March 31, 2009
Friday morning I found out that Bill Ayers was scheduled to appear at Boston College the following Monday - yesterday. When a listener to my talk show tipped me off, I didnÂ’t believe it. And because BC was being so careful not to promote it, it took me several Google searches to confirm the details.Yes, the unrepentant founder of the Weather Underground terrorist organization that bombed a dozen American targets, advocated murder and whose members killed at least two police officers, among others, was invited to speak on the campus of a Catholic university.
* * * In other words, I just shared the facts. Friday evening, after a day of getting pounded by angry BC alums and horrified citizens, the college did the right thing and barred this repugnant cretin from its campus.
And thatÂ’s when the Angry Left turned their sights on me.
I attacked “free speech.” I was a talk radio hypocrite, only supporting controversial opinions from the right. My favorite is the blogger bemoaning “a verbal terrorist assault by right-wing yakker Michael Graham.”
LetÂ’s look at this. Boston College is a Catholic institution. It has no obligation to host an unrepentant terrorist like Ayers on its campus. This should not even be controversial. Indeed, were we talking about arch-racist David Duke, there would be no controversy at all. The school would have cancelled the speech without so much as a second thought, and the Left would have told anyone who would listen that the decision was a proper one. Ditto an admitted abortion clinic bomber.
So why the difference here?
Because Ayers is a man of the Left – and a close associate of Barack Obama. The Left also embraces the terrorism that Ayers and his associates engaged in four decades ago because they view the cause for which he allegedly acted as a noble one.
Now if BC were a public college or university, I might be troubled by the actions of the administration. But they aren’t, so I’m not. This Catholic institution has decided that to bring among them a man who was prepared to kill hundreds in an effort to give victory to a totalitarian enemy of the United States was simply scandalous. They did not silence Ayers – they simply decided that their campus should not be the venue for his talk. Doesn’t BC have the right to determine that it does not want its name and reputation associated with the actions of one who was involved in the murder of policemen and plotted the deaths of military officers and their dates at a dance? What of the school’s right to speak and associate – or not associate – freely? What of the right of Boston College to refuse to facilitate a speech by an unrepentant killer?
And as for Michael Graham, what he did hardly constitutes any form of terrorism. He expressed a righteous moral outrage at something that was, when looked at objectively, outrageous. He urged folks to act peacefully to bring about change. Interestingly enough, those who argue that there was something wrong with his actions actually make Graham’s point – they want to silence speech they oppose.
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March 30, 2009
This is an especially troublesome development when kids are sending such pictures of themselves. Take this case here.
One summer night in 2007, a pair of 13-year-old northeastern Pennsylvania girls decided to strip down to their skivvies to beat the heat. As Marissa Miller talked on the phone and Grace Kelly flashed a peace sign, a third girl took a candid shot of the teens in their white bras.It was harmless, innocent fun, the teens say.
But the picture somehow wound up on classmates' cell phones, and a prosecutor has threatened to charge Miller and Kelly with child pornography or open lewdness unless they participate in a five-week after-school program followed by probation.
On Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union asked a federal judge to block Wyoming County District Attorney George Skumanick Jr. from filing charges, saying that the teens didn't consent to having the picture distributed, and that in any event the image is not pornography.
Now this case, and others like it, raises all sorts of perplexing questions that go beyond whether or not a particular photo in a particular case constitutes child pornography. In an attempt to protect kids, even photos with no nudity can be defined as kiddie porn if they are too revealing and sexual in nature -- and if I understand the law correctly, even pictures that are computer generated and do not involve actual children being exploited can qualify.
Here are a couple of the issues I see.
1) Should sexting by minors be illegal? Should the production of these photos be treated as producing and distributing child pornography? Should there be a penalty for receiving such photos and keeping them? How about redistributing them? Should minors involved in any of these aspects of sexting be treated as sex offenders and subject to temporary or permanent registration as such?
2) Let us assume that we are not going to treat these situations as sex offenses. Is the taking of such pictures of oneself a victimless crime that should be ignored by the law? Do we treat the receipt of such images the same way? How about the redistribution of the photos? How ought issues of age of consent (and the legal inability to consent) enter into this?
3) Assuming that the taking of such pictures of oneself is not going to be treated as a crime because of the lack of a victim, what is the status of such pictures under the law? Are they legally contraband if in the hands of another person? Would it be legally acceptable for the person who took such pictures of herself/himself to later distribute them once she/he has reached adulthood -- again basing this on the view that an one cannot sexually exploit oneself? What does this do to the entire argument for criminalizing kiddie porn?
