Month: December 2007

According to Drudge, this “DNC press release attack summary” shows the amount of time the Democrats have devoted their resources to attacks on candidates: DNC Press Release Attack Summary: Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) – 37% (99 press releases) Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-NY) – 28% (74) Senator John McCain (R-AZ) – 24% (64) Senator Fred Thompson…

Via Glenn Reynolds, I’m glad to see that Evan Coyne Maloney reached a settlement with Indiana University, which alleged he infringed on their trademark. I don’t think he did, and I wrote a post about it. But that got me to thinking about the right of others to use a logo which the owner still…

Ann Althouse has an interesting discussion of a Times piece about why dyslexics become entrepreneurs, and she asks a good question: I love these stories of how people find special powers in their mental deficiencies. (Oliver Sacks is a master at presenting material of this kind.) Bonus topic: What are the mental deficiencies that prevail…

That’s what is being reported about Matthew Murray, the gunman who (fortunately) was shot dead after opening fire on a church but before he could kill more people. Reports also state that he is a “loner” from a “devoutly religious family,” was home-schooled, and was rejected as a missionary. While his family was described as…

Via Glenn Reynolds, who calls her a “supply sider,” Whoopi Goldberg’s latest remarks show so much common sense that she’s starting to remind me of my late father. Whoopi actually stated that the inheritance tax amounts to double taxation: During a discussion of Republican Presidential candidates on ABC’s The View, which the comedian co-hosts, Ms.…

The times they are a changin’ and morality changes with the times. There’s a movement now to abolish horse-drawn carriages in New York, ostensibly because of cruelty to horses: NEW YORK (AP) – The horse-drawn carriages that clip clop around Central Park could be banned under City Council legislation to be introduced at the urging…

Well maybe that should be “Lorica canumque cano,” but the pun would be lost. Anyway, via Ann Althouse (hmmm, maybe that should have been Glenn Reynolds, although I had thought he was talking about squirrels) I just found a link to a place called the Pit Bull Armory, which has — you guessed it —…

The scientist has a lot of experience with ignorance and doubt and uncertainty, and this experience is of very great importance, I think. When a scientist doesn’t know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has a hunch as to what the result is, he is uncertain. And when he is pretty…

I should probably apologize in advance for this post, as it’s hard to write something like this without being misunderstood. But I see blogging as a sometime art form, sometime labor of love, often opinionated and political, and nearly always a spontaneous effort in which I write about whatever I feel strongly about at a…

Just found a favorite song performed by Faudel (with Cheb Khaled and Rachid Taha). “Menfi” Faudel is one of Sarkozy’s favorites too. So much so that he got in trouble for it. There are some tastes in music and politics that are not supposed to be shared.

Like a lot of bloggers, I’ve written about how red light cameras are a disaster from a legal perspective and a safety perspective. But (surprise!), the cameras are still there! The Philadelphia red light camera problem is compounded by the worst sort of bureaucratic ineptitude, with the scandal-plagued Philadelphia Parking Authority treating revenues as money…

Over at Volokh Conspiracy there is a discussion about Chanukah’s influence on the global warming problem. Of course the warmists and deniers are having at it. Brian K says in response to another comment: i’m not going to hold my breath Another warming denier. If you believed in warming you would be holding your breath.…

Moma Bear left a comment at IEC Fusion Technology blog with a link to Gizmag – Emerging Technology which features gadgets and science/technology news. I found articles on a miniature photonics modulator and super computer performance from a single low power chip most interesting. This one on a real flying carpet would make Ali Baba…

I was delighted to see that remembering Pearl Harbor made the front page of today’s Philadelphia Inquirer. PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii – “Battle stations!!!” The Klaxon’s blare blew Jack McElroy out of his bunk on the Helm, a Navy destroyer in this ill-fated Pacific Ocean port. The West Catholic High School graduate, newly minted as a…

In a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed yesterday, Evan Coyne Maloney said that it’s time for Indiana University to call off the copyright dogs: Early in November, On The Fence Films received a letter from an attorney representing Indiana University. The letter stated that university was claiming that a portion of the logo used for “Indoctrinate…

More proof that either I’m not a conservative, or else someone has done a very poor job of giving me my marching orders: “Conservatives do love to be told what to say. Saves them the hassle of having to think for themselves,” Markos Moulitsas Zuniga crowed…. Will someone please tell me what to say, already?…

Speaking of climates, my regular emailer Matt Barber is upset about San Francisco’s (S&M oriented) Folsom Street fair, and he absolutely insists that I know about it. Too late. I already know about it. I lived in the Bay Area for nearly 30 years, and in San Francisco for 3 years. Not that the Folsom…

I’ve often wondered how it would be if you had chosen weather reporting as a career (in the “old days” of course) because you wanted to do something safe, non-controversial and apolitical. You know, in the old days, weather reporting was for nerdy types. Nothing political about weather, right? Not so today. Weather reporting just…

As quotes of the day go, it’s tough to beat this one from Bob Krumm: if you think that President Bush took constitutional liberties that amount to an invasion of privacy, you haven’t seen anything compared to what President Hillary would do. (Via Glenn Reynolds) That’s among my biggest concerns about a return to Clintonism.…

I don’t like other people telling me what to do. One of the reasons I abhor communitarianism (and tend to see my political philosophy as the opposite of that) is because it vests communitarian thinkers with the self appointed power to tell me (and others) what to do. Provided, of course, that they come up…