Slam Dawkins

Read the whole thing.



The Dawkins Confusion - Books & Culture

Dawkins is perhaps the world's most popular science writer; he is also an extremely gifted science writer. (For example, his account of bats and their ways in his earlier book The Blind Watchmaker is a brilliant and fascinating tour de force.) The God Delusion, however, contains little science; it is mainly philosophy and theology (perhaps "atheology" would be a better term) and evolutionary psychology, along with a substantial dash of social commentary decrying religion and its allegedly baneful effects. As the above quotation suggests, one shouldn't look to this book for evenhanded and thoughtful commentary. In fact the proportion of insult, ridicule, mockery, spleen, and vitriol is astounding. (Could it be that his mother, while carrying him, was frightened by an Anglican clergyman on the rampage?) If Dawkins ever gets tired of his day job, a promising future awaits him as a writer of political attack ads.

Now despite the fact that this book is mainly philosophy, Dawkins is not a philosopher (he's a biologist). Even taking this into account, however, much of the philosophy he purveys is at best jejune. You might say that some of his forays into philosophy are at best sophomoric, but that would be unfair to sophomores; the fact is (grade inflation aside), many of his arguments would receive a failing grade in a sophomore philosophy class. This, combined with the arrogant, smarter-than-thou tone of the book, can be annoying. I shall put irritation aside, however and do my best to take Dawkins' main argument seriously.

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Best line of the week

Instapundit.com -

Maybe the solution is for Starbucks to go into the gasoline business, so that people will be happy to pay outrageous prices.

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Romney puts the "green" back in the Monster

Marc Ambinder

Mitt Romney's presidential campaign will commandeer Fenway Park and a Boston arena for a night and a day late next week for a major last-minute fundraising extravanganza. It even has a fancy title: "America's Calling."

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Civil War in Iraq

My Way News - Hamas Overruns Rival Fatah's Key Posts

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Hamas fighters overran two of the rival Fatah movement's most important security command centers in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, and witnesses said the victors dragged vanquished gunmen into the street and shot them to death execution-style. Hamas also seized control of Rafah in the south, Gaza's third-largest city, according to witnesses and security officials. It was the second main Gaza city to fall to the militants, who captured nearby Khan Younis on Wednesday, and gave Hamas control of the porous border with Egypt, which has been the source of arms smuggling.

Since they found no weapons of mass-destruction and the country is sliding into civil war, the Bush administration should... hey wait a minute. What the heck? Does the US have any troops in Gaza? Well we should bring them home now because the surge is apparently not working.

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Crusades?

Triablogue: Hitchens' flat world

Despite Hitchens entertaining style, his book quickly becomes tedious. If you are the sort of person who thinks it very clever to respond to, say, an argument defending the role of religious believers in a pluralistic society by shouting, "What about the Crusades?", you will be nodding along with Hitchens in emphatic agreement. If you find such ad historiam arguments tedious, you will be simply nodding off.

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You're outta here!

KnoxNews | No Silence Here

Courier-Journal sports reporter Brian Bennett had his media pass revoked and was ordered to leave the press box during a college baseball game Sunday because of what the NCAA said was a violation of its policies prohibiting live Internet updates from its championship events. "It's clearly a First Amendment issue," says C-J executive editor Bennie Ivory. "This is part of the evolution of how we present the news to our readers."

More here.

What next? Are they going to confiscate cell phones?

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Things you should know before using Sitemeter « Michael Sync

Things you should know before using Sitemeter « Michael Sync: "It’s so sad for me to hear that SiteMeter, a well-known web stats providers, is pushing specificclick tracking and advertising cookies on to visitors of sites using their service. "

Religious Hypocrisy

Sadly, elites have been using religion to solidify their power and wealth for centuries. The practice continues.



Instapundit.com -

MY EARLIER POST on Cape Wind reminded me of something I had read a while ago, and this column on the Cape Wind affair brought it back: "A tip of the hat to author William Tucker, who wrote an essay for Harper's magazine in December 1977 titled, Environmentalism and the Leisure Class: Protecting birds, fishes, and above all, social privilege. That article, on how rich landowners who wanted to protect their views used bogus environmental claims as a smokescreen, fits the Cape Wind scenario pretty well, too.

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Think Different

Personal data found hidden in iTunes tracks-Business-Industry Sectors-Media-TimesOnline

Fresh privacy fears have been sparked after it emerged that Apple has embedded personal information into music files bought from its iTunes online music store.

