tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59342662024-03-04T22:29:44.121-07:00We The Free"The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." --Jesus <br><br> "Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious" --George Orwell <br><br>"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function." --F. Scott FitzgeraldBobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01303418704124645351noreply@blogger.comBlogger10452125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934266.post-51565443483917512432012-10-25T21:24:00.000-06:002012-03-19T22:10:47.081-06:00A Note On Posting (Bumped)Please note that I have shifted the vast majority of my posts over to the <a href="http://nocosurroundsthem.blogspot.com/">NoCoSurroundsThem</a> blog for now. Posts will continue to appear here but mostly ones that I judge may not be appropriate for NoCoSurroundsThem.Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01303418704124645351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934266.post-46239030492368882102012-03-19T22:10:00.001-06:002012-03-19T22:10:11.066-06:00Tell The Truth<a href="http://ace.mu.nu/archives/327643.php">Ace of Spades HQ</a>: "This is Pat Condell's latest video. I have to say, I really like this guy, and it concerns me that he looks like he might have been sick lately. There was an unusually long gap between this video and the last one in December. Prior to that, it seemed like there were at least a couple of videos per month.<br />
<br />
Anyway, he's kicking butts again in his blunt, brazenly honest fashion--but with a bit less energy and glee this time. In this one he attacks "the Islamophobia industry" and their complaints about negative coverage in the British media.<br />
<br />
Added: For those of you who don't know, Condell used to do stand up. He's an ardent atheist, a converted liberal, and he is a very strong voice for freedom of speech and limited government. And he has balls of granite."<br />
<center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="233" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/INll6Y5iqbM" width="400"></iframe></center>But if you follow the link and look at the second video you might be surprised about his brand of atheism. It includes freedom of religion. Just not freedom of actual -- as opposed to imagined -- oppression.Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01303418704124645351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934266.post-62429383290619639072011-07-28T22:58:00.000-06:002011-07-28T22:58:50.807-06:00Another Christianist Apparently<blockquote><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/07/28/exclusive-us-military-serviceman-arrested-in-second-alleged-attack-on-ft-hood/">EXCLUSIVE: AWOL Soldier Arrested Over Concerns of Second Alleged Plot to Attack Fort Hood - FoxNews.com</a>: "At least one U.S. military serviceman has been arrested after raising concerns over another alleged plot to attack Fort Hood, Fox News has learned exclusively.<br /><br />Pvt. Nasser Jason Abdo, an AWOL soldier from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, was arrested by the Killeen Police Department near Fort Hood and remains in custody there. Authorities, however, will not say if Abdo is the one who raised security concerns.<br /><br />Abdo was allegedly found with weapons and explosives at the time of his arrest, a senior Army source confirms to Fox News. He was arrested at around 2 p.m. Wednesday after someone called authorities to report a suspicious individual. "</blockquote>Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01303418704124645351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934266.post-8295449923581054312011-06-30T22:29:00.000-06:002011-06-30T22:29:20.140-06:00Manipulated<blockquote><a href="http://www.cashill.com/intellect_fraud/say_it_aint_so.htm">Jack Cashill writes:"Say it Ain’t So, Ann!"</a>: "By this time, the FBI had interviewed 270 eyewitnesses who saw streaks of light in the sky converging on TWA Flight 800 before the explosion.<br /><br />An easily manipulated New York Times would not interview a single one of them. I have talked to at least twenty. They all know what they saw and were never afraid to say so.<br /><br />With the 1996 election just weeks away, officials were busily reassuring the public through the media that a mechanical failure brought down the airplane. They never did find the exact cause.<br /><br />No matter. Soon enough Times’ reporters would be writing articles with titles like, “Pierre, Is That a Masonic Flag on the Moon,” and my beloved Ann Coulter would be citing them.<br /><br />Say it ain’t so, Ann!"