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New presidential license plate: ASSMAN

Friday, July 10th, 2009 | News | Permalink | No Comments |

Obama checks out 16 year old’s derriere. Drudge is pushing the story this morning, but Ace of Spades had it yesterday, with other photos of the president enjoying the view from the south: “He’s got all the tact of a country-born wolf in a Tex Avery cartoon.”

ETA: Preston Taylor Holmes beat me to the ASSMAN joke.

Maybe I should re-write The Beatles’ “Tax Man” to “Ass Man.”

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Swine flu back in the news

Thursday, July 9th, 2009 | News | Permalink | No Comments |

Parts of Britain near epidemic.

More concerns about a possible U.S. epidemic this fall.

There’s plenty of time to buy some masks, hand sanitizer and canned goods, folks. Better safe than sorry and a little preparedness prevents panic.

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Best summary yet of the Honduras situation

Friday, July 3rd, 2009 | Media Behaving Badly, News | Permalink | No Comments |

Macon.com - Who cares about Honduras?:

The Hondurans are so concerned about potential despots, that Article 239 of their constitution states that any president who proposes extending his term in office is automatically removed from office. Article 313 of the Honduran constitution allows its Supreme Court to deputize the Honduran military to carry out its orders, including removing politicians from office who seek to extend a president’s term.

Ignoring the constitution, President Manuel Zelaya, a man less popular in Honduras than George Bush was when he left office in this country, ordered a “non-binding” referendum be put to the voters on extending his stay in office.

Glenn Garvin wrote in the Miami Herald, “After the Honduran supreme court ruled that only the country’s congress could call such an election, Zelaya ordered the army to help him stage it anyway. … When the head of the armed forces, acting on orders from the supreme court, refused, Zelaya fired him, then led a mob to break into a military base where the ballots were stored.”

The Honduran Supreme Court, congress, attorney general and members of Zelaya’s cabinet opposed his move as unconstitutional. The supreme court ordered the military to remove Zelaya from office. Honduras has no impeachment process as we know it.

Yet Obama, who felt he couldn’t meddle in the affairs of another country when the Iranian mullahs stole an election, is calling for Zelaya’s return, has broken off military relations with Honduras, and is part of an effort to have Honduras ejected from the Organization of American States.

Better still, compare the description of events in Honduras above with NPR’s coverage:

She explains that in this case a civilian government took power, as opposed to a military government, and plans elections. Nunez adds Zelaya was an unpopular leader anyway. She charges he had violated the constitution by planning a referendum that would have been a first step toward extending his rule. She says he had to be stopped.

American diplomats told NPR that the United States strongly disagrees with that interpretation. So much so, that the ousted president’s wife and son are staying in the ambassador’s residence in Tegucigalpa.

The U.S. says the non-binding referendum would have posed little threat to the constitutional order. And those diplomats say there’s little evidence that Zelaya had violated the constitution.

The Honduran supreme court found that Zelaya’s move violated the constitution. You would scarcely know that from the NPR piece, since it’s stated as a mere claim by one person, rather than as a factual matter of public record. Yet there’s “little evidence” he violated his country’s constitution, according to the U.S. diplomats NPR quoted in the story. NPR is supporting Obama’s narrative by ignoring the facts.

Hat tip to Instapundit for the Macon.com link.

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Newspaper has emails between Sanford and girlfriend

Thursday, June 25th, 2009 | News | Permalink | No Comments |

How the heck did they get these? Somebody had it in for this guy.

Newspaper “The State” claims they received the emails in December. The emails are from July, 2008. They had to have come from the governor’s computer or the girlfriend’s computer.

The emails aren’t dirty, but the political intrigue sure is.

Swine flu

Sunday, May 3rd, 2009 | News | Permalink | 2 Comments |

The Google Maps flu tracker I’ve been linked has moved to flutracker.rhizalabs.com. (FWIW, I could never get it to load completely.)

Meanwhile reader Rick pointed me to this much better swine flu Google Map. Here’s tonight’s snapshot:

And on the lighter side…

Swine flu? Passe. H1N1? So last April. Now it’s Hamthrax.

