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[14 Jul 08|1359 hrs] |
My girlfriend and I went to Barnes and Noble yesterday. Not only does David Sedaris have a new book out, so does Al Gore. From the back cover: "The marketplace of ideas ... has been corrupted by the politics of fear, secrecy, cronyism, and blind faith." If An Inconvenient Truth isn't fear-mongering and the product of blind faith, I don't know what is.
New research suggests that reduced use or aerosols led to more light reaching the surface of the earth because aerosols reflected sunlight (heat). The giant ball of fire 93 million miles away with a surface temperature of 6000 kelvin is at fault for the minuscule amount of heating in the past three decades.
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[14 Jul 08|1334 hrs] |
Last week, President Bush signed into law amendments to FISA. They affirmed the right of the government to conduct warrantless wiretaps and gave retroactive immunity to telecommunication companies which cooperated with the government. Thanks to warrantless wiretapping, several FARC officers were captured. Also, the hostages they were holding were freed.
A year ago, Sen. Obama said he was against warrantless wiretaps. He repeated this throughout the primaries. As soon as the primaries were over, Sen. Obama reneged on several of his campaign platforms (warrantless wiretaps, Iraq, whatever). God only knows what Sen. Obama will do after he's elected President.
The thing is, the FISA amendments passed by huge margins (293 to 129 in the House, 69 to 28 in the Senate). Analysis from Information Dissemination:
I can't say I'm excited about this bill, but I can live with it, perhaps literally. Following an attack on Iran by Israel, Iran is not going to find much success trying to sink the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) in the Indian Ocean, but they might have a great deal of success killing you and me here in America. We don't believe for one second that Iran is going to abide by the Geneva Conventions and not intentionally support the killing of American civilians in North America. If war happens, they are as likely if not more likely to attack here than in the Gulf. Whether you like it or not, there was absolutely no way the Democrats, including Barack Obama, were going to leave the possibility open that Israel attacks Iran, and the US gets hit by terrorist attacks inside the US while the FISA bill wasn't passed.
This is a key point. The Democratic Party in mass shifted from a core position. This doesn't happen without keen awareness to some strategic condition. Clearly some outside force has produced conditions which are far outside the scope of national politics, because nothing short of insight and real concern for political survival would Democrats find inspiration for such a massive policy shift with virtually no explanation to its core constituency. This is a major reason, and to Democrats scratching still their heads, an obvious sign we believe that Israel has demanded a time table.
If diplomacy fails, it's possible war with Iran, be it between US and Iran or Israel and Iran, will commence this fall.
"Sí, se puede!" Obama, who doesn't speak Spanish, said as he arrived on stage. This is kind of like telling us not to drive around in SUVs when that (along with private jets) is his only mode of transportation.
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[03 Jul 08|0927 hrs] |
The risk from violent crime is now so high that people should walk away if they see someone else in trouble - in case they end up losing their own life. That was the depressing warning yesterday from the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.
He said he would tell his own children to 'look after themselves first' rather than help a victim in distress. The comments follow the knife murder of 16-year-old Ben Kinsella after he tried to break up an argument outside a North London bar at the weekend. Daily Mail
This is the result of banning gun ownership in a society very much like ours.
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[02 Jul 08|0902 hrs] |
The White House sees the progress in a particularly positive light, declaring in a new assessment to Congress that Iraq's efforts on 15 of 18 benchmarks are "satisfactory" — almost twice of what it determined to be the case a year ago. The May 2008 report card, obtained by the Associated Press, determines that only two of the benchmarks — enacting and implementing laws to disarm militias and distribute oil revenues — are unsatisfactory. That sounds like a lot of progress. And then...
Rep. Mike McIntyre, D-N.C., who requested the administration's updated assessment, scoffed at the May report, which he says uses the false standard of determining whether progress on a goal is "satisfactory" versus whether the benchmark has been met. He estimates that only a few of the 18 benchmarks have been fully achieved. He estimates? I guess he doesn't need to find out the facts before opening his mouth.
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[01 Jul 08|2110 hrs] |
As part of cutting his carbon footprint, [Prince Charles] has converted the 38-year-old classic car - a 21st birthday present from the Queen - to run on 100 per cent bioethanol fuel distilled from surplus British wine. The car - which is kept at Highgrove and clocks up just 300 miles a year - averages ten miles a gallon, the equivalent of 4.5 bottles of wine for every mile.
At £1.10 a litre, the bioethanol is only slightly cheaper than conventional petrol, but is estimated to produce 85 per cent less carbon dioxide.The grapes used for Charles's fuel have already been fermented into wine on an English vineyard near Swindon, Wiltshire.
