Courtesy of TheChillingEffect.org and GoredEarth.com, here's this week's climate cartoon:
Merry Christmas, everybody!
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Archive for December, 2008
How the Goreinch Stole Christmas
Posted by Richard on December 25, 2008
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: christmas, global warming, humor | Leave a Comment »
Apollo 8
Posted by Richard on December 24, 2008
Forty years ago today, Apollo 8 entered lunar orbit:
The SPS ignited at 69 hours, 8 minutes, and 16 seconds after launch and burned for 4 minutes and 13 seconds, placing the Apollo 8 spacecraft in orbit around the Moon. The crew described the burn as being the longest four minutes of their lives. If the burn had not lasted exactly the correct amount of time, the spacecraft could have ended up in a highly elliptical lunar orbit or even flung off into space. If it lasted too long they could have impacted the Moon. After making sure the spacecraft was working, they finally had a chance to look at the Moon, which they would orbit for the next 20 hours.
Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders were the first humans to escape Earth's gravitational field and the first to look directly upon the far side of the moon.
Apollo 8 was only the second manned Apollo flight. It was the first manned flight atop the Saturn V rocket. The mission was originally planned as a low-Earth orbit test of the combined command module (CM) and lunar module (LM). Depending on whom you believe, NASA gave Apollo 8 a lunar-orbit mission either because production of the LM was behind schedule or because the Soviets were suspected of planning a manned lunar-orbit mission for late 1968.
The Soviets, of course, never made that flight. NASA repeated the lunar orbit mission five months later with Apollo 10. Two months after that, Apollo 11 landed men on the moon. That should be a big anniversary celebration next July!
Maybe then someone can explain to me why, 40 years later, we don't have a thriving lunar colony, a large orbiting colony at L5, and reasonably priced space tourism — all the stuff Heinlein envisioned back in the 50s.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: apollo, history, science, space flight | 3 Comments »
Holiday quote of the day
Posted by Richard on December 19, 2008
Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want and their kids pay for it.
— Richard Lamm
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: economics, humor | Leave a Comment »
The party of pre-Americans
Posted by Richard on December 17, 2008
In what I would describe as a Very Important Post, Daffyd pleaded with the Republican Party to reject the "Tancredistas" and become the "party of pre-Americans" (emphasis in original):
… I conclude that the Republican Party cannot survive as "the native-born American party." We have no option but to reach out to all those immigrants and children of immigrants who come here because they love America and what she stands for. Instead of discouraging or even stopping immigration, we must encourage it — but only by the right people, those who come here anxious to assimilate, who already believe in American values, no matter where they were born. We need more, not less, immigration by folks who were already American in their hearts long before they immigrated here. I call such folks "pre-Americans." If we don't want to repeat the same mistake with the rising population of Hispanics that we made with blacks, the Republican Party must become the party of pre-Americans.
…
There is no need to compromise on the fundamental requirement of controlling our borders; but we must finally recognize that most illegal immigrants are not "criminals," not in the commonly understood sense of a convenience-store robber or a carjacker. Most are simply responding irrationally to an irrational and unjust immigration system. Correct the system — which we should do anyway for our own reasons — and we'll see a huge drop in illegal entries, as those pre-Americans who rationally should be admitted are allowed in legally.
But it is important to show sympathy and support for those "huddled masses yearning to breath free" who desperately desire to become real Americans — those that already have the distinctive American values and virtues. Instead of talking about a moratorium on immigration (which comes across as "There are too many of your sort here already"), we must say, in essence, "While it's important to enforce our territorial integrity, we understand that many folks see America as a 'shining city on a hill,' and we'll do everything in our party's power to open the gates to all those who are truly American at heart… no matter where they were born."
Then actually do it.
Read. The. Whole. Thing. Please!
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: gop, immigration reform, republicans | 9 Comments »
Happy Bill of Rights Day!
Posted by Richard on December 16, 2008
On December 15, 1791, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, were ratified by Virginia and became part of the Constitution. Bill of Rights Day was first declared by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1941.
In recent years, no organization has supported Bill of Rights Day more tirelessly than Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, which has lots of resources and information aimed at re-establishing a Bill of Rights culture. Check it out.
The Second Amendment Foundation and Independent Institute are urging people to buy a book for Bill of Rights Day:
December 15 marks America’s Bill of Rights Day, the anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution. To commemorate this event, we have created the Second Amendment Book Bomb, a unique and powerful way to communicate the importance of the Bill of Rights’ Second Amendment for the protection of liberty. With your help, we can launch constitutional rights to the top of national book bestseller lists, making a loud and clear statement that Second Amendment rights are unalienable!
