Finally, there’s a plan

Go Public. Go Home. Go Mecca.

Save the Planet – Drive a Hummer

Yeah, it’s only one study. Still, fun to wave under the raised noses of Pious drivers.

For example, while the industry average of all vehicles sold in the U.S. in 2005 was $2.28 cents per mile, the Hummer H3 (among most SUVs) was only $1.949 cents per mile. That figure is also lower than all currently offered hybrids and Honda Civics at $2.42 per mile.

More here.

The Buzz from Israel

Sorry. Couldn’t resist.

There’s probably a movie in this news story, though.

“The war in Lebanon proved that we need smaller weaponry. It’s illogical to send a plane worth $100 million against a suicidal terrorist. So we are building futuristic weapons,” Peres said.

Damned Either Way

Here’s something you see every day: An idiot, anti-freedom lawsuit. But here’s something you don’t see every day: A newspaper with a clue about economics.

The theory behind predatory pricing laws is that a large company will sell certain products below cost in order to drive out competitors. Once the competitors are gone, goes the hypothesis, the big company will jack up prices to a monopoly level.

The only problem is, this never happens. New competitors always move fast into markets where prices are unjustifiably high. Predatory-pricing suits are generally filed by existing companies unable or unwilling to meet competition provided by more efficient firms. Legal restrictions on cutting prices invariably work against the consumer.

Cui Bono?

Jonah Goldberg posts an email with yet another good reason to be skeptical.

It’s just that I’m instinctively suspicious of people who put forth arguments based ostensibly on rational and humanitarian grounds, when those arguments would, if accepted by all relevant parties, result in greater power being granted those making the argument. In other words, I don’t believe people who say the earth is getting hotter because, if we all decided that the earth really was getting hotter, that would just happen to imply that we should all show more willingness to grant greater power and influence to the people telling us the earth is getting hotter.

Indeed it’s an appropriate red flag.

Remember that he said this

Buttle’s World contributes to the internet’s elephantine memory, in vain hope.

“Our strong inclination would be to avoid tax hikes. That’s pretty universal. That shows the pragmatism of the Democratic Party. Even the most liberal people said ‘No, we shouldn’t go for tax hikes.’ So we are going to try to avoid it.” –Chuck Schumer

Stupid Map Tricks

So you want to dig a hole to China? You’ll need to start in South America. Try it. Now what, you may ask, might you do with this technology?

Why, make an Earth Sandwich, of course.

Eek, a Mouse

Oh for crying out loud. Some Brits are in a panic because someone found a .22 round in the street.

The bullet, of Swiss origin, was still in its brass casing, complete with enough gunpowder for it to fire itself.

And I thought our reporters were stupid.

I may have found a new one-word oxymoron

Here’s a blog entry at a “progressive” web site, pondering how Disney may be “prejudiced” because of the stereotypical casting in Cars. It’s certainly valid to criticize the film for that. It’s one of my major gripes with it. Finding malapropisms such as “prodigious” make me wonder just what sort of education is happening at “Progressive U”, but this is just a howler:

Another thing I noticed is the mayor of the town on route 66 has an old timer black voice. Which that in turn makes it seem like the black man is suppressing the town full of “white voiced” cars.

I also noticed that the classic car in that town had a black voice to it too. That is kind of telling me that the old time Cadillac is just for black people.

Who’s going to break it to “redneck_hunter2022” that the mayor has blue eyes and that the old Cadillac was a Mercury, and is also white? Perish the thought that the blogger might oh, I don’t know, read the credits.

This is funny on many levels, my favorite being the “prejudice” on the part of the blogger who heard those voices and assumed “black”. Really? Blacks have different voices? That bias speaks volumes.

They may not be teaching English at “Progressive U”, but at least they aren’t teaching critical thinking.

Progressive education. Well, it’s certainly an oxymoron when you use both words.

The Duff Curriculum

Buttle’s World celebrates the fact that my friend Tom Duff has made Language Log with a pretty cool idea.

