Serious Words To Think About

There is more than enough hyperventilation going on right now about global warming or global climate change or whatever you want to call it. But NPR interviews NASA Administrator Michael Griffin who makes an excellent point that really requires a bit of thought:

Michael Griffin NASA Administrator has told America's National Public Radio that while he has no doubt a trend of global warming exists "I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with."

In an interview with NPR's Steve Inskeep that will air in Thursday's edition of NPR News' Morning Edition, Administrator Griffin explains: "I guess I would ask which human beings – where and when – are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular climate that we have right here today, right now is the best climate for all other human beings. I think that's a rather arrogant position for people to take."

Earth's climate has varied – widely – through the years. Greenland got its name because when it was discovered it was actually green. The original colonists there died off when the climate changed and it got very, very cold. It was not the ice-swept desolation it mostly is today. 10,000 years ago, the glaciers reached well into the heartland of America. 2,000 years ago, North Africa, now desert, was the grain basket for the Roman Empire.

Who is to say this particular climate, at this very moment, is the be-all and end-all of perfection? Al Gore and his sycophants? The UN with its staggering record of incompetence? Really?

"I think that's a rather arrogant position for people to take". Think about that. Seriously.

Erm….

I have absolutely no idea, whatsoever, why Palm has decided to come out with a new product called the Foleo. It's a sort of sub-compact notebook computer by all early indications. A step up from a "smartphone" a step down from a real notebook.

We just got our grubby little paws on that new Palm Foleo. We'll give you one guess about what we think. Ok, ok, look, it's an interesting device and an interesting concept, and we're long-time Palm fans. We like the scroll wheel, the keyboard and screen were very nice, and the browser works excellently (and with Flash! see the gallery). It's wonderful that it works so well with your phone and all of that business, but we just can't get behind this one. We need a better Treo, or we need a Foleo or like device that replaces your Treo — we don't want both.

Go look at the pictures. Which look a LOT like the notebook I am using. A Dell Latitude D400. It has no optical drives (it uses an external bay for those), a very small screen – about the same size as the Palm, apparently and is, frankly, darn near weightless as laptops go. The Dell has WiFi, Bluetooth and a LAN card along with USB 2.0, 1.4GHz Pentium M, 512Mb Ram (expandable), mine has a 40Gb HDD installed, runs Ubuntu Linux flawlessly and did I mention almost weightless. But it is annoyingly small to work on for any length of time – handy as heck, mind you, but annoying because it is so tiny. (And when you add all the necessities like the optical drive bay, AC adaptor, wireless mouse (I can't stand touchpads) and whatnot, It weighs close to the same as a larger laptop – but still has the tiny screen.)

I think Palm actually went backwards on this design.

Spam Canned

A man who sent so many spam messages that Federal investigators called him "The Spam King" has been apprehended and faces up to 65 years in Federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

Robert Soloway, 27, was arrested in Seattle, Washington, a week after being indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of identity theft, money laundering, and mail, wire, and e-mail fraud.

"Spam is a scourge of the Internet, and Robert Soloway is one of its most prolific practitioners," said US Attorney for the Western District of Washington Jeffrey Sullivan.

"Our investigators dubbed him the 'Spam King' because he is responsible for millions of spam emails."

Between November of 2003 and May of 2007 Soloway "spammed" tens of millions of e-mail messages to promote websites at which his company, Newport Internet Marketing, sold products and services, according to prosecutors.

Soloway routinely moved his website to different Internet addresses to dodge detection and began registering them through Chinese Internet service providers in 2006 in an apparent ploy to mask his involvement.

Spam messages sent by Soloway used misleading "header" information to dupe people into opening them, according to Sullivan.

The Feds want to seize $773,000 from this guy that they say he made doing his spamming. The authorities say Soloway used botnets extensively. So he was not just a spammer, he made computers belonging to other people into zombies – planting trojans that took over the computers. Not just a spammer, but a thief, it seems.

Have a nice life in the can, Spam King.

No Collar In The Collar City

A moose on the loose in the Collar City has eluded capture – other than being captured on videotape, that is. What's a Collar City, you ask? That would be Troy, New York, once home to a booming trade in removable collars and cuffs for men's shirts (they were invented there, in point of fact). Alas, the collar factories are all gone, but the moose are moving in.