I'm going to be honest -- I don't have the answers to these questions. It seems a bit much to treat a stupid action by teens as a sexual offense, but we already do that when we classify teens engaged in consensual sexual activity with another teen as sex offenders. It also strikes me as unwise to allow any sort of "acceptable distribution" of such self-produced images of kids -- after all, how does one distinguish such photos from illegal child pornography? And as for my last scenario, that constitutes a real nightmare for me.
Unfortunately, these issues are not entirely hypothetical in my mind. Some studies have shown that one out of every four teens have engaged in sexting. That means I have 25-30 kids in my classes each day who have such pictures of themselves potentially being distributed among a tight circle of trusted friends -- or perhaps even more widely if their trust was misplaced. I won't even begin to speculate how many of my students have received such pictures of friends or acquaintances. I want to see society discourage such activities -- even ban them under the law -- but I don't think that putting these kids in the same category as rapists and child molesters is the right answer. I also know that I don't have all -- or even most -- of the right answers. But it seems to me that we need to start talking now.
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A man allegedly attempting to rob a northwest Harris County cell phone store died after he was shot by the business owner and then hit by a car as he attempted to flee, authorities said.Deputies answered a call around 6:15 p.m. Saturday at a cell phone store in the 5200 block of Barker Cypress, where they learned that two armed men dressed in black allegedly attempted to rob it, said SheriffÂ’s Office spokesman Lt. John Legg.
The store owner produced his own handgun and the alleged robbers fled the business, Legg said.
As the men ran into the parking lot, the store owner chased them. One of the men fled the scene in a 90s model red Ford Taurus, while the other man stopped and turned toward the store owner, Legg said. “At that time, the owner of the store fired several shots towards the suspect, hitting him once,” Legg said.
Sounds like this guy performed a public service with his actions. Let me be among those who adds a hearty "Well done!" to the accolades he is receiving from the local citizenry.
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March 28, 2009
Observations and models demonstrate that northern tropical Atlantic surface temperatures are sensitive to regional changes in stratospheric volcanic and tropospheric mineral aerosols. However, it is unknown if the temporal variability of these aerosols is a key factor in the evolution of ocean temperature anomalies.Here, we elucidate this question by using 26 years of satellite data to drive a simple physical model for estimating the temperature response of the ocean mixed layer to changes in aerosol loadings. Our results suggest that 69% of the recent upward trend, and 67% of the detrended and 5-year low pass filtered variance, in northern tropical Atlantic Ocean temperatures is the mixed layer's response to regional variability in aerosols.
Translation -- it is the amount of dust in the atmosphere from the Sahara and volcanoes that has impacted the temperature of the oceans and therefore the number/intensity of storms, not anything that we humans are doing.
Now, will scienctific research actually silence the members of the Global Warmist cult?
H/T SciGuy
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March 27, 2009
The California legislature is considering regulating the color of cars and reflectivity of paint to reduce the energy requirements to cool them. A presentation on the proposed legislation by the California Air Resources Board is below.The problem isn't the color per se, but the reflectivity of the paint overall. And dark colors just don't reflect well, so they are likely out. "Jet black remains an issue," says the report.
No word yet on what will be done about energy hogs like this one – which is not only jet black, but also gets a under 10 MPG.
![obama_cadillac_limo[1].jpg](http://rhymeswithright.mu.nu/archives/images/obama_cadillac_limo[1].jpg)
I wonder what sort of energy hog rides around in something like that?
![300_457660[1].jpg](http://rhymeswithright.mu.nu/archives/images/300_457660[1].jpg)
Talk to me about this crazy law when Barack obama is riding around in a white Prius.
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, 
((, 
DD, 
), March 25, 2009
I take this action after 11 years of dedicated, honorable service to A.I.G. I can no longer effectively perform my duties in this dysfunctional environment, nor am I being paid to do so. Like you, I was asked to work for an annual salary of $1, and I agreed out of a sense of duty to the company and to the public officials who have come to its aid. Having now been let down by both, I can no longer justify spending 10, 12, 14 hours a day away from my family for the benefit of those who have let me down.