I wonder if there’s a primary education hook here (and a way to promote general Linguistics awareness.) Unless the math is too heavyweight, it sounds like a research program that schoolkids could replicate: taking down each other’s speech, analyzing the data, discovering the grammar of the language as used by their peers. I would have been so stoked by this when I was 9 or 10.

It sounds like a complete primary education program — English, science & math all rolled together. And talking in class!

Of course, a lot of Tom’s ideas are pretty cool.

Your Tax Dollars At Work

This is undeniably cool. But one has to wonder, is it really worth the billions we’ve spent on that space station?

Shame on Him

I found this op-ed via LGF. While losing a son in Iraq doesn’t give a parent any more “moral authority” than anybody else to opine, I think this father’s opinion serves well as a final comment on this particular utterance from the wretched Mr. Kerry.

It is in my mind the height of irony that John Kerry, a Yale graduate, would make two other Yale graduates the butt of his supposed joke. One we all knew as President Bush; the other is known mostly to those who have proudly served with and under him. On the day Kyle died, this gallant warrior was to take command of Kyle’s parent unit, the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion. Kyle was on his way to the ceremony when he and his buddies were killed. Here is a man who is the epitome of intellect, character and gallantry–an individual that Mr. Kerry does not believe exists.
John Kerry stands alone, to be judged by his words. He has given us the rare opportunity to look into the soul of a politician, and he has shown himself wanting, especially in view of the fact that he asked us to allow him the honor and privilege of leading our gallant military at a time of war. It is rare in life to be able to know the consequences of both sides of a decision. Mr. Kerry has clearly demonstrated what manner of president he would have been. Fortunately the American electorate denied him that high honor.

Update:
OK, so maybe it’s not the last word after all. Who’d a thunk that John Kerry could unite our armed services, causing them to set aside rivalries?

Teddy Kennedy: Traitor

According to CNS News the senator from Mass volunteered his help to the Soviets. Working against Reagan? No.

But, in Kennedy’s estimation, the Carter administration had assumed an overly belligerent posture toward the Soviet Union after the invasion of Afghanistan, Mitrokhin wrote.

In Kennedy’s view, “the atmosphere of tension and hostility towards the whole Soviet people was being fuelled by Carter” as well as by some key advisors, the Pentagon and the U.S. military industrial complex, the Mitrokhin report states.

The Patriot Post observes

Kennedy and Tunney are likely guilty of
treason—violating Article three, Section three of the
U.S. Constitution, the U.S. Code and the Logan Act of 1799,
barring citizens from giving aid and comfort to the enemy or
from engaging in diplomacy with foreign governments in an effort
to undermine U.S. policy. The junior senator from Massachusetts,
one John F. Kerry, also remains guilty for meeting with the North
Vietnamese in 1970.

Hey. At least it’s not like he killed a woman or something.

Under-reported Story?

The Anchoress wonders about the locks at Alamo.

Voter fraud is another big concern of mine. While I’m not a tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorist about it, neither am I comfortable with the level of security and lack of paper trail offered by current systems. I can’t help but wonder if the open-source community couldn’t solve both problems if given the right opportunity and inducements.

NYT Shoots Self in Foot

Which? The left one, of course. They don’t have a right foot.

I think Hoekstra nails it in a letter posted on Michelle Malkin’s site. Especially this:

“Finally, it is disappointing but not surprising that the New York Times would continue to participate in such blatant and transparent political ploys, including what I believe are improper efforts by the IAEA to interfere with U.S. domestic affairs. The sad reality is that the New York Times has done far more damage to U.S. national security by the disclosure of vital, classified, intelligence programs than is likely to be caused by the inadvertent disclosure of decades-old information that had already been in the hands of Saddam’s regime.”

Still Waiting for an Apology

“I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform and I personally apologize to any service member, family member or American who was offended.”emphasis added

Get it? He’s sorry you were so stupid you couldn’t understand what he said.

Not only is the man a moron, he’s a coward.

Kerry

After much thought on the matter, I’ve decided that John Kerry must actually be a mole working for Karl Rove.

Brilliant.

Update:

An Inconvenient Truth?

