Beauty may be only skin-deep, but ugly goes clear to the bone.
--Dolly
The Cloud Observatory
Monday July 2, 2007...
Observation #522 ::.
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Monday July 2, 2007...
So Much Going On ::.
NOT MUCH TO SAY about it -- or, at any rate, not much time to think and write about it.
Or so I think. I spent a lot of time spinning wheels this weekend for somebody who's supposedly so busy.
Been hearing a lot of advice lately from people who put themselves forth as pros in the advice business. I find myself thinking, "Yah, yah, yah. I know this stuff. I've known it all my life."
And then a little voice in the back of my head -- one I've also known all my life -- chimes up and asks me, "Well, if you know it so well... if you know what you need to do, what you need to make of yourself in order to get where you want to be, why the hell aren't you doing it?
And I have a brazilian excuses, too. But mostly they come down to inertia. It's easier to remain on the path I'm on than it is to try to steer.
And one of the advice pros has a way of looking at that. You can pretty much be sure that, if things don't change, they're gonna remain the same. If you don't get off your ass and do something, then the next three years are gonna look pretty much like the last three.
That is, if you don't take entropy into account, says I.
And, like anything worthwhile, it seems, the conception is easy, the execution is simple, the motivation is a bitch.
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Previously on BabyTrollBlog...
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Sunday July 1, 2007...
Well... ::.
THERE'S YOUR PROBLEM! GM Roper tries to deal honestly with a bunch of disingenuous (or ignorant) leftist hooey -- and does a pretty fair job of it, but comes acropper of the rub of the nub...
Ooo! That's gotta hurt!
...yes ...in assuming honest motives of his interlocutor.
Good luck with that, George.
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Sunday July 1, 2007...
The City of New York ::.
THE GOVERNMENT not the entire bumpteen brazillion of the people -- has gone absolutely batfuck insane.
Now they're saying you'll need a permit to film on the streets.
We're not talking a full-blown, Law and Order shoot, no. We're not talking movie crews and second units and car chases down the West Side Highway. No. We're talking anybody with a handheld video camera in one place (even waiting in line) for five minutes or more.
In the words of Ronaldus Magnus, government isn't the solution; government is the problem.
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Saturday June 30, 2007...
Profiles in "Courage?" ::.
(SCORN QUOTES) Or a network effect?
A bandwagon effect?
Right down to rats jumping off as it stalls?
To puree a metaphor, yes.
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Saturday June 30, 2007...
InterestingBut ::.
I DON'T REALLY see the situation as obtaining for very long.
People tend to take a look at a situation or a trend and make a straight-line prediction. Events never really work out that way.
I think that the music business will change -- will continue to change -- to the extent where it would be unrecognizable in many ways to a time traveler from the heydays of the '70s and '80s. But at the end of the day, there will be record companies and they will be selling packaged, pre-recorded music.
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Saturday June 30, 2007...
From Time to Time ::.
IN MY EMPLOYMENT LIFE passive-aggressive superiors have come at me with demands that "we" had to do thus-and-so, that "we" had better get our asses in gear or "we" would be in serious trouble business-wise.
And, from time-to-time, my response (whether actual or fantasy) has been, "Whatchoo mean 'we,' paleface? You and that mouse in your pocket?"
The truth, and I know it, is that these bosses were doing everything they could to avoid getting their hands dirty. They weren't "detail" people. (Like details were demeaning things to pay attention to.) They were "big picture" guys. Details were somebody else's job.
Got news: the Devil is in the details.
Most especially that pesky detail of exactly how one is supposed to accomplish somewhat -- like doubling sales with zero advertising support.
This madness is not limited to businessmen.
Why would anyone assume it was?
Good point.
In 1998, when Saddam Hussein kicked the UN Weapons inspectors out of Iraq, the Clinton Administration called for his removal.
Who do you suppose they thought was going to do it?
Well, according to Algore, it shoulda been Bush.
::wobbita:: Sorry. I must have water in my ear. Did I hear you right?
Yeah. Algore's running around saying, "We should've..." pointing the finger at Bush, when... Oh, go read the article.
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Saturday June 30, 2007...
I Love The Smell ::.