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Swine flu news

Thursday, April 30th, 2009 | News | Permalink | 2 Comments |

First,  your daily snapshot of the Google Map for swine flu infections.

Yesterday’s map and swine flu post here. Quick tip: all of these posts are tagged with “swine flu”. You can access all of them by clicking on the swine flu keyword tag page.

LA Times: Scientists see this flu strain as relatively mild:

As the World Health Organization raised its infectious disease alert level Wednesday and health officials confirmed the first death linked to swine flu inside U.S. borders, scientists studying the virus are coming to the consensus that this hybrid strain of influenza — at least in its current form — isn’t shaping up to be as fatal as the strains that caused some previous pandemics.

In fact, the current outbreak of the H1N1 virus, which emerged in San Diego and southern Mexico late last month, may not even do as much damage as the run-of-the-mill flu outbreaks that occur each winter without much fanfare.

Mercatus on Policy by Tyler Cown - Preparing for Pandemic Flu: What We Should Do and Should Not Do.

1. The single most important thing we can do for a pandemic—whether swine flu or not—is to have well-prepared local health-care systems. We should prepare for pandemics in ways that are politically sustainable and remain useful even if this turns out not to be a flu pandemic.

2. Prepare social norms and emergency procedures that would limit or delay the spread of a pandemic. Regular hand washing and other beneficial public customs—like not going to work when feeling sick— may save more lives than a Tamiflu stockpile.

3. Decentralize our supplies of anti-virals and treat timely distribution as more important than simply creating a stockpile.

4. Institute prizes for effective vaccines and relax liability laws for vaccine makers. Our overnment has discouraged what it should have encouraged.

5. Respect intellectual property by buying the relevant drugs and vaccines at fair prices. Confiscating property rights would reduce the incentive for innovation the next time around.

6. For the case of a truly serious pandemic, make economic preparations to ensure the continuity of food and power supplies. The relevant “choke points” may include the check-clearing system and the use of mass transit to deliver food supply workers to their jobs.

7. Realize that the federal government will be largely powerless in the worst stages of a pandemic and make appropriate local plans.

8. Encourage the formation of prediction markets— speculative markets that make forecasts on policy topics—in a flu pandemic.

9. Reform the World Health Organization and give it greater autonomy from its government funders.

Meanwhile, Shurf Joe Biden sez: “I would tell members of my family — and I have — I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now. It’s not that it’s going to Mexico in a confined aircraft where one person sneezes, that goes all the way through the aircraft.” The White House quickly moved to damage control. Not to control the damage of swine flu - to control the damage of Shurf Joe Biden shooting his fool mouth off.

Ace adds: “Another tip from Joe Biden: Always leave yourself one bullet. If you feel an itching in your nose or throat, put the gun in your mouth and blow the virus out of the back of your head. Like they say, feed a cold, head-shot a fever.”

As always, I’m not sure how serious the swine flu really is. I’ve taken the minimal precautions (buying some masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer) along with our general preparedness plan (food and water, cooking and heating supplies, first aid and medicine, flashlights and batteries, etc.). Now I just live my life pretty much like normal and pay attention to the news to see if anything becomes more serious.

And one swine flu victim says “it’s not so bad.”

“I could hardly move. It was a chore to get out of bed. I felt absolutely terrible,” Hairsine said from his parents’ home. “I feel like it still is the flu, but it’s not so terrible that people should be freaking out the way they are.”

And on a lighter note:

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Swine flu update

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 | News | Permalink | 2 Comments |

Tonight’s Google Map of swine flu infections:

Last night’s map here.

There’s an unconfirmed swine flu case in Tennessee.

WHO raises threat level to second-highest level, says pandemic is “imminent.”

