This is Gonna Leave a Mark

Doomsday? That would be April 13, 2036. Maybe.

A £150 MILLION space mission should be launched to deflect an asteroid which is set to pass dangerously close to Earth, experts warned yesterday.

The call for action to protect the world from Apophis - named after the Egyptian god of destruction - came from a coalition of astronauts, engineers and scientists with close links to US space agency NASA.

Scientists have estimated the asteroid has a one-in-45,000 chance of striking Earth on 13 April, 2036. Travelling at 28,000mph it could release 80,000 times the energy of the Hiroshima bomb.

OK guys, that’s only $293,095,235.61, not a lot of bucks considering real estate values in, say, Chicago. And vicinity, like Detroit. Maybe we can get an earmark to take care of this… after all, we have about 30 years to figure this out. Whoops! Maybe not!

In order for the gravitational tractor to work effectively, Lu said, international authorities would have to decide to use it long before an anticipated impact.

"You want many years or even decades of notice," he said. "It's like billiards—when you make a slight change before the bank shot, it creates a big change [in where the ball goes]."

[…]

Schweickart, the former astronaut, thinks the United Nations needs to draft a treaty detailing standardized international measures that will be carried out in response to any asteroid threat.

His group, the Association of Space Explorers, has started building a team of scientists, risk specialists, and policymakers to draft such a treaty, which will be submitted to the UN for consideration in 2009.

The UN? We’re gonna let the UN take care of this? We’re f!cked…

(graphic: Nat Geo)

Words That Matter

From Representative Sam Johnson’s (R-TX) speech to the House during floor debate on the Iraq resolution:

“You know, I flew 62 combat missions in the Korean War and 25 missions in the Vietnam War before being shot down.

“I had the privilege of serving in the United States Air Force for 29 years, attending the prestigious National War College, and commanding two air bases, among other things.

“I mention these stories because I view the debate on the floor not just as a U.S. Congressman elected to serve the good people of the Third District in Texas, but also through the lens of a life-long fighter pilot, student of war, a combat warrior, a leader of men, and a Prisoner of War.

“Ironically, this week marks the anniversary that I started a new life – and my freedom from prison in Hanoi.

“I spent nearly seven years as a Prisoner of War in Vietnam, more than half of that time in solitary confinement. I flew out of Hanoi on February 12, 1973 with other long-held Prisoners of War – weighing just 140 pounds. And tomorrow – 34 years ago, I had my homecoming to Texas – a truly unspeakable blessing of freedom.

[…]

“So – little did I know back in my rat-infested 3 x 8 dark and filthy cell that 34 years after my departure from Hell on Earth… I would spend the anniversary of my release pleading for a House panel to back my measure to support and fully fund the troops in harm’s way….and that just days later I would be on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives surrounded by distinguished veterans urging Congress to support our troops to the hilt.

“We POWs were still in Vietnam when Washington cut the funding for Vietnam. I know what it does to morale and mission success. Words can not fully describe the horrendous damage of the anti-American efforts against the war back home to the guys on the ground.

I just finished watching the re-run of Rep. Johnson’s speech on C-SPAN. You really should…Read the whole thing.

Heroes and Villains

One of my heroes is profiled in today’s NYT:

Chris Chelios is having another fine season as a top-four defenseman for Detroit, averaging 19 minutes of ice time a game. There is nothing unusual in that — except that Chelios is 45, making him the second-oldest player to compete in the N.H.L.

“I never thought I’d be in that situation 10 years ago,” Chelios said Thursday by telephone from Phoenix. “To be right behind Gordie Howe is kind of neat.” Howe played in the N.H.L. when he was 52.

“I’ve just been fortunate,” said Chelios, who has 182 goals, 936 points and 2,823 penalty minutes in 1,528 regular-season games over 23 seasons. “I think genetics, Lady Luck, my trainers. I’ve had some pretty significant knee injuries that I never thought I’d be able to overcome. It sounds crazy, but basically I feel as good as I did 10 years ago.”

With ALL due respect to Chelios, I can’t see him doing what Howe did: i.e., playing a complete season with an NHL team (the Hartford Whalers, aka the Carolina Hurricanes) at age 51. What Gordie did was amazing, given he played in every game, racked up 41 points (15 goals, 26 assists), served 42 penalty minutes, and was even selected for the All-Star game that year. At age 51. Still and even, it wouldn’t surprise me if Chelios did manage to pull that off. It’s only six years from now…

Also in today’s NYT: “The L Word… Leftward, Ho?”

“A potentially liberal moment,” Mr. Frank says, “assuming that liberal politicians can seize the moment and get beyond their usual plague of incompetence.”

Oh, snap. Liberal optimism, thy name is caution and caveat.

But it is optimism nonetheless, and well-founded, too, say Mr. Frank and a broad spectrum of political thinkers and leaders. And, they say, the evidence goes beyond the obvious indicators — the ascendance of Democrats in the House and Senate, President Bush’s second-term belly-flop and poll numbers showing the Democratic Party trending left and the nation’s political center trending Democratic.

[…]

Even in the sweetest of times, liberals tend to be congenitally averse to walking tall, as if they’re always half-expecting to be one step away from getting decked by a falling piano.

Years of ridicule, battering and electoral defeat will do that. The liberal imprint has been trashed by generations of conservative candidates and commentators drilled in every unbecoming association (“tax and spend liberal,” “big government liberal,” “ivory tower liberal,” “limousine liberal,” “commie, hippie, purple haired, weak kneed, bleeding heart, limp-wristed, weepy eyed, take your choice liberal”).

Ah, yes. Their “…usual plague of incompetence” and being “congenitally averse to walking tall.” Big problems, those. These past week’s events, capped with the ignominious vote of no-confidence in the President’s Iraq policy (among other things), would seem to reinforce the perception of the Left’s incompetence and an inability to walk the walk, wouldn’t they? There are valid reasons the Right have assigned all those pejorative labels to Lefties, or, in other words…they got them the old fashioned way: they earned ‘em.

Conan O’Brien makes teh funny: “According to a new survey, 26 percent of people say they have a crush on someone they work with. Unfortunately, the survey was taken at NASA.”

Today’s obligatory Barack bashing…

Take a look at Obama's arguments for a speedy US withdrawal. Speaking on the Senate floor on January 30, he asserted that "redeployment remains our best leverage to pressure the Iraqi government to achieve ... political settlement between its warring factions".