Technology websites examining iTunes products discovered that personal data, including the name and e-mail addresses of purchasers, are embedded into the AAC files that Apple uses to distribute music tracks.

The information is also included in tracks sold under Apple’s iTunes Plus system, launched this week, where users pay a premium for music that is free from the controversial digital rights (DRM) software that is designed to safeguard against piracy.




The Electronic Freedom Foundation, the
online consumer rights group, added that it had identified a large amount of
additional unaccounted-for information in iTunes files. It said it was
possible that the data could be used to “watermark” tracks so that the
original purchaser could be tracked down were a track to appear on a
file-sharing network.

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Signs of War

Terror Plot "One Of The Most Chilling Imaginable" - News Story - WNBC | New York

NEW YORK -- As first reported by NewsChannel4's Jonathan Dienst, three people were arrested and one other was being sought Saturday in connection to a plot to blow up jet-fuel lines at John F. Kennedy International Airport, officials said.

Four people have been charged. Three suspects are in custody: Russell Defreitas, Kareem Ibrihim and Abdul Kadir. Another suspect, Abdul Nur is still at large.

Defreitas is to be arrainged Saturday in Brooklyn on terror conspiracy charges.

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I'm shocked, shocked...

Colleges veer left for '07 speakers - Nation/Politics - The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

Commencement addresses at the nation's top colleges and universities this year mostly were given by left-leaning or Democratic speakers with few conservatives snagging the honor, according to a report released yesterday by the Young America's Foundation.
The conservative group conducts the review each year using the U.S. News & World Report ranking of top schools. This year, it found left-leaning speakers outnumbered conservatives by a ratio of 8-to-1.

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Death Penalty Deterrence

TBO.com - News From The Associated Press:

"Newton had insisted on the death penalty as punishment for choking and beating Jason Brewer, 27, his cellmate at the Mansfield Correctional Center, over a chess game in 2001."

Associated Press:

"Brewer died a few hours after the attack at Ohio State University Medical Center. Newton told authorities he made a rope and later cut a strip from his prison jumpsuit to strangle Brewer when the rope broke. He also stomped on Newton's head, throat and chest.

Newton admitted to the killing, and said he had never met or heard of Brewer until they had been put together in the cell."

Some say that the death penalty is not a deterrent to murder. Here is a clear case where a murderer has been deterred from murdering any more fellow inmates while playing chess.

Watch and Learn

How he solved the Rubik's cube with his feet:

College Camera

Instapundit.com -:

"HELEN AND I JUST WATCHED EVAN COYNE MALONEY'S FILM, Indoctrinate U. It's a gripping hour-and-a-half, and the college administrators -- and there are a lot of them -- who call the cops on Evan rather than answer simple questions about matters of public record certainly give higher education a jackbooted-thug ambience. Even your dumber corporate PR people would know better, but they are used to a lot more public scrutiny than the folks who run colleges and universities.
I hope that the film gets a lot of attention. It certainly deserves it, and I think it's going to leave a lot of people angry."

African universities overcrowded, falling apart - The Boston Globe

African universities overcrowded, falling apart - The Boston Globe:

"Africa's best universities, the grand institutions that educated a revolutionary generation of nation builders and statesmen, doctors and engineers, writers, and intellectuals, are collapsing.
They are victims of overcrowding, too little money, mismanagement, and trends in international development aid that have favored primary education over higher learning even as a population explosion propels more young people than ever toward the already strained institutions.
The decrepitude is forcing the best and brightest from countries across Africa to seek their education and fortunes abroad and depriving dozens of nations of the homegrown expertise that could lift millions out of poverty."

This is something that Campus Crusade can do something about and we in the Northeast are starting to ask how.

Amahoro Africa

Amahoro Africa:

"When I first left Africa back in 1992, I was few months shy of being 18 years old; I saw my departure as an opportunity to exit poverty, despair and confusion. At that time I promised my parents that I would never return to Africa - they were proud of me. They believed (and I did too) that this was my way out of extreme poverty. Their hope was that I would leave Africa so I could make money to send home and help the family. I just wanted to get out and leave this hopeless place behind me.
It took me traveling to France to meet Jesus. When I did meet Jesus, I came to understand that transformation is integral to who He is and what it means to follow Him. I learned that He did care about what was happening in Burundi… and that changed everything for me! He loved the poor, cared about the sick and longed for peace between tribes. His compassion was extended to me, my family and my countrymen. Jesus grew a new love for Africa and my family in my heart and for the first time, I loved Africa."

