This is more like it!

Age-Progression Technology Indicates Missing Child A Prostitute By Now

The Onion is getting back its edge.

It's the simple things...

Less Oprah. More Military Channel Nelson.

"McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit. What happened when they (the missiles) get to the ground? He doesn't know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues"

Laser-guided weapons were first developed in the United States in the early 1960s. The USAF issued the first development contracts in 1964, leading to the development of the Paveway series, which was used operationally in Vietnam starting in 1968.

On his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam later in 1967, he was shot down, badly injured, and captured as a prisoner of war by the North Vietnamese.

I want one!

This is the coolest thing I've seen all day. I'm now seized with the desire to buy a painting by an elephant...

but we bought 5 seasons of Climate Connections...

I got a good chuckle from this story this morning on th drive in.

Some 3,000 scientific robots that are plying the ocean have sent home a puzzling message. These diving instruments suggest that the oceans have not warmed up at all over the past four or five years. That could mean global warming has taken a breather. Or it could mean scientists aren't quite understanding what their robots are telling them.

In fact, 80 percent to 90 percent of global warming involves heating up ocean waters. They hold much more heat than the atmosphere can. So Willis has been studying the ocean with a fleet of robotic instruments called the Argo system. The buoys can dive 3,000 feet down and measure ocean temperature. Since the system was fully deployed in 2003, it has recorded no warming of the global oceans.
"There has been a very slight cooling, but not anything really significant," Willis says. So the buildup of heat on Earth may be on a brief hiatus. "Global warming doesn't mean every year will be warmer than the last. And it may be that we are in a period of less rapid warming."

Or maybe climate models predicting a climatic apocalypse are just plain wrong.

Climate science: where Occam’s razor doesn’t apply.

Sullivan’s Latest Crush

Here’s a pretty good demonstration of Andrew Sullivan’s latest bout of intellectual inconsistency:

Remember this next time someone on the religious right says something vile. “The full record of _____’s oratory is much broader, more complicated and more nuanced than the handful of quotes from a few inflammatory sermons.”

Also, where was this guy when Fallwell blamed 9/11 on gays? “When will people accept that strongly worded condemnations of the United States are a fundamental part of our literary tradition–as they should be of any vibrant democracy?”

And then there’s this: “Because I think that the kind of politics that ensures that someone’s pastor’s rhetoric trumps every other issue in a campaign is waning.” Why, just a few days ago John McCain’s fleeting association with John Hagee was worth mentioning.

I wonder why Sullivan doesn’t understand that the full record of Hagee’s oratory is much broader, more complicated, and more nuanced than the handful of quotes from a few inflammatory sermons. When will he accept that strongly worded condemnations are a fundamental part of our literary tradition–as they should be of any vibrant democracy?
Why did Sullivan make such an uproar about Hagee, but so little uproar about Wright? Doesn’t the answer have to be about race?

How can anyone take this guy seriously when his value system seems entirely dependant on whether he likes someone or not?

strange website

(karla here, who can't remember her password)

I found this strange website.

May I suggest using all cowboy, all diarrhea.

Femocrats gone wild

“Suppose John McCain had been Joan McCain and Joan McCain had got captured, shot
down and been a POW for eight years. [The media would ask], ‘What did you do
wrong to get captured? What terrible things did you do while you were there as a
captive for eight years?’” Steinem said, to laughter from the
audience.
McCain was, in fact, a prisoner of war for around five-and-a-half
years, during which time he was tortured repeatedly. Referring to his time in
captivity, Steinem said with bewilderment, “I mean, hello? This is supposed to
be a qualification to be president? I don’t think so.”

I wonder how hot Gloria was when she worked as a Playboy bunny......

Obama's Red State Strategy

Climate Change Takes a Vacation

The last 12 months have seen the largest global temperature drop since 1875. This brief trend certainly isn’t dispositive of most AGW claims but it certainly doesn't help their argument. The most infamous Hansen Hockeystick trend (itself a product of dodgy math), presented in Inconvenient Truth, isn't much longer.

The Idiocracy Candidate

Here’s a few key parts Obama’s economic plan. If you’re poor, lazy and/or stupid, he’s your guy. (The fair trade part is so bad it's not even worth discussing).

