About Them Hobbits

So John McCain called Tea Party folk hobbits like it was supposed to be an insult which led me to wonder if he, and others who picked up the "insult," had actually read the Lord of the Rings books. In the books the hobbits are the good guys. Small and unassuming no one thinks much of them as warriors but they are nonetheless the ones who manage to do what the great warriors and magicians before them were unable to do. They resisted the lure of the Dark Lord's magic, resisted the seduction of the power of the One Ring, and destroyed the Dark Lord. So if the Tea Party folk and the people they support are the hobbits who are Gollum, Denethor, Saruman, and Sauron to name a few?

Why don't we have some fun with this and assign LOTR roles to the cast of characters in Washington DC? For the purists specify movie LOTR or book LOTR and make your case for your choice in the comments.

Stuck on Race

To quote Ron Weasley, how thick can you get?

Democrats criticize Haley's checking of 'white' on voter registration application
What box should Gov. Nikki Haley check when it comes to her race?

The South Carolina Democratic Party tried Thursday to make Haley out as a liar for checking "white" as her race on her 2001 Lexington County voter registration application.

Trying to create controversy with a ten year old voter registration card? Really? That is some weak sauce right there.

But the application had no specific option for "Indian." Her options were "white, black/African-American, Asian, Hispanic, Native American or other."

The governor stayed silent on the matter, although her allies accused the Democrats of the lowest-grade politics: race-baiting. Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, has never emphasized herself as South Carolina's first female and minority governor and the country's second Indian-American governor, but it has earned enormous national notoriety.

Anne Althouse comments, "It's bad enough that people are forced to make this choice. Criticizing them for how they puzzle it out when they are in a difficult category is just disgusting."

This is like those people who get mad at mixed race folk where one of the races in the mix is black for choosing to identify as anything other than black. As if they get to decide for others what their identity should be. Like we used to say back in the day, step off fools.

Reality Not Conforming to Computer Models

So the title of this article is a little sensationalist and, well, alarmist, but it does point to some very interesting research. Bottom line is that reality does not conform to the climate change computer models. We might want to consider attempts to radically alter how we live bases on the assumption that human sources of CO2 are harmful to the global climate.

New NASA Data Blow Gaping Hole In Global Warming Alarmism
NASA satellite data from the years 2000 through 2011 show the Earth's atmosphere is allowing far more heat to be released into space than alarmist computer models have predicted, reports a new study in the peer-reviewed science journal Remote Sensing. The study indicates far less future global warming will occur than United Nations computer models have predicted, and supports prior studies indicating increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide trap far less heat than alarmists have claimed.

Study co-author Dr. Roy Spencer, a principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and U.S. Science Team Leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer flying on NASA's Aqua satellite, reports that real-world data from NASA's Terra satellite contradict multiple assumptions fed into alarmist computer models.

You can read the PDF of the research in question here.

A less sensational press release about these research findings notes,

New Paper “On the Misdiagnosis Of Surface Temperature Feedbacks From Variations In Earth’s Radiant Energy Balance” By Spencer and Braswell 2011
“At the peak, satellites show energy being lost while climate models show energy still being gained,” Spencer said.

This is the first time scientists have looked at radiative balances during the months before and after these transient temperature peaks.

Applied to long-term climate change, the research might indicate that the climate is less sensitive to warming due to increased carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere than climate modelers have theorized. A major underpinning of global warming theory is that the slight warming caused by enhanced greenhouse gases should change cloud cover in ways that cause additional warming, which would be a positive feedback cycle.

Instead, the natural ebb and flow of clouds, solar radiation, heat rising from the oceans and a myriad of other factors added to the different time lags in which they impact the atmosphere might make it impossible to isolate or accurately identify which piece of Earth’s changing climate is feedback from manmade greenhouse gases.

“There are simply too many variables to reliably gauge the right number for that,” Spencer said. “The main finding from this research is that there is no solution to the problem of measuring atmospheric feedback, due mostly to our inability to distinguish between radiative forcing and radiative feedback in our observations."

I wonder how long it will take for this information to penetrate society to the same extent that angst about CO2 has?

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for/that:

1. Peace that passes all understanding.
2. The freedom to speak my mind.
3. Summer breezes.
4. A walk in the park.

What are you thankful for?

Neurodiversity Symposium

It's free! Check it out.