It's certainly something you don't see everyday as a moose takes a stroll through downtown Troy.

His trek was captured by a surveillance camera at the Valero gas station on Hoosick Street.

The owner said a customer told him about the moose, and that's when he checked the tapes.

Meanwhile, a bit farther to the East in Maine, three men in two different cars hit two different moose at the same spot, all at the same time. Or in rapid succession.

SCARBOROUGH (AP) -Three men escaped serious injury Tuesday when the two cars they were in struck two moose on the Maine Turnpike, police said.

The accidents occurred after 1 a.m. in the southbound lane near the Scarborough-Saco town line.

When the first car struck the moose, the animal crashed through the windshield before coming to a rest on the highway, according to Maine State Police. The second car then struck the other moose before running over the remains of the first one.

Police said the three men were injured, but not seriously. Their names were not immediately available.

The last item in today's moose trifecta is no laughing matter. A Vermont man was killed when his car struck a moose.

MONTPELIER – A Barre resident died Tuesday in an early morning accident when his vehicle hit a moose and then smashed into ledges near the Montpelier exit on I-89.

State police said the accident claimed the life of Glenn G. Isham, who was driving his 2006 Subaru Impreza southbound in the passing lane when he struck the moose, according to trooper Daniel Schneider from the Middlesex barracks.

Schneider said the collision a few minutes before 1 a.m. caused Isham's vehicle to cross the median, both lanes of the northbound interstate, and then smash head-on into the cliffs on the eastern part of the road.

The vehicle sustained heavy damage from the accident, including the roof being peeled back from the collision with the moose, Schneider said.

One that note, it's a good time to warn people that moose and deer are on the move at this time of year. Hitting a deer with your car is bad, hitting a moose is potentially lethal. They tend to come right in through the windshield.

Meanwhile, a bit farther to the East in Maine, three men in two different cars hit two different moose at the same spot, all at the same time. Or in rapid succession.

SCARBOROUGH (AP) -Three men escaped serious injury Tuesday when the two cars they were in struck two moose on the Maine Turnpike, police said.

The accidents occurred after 1 a.m. in the southbound lane near the Scarborough-Saco town line.

When the first car struck the moose, the animal crashed through the windshield before coming to a rest on the highway, according to Maine State Police. The second car then struck the other moose before running over the remains of the first one.

Police said the three men were injured, but not seriously. Their names were not immediately available.

The last item in today's moose trifecta is no laughing matter. A Vermont man was killed when his car struck a moose.

MONTPELIER – A Barre resident died Tuesday in an early morning accident when his vehicle hit a moose and then smashed into ledges near the Montpelier exit on I-89.

State police said the accident claimed the life of Glenn G. Isham, who was driving his 2006 Subaru Impreza southbound in the passing lane when he struck the moose, according to trooper Daniel Schneider from the Middlesex barracks.

Schneider said the collision a few minutes before 1 a.m. caused Isham's vehicle to cross the median, both lanes of the northbound interstate, and then smash head-on into the cliffs on the eastern part of the road.

The vehicle sustained heavy damage from the accident, including the roof being peeled back from the collision with the moose, Schneider said.

One that note, it's a good time to warn people that moose and deer are on the move at this time of year. Hitting a deer with your car is bad, hitting a moose is potentially lethal. They tend to come right in through the windshield.

Delinquent Deer Dance On Dogs

There appears to be a gang of juvenile delinquent deer terrorizing Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania. In one case, the deadly deer tripped the fandango on a blind dog. 

 Police said a deer attacked a dog in Mount Lebanon early Tuesday morning.

Neighbors said they found the dog after a doe attacked a blind terrier mix .

Police said the dog, whose owners weren't home at the time, couldn't run, because he was held in the yard with an invisible, electric fence.

The dog required surgery. In another incident, the deer performed a mambo on a man's beagle.

(KDKA) MT. LEBANON A report Tuesday about a deer attacking a blind dog in Mt. Lebanon is not the first of its kind in our area.

Mike Larkin of Bethel Park told KDKA that he was stunned to see a deer chasing his 7 year-old beagle named Bailey in a wooded area behind his home.

"We were scared because we never had problems with deer before," said Larkin. "There's plenty of deer around here. They usually don't come into the yard."