Got that? These bonuses went, by and large, to folks who were taking nominal compensation as salary, with their overwhelming majority of their compensation deferred into one lump-sum payment. They were contractually owed that money as salary, they were repeatedly assured that it would be paid, and they were never asked to renegotiate or forego any portion of the money they were guaranteed. I donÂ’t know about you, but for me that places this entire matter in a different light than how it has been presented by some demagogues.
H/T Don Surber, GayPatriot, PoliPundit
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March 24, 2009
Michelle Obama is putting supposed baby rumors to rest: She's not pregnant.The First Lady told that in a interview this month with Oprah Winfrey in "O: The Oprah Magazine."
Michelle Obama apparently has been the speculation of baby rumors ever since Barack Obama got elected.
Not happening, she says.
Too bad, from my point of view. While I don’t particularly like Michelle Obama and don’t support her husband, I’ll freely acknowledge that they appear to be a loving couple who have done their best to provide a stable home to their two beautiful daughters. It would be nice to have such a couple – especially an African-American couple, given the high rate of illegitimacy in the black community – providing an example of the right way to go about having a family for our nation’s young people. Call it a healthy dose of family values in the face of what is often provided as an example by pop culture.
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March 23, 2009
One thing struck me reading the NYT story you linked…."One executive involved in the negotiations said, “Whether he took a slight cut or got a slight raise, it’s nobody’s business.”Actually it is my business. NBC is owned by GE and GE took bailout money. Ergo, I'm paying Chris Matthews. And I deserve to know that he's not being paid more than the Democrat-approved $250k a year. Otherwise, it's an outrageous abuse of taxpayer money and should be taxed at 90%.
I'm waiting for all the Congressional outrage at NBC salaries.
If it is good enough for AIG, it is good enough form NBC. Now how much of my tax money are both Christ Matthews and Keith Olbermann unjustly enriching themselves with – and what is Congress doing to get that cash back?
Also, IÂ’d love to know how that anonymous quote in the article is in compliance with the standards set by the New York Times for the use of anonymous sources, given the flouting of the policy noted by the paperÂ’s own public editor.
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One thing struck me reading the NYT story you linked…."One executive involved in the negotiations said, “Whether he took a slight cut or got a slight raise, it’s nobody’s business.”Actually it is my business. NBC is owned by GE and GE took bailout money. Ergo, I'm paying Chris Matthews. And I deserve to know that he's not being paid more than the Democrat-approved $250k a year. Otherwise, it's an outrageous abuse of taxpayer money and should be taxed at 90%.
I'm waiting for all the Congressional outrage at NBC salaries.
If it is good enough for AIG, it is good enough form NBC. Now how much of my tax money are both Christ Matthews and Keith Olbermann unjustly enriching themselves with – and what is Congress doing to get that cash back?
Also, IÂ’d love to know how that anonymous quote in the article is in compliance with the standards set by the New York Times for the use of anonymous sources, given the flouting of the policy noted by the paperÂ’s own public editor.
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NASA’s online contest to name a new room at the international space station went awry. Comedian Stephen Colbert won.The name “Colbert” beat out NASA’s four suggested options in the space agency’s effort to have the public help name the addition. The new room will be launched later this year.
NASA’s mistake was allowing write-ins. Colbert urged viewers of his Comedy Central show, “The Colbert Report” to write in his name. And they complied, with 230,539 votes. That clobbered Serenity, one of the NASA choices, by more than 40,000 votes. Nearly 1.2 million votes were cast by the time the contest ended Friday.
I'll have to talk to my friends with the ISS program to find out what they think about this rather strange development. I suspect the conversations will be rather amusing.
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Nicholas Hughes, the son of Sylvia Plath and the British Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, killed himself at his home in Alaska, nearly a half-century after his mother and stepmother took their own lives, according to a statement from his sister.Mr. Hughes, 47, was an evolutionary biologist who studied stream fish and spent much of his time trekking across Alaska on field studies. Shielded from stories about his motherÂ’s suicide until he was a teenager, Mr. Hughes had lived an academic life largely outside the public eye. But friends and family said he had long struggled with depression.
Last Monday, he hanged himself at his home in Alaska, his sister, Frieda Hughes, said over the weekend.
“It is with profound sorrow that I must announce the death of my brother, Nicholas Hughes, who died by his own hand on Monday 16th March 2009 at his home in Alaska,” she said in a statement to the Times of London. “He had been battling depression for some time.”
Depression is a serious illness. If you or someone you know is battling depression or thoughts of suicide, please seek help.