On August 5, 2011, Syracuse University will be hosting a regional symposium on neurodiversity and autistic self-advocacy. Neurodiversity is a concept and social movement that advocates for viewing autism as a variation of human wiring, rather than a disease. As such, neurodiversity activists reject the idea that autism should be cured, advocating instead for celebrating autistic forms of communication and self-expression, and for promoting support systems that allow autistic people to live as autistic people.

The purpose of this event is to raise public awareness of the concepts of neurodiversity and the different facets of the neurodiversity movement, and to increase understanding and dispel myths about what it means to be against curing autism. The symposium will also address the ways in which the concept of neurodiversity can be expanded beyond just autism to include other atypical forms of neurological wiring, such as ADHD, hydrocephalus, and dyslexia, to name a few.

You can register here and see the schedule here.

Goodbye Amy Winehouse

She tried to fill the God shaped whole in her life drugs and alcohol. That never goes well for anyone. Sad to see such talent snuffed out.

Oslo Terror

Words fail me when it comes to discussing Anders Behring Breivik. God have mercy on us.

Norway massacre: Anders Breivik and his 1500-page manifesto of hate

Mass rallies for Norway victims

Who does write legislation these days?

So is this how we ended up with a bill 2000 pages long that: no one actually took credit for writing; legislators voted on and passed into law without having read it; while insisting that the bill needs to be made law first for the public to find out what's in it; and is having a boatload of "unintended" consequences for most of America? Somebody somewhere cooked us up a healthcare reform model bill to foist on the American people? Hey it's outsourcing!

Who's Really Writing States' Legislation?

Legislators in ALEC pay a minimal fee to join the group, while corporations pay much more — up to $25,000, Nichols says.

"But once they're in, they sit at the same table," he says. "On the board of ALEC, you have an equal number of legislators and corporate members. ... They then set up task forces to deal with topics like health care, education, election law, and you have an equal number of legislators and corporate and/or interest groups [and] think tanks in each grouping. They have to agree on any model bill or model resolution."

The story is about a super bad double plus ungood unholy alliance between state level Republican politicians and corporations. Surely Americans aren't naive enough to think that Republican politicians are the only ones who do this or that this kind of influence doesn't occur at the federal level. I'm not making any judgements about whether this is a good or bad thing. Okay maybe I am because looking at what we've gotten so far out of the healthcare reform debacle I am not at all impressed. I'm waiting for a document dump from some left leaning ALEC type groups so we can all get in on the vain* popping faux outrage that just confirms what we already thought about the other side all along anyway.

Moving right along to my next comment the following was an amusing read.

Nichols, a political reporter for The Nation, recently wrote the introduction and co-authored two in a series of articles about the relationship that state-based legislators have with a group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC is a group that brings together state legislators and representatives of corporations to draft model bills that can then be introduced at the state level of government. An archive of ALEC documents was recently leaked to the Center for Media and Democracy.

"All of those pieces of legislation and those resolutions [in the documents] really err toward a goal, and that goal is the advancement of an agenda that seems to be dictated at almost every turn by multinational corporations," Nichols tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "It's to clear the way for lower taxes, less regulation, a lot of protection against lawsuits, [and] ALEC is very, very active in [the] opening up of areas via privatization for corporations to make more money, particularly in places you might not usually expect like public education."

He says all of that like it is automatically a bad thing. I guess it all depends on which pair of rose tinted ideological glasses you're wearing on any given day.

*I initially typed "vain" then corrected it to "vein" then changed it back because their does seem to be a strong strain to vain self righteous preening running through the comments I've read on this so far. There's nothing that makes people feel so good as finding something to confirm their low opinion of those people (said in the snootiest most disdainful voice you can muster).

A Good Too Big To Fail

As opposed to the "too big to fail" that will indeed fail and therefore needs a bail out to prevent impending disaster.

Classic Petra they call themselves. The song is called "Too Big To Fail."



God doesn't need a bail out.

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for/that:

1. I've finally let go of my philosophical, financial, and sensory prejudices against air conditioners and installed a few around the house. Just in time for record breaking heat.
2. Modern, and not so modern, food storage techniques and technology. They got me out of having to turn the stove on to make dinner tonight.
3. Modern medicine. Even though I feel like I live at the doctor's offices I have so far gotten better/stayed healthy.

What are you thankful for?

Consistency

Now:

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the president would accept a short-term measure to raise the debt limit as part of a broader deficit reduction plan, conceding that extra time may be necessary for a sweeping bill to work its way through the legislative process.

Then:

Yesterday, Mr Carney said: "The President does not support a short-term extension of the debt limit, period.