As you know, the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2008 landmark District of Columbia v. Heller ruling finally affirmed that the Founders fully intended the Second Amendment to protect an individual right to own and bear arms. The renowned Second Amendment scholar and lawyer Dr. Stephen P. Halbrook, Research Fellow at The Independent Institute, was key to the Heller victory—as well as to three previous gun-rights victories in cases before the Supreme Court. And his definitive defense of the Second Amendment is now available in The Founders’ Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms the first in-depth, book-length account of the origins of the Second Amendment and the most readable, comprehensive, and compelling work ever assembled arguing that the right to own a gun is as fundamental under the U.S. Constitution as freedom of speech and freedom of religion.
I just ordered two from Amazon.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: bill of rights, civil liberties, constitution, human rights, liberty | Leave a Comment »
How cold was it?
Posted by Richard on December 15, 2008
It was so cold that hundreds of school buses wouldn't start or died en route because the diesel fuel had jelled:
DENVER (AP/CBS4) ― Denver area school districts reported dozens of buses used to pick up students for class were delayed or wouldn't start at all Monday morning because of the extreme cold. About a third of the 370 buses in the state's largest school district, Jefferson County, either wouldn't start or couldn't finish their routes Monday morning because of cold-related engine and fuel problems.
The JeffCo school district saved two cents per gallon by buying diesel fuel without cold-weather additives, apparently confident that Al Gore was correct (emphasis added):
DENVER (CBS4) ― The problem that idled or stalled an estimated 45 percent of Jefferson County School's school bus fleet on Monday could have been prevented.
As a cost saving measure, the district had been buying diesel fuel without cold weather additives.
"We never expected it to get as cold as it did," said District Spokeswoman Melissa Reeves.
No word on how paying the extra couple of pennies for 3 months would compare with the cost of today's mess, with mechanics and tow trucks running around all over and thousands of kids stranded.
So how cold did it get? Officially at the airport, -19° F., clobbering the record of -6° set in 1951.
This afternoon, we got to 3° above zero. Woohoo!
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: colorado, denver, weather | Leave a Comment »
Arctic blast
Posted by Richard on December 15, 2008
The big storm that moved in overnight is supposed to bring 1-3 feet of snow to the mountains by tonight, but here in Denver, we've only got a couple of inches so far.
But it's -3° F. right now (1 PM), and the wind chill is -20°.
Yesterday, it hit 60° in town. Sigh… We won't be seeing that again any time soon.
UPDATE: -15° F. at 11:30 PM. Wind chill is -36°. I hope this isn't the night that my old furnace dies.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: colorado, denver, weather | Leave a Comment »
McCain campaign info sold at bargain price
Posted by Richard on December 14, 2008
The McCain campaign sold off campaign equipment the other day in Washington, including laptop computers and Blackberry phones. Local Fox affiliate reporters scooped up some of the Blackberry PDAs for the bargain price of $20 each and discovered that they came with free bonuses:
Personal information for a former Virginia Governor is one of more than 300 'contacts' listed inside a second Blackberry phone purchased by FOX 5 during a fire sale at the McCain-Palin headquarters this week.
FOX 5 Investigative Reporter Tisha Thompson broke the story late Thursday night, just hours after she purchased a $20 Blackberry from the campaign.
That Blackberry contained hundreds of emails giving an insider's view of the “Citizens for McCain” organization.
FOX 5 has bought a second phone from the McCain campaign which contains even more information: photos from the Republican Convention, a personal calendar for campaign events leading up to the campaign, and more than 260 'contacts' full of personal emails, phone numbers and addresses for McCain supporters.
Pretty funny. No word on what was on the laptops. But don't worry, Republicans. I'm sure the main thing to be learned from the McCain campaign's inside info is how not to run for president.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: mccain, politics, stupidity | Leave a Comment »
Auto bailout bill fails
Posted by Richard on December 11, 2008
The $14 billion bailout for the auto industry died in the Senate tonight (hooray!) despite marathon negotiations late into the night:
The Senate rejected the bailout 52-35 on a procedural vote — well short of the 60 required — after the talks fell apart.
The implosion followed an unprecedented marathon negotiations at the Capitol among labor, the auto industry and lawmakers who bargained into the night in efforts to salvage the auto bailout at a time of soaring job losses and widespread economic turmoil.
The group came close to agreement, but it stalled over the UAW's refusal to agree to wage cuts before their current contract expires in 2011. Republicans, in turn, balked at giving the automakers federal aid.
On its 10 PM newscast, CBS4Denver quoted Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard as saying that all sides agreed to give up something except the union.*
In keeping with my obscure Rand reference in last night's post, I'm compelled to speculate that the UAW negotiator must have been Fred Kinnan.
I'm not the only person who's been reminded of Atlas Shrugged in recent weeks. A friend of mine brought it up back in October when Joe the Plumber hit the news. Today, Rush Limbaugh brought it up (link will only work for a short time for non-subscribers). He suggested that we're living through a sequel to Rand's novel, this one called Atlas Puked — or maybe Atlas Laughed His Butt Off.
