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Clayton Cramer's BLOG |
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Clayton's commentary on news and events of the day. Broadly speaking, I'm a conservative with libertarian sympathies (getting more conservative as my children get older).
 Never forget! I ran for Idaho state senate in 2008--didn't win I've written a number of history books, as well as scholarly and popular articles, (see my web page).
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Email me at blogmail at claytoncramer dot com. Sorry to be so indirect, but all spambots must die! But they haven't died yet! Include the word spamIamnot in your subject line to make sure that my spam blocker lets you through. |
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Chevrolet Equinox Gas Mileage I was pleasantly surprised when I filled up my wife's Chevrolet Equinox in Lewiston yesterday--a bit better than 27 miles per gallon--and this was not a "set the cruise control" sort of drive. Friday, May 12, 2006
Limited Blogging This Weekend My daughter is graduating fromm the University of Idaho this weekend, so I am in Moscow. Blogging will be limited (perhaps very limited) this weekend. As Good As It Gets As I was driving down to the theater to see United 93, it was in the mid-70s, the top was off the Corvette, and the sun was setting into a blue sky. With the windows rolled down, headed down Interstate 84, I couldn't see any real disadvantage over the convertible version of the Corvette. What an awesome end to the day! Thursday, May 11, 2006
United 93 Well, I finally went to see it tonight. I've linked to Roger Ebert's review of it before, and I find myself in agreement on every detail. It was technically perfect--the combination of handheld camera and grainy film gives a cinema verite character that makes you feel like you are on the plane. For the first minutes, the jerkiness felt uncomfortable, but soon, you don't notice it--but the tension builds as it approaches the awful climax, because you know there is no surprise here. There will be no happy ending, just a heroic one. There's no flashbacks, or backstory to the characters; in fact, you don't learn the names of any of them, and in most cases, you don't know why they are on the plane. The pieces of dialog that we know about from reading books such as Lisa Beamer's Let's Roll! and from reading the 9/11 Commission Report--are just there. They are not highlighted--just like you were there. We hear Todd Beamer praying with an operator; we hear him say, "Let's roll." But if you aren't paying attention--just as in real life--you'll miss it. There isn't a single recognizable actor in this film--and it is astonishing what happens when you take away "star power," and instead of seeing some famous actor, who you've seen in a dozen movies, with all the baggage that he carries from those other roles--you just see...someone who was on an airplane, an ordinary person, who fought back in the first battle of World War III. I've seen it suggested that much of the dialog was improvised. It might well have been; it certainly sounds like the way ordinary people speak--not lines that a screenwriter might create to make us sympathetic, or sorrowful, but the way the real people involved might have spoken. FAA; the military; the chain of command: they are all trying--and failing. There was clearly no preparation for something like this. Our air defense system was set up for external attack. FAA was not prepared for a hijacking of this type, because there had been no hijacking in at least a decade, and a hijacking like this was simply beyond their imagination. It shouldn't have been, considering that we had sufficient precedent, but in much the same way that militaries usually prepare to fight the last war, our government agencies were prepared to deal with problems that were already familiar. My wife wouldn't go see United 93; she's a very sensitive soul, and was afraid that it would be too emotionally devastating. It is powerful, but in an understated way. There is blood, but the brutality of the hijackers killing pilots and passengers is more suggested by the quickness of motion than detailed gore. The language is a little raw in places, as you might expect under the circumstances, as military officers and air traffic controllers try to make sense out of isolated facts, and then desperately try to prevent what they believe will be an airliner crash in Washington DC. This movie doesn't pull any punches. It opens with the hijackers shaving their bodies in ritual purification, and praying for Allah's protection as they prepare to commit mass murder. This is a war of civilizations. There is no room for negotiation. Islamofascism needs to be completely and utterly destroyed, both in the death of its adherents, and in the humiliation of a political theory that asserts it has a moral superiority that justifies being in complete control of the entire world. Labels: film reviews My, How The World Has Changed... When I was young, a good liberal or leftist could have only one position about the Middle East--to support Israel! I can remember during the Six Days War hearing joke after joke after joke in which Arabs were the butt, and Israelis were the heroes. In retrospect, some of those jokes were really unnecessarily insulting. But as this blog entry from Donkey Cons points out, the world is turned upside down--and many leftists (and more than a few liberals) are now hard to distinguish from anti-Semites, which ferocious attacks on Israel that are as unfair and unnuanced as those jokes we would tell on the schoolyard. Treasury Yield Curve Is Unkinking Perhaps because of the Fed's interest rate rise yesterday, and their announcement of a temporary halt to interest rate rises, the Treasury yield curve is again rising from left to right (as of noon MDT).