Create Fund to Help Homeowners Avoid Foreclosures: In addition to taking important steps to prevent mortgage fraud from occurring in the future, Barack Obama will establish policies to help Americans currently facing foreclosure through no fault of their own. For instance, in communities where there are many foreclosures property values of innocent homeowners are often also negatively impacted, driving them toward foreclosure, too.Obama will create a fund to help people refinance their mortgages and provide comprehensive supports to innocent homeowners. The fund will also assist individuals who purchased homes that are simply too expensive for their income levels by helping to sell their homes. The fund will help offset costs of selling a home, including helping low-income borrowers get additional time and support to pay back any losses from the sale of their home and waiving certain federal, state and local income taxes that result from an individual selling their home to avoid foreclosure. These steps will ensure that individuals who have to sell their homes will be able to quickly regain stable financial footing. The fund will be partially paid for by Obama’s increased penalties on lenders who acted irresponsibly and committed fraud.

I certainly don’t think banks are innocent in this but most homeowners certainly aren’t either. Any one who thinks it’s realistic to get a $300,000 mortgage for less than $1000 a month doesn’t need a bailout they need a refresher course on reality.

Create a Universal Mortgage Credit: The tax code is supposed to encourage home ownership with a mortgage interest deduction, but it goes only to people who itemize their tax deductions. Like so much in our tax code, this tilts the scales toward the well-off. The current mortgage interest deduction excludes nearly two thirds of Americans who do not itemize their taxes. Barack Obama will ensure that anyone with a mortgage,not just the well-off, can take advantage of this tax incentive for homeownership by creating a universal mortgage credit. This 10 percent credit will benefit an additional 10 million homeowners, the majority of whom earn less than $50,000 per year. Non-itemizers will be eligible for this refundable credit, which will provide the average recipient with approximately $500 per year in tax savings.

Yes, the 11.5 minutes it took us to claim our mortgage information in our tax return was a real killer. You truly are the next Jonas Salk, Obama.

Simplify Tax Filings for Middle Class Americans: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) estimated in 2004 that it took more than 28 hours for an individual to complete his/her tax filing, and that half of the taxpayers filing the “easy” forms ended up paying a tax preparer to do it for them. Barack Obama will dramatically simplify tax filings so that millions of Americans will be able to do their taxes in less than 5 minutes. Currently, the IRS receives Americans’ financial information directly from employers and banks. Obama will ensure that the IRS uses this information to give taxpayers the option of a pre-filled tax forms to verify, sign and return to the IRS or online. This will eliminate the need for Americans to hire expensive tax preparers and to gather information that the federal government already has on file. Experts estimate that the Obama proposal will save Americans up to 200 million total hours of work and aggravation and up to $2 billion in tax preparer fees.

Honestly, who would think further empowering lazy, incompetent, union IRS workers to do our taxes will reduce “work and aggravation” for taxpayers?

Create Automatic Workplace Pensions: Currently, 75 million working Americans – roughly half the workforce – lack employer-based retirement plans. Even when workers are given the option of joining employer-based plans, many do not take up the option because it requires considerable work to research plans and investment portfolios, and enroll in the plan. Barack Obama’s retirement security plan will automatically
enroll workers in a workplace pension plan. Under his plan, employers who do not currently offer a retirement plan, will be required to enroll their employees in a direct-deposit IRA account that is compatible to existing direct-deposit payroll systems. Employees may opt-out by signing a written waiver. Even after enrollment, employees will retain the right to change their savings levels, reallocate investment portfolios or end contributions to the account. Obama’s plan will give options to the self-employed and new small businesses to access new easy-to-enroll savings plans and direct the IRS to deposit tax refunds into those savings plans for people who choose to save some of their refunds. Under the Obama plan when employees change jobs, their savings will be automatically rolled over into the new employer’s system to ensure continued savings. Experts estimate that this program will increase the savings participation rate for low and middle-income workers from its current 15 percent level to around 80 percent.

Not blowing your income on that new set of wave runners is hard. Choices in general are hard. Obama’s going to take those away from you so you can discover other inconveniences in your life he can promise to take away in his second term.

