Fuck its silent in here.......

[Wheezer]

The conspiracy grows ever deeper...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/a-skeptical-physicist-ends-up-confirming-climate-data/2011/10/20/gIQA6viC1L_blog.html

I see what you mean.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2055191/Scientists-said-climate-change-sceptics-proved-wrong-accused-hiding-truth-colleague.html

Her comments, in an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, seem certain to ignite a furious academic row. She said this affair had to be compared to the notorious 'Climategate' scandal two years ago.

http://judithcurry.com/2011/10/30/mail-on-best/:

I did not say that "the affair had to be compared to the notorious Climategate scandal two years ago," this is indirectly attributed to me. When asked specifically about the graph that apparently uses a 10 year running mean and ends in 2006, we discussed "hide the decline," but I honestly can't recall if Rose or I said it first. I agreed that the way the data is presented in the graph "hides the decline." There is NO comparison of this situation to Climategate.

Well, I can think of one comparison.

[Wheezer]

Joe the Plumber: Congressional Candidate.

"I don't have to remember what I said five years ago because I believe it. That's what it comes down to," he said. "They're not going to catch me in a lie. I'm not concerned about that at all. You've got to keep it simple and that's what it comes down to running for Congress."

I'd say they don't get any more simple than this personification of asshattery.

As long as he keeps his ass out of NC-4th. That's GEORGE HUTCHINS country.

Before I forget: http://www.ajsmidi.com/patriotic/midi/god_bless.mid

It's a gold mine.

[Edit.--The disco-beat Marines' Hymn with triangle and massed oboe (well, maybe it's supposed to be the fearsome recorder) is not to be missed.]

[J. Walter Weatherman]

This could be a game changer.

[ChuckD]

This could be a game changer.

Ninja down.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

This could be a game changer.

Dude was a gang-banger, then?  Can't wait to hear what Birch Barlow has to say about this.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/11/cops-with-machine-guns-how-the-war-on-terror-has-militarized-the-police/248047/

The most serious consequence of the rapid militarization of American police forces, however, is the subtle evolution in the mentality of the "men in blue" from "peace officer" to soldier. This development is absolutely critical and represents a fundamental change in the nature of law enforcement. The primary mission of a police officer traditionally has been to "keep the peace." Those whom an officer suspects to have committed a crime are treated as just that - suspects. Police officers are expected, under the rule of law, to protect the civil liberties of all citizens, even the "bad guys." For domestic law enforcement, a suspect in custody remains innocent until proven guilty. Moreover, police officers operate among a largely friendly population and have traditionally been trained to solve problems using a complex legal system; the deployment of lethal violence is an absolute last resort.

Soldiers, by contrast, are trained to identify people they encounter as belonging to one of two groups -- the enemy and the non-enemy -- and they often reach this decision while surrounded by a population that considers the soldier an occupying force. Once this identification is made, a soldier's mission is stark and simple: kill the enemy, "try" not to kill the non-enemy. Indeed, the Soldier's Creed declares, "I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat." This is a far cry from the peace officer's creed that expects its adherents "to protect and serve."

[Brownie]

No one notice just how great Herman Cain accuser Sharon Bialek's visibility has been?

As well as becoming acquainted with Cain, Bialek has had at least one more famous friend over the years. Current White Sox analyst Steve Stone confirmed Monday night that he dated Bialek in the 1980s.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/11/gps-tracker-times-two/all/1

On Tuesday, November 1, Wired photographer Jon Snyder went to San Jose to photograph the device. The next day, two males and one female appeared suddenly at the business where Greg's girlfriend works, driving a Crown Victoria with tinted windows. A witness reported to Greg that one of the men jumped out of the car, bent under the front of the girlfriend's car for a few seconds, then jumped back into the Crown Victoria and drove off. Wired was unable to confirm the story.

...

When this reporter drove down to meet Greg and photograph the second tracker with photographer Snyder, three police cars appeared at the location that had been pre-arranged with Greg, at various points driving directly behind me without making any verbal contact before leaving.

After moving the photo shoot to a Rotten Robbies gas station a mile away from the first location, another police car showed up. In this case, the officer entered the station smiling at me and turned his car around to face the direction of Greg's car, a couple hundred yards away. He remained there while the device was photographed. A passenger in the police car, dressed in civilian clothes, stepped out of the vehicle to fill a gas container, then the two left shortly before the photo shoot was completed.

Good work, boys.

[Quality Start Machine]

Picking up the slack for MikeC.

[Quality Start Machine]

DPD.

Rick Perry, pick up your parting gifts on the way out.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

I've managed to find some non-contrarian content at Slate:

Silberman boasts a history of service to Republican presidents and conservative causes unmatched by any member of any court, including the current Supreme Court. Among many other entries, his résumé includes stints as acting attorney general during the Watergate crisis and as co-chair of George W. Bush's 2004 blue-ribbon commission to investigate U.S. intelligence prior to the Iraq invasion. His judicial decisions include a vote to strike down the independent counsel statute threatening the Reagan presidency (in 1988) and the District of Columbia handgun ban in 2002.He was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008 by George W. Bush. Without question, Silberman's decision will be perused by all members of the court, most particularly its five conservatives, prior to Thursday's conference and, more importantly, before they render a final decision in 2012.