The key is "to give Iraqis their country back", since "no amount of American soldiers can solve the political differences at the heart of somebody else's civil war". He repeated these words when he announced that he was running for the presidency last weekend.

But Obama's claim that an American withdrawal would somehow "pressure the Sunni and Shia to come to the table and find peace" is a fraud.

On the contrary, an American withdrawal is much more likely to lead to an escalation of the conflict that is tearing Iraq apart. In a devastating paper for the Brookings Institution, Daniel L Byman and Kenneth M Pollack have pointed out that, given the vast potential for violence that exists in the Middle East, we ain't seen nothin' yet.

And then there’s this, from Rich Lowry:

Obama is smart enough to be able to talk intelligently about nearly anything, but it usually feels like he's a glib amateur. He has a troubled relationship to policy plans, which risks making his campaign of hope against cynicism seem merely hackneyed verbiage. It's hardly a new idea to attack the political process as too small-minded, money-grubbing and negative. In fact, it's commonplace.
Obama insists that he doesn't need more policy because he's written two books. But only if Obama were running on "finding himself" would his (beautiful) memoir of his early life, Dreams From My Father, be a detailed manifesto. His new book, The Audacity of Hope, has policy in it, but it's scattershot thoughts about addressing all of the nation's problems, not detailed plans.

More to follow in the coming days/weeks/months/year. Dang, it’s just too early! (PS: he’ still not smoking, though, from all indications. Me too.)

Today’s Pic(s): My father’s automotive lust object—the incomparable Mercedes-Benz 300SL. This particular example is in the National Auto Museum (otherwise known as The Harrah Collection) in Reno, NV. I’ll have to admit: The Ol’ Man had excellent taste in automobiles. Kinda runs in the family, it does.

May, 2000.

DC-4 Over Midtown, 1939.

From a site with a huge and oh-so-interesting collection of black and white photos of New York City, beginning at the turn of the last century and continuing up to the early 60s. The photos are large and the site has a “broadband recommended” disclaimer. But: do go. Some excellent shots of the way we were. And I do mean excellent.

The caption to this particular photo says “DC-4 Over Midtown, 1939. Hood’s Daily News Building lower right.” I originally thought the aircraft pictured was not a DC-4. And it turns out I was sorta right…it’s a DC-4E, the “E” standing for “experimental.” This is the DC-4 I’m familiar with, the model with the single vertical stabilizer.

(hat tip: James. Who else?)

Geeky Stuff, Voting with One's Feet, and Cars

A good read… “The Story of Sergey Brin…How the Moscow-Born entrepreneur cofounded and changed the way the world searches.” If you’re not familiar with the name, Mr. Brin, son of Russian immigrants, is a co-founder of Google. A lengthy (i.e., about a 10 minute read) biographical sketch with lots of detail. Good stuff.

Got broadband? Frequent readers know I bemoan the state of my ‘net connection, in terms of both reliability and speed, but most particularly speed. I pay for a 384 Kbps connection but only rarely do I actually get close to 384 Kbps. There have been times when my connection speed, as measured by CNet, is down around dial-up speeds. I was getting 263.8 Kbps when I wrote this post, which isn’t all that bad, but insufficient to support streaming video (think: YouTube; and see the graphic on the right). And, now that the digression has passed, I don’t consider 384 Kbps to be “broadband.” But, it looks like I’m wrong:

The July, 2005, FCC report that he was citing, which promoted and defended the state of broadband access in the U.S., has received pointed criticism for defining a "high-speed" line as one delivering service of at least 200 Kbps in at least one direction, and for defining a ZIP code as "covered" by broadband access even if just a single broadband line is active in that region. It is true that 200 Kbps was, even in 2005, a minimal definition of "broadband," but it's a level that's largely inadequate for delivering much of what is commonly accepted as "broadband-level service," such as streaming video and swift downloads of large files. It seems clear that measuring "broadband access" by even the relatively modest speeds of 1Mbps or higher would drastically cut the estimate of U.S. broadband penetration.

And that’s the thrust of this article: When It Comes To Broadband, U.S. Plays Follow The Leader. Aside from “dumbing down” the definition of broadband, it turns out that the US isn’t in the same league as South Korea, Japan, and many countries in Northern Europe when it comes to the numbers of broadband access lines (relative to population), connection speed, and, believe it or not, price. That’s a sorry state of affairs for a country that prides itself on being a technological leader.

Hey Yucca Telecom!! Where’s my fiber connection?

A little fall-out from the William “Obscene Amenities for Mercenaries” Arkin flap: retired Army Col. Ken Allard severs his ten-year relationship with NBC.

But has anyone else noticed the network's precipitous retreat from journalistic and ethical standards? Not only were no apologies given and no pink slips issued for Arkin's outburst, but on his MSNBC show last week, Keith Olberman went out of his way to defend this "valid criticism" of our military.

[…]

But sometimes the only way to show where you really stand is to vote with your feet. And so with great reluctance and best wishes to my former colleagues, with this column I am severing my 10-year relationship with NBC News.

Good on ya, Colonel! Col. Allard mentions the odious Olbermann in passing…he of the recently-renewed contract with MS-NBC and apparent Arkin apologist. I didn’t know ol’ Keith was going to bat for Arkin, but Hey! …they’re two peas in a pod, as far as I’m concerned. In the press release about Olbermann’s contract renewal, NBC had this to say:

"Keith Olbermann is a tremendous talent and a superb broadcaster," said NBC News President Steve Capus. "He is an asset to NBC News and the timing of this announcement couldn't be better given the momentum Keith's program is enjoying right now."

Good luck with your new tired old Left-wing liberal strategy, NBC. I suppose it does sell.

“What’s for dinner?” That perennially vexing question of the day, everyday, was solved quite nicely last evening. Granddaughter Felicity and her boyfriend René were in P-Town yesterday and took me out to dinner in Felicity’s brand new GMC Acadia. Dinner was a “thank-you” for the GM employee discount Felicity used to take a couple of thousand dollars off the Acadia’s purchase price. Felicity remarked she thought it odd that everyone in SN1’s family drive GM products, yet I do not…and I’m the source of that employee discount. Yeah, it is passing strange. And likely to remain that way, too. Although I really, really want to buy GM, I can’t bring myself to select the Solstice/Sky over the Miata. And there’s gonna be a new Miata in El Casa Móvil De Pennington’s driveway sometime later this year.