Hmmm. This suggests that big bond buyers have changed their expectations for the next several years. Instead of expecting interest rates to keep rising, then drop in 2-3 years, this suggests that they are expecting relatively stable interest rates, and very low inflation. It may be time to start buying long-term bonds. UPDATE: I notice that some newly issued 20 year Fannie Mae bonds were available with an annualized yield to maturity of 7%. Now, Fannie Mae is careful on their website to emphasize that their bonds are not backed by the "full faith and credit" of the U.S. government, but there aren't a lot of people who think Congress would let Fannie Mae or the other mortgage agencies default. Not only would it be bad for the U.S. government's reputation (perhaps raising some questions about the creditworthiness of Treasurys), but these agencies are rather fundamental parts of how housing is financed in the U.S. Letting these agencies go under would cause considerable disruption in core industries such as home building, real estate, and private housing financing. In case you are wondering why something as safe as a federal agency bond pays 7%--it is because these particular bonds can be called at any time. That means that Fannie Mae could suddenly cash them in for their face value. As long as you haven't paid above their face value, the most that you are out is the interest for subsequent years. But when would Fannie Mae call bonds? Usually because interest rates are low, and they can issue fresh bonds at a lower yield--which is precisely the time that you would prefer not to be looking for fresh places to invest your money--except, perhaps, if you are investing in real estate. What happens to real estate prices when interest rates are low? It goes up. Perhaps swinging back and forth between investing in Fannie Mae (when interest rates are high) and investing in real estate (when Fannie Mae calls its bonds) has some potential. Hard Choices The Democratic Party seems to have finally figured out that getting into bed with homosexuals is a way of getting a disease that you don't want at election time: Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has angered supporters in the gay and lesbian community by stating that his party opposes gay marriage.The problem is that the Democrats have a choice: 1. Get in step with the American people, who define marriage as "one man, one woman." It is true that a pretty large minority wants to recognize civil unions--which are really "same-sex marriage with fig leaf." Reminding these confused sorts who oppose same-sex marriage but support civil unions is more likely to make them abandon civil unions, than support gay marriage. 2. Get in step with those homosexual activists who are prepared to sink their entire political cause--and the Democratic Party--over this issue. What makes this especially absurd is that homosexuals themselves are demonstrating same-sex marriage isn't that important--by failing to take much advantage of the laws where it has been allowed. This must not have been an easy choice, but it sounds like Dean has decided (based on this, and another recent incident), has decided that getting votes in November is more important than getting money from Hollywood. UPDATE: I saw Dick Morris (former Clinton advisor) interviewed on Fox News this evening, and he made the point that Dean is destroying the Democratic Party. So far, the Democratic National Committee has raised $10 million for the elections this year--and the Republican National Committee has raised $42 milion--and now, Dean has insulted one of the two groups that the DNC counts on for money: gays and environmentalists. Labels: homosexuality My House Is On The Market You can see the listing here. The offered price is $399,990--a bit lower than I had been hoping, but there's a lot of similar sized homes on the market in our subdivision at the moment. Some of them are a bit larger, but a few years older--and some are $10,000 to $12,000 more expensive, for the same size. If you decide you want it, make sure that you contact my realtor directly--I'll save a bit of money if she is the sole agent involved. It Reads Like A Bad Novel I mentioned a couple of years ago how a woman's unbelieveable accusations, many years ago, of Satanic child sexual abuse by a Catholic priest--were now suddenly more credible, as they arrested the priest for murder. Now, he has been convicted of that crime: TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - A priest accused of stabbing a Roman Catholic nun to death as she prepared for Easter services 26 years ago was found guilty Thursday of murder that prosecutors say was steeped in religious ritual.The significance of an upside cross should be obvious. On top of this lurid murder/suicide/molestation case involving another Catholic priest, it just makes my brain spin. Labels: child sexual abuse Bush's Immigration Policy Meltdown I (along with a lot of other conservatives) have become increasingly alarmed and simultaneously mystified by Bush's support for amnesty, reluctance to enforce existing law (even to the standards of the Clinton Administration), and now, what appears to be active assistance to the Mexican government in smuggling illegals across the border. What's going on? I've tried very hard to come up with explanations that make sense, and I can imagine reasons that might at least make a little sense--but if so, Bush needs to have someone (off the record, of course) articulating these reasons. 