Month: June 2007

Roger Pielke Sr. has a few complaints about the comprehensiveness of the research papers used to prepare various IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). The 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Reports have the following stated goals: “A comprehensive and rigourous picture of the global present state of knowledge of climate change” and “The…

We’re all going to have to rethink how we deal with the Internet. As exciting as these new developments are, there are a number of serious issues without any kind of editing function or gatekeeping function… Far-thinking words from Hillary Clinton in 1998 (during her second, um, term in the White House). While she hasn’t…

Now that the anthropogenic global freezing has been announced, I find myself enjoying Czech President Vaclav Klaus’s remarks about warming: As someone who lived under communism for most of his life, I feel obliged to say that I see the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity now in ambitious environmentalism, not…

Yes. From today’s Inquirer: HARRISBURG – A top aide to State Sen. Lisa M. Boscola will keep his job despite making profanity-laced remarks on a blog about a congressman and his potential Democratic challenger, the senator’s office said yesterday. Bernie Kieklak, chief of staff to the Democratic senator from Northampton County, will remain on her…

Are today’s children being overprotected by their parents? There’s been a lot of discussion about this, and I agree that many children are way overprotected. Many, that is, but not all: A day after his daughter drowned in the Schuylkill, Octavio Perez was still haunted by how the last time he saw her she was…

While this probably should have been an update to my previous post, something about Ann Althouse’s new Calamari rings post reminded me of a touching tale involving my father’s trickery. (Yeah, he got me to eat squid when I was a kid — by telling me the calamari rings were actually onion rings that had…

I don’t know why these things keep happening in Milwaukee, but here we go again: MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee’s Juneteenth Celebration ended in violence after a man was dragged from his car and beaten. Milwaukee police said an officer was also hurt while trying to break up a fight during Tuesday’s celebration. Several thousand people attended…

“I love my cigar, too, but I take it out of my mouth once in a while.” — Words stuffed in Groucho’s Marx’s mouth. My reaction to all of the fallout surrounding Ann Althouse’s hilarious take on the Clinton Soprano video? The way I see it, if a cigar is just a cigar and oral…

Twice in a week now, I’ve had problems with my cell phone when the local tower has been down because of thunderstorms. I’m not as patient as I should be, but I do realize that being asked a litany of idiotic questions is part of the tech support process. So is being put on hold.…

Quite inadvertently, I stumbled onto something that seriously challenged my stereotypes. I’m still amazed, and I’ll try to explain. According to the New York Times (typical of the media diet Americans have been fed) Nicolas Sarkozy is hated by Muslim youth. So much so that not only did none of them vote for him, but…

The University of Chicago sent my mate and I a generic College survey asking generic questions about our opinion of our son’s college experience. We come to the usual race class and gender questions such as: This college is a place where… students of all religious backgrounds can feel welcome people of all economic backgrounds…

If you think Kelo confiscations are bad, get ready. In the name of combating anthropogenic global warming, a package of new laws are being readied which Kimberley A. Strassel describes as “an extraordinary new tool to allow environmentalists to lock up private property across the country” affecting “every dirt clod in America–publicly or privately owned.”…

Today’s Wall Street Journal profiles a human rights activist named Mustafa Ibrahim, who’s demanding that Hamas start implementing gun control in Gaza ASAP: Mr. Ibrahim, the human-rights worker, says dramatic action is needed — not only to stem the flow of guns, but to deal with arms already on the streets. Hamas must begin “collecting…

According to Newsmax.com, Fred Thompson’s abortion record is being scrutinized: Combing through Thompson’s archive, Newsweek found several files on his campaign strategy on abortion that could roil his 2008 bid. On a 1994 Eagle Forum survey, Thompson said he opposed criminalizing abortion. Two years later, on a Christian Coalition questionnaire, he checked “opposed” to a…

“Decadence” is the essential condition of “a society which believes it has evolved to the point where it will never have to go to war.” —Air Force Colonel Robert Wheeler From today’s Philadelphia Inquirer: PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Fifth-graders in California who adorned their mortarboards with tiny toy plastic soldiers this week to support troops in…

From the comment section of Denialism Blog, a slightly abridged comment. The bolding is mine… Mark, you are simply missing the point. You take yourself very, very seriously – and no doubt the issues at stake are serious, both economically and environmentally. Blair, on the other hand, is just a joker. Everything he writes is…

From The Expert and Educated Incapacity , by Herman Kahn Educated incapacity often refers to an acquired or learned inability to understand or even perceive a problem, much less a solution. The original phrase, “trained incapacity,” comes from the economist Thorstein Veblen, who used it to refer, among other things, to the inability of those…

From 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Sir Arthur C. Clarke The great dinosaurs had long since perished when the survey ship entered the Solar System after a voyage that had already lasted a thousand years… They were patient , but they were not yet immortal. There was so much to do in this universe of…

From A London Child Of The 1870s, by M.V. Hughes On one of my bad days I refused to finish up my rice pudding, was sent from the room, and fled in angry tears to my bedroom. Soon Aunt Lizzie came up to me with the information that ‘it says in the Bible that the…