McRyanMac

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Keep your laws off my everything

Planet Parenthood

People on the leftward side of the political spectrum say they want to "keep government out of your bedroom," by which they usually mean they oppose restrictions on abortion. This is a bit of a non sequitur, since few abortionists make house calls. But you can see the logic: Restrictions on abortion may inhibit sexual behavior; hence they are a government intrusion "into the bedroom."

But it's an oddity of today's politics that abortion proponents tend to be allied with environmentalists, and environmentalists want government in every room in your house, from the bathroom (mandatory low-flow toilets) to the kitchen (energy saving appliances) to the garage (fuel-economy standards) to--well, any room with artificial lighting (the bulbs had better be the compact fluorescent variety).

So it turns out the only room in the house these characters want to keep the government out of is the bedroom, and only when the lights are off. And don't count on the bedroom remaining a safe haven, either.

Sportsmen of the Year

From Best of the Web:

On the Ball

The Associated Press reports from Stockholm on an attempt at interfaith dialogue that went awry when a soccer game nearly broke out:

A soccer game between Muslim imams and Christian priests at the end of a conference to promote interfaith dialogue was canceled Saturday because the teams could not agree on whether women priests should take part.

Church of Norway spokesman Olav Fykse Tveit said the imams refused to play against a mixed-gender team of priests because it would have gone against their beliefs in avoiding close physical contact with strange women.

The church decided to drop its female players, and the priests' team captain walked out in protest.

Hours before the game was to end the daylong "Shoulder to Shoulder" conference in Oslo, the church released a statement saying it had called off the match because it was sending the wrong signal.

"Because we thought it would be a nice conclusion of the conference we didn't want to call it off, so we decided to stage an all-men team game instead," Tveit said. "We realize now that it will be wrong to have a priest team without women."

Just imagine how much less sectarian strife there would be in a world without soccer.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Another Viet Nam?

People who say that haven't seen this graph, or wont see it.

iraqVietnamGraph.gif (GIF Image, 762x490 pixels)

People have said to me that the Iraq war has been a disaster. When I hear that I ask, "compared to what?" It's been a disaster compared to imaginary wars but when you compare it to other actual wars, well, it looks like this graph.

I still pray that in 30 years I'll be able to visit a prosperous and relatively free Baghdad, as I can visit Tokyo, Berlin. Of course the US still has troops in Japan and Germany but what are you going to do.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Pray for these three.

U.S. Sweeps Iraq Seeking 3 Soldiers Missing in Attack - New York Times

The Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella insurgent group that includes Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, asserted that it had captured the three missing Americans and claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed four other American soldiers and an Iraqi Army soldier. The group offered no proof for its claim.

There's just one thing I don't understand. I thought Al Qaeda and Iraq didn't have any thing to do with one another.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Freedom of Speech at Tufts

The Volokh Conspiracy - -

My first reaction was — welcome to America: We're allowed to intentionally put a negative spin on religion here, just as we're allowed to criticize any other ideology. There should be nothing flabbergasting about open debate in America, debate which doesn't assume that any religious belief is sacrosanct.

But I guess the joke is on me, because welcome to Tufts: A university panel (consisting mostly of faculty members) has concluded that in fact Tufts does not allow "attitudes or opinions that are expressed verbally or in writing" that create a "hostile environment" through "unreasonable attacks based on [students'] religion."

Friday, May 11, 2007

This may boos Mitt's poll numbers...

With those who have a sense of humor at least.

Dean Barnett:

How deep has the office penetrated our national psyche? Earlier in the week, I was interviewing Mitt Romney on the pop culture. I asked him what his favorite TV shows were. He said that he really liked “The Office.” I said I loved “The Office” too, and that it must have been just like Bain Capital. He responded, “Exactly. And I was Michael Scott,” he laughed.

Chi Spy

Hugh Hewitt

Bill Gertz also has a piece on the conviction that notes that "U.S. officials close to the case said the spying operation showed China's sophistication at gathering defense technology to further Beijing's rapid military buildup. The trial provided a rare look into the shadowy world of Chinese technology collection efforts in the United States."

No Free Lunch

John Edwards' big ideas costly - Yahoo! News

Edwards says fixing the country's problems takes precedence over eliminating the deficit or offering middle-class tax relief like he proposed when running for president in the last election.

"I think for me, as opposed to the additional tax relief for the middle class, what's more important is to give them relief from the extraordinary cost of health care, from gasoline prices, the things that they spend money on every single day that are escalating dramatically," Edwards said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

Monday, May 07, 2007

Instapundit references Phil Mitchell

Instapundit.com -

MORE CONTROVERSY AT COLORADO

What Bias?

Dave Barry's Blog: INCREDIBLE

James Lileks, a terrific writer and one of the best newspaper columnists in America, says on his blog today that his newspaper, the Minneapolis-St.Paul Star-Tribune, has decided to kill his column and have him write straight local news stories. This is like the Miami Heat deciding to relieve Dwyane Wade of his basketball-playing obligations so he can keep stats.

Sometimes I don't understand the newspaper business. What's left of it.

Sunday, May 06, 2007

The Future belongs to those who believe in it.

Children 'bad for planet' | NEWS.com.au

HAVING large families should be frowned upon as an environmental misdemeanour in the same way as frequent long-haul flights, driving a big car and failing to reuse plastic bags, says a report to be published today by a green think tank.

Watch this...

Hot Air » Blog Archive » Video: “Outside the Wire” producer on H&C

CHAVARRIA: It comes up in conversations, not necessarily during the documentary. The Marines do talk about why they’re there and what they think their mission is and they a belief in what they’re doing.

COLMES: And what do they think their mission is?

CHAVARRIA: Well they think their mission is to help Iraq become a democracy and in the documentary they say that they’re over their to prevent another 9/11. They rather be over there in Iraq, fighting –

COLMES: Well, I keep hearing that argument, but that would predispose “I rather be over there than over here.” Every terrorist that wants to kill us is over there and in terms of creating another democracy, even the administration has backed off that as the original mission and now simply saying we want to stay there long enough to have Iraq handle it’s own security. The idea of actually creating a democracy in our image has long since passed what they thought they could accomplish in Iraq.

CHAVARRIA: Well, I’m just telling you what they said in the documentary, Alan. I’m not trying to make any political statement. I’m just telling you what they said and that’s what they believe and I think that a lot of the media that comes out is negative and it’s interesting to hear stories of when our troops come back and see a lot of negative news and –

Friday, May 04, 2007

But will there be any responsibilities...

Activists Want Chimp Declared a 'Person'

In a case that could set a global legal precedent for granting basic rights to apes, animal rights advocates are seeking to get the 26- year-old male chimpanzee legally declared a "person."

Hiasl's supporters argue he needs that status to become a legal entity that can receive donations and get a guardian to look out for his interests.

"Our main argument is that Hiasl is a person and has basic legal rights," said Eberhart Theuer, a lawyer leading the challenge on behalf of the Association Against Animal Factories, a Vienna animal rights group.

"We mean the right to life, the right to not be tortured, the right to freedom under certain conditions," Theuer said.

"We're not talking about the right to vote here."

Thursday, May 03, 2007

I'm seeing this!

Reason Magazine - Hollywood's Missing Movies

Every so often someone in Hollywood uses his power to break the movie colony's rules. Consider this year's Total Eclipse. Odd as it may seem, this is the first serious American film set against the background of the 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact, the deal that allied Europe's two totalitarian powers against the West and helped plunge the world into war.

