More on Global Warming

Who says Canadians are not funny?

Net Blockade Explained

I often look things up on the Google search engine. So it finally dawned on me that I should do the same for Net Blockade. Apparently it is part of a Micro Smith program called Internet Cleanup. Follow the directions on the first few Google suggestions and your You Tube videos will come back. Not Google's doing at all. Just some unannounced feature from a program that I thought might be useful. It wasn't.

Odd Jobs on a Movie Set

We took in a Sunday afternoon matinee of True Grit today. Those Coen brothers really know how to catch your attention.

My wife is always curious about even the minor credits, so in addition to multiple odd names for jobs on a movie set like 'gaffers,' and 'best boys' and 'grips', I noticed about 4 or 5 guys that had a job called 'green' as in a noun. I hadn't seen this before so went to Google to look it up. It looks like there are at least two explanations: the obvious one would be those who keep the environmental whackos at bay, but another possible job would be those who 'dress a set' outside with greenery or whatever. It wasn't clear from the context. Perhaps there are other explanations too. I almost forgot another oddity in the minor credits: there were two people listed as 'puppeteers.' Thinking back about the movie I just can't quite imagine what they would have been doing on these sets.

Oh by the way, the movie was pretty good, perhaps even better than the earlier John Wayne effort.

What is this Net Blockade stuff?

Things with videos that are embedded have disappeared with the sinister looking phrase Net Blockade in place. What does it mean

To Be or Not To Be the Mayor of Chicago, That is the Question

I haven't lived in or near Chicago for a long time. Which may explain my ignorance as to why the job is so wildly popular. They have to balance their budgets don't they? They have public schools just as bad as any others in the country, right? Their public employee unions are just as out of control as any others, isn't that true? And yet there are many seeking the job and many trying to keep Rahm Emmanuel off the ballot. In fact, the last quit his good job in Washington DC just to go home to Chicago to run for mayor. Does it pay a lot? Do they stuff ballot boxes easier in Chicago than any other city? Does the mayor's job have a Get-Out-of-Jail Card that comes with the office? Are the perks pretty good? The pension out of sight? I am honestly puzzled.

Even the Academics are Full of Irony

Professor Mankiw puts in his 2 cents worth in the Great Discussion.

Sex for the Aged

This may or may not be good news for our senior citizens of the male persuasion.

Definitions: Right v. Left

A useful review by E. M. Smith, of a variety of political definitions that tend to confuse many of us, can be found here. You know: socialism, fascism, communism, progressivism and many of the interesting variations on those themes. The untrustworthiness of Wikipedia is also pointed out along the way. Damn, now in addition to being skeptical about Wiki on Global Warming topics, we have to be careful about these topics as well. I am beginning to understand why I tend to get curious looks when I casually mention in passing something about the National Socialists being on the Left, perhaps not quite as far Left as Stalin and like-minded folks. Mr Smith also promises some further definitions in the future. Stay tuned.

As Long As We Are Becoming More Civil

How about imitating our European friends in Portugal?

Palin HateMongers

This may be part of the reasons the Left's Palin Hate is so vicious and unrelenting.

Stuff I've Read Today: I am Full of Hope

From a blog that usually deals with weather and climate and other such combined scientific and conversation staples: some notes on an economic classic—Hayek's The Road to Serfdom In addition to remarking on the brilliance of the economic reasoning of Professor Hayek, the writer also plays with the label 'liberal' and reckons that he is one too. Now that those on the Left have fled the field wherever the term is used to describe them, it seems reasonable to me for many of those on the Right to just pick up the label and use it for ourselves. Wouldn't it be useful for all of us to have the word 'liberal' mean something related to liberty or freedom? I know our ESL friends would appreciate it very much.

Today's Wall Street Journal has some good articles on its op-ed page by Dick Armey and Pat Toomey, making concrete suggestions on how to deal with our massive deficit. I am always moved to laugh whenever our friends on the Left say sassily, 'Well, tell us where you would cut?' The first two thousand entries in any telephone book you choose would have a pretty good idea of what to cut, much more easily than many of our elected representatives.

This morning's Billings Gazette has an article from the Associated Press, so I can't vouch for its truthfulness, but it may have some heuristic value even if not the whole truth. They tell us that, according to their measurements, our college students are not learning much. I hope they didn't spend too much money on this study. The reason for hopefulness after reading this is the possibility that at least some within the Academy are willing to study the Academy.

Professor Talks on Climate Change

From the blog Climate Lessons, supposedly written for children, Professor Lindzen of MIT, chides the alarmists once again. Those who made the mistakes in the first place seem to be doubling down on their falsehoods when they are pointed out.

The Tucson Pep Rally

Also known as a memorial service. C'mon. Can we not even call these things by their appropriate name? I didn't see the slightest look of worry on the University of Arizona's president that what he was conducting was more than a little strange. Even some of the Big Honchos had fleeting looks of seeking escape from the circus.

