Random links of interest, concern or curiosity from the past week or so, that deserve at least a SHORT mention:

 
Sound the Alarm: New Obama Regulations Will Push Private Retirement Savings Into Government Accounts ~ They’ve blown through all other options, time for the feds to start stealing from we-the-responsible ~

According to an alarming report in the Wall Street Journal, government regulators at the Labor Department will be implementing new rules at the end of the year that will eventually force private retirement investments into government accounts […]
 
Like Obamacare, which made providing private health insurance plans so expensive that major companies dumped employees into the government exchanges, these Obama administration regulations will make retirement savings through private sources so burdensome, it will force employees into government accounts.

 
U.S. Gives 680,000 Green Cards to Migrants from Muslim Nations ~ Don’t worry, I’m sure none of them are potential terrorists (like Mohamed Barry for instance).
 
California Rail Stymied by Lack of “All the Money in the World” ~ Governor Moombeam’s magical money tree has stopped producing? Another lesson on Leftism ~

When your business plan is based on the expectation that people will give you money even though wasted your money, blew through every schedule and projection, and you began building with no actual financial plan, you don’t have a business plan. You have a pipe dream.

 
Why Britain (and Europe) depends on migrants; It’s not about economics. It’s about our snobbish, slobbish culture. Interesting angle, with more than a little truth in it ~

I have conducted a small thought experiment with many people. I ask them to imagine that they are employers who seek an employee to perform work that is not in itself skilled but nevertheless requires certain characteristics, such as punctuality, politeness, willingness to oblige and so forth. The imagined employer has two applicants about whom he knows only two things: their age (shall we say 24) and their nationality. One is British and one is Polish. Which of the applicants does the imagined employer choose? Not a single person to whom I have put this question has ever hesitated for a moment: he chooses the Pole.

Have we totally lost the “Protestant work ethic” here in America as well?
 
Oregon Pro-Life Group Endorses Ted Cruz: “His Record on Pro-Life Issues is Impeccable” ~ Unfortunately, GOP voters are only incidentally pro-life.

 
Bill Nye Wants Climate Change ‘Deniers’ Jailed ~ Bill Nye, the fascist guy ~

Nye even argued that those who hold a position of “extreme doubt” on climate change are adversely affecting his quality of life. Thus, justifying their punishment — according to Nye.
 
Somebody should tell Nye that jailing people who disagree with your beliefs is hardly a position of strength in an argument. Then again, Nye’s ability to make “reasonable arguments” has been suspect of late — he recently suggested that climate change was the cause of the Paris terror attacks. 😯

 
Costly, Broken Wind Turbines Give College Whopping Negative 99.14 Percent Return on Investment ~ More failed green technology ~

“While they have been an excellent teaching tool for students, they have only generated $8,500 in power in their lifetime,” she said. “One of the reasons for the lower than expected energy power is that the turbines often need to be repaired. They are not a good teaching tool if they are not working.”

Let’s hope they learned the most important lesson: present-generation wind power is a huge waste of money and resources.
 
Now here’s an invention that might actually prove worthwhile, while at the same time making highly efficient use of that “evil” carbon dioxide to generate power (The left will hate it of course because it eliminates their vehicle for world-wide wealth redistribution) ~ Desk-Size Turbine Could Power a Town ~

GE Global Research is testing a desk-size turbine that could power a small town of about 10,000 homes. The unit is driven by “supercritical carbon dioxide,” which is in a state that at very high pressure and up to 700 °C exists as neither a liquid nor a gas. After the carbon dioxide passes through the turbine, it’s cooled and then repressurized before returning for another pass.

 
Pay Gap Myths Spread Around Equal Pay Day ~ “Myth” is kind; they’re flat-out lies ~

…the 80 percent figure does not compare people working in the “same job.” Instead, it compares all women and men in Virginia with “a full-time job,” regardless of the job, as even backers of the proposed Paycheck Fairness Act have noted. Different jobs often have very different pay scales for reasons having nothing to do with sexism. On average, male workers have more years of work experience than female workers, who are more likely to leave the workforce to care for children. Moreover, even among full-time workers, males work longer hours, on average, and are more likely to work overtime.[…]
 
Family responsibilities also play a role. Furchtgott-Roth cites a 2005 study that found: “There is no gender gap in wages among men and women with similar family roles.” In addition to being more likely to seek part-time work, women are also more likely to have gaps in their employment history and to enter lower-paying fields, she notes; and “a 2009 report for the Labor Department found that these factors account for most of the pay gap.”

 
Big Sports Benches People of Faith ~ LGBTQ-whatever values are being pushed to such an extent that no dissent will be tolerated. America used to be about religious freedom – not fascism.
 

The untold story of the Titanic’s Catholic priest who went down hearing confessions

… Fr. Thomas Byles, the Catholic priest who gave up two spots on a lifeboat in favour of offering spiritual aid to the other victims as they all went down with the “unsinkable” vessel.

(Yesterday was the 104th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.)