Sweet new wi-fi

First WiMax laptop card approved by FCC - Yahoo! News

WiMax base stations can send broadband Internet signals to far greater distances than Wi-Fi technology. Although estimates vary on how far WiMax signals can go, in densely populated cities, where users are not likely to be positioned within sight of access points, the distance should be between 2 km and 4 km.

Sigh

Instapundit.com

MORE BOGUS KYOTO HISTORY FROM REUTERS: "President George W. Bush pulled the United States out of Kyoto in 2001, arguing it would cost U.S. jobs and that it wrongly excluded 2012 goals for poorer nations such as China."

Er, no. The U.S. refused to ratify Kyoto under President Clinton. We've been over this before. It's all spelled out in Wikipedia, even. Really, if Reuters can't get simple things like this right, why should we trust them for actual news?

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Modern Religion: Pure and Undefiled

No pun intended.

Bloomberg Printer-Friendly Page

April 27 (Bloomberg) -- Visitors to the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa won't find the Gideon Bible in the nightstand drawer. Instead, on the bureau will be a copy of ``An Inconvenient Truth,'' former Vice President Al Gore's book about global warming.

Monday, April 30, 2007

Ahh the Alma Mater

Prospective Student Had Most Fun Getting Drunk At Arizona State

BRINKLEY, AR—After taking a week off from school to evaluate prospective colleges, high school senior Angela Ross said Monday that, though...

Sunday, April 29, 2007

I think I'm going to buy this and read it.

Amazon.com: Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond: Books: Don Cheadle,John Prendergast

Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond (Paperback)

by Don Cheadle (Author), John Prendergast (Author)

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Pay no attention

Power Line: Trifecta

So al-Hadi, a former Iraqi soldier who became a top al Qaeda operative in Afghanistan and later supervised that organization's operations in Iraq was caught re-entering that country from Iran: three entities that, we are told, cannot possibly have anything to do with one another.

Why the war is unpopular among the clueless

Instapundit.com -

WELL, THIS IS NICE: "The al-Qaeda leader who is thought to have devised the plan for the July 7 suicide bombings in London and an array of terrorist plots against Britain has been captured by the Americans. Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, a former major in Saddam Hussein’s army, was apprehended as he tried to enter Iraq from Iran and was transferred this week to the 'high-value detainee programme' at Guantanamo Bay."

Hey, wait -- an "al-Qaeda leader" who's also a "former major in Saddam Hussein's army"? But I thought there was no connection between Saddam and Al Qaeda. Or between Al Qaeda and Iran . . . .

UPDATE: Don Surber: London bombings? What London bombings?

The U.S. announced on Friday that it captured the mastermind behind the 7/7/2005 bombings in London.

But you would not know it by reading the New York Times, the Washington Post or the Associated Press.

None of them mentioned the London bombings in reporting on the capture of the man who organized that attack, Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi (aka, Abu Abdallah).

Instead, reporters concentrated on where this major player in the war on terrorism was held after his capture. Incredible.

I don't know. It doesn't surprise me.

UPDATE: Ed Morrissey comments: "All of these papers had hours after the Times of London report to get the London bombings into the story. The Times goes to bed at 7 pm ET and hits the feeds and wire services. None of the American media bothered to check on Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi. Readers should ask themselves whether that comes from a lack of intellectual curiosity, or whether it comes from a bias that puts the circumstances of the detention of a terrorist at a higher priority than the terrorism itself."

Either way, they're doing a crappy job. But if he'd had a connection to Jack Abramoff, you can bet they'd have mentioned it!

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Global Warming Indicators

Apparently it's not that serious. Or at least they aren't.

Newsday.com: 2008 Candidates Rely on Private Jets

WASHINGTON -- A flock of small jets took flight from Washington Thursday, each carrying a Democratic presidential candidate to South Carolina for the first debate of the political season.

For Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd and Joe Biden, it was wheels up shortly after they voted in favor of legislation requiring that U.S. troops begin returning home from Iraq in the fall.

No one jet pooled, no one took commercial flights to save money, fuel or emissions.

All but Biden, who flew on a private jet, chartered their flights -- a campaign expense of between $7,500 and $9,000.

Boston Clean Town

In Pictures: The World's Cleanest Cities - Forbes.com

In Pictures: The World's Cleanest Cities: Boston

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Get the Red out.

Bluegrass Military Affairs Coalition Online - Red Friday

Ask a uniformed member of the U.S. military, "What can I do to make things better for you?"
You will likely receive in reply, "We need your support and prayers."

You can show your support of the troops by example:
wear some thing RED every Friday.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Why I continue to believe in God

Reasonable Faith: q_and_a_What do you think of Richard Dawkins argument for atheism in The God Delusion

So Dawkins' argument for atheism is a failure even if we concede, for the sake of argument, all its steps. But, in fact, several of these steps are plausibly false. Take just step (3), for example. Dawkins' claim here is that one is not justified in inferring design as the best explanation of the complex order of the universe because then a new problem arises: who designed the designer?

This rejoinder is flawed on at least two counts. First, in order to recognize an explanation as the best, one needn't have an explanation of the explanation. This is an elementary point concerning inference to the best explanation as practiced in the philosophy of science. If archaeologists digging in the earth were to discover things looking like arrowheads and hatchet heads and pottery shards, they would be justified in inferring that these artifacts are not the chance result of sedimentation and metamorphosis, but products of some unknown group of people, even though they had no explanation of who these people were or where they came from. Similarly, if astronauts were to come upon a pile of machinery on the back side of the moon, they would be justified in inferring that it was the product of intelligent, extra-terrestrial agents, even if they had no idea whatsoever who these extra-terrestrial agents were or how they got there. In order to recognize an explanation as the best, one needn't be able to explain the explanation. In fact, so requiring would lead to an infinite regress of explanations, so that nothing could ever be explained and science would be destroyed. So in the case at hand, in order to recognize that intelligent design is the best explanation of the appearance of design in the universe, one needn't be able to explain the designer.

Monday, April 23, 2007

But is it Civil War?

My Way News - Philly Struggles With Rising Murder Rate

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A bloody, bullet-filled weekend left 11 people dead across the city, where drugs and disrespect have trumped brotherly love and the murder rate is on pace to be the highest in a decade.

Philadelphia has seen more than one killing a day this year, totaling 127 as of Monday afternoon. New York, Chicago and Los Angeles - whose populations are much larger than Philadelphia's 1.5 million residents - have had fewer homicides this year.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Stark: Early Christianity

Just read the whole thing.

The Forgotten Ways » Blog Archive » a double take on early christianity: an interview with rodney stark

One tradition you question is that Christianity was primarily a movement of the poor. Why?

RS: In the upper-class and senatorial families, and even the imperial family, there were many women who were Christians, even early on. In the 1920s we found a paving block dedicated to Erastus, whom Paul mentioned in his Letter to the Corinthians, and the block shows that Erastus was city treasurer. And there’s reason to believe that we have in the early Church a quite literate group. When you read the New Testament, for example, ask: Who are these people talking to? The language there is the language used by educated people.

You describe the everyday misery of the ancient world. Did Christianity change that?

RS: It made it a lot more bearable. The Church didn’t clean up the streets. Christians didn’t put in sewers. So you still had to live with a trench running down the middle of the road, in which you could find dead bodies decomposing. But what Christians did was take care of each other. Their apartments were as smoky as the pagan apartments, since neither had chimneys, and they were cold and wet and they stank. But Christians loved one another, and when they got sick they took care of each other. Someone brought you soup. You can do an enormous amount to relieve those miseries if you look after each other.

