Quote of the day

"Why would anyone wave the flag of the country that they would never return to--and yet scream in anger at those with whom they wish to stay?"

The Black Caucus

This is a good read 0n the failure of the blacks in Congress by Jonah Goldberg.

Here is a sample of the problem they have failed to address.

If you include blacks in prison or not seeking work — which conventional unemployment surveys don't — the jobless rate for black men in their 20s without a high school diploma is 72 percent. At the height of the economic boom in 2000 it was still about 65 percent, according to the New York Times. This is twice the rate of white dropouts and three times that of Latinos. A UC Berkeley researcher found that black dropouts in their late 20s are more likely to be in prison than working.

More Nonsense from Time Magazine

I take a short 2 week vacation and the idiots blowing smoke on global warming come out of their holes and reached a new level of nonsense. This time it is Time magazine which I quit taking long ago. This was a Special Edition in which everything from the recent Australian storms to the sky over Indonesia which is orange due to fires and dust are blamed on global warming and furthermore, our future is severely threatened. Some guy named Hansen is widely cited. He is a NASA scientist and spends his spare time writing Al Gore's slide presentations, supporting John Kerry for President and spending a $250,000 grant from Teresa Heinz Kerry. In 1988 he predicted to a congressional panel that there would be a 0.35 degree rise in temperature over the next decade. He was wrong by 219%. Another citation was a study released by some clowns at Colorado University that stated Antarctica is losing 36 cubic miles of ice each year. That may sound like a lot, but Antarctica consists of 7 million cubic miles of glacial ice. The threat, of course, is that it will make our oceans rise. In fact, this is like an ice cube melting since earth has 320 million cubic miles of ocean. If this keeps up, we will raise the level of the ocean a whopping 0.4 millimeters or 0.0115 inch per year. Other evidence shows that 20,000 years ago the global sea levels were 400 feet lower than they are now. So, evidently the seas were rising even before we started driving these nasty SUV's.

Illegal Immigration

National polling data could not be more emphatic — and has been so for decades. Gallup Poll (March 27) finds 80 percent of the public wants the federal government to get tougher on illegal immigration. A Quinnipiac University Poll (March 3) finds 62 percent oppose making it easier for illegals to become citizens (72 percent in that poll don't even want illegals to be permitted to have driver's licenses). Time Magazine's recent poll (Jan. 24-26) found 75 percent favor "major penalties" on employers of illegals, 70 percent believe illegals increase the likelihood of terrorism and 57 percent would use military force at the Mexican-American border.
An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll (March 10-13) found 59 percent opposing a guest-worker proposal, and 71 percent would more likely vote for a congressional candidate who would tighten immigration controls.
An IQ Research poll (March 10) found 92 percent saying that securing the U.S. border should be a top priority of the White House and Congress.

These polls suggest to me there will be a strong presidential candidate from the outside of the two major parties who will run on this issue. This will be the result since Congress will not do anything of note on this problem. The current senate legislation is a joke and an insult to everyone who has thought about this problem.

Aloha II

BestView is on the last leg of the Hawaii trip. It is safe to report that there is a whole lot of water here in the Pacific Ocean. The fact that you can travel for 4 days and see no land, ships, or even birds or marine life is amazing. The Captain says the ocean is over 14,000 feet deep out here. Seems unlikely to me. I finally saw a fish jump yesterday. That is the only one and I spend a lot of time watching the ocean from my balcony on the 8th floor of this ship. I also saw one cruise ship yesterday heading toward Hawaii, I would guess.The trip has been enjoyable but I am ready to get back to my routine. We get very little news and I am ready to catch up on the happenings around the world. One thing we have heard about is the bus accident down in Chili involving passengers from a sister ship of the one we are on and the fire on another ship. From what I understand, some idiot started it on the balcony with a cigarette. That seems odd to me since I am looking at my balcony and you couldn't burn anything out there with a blowtorch.
Before we can go to LA we have to go to Ensenada, Mexico. This is because of a moronic law which says that a cruise ship with a foreign registry must go to some foreign port after leaving a U.S. port before it can come back to a U.S. port. Makes no sense. It is just a tax on and inconvenience to U.S. citizens. So tonight we dock in Ensenada and leave one hour later for L.A. If our plane stays in the air I should be almost back to normal on Tuesday. One deviation from normal will be the diet we go on to shed some of the culinary delights we have enjoyed.

Aloha

BestView and spouse are winding up a few days in Hawaii and heading back to the states today. We spent an hour this morning watching 3 whales frolic along side the ship whild eating breakfast. Pretty neat. Overall a nice trip except I spent 5 hours trolling off the Kona coast which is supposedly the best billfishing area in all the world without a strike. Nice boat ride, though. I'll have more when it doesn't cost me $0.50 per minute for internet access.

