Author: Fuzzy Curmudgeon

Here’s an interesting left-slanted article.
I’d like to see the proof of this statement:

“The new policy is classic doublespeak,” said Kenneth Kreuschu, 24, of the Cascadia Forest Alliance. “It has been shown time and again that more cutting leads to more fire. The new policy is a hoax.”

The sheer illogic of this statement leaves me breathless. If there is less to catch on fire, how does more cutting lead to more fire?
Now, let’s consider this paragraph:

Under Bush’s proposals, some commercial-grade wood would be allowed to be removed in areas at high risk of fire, but a senior administration source said the plan was not intended to expose forests to widespread commercial logging.

And let’s compare it to a statement I found thanks to Rachel’s blog:

This clearcutting business is retarded. This whole mentality of ‘we’ll chop down half the forests, and leave the other half untouched’ is what is causing these wildfire problems. What we need to do is moderately cut all forests.
Although, admittedly, Bush’s plan does have some merit – if we chop down all the forests, there won’t be any forest fires.

Where exactly does it say “clearcutting” anywhere in what Bush said yesterday? I was sure he said “thinning”. I heard at least part of what he said on TV, and I know I didn’t hear any reference to clearcutting. And here again: Where is the proof that clearing forest promotes wildfire?
And going back to the PMSNBC article:

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., moved quietly last month to exempt some areas of his home state from environmental constraints, attaching a rider to an emergency spending bill to allow some logging in areas of South Dakota’s Black Hills National Forest.

Let’s not forget that Tom Daschle is a hypocrite. He’s against logging anywhere else, but he’s got to protect the base back home.
We need the Republicans to take the Senate back. We really do. This isn’t funny anymore.

Researchers find evidence of space rock smashing Earth nearly 3.5 billion years ago
Seems like our money would be better spent on long-range detection and interdiction of Earth-crossing asteroids (and colonization of Mars, etc). Oh well, maybe once we smack Saddam.
Wait, we’re the richest country on earth. Why can’t we do both?

Doesn’t it bother you that there is a “secret court” that has the power to “rebuff[] Ashcroft”?

The documents released yesterday also provide a rare glimpse into the workings of the almost entirely secret FISA court, composed of a rotating panel of federal judges from around the United States and, until yesterday, had never jointly approved the release of one of its opinions. Ironically, the Justice Department itself had opposed the release.

I think this means we’ve had a Star Chamber court in our midst for quite some time, and not as a result of 9/11 or the Patriot Act, either. Sounds like it was started up under our ol’ buddy Jimmy Carter, too, if it’s been around “23 years” as noted in the article. That makes it 1979, well before that dangerous guy Reagan took office.
Then there’s this, from the NY Times version of the story (annoying registration required):

Gregory T. Nojeim, associate director of the national office of the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, said the opinion was “astounding” in demonstrating that the F.B.I. and the Justice Department have tried an “end run around the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches.”
“These disclosures couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Department of Justice,” Mr. Nojeim said. “They’ve just been given vast new intelligence powers and are seeking more.”

We’re AT WAR, numb-nuts. Hadn’t you heard?
I hope the ACLU headquarters gets flattened if there’s another terrorist attack in Washington. I really do. These people are not serious and need to get a serious clue. We have fought wars before and have yet to permanently lose civil liberties. I’ve posted on this before. Also here. And here.

and this is why she should rule the world. Or run for Congress, whichever seems more doable.

Apparently not.
I would certainly consider this protected, if perhaps somewhat ridiculous, speech. They’ve got a point; evolution is a theory. And I’d support their right to say so. So I guess the ACLU is screwed again, or would be if I were the judge. Damn it…I’m not the judge. Oh well.
I wonder what the difference would have been if the school district had distributed a flyer with each book rather than put a sticker on each book?

Kat Lopez over at The Corner notes this article about cable channels changing their programming on 9/11. Like her, I’m not sure I care for the idea. Turning the day into one of national mourning seems to me to signal that the bastards won. In fact I think cutting back on flights like some airlines are doing for 9/11 already signalled that. But I’m torn between the gesture and what it symbolizes. I think — without any less sympathy to the families who lost loved ones — that we really have to move on and get Saddam’s party started. Memorials will come with time. Saddam needs to be whacked now.