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March 20, 2009
New bride Jade Puckett is so upset about a photograph of her in her wedding dress that sheÂ’s filed a complaint with the Harris County Precinct 8 ConstableÂ’s office.The picture was taken as she waited to go before a justice of the peace on a public intoxication charge. ItÂ’s not the kind of photograph most brides put at the front of their wedding albums.
That it was posted on several news Internet sites — complete with sometimes cutting remarks from viewers — didn’t make her feel any better about the ordeal.
“It had turned the best day of my life into my greatest nightmare,” she said in her complaint, filed Wednesday.
Seems that she is angry that people laughed at her -- and that someone took a picture of her waiting to go before the Justice of the Peace on her charges.
She said as she sat in a justice of the peace courtroom in Clear Lake, a man came into the room and took pictures of her in her wedding dress. She doesn’t know who the man was.“The picture he took of me has been plastered across the media,” she said. “They have used my face and picture for the poster child of this sting operation.” She said viewer comments on Internet Web sites called her degrading and racial names.
Sorry, lady, but you are no different from any other criminal waiting for a hearing -- nobody needs your permission to photograph you in that situation.
And while I don't countenance anyone using racial slurs in your direction, I do think you are a pampered, over-privileged drunk who needs to get herself into rehab with the souse you married before we see yet another picture of you folks -- in a puddle of blood next to the car you just killed yourselves or an innocent victim with.
If anyone can get me a link to the offending picture of this pathetic wench, I'll post it here. She deserves the humiliation.
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March 13, 2009
A well publicized report this week that an estimated 1.5 million American children experienced homelessness in 2005-06 did not use the federal definition of homelessness. Instead, it used a different definition that grossly inflated the actual number.The report — released Tuesday by the National Center on Family Homelessness and reported by numerous news organizations, including FOXNews.com — estimated that one out of every 50 children in America experienced "homelessness" during that two-year span.
But rather than using the definition of homelessness established by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Massachusetts-based organization used a standard adopted by the Department of Education that includes children who are "doubled up," or children who share housing with other persons due to economic hardship or similar reason.
The difference? About 1,170,000 children.An estimated 330,000 sheltered and unsheltered homeless children were identified in HUD's July 2007 report to Congress as those who are "literally homeless," or those living in homeless facilities or in places not meant for human habitation, according to the report.
The remaining 1.17 million — those who are precariously housed or who may be doubled up with friends and relatives or paying extremely high proportions of their resources for rent — are not included in HUD's report.
LetÂ’s consider what this really meant.
Did Mom take the kids to grandma’s house when she left their dad? Then the kids are homeless under the definition. Ditto if their folks are paying high rent. For that matter, every kid who evacuated from New Orleans and the surrounding area qualified as homeless – even if their home was undamaged and they were out of their place for as little as a week.
Now please understand, I’m not unsympathetic to folks in such situations, especially the latter one. My wife and I have been out of our home for six months following Hurricane Ike, and are still a couple of weeks from getting back in. But were we really “homeless” in 2005 when we were out of our home for four days when we evacuated for Hurricane Rita?
But what I find really interesting is that the folks responsible for the story admit that they chose the definition in order to inflate the number. Requiring that someone actually be homeless if one is to count them as homeless is just too strict a requirement. Want to bet it is all about squeezing some more taxpayer cash out of the government?
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March 05, 2009
One thing that is often overlooked is the rodeo experience for special needs children. Volunteers, including a number of the cowboys and cowgirls, volunteer their time to take developmentally disabled children onto the dirt at Reliant Stadium and run them through some “rodeo events”. At the end, every child receives a trophy.
Most years there is an elderly couple down there on the floor, helping to award the trophies, giving hugs and taking pictures with these special children. Last night I learned that they wonÂ’t be there for tonightÂ’s event, because one of them is in the hospital after some serious surgery.
Former first lady Barbara Bush is recovering at The Methodist Hospital after successful open-heart surgery Wednesday to replace her aortic valve, a family spokesman said Wednesday night.The operation was scheduled last week, after Bush, 83, reported shortness of breath. Doctors diagnosed a hardening of the aortic valve, during which the valve narrows and obstructs blood flow.
“The surgery went extremely well,” said Dr. Gerald Lawrie, the surgeon who replaced Bush’s aortic valve with a biologic valve during a 2½-hour procedure. “I expect her to recover fully and soon resume her normal activities.”
