November 7, 2009
"That ought to give us some traction"
Flashback: Sort of related
Secretary Of Homeland Speculation
Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
April, 2009 - “The report is not saying that veterans are extremists. Far from it,” Napolitano said on CNN’s State of the Union. “What it is saying is returning veterans are targets of right-wing extremist groups that are trying to recruit those to commit violent acts within the country. We want to do all we can to prevent that.”
November, 2009 - Napolitano said: "The investigation into the shootings has began and it would be inappropriate to speculate on the causes of this terrible crime, so let me not comment any further as the investigation is ongoing." While she was in Brussels, reports out of the US suggested that the suspect in the killing of at least 13 people at the Fort Hood base shouted "Allah Akbar" (God is great) before opening fire."
Reader Tips
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Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
November 6, 2009
Another Klausing
The magnificant bastard strikes again:
Many thanks for the invitation and for the courage to organize such an important gathering in the moment when political correctness tells you not to do it.We are meeting one month before the Climate Change Copenhagen Summit and several weeks before the U.S. Senate hearing regarding the cap-and-trade scheme. For these reasons, today’s meeting can’t be an academic conference, even though the topic still needs academic discussion. There is no consensus — neither in science, nor in economic analysis or politics.
I have already been at a UN Summit in Copenhagen before. It was in 1995 at the so-called Social Summit. At that time, the Summit was attended by then U.S. Vice President Al Gore who — so it seems — will be there again this year. I did also attend, as Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, but I don’t plan to go there now. I don’t see any chance to influence the results or to be listened to.
In 1995, there were huge demonstrations organized by all kinds of anti-establishment groupings - from socialists and greens to anarchists and anti-globalizationists. I have never seen such clashes between demonstrators and police and army forces before. The difference is that I don’t expect any demonstrations in Copenhagen now. The anti-establishment people have in the meantime become insiders and will be sitting in the main hall. This is a shift with far-reaching consequences.
... at Cjunk, I'm wondering why our own man couldn't show a bit more spine on the issue. So far in Ottawa, the call for a "few good men" has gone unanswered.
From the comments: But then again ... somebody may finally be growing some.
"Allahu Akbar!"
It's the new "cry for help".
According to the suspect's cousin, Hasan was also harassed after 9/11 because of his ethnicity, and was called a "camel jockey."
Well said: Horrific Outbreak of Stupidity
h/t Jason
Update: Not all are equally reluctant - "So we give congratulations to the Ummah for their jihadist operation executed by the brother Nidal Malik Hasan on the American base where he was working as a psychiatrist and recently (received orders to go Iraq), and he seemed upset and did not want to participate in this war, and he did not want to be among the ranks of infidels against his Muslim brothers"
The One Bright Spot: "isn't all that well known"
During a media panel I attended in Regina last week, we were asked for our thoughts on the political prospects of Dwain Lingenfelter. I answered this way - "He has the same problem as Michael Ignatieff. The campaign signs will read "Saskatchewan. Not worth living in unless they make you Premier."
So two years after the election here's the bottom line: The Sask. Party (despite a worsening economy and ministerial miscues) appears to have increased its support by almost nine percentage points to 59.5 per cent from the 50.9 per cent it received on election night two years ago. The NDP (despite a reinvigorated leadership race and new leader) sees its support dramatically slip by almost 11 percentage points to 26.4 per cent, compared with the 37.2 per cent it got in the 2007 general election.
This is heart-stopping news for Saskatchewan New Democrats who need to do some serious soul-searching as to where they have gone wrong.
And that won't be particularly easy to do, because -- by every indication right now -- it appears their biggest tactical error has been selecting Dwain Lingenfelter as leader.
Y2Kyoto: The Chicago Way
Restoring science to its rightful place - is there nothing that Obama can't do?
In the blame game, the Obama administration isn’t about to stop with Fox News. Instead, it’s moving on to lowly scientists.
Last month, President Obama gave a somewhat chilling, if somewhat ignored, speech on climate change at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He stated that any scientific debate about the magnitude of global warming is unscrupulous, decrying “those who . . . make cynical claims that contradict the overwhelming scientific evidence when it comes to climate change, whose only purpose is to defeat or delay the change that we know is necessary.”
Then, the president talked tough, saying, “We’ll just have to deal with those people,” language familiar to anyone who knows the vagaries of Chicago politics.
Via Glenn Reynolds, who notices a pattern.
I Miss W.
"I want to give a shout out..."
More reaction - "Obama's Frightening Insensitivity Following Shooting"
Reader Tips
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite
Radio. Tonight, for your delectation, here are Néstor Marconi,
Yo-Yo Ma, &c, performing Astor Piazzolla's Libertango ¤ (2:35).