1. Perhaps some sort of deal has been worked out with Mexico's government whereby in exchange for cooperation in identifying potential terrorists and preventing them from crossing the border, we turn a blind eye to the illegal Mexican immigrants--turning it from a genuine national security problem into a somewhat less serious problem about economics and jobs. Okay, if that were the case, there would be a good reason to remain closemouthed about it. But at least someone close to the Bush Administration needs to drop some hints about this. 2. Bush is afraid that if we shut off the flow of illegal immigrants, Mexico would erupt into revolution. The experience of the 1910-20 Mexican Revolution was incredibly destructive to Mexico, and had some serious consequences for the U.S. as well. Again, this might be a good reason for allowing illegals into the U.S.--as a pressure relief on a country so corrupt and incompetent that it can't employ its own population. But someone needs to be explaining, in a subtle or indirect way, that this is the reason. 3. Bush is concerned that cutting off the supply of illegal laborers would drive up labor rates, causing inflationary pressures on the U.S. economy. There has been some discussion of this in some circles, but this is a foolishly short-sighted approach. Driving up labor rates for the poorest Americans would likely turn a lot of unskilled workers from minimum wage to $8 or $10 per hour workers--and Bush and the Republican Party could take credit for improving the circumstances of people that, often as not, vote Democrat right now. 4. Bush is concerned about alienating Hispanic U.S. citizens and residents. But even in this group, there is considerable division between those who support illegal immigration, and those who do not. I can see why in some Congressional districts, alienating the pro-illegal Hispanic population might be a concern, and perhaps Karl Rove has polling data that tells him Republicans will lose control of the House if this segment ends up voting Democrat in November. If this is the reason, it might be good to identify, publicly, the districts where this is an issue. It is hard to imagine that the potential vote losses couldn't be made up with the passion of anti-illegal immigrants (regardless of ethnicity) voting Republican if Bush did his job. 5. Bush is pandering to corporate interests that want cheap and docile labor. Here's a chance for Bush to beat the Democrats at this game--by emphasizing that he is putting the interests of ordinary working Joes ahead of the suits. Forcing the Democrats to defend illegal immigration and Big Business interests, except in a small number of districts where Democrats are dominant, would cause the Democrats enormous pain. 6. Bush is so distracted by the War on Terrorism that he can't figure out how upset Americans--especially Bush's conservative base--are about illegal immigration. If so, he better start looking at his falling approval ratings--especially because the economy is doing so well. Wednesday, May 10, 2006
An Historically Quite Significant Map? I've just added some maps to the for sale list--and here's one whose subject and date just makes chills run up my spine. "Germany and Its Approaches" July 1944. Scale: 1:2,000,000. Worn, with fold holes and fold tears, fold wear, dark with handling and folding. An historically important map, published the month after D-Day. The title refers to "with International Boundaries as of September 1, 1939, the day Germany invaded Poland, and in red, Boundaries as of January 1, 1938, before Germany seized Austria and Czechoslovakia". UPDATE: Boy, that sold quickly! I probably could have asked a bit more for it! UPDATE 2: I've added a number more maps to the list. Help me clean out my closet and put a little money aside for the new house! Here's a Hybrid That You Don't Want To Ever Run Into Oh my. And they thought that mixed marriages like this weren't possible! The DNA of a bear shot in the Northwest Territories in April shows it was a hybrid of polar bear and grizzly — perhaps the first ever seen in the wild. If Our Government Did Something This Heartless... The screeching would be deafening. But those compassionate squishy socialists up north are doing it, so they get a pass: Montreal's Filipino community is rallying around an immigrant nanny who faces deportation to her homeland as she continues to recover from a comatose state.She came into Canada legally. She didn't just decide, "What the heck, I'll flake