The wife of former president George H.W. Bush was admitted Tuesday night and is expected to stay in the hospital for a week to 10 days.
Family spokesman Jim McGrath said Bush was awake, alert and talking in the intensive care unit Wednesday night, with her husband by her side.
Yes, that is a part of what the former president and first lady do as a part of their life in retirement here in Houston. It is one of those things that doesnÂ’t make the newspaper, and that most folks donÂ’t know about unless they actually show up 90 minutes before the rodeo starts to see this special event or special children.
Needless to say, IÂ’d like to extend my prayers and best wishes to Mrs. Barbara Bush. May she make a full recovery, surrounded by those who love her.
I think I speak for many in this community, of al political persuasions, in saying this – here’s hoping that next year we get to see you with your boots on, once more showing the sort of gentle kindness and humility that we, your neighbors, have come to know and respect as you and your husband have lived among us before, during, and after the White House years.
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March 04, 2009
A U.S. airline is now selling "penis" on flights, an anchorwoman has declared.The slip-up happened on CNN when anchorwoman Zain Verjee was reporting about Northwest Airlines now selling peanuts on flights.
Verjee mentioned the word "penis" three times instead of "peanuts."
"Northwest began serving penis this month as its merger partner Atlanta-based Delta airlines has done for years," Verjee said.
"Georgia is the top penis producing state in the country."
One would think that literacy and the ability to pronounce common words would be a basic job qualification to work as an anchor.
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When you refuse to follow the directive, there are consequences that may include the use of force to enforce that directive or take you into custody.
And so the complaint by this Canadian is not only one that does not stir even one ounce of sympathy in my heart, but it also leads me to view him as a whiner who does not realize how lucky he had gotten that day.
A Canadian who demanded courtesy from a U.S. border security guard says he was pepper sprayed and held in custody for three hours for asking the disrespectful officer to "say please" when ordering him to turn his car off during a search."I refused to turn off the car until he said please. He didn't. And he has the gun, I guess, so he sprayed me," said Desiderio Fortunato, a Coquitlam, B.C., resident who frequently crosses the border to visit his second home in the state of Washington. "Is that illegal in the United States, asking an officer to be polite?"
First, it was not a request – it was an order.
Second, the officer followed proper procedure.
Third, the fact that this was the second such incident involving this guy makes it quite clear that he knew what the proper procedure was and that he instead chose to be obstinate. Rather than warn him to be more cooperative, it seems like it is high time to put him on the list of those forbidden admission to the United States.
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YouÂ’ve lost a family member. The deceased had little or noting in the way of assets at the time of his/her death, perhaps due to the final illness.
And then the phone calls come – debt collectors. Only, you didn’t contract the debt; the deceased did. The begin making requests that you pay the debt. But what they don’t tell you is this – you are not responsible for paying one penny of the debt in question.
Sound outrageous? It isn’t – and has become a common business practice.
The banks need another bailout and countless homeowners cannot handle their mortgage payments, but one group is paying its bills: the dead.Dozens of specially trained agents work on the third floor of DCM Services here, calling up the dear departedÂ’s next of kin and kindly asking if they want to settle the balance on a credit card or bank loan, or perhaps make that final utility bill or cellphone payment.
The people on the other end of the line often have no legal obligation to assume the debt of a spouse, sibling or parent. But they take responsibility for it anyway.
These folks know you donÂ’t owe them anything, and that the debt became legally uncollectible when the debtor took that last breath. But they are banking on the probability that you donÂ’t know that.
Scott Weltman of Weltman, Weinberg & Reis, a Cleveland law firm that performs deceased collections, says that if family members ask, “we definitely tell them” they have no legal obligation to pay. “But is it disclosed upfront — ‘Mr. Smith, you definitely don’t owe the money’? It’s not that blunt.”
“Not that blunt”? Let’s try “not that honest”. What these folks are about is extracting payments from bereaved individuals who are not responsible for another’s debts – even if the payment of the debt is going to create a hardship.
And what is more disgusting is that these folks claim they are offering a service because they refer folks to grief counselors and have a website that tells folks how to proceed after the death of a loved one.
Am I alone in viewing these folks as exploitive parasites?
And am I alone in believing that this might be an appropriate area for some sort of legislation, either on the state or federal level?
Or is my offense at the ghoulishness of the pseudo-sympathy used to extract money from the family of the dead simply preventing me from seeing the legitimacy of such tactics?
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