Logical Progression

I saw this article pop up on Memeorandum a while back and was thinking how best to phrase my thoughts on it. A man buys himself a completely legal vehicle, a Hummer, takes it home and parks t on the street. A short while later, two masked, self-appointed environmental defenders thoroughly vandalize the vehicle.

On a narrow, leafy street in Northwest Washington, where Prius hybrid cars and Volvos are the norm, one man bought a flashy gray Hummer that was too massive to fit in his garage.

So he parked the seven-foot-tall behemoth on the street in front of his house and smiled politely when his eco-friendly neighbors looked on in disapproval at his "dream car."

It lasted five days on the street before two masked men took a bat to every window, a knife to each 38-inch tire and scratched into the body: "FOR THE ENVIRON."

"The thought of somebody vandalizing it never crossed my mind," said Gareth Groves, 32, who lives with his mother in a three-story home in the 4300 block of Brandywine Street NW in American University Park. "I've kind of been in shock."

Now, as Groves ponders what to do with the remains of his $38,000 SUV, he has been the target of a number of people who have driven by the crime scene in his upscale neighborhood and glared at him in smug satisfaction.

"I'd say one in five people who come by have that 'you-got-what-you-deserve' look," said his friend Andy Sexton, 27, who is visiting from Arkansas and has been helping Groves deal with fallout from the crime.

As I said, I was thinking about how to phrase how I felt about this. Then found that Jason Steck had nailed it. Writing over at Michael Van Der Galien's blog, he calls the self-appointed environmental "guardians" exactly what they are: Environmental Taliban.

This sort of thing was inevitable. Environmentalists and other moralists from the left have been growing increasingly intolerant of dissent in recent years. Even as they accuse conservatives of trying to dictate how people live their lives, authoritarian elements among liberals have fought to maintain speech codes on college campus and have proposed wide-ranging mandates on speech and action targeting everything from dissent on global warming to bans on cars they don’t like to taxes on food they don’t like. In some cities, certain foods that offend a politically correct interpretation of a “health-conscious” lifestyle have been banned. The “new left” movements that were born out of the “free speech movement” at Berkeley have turned 180 degrees, now prizing the very authoritarianism and repressiveness that they once abhorred.

Precisely. Walt Kelley's famous line from Pogo comes to mind: We have met the enemy and he is us. The extreme rhetoric and continued ratcheting upward of demands for coercive action by the environmental extremists can only lead to this outcome in the end. Vigilantes are vigilantes, regardless of their cause. It is only a matter of time until someone gets killed* by some self-appointed "defender of the earth" for daring to "damage" the environment. And the extremists will continue to define downwards what constitutes "damage". I suspect this kind of behavior was exactly what prompted Mark Twain to write The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg.

* There also exists the very real posibility that some self-appointed "defender of the earth" will get himself shot dead one of these days if he tries his little "direct action" on the wrong person.

Even More Deception From The BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation has just suspended all of its call-in contest programs after it was revealed that there was systematic deception going on. This is yet another disaster for the BBC and its already badly tarnished reputation.

The BBC is to suspend all its phone-in competitions after the Corporation's Trust expressed concerns about "significant failures of control and compliance".

An editorial review revealed viewers had been misled in shows including Comic Relief and Children In Need, some of which featured fictitious winners of phone-in competitions.

Mark Thompson, the BBC director-general, said the failures within the corporation and by its suppliers, have "compromised the BBC's values of accuracy and honesty".

"There is no excuse for deception," he said.

"I know the idea of deceiving the public would simply never occur to most people in the BBC.

"It is far better to accept a production problem and make a clean breast to the public than to deceive."

The Trust said the additional editorial failings showed "further deeply disappointing evidence of insufficient understanding amongst certain staff of the standards of accuracy and honesty expected, and inadequate editorial controls to ensure compliance with those standards."

It added: "We have made clear that we regard any deception or breach of faith with our audiences as being utterly unacceptable."

To add insult to injury, Britons have to pay premium costs to call in to these shows - they are revenue streams for the BBC. So there are really two levels of fraud here - and generally defrauding people out of money is a criminal offense. (In the US there would already be lawyers lined up around the block to file lawsuits, BTW.)

Wal-Mart To Sell $300 PC

Wal-Mart is introducing a new Everex PC which uses a Via microprocessor, has Microsoft Vista installed as well as Open Office - and that's it. No bloatwear, no trial software. There is no monitor, either, but it's an interesting concept.

Wal-Mart Inc. opened its campaign for the back-to-school PC sales season on Wednesday by unveiling a US$298 desktop from Everex that combines three of the most popular industry trends– open-source software, a power-efficient processor, and a lack of "bloatware."