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
November 5, 2009
Y2Kyoto: The Combines Will Roll Into The Wee Hours Tonight
I just got back from a round trip to Lloydminster, and I'm kicking myself for leaving the camera behind - the harvest moon isn't typical for November.
Neither is the scent of grain dust in the air.
What's that to do with "global warming"? Well, the combines aren't out there because it's been warm and dry.
We'll keep our fingers crossed for you guys.
A little peace for our progressive friends
One of the undiscussed results of the vote on C-391 yesterday can give our head-exploding friends on the left a little comfort. There will be no election until that baby gets Royal Assent.
The slew of polls since Mr. Harper's time was up caused no end of headache to the Liberals and Dippers, all fearing the Conservatives pulling the plug or injecting a poison-pill into some confidence bill.
They can rest easy now. Yesterday's vote effectively ties the CPC's hands on killing the gov't. IMO, the PM wouldn't dare let this Bill die on the table after having it pass second reading...after the euphoria of the CPC base over its passage. Now, if the Committee tinkers with it too much, as some are hinting. All bets are off.
Course, I really can't see either the Libs or the Dippers playing that dice game.
Cheers,
lance
- My thanks to HJB for noticing the mistake in this post. Where would we be without anons pointing out our grammatical mistakes.
Coming Event - Société Macdonald-Cartier Society
"The conservative movement at a crossroads: Lessons from the past, directions for the future Looking back on the last six years, looking ahead for next six.
Panel speakers:
Gerry Nicholls - Former Senior Executive with the National Citizens Coalition and publisher of LibertasPost.ca
John Robson - Radio commentator and Ottawa Citizen columnist
Joseph C. Ben-Ami - President of the Canadian Centre for Policy Studies
Don Lenihan Ph.D. - Vice President, Engagement - Public Policy Forum
December 7 2009, 6 to 9pm
Parliament Pub, 101 Sparks St, Ottawa
Ticket price (includes appetizers) - $10 regular, $8.50 student
For more information: Immanuel Giulea, Executive Director Société Macdonald-Cartier Society
Shootings at Ft. Hood
Via Drudge and madasl in the comments:
NBC's report: 7 dead, 20 injured in Fort Hood shooting.
Fox news: At Least 7 Dead, 20 Wounded in Shootings at Ft. Hood in Texas.
70% Mr Stelmach
Think you can get that, given today's news?
The Sound Of Settled Science
Three decades of veterinary consensus just got a kick in the gonads;
A recent study by my research group appearing next month in Aging Cell reveals shortened longevity as a possible complication associated with ovary removal in dogs (1). This work represents the first investigation testing the strength of association between lifetime duration of ovary exposure and exceptional longevity in mammals. To accomplish this, we constructed lifetime medical histories for two cohorts of Rottweiler dogs living in 29 states and Canada: Exceptional Longevity Cohort = a group of exceptionally long-lived dogs that lived at least 13 years; and Usual Longevity Cohort = a comparison group of dogs that lived 8.0 to 10.8 years (average age at death for Rottweilers is 9.4 years). A female survival advantage in humans is well-documented; women are 4 times more likely than men to live to 100. We found that, like women, female Rottweilers were more likely than males to achieve exceptional longevity (Odds Ratio, 95% confidence interval = 2.0, 1.2 - 3.3; p = .006). However, removal of ovaries during the first 4 years of life erased the female survival advantage. In females, this strong positive association between ovaries and longevity persisted in multivariate analysis that considered other factors, such as height, adult body weight, and mother with exceptional longevity.
In summary, we found female Rottweilers who kept their ovaries for at least 6 years were 4.6 times more likely to reach exceptional longevity (i.e. live >30 % longer than average) than females with the shortest ovary exposure. Our results support the notion that how long females keep their ovaries determines how long they live.
In the pages that follow, I have attempted to frame these new findings in a way that will encourage veterinarians to venture beyond the peer-reviewed scientific text and data-filled tables of Aging Cell to consider the pragmatic, yet sometimes emotionally charged implications of this work. Call it a primer for the dynamic discussions that will undoubtedly take place, not only between practitioners and pet owners, but also within the veterinary profession. Call it a wake-up call for how little veterinarians have been schooled in the mechanistic nuts and bolts underlying the aging process. Call it an ovary story.
The First American Prime Minister In Waiting
Now this was an odd thing for an aspiring "Canadian" prime minister to say...
"We are American": that single sentence was a lesson in political obligation. Black or white, rich or poor, Americans are not supposed to be strangers to one another. Having been abandoned, the people in the convention center were reduced to reminding their fellow citizens, through the medium of television, that they were not refugees in a foreign country. Citizenship ties are not humanitarian, abstract or discretionary. They are not ties of charity. In America, a citizen has a claim of right on the resources of her government when she cannot - simply cannot - help herself.
