Heaviest Element Known to Science: Governmentium
Lawrence Livermore Laboratories has discovered the heaviest element yet known to science.
The new element,Governmentium (Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.
These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.
Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take from 4 days to 4 years to complete.
Governmentium has a normal half-lif e of 2- 6 years. It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.
In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.
This characteristic of morons promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass.
When catalyzed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium, an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.
‘Resurrected,’ but still wallowing in red tape
Excerpt:
In September 2006, the inspector general’s office tried to get a fix on how many people Social Security was improperly killing off by reviewing updates to the agency’s Death Master File.
In all, Social Security officials had to “resurrect” 23,366 people from January 2004 to September 2005. In other words, over a period of 21 months, Social Security was presented with irrefutable evidence that it had been “killing” more than 1,100 people a month, or more than 35 a day.
Comment: Wasn't this a theme of Brazil? Image above is the arachno-logo of the "Ministry of Information". With socialized medicine, a government with this kind of efficiency could schedule me for a hysterectomy!
Subprime Nation
Excerpts:
Since it began to give credit ratings to nations in 1917, Moody's has rated the United States triple-A. U.S. Treasury bonds have been seen as the most secure investment on earth. When crises erupt, nervous money seeks out the world's great safe harbor, the United States. That reputation is now in peril.
Last week, Moody's warned that if the United States fails to rein in the soaring cost of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the nation's credit rating will be down-graded within a decade.
Our political parties seem oblivious. Republicans, save Ron Paul, are all promising to expand the U.S. military and maintain all of our worldwide commitments to defend and subsidize scores of nations.
Democrats, with entitlement costs drowning the federal budget in red ink, are proposing a new entitlement – universal health coverage for the near 50 million who do not have it – another magnet for illegal aliens. Moody's is telling America it needs a time of austerity, while the U.S. government is behaving like the governments we used to bail out.
...
Meanwhile, Washington drifts mindlessly toward the maelstrom. With the dollar sinking, oil surging to $100 a barrel, the Dow having its worst January in memory, foreclosures mounting, credit card debt going rotten, and consumers and businesses unable or unwilling to borrow, we appear headed into recession.
...
America, to pay her bills, has begun to sell herself to the world.
...
This self-indulgent generation has borrowed itself into unpayable debt. Now the folks from whom we borrowed to buy all that oil and all those cars, electronics and clothes are coming to buy the country we inherited. We are prodigal sons, and the day of reckoning approaches.
For Children of Norway, a Rift With the Mother Country
Minneapolis Journal
For Children of Norway, a Rift With the Mother Country
By MONICA DAVEY
Published: November 20, 2007
Norway’s decision to shut its career consulate in Minneapolis has upset residents of the Upper Midwest, which is home to more Norwegian-Americans than any other region of the country.
Excerpts:
“This is a bit of a slap in the face,” Janet Rog, 74, said of Norway’s recent announcement that it would shut its career consulate here next year and send the diplomats home.
The consulate, opened in 1906 and upgraded in 1946 to its current status as consulate general, is a point of pride for the Upper Midwest, which is home to more Norwegian-Americans than any other region of the country.
....
Norwegian officials say their decision to close the consulate, which handles a nine-state region, is simply a matter of money. Jannicke Jaeger, an official at the Norwegian Embassy in Washington, said it cost about $2 million a year to operate the consulate. While it will be closing in 2008, new ones will be opening in China, where the economy is booming, and in Spain, where many Norwegians retire.
....
“It’s silly to think that this place is somehow going to break the budget for Norway,” said Anne Kanten, a resident of Milan, Minn., which calls itself Norwegian Capital U.S.A. “What’s more Norwegian than Minnesota, anyway?”
Three other Norwegian career consulates in the United States will remain open, in New York, San Francisco and Houston. Embassy officials defend those choices as strategic; Houston, for instance, has significance for Norway’s oil interests.
For Minnesotans, that is one more rub.
“Houston?” asked the 80-year-old Mrs. Amundson, laughing faintly. “Houston, Texas?”
Ingebretsen's Scandinavian Center
California's spending spree
Excerpt:
"The May Revision continues the Governor's commitment to restraining the growth in spending, pre-paying debt, eliminating the net operating deficit, not raising taxes and maintaining an adequate reserve." Or so says the introductory paragraph of the Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's updated budget plan.
Just for fun, let's run that through the old fact-checker ...
John Adams said, "Facts are stubborn things."
Comment: Big-spending Republicans give the party a bad name! Article by Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks.
George F. Will: If Minneapolis taxi argument wins the day, watch out
Comment: Did you know that a taxi medallion in NYC costs $ 500,000? Why should government limit supply (in this case taxis)? A good article on Minneapolis government statism.
Excerpt:
Attracted by Minneapolis-St. Paul's vibrant Hispanic community, now 130,000 strong, Paucar moved here, assuming that economic liberty would be more spacious than in New York. Unfortunately, Minnesota has a "progressive," meaning statist, tradition that can impede the progress of people like Paucar.
The regulatory impulse came to the upper Midwest with immigrants from Northern Europe. In the 1940s, under a mayor who soon would take his New Deal liberalism to Washington -- Hubert Humphrey -- the city capped entry into the taxi business.
By the time Paucar got here in 1999, 343 taxis were permitted. He wanted to launch a fleet of 15. That would have required him to find 15 license-holders willing to sell for up to $25,000 apiece.
Government gouges you at the pump
Comment: the government makes more when you pump than the oil companies. A sane read:
Excerpt:
Actually, Pelosi's constituents are being gouged by people like Pelosi — by government. While oil companies make about 13 cents on a gallon of gasoline, the federal government makes 18.4 cents (the federal tax) and California's various governments make 40.2 cents (the nation's third-highest gasoline tax). Pelosi's San Francisco collects a local sales tax of 8.5 percent — higher than the state's average for local sales taxes.
