This Opus cartoon has stirred up a bit of controversy. I wonder why?

...you've heard, no doubt, about the latest photographic "installation" composed by Spencer Tunick? 600 people stripped bare to stop glaciers from melting, or something like that. Oh, wait! It's a global warming protest, that's it!

Greenpeace has a slideshow, a "making of" movie, and Windows wallpaper here. I downloaded the 1440 x 900 wallpaper myself. I never want to forget the significance of this event.

The 2007 Atlantic storm forecast, that is. There isn't much one can say about the curve so far other than it's one ahead of last year which was a pretty average storm season.

I'm simply watching. The anthropogenic/anthro-centric global warming johnnies keep making noise about the horrible hurricanes and storms and heat waves that we're going to have. They had to have been severely disappointed that not a single hurricane made landfall in the U. S. last year...especially after 2005 more than fulfilled all of their hopes, and made Read More »

Universal health care isn't for U.S.

Government system more expensive, less effective

(published 13-Sep-2007, Appleton Post-Crescent)

"The government is good at one thing...it knows how to break your legs, and then hands you a crutch and says 'See? If it weren't for the government you wouldn't be able to walk.'" -- Harry Browne

That quote is so astoundingly appropriate to the universal health care debate one hardly has to say anything else. But for those that think the government makes great crutches, read on.

I must first make a sobering observation: we are going to have more government meddling in health care. The government juggernaut cannot help but roll over every aspect of health care delivery, covering the landscape with new regulat ... Read More »

...how about this from Dr. D. Bruce Merrifield, former Undersecretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs and Professor Emeritus of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania:

Summary

The earth has been subjected to many warming and cooling periods over millions of years, none of which were of human origin. Data from many independent sources have mutually corroborated these effects. They include data from coring both the Antarctic ice cap and sediments from the Sargasso Sea, from stalagmites, from tree rings, from up-wellings in the oceans, and from crustaceans trapped in pre-historic rock ... Read More »

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Hear! Hear! That was Robert Kennedy creating part of the sound and fury signifying ... well, nothing ... at the Live Earth Concert:

[I]t was nonmusicians at this concert who made the most passionate pleas about demanding action for the environment. "Get rid of all these rotten politicians that we have in Washington, who are nothing more than corporate toadies," said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the environmentalist author, president of Waterkeeper Alliance and Robert F. Kennedy's son, who grew hoarse from shouting. "This is treason. And we need to start treating them as traitors."

Well, I like the part about getting rid of "all these rotten politicians", but why for refusing to move m ... Read More »

Well, the concert's over and Madonna has saved the planet:

Wearing a below-the-knee puff-sleeved dress, matching knee-length leggings and black patent Mary-Janes, the star of the show, Madonna, took to the stage for her performance of Hey You where she was joined by a choir of schoolchildren.

She then strummed an electric guitar to Ray of Light before bursting into La Isla Bonita accompanied by cult New York Gypsy pu ... Read More »

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A reader of my last post about Al Gore's Live Earth concert sent me a link to his own blog. The link describes a far more constructive event than the silly world-wide music concerts for anthropogenic global warming. That event is Live Bait!

Global WORMing Responsible for Global WARMing

June 25th, 2007

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So said rock patriarch Roger Daltrey of The Who regarding erstwhile American Vice President Al Gore's Live Earth concert set to start tomorrow.

I haven't said anything about anthropogenic, anthro-centric global climate change in quite a while. Not that there haven't been oodles of news stories; it's the quantity that gets to me. I'm juicing up for a couple, three reviews of the news here shortly.

But this story about pop stars expressing doubt about Live Earth roused me enough to laugh, at least. Here's what some of them are saying besides that gem by Daltrey. Bob Geldoff, organizer of Live Aid and Live 8:

"Why is he (Gore) actually organising them?" Geldoff said in an intervi ... Read More »

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This week I've been reading the latest book by Bernard Goldberg, Crazies to the Left of Me, Wimps to the Right - How One Side Lost its Mind and the Other Lost its Nerve. Goldberg is the author of Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distorts the News, Read More »

Was President Bush right in commuting Lewis Libby's sentence?

(published 9-Jul-2007, Appleton Post-Crescent)

He certainly has the Constitutional right. Joe Wilson, Plame's husband, can spout off all he likes about a congressional investigation, but the President's power to pardon is absolute. What's fascinating to consider is what someone else might do with the pardoning power. Hillary Clinton said last month that "Nonviolent offenders should not be serving hard time in our prisons." Sounds like all the pot smoking Democrats in Leavenworth might have freedom to look forward to. But just 4 days later she said: "This commutation sends the clear signal that ... cronyism and ideology trump competence and justice." Not that I understand what that means, exactly, but it seems that certain non-violent offenders, namely Republicans, deserve prison. Ex-President Clinton pardoned actual violent c ... Read More »

Public school zero-tolerance policies are sometimes taken to extremes. This isn't in dispute. It's simply hilarious to watch. Political correctness is the emperor's new clothing.

So if a fifth-grade boy at Cornerstone at Pedregal School in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, wishes to glorify the military at his school's promotion ceremony, and every student is granted the opportunity to decorate a mortarboard cap with personal expression of his goals and dreams, what on earth is wrong with decorating his cap with U. S. military symbols and plastic army men? Apparently, a lot& ... Read More »

What's your favorite quote?

(published 11-Jun-2007, Appleton Post-Crescent)

Oh, man! That's like asking for my favorite word! How about a quick potpourri? Robert Heinlein: "Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks!" P. J. O'Rourke: "Giving money and power to the government is like giving whisky and car keys to teenage boys." Harry Browne: "Government breaks your leg, hands you a crutch, and tells you you're better off." Hard to beat Mark Twain: "Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits." Can't leave out Ben Franklin: "A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats." Thomas Babington Macaulay: "Many politicians ... Read More »

...the review had some very interesting and compelling things to say about the Iraq War. But first...

I haven't said much about the war. I supported our entry into the war for a number of reasons. But there has always been an issue that holds me back from being you-rah-rah about our continuing, though necessary, effort there.

That issue is the new kind of war that the U. S. invented in the waning years of the Reagan administration: technology-aided warfare. Because our armed forces had come out of a period of low defense budgets after the Vietnam War, the appeal of techno-war with little commitment of ground forces seemed to be just the ticket for future conflicts. The U. S. could keep its nose from getting bloodied if we just bombed from afar with smart bombs. Of course, when we did get our nose bloodied, as in Somalia, ... Read More »

I thought I'd pretty much seen everything in the realm of optical illusions, but I was wrong. I was browsing mindhacks.com and I found this year's "Best Visual Illusion of the Year" contest. The top 10 finalists are featured on the ... Read More »