Category: Uncategorized

With a decision on the Heller case imminent, the Barack Obama campaign is flip-flopping backtracking away from an earlier statement that the DC statute in question is constitutional: ABC News’ Teddy Davis and Alexa Ainsworth Report: With the Supreme Court poised to rule on Washington, D.C.’s, gun ban, the Obama campaign is disavowing what it…

God bless Queen Elizabeth for being one of the few people on the planet actually capable of doing something about Robert Mugabe: she stripped the bloodthirsty tyrant of his knighthood: A Foreign Office spokesman said: “This action has been taken as a mark of revulsion at the abuse of human rights and abject disregard for…

William Saletan discusses a theory of homosexuality that I have seen before. That homosexuality in some men is compensated for by the increased fertility of their female relatives. Gay couples can’t have biological kids together. So if homosexuality is genetic, why hasn’t it died out? A study published last week in PLoS One tackles the…

They’re not making currency like they used to! Earlier I was at a store, and the guy gave me this worn out bill along with the rest of my change: I hope it’s not where we’re headed. The great seal on the right looks pretty flimsy — even flimsier than the Obama redesign. Back in…

Charlie Martin (who lives in Colorado) looks at why passenger trains can’t compete with airlines as they do in Europe. The answer is simple arithmetic — long distance trains take much too long: I can imagine taking the train to New York on vacation, because I am a train nut and the trip would be…

I don’t know whether there is such a thing as vicarious hedonism or whether I have what has been called a “freedom fetish,” but something happened earlier which has been happening to me more and more. When I saw a pedestrian walking down the street smoking a cigarette, it made me very happy, and cheered…

As part of my ongoing search for the musical roots of modern American hedonism (a search in which I take no pleasure,* mind you), with a start I suddenly remembered “Keep On Dancing” — a 1965 song by a group named The Gentrys, of all things. As you can see, this was no grungy looking…

George Carlin was one of my favorite comedians, and I’m sorry to see him go. Ann Althouse loved Carlin, and pays tribute to him with a collection of YouTube videos — “decades-old routines that spring to mind immediately as the most brilliant comic riffs I’ve ever heard.” If you enjoyed Carlin, check out Ann Althouse’s…

Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Annette John-Hall argues that because slavery’s legacy affects us all (like it or not, it does), it shouldn’t be taboo to discuss it, which she claims it is. …for some, the subject is inexplicably taboo. Verboten. Don’t ask, don’t tell. Get over it, they say. It’s in the past. Talking about it…

I’m delighted to see that one of the most astute bloggers in the sphere — Richard Fernandez of Belmont Club fame — is now the author of a Pajamas Media Xpress Blog. In his first post, he looks at disappearing coverage of the Iraq War (I like the Cheshire Cat analogy), including a tantalizing glimpse…

Students at Penninsula College have achieved fusion. I am more than a little proud to say I had a little to do with it. At least in so far as getting them on the right track. From left to right: Devon, Ivan, Sarah, Chris, Aaron, and Derek. The Reactor It glows Which just goes to…

If James Hansen isn’t the horse’s ass of the year, I don’t know who is: James Hansen, one of the world’s leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature, accusing them of actively spreading doubt about…

I think this election is going to turn on the economy. Oil prices in particular. The Democrat resistance to drilling, mining, and converting is going to bite them hard. This campaign will turn on blackness. The blackness of oil. The blacker candidate will win.

Fusion energy pioneer Robert Hirsch says in a CNBC interview that the US must drill for oil. And use all its available resources to help us get over the current liquid fuels hump. I’m inclined to agree. No Blood For Oil or No Drilling For Oil? Good question. Cross Posted at Power and Control

Jennifer Rubin looks at Barack Obama’s recent trifecta of gaffes (the dishonest flipflop on public campaign financing, the recklessly hubristic “Great Seal” nonsense, and finally the blatant playing of the race card), and sees a genuine opportunity for McCain: Will these incidents have a lasting impact on the race? That depends on how effectively McCain’s…

Front page stories like this showing American officials on their knees to the Saudis annoy the hell out of me. JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia – Facing strong U.S. pressure and global dismay over oil prices, Saudi Arabia said yesterday that it would produce more crude this year if the market needed it. But the vague pledge…

Why is the Newsweek poll showing Barack Obama with a 15 point lead getting so much attention? And why is it being accepted so uncritically? Might it be what people want to hear? According to Backcountry Notes something looks funny about Newsweek’s numbers, especially when they are compared to the other numbers. He has a…

From 1967 (the same year as the Troggs’ “Love is all around” love song linked in the earlier post), here’s one that reminded me of it; Brenton Woods’ “Oogum Boogum Song”: Unfortunately, there is no contemporaneous video to go with it, but the display of the lyrics is better than some of those videos which…

There’s an extended and intriguing discussion by several bloggers at Volokh (including Eugene Volokh) about a recent study showing that 53% of academics have a negative view of evangelical Christians. Ilya Somin thinks that the negative view is grounded in opposition to the evangelicals’ political conservatism, while others see personal prejudice, or even an anti-Christian…

If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made. So “said” Otto von Bismarck, in what I always considered a statement meant more as irony than serious advice. Unless I’m reading him wrong, Roger Kimball seems to be taking the above very seriously — to the point where he posits…