The Usual Disinformation

Works and Days:

I’ll stop with that. But you get the impression of why the world may not particularly like the United States, and why it’s really uncertain whether we shall win this war against radical Islamic jihadism.

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Good News on Memorial Day

Michael Yon : Online Magazine » Blog Archive » A Memorial Day Message

Long-time readers know that I deliver bad news with the good. I was first to write that parts of Iraq were in civil war back in February 2005, well over a year before mainstream outlets started reporting the same. I was also the first to report, back in 2005, that Mosul was making a turn for the better. Mainstream outlets hardly picked up on that story, however, although the turn was easy to see for anyone who was there. When I returned from Afghanistan in the spring of 2006, after writing about the growing threat of a resurgent Taliban, bankrolled with profits from the heroin trade, I wrote that parts of our own military were censoring media in Iraq. The recent skirmishing over blogging from Iraq supports that contention. These reminders are for new readers who do not believe that a province that most media outlets had put at the top of the “hopelessly lost” column is actually turning a corner for the better.

Although there is sharp fighting in Diyala Province, and Baghdad remains a battleground, and the enemy is trying to undermine security in areas they’d lost interest in, the fact is that the security plan, or so-called “surge,” is showing clear signs of progress. The city of Hit, for instance. Only about a hundred days ago, Hit was a city at war. Today, the buildings are still riddled with bullet holes, but the Iraqi people are opening shops and painting over the scars. They are waving and smiling while hundreds of men are volunteering to join the police. I saw a “policeman” on duty today whose “weapon” was a plastic pistol. I photographed the toy. And so this man was on “duty” with a toy pistol, though he has not yet attended the police academy and is not even being paid. A writer could probably squeeze bad news from that story, but I won’t try. In fact, Hit is a place where writers who wish to escape combat and bad news should visit.

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Non-Memorial Day

Today I honored the sacrifice of those who died in our countries service by participating in a Memorial Day parade.



I also honor this day by pointing out something that some seem unwilling to point out. Our terrorist enemies in Iraq are evil torturers. A recently found manual on torture confirms this, along with the victims of that torture. I thank God for those who have died and those who now live defending our nation from those who would inflict torture on all who don't share their religion or political goals.



OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today

Blogger Don Surber of the Charleston (W.Va.) Daily Mail examines big-media coverage of the documents:

Where did USA Today play the torture book story?

Not on Page One.

Where did the New York Times play it?

Not on Page One.

Where did the Washington Post play it?

Not on Page One. And yet such false stories as the "flushed Koran" got widespread play in the newspapers and on television.

We are hearing those awful "Sounds of Silence" that Simon and Garfunkel warned us about.

Whether intentional or not, the message is clear: The United States must be above even false reports of torture, while the enemy is allowed to promote eye removal, blowtorching skin and horrors I won't go into.

We also checked the blogs of Andrew Sullivan and Glenn Greenwald, among the most hysterical accusers of America in the "torture" debate, and here is what they have had to say about the al Qaeda documents: .

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How can you not love this guy?

The Official Site of Major League Baseball: News: Major League Baseball News:

"Matsuzaka did not speak with reporters after the game, but he issued a statement through a team publicist.
'I felt very good coming out of my warmups in the bullpen, and I was looking forward to pitching in this game,' he said in the statement. 'But, all of a sudden, I didn't feel too well.
'I tried my best to take the team as deep into the game as possible to fulfill my responsibility as the starter. I regret that I ended up being a burden on my teammates today. I'll do my best to prepare for my next start.' "

Good News is No News

TIME Magazine:

Finally, I find it amusing that some doubt the military source who told me the good news in Anbar province but don't question the sources who told me about the growing pessimism about the Shi'ites ever putting together a viable government...Why does good news about Iraq, however modest--and this was truly a modest, if intriguing, development--trouble you?

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Google Culture

I, Cringely . The Pulpit . The Final Days of Google | PBS

Google quite properly will pursue 10 projects per year and five of those will fail both because they are expected to and also because they were never worth pursuing in the first place. This leaves 390 orphaned projects of which 35 are absolutely stunning but unrecognized and 355 are pretty darned good. What happens to THOSE ideas?

