“Peace, prosperity, liberty and morals
have an intimate connection.”

- Thomas Jefferson

...especialy when she's being ironic.

Eco-sailors rescued by oil tanker

An expedition team which set sail from Plymouth on a 5,000-mile carbon emission-free trip to Greenland have been rescued by an oil tanker.

Raoul Surcouf, Richard Spink and skipper Ben Stoddart sent a mayday because they feared for their safety amid winds of 68mph (109km/h).

All three are reportedly exhausted but safe on board the Overseas Yellowstone.
...
The team, which left Mount Batten Marina in Plymouth on 19 April in a boat named the Fleur, aimed to rely on sail, solar and man power on a 580-mile (933km/h) journey to and from the highest point of the Greenland ice cap.

Perhaps Alanis Morissette will hear about these guys and be inspired to write a song that really is ironic.

Suppressed photo of Air Force One taking a shortcut en route to an Earth Day speech:



Either that, or the President's jet could be taking the long way around to Mexico to deliver Tamiflu and 100 Acorn Community Organizers to over-throw the drug cartels.

HT: The Lumberjack (again).

HT: The Lumberjack.

The EckerNet reminds us, in a long, documented list of Democrat corruption, that former Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson was videotaped receiving a $100,000 bribe from an FBI informant, and a search later turned up $90,000 hidden in his freezer.

I'd almost forgotten about William Jefferson's "cool" $90,000; I guess I've just tuned out all the media talk about it.

Wait a minute — if he took that money from an FBI informant, wouldn't that be federal funds? Isn't it time for Congress to get together and vote to tax Jefferson's greed and arrogance?

Yep, that dumb George Bush and John Snow, Alan Greenspan and John "McSame" sure were idiots. If only they had listened to the combined genius of Barnie Frank and Chuck Schumer.

Oh wait...they did.

The real smart guy: Senator Barack Obama who "refused to weigh in."

A poo-flinging monkey is on the loose in Florida.

Jon Favreau — head speechwriter for the Office of the President-Elect from the Non-Hating Party of Diversity, Tolerance and Equal Rights for All Women Who Support Abortion — was feeling the, er, love at a recent party as this Facebook photo shows (Favreau's the one on the left, via PR Junkie and The Washington Post):



Hope and change, my friend. "Hope" you survive this and "change" your drinking buddies. While you're at it, it might be a good time to ponder the dangers of "social media". For example, don't forget that the first part of the word Twitter is "twit".

They're making Dr. James Hansen sweat again. From a Christopher Booker column in the Telegraph, The World Has Never Seen Such Freezing Heat (emphasis mine):

A surreal scientific blunder last week raised a huge question mark about the temperature records that underpin the worldwide alarm over global warming. On Monday, NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore's chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen, and is one of four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that last month was the hottest October on record.

This was startling. Across the world there were reports of unseasonal snow and plummeting temperatures last month, from the American Great Plains to China, and from the Alps to New Zealand. China's official news agency reported that Tibet had suffered its "worst snowstorm ever". In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month, and ranked it as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years.

So what explained the anomaly? GISS's computerised temperature maps seemed to show readings across a large part of Russia had been up to 10 degrees higher than normal. But when expert readers of the two leading warming-sceptic blogs, Watts Up With That and Climate Audit, began detailed analysis of the GISS data they made an astonishing discovery. The reason for the freak figures was that scores of temperature records from Russia and elsewhere were not based on October readings at all. Figures from the previous month had simply been carried over and repeated two months running.

The error was so glaring that when it was reported on the two blogs - run by the US meteorologist Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre, the Canadian computer analyst who won fame for his expert debunking of the notorious "hockey stick" graph - GISS began hastily revising its figures. This only made the confusion worse because, to compensate for the lowered temperatures in Russia, GISS claimed to have discovered a new "hotspot" in the Arctic - in a month when satellite images were showing Arctic sea-ice recovering so fast from its summer melt that three weeks ago it was 30 per cent more extensive than at the same time last year.

A GISS spokesman lamely explained that the reason for the error in the Russian figures was that they were obtained from another body, and that GISS did not have resources to exercise proper quality control over the data it was supplied with. This is an astonishing admission: the figures published by Dr Hansen's institute are not only one of the four data sets that the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) relies on to promote its case for global warming, but they are the most widely quoted, since they consistently show higher temperatures than the others.