Who was that embarrassing man that started the program with the feather in his hand? What drugs was he on? What did anything he said have to do with a memorial service or a high school pep rally?

Thanks Heavens the President looked and sounded fairly, well, Presidential. At least some of what he said had the ring of a memorial to it. Though the bit about Rep Giffords opening her eyes after his visit made me wonder if he was going to use this as evidence for sainthood at some future time, or maybe it was only evidence of the Royal Touch. I knew it could cure various diseases, including scrofula, but I didn't know it could cure a GSW to the head. Amazing!

[My wife has kindly informed me that I didn't really hear this last bit of business the way I reported it. I need to apologize. I am sorry.]

{Peggy Noonan seems to have heard the President's speech the same way I did, though not coming to the same conclusion.} See Saturday's op-ed page in the Wall Street Journal.

Katie Couric: Now What Are You Reading Sarah?

Kind of an Oval Office sort of speech by (gasp) Sarah Palin. It is to be hoped that President Obama's speechwriters will check this out before the Big Guy goes out with his dueling tele-prompters. Or maybe they can do their thing in real-time. I found this on a website called Red State.

Sheriff Arpaio Apparently Forgot the Rules of the Game

I mean the rule that says those on the Left have one set of rules and the rest of us have another set. Lest you think that all AZ sheriffs are as dim-witted as the one from Pima County have a look at this article and the video it contains.

What Do You Expect From A Sh__head!

It must have been half-time of the Auburn v Oregon game last night when I stumbled into CNN's Anderson Cooper doing what our media often do when they need to fill up the time slot, which is to interview each other. Anderson Cooper was interviewing Bill Maher.  Cooper would ask the question fairly slowly and then Maher would do his silly thing, while Cooper was listening intently to the next question coming in over his earplug. I initially thought that Maher was doing a Beavis and Butthead routine.


Periodically he would look at Cooper hoping for some sort of response to the disjointed gibberish he was offering, but Cooper had that steely stare—at least I think it was steely, my TV is not high definition—you know, where his body language says "Hey, I'm the really smart neutral dude here asking these intelligent questions and listening to the unbelievable answers without giving any hints or help to the interviewee." Maybe it's the journalistic equivalent of the "1000 yard stare." Finally, someone in Maher's ear must have said "C'mon, say something funny about Sarah Palin, that's what you're paid to do." So he did and the skit was mercifully over. I thought it was funny. I don't know what steely-staring Anderson Cooper thought.


But the whole bit of disjointed rhetoric by Maher reminded me very much of the disjointed thoughts and separation from reality written down and videoed by the shooter in Tucson. Is that why there is so much consternation and cursing on the left? Maybe because this guy is exposing himself for what he is and it has an eerie likeness to what some of the stars on the Left do naturally. The only problem is that he, the shooter,  is being called mentally ill. Dr Phil, please call your office.


Perhaps that silly sheriff from Pima County who had nothing to do with the investigation and knew nothing about the case, should be extra careful when the shooter is transferred: first of all, it might be catching, and second, there might just be another Jack Ruby in the audience.

Common Sense and Nonsense

This cartoon was published after the Tucson tragedy by the Washington Post, one of our important daily newspapers, without comment.

Because it seems unlikely that George Will's usually sensible views on this matter will be published by the Gazette, it seemed reasonable to allow me and the rest of us normal readers of the Gazette a chance to review what he said here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/10/AR2011011003685.html

Hustisford: The Village that Time Forgot

Every New Year's Day since about 1967 this village comes alive and the young warriors of the village of Hustisford, somewhere in rural Wisconsin, play a tackle football game in the ice and snow without pads or helmets. No one remembers the score after the game, or even what the original purpose of the Toilet Bowl was. From this vantage point in time and with the advantage not ever having played in the game it seems reasonable to me to suggest that the not always ironic Wisconsinites were having a little fun at the expense of the large number of college football bowls that were just getting underway. I guess they were a little premature in their irony.

The game is usually preceded by a parade of worthies of various sorts with toilet rolls being thrown unabashedly by people on the floats and bystanders. Usually a queen is elected. I think my mother ran one year and with the help of a lot of stuffed ballots she won. I wonder if I can find a video of that one?

The buildings on Lake St (aka Main St) were all there as I was growing up. I delivered the Milwaukee Sentinel to a lot of them. How about the clean-up after the parade. These are good citizens.

Cafe Hayek

Here is another website that is interested in the use of reason in economics. Nil nisi veritas might be its Latin motto.

Does The Truth Wear Off

A blog from Australia led me to this article from a recent New Yorker magazine. These observations may have more widespread application. Fascinating stuff. Recommended reading. I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with lawyers which was my first guess when I saw the title.