Well, our family (most of us) are in Colorado now. Looking for a house but we took time off from that on Saturday to take a lovely day hike. We headed up to Green Mountain Falls and hiked up part of the Catamount trail. I've posted pictures on my gallery (although they are out of order there which annoys me to no end).

If you want to take a look, click the picture below to the gallery. Remember, they are in reverse order...and the next/prev links skip some of the pictures (sigh).

One of my favorite fiction authors does a pretty nice job with non-fiction too.

One more go and we are through the highlights (lowlights?) of this amazing piece of xxxx legislation.

19 SEC. 504. INCOME AVERAGING FOR AMOUNTS RECEIVED IN
20              CONNECTION WITH THE EXXON VALDEZ LITI-
21              GATION.

Why? (This one is really long too, and boring, and so unrelated to the matter at hand.)

 7  Subtitle B—Paul Wellstone and
 8  Pete Domenici Mental Health
 9  Parity and Addiction Equity Act
10 of 2008
11
12 SEC. 511. SHORT TITLE.
13      This subtitle may be cited as the ‘‘Paul Wellstone and
14 Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Eq-
15 uity Act of 2008’’.

Two things: First, Paul Wellstone is dead, so I know for a fact that he didn't put this in there. Second, this is long enough and specific enough that it really should be its own bill.

      TITLE VI—OTHER PROVISIONS
 5
 6 SEC. 601. SECURE RURAL SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITY SELF-
 7              DETERMINATION PROGRAM.
 8      (a) REAUTHORIZATION OF THE SECURE RURAL
 9 SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITY SELF-DETERMINATION ACT
10     OF 2000.—The Secure Rural Schools and Community
11 Self-Determination Act of 2000 (16 U.S.C. 500 note; Pub-
12 lic Law 106–393) is amended by striking sections 1
13 through 403 and inserting the following:

I thought this one might be exciting but it is really long and boring. Plus it turns out that Securing Rural Schools is about money, not guns.

21 SEC. 602. TRANSFER TO ABANDONED MINE RECLAMATION
22              FUND.
23      Subparagraph (C) of section 402(i)(1) of the Surface
24 Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (30 U.S.C.
25 1232(i)(1)) is amended by striking ‘‘and $9,000,000 on
(Page 394)
 1 October 1, 2009’’ and inserting ‘‘$9,000,000 on October
 2 1, 2009, and $9,000,000 on October 1, 2010’’.

8 Lines of Bill, 9 Million Dollars of spending. Amazing.

2   TITLE VII—DISASTER RELIEF
3   Subtitle A—Heartland and
4   Hurricane Ike Disaster Relief

Aha. Ike did make it into this bill. (Did you ever doubt it wouldn't?)

Finally on Page 451, we reach the zenith:

     Amend the title so as to read: ‘‘To provide authority
for the Federal Government to purchase and insure cer-
tain types of troubled assets for the purposes of providing
stability to and preventing disruption in the economy and
financial system and protecting taxpayers, to amend the
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide incentives for
energy production and conservation, to extend certain ex-
piring provisions, to provide individual income tax relief,
and for other purposes’’.

Yes...emphases added by me. About 50% of the bill is for "other purposes" and about 5% of it deals with troubled assets.

This bill is a mistake. It simply demonstrates how non-serious Congress really is about the whole thing. If we really need an emergency act to correct this problem, then spend a week discussing and debating provisions, put them together in a clean bill without any cling-ons, and vote.

Just a bunch of clowns at the circus.

I think this is near the mid point. Exhausting work, this is!

18 SEC. 322. TAX INCENTIVES FOR INVESTMENT IN THE DIS-
19              TRICT OF COLUMBIA.
20      (a) DESIGNATION OF ZONE.—
21           (1) IN GENERAL.—Subsection (f) of section
22      1400 is amended by striking ‘‘2007’’ both places it
23      appears and inserting ‘‘2009’’.
24           (2) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made
25      by this subsection shall apply to periods beginning
26      after December 31, 2007.

Two more years of an undisclosed tax break to DC. If the ethics committee suspected this one came from a bribe, they would have to suspect everyone. It would be like an Agatha Christie mystery.

 7 SEC. 325. EXTENSION AND MODIFICATION OF DUTY SUS-
 8               PENSION ON WOOL PRODUCTS; WOOL RE-
 9               SEARCH FUND; WOOL DUTY REFUNDS.
10      (a) EXTENSION OF TEMPORARY DUTY REDUC-
11          TIONS.—Each of the following headings of the Har-
12 monized Tariff Schedule of the United States is amended
13 by striking the date in the effective period column and
14 inserting ‘‘12/31/2014’’:
15           (1) Heading 9902.51.11 (relating to fabrics of
16      worsted wool).
17           (2) Heading 9902.51.13 (relating to yarn of
18      combed wool).
19           (3) Heading 9902.51.14 (relating to wool fiber,
20      waste, garnetted stock, combed wool, or wool top).
21           (4) Heading 9902.51.15 (relating to fabrics of
22      combed wool).
23           (5) Heading 9902.51.16 (relating to fabrics of
24      combed wool).
(Page 296)
 1        (b) EXTENSION OF DUTY REFUNDS AND WOOL RE-
 2            SEARCH TRUST FUND.—
 3             (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 4002(c) of the Wool
 4        Suit and Textile Trade Extension Act of 2004 (Pub-
 5        lic Law 108–429; 118 Stat. 2603) is amended—
 6                   (A) in paragraph (3)(C), by striking
 7             ‘‘2010’’ and inserting ‘‘2015’’; and
 8                   (B) in paragraph (6)(A), by striking
 9             ‘‘through 2009’’ and inserting ‘‘through 2014’’.
10             (2) SUNSET.—Section 506(f) of the Trade and
11        Development Act of 2000 (Public 106–200; 114
12        Stat. 303 (7 U.S.C. 7101 note)) is amended by
13        striking ‘‘2010’’ and inserting ‘‘2015’’.

Because shepherds vote too.

16 SEC. 401. PERMANENT AUTHORITY FOR UNDERCOVER OP-
17               ERATIONS.
18      (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 7608(c) (relating to rules
19 relating to undercover operations) is amended by striking
20 paragraph (6).
21      (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by
22 this section shall apply to operations conducted after the
23 date of the enactment of this Act.

I'm kind of thinking it would be more helpful if they told us what paragraph 6 says. But...maybe it is classified. (My gut tells me this is not a provision to make us more secure.)

 1 SEC. 402. PERMANENT AUTHORITY FOR DISCLOSURE OF
 2               INFORMATION RELATING TO TERRORIST AC-
 3               TIVITIES.
 4      (a) DISCLOSURE OF RETURN INFORMATION TO AP-
 5         PRISE APPROPRIATE OFFICIALS OF TERRORIST ACTIVI-
 6         TIES.—Subparagraph (C) of section 6103(i)(3) is amend-
 7 ed by striking clause (iv).
 8      (b) DISCLOSURE UPON REQUEST OF INFORMATION
 9 RELATING  TO TERRORIST ACTIVITIES.—Paragraph (7) of
10 section 6103(i) is amended by striking subparagraph (E).
11      (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by
12 this section shall apply to disclosures after the date of the
13 enactment of this Act.

