Archive for 2011
May 16, 2011
THE LONELY LIVES OF SCIENTISTS: Scientists Spot Beauties In Bali.
JUST CRAZY ENOUGH TO WANT TO BE YOUR PRESIDENT: “Nixon talked to the portraits, and we all thought that was weird. It turns out all presidents talk to the portraits, and the portraits talk back.”
DOCUMENTARY: How To Live Forever.
A BLOOD TEST THAT TELLS HOW FAST YOU’RE AGING: “The controversial test measures vital structures on the tips of a person’s chromosomes, called telomeres, which scientists believe are one of the most important and accurate indicators of the speed at which a person is ageing.”
MICHAEL YON: The increase of “Inside Attacks” in Afghanistan.
THE FORD FOUNDATION, THE KOCH FOUNDATION and double standards.
ROGER KIMBALL: The Alligators Are In The Moat.
TRUST: L.A. Times: Why Do One In Five Americans Now Believe Bin Laden Is Still Alive? “This incredulity phenomenon is a curious creation of a high-speed global media so full of unverified and unverifiable information floating about, combined with a modern cynicism about political leaders masquerading as voter wisdom. After so many lies and misleading claims by politicians over the decades since the Kennedy assassination and its conspiracy theories (‘I am not a crook’, ‘I did not have sex with that woman’), the safest way to look wise and experienced these days is to dismiss virtually any public official’s statement as a talking point and/or lie. The widespread arrival of television some 60 years ago and more recently online video has trained people to expect some kind of visual confirmation of virtually any news, either live or shortly after. Its absence almost surely spawns doubts.”
THOUGHTS ON blogging and burnout. I recommend an occasional change of scenery.
RICH GALEN ON Obama’s Drilling Flipflop. “# President Obama should stop treating America’s energy security like it is nothing more than a chip in the Great Presidential Poker Game. We need an energy policy which makes sense, which will provide some measure of stability, and which reflects the realities of available domestic resources from wind and solar, to nuclear and natural gas.” Well, T.S. Eliot said that there’s no greater treason, than to do the right thing, for the wrong reason — but with politicians, that’s about all you can hope for . . . .
TODAY ONLY: A Canon wireless inkjet printer for $69.99.
TURKISH SECURITY FORCES kill twelve border-crossers. Strangely, it hasn’t gotten much press.
THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED THIS WEEKEND, if you were out, you know, having a life or something:
The joys of lionfish sushi.
In Canada, a promising brain-cancer treatment.
How the IMF makes the Tea Party look good.
IRS Denies Political influence in Gift Tax Scrutiny of 501(c)(4) Groups.
They say women don’t lie.
Working on a Tricorder.
Walter Russell Mead: White House Down In Middle East.
What Kind Of Immunity Does The IMF Managing Director Have?
Senate GOP Embarrasses Dems Over Boeing.
As go jobs, so goes Ohio.
The Muslim World’s Dirty Little Secret: Porn.
UNION WHISTLEBLOWERS beaten and harassed after they accused bosses of looting.
Unionized phone company employees say they were beaten or threatened after they accused their labor bosses of looting their coffers through various scams.
One member of Communications Workers of America Local 1101 said that after he reported a time-sheet padding scheme, a thug beat him so badly his spine was injured.
Another says he found a dead rat in his locker, while a third said a union officer warned that suspected informants should be brought off company property and “taken care of.”
The threats come to light as the U.S. Labor Department is probing charges that union bosses lined their pockets at the rank-and-file’s expense.
Shocking.
UPDATE: A reader emails:
Please keep my name private if you choose to post this rant. I too am a member of a public employee’s union that recently put up a vote for additional withholding for a strike fund. It failed as most of the members learned for the first time that nearly all of our dues go to Washington to pay enormous salaries and benefits for union bosses, and to fill the coffers of Democratic politicians who promise that the gravy train will never end.
For what its worth, I make less than I could in private practice, but about equal with private agencies. Given my family size, I am just below the poverty line.
Ouch. But I think that if public employee unions learn more about the finances, their enthusiasm for the unions will cool.
TOM MAGUIRE: “They probably didn’t tell Glenn that if he voted for McCain the Administration would use the IRS to stifle dissent, because it would have seemed crazy. However, they would have been right.”
IRONIC TWIST OF FATE in Wisconsin recount. “By demanding a statewide recount, and insisting that the recount continue to the end even as it became clear she had no chance of success, JoAnne Kloppenburg has seen her public persona devolve into a caricature of a bitter partisan lacking the necessary judgment for the job she seeks. By contrast, Kathy Nickolaus, the Republican Waukesha County clerk who was harshly criticized by Democrats for an election night reporting mistake, is seeing a rehabilitation of her reputation as the city of Brookfield and Waukesha County recounts demonstrate no meaningful errors much less fraud.”
WHAT? LIBYA? OH, RIGHT: British Military Calls For Increased Air Strikes: “Pressure mounted on Libyan strongman Moammar Gaddafi on Sunday, as the head of Britain’s military called for more extensive NATO airstrikes and prosecutors in the International Criminal Court announced that senior Libyan government officials were cooperating in a war crimes investigation. After a week in which NATO forces significantly increased their bombardment of Tripoli, Gen. David Richards said Sunday that he wanted to widen the range of targets that NATO could hit to tighten pressure on Gaddafi to abandon his 41-year rule.”
TO THE VICTOR’S CRONIES GO THE SPOILS: HHS Hands Out 204 New ObamaCare Waivers.
ROGER SIMON: IMF Head Strauss-Kahn: A Teachable Moment For The French? “A supposed leftist and one-time student communist, he lived the most extravagant personal lifestyle replete with three thousand dollar hotel suites, thirty-five thousand dollar suits (Strauss-Kahn is suing over this allegation by France Soir — but what if they’re only twenty thousand?), unlimited first class seats on Air France, Porsches, etc.”
UPDATE: Wall Street Journal: The stunning sexual assault case against the French IMF chief.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Ya think? Arrest of IMF chief raises questions about organization‘s leadership amid European debt crisis.
MORE: Worse than a “crazed sex poodle:” Past Victim: Strauss-Kahn Was a ‘Chimpanzee in Heat.’ If this is what the French consider a “Great Seducer,” well, that’s just sad.
STILL MORE: Ron Paul on Strauss-Kahn’s arrest: ‘These are the kinds of people who are running the IMF.’
MORE STILL: A reader ventures a prediction: “When it comes the time for this incident to immortalized on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, the bad guy is going to be someone from the right. Or, they’ll ignore the story entirely, and this one won’t be ‘ripped from the headlines…’.’ I’m not taking that bet.
BETTER LIVING THROUGH self-deception.
LAWRENCE SOLOMON: Break Up Pakistan.
HOW MATT DRUDGE has stayed on top. “With no video, no search optimization, no slide shows, and a design that is right out of mid-’90s manual on HTML, The Drudge Report provides 7 percent of the inbound referrals to the top news sites in the country.”