If there is one scientist more responsible than any other for the alarm over global warming it is Dr Hansen, who set the whole scare in train back in 1988 with his testimony to a US Senate committee chaired by Al Gore. Again and again, Dr Hansen has been to the fore in making extreme claims over the dangers of climate change. (He was recently in the news here for supporting the Greenpeace activists acquitted of criminally damaging a coal-fired power station in Kent, on the grounds that the harm done to the planet by a new power station would far outweigh any damage they had done themselves.)

Yet last week's latest episode is far from the first time Dr Hansen's methodology has been called in question. In 2007 he was forced by Mr Watts and Mr McIntyre to revise his published figures for US surface temperatures, to show that the hottest decade of the 20th century was not the 1990s, as he had claimed, but the 1930s.

Another of his close allies is Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, who recently startled a university audience in Australia by claiming that global temperatures have recently been rising "very much faster" than ever, in front of a graph showing them rising sharply in the past decade. In fact, as many of his audience were aware, they have not been rising in recent years and since 2007 have dropped.

Dr Pachauri, a former railway engineer with no qualifications in climate science, may believe what Dr Hansen tells him. But whether, on the basis of such evidence, it is wise for the world's governments to embark on some of the most costly economic measures ever proposed, to remedy a problem which may actually not exist, is a question which should give us all pause for thought.

HT: The Lumberjack

In a related story; EU Facing Revolt Over Climate Change Enforcement:

The European Union is facing a revolt from poorer members over tough climate change targets at a time when the global economy is heading for recession.

Italy has teamed up with seven east and central European countries - Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia - to threaten a veto over Brussels legislation that implements an EU target to cut Europe's CO2 emissions 20 per cent by 2020.

Ex-Vikings "receiver" Troy Williamson says he's still mad at the way Coach Brad Childress treated him and wants to "duke it out" with Childress at this weekend's Vikings/Jaquars game (Williamson now sits for the Jags).

Williamson, now in Jacksonville, said Wednesday he lost respect for his former coach last year and would like to "duke it out" with him when the Jaguars host the Vikings on Sunday.

"We can meet on the 50-yard line and we can go at it," Williamson said.

The 6-foot-1, 200-pound receiver said he liked his chances against Childress, too, especially with a few inches and at least 10 pounds on the coach. Williamson even said he would fight with both hands tied behind his back.

I think Williamson has an unfair advantage in that he always played as if both hands were tied behind his back anyway so he's used to it. If he did connect, however, watch out! Williamson's "hands of stone" would make Roberto Duran curl up in his corner and cry.

Something kept tickling the back of my mind and memory this week, and then it came to me. The following excerpt is from "The Notebooks of Lazarus Long", a kind of intermission section in Robert Heinlein's sci-fi classic, "Time Enough For Love", which detailed the adventures of the oldest living (2,000 years+) human, the afore-mentioned Lazarus.

Those who refuse to support and defend a state have no claim to protection by that state. Killing an anarchist or a pacifist should not be defined as “murder” in a legalistic sense. The offense against the state, if any, should be “Using deadly weapons inside city limits,” or “Creating a traffic hazard,” or “Endangering bystanders,” or other misdemeanor. However, the state may reasonably place a closed season on these exotic asocial animals whenever they are in danger of becoming extinct. An authentic buck pacifist has rarely been seen off Earth, and it is doubtful that any have survived the trouble there...regrettable, as they had the biggest mouths and the smallest brains of any of the primates. The small-mouthed variety of anarchist has spread through the Galaxy at the very wave front of the Diaspora; there is no need to protect them. But they often shoot back.

Not that I agree completely, but it did make me smile. I get the sense that those willing to resort to violence to protest the state are not much different from those who say they read Playboy for the articles.

HT: Are We Lumberjacks?

Was it just coincidence that Sarah Palin gave her acceptance speech in Minnesota, also home to Frostbite Falls, or that she was only a few miles from Whatsamatta U? Meanwhile, keep checking with the MSM for the latest attempts to fracture the fairy-tale.

Is it just me, or does it seem as if Hillary is exiting the stage at about the same speed as the Russians leaving Georgia?

Some bad reps are hard to shake. For example, Cleveland will always be remembered as the city who's river caught on fire, Philadelphia fans will always be remembered for booing Santa Claus and Green Bay will always be remembered as the town where someone killed the coach's (Dan Devine) dog during a bad year. Like Brett Favre, however, Packer fans are apparently interested in an encore, as Aaron Rodgers is (unpleasantly) learning.