You also argue for steady growth by individual conversions rather than by mass conversions. Why?

RS: We don’t have a single documented case of mass conversion. Yes, there’s the passage in the Book of Acts, and I’m not one of these people who say, “Don’t trust the Bible.” But you’ve got to understand what people meant by numbers in those times. Numbers were rhetorical exercises. You’d say a million when you really meant a hundred. What you’re really saying is “lots.” In Acts, I think the numbers are meant to say, “Look, wonderful things are happening.” If the historical demographers are right, Jerusalem had about 25,000 people in it at the time. So if you start talking about eight or ten thousand converts, that’s a little bit out of scale.

What about forced conversions?

RS: There weren’t any in the time I’m talking about. Constantine didn’t cause the triumph of Christianity. He rode off it.

Not Iraq, Not News

BBC NEWS | Africa | Scores killed in Somalia clashes

More than 60 people have been killed in a fourth day of heavy fighting between Ethiopian troops and Islamist militia in Somalia's capital of Mogadishu.

Doctors said they had been overrun with casualties and there were reports of bodies strewn across streets.

More than 130 people were killed and 200 injured in the first three days of fighting, a local rights group said.

Friday, April 20, 2007

The Present and Future of Disease

This is pretty cool.

Who is Sick?

Analysis of 123 sicknesses in the current view

Family Horror

Va. Gunman's Family Feels Hopeless, Lost

"We are humbled by this darkness. We feel hopeless, helpless and lost. This is someone that I grew up with and loved. Now I feel like I didn't know this person," Cho's sister said. "We have always been a close, peaceful and loving family. My brother was quiet and reserved, yet struggled to fit in. We never could have envisioned that he was capable of so much violence." She said her family will cooperate fully with investigators and "do whatever we can to help authorities understand why these senseless acts happened. We have many unanswered questions as well." Wendy Adams, whose niece, Leslie Sherman, was killed in the massacre, said of the family's statement: "I'm not so generous to be able to forgive him for what he did. But I do feel for the family. I do feel sorry for them." "I do believe they're living a nightmare," she added.

I do too.

FYI - Transgendered HS

My Way News - Transgender Student Runs for Prom King

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - When school officials announce the name of the Fresno High School prom king on Saturday, Cinthia Covarrubias will be wearing a tuxedo just like the six boys vying for the honor.

School officials this week added the 17-year-old's name to the ballot for prom king, reversing a previous district protocol that allowed only males to run for king and females for prom queen.

Gay youth advocates called it a landmark victory for campus gender expression and said they believe it's the first time in the U.S. that an openly transgender student has run for prom royalty.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

VT Murderer: Victimology 501

Yesterday I heard Dennis Prager say that a lifetime of studying evil has led to this conclusion: People who do evil see themselves as victims.

Police: Gunman’s package offers little - Massacre at Virginia Tech - MSNBC.com

The extensive material sent to NBC News this week by Cho Seung-Hui includes an angry diatribe against the rich and numerous unspecified enemies. Among the statements:

• You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul and torched my conscience. You thought it was one pathetic boy’s life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people.

• Do you know what it feels to be spit on your face and to have trash shoved down your throat? Do you know what it feels like to dig your own grave? Do you know what it feels like to have throat slashed from ear to ear? Do you know what it feels like to be torched alive? Do you know what it feels like to be humiliated and be impaled upon on a cross? And left to bleed to death for your amusement? You have never felt a single ounce of pain your whole life. Did you want to inject as much misery in our lives as you can just because you can?

• You had everything you wanted. Your Mercedes wasn’t enough, you brats. Your golden necklaces weren’t enough, you snobs. Your trust fund wasn’t enough. Your vodka and Cognac weren’t enough. All your debaucheries weren’t enough. Those weren’t enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything.

I am reminded of Garrison Keillor who said: " It's a dangerous thing to start feeling sorry for yourself, because once you start, it's so satisfying.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Technology in Tragedy

'Ismail Ax' sparks web frenzy - Technology - theage.com.au

The rapid search and response of that term offered another snapshot of how quickly the web disseminates information and connects people.

On Monday, compelling mobile phone videos of the scene at Virginia Tech raced across the web. The next day, the internet provided reflection and a search for answers.

At Facebook.com, a social networking site popular with college and high school students, hundreds of impromptu memorials to the victims were posted, many adorned with a black ribbon circling the school's logo.

Yahoo reported that "Virginia Tech shooting" was the most searched term on its site. Traffic at news organization sites also surged.

At ChicagoTribune.com, the report about Ismail Ax and other details set off the busiest hour in the site's history, with 524,000 page views during the early afternoon.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

You can't make stuff like this up.

RGJ.com: Cold, rain cuts short global warming rally

More than two dozen demonstrators braved cold, wet weather Saturday in Reno to attend a rally designed to draw attention to global warming.

The event was cut short by heavy rain and sleet, said organizer Lisa Stiller of the Northern Nevada Coalition for Climate Change.
“It’s kind of disappointing that the weather kept people away,” Stiller said. “But we still think it (climate change) is something that people should talk about.”
The storm prevented the use of solar ovens for a potluck picnic, Stiller said, and caused the planned two-hour demonstration to break up after about an hour.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Imus Obama: An apt response.

Obama compares rappers to Imus - Yahoo! News

FLORENCE, S.C. - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday questioned the way some rappers talk about women in songs, saying the lyrics are similar to the derogatory language used by embattled radio host Don Imus.

They are "degrading their sisters. That doesn't inspire me," Obama said of some hip-hop artists when a man in a crowd of about 1,000 questioned him. The Illinois senator was responding to a question of what inspired him, and said God and civil rights activists.

He's absolutely right. Good for him. And us.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Alternative Education

Hugh Hewitt

HH: A few days ago, I was riding around with my intern, who is an enrollee at the Torrey Honors program at Biola University, and we were talking about what he was reading and not reading. And it occurred to me that most young college students are absolutely lost. They lack a program like Torrey, they lack a teacher like David Allen White, to tell them what they ought to read, at least when they’re freshmen or sophomores. And so I conspired with David Allen White, professor extraordinaire at the United States Naval Academy, where he’s been teaching Shakespeare and other matters to the mid-shipmen for more than a quarter century, and John Mark Reynolds, professor of philosophy at Biola University, and the head of the Torrey Honors program there, to put together a reading list, and it’s the top 30 books that every one of you ought to have read, and certainly freshmen and sophomores ought to have read. Here’s my plan. Take one a week for the next 30 weeks, or one a week during your year in college, you’ll be at least partially educated.

Imus not speak...

The Imus Fallout: Who Can Say What? | TIME

Imus was a famous, rich, old white man picking on a bunch of young, mostly black college women. So it seemed pretty cut-and-dried that his bosses at CBS Radio would suspend his show — half frat party, half political salon for the Beltway elite — for two weeks, and that MSNBC would cancel the TV simulcast. And that Imus would plan to meet with the students he offended. Case closed, justice served, lesson —possibly — learned. Move on. But a reasonable person could ask, What was the big deal? And I don't mean the lots-of-black-rappers-say-"hos" argument, though we'll get to that. Rather, I mean, what celebrity isn't slurring some group nowadays?

Read the whole interesting thing.

Isn't that bad for the environment?

Hollywood's Smoke Alarm | TIME

Today cigarettes are more common onscreen than at any other time since midcentury: 75% of all Hollywood films--including 36% of those rated G or PG--show tobacco use, according to a 2006 survey by the University of California, San Francisco.

