Linkee-poo stares into the snowy abyss

Dan point to a leaked document (no, not those leaked documents) about the EPA registering an insecticide that may have helped contribute to bee colony collapse. Great. Thanks, guys. BTW, you're the ones who are supposed to be protecting us from this kinda crap. This is what happens when you run your government "like a business" and put ideology above empirical data.

Tobias is talking about economics. Specifically how Germany went from the economic drag in the EU, to it's main driving force (in fact now Germans worry about other countries dragging them down). The article he links to also has some good info, and is in direct contrast to where the US Economy went. Notice how their stimulus helped them respond quickly when the world economy showed signs of recovery. Notice how they're heavily unionized, and not focused on the finance sector. Hmm, pretty much the opposite of what we're doing (and especially opposed to those loud voices doing armchair quarterbacking of the economy). The article doesn't mention, however, that one of the reasons the German economy wasn't considered so strong was the lingering effects of unification, which it seems they've finally surmounted.

Ken McConnell wants to remind you to buy his new novel, Tyrmia, this Friday. Ken's doing some cool work. You should check him out. You know, if you like big space stories told from a personal view.

And you may have heard of a judge in VA finding the individual mandate clause in the HCR Act as unconstitutional. How can you miss it. It's been on the news every 15 minutes, if I counted correctly. It's horrible, it's tragic. We're all going to hell in a handbag and that nasty law can get tossed out now. You know, except that two other Federal Judges have already ruled it Constitutional (didn't hear about that? Ah, your liberal media at work). And the judge in question has made a few basic errors. Not to mention, part of his decision is based on a conflict with a VA Constitutional Amendment which was passed specifically to disallow an individual mandate. Except, last I checked, Federal Law trumps State Law (which trumps Local Law - there are exceptions, as when the local law is more restrictive/punitive than the higher law, but it can't change the circumstances or definitions). Of course, the judge is a GW appointee, and so puts ideology before actual facts, IMHO. Oh, you haven't heard he was a GW Judge, unlike when a decision is handed down form a Clinton appointee and you hear about it all over the place? Yep, your liberal media at work again.