Tales of the Heliosphere

So, the market is now down over 700 points with 90 minutes still to go until closing bell. Can't W send in some federal marshals to close it down early? The principle of government intervention in the market is already well established, what with the big $700 billion bailout. Let's go all the way!

Things are not looking good at all. Too late really to do anything but ride it out. But the panic is rising within me. What I'd really like to do is convert all my liquid assets to gold coins and put them in my gun safe at home. Add a vegetable garden to the backyard, some chickens, maybe a goat, start a home brewery to dull the misery, and hunker down until the next world war ends the upcoming great depression about 5-10 years from now! In this the best of all possible worlds, it's time to tend our gardens.

-tdr

Labels: America, Money, Politics

The Presidential Council of Iraq has approved the provincial elections law. Local elections must occur sometime before January 31, 2009. (Here.) More good news in this the 21st month of The Surge that was opposed by Barack Obama. Nice call, Senator.

-tdr

Labels: Elections, War, War on Jihad

Fear of global warming is leading governments to regulate people's lives at lower and lower levels. For instance, there's the move to ban standard light bulbs and replace them with compact fluorescents.

"Touted as a greener alternative to traditional lighting, CFLs are about four times more energy-efficient than incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer. This increased efficiency lessens the energy demand on generating stations powered by fossil fuels and reduces greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the amount of packaging and old light bulbs that end up in landfills. But unlike incandescent light bulbs, CFLs contain mercury, a toxin with potentially hazardous effects that can be released during manufacturing and disposal.

"'It's always good to promote energy efficiency, but it's always a tradeoff,' said lead author Matthew Eckelman, a graduate student in Yale's Department of Chemistry and the Center for Industrial Ecology. 'You may get a lower energy bill at home, but you don't see the emissions or the runoff downstream.'

"While the researchers stress that their study isn't an excuse to ignore the energy problem and stick with old, inefficient technologies, they caution that nation-wide strategies such as recent bans on incandescent bulbs, adopted by several countries including the U.S., may be too general. 'All sustainability issues are local,' said Zimmerman. 'We need to ask if we should be making decisions on a national level, or if this is something better left to local governments.'" (Here.)

I would ask whether the regulation is necessary at all.

-tdr

Republished once to correct omission and spelling.

Labels: Energy, Environment, Technology

Lawyers like to think we're at the top of the food chain in our society. Although a friend once told me, lawyers don't run the world, they just do the bidding of those who do. That shut me up for a few seconds.

Now comes a real blow to lawyerly self-esteem.

"Not only are doctors, nurses, and firefighters essential during a severe pandemic influenza outbreak. So, too, are truck drivers, communications personnel, and utility workers. That's the conclusion of a Johns Hopkins University article to be published in the journal of Biosecurity and Bioterrorism." (Here.)

The report goes on to include grocery store workers in its list of essential personnel. Lawyers, not so much.

The most important advice offered by the report is for individuals to be prepared, although that advice comes with a bit of weird trickle down theorizing.

"[I]ndividuals and families who can afford it should do their best to prepare for any disaster. The paper notes, the more initiative the general public exercises in stockpiling several weeks' worth of food, water, paper goods, batteries medicines, and other needed supplies, the less vulnerable they will be to a break in the supply chain. In fact, the report emphasizes, it is important for leaders to communicate to the middle class and the wealthy that it is their responsibility to prepare for self-sufficiency in order to free up scarce supplies and allow first responders to direct their attention towards those too poor or vulnerable to prepare themselves."

Speaking of surviving a disaster. Here's the most recent addition to my Second Amendment Disaster Preparedness Kit. It's a Henry, pump action 22 long rifle. -tdr

Labels: Disasters, Guns, Health

Governor Sarah Palin was great to watch tonight. I love Republican politicians who are confident of their position and unwilling to cede any high ground to their Democratic opponents. Ever since Palin's nomination as the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Democrats have amused themselves with hateful anti-Palin rhetoric and jokes. It's as if they felt permission to unleash their inner sexism because Palin is a conservative, Christian, Republican woman. I suppose the hateful jokes will continue. But tonight, Palin showed that it's a mistake to misunderestimate her.

-tdr

Labels: America, Elections, Politics

The latest good news from Iraq is that the central government is taking over control of the so-called Awakening Councils. (Here.) There is tension associated with the turnover driven by some mistrust. But the transfer represents yet another positive result of the surge in Iraq. The surge that the phony senator from Illinois judged would not work. Nice call, Senator.

-tdr

Labels: America, Elections, Politics, War, War on Jihad

Good news from Elon Musk. SpaceX, his space launch company, has finally succeeded in launching a rocket to orbit. Here is Musk's email announcement.

"Wow, this is a great day for SpaceX and the culmination of an enormous amount of work by a great team. The data shows we achieved a super precise orbit insertion — middle of the bullseye — and then went on to coast and restart the second stage, which was icing on the cake.

