America’s Obamanomic transformation to part-time work continues

Published October 9, 2012 | By Iowadawg

Eyebrows are vanishing into hairlines from coast to coast over a story in the Orlando Sentinel, in which a restaurant chain experiments with moving to a part-time workforce… a move explicitly intended to help the company escape from the horrors of ObamaCare:

In an experiment apparently aimed at keeping down the cost of health-care reform, Orlando-based Darden Restaurants has stopped offering full-time schedules to many hourly workers in at least a few Olive Gardens, Red Lobsters and LongHorn Steakhouses.

Darden said the test is taking place in “a select number” of restaurants in four markets, including Central Florida, but would not give details. The company said there has been no decision made about expanding it.

In an emailed statement, Darden said staffing changes are “just one of the many things we are evaluating to help us address the cost implications health care reform will have on our business. There are still many unanswered questions regarding the health care regulations and we simply do not have enough information to make any decisions at this time.”

Darden might be able to solve this problem by relocating into Nancy Pelosi’s congressional district, where ObamaCare waivers are easy to come by, but maybe they like being based in Florida. It’s not just this one company transitioning to part time, either:

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Fossil ‘lemur’ no primate — it’s a fish – UPI.com.

Revealed: Early Bronze Age carvings suggest Stonehenge was a huge prehistoric art gallery – Archaeology – Science – The Independent.

Daredevil readies 23-mile free fall – UPI.com.

Airports to get scanners that are 10m times faster – Times Of India.

Wet summers could be caused by warming of North Atlantic, says new scientific study – Science – News – The Independent.

The 10 Worst Places for Fall Allergies in 2012 – MedicineNet.

FOX News – Top Stories – Israel Deploys US-Made Missiles to Counter Drones – Page 1 of 3.

BBC News – Tomatoes are ‘stroke preventers’.

BBC News – Syria rebels bomb Air Force Intelligence complex.

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Did You Take Your Aspirin Today?

Say you have a headache. Your fever’s rising. Your back is aching. What do you take? Probably ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil), maybe acetaminophen (Tylenol), possibly naproxen (Aleve). Together, those drugs comprise nearly four-fifths of the $2 billion-plus over-the-counter pain relief market, prospering from aggressive ad campaigns and cheap manufacturing costs.

But say you’re having a heart attack. What do you take now?

If you’ve been listening to the advice of medical professionals for the past few decades, you’ll pop an aspirin while you wait for the ambulance. And if you’ve been listening closely, you’ve already been taking it every day. Aspirin’s benefit to heart-attack victims is common knowledge these days, while its effectiveness as a painkiller, or analgesic, is increasingly overlooked.

MORE.

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It’s Important to Understand Why Romney Won

Understanding why Mitt Romney so decisively won the first presidential debate is as important as the fact that he did. Why? Because once we know the reasons, almost everything about President Barack Obama and this election becomes clear.

First, Obama lost because he, like virtually the entire left, lives in a left-wing bubble.

Left-wing academics live in this bubble. There is no greater uniformity of thought than at our universities; their much-ballyhooed commitment to diversity is about race and ethnicity, not about ideas.

So, too, the great majority of news media people live in the same bubble, the left-wing herd that covers national and international news. Reading The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times or Le Monde or listening to the BBC is essentially reading or listening to the same selection and presentation of the news.

One reason leftists talk to, read and listen to only fellow leftists is that they are certain that there is no other way to think rationally, compassionately or morally. Therefore, there is no reason to debate conservatives, let alone expose oneself to their ideas.

Obama is a man of the left. Leftism is his Weltanschauung, his value system, his way of understanding the world. Every one of the president’s mentors whom we know about was a leftist, usually a radical leftist. The church he was married in and the pastor he adored were leftist. His work — “community organizer” — was left-wing work.

When you live in a bubble — be it religious or political — you cannot successfully debate opposing views. You’re not even familiar with what those opposing views are. This debate was the first time in Obama’s presidency — if not his life — that he had to defend the policies he believes in against an articulate conservative.