</blockquote>Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01303418704124645351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934266.post-91094072483797689692011-06-30T22:10:00.000-06:002011-06-30T22:10:34.246-06:00Their Families Would Like To Know<blockquote><a href="http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=316869">Why Clintons kept mum about KSM plot</a>: "In a chapter titled 'The Almost War, 1996,' Clarke takes credit for discovering the spontaneously exploding fuel tank theory that the White House ultimately embraced as the cause of TWA Flight 800's destruction.<br /><br />If the fuel tank theory made any sense at all, Team Clinton would have been boasting about how they avoided 'an almost war' through patient restraint. Their silence is telling.<br /><br />Even Clarke remained silent about KSM's flying bomb plot. He did not tell Condoleezza Rice word one about it when she took over as national security adviser in January 2001.<br /><br />When the 9/11 Commission addressed this oversight, Clarke asked that he and his colleagues 'be forgiven for not thinking about [the plot] given the fact that they hadn't seen a lot in the five or six years intervening about it.'<br /><br />The 15th anniversary of the disaster two weeks hence presents the media one more chance to ask the Clinton cabal a simple question: Did you stop talking about aviation terror to keep TWA Flight 800 out of the conversation?<br /><br />At least 3,000 families would like to know."</blockquote>Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01303418704124645351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934266.post-60307263021039998552011-06-06T22:45:00.000-06:002011-06-06T22:45:32.474-06:001,000 Seconds<blockquote><a href="http://techland.time.com/2011/06/06/lightning-in-a-bottle-antimatter-trapped-for-nearly-17-minutes/?hpt=hp_t2">Lightning in a Bottle: Antimatter Trapped for Nearly 17 Minutes - Techland - TIME.com</a>: "Okay, so antimatter's nothing like lightning, really, but bottling it in a kind of containment field? Doesn't sound like the safest gig. More like something you'd catch Geordi La Forge trying during some wild hair zero-sum Star Trek plotline involving aliens, the Holodeck, rerouting power from life support, and a self-destruct sequence.<br /><br />Thankfully nothing self-destructed when CERN researchers first created, then forced antihydrogen atoms to hang around for an unprecedented 16 minutes, 40 seconds. That's roughly 16 minutes and 40 seconds longer than the first attempt roughly a year ago, which only managed to snag antihydrogen for a trifling 172 milliseconds (about two-tenths of a second). The new results were published in Nature, impassively titled 'Confinement of antihydrogen for 1,000 seconds.'"</blockquote>Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01303418704124645351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934266.post-25403804293045353982011-05-16T21:35:00.000-06:002011-05-16T21:35:22.968-06:00And Don't Forget Shaviv<blockquote><a href="http://www.sciencebits.com/HUdebate">The Hebrew University debate on Global Warming | ScienceBits</a>: "In my short presentations, I stressed a few major issues. First, there are no fingerprints proving that 20th century warming is necessarily human. Second, once you check the details, you find that there are notable inconsistencies. In particular, the AGHG theory predicts warming over the whole troposphere, while in reality, only the ground appears to have warmed over the past few decades, and that Earth's climate response to volcanic eruptions is significantly smaller than predicted by computer models. This is because these models tend to have an exaggerated climate sensitivity. Third, the only reason we can attribute the warming to humans, is because allegedly there is nothing else to blame, but there is, the increasing activity of the sun. And then I quickly showed some of the evidence showing that the sun affects climate through the cosmic ray climate link."</blockquote>Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01303418704124645351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934266.post-32912125787036549722011-05-16T21:34:00.000-06:002011-05-16T21:34:23.855-06:00More CLOUD Foreshadowing<blockquote><a href="http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/45982">Evidence that cosmic rays seed clouds - physicsworld.com</a>: "By firing a particle beam into a cloud chamber, physicists in Denmark and the UK have shown how cosmic rays could stimulate the formation of water droplets in the Earth's atmosphere. The researchers say this is the best experimental evidence yet that the Sun influences the climate by altering the intensity of the cosmic-ray flux reaching the Earth's surface."