And on a lighter note:

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Existing govt. plans for swine flu pandemics, OR, “The Pig Has Flown. Repeat: THE PIG HAS FLOWN”

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 | News | Permalink | 1 Comment |

Los Alamos Natl. Lab simulation of flu outbreak:

Simulation of a pandemic flu outbreak in the continental United States, initially introduced by the arrival of 10 infected individuals in Los Angeles. The spatiotemporal dynamics of the prevalence (number of symptomatic cases at any point in time), is shown on a logarithmic color scale, from 1 or fewer (blue) to 100 or more (red) cases per 1,000 persons. Without vaccination, antiviral drugs, or other mitigation strategies, the entire nation becomes infected within a few months. Depending on the reproductive number R0, effective intervention strategies including vaccination and targeted antiviral prophylaxis can be successful without resorting to economically damaging measures like school closure, quarantine, and work or travel restrictions. This large-scale agent-based simulation involves 280 million people, and uses demographic and worker flow data at the Census tract level, as well as long-range travel statistics, to describe the geographic movement of people. In this simulation, long-range travel is assumed to occur at a lower-than-normal rate (10 percent) due to travel advisories, but with no other mitigation strategies the pandemic quickly spreads nationwide, peaking about 90 days after the initial introduction.

There’s a QuickTime video at that link simulating the spread of an uninterrupted infection. In the simulation it takes about 45-60 days for the infection to be widespread and 90 days to peak. So even if this swine flu scare becomes something of concern it could take weeks before we know it. Question: when do you count the beginning of a pandemic?

Today’s Google Map of swine flu infections:

Yesterday’s map here.

And to keep things in perspective:

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White House terrorizes New Yorkers with flyover photo op

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 | News | Permalink | 5 Comments |

As always, imagine if Bush had done this.

An administration official says the White House wanted to update its file photo of Air Force One near national landmarks. Predictably, Obama claims he had no idea of the plan and is furious at his underling, whom he promptly threw under the bus.

Bonus! Nancy Pelosi, Gulfstream queen.

The San Francisco congresswoman has apparently taken to flying in style. And not just any style but military charter style, according to e-mails released this week.

Pelosi’s staff has allegedly been “berating” military officials to get the best planes possibly for the speaker to fly across country, according to e-mails obtained by the government watchdog group Judicial Watch (you can read all the emails on their site) and first reported by The New York Post.

“Taken together, these documents show that Speaker Pelosi treats the Air Force like her personal airline,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton in a statement. “Not only does Speaker Pelosi issue unreasonable requests for military travel, but her office seems unconcerned about wasting taxpayer money with last minute cancellations and other demands.”

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GM to shutter Pontiac division

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 | Economics, News | Permalink | No Comments |

New York Times - For Pontiac, Quality Comes Too Late:

General Motors will phase out the Pontiac brand in 2010, said Fritz Henderson, president and chief executive of G.M., in a press conference this morning. I had heard that G.M. was giving up on Pontiac last week, at virtually the same time G.M.’s car delivery guys were taking away the test car I’d been driving for a week: a “liquid red” Pontiac G8 GXP. So in some small measure, the news, though anticipated, was personal. I felt as though I were losing my new best friend.

The G8 GXP is a terrific car. I’d rate it at or near the top of the list of 20-odd new vehicles that I’ve tested this year, and the less rascally G8 GT is high on the list as well. As Eddie Alterman wrote in his perceptive review of the G8s in The Times last December (before he moved on to become editor in chief of Car and Driver), these impressive new Pontiacs arrived at Detroit’s party as the floors were being swept and the last drunks were staggering out. “It’s too much, too late,” he wrote.

All too true, and, for those who recall when Pontiac was the life of that party, so sad.

The only Pontiac I ever owned was a piece of junk and I think closing that division is the right thing to do. Still, it’s a little sad when an old American brand shuts its doors.

And poor Delmar Haynes. Guy sells Pontiac, GMC, and Jeep. A decade ago he expanded his lot. A few months ago he consolidated his dwindling inventory to his original dealership space and left the new building empty. He and his employees have got tough times ahead.

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Google Map of reported swine flu cases

Monday, April 27th, 2009 | News | Permalink | 1 Comment |

Link here. This is the map as of this evening:


H1N1 Swine flu in 2009
Pink markers are suspect
Purple markers are confirmed or probable
Deaths lack a dot in marker
Yellow markers are negative

I’m personally having a hard time assessing the danger. DHS declared a state of emergency. Mexico City closed schools and canceled hundreds of public events. But unless something develops overnight I’ll go to work and the kids will go to school, just like normal.