But that shock quickly turned to worry when he realized Bailey had been hurt after the deer stomped on his dog.

"She laid on the coach and hadn't got up for two hours and was breathing really heavy," said Larkin. "And we were really concerned about some broken bones and internal injuries."

Deer attacks on pets are not surprising for Beth Fife, a conservation officer for Allegheny County.

"Right now the deer are having their fawns," said Fife. "What they don't realize is when they let their dogs out or let their kids out, mom becomes mom. She's going to protect that baby no matter what."

Oh, sure, blame it on motherhood. We here at Blue Crab Boulevard know what it's really about. The Animal Uprising™ is trying extortion to get man's best friend to switch sides. They're sending deer enforcers in to "convince" the dogs to come over to the dark side. We demand that law enforcement prosecute the offending deer for a hate crime. Attacking a handicapped dog merits special punishment!

He’s In

Fred Thompson has told USA Today that he is going to get in the race. He's planning to run a very, very media – and new media – savvy campaign.

STAMFORD, Conn. — Politician-turned-actor Fred Thompson has been coy with audiences as he flirts with a bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

In an interview with USA TODAY, however, the former Tennessee senator not only makes it clear that he plans to run, he describes how he aims to do it. He's planning an unconventional campaign using blogs, video posts and other Internet innovations to reach voters repelled by politics-as-usual in both parties.

"I can't remember exactly the point that I said, 'I'm going to do this,' " Thompson says, his 6-foot, 6-inch frame sprawled comfortably across a couch in a hotel suite. "But when I did, the thing that occurred to me: 'I'm going to tell people that I am thinking about it and see what kind of reaction I get to it.' " ……

……."I feel some of the same feelings that I felt in the latter part of that '94 campaign about what is going on in the country today — only greater," says Thompson, citing public cynicism toward the Republican president and the new Democrat-controlled Congress. "You can't drive the truck all the way across the country, but since '94 other opportunities have opened up in terms of ways to communicate."

A candidate could use the Internet "to cut through the clutter and go right to the people," he says.

And the truck, now parked at his mother's home in Franklin, Tenn.? "You might drive it a few places."

And if you want to see just how devastatingly effective he can be in the new media look no further than this. Any candidate from either party who didn't just get a chill when they heard he's in has some very bad advisers. Thompson will be a very, very powerful contender.

UPDATE: Others:  Townhall.com, Scared Monkeys, The Gun Toting Liberal, Professor Bainbridge, Tammy Bruce, Riehl World View, Michael P.F. van der Galiën, CJR, Gay Patriot, QandO, The American Mind, Heading Right, Mark in Mexico, Confederate Yankee, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, State of the Day, Cliff Schecter, Babalu Blog, Central Sanity, Wizbang,

Just A Wee Bit Confused

A German woman is claiming she mistook a subway entrance for the entrance to a parking structure. She drove her car right on in and promptly got it stuck on the stairs.

The 52-year-old drove her Volkswagen Beetle across the pavement in central Duesseldorf and into the entrance where it ground to a halt about five steps down, police said.

Police estimated the damage at around 1,500 euros ($2,000).

The story about thinking it was a parking lot is made up, of course. She actually got a bit confused. She was trying to help the environment by taking mass transit. Unfortunately, she didn't quite grasp the concept that she should take mass transit instead of, not with, her car.

Thompson In?

The Politico is reporting that Fred Thompson is in the race for the Republican presidential nomination and will formally announce in July. This may or may not be accurate (I know that The Politico has had to withdraw or correct at least one big scoop). Something appears to be afoot, however. Thompson has started to fundraise by all accounts and appears likely to at least announce an exploratory committee soon.

Fred Dalton Thompson is planning to enter the presidential race over the Fourth of July holiday, announcing that week that he has already raised several million dollars and is being backed by insiders from the past three Republican administrations, Thompson advisers told The Politico.
 
Thompson, the "Law and Order" star and former U.S. senator from Tennessee, has been publicly coy, even as people close to him have been furiously preparing for a late entry into the wide-open contest.  But the advisers said Thompson dropped all pretenses on Tuesday afternoon during a conference call with more than 100 potential donors, each of whom was urged to raise about $50,000.
 