</blockquote>Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01303418704124645351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934266.post-66952414721005317982011-04-10T12:35:00.001-06:002011-04-10T12:36:04.287-06:00Yamal and Hide-the-Decline<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDkRT9gwybVyRZgAXFskJNPKwTEgBd_eCCuBMKmOIrJxSO1UEo2gEfHS-Fy40nxQv8NA9ZF2413y6S1IR1FpL08Fl_HN6iWBrPtlK7FvTcjcuBwMailV3Z1qfhuZmGLI51XmdqXw/s1600/vag_brif09_compare.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 280px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDkRT9gwybVyRZgAXFskJNPKwTEgBd_eCCuBMKmOIrJxSO1UEo2gEfHS-Fy40nxQv8NA9ZF2413y6S1IR1FpL08Fl_HN6iWBrPtlK7FvTcjcuBwMailV3Z1qfhuZmGLI51XmdqXw/s320/vag_brif09_compare.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5594025486522941986" /></a><br /><blockquote><a href="http://climateaudit.org/2011/04/09/yamal-and-hide-the-decline/">Yamal and Hide-the-Decline « Climate Audit</a>: "The effect of using “all the data to hand” is potentially quite dramatic. The graphic below compares the Briffa 2009 chronology (red) to the average of site RCS chronologies for the 20 Vaganov sites in the 10-degree box. As you can see, there is considerable correlation between the two chronologies, though the Briffa version is spikier than the much larger Vaganov network. The discrepancy becomes very pronounced from the 1970s on – the Vagnov network shows the characteristic “decline” in the late 20th century that also characterized the large Schweingruber network, while the Briffa Limited Hangout network surges to new records."</blockquote>Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01303418704124645351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934266.post-10439653227975929972011-03-20T19:09:00.000-06:002011-03-20T19:09:39.025-06:00The "Policies" Of Panicked Pre-school Politicians<blockquote><a href="http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/03/16/panic-as-policy/">Panic as Policy « Commentary Magazine</a>: "Hysteria on the largest scale possible has become the default official response to all crises. A lay public furnished with near-instantaneous media coverage can be counted on to demand immediate and absolute measures so that the crisis can be scrubbed from consciousness, however crudely or illogically. And over-monitored leaders will be sure to comply. Today a politician can lose his job if he doesn’t swiftly change historical precedent to fit the frenzied misinterpretation of a still-breaking news story. This will continue to yield atrocious consequences.<br /><br />We have become accustomed to seeing collective shock elevated to the realm of policy. In fact, it’s what we expect of responsible leadership. There’s an oil spill? Ban drilling. A shooting? Forbid even speaking in martial metaphors. A nuclear accident? Kill nuclear energy. This crude emotionalism is actually liberalism at warp speed. It demands that governments alleviate the immediate discomfort of the onlooker without regard for accuracy or consequence. It will produce many more historic disasters than it can manage."</blockquote>We seem pretty much there already, no?Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01303418704124645351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934266.post-64223216739344647892011-03-20T17:35:00.000-06:002011-03-20T17:35:46.808-06:00Downstream Of Green<blockquote><a href="http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2011/03/20/downstream-of-green/">Belmont Club » Downstream of Green</a>: "And upstream too. The Daily Mail looks at the Chinese industrial area supplying the magnets for Europe’s clean wind farms. It’s a wasteland. The Chinese industrial area that is.<blockquote>The reality is that, as Britain flaunts its environmental credentials by speckling its coastlines and unspoiled moors and mountains with thousands of wind turbines, it is contributing to a vast man-made lake of poison in northern China. This is the deadly and sinister side of the massively profitable rare-earths industry that the ‘green’ companies profiting from the demand for wind turbines would prefer you knew nothing about.<br /><br />Hidden out of sight behind smoke-shrouded factory complexes in the city of Baotou, and patrolled by platoons of security guards, lies a five-mile wide ‘tailing’ lake. It has killed farmland for miles around, made thousands of people ill and put one of China’s key waterways in jeopardy.<br /><br />This vast, hissing cauldron of chemicals is the dumping ground for seven million tons a year of mined rare earth after it has been doused in acid and chemicals and processed through red-hot furnaces to extract its components.</blockquote>But the Chinese don’t vote in British elections. They are not a relevant constituency for the Greens. So who gives a damn?"