OF GREEN CARDS IN THE MORNING I know a lot of people who are legal immigrants. After all, if you work in the music biz, at least half of your circle of acquaintance will be expat Brits. Canadians. Ozzies. Kiwis. To a man and woman, they are all legal immigrants or -- scorn quotes, here -- "guest workers." That is, they actually live in the Mother Country and retain citizenship (subjecthood?), but spend many many moons here in the Land of the Free stoking the star-maker machinery behind the popular song.
And you hear endless horror stories of disasters caused by incompetence or intransigence on the part of the bureaucracy. Which is, in part, so overloaded that it cannot deal with the fence-jumpers.
Which makes me want to cheer this, from Insty:
Respect people who follow the law, and make legal immigration easier, cheaper, and simpler, rather than the Kafkaesque nightmare it is now...
... and this, from Boortz:
So in Florida, police cars have simply been driving up to construction sites. Yep. They drive up and wait. And they watch diligently to see who runs away. If you are a Mexican track star you may have a chance. If not, you're gonna get caught. Officers chase those who flee and arrest them on charges such as trespassing, for cutting through someone else's property, or loitering, for hiding out in someone's yard, or reckless driving, for speeding off in a car. After processing the names of any illegal aliens caught are sent off to authorities.
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Here's a statement from a Mexican illegal immigrant, Jose: "We immigrants, we are leaving Panama City. People are afraid they will be deported," he said. "The companies don't want to hire illegal people. Now they're only hiring those with papers."
Awwww. Poo' bebbeh!
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Saturday June 30, 2007...
Now, THERE'S A Larf ::.
THE IRONY-CHALLENGED Ted Kennedy quoting H.L. Mencken!
Tee-hee!
Sheesh! What's next? George Mitchell quoting Karl Marx?
Um... Dolly? That's already happened.
Nooooooo! You're kidding!
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Friday June 29, 2007...
It's Embarrassing ::.
IN CASE YOU MISSED George "Crybaby" Voinobitch's meltdown on Hannity Wednesday, our local talk station in Cincinnati -- 55KRC -- has a podcast of it here. That's the main podcast page, but there's a lot of other good stuff on it than the Voinobitch thing.
But Georgie -- whew! The man is an embarrassment to the State of Ohio.
Hell, most of our statewide Republicans are. It's the influence of The Mistake on the Lake, a.k.a. Cleveburg.
Hey! Some of my best friends are from Cleveland!
Yeah, I know, like the good people from B...(mmph!)
::stifling Dolly:: Ah-a-aah! No names, remember?
::nodding behind Alger's hand:: Mmm-mmfff! Mmm-hmmm?
OK. ::releases da doll::
Aahh! But -- them aside, Cleveland really is the source of all the weirdness...
Not Yellow Springs?
Well, OK. A close second, though.
Oh, c'mon! It's not that bad!
Two words: Howard Metzenbaum.
So? Bob Taft is from our area. Barely offset by the brilliant Ken Blackwell.
Dennis Kucinich.
OK. I give up.
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Friday June 29, 2007...
Whenever I Hear or Read ::.
FOLK ON THE RIGHT slagging off St. Ann, as Darling Rachel does here, I find the complaints almost always rest on style over substance, and when substance is claimed, the facts of a particular case are usually (if not always misrepresented).
Case in point. A commentor on Rachel's thread snarked about Ann's supposed ham-handing of the death of John and Elizabeth Edwards' child some time back. In actual fact, what Ann said was (in effect) that the Edwards were shameless in exploiting that death for political fund-raising purposes. Which. They. Did.
And it seems to me it's always like that.
So, people: before you go off on outspoken comrades, make sure you understand what it is they actually said as opposed to what some have alleged about what they said.
Is that some as in Law Dawgie's famous "Sumdood?"
No. This is an upscale, pseudo-intellectual some standing in for "this is my own snarky opinion, but you're more likely to answer the question with a gaffe I can quote in tomorrow's paper/broadcast if I couch it as the fruits of some mysterious buzz I have access to on the street."
Chin-pulling.
Um... In the words of the immortal Robert Heinlein: print that out and I'll chop it.
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DAFYDD AP HUGH has a take and a take-down of folk in the dextrosphere (love that term) who get all wound around the axle over St. Ann based on deliberate misquotes or out-of-context misquotes...