Thompson's formal announcement is planned for Nashville. Organizers say the red pickup truck that was a hallmark of Thompson's first Senate race will begin showing up in Iowa and New Hampshire as an emblem of what they consider his folksy, populist appeal.

Oddly, I was just reading a Newsweek magazine while waiting for my daughter in the dentist's office. They reported that the red pickup was sitting in Thompson's driveway with peeling paint. Their spin was that local political prognosticators were watching that truck to see if it suddenly underwent a facelift. (I can't find that article online, I was reading the print edition.)

UPDATE: NRO says that The Politico is wrong – there will NOT be a formal announcement on July 4th.

Just talked to a Thompson source I'll call "TA3" (Thompson Associate 3). Much more coming shortly, but the first word was, there will not be a presidential announcement from Fred Thompson on July 4.

(The Politico got it wrong, it appears.)

TA3: "There will be no July 4 announcement… There was some discussion of a June 4 beginning of fundraising; that's the date checks will be collected. I suspect that's where there was some confusion."

The forthcoming announcement will be that Thompson is "testing the waters." While Thompson is in that not-quite-announced-candidate stage, he will be able to complete previously committed paid appearances and speeches and continue work his work on ABC radio and filling in for Paul Harvey. He is not lining up additional paid speeches or appearances.

National Health, International Disgrace

Britain's socialized medical scheme, which has admitted it will ration health care, is already doing so it seems. They are denying nursing home care to a very ill veteran of the Second World War. Eric Friar served in the Royal Air Force during Britain's darkest hour. Or maybe its second darkest hour now.

At the age of 90, Second World War hero Eric Friar can barely walk or see and suffers from bowel cancer, shingles and non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

He has been diagnosed with bladder and colon cancer and is currently recovering in hospital from a bout of pneumonia and an MRSA infection.

Yet despite this list of ailments, the former RAF navigator has been told he is not sick enough for the NHS to pay for a nursing home place.

It means Mr Friar and his wife Norma face a bill of £600 a week for the care he needs – a sum the elderly couple cannot afford.

Because they have carefully saved money through the years, they qualify for only a tiny amount of NHS help towards the cost.

Until now, 78-year-old Mrs Friar has battled to care for her husband, but she has now become weakened by osteoporosis and cannot carry on.

Mr Friar cannot eat unaided, requires a catheter and continence pads, and has trouble sleeping because he is in constant discomfort.

Yet his local NHS trust classes his disabilities only as "moderate", leaving him ineligible for state-funded nursing home care.

"How bad has he got to be?" Mrs Friar asked yesterday. "We have never asked for anything in our lives. I'm angry – really angry.

"The NHS will pay £40 a week towards his care. It's an awful lot left for us to pay.

"This is Blair's way of helping the aged, is it? It makes me sick.

"My husband is a very proud man. We have never asked for anything and worked hard all our lives. Now, at the time we need help the most, we are being slapped in the face."

Despite the overwhelming evidence that socialized medicine does not work, our American presidential candidates from the Democratic party want to bring it to this country. Still think it's a good idea?

Better not grow old, then.

Tin Ear, Dead Silence

Ed Morrisey points out a sudden lack of interest by essentially all of the major media in reporting on Hillary! Clinton's latest exercise in tin-ear political speech. That would be her excursion into socialist-speak yesterday.

This kind of rhetoric isn't new for Hillary. She has promoted collectivist economics for two decades now. Her effort to nationalize health care reflected the same kind of thinking, and this statement shows that she hasn't learned much from that debacle. Almost three years ago, she promised that she would "take things away from [Americans] for the common good," back when the economy had just started its latest expansion. That's collectivism, and it's not limited to Hillary among Democratic candidates.

However, what I find most interesting about this statement is the complete lack of coverage it received in today's newspapers. She made the statement in the early afternoon, and it was meant to be part of a major series of speeches on economic policy. Yet, none of the major newspapers covered it in their political or national sections today.

Ed rather suspects it is the newspapers having a better ear for what Hillary! said and how it would play with the American Public. Are they protecting her? Probably. Will it work? Nope:

It’s called “Shared Prosperity.”

Says it all, doesn’t it?