He couldn’t.

The second reason for his defeat was that Obama lacked two things that have been essential to his popularity for the past four years.

One was a teleprompter. Most people would sound articulate if they could rely on teleprompters to speak words they and/or others wrote. But there were no teleprompters last Wednesday night.

Were a Republican president as dependent on a teleprompter as this president has been, the media constantly would report — and mock — the fact.

Which brings us to the news media’s protection, the other thing the president was deprived of at the debate.

In the increasingly inglorious history of the mainstream (i.e., liberal) media, nothing has matched their four-year protection of this president. To cite but one of countless examples, when President George W. Bush signed the Patriot Act and incarcerated terror suspects at Guantanamo, the press was relentless in its attacks on him for allegedly undermining civil liberties. When Obama extended the Patriot Act and kept terror suspects in Guantanamo, the press was virtually silent.

A third reason for the Romney victory was the debate format. Moderator Jim Lehrer and new guidelines allowed the debaters to actually debate. The reason the liberal media have been so contemptuous of Lehrer is that, perhaps for the first time in the history of modern American presidential debates, the moderator did not attempt to dominate the proceedings. And what the left cannot control it fears.

According to Reuters, Obama spoke a full four minutes more than Romney did. But because Lehrer allowed Romney to actually respond to Obama, Romney didn’t need any more time than he took.

Obama also lost because he is not intellectually deep. He is extremely bright. But he is not intellectually deep.

More here.

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For much more, go HERE.

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Can String Theory Be Tested?

For decades, physicists have been trying to combine quantum physics and general relativity into a single, unified theory. One of the leading contenders is string theory, an elegant vision in which matter and the very forces of nature are vibrating and interacting filaments of energy. It sounds great, but there’s a problem: No one can really figure out a way to test string theory.

Now, we may finally be on the verge of experimentally confirming—or refuting—some key facets of string theory.

String theory describes nature on extremely small size scales and high energies that are all but inaccessible to modern physics. The ideal experiment would provide direct evidence of these strings behaving in ways uniquely predicted by the theory, but that’s not as easy as it sounds, for two reasons. First, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle puts some fundamental limits on how precise measurements can be. On the tiny scale of string theory, these limits may make it impossible to point at data and declare, “Right there, that’s a string!” as we can (or can approach) with the Higgs boson.

MORE.

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Out of Gas in the Golden State

The late Daniel Patrick Moynihan once remarked that “everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own set of facts.” Nowhere does that adage ring truer than in the arena of economics. Yet there is probably no other arena where facts are more susceptible to ideology. Unfortunately for Californians, facts are triumphing.

California is a state where the car is king. Beginning last week, it is now taking the proverbial king’s ransom to fill up one’s gas tank in the Golden State, where a combination of economic facts has sent gas prices soaring. The most salient facts are these: Chevron’s Richmond plant, the largest refinery in Northern California, had a fire on August 6th, and has been running at reduced capacity ever since; last Monday, the Exxon Mobil plant in Torrance that produces 150 million barrels of gas per day had a power outage; and California’s strict pollution controls that require a switch between “summer blend” gas and “winter blend” gas beginning November 1st, has refineries reducing production in anticipation of the mandated change.

Thus, there is a shortage of available gas. That shortage has triggered the most fundamental economic fact of all: when there is less of something, it costs more to get it. In Los Angeles county, gas prices rose 13 cents overnight Saturday. In Orange County, the average price is up 20 cents to $4.65 per gallon. In the Inland Empire, the price is $4.62. In California overall, the average price has hit $4.61, tying the record for the highest price ever in that state.

The shortages have also affected those who sell gasoline at the retail level. Since the refineries have begun rationing their limited supplies, pushing prices up, many gas station owners are faced with a choice — if they have a choice at all. Those with no choice, as in the smaller mom-and-pop stations, who either can’t get gas or can’t afford to pay the higher wholesale price, are simply shutting down. Other stations are buying the expensive gas at the wholesale level, and in turn, trying to pass that price increase on to irate customers, or also shutting down altogether, in order to avoid dealing with the blowback.