The Everex Impact GC3502 uses Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista OS, but substitutes the OpenOffice.org 2.2 version of word processing and spreadsheet tools for the traditional Microsoft Office variety. The computer runs on a 1.5GHz C7-D processor from Via Technologies Inc., a chip that meets lead-free environmental regulations and saves energy with low wattage demands.

The sales price does not include a monitor, but is still lower than comparable packages sold on Wal-mart's Web site, such as a Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) Compaq Presario, an Acer America Corp. AcerPower FH Minitower and a Dell Inc. Dimension desktop.

The system features 1 GB of RAM, 80GB hard drive, a DVD/CD-RW combo drive, integrated Ethernet (but no wireless), and VIA Chrome9 HC IGP integrated graphics. Sounds like a pretty decent system. One analyst quoted says she isn't sure people will be confident in the Open Office software - which is kind of a silly objection. I run Open Office on all of my Windows computers with no issues at all - even the ones that have Office. I actually prefer the Open Office. In fact I have decided never to buy another copy of Office. Of course if you're moderately handy, you could build a very similar system with an Intel Pentium D for somewhat less, but with no Windows Vista. (I bet Ubuntu would run flawlessly on it, though. For free.)

The Life Is Just Not Fair Department

a 75-year old Swedish woman has just had an internet connection added to her home. Big deal, you say? Well, what if you knew that its a really, really fast connection. As in 40 gigabits-per-second. As in download a feature-length film in two seconds.

(Sigbritt) Lothberg's 40 gigabits-per-second fiber-optic connection in Karlstad is believed to be the fastest residential uplink in the world, Karlstad city officials said.

In less than 2 seconds, Lothberg can download a full-length movie on her home computer — many thousand times faster than most residential connections, said Hafsteinn Jonsson, head of the Karlstad city network unit.

Jonsson and Lothberg's son, Peter, worked together to install the connection.

The speed is reached using a new modulation technique that allows the sending of data between two routers placed up to 1,240 miles apart, without any transponders in between, Jonsson said.

"We wanted to show that that there are no limitations to Internet speed," he said.

Peter Lothberg, who is a networking expert, said he wanted to demonstrate the new technology while providing a computer link for his mother.

Why is unfair? Ms. Lothberg only uses the connection to read online newspapers. Please don't hurt your hand punching the walls.

The Kindness Of Strangers

An elderly Louisiana couple was in danger of losing the house they had owned since 1968 - free and clear - because of an unpaid tax levy of $1.63. They were never notified of it, but the house had been sold at auction by the county. The land company that bought it refused to relinquish their rights even after the tax sale was nullified. A real nasty little mess.

Today, Dolores and Kermit Atwood can breath easier. An anonymous benefactor stepped in and paid the land company an undisclosed amount of money to give the house back to the rightful owners.

"I don't even know who to thank," Dolores Atwood, 69, said after the settlement returned the property title to her and her 71-year-old husband. "But I'm relieved and happy that this is finally over."

The local businessman who paid Jamie Land Co. to settle the lawsuit wants to remain anonymous for now, said his attorney, Gary Duplechain. He stepped forward after reading about the Atwoods' plight.

Jamie Land President James Lindsay II said the agreement reached Tuesday calls for the amount paid to remain undisclosed. "But it wasn't a lot of money," he said.

In 1996, the $1.63 bill was sent to a defunct address and returned as undelivered. The Atwoods weren't looking for it, because they had owned the four-bedroom house mortgage-free since 1968 and had been exempt from the state tax.

As a result, the home was sold at a St. Tammany Parish sheriff's auction in 1997. The State Tax Commission eventually nullified the sale, but when the Atwoods tried to sell the house in 2002, they discovered that Jamie Land Co. still had the property rights.

Lindsay argued his rights were violated when the tax commission didn't inform him of its decision. Last month an appeals court sided with the Atwoods, and Jamie Land had been planning to appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Kudos to the benefactor. Raspberries to Mr. Lindsay who confuses amoral sharp practice with "rights".

Flies, Spiders, Now Bees

We appear to have an insect trifecta today. First it was body-snatching flies, then ambitious spiders. Now we have bee squatters. Remember all the dire, hyperventilating media stories earlier this year screaming that we were all going to die because the bees were disappearing? Surprise. They just turned up.

LILLY, Pa. - Matthew Danchanko has squatters in his new home. And they won't leave without a fight. They're honeybees — tens of thousands of of them. They buzz through the four-bedroom house, creating a low hum and an estimated 100 pounds of honey.