Flashback: “Many of you are well enough off that … the tax cuts may have helped you,” Sen. Clinton said. “We’re saying that for America to get back on track, we’re probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.” — Senator Hillary Clinton, June 28, 2004

Politicians are really going to have to get a lot more internet savvy. These things are forever now and can't just be swept under the rug.

UPDATE: Sisu has t-shirts!

Message To McConnell

John Hawkins over at Right Wing News ran an admittedly unscientific poll to take the temperature of the right side of the blogosphere over the proposed "compromise" immigration reform plan the Senate came up with. (I was asked to participate, but didn't get the response back to him in time – I'm still digging out from under a backlog from my vacation). Some of the important questions and answers:

4) Mitch McConnell said the following about the immigration bill in
the Senate, "I don't think there's a single member of either party
next year who is going to fail to be re-elected over this issue." Do
you think he's right?

Yes: 4 (8%)
No: 45 (92%)

5) Do you believe that the bill in the Senate would, if passed, secure
the border and stop the influx of significant numbers of illegal
aliens into the United States?

Yes: (0%)
No: 49 (100%)

6) Do you think the bill in the Senate provides amnesty to illegal aliens?

Yes: 45 (90%)
No: 5 (10%)

It might be a good idea for Senators up for reelection in 2008 to keep these numbers in mind. From either party.

Denver Post Calls For Firing Ward Churchill

The Denver Post recounts the long, drawn-out due process that has been given to Ward Churchill, the much-reviled ethnic studies professor from the University of Colorado. They say it is time to fire Churchill, which has been recommended by several committees and university officials.

More than two years have passed since the waves of controversy first started lapping at Ward Churchill, the embattled University of Colorado professor. In that same time, other recognizable names tied to CU – Betsy Hoffman, Gary Barnett – have been relegated to history.

Yet Churchill remains.

That's because the ethnic studies professor has been given the appropriate due process – and then some.

It's never been easy to fire a tenured professor, which is good, but that time has come for Churchill.

A majority of CU's research misconduct committee called for his dismissal last year. CU's interim chancellor at the time, Phil DiStefano, agreed, handing the controversial professor his walking papers – a decision Churchill promptly appealed.

Now CU president Hank Brown also says Churchill should be fired. Not for his controversial rants or unpopular speech, mind you, but for academic misconduct.

"Professor Churchill's conduct has clearly violated the University's policies on academic freedom and is inimical to the University's core academic mission," Brown wrote in a 10-page letter to Patricia Hayes, chairwoman of CU's governing Board of Regents. "The University cannot disregard allegations of serious research misconduct simply because the allegations were made against a professor whose comments have attracted a high degree of public attention."

Churchill's shoddy scholarship first came to light publicly after he gained notoriety for a controversial essay in which he likened some Sept. 11 victims to "little Eichmanns."

Two very thorough peer reviews of his research and academic work found academic misconduct. The first investigatory group concluded that he intentionally falsified research, plagiarized and ghost-wrote articles that he later used as references to prop up his own research. (Emphasis added)

As offensive as his rants have been, the reason for his firing has nothing to do with those. It has everything to do with what would not be acceptable in a college student, much less a tenured college professor. That is why it is past time to show him the door. Churchill says he'll sue if he is fired. Good. Then all of his misconduct will become public record, won't it?

Tough, Lucky Or Both

A Colorado man who lost a leg last October in an accident involving a tractor trailer returned home to find a gun-wielding burglar inside his home. So he whacked on the burglar with one of his crutches. Whereupon the juvenile Dillinger shot him in the chest.

But the bullet was partially deflected by a cell phone.

Roger Baxter survived the Tuesday incident after a cell phone apparently slowed a bullet to his chest.

"I just got it programmed," Baxter said of the phone.

Baxter lost his right leg after being hit by a tractor-trailer in October. He was returning from getting a haircut when he discovered the man with a gun inside his house.

"He was pointing it at me," Baxter told KDVR-TV. "He kept coming toward me and he got within 5 foot of me and that's when I hauled off and hit him with one of my crutches."

Baxter is either very tough or very lucky. Though I suspect it's both.

"It's not my time," said Baxter, a Vietnam veteran. "I went head to head against a semi back in October and today I went up against a 9 mm and I'm here. I'm just a tough old bird."

Good luck, Mr. Baxter and a speedy recovery.