I’d rather die than eat dental plaque.

But that’s not going to slow scientists at the University of Nottingham who are playing around with calcified plaque these days to get at a compound within it called dextrans.

The scientists see dollar signs in this unappetizingly-named substance.  It apparently tricks the human brain into tasting the presence of salt, where there is none.

Dextrans could be the next Olestra.  Surely you remember Olestra, or Olean as it was popularly marketed. That was the artificial fat that  promised to let you eat Pop Tarts and Twinkies all day, and sit in the john all night – the stuff could strip a body of all its vitamins in a single seating.  Its effects were supposed to be seen as a small price to pay for fat-free gluttony, but the back end of the product proved prohibitive.

Enter dextrans. They could do for salt what Olean was supposed to do for fat — allow people who can’t tolerate it – or who just want to eat a ton of it – knock back bag after bag of pretzels, with no increased risk of stroke or heart attack and zero water retention. The only catch? You have to sprinkle on the pretzels crud scraped off of a stranger’s teeth.

I know discoveries like this are supposed to be exciting, but they just don’t do it for me. Especially when they involve teeth cleanings and adult diaper products.  I am willing to take my chances with salt and fat.

And yes, at some point in life, I will probably end up with high blood pressure, but I’ll live with it as long as I can, just like everyone else who has had high blood pressure since antiquity.  Chewing on salty-tasting teeth isn’t going to keep me from expiring.  My chances of dying will remain 100%, same as everyone else’s.

That said, I’m still bummed about Olean. I haven’t had a Twinkie in 25 years. I loved those little spongy bastards.

 

Wisconsin Senate Democrats continue hiding out in neighboring Illinois. One wonders when they legally will become Illinois residents.  In most states it’s six months and a day. In the case of the Wisconsin senate truants that would mean on or around September 18th.

That sounds to me like a back up plan for Governor Walker. Wait ’em out.

Belgium has been without a government for eight months and that nation is fully functioning. The bureaucracies are all working; it’s the  Belgian Parliament that’s gridlocked. Who really needs more laws anyway?

Five and a half more months of this might sound like a long time, but it’ll go by in a snap.  Baseball season is approaching; spring will be springing, and summers fly right by.  Besides, the news media will move onto another story within a week or two.

So let the those Wisconsin Democrats burrow right into the Land of Lincoln. I’m sure there are 14 other Badger State political aspirants more than willing to take their places.

 

 

 

I never like when conservatives say things like “can you imagine if the Republicans did that?”  It always sounds a little whiny to me. But can you imagine if the Republicans did this? (Video here: Wisconsin Assembly Democrats)

These are elected officials for godsake.

Classy bunch, those Wisconsin Assembly Democrats.

Fight on, Governor.

I have a new hero.  She is Audrey Silk of Brooklyn, NY.

Audrey is featured in today’s New York Times for growing her own tobacco in her small Marine Park backyard, washing the leaves, hanging and drying them in her basement over a period of months, cutting them, chopping them, and then rolling the processed Golden Seal Special Burley tobacco into tax-free cigarettes all because she refuses to pay – or cannot afford – the thousands of dollars in state and city taxes that have been piled onto cigarette smokers over the past 10 years. Audrey, a retired police officer, estimates that she already has saved herself $5,000.

It is the perfect American response to government harassment.

I quit smoking years ago, and I’ve finally gotten to the point where I don’t like the smell of the things.  But I hate the stink of government over-reach far more, and what’s happened in New York is rank. A pack of cigarettes now costs $14 in Manhattan delis, and it’s illegal to smoke them indoors and out.

My favorite part of today’s Audrey Silk story – I even love her name – is her quote: “The only way we’re going to win now, since you can’t reason with the irrational, which is the City Council or any lawmakers, is you have to take the position of giving them the finger.”

Wave it proudly, Audrey. It’s the stuff of Thomas Paine.

 

 

 

I sat down tonight to write a short piece about the stark differences between public sector unions and private sector unions.  Before putting pen to paper, though — or finger to keypad — I happily stumbled across this piece by Jonah Goldberg, who makes every point I wanted to and several more ((better than I ever could).

The American Left is in full mobilization over the situation in Wisconsin, and it is employing one clear and effective tactic that has to be countered in the public debate. Rather than arguing the merits of public employee unions – a losing argument – the Left has cleverly expanded the scope of the conversation to include all unions, public and private, using rhetoric about 10,000 times a day along the lines of, “the radical right’s union-busting tactics threaten the survival of middle class working families everywhere.”

It’s a classic debating tactic.  If you are losing a particular point, generalize.  Expand the scope of the question, and of your potential audience.  Example: “You’re eating too many cookies, Billy.”  Deflection: “Does anyone have the right to tell someone else what to eat? Or are you anti-personal freedoms in general?”

It’s a neat trick that’s been used since the days of Cicero.

The question before the American voting public – the one that should be before the public – is public employee unions, not private sector unions.  Republicans and reform Democrats like Andrew Cuomo need to be mindful to correct these rhetorical obliques wherever they are made.

The issue in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, New York, California, New Jersey and Kalamazoo is not whether or not unions have the right to exist.  They do.  The issue is the systematic abuse of taxpayers by public employee unions who have a veritable monopoly over legislators.  The unions give them hundreds of millions of dollars every election cycle in taxpayer-paid union dues, and the politicians give them anything they want.

It has gone on too long and it has to stop. Unions, yes.  Continued political bribery and nationwide fiscal insolvency, no.

 

Tammany Hall’s George Washington Plunkitt (1842-1924), an unapologetic advocate for “honest graft” in government, railed against newly enacted civil service laws of his day to anyone who would listen because the laws, he argued, cynically removed political patronage from government.  In his book, Plunkitt of Tammay Hall, the state senator and Democratic Party boss unabashedly explains that political volunteers should be rewarded with government jobs.  How else can you trust ‘em?  Professional civil servants don’t owe anything to anybody.