It may be astonishing that American citizens should have had to remind their fellow Americans of this, but let us not pretend we do not know the reason. They were black, and for all that poor blacks have experienced and endured in this country, they had good reason to be surprised that they were treated not as citizens but as garbage.
Marketing Campaigns Of The Apocalypse
Don't complain you weren't warned.
Reader Tips
Welcome to the Wednesday (EBD) edition of SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight we feature a cartoon mash-up in which the audio of Peter Lorre's monologue in Fritz Lang's 1931 film M is completely mis-translated and the resulting subtitles added to an old episode of Quick Draw McGraw.
Here then, without further ado, is the historic SDA premiere of Merrill Markoe's nightmarish Quickdraw Noir.
The thread is open for your relentless Reader Tips.
November 4, 2009
Y2Kyoto: State Of Anorexia Envirosa
So routine now, one can hardly keep track;
After 30 years, five presidents and $13 billion dollars, the Obama administration is pulling the plug on Yucca Mountain, the federal government's proposed storage facility for America's nuclear waste.
For a candidate who said he wanted to get politics out of science, critics find the president's decision hypocritical and shortsighted, at a time when nuclear energy is making a comeback.
[...]
Many in Congress are also angry with Obama's decision to close Yucca Mountain. "Many a utility facility across the country is going to have to close down if we don't get a handle on it because waste is piling up in those communities with reactors," said Rep. Jerry Lewis, (R-Calif). Lawmakers like Lewis and Sen. John McCain say with no long term repository for America's nuclear waste, the re-licensing of existing plants and construction of new ones is in jeopardy, just as the nation reconsiders nuclear energy as a clean and dependable source of electricity.
In the meantime, the nation's utilities have asked the federal government to suspend the nuclear waste disposal tax -- now running about $750 million a year -- and may want a refund for the money already spent on the now failed yucca facility. So far, officials representing the department of energy have said no.
You know, I've long thought that nuclear waste storage was a perfect fit for Saskatchewan. Not only could we generate billions in revenue, it'd prompt the science-averse NDP vote to relocate amongst their brethern in BC.
Even TorStar Says "Doomed"
Both sides of the gun-control debate believe the Conservatives now have enough Commons votes to give parliamentary approval in principle to a private member's bill to kill the registry for rifles and shotguns.
The vote late Wednesday is on the second reading of the bill, which would send it to a committee for more study and possible amendment before it comes back to the Commons, and later the Senate, for a final decision.
Update, via email - "House of Commons just passed the private members bill to scrap the long gun registry 164 to 137.One down, several steps to go."
Related: A reader emails to point out the photo the Calgary Herald chose to illustrate the story;
Because weapons owned by drug traffickers make up such a large part of the registry, I presume.
In the comments - "Dear Senators, This Jan I refill the chamber. Bang. Stephen"
End Of Youtube
And an internet censor's wet dream;
The internet chapter of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a secret copyright treaty whose text Obama's administration refused to disclose due to "national security" concerns, has leaked. It's bad.
The Libranos: Vaccscam
Reason #359,435 to keep government out of "health" care.
Via Stephen Taylor
Related: "Dear Liberal boss: You're an idiot".
Now Is The Time At SDA When We Juxtapose!
Chicago Tribune reviews "V" - The news media swoons in admiration -- one simpering anchorman even shouts at a reporter who asks a tough question: "Why don't you show some respect?!" The public is likewise smitten, except for a few nut cases who circulate batty rumors on the Internet about the leader's origins and intentions. The leader, undismayed, offers assurances that are soothing, if also just a tiny bit condescending: "Embracing change is never easy."
Politico reviews "MSNBC" - While discussing exit polls showing low numbers of younger Democrats heading to the polls in Virginia, Chris Matthews cut off Larry Sabato when talking about the high expectations some might have had for Obama's first year in office. "They're wrong and misinformed," said Matthews. "The netroots people out there that think you can change the Congress overnight legally and civilly are wrong," Matthews continued. "It takes a strong majority to bring big change. Somebody should have told them that."
h/t Gord Tulk
A "Global Climate Change Decision Maker Survey" Goes Horribly Wrong
Deniers of the 'Nation unite! A bit of fun to go with your morning coffee. (The survey will take a few minutes).
h/t Scott.
Reader Tips
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite
Radio. Tonight, for your delectation, here's the Rzeszów Klezmer
Band performing Yoshke ¤ in 2008 (3:10).
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
November 3, 2009
Tony Blair's European Province
Where the foxes caper unmolested, the government packs your school lunch, and King and Country slip beneath the socialist waves.