This kind of feels like the one above. My guess is subparagraph E keeps Congress from learning some secrets they think they 'need to know'.

 6 SEC. 502. PROVISIONS RELATED TO FILM AND TELEVISION
 7               PRODUCTIONS.
 8      (a) EXTENSION  OF EXPENSING RULES FOR QUALI-
 9        FIED FILM AND TELEVISION PRODUCTIONS.—Section
10 181(f) (relating to termination) is amended by striking
11 ‘‘December 31, 2008’’ and inserting ‘‘December 31,
12 2009’’.
13      (b) MODIFICATION  OF LIMITATION ON EXPENS-
14          ING.—Subparagraph (A) of section 181(a)(2) is amended
15 to read as follows:
16                 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (1) shall
17           not apply to so much of the aggregate cost of
18           any qualified film or television production as ex-
19           ceeds $15,000,000.’’.

This one goes on and on and on, with loads of incomprehensible details regarding striking actors and all that. (I feel sorry for the merely good looking and the homely actors, they must feel a bit left out.)

20 SEC. 503. EXEMPTION FROM EXCISE TAX FOR CERTAIN
21             WOODEN ARROWS DESIGNED FOR USE BY
22             CHILDREN.
23     (a) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (2) of section 4161(b)
24 is amended by redesignating subparagraph (B) as sub-
(Page 301)
 1 paragraph (C) and by inserting after subparagraph (A)
 2 the following new subparagraph:
 3                  ‘‘(B) EXEMPTION       FOR CERTAIN WOODEN
 4                        ARROW SHAFTS.—Subparagraph (A) shall not
 5             apply to any shaft consisting of all natural
 6             wood with no laminations or artificial means of
 7             enhancing the spine of such shaft (whether sold
 8             separately or incorporated as part of a finished
 9             or unfinished product) of a type used in the
10             manufacture of any arrow which after its as-
11             sembly—
12                       ‘‘(i) measures 5⁄16 of an inch or less in
13                  diameter, and
14                       ‘‘(ii) is not suitable for use with a bow
15                  described in paragraph (1)(A).’’.
16        (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by
17 this section shall apply to shafts first sold after the date
18 of enactment of this Act.

This one is just plain wierd. Designed for use by children? And they have to have a diameter of 5/16" or less, and be unsuitable for use in a bow? If they aren't suitable for use in a bow, are they really arrows? Wouldn't it just be a sharp stick made of wood with no laminations, etc.?

This is a stellar example of why there needs to be a law that requires every provision of every bill to identify who put it in there. The ridicule factor alone from a provision like one this would probably singlehandedly reduce the crap added to bills by half.

At about page 279, the tag-along clause party starts in earnest:

11 SEC. 308. INCREASE IN LIMIT ON COVER OVER OF RUM EX-
12               CISE TAX TO PUERTO RICO AND THE VIRGIN
13               ISLANDS.
14      (a) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (1) of section 7652(f)
15 is amended by striking ‘‘January 1, 2008’’ and inserting
16 ‘‘January 1, 2010’’.
17      (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by
18 this section shall apply to distilled spirits brought into the
19 United States after December 31, 2007.

If they pass this thing, we will all be needing some cheaper rum.

 6 SEC. 310. EXTENSION OF MINE RESCUE TEAM TRAINING
 7               CREDIT.
 8      Section 45N(e) (relating to termination) is amended
 9 by striking ‘‘December 31, 2008’’ and inserting ‘‘Decem-
10 ber 31, 2009’’.

Does this have something to do with the deep hole that these suits have been digging?

11 SEC. 311. EXTENSION OF ELECTION TO EXPENSE AD-
12               VANCED MINE SAFETY EQUIPMENT.
13      Section 179E(g) (relating to termination) is amended
14 by striking ‘‘December 31, 2008’’ and inserting ‘‘Decem-
15 ber 31, 2009’’.

Might be relevant and even needed - but why in this bill?

16 SEC. 312. DEDUCTION ALLOWABLE WITH RESPECT TO IN-
17               COME ATTRIBUTABLE TO DOMESTIC PRO-
18               DUCTION ACTIVITIES IN PUERTO RICO.
19      (a) IN GENERAL.—Subparagraph (C) of section
20 199(d)(8) (relating to termination) is amended—
21            (1) by striking ‘‘first 2 taxable years’’ and in-
22      serting ‘‘first 4 taxable years’’, and
23            (2) by striking ‘‘January 1, 2008’’ and insert-
24      ing ‘‘January 1, 2010’’.
 1        (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by
 2 this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after
 3 December 31, 2007.

Efficient. They tacked on 2 years by just changing one number.

13 SEC. 314. INDIAN EMPLOYMENT CREDIT.
14      (a) IN GENERAL.—Subsection (f) of section 45A (re-
15 lating to termination) is amended by striking ‘‘December
16 31, 2007’’ and inserting ‘‘December 31, 2009’’.
17      (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by
18 this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after
19 December 31, 2007.

What exactly is employment credit? Did they mean sub-prime employment credit?

20 SEC. 315. ACCELERATED DEPRECIATION FOR BUSINESS
21               PROPERTY ON INDIAN RESERVATIONS.
22      (a) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (8) of section 168(j)
23 (relating to termination) is amended by striking ‘‘Decem-
24 ber 31, 2007’’ and inserting ‘‘December 31, 2009’’.
(Pg 289)
 1        (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by
 2 this section shall apply to property placed in service after
 3 December 31, 2007.

Something about the wording in this one seems almost indecent.

4 SEC. 316. RAILROAD TRACK MAINTENANCE.
5      (a) IN GENERAL.—Subsection (f) of section 45G (re-
6 lating to application of section) is amended by striking
7 ‘‘January 1, 2008’’ and inserting ‘‘January 1, 2010’’.

Two more years of something (that most likely costs us alot of money and will never be examined by anyone).

1 SEC. 317. SEVEN-YEAR COST RECOVERY PERIOD FOR MO-
2               TORSPORTS RACING TRACK FACILITY.
3      (a) IN GENERAL.—Subparagraph (D) of section
4 168(i)(15) (relating to termination) is amended by strik-
5 ing ‘‘December 31, 2007’’ and inserting ‘‘December 31,
6 2009’’.
7      (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by
8 this section shall apply to property placed in service after
9 December 31, 2007.

A bone to the NASCAR voters?

18 SEC. 319. EXTENSION OF WORK OPPORTUNITY TAX CREDIT
19              FOR HURRICANE KATRINA EMPLOYEES.
20      (a) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (1) of section 201(b)
21 of the Katrina Emergency Tax Relief Act of 2005 is
22 amended by striking ‘‘2-year’’ and inserting ‘‘4-year’’.
23      (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by
24 subsection (a) shall apply to individuals hired after August
25 27, 2007.

Yousa. Katrina was over 3 years ago. Don't those of us hit by Ike get something? (I bet that comes later.)

1 SEC. 320. EXTENSION OF INCREASED REHABILITATION
2               CREDIT FOR STRUCTURES IN THE GULF OP-
3               PORTUNITY ZONE.
4       (a) IN GENERAL.—Subsection (h) of section 1400N
5 is amended by striking ‘‘December 31, 2008’’ and insert-
6 ing ‘‘December 31, 2009’’.
7       (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by
8 this section shall apply to expenditures paid or incurred
9 after the date of the enactment of this Act.