I guess it depends on whose Ox is Gored. ;-)

This is an adult subject:

Epstein-Dumas Test of Adultness (EDTA)

Being an "adult" in modern society requires a wide variety of skills and knowledge. This test will show you where your skills and knowledge are strong or weak in 14 different areas. It contains 140 yes/no questions and should take you between 10 and 15 minutes to complete. The initial questions (below) are being asked for research purposes. More information about this test can be found in Dr. Epstein's book, The Case Against Adolescence: Rediscovering the Adult in Every Teen (Sanger, CA: Quill Driver Books, 2007).

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

New Term Alert: Secular Hypocrites

Climate change concert star Madonna accused of hypocrisy | the Daily Mail

Built on the model Bob Geldof used for the anti-poverty Live 8 concerts in 2005, Live Earth will also be held simultaneously in Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai, Sydney and Tokyo. More than 100 rock and pop stars will perform during the 24-hour live concert. But green campaigners called the stars' involvement hypocritical last night saying their lifestyles which demand they jet themselves and their huge entourages on world tours give them enormously large carbon footprints. Last year, for example, they report how Madonna flew as many as 100 technicians, dancers, backing singers, managers and family members on a 56-date world tour in private jets and commercial airliners. Madonna herself also has a collection of fuel-guzzling cars, including a Mercedes Maybach, two Range Rovers, Audi A8s and a Mini Cooper S. Yet she will headline the London concert to "combat the climate crisis". "Madonna's Confessions tour produced 440 tonnes of CO2 in four months of last year. And that was just the flights between the countries, not taking into account the truckloads of equipment needed, the power to stage such a show and the transport of all the thousands of fans getting to the gigs. "The Red Hot Chili Peppers produced 220 tonnes of CO2 with their private jet alone over six months on their last world tour which was 42 dates. "The average a British person produces is 10 tonnes a year," said John Buckley, managing director-of CarbonFootprint.com. He added: "It's great for the celebrities to come out and support the cause, but they then have to follow it up in their own lifestyles. "We should now keep a close eye on whether Madonna and the others makes any changes to their own lifestyle. "Perhaps her next world tour will be performed in one venue, but broadcast to billions over the internet."

Don't hold your breath.

The end credits of "An Inconvenient Truth" have suggestions on how to lead green lifestyle. The suggestions included "use fluorescent light bulbs" which our family does. Also, "take public transportation", which I do daily. How ironic that a religious Christian like me would live a more consistent environmental lifestyle than Al Gore or many of his wealthy co-religionists.

I think my carbon footprint holds up pretty well actually. Is that boasting in my own piety?

Is Global Warming a secular religion?

Discuss.

At least no one will accuse Al Gore or Madonna of being (secular) religious fanatics.

How does Al Gore do it?

Bloomberg: Temperatures Rival Coldest April

Just 10 days into April, temperatures have averaged 42 degrees Fahrenheit (5.5 Celsius), about one degree warmer than the average for April 1874, the coldest on record, said Michael Silva, meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Upton, New York, station.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Solar Warming Increasing

Global warming hits Mars too: study

Global warming could be heating Mars four times faster than Earth due to a mutually reinforcing interplay of wind-swept dust and changes in reflected heat from the Sun, according to a study released Wednesday.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

NYT Profile of Northeast Type Students

These are the kinds of students I meet in Boston and see around the Northeast. The academic ~~pressure~~ standards already have a familiar ring to our family, even though we don't live in Newton, MA.

For Girls, It’s Be Yourself, and Be Perfect, Too - New York Times

To spend several months in a pressure cooker like Newton North is to see what a girl can be — what any young person can be — when encouraged by committed teachers and by engaged parents who can give them wide-ranging opportunities.

It is also to see these girls struggle to navigate the conflicting messages they have been absorbing, if not from their parents then from the culture, since elementary school. The first message: Bring home A’s. Do everything. Get into a top college — which doesn’t have to be in the Ivy League, or one of the other elites like Williams, Tufts or Bowdoin, but should be a “name” school.

The second message: Be yourself. Have fun. Don’t work too hard.

And, for all their accomplishments and ambitions, the amazing girls, as their teachers and classmates call them, are not immune to the third message: While it is now cool to be smart, it is not enough to be smart.

You still have to be pretty, thin and, as one of Esther’s classmates, Kat Jiang, a go-to stage manager for student theater who has a perfect 2400 score on her SATs, wrote in an e-mail message, “It’s out of style to admit it, but it is more important to be hot than smart.”

“Effortlessly hot,” Kat added.

If you are free to be everything, you are also expected to be everything. What it comes down to, in this place and time, is that the eternal adolescent search for self is going on at the same time as the quest for the perfect résumé.

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Why Alexander bombed and 300 was the bomb.

I haven't seen 300 but this is an interesting take.

Victor Davis Hanson

There is a great yearning among the public for just a small, rare chance to see some issue presented in terms other than moral ambiguity. 300 provided that in a way other costume dramas like Alexander or Troy either could not or did not. The 300 and those beside them were better than the alternative, had the moral high ground, and were willing to match deed with word. That proved more receptive than Oliver Stone's fantasizing for a public weary of sorta, kinda judgements (the latest being the Iranian hostage taking where the West is engaged in moral anguish over GPS data, possible provocations, a prior lapse in "engaging" the Iranians, conspiracy theorizing over the Bush role in all this, etc. rather than just a simple: "The Brits appeared vulnerable and would not act, and so for the Iranian thugocracy it was too good a chance to pass up—given its prior success with the serial kidnapping of Westerners.

Shouldn't this be banned? Or at least taxed heavily?

Pompoms, Pyramids and Peril - New York Times

Of 104 catastrophic injuries sustained by female high school and college athletes from 1982 to 2005 — head and spinal trauma that occasionally led to death — more than half resulted from cheerleading, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research. All sports combined did not surpass cheerleading.

Happy Thanksgiving

Don in Iraq

I'm thankful for the good food we eat here in our field dining facilities. As my 1st Sergeant said, "they feed us like it may be our last meal." I'm thankful for a clean, dry bed to sleep in. I'm thankful I don't have to live in a tent this time. I'm thankful for clean laundry and clothing that doesn't feel or smell like dirt. I'm thankful for running water. That way I can at least wash my face and shave every morning. I'm thankful for flush toilets, no matter how fragile the plumbing system. I'm thankful for air conditioning and ice cream when it's 120F outside. I'm thankful for mail. E-mail's OK, but you really know you're special when someone takes the time and trouble to sit down with pen and paper and write you a letter or send you a card. It' like they're giving of themselves to you. You really know who cares about you when you receive "Snail Mail." What's particularly moving to me is when you receive mail from total strangers, like when you receive cards and letters from school children and church groups that you don't know, but they know you because of your family members and friends. I'm thankful that I have access to a telephone, so that I am able to call home on occasion and hear the voices of my loved ones. I'm thankful for the all volunteer military. I'm glad we have a military of professionals. There's nothing worse than to be in a war zone with a bunch of malcontents. I'm thankful for my fellow service members. They are truly "America's best and brightest", no matter what some people say. I'm thankful that most Americans support the troops. I'm thankful for the selfless veteran's groups that made us feel welcome and appreciated during our transit to Iraq; at midnight at a virtually deserted airport in Bangor, Maine, even when the temperature was zero degrees outside.

Read the whole thing. You'll feel better.

