Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Stop it Already!

OK, I know it's a dinosaur doing the talking, but......just oblige the T-Rex and quit it, OK? And if you really must be devastated, terrified, or horrified, do it in the rest room, please.

Monday, April 21, 2008

If you want the short version....

Often it is the view of the acute foreigner that says more about us than we can see or say about ourselves. Thus it was with Alexis de Tocqueville in the 19th century, and, for my money, Alistair Cooke in the 20th. So far, the best foreign insight on the current election belongs to a Dane, from Thomas Litchford's blog:

“We in Denmark cannot figure out why you are even bothering to hold an election.

On one side, you have a bitch who is a lawyer married to a lawyer, or a lawyer who is married to a bitch who is a lawyer.

On the other side, you have a true war hero married to a woman with a very large chest who owns a beer distributorship.

Is there really a contest here?”

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Just a Question of When....

It wasn't and never has been a question of whether the ignorant, greedy, or just plain criminal who participated in the current financial fiasco surrounding the mortgage industry would be bailed out, only when, and, of course, what form the "plan" would take. This may be a a scheme of the Democrats, but if the Republicans had come up with it, it wouldn't have been enough different to matter (I base this opinion on the fact that it was a Republican-dominated Congress that voted millions of the same taxpayer's money to each of the families of the 9/11 victims).

Some would say it will be better in the long run because it will stave off even larger economic losses, that could cost the taxpayers much more than $6 Bn. So then, what's wrong with it? The same thing that's wrong with any bailout. It becomes a precedent, and makes everyone else feel entitled to equal treatment. And, for the life of me, if somebody who gets their house foreclosed on today gets bailed out, I cannot see in all equity how the government can refuse next time, any more than I can see why the families of the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing aren't entitled to the same compensation as the millions given to the families of the victims of 9/11. They're all entitled to the same thing, and that could be- nothing.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Learn it. Now.

In my reading of various items on all the "miraculous" solutions for abundant, cheap energy that keep cropping up like little poison mushrooms on the Internet, I am reminded of the classic conspiracy tale of the 100 mpg carburetor for automobiles, which has to be 50 years old.

Every person who wants to talk about energy -even casually- ought to be required to learn this, and pass a thorough exam on it. Actually, anyone interested in the subject can benefit from regular reading of Robert Rapier's blog.

During breaks, they must repeat Heinlein's mantra: TANSTAAFL*

Earthquake! (and I'm Bloggin' it)

Living as we do in the Midwest, this may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to blog a reasonably local earthquake. I was awakened about 0440 CDT this morning by the mirror on the back of the bedroom dresser shaking. After I woke up, it shook again. I got up immediately and went downstairs and out in the yard, but felt no more shaking. After making some coffee and turning on TV, reports began to come in around 0515, just the fact itself from TWC, and then more detail from a local station (WCIA-TV in Champaign). They said it was a 5.4 quake that was being reported from Evansville (later stating that damage was being reported in Louisville), and shortly thereafter that the epicenter was about 20 miles from Olney (a town in Richland Co. IL in SE Illinois, due West of Vincennes, IN).

Well, there it is...this should provide plenty of grist for the mill of the disaster-mongers.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Scientific Discovery o' the Day

The Weather Channel, Licensed Meteorologist Heather Tesch in Full Blonde Mode:

"Severe thunderstorms in the Southeast this weekend- damaging hail, strong winds, possibility of tornadoes. This could be bad!"

Naturally, this is all I could think of:

Dr. Egon Spengler: There's something very important I forgot to tell you.
Dr. Peter Venkman: What?
Dr. Egon Spengler: Don't cross the streams.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Why?
Dr. Egon Spengler: It would be bad.
Dr. Peter Venkman: I'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean, "bad"?
Dr. Egon Spengler: Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.
Dr Ray Stantz: Total protonic reversal.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Right. That's bad. Okay. All right. Important safety tip. Thanks, Egon.