out on my job, and start collecting welfare." A coma is not exactly a common strategy for avoiding work, is it? Oh yes, best of all, in the country that liberals assert has such a superior and more kind health insurance system: To make matters worse, Elumbra's medical coverage was cancelled when her work permit expired. Supporters say she now owes $20,000 in health-care bills for the treatment she has received since February. Who Does the U.S. Border Patrol Work For? For Mexico. They have taken it upon themselves to inform the Mexican government where and when the Minutemen are patrolling the border for illegal aliens. President Bush needs to realize that he is President of the United States--not of Mexico. Fortunately, there are Republicans running for Congress who recognize that we have to do something about this. In my Congressional district, Bill Sali is one of the Republican nominees saying that we need to actually close the border to illegals. Robert Vasquez is another--and Vasquez has gone further than Sali on this, because Vasquez is one of the Canyon County Commissioners, and has led the fight to have Canyon County file RICO suits again local employers who are hiring illegals. I haven't decided whether to vote for Vasquez or Sali in the primary yet, but I'm leaning toward Vasquez (even though I don't agree with him about the draft), because he seems to get that closing the border, while necessary, isn't the only step required. Employers need to figure out that the government is serious: do not hire illegals! Why We Must Resoundingly Win The War on Terrorism This blog entry describes what at first sounds like an absurd decision concerning a member of the Dutch Parliament, who is effectively under death sentence by the Islamofascists. She was relocated by the Dutch government into a high security apartment--and now her neighbors have successfully sued to force her to move out, because of their understandable concern about their own safety. The rationale for this was the European Treaty on Human Rights. Now, there's some troubling aspects to this. Why should the neighbors have to live in fear that Islamofascists are going to blow up MP Hirsi Ali's apartment--and kill them as well? But at what point does this turn into a situation where the Islamofascists get to use their threats to hound Hirsi Ali out of her adopted country (as she apparently is beginning to think she will have to do)? This is going to be very troubling to a lot of people on the left end of the spectrum, but it appears that Islamofascism and human rights are mutually exclusive, not just in one country, but on this planet. You can have one, or you can have the other, but not both. I'm not sure that there is a solution here that doesn't involve truly horrifying violations of Western norms of religious freedom--and that, after all, is probably the Islamofascist goal--to force us down to their level of barbarism. It's A Sad Day When Iran's President Is One Of The Liberal Forces In Iran This is the kook who thinks the "twelfth imam" is going to appear out of a well, and lead Islam to the final defeat of non-Muslim nations, creating a world Islamic state. And he's too liberal for the mullahs! TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's supreme leader has vetoed a decision by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to allow women into sports stadiums, a government official said Monday, after the move caused a furor in the clerical establishment. Global Warming Not Responsible For Increase In Hurricanes At least, if global warming is a factor, it is apparently insufficient to explain the increase: Global warming by itself cannot be blamed for the increase in severe Atlantic hurricanes, University of Virginia climate researchers report. Labels: global warming It Makes You Look Back To Hair Pulling With Nostalgia Little boys have been mistreating little girls in school for a very long time. Sticking pigtails in inkwells was the nineteenth century manifestation. At least when I was in elementary school, it was largely verbal teasing. When my daughter was in elementary school, things had escalated to "flip-up Friday" where girls who wore a dress or a skirt had to worry about the boys trying to expose their underwear. This, however, is a step well down from there: ST. LOUIS -- Twelve boys in the first and second grade at a St. Louis elementary school are accused of sexually assaulting a second-grade girl during recess, authorities said Tuesday.First of all, these aren't "young men." They are little boys. The nature of exactly what they did to this girl isn't specified (nor should it be), but at that age, I think we can safely guess what it was not. Where do they get ideas like this? Gee, I can't imagine. There are consequences to exposing children to sexually explicit materials too young. I would hope that even the most doctrinaire liberal can see where an NC-17 rated culture is taking us. More Maps! As before, give me $3 per map mailed to you in the U.S.