Danchanko recently bought the house northeast of Johnstown, Pa. He planned to fix it up and move in. But shortly after he began renovating, the long-time residents of the house made it abundantly clear they had no intention of leaving.

He's found a local beekeeper to remove the hive.

Since We’re On The Subject Of Bugs

Another bug story. Not quite as creepy as the last post, but bad enough. The Disneyfication of the animal world continues apace in the human world. A young woman from Hemlock, Michigan is claiming that spiders saved her from a house fire. No, really.

The spiders dropping from her bedroom ceiling were running from something. When a Hemlock teen ran from them, she escaped a smoldering attic fire.

Now, Danielle R. Vigue says, she will never kill another of the little arachnids.

When the 18-year-old awoke at 5 a.m. Tuesday and saw spiders entering her bedroom in the family home at 420 S. Elm, she killed them. When more came, she left the room.

"At first there were five, they were all around the light fixture," the teen said. "I hate spiders, they freak me out.

"I killed those, but then seven more started coming down on webs, and it looked like more were on the way. That was enough; I got out."

She went across the hall and got into the queen-sized bed of her sister, Lauren N. Vigue, 15.

"She was so mad that I woke her up," Danielle Vigue said.

Their mother, Debra Vigue, 48, and youngest sister, Shelby L. Vigue, 8, smelled smoke about 9:45 a.m. and went to investigate.

Flames greeted the family when they opened the door to the bedroom where Danielle Vigue was sleeping earlier.

Once again, people completely miss the true intention of the spider brigades of the Animal Uprising. The spiders were not trying to save Danielle Vigue, of course. They were attempting to truss her up for the barbecue. As the famous Far Side cartoon by Gary Larson put it, "If we pull this off, we'll eat like kings."

Shhhhhh! We’re Being Bugged!

The Animal Uprising™ has stepped up its intelligence gathering operations. Now you not only have to worry about whether your pets may be listening and gathering information about you to pass along to the animal overlords, you also have to worry about being bugged. And the real problem, as always with the Animal Uprising™ is that "being bugged" is not just an expression. They use real bugs. Planted in your head.

CARBONDALE, Colo. - Doctors thought the strange, bleeding bumps on Aaron Dallas' head might be from gnat bites or shingles. Then the bumps started moving.

A doctor found five active bot fly larvae living beneath the skin atop Dallas' head.

"I'd put my hand back there and feel them moving. I thought it was blood coursing through my head," Dallas told the (Glenwood Springs) Post Independent.

"I could hear them. I actually thought I was going crazy."

Dallas said he likely received the larval infestation while on a trip to Belize this summer. Bot fly infections are not uncommon in parts of Central and South America.

Adult bot flies are hairy and look like bees, without bristles. The larvae, which are about one-third the size of a penny, were living in a pit 2- to 3- millimeters wide. They were removed Thursday.

Here's the original article complete with pictures of the bugging devices. Neither Dallas nor the medical professionals were quite ready for all this:

"He called the nurse in to help and she about fainted. The whole thing was traumatic," Dallas said. "It was freaking me out. I actually asked them to stop so I could walk around a bit."

Midge missed the extraction - which required numbing of the infested area before the larvae were removed - but she spoke with her husband's nurse.

"When I walked into the doctor's office, she said, 'You don't want to go back there,'" Midge said. "This woman was as white as a ghost."

We here at Blue Crab Boulevard are attempting to type while dealing with a severe case of the skin crawls. It is not easy, we hope our readers appreciate all these sacrifices we make around here. We would like to point out that many bugs in todays computers happen because of 'bots. Now bot flies have been unleashed on people. Coincidence? We think not.

Dow Jones Board Okays Sale

The board of Dow Jones has agreed to accept the buyout deal from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. The matter is now in the hands of the Bancroft family. They still control Dow Jones and appear to be having a family spat over the whole matter, so the outcome is still in doubt.

NEW YORK - The fate of Dow Jones & Co. now rests with the Bancroft family, the company's longtime controlling shareholders, who must decide whether to sell the publisher of The Wall Street Journal to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., a global media conglomerate that owns Twentieth Century Fox and the Fox News Channel.

The board of Dow Jones said late Tuesday it was ready to sign off on Murdoch's proposal to buy the company for $5 billion. However, the key remains with the Bancroft family, whose three dozen members have been deeply divided over whether to sell to Murdoch. The are expected to meet Monday to discuss the deal.

Dow Jones wound up agreeing to Murdoch's initial offer without a last-minute price increase, as efforts by some board members and a union representing Wall Street Journal reporters failed to come up with viable alternatives to Murdoch's $60-per-share bid, which represents a premium of about 65 percent over where Dow Jones shares were trading before the offer became public in early May.