"I will have a more complete post launch statement tomorrow, as right now I'm in a bit of a daze and need to go celebrate :)

—Elon— "

Visit the SpaceX website for cool pictures and more information. (Here.) Press release is here.

UPDATE: Edited highlight video of launch and flight is here. Longer video is at Hobbyspace.com here.

-tdr

Labels: Space Captains Of Industry

Watching John McCain debate Barack Obama is maddeningly frustrating. McCain doesn't seem to understand that his job in the debate is to take down his opponent. So far, only Obama seems willing to strike blows against his opponent. Obama interrupts McCain and contradicts him when McCain says something critical. McCain sits back smiling when Obama says something about McCain and doesn't respond during his own time. Obama looks ready to fight. McCain doesn't.

When asked how each candidate would reduce spending because of the money needed to be spent for the current bailout. Obama answered the question by listing all the priorities he wanted to spend money on and then said he'd get rid of programs that don't work. Whatever. McCain said nothing.

When moderator Jim Lehrer pressed both candidates to answer his question, McCain said he'd be in favor of a freeze on most federal spending. Obama quickly criticized that as using a hatchet when a scalpel is needed. McCain again made no response. What he could have said is something like this: "Senator Obama has been given several opportunities now to tell us what spending he'd cut or put off. Instead, he's told us what he'd spend more money on. He criticizes a freeze as using a hatchet when a scalpel is needed. With all due respect, Barack, you're not even willing to pick up a pocketknife."

-tdr

Labels: America, Elections, Politics

To be honest the only reason for this post is to bump the gruesome dead possum post down from the top. So, here's a picture of a passel of Lesser Goldfinches feeding from a nyjer seed sock. Aren't they cuuuute? I've replaced the sock with a metal mesh feeder. Much cleaner.

Now here's a shot of Kimba sitting behind the Lemonade Berry Bush. The old sock feeder is devoid of birds. Hmmm, I wonder why. The Lemonade Berry Bush is a California native that will get to about 6-8 feet tall and thicker. It's still small because it's a juvenile that hasn't gone through a rainy season yet. Birds love the bush for the small sour berries it produces. I've been told that mixing the berries with water and sugar produces a passable lemonade. (Here.) We'll see.

-tdr

Republished once to add link for making lemonade berry lemonade.

Labels: Animals, Birds, Food, Gardening, Nature, San Diego

Went birding again this weekend. This time to Old Mission Dam at Mission Trails Regional Park in a suburban neighborhood of the City of San Diego. The park is at the end of a large nature corridor that stretches from the mountains east of the city. These nature corridors are one of the reasons why rural brush fires in San Diego County can find there way into the city and nearly all the way to the coast. But that's another topic.

There wasn't a whole lot of activity when I went. All good birders are supposed to list what they saw. I'm not too keen on being shoulded on, but here's my list anyway.

Common Yellow Throat (first time for me)
House Finch
Cooper's Hawk
Black Phoebe
California Thrasher
California Towhee
Bewick's Wren (first time)
Mourning Doves

There's another consequence of the nature corridors in San Diego: wild four legged critters can be seen in backyards and on streets. My house is on a street that dead ends at an undeveloped canyon. As you may remember, a possum has been living in my backyard off and on for about a year now. Well, no longer. The other day, I found the little guy dead and partially eaten on my front walk. It looked very much like it had been killed by a coyote. Coyotes apparently often consume only part of their kill.

I didn't want the possum's carcass to lure the coyote back for more. So, I buried the possum in my backyard. No such luck. The coyote came back again the other night and came right up to my front porch where it made some scary wild noises. I turned up the TV really loud. It was Keith Olbermann bombasting away. The coyote ran off and I haven't heard it since. I've read before that coyotes are pretty smart. Seems right to me.

Not to be ghoulish, but here's a picture of the dead possum. Okay, I guess that was ghoulish. Sorry about that.

Not to be maudlin, but here's the possum's grave in my backyard. Rest in peace, little guy. Yeah, that's a fake Mt. Rushmore in the background. So?

-tdr

Labels: Animals, Birds, Nature, San Diego

This morning Howard Gutman was on Laura Ingraham's show. Gutman's bio on the Huffington Post website, where he occasionally blogs, describes him as "a partner in a Washington D.C. law firm and an original member of the Obama National Finance Committee. He is a frequent commentator on the 2008 Campaign on both television and radio." (Here.)

Gutman was on the show to criticize Sarah Palin for being a bad parent by putting her daughter's crisis pregnancy in the public eye. He criticized Governor Palin for deciding to run for Vice-President rather than putting "family first." He said that Governor Palin should have stayed out of the race in order to keep her daughter's pregnancy a private matter, within her family and with the involvement of only a few friends. He also kept saying that his criticism was not about her being a bad mother but about being a bad parent. According to him, any parent, father or mother, deserves criticism for what Governor Palin chose to do.