</blockquote>Whoops. ANd don't forget the <a href="http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/03/19/the-reality-of-wind-turbines-in-california-video/#more-36283">maintenance problems</a>.Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01303418704124645351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934266.post-87368350135899030952011-03-20T16:58:00.001-06:002011-03-20T16:59:58.463-06:00For The WomenEverything you wanted to know about <a href="http://thetruthaboutguns.com/2011/03/brad-kozak/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-womens-conceal-carry/">women's concealed carry</a>.Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01303418704124645351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934266.post-49441295030742144412011-03-17T00:15:00.000-06:002011-03-17T00:15:21.041-06:00Which Way The Wind Blows<blockquote><a href="http://blogs.knoxnews.com/munger/2011/03/ex-sandia-engineer-talks-about.html">Ex-Sandia engineer talks about some of the worst things that could happen in Japan | Frank Munger's Atomic City Underground | knoxnews.com</a>: "That, in turn, would cause a 'high-pressure melt injection' into the water-filled concrete cavity below the reactor. Because the concrete would likely be unheated, the reaction created by the sudden injection of the reactor's ultra-hot content would be immense, he said.<br /><br />'It'll be like somebody dropped a bomb, and there'll be a big cloud of very, very radioactive material above the ground,' Allen said, noting that it would contain uranium and plutonium, as well as the fission products.<br /><br />Should these events happen, the best outcome would be if the winds are blowing east and push the radioactive plume over the Pacific Ocean, he said. 'It (the radioactivity) will fall out in the ocean and everything will be fine,' he said.<br /><br />The worst case, Allen said, would be if winds pushed a radioactive cloud south toward Tokyo and Japan's highly populated cities."</blockquote>Of course our hearts must go out to the dead and injured from the earthquake and tsunami. But if the situation continues to be uncertain at the nuclear plants or gets worse, the economic impact of Tokyo and environs being relatively deserted and off-line as seen in recent news reports in itself is non-trivial in terms of world supply chains. Never mind what the financial markets are doing.Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01303418704124645351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934266.post-21416910476641057602011-02-21T11:10:00.001-07:002011-02-21T11:11:20.399-07:00Carbon For Thee<blockquote><a href="http://www.moonbattery.com/archives/2011/02/carbon-emission.html">Moonbattery: Carbon Emissions</a>: "The know-how just isn't there to generate electricity reliably and affordably using archaic windmill technology, no matter how much of our children's money Comrade Obama pours into the pockets of his crony capitalist enablers at GE. They haven't even come up with a lubricant that can keep the noisy bird-chopping monstrosities from bursting into flame:"</blockquote><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp8XVOdZE-hIb9Roz7zLDTrX8WBkbhwcnc2bwV85_A3r85wSMYqM8jXB8ntw99T_GttX81ppiB2axxM6f7b_mloUGVrVLf_rNxoUZvE_Z5HnsKdeh5Av2EES4wJ-3juu00MYzHRw/s1600/Windmill-Fire.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp8XVOdZE-hIb9Roz7zLDTrX8WBkbhwcnc2bwV85_A3r85wSMYqM8jXB8ntw99T_GttX81ppiB2axxM6f7b_mloUGVrVLf_rNxoUZvE_Z5HnsKdeh5Av2EES4wJ-3juu00MYzHRw/s320/Windmill-Fire.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5576206923581413186" /></a>Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01303418704124645351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934266.post-57874917494481940962011-02-08T21:29:00.000-07:002011-02-08T21:29:28.934-07:00A Conspiracy Theory? Umm, Nooooo...<blockquote><a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/becks-matthews-mocked-conspiracy-confirmed-video-of-us-communists-socialists-unions-working-with-muslim-brotherhood-assoc-groups/">Beck’s Matthews-Mocked Conspiracy Confirmed: Video of US Communists, Socialists & Labor Unions Working With Muslim Brotherhood-Associated Groups | The Blaze</a>: "Posted on February 4, 2011 at 10:10am by Naked Emperor News"</blockquote><br /><div align=center><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="400" height="330" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Tlq4nFMJiQQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div><br />And speaking of the history of this particular "conspiracy" you might want to look at "<a href="http://wethefree.blogspot.com/2007/09/emulation-sincerest-form-of-holocaust.html">Emulation, The Sincerest Form Of Holocaust</a>". Click through the clipping and you can read the full thing as written by that far right wing nut-job -- what's his name? -- oh, yeah Alan Dershowitz. You need to read his book "<a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CDMQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FCase-Israel-Alan-Dershowitz%2Fdp%2F047146502X&ei=WxZSTZ-dMYnksQP8zJHEBg&usg=AFQjCNE6B3uJ8I6rdfk6xne8q7YlwwKTJA">The Case For Israel</a>" and especially the chapter on Haj Amin Al-Husseini.