Plunkitt, still remembered for the line “I seen my opportunities and I took ’em”, would be mightily impressed by the opportunities Democratic Party bosses seen and took in those civil servants in the 87 years since his death.

In Plunkitt’s day, anyone wanting a government job from a Democratic Party boss had to volunteer on a campaign. Today, it’s all automated: Public employees are forced to pay dues to their mandated union – government conveniently takes the money out of their paychecks and hands it over to the union for them – which are then passed to Democratic politicians in the form of campaign contributions and advocacy media buys. And it’s all done with taxpayer money.

The irony is rich: Plunkitt believed that reform-minded civil service laws spelled doom for the Democratic Party; instead they were so successfully manipulated that they became the party’s core strength. And it’s all legal!

The numbers would make Plunkitt blush.  Today’s re-election system is no nickel and dime business.  In the 2008 election cycle, public service unions donated $400 million dollars to political campaigns, virtually all of it to Democratic Party candidates.  Every dime of that $400 million taken from taxpayer-provided union dues.

As they might say in Boston, those Tammany boys are wicked smaht.

The President probably wants this one back. ..

Today marks the 556th birthday of the Gutenberg Bible, which served to introduce an extraordinary new technology on February 23, 1455*, movable type.  (I’ve got to admit; I never would have come up with it.)

One has to wonder how many more years ink type will survive.  But regardless, it’s had a heck of a run.

 

*Generally accepted date.

 

New York is no Wisconsin.  Regrettably.

Our problems are just as bad — worse actually — but our solutions are far more limited.

There will be no Albany legislators fleeing to Pennsylvania or Vermont or Canada to stop reforms from being voted on here. They don’t have to.

With Shelly Silver as speaker in the state Assembly, no substantive union reforms can get through in New York anyway.

Silver’s Assembly is owned lock-stock-and-barrel by the public sector unions. Nothing they don’t want — and everything they do want — gets voted on in that house. And no bill can become law without Assembly approval.

The public sector unions in New York have gone one step farther to solidify power than their brethren in other states. They have formed their own political party — the so-called Working Families Party (WFP).

Creating it was a great strategic move. It allowed the unions far greater latitude in influencing legislators. With a WFP ballot line, ground troops, and ready cash (provided by the taxpayers through union dues), the unions can now hand-pick which Democrats they want in office. Cross the unions, and you’re guaranteed a primary opponent with massive electoral resources.

Governor Cuomo has signaled that he’s willing to fight the unions to stabilize state finances, but with Shelly Silver and his minions in firm control of the Assembly, his task is all the more difficult.

New York may have to fall deeper into a hole before were blessed with the sight of Assembly Democrats holed up in a Massachusetts hotel.

It’s a wonder we survived the day…

——–

Four Americans on hijacked yacht dead off Somalia

Cell Phones Increase Brain Activity, Stirs Cancer Fears…

Home Prices Hit Post-Bust Lows in Major Cities

WAL-MART sales woes deepen

Michigan orders Detroit to close half of public schools

Political Fight Over Unions Escalates

WI Governor warns of layoffs…

Two-Thirds of WI 8th Graders Can’t Read Proficiently

Christchurch Crumbles: Deadly quake rocks New Zealand

REPORT: Gaddafi orders sabotage of oil facilities

White House: Nothing to say on Libya

Witnesses report bodies in streets

Oil industry worries unrest could spread

Medvedev sees ‘fires for decades’ in Arab world

SHOPPING: Abu Dhabi arms fair: Tanks, guns, teargas

Man lunges toward ‘TODAY’ hosts during live broadcast…

This Goes Far Beyond Wisconsin

Chaos Grows in Libya as Gaddafi Vows to Fight

Obama’s Problematic Mideast Messages

Is the Benefits Bubble Bursting?

At Grave Risk

Reckless Spending

Will Gaddafi Sabotage Oil and Sow Chaos?

Libya Exposes Impotence of the West

Europe’s Reform May Come at High Price

Asia’s Opium Resurgence

Arab World Heading to 1848 Redux?

Beware Revolution in the Muslim World

European Free Speech Under Attack

The West’s Middle East Pillars of Sand

Yemen May Be Next to Fall

Russia, China Arms Sales Flood Latin America

Conflict Looms Over U.S. Military in Australia

Will Revolutions Strike Asia?

Egypt’s Military Can’t Govern

Can Pakistan’s Government Be Toppled?

China Destabilizing the Global Economy

World Risks Losing a Generation

The Next Oil Crisis Will Be Worse

Why China Studies Bismark

Obama’s Diplomatic Blunder With Israel

A Powder Keg in South Asia

Milan Airport Terminal Evacuated

Over 50 Dead In Mexico Gun Battles

Villagers Flee Philippines

Oil, Stocks Slip On Libya Unrest

Wall St extends losses on Libyan turmoil

Mideast Unrest Cripples Foreign Investment

A New Food Crisis Is On Our Plates

Inflation Predictions: The U.S. Is a Late Riser

Housing May Crush Recovery and Obama

Why We Still Can’t Prevent Flash Crashes

America’s Day of Reckoning Draws Ever Closer

Earthquake Is Brewing In US Economic History

The 2011 Market Crash Will Hit by Christmas

Oil Price Shock: Pandora’s Box Is Opened

Political Unrest and the Impact on Libya’s Oil Production

What’s Wrong With the Dollar?

Despite Rally, Prechter Sees Catastrophe

Transparency Won’t Cure State Budget Woes

‘Catastrophic’ Crash Fear Rising Despite Bull Market

Seven Industries That’ll Lead Inflation

The New Loch Ness Monster