First off, it is, of course, absurd to believe that his criticism is not about her being a bad mother. Governor Palin is a woman. Perhaps you've noticed. She's not an androgynous or sexless parent. Gutman might think he can take this issue up one level of abstraction but he can't. No matter what he says, the fact remains, Palin is a woman, and when he criticizes her, he criticizes her choice as a woman.

It is, of course, stunningly hypocritical for a liberal Democrat to make the scurrilous charge he makes. Democrats claim to be all about opening up opportunities for women without regard to stereotypical gender roles. Governor Palin's nomination is instructive because it reveals the sexism that lurks below the surface of liberalism's alleged enlightenment.

Gutman's argument about privacy is nonsensical because it presents a false choice. I know the Democratic line is that Sarah Palin is just a former small-town mayor. Well, here's a reminder: Sarah Palin is the Governor of Alaska. Yes, even now. What that means is Bristol Palin's pregnancy was never going to be merely a private affair. It might not have gotten the same kind of national attention it's now getting but it would have gotten attention back in Alaska. For Bristol and her family, it never would have been just a private affair.

What Gutman really is arguing is that Alaskan media and Palin's Alaskan political opponents would not have made an issue of Bristol Palin's pregnancy in the same way that the national media and national Democrats are. Gutman is acknowledging that national Democrats and national media are merciless sharks who will stoop to anything. He is also shifting the blame to the victims of this slanderous invasion of privacy.

Which brings me to my final point. The national media and national Democrats have a choice. The pregnancy has been noted and now they can move on, ignore the pregnancy, and give the Palin family its privacy on this matter. They've chosen not to give the Palin family any privacy and they blame Governor Palin for it. They are in the same position as spousal abusers, who with every physical blow, shout, "see, what you're making me do." They are despicable.

-tdr

Labels: America, Elections, Politics

So, McCain's speech is a bit of a letdown. His rhythym is disrupted by the crowd's cheering. It's clear that he's thrown a bit off his stride by the interruptions. It's hard to blame him. His speech is not a rabble rouser. It's not really filled with applause lines. The audience doesn't seem to have caught on to that. McCain's speaking style seems more suited to addressing an audience intent on listening rather than reacting. Oh well.

Also it sure looks like a major teleprompter problem occurred again tonight. McCain was speaking of cutting payments to countries that don't like us much and the crowd went wild cutting him off in midsentence. He appeared he was trying to say something about spending the money here at home. When the crowd finally stopped yelling, instead, of finishing what seemed to be that line, McCain returned with a line about drilling. It sure seemed to me that the teleprompter just kept going during the applause lines.* If true, the same thing reportedly happened to Sarah Palin last night. The teleprompting gig at the Republican Convention must have gone to the lowest bidder. Or maybe it went to an MSNBC teleprompter. Anyway, Palin handled the glitch smoother. She does the big public speeches better than McCain.

It's too bad McCain's delivery is off tonight. He's a great American. Unfortunately, it's not coming through in this speech as much as it ought to.

-tdr

*Update: Well, apparently not. The full text of McCain's speech is here. The teleprompter did not run on. Here's the portion I wrote about. "My fellow Americans, when I’m President, we’re going to embark on the most ambitious national project in decades. We are going to stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don’t like us very much. We will attack the problem on every front. We will produce more energy at home. We will drill new wells offshore, and we’ll drill them now." I still don't think that paragraph flows well in the first three lines. But, whatever.

Labels: America, Elections, Politics

America was introduced to its own Iron Lady tonight in Sarah Palin. She is one dynamic speaker. (Speech text here.) I am so looking forward to watching her campaign, and hopefully, her Vice-Presidency and, eventually, her Presidency. What a tough gal.

-tdr

Republished once to add speech text link.

Labels: America, Elections, Politics

I'm watching Rudy speak tonight. I love that guy. He knows how to dish it out. His attacks on Obama tonight are spot on. Give 'em hell!

-tdr

Labels: America, Elections, Politics

This lizard has been living among the plants along the front of my house. I destroyed its habitat by removing all the plants in preparation for replacing them with California natives. I'm hoping it finds someplace to hang out until the new plants go in. It's welcome to stay.

And this squirrel has taken up residence in the gap between my fence and my neighbor's fence. The possum used to live there but he hasn't been back for a while now.
These parrots came by today.
There are four of them. Not sure if I want to encourage them because of the noise. But they are beautiful creatures nonetheless.
Finally, this Cooper's Hawk has been hanging out a lot lately. It seems to be a juvenile. I haven't seen it catch anything yet, but I don't think it would keep hanging out here if it hadn't. By the way, it does have two legs. It's just resting one.
Who says there's no life in the suburbs?

