Coming to You Soon as “Soma”

According to The Daily Beast, there’s now a pill to cure racism.

…Writing in the medical journal Psychopharmacology, British investigators found that a veteran heart and blood pressure pill, propranolol, which acts to lower our fight-or-flight response to anything by dialing down adrenaline production, reduced “implicit racial bias” significantly. They ran their study in 36 white 22-year-old volunteers and distinguished implicit associations from explicit racial prejudice. … (H/T: JCM)

While some question whether or not thirty-six people is enough of a sample size to make such an announcement (it’s not), I have to question the fact that only white people were included in the sample. Apparently, the “implicit racial bias” of the investigators, who might want to consider taking some of their own medicine, is that only white people can be racist. Physicians, heal thyselves.

It’s Up To You, New York, New York!

If Obama can’t make it there, he can’t make it anywhere…

Republican candidate Bob Turner has won the special election to finish the term of resigned-in-disgrace Representative Anthony Weiner (D). This is a historic victory, against a Democrat (David Weprin) with twenty years of elected experience and good personal popularity numbers, in a very Democratic district (thrice the number of registered Democrats as registered Republicans, and held by a Democrat for over ninety years). There’s only one reason why Turner even had a chance, much less managed to win decisively: Barack Obama. The special election was turned into a referendum on Obama’s jobs performance (and overt hostility to Israel), leading the electorate to crossover and vote against the Democrat to “send a message” to the President. There is no other way to interpret the results; but Lord knows the Democratic spinmeisters are still trying.

Naturally, this being a race that the Democrats really didn’t want to lose (because of the implications for Obama, and for next year’s elections) – Ah, who the Hell am I kidding? Because this was a race containing a Democrat candidate, there was naturally chicanery involved. Non-regular (absentee and provisional) ballots are being impounded by a court order because of “gross incompetence” on behalf of the Board of Elections, citing “absentee ballots being mailed to dead people and people who did not request them.” Fortunately, Turner’s support was not only above the margin of error, it was also above the margin of Democratic fraud.

In an unrelated story, Shekina Pena of Lansing, Michigan, was charged with registering voters by giving them marijuana.

CNN — A woman who operates a medicinal marijuana clinic in Lansing, Michigan, has been charged with breaking the state’s election law after allegedly doling out free marijuana to those who registered to vote, officials said Tuesday. Shekina Pena, 34, was charged Monday with a misdemeanor after authorities said she tried to influence voters with pot, considered a “valuable consideration,” according to a statement from Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette. … Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson argued that Pena’s intent was clear. “They offered their customers marijuana in exchange for voter registration. They also supplied a slate of their preferred candidates. This goes beyond election shenanigans.” …

Michigan Election Law prohibits the provision of anything of value in order to induce or influence the manner of voting (MCL 168.931(1)(a)). Such violations are misdemeanors punishable by up to 90 days in jail and/or a $500 fine.

The Obama Downgrade, Alphabetically

This one is by Bret Stephens at the WSJ (H/T: HillBuzz) and contains an entry for every letter of the alphabet. I’m just going to quote a few of my favorites, but you should read the whole thing.

A	is for the Arab world, and our standing in it: This year, Zogby International found that 5% of Egyptians had a favorable view of the U.S. In 2008, when George W. Bush was president, it was 9%. Wasn’t Obama supposed to make the Arab world love us?
D	is for—what else—the federal debt, which grew to $14.3 trillion this month from $10.7 trillion at the end of 2008. D is also for the dollar, which has lost almost half its value against gold since Aug. 2008.
E	is for energy. The average retail price of a gallon of gas hovered near the $1.80 mark when Mr. Obama was inaugurated. It has since more than doubled. E is also for ethanol, the non-wonder fuel the U.S. continues to subsidize to the tune of $5 billion a year.
G	is for Guantanamo, which remains open, and for Gadhafi, who remains in power, and for Greece, which offers a vision of America’s future if we don’t reform our entitlement state.
I	is for Israel, a Middle Eastern country the president claims to support even as he routinely disses its prime minister, seeks to shrink its borders and—why not?—divide its capital. I is also for insane, for all the Jews who vote for Obama’s reelection next year.
J	is for jobs. In November 2008, president-elect Obama promised he would create 2.5 million jobs by 2011. By October 2010 the economy had shed 3.3 million jobs. For the seventh time, he’s now claiming to have shifted his attention to creating jobs.
M	is for Mexico, a country that manages 5.4% unemployment and 4.2% annual growth even as it fights a war against the drug cartels. Obama, meanwhile, is arming those cartels.
Q	is for QE2, the most disastrous experiment in monetary policy since Fed Chairman William Miller’s low-interest rate policy crashed the dollar in 1978. There is talk of QE3 coming soon.
T	is for taxes, which Mr. Obama would like to see raised for “millionaires and billionaires”—curiously defined as people making $200K and up.
X	is for Liu Xiaobo, an example of what a deserving winner of the Nobel Peace Prize looks like. X is also for Xanax, likely to be remembered as the drug of choice of the Obama years.
Z	is for zero, which is the likelihood that one of the current GOP hopefuls will defeat Mr. Obama in 2012. I hope this is wrong, but I fear it isn’t.

(Comments in red by yours truly.)

Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco

I haven’t seen it, but people (or, to be more accurate, leftists) have been complaining about a new show called Sarah Palin’s Alaska. Zombie has responded with a collections of photos from the Zombie archives called Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco. (Warning! Not safe for work, and not in a good way!) These are all pictures taken by the undead one in San Francisco, and provide yet another timely reminder of what used to happen when dissent was still considered “the highest form of patriotism” by the left (a philosophy when ended the very second Obama was sworn in), and also of what hateful, angry protest (complete with swastikas and death threats against President Bush) really look like. Photos like this never appear in the mainstream media, since leftist protests are always sanitized (and the numbers exaggerated) while conservative protests are endlessly denigrated (and the numbers understated) if they’re even reported on at all. Not for the weak of stomach!