Independent station owner Jim Li is a typical example. He told Bloomberg News that he may stop selling gasoline at his independent station, Best Auto Care, in San Francisco, even though he’s charging $4.59 a gallon, because “I’m still losing money,” he said. Li further noted that wholesale prices are “going up so quick that there’s not even any margin to make any money at all.” Sam Krikorian, owner of Quality Auto Repair in North Hollywood, echoed that reality. “We’re going to start shutting pumps Friday,” he said. “Gas is costing me almost $4.75 a gallon with taxes. There’s no sense in staying open. The profit margins are so low it’s not worth it.” John Ravi, who owns a Low-P gasoline station in Calabasas, California, 30 miles west of Los Angeles, stopped selling unleaded gasoline October 2nd, and ran out of high-octane and medium-octane fuel earlier last week. “I can get gas, but it’s going to cost me $4.90 a gallon, and I can’t sell it here for $5,” Ravi said. “If you come here right now, I’ve got some diesel left. That’s all. My market is open, but no gas.”

The California Independent Oil Marketers Association, which represents independent station operators, is attempting to change one of those economic facts. They have asked the state to grant a waiver and allow the sale of cheaper, winter blend gas to begin now, instead of waiting until November. “Allowing winter gasoline to be used sooner in California will certainly provide additional supply very quickly and that would help with prices,” said Gordon Schremp with the California Energy Commission (CEC). Not everyone agrees with that solution. “Cleaner-burning gasoline, or California gasoline, is a key control measure,” said Bonnie Holmes-Gen with the American Lung Association. “It cuts the emissions that cause smog and send people to hospitals and emergency rooms.”

Thus, once again, we have a difficult choice, not only with respect to the present, but the future as well. In order to provide Californians with reasonably priced gas over the long haul, the facts are once again inarguable: the state needs to build more refineries, pipelines and storage. Yet such facts are in conflict with ideological forces. “The difficulty is that Californians generally love their environment and they don’t want to have facilities that they perceive to be degrading that environment. On the other hand, they want to have cheap gas. So this is a conflict,” said Dr. Dudley Burton, who teaches environmental studies at Sacramento State.

It is a conflict whose current outcome at the very least, was decided long ago. In short, California is the most progressive, tree-huggingest state in the nation, one where gasoline prices have long been higher than the rest of the country. And as much as progressives have attempted to deflect the blame for those prices on “evil” oil companies and their “obscene” profits, or retail gas station owners and their price “gouging,” the economic facts of supply and demand, coupled with the stringent environmental regulations that progressives champion, are unassailable.

For the average Californian, the choice here is clear: if they want cheaper gas, both economic and environmental realities must be addressed, resulting in some sort of reasonable trade-off between the two. For progressives, it’s much more complicated. For years they have championed higher energy prices as a way of forcing American to embrace alternative energy solutions. Thus, if logic prevails, skyrocketing gas prices in California should be embraced by the left. They should have the political courage to tell their fellow Californians to grin and bear it for the “greater good.”

So should President Obama. The man who promised in 2008 to bankrupt the coal industry, and who earlier this year rejected the Keystone pipeline project, should be equally forthright about progressive “solutions” to the nation’s energy problems. He should explain to the American people how pushing for “green” energy solutions that don’t currently exist — even as such pushes by his administration have led to a string of Solyndra-like bankruptcies — is better than pursuing a Manhattan Project-style, no-holds-barred effort to secure domestic energy independence. He should explain why it is better to be beholden to unstable regimes in the Middle East and their environmentally suspect methods for energy acquisition, than well-regulated American energy companies, and job-producing domestic energy projects. At the very least, he should go to California and remind the residents of that state that higher gas prices are an integral part of his progressive agenda.

Make no mistake: what is currently happening to gas prices in California is the eventual end game of progressive policies. And while progressives may be reticent to express their ideological take on such economic realities, those economic realities themselves cannot be denied.