-tdr

Labels: Animals, Birds, Gardening, Photography

John McCain's pick of Sarah Palin seems to take experience off the table as an issue in the campaign. After all, Palin and Barack Obama are both inexperienced so McCain won't be able to attack Obama's inexperience. It's theoretically possible that voters may be tempted to shy away from McCain out of fear that an inexperienced Palin will have to finish out McCain's term. On the other hand, the likelihood of Obama becoming President is much greater than the likelihood of Palin becoming President during a McCain term. To state the obvious, if an inexperienced Obama wins the election, he's President. If McCain wins, the inexperienced Palin is Vice-President. Voters who are concerned about an inexperienced President are safer voting for McCain than Obama.

But I'm not sure experience was ever going to be the main issue in the general election. I suspect that those who believe Palin's inexperience hurts McCain are like generals fighting the last war. In this case, the primary election campaign.

Hillary Clinton had to run on experience versus inexperience in the Democratic primaries because she and Barack Obama basically share the same politics. How else could she differentiate herself positively from Obama? McCain and Obama don't share political ideology so McCain can run on political differences and Obama gave him a ton of material in his preemptive state of the union address from Invesco Field Thursday night.

So, I'm liking Palin. I think she's a good pick for McCain for these reasons:

1. She may appeal to working class Hillary voters. Not pro-choice women because they would vote for Obama regardless. Instead, she may appeal to both men and women in the working class who found Hillary's working class shtick appealing. You know, the voters Jim Webb wrote about in "Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America." The voters who cling to God and guns in times of distress, who drive pickup trucks, who go hunting, and who live in small town and rural America. The kind of voters who were turned off in the primaries by Obama's elitist demeanor.

2. Palin reinforces McCain's own change message. She's noted in Alaska as someone who has gone in and cleaned up the Republican establishment, even though she is a Republican herself. She's also known as a tough, take no prisoners politician. The line I heard on TV this morning is that the political landscape in Alaska is littered with the bodies of people who have crossed Sarah Palin. If true, I say, "yeah!"

3. Her presence on the ticket as a down the line conservative will help increase turnout among the Republican-base voters who feel uneasy about McCain's history of being the anti-Republican Republican.

-tdr

Labels: America, Elections, Politics

Eight years ago a young and untested George Bush chose Dick Cheney, considered then to be a wise old man of Washington, to be his vice-presidential candidate. How did that turn out for you? Now Barrack Obama, if the cable news shows are right, is following the Bush playbook and has chosen Joe Biden, the Democratic Party's wise old man of Washington. The difference, of course, is that Cheney knows how to keep his mouth shut. Biden has never met a silence he doesn't feel it necessary to fill.

Cheney and Biden remind me of an old Thomas Jefferson saying: "It is better to remain silent and presumed a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt."

Cheney probably did little to change the election results in 2000 and 2004. But he has been an extremely influential Vice-President. Biden's regular guy persona is more likely to benefit Obama during the campaign. But his tendency to run his mouth and say foolish things is likely to make him a less influential Vice-President. That's my counter-intuitive opinion, anyway.

-tdr

Labels: America, Elections, Politics

If you're like most people you don't have a problem with alcohol. You drink moderately and socially for pleasure. Well, science has advice for you.

DON'T STOP DRINKING!

"Scientific evidence has long suggested that moderate drinking offers some protection against heart disease, certain types of stroke and some forms of cancer.

"But new research shows that stopping drinking -- including at moderate levels -- may lead to health problems including depression and a reduced capacity of the brain to produce new neurons, a process called neurogenesis." (Here.)

What does this have to do with the existence of a loving God, you might ask?

Well, God made us into creatures that benefit from drinking moderate amounts of alcohol. A habit that is not only good for us but one that brings joy. And when Jesus walked the Earth he traveled from town to town attending weddings and performing miracles, among many other good things. He didn't turn wine into water, he turned water into wine. The Biblical lesson is clear: Jesus wants us to drink alcohol. Who are we to defy God?

-tdr

Labels: Alcohol, Good News, Health, Religion

A long time ago a wise man said, "your mind will be like its habitual thoughts, for the soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts." (Marcus Aurelius.) With our scientific way of thinking we would state it differently today. No more poetic references to the soul and the color of thoughts. Nicholas Carr, writing in The Atlantic, puts it this way:

"The human brain is almost infinitely malleable. People used to think that our mental meshwork, the dense connections formed among the 100 billion or so neurons inside our skulls, was largely fixed by the time we reached adulthood. But brain researchers have discovered that that’s not the case. James Olds, a professor of neuroscience who directs the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study at George Mason University, says that even the adult mind 'is very plastic.' Nerve cells routinely break old connections and form new ones. 'The brain,' according to Olds, 'has the ability to reprogram itself on the fly, altering the way it functions.'" (Here.)

The human brain's plasticity causes some to worry, Carr included, that increased use of the internet is changing how people read, think, and how their brains are wired. I suspect he's right. Like him, I can feel the change in my own mind. And it's not just the internet: TV and videogames have as much of an impact on people's behavior and thought processes as the internet does. But there's no stopping it in a free society because the internet's immediate value is so evident that whatever long-term consequences it might impose pale in comparison. The most we can hope to do is mitigate those consequences. The genie is out of the bottle.