<br /><br />Oh. And you might want to plan on being in <a href="http://www.thecaseforisrael.com/">Denver May 4th</a>.Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01303418704124645351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934266.post-90199071605774819612011-02-08T20:50:00.000-07:002011-02-08T20:50:19.941-07:00Meet The Boss<blockquote><a href="http://www.moonbattery.com/archives/2011/02/george-soros-ob.html">Moonbattery: George Soros, Obama's Boss</a>: "Übermoonbat George Soros — the Nazi-collaborating Jew who bought and paid for the Democrat Party — isn't just an enemy of the state, he's an enemy of the human race:"</blockquote><br /><div align=center><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="400" height="330" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/71NXb-I-06c" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /></div>Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01303418704124645351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934266.post-74666698648769125182011-02-05T00:21:00.000-07:002011-02-05T00:21:41.228-07:00Don't Hold Your Breath<blockquote><a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/greenland-ice-sheet">Greenland ice sheet: Information from Answers.com</a>: "On the ice sheet, temperatures are generally substantially lower than elsewhere in Greenland. The lowest mean annual temperatures, about −31 °C (−23.8 °F), occur on the north-central part of the north dome, and temperatures at the crest of the south dome are about −20 °C (−4 °F)."</blockquote>Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01303418704124645351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934266.post-25672455349444922462011-01-30T14:09:00.002-07:002011-01-30T14:10:54.115-07:00An Alarming Update<blockquote><a href="http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/01/028246.php">Power Line - Was 2010 the Warmest Year Ever?</a>: "That didn't get the warmists where they were trying to go, so they have now changed the data by eliminating or drastically reducing the urban heat island effect. NASA now shows very different data for the period 1880-1999 from what it published in 1999. This animated GIF shows how the alarmists changed their own data to create the false impression of a climate crisis:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDs5A0qLVC3AjegtQC9wsnVN3JLbrlPjFHTi9YUX5PFV1Etn_RXwaClsWEM8oh7sYKdWKkeEWlpb-YKo6O33HXtqG_xsWWF7ou5knwr7LilRoOFdMc3YbVlYGgvMwdCCtnjsZbJA/s1600/1998uschanges.gif"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 232px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDs5A0qLVC3AjegtQC9wsnVN3JLbrlPjFHTi9YUX5PFV1Etn_RXwaClsWEM8oh7sYKdWKkeEWlpb-YKo6O33HXtqG_xsWWF7ou5knwr7LilRoOFdMc3YbVlYGgvMwdCCtnjsZbJA/s320/1998uschanges.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568089074910833794" /></a><br /><br />You probably assume that NOAA and NASA have made their raw data available to independent researchers, along with explanations of the adjustments they have made. But no--those agencies have resisted Freedom of Information Act requests for the original, raw data. One of the most important things the new Congress can do is to force these government agencies to level with the American people and explain the manipulations to which they have been subjecting weather data for years."</blockquote>NOTE: The animated gif isn't working -- click through to see the original...Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01303418704124645351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934266.post-22665486174094828132011-01-23T12:28:00.000-07:002011-01-23T12:28:31.760-07:00Should You Switch?<blockquote><a href="http://www.shellypalmer.com/2011/01/verizon-iphone-4-should-you-get-one-now/">Verizon iPhone 4: Should You Get One Now? | Shelly Palmer Digital Living</a>: "Verizon has been busy shouting as loud as it can about LTE (Long Term Evolution), its new 4G network. It will not be long before Verizon starts to offer 4G mobile devices, like Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 4G, Motorola’s Xoom, any number of Android smartphones and a ton of other 4G LTE stuff.