Ramble On...

Follow-up…Monday I gave all y’all a link to a National Geographic article on Rory Stewart, the young Scotsman who’s on a quest to save Old Kabul. I didn’t notice it at the time, but there’s a link on the NatGeo site to a photo essay on Mr. Stewart and places in Kabul the author, Mr. Stewart, and the NatGeo photographer visited. There are 23 photos, all quite good (Hey, it IS NatGeo we’re taking about here!). Recommended.

Hat tip: Shaun Mullen at The Moderate Voice. I should point out Chap had this story on June 16^th, I stole it from Chap on the 18^th, and The Moderate Voice posted it today. Good stuff makes the rounds on these here inter-tubes, now, don’t it?

Via Gerard…Here’s “Roger That!”

The man has a point.

You could do worse than stopping by van der Leun’s place today. No new essays or other tours de force, but he does have a collection of good links to check out. His “Airbus saving the planet” link is good, but I particularly like what he has to say about Mikey:

Sicko's gonna make you sick: Forget the film. You can avoid that. What you can't avoid will be the next 500 cable news segments about Michael Moore, the 18,620 blog posts about Michael Moore, and the endless images of Michael Moore. Brace yourself.

Gerard’s right…it’s already begun. I think I caught two or three flashes of Moore’s fat ass last night alone. The ol’ remote is gonna get quite the workout during the next week or so. (No link. If you’re all that interested in The Fat Guy, google him.)

The Nutroots on The Nutroots:

The woman at the podium is the pseudonymous blogger Digby (of Hullabaloo), in her first public appearance (as far as I know). She was accepting, on behalf of progressive bloggers— all those people you see behind her —the Paul Wellstone Citizen Leadership Award. In so doing, she invoked every single moonbat cliché there is, save one (there wasn’t any mention of the 9/11 Truthers; Thank God for small favors). But anyway…if you want to know what drives the Nutroots, Digby explains it all. You can’t make this stuff up.

From yesterday’s Guardian (UK) “China overtakes US as world's biggest CO2 emitter:”

China has overtaken the United States as the world's biggest producer of carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas, figures released today show.

The surprising announcement will increase anxiety about China's growing role in driving man-made global warming and will pile pressure onto world politicians to agree a new global agreement on climate change that includes the booming Chinese economy. China's emissions had not been expected to overtake those from the US, formerly the world's biggest polluter, for several years, although some reports predicted it could happen as early as next year.

It’s gonna be real interesting to see how the Global Warming climate change Chicken-Littles are gonna spin this lil bit of information…and whether or not there will be calls to include China in global targets for greenhouse gas emissions. You’ll remember, of course, that China was exempted from the Kyoto Protocol. Because they’re… you know…“developing.” Well, it looks like they’ve developed to the point where they’re outstripping the perpetually-guilty party among the community of nations, eh? As far as emissions go, anyway.

So. Becky tagged me with a meme while I was off on my mid-life crisis motorcycle mega-ride last month, and Kris tagged me day before yesterday with what I think is the same one…to wit: tell us eight things we don’t know about you. Pretty hard, that. It’s not easy to come up with eight things you don’t know, as I tend to share everything… “everything” being code for “too much information,” as it were. And then there’s that gray area concerning the statute of limitations for various and sundry things. I dunno if one can effectively blog from jail. But anyway. Let us attempt to fill this square.

1. I didn’t get serious about life until I was well into my 30’s… Up until that time my life could have been characterized by a single phrase: “I’m here for the party.” And party I did. It’s amazing I managed to survive, and I credit The Second Mrs. Pennington for turning me around saving my life. But, you knew that last bit, Gentle Reader.
2. I voted for George McGovern in ’72. Worse yet, I voted for Carter in ’76. Dept. of Everlasting Shame.
3. Things I did to make (extra) money as a young airman: Bagged groceries. Weeded bean fields. Busted tires in the tire shop at Sears Roebuck. Cleaned a beauty shop every Sunday night for a year.
4. I got fired from the tire shop job at Sears. The only time I’ve ever been fired in my life. I destroyed a radial tire while trying to mount it. The foreman had absolutely no sense of humor about that.
5. I hate carrots.
6. The Second Mrs. Pennington and I hitch-hiked from Tokyo to Kyoto over the Christmas holiday in 1975. It was only after we returned (by train) from Kyoto that we learned one simply doesn’t hitch-hike in Japan. Ever.
7. The most amazing place I’ve ever been is Cappadocia. Ever.
8. London is my favorite city in all the world.

And there you have it, Gentle Reader. Can we have a moratorium on memes, now?