I think this is more Katrina relief, if 'Gulf' means what I think it means. (Gulf of Mexico...or is it Gulf of Sidra? The Persian Gulf?)

As I mentioned before, the bill is full of new Tax Credits (i.e. Tax Breaks) except for a few places where there are Negative Tax Credits (i.e. Tax Increases):

(Pg 234)
 7             TITLE IV—REVENUE PROVISIONS
 8
 9 SEC. 401. LIMITATION OF DEDUCTION FOR INCOME AT-
10               TRIBUTABLE TO DOMESTIC PRODUCTION OF
11               OIL, GAS, OR PRIMARY PRODUCTS THEREOF.
12      (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 199(d) is amended by re-
13 designating paragraph (9) as paragraph (10) and by in-
14 serting after paragraph (8) the following new paragraph:
15           ‘‘(9) SPECIAL   RULE FOR TAXPAYERS WITH OIL
16      RELATED QUALIFIED PRODUCTION ACTIVITIES IN-
17      COME.—
18                 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL. - If a taxpayer has oil
19           related qualified production activities income for
20           any taxable year beginning after 2009, the
21           amount otherwise allowable as a deduction
22           under subsection (a) shall be reduced by 3 per-
23           cent of the least of—
(Pg 235)
 1                       ‘‘(i) the oil related qualified produc-
 2                  tion activities income of the taxpayer for
 3                  the taxable year,
 4                       ‘‘(ii) the qualified production activities
 5                  income of the taxpayer for the taxable
 6                  year, or
 7                       ‘‘(iii)   taxable   income   (determined
 8                  without regard to this section).
 9                  ‘‘(B) OIL     RELATED QUALIFIED PRODUC-
10                  TION    ACTIVITIES    INCOME.—For purposes of
11             this paragraph, the term ‘oil related qualified
12             production activities income’ means for any tax-
13             able year the qualified production activities in-
14             come which is attributable to the production,
15             refining, processing, transportation, or distribu-
16             tion of oil, gas, or any primary product thereof
17             during such taxable year.
18                  ‘‘(C) PRIMARY PRODUCT.—For purposes of
19             this paragraph, the term ‘primary product’ has
20             the same meaning as when used in section
21             927(a)(2)(C), as in effect before its repeal.’’.

So any company in 'oil related qualified production activities' are the lucky recipients of a 3% tax increase, courtesy of Senator Dodd. Note that this affects every level of the supply chain - production, refining, processing, transportation AND distribution. Higher taxes for corporations get passed onto who? I guess it was just two months ago that energy was the hot issue on the hill...obviously the impetus to lower energy costs has been greatly reduced.

I've browsed the bill and I'm really not very impressed. First, it is a whopping 451 pages long. It starts with the rationale behind the bill (pending economic disaster) and then goes into the provisions of the bailout. Pretty dull stuff to be honest. Then on Page 97, I found this little gem:

18 SEC. 204. EMERGENCY TREATMENT.
19      All provisions of this Act are designated as an emer-
20 gency requirement and necessary to meet emergency needs
21 pursuant to section 204(a) of S. Con. Res 21 (110th Con-
22 gress), the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal
23 year 2008 and rescissions of any amounts provided in this
24 Act shall not be counted for purposes of budget enforce-
25 ment.

This tells me two things. First, the spending in this bill comes from this year but doesn't count against this year's budget. The other thing is that this should indicate that everything in this bill is a critical measure that will help deal with this financial crisis. Thus, the bill should be very lean and non-related items should have been left out, at least according to Section 204, right?

Wrong.

It looks like the vast majority of the bill consists of a laundry lists of special new or increased tax breaks for certain groups (as well as a few negative tax breaks for others). A section which addresses a plethora of energy related tax breaks ends with the following (Page 179):

12 SEC. 117. CARBON AUDIT OF THE TAX CODE.
13      (a) STUDY.—The Secretary of the Treasury shall
14 enter into an agreement with the National Academy of
15 Sciences to undertake a comprehensive review of the Inter-
16 nal Revenue Code of 1986 to identify the types of and
17 specific tax provisions that have the largest effects on car-
18 bon and other greenhouse gas emissions and to estimate
19 the magnitude of those effects.
20      (b) REPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the date
21 of enactment of this Act, the National Academy of
22 Sciences shall submit to Congress a report containing the
23 results of study authorized under this section.
24      (c) AUTHORIZATION    OF     APPROPRIATIONS.—There is
25 authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section
26 $1,500,000 for the period of fiscal years 2009 and 2010.

So, in an effort to solve the emergency financial crisis, Congress has decided it was prudent to spend 1.5 million dollars examining the tax code in an effort to find a way to tweak it to prevent global warming. It is unfortunate that it would cost so much to simply review the existing tax code, but it does since the code is overly complicated (and no thanks to Congress for that). Of course, this number doesn't count toward this year's budget, so it is actually a free accounting - or at least free from budgetary review. All in the name of global warming impending financial doom.

More to come, if my blood pressure can handle further examination of this bill. (You know why it is called a bill, right? Because you and I will be paying for it for decades.)

After starting a few years later than his peers, my oldest son started drumming and worked his tail off for the last 2 years to make the drum line in his Sophomore year. Here are a few pictures from Friday night's football game - he is the second from the left:
He is definitely a better drummer than I am a photographer, although I think the invisible arms in the second picture turned out kind of cool.

This is a very nice and concise explanation of how we got into the current financial mess:

Sometimes the greatest blame comes from great praise when viewed in hindsight. The Los Angeles Times proves that with an article from 1999 heaping praise on the very people most responsible for the credit-market meltdown. Ronald Brownstein lauded the Clinton administration for boosting minority ownership by forcing lenders to offer better terms to marginally-qualified borrowers — and noted the financial creativity from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as a crucial component of Bill Clinton’s efforts. It also demonstrates why Congress mandated the failure of the lending system, and why it has to act to fix it (via Hot Air reader abinitoadinfinitum):

Obviously, you will have to go read the whole thing for the full explanation. (And no, I'm not of the opinion that this problem is the fault of one party or the other. It is a bi-partisan problem and there were voices of caution and reason from both sides of the aisle.)

Well, we survived. Brutal winds here but not nearly as bad as some places. Lots of neighbors lost their shingles, but almost all of those were replacement ready. We reroofed last summer and did not lose a shingle. The fences are a different story though - lots of work to do getting things back to the way they were before. Power was out here from about 12:30am Saturday morning until 4:30pm Sunday afternoon. Overall, not too bad. We were well prepared with plenty of water and food and aside from lots of climate discomfort and difficulty sleeping, we came through ok. Here are some pictures...

My own damage:

The neighborhood:

Coping with no power:

Well, so far so good. Lots of wind and plenty of rain, although it was surprising that we did not really see any rain until just about an hour ago. Almost all our neighbors are still around, and there was a big impromptu gathering across the street - maybe 20 people with lawn chairs and plenty of conversation about the wind and hurricanes past. It materialized around 7:00pm and didn't break up until the rain joined the party at about 10:30pm.