...and the difference is...?
...if there's any difference.
I also would like to point out that Coulter was being factually accurate when she implied that Edwards is more than a bit fey. I mean, really! Having your wife call up to whine about being maltreated by a talking head? How much less presidential can you get?
Two words: Jimmy Carter.
Two words: WHAT. Everrrr.
But, really. I do agree. Like Rush said -- or implied -- on Wednesday, Edwards is such a total pussy.
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TANGENTIALLY poor Pascal has gotten a bit gun-shy. DON'T, people. This is the value of outspoken straight-shooters such as Coulter, and Mark Steyn, and -- yes -- even Michael Savage.
Savage? A straight-shooter?
Well... If you account for the gravity well, maybe a hyperbola could be seen as a straight line mapped onto a curved space? You know: Einstein's rubber sheet analogy?
It's a stretch.
Heh.
But serially, folks. Don't let the outraged reactions of the Left and others put you off. Your passion is valid, as Rush says. Use it. Just make sure it's an informed passion.
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Friday June 29, 2007...
The Cloud Observatory ::.
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Thursday June 28, 2007...
Its A Chick Fight ::.
DARLING RACHEL an' hot IMAO t-shirt model SarahK have thrown down as to whose dog is cuter.
If ya wuzta axe da Doll, ain' nothin' c'n out-cute a cat. Butcha wun't axin', were ya?
'N' -- hey! If Sarah's married to FrankJ, wouldn't she be SarahJ? Or is she one of these new-fangled lib'rated chicks?
And you're not?
'Course I am! But I special; I da Doll!
And, by the way, the kitten is looking for a home.
Gabrielle Francesca East (Dolly) | |
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Thursday June 28, 2007...
ItMayNotBeTheMarket ::.
THAT SQUEEZES LEFTIST opinion out in talk radio. It may be that leftists, not trusting the market, or understanding the realities of business -- by en large -- don't do business well. They could have the ice cream franchise on Daytona Beach, but would be too busy insulting their audience's intelligence, or behaving in a politically correct manner, to do good business.
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Thursday June 28, 2007...
Remember, Folk... ::.
THE FAIRNESS DOCTRINE did not in the past and would not in the future apply to network news for the simple reason that, wholly-owned stations aside, the networks are not licensed by the FCC. The individual stations are. And that's where they'll place the wedge.
Wouldn't that make syndicated content like Rush, Hannity, Laura, the Czar, the G-Man, Boortz, et al immune according to the same principle?
One can hope so, Dolly, but not really. The problem becomes similar to the protest phenomenon. Those loudmouthed ne'er-do-well malcontents who, in the words of the Police have their "hand(s) in the air with the other cunts," is that they have the time and inclination to make trouble, while the vast majority of people -- Nixon's Silent Majority -- are too busy living their lives and minding their own business to get into mischief, such as mounting concerted challenges to station licenses.
No, the only solution is to require the government to butt the fuck out.
Pardon your French.
Right.
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Thursday June 28, 2007...
And Just Like That ::.
SPAIN IS NO LONGER a part of Europe. Wouldn't Ferdinand and Isabella be surprised?
Are you try'n' a say the protestin' illegals are stupid?
Trying? No.
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Thursday June 28, 2007...
New In Stores ::.
THIS IS TOTALLY GRATUITOUS Just 'cause I can.
The Charlie Daniels Band has a new CD out, Live from Iraq. You can guess what that's all about.
Good on ya, Man!
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Thursday June 28, 2007...
Riverfront Development ::.
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Wednesday June 27, 2007...
This Has Value ::.
BUT, I SUSPECT, NOT MUCH The warmistas -- in the person of Algore -- have been slapped in the face and had the gauntlet thrown down on them.
Trouble is, they won't accept it.
In order to prove global warming, you'd not only need to accurately gather both a contemporary and a historical record of temperatures over the entire globe -- something which has never been done and, I submit, cannot be done because of fundamental flaws in the thinking about temperature.
Then, you'd need to prove that global average temperature is relevant to -- well, anything, other than global average temperature. I'm persuasible that a rise in global average of significance might have an effect on both climate and weather (climate being what we expect and weather what we get).
The trouble is defining significance.