Why Your Car Isn’t Electric

Thomas Edison standing beside an electric car, circa 1914.

It will come as no surprise to hear that only a tiny fraction — less than 1 percent — of cars driving along American roads are fully electric. What might be more surprising is the fact that this wasn’t always the case. In 1900, 34 percent of cars in New York, Boston and Chicago were powered by electric motors. Nearly half had steam engines. What happened? Why do we end up embracing one technology while another, better one struggles or fails?

The easiest assumption is that some powerful entity suppresses one technology and favors another, and so the wheel of progress slowly turns. But historians of science and business will tell you that this isn’t the whole story. Instead, the culture we live in and the technologies we use are constantly shaping and being shaped by one another, and it’s this messy and unpredictable process that determines winners and losers.

Go HERE.

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Meet the lake so polluted that spending an hour there would kill you

Welcome to beautiful Lake Karachay, a Russian lake so tainted by nearby nuclear facilities that it’s considered the most polluted place on the planet. In 1990, just standing on the shore for an hour would give you a radiation dose of 600 roentgen, more than enough to kill you. On the plus side, lakefront property is probably really, really cheap.

Obama Epitomizes ‘Uncool’

There is a time in everyone’s life when they need to grow up. The President that sits in the White House clings to immature associations and views himself through the “cool” vagaries of youth long gone with every year that passes. Being “cool” is the empty vessel that floats his boat both personally and politically. The maturity that provides the gravitas to deal with America’s and the world’s problems escape him.

Personalities desperate to remain “cool” are either narcissistic or stunted or both. They yearn for “coolness” long after their expiration date. Barack Obama turned 51 years of age in the White House. It appears nothing is more important to this man, that is half a century old, than remaining “cool.” That he perceives himself more “celebrity” than president, explains his need to surround himself with celebs and rappers to confirm his “cool” cred which by now should have lost its patina. Sure, he prefers daytime talk shows instead of meeting with world leaders while the Middle East is on fire. In the wake of an American Ambassador left mutilated and dead, this sitting president goes on TV to goofily refer to himself as “eye candy,” flashing a winning smile that he hopes no one can see behind.

Immature politicians find it is easier to be glib, poke fun and hope to get by on a “cool persona.” Leadership in the White House requires maturity and an experienced skill-set to take on serious issues that impact the lives and livelihoods of over 300 million Americans. Unfortunately, this president demonstrates behavior that is not only decidedly “uncool,” but damaging to this nation.

After the first presidential debate, Obama and his camp were so devastated by Mitt Romney’s strong leadership, acumen and vision that they twisted reality. “That was not the real Romney,” they decried. Really? Fact is, “the real Obama” deep-sixed his socialist agenda during the debate. Obama would be forced to admit socialism’s history of unmitigated failure that cannot compete with free market economics. Compared to Obama’s pad-locked past, “the real Romney” is an open book with a proven record of leadership and a solid record of fiscal success as governor of Massachusetts. The Obama that has devastated this nation and buried its middle class is the Obama that Americans have come to know. The one thing that is more “un-cool” than the last four years of Barack Obama, is four more years of Barack Obama.

Under Obama, more people including Hispanics, Blacks and women, have been forced out of the middle class into either part-time work or joblessness. Example is that current unemployment has dipped to 7.8% based on the hiring of what the New York Times cites as 582,000 “involuntary workers” who are forced into PART-TIME jobs leaving Americans still under-employed or unable to find full-time jobs. In a statement, Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney clarified: “This is not what a real recovery looks like. We created fewer jobs in September than in August, and fewer jobs in August than in July, and we’ve lost over 600,000 manufacturing jobs since President Obama took office.” Romney further wrote, “If not for all the people who have simply dropped out of the labor force, the real unemployment rate would be closer to 11 percent.” Obama’s disastrous jobs record — harsh and deceptively “uncool.”