Its owners bottle all they can, but cannot produce more than their EU quota. Rather than destroy the excess, the vineyard now sells it to the Gloucestershire biofuels supplier Green Fuels, where it is distilled. Daily Mail
European-style socialism says a winery can sell a certain amount of wine each year. The leftover wine is made into fuel. The Prince's Aston gets 4.5 bottles of wine to the mile. 4.5 bottles of wine, at $5/bottle of incredibly cheap (and probably toxic) wine is $22.50. 1.1 GBP = $2.20 USD. The opportunity cost of driving one mile in the Prince's Aston is $20.30. There are so many things wrong with this situation.
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[29 Jun 08|0930 hrs] |
Obama also said there is "no way that allowing offshore drilling would lower gas prices right now. At best you are looking at five years or more down the road." He's, unfortunately, right about that. But did anyone suggest that we drill off the coast of Florida five or more years ago?
But don't count on drilling beginning any time soon. Granting leasing rights is only the most recent salvo in this decades-old battle, which is largely being fought between oil interests and Florida's huge tourism industry, who have received a helping hand from environmentalists. It has already pitted two prominent political brothers against one another. President Bush wants more domestic exploration, while his brother Jeb, Florida's governor, opposes it in his state. And even oil executives concede that opponents--who are gearing up to fight the oil companies through lawsuits and challenges to the permitting process--could halt drilling for up to five years, if not kill it altogether.
President Bush also suggested in 2002 that we drill ANWR.
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[22 Jun 08|1108 hrs] |
While I was walking my girlfriend's dogs this morning, I noticed a really large black bird on the other side of the street. I thought it was a huge crow or something. As I walked closer, I thought to myself that it was way too big to be a crow, but slightly smaller than a *turkey. Then I noticed what it was doing - it was eating something dead. Everything clicked and OMFG THERE'S A VULTURE IN SOME GUY'S DRIVEWAY!
I ran home and grabbed my camera but the vulture had already finished his meal. I did, however, get a picture of him flying past me.
*Google says it's a turkey vulture.
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[20 Jun 08|1021 hrs] |
Suspected Al Qaeda leader Abu Qatada is celebrating his release from prison with the release of a book in which he urges Muslims to commit terrorist attacks in the West. In the 71-page tract, published in English translation on the internet, he repeatedly claims that fighting jihad, holy war, is obligatory for all Muslims and urges them to 'terrorise' non-believers.
A judge ruled there were no grounds to keep him in jail, but the Special Immigration Appeals Commission imposed unprecedented conditions on his release, including a stipulation that he observe a 22-hour curfew and wear an electronic tag. He will be under round-the-clock surveillance in a MI5 safehouse and is specifically banned from contacting Bin Laden. seriously? oh and it gets better: "Since Qatada claimed asylum in 1993, he and his family have already cost the taxpayer well over £1million and the bill will now rise dramatically."
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[17 Jun 08|1052 hrs] |
" I said: KNEEL DOWN!" Che barked again.
The boy stared Che resolutely in the face. "If you're going to kill me," he yelled. "you'll have to do it while I'm standing! MEN die standing!"
" COWARDS! – MURDERERS!..Sons of B**TCHES!" The men yelled desperately from their cells. "LEAVE HIM ALONE!" HOW CAN...?! "And then we saw Che unholstering his pistol. It didn't seem possible. But Che raised his pistol, put the barrel to the back of the boys neck and blasted. The shot almost decapitated the young boy. fifty years ago
ELYRIA, Ohio (AP) — A judge in Ohio says the state's method of putting prisoners to death is unconstitutional because two of three drugs used in the lethal injection process can cause pain.
Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Burge said Tuesday the state's lethal injection procedure doesn't provide the quick and painless death required by Ohio law. last week
The caption for that picture, as provided by the AP: "Lourain County Common Pleas Judge James Burge speaks in his office in Lorain, Ohio as posters of Che Guevara and Barack Obama hang on his wall."
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[13 Jun 08|0220 hrs] |
There are no bold new ideas in the Democratic Party today, no coherent policy themes. Even Kerry's supporters are hard-pressed to explain what he stands for. What does define and unify the party is a sense of victimhood—and a lust for revenge. http://www.slate.com/id/2098171/
from here
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[12 Jun 08|1226 hrs] |
Thomas Sowell defines economics as managing scarce resources with alternate uses. You can make a resource scarce by fear-mongering. Toyota's president Katsuaki Watanabe, while pushing hybrids, said that '[o]ur view is that oil production will peak in the near future". Unfortunately for Watanabe, Toyota's hybrids are marginally more efficient than turbodiesels. Also, between tar sands and methane hydrates, there's a lot of petroleum left in the world.