<br />Which begs for the question: With 4G around the corner, why would you commit to a two-year contract in February 2011 for a 3G device? It makes no sense at all.<br />If Apple continues its MO of one new iPhone per year, you can expect the iPhone 5 to debut this spring/summer. Will it be a 4G LTE compatible device? I hope so. If it isn’t, it will have no chance competing with the Samsung, HTC, Moto and other 4G LTE devices that will be everywhere by then."</blockquote>Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01303418704124645351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934266.post-36894259053225741092011-01-22T21:34:00.000-07:002011-01-22T21:34:32.648-07:00The New Rendition<blockquote><a href="http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2011/01/21/12226/">Belmont Club » Noblesse Oblige</a>: "When Malaysian naval commandos boarded a ship captured by Somali pirates and rescued 23 hostages in the Gulf of Aden they had a secret weapon. South Korean naval special forces employed the same device, when they “stormed a hijacked freighter in the Arabian Sea on Friday, rescuing all 21 crew members and killing eight assailants in a rare and bold raid on Somali pirates.” The wonder weapon of the Koreans, though less potent than that used by the Malaysians was that they were neither European nor American.<br /><br />What you can do depends on what papers you carry. In 2008 the Times Online reported that “the Royal Navy, once the scourge of brigands on the high seas, has been told by the Foreign Office not to detain pirates because doing so may breach their human rights. Warships patrolling pirate-infested waters, such as those off Somalia, have been warned that there is also a risk that captured pirates could claim asylum in Britain.” Their chances of doing the same in Korea are probably vanishingly small."</blockquote>Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01303418704124645351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934266.post-55806541976766213632011-01-22T16:30:00.001-07:002011-01-22T16:31:15.124-07:00Boo!<a href="http://www.moonbattery.com/archives/2011/01/separated-at-bi-66.html">Moonbattery: Separated at Birth?</a>: "Quadruplets:"<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDDZ6GZ0s1Mw-BseKS7I6GSeSzHY8vL99OCAsgGxygy8WF0Uh3va_jVd4nTsriYe_YoCzcNYidDJRDY3w-Y3ROt6gWvEvBt7O5mEU4xJ4yseINXb9Gacd5eBMKN3JXbBfjxksm1g/s1600/quadruplets.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 261px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDDZ6GZ0s1Mw-BseKS7I6GSeSzHY8vL99OCAsgGxygy8WF0Uh3va_jVd4nTsriYe_YoCzcNYidDJRDY3w-Y3ROt6gWvEvBt7O5mEU4xJ4yseINXb9Gacd5eBMKN3JXbBfjxksm1g/s320/quadruplets.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5565156842365452354" /></a>Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01303418704124645351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934266.post-43936387833337267092011-01-22T10:54:00.001-07:002011-01-22T11:30:09.561-07:00End Of The Holocene TwoFer Update<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPNQCu54YeBUt_rXwDa3k8Z0z_t76jRtjziec2B54Agt4hVWzCZT3ae-0XRxLw9vULM9EIFo2rsWCSyDRHeCoAunAg3LNs_n-axHC6D15JnmouQb6wrjkuz8wf6xlpzU3wJgwcsQ/s1600/lowtempmap_gis1.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPNQCu54YeBUt_rXwDa3k8Z0z_t76jRtjziec2B54Agt4hVWzCZT3ae-0XRxLw9vULM9EIFo2rsWCSyDRHeCoAunAg3LNs_n-axHC6D15JnmouQb6wrjkuz8wf6xlpzU3wJgwcsQ/s320/lowtempmap_gis1.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5565070508024666418" /></a><br /><blockquote><a href="http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/01/21/new-record-cold-tempertures-in-minnesota/">New record cold temperatures in Minnesota | Watts Up With That?</a>: "From NWS Duluth, MN, an old record beaten by five degrees:<blockquote>RECORD EVENT REPORT<br />NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DULUTH MN<br />518 PM CST FRI JAN 21 2011<br /><br />...RECORD LOW TEMPERATURE SET AT INTERNATIONAL FALLS MN...<br /><br />A RECORD LOW TEMPERATURE OF -46 DEGREES WAS SET AT INTERNATIONAL<br />FALLS MN TODAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF -41 SET IN 1954."</blockquote></blockquote>You might not only note that these temps are not particularly in line with the end of winter as we know it but you might also note that the Minneapolis Metro area shows almost a text book illustration of the Urban Heat Island effect (UHI; Minneapolis is near the bottom about 1/3 over from the left).<br /><br />Heh. Unless you're in International Falls that is...<br /><br />End of the Holocene you ask?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJXEqg6BgdG_3f6pY4X3y67vG2tLPssHNZ2ofwcmmj9hDrrDFezmc4wcRguexuvZuXNweRt0ASEdoR4H3lGr5NgHtLG0MSIcSawey6EO9SkXzaNCQ2Gb4RzdmrXtfLXINC76H9ag/s1600/Vostok-350kyr-550x434.