The Acadia is nice, though. So was dinner…a nice rib-eye washed down with a couple of pints of Fat Tire. And good conversation, too!

Stuff that Caught My Eye Today

Credit where credit is due…the NYT has a good write-up on Firedoglake’s coverage of the Libby trial. My POV and FDL’s couldn’t be further apart—that’s simply not possible—but they’ve done good things in gaining recognition for bloggers. The FDL bloggers have impeccable credentials, which were more than likely responsible for getting them their official “passes” to the trial. Too bad the FDL’ers are just plain wrong.

I’ve spent way too much time today chasing up reaction to yesterday’s UNICEF report, An Overview of Child Well-Being in Rich Countries (a large—52 page—pdf file), which ranks the US next-to-last (just above Britain) where children’s welfare is concerned. From the report’s executive summary:

This Report Card provides a comprehensive assessment of the lives and well-being of children and young people in 21 nations of the industrialized world. Its purpose is to encourage monitoring, to permit comparison, and to stimulate the discussion and development of policies to improve children’s lives.

The report’s “Main Findings”:

• The Netherlands heads the table of overall child wellbeing, ranking in the top 10 for all six dimensions of child well-being covered by this report.
• European countries dominate the top half of the overall league table, with Northern European countries claiming the top four places.
• All countries have weaknesses that need to be addressed and no country features in the top third of the rankings for all six dimensions of child well-being (though the Netherlands and Sweden come close to doing so).
• The United Kingdom and the United States find themselves in the bottom third of the rankings for five of the six dimensions reviewed.
• No single dimension of well-being stands as a reliable proxy for child well-being as a whole and several OECD countries find themselves with widely differing rankings for different dimensions of child well-being.
• There is no obvious relationship between levels of child well-being and GDP per capita. The Czech Republic, for example, achieves a higher overall rank for child well-being than several much wealthier countries including France, Austria, the United States and the United Kingdom.

I spent nearly two hours seeking out conservative reactions to this report and couldn’t find any. One possible explanation is the fact this report originates with the UN and is by definition, suspect and beneath comment. Other than that, I have no clue. There is plenty of reaction on the Left, however, most of it expressed from the usual and predictable America-hating POV. Case in point, if you care: Shakespeare’s Sister.

My reaction? I find the report troubling. There is bound to be an element of truth in anything, if one looks hard enough. Even given the fact this is a UN report (snort!), and the applicable “lies, damned lies, and statistics” disclaimer, I think we should take notice.

On the other hand…if the lesson is “social welfare states are preferable to capitalist states,” as one could reasonably conclude from a quick perusal of the report, then forget it!

Found while looking for reax to the UNICEF story: this post at Cassandra’s place. Totally and completely unrelated, of course. But if it doesn’t make you laugh, then I feel sorry for you. No clues…just check it out.

Update on the whereabouts of Muqtada…

BAGHDAD, Iraq - An adviser to Iraq's prime minister said Thursday that radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is in Iran, but denied he fled due to fear of arrest during an escalating security crackdown. Sami al-Askari said al-Sadr traveled to Iran by land "a few days ago," but gave no further details on how long he would stay. A member of al-Sadr's bloc in parliament, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisals, said he left three weeks ago.

"I confirm that Muqtada al-Sadr is in Iran on a visit," said al-Askari. "But I deny that his visit is a flight."

Although there are plenty of disclaimers in the article, as well. Captain Ed says…

Sadr's supporters insist that he is still in Iraq, but no one has seen the non-reclusive Shi'ite firebrand in weeks. If Sadr remains in Najaf, as his mouthpieces claim, all he has to do is show himself. He could call a press conference or hold a rally; the US wouldnt stop him from either activity, and it would prove that he didn't tuck tail and run from the new US/Iraqi security program for Baghdad.

Askari never spoke to why Sadr went to Iran, nor why most of his Mahdi command went with him. Iraq has plenty of space for such meetings, and the southern third of the country is sympathetic to the Shi'ite political cause. What could Sadr and the Mahdis do in Iran that they could not in Najaf or Basra? Perhaps they could not count on unfettered access to Iranian counsel and protection outside of Iran, now that the US has stepped up its action against Iranian agents in Iraq and Maliki withdrew his political protection from Sadr City.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are…” So we can shoot you.

Frequent readers may wonder why I’m silent on the continuing debate in the House of Representatives on the Democrat resolution condemning the President’s strategy in Iraq. My reason? Lots of folks are writing on this subject and I don’t have anything meaningful or unique to add to the conversation. I find the whole exercise to be repugnant beyond belief, especially given the fact the “debate” is contrived. If the Democrats wanted a true debate, they’d be open to considering the various amendments the Republicans have proposed. But that doesn’t mesh with their agenda, which is to discredit the President and curry favor with the current majority of the notoriously fickle American public, as expressed in various opinion polls.

For shame.

@@@

Placeholder.

Today’s Pic: A shot in the Modern and Contemporary Gallery at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. I’ve posted a few other shots of this fine museum before. Truly a jewel in Houston’s crown.

April, 2000.

Back in a few.

Apropos of Nothing…

So, I’m sitting here, by the window, watching the snow come down. Which I’ve been doing for about the past hour and a half. It’s not too, too windy so the snow is doing that drifting, swirling, dancing sort of thing. Mesmerizing. I could do this all day and probably will.

I’m also on my second and soon (very soon) to be third glass of Beaujolais. Out of nowhere this guy I used to know pops into my head, or rather, one of his sayings does.

“No one’s happier than a wino who can afford his own wine.”

How utterly frickin’ true.

Up Waaay Too Early...

So…did he stay? Or did he go? First there was this:

Feb. 13, 2007 — While members of the U.S. House of Representatives take turns weighing in on President Bush's planned troop surge in Iraq, the focus in Iraq is not on the arrival of more U.S. troops, but the departure of one of the country's most powerful men, Moqtada al Sadr and members of his army.

According to senior military officials, al Sadr left Baghdad two to three weeks ago and fled to Tehran, Iran, where he has family.

And then there was this:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr said Wednesday that the radical Shiite cleric was still in Iraq, denying a report that he fled to Iran ahead of a security crackdown targeting his militia.

An Iraqi government official said al-Sadr was in the Shiite holy city of Najaf Tuesday night, when he received delegates from several government departments. The official, who is familiar with one of those meetings, spoke on condition of anonymity because he has no authority to disclose information on his department's activities.

