The TrogloPundit

…but I’m just too damned lazy today.

Guy must be lactose intolerant.

…but instruct future fraudsters at the same time.

Alternate title: The Missing Poor – is Welfare to Blame?

Red-faced state officials admitted last night they are trying to find as many as 19,000 missing welfare recipients — after the controversial taxpayer-funded voter registration pitches the state mailed to their addresses last summer were sent back marked “Return to sender, address unknown.”

Nineteen thousand people, apparently still receiving welfare checks, whom the state couldn’t find when they tried!

And we owe this discovery to a liberal activist group:

The Department of Transitional Assistance contacted 477,000 welfare recipients who were on their books from June 1, 2011, to May 31, 2012, after settling a voter-rights lawsuit brought by Democratic-leaning activist groups that demanded an aggressive voter information effort by the state. That $274,000 push by DTA resulted in 31,000 new voter registrations — but revealed an alarming number of welfare recipients whose residency in Massachusetts can’t be confirmed.

See, if it weren’t for the instinctive liberal disdain for the poor – they can’t do for themselves; they’ll vote like sheep if we can find them; they only care about the money – Massachusetts might never have found out about this!

Now, as for what they’re doing about it:

DTA spokesman Alec Loftus said he did not know how many clients left forwarding addresses, and could not say what the state is doing to locate those who did not leave forwarding addresses, while their benefits continued to be paid through direct deposit to bank accounts.

Can’t find ‘em, still paying ‘em!

Those recipients who did leave forwarding addresses but failed to respond to subsequent letters seeking confirmation were stripped of their benefits, Loftus said.

Lesson to welfare recipients in neighboring states: apply, get accepted, go home, and don’t leave a forwarding address!

Remember when there was a new “story” about Danica Patrick’s impending move to NASCAR every other day? None of them ever had anything new to report, but the stories kept right on coming.

I’ve no idea why, of course.

Well:

The Milky Way hosts at least 17 billion Earth-size alien planets, and probably many more, a new study reveals.

Astronomers have determined that about 17 percent of stars in our galaxy harbor a roughly Earth-size exoplanet in a close orbit. Since there are 100 billion or so stars in the Milky Way, that works out to a minimum of 17 billion small, rocky alien worlds, or an Earth-size planet around one of every six stars.

Wow. Seventeen billion of them. But:

… 17 percent of stars have a planet 0.8 to 1.25 times the size of Earth in tight orbits, with periods of 85 days or less.

Eighty five days or less? That’s the big story? Those are the Earth-like planets we’re supposed to get excited about? Mercury has an orbit of 88 days. Are we really calling a planet as close to its sun as Mercury is to ours Earth-like?

Mercury’s surface experiences the steepest temperature gradient of all the planets, ranging from a very cold 100 K at night to a very hot 700 K during the day.

That’s 280 degrees below zero to 800 degrees above zero, for those of you who only speak English.

Mercury also has no atmosphere, which also factors into its enormous temperature swings. An Earth-sized planet might be more likely to have atmosphere, having more gravity with which to hold it.

Still, even with atmosphere, would a planet that close to the sun be a place humans could set foot?

Is it too much for me to ask: how many with orbits of around… oh, I dunno, let’s just pull a figure right out of thin air… 365 days? Y’know, like Earth.

Please wake me, somebody, when Danica really does move to NASCAR.

Previously:

• Look, I’m not falling for this “Danica Patrick going to NASCAR” thing again.

• Phobia of the Month: Caligynephobia

Of course, that includes tonight’s GoDaddy.com Bowl.

This is not a drill, people. This is not a drill!

UPDATE - Eight!

The TrogloPundit has won a Zilla Award:

And all I had to do was suck up for the better part of a year!

Although, having won the Best Wisconsin Blog, one wonders how many Wisconsin blogs Zilla reads. Not that she’d be wrong, you understand, even if she doesn’t read any others..

Previously:

• Another award-blogging blogger I gotta start sucking up to!