Month: March 2007

  • “slaughter” committed by “high caliber” “automatics”

    Yet another inaccurate and misleading front page Inquirer story attempting to vilify guns instead of the criminals who misuse them. And yet another meaningless series of corrections by a mean-spirited gun nut whose corrections would only matter to other mean-spirited gun nuts (and possibly a few kooks who dare worry about inaccuracy or bias in…

  • Balancing the polls

    I’m feeling guilty after having asked the valued and sophisticated readers of this blog to choose between Newt Gingrich and Hillary Clinton, because I hope and pray such a thing never happens — especially considering these two are the most unpopular candidates. I don’t like to avoid reality, though, and much as I hate to…

  • Despite “dog overpopulation,” there’s a puppy shortage

    Before I revisit an unfashionable topic, I want to urge everyone to read what I think is the best discussion I’ve ever seen on the phenomenon of moral fashion. Excerpt: ….there are moral fashions too. They’re just as arbitrary, and just as invisible to most people. But they’re much more dangerous. Fashion is mistaken for…

  • Squeezing Iran

    The Washington Post reports: Iran Feels Pinch As Major Banks Curtail Business. More than 40 major international banks and financial institutions have either cut off or cut back business with the Iranian government or private sector as a result of a quiet campaign launched by the Treasury and State departments last September, according to Treasury…

  • First they came for our elephants….

    The Philadelphia Zoo’s plan to get rid of its elephants (which involves a protracted dispute with local activists) has run into a new problem. The Maryland Zoo won’t take Philadelphia’s elephants, which has forced the Zoo to look elsewhere: Caught by surprise last week when the Maryland Zoo backed out of a deal to adopt…

  • Hillary’s favorite opponent?

    Newsmax.com is very impressed (if not enamored) by Newt Gingrich, and declares him the winner of their recent online poll: An Internet poll sponsored by NewsMax.com reveals that an overwhelming number of Americans — nearly 7 in 10 respondents — favor former House Speaker Newt Gingrich as their presidential candidate in 2008. Here are the…

  • Allies Cheerfully Betrayed – In Advance

    It’s Vietnam Time again. The House of Representatives has passed a Cut and Run Bill disguised as a Support the Troops Bill. How clever. However, we have a lot of clever citizens in America. One of them has something very useful to say. We must stop this “Hate George Bush” war at any cost. It…

  • From rampant slut culture to old-fashioned feminism?

    Girls are looking like sluts, says Alfred Lubrano: We live in a world in which oral sex is now second base. In which girls dress like porn stars. In which the kids you see at the airport this weekend heading for spring break will wind up topless in Girls Gone Wild, Fort Lauderdale ’07 videos.…

  • The Democrat Plan for Our New Army

    President Bush: Today’s action in the House does only one thing: it delays the delivering of vital resources for our troops. A narrow majority has decided to take this course, just as General Petraeus and his troops are carrying out a new strategy to help the Iraqis secure their capital city. H/T Hot Air via…

  • We will do nothing, because cowardice is virtuous

    Is this country at war? If we were, I think the Iranian seizure of British Navy personnel and boats (thoroughly covered in this great link roundup) might be taken more seriously than it is. Unfortunately, I’m afraid I agree with Daily Pundit’s David Gillies who said “We will do nothing”: That is an act of…

  • Scientifically manufactured morality?

    Science considers what is true, starting out with almost unimaginable ideas (The earth is moving! The future is unpredictable!). The job is to understand these ideas and fit them into a broad and logical picture of the universe. Politics considers what is right. This requires broad understanding and eventual consensus of points of view that…

  • Denial hits home

    I don’t know what is wrong with my dog Coco lately, but I think she may be in denial. Just a week ago, there was six inches of ice in the yard as a result of the sleet storm which hit the area. I had gotten quite used to walking on top of it by…

  • See CO2?

    Thanks to Eric at Classical Values I have come across some very interesting numbers about CO2. Let us start at the beginning. Before the advent of fuel burning industry the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere was 288 parts per million (ppm). By the year 2000 man had added 11.88 ppm to that total and…

  • replacing tradition with tradition

    Via Pajamas Media, I saw this Times article about a coming change in television advertising. The goal is to keep people watching instead of reaching for the remote or charging off to the kitchen. Remarkably, they’re considering bringing back an old idea from the 1950s — integrating advertising content with the show and/or its characters:…

  • “REGARDLESS OF GLOBAL WARMING”

    Googling that phrase, I got 93,000 hits — most of them involving the argument that even if carbon dioxide is not causing global warming, that it’s still a threat to the oceans. Whether it is or not isn’t my point. The reason I Googled the phrase is that I have noticed a rather odd shift…

  • Fusion Newsgroup

    I have just started an IEC Fusion newsgroup. IEC stands for Inertial Electrostatic Confinement. Devices like the Farnsworth Fusor or Dr Bussard’s Polywell machine. It will cover technology. Research advances (or set backs). Financing more research. etc. For starters here is a message from the second person to join the group Tom Ligon: MSimon, you…

  • Cathy Seipp, R.I.P.

    I’m so sorry to get back and see (via Glenn Reynolds) the sad, sad news. While I was driving through New Jersey earlier this afternoon, my thoughts turned to Cathy Seipp. I knew she was dying and I’d tried to wish her goodbye to the best of my ability, but it was just one of…

  • A Helpful Bunch

    Popular Science looks at Thiago Olson’s fusion reactor. How did he do it? Olson pored over graduate-level physics textbooks, studied vacuum-pump manufacturers’ manuals, and scoured the Web for cheap parts. Though mostly self-taught, he occasionally solicited advice on a fusion Web site. Once, he posted photos of a cheap photomultiplier tube he’d bought online because…

  • No time to be an NRA attack goon today!

    That’s because I have to drive to New Jersey. If I had time, however, I would address in detail the ridiculous claim (detailed by Say Uncle; linked by InstaPundit, with more here) that “The NRA whipped up a frenzy on the blogosphere, where a rabid fringe element of the hunting community denounced Zumbo in the…

  • ITER – The Other Side

    I have been going hot and heavy on the Bussard Fusion Reactor. I think it is time to present the other side. DNA India reports: ITER is ‘the way’ to the future of energy. Well I don’t believe it. I think ITER (The International Thermonuclear Energy Reactor) is doing wonderful physics. The chances for a…