. Better than crop circles
-- like the Nazca lines
, but visible from angles other than bird's eye view.
to post a video of him being bullied by other boys. It was only a six-month sentence, suspended pending appeal, but still, really? Convicted for violating the autistic boy's privacy? Seems a stretch, even with Europe's less-than-liberal speech provisions. 
parodies Lars von Trier
(director of Antichrist, among others) with some angst-ridden and grotesque films made to promote Danish Tourism.
Federal drug-enforcement agents Friday raided the home of a Highlands Ranch man who a day earlier bragged in a 9News report about the large and profitable medical-marijuana-growing operation in his basement. Along with the raid, Jeffrey Sweetin, the Drug Enforcement Administration's special agent in charge of the Denver office, sent a message to anyone involved in Colorado's increasingly profitable medical-marijuana industry. "It's still a violation of federal law," Sweetin said. "It's not medicine. We're still going to continue to investigate and arrest people."
on medical marijuana providers, or has lost control of the DEA. In March 2008, in an interview with the Willamette Week, Obama made this pronouncement: Q: Would you stop the DEA's raids on Oregon medical marijuana growers?
A: I would because I think our federal agents have better things to do, like catching criminals and preventing terrorism. The way I want to approach the issue of medical marijuana is to base it on science, and if there is sound science that supports the use of medical marijuana and if it is controlled and prescribed in a way that other medicine is prescribed, then it's something that I think we should consider.
. Another one [promise] bites the dust. 
. All the climate scientists, comedians, and AGW celebrities have come out of the woodwork to mock these arguments. They say "weather is not climate. We can have blizzards and cold weather and it is not evidence against global warming."
, but the advancers of climate change theory, be they scientists, celebrities or journalists, use this kind of argument in support of AGW theory all the time. Every time there's a drought or a hurricane or any weather event that is slightly different than usual, we hear that it is evidence of climate change or at the very least, consistent with climate change. Apparently comments on whether weather is meaningful evidence of anything depends on your point of view. [T]he proposal under discussion by six members on the Senate Finance Committee would bar insurance companies from denying coverage to any applicant. Nor could insurers charge higher premiums on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions . . . They said any legislation that emerges from the talks is expected to provide for a non-profit cooperative to sell insurance in competition with private industry, rather than giving the federal government a role in the marketplace.Your humble blogger suggested this very thing two years ago!
This is probably just a perception, but I just have the feeling that the glaciers are melting, the snow capping the mountains is less than it was 12 years ago when I saw it last time," Thrisk said. "That saddens me a little bit."I went to the Grand Canyon when I was eight years old, and I remember thinking it was small, and not being impressed. I visited again when I was sixteen, and I was so impressed by the size, I wouldn't get within five feet of the ledge. I'm not saying Thirsk is wrong, but you have to question a news item with a lede like: "Earth Bears Scars of Human Destruction: Astronaut" when it's based on a decade-old visual observation. People can't even testify accurately in court as to what they witnessed weeks ago, much less years.
[FINKLE]: Can you please let the staff use an alternative web browser called Firefox? I just – (applause) – I just moved to the State Department from the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and was surprised that State doesn’t use this browser. It was approved for the entire intelligence community, so I don’t understand why State can’t use it. It’s a much safer program. Thank you. (Applause.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, apparently, there’s a lot of support for this suggestion. (Laughter.) I don’t know the answer. Pat, do you know the answer? (Laughter.)
UNDER SECRETARY KENNEDY: The answer is at the moment, it’s an expense question. We can --
[FINKLE]: It’s free. (Laughter.)
UNDER SECRETARY KENNEDY: Nothing is free. (Laughter.) It’s a question of the resources to manage multiple systems. It is something we’re looking at...
U.S. taxpayers may be on the hook for as much as $23.7 trillion to bolster the economy and bail out financial companies, said Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program.Hmm. That's more than the total value of all U.S. housing. That's almost twice the GDP of the U.S. I hope Neil's figures are off.
