Month: June 2007

A bill pending in the California legislature would criminalize the mere possession something I’d never heard of before — bags lined with aluminum foil. While I’d heard about various cities banning stores from distributing plastic bags and styrofoam cups, this is the first time I’d heard of criminalizing the possession of any type of bag.…

If San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly gets his way, the Blue Angels would be banned from flying over San Francisco: SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) – The annual aerial show by the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels — a San Francisco tradition dating back to 1981 that pumps millions into the local economy — is running into…

Jonathan Richard Simon, the grandson of Esther Simon and the late Manny Simon, son of Michael and Sandra Simon, and brother of, David, Jason, and Camille Simon graduated from the University of Chicago on June 9th, 2007. His degree was in Slavic Languages and Literatures – with Honors. Jon was elected to Phi Beta Kappa…

As the key to American politics for at least two decades (and arguably right back to the sixties), cultural polarization deserves serious thought and study, not perpetual denial. So says Stanley Kurtz, in a post linked by Glenn Reynolds for other reasons. I’m a bit more concerned with the Culture War than most bloggers, as…

Dr. Robert Bussard talks about how to change the world and it only takes three minutes. For a deeper look at this technology: Bussard Fusion Reactor The video at this one is deep on physics and lasts an hour and a half, however the last 30 minutes has the implications. The three minute video is…

Here’s something I enjoyed seeing in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer — Glenn Reynolds’ review of Andrew Keen’s “The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet Is Killing Our Culture” — which sees the book as: basically an extended paean to the lost Golden Age of middlebrow taste-makers and big-media megaphones, and an extended jeremiad against an…

In this week’s Philadelphia Weekly, I stumbled onto a review of a pair of little plastic unicorns: Cold War Unicorns Admit it: The Cold War years were great. Bowie made his best records in West Berlin. Rocky kicked Dolph Lundgren’s ass. And Osama bin Laden was still our plucky friend, ripping the Soviets a new…

This story has been bothering and puzzling me: John West can’t understand why Little Bit, his 5-year-old pit bull, is dead. Last week, in a scenario disputed by West, a police officer fired at the dog on the 2500 block of South 72d Street, hitting the animal in the paw and wounding another officer when…

While it is not my point here to debate anyone’s religious or political views on homosexuality, I think the anatomical opinions of Dr. James Holsinger are creating a bit of medical confusion. From the WSJ, here’s James Taranto: These are Holsinger’s two main claims: The sexes are “fully complementary.” Compared with ordinary intercourse, erotic activity…

I’m having a bit of a problem with the logic of some of my liberal Bush-hating friends, and I’m wondering whether I’m alone. While I make no secret of the fact that I voted for Bush, what I’d like to know is how does that make me a Bush spokesman? There are a lot of…

Bad news from California. AB 1634 has passed the Assembly: SACRAMENTO, CA (June 6, 2007) – “Unbelievable” was the reaction from PetPAC today after Members of the California State Assembly voted 41-38 to outlaw the existence of mixed-breed dogs and cats in the Golden State. Assembly Bill 1634, authored by Los Angeles Assemblyman Lloyd Levine,…

The death of Steve Gilliard seems to have struck a chord. Of discord. Obviously, some people liked him and some didn’t. I won’t use the occasion of his death to speak ill of Gilliard, but OTOH, I don’t think eliminationist rhetoric and use of the n word are called for because another blog did. The…

I wrote a post yesterday about the arrest of the “No Guns” activist for selling guns, and I now see that LA Weekly has new story titled “Hector Marroquin’s Revenge — Feds arrest “No Guns” activist for selling guns, while L.A. politicians duck.” I also see that Patterico has been covering the Marrquin story for…

There seems to be a lot of global warming porn going around. We have examples of porn addicts publicly confessing and swearing off their addiction. And others can’t get enough. A confirmed “CO2 is rising and we are all doomed” fellow cites the following articles on the drastic consequences of man’s interference with the air.…

I was doing some browsing around at Climate Audit, Steve McIntyre’s blog and came across a comment from Steve saying the discussion of astrology in relation to climate science was banned. Well you know me. I can’t resist a challenge. OK. I’m going to bite the astrology thing and risk banning. It seems that reliable…

I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried. Via Dennis I learned that Los Angeles activist Hecor Marroquin, the founder of a group called “NO GUNS,” has been arrested for selling guns. And silencers, and automatic weapons. He’s a convicted felon who’s said to have boasted that he runs the Mexican Mafia in Cudahy,…

My answer to the tasteless Scarborough “works the pole” remark which Glenn Reynolds twice noticed? Do I have to notice it too? Only if I work real hard, I guess. Geez. Now I’m wondering whether I can even say the word “tasteless” anymore in the context of poll workers or whatever they’re called. But what…

It seems like the reports are mixed: ANKARA, Turkey – Hundreds of Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq early Wednesday to chase Kurdish guerrillas who attack Turkey from bases there, Turkish security officials said. One official said the troops had returned to their bases by the end of the day, but Turkey’s foreign minister denied…

Today is the anniversary of D-Day, which marked the beginning of the Battle of Normandy. Thousands of Americans were killed just in the first few hours of the initial D-Day landing, and according to the Wikipedia article, American casualties for the Battle of Normandy eventually totalled 29,000 dead, and 106,000 wounded and missing. It’s tough…

So opines legendary physicist David Deutsch in this fascinating YouTube video, in which he also discusses Global Warming. The video is reviewed here in a post titled “The World’s Most Elite Libertarian Scientist on Global Warming…”: Deutsch is the intellectual father of quantum computation, the viability of such likely validating his Multiverse, Many Worlds Interpretation…