Conditions as of midnight are: winds in the 40s with gusts approaching 60. We still have power...although I'm not sure how long that will last. The worst for our area should be about 3 or 4 am. I may set an alarm to check things out then. We shall see. I did hear a power guy on the news saying that if they have as much damage as anticipated, it may take weeks to get the power back on.

Weeks? That's crazy talk. I hope he was either lowering expectations or talking about how long it will take to get power to every single customer, including very remote ones.

Now time for some sleep (and I need to post this before the power goes!)

I enjoyed this little video more than I expected! A little levity is in order as we hunker down and prepare for the Wrath of Ike.

Reuters/Yahoo share a number of images from today's McCain/Palin rally in Fairfax Virginia. I found this one the most impressive:

Yes, I do believe those are people behind those trees. The crowd was estimated at 23,000. (Click the Image to see more)

[McCain has chosen a running mate] whose primary qualification seems to be that she hasn’t had an abortion.

South Carolina Democratic chairwoman Carol Fowler

The Good News: Using that standard, all of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates appear to be qualified.

Even if I want to take them away, I don’t have the votes in Congress.

Barack Obama, when asked about gun control at a campaign event in PA.

My lovely Queen was shopping at Wal-Mart this morning, and as she walked past a older gentleman, he mumbled something to her. She couldn't quite make out what he said so she asked him if he was talking to her. His response was, "Yes - I saw you on television this morning." She was taken aback a bit, so he added, "you know, the new Vice-Presidential nominee."

Now that I think about it, there definitely is at least a passing resemblance - similar hair color and texture, glasses, smiling face, attractive. Anyways, it made her laugh, and me too.

Today I'm required to take a security awareness training course. It's actually pretty decent as far as presentation goes. Although I must admit I've never before been encouraged to become a "human firewall".

Light me up!

This place sure is dusty. I'm cleaning up a bit, including moving back to my 'classic' theme. I'm thinking the half-baked theme I started to implement and never finished was so ugly it was driving me away from this place. That and time commitments. But I'm back, at least for 5 minutes. Hopefully more. Anyone still out there?

Dyslexia + Zero Tolerance = This

Yea, it is satire...but close enough to real life to almost be not quite so funny.

But carbon offsets are a rather strange concept. Let me use a simple metaphor to explain it: Let's suppose that Al Gore goes to an Italian restaurant and eats a loaf of garlic bread, a plate of lasagna, a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs, an extra-large pizza with seven toppings, a couple bottles of Chianti and a large assortment of pastries. As a result, he puts on 10 pounds. But he is deeply concerned that mankind is getting too fat. So he pays 10 peasants in Asia $10 each to eat nothing for a week. Although they are already thin, by starving themselves for a week, they each lose a pound. As a result, after a week, mankind is weight neutral. Al Gore weighs 10 pounds more, 10 Asians weigh 10 pounds less -- and Al Gore is given another Nobel Peace Prize for his leadership in keeping mankind's waistline in check.

Of course, this example is not quite fair to Gore because that imagined humanitarianism actually costs him cash money. In the real carbon offset business, he looks forward to being paid for directing other carbon consumers to invest in carbon neutral projects. Although when Gore personally is using carbon, as when he flies in a carbon-belching Gulfstream, one of his companies would pay some other fella not to fly or plant a tree or do something to offset Gore's carbon belching.

Tony Blankley

...Paris Hilton story of all time:

PowerLine: My Thoughts on Paris Hilton Leaving Jail

So what is the moral of this story? Never depend on your government to save your life. It is the public citizen who is our first line of defense –– the John Does –– not the federal government. Stay vigilant.

Federal Air Marshall P. Jeffrey Black

It is the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most men live only for the gratification of it.

Aristotle

The Artist is a very dedicated violin player. He had the honor of serving as concert master at his orchestra's last concert and also had a solo, which he carried off beautifully. Today, I followed a link to this marvelous piece in the Washington Post, which is a most interesting look at both music, and the speed of American culture.

I'm posting this for him, but it is also definitely worth your time.

(Hat-tip to Joe Carter)

If you haven't taken a look yet, you simply must check out these pictures.

My March cute quotient is now fulfilled.

Everyone knows and loves captchas, the mini turing tests that more and more blog and forums are employing to help curb spam comments. Some are merely annoying while others rely in images so distorted that it is difficult for even someone with perfect vision to decipher.

That is why I found this alternative interesting:

Asirra (Animal Species Image Recognition for Restricting Access) is a HIP that works by asking users to identify photographs of cats and dogs. This task difficult for computers, but our user studies have shown that people can accomplish it quickly and accurately. Many even think it's fun!

The amusing bit is that Asirra was partially inspired by Hot Captcha, where you have to pick the attractive people to get by. (That one keeps telling me I am a bot. I guess my beauty sensors are perpetually impaired as a result of being constantly bathed in the intense light that is The Queen.)

So the other night at dinner, we were having smoothies. The Queen (May She Live Forever) makes these quite often with fresh (bananas) and frozen (strawberries) fruit, lemon juice, yogurt, coconut oil and milk. Tasty, cold and extremely thick. We did have a smoothie crisis earlier in the week as we ran out of straws but Wal-Mart came to the rescue with a brand spanking new bag of smoothing drinking implements. (They taste better through a straw...seriously!)

So, my son grabbed us all a straw and poked one into each cup. We prayed for the meal and I moved my glass closer to me to take a first drink. As I did, I saw a dark object descend from the top of my straw down into the depths of my blended fruit goodness. My initial reaction was to think I was seeing things, but on second thought I decided to investigate further. I pulled the straw out quickly, aimed it over my plate and blew into the non-drinking end. Out came half a straw full of smoothie, accompanied by a dead housefly.

Since this was a brand new package, this fly had obviously been trapped inside the initial package at the factory. I was honored that he decided to make my straw his crypt. Ok, maybe not. Actually, I went and washed my plate, threw away the wretched straw, got a new one (checking first to make sure it was unoccupied) and we got back to the serious business of eating dinner.

If we had only saved it, we could have sued for millions.

Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.

Mark Twain

As far back as I can remember, we always had Legos. When I was young, there was only 4 sizes of bricks but we still managed to build architectural marvels one after another. The Legos of the current generation are even cooler and I'm always game to camp out on the living room floor with the kids and create whatever I feel like from the tubs of colorful interlocking raw materials we possess.

We always shared although if someone was holding a piece it was theirs unless they put it back into the bucket. (If they added it to their pile or creation, it was out of play for the duration.) More than once we would barter to get a needed piece that someone else found first. We built (and destroyed) Lego compositions of every shape, size and possible function...but one thing we never tried to build was Social Justice:

So they first explored with the children the issue of ownership. Not all of the students shared the teachers' anathema to private property ownership. "If I buy it, I own it," one child is quoted saying. The teachers then explored with the students concepts of fairness, equity, power, and other issues over a period of several months.

At the end of that time, Legos returned to the classroom after the children agreed to several guiding principles framed by the teachers, including that "All structures are public structures" and "All structures will be standard sizes." The teachers quote the children:

"A house is good because it is a community house."

"We should have equal houses. They should be standard sizes."

"It's important to have the same amount of power as other people over your building."