Biased Media Brainwash: Rosie Melts Down

Matt Jones’ Random Acts of Verbiage » Rosie the Physicist

I’ll have to say, as frustrated as I got watching the clip (and it is EXTREMELY frustrating) I laughed quite a bit when Rosie made the ironic comment in reference to the mainstream media: “In America we are fed propaganda.” That made me laugh. Was she listening to her own rant?

Why he wrote a book about Romney

Hugh Hewitt

I wrote the book because of the dangers of having questions about Romney's faith become occasions for attacks on the Mormon Church which will then become wider attacks on the idea of people of faith being in the public square.

Scientific Consensus on Global (Solar?) Warming

Explanation - Global Warming Petition Project

During the past several years, more than 17,100 basic and applied American scientists, two-thirds with advanced degrees, have signed the Global Warming Petition. Signers of this petition so far include 2,660 physicists, geophysicists, climatologists, meteorologists, oceanographers, and environmental scientists (select this link for a listing of these individuals) who are especially well qualified to evaluate the effects of carbon dioxide on the Earth's atmosphere and climate. Signers of this petition also include 5,017 scientists whose fields of specialization in chemistry, biochemistry, biology, and other life sciences (select this link for a listing of these individuals) make them especially well qualified to evaluate the effects of carbon dioxide upon the Earth's plant and animal life. Nearly all of the initial 17,100 scientist signers have technical training suitable for the evaluation of the relevant research data, and many are trained in related fields. In addition to these 17,100, approximately 2,400 individuals have signed the petition who are trained in fields other than science or whose field of specialization was not specified on their returned petition. Of the 19,700 signatures that the project has received in total so far, 17,800 have been independently verified and the other 1,900 have not yet been independently verified. Of those signers holding the degree of PhD, 95% have now been independently verified. One name that was sent in by enviro pranksters, Geri Halliwell, PhD, has been eliminated. Several names, such as Perry Mason and Robert Byrd are still on the list even though enviro press reports have ridiculed their identity with the names of famous personalities. They are actual signers. Perry Mason, for example, is a PhD Chemist. The costs of this petition project have been paid entirely by private donations. No industrial funding or money from sources within the coal, oil, natural gas or related industries has been utilized. The petition's organizers, who include some faculty members and staff of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, do not otherwise receive funds from such sources. The Institute itself has no such funding. Also, no funds of tax-exempt organizations have been used for this project.

Here is the text of the petition that all of these "experts" signed:

Global Warming Petition - Global Warming Petition Project

We urge the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto, Japan in December, 1997, and any other similar proposals. The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind. There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.

I'm not sure what to believe on global (solar?) warming. I think the fact that warming is happening is clear. Why it's happening is far from clear. Clearly, there isn't as much consensus as those who use the term would have us believe.

Friday, March 30, 2007

Surprising Clarity

The Northeast Graduate in the previous post is...

Michael Crichton

The Daily Ablution: Seven Answers From Michael Crichton...

Despite all the huffing and puffing, the truth is no one knows how much of the current warming trend is caused by man. Some of it surely is. And some of that anthropogenic warming is caused by the man-made rise in CO2. But how much is attributable to CO2 is not known. In the absence of that vital knowledge, people speak of a consensus of scientists. That's a way to get around the lack of knowledge and the inability to predict (which is the conventional proof of scientific knowledge, hence the usual emphasis in science on testable hypotheses.) Perhaps people and nations will choose to act on the basis of a claimed consensus. They have done so in the past, sterilizing their poor neighbors in the name of eugenics, gulping milk for their ulcers, downing antioxidants to prevent cancer, and soon. But all those behaviors were ultimately proven to lack a scientific basis — in other words, they are superstitions.

This is a devastating point. The scientific method somehow ends with proving warming of the Earth. In place of a lack of proof, there is "consensus".

...Any departure from environmental orthodoxy is marked by ad hominem attack, vigorous spread of false information, claims of criminality and mental derangement, and general nastiness. Apparently this is one area where reasonable people cannot disagree. It's interesting that any entity as complex, changing and difficult to comprehend as the environment should be guarded by organizations that allow no deviation from a single point of view toward what needs to be done. One might have predicted a rather broad range of environmental viewpoints, promoted by an equally broad range of institutions and activist organizations. There is some variation among organizations, of course. But on the subject of global warming, no deviation. That is to say, I am aware of no environmental organization that does not claim global warming is a major threat that must be dealt with now. I leave it to your readers to explain that puzzle. Complex subject, simplistic response.

I think the puzzle is related to man's incurable need for religion. Global Warming has become a kind of secular religion, complete with Apocalypse, Orthodoxy and  of course Messiah (e.g. Al Gore).

...Most of the people I know who are anxious about GM say that their concerns lie with the fact that the technology is of unproven safety. They share their worries with like-minded people by use of their cell phones. When I remind them that cell phones are a technology of unproven safety, and that the construction of all these wireless networks around the world and in our houses is a development of unproven safety, they just shrug. They don't care. Even though most of them are old enough to remember the false fears about cancer and electromagnetic radiation. You'd think that fear could be easily reawakened in them, but no. From this I conclude fears are a matter of fashion. Worries are like clothing styles, they come and go, rise and fall, based on what the worry fashion leaders tell the herd of independent minds to fear this year. GM is fashionable to fear. But that will change.

Fear as fashion is a compelling analysis. Again the religious analogy to religious leaders proclaiming "The End is Near!". Part of the reason for making such dire claims is that it simultaneously elevates the drama of an otherwise mundane life and the prestige of an otherwise mundane leader. That's why it's so tempting to proclaim doom, whether or not there is evidence to support the claim.

Let me be clear, there is warming. But calling it global warming seems much to narrow minded. Solar warming seems to be a much more accurate and inclusive term.

Mars Melt Hints at Solar, Not Human, Cause for Warming, Scientist Says

In 2005 data from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey missions revealed that the carbon dioxide "ice caps" near Mars's south pole had been diminishing for three summers in a row.

Habibullo Abdussamatov, head of space research at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, says the Mars data is evidence that the current global warming on Earth is being caused by changes in the sun.

"The long-term increase in solar irradiance is heating both Earth and Mars," he said.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Name that Northeast Graduate

The Daily Ablution: Seven Answers From ...

"Graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College, received his MD from Harvard Medical School, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, researching public policy with Jacob Bronowski. He has taught courses in anthropology at Cambridge University and writing at MIT."

He's "a writer and filmmaker, best known as the author of Jurassic Park and the creator of ER".

The Beauty Myth, Exposed

For years I've given a talk about the modern concept of physical beauty and how it reinforces an arbitrary, inhuman standard of physical perfection that all women are measured by and sadly found wanting.

This is one example of advertisement that cuts against that grain. It is shocking because it's approach is so different.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Jeff Corwin pinched by Elephant

All you need is love...

Pajamas Media: From the "We No Longer Question Their Patriotism" File:

“Perhaps the most disturbing scene of the afternoon, however, involved the man who pulled down his pants in front of women and children and defecated on a burning U.S. flag.”

Why are they wearing masks?

Why blogs are influential...

Dean Barnett:

First, let’s start with a couple of facts: The blogosphere is important. It’s more important on the left than it is on the right, for sure, but politicians of all stripes have reached a consensus that the goodwill of the blogopshere is something to be courted.