"The nation's undiscovered oil resources total about 139 Bbbls (billion barrels)," says the [May 08 Bureau of Land Management] report. "Of that total, the [Mineral Management Service] estimates that 86 Bbbls are offshore under the [outer continental shelf], comprising 62 percent of the nation's resources. State waters and nonfederal onshore resources are the second largest potential source of production (21 percent), followed by Federal onshore oil resources (17 percent)."
The May BLM report explains why most onshore oil won't be tapped, either. Of the 279 million acres of federal land "with potential for oil or natural gas resources," 60 percent is off limits to leases as a matter of federal statute or administrative policy. Another 23 percent is open to leases with "restrictions." These include such things as "lands that can be leased but ground-disturbing oil and natural gas exploration and development activities are prohibited" and "lands that can be leased, but stipulations ... limit the time of the year when oil and gas exploration and drilling can take place to less than 3 months." what
Our federal government is constricting supply. Awesome.
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[29 May 08|1332 hrs] |
I will be very sad if Sen. Obama becomes the 44th President. Not because I don't agree with his principles (because he has none), but because he is a complete and utter moron. Sen. Obama gave a speech on Memorial Day in honor of "fallen heroes" who he saw in the audience and that his (Russian) uncle helped liberate Auschwitz. Sen. McCain said LOLWUT and Obama Campaign spokesman Bill Burton responded with "Senator Obama thinks Memorial Day is a day to honor our nation's veterans" and Veteran's Day does not exist.
Which reminds me of this gem:
One of the losers in the weekend oratorical marathon was retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who repeatedly invoked the West Point motto of "Duty, Honor, Country," forgetting that few [Democrats] have much experience with, or sympathy for, the military. some liberal columnist
Sen. McCain is not my favorite candidate because of his views on immigration, campaign finance, health care, and global warming hysteria, but at least he doesn't run his mouth or make shit up.
I am thankful to live in the free world. I am thankful for those who serve in our military to ensure that the free world remains free. I am thankful for those who made the ultimate sacrifice so that I am free from tyranny.
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[27 May 08|1119 hrs] |
`(a) In General- It shall be illegal and a violation of this Act for any foreign state, or any instrumentality or agent of any foreign state, to act collectively or in combination with any other foreign state, any instrumentality or agent of any other foreign state, or any other person, whether by cartel or any other association or form of cooperation or joint action--
`(1) to limit the production or distribution of oil, natural gas, or any other petroleum product;
`(2) to set or maintain the price of oil, natural gas, or any petroleum product; or
`(3) to otherwise take any action in restraint of trade for oil, natural gas, or any petroleum product;
when such action, combination, or collective action has a direct, substantial, and reasonably foreseeable effect on the market, supply, price, or distribution of oil, natural gas, or other petroleum product in the United States. NOPEC bill, how clever
It's too bad those hypocrites in Congress exempted themselves from the bill. Congress makes it illegal to drill in ANWR and off the coast of Florida, yet at the same time expects Saudi Arabia not to restrict oil exploration or production.
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[23 May 08|1434 hrs] |
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Link: sevenload.com
Fast forward to 1:09 in. How do people like this get elected?
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[23 May 08|1346 hrs] |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Tuesday allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for limiting oil supplies and working together to set crude prices, but the White House threatened to veto the measure.
The bill would subject OPEC oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, to the same antitrust laws that U.S. companies must follow.
The measure passed in a 324-84 vote, a big enough margin to override a presidential veto.
The legislation also creates a Justice Department task force to aggressively investigate gasoline price gouging and energy market manipulation. what the flying fuck is this?
Why won't Congress sue the assholes who limit domestic supply by prohibiting drilling in ANWR and off the coast of Florida? Or the assholes preventing new refineries from being built? Oh wait...
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[18 May 08|0839 hrs] |
Earlier, the Senate rejected, 56-42, a broader Republican energy plan that called for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and some offshore waters that are now off limits to oil development.
Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said more domestic oil production is needed to keep prices in check and to reduce U.S. dependence on oil imports. But opponents said the Alaska wildlife refuge and coastal waters that have been off limits to drilling for 25 years ought to remain out of bounds to oil companies.
"We can't drill our way to lower prices," said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill. from here
I want to know how increasing supply won't lower the equilibrium price. There needs to be a new law - every elected member of Congress and the White House must pass a refresher course in microeconomics and macroeconomics before each election they're in. If they're going to legislate on fiscal policy, they better have a better clue on what they're doing other than "my constituents told me so."