But as Limbaugh noted, the consequences won't be amusing.
* Allard's statement is not yet available on the CBS4Denver web site or on his web site, which is apparently updated only every three weeks. I guess at times TV news still has a significant immediacy advantage over the "new media."
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: allard, bailout, congress, economy, senate | 2 Comments »
Stop the auto bailout
Posted by Richard on December 10, 2008
The House passed a $14 billion bailout bill for the "Big Three" automakers tonight. And what a steaming pile of crap it is. Fortunately, it may not get the 60 votes it needs in the Senate. ALG put the whole thing into perspective:
December 10th, 2008, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson praised Senators John Ensign (R-NV), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Jim DeMint (R-SC), David Vitter (R-LA) and Richard Shelby (R-AL) for their efforts to oppose the $15 billion bailout package for the Big Three automakers.
…
“The American taxpayer cannot and must not be forced to perpetuate the mismanagement of the Big Three by financing failure. There is no excuse for putting taxpayers on the hook for keeping failed companies afloat that could much better be reorganized under normal Chapter 11 bankruptcy,” Wilson added.
Under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, companies have the ability to broadly restructure the scope of operations, redo labor contracts, and otherwise scale back in order to emerge from bankruptcy with a profitable business model.
“Everything that Congress says it is attempting to do, to create a deal to reorganize these companies, to return them to profitability, is precisely the purpose of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The $15 billion bailout is just a reason not to go into Chapter 11. In fact, the real intention is to perpetuate bad management and Big Labor excesses at taxpayer expense,” said Wilson.
Mark Perry posted a succinct illustration of just why GM is circling the drain:
GM sales in 2007: 9,370,000 vehicles
Toyota sales in 2007: 9,366,418 vehicles
GM profit/loss in 2007: -$38,730,000,000 (-$4,055 per car)
Toyota profit in 2007: +$17,146,000,000 (+$1,874 per car)
So on average, it costs GM about $5,900 more to make a car than it does Toyota. The solution, according to the President and Congressional Democrats, is to give them enough money so they can continue losing four grand per car for a few more months.
Adding to the lunacy, Democrats have insisted that these money-losing, teetering-on-the-brink companies need to spend hundreds of millions, maybe billions, to completely retool so they can make more fuel-efficient and "greener" cars — as gas prices continue to plummet. Sure, let's force GM's cost of making a car up even higher! That'll help!
And don't forget the bill includes a "car czar" to tell the automakers how to make cars, what kind of cars to make, and how to run their businesses. "Car czar" is the media's name, not the formal title of the post. I suggest they call it Director of Economic Planning and Natural Resources and appoint Wesley Mouch to the job.
Contact your senators and tell them to oppose this disgusting, stupid, and costly corporate welfare scheme.
UPDATE: Earlier this evening, Instapundit said, "The bailout is unpopular with the public. I’m surprised that more GOP politicians aren’t taking an anti-bailout stance, since it’s an opportunity to align action with both public sentiment and small-govermnent principles." In case you haven't noticed, Glenn, a significant number of GOP politicians are clueless about both public sentiment and small-government principles!
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: bailout, congress, economy, senate | Leave a Comment »
Who turned Blago down?
Posted by Richard on December 10, 2008
Following the news of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's attempt to sell Barack Obama's senate seat, the president-elect announced that he never talked to Blago about his replacement (although he ducked the follow-up about his top aides). David Axelrod fell on his sword and recanted his earlier statement:
… David Axelrod, a senior adviser to Mr. Obama, issued a statement late Tuesday saying he had misspoken in comments he made in November that now seemed to contradict Mr. Obama’s assertions that he had no contact with Mr. Blagojevich in the conversations over a replacement.
“I know he’s talked to the governor,” Mr. Axelrod said in an interview with “Fox News Sunday” on Nov. 23. “And there are a whole range of names, many of which have surfaced.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Axelrod said he had been wrong. “They did not then or at any time discuss the subject,” according to his statement.
Rush Limbaugh posed a good question today: If Blagojevich never proposed a senate seat deal, directly or indirectly, to Obama, then why the outburst against Obama? According to the complaint (PDF here), Blago angrily declared that he's not going to give this “motherfucker [the President-elect] his senator. Fuck him. For nothing? Fuck him.”
That sure sounds like someone who wanted a deal and was rebuffed. If it wasn't by Obama himself, it could have been by a high-level advisor. Rahm Emanuel has long-standing ties to Blagojevich, and there's a rumor going around (denied, of course) that he's the reason the feds moved quickly to arrest Blago.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: corruption, obama, politics | Leave a Comment »
Mouse turns 40
Posted by Richard on December 9, 2008
Forty years ago today, the first computer mouse was publicly demonstrated:
On 9 December 1968 hi-tech visionary Douglas Engelbart first used one to demonstrate novel ways of working with computers.