Given all the brouhaha about Iran’s involvement in, and support of, the Iraqi “insurgency,” it would be interesting indeed if al-Sadr has fled to Tehran. But then again… birds of a feather, and all that. I’m sure al-Sadr and Ayatollah Khamenei have a lot more in common than, say al-Sadr and Bashar Assad. Like a taste for expensive Austrian firearms? (On sale!! Only $3,999.99! Each.)

The other shoe dropped. Both Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan have resigned from the Edwards campaign. Both claimed their resignations were personal decisions and Edwards wasn’t involved. Yeah, right. Sure. Ummm-hmm.

One thing about l’affaire Marcotte/McEwan bothers me, though. Ms. Marcotte has put up several samples of the hate mail she’s received, and the content and tone is troubling, indeed. This is America, where everyone, regardless of how repugnant their views may be, are free to express those views. Slimeballs who feel a need to insult and threaten people, in the vilest manner, for speaking their mind(s) just don’t get it. I’m embarrassed for these people, and most of all, ashamed that they are on my “side.” That sort of behavior simply hands the Left ammunition to use against the Right (which Marcotte also has used, in spades). Not to mention the fact that it’s frickin’ illegal, too…the threats, that is.

Just sayin’.

Apropos of nothing, but Iowahawk just happened to find Ms. Marcotte’s brand new, updated résumé. And it’s a hoot. L’affaire Marcotte has been a frickin’ goldmine for Mr. Burge.

This is rich… (from Drudge, in its entirety):

HOUSE HEARING ON 'WARMING OF THE PLANET' CANCELED AFTER ICE STORM
HEARING NOTICE
Tue Feb 13 2007 19:31:25 ET

The Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality hearing scheduled for Wednesday, February 14, 2007, at 10:00 a.m. in room 2123 Rayburn House Office Building has been postponed due to inclement weather. The hearing is entitled “Climate Change: Are Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Human Activities Contributing to a Warming of the Planet?”

The hearing will be rescheduled to a date and time to be announced later.

DC WEATHER REPORT:

Wednesday: Freezing rain in the morning. Total ice accumulation between one half to three quarters of an inch. Brisk with highs in the mid 30s. North winds 10 to 15 mph...increasing to northwest 20 to 25 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation near 100 percent.

Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy. Lows around 18. Northwest winds around 20 mph.

Well, the House may have cancelled its hearing, but the Senate did not. I watched the Barbara Boxer-led circus of a hearing on C-SPAN last evening and it was a real hoot. But only for a moment, until I realized Ms. Boxer has legislation in the hopper (I searched for info on her pending bill but couldn’t find anything; perhaps her allusion to pending legislation was more of a threat than a reality.). Good Senator Boxer barely tolerated Senator Inhofe and his pointed questions to the “expert panel” Ms. Boxer had invited to testify. Here are a couple of excerpts from Senator Inhofe’s opening statement:

Some companies are coming together in an attempt to profit from government intervention where they have failed in the marketplace. Economists call this rent-seeking. But I think the Wall Street Journal was right. They are climate profiteers. These companies will gain market-share against their competitors while the economy flattens and jobs are sent to China – which in an ironic twist of fate will soon become the biggest emitter of carbon dioxide on the planet. Madame Chairman, not all companies have joined the climate profiteers. Most will be its victims, particularly small businesses that will no longer be able to compete. But the biggest losers won’t be businesses, but American consumers.

This proposal and others like it may be written in the form of government regulatory mandates, but for all practical purposes, it is really a regressive tax on the American economy, where select powerful companies profit at the expense of seniors, the working class and the poor. These groups already pay disproportionately more of their monthly budget for energy, and this situation will only worsen under proposals like we see today. Let me be clear -- this is the biggest tax hike in U.S. history.

[…]

And then there are the political leaders. Prime Minister Stephen Harper reportedly once called the Kyoto accord a "socialist scheme" designed to suck money out of rich countries. And just last week, Czech President Vaclav Klaus made clear his disdain for politics parading for science when he said "Global warming is a false myth and every serious person and scientist says so. It is not fair to refer to the U.N. panel. IPCC is not a scientific institution: it's a political body, a sort of non-government organization of green flavor.

You don’t have to agree with my position on the science to question the wisdom of the cap and trade approach. These proposals will do little and cost much. Moreover, as White House spokesman Tony Snow stated last week, "there is a carbon cap system in place in Europe, we are doing a better job of reducing emissions here," Snow said.

All the links are good, but you might recognize the WSJ op-ed, if you chase that particular link. I posted a link to the op-ed and excerpts from same on January 29^th. Boxer wasn’t impressed with Senator Inhofe’s comments, invoking the “The science is settled. There’s no more debate” argument. But I sure am glad there’s a voice of reason left in the Senate.

I can relate: “I've been chewing Nicorette strenuously." That would be Barack, quoted in an article about his attempt to quit smoking (as I noted back on February 1^st). From that same article (which is pretty good, BTW):

"For someone who's known to be a smoker and for a senator who's photographed all the time, it's odd that there aren't actually pictures of him smoking," said Wonkette editor Alex Pareene.

Not really, though — Wonkette has also tried in vain to obtain smoking photographs of House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, an unrepentant chain smoker whose Barclays aromatically fill the area outside his Capitol Hill office as if it were an enormous marble ashtray.

Other rumored present or past smokers in political life — first lady Laura Bush, former Vice President Al Gore — have assiduously kept any signs of the habit away from any prying shutterbugs.

Algore smoking strikes me as just plain weird, but Laura? Laura smoked? No sh!t? Major digression here, but I find that lil rumor to be extremely interesting. The digression is the image that comes to mind…which reinforces one of my minor secrets, that being that I think the First Lady is hot. A friend of mine (female) was once taken aback when I mentioned that fact. “Laura??? HOT???” she said, incredulously. Well, yeah. I’m not the only one…Dubya thinks so, too.

But…back to Barack. I most definitely relate to the Nicorette thing. Three weeks today and I’m still on the wagon. I wonder who’s gonna fall off first? Barack, or me? Glad I’m not running for President.

Today’s Pic: Freezin’ my @$$ off in Yellowstone. I’m posting this pic because my hair is just about this long at the moment. I have absolutely NO idea why I’ve let it get this long again. The last time I was in the barber chair was May of last year. And I’ve put the beard back on, too. Goin’ for that contemporary Old Hippie look, I guess.

May, 2000.

Happy Valentines Day!

A re-run from last year: Creepy Valentines. As the sample on the right indicates, they are indeed creepy.

It looks like a good day to stay in and cuddle with your valentine. Drink hot chocolate by the fire. Stare out the window at the snow drifting down. Wish you were in the Bahamas. Or maybe the Cayman Islands.

I know I’m not going anywhere today:

It could be worse, as they say. Like here:

Got that? A foot of snow by the end of the day...and more to come! Wow!

The Usual Load of Bollocks

On the lighter side of “Climate Change…”

Global Warming Shovel Hot Item in New York Stores
by Scott Ott

(2007-02-11) — Wal-Mart and Home Depot stores in upstate New York report brisk sales of the new Global Warming Shovel which hit store shelves just in time for this week’s 9.5-foot snowfall.

The shovels, made of a rigid form of lightweight GORE-TEX®, are specifically designed to remove the kind of snow spawned by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, “no matter how deep it gets,” according to the manufacturer.

Later this week, the company will also roll out its new Kyoto Mittens, “guaranteed to protect the wearer from the inconvenient truth of global warming-induced frostbite.”

But there’s seriousness at the links.

So…in serious news, there’s lotsa buzz about the tentative agreement with the Norks about their nuclear program. About half-way down the page in that AP release is this lil gem:

But the deal drew strong criticism from John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., who urged President Bush to reject it.

"I am very disturbed by this deal," Bolton told CNN. "It sends exactly the wrong signal to would-be proliferators around the world: 'If we hold out long enough, wear down the State Department negotiators, eventually you get rewarded,' in this case with massive shipments of heavy fuel oil for doing only partially what needs to be done."

I’m of the feeling we should all be “very disturbed.” Kim Jong-Il’s track record when it comes to honoring agreements and treaties is all but non-existent. What makes our negotiators think he’ll hold to this one? I’m all for diplomacy…when it works. Unfortunately, it never seems to work at all when it comes to the world’s bad actors. Or am I reading the wrong sort of history books?

More on the agreement here. Richardson at DPRK Studies isn’t impressed, either. And I get the feeling he knows a whole helluva lot more about this than I do. (h/t: ROK Drop, via Mudville)

Jack Cafferty: “I’m confused, Wolf.”

Truer words were never spoken. The “I’m confused” bit, not the other krep. When someone has to ask about the difference between shooting down Russian Hinds and shooting down US helicopters that individual is indeed confused... to put it mildly. Cafferty is around Number Three (with a bullet) on my personal list of people I love to hate actively dislike. You didn’t ask, but I’ll tell you…Number One is Keith Olbermann; Number Two is SWWNBN. Now you know.

Bernard Lewis, on Iran:

Does the Iranian regime believe that a military attack on its nuclear sites would strengthen it? Do they think that it can be avoided - that they can manage to keep the West from attacking them?

My guess is that they do not expect to be attacked. Remember, they have no experience of the functioning of a free society. The sort of self-criticism and mutual criticism that we see as normal is beyond their understanding and totally outside their experience. What we see as free debate, they see as weakness and division and fear.

Therefore I think they have a very low estimate of the forces that oppose them, whether in the US or Israel or elsewhere. They expect to have it their way, whatever way they choose.

Part of a Q&A session hosted by The Jerusalem Post.

Seating himself in the center of The Jerusalem Post's conference room, Prof. Bernard Lewis preferred to eschew any kind of opening remarks, and instead simply invited our questions. Arguably the preeminent Islamic historian and scholar of his age, Lewis, who turned 90 last May, handled the resulting avalanche with absolute equanimity.

Do I have to say it? Read the whole thing… (h/t: Chap)

@@

Today’s Pic Silliness: I’m sure A&A aren’t going to like one of these pics, now that they are “young ladies” and no longer girls. On the other hand, they both have well-developed senses of humor, which is a prerequisite of surviving life with their father. Here we are in a Seattle pub, doing our very best “Got Milk?” impressions. The milk didn’t go so well with the beer, which was brewed on the premises and was excellent in quality. I love brew pubs.

Seattle. June, 2000.

Back in a few.

Making the Rounds...

(click for larger)

...today, via e-mail. This politically-INcorrect map of the USA. Pretty danged funny, IMO. And it's not completely politically incorrect. Note the authors labeled CA and NY as "Gays." That's fairly PC.

Just a Couple of Things on Climate Change

The NY Sun: Global Warming Turns Ugly.

When the left is out to smear an opponent, any brand of tar will do. Consider Vice President Gore's mantra, which has been picked up by much of the press, that global warming skeptics are "deniers" — as in Holocaust deniers. You might expect that liberals would be leery of attempts to liken an opponent to the nuts who deny that Hitler murdered 6 million Jews. "Are you now or have you ever been a denier?" But no, the moral paragons of Beverly Hills appear set to deliver an Oscar to Mr. Gore for his bravery in telling supposedly inconvenient truths.

Mr. Gore has been caught at this sort of thing before. In 1994, Ted Koppel disclosed on "Nightline" that Mr. Gore had called to suggest he investigate various global warming skeptics for their ties to the coal industry and other interests. Mr. Koppel said he had refused. He went on to chastise Mr. Gore publicly for "resorting to political means to achieve what should ultimately be resolved on a purely scientific basis."

Just so. But Mr. Gore and others still seem unable to restrain their bile. The Washington Post recently quoted Mr. Gore as referring to a prominent Republican senator as a "denier." All of which makes one wonder: Do these people have as much confidence as they pretend to have in their theories about why the globe may be heating up? (emphasis mine)

That, to me, is the whole point. If the facts substantiate your case, why not stand upon them? If your theories are so danged bulletproof, why not welcome discussion and debate on the subject? Why make statements like “the debate is over,” when clearly, it is not? Why ask why…

Related: Scenes from the Climate Inquisition. Excerpt:

But the climate inquisition may prompt a backlash. One straw in the wind was the bracing statement made by Mike Hulme, director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and one of Britain's leading climate scientists. "I have found myself increasingly chastised by climate change campaigners when my public statements and lectures on climate change have not satisfied their thirst for environmental drama and exaggerated rhetoric," Hulme told the BBC in November. "It seems that it is we, the professional climate scientists, who are now the skeptics. How the wheel turns. . . . Why is it not just campaigners, but politicians and scientists, too, who are openly confusing the language of fear, terror, and disaster with the observable physical reality of climate change, actively ignoring the careful hedging which surrounds science's predictions? . . . To state that climate change will be 'catastrophic' hides a cascade of value-laden assumptions which do not emerge from empirical or theoretical science."

The backlash is indeed developing. This is a good thing, unless you happen to be an apocalyptic evangelizer like Algore. More, not less, debate is needed… especially when you have politicians like Nancy Pelosi saying “government would have to impose a mandatory cap to reduce greenhouse emissions by 50%, a move that would bring government ever more deeply into the heart of the economy.”* And that, folks, is the essence of the debate. Not whether or not climate change is happening (I believe it is, FWIW), but why it's happening, and what to do about it, if anything. Mandatory emissions caps, assorted carbon tax proposals and emissions trading schemes are all potential economic catastrophes, especially when the government Democratic party is involved.

(*: from that NY Sun editorial, above)

Today’s Pic: Not being one to abandon a trend in its early stages, here’s another pic from the cross-country trip SN1 & Family and I took during July 2000. Granddaughters Anastasia and Amanda took some time away from the grown-ups as we were enjoying adult refreshments in a very nice little outdoor café somewhere in Upstate NY, near Lake George.

Update 02/12/2007, 1438 hrs: dc, in the comments:

I am sick up and fed with the Left trying to redistribute wealth, again. Via "Carbon Credits".

Algore won't give up his opulent lifestyle, and neither will Ms. Pelosi. Soooo, neither will I. Besides, if, indeed, this global warming B.S. is real, then all of the planet will warm up and food and plant growth will take off. Think of it... the rain forests will burst to life, expanding at an explosive rate! The added CO2 will encourage plants with the photosynthesis thing, causing fresh new oxygen.

And red wine will be cultivated again, in the UK.

Oh, and that charlatan Algore will still be criss-crossing the planet in his ozone wrecking jet. Tilting at yet another windmill. I notice he is getting a little "fluffy".

Of course, none of the above will happen. Except the criss crossing jets.

I wish that Al and Nancy would go live with some REAL third world types. You know, the folks who have to burn Yak Dung to cook food and heat their Yurts. Maybe after a couple of years, they would change their attitudes, and start planning some more dams and Nuclear Power plants.

After all, if it's good enough for us, I say it's good enough for Yak Herders!

I just had to bring this up front, coz dc says it better and with more humor than I. Hey dc, want a job? Or an avocation?

Still Mired Down...

I’m still in a bit of a funk when it comes to “meaningful” blog posts. You know, things like Putin reviving the Cold War, Obama’s formal announcement (yeah, like that’s news), or even another incidence of academic political correctness winning the day. Wait. Back up. Let’s reconsider that last item:

The feminist takeover of Harvard is imminent. The Harvard Crimson reported yesterday that the university is about to name as its new president Drew Gilpin Faust, dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Harvard’s Corporation, which is likely to recommend Faust to the university’s Board of Overseers for confirmation, could not have more clearly repudiated Lawrence Summers’s all-too-brief reign of meritocracy and academic honesty, or more openly signaled that Harvard will now be the leader in politically correct victimology.

Faust runs one of the most powerful incubators of feminist complaint and nonsensical academic theory in the country. You can count on the Radcliffe Institute’s fellows and invited lecturers to proclaim the “constructed” nature of knowledge, gender, and race, and to decry endemic American sexism and racism.

And from that “powerful incubators” link in the preceding quote…

…beneath the ubiquitous “discourses,” “constructions,” and “negotiated meanings”—behind the coy hyphens, parentheses, and slashes—lies the belief that there is no such thing as the “self,” or “truth,” or “males” and “females,” or “good” and “bad,” that all are arbitrary categories designed by an oppressor class of white male heterosexual capitalists to keep a victim class of minorities, women, and poor people silenced and powerless?

That particular paragraph describes the mindset of Harvard’s (rumored) new president. Hell, she was instrumental in shaping what can only be called a radical point of view and is in the vanguard of the “movement,” so to speak. My reaction?

Good Lord. It’s hard to see how the pendulum can swing any further to the left, or to imagine a more egregious offense to the values that made this country what it is today, or rather what it was...back when “traditional values” were the norm and well before we began lionizing the “victim class(es).” I only hope that some sort of backlash is forming, somewhere. Coz it’s way past time for the pendulum to begin its swing back towards reality. The fate of western civilization hangs in the balance, and I’m not being melodramatic. Not in the least.

So. Let’s lighten up. In the “Fun with Site Meter” department, I offer you the leading search terms resulting in EIP visits from Googlers for the past 45 days or so:

“My Lil Reminder” in its various permutations (IIVP): 136
“USAFA Cadet Requests F-15 Ride” IIVP: 59
“YGBFSM” IIVP: 39
“Petticoat Punishment” IIVP: 29
“Heidi Cullen” IIVP: 15
People Looking for Becky’s Place but Winding Up at EIP Instead (“Hemipenes”): 2

And the strangest search term these past days:

“Woah-Oh Oh-Woah-Oh-Oh-Woah Woah-Oh-Oh-Woah-Oh-Oh techno song lyrics.”

Could you just hum a few bars? I might have that. Somewhere. On the other hand…techno has lyrics? Who’d thunk it?

On the other, other hand, I’m surprised this got any hits at all:

“who sings, "live on the edge" for pontiac commercial.”

Why? Because the commercial in question is a Ford ad, Sparky.

I loves me some Site Meter!

I forgot to make another entry in the “nothing lasts forever” department this past week. This time it was my beloved trusty HP LaserJet 5P printer, a device that made no demands, worked first-time, every time, was economical to operate, and so on. Until about a month ago, when it refused to power up when I hit the switch. No blown fuses or other obvious indications of ill-health, just a quiet death. That printer served me quite well…for well over ten years (more like 12), as a matter of fact. But it’s gone now, replaced with a shiny new HP D7360 ink-jet photo printer, which will do double-duty printing the odd document here and there, like the annual 1040s or directions from Google Maps. And the price was more than right, too: only $129.00 at Office Max. I’ve wanted a photo printer for the longest time. And now I finally have one. This time the philosophical “nothing lasts forever” statement was good news.

The weather is always good for a paragraph or two when all else fails, and it’s gonna be pretty good today: partly cloudy with a forecasted high of 67. That sounds like top-down weather, doesn’t it? I think I just might get out in it today and see if I can’t get a February sunburn. That would be interesting, nu?