Favre fans have not just been supporting Favre with their words; they’ve been going after Rodgers. And many haven’t minced words.

After the morning practice Friday, Rodgers talked about some of the abuse directed at him.

“I understand it to some point if I put myself into a Favre fanatic’s shoes,” Rodgers said of getting booed. “The things I can’t understand, the things I really take personally, is when I’m driving up to the (parking lot) gate and punching in my punch code and somebody says (expletive) to me. That kind of bothers me.

“Or when a little kid is yelling swear words at me. That kind of gets to me. They expect a high level of play and they miss Brett Favre. I understand that. But the (expletive) and the little kids saying swear words to me, I don’t understand that.”

Actually, Rodgers should have been able to understand the kid, who was likely using small words. Of course, being Green Bay, the kid was probably drunk and that may have made it harder.

Twins' manager Ron Gardenhire and...the Abominable Snow Monster, aka "Bumbles"?

With Heath Ledger's death after a virtuoso performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight, who could possibly take his place?

Hmmm...

Bill Clinton: 'Coverup' hiding Hillary Clinton's chances

New photographic evidence of Reverend Jeremiah Wright's chickens coming home to roost:



HT: KingDavid (now at his new blogging address).

This was one of the surest bets you could have made a year ago:

Smoking ban has apparently cut into revenue from charitable gambling
The statewide ban, which began late last year, is tied to a significant decline in bar pulltab and bingo receipts, according to a study by the State Gambling Control Board.

By MARK BRUNSWICK, Star Tribune

Affirming what American Legion hall operators and mom-and-pop bar owners had warned, a new report shows that the statewide ban on smoking enacted last year appears to have cut into charitable gambling revenues from bar game pulltabs and bingo.

Gross receipts from charitable gambling were down 12.8 percent in the last three months of 2007, which correlates with when the statewide smoking ban took effect. Even taking into account a weakening economy, the ban is likely to be responsible for a decline in gross receipts of 7.5 percent to 8 percent, or a loss equal to $95 million to $105 million a year, according to the report.

The overall 12.8 percent drop represents the largest decline in receipts since lawful gambling was first regulated in the state in 1985, according to the report released Monday by the State Gambling Control Board, which regulates the industry.

...

The new report shows that towns close to states that have not enacted a smoking ban appear to have been more affected. Sites near tribal casinos, where smoking can be permitted, have seen receipts decline more than the state average for several years, an apparent trend that began before the ban.

...

Charitable gambling officials predict revenue declines of 16 percent to 18 percent through this year. Anticipating the effect, the industry has been pushing for several pieces of legislation that would give them more flexibility in their operations.

So now, what do you want to bet that we'll have legislation liberalizing (good word, that) or expanding gambling to more venues to make up for the shortfall? After all, it's for the children! And the vets! Or are you some unpatriotic child-hater? Come on, everybody pull(tab) together!

The lobbyists and our legislature have focused on getting everyone to kick their Camels ... while letting another camel get it's head further into the tent. (But hey, it's a big tent!)

... Deep, too!

From NPR:

The Mystery of Global Warming's Missing Heat
by Richard Harris

March 19, 2008 · 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.

This is puzzling in part because here on the surface of the Earth, the years since 2003 have been some of the hottest on record. But Josh Willis at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says the oceans are what really matter when it comes to global warming.

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.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor, has had several interesting sermon excerpts broadcast recently, including this snippet on Hugh Hewitt's show yesterday:

I’m still in Bible country. I’m still in the text. Jesus was a poor, black man who lived in a country, and who lived in a culture that was controlled by rich, white people. The Romans were rich, the Romans were Italians, which means they were European, which means they were white, and the Romans ran everything in Jesus’ country.

I suppose that's why Jesus could never catch a break, and why the scriptures describe him always going around being obsessed with being a victim. Rev. Wright said he was working from the Bible text, but when I read the Bible it strikes me that Jesus didn't focus on Affirmative Action, he was Affirmative Action. I also recall that he didn't seem to agree very much with the actions and interpretations of Pharisees and Sadducees or, as Rev. Wright's interpretation would presumably have it, the leadership of his "black" people.

Let's see, you could have an acerbic, irascible, quick-with-quip wounded war veteran who is much older than his opponent as the Republican nominee for president, who could be going against a fresh, young face who has come out of nowhere in recent years to infuse and enthuse an electorate that seems eager for change.