As I understand it, the recorded rise in temperature over the last 100 years or so (recorded as in the temperatures where we looked when we looked, which tells us essentially nothing) has been sixth tenths of one degree. A statistician I saw writing somewhere said that over the same period, given the data sets on offer, the margin of error is plus or minus seven tenths of a degree. Which leads me to argue that 1) global warming has not been demonstrated and 2) its significance would be debatable in any case.
Once having demonstrated that warming even exists, one would have to then demonstrate that one had mastery of the subject by making tightly-controlled predictions. That's how science works. You test a theory empirically by making predictions. If the predictions pan out, the theory has promise. It could be tossed out tomorrow nevertheless, but for the moment, we'll accept it, play with it, and see where its implications lead. If you cannot accurately predict events from your knowledge, it is therefore crystal clear that your knowledge is inadequate to the task. Not to mention your theory.
Um, Alger? If you can't predict based on your theory, doesn't that pretty much make your theory ... well, junk?
I asked you not to mention that.
Oh. Sorry. I got caught up in the moment.
Yes. Well.
I suppose it should be pointed out here -- if only in passing -- the models which are being used to -- scorn quotes, here -- "predict" global warming are, given the historical data on hand, incapable of predicting current conditions.
Tell you anything?
Oooo! Plenty!
And in the Points for Style department, you'd need to demonstrate that, on average, a rise in global average temperatures would be a bad thing. In other words, you'd need to gather enough knowledge (data, information -- not anecdotes) to know to a reasonable degree of certainty that the negative consequences would outweigh the positives.
Positives? You mean there's positives to global warming?
Yeah. Like: warmer weather?
Oh. (::moue::)
And then, finally, once all this is done, you'd still have to winkle out causality. What or who is to blame for this rise in temperature?
I suspect that the warmistas know all this, but they also realize that it's math and applied math, and as well all know, <barbievoice>math is ha-a-a-ard!</barbievoice>. So they'd rather take the shortcut and jump straight to coercive government oppression of the bad guys. As they -- the warmistas -- perceive them to be.
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Wednesday June 27, 2007...
Well Said, Madam! ::.
AND WORTH ECHOING The Mrs has done her part. Have you?
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Wednesday June 27, 2007...
From the Hometown Paper ::.
IF YOU EVER NEEDED evidence of the spineless perfidy of our political class, you only need to contemplate Richard Lugar (R-IN), who is calling for withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
Why?
Because, he says, the "surge" -- which has fairly only just begun, with all of the troops only recently arrived in-country, and the first major offensive only having begun within the week -- is a failure. In other words, he could only have come to this conclusion in the only total absence of real facts. He is only making an assertion the truth of which cannot be known as the only events which would give it lie or truth have yet to occur, let alone be analyzed.
My friends from Indiana would do well to verbally scourge Mr. Lugar.
As though that would do any good.
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Wednesday June 27, 2007...
Fair Enough ::.
THEN SHUT THE FUCK UP
But -- oops! -- that would be consistent.
Yeah. Can't expect logical consistency from a mad dog, now can you?
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Wednesday June 27, 2007...
Chili Skyline ::.
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Tuesday June 26, 2007...
Got a Deal Fer Ya, ::.
DI FI If you think it's necessary for the government to step in and "correct" reporting and discussion on the radio, I think it only "fair" to insist on a Truth in Political Advertising statute. And the penalty is, if you lie in a campaign ad, you forfeit the election.
How's that for fair?
Talk radio tends to be "one-sided," she says? As in, "There are two sides to every story and one of them is usually wrong?" Of course, if you disagree with leftist conventional wisdom, you're one-sided, whereas if you're a leftist twat stealing conservative newspapers from the racks you're simply expressing your First Amendment rights.
Er... Um... yeah.
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Tuesday June 26, 2007...
Mt. Adams Autumn Morning ::.
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Monday June 25, 2007...
Biz Ethics, Anyone? ::.
IT OCCURS TO ME THAT the only real answer to travesties such as Dyssynergy describes at Dustbury is to enshrine in law and business ethics recognition of the truth that information about a person belongs to that person, not to anyone to whom he chooses to expose any part of it, and that those who receive such information are honor-bound to keep it confidential and carry it so to the grave.
Period.