A year or two ago when the concern was avian flu I bought some N95 masks, a gallon of hand sanitizer and some latex gloves. I’ve still got those, and I ordered some extra masks from Amazon. It’s pretty cheap insurance against this sort of thing. Other than that, I’m glad to have food and other necessities on hand in case there’s an outbreak and we can’t leave the house.

Obviously I hope we won’t need any of these preparations, but I’m glad to have them just in case. Some people talk about panicking during times these like these. I like to think that if you’re prepared you’re less likely to panic.

National Enquirer’s Palin affair bombshell is a wet dud

Saturday, September 6th, 2008 | News | Permalink | 1 Comment |

Via Instapundit, Michael Petrelis has the complete text of the National Enquirer piece that alleges Sarah Palin had an affair with her husband’s business partner. Here’s the relevant part:

Another incredible allegation emerging from the family war is that Palin, mother of five, had an affair with a former business associate of her fisherman husband, Todd.

“Todd discovered the affair and quickly dissolved his friendship and his business associations with the guy,” charges an enemy. “Many people in Alaska are talking about the rumor and say Todd swept it under the rug.”

That’s it. That’s the entirety of the claim.

The Deceiver notes that the McCain campaign immediately threatened legal action if the charges were libelous, which is something trial lawyer Edwards never did after the paper printed much more damaging statements. The Enquirer cautiously couches the accusation of an affair as an “allegation” by “an enemy” so they must not be confident in their information. That could change, but for now I don’t any reason to believe the allegations.

Previously:
- Uh oh! The National Enquirer alleges Palin affair

Uh oh! The National Enquirer alleges Palin affair

Friday, September 5th, 2008 | News | Permalink | 2 Comments |

CBS News is reporting that the McCain camp is fighting rumors from the National Enquirer that Sarah Palin had an affair with one of her husband’s business partners.

Via Kaus, Atrios writes:

Mickey Kaus’s Rules

If the Enquirer is reporting it, every other outlet must devote significant resources to verifying it.

You can’t blame Atrios for trying to score points. After the National Enquirer revealed John Edwards affair, Kaus and others piled on to the story asking why the mainstream media wouldn’t cover it. Even though I can’t blame Atrios, he’s wrong.

Here’s why. In the Edwards case, the Enquirer made allegations of an affair in December, 2007. That story didn’t get much traction because it was a rumor, which Edwards denied. And there it lingered, because an allegation without evidence is just grist for the gossip mill.

The story took off (and I many others started blogging it) in July. That’s when Enquirer reporters caught Edwards in a late night rendezvous with the alleged mistress and baby momma at the Beverly Hilton. When confronted by reporters, Edwards hid in a men’s room for 15 minutes. The next day a hotel security guard confirmed it was Edwards he had escorted from the building because he wasn’t a registered guest.

At that point the story deserved to hit the big time. You had an obviously suspicious encounter and equally suspicious behavior by Edwards when confronted. The reporters were witnesses. The security guard was a witness.

And that’s just the signal. Then you had the signal analysis - asking how the reporters got to be there in the first place. What really sold the story was the quality of the Enquirer’s sources. Those reporters didn’t stake out every hotel in California every night of the week until they got lucky. The Enquirer had an inside source who told them exactly where Edwards would be on what night. When the paper said they had reliable sources on the Edwards affair you could believe it.

Palin supporters like me should start worrying if the Enquirer starts showing the same quality of information on its Palin affair story. Until then, it’s just another rumor of many being thrown at Palin.

Russia Invades Georgia with Planes, Tanks, Troops

Saturday, August 9th, 2008 | News | Permalink | 2 Comments |

The New York Times - Georgia and Russia Nearing All-Out War

Scary stuff. Russia has the bomb, Russia has control over lots of oil and gas resources, and worst of all Russia has the power-mad Vladimir Putin who is not under the control of the Russian people.

Texas Appellate Court: Grounds for Taking Polygamists’ Kids Insufficient

Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 | News | Permalink | No Comments |

AP - Court: Texas had no right to take polygamists’ kids.

SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) - A state appellate court has ruled that child welfare officials had no right to seize more than 400 children living at a polygamist sect’s ranch.