What Hath Science Wrought?!

According to The Telegraph, a British scientific team is trying to create something analogous to Star Trek‘s Synthehol:

…An alcohol substitute that mimics its pleasant buzz without leading to drunkenness and hangovers is being developed by scientists. The new substance could have the added bonus of being “switched off” instantaneously with a pill, to allow drinkers to drive home or return to work. The synthetic alcohol, being developed from chemicals related to Valium, works like alcohol on nerves in the brain that provide a feeling of well-being and relaxation. But unlike alcohol its does not affect other parts of the brain that control mood swings and lead to addiction. It is also much easier to flush out of the body. Finally because it is much more focused in its effects, it can also be switched off with an antidote, leaving the drinker immediately sober. The new alcohol is being developed by a team at Imperial College London, led by Professor David Nutt, Britain’s top drugs expert who was recently sacked as a government adviser for his comments about cannabis and ecstasy. He envisions a world in which people could drink without getting drunk, he said. …

Apparently they took the plea by Huey Lewis seriously, although I have to wonder if this is a hoax given the name of Professor “Nutt” and the undisclosed “comments about cannabis and ecstasy” that got him sacked. As for “a world in which people could drink without getting drunk”, that’s just crazy talk!

…Eventually it would be used to replace the alcohol content in beer, wine and spirits and the recovered ethanol (the chemical name for alcohol) could be sold as fuel. Professor Nutt believes that the new drug, which would need licensing, could have a dramatic effect on society and improve the nation’s health. The NHS report Statistics on Alcohol: England, 2009 found more than 800,000 alcohol-related admissions to hospitals in 2007-08 – and more than 6,500 deaths – at a cost to the service of £2.7bn a year. Some charities estimate that the toll could be up to five times higher. Drink is, for example, a factor in 40 per cent of fatal fires, 15 per cent of drownings, 65 per cent of suicides and 40 per cent of domestic abuse. It also has other costs, including 17 million lost working days a year, worth about £20bn to the economy.…

“Replace.” Not be offered as another option, but “replace” alcohol because the government always works best when they impose a one-size-fits-all policy on us for our own good. And note the whole laundry-list of ways that this will improve society: Cheaper fuel! Health care savings! Reduced crime! Why, if all that isn’t worth a new Prohibition, I don’t know what is! (Only this time, the progressives won’t bother with going through all the work of obtaining a pesky Constitutional Amendment. Trying to amend – or simply comply with – the Constitution is far too much work, and not even worth the bother considering it’s just a flawed document created by dead raaaaacist white males.)

Yes, I know that nothing may come of this and I’m probably making a big deal over nothing, but seriously – don’t mess with my alcohol! You progressives can have all the spritzers and Zima you want, but don’t tread on mead!

More Government Malpractice

The government, which only delivered a measly two percent of the swine flu vaccines in October which it had promised, couldn’t even manage to get that minuscule amount done correctly. According to the AP,

Health officials are recalling hundreds of thousands of doses of swine flu vaccine after tests indicated they may not be potent enough to protect against the virus.

It’s of special note, given that everything the Democrats do for, I mean TO us, is supposedly “for the children”… Well, the doses involved in the recall are specifically those “intended for young children, ages 6 months to almost three years.” Once again, if we give this crowd of Stooges control of our entire health care system, we won’t get “free health”, we’ll end up “health free.”

Much Explained

Obama’s support and poll numbers continue to not so much fly as plummet. Right now 44% would rather have Bush back than Obama. Despite everything the mainstream media keep misreporting about her and all of the other dirt (including Hustler releasing as many porno movie parodies of her that they can shoot) even Sarah Palin is only one point away from Obama. Twenty percent of Americans “support the impeachment of President Obama for his actions so far.” And the trend for Obama’s popularity and “prestige” continues to be down, down, down, with no bottom in sight.

And yet, there are still those hardcore supporters who think that Obama is the best President ever. Who think he’s the Messiah, who think he deserved the admittedly already-devalued Nobel Peace Prize. Who continue to look upon Him and see all of their hopes and dreams come true. How do you explain this group of people? Drugs and more drugs!

(H/T: Hayseed)

One In Six Americans Have Had Swine Flu

Have you gotten your H1N1 prevention shot yet? Neither have I, nor anyone in my family!

Atlanta (AP) — Health officials now estimate that swine flu has sickened nearly fifty million Americans and killed nearly ten thousand. The new estimates mean about one in six Americans have had the illness. The figures were released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday. The CDC also estimates that two hundred thousand people have been hospitalized since the virus was first identified in April though mid-November…

But I’m sure we’ll finally see the dosages distributed, in the quantities promised by our government, once the actual virus has departed:

USA Today — For months, in an attempt to assuage fears about the H1N1 flu, also known as swine flu, the government built up the public’s expectation that shots would be widely available by mid-October. In July, officials predicted one hundred and twenty million doses by that time. When October rolled around, they dropped the estimate to forty million. On October fifth, all the government had available were about two point four million doses.

2,400,000 out of 120,000,000 means that they’ve delivered only two percent of the promised doses. Hell yes, let’s give them  a state  control of our entire health care system! More and more, it seems like their promises of “free health” actually mean that all of us will be “health free.”

Soma (a.k.a. Hopium)

Palmview, TX — President Barack Obama’s approval rating may be hovering in the 50 percent range, but that doesn’t mean America’s Commander-in-Chief isn’t catching on with new constituents. There is now a line of Ecstasy pills made in the image of the 44th president of the United States, according to Texas police who have snatched a batch off the streets.

Were these around last year? Because it would explain a lot.