This isn’t because of bloggers. Rather, it’s because of our readers. Blog readers, both left and right, are exceptionally high–end consumers of news. Among blog readers, there is a disproportionate amount of what Malcolm Gladwell calls “mavens” in his book “Tipping Point.” To generalize, blog readers are well informed big-mouths. They wield influence beyond their numbers.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Words on Death

FOXNews.com - Remembering Special Friend, Conservative Columnist Cathy Seipp - Blog | Blogs | Popular Blogs | Video Blogs

In October 2005, when she first wrote in her blog about her cancer, Cathy had this to say:

“I’m beginning to feel a responsibility to point out that lung cancer, which kills more people annually (about 163,000) than the next four most common cancers (colon, breast, pancreatic and prostate) combined, is terribly underfunded compared to other diseases: $950 in research money per lung cancer death, compared to $8800 for breast cancer and $34,000 for AIDS.

"That’s because the vast majority of lung cancer (about 85 percent) is still caused by smoking, even though the rate for lifelong nonsmoking women like me (and Christopher Reeve’s widow) has been going up for some mysterious reason, and the general attitude is that smokers deserve whatever they get.

"But half of all lung cancer patients have been nonsmokers by the time of diagnosis, sometimes for decades, like Warren Zevon. If they deserve to get sick, then I suppose so do people who are overweight or don’t exercise or who have promiscuous sex with strangers, all of which are contributing factors for various illnesses that get much more sympathy in the form of research dollars. Maybe the amount of attention we pay to a disease should have less to do with how many celebrities, magazine editors and junk bond kings carry its banner, and more with how many people actually die of it.”

The Planet needs more Cowbell

A Fever?

My Way News - Gore Implores Congress to Save Planet

"Global warming science is uneven and evolving," Barton said.

Gore insisted that the link is beyond dispute and is the source of broad agreement in the scientific community.

"The planet has a fever," Gore said. "If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don't say, 'Well, I read a science fiction novel that told me it's not a problem.' If the crib's on fire, you don't speculate that the baby is flame retardant. You take action."

Gore's congressional testimony marked the first time he had been to Capitol Hill since January 2001, when he was the defeated Democratic presidential nominee still presiding over the Senate in his role as vice president. It comes 20 years after Gore, then a congressman from Tennessee, held the first hearings in Congress on global warming.

(AP) Former Vice President Al Gore testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 21, 2007,...
Full Image
Gore appeared before a joint hearing by two House committees, with his wife, Tipper, sitting behind him and a stack of boxes beside him containing hundreds of thousands messages asking Congress to act on global warming.

Later in the day, he was to testify before a Senate committee that included Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. Gore has said he has no plans to seek the presidency again, but he ranks third in some polls and could threaten Clinton's front-runner status if he decided to enter the race.

Gore said he hopes whoever is elected president in 2008 "can use his or her political chips" to lead the world toward a new global climate treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto protocol that requires 35 industrial nations to cut greenhouse gases. The Bush administration argues Kyoto would hurt the U.S. economy and objects that high-polluting developing nations like China and India are not required to reduce emissions.

"I fully understand that Kyoto, as a brand if you will, has been demonized," Gore said.

Gore was warmly welcomed back by some of his critics, such as Rep. Ralph Hall, R-Texas, who remembered serving with Gore's father and bantered with Gore about an evening boat ride they took together. "You're dear to us, but I just don't agree with you on this," Hall said.

Another Botched Joke Apparently Below Average

San Francisco Bay Times

Radio personality and writer Garrison Keillor, of “Prairie Home Companion” fame, has apologized to gays upset by the March 14 installment of his syndicated newspaper column, saying he was just teasing. In the column, Keillor said: “Gay marriage will produce a whole new string of hyphenated relatives. In addition to the ex-stepson and ex-in-laws and your wife’s first husband’s second wife, there now will be Bruce and Kevin’s in-laws and Bruce’s ex, Mark, and Mark’s current partner, and I suppose we’ll get used to it. “The country has come to accept stereotypical gay men—sardonic fellows with fussy hair who live in over-decorated apartments with a striped sofa and a small weird dog and who worship campy performers and go in for flamboyance now and then themselves. If they want to be accepted as couples and daddies, however, the flamboyance may have to be brought under control. Parents are supposed to stand in back and not wear chartreuse pants and black polka-dot shirts. That’s for the kids. It’s their show.”" Syndicated gay columnist Dan Savage and New York City activist Andy Humm, among others, took exception to Keillor’s piece. Savage called “Keillor’s attack on gay parents” “offensive,” “damaging” and “misinformed.” Humm called it “viciously homophobic,” and staged a one-man picket of a March 17 live broadcast of “Prairie Home Companion” in Manhattan. “Keillor is so repelled by the idea of gay parents and same-sex marriage that he needs to employ trivializing stereotypes to put them down,” Humm said. “Bigotry like this is shameful and we hope the NPR audience will tell Keillor what they think of his prejudices.”

Earth's Heater is a Mystery

Dazzling new images reveal the 'impossible' on the Sun - space - 21 March 2007 - New Scientist Space:

Another surprise sighting is that of giant magnetic field loops crashing down onto the Sun's surface as if they were collapsing from exhaustion, a finding that Golub describes as "impossible". Previously, scientists thought they should emerge from the Sun and continue blowing out into space.

"Almost every day, we look at the data and we say – what the heck was that?" says Golub, a member of the XRT science team.

Astronomers do not yet know what to make of the surprises, but they hope Hinode will help solve many big puzzles. One is that the temperature of the Sun's tenuous outermost atmosphere, or corona, is far hotter than the layers underneath, which are nearer its energy-generating core.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Hot Topic: Global Temperature

ScienceDaily: Researchers Question Validity Of A 'Global Temperature'

Discussions on global warming often refer to 'global temperature.' Yet the concept is thermodynamically as well as mathematically an impossibility, says Bjarne Andresen, a professor at The Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, who has analyzed this topic in collaboration with professors Christopher Essex from University of Western Ontario and Ross McKitrick from University of Guelph, Canada.

Questions for Mr. Gore

DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2007®

Mr. Gore: You have said several times that we have 10 years to act to stave off global warming. Was that 10 years from the first time you said that or 10 years from now? We just wanted to get a firm date from you that we can hold you to.

Mr. Gore: How can you continue to claim that global warming on Earth is primarily caused by mankind when other planets (Mars, Jupiter and Pluto) with no confirmed life forms and certainly no man-made industrial greenhouse gas emissions also show signs of global warming? Wouldn’t it make more sense that the sun is responsible for warming since it is the common denominator?

Mr. Gore: Joseph Romm, the executive director for the Center for Energy and Climate Solutions, has said we must build 700 large nuclear plants to stave off climate change. Where do you stand on the need for nuclear energy?

Mr. Gore: Do you think the earth is significantly overpopulated and that is a major contributor to your view of climate change. (If yes, what do you think is a sustainable population for the planet?)

Saturday, March 17, 2007

The Quiet Man: We're watching this today.

The Quiet Man is one of my all-time favorite movies.

Today, in honor of St. Patty's day, we'll be watchin' in our humble home.

The proprieties will be observed at all times, if you please.

Lyrics to "Mush-Mush-Mush Tural-i-addy" from The Quiet Man (1952) at Reel Classics

It was there that I learned all me courtin' --

Many lessons I took in the art --

Till Cupid, the blackguard, while sportin',

An arrow drove straight through me

Mush, Mush, Mush tural-i-addy

Me Mush, Mush, Mush tural-i-ay.

So I lathered him with me shillelagh

For he trod on the tail of me

Mush, Mush, Mush tural-i-addy.

And just like the Dingle for gold,

I lathered him with me shillelagh

For he trod on the tail of me coat.

Colors of a prayer for peace...