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 253px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJXEqg6BgdG_3f6pY4X3y67vG2tLPssHNZ2ofwcmmj9hDrrDFezmc4wcRguexuvZuXNweRt0ASEdoR4H3lGr5NgHtLG0MSIcSawey6EO9SkXzaNCQ2Gb4RzdmrXtfLXINC76H9ag/s320/Vostok-350kyr-550x434.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5565078313357105682" /></a><br />You are on the temperature plateau at the very right end of this graph that shows 350,00 years of temperature history from the Vostok ice core. Al Gore forgot to mention it's hardly impossible that it will end during your lifetime.<br /><br />And he's sitting in his beachfront mansion laughing at you.Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01303418704124645351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934266.post-44754596038216023282011-01-22T10:23:00.000-07:002011-01-22T10:23:39.718-07:00Today's Stopped Clock Watch<blockquote><blockquote><a href="http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/113619/">Instapundit » Blog Archive » “POLITICS:” ProPublica: Why a Gruesome Pennsylvania Abortion Clinic Had Not Been Inspected for 17 …</a>: "According to the grand jury report [2][PDF] released this week by Philadelphia prosecutors, Pennsylvania health officials deliberately chose not to enforce laws to ensure that abortion clinics provide the same level of care as other medical service providers. . . .<br /><br />The grand jury report said that one look at the place would have detected the problems, but the Pennsylvania Department of Health hadn’t inspected the place since 1993. Here’s the grand jury report, in surprisingly strong language:<br /><br />The Pennsylvania Department of Health abruptly decided, for political reasons, to stop inspecting abortion clinics at all. The politics in question were not anti-abortion, but pro. With the change of administration from Governor Casey to Governor Ridge, officials concluded that inspections would be “putting a barrier up to women” seeking abortions.<br /><br />“Even nail salons in Pennsylvania are monitored more closely for client safety,” the report states. “Without regular inspections, providers like Gosnell continue to operate; unlawful and dangerous third-trimester abortions go undetected; and many women, especially poor women, suffer.”</blockquote>I’m surprised to see the lefty outfit ProPublica pick up on this."</blockquote>Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01303418704124645351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934266.post-81848379810119702212011-01-17T18:01:00.000-07:002011-01-17T18:01:35.304-07:00Cementing The 7th Century<blockquote><a href="http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/01/028150.php">Power Line - "Offensive Jihad"</a>: "But in the current context, this means that it is permissible to wage jihad against a country if anything 'necessary' to Islam according to (hard-line) clerics' interpretations is blocked (polygamy, child marriage, special privileges at work places, building mosques anywhere, permitting the wearing of head scarves or burkas).<br /><br />In practice, according to this doctrine, then, any non-Muslim can be attacked anywhere. Thus, mainstream, powerful clerics are now calling for a seventh century-style jihad against non-Muslim lands even if the victims cannot be accused of attacking Muslim ruled lands. Merely to 'extend God's religion' to others is a sufficient motive. Mustafa says that two of Islam's main schools have always endorsed offensive jihad, but I doubt if he would have made that argument ten or 20 years ago.<br /><br />Of course, that doesn't mean most Muslims will accept this new stance. But it does mean that radical groups now have mainstream support for their most extreme, aggressive behavior."</blockquote>Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01303418704124645351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5934266.post-30249499029385612422011-01-16T22:41:00.000-07:002011-01-16T22:41:31.920-07:00Today's Episode Of Dishonest Alarmist Jack*ssism<blockquote><a href="http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/01/16/trenberth-reacts-edits-speech-to-fix-copying-leaves-deniers/#more-31858">Trenberth reacts: edits speech to fix copying, leaves “deniers” | Watts Up With That?</a>: "Well that’s what I get for taking a nap today. I had been checking Dr. Trenberth’s manuscript regularly at the AMS website, and of course while napping he (or somebody) changed it. Of course Steve McIntyre caught it and points out the changes. Good for him.<br /><br />For those that wish to examine the original, I saved it here."<br /></blockquote>Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01303418704124645351noreply@blogger.com