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[11 May 08|2355 hrs] |
The other day, I saw an E-type convertible on Lamar. Hands down, it is the most beautiful car ever made.
mmm
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[10 May 08|0800 hrs] |
from here
Why is Mercedes-Benz advertising at an anti-war rally?
Paradoxically, the only people in the world for communist revolutions are people in the first world. These people have been free for the last seventy years because of America and NATO. There are some Americans and Western Europeans who embrace communism romantically for some strange reason. Stranger still is the obsession and commercialization of Che Guerva paraphernalia. The guy was about as crazy as Stalin and the only difference is that Guerva pulled the trigger while Stalin told other people to pull the trigger.
Eastern Europeans do not harbor this idea, even though they were under communism for fifty-some years. I don't understand how anyone could be for a communist revolution. Every communist country had a miserable failure of an economy. The Soviet Union was a shithole. East Berlin was a shithole. North Korea is a shithole. Cuba is a shithole. If communism is so great, why do people regularly defect from North Korea and Cuba? China adopted economic reforms to make it more like America so it's not as much of a shithole.
Many years ago, my parents drove me to school. They were discussing current events one day and said that they didn't understand why America was the world's policeman. President Clinton recently authorized NATO air strikes against Bosnia. At the time, Bosnia was plunged in a civil war and people were concerned that Bosnian Serbs were ethnically cleansing minorities. It's taken several years for me to finally understand why America is the world's policeman.
Americans was founded on the unalienable rights of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Americans hold liberty to be sacred and are willing to die for someone else's. Beginning with World War 2, every war America has participated in was fought in defense of someone else's liberty. President Truman said that America would "support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures."
I don't understand why people believe that dialog is more effective than military action. No tyrant has been convinced by diplomacy. Saddam Hussein didn't leave Kuwait until Americans came. Milosevic came back to the bargaining table after NATO air strikes. Yasir Arafat, who was offered almost everything he asked for at Camp David, still wasn't impressed and sent out a bunch of Palestinians and Israelis to their deaths. There is no reason to believe that diplomacy will work for tyrants.
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[08 May 08|1026 hrs] |
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omg, finally a candidate I agree with on everything.
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[07 May 08|1255 hrs] |
ANWR has god knows how much oil. Crappy seismic say maybe 6.8 billion barrels, at $40/bbl. That number is going to be higher if the price of oil is higher.
6.4 billion barrels = $256 billion, at $40/bbl. That's a lot of money that would go to Americans, not to Canadians, Venezuelans, Mexicans, Russians, etc.
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[02 May 08|1233 hrs] |
Juan Leonardo Quintero-Perez was deported in 1999 after being convicted for indecency with a child. Thanks to lax border controls, he was back in America by 2006. HPD Officer Rodney Johnson arrested Quintero in 2006 during a traffic stop because Quintero was speeding and unlicensed. Officer Johnson missed the 9mm Quintero had and Quintero shot Officer Johnson seven times from the backseat of the patrol car. Three of the bullets hit the back of his head.
Quintero's defense is 1) Officer Johnson, a black police officer, is racist for arresting him and 2) he's crazy. I don't see how a kidfucking cop-killing illegal immigrant could be acquitted. He may escape the death penalty but he is not getting out of spending the rest of his life at Huntsville.
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[02 May 08|1207 hrs] |
I spent $28 on gas yesterday (192 miles, 7.88 gal, 24 mpg). I think this is the first time I've broken 20mpg in a while. I uh, didn't change the oil for nearly 8 months and my tires had 20 psig of air in them (hot). Since I drive roughly 2-3000 miles a year, I put in synthetic oil this time.
Where is my cheap oil, Mr. Bushitler?
Even Free Tibet flags come proudly stamped Made in China (PRC).
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[28 Apr 08|2217 hrs] |
Some people are confused about food shortages in third world countries. I'm shocked that someone's from the Bush administration has come out and said the obvious - when a third of America's corn crop is diverted to ethanol production, corn supply is diminished and a shift of the supply curve left results in a higher equilibrium price.
I understand that McCain is an idiot on this issue and probably won't stand up to the corn lobby. But why won't the Democrats, the supposed champions of the poor, stand up to the corn lobby? Corn ethanol is incredibly inefficient by any metric and a waste of government funding. The only people benefiting from corn ethanol are farmers. Far more poor people are hurt by higher food prices.
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[28 Apr 08|2157 hrs] |
An 80% reduction in [CO2] emissions from 1990 levels means that the U.S. cannot emit more than about one billion metric tons of CO2 in 2050.