Perhaps their next project should be a shrugging giant with the earth on his back.

I spent a few days last week running sound for a pastor's conference. It is interesting being in a room full of pastors, and plenty of stereotypical traits were well represented. The thing I found most astounding is the number of times that cell phones interrupted the conference. I figured that pastors would be more sensitive than most about how distracting and frustrating that particular interruption is to a speaker and be more likely to have their phones off.

I was obviously mistaken.

Along the same lines, I was in a training seminar on Friday and someone's phone went off. The person stayed in their seat and took the call. To their credit, they did speak quietly, but this was a small room with a speaker and 8 attendees.

I still don't have a cell phone. Every once in a while, I think it might be a nice thing to have (like when I need to make an important call)...but mostly I just find them annoying. It is ok to be unreachable sometimes; hasn't killed me yet.

While exploring The Electrics and all things Scottish, a found a pretty cool T-Shirt shop at got-kilt.com: Makes me want a kilt just so I can wear the shirt.

A friend lent me a cd he thought I would enjoy, and enjoy it I did. The Electrics are a Scottish band that play a unique and catchy blend of highland and rock. Combine that with their amusing but God focused lyrics, and you've got a winner - at least in my book (as long as you can handle a little accordion and fiddle).

Plus they perform in kilts and Chuck Taylors!

It was what we would describe as an own-goal.

British Major Ewen Murchison

Here, this is much more interesting than some goofy possudillo:

Amazing choreography.

(Hat tip to Joe Carter)

About six months ago, I bought a Wacom tablet, thinking it would help with graphics work. Since the kids were interested, I installed it on the family computer and haven't tried it much. They used it for about 2 weeks and then found other interests, and so today I finally got it installed and working on my Kubuntu system. Works pretty good.

I was expermineting with the pressure settings and the brushes and my test image started to take form into a recognizable shape - at least one recognizable here in Texas. So I finished out the image in an attempt to hone my skills. I'm no artist, and the result is nothing to write home about but since I've posted so rarely, I feel almost obligated to put it up in lieu of real content. So here it is:

Yes, I know the snout is too long...more like a possum than an armadillo. Again, I've never claimed to be an artist.

Cool use for a pretty cool product:

In an age of multimillion-dollar high-tech weapons systems, sometimes it's the simplest ideas that can save lives. Which is why a New Jersey mother is organizing a drive to send cans of Silly String to Iraq.

American troops use the stuff to detect trip wires around bombs, as Marcelle Shriver learned from her son, a soldier in Iraq.

Before entering a building, troops squirt the plastic goo, which can shoot strands about 10 to 12 feet, across the room. If it falls to the ground, no trip wires. If it hangs in the air, they know they have a problem. The wires are otherwise nearly invisible.

Brilliant move.

If you're not part of the solution...you're precipitate.

Anonymous

The Jack directed me to a site where people "remix" movie trailers into complete different types of movies. Although most of them are not that funny, there are two amazing standouts:

• The Shining recast as a romantic comedy
• Sleepless in Seattle as a Horror flick.

The Empire Brokeback is also amusing in how innocent lines taken out of context can be made to mean something new.

Earlier this year, the Queen's sister and parents had some unexpected afternoon guests:

Three bears (although poppa bear was replaced by a twin baby bear) - oh the joys of living in Colorado. Here in Texas all we get is the Three Armadillos (although I did see an Ocelot once).

Parents who do everything in their power to undermine the authority and ability of teachers to do their jobs:

A student at Lone Grove High School took the phone to school and it rang in the middle of class, according to Oklahoma TV station KTEN. After the class interruption, the teacher confiscated the phone and took it to the principal's office. School policy is to hold the phone for five days, but the student's mother told the TV station that isn't good enough. Yvonne Walker wants her son to have the phone in case of emergency.

The 16-year-old's parents said they got the phone for the teen so that he could contact them -- saying that it's not helping him for school officials to have the phone.

When school officials said that they couldn't break policy or make special considerations for anyone, the parents called police. The officer sent to the scene filed a report, which is now at the district attorney's office for consideration of larceny charges.

Great move. This not only damages the ability of the district to maintain order, it is also a gross disservice to their son.

A college professor I know once told me that he hated teaching freshman courses. Not because he hated freshman, but because of their parents. After every test, there were always calls from parents of students who performed poorly. Whenever a project was due, the parent of at least one student who missed the deadline would plead their case for their child. It also served as an accurate indicator of who would not be excelling in their undergraduate endeavor.

Parents, here is a hint: if you want your child to succeed, teach them some independence. They will never learn to stand up for themselves if Mom and Dad insist on serving as their champion in every adverse situation - even when they desire you to.

The newest craze in paying for your kid:

The Karlsruhe-based federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that the doctor must pay his former patient, now a mother of a three-year-old boy, 600 euros ($769) a month because she became pregnant after he implanted her with a contraceptive device.

...

The award covers the first years of the child's life and also subsequent costs to the age of 18.

The parents, who had known each other six months at the time of the conception, were no longer together, the court said, ruling that the father should also be compensated for the maintenance he was paying toward the child.

Total payout: $166,104. I think it is reasonable to assume that this is considerably higher than the cost of the original procecdure. That is some significant liability, and the sad thing is the actual father is exonerated of all responsibility for his child.

Pity the doctor a bit (it may actually have been malpractice - the court is sure banking on it) but pity the child more than anyone.

Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all.

Sam Ewing

Yes, I've been out of town much. And busy much of the other times. And I made a vow when I started to never apologize for a lack of posts, so I'm not.

I also do not find myself with too much time to read, but I do enjoy reading myself to sleep each night. The secret is hiding under my pillow with my pocket PC and using ISilo and auto-scroll. (Warning: dozing off while your book is scrolling will cause you to lose your place. Trust me.) I cannot afford to buy many books and the library does not lend ebooks, so instead I rely on the Gutenberg Project. Some texts are already availble in iSilo format and it is also possible to convert text and html texts into a suitable format. I love having 15-20 books with me at all times, in case I get stuck in a waiting room or find myself waiting for my kids somewhere.

Yes, the books are old but so what. I've been trying to get some of the classics I've never read under my belt as well as some unknown titles by famous authors and occasionally something completely random. I'd never read Burroughs before and never really wanted to - I knew the Tarzan story so why read the book? However, after trying a few of his other works, I will probably go back and read all of his stuff, including the Tarzan stories. Stories I particularly enjoyed were The Outlaw of Torn, The Efficiency Expert and The Mucker. They are all fairly light reading but have interesting (and very diverse) plots and settings and the writing is excellent.

Those are enjoyable enough but it is another book that prompted me to generate this post. I started reading Dumas and found The Three Musketeers enjoyable enough. On a whim I download several of his more famous works and one I'd never heard of before: The Black Tulip. Best decision of the year. This is a beautiful work with compelling characters and beautiful prose. I'm not quite finished with it but the author's craft at making the blooming of a flower terribly suspenseful has already placed this volume onto my all-time favorites list. (If you want my iSilo version, just email me and I will send it.)

If the people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn't seem wonderful at all.