They fester.

Google has designed a working environment that provides almost everything their technical people need except a guaranteed sense of satisfaction. By design each worker is no more than 100 feet from a bathroom or food and drink (at Google the food is always free). This creates an environment where people tend not to go home, which Microsoft discovered and leveraged decades ago. But nobody works every minute they are AT work, which means the Google Geeks are constantly talking with each other, team building, bonding, and goofing off. And for 20 percent of that goofing-off time I'll guarantee you that many of these people are discussing their pet projects, 99.75 percent of which have been REJECTED by the company.

While it is possible that a few Google Geeks may talk about how lucky they were to have been saved from their own bad idea, most of them will take exactly the opposite approach, seeing the company as misguided.

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Some Pig

Boy Bags Wild Hog Bigger Than 'Hogzilla'

An 11-year-old Alabama boy used a pistol to kill a wild hog his father says weighed a staggering 1,051 pounds and measured 9-feet-4 from the tip of its snout to the base of its tail. Think hams as big as car tires.

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Illegal Downloading Among Youth Drops, Reports New Study

Illegal Downloading Among Youth Drops, Reports New Study: "The results of a recent
nationwide survey released by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) show
that illegal downloading of digital copyrighted works by youth (ages 8 to
18) has dropped by 24 percent in the last three years. The survey, first
conducted in 2004, indicated that 60 percent of survey participants
reported downloading software, music, movies, or games without paying for
it; in 2006 the percentage of those who downloaded without paying dropped
to 43 percent; and in 2007 the percentage decreased to 36 percent. Youth
report that parental oversight is a significant motivator and key
influencing factor in their online behavior.The results of a recent
nationwide survey released by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) show
that illegal downloading of digital copyrighted works by youth (ages 8 to
18) has dropped by 24 percent in the last three years. The survey, first
conducted in 2004, indicated that 60 percent of survey participants
reported downloading software, music, movies, or games without paying for
it; in 2006 the percentage of those who downloaded without paying dropped
to 43 percent; and in 2007 the percentage decreased to 36 percent. Youth
report that parental oversight is a significant motivator and key
influencing factor in their online behavior."

PC World - The Top 25 Web Hoaxes and Pranks

PC World: "These online spoofs and shams have made the rounds on Web sites and through e-mail. Perhaps you even believed one or two of them yourself."

Starbucks didn't know beans about Biscotti

Seth's Blog: Too late?: "Here's today's entrepreneurial trivia question:
Even after Starbucks had five stores and more than 20 employees, which item was unavailable for purchase at their stores:
Espresso
Hot Coffee
Biscotti
Frappucino® blended beverage
Actually, it's a trick question. The answer is 'all of the above.' It wasn't until several years after the company was up and running that they realized it would be a good idea to sell any beverages at all. All they sold was beans (but you could get a free taste of coffee if you asked nicely)."

The Food of Christianity

Blue: The House Church at Corinth and the Lord's Supper: 1 Cor. 11: "The boundaries which defined Judaism as a race and reli-
gion were drawn at the table; therefore, the desegregation of the Chris-
tian message had for its appropriate setting the table, Similarly, the
boundaries which defined social and economic classes were forcefully
exposed at a meal. It was uncommon for different classes to eat together:
'The interests brought together in this way probably marked the Chris-
tians off from other unofficial associations, which were generally so-
cially and economically as homogeneous as possible'."

Christianity as a force for human rights in the first century. Fascinating.

Stay away from Office 2007

If you buy the new Office 2007 from Microsoft, there's a good chance the spell check won't work at all. If you want to fix it it will cost you another $50 to have Microsoft fix the software that they already sold to you.

It's a good thing I'm not a lawyer. This seems actionable.

Sigh.

Death Sonnet

Recently a distant family member died. Her faith and her life are found in this sonnet, written by her. It contains both echoes of Donne and a fitting tribute to its author.

And now, death stands within my shuttered door

And bids me hence against my faltering will,

And all the songs I sang I'll sing no more,

And all the whisperings of love be still.

Then take me, death, if taking me you must,

And let my memories no more return.

Reduce my struggling body into dust

Securely sealed within a lidded urn.

Yet from that secret, silent grave shall rise

My living soul, redeemed, unfettered, free,

To wing its way above to heavenly skies

To be with Him, my Lord, eternally

When you, O Death, will ever banished be

And mine shall be the joyous victory.