His opinion is not equivocal: He openly scorns the Affordable Care Act's opponents as unable to "find real support [for their case] in either the text of the Constitution or Supreme Court precedent." And while Silberman's vote for upholding the mandate took most media observers off guard, it is neither isolated nor necessarily surprising. Until the ACA neared enactment in late 2009, almost all mainstream legal conservatives had—for nearly six decades—endorsed the post-New Deal Supreme Court's consistent deference to legislators' judgments about how best to regulate the national economy.

Robert Bork and the generation of conservative constitutionalists for whom he spoke once called the activist Supreme Court of the Lochner era, during which early 20th century pro-business justices struck down multiple economic regulatory reform laws, "the quintessence of judicial usurpation of power." During the post-New Deal decades, only a handful of libertarian academics championed the idea of aggressive Supreme Court-imposed constraints on federal economic regulatory authority. The ACA lawsuits have suddenly catapulted these recently marginalized zealots to center stage, convincing many observers that libertarian activism has captured control of legal conservativism, just as Tea Party take-no-prisoners anti-government rigidity dominates Republican political ranks.

Silberman's decision signals that this media-fueled impression is at best premature. Despite intense short-term political pressures and long-term ideological stakes, leading conservative jurists appear likely to stick to their traditional judicial restraint canon when deciding the fate of the ACA.

Noted legal scholar Brian Crozier no doubt disagrees.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

John Derbyshire may be the most consistently quotable asshole on the right...

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/282007/first-thing-we-do-john-derbyshire

Is there anyone who thinks sexual harassment is a real thing? Is there anyone who doesn't know it's all a lawyers' ramp, like "racial discrimination"? You pay a girl a compliment nowadays, she runs off and gets lawyered up. Is this any way to live?

...

There has never in the history of the world been a people better mannered and less inclined to insulting acts of prejudice than today's Americans, yet we're supposed to believe that the nation is seething with "harassment" and "discrimination," women being groped in every business office and crosses burning on every lawn. For Heaven's sake. Aren't there any grown-ups around?

[Slaky]

John Derbyshire may be the most consistently quotable asshole on the right...

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/282007/first-thing-we-do-john-derbyshire

Is there anyone who thinks sexual harassment is a real thing? Is there anyone who doesn't know it's all a lawyers' ramp, like "racial discrimination"? You pay a girl a compliment nowadays, she runs off and gets lawyered up. Is this any way to live?

...

There has never in the history of the world been a people better mannered and less inclined to insulting acts of prejudice than today's Americans, yet we're supposed to believe that the nation is seething with "harassment" and "discrimination," women being groped in every business office and crosses burning on every lawn. For Heaven's sake. Aren't there any grown-ups around?

"You go up to a pretty broad, you know, and honk honk you give her titties a bit of a squeeze, you know, what kinda lady doesn't like that, you know? That's a compliment. We're all a bunch of pussies these days. I don't wanna live in a world where I can't tell a tasty dame her ass looks like a Christmas ham."

[J. Walter Weatherman]

http://www.peachpundit.com/2011/11/07/newt's-back-this-time-with-forward-momentum/

I had the opportunity to meet with Gingrich in Atlanta last week, and it is clear things have changed in the campaign. He is again surrounded with staff, and there is a certain buzz & energy about their business. New polls show Gingrich in third place, behind Cain and Romney, but ahead of Perry and the others. There also seemed to be the discipline that was so lacking under the former structure. Gingrich is once again poised to make a move in this race.

For this to happen, however, he must convince the voters currently backing Cain, Perry, and Bachmann that he can be the "anti-establishment" candidate. I asked him how someone who was once Speaker of the House becomes anti-establishment. He reminded me that real conservatism is anti-establishment, just as Reagan was the anti-establishment candidate when he ran, and further argued that Reagan was still anti-establishment when he left office. He believes the ideas in his new Contract With America are sufficiently anti-establishment, and that as voters learn about them, he'll be able present a choice that is a break with the status quo.

Forget newspeak. We've got Newtspeak.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/op_ed/view/2011_1107romney_right_enough/

Why are so many conservatives out to destroy Mitt Romney — the only candidate with the unusual combination of intellectual firepower, professional experience and good old-fashioned competence needed to resuscitate the economy and challenge the liberal welfare-state paradigm?

In part, it's a control issue. Conservatives are inherently anti-establishment. And because Romney is the establishment favorite, some movement conservatives reflexively view him as suspect.

Edmund Burke is spinning in his mick grave.

[Wheezer]

Edmund Burke is spinning in his mick grave.

The sporting world has long since abandoned the sportsmanship and camaraderie that are supposed to be athletics' defining characteristics and has instead embraced a culture of cheaters, bullies and cry babies. From the hard-Right franchise owners who, hypocritically, can't seem to keep their mouths off the public teat, to the over-indulged steroid junkies they employ, to the perpetually scandalized International Olympic Committee and FIFA and the Tour de France and the NCAA, etc., etc., sports is infested from top to bottom with humanity's darkest elements.

http://bigdaddymalcontent.blogspot.com/2011/06/stop-watching-sports-go-outside-and.html