Michelangelo

When I was in High School, marching band was fun and that was about it. We weren't all that good and we didn't take too much pride in what we did on the field. (Although it was cool that we got into football games for free!) I think the most memorable moment was practicing in the fog early one morning during band class and having the sprinkers go off on us.

Here is my son's marching band - several orders of magnitude better than mine ever was. They practiced 12 hour days through most of August until school started and several hours every day after school since then - and it shows:

I believe they might be better than some college level programs.

The rest of the program is here and here.

In the aftermath of eliminating tag at recess, I think crayons that don't color is probably a great followup move.

I love dogs and this really is tragic, but it is pretty funny too:

SHOCKED Gary Davies saw his dog erupt in flames — after it peed on a live power cable.

Bailey the Staffordshire bull terrier also cut power to 148 homes by cocking a leg against a faulty pylon.

Gary, 42, said: “There was an almighty explosion and the whole street lit up. I turned round and the dog was on fire.”

Woof!

(Yes, the dog survived, although I'm not sure what kind of shape he is in.)

As a Conservative/Christian-Come-Lately I’ve had to reconcile what I know firsthand to be wrong with the “other” side with what I observe to be wrong with my own. Here is what I see:

We claim to love the sinner and hate the sin, but the problem of homosexuality and its destructive effects within our society has surely made it a challenge. Still, it can’t be right for Christianity to be pitted against homosexuality as though it were the worst sin on parade.

Barbara Curtis

Freedom is only part of the story and half the truth...That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplanted by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.

Viktor E. Frankl

I figured you would be as horrified as I to see Angelina Jolie cast as Dagny Taggart. (But I also knew you needed to know.)

(Hat-tip to Michelle Malkin)

Seattle is 4-1 despite being outscored. In seven quarters, spanning from the end of their game with the Giants to halftime this Sunday, the Seahawks were outscored 85-13.

Gregg Easterbrook

One day I realized that sadness was just another word for not enough coffee.

Wally (Dilbert)

Just in time for election season, Joe Carter takes another look at the eternal question: Was Jesus a Liberal or a Conservative.

I especially like his conclusion:

Perhaps, though, that is the wrong question. The Gospels don’t have much to say about how Jesus would vote or what political party he’d prefer. Maybe we shouldn’t be asking whether Jesus fits our pre-fabricated political mold but rather questioning how we could be more like Him. Instead of testing Christ’s liberal bona fides we should be more liberal about following his example.

I think we only got about 8 inches here today. Some parts of Houston have received 13 since Midnight, but it looks like the rain has finally moved on. The bayou by our house is about 8 feet above normal, but it is still several feet to the top of the bank.

Just ran into an issue with a file named '-t6' on an AIX system. (No, I didn't put it there.)

After taking a few stabs at deleting it unsuccessfully, a quick google search showed the solution. I thought it was pretty cool so I thought I would share it:

How do you delete a file called "-xx"? You can of course use a graphical file manager and select the file graphically but how do you delete it with the rm command?

rm will normally interpret the -xx as an option because it starts with a minus sign. There are two ways to avoid that:

1. Make sure the file name does not start with a minus: For files this is always possible. You can e.g use the full absolute path to the file. (e.g rm /tmp/-xx assuming that the file -xx is in /tmp)
   You can also write -xx as ./-xx :
   rm ./-xx
2. Most unix commands accept a double minus (--) to indicate that this is the end of the options list.
   rm -- -xx
   will therefore tell rm that -xx is a file and not an option.

Because it is ugly. Period.

A while back, I got tired of my old look (that I had for 2.5 years), found a small window of time to start on a new design (obviously not enough) and it just never worked for me. I think it scared all my readers away too. Anyways, I've been frightfully busy but I do want to revive this place. Fixing the appearance will help me be more motivated to post here.

I hope.

Changes coming.

This will raise some controversy:

Youngsters in a suburban Fort Worth school district are being taught not to sit there like good boys and girls with their hands folded if a gunman invades the classroom, but to rush him and hit him with everything they got - books, pencils, legs and arms.

"Getting under desks and praying for rescue from professionals is not a recipe for success," said Robin Browne, a major in the British Army reserve and an instructor for Response Options, the company providing the training to the Burleson schools.

It is pretty obvious from experience that kids or adults who attempt to take over a school by force are not open to negotiation. They have no concern for either their own or the lives of others. Compliance is not a strategy for success.

How porous are our borders? I vote for permeable:

In Brownsville, he witnessed half a dozen men swim under one of the international bridges “with complete immunity” which in turn prompted him to take the immigration issue to the next level.

Bhakta decided to see if he could get an elephant accompanied by a six-piece mariachi band across the river.

It was a political stunt, but that does not lessen the statement or danger from our southern sieve border.

Ever watched a fight on TV? Before the bout everyone’s milling around in the ring; there’s hard looks and grins and hangers-on and photographers, and a general air of excitement and anticipation, but everyone’s enjoying the moment. Then the bell clangs. Everyone heads to their corners. They know exactly which corner is theirs.

We may think that bell’s already rung, but it hasn’t. Believe me, you'll know it when it does.

Lileks

Once a child is conceived in the mother’s womb it develops for decades right up into adulthood. It goes from growing arms, lets, fingers, toes and a brain to emerging from the mother’s womb to crawling, walking and talking. Why is a child any less of a child before one of those steps than after?

Rob Port, Say Anything

This is a really cool concept:

A tiny gas-turbine engine inside a silicon chip about the size of a quarter could run 10 times longer than a battery of the same weight can, powering laptops, cell phones, radios, and other electronic devices.

It could also dramatically lighten the load for people who can’t connect to a power grid, including soldiers who now must carry many pounds of batteries for a three-day mission. All this technology can come at a reasonable price.

I wonder how long it runs on a drop of gas.

It may massively increase the number of internal combusion engines on the planet without significantly increasing emissions.

Error Num 94: Invalid Use of NULL

I'm scratching my head wondering if there is a valid use of NULL.

The essential vice, the utmost evil, is pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness and all that are mere flea bites in comparison: it was through pride that the devil became the devil. Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.

C. S. Lewis

It took me a while, but I finally figured out what MSM really stands for:

Maintaining Senseless Mantras

Evidence here.

So, I was showing my boys this extremely cool video and the Queen (May She Live Forever) comes over to take a look and then walks away after about 2 seconds. She was definitely not impressed and is still trying to figure out why we were so enthralled by it. I don't really think it is that difficult of an equation:

Projectiles * Velocity ^ (Slow Motion Video Coolness Coeficient) =
1 enthralled King + 2 thrilled Princes

Judge for yourself:

I also watched a few old A-Team episodes this weekend and I was surprised at how enjoyable they were. No, I'm not planning on showing them to the Queen .

Oh, and no - I'm not advertising beer. I just think that killing inanimate objects is a much better use for it than killing brain cells.

I should really make that my tagline. But, I do have lots of good excuses I could employ. Actually, I've just been busy. Our church is in the final states of a building project and I've been spending every bit of free time I've got (including vacation days) into that project. We finally passed fire inspection yesterday and are cleared to hold our first service there on Sunday. This is a huge step for a young church that has only rented up to this point. (Personally, I'm looking forward to talking to people after church instead of tearing down the sound system every week.) Final testing of the Audio/Video systems will be Saturday morning and things should calm down soon after.