-tdr

Labels: Computers, Society., Technology

Science says second-hand smoke (SHS) won't kill you. It'll just annoy you and make your clothes smell bad. Or so says this article.

"In 2003 a definitive paper on SHS and lung cancer mortality was published in the British Medical Journal. It is the largest and most detailed study ever reported. The authors studied more than 35,000 California never-smokers over a 39-year period and found no statistically significant association between exposure to SHS and lung cancer mortality." (Here.)

So, smoke with abandon everybody.

-tdr

Labels: Good News, Science, Society

William F. Buckley famously said about conservatism that it is "standing athwart history, yelling Stop." (Here.) David Brooks seems to have a different idea. He passes on a quote from Benjamin Disraeli in his recent column.

"'In a progressive country, change is constant; and the great question is not whether you should resist change, which is inevitable, but whether that change should be carried out in deference to the manners, the customs, the laws and traditions of a people, or whether it should be carried out in deference to abstract principles, and arbitrary and general doctrines.'" (Here.)

You know, the American Revolution not the French Revolution.

-tdr

Labels: Politics

Went on a guided birdwalk this morning at Lake Murray in San Diego. Sorry, no pictures but here's the list of birds seen today.

Lots of hummingbirds, 3 varieties:

Black Chin
Annas
Costa's

Red-tail hawk --- sitting on a telephone wire with half a dozen small birds on the wire above.
Turkey Vulture --- circling on a thermal.

Mourning Doves
House Finch
Lesser Goldfinches
Black Phoebe
Song Sparrows
Red-Winged Blackbirds --- family groups with the colorful males, the drab females, and several juveniles.
Cassin's Kingbirds ---- another family group perched at the very top of a tree. Raucus, kind of plain but with a yellow belly

Forester Terns

Mallards
American Coot --- black w/ white stripe down forehead, and the strangest looking, green, leaflike feet. I'm thinking, a genetic experiment gone wrong.
Domestic Geese

-tdr

Labels: Birds, Nature

After litigating the right to possess his firearm all the way to the United States Supreme Court, Dick Heller had his application to register his firearm rejected. (Here.) Why? He owns a semiautomatic handgun, an ordinary and typical type of firearm owned by millions of Americans but not registerable in the District of Columbia. (Here.) Is this the kind of so-called reasonable regulation of gun ownership that the Phony Senator from Illinois supports? Who thinks that Heller's fight against DC is over?

-tdr

Labels: Guns, Law, Politics

Today's exciting space news is that scientists from Brown University have discovered evidence of water on the moon. Here's the headline at Moondaily.com: "Brown-Led Team Finds Evidence Of Water In Lunar Interior." And here's another headline at the Scientific American website: "New scans show evidence of water on the moon."

Wow! This is exciting news! It's time to start the lunar colonization programs! Let's see what the story at Moondaily.com says:

"A Brown University-led research team has for the first time discovered evidence of water that came from deep within the Moon, a revelation that strongly suggests water has been a part of the Moon since its early existence -- and perhaps ever since it was created by a cataclysmic collision between the early Earth and a Mars-sized object about 4.5 billion years ago.

"In a paper published in the July 10 issue of the journal Nature, the team, led by Alberto Saal, assistant professor of geological sciences at Brown, believes that the water was contained in magmas erupted from fire fountains onto the surface of the Moon more than 3 billion years ago." (Here.)

Oops. Never mind. Three billion years ago.

No doubt this will thrill planetary scientists throughout the solar system. But really thrilling news would be that water remains inside the Moon today. If that were the case, perhaps residents of future lunar bases or colonies could drill deep into the Moon and mine the water.

There is speculation about the current presence or absence of water on the Moon in the story.

"About 95 percent of the water vapor from the magma was lost to space during this eruptive "degassing," the team estimates. But traces of water vapor may have drifted toward the cold poles of the Moon, where they may remain as ice in permanently shadowed craters."

We've heard this speculation before and maybe the fact that the Moon held water 3 billion years ago increases the likelihood that there is water ice there now. Let's hope so. Water's pretty darn heavy and a ready supply on the Moon could be very useful.

-tdr

Labels: Luna, Science, Scienceism

An engineering professor from St. Louis has studied baseball and concluded that the game's design favors lefthanders. (Here.) Now that's what I call science in the public interest.

-tdr

Labels: Baseball, Science

The San Diego Union-Tribune published an interview with centerfielder Jody Gerut today. Apparently he has a history degree from Stanford University with an emphasis on Russian histroy. Here's a snippet:

Q: What about Russian history made it so interesting to you?

A: "I was not fascinated with personalities like Lenin and Stalin. What was more interesting to me was the struggle for existence and what it was like to live in a communist state. We still have an example close to home in Cuba, where people just got the right to have personal cell phones, and feminine hygiene products are still rationed. Think about that when you think about where we are."

Q: Needless to say, you studied communism.