How did that turn out for Bob Dole?

Man, people say the Ron Paul "Paul-bots" are obsessive, but checking out Hugh Hewitt's blog the past couple of times makes me think there's been some kind of Rom-bot Invasion of the Party Snatchers. There's a new post every 17 minutes defending Mitt Romney or blasting McCain, or both, and absolutely nothing else. Even a headline suggestive of an economics story is written in terms of what it means to Romney's candidacy. If we knew the world was going to end in 3 hours Hugh's headline would be "Apocalypse snatches victory from Mitt's grasp at the last moment."

Oh well, Mitt seems like a decent sort. If it's between him and McCain I'd vote for Romney, or some 6th or 7th party candidate, before I'd vote for McCain. Or maybe I'll just go get a tooth filled instead. This race just isn't that interesting or amusing to me.

Not like the other side of the fence where The Big O is facing off against the Big Uh-Oh. Do you remember back in 8th or 9th grade when people would start shouting about a "girl-fight" and you'd push your way through the crowd to get a good view — and then start pushing your way back out again after getting hit with a handful of hair? Man, girls fight nasty and yet everyone assumes they're so much more refined and cultured than boys. Just try to look away, though. Similarly Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton race around trying to convince the Dem's flotilla of special interest groups that he or she is the biggest victim and worthy of their vote. It's as compelling as watching "Real Life Stories of the ER", without that annoying message warning of graphic scenes. Plus there's always the chance of seeing Bill Clinton wag his, um, finger at us again. Good times.

Then, just as you think the story is all played out, there's a shocking twist like Teddy Kennedy endorsing Obama. That reminded me of another episode from my younger days. Ever play "Risk", the game of world domination? Do you remember the visceral thrill you got when one of the players from a strategic alliance that had been cleaning up the board suddenly turned on his partner and struck from the rear? Yeah, you knew it was inevitable but it still gave you a pleasant shiver. This was even better than John Kerry forsaking his running mate Edwards a couple of weeks ago to jump on the Obama wagon. I can just hear Obama saying "Thanks, John, now would you mind not standing so close to me when the cameras are clicking?" I didn't see the Kennedy endorsement coming, though, at least not this soon. I don't know, maybe Ted thought Obama was an Irish name?

Speaking of alliances, some are saying that the distant third place Democrat candidate John Edwards is in line to be Obama's attorney general. Wow, a trial lawyer and union puppet as head of the Justice Department? He'd make Halliburton look like a couple of neighborhood kids opening a lemonade stand.

1. Don't tug on Superman's cape.

2. Don't spit into the wind.

3. Don't post pictures of yourself participating in illegal activities on Facebook.

The children are upset because Eden Prairie High School is disciplining them for breaking school rules about drinking by suspending several students from athletic teams or extra-curricular activities (presumably not drinking related). "Unfair!" they say as they stalk to their corners (or stage a walk-out).

For educational purposes, let's examine this logic. The students and their parents sign agreements not to drink alcohol while participating in school events (or presumably while eligible to participate), such as sports. The student breaks that pledge and the school finds out through photographic evidence. What part of basic cause and effect did you not learn in class? The school is enforcing its rules, and you should hope that the State of Minnesota doesn't try to enforce it's rules (called "laws", btw) as well since underage drinking is, like, you know, illegal.

And no, my darlings, this isn't a violation of privacy or free speech. First, if you put something in a public place or space, it's not private. Second, while your posting of it is speech, the punishment isn't because you posted, per se, but because the pictures were of you doing something that broke your word, the rules and the law.

This lesson is over. Now, get back to class because I don't think you can afford to miss many more.

...And boy, are his lips tired!

Whoops, it appears he's written his fourth book.

From the Pioneer Press:

Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura largely disappeared from public view when he left office five years ago, but he isn't keeping his opinions to himself.

He co-wrote a book, filled with his feelings on politics, international affairs and the media, due out next April.

"It really reflects Gov. Ventura," said Bill Wolfsthal, associate publisher at the New York-based Skyhorse Publishing. "It's energetic and opinionated and absolutely fascinating."

The book, "Don't Start the Revolution Without Me," was co-written with author Dick Russell.

"It really is great reading," Wolfsthal said.

I heard the original title was "Don't Start the Promotion Without Me."

MoveOn.org takes out full page ad in the New York Times: General Petraeus or General Betray Us?

True North has this, via Captain Ed and Colonel Joe Repya.