The case for home schooling

This is part of an essay written by a budding Microbiologist from Oregon. Read the whole thing here.

The strongest argument for homeschooling is the education that takes place in the public schools, or rather, the lack thereof. Reports on the sorry state of America's schools come out regularly, and it's always interesting to see how many spots we've fallen and what tiny nations (like Luxembourg and the Czech Republic) outscored us academically.

The problem isn't a lack of funding.

Rather, much of it is due to a fondness for egalitarian gestures. As Christopher Lasch observed, "Given the underlying American commitment to the integral high school – the refusal to specialize college preparation and technical training in separate institutions – make-work programs, athletics, extracurricular activities, and the pervasive student emphasis on sociability corrupted not merely the vocational and life-adjustment programs but the college preparatory course as well." People have varying intellectual abilities, and however much it may offend liberals, half the population is below average.

More BS from CNN

According to a recent segment on CNN the life expectancy in countries which have socialized medicine is higher than it is here in the United States. Unfortunately, according to the World Health Organization, such does not appear to be the case. Of course, using life expectancies in other countries as proof that socialized medicine is better than the system we have here is completely idiotic anyway, but CNN intentionally or unintentionally getting the story wrong is inexcusable.

Worse than West Texas

Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories have produced a superheated gas, which is hotter than the interior of the Sun.

The gas achieved the hottest temperature ever recorded when it reached 3.6 billion degrees Fahrenheit, or 2 billion degrees Kelvin. For those keeping score, the Sun is only a mere 15 million degrees Kelvin.

Using the the largest X-ray generator in the world, called the "Z Machine," Project Leader, Chris Deeney, says, "At first, we were disbelieving."

"We repeated the experiment many times to make sure we had a true result."

Therapeutic Water

My previous post on wine that I discovered could be "earthy" and evidently not taste like dirt should only be followed by one on therapeutic water. Evidently, it is true. A company in Los Angeles (where else would you expect this) is now selling a bottled water which they claim is the world's first to be vibrationally charged. It starts with conventional spring water and exposes it to words on the label that alters it. "Love" and "Perfect Health" are the first varieties. Each bottle is also supposedly infused through music in the storage room after bottling and by the thoughts from the person drinking it. You can't make this stuff up.

Tastings

I just discovered a new subject to read about every week. My Wall Street Journal has a weekend section with an article every week on wines. They review various wines and if you ever read one of the reviews you will be addicted. Where else can you read something like this:

One problem with so many of Merlots is that they have no sense of place--no sense that they came from actual grapes grown in actual soil. But one was so charming and earthy that John called it "a Earth Mother kind of wine". It was dark and rich, with the kind of smooth, easy qualities that Merlot lovers are looking for and the kind of soul that non-Merlot lovers would enjoy. It wasn't an elegant wine, lacking structure and edges, but was so charming, earthy and friendly that, when our tasting was finished we poured ourselves another glass and watched " Desparate Housewives".

Or this:

Best Value. Rich, earthy nose and a great, dark color. Slightly chewy--not at all weak--with real earth and even a hint of chocolate. Honest red wine.

I am seriously intriqued by an earthy nose.

SAT Errors

Evidently the SAT folks were challenged by some students to hand-grade the SAT tests they took last October and before the review was over 4,000 students were found to have been given scores lower than they earned. 5% of them were given grades 100 points lower than they should have had. This, of course, is certainly enough to affect admission decisions at many colleges. There is now a scramble to see if early applications were affected and whether some of the pending decisions must be reversed. The whole thing was blamed on a computer scanner in Texas.

Snooze you lose

Looks like the bluebirds lost out on the nice house here in my backyard. A tufted titmouse is about to move in it looks like. I read they love sunflower seeds and there is an endless supply about 10 yards from their new house. How sweet it is.

Trying to understand Yale

Two events this week gave me moments of amusement. First, we learn that Yale has admitted a former official from Afghanistan who was in the Taliban. Next we learn that the Law School at Yale has had a major defeat inflicted on them by the Supreme Court in an 8-0 decision. The supremes said they could no longer refuse access by the military seeking face time with potential recruits at their fine institution. These brilliant legal minds actually thought they could claim the right to exclude recruiters on the basis of some free speech excercise. The objection by the law school to the recruiters was supposedly based on the don't ask, don't tell policy of President Clinton which they feel us unfair to homosexuals. I wonder if anyone at Yale stopped to ask those who are light in the loafers if they would prefer to be found out by their military superiors or some Taliban official. In the latter case, I understand treatment was somewhat more harsh than simple dismissal.