Talk about a tempest in a teapot. I heard a woman on Rush yesterday who was almost hysterical over the woman in Ohio who let her kids get sunburned. She was ranting on about “this woman has done this kind of thing before…the one child had a collapsed lung…second degree burns…”
Well, you stupid bitch, it turns out that the burns were first degree (I get sunburned every summer; light sunburn is a first degree burn), the one child had an underdeveloped lung because it had been born prematurely, and bottom fucking line, THERE WAS NO CRIME COMMITTED HERE.
I knew that as soon as sanity prevailed, it would turn out that there really wasn’t any story. Except for the story about police overreaction. If I were Eve Hibbits I would sue the Steubenville, OH police force for every dime they have. And I’d sure as hell get that biweekly visit from Child Protective Services stopped right the fuck now. I notice that the Fox story doesn’t mention that, I wonder if that order was quietly rescinded?
If people would just use the brains God gave them, we wouldn’t see personal stupidity and nanny-state idiocy like this. Common sense, people, common sense is all you need.

And the day wouldn’t be complete without comment on David Westerfield.
Just kill the SOB. Take him out in the parking lot and hand him over to the women. Handcuffed or not, makes no difference. And be damned sure to show the result on the evening news. [Caveat: NOW types need not be present to win. Just ordinary housewives and mothers, please.]
There are few circumstances in which I believe in literal lex talionis (I do believe in the death penalty; usually lethal injection is sufficient since it does the job), but this is one of them. It would send a clear message to these perverted bastards who think little girls and little boys are sex toys to be used and discarded.

Now this sounds interesting, not just because it suggests a cure for anthrax, but because it suggests a general breakthrough in anti-biotic medicine that doesn’t require yet another exotic antibiotic due to the current ones becoming ineffective.

The Professor’s Fox column today makes some good points. I was especially interested to see the comment from the guy who said if he could drive it in 5-6 hours, why take the plane? This actually echoes a report I read some time back that said if you can drive it in under 6-8 hours, you get there in about the same amount of time as if you flew. [UPDATE FOR CLARIFICATION: The time span they were talking about started when you left your home and ended when you reached your ultimate destination, so it included time to find a parking space at the airport, time spent in line, time spent renting your car, time spent driving from the airport to your destination — in short, it was door-to-door time, not flight time. When I flew into BWI last time, door to door was close to six hours. When I flew back it was close to eight.]
I’ve been driving from Indianapolis to Washington DC on business several times a year now since October 1994. I don’t like to fly to begin with, and I can count the number of times I’ve flown out there in the last eight years on the fingers of one hand, and those times were usually because I had to be there early in the morning for meetings. Getting married two years ago added trips to York PA to visit the in-laws. Flying into Harrisburg is a non-starter because there are no direct flights. Flying into BWI is a serious hassle and flying out of it is even worse (as I learned the hard way back in July on my first flight out of there since before 9/11). It’s a 10-hour drive to either York or DC, so normally we take a leisurely 5 or 6 hour drive to Wheeling, spend the night, and drive the rest of the way the next morning. Much less hassle than flying and it costs less, too, even with the hotel room figured in.
I’ve informed my wife that after the BS I went through in July, I have no intention of flying anywhere that I can drive in 12h or less. Unfortunately we make a couple of trips to Naples FL every year, which means we have to fly or take three days to get there, so I’ve resigned myself to flying for that purpose. But as for the East Coast, it’s a no-fly zone as far as I’m concerned. When Norm Mineta is eliminated and pilots are armed and young Middle Eastern males are profiled instead of people like my 73 year old mother (who was searched and made to take her shoes off back in March at BWI because she had forgotten she had a nail file in her purse that had somehow made it through the scanners in Indy), it might be worth the trouble again. Not now.
And it’s not just you and me and fliers in general who ought to be complaining about this. The airlines themselves should be up in arms. This is costing them beaucoup money and has to be a PR nightmare for them. Everyone conveniently forgets that 9/11 was an airport security failure that had little to do with the airlines themselves. But it’s flashier to blame (and sue) the airlines.
I do keep thinking to myself that Amtrak ought to be sold to someone like American or United. Or maybe Southwest. I suspect an airline model like Southwest’s might fix Amtrak pretty quickly (a lot of useless employees would get the sack and the rest would shape up if they expected to keep their jobs, “milk run” stops would be eliminated — half the problem with the Cardinal is that it stops at every podunk town between Chicago and DC and it runs only 3 times a week — trains would pull out on time and reach their destinations on time). If we had decent intercity rail we wouldn’t be in this predicament right now. But it takes 18h to take the train from here to DC, so why would I? And the only way to get to Florida from here on a train is to take the train to DC first. Stupid.