"The only exception to that is in the event that both sides reach a deal on a long-term extension of the debt limit plus significant deficit reduction, and we needed a very short-term extension to allow a bit of extra time for a bill to work its way through the legislative progress." With time running out, a temporary increase in the borrowing limit is looking more likely.

Until now, Mr Obama has firmly opposed any short-term measure on the debt limit, saying he wants an extension that takes the US government past the presidential election in November next year and into 2013.

Mr Obama argues the issue should not be kicked down the road, and congress needs to tackle hard issues now.

"If not now, when?" he said last week.

First thoughts: One of the first things you need to figure out as a parent is that in order for things to go smoothly in your household you need to set firm well defined boundaries. Consistency in following the rules and reinforcing those boundaries lets everyone know just where they stand and demonstrates caring thoughtful leadership in the family. The same goes for a presidency. When you don't set clear boundaries and consistently follow the rules you get stuff like the following.

Deal Not Close, White House, GOP Leaders Say
WASHINGTON—The White House and top Republican leaders denied reports that President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner were close to a "grand bargain" on the budget, news that jolted stock prices and boosted the dollar.

The markets moved after a Democratic aide said Messrs. Obama and Boehner were close to a deal that would include around $3 trillion in deficit-reduction measures, and wouldn't raise taxes. This drew prompt denials from both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Reports of a deal, first in The New York Times, moved stock prices higher.

Stocks surged to fresh session highs, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising as much as 180 points to 12751, and the dollar jumped modestly against the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc. By early afternoon trading, the Dow average was up 160 at 12732.

Steve Wynn, a Nevada casino magnate and, incidentally, a Democrat and supporter of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has blamed the policies of President Barack Obama for the unwillingness of business to invest and hire workers.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Wynn said: "Everybody complains about how much money is on the side in America. You bet. And until we change the tempo and the conversation from Washington, it is not going to change. And those of us who have business opportunities and the capital to do it are going to sit in fear of the president. And a lot of people don't want to say that. They say, oh God, don't be attacking Obama.

"Well, this is Obama's deal. And it is Obama that is responsible for this fear in America. The guy keeps making speeches about redistribution and maybe we ought to do something to businesses that don't invest, they are holding too much money."

Maybe we need to send some behavioral therapists to Washington DC to teach some folk how to lead effectively starting with our current President.

He Doesn't Think He's A Hero

I heard just a snippet about this young man on the news and I knew I had to find out more.

Meyer, who left active-duty service in June 2010 as a corporal, will be honored for his actions Sept. 8, 2009. He charged into a kill zone on foot and alone to find three missing Marines and a Navy corpsman, who had been pinned down under intense enemy fire in Ganjgal, a remote village near the Pakistan border in violent Kunar province.

Already wounded by shrapnel, Meyer found them dead and stripped of their gear and weapons, and helped carry them from the kill zone, according to military documents obtained by Marine Corps Times.

Meyer — who now lives in Austin, Texas — could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday night. In interviews with Marine Corps Times in November, he said he felt "like the furthest thing from a hero" because he did not find his fellow Marines alive.

You really ought to read the whole thing. Stories like this always bring to mind that we are unworthy of the bravery and sacrifice of such people.

No Dogs For You!

I'm not exactly a dog person, although all of my friends' dogs are working hard to convert me. So long as their owners clean up after their pooches and make them behave when out in public I'm happy to live and let live. The lengths to which Iranians have to go to own dogs are just bizarre.

This summer, so-called morality police are cruising the streets looking to enforce the anti-dog law. The punishment varies from a fine of up to $500 if the dog is seen in a public space to temporarily confiscating cars and suspending drivers' licenses if the dog isn't contained in a carrier inside the car.

To evade detection, pooch owners are resorting to middle-of-the-night walks and driving hours to the countryside just so their pets can roam. Vendors charge the equivalent of up to $10,000 for top dogs and operate so covertly that some blindfold potential buyers en route to the kennel.

"It was crazy," says Ali Shekouri, a 32-year-old businessman who pursued three dicey strategies before obtaining a local beagle. "After a while I didn't know if I was buying a dog or dealing in an international drug trade."

There are two interesting things about this article. First, the lengths to which Iranian authorities will go to prevent dog ownership and second, the lengths to which the Iranian people will go to own dogs.

Via Althouse.

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for/that:

1. Sunshine.
2. Laughter.
3. Fresh picked raspberries from the backyard.
4. Hubby's dissertation is hours from completion.
5. Possibilities.

What are you thankful for?