Obamulous

Barak Obama's interview with the Politico folks is well worth watching. Especially if you're a fan.

Black History Month

Just something I happened to stumble upon...

"'Movie People' might intermarry [but] good people, upright
people didn't do this", a remark suggesting that the college was as concerned
about its reputation as Cunningham's.

New song

Here's a song I just finished making for my mom's 60th birthday.

For those interested, there are 5 tracks total in the song:

1. Upright bass (plucking)
2. Upright bass (using a bow)
3. Banjo
4. Guitar
5. Dobro

Happy listening,

Mark

Hugo, call your office

Most people seem to dislike Hillary Clinton because of some perceived character flaw; that she’s too ambitious, dishonest, artificial or just plain mean. While all these things may be true I think it would be a pity if they were the cause of Hillary not being elected.

No, what should keep her out of all positions of power are her appallingly bad ideas.

I heard about her most recent plan on my way home from work and almost blew a red light trying to comprehend the sheer stupidity of it. Basically she wants to freeze mortgage rates for 5 years.

She might as well battle the high price of milk by capping the price below market value.

This fortune article sums up the consequences of such an idiotic plan:

Interest rates on new mortgages would skyrocket - perhaps past 8 percent, as the
mutual funds, pension funds and other investors who typically provide capital to
the mortgage market shift their money into other investments where the
government isn't impairing returns. With higher mortgage rates eroding buying
power, the downward pressure on home prices would only increase. Lower home
prices would lead to even more defaults, as more folks who'd lost the equity in
their homes choose to walk away from their mortgages.

In short, if you are cool with not being able to sell your house for at least 5 years Hill might be your gal.

Thought Crimes

People from both ends of the political spectrum have long (and often sloppily) made allusions to 1984 when accusing the other side of using state organs for political persecution. But this is simply amazing.

It’s like the whole country is being run by a university administrator run amok.

Simply Profound

If I were president, he would be my speech writer.

Now I like Obama and think he’s a smart and nice enough fellow – certainly to the degree of the current President – however up to now his political proposals have been little more substantive than your typical beer commercial. In the coming days he needs to fill in the policy holes New Hampshire voters perceived (and Iowa voters didn’t) and risk taking more controversial centrist positions (school choice?) to reassure independent voters that despite his troubling liberal pedigree he is the best “agent of change” the Democrats have.

Hillary’s already done these things but will never get an NBC man (or woman) crush.

Gag me

This morning NPR had an interesting story about how uneven care for the mentally ill is within US territories. Basically, if vacationing to the Virgin Islands, you should wait to get home before going crazy because they’ll just park you in a jail indefinitely if you do; even though doing so has resulted in the territory repeatedly being held in contempt in US federal courts.

Good information. The kind of fact based, objective reporting that allows me to tolerate the gentry liberalism of NPR.

But of course NPR never stops with just the facts. Knowing that their listener base generally has an impaired capacity for reason, NPR proceeded to communicate the “emotional truth” of the story with all the subtlety of a (fair trade) double espresso.

Naturally the fact that the most sympathetic victim* of these unjust detentions does not speak is no problem to these artisans of advocate prose who so routinely conjure the hopes, dreams and wishes of similarly communicative glaciers and polar bears:

He's wearing a red T-shirt. He looks unremarkable, one face among thousands of
young black men in prison — except for his eyes. They are like the weather
changing — going from clear, to foggy, to dark and raw, to soft and then clear
again.

His smile is like lightning, a bright flash out of nowhere.

Yes, freaky weather eyes and spontaneous smiling really highlight the human cost for me. Thank you Libby Lewis. Why don’t you just finish that bodice ripper we know you’re working on and leave information collection – what I’m paying you for -- to people with brains that haven’t degenerated into flaccid, sentimental mush?

*So this guy is essentially a mute who’s greatest advocate – his sister – is terrified of his capacity for violence. Just how non-radio-friendly are the other guys?

If you don't already like Obama...

watch this.



Hat tip, Andrew Sullivan.

Greatest political ad ever or greatest ad ever?

At least I now know that Mike Huckabee has a sense of humor.

Most amusing.
(Hat Tip: Ezra Klein)