Obama’s modus operandi is destructive no matter your race or economic status. By stirring up racial unrest by portraying Blacks as victims in every perceivable way, it turns out that it is Obama who is doing the victimizing. Blacks desperately want to think of him as cool, yet they have been the most damaged. But, Obama always knew they would be first to be severely hurt as his socialist policies moor them to perpetual poverty. After four years of excruciatingly bad economic policies, Obama clearly owns the rampant unemployment among Blacks that stands at over 14%. Young Blacks suffer the most under Obama with 50% unemployed. Futures truncated, hopes dashed, families suffering under Obama is not only callous, it is the epitome of “uncool.”

To send our valiant military onto the battlefield with orders not to use their weapon unless the enemy first raises his with deadly intentions not only hamstrings our fighting forces, but is reportedly costing lives. Yet, that is what an inexperienced Commander-in-Chief Obama demands in his politically-correct military Rules of Engagement. Politico reports the following: “American soldiers, Marines and sailors have seen casualty rates more than double when the Obama administration issued new ‘Rules of Engagement’ that significantly favors the enemy and put our troops in danger. American troops are being killed in Afghanistan where the Obama administration is protecting the enemy in the name of political correctness which is getting our troops killed. … [Obama] is ensuring our failure in the one place he said we needed to win.” Obama has also promised young Hispanics an alternative path to citizenship if they serve in our military — should they be fortunate enough to survive. Deadly and “uncool.”

Truth about ObamaDoesNotCare, formally known as Obamacare, was exposed by New York Times Contributor, Steven Rattner, who worked in Treasury under Obama. Rattner brazenly wrote, “WE need death panels.” Though once vehemently denied, Death Panels are real and are a part of Obamacare. They are made up of an Obama staffed panel that puts a price on your survival — no matter your age or the age of a desperately ill child or parent. Rattner goes on to write that: “At the least, the Independent Payment Advisory Board should be allowed to offer changes in services [blocking treatments] and costs.” Meaning, number-crunching bureaucrats will decide what medical services you and your family will be allowed, not you or your doctor. You will have nowhere to appeal. Invasive, controlling, deadly and “uncool.”

More here.

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Two days after UAV, Patriots posted near Haifa and other parts of N. Israel

Two days after an Iranian pilotless helicopter breached Israeli air space, Israel Monday, Oct. 8, stationed Patriot missile interceptor batteries in different parts of northern Israel, including Mt. Carmel, near Haifa, in what one Israeli official called a routine step. debkafile’s military sources disclose that the Patriot, which has extremely high interception capabilities, was in fact rushed into position as the country celebrated Simhat Torah, lest Iran or Hizballah plan a follow-up aerial intrusion and in view of the current deterioration in Syria which Turkish President Abdullah Gulf called Monday “the worst case scenario.” These batteries are only normally deployed during joint US-Israeli drills or in times of eve-of-war tension.

The IDF is clearly acting fast to correct the air defense weaknesses which permitted the UAV Saturday, Oct. 6, to fly undetected from north to south along Israel’s Mediterranean coastline over its gas and oil rigs and close to its Haifa Bay industrial center, power stations and Navy bases in Haifa and Ashdod. Most worrying was the Iranian drone’s flight over IDF’s sensitive the Palmachim rocket launch site not far from the Nahal Soreq nuclear research reactor, without triggering any early warning tracking systems.

In all, Israel’s air and missile defense systems failed to respond to incoming aerial threats from the north – Syria or Lebanon – and the West – the Mediterranean.

Newsbusted Exclusive: Obama Cancels Debate To Meet With Netanyahu

By any measurement President Barack Obama got crushed in last weeks debate. Not only the debate specific polls reflect a big Romney win, but presidential preference polls and even the Democratic party panic all reflect a big loss for the incumbent. In an exclusive report by Newsbusted’s Julia Lilis (filling in for Jodi Miller) we learn that the Obama campaign next move of desperation is to cancel the upcoming foreign policy debate and correct his mistake of earlier this month by meeting with Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu.