Douglas Fairbanks’s genes with Gene Kelly’s with great success
If you like the Turner Movie Classics and Kevin Brownlow’s Hollywood, you’ll like this
And yet, the movie transcends mere pastiche. In one scene, Bejo wistfully interacts with Valentin’s empty tailcoat in the most chaste yet erotic movie moment in recent memory. In another, Bejo luminously ascends a flight of stairs clad in white as Valentin descends, dressed in somber gray, in the iconic Bradbury Building (seen in “Blade Runner” and many more), a perfect melding of themes and production design.
There are even some noir undertones.
Oh, yeah, I even love the dog.
Go see it.
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Merry Christmas!
NORAD tracks Santa!
This is why Ron Paul should not be elected
TNR Exclusive: A Collection of Ron Paul’s Most Incendiary Newsletters
Race
“A Special Issue on Racial Terrorism” analyzes the Los Angeles riots of 1992: “Order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks three days after rioting began. … What if the checks had never arrived? No doubt the blacks would have fully privatized the welfare state through continued looting. But they were paid off and the violence subsided.”
The November 1990 issue of the Political Report had kind words for David Duke.
This December 1990 newsletter describes Martin Luther King Jr. as “a world-class adulterer” who “seduced underage girls and boys” and “replaced the evil of forced segregation with the evil of forced integration.”
A February 1991 newsletter attacks “The X-Rated Martin Luther King.”
An October 1990 edition of the Political Report ridicules black activists, led by Al Sharpton, for demonstrating at the Statue of Liberty in favor of renaming New York City after Martin Luther King. The newsletter suggests that “Welfaria,” “Zooville,” “Rapetown,” “Dirtburg,”and “Lazyopolis ” would be better alternatives—and says, “Next time, hold that demonstration at a food stamp bureau or a crack house.”
A May 1990 issue of the Ron Paul Political Report cites Jared Taylor, who six months later would go onto found the eugenicist and white supremacist periodical American Renaissance.
…Jews
The November 1992 Ron Paul Survival Report defends chess champion and Holocaust-denier Bobby Fischer, saying that “the brilliant Fischer, who has all the makings of an American hero, is very politically incorrect on Jewish questions, for which he will never be forgiven, even though he is a Jew. Thus we are not supposed to herald him as the world’s greatest chess player.”
It gets worse. Read the whole thing.
Paul has denied having anything to do with the newsletters; here he is in a 1995 interview where he plugs the newsletters,
Politico: Ron Paul really has to explain these six statements. Ed Morrissey bullet-pointed them,
- The “disaster” of Ronald Reagan’s conservative agenda
- Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are unconstitutional
- American drug laws are designed to fund rogue governments, CIA programs
- U.S. foreign policy “significantly contributed” to 9/11 attacks
- Returning white supremacist donation is “pandering”
- The Civil Rights Act “violated the Constitution”
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