If the Bancrofts do sink the deal, it would surely result in a sharp drop in Dow Jones shares and the likelihood of shareholder lawsuits.

Actually, the premium Murdoch offered in his bid indicates he is very, very serious about acquiring Dow Jones. This will continue to be interesting. The board must have been satisfied with assurances of editorial and journalist freedom at the WSJ or they would not have signed off.

Wild About Harry

Ed Morrisey points out that Harry Reid tried a bluff and it failed. So badly, in fact, that Harry took most of the "all night" debate off and slept through it. Mitch McConnell was a lot smarter than Harry and called the bluff. Reid looks like a fool this morning.

Here's what Reid wanted. He knew that he didn't have enough votes for a quorum; he only has 49 Democrats available, with Tim Johnson's disability. Reid counted on Republicans forcing an end to the session by having a single member present to challenge for a quorum. No votes could take place without one, including the instruction motion to the Sergeant-at-Arms to arrest recalcitrant members and drag them back to the chamber. That would have allowed Reid and the Democrats to accuse Republicans of dodging the debate, calling them cowards to take the spotlight off of their insistence on retreat.

Many expected the Republicans to do just that, but it turns out that Mitch McConnell is a little smarter than Harry Reid. Instead of denying Reid a quorum, the Republicans showed up for the debate, perhaps charged up by John McCain's earlier speech on the floor. Once Reid figured out that the Republicans would not give him the satisfaction of walking out the door, he caved. In fact, Reid didn't even bother to attend his own No Snooze Until We Lose party after the first instruction motion, choosing to hit the sack instead while Republicans took the podium all night long.

I still stand by my predictions that Harry Reid's tenure as Majority Leader will come to be reviled by the party rank and file.

John Stossel Continues Slapping Michael Moore

John Stossel devotes this weeks Real Clear Politics column to slapping Michael Moore around again. In a continuation of last week's attack, Stossel picks right up where he left off.

Michael Moore loves government.

OK, he doesn't love a government headed by George W. Bush, but he believes that once the Democrats are in charge, government will do a better job providing health care.

In his new movie, "Sicko," he praises government-controlled health care systems in Canada and Europe. He suggests that Americans pay more for health care but have a shorter life expectancy than people in other countries because our health care is driven "by profit."

He is wrong in so many ways.

First, life expectancy is no measure of a country's medical system. Lifestyle and culture matter more, and Americans are different.

Interviewing Moore for an upcoming health care special on "20/20," I said, "In America we kill each other more often. We shoot each other. We have more car accidents. Forgive me, more of us look like … you."

He smiled at that, but still argued that that people live longer in Canada "because they never have to worry about paying to go see the doctor. That means at the first sign of being sick they go right away to the doctor cause they're not worrying about whether or not they can afford it."

Please.

It is another must read column, I'd urge you to read it. Stossel notes that government simply does not do much of anything well. He relates the story of the Jersey City, New Jersey water department. Unable to do anything about unbelievably bad water in the city, the city turned the department over to a private company. Within months, the water quality improved enough to meet the highest standards at an annual savings of $35 million to the taxpayers. Stossel challenged Moore to name one thing government did better than private industry. Moore couldn't. Read Moore's reply, it is telling.

Humane Society Attacks Al Gore

The Humane Society International has slapped Al Gore for serving Chilean sea bass at his daughters recent wedding. It seems the fish is severely endangered because there is a very large amount of illegal harvesting going on.

ONLY one week after Live Earth, Al Gore's green credentials slipped while hosting his daughter's wedding in Beverly Hills.

Gore and his guests at the weekend ceremony dined on Chilean sea bass - arguably one of the world's most threatened fish species.

Also known as Patagonian toothfish, the species is under pressure from illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing activities in the Southern Ocean, jeopardising the sustainability of remaining stocks.

The species is currently managed by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Living Marine Resources, the body which introduced a catch and trade documentation scheme as an attempt to tackle illegal poaching of this species.

Working with non-government organisations, the Humane Society International's focus is now on pursuit of illegal fishing operators who, in the rush to cash in on the highly valued species, plunder stocks with no regard for sustainability.

It has been estimated that more than 50 per cent of toothfish traded is illegally caught, and includes juveniles vital to the ongoing toothfish population.

Pretty funny stuff. Al, yet again, proves he is all about making others go green and to save energy. The electricity-guzzling, Lear-jetting, strip-mining baron has no intention of following his own advice. We're downright prophetic around here, too.