The first mouse that Dr Engelbart used in the demo at the Fall Joint Computer Conference (FJCC) was made of wood and had one button.
…
A day of celebration is planned in California to mark the 40th anniversary; with many of the researchers behind the original demo reunited to mark the event.
The mouse, which was built by Bill English, helped Dr Engelbart demonstrate how text files could be clipped, copied and pasted as well as showing ways of using computer networks to collaborate on projects or co-edit documents.
Technically, Engelbart's mouse was born a couple of years earlier, but it's that first public demo that everyone remembers. In addition to debuting the mouse, Engelbart's demo also introduced the graphical user interface (GUI) and the first working hypertext system. It was revolutionary, to say the least:
In the 1968 demo Dr Rulifson was at the SRI Lab and appeared on screen in Brooks Hall auditorium while helping Dr Engelbart to show how co-workers could use NLS to collaborate.
The demo was so far ahead of other uses of computers at the time and the technology on show was so powerfully convincing that one attendee later likened Dr Engelbart's efforts to "dealing lightning with both hands".
The following year, Engelbart's NLS (oN Line System) became one node of the first full network connection on Arpanet, the precursor to the Internet.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: computers | Leave a Comment »
Illinois guv busted
Posted by Richard on December 9, 2008
Imagine that — aother corrupt Illinois politician:
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris were arrested Tuesday morning in Chicago on two counts each of federal corruption charges stemming from allegations Blagojevich was trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat to the highest bidder.
…
The charges also relate to allegations that Blagojevich and Harris schemed with previously convicted defendants and Obama associates Antoin Rezko, Stuart Levine, Ali Ata and others to arrange financial benefits in exchange for appointments to state boards and commissions, state employment, state contracts and access to state funds.
My favorite laugh line in the story came from FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Robert Grant (emphasis added):
"Many, including myself, thought that the recent conviction of a former governor would usher in a new era of honesty and reform in Illinois politics. Clearly, the charges announced today reveal that the office of the Governor has become nothing more than a vehicle for self-enrichment, unrestricted by party affiliation and taking Illinois politics to a new low," Grant said.
Was that sarcasm, or was he really serious?
According to the U.S. attorney, it's all on tape:
Fitzgerald's office said the 76-page FBI affidavit alleges that Blagojevich was taped conspiring to sell or trade Obama's vacated U.S. Senate seat for financial and other personal benefits for himself and his wife, including an annual salary of $250,000-$300,000 at a nonprofit foundation or an organization affiliated with labor unions.
They also allege Blagojevich is heard on tape demanding a corporate board seat for his wife worth as much as $150,000 a year; promises of campaign funds, including cash up front; and a Cabinet post or ambassadorship for himself.
Sen. Obama, asked to comment, said, "That's not the Rod Blagojevich I knew."
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: corruption, politics | Leave a Comment »
The Corker plan
Posted by Richard on December 6, 2008
Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee proposed a plan for how to bail out the "Little Three" (GM, Chrysler, and Ford) that doesn't suck nearly as much as what the Congressional Democrats and the Bush administration are talking about. Larry Kudlow had a good summary:
Mr. Corker wants a deal where, first, carmakers must restructure all their debt at some price, perhaps 30 cents on the dollar. But the bond owners must be satisfied so the government doesn’t have to pick up the tab. Second, Mr. Corker wants carmakers to get their worker-compensation levels exactly equal to those of the Japanese transplants in Detroit south. That means about $48 total hourly labor costs. GM’s labor costs were $73 in 2006, an estimated $69 in 2008, and are projected to be $62 in 2010. This, of course, includes pension and health benefits. If these two conditions are satisfied, Mr. Corker then believes some kind of government loan might be granted. We’ll have to wait and see where this thing goes.
I suspect it will go nowhere. The UAW, although they've recently offered both meaningful concessions (regarding the "jobs bank") and meaningless gestures ("delays" in retiree benefits funding), aren't about to OK significant permanent labor cost reductions, and that means all their congressional lackeys will completely ignore the Corker proposal.
But good for Sen. Corker for throwing it out there anyway. It would be nice to get an on-the-record up or down vote on this, but I'm not holding my breath.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: business, cars, congress, economy | 2 Comments »
A new era has begun
Posted by Richard on December 6, 2008
The President was declared a lame duck ages ago, the election was a month ago, and the new administration takes over on January 20th.
But as far as I'm concerned, the wheel turned, the ball dropped, the baton was passed, and a new era began when Instapundit embraced a new meme:
THEY TOLD ME THAT IF I VOTED FOR MCCAIN, WE’D SEE A THIRD BUSH TERM. …
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: change | Leave a Comment »