Today’s Pic: Granddaughters Anastasia and Amanda running to avoid getting wet while SN2 looks on, as a very cool fountain in Seattle dances in time to classical music. The girls unsuccessfully avoided the water, I should add: they got soaked. There are speakers arranged around the periphery of the fountain, and the music varies from up-tempo classical to pop (technical details here). The water jets in the fountain are choreographed to “perform” in conjunction with the music. Way-cool. Way-wet, too!
June, 2000.

Day Off? Or Off Day?

Today’s Pic: Irises in a Taos flower garden. May, 2004.

I might be back later. But at the moment I don’t have a single thing to say. Zilch. Nada. Sometimes it bees like that…

Just More...uh...Stuff

A Comparison of Live Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo Mail. The money graf:

Overall we prefer Gmail over all other webmail applications because performance (speed) is consistently fast, and emails can be tagged making search much more effective. They also offer more storage and other features, and it’s free. However, Yahoo and Live Hotmail offer more mainstream Outlook-like user interfaces (although Live Hotmail does not allow you to access other email accounts from their application), whereas Gmail takes some time to get used to. If you are looking for speed and tagging is important, Gmail is for you. If you are looking for the closest thing to Outlook online, go with Yahoo Mail.

There’s a neat three-way comparison chart of available features, too.

Envy:

Everyone suspected that the investors, founders and early employees of YouTube made tidy sums when it was acquired by Google for $1.65 billion in stock late last year.

[…]

A founder and YouTube’s chief executive Chad Hurley received 694,087 shares of Google and an additional 41,232 in a trust. Based on Google’s closing price yesterday of $470.01, the shares are worth more than $345 million.

Another founder, Steven Chen, received 625,366 shares and an additional 68,721 in a trust, for more than $326 million.

[…]

When the deal was announced in October, YouTube was less than two years old and had about 70 employees. Several of the early employees are listed in the filing statement as owning thousands of Google shares.

That’s a lot of beer. And a Ferrari. Or three. Assuming the stock recipients are selling their stock. And they are.

So…I’m a little slow sometimes (ed: sometimes? How about MOST of the time? Shuddup!). I’m watching C-SPAN this morning, and Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army Chief of Staff, is testifying before the House Appropriations Defense sub-committee. He’s looking pretty sharp in his new Army Dress Blues. “Dress Blues?” Yep. Complete with Civil War era rank epaulettes. I didn’t realize the Army has changed its uniform, but they did—last summer. You can see it here.

Lileks to the rescue! I’m fond of describing myself as socially moderate and conservative when it comes to fiscal and national defense matters. But…what exactly is a “social moderate,” anyway? James provides the definitions, thusly:

Social liberal: believes Howard Stern should be able to say the F word not just on satellite radio, but broadcast as well.

Social moderate-liberal: same as above, but wishes Howard wouldn’t say it so much.

Social moderate: believes Howard Stern should not say the F word on broadcast radio, but has no desire to control the content of satellite channels to which people freely subscribe.

Social moderate-conservative: Howard should definitely not say it on broadcast radio, and while he probably has the right to say it on satellite, Senate hearings into decency on cable and satellite stations isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Social conservative: doesn’t believe Howard Stern should say the word, and if you subscribe to satellite radio, you’re supporting Howard Stern, and have no right to call yourself a social conservative.

Yep. That’s me!

He kept them…but you probably already know this. The NYT:

Mr. Edwards announced on Thursday, after 36 hours of deliberation, that he would keep on his campaign staff two liberal feminist bloggers with long cybertrails of incendiary comments on sex, religion and politics.

Deliberations over the fate of the two bloggers, Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan, created a crisis in Mr. Edwards’s nascent campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 and illuminated the treacherous road ahead as candidates of both parties try to harness the growing power of the online world. The case of the two women had left Mr. Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, with difficult choices.

Difficult choices, indeed. On the one hand, if Edwards had fired them, the nutroots would have had his head, figuratively speaking. They were already going down that road. On the other hand, his disingenuous rationale for keeping them just reinforces his hypocrisy, and that of the two bloggers in question. Marcotte’s and McEwan’s “apologies” said, basically, “it was just satire, we weren’t serious.” In pig’s eye. They were damned serious, and that’s the frickin’ problem. Jeff Goldstein says it best:

Of course it was her intent. Just as it was McEwan’s intent. And worst of all, Edwards knows it. That he has pretended to take the two at their word, in an ostentatious gesture of “trust,” is precisely the kind of staged treacle that makes people doubt the sincerity of politicians; and that both Marcotte and McEwan have assured their own personal Patriarch that they’ll behave, now that he’s promoted them to the grownups’ table, is, to put it bluntly, one of the most pathetic public surrenderings of personal integrity I’ve ever seen.

Seriously. We should feel bad for them.

That is, were we to actually believe they meant any of it. Because how this plays out for the netroots is this way: either they are cheering on an ideological sellout, or they are knowingly and happily embracing an opportunistic liar. So. Congrats to them. Once again, they’ve covered themselves in white hot sticky glory!

What he said.

Today’s Pic: More Adolphus. The pic on the right is an interior shot of the ex-girlfriend in front of one of those Flemish tapestries, and the exterior (at the top) is a more-detailed shot of some of the stonework on the façade.

Lou mentioned in yesterday’s comments that she would post about the Adolphus on her blog. And she has. Great story, that!

Still February of 2004. Still in Dallas. As always, click the pic for the larger version(s).

Baroque

Today’s Pic: An architectural detail on the Hotel Adolphus in Dallas. From their web site:

A baroque masterpiece opened in 1912, The Adolphus Dallas hotel ushered in a grand new era of sophisticated Dallas lodging. Amid such treasures as early Flemish tapestries and a Victorian Steinway once owned by the Guggenheims, you can recall the splendor of bygone days and almost feel the presence of the famous guests who stayed here before you. Once you are shown through our carriage doors, you may just feel like royalty yourself.

One of the better hotels I’ve stayed in…it really is “a baroque masterpiece,” inside and out.

February, 2004.

Late Night? Early Morning?

re: the title...you decide.

Open to all…with certain limitations:

Although Google posted in Gmail's help that "anyone in the world is now welcome to create a Gmail account at mail.google.com/mail/signup", Google's definition of the world was pretty limited.

Gmail is now a public beta in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Brazil, Australia, Russia and Japan, according to BBC. If you live in one of those places, you can go to Gmail.com, and look for "Sign up for Gmail" or you can visit this page to create an account.