By the way, computer programmer hands are very ill-suited for construction. I have blisters on my blisters and places on my hands where there is no damage...just pain.

This is a very interesting article about the MSN's continued oblivion toward blogs and the blogosphere. Worth reading.

For what it is worth, I do not see any difference between the national news and the blogs, aside from the fact that the news has significantly greater resources. I read/watch/listen to all of them the same critical way:

• What part of this story is fact?
• What facts are omitted or missing?
• Is there emphasis on the irrelevant?
• What part of this story is opinion?
• Do I agree with the opinion?
• Do the facts support or refute the opinion?
• Do the facts support or refute my opinion?
• Is this source consistantly biased toward a specific ideology?
• Would I feel honest reporting this story myself?

Seriously. I process the CBS Evening News exactly the same way as Say Anything. Both sources have biases and I understand those and factor them into how I process what they have to say.

It's all blogs to me.

It looks like sanity has prevailed in Air Marshall land:

Air marshals were told Thursday they will be allowed to dress the way they want and choose their own hotels in order to protect their anonymity while on missions.

Federal Air Marshal Service chief Dana Brown, who has been in the job for five months, said he was changing the rules, starting Sept. 1, after listening to air marshals' concerns.

In a memo to the air marshals, Brown said the dress code was changed to ``allow you to blend in and not direct attention to yourself, as well as be sufficiently functional to enable you to conduct your law enforcement responsibilities.''

Air marshals had complained that Brown's predecessor, Thomas Quinn, insisted on a too-formal dress code that allowed people to pick them out. The marshals said, for example, that being forced to wear a jacket and collared shirt made them stand out on flights to Hawaii.

. . .

Air marshals also won an agreement from Brown to let them choose their own hotels ``within economic and related guidelines'' to help keep their identities secret.

Marshals claimed that their undercover status was threatened because they had to stay at designated hotels and show their credentials when checking in.

A recent report to Congress found that the Sheraton Fort Lauderdale Airport Hotel in Florida had designated the Federal Air Marshal Service ``company of the month'' because of the number of rooms it had reserved at the hotel.

I remember when this point was raised in late September of 2001...better late than never, I guess. Up until now, finding an Air Marshall on your flight was like playing "Where's Waldo for Dummies". It will be nice when that is a distant memory.

Hillary probably has the distinction of being the best fundraiser for the Democratic Party -- and the best fundraiser for the Republican Party.

Rudy Giuliani

Nature gave us one tongue and two ears so we could hear twice as much as we speak.

Epictetus

Because it is so much more entertaining than Full News, yet without sacrificing any of the fact:

“We are poor, but we are happy,” said Ernesto, a cane field worker. “We have free health care.”

Ernesto says he was grateful for the free health care the time the police cracked his skull and knocked out most of his teeth. “I was wearing a ‘vote for Pedro’ t-shirt,” Ernesto said with a nearly toothless smile. “You know, the one from that ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ movie. The police thought I was a counterrevolutionary. They beat me with sticks. ‘Who is Pedro?’ they kept asking. I was in the hospital for six-weeks. If it weren’t for Fidel I wouldn’t have had medical care. I’m too poor to pay for a hospital.”

I recommend reading the entire page for maximum effect.

So, are ethanol powered cars better at, ummmm, corn-ering?

Just wondered.

Traveling mortician...and Movie Director as well! This guy is more talented than we originally thought!

Worry About the West -- Not Israel

VDH

Ok, so it is really just the title of his article, but it makes a good quote. Go read it now.

Incredulous:

Fantasy baseball leagues are allowed to use player names and statistics without licensing agreements because they are not the intellectual property of Major League Baseball, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

Baseball and its players have no right to prevent the use of names and playing records, U.S. District Court Judge Mary Ann Medler in St. Louis ruled in a 49-page summary judgment.

Does MLB really thing that fantasy baseball is stealing from them? If anything, it increases interest in the game. Some avid fans are also into the fanasty game but there are also many who are not natural fans and find themselves following along simply because of their fantasy league. However, they actually tried to prevent the use of baseball statistics for the basis of fanasty sports - at least not without royalties. It reminds me of some mainstream media organizations frustrated that people link to their stories, providing eyeballs for free.

This appears to be a basic failure to understand how to do business; operating with one myoptic eye on the cashflow and the other raised suspiciously at the customer.

(Hat-tip to Likelihood of Confusion)

Seeing is no longer believing, it would seem.

It also seems that firing a cheating photographer is not having much effect.

Story: Police arrest man for selling beer to minor. Minor testifies that man purchased beer for him. Judge lets man off because he speculates that the supplied beverage might actually have been non-alcoholic beer (named "Miller Genuine Draft"). Superior court rules that Miller Genuine Draft really is beer:

A judge who dismissed charges against a man accused of buying a case of beer for a 17-year-old, saying prosecutors failed to prove Miller Genuine Draft was an alcoholic beverage, was mistaken, state Superior Court ruled.

"This finding was incorrect,'' said the Superior Court ruling in the case against Gregg R. Hartman, 44, of Kutztown.

State police had charged Hartman with furnishing liquor to minors. Shawn Putnam, 17, had testified that Hartman bought him a case of Miller Genuine Draft on Jan 7, 2004, at Duffer's Beer Distributor in Kutztown, and Putnam drank five beers within 15 minutes in the car while Hartman was driving around.

Berks County Judge Jeffrey K. Sprecher dismissed the charge, saying the prosecution failed to provide the state Liquor Control Board's list of beers to prove the beverage was beer. "It's equally plausible that the defendant purchased a nonalcoholic beverage with a flavor similar to beer,'' he had ruled.

Is this like the conspiracy theorist judge? Will he next be letting bank robbers off because possibly the bank notes they stole thinking they were money might have been counterfeit bills instead?

We respect the Constitution but 51 of anything is too much.

Stafford, TX Mayor Leonard Scarcella, regarding the number of churches in the city and the loss of potential tax revenue they represent.

Like I always tell my kids..."No Buts."

I would love to see the look on the neighbors faces when they try to steal WiFi from this guy.

The closest artillery has landed within two metres of our position and the closest 1,000-pound aerial bomb has landed 100 metres from our patrol base. This has not been deliberate targeting, but has rather been due to tactical necessity.

Major Paeta Derek Hess-von Kruedener, the Canadian UN Observer killed in Lebanon 2 days ago.

Cool:

Just one metre square of a new super-sticky material inspired by gecko feet could suspend the weight of an average family car, say its inventors.

The plastic, known as Synthetic Gecko, has been developed by researchers at aerospace and defence firm BAE Systems.

Like the reptile's foot, the polymer is covered in millions of tiny mushroom-like hairs that provide grip.

This is really cool. I'm always impressed by how so many scientific breakthroughs simply mimic things that already exist in nature.

The three columnists I enjoy the most are Marc Steyn, Victor Davis Hanson and Ben Stein. The latter had a remarkable article published a few days back where he looks at the difference that the United States has made in his life and why:

On the cover was the beginning of a breathtakingly horrifying review of a book about the pogroms against Polish Jews after World War II, after the defeat of the Third Reich. Jews rounded up by police, by Boy Scouts, and beaten to death with iron bars. Jews thrown off trains. Jews murdered by anyone who cared to, just in case the Jews did not get the point about how welcome they were in Poland. That could well have been my life and my death.