End of discussion.
All of this trimming, backing, and filling is despicable -- if typical of politicians, who for the most part are wholly without honor.
For the most part wholly? Wanna get a few "on occasions" in there?
Update: Yes, I know that Dustbury is the work og Charles G. Hill. I'm just teasing him, because (from my admittedly limited perspective), his posts have the category where I think the signature belongs. It's a minor little brain fart and I promise to get over it. But the error is propogating and I'd hate for people to think it wasn't deliberate.
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Monday June 25, 2007...
Free Crab Tomorrow ::.
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Sunday June 24, 2007...
No, Actually ::.
THE ANSWER to media treason and sedition (or mere malpractice in aid of our enemies) is not, as Insty puts it:
Frankly, I think the best argument for electing a Democrat as President is that as long as a Republican is in office the media powers-that-be will refuse to condemn even the worst atrocities on the part of Islamists, for fear of helping the real enemy in the White House . . .
The answer is for the media powers-that-be to lose their jobs. And if moral suasion and political pressure (as distinct from legislation and government coercion, such as the Democrats seek to use against conservative talk radio) won't do the job, then commercial pressure will have to serve.
Oh, come on, Alger! You don't really think that all of the troubles of the New York Times et al has to do with the treasonous writings of their staff and editors?
Not all. But it certainly can't be helping. Can you connect the dots between the dominance of conservatives -- patriotic, pro-American, victory-minded -- in new media and the failure of old media? It doesn't have to be all one way, a binary either-or situation. But the fact that the old media insults its audience's intelligence, claims objectivity for rankest bias, fabricates outright lies, and ignores real stories which contradict its groupthink mindset must be a major contributing factor to is loss of mindshare.
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Friday June 22, 2007...
Heard This One ::.
ON THE EVENING news? No? Not surprised. It's good news of a sort from Iraq. Why should the legacy partisan press report that? (Yon says there's a NYT reporter where he is. Wonder if the guy's stories will get spiked.)
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Friday June 22, 2007...
If You Ever Had ::.
ANY DOUBT THAT THE LABELS Democrat, Liberal, and Progressive are damned lies, you only need to read this and the linked report.
Just took a glance through the actual report -- as opposed to the meta-report about the report. It appears at a cursory glance that the entire thing strains to make its point without one single reference to ratings -- to audience size, share, cume -- any of it. In other words, the whole tissue of the thing is made up without regard to the actual preference of the people.
Quelle surprise.
Consider this...
The report paints a picture of a marketplace which is, in sum, meeting demand. It is giving the people what they want. The reason that conservative talk radio dominates the talk radio market is because nobody wants to listen to leftist talk radio!
Is that so hard to understand?
Oh, they understand it, alright. It's just they're unwilling to struggle in the arena of ideas for the recognition they believe is theirs by right.
And thus they must first sweep away the unfortunate truth that the reason conservative talk radio dominates -- as does indeed any segment of the new media which leans to the right and enjoys commercial success -- is because the listeners want it that way. And thereby reject the Left's -- um -- droppings.
If the people don't want what the Left is offering, well then, they'll have to have it force-fed to them. At the point of a gun.
And therefore, so-called (scorn quotes) "progressives" propose a program -- a political public policy prescription -- which is neither democratic nor liberal nor progressive. So when the Real King of France tells you "virtually all elected Democrats are liars," he understates the facts on the ground. There are two kinds of Democrats in this world -- damned liars and blind idiots.
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Friday June 22, 2007...
As If ::.
IT MATTERED
China overtakes US as world's biggest CO2 emitter.
As if what mattered? CO2 emissions? Or China's ramping them up?
Any of it. It's amazing the absurdity of our own exhalants being treated as a pollutant hasn't caused certain people's heads to explode from the dissonance.
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Friday June 22, 2007...
Now, THAT ::.
IS GOD bothering.
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Friday June 22, 2007...
Purple People Bridge Again ::.
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Thursday June 21, 2007...
Dream On ::.
BLENDER BOY! Glenn Reynolds opines:
I'm actually in favor of this. With members of Congress spending most of their time fundraising, most actual lawmaking work has devolved to the staff. So if we can get the staff busy fundraising, too, maybe we'll just see less legislating overall. Which, based on recent performance, would pretty much have to be an improvement.
No... What will happen is the size of congressional staves will increase to encompass this new function.
Now, an open market in congressional favors... Hmm. There might be something to that.
Depends if they're "honest" politicians.
Meaning...?
They'll stay bought.
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Thursday June 21, 2007...
Further Development Needed ::.
FROM THE "NEEDS WORK" file, this brain fart.
It seems that our lords and masters -- the Tribunes of the People in Washington -- when they seek to implement some witless policy (here recently, the amnesty of illegal aliens and the ethanol boondoggle), they work assiduously to cut off all options other than their own desiderata.
At least in this, they seem to understand the network effect.
Um... yes.
Yesterday, I passed along a suggestion for personal political action in the Home Depot's apparent support for illegal alien workers. But in relation to other issues, such avenues of action seem stringently limited. For example, once the whole ethanol hydra gets its tentacles...
Talk about your mixed metaphors!
...into the economy, how are you going to register a protest? You likely won't be able to find gas undiluted with ethanol. Your choice will be diminished.
Don't you say this is why so many local tax levies get voted down? People really object to Federal taxes, but they can't get their hands on that, so they register their protests where they can.
Um... yes.
Needs work?
Needs work.
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Thursday June 21, 2007...
Breezeway ::.
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Wednesday June 20, 2007...
It's Not Just a Labor ::.
ISSUE, IT'S AN invasion. From the border... (Hat tip: Vanderleun.)
"U.S. Border Patrol agents seeking to secure the nation's border in some of the country's most pristine national forests are being targeted by illegal aliens, who are using intentionally set fires to burn agents out of observation posts and patrol routes."
Back when Congress was contemplating the abortion which became Homeland Security (Could no-one hear the fascist undertones of that name?), I suggested that a way of leveraging popular discontent with the notion would be to put commercial pressure on the airlines. After all, Congresscritters might ignore individual constituents -- even en masse -- but surely could not ignore the CEOs of billion-dollar business enterprises employing thousands of voters.
It never -- heh -- got off the ground.
But this idea might.
This morning on 55KRC, John Phillips suggested this. It's Home Depot's apparent corporate policy to cooperate with, or at least tolerate the presence of, illegal migrants seeking work in the construction trades. At low wages. Below-union wages.
Not that you're pro-union yourself.
No, Dolly, I'm not. But there are those who are and the point should carry some weight with them.
Meanwhile, apparently, Lowes' corporate policy is to move them (the illegals) on. They bother Lowes' customers, increase Lowes' corporate liability without compensating Lowes commercially, and probably really torque Lowes' management. (After all, as I understand it, Lowes is from Texas. Where they know the illegal alien problem first-hand.)
Phillips' suggestion is that, if Home Depot's policy bothers you (and it bothers me) you should take your business to Lowes -- and let Home Depot know what you're doing and why.
Considering Home Depot's performance in the market lately, I wonder if some people haven't already done that.
You may be right, Baby Doll. You may be right.
Back when SWMBO and I consolidated all of our debt and rolled it into a home equity loan (at a massive savings in interest payments monthly), we had charge accounts at both the Home Despot and the Lowes Matrix. Based virtually on a coin-flip, we closed out the Lowes account and kept the Home Depot one. And, on occasion, have asked ourselves why we chose as we did. Since then, we've spent ... well, beaucoups bux at Big Orange. We're in there almost every weekend, sometimes for multiple visits.
I don't know the current status of our Home Depot account, but I can bet Lowes would welcome us with open arms and HD would -- or should -- shed a tear at least at our departure were we to close it out. Sounds like SWMBO and I should have a talk.
Spread the word.
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Wednesday June 20, 2007...
Wishful Thinking ::.
MILITARY TYPES are as subject to political pressure as any of us -- whether that pressure makes good sense or not.
Insty points to this NY Times article reporting a USAF initiative to replace petroleum with "alternative" fuels.
Freakin' zoomies!
Not so fast, Dolly. Consider the source, for one thing. For another, it turns out the remove from petroleum isn't as wide as The Times wants you to believe. The front-runner is a mixture of jet fuel and natural gas.
What the fuck good is that gonna do?
::shrug:: Probably none. But the Air Force looks like they're doing something.
The funny thing is Insty's comment: "Do they know something?" If they do, it's going to cause a revolution in organic chemistry, not to mention upset a lot of the current state of the art in thermodynamics. As the Air Force's Paul Bollinger observes: "Corn doesn't have the B.T.U.'s for jet fuel." Or much of anything else. And the net-net is a loss -- or at best a wash.
And the reporter manages to include the witless assertion that "climate change will be a concern."
Well: DUH! Climate is change, and our climate concerns us, so the change will as well. But... whatareyagonnadoaboutit? Shout back the tide?
Sheesh! Whatta buncha maroons!
The report admits that the Air Force is working a long-ish timeline looking for a grail which might turn out to be chimerical (though not in so many words), then poses the real nub:
For the airlines, time may be too short to wait for that kind of solution. While the United States military and scientists are working on future-generation fuels, environmentalists are seeking to turn the industry into a symbol of the global warming problem.
I have a question: Why don't the rest of us turn environmentalists into a symbol of the idiot do-gooder busybody problem?
You mean we're not?
Well, I'm sure trying.
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Wednesday June 20, 2007...
When Questioning the Temperature ::.
RECORD BEING USED TO beat the drum in the global warming panic, I have been skeptical of that record.
I have argued that, while it seems probable, given increased insolation (radiation from the sun), it seems likely that the temperature of the Earth has risen.
I have also argued that a global average temperature is essentially a meaningless statistic, as it takes into account neither peaks nor troughs in actual local temperatures. Given the local and regional nature of climate, global figures give a distorted picture of what's actually going on.
And that this distortion appears deliberate speaks to the ultimate mendacity of the global warming panic merchants.
Well, yes.
Further, I have argued that, given the sparsity of the grid of sampling stations and the chaotic nature of the atmosphere, it is impossible for human scientists to actuall know the Earth's average temperature. Or, indeed, with any fine granularity, the actual temperature on a local or regional basis anywhere but at their temperature sampling stations themselves and then only at the times when the official readings are recorded.
In other words, we only know the daily temperature at sampling time in the places where we have looked, when we have looked. For the rest of the time, and the rest of the atmosphere, the actual temperature record remains a great unknown.
Through all of this, I have blithely assumed that, at least, the temperature recording stations have been set up and operated according to some reasonable standard designed to obviate local micro-effects, which would thus bias the data.
I should have known better. Comes this handy site, Surface Stations dot Org. Check it out.
As Boortz notes (Get the permalinks fixed, Neal!), the site has been slammed lately, so expect spotty and slow performance. But the information is well worth the trouble.
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Wednesday June 20, 2007...
I Hear On The ::.
RADIO AT NOON Tuesday that Rob Portman is stepping down as White House Budget Director. Can we get him back in Congress? Maybe mounting a primary challenge to George "Crybaby" Voinobitch?
Ya think that's maybe why he's leaving the White House?
The thought did bubble up to the surface of my alleged mind.
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Wednesday June 20, 2007...
Listening to Dubya's ::.
SOUND BITES ON the Palestineans, I find myself wondering -- how is it that politicians, who seem to have a great handle on how to buy your vote, also seem to have such an abysmal lack of understanding of human motivations?
What incentives do the Palestineans have for coming to the table in the -- scorn quotes -- "peace process" in honest good faith? What incentives do they have otherwise? What makes George think they're going to change based on what's on offer?
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Wednesday June 20, 2007...
Don' t MAKE Me ::.
GET OUT MY CALCULATOR! Some idiot on the Rush Limbaugh show Tuesday (Mark Belling guesting) tried to sell the notion that, because a lot of land lies fallow, there should be no problem in ramping up agricultural production to meet increased demand for corn-based ethanol.
Some people!
Look. If you can't count past ten without taking your shoes and socks off, please kindly refrain from expressing your asshatted opinions where sensible people can hear them. You're scaring the horses.
I've done the arithmetic. It's not complicated enough to qualify as math; it only involves some big numbers -- no particularly abstruse calculus. If you converted the entire arable land mass of the planet to growing the most efficient possible plant (Hint: it's not corn.) for conversion not to ethanol but to oil for biodiesel, you could not meet even a fraction of the demand for energy in the United States alone. It's a matter of orders of magnitude too little.
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Wednesday June 20, 2007...
You Only Need To Know ::.
THAT SARBANES-OXLEY is a governmental regulation to make this headline:
Sarbanes-Oxley is more costly than realized.
Into a big "DUH!" -- Good Buddy!
Although I would actually make that, "...more costly than originally admitted to." Since anybody above the age of about six ought to know that no government anything comes in anywhere near the estimated cost. So pretending "Gee, we had no idea," is really fuckin' stupid.
That's why there's a TLA for it -- RFS: Really Fuckin' Stupid.
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Wednesday June 20, 2007...
Despite Some Of The Loud ::.
NITWITS IN COMMENTS this post is brilliant.
And original.
Yes. Good point.
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Wednesday June 20, 2007...
A Door of Perception ::.
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Tuesday June 19, 2007...
Sorry Nothing ::.
TO SAY
That's not exactly true...
You're right, Dolly. I'm just too busy-slash-lazy to put something together today.
That's better.
WHAT.
EVerrrr!
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Tuesday June 19, 2007...
The University Club ::.
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Monday June 18, 2007...
I Suspect That Most ::.
AMERICANS ARE NON-POLITICAL inasmuch as they prefer to concentrate their efforts and attention to their own concerns and let the wider world go to hell in its own way. It's my knee-jerk opinion they should be allowed to. After all, if it is a moral principle that the aggressor is always in the wrong, then the party of government, the party of the nanny-state, the party of the busybody is the aggressor in the relationship between the state and the people.
Those apolitical beings, I imagine, if posed the question of a North American Union -- particularly if they live in the USA propere -- might airily assume what's really meant is expanding the United States to include Canada and Mexico, extending the liberties and privileges of American citizenship to the inhabitants of the entire continent -- a consummation devoutly to be wished.
Nazzofast, Guido, as Kim puts it. The intended reality is far less rosy.
We will establish Ministerial-led working groups that will consult with stakeholders in our respective countries. These working groups will respond to the priorities of our people and our businesses, and will set specific, measurable, and achievable goals. They will identify concrete steps that our governments can take to meet these goals, and set implementation dates that will permit a rolling harvest of accomplishments.
One thing you can be damned sure of: those "stakeholders" being consulted will be quite different from "the voters" or "the people" and will be apportioned influence in some other manner than the hallowed one-man-one-vote rule. Another thing you can be damned sure of is that there will be precious little service given to the charters of the several nations involved. Things that render a state difficult to manage for the governors will be done away with -- things such as the right to free speech, or the free expression of religion, or the right to keep and bear arms -- or indeed, to self defense in any wise. All of these things will simply disappear from the North American stage.
The only weapon you have against this -- speaking of you as a mass, here -- is that particular device known as vox populi, against which, for example, the good Senator from Mississippi, Trent Lott, has been heard to inveigh now and again. Raise holy Hell each and every time the governors get it wrong. Keep your eyes open and do not let them get away with their crap.
Yeah, it's a bitch. They won't leave you alone to live your life. They can't just simply mind their own business. They will not. And if you don't exercise your First Amendment rights freely and vigorously today, it may come down to your being called upon to exercise your Second Amendment obligations down the road.
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Monday June 18, 2007...
Governor's Hill Roofscape ::.
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Saturday June 16, 2007...
And... ::.
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Saturday June 16, 2007...
I'm Sorry. WHAT!? ::.
WHAT DID THEY EXPECT? that putting more troops in a war zone is going to lessen the level of violence?
Three months into the new U.S. military strategy that has sent tens of thousands of additional troops into Iraq, overall levels of violence in the country have not decreased...
Jeesh! Whattabuncha maroons! The whole idea of a troop surge is to increase the level of violence -- and lethally so... for the enemy.
Farging idiots!
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Saturday June 16, 2007...
Harry Reid Reminds Me ::.
OF THE BAD-GUY played by Ronnie Cox on Stargate: SG1 -- an over-the-top smarmy Senator who pretends to be a patriot, but is really just a professional smarm in the back pocket of every inimical interest in Washington.
He just does.
Of course, if a person hasn't watched SG1, she'll have exactly zero clue as to what you're on about.
I got that.
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