Were man-made carbon dioxide emissions in this country ever that low? The answer is probably yes – from historical energy data it is possible to estimate that the U.S. last emitted one billion metric tons around 1910. But in 1910, the U.S. had 92 million people, and per capita income, in current dollars, was about $6,000.
By the year 2050, the Census Bureau projects that our population will be around 420 million. This means per capita emissions will have to fall to about 2.5 tons in order to meet the goal of 80% reduction.
It is likely that U.S. per capita emissions were never that low – even back in colonial days when the only fuel we burned was wood. The only nations in the world today that emit at this low level are all poor developing nations, such as Belize, Mauritius, Jordan, Haiti and Somalia.
WSJ
picture from here
We've passed peak global warming and it's only going to get colder now!
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[28 Apr 08|1603 hrs] |
It went down very simply. He's a politician. I'm a pastor. We speak to two different audiences. And he says what he has to say as a politician. I say what I have to say as a pastor. Those are two different worlds. I do what I do, he does what politicians do. So what happened in Philadelphia where he had to respond to the soundbites, he responded as a politician.
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2008/04/wright_on_obama_hes_a_politici.html
Haha. Rev. Wright works ever so hard to destroy Obama's campaign. Does Rev. Wright mean that Obama actually believes his sermons?
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[27 Apr 08|2102 hrs] |
How will each of the contenders negotiate with Ahmadinejad?
McCain: Fuck you, chicken shit!
Hilrod: I can dodge sniper fire!
Obama: Want some waffles?
We're not going to have the engineers and the scientists to continue space exploration if we don't have kids who are able to read, write and compute. http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2007-11-20-obama-education_N.htm
Barack Obama's early education and K-12 plan package costs about $18 billion per year. He will maintain fiscal responsibility and prevent an increase in the deficit by offsetting cuts and revenue sources in other parts of the government. The early education plan will be paid for by delaying the NASA Constellation Program for five years ... http://obama.3cdn.net/a8dfc36246b3dcc3cb_iem6bxpgh.pdf
During the question-and-answer portion of an event at a recreational center here, Obama was asked about the nation's space program.
“I grew up on Star Trek,” Obama said. “I believe in the final frontier.”
But Obama said he does not agree with the way the space program is now being run and thinks funding should be trimmed until the mission is clearer.
“NASA has lost focus and is no longer associated with inspiration,” he said. “I don't think our kids are watching the space shuttle launches. It used to be a remarkable thing. It doesn't even pass for news anymore.” http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1100/1
The space shuttle fleet will be retired in FY10. The shuttle's replacement, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, isn't going to fly until 2015. Between 2010 and 2105, American astronauts, flying to the largely American taxpayer-funded ISS, will fly on Soyuz launch vehicles. The money that would've gone to the American space industry for launches in those years will go to Kazakhs at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Lockheed Martin (California) is the prime contractor for the CEV. Rockwell International, now part of Boeing (Washington), was the prime contractor for the space shuttle. Obama won in Washington and lost in California.
Guess what, asshole? I watch the webcasts of the shuttle launches. Nothing makes me prouder to be an American than watching them. Exactly three countries have a manned space mission. Exactly one country has a giant mirror in space. I understand that neither you nor your wife are proud of being an American but some of us are.
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[26 Apr 08|1023 hrs] |
Right after Sen. Obama made is "bitter" comment, he appeared with Hillary on CNN's compassion forum. It was supposed to be where they each talked about their religion or whatever. CNN allowed questions from the audience. One audience member asked Hil-rod what she was going to do "about global poverty and climate change." It had to be the most disjointed question I ever heard. The guy might as well have asked Hil-rod what she was going to do about horses and Iraq. Anyways, Hil-rod went off about how she and Bill were carbon neutral, used CFLs (lots of mercury), etc. She didn't say anything about global poverty.
I became disgusted at that point and turned the tv off.
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[23 Apr 08|0449 hrs] |
http://edition.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/epolls/#PADEM
Unsurprisingly, Clinton won the Pennsylvania primary. White people loved Clinton and very few young people voted. Young people who voted preferred Obama. Gun-toting religious folk did not vote for Obama. Since Obama voters would rather see a McCain presidency than a Clinton presidency (if it came down to that), I think republicans voted in the democrat primary.
I can't believe that 42% of Pennsylvanians think that we're in a serious recession. Unemployment is at 5%, which Clinton-42 harped about to get re-elected. Oil prices are high because of a refinery fire early this month. Refining capacity is the bottleneck in supply. People are nervous about the US economy because too many idiots were led to believe that they could afford a home when in reality, they couldn't.