A Public Service Announcement The National Association for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) does a lot of work raising awareness about mental illness and the problems of deinstitutionalization. They also provide emotional support for families undergoing the trauma of a mentally ill member. If you feel like supporting a worthwhile cause, click here to donate in support of the May 21st fundraising walk in Portland. Tuesday, May 09, 2006
The Academic Pursuit Of Truth I read articles like this, and it reminds me of the early Nazi era, where professors tried to outdo each other writing papers about the fallacy of "Jewish physics." Yes, this is tied specifically to "Israelis" not "Jews," but it is just as hostile to the entire concept of the passionless pursuit of knowledge: The largest university and college lecturers union in Britain is likely to decide shortly to recommend that its 67,000 members boycott Israeli lecturers and academic institutions that do not publicly declare their opposition to Israeli policy in the territories.I can understand disapproval of the Israeli government's policies, but this is effectively a secondary boycott--boycotting people whose only failing is that they are Israelis who have neglected to swear their oaths of allegiance to the Palestinian cause. If you have something useful to contribute to physics, or biology, or archaeology, what does it matter if you are an Israeli or not? Interesting Citations About Sexual Abuse & Sexual Orientation I pointed out in a comment over here that sexual abuse of children and adult homosexuality are positively correlated, and this really shouldn't be any surprise, especially for lesbians. Not surprisingly, the homosexual law professor and law student brigade started calling me names. Another commenter put up a rather extensive list of abstracts from recent journal articles on the subject. Sexual assault and alcohol abuse: a comparison of lesbians and heterosexual women. Hughes TL, Johnson T, Wilsnack SC. J Subst Abuse. 2001;13(4):515-32. RESULTS: Lesbians reported more childhood sexual experiences, were more likely to meet the study definition for childhood sexual abuse (CSA), and were more likely to perceive themselves as having been sexually abused as children. CSA was associated with lifetime alcohol abuse in both lesbian and heterosexual women. Sexual Orientation, Sexual Abuse, and HIV-Risk Behaviors Among Adolescents in the Pacific Northwest. Saewyc E, Skay C, Richens K, Reis E, Poon C, Murphy A. Am J Public Health. 2006 May 2 Conclusion. Sexual minority adolescents who attended school reported higher HIV risk behaviors, and higher prevalence of sexual victimization may partially explain these risks. Victimization over the life span: a comparison of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and heterosexual siblings. Balsam KF, Rothblum ED, Beauchaine TP. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2005 Jun;73(3):477-87. Compared with heterosexual participants, LGB participants reported more childhood psychological and physical abuse by parents or caretakers, more childhood sexual abuse, more partner psychological and physical victimization in adulthood, and more sexual assault experiences in adulthood. Sexual orientation differences in sexual victimization were greater among men than among women. Lesbian survivors of childhood sexual abuse: community, identity, and resilience. Baker S. Can J Commun Ment Health. 2003 Fall;22(2):31-45. Adult lesbian survivers of childood sexual abuse were interviewed using grounded and structured methods to explore the interaction between being, or coming out as, a lesbian and healing from childhood sexual abuse (CSA). A history of CSA was found to render coming out as a lesbian more complicated and often more difficult. Having or developing a lesbian identity caused significant changes in respondents' social support networks and spiritual beliefs and communities, afforded many opportunities for greater healing, and in the balance seemed to facilitate the healing process. Comparative data of childhood and adolescence molestation in heterosexual and homosexual persons. Tomeo ME, Templer DI, Anderson S, Kotler D. Arch Sex Behav. 2001 Oct;30(5):535-41. In research with 942 nonclinical adult participants, gay men and lesbian women reported a significantly higher rate of childhood molestation than did heterosexual men and women. Forty-six percent of the homosexual men in contrast to 7% of the heterosexual men reported homosexual molestation. Twenty-two percent of lesbian women in contrast to 1% of heterosexual women reported homosexual molestation. This research is apparently the first survey that has reported substantial homosexual molestation of girls. Labels: child sexual abuse, homosexuality Tattoos There's only one form of body modification that seems more blue collar and vulgar to me than facial and genital piercing, and that's tattoos. At least piercings, given a few years of being left alone, usually close up again. Yeah, I know that some of my reaction to tattoos is cultural. When I was growing up, tattoos were things that you got in the military ("while drunk," being the usual, not particularly plausible excuse). By the 1980s, really ugly tattoos done in black were a sign that you had spent time in prison. With all this ugly imagery behind it, it was inevitable that young people would suddenly decide that tattoos were "cool." I'm not completely sure of the path from drunken foolishness/jailbird to "cool" except for the obvious, "It really bugs my parents" and "I have far more money than I know what to do with--I'll spend it doing something that hurts and makes me ugly." (Aren't those good enough reasons?) Facial and genital piercing, however, started out among homosexuals in places like San Francisco, and soon spread into straight