Cool, Crisp, and Breezy

The title refers to the weather...not me. It's a wonderful morning, to put it mildly.

Victor Davis Hanson pokes around in the ashes of this month’s events in the GWOT, looking for something, anything, of value. He’s pretty good, as usual, but it’s his closing paragraphs that contain the message:

In an amorphous war of self-induced Western restraint, like the present one, truth and moral clarity are as important as military force. This past month, the world of the fascist jihadist and those who tolerate him was once again on display for civilization to fathom. Even the most timid and prone to appeasement in the West are beginning to see that it is becoming a question of “the Islamists or us.”

In this eleventh hour, that is a sort of progress after all.

Progress, any progress, is good. I think the key words in VDH’s close are “beginning to see.” It’s certainly taking long enough, and it isn’t happening fast enough for me.

In a similar vein, Ed Koch writes “Despite Setbacks, We Will Prevail.” Good stuff.

This is interesting: “'Cane Mutiny,” by Dr. Roy Spencer, the principal research scientist for the University of Alabama in Huntsville and the U.S. Science Team Leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) on NASA's Aqua satellite. Excerpt:

What a difference one year makes. With the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall (August 29, 2005) rapidly approaching, who would have predicted that we would now be in the middle of a near-normal Atlantic hurricane season? Weren't the global warming pundits' predictions for this hurricane season that it would be just as bad -- maybe even worse! -- than last year?

Yet, now at mid-August, we have had only three named tropical storms, compared to nine by this date last year. Normally, we would have had one hurricane by now, and we have not had any so far, so by that measure we are actually below normal.

Hurricanes require warm sea surface temperatures (SSTs), and last year the tropical Atlantic sea surface temperatures were running well above normal. Global warming was the explanation given by most 'experts' the media interviewed. And since global warming will only get worse, those SSTs were expected to just keep on increasing.

But now those same regions that had anomalously warm SSTs last year are -- gasp! -- near normal.

Yep, I recall the predictions that this year’s hurricane season would be just as bad as last year’s. And it’s good that those predictions are off the mark (so far). Dr. Spencer’s main point is “things aren’t as simple as they seem” when it comes to global warming. Point taken, Dr. Spencer.

The Schizophrenic New York Times… OK, I understand there’s a difference between editorial opinion and news. But I find this article amusing when juxtaposed with yesterday’s op-ed, if only for the fact that it makes the NYT’s editorial staff, or at least the individual that wrote the editorial, look like idiots.

Even legal experts who agreed with a federal judge’s conclusion on Thursday that a National Security Agency surveillance program is unlawful were distancing themselves from the decision’s reasoning and rhetoric yesterday.

They said the opinion overlooked important precedents, failed to engage the government’s major arguments, used circular reasoning, substituted passion for analysis and did not even offer the best reasons for its own conclusions.

Discomfort with the quality of the decision is almost universal, said Howard J. Bashman, a Pennsylvania lawyer whose Web log provides comprehensive and nonpartisan reports on legal developments.

“It does appear,” Mr. Bashman said, “that folks on all sides of the spectrum, both those who support it and those who oppose it, say the decision is not strongly grounded in legal authority.”

One can infer from the “faulty reasoning” arguments cited in the news piece that yesterday’s op-ed writer obviously doesn’t know his judicial ass from his elbow. But, Hey! Let’s not waste time analyzing the decision (or perhaps consulting with people equipped to perform a rational analysis)…not when there’s a chance to pile on and get our licks in. Time’s a wastin’! Git ‘r Done! Onward, Brave Keller! Strike while the iron is hot!

More: Orin Kerr has some excellent commentary and links to other posts by the Volokh Conspiracy crew on Judge Taylor’s decision.

Wild, Wild Weather Last Nite… Back to normal, sorta. We had massive thunderstorms yesterday afternoon that lasted for about an hour and a half, rolling through P-Town in waves and raising all kinds of Hell in the process. There were several very close lightning strikes of the sort that bring you right up out of your chair, with associated power bumps that required me to reset all the clocks in El Casa Móvil De Pennington. Twice. The power bumps knocked our local PBS station off the air, and either the power bumps or the lightning knocked me off the air, too. I lost my ‘net connection sometime after 1700 and was still down at 2130 last evening. Things are back to normal this morning. It could have been worse; last year a lightning strike on my ISP’s tower took my ‘net connection down for two days.

Today’s Pic: Barrel Cactus Flower, taken in Carlsbad, NM. June 2004.