The Third Court of Appeals in Austin ruled that the grounds for removing the children were “legally and factually insufficient” under Texas law. They did not immediately order the return of the children.

Child welfare officials removed the children on the grounds that the sect pushed underage girls into marriage and sex and trained boys to become future perpetrators.

The appellate court ruled the chaotic hearing held last month did not demonstrate the children were in any immediate danger, the only measure of taking children from their homes without court proceedings.

See also:
- I Agree with KAG and the ACLU re: Texas FLDS

I Agree with KAG and the ACLU re: Texas FLDS

Thursday, April 24th, 2008 | News | Permalink | 2 Comments |

The way the majority of people of the FLDS in Texas are being separated from their children without due process is criminal. How can a judge determine with only cursory arguments that all 437 children were being neglected or abused and therefore should be taken from their parents and placed in foster care? From Katie Allison-Granju:

If the adults - mothers and fathers - in this polygamist, FLDS sect are encouraging sexual activity by teenage girls with adult men as part of their religious practice (as it appears they almost certainly are), this is criminally abusive. It needs to be stopped.

The individual men and women who have played a role in this abuse need to be individually prosecuted. Their other, younger children should be put into state custody. I cannot express strongly enough how much I believe the state needs to take a strong, unequivocal stance in going after any of these individual adults in this group who have committed crimes against children in the name of religion.

However, I am increasingly disturbed by the way the state of Texas is handling this matter. The wholesale rounding up and de facto incarceration of hundreds of women and children - none of whom have been individually accused of any crime - is very troublesome.

The Salt Lake Tribune - ACLU says constitutional rights threatened in Texas FLDS child custody proceedings

David Bernstein at Volokh.com - Child Abuse in the Name of Protecting Children

Imagine that some parents in a school district were accused of child abuse. Now imagine that the authorities took every child from the elementary, junior high, and high school away from their parents and put them in foster care. That’s a rough analogy of what’s happening in Texas.

It’s also worth mentioning that the initial charge of sexual abuse that prompted the initial search warrant was bogus. Rozita Swinton told authorities she was a young girl being held in a basement at the ranch. She has now been arrested for filing a false report. She was never even a member of the group and there’s no reason to believe she had ever so much as been to the compound. Swinton is 33 years old and lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Randi Rhodes’ Big F***ing Resignation

Thursday, April 10th, 2008 | News | Permalink | No Comments |

Boston Herald - Randi Rhodes signing off:

This statement just in from Air America chair Charlie Kireker and president Mark Green:

Last week Air America suspended Randi Rhodes for abusive, obscene language at a recent public appearance in San Francisco which was sponsored by an Air America affiliate station.

Air America Media was informed last night by Ms. Rhodes that she has chosen to terminate her employment with the company. We wish her well and thank her for past services to Air America.

We will soon announce exciting new talent and programming that will accelerate Air America’s growth in the future.

Hat tip to Ace.

See also:
- Trust Cues, or, We’re All Big F***ing Whores Now
- Randi Rhodes Censored for Criticizing Republicans. Republicans Like Hillary Clinton*

Headline of the Day

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 | News | Permalink | 1 Comment |

Second-Rate African American Comedians for Truth

Hillsy, in an effort to give herself some CIC street cred since people are finally starting to actually say that being married to the actual Commander in Chief isn’t exactly experience in the event the phone rings at 3 in the morning, made a itty-bitty, teeny-weeny mistake and misremembered being in Cambodia in 1968. Err, no. That’s not it. Oh, that she was taking sniper fire. That’s it.

And the story kinda came undone by Sinbad of all people. Yeah, that Sinbad. The one who took issue with having a white guy (who was actually mixed race) play Barack Jong-il Obama on SNL. As opposed to the Sinbad that rode a Roc and beat up a Cyclops once. I’ll let you decide which Sinbad is cooler.

Oh, and a while back? When I wasn’t blogging much? I was busy taking sniper fire.