society, probably because of homosexual dominance of the mass media, and I wonder if this was also the path for tattoos. As my daughter pointed out, "Think about a tattoo that you get when you are 18. Now imagine it when you are 60 and saggy. Yuck!" Sad to say, piercings in places that you don't normally see them (if lucky) and tattoos are suddenly very fashionable among people my age--and they don't look any better on 40somethings than they do on 20somethings. Anyway, I saw this article about how those who had Asian character tattoos done in the 1990s are suddenly having second thoughts, and seeking to have them removed (which isn't easy). Here's one of the more amusing parts of the article: New York City jewelry designer Jane Ko, 30, who is Chinese-American, has been approached countless times by sheepish and somewhat befuddled strangers and acquaintances who have asked her to translate tattoos that they once thought were Chinese characters for attractive concepts like “power” and “love” but now suspect might actually say “General Tso’s Chicken special” or “gullible white boy." Interest Rates I mentioned a few days ago my attempt at deducing the short-term (out several years) future of interest rates, based on the current shape of the Treasury bond yield curve. I argued that rates will be higher two years from now, and then start back down again. This article asserts that interest rates are going up through the summer: Financial markets generally have interpreted an end to rate hikes as a sign the economy is slowing, and in times of an economic downturn, demand for government bonds -- which are considered safe-haven investments -- tends to rise, along with price. An Astonishing Captured Al-Qaeda Memo You aren't going to see it covered in the mainstream media. Why? Because it acknowledges that they are losing in Iraq, and their only real hope is that the news media will win the battle for them. You can read the translation of the memo here. Here's the Arabic text (for those who read Arabic--I don't.) Captain's Quarters has a detailed analysis of the content of the memo, which should read in full. Here are a couple of important points, however: 4. The policy followed by the brothers in Baghdad is a media oriented policy without a clear comprehensive plan to capture an area or an enemy center. Other word, the significance of the strategy of their work is to show in the media that the American and the government do not control the situation and there is resistance against them. This policy dragged us to the type of operations that are attracted to the media, and we go to the streets from time to time for more possible noisy operations which follow the same direction. Monday, May 08, 2006
Revenue Numbers For The U.S. Treasury It turns out that evil George Bush's tax cuts seem to be having the intended effect--increased tax revenues flowing into the Treasury as a result of all that economic activity. TaxProfBlog has the numbers, showing revenue for April 2005 and April 2006. Individual income tax revenues rose from $547 billion to $603 billion--and as painful as it was, my check to IRS last month was only a tiny part of that. Corporate income tax revenues rose from $134 billion to $174 billion. Instpundit is shocked, shocked! to have seen no mention of the booming economy in the mainstream media. It might be amusing to see how much of that $40 billion increase in corporate income tax revenue was from the oil companies, growing obscenely fat on their profits--and in turn, paying increased corporate income taxes to Uncle Sam. Why Did Porter Goss Resign? The announcement last week that Porter Goss was resigning as director of CIA was a surprise--and media coverage emphasized that. You didn't have to read too much between the lines to see that this was a "resignation" in the sense that President Bush probably called into the office and told him that it would be better to resign than to be fired. I was mystified by this at first. Goss had an important job there--to try and break the existing liberal culture that dominates the analysis branch of the organization, and that has been sympathetic to totalitarian governments (which are, after all, "stable") for decades. This is why CIA missed that the Soviet Union was in collapse--the essential sympathies of much of the CIA are on the left, and they just couldn't believe that the Soviet Union, founded on such "noble" aspirations, could be collapsing. Former CIA officer Harry Rositzke's Managing Moscow was so blatantly pro-Soviet that I couldn't finish it. Well, various newspapers are now reporting that Goss appears to have been shoved out because of one of two (or perhaps both) scandals, neither of which seems to have directly involved him, but did involve a close friend who he promoted up the ladder at CIA: WASHINGTON - CIA Director Porter Goss abruptly resigned yesterday amid allegations that he and a top aide may have attended Watergate poker parties where bribes and prostitutes were provided to a corrupt congressman.It would appear that there are some activities that the Bush Administration (unlike some others that come to mind) will not tolerate: bribery and corruption, being two. I can see why the Democrats find Bush so hateful. Sunday, May 07, 2006
Global Warming on Jupiter? Yup, we're going to start getting complaints from the residents of Jupiter because the U.S. didn't sign the Kyoto Treaty: Jupiter is growing a new red spot and the Hubble Space Telescope is photographing the scene. Backyard astronomers have been following the action, too.Now, unlike Mars, where we can see the ice caps melting, this is merely suggestive. But isn't it interesting that Al Gore isn't aware that one planet that is definitely warming up--and another that may be--are outside our atmosphere? Labels: global warming |
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