A: "Absolutely. I wanted to know as much as I could. I wasn't interested as much in what people thought about Stalin, rather in the lifestyle under communism. I was interested in the impact of the ideology. In the Soviet Union, if you invented the widget, the widget belonged to the state, not to you. So there was really no reason to develop the widget." (Here.)

I love this guy!

-tdr

Labels: Baseball, Padres, San Diego

The worst journalist in the world weighed in the other day on Justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia won the "worst person in the world" honor on Keith Olbermann's joke of a news show. What was Scalia's offense? Upholding the right of Americans to keep and bear arms. You know, the one that's right there in the Second Amendment.

It's inevitable in arguments over the meaning of the Second Amendment that the person who wants to disarm Americans will mock "original intent" or "strict construction" by saying something like what Olbermann says in his rant about Scalia:

"Despite years of fog created by the NRA and right-wing organizations, that isn‘t very complicated; for the purposes of forming a state militia, you‘re entitled to keep and bear arms. Obviously, those would have to be the kind of use in arms since 1791, when the Bill of Rights was passed, the musket, the wheel-lock, the flint lock, the 13th century Chinese hand canon. Stuff like that." (Here, scroll down.)

Of course, Olbermann's point is a stupid one.

Americans' right to travel embedded in the Privileges and Immunities Clause (here) is not limited to interstate travel on foot, horseback, carriage, or sailboat. Americans' right to petition their government for redress of grievances is not limited to sending notes by messenger to their elected representatives. The United States Congress's power to regulate interstate commerce is not limited to goods that travel by wagon, barge, or sailboat. Finally, Americans' freedom of speech is not limited to publishing pamphlets on hand-operated printing presses or standing on a soapbox in a local park and ranting at passersby. Although come to think of it, Olbermann's phony news show, and especially his very special comments, are the television equivalents of a crazy person standing on a soapbox in a local park ranting at passersby.

Today's worst constitutional scholar in the world: Keith Olbermann.

-tdr

Labels: America, Guns, Law, Media, TV

The United States Supreme Court today rejected the procedures developed by Congress and the President for the detainees at Guantanamo. The court held the detainees are entitled to file habeas corpus petitions in federal district court, even though the detainees are foreigners held on foreign soil. (Story here and opinion in pdf format here.)

Perhaps it's time to transform the macho slogan, "kill them all and let God sort them out," into an official rule of engagement.

-tdr

Labels: America, Law, War on Jihad

This just in from Reuters:

"One of the last shipments to a U.S. research base in Antarctica before the onset of winter darkness was a year's supply of condoms, a New Zealand newspaper reported Monday.

"Bill Henriksen, the manager of the McMurdo base station, said nearly 16,500 condoms were delivered last month and would be made available, free of charge, to staff throughout the year to avoid the potential embarrassment of having to buy them." (Here.)

Let's see, 16,500 condoms divided by 365 days is 45 condoms per day. Whatever gets you through the night, as they say. And the nights are long down there. Cold, too.

Go here for information on job opportunities in Antarctica.

-tdr

Labels: America, Antarctica, Sex

One of the ironies of modern American politics is how much Democrats complain that Republicans are mean practitioners of the politics of personal destruction. Why can't Republicans just talk about the issues? Why all the personal attacks? So go the lamentations.

Yet Democrats regularly talk smack about Republicans, and in a very matter of fact way, as if the ickiness of Republicans is as obvious and ordinary as the sun in the sky during the day and darkness at night. For instance, get a load of this comment by Lorena Gonzalez, a labor leader in San Diego, about Carl DeMaio, a newly elected Republican member of the City Council. "'Do I think he cares about poor people? No,' she said. 'But I think I can have a relationship with him.'" (Here.)

First, Gonzalez attacks DeMaio's character by accusing him of having no compassion for the poor, then, in the next breath, she expresses hope that she can work with him. Priceless.*

-tdr

* For the record. I appreciate negative, personal politics. How a candidate reacts to personal attacks says a lot about that candidate's strength of character. Elections are about placing particular people into positions of power not platforms or issue papers. The personal character of a political leader is as important an issue as there is.

Labels: America, Elections, Politics

IBM may have been left behind in the personal computer revolution, but the company rules when it comes to superfast, supercomputers. An IBM devised and built military supercomputer recently set a world record for computing speed by performing over over 1 quadrillion calculations per second, that's a "petaflop" in computerspeak. The computer is built from components originally designed for video game machines. The processing speed feat has helped keep the US in the lead in the international supercomputer speed race.

"By breaking the petaflop barrier sooner than was generally expected, the U.S. supercomputer industry has been able to sustain a pace of continuous performance increases, improving a thousandfold in processing power in 11 years. The next thousandfold goal is the exaflop, which is a quintillion calculations per second, followed by the zettaflop, the yottaflop and the xeraflop."(Here.)

But what about the Fosbury flop? (Here.) No word in the story either about solving the garbage in, garbage out problem.