Irish Flag

* orange — standing for Irish Protestants

* green — signifying Irish Catholics and the republican cause

* white — representing the hope for peace between them

Green Day

The History of St. Patrick's Day - The History Channel

St. Patrick is believed to have driven the snakes from Ireland. Once a pagan himself, St. Patrick is one of Christianity's most widely known figures.

The modern secular holiday is based on the original Christian saint's feast day also thought to be the date of the saint's death. In 1737, Irish immigrants to the United States began observing the holiday publicly in Boston and held the first St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York City in 1766.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Reminding you who is down in Guantanamo

One of th edetainees confession is detailed below.

OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today

1. I was responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center Operation

2. I was responsible for the 9/11 Operation, from A to Z.

3. I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, [Wall Street Journal reporter] Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan. For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head.

4. I was responsible for the Shoe Bomber Operation to down two American airplanes.

5. I was responsible for the Filka Island operation in Kuwait that killed two American soldiers.

6. I was responsible for the bombing of a nightclub in Bali, Indonesia, which was frequented by British and American nationals.

7. I was responsible for planning, training, surveying, and financing the New (or Second) Wave attacks against the following skyscrapers after 9/11:
a. Library Tower, California.
b. Sears Tower, Chicago,
c. Plaza Bank, Washington state.
d. The Empire State Building, New York City.

8. I was responsible for planning, financing, follow-up of Operations to destroy American military vessels and oil tankers in the Straights of Hormuz, and Straights of Gibralter, and the Port of Singapore.

9. I was responsible for planning, training, surveying, and financing for the Operation to bomb and destroy the Panama Canal.

10. I was responsible for surveying and financing for the assassination of several former American Presidents, including President Carter.

11. I was responsible for surveying, planning, and financing for the bombing of suspension bridges in New York.

12. I was responsible for planning to destroy the Sears Tower by burning a few fuel or oil tanker trucks beneath it or around it.

13. I was responsible for planning, surveying, and financing for the operation to destroy Heathrow Airport, the Canary Wharf Building, and Big Ben on British soil.

14. I was responsible for planning, surveying, and financing for the destruction of many night clubs frequented by American and British citizens on Thailand soil.

15. I was responsible for surveying and financing for the destruction of the New York Stock Exchange and other financial targets after 9/11.

16. I was responsible for planning, financing, and surveying for the destruction of buildings in the Israeli city of Elat by using airplanes leaving from Saudi Arabia.

17. I was responsible for planning, surveying, and financing for the destruction of American embassies in Indonesia, Australia, and Japan.

18. I was responsible for surveying and financing for the destruction of the Israeli embassy in India, Azerbaijan, the Philippines, and Australia.

19. I was responsible for surveying and financing for the destruction of an Israeli 'El-Al' Airlines flight on Thailand soil departing from Bangkok Airport.

20. I was responsible for sending several Mujahadeen into Israel to conduct surveillance to hit several strategic targets deep in Israel.

21. I was responsible for the bombing of the hotel in Mombasa that is frequented by Jewish travelers via El-Al airlines.

22. I was responsible for launching a Russian-made SA-7 surface-to-air missile on El-Al or other Jewish airliner departing from Mombasa.

23. I was responsible for planning and surveying to hit American targets in South Korea, such as American military bases and a few night clubs frequented by American soldiers.

24. I was responsible for financial, excuse me, I was responsible for providing financial support to hit American, Jewish, and British targets in Turkey.

25. I was responsible for surveillance needed to hit nuclear power plants that generate electricity in several U.S. states.

26. I was responsible for planning, surveying, and financing to hit NATO Headquarters in Europe.

27. I was responsible for the planning and surveying needed to execute the Bojinka Operation, which was designed to down twelve American airplanes full of passengers. I personally monitored a found-trip, Manila-to-Seoul, Pan Am flight.

28. I was responsible for the assassination attempt against President Clinton during his visit to the Philippines in 1994 or 1995. . . .

29. I shared responsibility for the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul the second while he was visiting the Philippines.

30. I was responsible for the training and financing for the assassination of Pakistan's President Musharraf.

31. I was responsible for the attempt to destroy an American oil company owned by the Jewish former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, on the Island of Sumatra, Indonesia.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Chastity: not just for children anymore.

Rich Street sent me this interesting article.

BreakPoint: A Chaste Approach to Sex, 2/14/07 - 2/14/2007 12:36:19 PM

When college students pack up and spend a couple of days at another campus, it's usually to attend a sporting event—or maybe a long, boozy fraternity party.

But at Princeton this week, college students are gathering from around the country to take part in something radically different: a workshop on chastity.

If your jaw just dropped, you probably have plenty of company. But when you recover, you ought to start cheering: The workshop is a healthy sign that young people are becoming disillusioned with today's "hook-up" culture.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

The Gore Effect

UNITED STATES Climate Summary

The average temperature in February 2007 was 32.9 F. This was -1.8 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average, the 34th coolest February in 113 years. The temperature trend for the period of record (1895 to present) is 0.3 degrees Fahrenheit per decade.

Update:

Add it to the list:

Gore Effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Gore Effect is a phenomena in which several places Al Gore visits to give his global warming speech experience unusual snowfall or record cold temperatures. Examples include:
* Jan 2004, when Gore spoke in NYC, NYC had the coldest weather in nearly 50 years.
* Nov 2006, 2 weeks before summer, Al Gore visits Australia to give his speech, as a huge snowstorm hits.
* Feb 2007, Gore presentation canceled at Maryville University, due to snowstorm

And now: * Feb 2007, Gore wins Oscar for Severe Global Warming documentary, month cooler than average.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

French Freedom of Speech

Macworld: News: France bans citizen journalists from reporting violence

The French Constitutional Council has approved a law that criminalizes the filming or broadcasting of acts of violence by people other than professional journalists. The law could lead to the imprisonment of eyewitnesses who film acts of police violence, or operators of Web sites publishing the images, one French civil liberties group warned on Tuesday.

They don't have Freedom Fried either. It's ironic that people say that Bush is Hitler, while the French require government oversight of all reporters and now apparently are ready to prosecute anyone who acts like one.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Sun Devil Pride

They didn't have stuff like this when I was there:

Sun Devil Gridiron - The Home of Sun Devil Football

Movement toward the Poor

OnMovements » Blog Archive » Movements: Some New Thoughts (To Me Anyway)

And this is the new thought to me:

How can we be serious about the Great Commission, if very little discussion surrounds seeing the poor as an unreached people group worth reaching, even though they make up 2/3rds of the world?

I realize that the poor haven’t been traditionally included in the “ethnos” category — the people/language group distinction as defined in the Great Commission passages (ie make disciples of all nations). Yet, as Hayes argues, the same kind of cross-cultural, contextualized, incarnational ministry is required to reach the poor as is required to reach other people groups.

In other words, we talk of learning a language and culture of a people group so we can do contextualized, incarnational ministry, but we rarely talk about crossing the socio-economical barrier to understand the “common realities” of the poor as a “people group.”

Yet, nearly 1 in 10 verses in the Bible speaks of the poor in some way. The poor, the widow, the orphan, the outcast, the hungry and thirsty, are central to God’s heart. And as Matthew 25 argues so clearly, Jesus wants them in his kingdom and he wants us to help get them there.

What would happen to our movement building strategies if we embraced the poor as a distinct people group worth reaching?

I wonder.

I think that Campus Crusade has struggled with the trade off between ministry to influential people (students, leaders, etc.) and the growing realization that ministry to the poor is not just a strategy but part of following Christ. That's why I think the future of our movement will be combining the two. Thankfully Bono and Bill Gates and others have shown examples of how there need not be a wall of separation between people of power and peoples in need.

