CLIMATEGATE UPDATE: Editor of Nature Forced To Resign From Climate Review Panel.
Archive for 2010
February 12, 2010
A ONE-DAY SALE on the Milwaukee Sawzall reciprocating saw. I have no real use for one of these, but I’ve used one a few times so I still want one. . . .
UPDATE: Reader Jonathan Andrew emails: “If you don’t own one, it’s time: it can do what nothing else can when you need it the most. The example that comes to mind first, of all the times I’ve used mine (I got it refurbished and on sale at a local hardware shop), is freeing an old style toilet seat that was attached with steel nuts and bolts that were so rust-fused there was no longer any physical difference between them.”
Yeah, I know, but I just don’t do that kind of work much these days. Though at this price, it’s hard to resist.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Walter Milligan writes: “Trust me, the only reason you ‘have no real use for (the Sawzall)’ is that you’ve never owned one. Most useful tool ever invented! It also feels suspiciously like a machine gun when in use . . . ”
MORE: Reader Ralph Bennett writes: “One of the many delights of your site are the alerts regarding sales, etc. MILWAUKEE SAWZALL! It is an incredible tool. We have them on all our firetrucks (I’m a volunteer firefighter in my hometown, Ligonier, Pa.) and we have used them many times to saw through the roof and or pillars (even the strongly reinforced ones) when freeing victims from auto accidents. They are real stand-by.”
All right, all right, I give in. I ordered one.
INUIT MIGRATION driven by greed for metal?
READ HIS LIPS: Middle-Class Taxes.
ANDREW MARCUS on the Sarah Palin Bubble.
SHUTTING DOWN LORAN: “I’m not totally sure that this was a good decision.”
FORBES: Is Al Qaeda Bankrupt? Let’s hope.
AN ADMISSION: Pelosi Aide Calls Democratic Plan to Pass Health Care Bill “A Trick.” Megan McArdle comments: “If they run the bill through this way, this is going to be the lead-in to every Republican ad between now and the election.”
THE NEW YORK TIMES on Leon Wieseltier vs. Andrew Sullivan.
MICKEY KAUS: “I say we let Elizabeth Edwards sue Andrew Young for ‘alienation of affections’ when we let Warren Buffett sue both Edwardses for obtaining campaign contributions under massively false pretenses.”
I think that’s a great idea . . . .
The problem with Obama’s new hedging on taxing those who make below $250,000, or his administration’s taking credit for victory in the Iraq war that they so once fervently tried to abort, or the flip-flop on renditions and tribunals, or the embarrassments over closing Guantanamo and trying KSM in New York or Mirandizing the Christmas Day bomber,or trashing/praising Wall Street grandees, is not that presidents cannot change their minds as circumstances warrant, or even that all politicians are at times hypocritical. No, the rub is that Obama is not merely flipping and triangulating on issues in a desperate attempt to shadow the polls, but he is doing so on matters that he once swore were absolutely central to his entire candidacy and his signature hope-and-change agenda.
Indeed.
February 11, 2010
BLOOD IN THE WATER: “Aaron Nicodemus, of The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports that four Republican candidates and one independent have taken out nomination papers for the U.S. congressional seat in the third district of Massachusetts currently held by James McGovern.”
JEFF SESSIONS rebuts John Brennan.
ED DRISCOLL: Four Years Is Enough, Huh?
THE ECONOMIST ON THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT: “A year ago this movement did not exist. Now it is by some accounts the most potent force in American politics.”
BLOOD IN THE WATER? Dem Official: Patrick Kennedy Not Seeking Re-election. “The official spoke to The Associated Press only on the condition that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak ahead of the official announcement. The decision by the eight-term congressman comes less than a month after a stunning Republican upset in the race for the Massachusetts Senate seat his late father, Edward Kennedy, held for almost half a century.”
UPDATE: Moe Lane:
Interesting that the Kennedy name is no longer sufficient to protect its holders from premature leaks like this. Also interesting that this is happening; then again, his numbers were abysmal. They were so abysmal that GOP challenger John Loughlin might even be disappointed about this, although… no, I doubt it.
Plus, a video.
ANOTHER UPDATE: An explanation.
CLIMATEGATE UPDATE: Penn State students demand further investigation of Michael Mann.
“JARRING MISCOMMUNICATION:” “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Thursday scrapped a bipartisan jobs bill unveiled hours earlier that had been endorsed by the White House, in a jarring miscommunication between the Obama administration and Democratic congressional leaders.”
THE INSTA-DAUGHTER JUST SAW THE AUDI ‘GREEN POLICE’ COMMERCIAL for the first time. She couldn’t believe it was supposed to make you like Audi. Her reaction: “I’d like to beat those people with clubs.”
Yeah, I don’t think it was much of an ad. Everybody’s talking about it, but do they want to buy an Audi as a result?
UPDATE: Reader Joe Tetreault writes:
We are all talking about the ad. But im far less likely to buy an Audi. Marketing is my day gig. The ad, while conforming to the idea that a Super Bowl ad is supposed to possess a gimick that people talk about, under cut its message rather spectacularly. Mrs. TetreaultVision loves Audi. I was being won over. I just can’t believe an intelligently designed car would be marketed so poorly. I could see GM doing it. But not Audi.
Yeah, seems like a fail.
WINKLER COUNTY NURSE found not guilty.
Calling New Jersey’s budget a “shambles,” Gov. Chris Christie announced Thursday he is immediately freezing all state spending.
Saying New Jersey is on the verge of bankruptcy, Christie declared a fiscal emergency, announcing drastic cuts. Among them, aid to school districts that have excess surpluses.
Democrats are unhappy.
PROFESSOR TOM MAGUIRE EXPLAINS THINGS: Lefties Struggle To Crack Racist Right Wing Code (I Am Here To Help).