-tdr

Labels: America, Technology

People in Kenya are being fed by a nutritious and drought-resistant wheat that makes better bread and grows well on land too barren for more traditional varieties.

"Scientists and crop researchers at Kenya´s Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) developed the new wheat seeds over the past decade. Through a process called 'mutation plant breeding', they applied radiation-based techniques to modify crop characteristics and traits. Kenya worked closely with the IAEA, through its technical cooperation arm and a regional programme called AFRA (African Co-operative Agreement for Research, Development and Training related to Nuclear Science and Technology). ...

"KARI is the country´s premier institution for agricultural research and technology transfer. Its plant breeders successfully released their first mutant wheat variety in 2001. Called Njoro-BW1, it was bred to be tolerant to drought and use limited rainfall efficiently. Key side benefits include a moderate resistance to wheat rust; high yields, with grains valued for flour production of good baking quality."

Read more about how scientists in Africa are saving lives and increasing prosperity for their own people. (Here.)

-tdr

Labels: Food, Good News, Science

On the occasion of Senator Barack Obama's ascension.

They tell us we can't "distract" the voters with "wedge" issues like abortion, religion, marriage, and guns in the campaign against the candidate Obama.

Yes we can.

They tell us we can't impute the radical beliefs of his long time associates to the candidate Obama.

Yes we can.

They tell us we can't criticize his wife's campaign speeches in attacks on the candidate Obama.

Yes we can.

They tell us we can't discuss race when talking about the identity of the candidate Obama.

Yes we can.

They tell us we can't ask questions about his Muslim childhood when talking about the life of the candidate Obama.

Yes we can.

They tell us we can't use his full name when referring to the candidate Barack Hussein Obama.

Yes we can.

They tell us we can't use religion as a wedge or patriotism as a club.

Yes we can.

All's fair. Let the swiftboating begin.

-tdr

Republished once to correct a typo.

Labels: America, Elections, Politics

Breakfast is supposed to be all about comfort food. Not sure where breakfast cake falls in that category. Judge for yourself here. The odds are about even that the pictures of breakfast cake being made will either sicken you or get you thinking of trying it yourself.

And for lunch, there's Gold Loaf, a sandwich made famous by Elvis, consisting of a hollowed loaf of Italian bread filled with a jar of peanut butter, a jar of grape jelly, a pound of fried bacon, all smothered in butter and baked or deep fried into yummy goodness. (Gold Loaf website here.)

-tdr

Republished once to correct a typo.

Labels: Food

Today on a continent far, far to the south, a conflict is developing between Peru and Chile over the origin of the potato.

"Peruvian agronomists, historians and diplomats are chafing at an assertion by Marigen Hornkohl, Chile's agriculture minister, who said recently, 'Few people know that 99 percent of the world's potatoes have some type of genetic link to potatoes from Chile.'

"Peru, where the potato is a source of national pride, could not let such a comment pass.

"'Obviously the world has known for centuries that the potato is from Peru and that the Peruvian potato saved Europe from hunger,' Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Garcma Belaunde told reporters here last week. 'The entire world knows this.'" (Here.)

Not a word in the story about the origin of the Irish potatoes that did so well in the 19th Century.

If war breaks out, invest in the company that manufactures these high tech potato guns: (claytonbailey.com here.)

-tdr

Labels: Food, International, War

Blame Canada! The linked article (here) got the author, Mark Steyn, and his magazine, Macleans, dragged before a Human Rights Commission in Canada for supposed hate speech against Muslims.

About par for the course for Islamists. Don't like what others say about Islam? Intimidate, intimidate, intimidate! But why a supposedly free country would allow the trial of an author and a magazine for publishing political opinion others find disagreeable is beyond me. (Follow the proceedings in all their totalitarian glory at Macleans blog here.)

-tdr

Labels: Canada, Islam, Law

This year's presidential campaign has focused on one phrase from John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address.

"Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate."

Senator Barack Obama has adopted that short phrase as the theme of his proposed foreign policy. An earlier phrase from the same speech says much more about what makes America the great nation that it remains to this day.

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

Don't hold your breath waiting for the Junior Senator from Illinois to quote that phrase to his adoring followers to explain his proposed foreign policy.

-tdr

Read and watch President Kennedy's entire speech here.

Labels: America, Elections, Politics

The good news yesterday was that a friend had free tickets to a special screening of the new Indiana Jones movie and his wife couldn't go. But I could. The bad news was that Indy's latest adventure is one of the most mindnumbingly boring movies I've ever seen. And that's saying a lot because I've seen the original version of Solaris. (Here.)

The first 10 to 15 minutes of Indiana Jones did not bode well, what with the strangely artificial-looking cinematography, bad accents, stupid and stupid-looking bad guys, awful dialogue, ham acting, and some really obvious continuity errors. Indy and his partner are captives, surrounded by Soviet spies and with each change in camera shot, the partner's arms go from up in surrender, to down, to up, to down, to up, to down. It's a very amateurish error and it's right there in the beginning of the movie.