Mideast nonsense

When one tries to follow events in the Mideast and make sense of what is going on, especially the Israel/Palestinian situation, this is what you run into.

An interesting war of words has broken out in the Palestinian Authority. In an interview published March 2, Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas stated that he has intelligence information that al Qaeda has set up shop on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. He calls the information very serious and troubling, and the implication is that al Qaeda was allowed to enter the PA by the local security forces, particularly in Gaza, which the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) controls. Hamas quickly denied that al Qaeda is present in Gaza, but added that if in fact they are there, it is Israel’s fault. Also, they stated that if their group is not treated favorably by the U.S., al Qaeda may just as well be there, to teach us a lesson.

Ports deal will die

As I predicted in an earlier blog where I compared the ports management sale to the nomination of Harriet Meirs, Bush will back down. The main reason is now evident in the polls. This is not some slanted CBS poll where Democrats are asked whether or not Bush is evil, it is a Fox News poll. In that poll, 69% oppose letting the Arab country of Dubai take over the ports. Once Bush sees he has no chance to sustain a veto, he will cave and the only question now is when. My thought is he should do it as soon as possible and move to remove Homeland Security head Chertoff at the same time.

My busy weekend

I am going to be tied up all weekend it looks like. The following story must be in some large liberal newspaper and surely if I look hard enough I can find it.

The driver of an SUV that plowed into a group of pedestrians at UNC-Chapel Hill on Friday told police it was retribution for the treatment of Muslims around the world, according to ABC News.

...Sources say Taheriazar told police he was seeking retribution for the treatment of Muslims around the world, according to ABC News justice correspondent Pierre Thomas. Taheriazar apparently told police he tried to rent the biggest SUV he could find to use in the attack.

The "Pit" is a sunken bricked area where students congregate. It is closely surrounded by buildings. There is no adjacent traffic. It can be accessed only via very small service access and not without carefully navigating to the pit area. There is not even the remotest possibility that this was anything other than a deliberate vehicular assault. The students were not "pedestrians;" they were merely students at a popular campus gathering spot, almost a courtyard.

Taheriazar is a native of Iran and a December 2005 UNC graduate.

RPS; a new cultural craze

With all the crazies on the loose in Iraq, the major media busily creating untrue stories about what Bush was told before Katrina hit New Orleans, the U.N. becoming more and more obvious in its corruption, the education system in the U.S. revealing itself to be close to utter failure, and other things similarily depressing, I read today that a new craze in bars and various tournaments is RPS. This childhood game otherwise known as Rock/Paper/Scissors is becoming a national diversion with sponsors and organized leagues. This game is considered the most democratic of bar games since you don't have to be adept at darts, pool, or video games. All you need is a functional hand which allows you to signal a flat palm, two fingers, or a fist at the count of 3. Rock smashes scissors, paper covers (wraps) rock and scissors cuts paper. If you opponent loses two out of three, you win. Fox Sports Net broadcast the 2004 championship and some matches can allow you to win thousands of dollars.
There is even a strategy developed which supposedly gives you an edge (which I am going to use on my Granddaughter the next time we play). You are supposed to decide in advance what your moves will be to avoid psychological traps. For example, your opponent might dare you to start with scissors. What do you do? What do you do if you are a red-blooded American male and she is drop down gorgeous, blond, and wearing a Bud-lite T-shirt? Supposedly, two scissor throws sandwiched around a paper is "an invasive and devious gambit". I also read that a man who throws two papers and then a rock has never kissed a girl. It is all very mysterious. Much more so than learning that David Gregory called in to the Imus show drunk.

FDA needs to get real

Tysabri is a MS drug which, in a study of efficacy and safety was shown to reduce clinical relapses by 68% relative to placebo and reduced by 83% the number of new or expanding brain lesions found on MRI. The other drugs used reduced these relapses by about 1/3rd. So, it was definitely of great value to MS patients until 3 patients developed a previously unknown side-effect. Rather than just change labelling, the FDA took it off the market. This was an idiotic response since there are many drugs out there which have definitive clinical benefits with potentially lethal side-effects. In antibiotics, I can think of chloramphenicol and gentamicin plus nearly all the agents used to treat cancer--antimetabolites which are known toxic compounds which we hope are more lethal to cancer cells than normal ones. It is time for the FDA to change the label and put Tysabri back on the market and let the patient choose what risk to undertake for MS.

Hollywood

Hollywood feels it has done enough for the blacks. Hollywood can never do enough for the gays. Gays in the military, gays in the Texas Rangers, gays on the range. It's like a brokeback record! As Pat Buchanan said, homosexuality has gone from "the love that dare not speak its name" to "the love that won't shut up."