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[21 Apr 08|1344 hrs] |
In a recent op-ed piece in the Brussels newspaper De Standaard (23 October) the Dutch (gay and self-declared “humanist”) author Oscar Van den Boogaard refers to Broder’s interview. Van den Boogaard says that to him coping with the islamization of Europe is like “a process of mourning.” He is overwhelmed by a “feeling of sadness.” “I am not a warrior,” he says, “but who is? I have never learned to fight for my freedom. I was only good at enjoying it.”
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/1609
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[18 Apr 08|1617 hrs] |
A significant portion of my physical chemistry class has been tied to methane hydrate. Methane hydrate is a form of methane in which methane molecules are trapped within water molecules. It's stable at high pressures and low temperatures, such as at the bottom of oceans. It's usually in the form of ice crystals. The USGS estimates that there's 200,000 TSCF of methane hydrates within US territorial waters, compared to 25,000 TSCF of traditional natural gas. The DoE gave more money to UT Austin for research than any other organization.
Since methane hydrate exists as ice crystals, no one's been able to figure out how to produce it. There are two ways you can melt something - raise the temperature or lower the pressure. Raising the temperature is expensive so you have to figure out some way to lower the temperature of the hydrate and produce only the methane, and not water.
One country very interested in methane hydrates is Japan because Japan has virtually no hydrocarbon reserves. It does, however, have a huge deposit of methane hydrates off its northernmost island. Recently, a Japanese and Canadian team figured out how to get methane to flow "consistently." Consistent is far from commercial, but a lot better than none.
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[16 Apr 08|2123 hrs] |
GT5p - amazing. I've completed C-class. The AI is retarded, though. Every car's path is hard-coded and instead of braking to avoid hitting you, the AI will ram you.
The manufacturer's races are a royal pain in the ass. I attempted the Golf V one several times and I could never advance from my starting position. There are stupid penalties like going off the course or hitting another car.
New PS store - not so amazing. It takes forever to load images. Since every ps3 has a hard drive, I don't see why Sony didn't decide to cache all the images.
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[16 Apr 08|1208 hrs] |
Game Crazy just called and said that I can pick my copy of GT5p up today. If I didn't have an attendance quiz at 2, I wouldn't be at school right now.
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[16 Apr 08|0802 hrs] |
If there is any reason why Sen. Obama shouldn't advance any further than the Senate, it's that he repeatedly says something incredibly stupid and offensive. Within the last two months, we have the grandma story, "typical white person" comment, and now the "bitter" comment. At least GWB keeps it strictly stupid and doesn't have to explain himself days later. Sen. Obama wants to talk to Ahmadinejad. I imagine he's going to fuck things up by bringing a ham and swiss sandwich to the bargaining table and offering some to Ahmadinejad.
I watch the food network too much. I know what arugula is and my girlfriend didn't :o I had a pizza a few months ago with prosciutto, mozzarella, and arugula and it was DELICIOUS.
"Sometimes hope and anger go hand and hand," he said today at the Philadelphia City Committee's Jefferson-Jackson dinner.
rofl. Hope with anger, or anger with hope?
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[15 Apr 08|1516 hrs] |
The up-dated temperature measurements have been released by the NASA’s Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) [1] as well as by the UK’s Hadley Climate Research Unit (Temperature v. 3, variance adjusted - Hadley CRUT3v) [2]. In parallel, readings of atmospheric concentrations of CO2 have been released by the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii [3]. They have been combined in graphical form by Joe D’Aleo [4], and are shown below.
http://www.theclimatescam.com/2008/04/15/un-asked-to-admit-climate-change-errors/
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[11 Apr 08|1125 hrs] |
Matthew Debord, author of The New York Book of Wine", decided to give his opinion on Gen. Petraeus' wardrobe in a LATimes editorial. In a sentence - Debord thinks that Peatreus shouldn't have worn all his ribbons.
Memo to Petraeus: When you're making the case for more patriotic gore, go easy on the glitter.
Holy shit, a wine critic is critiquing the Army's dress code! Already, people are taking it out on his Amazon.com listing. I found that review helpful. Here's his own review of his book, with hilarious comments.
You know who saw those race-baiting assholes Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson in the 1900s? Former slave Booker T. Washington.
There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs - partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because theyd o not want to lose their jobs.
Washington follows that up with an anecdote.