Back when the housing mania was taking off, Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank famously said he wanted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to "roll the dice" in the name of affordable housing. That didn't turn out so well, but Mr. Frank has since only accumulated more power. And now he is returning to the scene of the calamity -- with your money. He and New York Representative Anthony Weiner have sent a letter to the heads of Fannie and Freddie exhorting them to lower lending standards for condo buyers. You read that right. After two years of telling us how lax lending standards drove up the market and led to loans that should never have been made, Mr. Frank wants Fannie and Freddie to take more risk in condo developments with high percentages of unsold units, high delinquency rates or high concentrations of ownership within the development.This, along with the Obama first-time home buyer subsidy, is just another clue that the government wants to solve the housing crash by reinflating the bubble. What they're essentially doing is fluffing up the price of previously existing homes to protect the upper-middle classers (who don't want their property value to go down) at the expense of poorer folk who might be able to afford to buy property if the government would let the market clear.
If you give me one of those big windmills which have those big areas through which the rotor moves—how much CO2 can I avoid? And if I had an equally sized CO2 collector—how much CO2 can I collect? It turns out the collector is several hundred times better than the windmill.Assuming that's correct, why is our government not on top of this thing? With regard to energy policy, they are quick to treat the source of CO2 production - fossil fuels - with costly mandates (cap 'n' trade) and arbitrary subsidies (corn ethanol), but apparently they have no interest in treating the real problem - the presence of atmospheric CO2.
Last September Sen. Barack Obama promised that under his health-care proposal "you'll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves." On Monday, President Obama repeated that promise in a speech to the American Medical Association. It's not true.The president is barnstorming the nation, urging swift approval of legislation that is taking shape in Congress. This legislation -- the Affordable Health Choices Act that's being drafted by Sen. Edward Kennedy's staff and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee -- will push Americans into stingy insurance plans with tight, HMO-style controls. It specifically exempts members of Congress (along with federal employees; the exemptions are in section 3116).
Why stop at soda? How about a tax on every calorie-laden coffee drink served at Starbucks and its competitors? After all, a vanilla bean frappuccino with whipped cream is more than 500 calories, a beverage that health researcher Mike Adams calls "dessert in a cup." Throw in a scone or brownie with one of those Starbucks "desserts" and a consumer is approaching, at mid-morning, the daily recommended calorie intake . . . [New sin taxes are always] aimed at the déclassé products, such as soda and fast-food burgers . . . If it's true . . . that "we" would be thinner and richer by laying off sugary drinks, wouldn't the same apply to the more upscale foodstuffs consumed every day? After all, obesity knows no economic boundaries.Why is government in the business of taxing whole product groups arbitrarily? Incentive-wise, a sin tax only focused on soda does one of two things: (1) makes people most likely to purchase those drinks spend more money (possibly making it a highly regressive tax) or (2) enhances the profits of corporations providing substitution goods which deliver similar benefits. You're essentially picking a winner in an industry. If you really want to tax obesity-creating products, why not tax by calorie?
"I will not attend a fundraiser for the National Democratic Party in Washington next week when the current administration is responsible for these kind of actions," Mixner wrote of a motion to dismiss a challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act that drew a parallel between same-sex marriage to incestuous marriage. "How will they ever take us seriously if we keep forking out money while they harm us. For now on, my money is going to battles within the community such as the fight in Maine or the March on Washington! I am so tired of being told by Democratic operatives to 'suck it up' because so many other profound issues are at stake," Mixner wrote.The problem is, the Democrats know they own the gay demographic, so all they have to be is marginally better on the issue than Republicans. Moreover, they know that for cultural reasons, the threat of defection to the Republican side is almost nil. The only other political option available to these activists is to support a third party -- but as many left-wingers found out after 2000, supporting a third party can lead to electing your worst nightmare. These activists have only one weapon left -- money. Unfortunately for them, the Party is not going to need it.
