Month: December 2007

Check out the 6th Annual Right Wing News Conservative Blog Awards! Find out which blogs were voted as the best — and worst — by their fellow bloggers. You can see won these once per year awards, which are the oldest and most prestigious in the conservative blogosphere…. The results are quite interesting, and I…

Commenter Papertiger has given me a heads up about a Climate Debate on Blog Talk Radio. By popular request, I present the Great Climate Debate. The participants in the debate are Dr. Andrew Dessler, a professor of atmospheric science at Texas A&M University, and Dr. Timothy Ball, a retired professor from the University of Winnipeg.…

For years now (as I remarked on Friday), I have adhered to the assumption that Hillary Clinton Absolutely Will Be the Democratic presidential nominee, and I am having a great deal of trouble even considering the possibility that the nomination might go to Obama. Maybe I’ve been in denial. It isn’t an easy thing to…

I was reading Michelle Malkin on the recent vote by the Senate to authorize funds for the war with no strings attached. The vote was something like 90 to 3. I thought to myself, certainly there will be outrage at the DU, probably fodder for a blog post. So I’ll go have a look and…

Ilya Somin at The Volokh Conspiracy is discussing how the war on drugs impedes progress in the War On Islamic Fascism. So I ask a question: Which is more important – using prohibition to subsidize criminals or winning the war against the fascist? Americans repeatedly choose to subsidize criminals. The common complaint is “too many…

Via Glenn Reynolds, I just learned that Triticale has died. Glenn hadn’t heard of his leukemia, but says: I enjoyed his blog posts and comments. He will be missed. He certainly will. Triticale’s name, (it turns out, according to Old Grouch) was Tom Dee. This is really sad. I hate to lose not only a…

In the last month or so I have posted a couple of pieces on government interference with industry. One post contained this quote from Thomas Edison: “Any extension of the Government into business affairs — no matter what the pretense and no matter how the extension is labeled — will be bound to promote waste…

It’s a bit of a shock for this to sink in, but even in my wildest political prognostication I never imagined the presidential race shaping up as being between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. It would be foolish to say that this will happen, but it certainly appears possible: Barack Obama has come from behind…

I just watched this video of Hillary Clinton’s mother endorsing — SURPRISE! — her daughter Hillary. This, BTW, is one of those professional “I’m Hillary Clinton and I approved this message” ads. I’m thinking back over the years, and I can’t recall the last time I saw an official campaign ad showing a candidate’s mother…

Marxist Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” is being made into a major television series: Zinn’s 1980 book influenced a generation of students with its negatively-framed distortions of American history which minimized successes like WWII. It exchanged traditional history for marginal topics such as Great Railroad Strike of 1877, Joan Baez and…

Scientific American looks at the radiation risks of living near a nuke plant vs. living near a coal fired plant. Their conclusion: the coal plant is more dangerous. How dangerous? Not very. Dana Christensen, associate lab director for energy and engineering at ORNL, says that health risks from radiation in coal by-products are low. “Other…

Stephen Green drunk-blogs the latest Republican debate, and it isn’t a pretty picture: We’re in a very fluid race. The frontrunner, Rudy Giulliani, is down almost everywhere. A scary populist preacher is taking the lead, almost everywhere. The war hero and the TV star are getting no respect, almost anywhere. These should be exciting times.…

Say what you will about Hillary, but the claim that she’s a feminist (or even an independent woman) is getting pretty lame. As has been the pattern all along, whenever she gets into trouble, it’s her husband Bill who comes to the rescue. Ann Althouse wonders what Hillary never did with Bill. A lot, I’d…

Control Engineering asks the provocative question: is manufacturing in decline in the USA? Boston, MA – The keynote address at Aberdeen’s first annual Manufacturing in the 21st Century Executive Summit served as a stronger wake-up call for attendees than the free coffee. During this session, best-selling author Michael Treacy highlighted the dramatic evolution of workplaces…

I have finally learned what will eventually kill me. You’ll die from an Unlikely Illness (like the plague). You will unfortunately succumb to a random and unlikely disease. Only to find out after death that eating more broccoli would have cured you. ‘How will you die?’ at QuizGalaxy.com Via Dr. Helen, who gets to die…

I think I have discovered the primary purpose of the endless recorded loops of voice dialogue prompts. They are there to make people grateful for the privilege of finally being put on hold. In the old days, I used to hate being put on hold. Much as it galls me to admit it, I now…

That’s what they say. “Climate change” is responsible for the Darfur conflict, right? This meme has been parroted endlessly (and of course it made it into Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth“), but trained economist Chris Blattman asked a basic question: The pundits say yes, but what do the data say? Well, among other things, this:…

Last week I saw “American Gangster,” which I thought was a great film. It deals with the rise and fall of black gangster Frank Lucas, and also explores the inherently corrupt (and corrupting) nature of the Drug War. The lead character, played by Denzell Washington, was a thorough Machiavellian who mastered not only a novel…