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[09 Apr 08|1904 hrs] |
New Yorkers prefer a McCain-Rice ticket to an Obama-Clinton or Clinton-Obama ticket. Sen. Clinton is a New York senator, even though I'm pretty sure she and her husband lived in Arkansas before they lived in the White House. If New Yorkers prefer anyone else to Clinton, who am I to disagree?
I'd love to see a McCain-Thompson ticket.
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[09 Apr 08|1855 hrs] |
An illegal alien murdered a black teenager a month ago in LA, a sanctuary city. Pedro Espinosa shot Jamiel Shaw II in the chest and in between the eyes. The shooting allegedly happened after Espinosa and a fellow gang member asked Shaw "where you from?" and Shaw ignored them. Shaw's father heard the fatal shots. Shaw's mother was serving in Baghdad at the time. Espinosa was released the day before from county jail for assault with a deadly weapon, but he wasn't deported because LAPD is not allowed to ask people their immigration status under special order 40.
Shaw's family appeared in front of the LAPD city council earlier today to plead their case. I saw a clip of it and their case was mostly emotional. I'd say it worked. They want a new law that repeals special order 40 and to enforce federal immigration laws. A hispanic councilman said that LA "wasn't ready economically." Then LAPD's Chief Bratton defended special order 40, in front of a "joinlapd.com" sign. This is the same guy who got pwnt by Ronnie Barrett.
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[07 Apr 08|1901 hrs] |
Stop-Loss opened two weekends ago. In it, some guy signs up for the Army for four years of active duty (and four years of reserve), finishes his four years of active duty, gets called up as a reserve, and protests by going AWOL. You're supposed to feel sorry for some guy who didn't read his contract. That's really all you need to know about the movie.
On page two of DD Form 4, it specifically states that once you sign the enlistment form, your ass is property of the government until "six (6) months after the end of that period of war."
According to some soldiers and marines, MTV screwed up on technical aspects. The WaPo predicted that it, along with all previous anti-Iraq war movies, would bomb and it did. Gregg Kilday does a hilarious job trying to spin it. I don't see "editorial" anywhere near it, strangely enough.
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[07 Apr 08|1801 hrs] |
Courtesy of the NYT:
Asked if Americans would endure having troops in Iraq who do nothing to stop sectarian attacks there, Mrs. Clinton replied, “Look, I think the American people are done with Iraq. I think they’re at a point where, whether they thought it was a good idea or not, they have seen misjudgment and blunder after blunder, and their attitude is, what is this getting us? What is this doing for us?”
“No one wants to sit by and see mass killing,” she added. “It’s going on every day! Thousands of people are dying every month in Iraq. Our presence there is not stopping it. And there is no potential opportunity I can imagine where it could. This is an Iraqi problem — we cannot save the Iraqis from themselves. If we had a different attitude going in there, if we had stopped the looting immediately, if we had asserted our authority — you can go down the lines, if, if, if.”
I didn't think Sen. Clinton was that much of an isolationist (or so short-sighted). On the other hand, Sen. Clinton is much more concerned about Dar fur, where I'm sure it could be said that "we can't save the Sudanese from the Sudanese!" There's nothing in Sudan for Americans because China beat America to Sudanese oil.
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[07 Apr 08|0742 hrs] |
How many aggies does it take to change a light bulb?
One to hold the bulb, 199 to spin the house.
One to hold the bub, three to turn the ladder.
Trick question - they don't have electricity in College Station.
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[31 Mar 08|1108 hrs] |
There's a group calling itself the New Black Panthers floating around. Their mission statement is laughable at best, insane at worst. They've bought into the entitlement bullshit that the democrats fed them for over a century and a half. Little do they know that in a real welfare state, the people most hurt by the welfare state are the poor and the immigrants. Anyways, this yahoo sent Michelle Malkin an email.
Dear Ms. Malkin:
You are nothing but a white woman disquised[sic] as an Asian. There is nothing about Asian about you accept your complexion. Attorney Malik Zulu Shabazz was right when he said that you should be ashamed of yourself as a “Woman of color” for the positions that you take concerning race, immigration, and non-whites otherwise known as minorities. Listening to you just sickens me. If I were close my eyes I wouldn’t be able to tell that you were Asian. By the way are you at least married to another asian or a non-white man. It would really surprise me if you were. I say this because usually non-whites such as yourself who spend their entire lives aligning themselves with white people in power physically, politically, financially or mentally often try to make it final by marrying a white person. Hoping that this will officiate the notion that you are in the inside of the white establishing. I have more to more later on. Have a blessed day.