Then, I turned the page, and there was a lengthy, if confusing, review of a book about Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys. How it brought back my youth spent listening to "409," "Be True to Your School," and the dozens of other great Beach Boys songs. That was my life. Not being bashed to death with an iron bar by a Polish policeman. Not straggling back from a concentration/death camp to be taunted, "So, Stein, you're still alive," which meant that I would not be alive for long, of course. No, my younger life was riding around in a V-8 1962 Impala that I talked my Pop into buying for me and having crushes on girls who did not like me.

Why? Because of America. Because, as Philip Roth so brilliantly puts it, I live in America the way I live in my skin.

Must read stuff, folks. His perspective is much different than so many.

It looks like the Palestinian Center for Human Rights is upset because before the IDF strikes a weapons cache hidden in a home, they call the civilian "human shields" and tell them to evacuate immediately so they don't get killed.

PCHR seriously views the IOF policy of warning resident of civilian houses, and taking this policy as a justification for damaging civilian property, especially since these houses are inhabited by civilians protected by the Fourth Geneva Convention.

I guess it is kind of a bummer when your opponents thwarts your two-pronged strategy. If Israel had simply killed the innocents when they destroyed the weapons, then the Palestinians could cry foul and garner international support for their cause; and if the cache was spared because of the human shields, then more Israelis die. What can you do when you are so handily beaten except cry "Unfair!"

By the way, have the Palestinians ever read the Geneva Convention? Seriously.

I love FireFox, but this could be a sign of bad things to come:

An identity-stealing keylogger that disguises itself as a Firefox extension and installs silently in the background was discovered Tuesday by security vendor McAfee.

According to the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company, the "FormSpy" Trojan horse monitors mouse movements and key presses to steal online banking or credit card usernames and passwords, other login information, and URLs typed into Firefox, the popular open-source browser. Another component of the Trojan sniffs out passwords from ICQ and FTP sessions, and IMAP and POP3 traffic, said McAfee. All collected information is sent to an IP address hard-coded into the Trojan.

The good news? The transmission medium is spam email and you have to open the attachment to install it.

Worried you might be infected? If you are using Firefox, simply open the Tools Menu, select Extensions and look for an extension called NumberedLinks. That is a legitimate extension, but the trojan simply masquerades as it. Expect it to be updated and masquerade as other extensions in the future.

The idea of meeting force with resolve, violence with peace, hatred with acceptance has an enormous moral power. However, it has one critical flaw, one Achilles heel that keep it from being a guaranteed success: it depends on your opponent having a conscience.

Jay Tea

All the people in the Houston area are forever in the debt of Willis Haviland Carrier:

One of his firm's customers, Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing and Publishing Co. in Brooklyn, faced a problem. Climate variations in their facility meant the printing equipment would expand or contract subtly, making it difficult to keep the machines properly aligned for the multistage printing process. Carrier solved the company's problem by producing the first system to control temperature, humidity and ventilation; U.S. Patent No. 8008897 for the "Apparatus for Treating Air" was granted in 1906.

Carrier started his own company in 1915. Entrepreneurs soon understood cool could attract customers. By 1924, he was producing air conditioning systems not only for industrial concerns but for department stores and theaters. Carrier's creations meant that in the hard times and long, hot summers of the Depression and World War II Americans could chill out watching a Clark Gable movie.

In 1928, Carrier produced the first AC unit for private residences but, as with the television, that other great invention of the era, the economic situation in the country delayed its widespread introduction into our homes until the 1950s. Now AC is everywhere, even in our cars.

Even in some of my cars. Unfortuantely the AC in my 1985 Toyota Camry is no longer holding a charge. (No, we use it as little as possible and mostly in the mornings.)

After suffering under occupation for over 50 years, the brutal and hated occupiers have finally withdrawn from peaceful Iceland:

The United States, which had assured Iceland's defence for decades, stunned the country in March when it announced that it would be closing its bases on the island, withdrawing its F-15 fighters and thousands of servicemen in the space of just six months.

This bombshell was dropped in a single telephone call from an underling at the State Department, followed by a letter from the US ambassador.

Iceland, with just 300,000 people scattered over a landmass larger than Ireland, has never had a military of its own in modern times.

The country has fewer than 1,000 policemen, most of them unarmed, and two civilian coastguard ships.

The closest thing it has to a military is a civilian "crisis response unit", which performs peacekeeping duties overseas. But that has just 50 men.

The United States is still legally pledged to defend Iceland from attack, but it now insists that it can do this from a distance.

Within the Icelandic government, the brutally swift American pullout has sparked a debate about whether their remote, wealthy little island needs defences.

To Geir Haarde, the prime minister, the answer is a clear "yes".

"We cannot allow ourselves just to sit back and think that nothing is ever going to happen here," he said.

"Brutally swift American pullout" smells like cut-and-run to me.

It amazes me what passes for debate sometimes in political discussions, both in real life and on the net. I'm not sure about anyone else, but whenever I do make a strong statement, I make sure that I can defend it. I try to think through what my opponents will counter with and run a little mock debate in my head. Only when I am comfortable with my statement and the reasoning behind it do I broadcast it either in conversation or in print (blog). And yes, there are many thoughts inside my head that almost escape, until I run through this little exercise and decide I'm not ready to defend that idea, so I'm not ready to share it.

I had a liberal friend once ask me "Why do Republicans hate the poor?" I was floored by his question. I asked him if he thought I personally hated the poor and he said no. I probed further and I became convinced that his position was based on what someone (Jesse Jackson?) said in a speech. His example was that conservatives are against welfare, thus we hate the poor. (It is not an isolated opinion.)

My answer was something like this: I do not see welfare as helping the poor but as a trap that keeps them there. A safety net is an important thing and we have to have one, but long term welfare creates a class that is unable and unwilling to provide for themselves. I think the key to assisting the poor is opportunity instead of handouts. We both have the same goal: we both don't want the poor to remain poor. We just have drastically different ideas on how to get there. And just because you don't think my idea has merit means I have no concern for that segment of society.

The conversation pretty much went nowhere from there on. He would not budge from his assertion because he couldn't accept that anyone who didn't support the welfare system could not possibly care for the poor. And all this despite me sharing my perspective and despite the fact that we actually worked together distributing food to the poor on multiple occasions.

All of this is just to point out how much I appreciate Dean's dismantling of a most ridiculious statement. And also just to remind people that there is not much point in making an argument that can be so easily refuted.

Now we know why:

The "cycle" notion suggests that each side is just responding to what the other side does. But just what had Israel done to set off these latest terrorist acts? It voluntarily pulled out of Gaza, after evacuating its own settlers, and left the land to the Palestinian authorities.

Terrorists then used the newly acquired land to launch rockets into Israel and then seized an Israeli soldier. Other terrorists in Lebanon followed suit. The great mantra of the past, "trading land for peace," is now thoroughly discredited, or should be.

But facts mean nothing to people who are determined to find equivalence, whether today in the Middle East or yesterday in the Cold War.

Thomas Sowell

Only a nation that can protect its freedom deserves it.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert