Where's Gary?

Hmm. Not like me to go a whole weekend without a single post, I know.

No, I've not been cloistered away pouring through my tax return. It's been more like a perfect storm of real life events hitting at once. First, I had a funeral to attend - my second in two months - only this time in my family. My aunt died last week after a long bout with emphysema.

Then you've got the whole load-up-the-entire-clan-in-the-van thing for Easter, heading down to grandma's house for the holiday. Throw in some minor plumbing problems and an inability to pull myself away from the one Mets game that actually gets televised on my $%&#^! cable system and you've got a PC that sits idle for two days.

On that last item, I'm obviously giddy with anticipation tonight as the Braves come limping into Shea. I've been waiting for this one for a long time.

Posted by: Gary at 07:02 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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80's Crush Tournament Update

It looked very much like Lynda Carter was going to run away with this one but by last night the Kim Basinger fans showed up in droves, putting her ahead. However, at the last minute, Lynda squeaked back into the lead. Having garnered 54.6% of the total vote, she will now advances to the Final Four.

The next match-up is Jaclyn Smith versus Lea Thompson. Voting remains open through the Easter weekend until 12 noon on Monday.

View updated Tournament brackett HERE.

Posted by: Gary at 12:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"South Park" Ridicules Comedy Central

And deservedly so. I just got around to watching my tape of the episode that's the big meme this morning.

The fact that Comedy Central portrays itself as so cutting edge and then pusses out because they won't show a cartoon of Mohammed is the ultimate in hypocrisy. Congrats to Matt Stone and Trey Parker for coming with a brilliant way to show how badly the First Amendment has been beaten down by political correctness.

This quote from Robbie at The Malcontent sums it up best:

"To think, a silly little cartoon on basic cable about a redneck mountain town does more to defend the constitution than such self-vaunted press institutions like the New York Times and CNN. What an extraordinary world we find ourselves in."

Here, here.

Posted by: Gary at 07:34 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Best.Commercial.Ever!

Too bad it isn't real. Go view "Die, Hippies, Die!"

h/t: Mad Mikey

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Quiz Question Insults Condi

A test given for a course at Bellevue Community College reads like this:

"Condoleezza holds a watermelon just over the edge of the roof of the 300-foot Federal Building, and tosses it up with a velocity of 20 feet per second."

Nice. Needless to say, it garnered some complaints. Who's the teacher who wrote the question? The college ain't sayin'.

"The college declined to release the name of the teacher who wrote the question. [Bellevue Community College President Jean] Floten said the teacher has apologized and requested cultural-sensitivity training.

The test question was originally written with the name of a comedian, Gallagher, whose signature shtick was to smash a variety of objects, often watermelons. Later, the question was rewritten, and the name was changed to Condoleezza, Floten said."

In 2004, John Kerry carried King County, WA by 66%. You probably don't have to think too hard to figure out the political inclinations of the teacher in question, though.

It's probably one of those "racially-sensitive" Liberals.

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The Mets Are Having A Very Good Day

Smacking the Nats down at RFK 13-3 in the seventh inning. Well on there way to being 7-1.

Posted by: Gary at 03:07 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Short Term For President Geena Davis

Well, it's all over but the whining. ABC is expected to cancel "Commander-In-Chief" after only one season.

ABC suits will not renew COMMANDER unless audience levels can hold a 15 share, a source claims. The show crashed from a high of nearly 17 million viewers for its second episode to 10.4 million for its last, Jan. 24.

A 15 share? With five weeks left in the season? Well, that ain't happening. At least Davis will be freed up to negotiate a deal for "Earth Girls Are Easy 2".

Kudos to Jonah Goldberg who predicted the failure of this turkey back on July 28 of last year:

"It will be dull because who cares how much more difficult picking a Supreme Court nominee, raising/lowering taxes, bombing terrorist camps, whatever is for a female president? Indeed, it will grow increasingly implausible for the audience to believe that there would be any significant difference for a chick president to do anything of these things, particularly after she proved herself capable of doing the job. And the more the producers try to hammer feminist issues into every situation, the duller or more tedious it will get. From the commercials, we're supposed to believe the government is drenched with crotchety white guys who just don't believe a woman can do the job. That's not only implausible, but to the extent they make it plausible they will still be repeating themselves week after week after week. Very quickly, viewers will say 'We get it, she's a woman. Next.'"

Now the flailing and gnashing of the teeth will come from the Hollywood Left who will no doubt bitch that America just isn't ready for a woman President, which is a lot of hooey. They're just not ready for a woman President that they find too unlikable (ahem, Hillary) or too Liberal.

Posted by: Gary at 12:06 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Modern Democrats And War

Liberal Columnist David Corn has a piece posted at TomPaine.com in which he looks at what he sees as political similarities between 2008 and 1968. Essentially, he says that the potential leading candidates for the Democratic Nomination in two years - Hillary Clinton, Russ Feingold & John Edwards resemble those of '68 - Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy.

While I think the comparison is more than a bit of a stretch, the overall comparison may be apt in that modern Democrat Presidential candidates tend to splinter their party in wartime. Unlike Democrats in the early part of the 20th century - FDR against the Nazi's and Japanese and Truman against the Soviets - who united their party against a common enemy, the modern Democrats are fighting with themselves to decide exactly who the enemy is. In both 1968 and today, the leading faction decided that the enemy is not foreign, but rather domestic. For the today's anti-war Democrats, the enemy is actually Republicans (the Bush Administration) and Democrats with strong positions on National Security (Sen. Joe Lieberman).

While normally Corn and I agree on...well, almost nothing, he has one observation that I can buy into:

"There are, obviously, distinctions between 1968 and now. Hillary Clinton is not a commander-in-chief in charge of a tragic war (or the No. 2). There is yet no sizeable antiwar movement, as there was in 1968, for Feingold to use as a base. Edwards is not the vacillator that Kennedy was—although like Kennedy, he does raise poverty as an issue. But it sure seems possible that the Iraq war—if Bush does not achieve his complete victory there in the next two years—has the potential to dominate the Democratic contest and to split the party, as the Vietnam war did in 1968.

For now, the party is repressing those potential differences. Look at the Democrats’ recently released "Real Security" platform. Iraq is covered on page three of the three-page statement. And the plan offers little: "ensure" 2006 is a year of "significant transition" to full Iraqi sovereignty and of "responsible redeployment of U.S. forces"; "insist" that Iraqis make political compromises to unite their country and defeat the insurgency; "strongly encourage" allies and other nations to play a "constructive role." That's not much. The plan says nothing about what should be done if the problem in Iraq is not a self-contained insurgency but a civil war—or something close to it. Should the United States keep 130,000 troops in the middle of a sectarian conflict? Should it pick a side?

Clinton is straddling, not leading, and much of the leadership of her party is essentially doing the same. That might help Democrats in the coming congressional elections by providing on-the-ropes Republicans with little to attack. Then again, it might not. But the conflicts and dilemmas posed by the Iraq war will probably persist. If so, Democrats could find that their biggest challenge is not the Republicans but themselves."

In 1968, Vietnam was tearing apart the Democrat party but it was also tearing the country apart as well. That isn't the case today. In their fervor, the anti-war Democrats are misjudging their reading of the electorate. There's a huge difference between being pessimistic about the current operations in Iraq and a popular uprising to end them at any cost. If the netroots are counting on the later, then they're in for a huge disappointment.

While the anti-war Democrats will not be taking to the streets during their 2008 convention the way they did in Chicago in 1968, their influence will probably be just as significant. Only instead of nominating a Hillary Clinton as their Hubert Humphrey they may very well nominate a Russ Feingold or an Al Gore as their version of the Democrats' 1972 nominee, George McGovern. If this turns out to be the case, don't be surprised if history repeats itself - with a Republican ending up in the White House.

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80's Crush Tournament UPDATE

Well, despite trailing since Monday afternoon, Morgan Fairchild's vote count experienced a Derek Jeter-like last minute surge to overtake Courtney Thorne-Smith in the semi-final round match-up. Morgan advances to the Final Four.

The new match-up pits "Wonder Woman" Lynda Carter against Kim Basinger. Voting remains open until approximately 12 noon on Friday.

View updated Tournament brackett HERE.

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80's Crush Tournament Housekeeping

Just a note on the rules for this semi-final round. In the event of a tie, the winner will be the higher-ranked seed. As of 9:30am, the current "battle of the blondes" death struggle between Courtney Thorne-Smith and Morgan Fairchild is dead even.

Voting is open until noon. If at that time they are still tied, the higher-ranking seed - Morgan Fairchild - will advance to the Final Four.

Posted by: Gary at 09:30 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Climate Studies: A Lucrative Line Of Work

Snake-oil comes in many forms but the people who peddle it are all after the same thing: a sucker's money. Take the current alarmist trend in climate studies, particularly the focus on "global warming" and its alleged relationship to the increase of man-made greenhouse gases. One of the major reasons it gets so much attention is the funding that it brings those who scream that the sky is falling.

In today's OpinionJournal.com, Richard Lindzen, an Alfred P. Sloan Professor at MIT, explains why this has become such a big deal:

"The answer has much to do with misunderstanding the science of climate, plus a willingness to debase climate science into a triangle of alarmism. Ambiguous scientific statements about climate are hyped by those with a vested interest in alarm, thus raising the political stakes for policy makers who provide funds for more science research to feed more alarm to increase the political stakes. After all, who puts money into science--whether for AIDS, or space, or climate--where there is nothing really alarming? Indeed, the success of climate alarmism can be counted in the increased federal spending on climate research from a few hundred million dollars pre-1990 to $1.7 billion today. It can also be seen in heightened spending on solar, wind, hydrogen, ethanol and clean coal technologies, as well as on other energy-investment decisions."

What's even more troubling, however, is the way those scientists who have the nerve to question all the current conventional wisdom suffer because of it. Sloan continues:

"But there is a more sinister side to this feeding frenzy. Scientists who dissent from the alarmism have seen their grant funds disappear, their work derided, and themselves libeled as industry stooges, scientific hacks or worse. Consequently, lies about climate change gain credence even when they fly in the face of the science that supposedly is their basis."

The Professor goes on to cite specific examples of this kind of thing. When you get this confluence of radical environmental groups, Left-wing politicians and academic advocates (with the MSM doing their marketing campaigns for them), you get a perfect storm that results in junk science becoming the generally accepted standard. And the biggest monetary prizes go to the ones who can sell the biggest panic to the policymakers and the taxpayers. As P.T. Barnum used to say, "there's a sucker born every minute".

***************

footnote: Thanks to the anonymous commentor below for the clarification about the column's author.

Posted by: Gary at 09:10 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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To Hell In A Handbasket

What do you get when you take one of the biggest bastions of small-government Yankee Conservatism and add an influx of aging ex-hippie, tofu-eating, dope-smoking, Chomsky-reading moonbats who elect an avowed Socialist as their only Congressman and a certifiable lunatic as their former Governor?

The highest per capita taxes in the entire nation. Calvin Coolidge must be rolling in his grave. Dang Flatlanders!

Posted by: Gary at 08:40 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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"24" Is Kicking Me In The Balls

Damn, this show doesn't let up. Three hours into Season Two and we've already got major bloodshed and explosions. Who knew plutonium acts so fast when inhaled? Jeez.

UPDATE: 4/11/06 10:00AM
Kiefer Sutherland has just signed a deal with FOX TV for seasons 6-8!!! So Jack will definitely be back. Any other member of the cast, however, better look over their shoulders because as we all know nothing is guaranteed for them.

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He Will If It Comes Down To It

Since Sen. Joe Lieberman is getting a challenge - albeit a weak one - from within the party, he hasn't ruled out running as an Independent.

“I have not foreclosed the option,” Lieberman said at a news conference at the Capitol. “If I wanted to run as an independent, I would. I’m running as a Democrat. I’ve been a Democrat all my life.”

If it came down to this - if Democrats forced him out - Lieberman would win in a walk. With a popularity rating over 60% among CT voters of all stripes, Democrats would soon realize that Joe gets reelected every six years because he's a mensch, not because he has a (D) after his name.

Go ahead, guys. Push out everyone that isn't a die-hard Bush-hating moonbat. It won't be long before the party that was once the "big tent" will be able to fit into a pup tent.

Posted by: Gary at 05:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"Global Warming" Stopped Eight Years Ago

Funny how you don't here facts like this one amid all the hysteria about this "phenomenon": Average surface tempuratures of the earth did NOT rise between the years 1998-2005.

What? Yeah, that's right. Professor Bob Carter, a geologist at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia sifts through the fiction to bring you the facts in this piece he wrote for the UK Telegraph. Based on data collected by Climate Research Institute at the University of East Anglia, surface tempuratures have not risen higher than those recorded in 1998. Carter writes:

"In response to these facts, a global warming devotee will chuckle and say "how silly to judge climate change over such a short period". Yet in the next breath, the same person will assure you that the 28-year-long period of warming which occurred between 1970 and 1998 constitutes a dangerous (and man-made) warming. Tosh. Our devotee will also pass by the curious additional facts that a period of similar warming occurred between 1918 and 1940, well prior to the greatest phase of world industrialisation, and that cooling occurred between 1940 and 1965, at precisely the time that human emissions were increasing at their greatest rate.

Does something not strike you as odd here? That industrial carbon dioxide is not the primary cause of earth's recent decadal-scale temperature changes doesn't seem at all odd to many thousands of independent scientists. They have long appreciated - ever since the early 1990s, when the global warming bandwagon first started to roll behind the gravy train of the UN Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - that such short-term climate fluctuations are chiefly of natural origin. Yet the public appears to be largely convinced otherwise. How is this possible?

Since the early 1990s, the columns of many leading newspapers and magazines, worldwide, have carried an increasing stream of alarmist letters and articles on hypothetical, human-caused climate change. Each such alarmist article is larded with words such as 'if', 'might', 'could', 'probably', 'perhaps', 'expected', 'projected' or 'modelled' - and many involve such deep dreaming, or ignorance of scientific facts and principles, that they are akin to nonsense."