I haven’t chased all the links down, but this could be inconvenient if your wagon is hitched to the anthropogenec global warming bandwagon. Seems the sun’s output has not been so steady – and visible radiation isn’t the thing to watch anyhow.

How big a deal is this indirect cloud effect? Huge, actually. In just 5 years it was responsible for a 2% decrease in low clouds (the kind that reflect incoming solar radiation by day) which, in turn, equates to an increase in surface warming of 1.2 Wm-2 from incident radiation — equivalent to some 85% of the IPCC’s estimate for the effect of all carbon dioxide increase since the Industrial Revolution.

California Ballot Propositions

Attention California Voters: Your official Buttle’s World Voting Guide is here.

1A Yes – Make it harder for the government to borrow money.

1B No – It’s a bond measure, so it’d be an automatic no even if it weren’t a whopping $19.925 billion.

1C No – A mere $2.85 billion bond issue. For the “poor and homeless”. Right.

1D No – An additional $10.416 billion in bond debt, anybody? No thanks.

1E No – A toughie. I’m going against Tom McClintock, but with Ray Haynes. What tipped the scales? It’s a $4.09 billion bond measure.

83 Yes – Strengthen Jessica’s Law, and oppose the endorsement of the CA Attorneys for Criminal Justice. What’s to decide?

84 No – You thought we were through throwing money on the fire? No! Here’s a $5.388 billion bond measure, which will really cost about $10.5 billion over 30 years. And for what? “Park Improvements” and “clean water”. If bond measures actually cleaned water, California would be flooded with distilled water by now.

85 Yes – Parental notification if a minor wants an abortion. Duh.

86 No – Tax cigarrettes to fund Emergency Room Services. What a stupid idea. Besides, I apply my own maxim: There is no such thing as a good tax hike, and there is no such thing as a bad tax cut.

87 No – The oil tax scam. If you’re even considering voting for this you’re too stupid to work a computer.

88 No – It’s a tax hike. “For the children” Pull the other one.

89 No – Public funding of campaigns. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

90 Yes – Perhaps the most important initiative on the ballot. Limits abuse of eminent domain. The lefties are howling about this one, because they want your land.

There you have it. As for other races (even in other states) just chant “Speaker Pelosi” as you enter the voting booth. You’ll do the right thing.

Neurology Meets Art

I wish I had time to write more about this fascinating, provocative set of lectures given on BBC by Vilayanur S Ramachandran. Rather than wait until I can get around to it, I’m just posting the link. It’s a lot of reading (or you may choose to listen), but worth it.

Briefly, though, this has been nearly life-changing for me. It’s colored the way I look at almost everything. While I don’t find all of his evolutionary arguments completely persuasive, even his conjectures are illuminating. One thing seems certain: the near future holds many deep and significant discoveries about the brain.

In short, we’re all synesthetes on this bus.

Bush is Wrong

Not sure what he was thinking when he said Iraq was a little like the Tet Offensive in Viet Nam. Perhaps he was remembering that Tet was a victory for us, a defeat for the Viet Cong – except that the media said it was vice versa. It bears repeating: Iraq is not like Viet Nam.

YouTube to get even more PC?

The new “hate speech” flag seems ripe for abuse. I wonder if they’ll have a way to flag users who abuse the flags.

In any case, it’s easy enough to set your preferences to get around the other flags, so this is likely a minor bump on the information superhighway.

Update:

I overlooked the obvious tactic of taking the fight right to GooTube.

Bigger Update:
I neglected to give a hat tip to Dr. Molpus for this link. He got it to me before I saw it on other sites.

Golden State a Silver Lining for the GOP?

I was ready to dismiss this story from the CoCo Times:

[O]ddly enough, in California it may be Democrats who have reason to fear Election Day. Not only does their gubernatorial candidate, Phil Angelides, trail Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger heavily in the polls, but there is growing concern that if Angelides doesn’t inspire Democrats to vote, low party turnout could seal the fate for other vulnerable Democrats — and even left-leaning ballot propositions.

“The Angelides campaign could be a drag if it fails to excite and motivate and turn out occasional voters,” said Darry Sragow, a Democratic consultant. “The fear is there’ll be some kind of Schwarzenegger landslide that will lead to Republican victories in the downticket races. It’s certainly something Democrats need to be concerned about.”

Then I reflected a moment.

I commute through Berkeley. I work with a lot of Prius drivers. There are bumper stickers in the parking lot for every weirdo leftist cause. And I certainly see plenty on the road. And yet I can’t recall having seen a single Angelides campaign sign or bumper sticker. In fairness, I haven’t seen one for Schwarzenegger either. But, still…

Dogs vs. Cats

This would seem to settle the argument, wouldn’t it?

NB: I own neither, and depend on a high-tech fire alarm and my own mobility to save my life.

Army Strong

Blackfive approves of the new Army commercial.

So do I.

Yes, I can tick off a list of every emotional trick being used in it. (Sorta part of my job.) But that’s why I like it.

Armey vs. Dobson

Dick Armey, who seems to make sense just about every time I read him, has a smackdown of Dr. James Dobson. Seems the Focus on the Family leader may not be the benign teddy bear of his public image.

As Majority Leader, I remember vividly a meeting with the House leadership where Dobson scolded us for having failed to “deliver” for Christian conservatives, that we owed our majority to him, and that he had the power to take our jobs back. This offended me, and I told him so.

In a later meeting Dobson and a colleague came into my office to lobby against a trade bill, asking me to stop the legislation from going to the House floor. They were wrong on the issue, and I told them no. Would you at least postpone the vote, they asked? We have a direct mail fundraising letter about to go out to our membership, they said.

I wondered then if their opposition to the bill was driven less by their moral compass and more by the need to rile their membership and increase revenue. I wondered then, if these self-appointed Christian leaders, like many politicians, had come to Washington to do good, but had instead done well for themselves.

How to Be a Racist in England

Simply be a student and mention that you can’t understand what your table mates are saying because they don’t speak English.

Then you get arrested.

Any questions?

Best Cuban Joke Ever

Mario Loyola’s translation made me laugh out loud.

It can only be better in Spanish.

Update:

It is, slightly. Loyola kindly sent me the original.

Vladimir Putin en una reciente visita que hizo a Cuba encontró que la mayoría de los cubanos tenían los zapatos rotos, y le preguntó a Fidel

Oye chico, cómo es posible esto después de 40 años de “mejoras”?

Fidel molesto le contestó : ¿ y en Rusia qué, Chico ? ¿ es que acaso ustedes lo han hecho mejor?

Ombe chico, le contestó Putin, cuando quieras te invito a Rusia y si te encuentras a alguien con los zapatos rotos tienes permiso para matarlo. No hay problemas…

Se montaron en el avión de Putin y fueron a Rusia. En cuanto Fidel salió del avión lo primero que vio fue una persona con los zapatos rotos, entonces sacó su pistola y PUM, lo mató.

Al día siguiente todos los periódicos de Rusia tenían el siguiente titular:

VIEJO BARBUDO MATA AL EMBAJADOR DE CUBA EN EL AEROPUERTO DE MOSCU

I was wrong

Well, I hoped I would be.

Something still smells funny about the plane crash, though. I can’t imagine what level of distraction would have me fly into the broad side of a high rise building while looking for a place to ditch. Maybe it was a bad case of eyes in the cockpit or a stall/spin.

Glad it wasn’t terrorism, though.

Maybe they think the Genius Bar serves booze

Some Islamists are upset about the NY Apple store.

According to the message, the cube-shaped building which is being constructed in New York City, on Fifth Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets in midtown Manhattan, is clearly meant to provoke Muslims.

The Register reports

Sadly, it’s a bit late for that, since the store opened for business back in May. We do have some good news, though. As far as we’re aware it’s not called the “Apple Mecca”, it does not serve alcoholic beverages, and neither Jack Straw nor Salman Rushdie work behind the counter.

LGFHas a theory that maybe they reacted to what it looked like under construction. Or maybe that the vile moonbat at sfgate, to whome I shall not link, started it.