Archive for 2011

ENERGY POLITICS: Tainted EPA Report on Fracking Blasted by Gas Co. “Here’s the story: the EPA says tests it conducted in Pavillion, Wyoming “indicate that ground water in the aquifer contains compounds likely associated with gas production practices, including hydraulic fracturing.” However, it turns out that the EPA drilled two monitoring wells to some 900 feet – much deeper than water wells which are usually at about 300 feet – and indeed found hydrocarbons. In short, they drilled into the natural gas reservoir that has long attracted industry producers. It may the single most productive moment in EPA history.”

Heh. It’s almost like this Administration doesn’t want us to be energy independent.

SUNUNU? Has Team Romney Lost Its Mind? “No doubt Sununu’s support is important for Romney in New Hampshire, where he was a popular governor in the 1980s and served as chairman of the state Republican Party from 2009-2011. But Sununu is a discredited figure among conservatives. To deploy him on the national stage — in an effort to convince conservatives that Gingrich is not one of them — is, quite simply, insanity.”

INSIDE WUKAN: The Chinese Village That Fought Back. “For the first time on record, the Chinese Communist party has lost all control, with the population of 20,000 in this southern fishing village now in open revolt.”

WHILE THEY LAST: Amazon’s currently running a “lightning deal” on that Butterball electric turkey fryer that people were praising back at Thanksgiving — just $59.99. Probably only good for a couple of hours.

UPDATE: Well, that didn’t take long. Still not a bad deal, but not as good as $59.99.

BOB OWENS: NYT Smears Gingrich Over EMP Threat Comment. “Broad and the Times have gone out of their way to fabricate a ‘warmonger’ theme. The article portrays Gingrich as someone angling for preemptive military strikes based off of one off-the-cuff comment by Gingrich. Gingrich has primarily advocated for nothing more than cost-effective hardening of critical infrastructure components so that our grid has a better chance of surviving any sort of electromagnetic surge that strikes our grid, be it man-made or natural in origin. Gingrich may be the only adult in the room when it comes to discussing the steps our nation needs to take to harden an electrical grid that is showing its age, piecemeal construction, and fragility, and at a fraction of cost of the present administration’s abortive and wasteful spending binges.”

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Jet Fuel-Gate Is Obama’s New Solyndra. “SolyndraGate was no isolated case of corrupt government misspending. The U.S. Navy was just forced to buy 450,000 gallons of biofuels from an Obama-connected firm at an outrageous $16 per gallon.”

WELL, THERE IS THAT STUFF ABOUT HOW THE POOR WILL ALWAYS BE WITH YOU: Media Matters Blames Christians For Poverty.

The Media Matters folks should just be glad somebody’s paying attention to them. They’ve taken to trolling for links from me by posting absurd misquotes, always a sign of desperation.

STEVE CONOVER: The Class Warfare We Need. “The class deserving voters’ wrath is composed of society’s predators and parasites, who span all rungs of the income ladder.”

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: Sally Satel on the shallowness of the “public health” profession. “Is the public health community mobilizing to fight anthrax, smallpox, etc.? Nope. They’re fighting against a ‘culture of violence’ and the presence of too many European males in the public health field. Those are the problems that they consider important.”

HEY, LOOK, IT’S ONE OF THOSE JOB-CREATING MILLIONAIRES:

This is not a fantasy project. This is going to be real: a gigantic 385-foot wing span, 544-tonne plane powered by six 747 engines that will serve as a flying launch platform for 490,000 pound orbital rockets.

It’s the new project of Paul Allen and Burt Rutan. And it looks insanely amazing.

Quick, tax them into bankruptcy and use the money for $16/gallon jet fuel!

REPORT FROM AUSTIN: Eric Holder Announces Opposition to Election Integrity Laws, Faces Protests. “Holder’s announcement will have profound partisan results in the 2012 election because of his professed unwillingness to enforce laws to prevent voter fraud. Indeed, tonight he made clear his opposition to these laws, such as voter ID and even the requirement to register to vote in advance of an election. . . . Holder laid down markers which will excite his base and disturb law abiding citizens. He supported restrictions on political speech which will criminalize campaign falsehoods. He vowed hyper-scrutiny of voter integrity laws such as voter ID and vowed to run states like Texas through a nasty gauntlet on redistricting. If this doesn’t send a signal to Texas and South Carolina to pull their Voter ID laws out of Justice and go to court, nothing else will.”

UPDATE: Holder Unveils Voter Fraud Program.

OUCH: “The president had three options on his desk and he rejected all of them.” Well, nobody ever accused Bush & Cheney of being indecisive.

Of course, if we’re really smart, the drone is fake — just real enough to lead the Chinese down the wrong path. Like the stealth helicopter that “crashed” in the bin Laden raid. The question is, are we that smart?

WHAT MEDICINE NEEDS: Frugal Innovation. “A low-cost pocket ultrasound device can see into the human heart. So why do so few doctors use it? . . . Medicine, in short, has the potential for better technology at a much lower price, but don’t look to the medical profession, government, or the life-sciences industry to make the change on its own. I believe the change will come when consumers demand it.”

Andy Kessler, call your office.

I FORESEE A BIG MARKET FOR NEURAL ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE: Download Knowledge Directly to Your Brain, Matrix-Style. There are other issues, however: “The most surprising thing in this study is that mere inductions of neural activation patterns corresponding to a specific visual feature led to visual performance improvement on the visual feature, without presenting the feature or subjects’ awareness of what was to be learned.” Hey, that’s funny. Why do I suddenly love Big Brother?