Is there a link between Evolution and Racism?

The Volokh Conspiracy - -

The book that Scopes was teaching was a popular biology book of the day--George Hunter's Civic Biology (1914). Bryan was not just disturbed by the teaching of evolution but more broadly by the whole social Darwinist agenda, including both capitalism and genetic superiority. Civic Biology was a vicious social Darwinist tract. Here are some excerpts from the book, courtesy of Eugenics Watch:

Hunter's Civic Biology, p. 195-196 The Races of Man. — At the present time there exist upon the earth five races or varieties of man, each very different from the other in instincts, social customs, and, to an extent, in structure. These are the Ethiopian or negro type, originating in Africa; the Malay or brown race, from the islands of the Pacific; The American Indian; the Mongolian or yellow race, including the natives of China, Japan, and the Eskimos; and finally, the highest type of all, the caucasians, represented by the civilized white inhabitants of Europe and America. Hunter's Civic Biology, p. 261-265 Improvement of Man. — If the stock of domesticated animals can be improved, it is not unfair to ask if the health and vigor of the future generations of men and women on the earth might not be improved by applying to them the laws of selection. This improvement of the future race has a number of factors in which we as individuals may play a part. These are personal hygiene, selection of healthy mates, and the betterment of the environment. Eugenics. — When people marry there are certain things that the individual as well as the race should demand. The most important of these is freedom from germ diseases which might be handed down to the offspring. Tuberculosis, syphilis, that dread disease which cripples and kills hundreds of thousands of innocent children, epilepsy, and feeble-mindedness are handicaps which it is not only unfair but criminal to hand down to posterity. The science of being well born is called eugenics. The Jukes. — Studies have been made on a number of different families in this country, in which mental and moral defects were present in one or both of the original parents. The "Jukes" family is a notorious example. The first mother is known as "Margaret, the mother of criminals." In seventy-five years the progeny of the original generation has cost the state of New York over a million and a quarter dollars, besides giving over to the care of prisons and asylums considerably over a hundred feeble-minded, alcoholic, immoral, or criminal persons. Another case recently studied is the "Kallikak" family. (Footnote: The name Kallikak is fictitious.) This family has been traced back to the War of the Revolution, when a young soldier named Martin Kallikak seduced a feeble-minded girl. She had a feeble-minded son from whom there have been to the present time 480 descendants. Of these 33 were sexually immoral, 24 confirmed drunkards, 3 epileptics, and 143 feeble-minded. The man who started this terrible line of immorality and feeble-mindedness later married a normal Quaker girl. From this couple a line of 496 descendants have come, with no cases of feeble-mindedness. The evidence and the moral speak for themselves! Parasitism and its Cost to Society. — Hundreds of families such as those described above exist today, spreading disease, immorality, and crime to all parts of this country. The cost to society of such families is very severe. Just as certain animals or plants become parasitic on other plants or animals, these families have become parasitic on society. They not only do harm to others by corrupting, stealing, or spreading disease, but they are actually protected and cared for by the state out of public money. Largely for them the poorhouse and the asylum exist. They take from society, but they give nothing in return. They are true parasites. The Remedy. — If such people were lower animals, we would probably kill them off to prevent them from spreading. Humanity will not allow this, but we do have the remedy of separating the sexes in asylums or other places and in various ways preventing intermarriage and the possibilities of perpetuating such a low and degenerate race. Remedies of this sort have been tried successfully in Europe and are now meeting with some success in this country. Blood Tells. — Eugenics shows us, on the other hand, in a study of the families in which are brilliant men and women, the fact that the descendants have received the good inheritance from their ancestors. The following, taken from Davenport's Heredity in Relationship to Eugenics, illustrates how one family has been famous in American History. ...

This is one aspect of science that is rarely discussed.

It's only harrassment of we say so...

OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today

When 'Sensitivity' Is a One-Way Street

The Associated Press reports from Santa Rosa, Calif., on an interesting political-correctness kerfuffle:

When a few classmates razzed Rebekah Rice about her Mormon upbringing with questions such as, "Do you have 10 moms?" she shot back: "That's so gay." . . .

After Rice got a warning and a notation in her file, her parents sued, claiming officials at Santa Rosa's Maria Carillo [sic] High violated their daughter's First Amendment rights when they disciplined her for uttering a phrase "which enjoys widespread currency in youth culture," according to court documents.

Testifying last week about the 2002 incident, Rice, now 18, said that when she uttered those words, she was not referring to anyone's sexual orientation. She said the phrase meant: "That's so stupid, that's so silly, that's so dumb."

But school officials say they took a strict stand against the putdown after two boys were paid to beat up a gay student the year before.

"The district has a statutory duty to protect gay students from harassment," the district's lawyers argued in a legal brief. "In furtherance of this goal, prohibition of the phrase 'That's so gay' . . . was a reasonable regulation."

We're not sure this is worth making a federal case over, but it's certainly a revealing window into the politically correct mindset. So vigilant is Carrillo High about protecting gay students from harassment that it has declared certain phrases unsayable, even when the intent plainly is not invidious and when--as appears to have been the case here--there were no gays around to feel "harassed" by the comment. Yet according to Rebekah's parents, the students who actually were harassing her for her religion were not disciplined. Political correctness is not really about sensitivity and courtesy, which require mutual respect. Rather, political correctness entails intolerance for some prejudices but impunity for others.

I think respect for everyone is a great policy.

A Mormon in the Whitehouse?

Q Hugh Hewitt | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

Why shouldn't Christians oppose Mitt Romney because of his Mormonism?

Because the civic religion in America is founded very much on the Constitution's Article Six premise that there is no religious test. That was to act as a formal impediment to state action and to foster an attitude of Americans—that we love religious liberty, that we are defenders of religious tolerance.

Would any theological beliefs be disqualifying?

Not a theological belief. But if a theological belief resulted in a political position, it could. For example, if a Raelian believed that we needed to embrace cloning, I would say, "I can't vote for you because you're in favor of cloning."

Agree or disagree? I tend to agree because I came to the conclusion a long time ago that the political processes of Democracy are fundamentally about compromise. The process of faith is fundamentally about faithfulness. It's not that the two are mutually exclusive, its just that one involves excellence, the other tolerance.

Friday, March 02, 2007

Come help change the world...

The Amazing Change is a website about ending human trafficking around the world.

Amazing Grace begins well...

The numbers look good to me according to this link:

Weekend Box Office Results for February 23–25, 2007

Amazing Grace was the number 10 movie last weekend, it's first weekend in release. But it was only released in 791 theaters, which is more than one thousand theaters less than all of the films in the top nine (except for Breach). But when you look at the Average $ per screen, Amazing Grace is over $5000 per screen which is second only to the top 2 films of the weekend. It's more than twice as much as The Astronaut Farmer.

Nice work Bristol Bay.

Amazing Grace is worth your time. My review is here.

I'm shocked! Shocked!

APA Press Release: Sexualization of Girls Is Linked To Common Mental Health Problems in Girls and Women

WASHINGTON, DC—A report of the American Psychological Association (APA) released today found evidence that the proliferation of sexualized images of girls and young women in advertising, merchandising, and media is harmful to girls’ self-image and healthy development.

I've been giving talks on this kind of thing for years.

I switched back...

I'm enjoying browsing and blogging again because I switched back to Firefox. Internet Explorer 7 is clunky, sluggish. Firefox is much more nimble and easy to configure and tweak.

Ahhh.

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Interesting Stuff