Molly Frick Wampler

April 25, 1906 - March 15, 2007

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The End is Near

DiCaprio sheds light on '11th Hour'

But I was very clear in the movie. I want the public to be very scared by what they see. I want them to see a very bleak future. I want them to feel disillusioned halfway through and feel hopeless. And then when we get into the entire section in the second half when we talk about cultural transformation and a new way of looking at things and the alternatives or green technology and all these things, you realize there is great hope and there are options on the table. And hopefully the audience is moved and galvanized to do something about it. Hopefully.

I'm sure the street preacher outside of my office would love to make a film like this. He preaches roughly the same kind of message in a loud voice almost daily.



I wonder if this film will go beyond Al Gore's film and include professional scientists who can be held accountable by their peers for the claims they make on camera. I'm sure Leo and Al are very competent but I wouldn't be taking medical advice from them either, if you know what I mean.

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Oral Tradition in the Congress

Say what you will about the Bible, at least it's written down so you can check it yourself.



Hugh Hewitt

Finally, the arrogance of announcing that a deal has been reached when it hadn’t even been written combined with the jam down schedule for Senate consideration of the vast bill struck many as the ultimate insult: Here is a vital bill of incredible importance on a subject that has been passionately debated for years, and the people aren’t even invited to the debate or given the text on around which the debate revolves. That is not how a republic operates, especially for people who take their citizenship seriously.

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Holy Architecture Batman

Neatorama » Blog Archive » 10 Divinely Designed Churches.

Let’s take a look at some divinely designed churches around the world, both classic and modern in style.

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Teens abstain from depression?

the evangelical outpost: Family Facts #18

In this study, compared with peers who abstained from sex and drugs, girls who experimented with sex or drugs were two to three times times more likely to become depressed: those with multiple sex partners were 10 times more likely than their abstinent peers to become depressed and those who used drugs frequently were about seven and a half times as likely as peers who did not use drugs to become depressed.

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Watch this, and then ask why.

In recent days, a young couple was raped, tortured, sexually mutilated and murdered.



Why haven't you heard about this? Ask the Mainstream Media including Fox News.



Hot Air » Blog Archive » A horror story the MSM won’t tell

The mainstream media finds some crimes more useful than others. Michelle explains.

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Why I hate Presidential "Debates"

Hugh Hewitt

The most important moment of the debate was the discussion begun by Ron Paul --now clearly revealed as a fringe candidate who ought not to be on the stage-- who argued that America invited the 9/11 attacks and was rightly and strongly rebuked by Giuliani. A wide screen shot showed many of the candidates ready to join in a discussion of what motivates our enemy, a conversation that would have gone a long way towards making the debate significant. But at just this moment Wendall Goller decided he had to ask his prepared questions instead of allowing an authentic debate to break out. The moment passed, and the candidates went back to the staggered (and usually dull) one minute riffs on this or that. The hardest thing for an interviewer to do is listen and be willing to abandon the script when such a moment arrives. Goller missed such a moment.

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We're Number 3!

News from The Associated Press

Residents in the following 25 cities were surveyed and are listed in order from those reporting the most incidents of road rage to the fewest:

1. Miami

2. New York

3. Boston

4. Los Angeles

5. Washington, D.C.

6. Phoenix

7. Chicago

8. Sacramento, Calif.

9. Philadelphia

10. San Francisco

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But they support the troops!

Congress Approval Down to 29%; Bush Approval Steady at 33%

Twenty-nine percent of Americans approve of Congress, down slightly from last month's reading (33%) and this year's high point of 37%, while Bush's approval rating is holding steady at 33%.

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When can we get him to the debates...

Breitbart.tv » Exclusive: Thompson Responds to Michael Moore Challenge

Thompson Responds to Michael Moore Challenge

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Keep your laws off my everything

OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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."

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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.

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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."

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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.

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Instapundit references Phil Mitchell

Instapundit.com -

MORE CONTROVERSY AT COLORADO

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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.

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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.

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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 –

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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."

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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...

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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)

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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.

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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!

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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.

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Boston Clean Town

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

In Pictures: The World's Cleanest Cities: Boston

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The Present and Future of Disease

This is pretty cool.



Who is Sick?

Analysis of 123 sicknesses in the current view

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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. ;-)

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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".

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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.

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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?

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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.

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