The issue is not whether or not surface tempuratures rise and fall in a cyclical pattern. They do. But the evidence that human activity in any way affects this has never really surfaced. It's only ever been "suggested". And if you suggest something enough times, people are going to accept it as a given. That's what we have here. The general acceptance that a theory is actually reality. Actually, the patterns described above fly in the face of the idea that industrialization correlates in any way with global warming or global cooling. Carter provides some perspective for those Chicken Littles who are unable to comprehend a world that existed before they were even born:

"Two simple graphs provide needed context, and exemplify the dynamic, fluctuating nature of climate change. The first is a temperature curve for the last six million years, which shows a three-million year period when it was several degrees warmer than today, followed by a three-million year cooling trend which was accompanied by an increase in the magnitude of the pervasive, higher frequency, cold and warm climate cycles. During the last three such warm (interglacial) periods, temperatures at high latitudes were as much as 5 degrees warmer than today's. The second graph shows the average global temperature over the last eight years, which has proved to be a period of stasis.

The essence of the issue is this. Climate changes naturally all the time, partly in predictable cycles, and partly in unpredictable shorter rhythms and rapid episodic shifts, some of the causes of which remain unknown. We are fortunate that our modern societies have developed during the last 10,000 years of benignly warm, interglacial climate. But for more than 90 per cent of the last two million years, the climate has been colder, and generally much colder, than today. The reality of the climate record is that a sudden natural cooling is far more to be feared, and will do infinitely more social and economic damage, than the late 20th century phase of gentle warming."

There are two powerful forces that push this junk science: the MSM and the Socialist-leaning Left. Neither wants to admit that nations like the United States that have a high industrial output created in a free-market economy results in the kind of high standard of living for its citizens that is the envy of the world. So any way they can try to reign in that kind of economic strength and drag it down to the mundane, mediocre, overtaxed and overregulated level of the rest of the "enlightened" nations of the planet, they'll do it.

And all the idealists around the world - and in this country - buy into the hype hook, line and sinker. And no matter what the data says, they can never be wrong. Because radical environmentalism is their religion. The opiate of the Liberal masses. If you are a non-believer, than you are a heretic and you must repent of your selfish, greedy, profligate and lazy ways. Next thing you know, they'll be handling snakes. Green ones.

Posted by: Gary at 04:25 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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80's Crush Tournament Enters Semi-Finals Round

With the first round of the tournament now complete, four gals have advanced: Courtney Thorne-Smith, Kim Basinger, Lea Thompson & Erin Gray.

The first semi-final match-up will now be between Courtney Thorne-Smith and...uh, my wife, Morgan Fairchild. Yeah, that's the ticket. Which one will advance to the Final Four? You decide.

View updated Tournament brackett HERE Voting is open until noon Wednesday.

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"Monster" Bunny Update

Last week, I posted about a story of a giant "were-rabbit" gorging itself on people's gardens in rural England.

Well, they caught the bugger. And here he is:

Now I got you! You wascally wabbit!

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Army Retention is Low...No, Wait. It's High.

From the NY Times: Young Officers Leaving Army At A High Rate.

"It was the second year in a row of worsening retention numbers, apparently marking the end of a burst of patriotic fervor during which junior officers chose continued military service at unusually high rates."

But on the other hand, USAToday reports: Army Surpassing Year's Retention Goal By 15%.

"The Army has met or exceeded its goals for retention for the past five years, records show. It was 8% over its goal for 2005, and 7% ahead of its targets for 2004. The number of re-enlistments has exceeded the Army's goal by a larger margin each year since 2001.

Soldiers like the Army, 'and the war is not causing people to leave,' says Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, an Army spokesman. Through March, 2,325 U.S. troops had been killed in Iraq; 1,593 were Army soldiers.

The Pentagon announced in March that each of the armed forces was on track to meet its retention goal for the year.

All things being equal, I'm inclined to be a little more skeptical of (cough...Jayson Blair) the NY Times.

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RINO Sightings Are Up!

This week's edition is hosted by Kevin the Louisiana Libertarian. Go see what all the RINOs are raging about.

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"24": Season Two

Here we go. Damn, Jack looks like shit. Understandble though.

But then, why does George Mason look like shit? Cuz he's still Director CTU - LA? He looks like he just scraped himself off a barroom floor. And what's with Roseanne Barr's problem child working at CTU?

Kim still looks awesome. Hmmm...Kim. Tough break getting the au pair job for the psycho.

The next two weeks will be all-"24". Sorry if posting is light. Need to feed this addiction.

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