Mr. Doshon Farad
New Black Panther Party For Self Defense
I wonder if this is what liberals really think of minorities who don't agree with the democratic platform but most of them have the decency not to say it. This guy and Rev. Wright (Romans = garlic noses) are validating Chris Rock's statement that old black men are the most racist people in the world. Oh, and some black people are fed up with Al Sharpton embarrassing them as a whole.
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[24 Mar 08|1017 hrs] |
I'm beginning to think that Obama swift boated his own chances of becoming the 44th President. Last week, he compared Rev. Wright to his racist grandmother. I wouldn't talk shit about anyone in my family and I don't see why Obama would do so. People called him out on it and he "clarified' it by calling his grandma a "typical white person", reacting to "experiences bred into her" when she was scared of some black panhandler (2:30 in the clip).
Exactly who's the racist here? Obama's grandma or Obama, who thinks that most white people are the same and are scared of black people?
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[19 Mar 08|0804 hrs] |
Did I strongly disagree with many of [Rev. Wright's] political views? Absolutely -- just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.
- Barak Obama
I've been to church, outside of attending a private Christian school, maybe ten times in my life. I have never heard anything inflammatory or controversial. I may be going to the wrong churches, though. I suppose I'd feel differently if I went to the KKK church or whatnot. But that's all besides the point.
Why would you continue to listen to a minister you don't agree with, if it's not compulsory?
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[19 Mar 08|0608 hrs] |
I have a test today and tomorrow. What does that mean? I'll probably procrastinate by posting a lot of crap. Right now, the only thing I'm thinking is that I want to watch Invader Zim again. I should get the box set off of Amazon. Shit, it's only $18.
I found out yesterday that the Prime Minister of Palestine, Salam Fayyad, is an alumni of both St. Edward's and UT Austin. Fayyad recently criticized the peace process as going nowhere in the wake of Israel's retaliatory air strikes.
Nonie Darwish wrote an interesting column the other day about how Arabs treat Palestinians. Nonie Darwish is the founder of Arabs for Israel.
I'm concerned about an Obama presidency. For one, all of his proposed domestic policies weigh in at $1.4 trillion over five years, roughly 3% of our GDP every year. The bill failed unanimously - Obama himself voted against it. The OMB projects the US government to spend about $15 trillion over the next five years. OMB also provided some scary graphs. Social Security is pretty much fucked. Without the help of Obama, Medicare and Medicaid spending will outpace Social Security spending by 2010.
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[06 Mar 08|1441 hrs] |
There's an extensive Air Force history component to the Air Force's Basic Military Training program. Certain men were highlighted. Two of them were the enlisted recipients of the Medal of Honor from the Vietnam War. One is John Levitow, who picked up a prematurely ignited magnesium flare with his bare hands and threw it out of an airplane. The top student of each enlisted tech school class is given the Levitow Award.
The other is William Pitsenbarger. Pitsenbarger was a pararescueman.Pararescuemen are basically EMTs who jump out of helicopters. During Levitow's last mission, it became impossible to evacuate all the wounded because of intense enemy fire. Levitow elected to stay behind to care for 20 infantrymen, instead of evacuating himself. For an hour and a half, he took care of the soldiers while returning fire. He was killed by a VC sniper. Pitsenbarger was originally awarded the Air Force Cross, but was upgraded o the Medal of Honor in 2000. The service crosses are second only to the Medal of Honor. The Last Full Measure, with Bruce Willis, is about the congressional act to upgrade Pitsenbarger's Air Force Cross.
Robert Irvine is a former Royal Marine who had his own cooking show (Dinner: Impossible). A few weeks ago, I watched two episodes. The first was at Sheppard AFB, Tx for the Air Force's 60th birthday. The second was at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Ca. Marines at the MCAGCC go through a 30 day desert field training exercise before heading for Iraq. Robert Irvine supervised the making of the warrior meal, which is given at the conclusion to the field training exercise. The contrast between those two episodes were amazing. The airmen had it really easy in comparison to the marines.
There are apparently different ways to "support the troops." There's the extreme Left's, and everyone else's. One's positive, one's disgusting.
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[06 Mar 08|1350 hrs] |
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NBC's show Medium sucks. I don't think I ever sat through five minutes of it. I may be confusing it with The Ghost Whisperer but whatever - they both suck. The basic premise of both (?) shows is a psychic that can communicate with the dead. Medium's solves crimes. Monday's show dealt with a certain ex-POW Arizona senator who happened to be a murderous cannibal. Wait, there's an ex-POW senator from Arizona running for President! If John McCain actually murdered a fellow POW to help feed himself and other POWs, he sure as hell has my vote. Idi Amin, another head of state who consumed human flesh, was loved by his people.
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