The rest of the movie is more professionally done but it remains boring, boring, boring. It's so boring, I can't bear to relate what happens. Suffice to say, the plot is threadbare, the ideas are nonsensical, the action is absurd, and worst of all, the talents of several really good actors are wasted --- Cate Blanchett, John Hurt, Jim Broadbent, Ray Winstone. At least admission was free, as well as the pizza, popcorn, and drinks. Plus, the hat is cool.

-tdr

Republished once for editing.

Labels: Movies

So much for a presidential election devoid of cultural issues. Or in Obama-speak, "distractions." Apropos of yesterday's California Supreme Court decree overturning the definition of marriage that was enacted into law by California's voters, here's Abraham Lincoln on how judicial overreach undermines democratic self-rule.

At the same time, the candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government into the hands of that eminent tribunal. (Here.)

Come November, we'll see whether the people of California have ceded self-rule to four Supreme Court Justices. (Here.)

-tdr

Labels: America, Law, Politics, Society

So about a month ago I was a panelist at a local science fiction convention. Our panel’s topic was the ethics of killing. I guess they figured a lawyer would have something to say about that. I was the moderator so we did not discuss the ethics of killing lawyers. Which reminds me, did you hear the one about the difference between a dead skunk in the road and a dead lawyer? There are skid marks in front of the skunk. Ba da boom.*

One topic that day was genocide. A vegan panelist proposed --- “in jest,” so he said, "truth in humor," I said --- that it would be ethical to kill off all of humanity in order to save the planet. Surprisingly most objections to this plan from the other panelists and the audience were practical ones: "Who decides, how do we decide it's necessary, and who gets killed" not "it's wrong to kill most or all of humanity to save the planet." People accepted the premise that the rest of life on Earth had greater moral worth than humans.

I’m in the "it's just wrong" camp. First, because it's anti-humanist to elevate the environment to a level superior to humanity, and, second, because there's no way to know with sufficient certainty that such genocide would be necessary to save the planet. Anyway, I was struck at the willingness of people to be utilitarian about it and accept that it would be okay to do it.

Some will say that it's speciesist to give humans privileged moral status. So be it. The vegan panelist used the term when he explained why he believed it would be acceptable to kill off all humanity to save the planet. The irony is that humans are the least speciesist beings on this planet. There is no animal that even tries to look out for other animals or plant life in the way that humans do.

With some insignificant exceptions, animals look out for their own and that's it. Humans on the other hand often look out for nonhuman lifeforms. So why should humans step aside through an act of genocide or mass suicide to make way for creatures who don't look out for species other than their own? We don't deserve that fate and the rest of the biosphere doesn't deserve the benefit of that kind of sacrifice by us.

I suppose killing off humanity would save the planet. I'm sure the Earth would get along very well without us. But I don't think science can tell us it's necessary to kill off humanity to save the planet. Besides showing that the only future scenario is the worst case scenario, science would have to show there are no alternatives to human self-extinction in order to save the planet. If other options could save the planet then self-extinction is not necessary.

But I admit my main objection to the idea is the humanist one.

The fact that the idea of humans having less moral worth than the rest of nature seems so non-controversial to people surprises me. I've heard of the humans as virus notion before but I always figured it was a fringe view. Apparently, it's not.

I found a statement recently by ethicist Peter Singer, who refused to sign one of the versions of The Humanist Manifesto because he said the manifesto suffered from speciesism. He objected to the manifesto's language making the welfare of humanity the purpose of humanist ethics. He called this speciesism and said it was a remnant of Christian thinking because in his view, “[t]here is no nonreligious reason why the pains and pleasures of nonhuman animals should not be given equal weight with the similar pains and pleasures of human beings.” (Here.)

I wonder if the belief, espoused by people like Singer, that maintains it's morally wrong to privilege humans over animals is a greater threat to humanism than Christianity. Christians and humanists may agree on the primacy of human beings but their fundamental disagreement over the supernatural makes them more rivals than allies. People like Singer may fundamentally disagree with humanists over the primacy of human beings but they share humanism's rejection of the supernatural. Humanism is therefore more likely to be influenced by people like Singer than it is by religious people. I wonder if that's likely to cause humanism eventually to reject the moral primacy of human beings.

-tdr

* Lawyer jokes are the price we pay for running the world. It's a small price to pay.

Labels: Animals, Environment, Ethics, Humanism, Nature, Religion

More backyard birds. The Cooper's Hawk looks skyward. On the alert for the gang of crows that torments it ceaselessly. Speaking of crows, here's one of them flying by carrying some takeout. Finally, this little scrub jay standing on a feeder rounds out this vertical triptych of the more aggressive birds that come by the yard.
-tdr

Labels: Animals, Birds, Nature, Photography

So, it's not just birds that live on my property. Bugs make their home here, too. Some pretty and some not so much. This mama spider has set up her maternity ward in the electrical box.