Bonus Photochop! - From Slublog via Ace.

apocalypsehillary.jpg

Future CNN “Undecided Voter” Takes Hostages at Clinton Campaign Office

Friday, November 30th, 2007 | News | Permalink | 1 Comment |

CNN - Two hostages freed at Clinton campaign office:

Shortly before 2 p.m., police officers were gathered across the street from the office, some kneeling behind police cruisers with guns drawn. Witnesses described the man as in his 40s with salt-and-pepper hair, WMUR reported. It is believed he was still inside the Clinton office at 3:20 p.m.

Other people were caught up at the start of the hostage situation. A woman with a baby was released by the hostage-taker early on, she told a witness, Lettie Tzizik, who spoke to WMUR.

“A young woman with a 6-month or 8-month-old infant came rushing into the store just in tears, and she said, ‘You need to call 911. A man has just walked into the Clinton office, opened his coat and showed us a bomb strapped to his chest with duct tape,’ ” the Web site reported.

Clearly we need to send in a UN weapons inspection team, attempt to dissuade the hostage taker with trade sanctions, investigate the root causes of his actions, and develop a peace plan that gives him part of the state of New Hampshire. Clinton needs a timetable for withdrawl. If he doesn’t give up by 8:30 we should redeploy the SWAT team to Pizza Hut in time for the football game.

(I kid. He’s released all of the hostages and it’s doubtful he has a real bomb.)

LATER: Police have taken the man, Leeland Eisenberg, into custody. The “bomb” was a set of road flares. This proves we never should have believed his claim to have weapons of mass destruction. The peaceful resolution illustrates that force is never required when responding to threats.

Phillipines Concedes Territory to Muslim Separatists

Thursday, November 29th, 2007 | News | Permalink | No Comments |

You didn’t hear a lot about this:

The agreement on the extent of territory to be handed over had been a major stumbling block in the peace talks that opened when a ceasefire was forged with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in 2001. The two sides did not disclose the new borders agreed after two days of talks here, but Malaysian officials said the territory would be greater than the present autonomous region in the troubled island of Mindanao.

“After more than three decades of problems in Mindanao, it is for the government to give concessions. It could not be the other side, so the government has to concede what it think is reasonable,” said Philippines chief negotiator Rodolfo Garcia. In an issue known as “ancestral domain,” the land in question consists of untitled communal farms that came under formal state ownership when the Philippines became a Spanish colony in the late 16th century.

“Andalusia here we come.”

Jimmy Carter Killed his Sister-in-law’s Cat?

Friday, November 9th, 2007 | News | Permalink | 4 Comments |

From a recently-discovered letter Jimmy Carter sent to his sister-in-law.

5/13/90

To Sybil,

Lamentably, I killed your cat while trying just to sting it. It was crouched, as usual, under one of our bird feeders & I fired from some distance with bird shot. It may ease your grief somewhat to know that the cat was buried properly with a prayer & that I’ll be glad to get you another of your choice.

I called & came by your house several times. We will be in the Dominican Republic until Thursday. I’ll see you then.

Love, Jimmy

I got my twelve gauge sawed off.
I got my porch light turned off
I’m ’bout to bust some shots off.
I’m ’bout to dust a kitty off.

Uhn. Cat killer.

Family Wins Lawsuit Against Fred Phelps

Thursday, November 1st, 2007 | News | Permalink | No Comments |

Via Hot Air:

Albert Snyder of York, Pa., the father of a Westminster Marine who was killed in Iraq, today won his case in a Baltimore federal court against members of Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church who protested at his son’s funeral last year.

The jury of five women and four men awarded Snyder $2.9 million in compensatory damages. The amount of punitive damages to be awarded has not yet been decided. The jury deliberated for about two hours yesterday and much of today…

Specifically, he charged that they violated his privacy, intentionally inflicted emotional harm and engaged in a conspiracy to carry out their activities. The jury decided in Snyder’s favor on every count.

Good. I’m not a big fan of litigiousness in general, but Phelps was acting with malice to disrupt people’s private lives for political gain.

Ostensible political gain, anyway. I don’t think any reasonable person was actually swayed by protests of soldier’s funerals. Phelps was engaged in what Lee Harris calls fantasy ideology:

Continue reading the rest of this post right here ›››

Al Gore Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Friday, October 12th, 2007 | News | Permalink | 2 Comments |

He should have won the Nobel Prize in Zoology for discovering ManBearPig (language warning).