I’ve used GMail for well over two years now, or is it three? One forgets. But…I really like it, and that’s an understatement. As I’ve said before: Google’s gonna own the world. It’s just a matter of time.

Speaking of Google…this is fun. And photos! I never had any reason to go to the Googleplex while I lived in SFO, but now I wish I had.

A breath of fresh air… “Global Warming and Hot Air.” In yesterday’s WaPo. Excerpts:

You could be excused for thinking that we'll soon do something serious about global warming. Last Friday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) -- an international group of scientists -- concluded that, to a 90 percent probability, human activity is warming the Earth. Earlier, Democratic congressional leaders made global warming legislation a top priority; and 10 big U.S. companies (including General Electric and DuPont) endorsed federal regulation. Strong action seems at hand.

Don't be fooled. The dirty secret about global warming is this: We have no solution. About 80 percent of the world's energy comes from fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas), the main sources of man-made greenhouse gases. Energy use sustains economic growth, which -- in all modern societies -- buttresses political and social stability. Until we can replace fossil fuels or find practical ways to capture their emissions, governments will not sanction the deep energy cuts that would truly affect global warming.

[…]

Anyone who honestly examines global energy trends must reach these harsh conclusions. In 2004, world emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2, the main greenhouse gas) totaled 26 billion metric tons. Under plausible economic and population assumptions, CO2emissions will grow to 40 billion tons by 2030, projects the International Energy Agency. About three-quarters of the increase is forecast to come from developing countries, two-fifths from China alone. The IEA expects China to pass the United States as the largest source of carbon dioxide by 2009. (Emphasis mine)

Which, in part, is why the infamous Kyoto Protocol does not make any sense, and why the Senate, during the Clinton administration’s tenure, rejected the Kyoto Protocol by a vote of 95-0. As the President said in a 2001 letter to Senators Hagel, Helms, Craig, and Roberts:

As you know, I oppose the Kyoto Protocol because it exempts 80 percent of the world, including major population centers such as China and India, from compliance, and would cause serious harm to the U.S. economy. The Senate's vote, 95-0, shows that there is a clear consensus that the Kyoto Protocol is an unfair and ineffective means of addressing global climate change concerns.

The President is correct. The Kyoto Protocol is just so much window dressing, a sort of “feel good” initiative that doesn’t accomplish a dang thing…even if the nations that signed on (I’m looking at you, EU) actually complied with the protocol. And yet we have idjits like Chirac threatening the US with sanctions additional taxes on our exports if we don’t sign on to Kyoto, and Kerry mumbling about the US being a “pariah” because, in part, we didn’t ratify Kyoto. I know I’m digressing here, but…dang!

Here’s another right-on-target essay on the subject at Café Hayek.

This short-run basic human pleasure most Americans get from warmer weather helps people feel good about being skeptical about the data and the science. How seriously can you take the scientific consensus when there's a debate about whether to use 90% or 99% as the likelihood that we're changing the earth's climate? That's not science. That's politics. How seriously can you take the scientific consensus when there are serious scientists suggesting the whole thing is a hoax. Jeff Jacoby lists a few here. And there are others. These folks aren't saying the estimates are off by 10%. They're saying the whole thing is a hoax. How seriously can you take the scientific consensus when you know that a lot of the experts are on the government and foundation funding gravy train and their livelihood depends on remaining on the right side?

That WaPo editorial and the Café Hayek essay pretty much have the goods. There are a few bits I don’t agree with in the WaPo op-ed, but…on the whole: Recommended. As is the Café Hayek piece.

Interesting… Hackers attack heart of the net. You didn’t notice, did ya?

Hackers have attempted to topple key parts of the internet's backbone, in one of the most significant attacks of recent years.

The target was servers that help to direct global internet traffic.

In the early hours of Tuesday three key servers were hit by a barrage of data in what is known as a distributed denial-of-service attack.

There is no evidence so far of damage, which experts are saying is testament to the robust nature of the internet.

[…]

The servers involved were each operated by a separate body – the US Defense Department, the net’s oversight body ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and UltraDNS, which manages traffic for websites ending in “org” and some other suffixes.

On the other hand, you just might be part of the problem:

Do you know what your computer was doing the other night?

That's the question a lot of security professionals and analysts would like to put to users. On Tuesday, the 13 servers that help manage worldwide Internet traffic were hit by a denial-of-service attack that nearly took down three of them. Analysts say the hackers' used possibly millions of zombie computers to wage the attack -- and they expect that army is populated with the desktops and laptops of unknowing users around the world.

"Individuals have contributed to this problem without knowing it," says Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant with Sophos. "People heard about hackers doing these things, but guess what? It may have been your computer doing part of the hacking. ... People need to take more responsibility over the cleanliness of their PCs."

One cannot over-emphasize the importance of good virus protection software. I’ve been in the biz for a long time, yet somehow I became “part of the problem” a few years back. Even though I’ve always run anti-virus and anti-spyware software someone managed to hack my AOL password and use my computer to send literally hundreds of spam messages. I was shocked. And how did I know? AOL “locked” my account and I had to call them to get back on-line. That wasn’t pleasant. Thank God the spam was just ordinary, run of the mill stuff…and not porn, or worse... What could be worse, you ask? Democrat propaganda comes to mind. Just sayin’.

Iowahawk. Iowahawk!! Yes!!

The Pandagon Papers

[Strong content warning - ed.]

To: Senator John Edwards
From: Amanda Marcotte
Re: Job Offer

Dear Senator Edwards:

I am f***ing delighted to accept your offer of the position of Official Blogger for the Edwards 2008 presidential campaign. Please find attached my f***ing W-2 form.

I would like to express my heartfelt thanks for this totally f***ing awesome opportunity to help you take America back from f***ing BushCo and the other f***tard bible-humping extremists that have turned this once great nation into a goddamn rape factory for their snakehandling Jesus Camp hatebots.

In closing, I am so f***ing proud to be a part of this campaign, and f***ing gratified to know that I'll be working for someone who f***ing understands the importance of reaching out to progressive bloggers like myself. I look forward to contributing in any way I f***ing can. You won't be f***ing sorry!

F***ing Sincerely,
Amanda Marcotte, "Pandagon"

Merely the first of seven notes from Ms. Amanda to Candidate Johnny. Read the rest. Or not, if you’re offended by the f-bomb, of which there are many. But, Hey! That’s Ms. Marcotte’s style, ain’t it? And be sure to chase Iowahawk’s links, coz he’s distilled the essence of the issue…wonderfully.