Nobel Peace Price Rockin’ Fun Zone Facts!

Gore is pitching carbon offsets as a solution to global warming, while serving on the board of a company that sells carbon offsets. That’s funny, when four-time Peace Prize nominee Gandhi was going on hunger strikes to protest British occupation of India I don’t recall him hawking Old Mahatma’s Miracle Diet Pills. (That’s right - Al Gore won a Peace Prize, but Stockhokm Oslo* snubbed Gandhi four times.)

Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela spent 28 years in a South African prison for opposing his country’s policy of racial apartheid. Peace Prize winner Mother Theresa spent more than 40 years serving the poor and sick in third world countries. Al Gore flew around in a private jet giving lectures and filming a documentary while hobnobbing with Hollywood celebrities. So, you know, same difference.

In the science categories, Nobel prizes are generally awarded ten years or more after the original work was done. (This year’s winners in medicine began their work in the 1980s.) The belated recognition ensures that the work was both correct and relevant. This past week a British judge found nine significant errors of fact in Gore’s documentary, and ordered schools showing it to provide balancing viewpoints. Gore’s co-winners the IPCC has had to significantly adjust their past predictions of sea level changes downwards.

Finally, Al Gore is a hypocrite. After winning an Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth it was revealed that Gore’s mansion uses $30,000 a year in electricity and gas. It’s as if Gandhi was hunger striking during the week and secretly spending his weekends at an all you can eat buffet.

* I just read that while the other Nobels are awarded in Stcokholm, Sweden the Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway.

Amherst College Eliminates Loans in Financial Aid Packages

Thursday, September 27th, 2007 | News | Permalink | 1 Comment |

The Amherst Student - Amherst cuts loans in college aid

“Our concern was that students who expect to have to take out large loans to come to Amherst were being scared away from applying or choosing not to attend Amherst if admitted,” said President Anthony Marx. “In addition, we were concerned that students who did choose to come to Amherst and took out significant loans were having their career choices constrained by debt.”

Scholarship resources derive from the College’s endowment, alumni gifts and operating budget. As its resources have expanded, the College has increasingly taken measures to make tuition more affordable for low-income families.

The College began reducing loans in the mid 1980s, and, in 1999, became the first college in the U.S. to abolish loans for low-income students. The policy was initially confined to students with family incomes under $40,000, but was extended to include incomes lower than $60,000 two years ago.

I’m of two minds about student loans. On the one hand, they enable students to go attend college who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford it. On the other hand, some students wind up saddled with big debts early in life, and often have degrees where the likely career prospects make repaying the loans difficult.

The U.S. government, in trying to help the former, is enabling the latter. Many people would object to Bank of America letting an 18 year old anthropology major take on tens of thousands of dollars a year in debt to finance their personal lives in college, but the government is making it possible for that same student to take on the same debt to pay for tuition. With the student loan the interest rate is lower, but you may not be able escape the debt with bankruptcy.

According to the article Princeton University and Davidson College have eliminated loans completely. I’m glad to see some colleges acknowledge the potentially disruptive effects of an education bought on credit and take action to minimize that danger. Too, many colleges are so well-endowed they can afford to significantly offset tuition costs rather than let students take out loans. A few colleges are so rich from alumni endowments that they should be ashamed to charge tuition.

The 9/11 Truthers and the JFK Conspiracy Theorists

Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 | News | Permalink | 3 Comments |

So some people have compared the 9/11 “truthers” to the JFK conspiracy theorists who said that Oswald didn’t shoot JFK, or didn’t act alone or whatever.

That analogy would hold, if there were multiple photographs and videotapes of Oswald shooting JFK. And if Oswald had escaped and sent in videos every six months proclaiming that he had, in fact, killed Kennedy, and if on those films he continued to make demands on America to cease its war against Communism in Vietnam, the USSR, and Cuba.

Because if all that were true, then JKF conspiracy theorists would be viewed as being as completely batshit crazy as 9/11 Truthers.

See also:
- Rosie O’Donnell: “This is the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel”
- Gasoline Tanker Melts Bridge Steel, Causes Collapse

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