Clipmarks | bferman's Pops

The pundits say it will be a surprise. I say no surprise

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:35:26 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: McCain WILL pick Mitt Romney. Take it to the bank. Though I still wish it would be Palin.

Clip Source: features.csmonitor.com

James Carville, Greenberg’s longtime political partner (the two were central to Bill Clinton’s improbable victory in the 1992 presidential campaign), has a more colorful way of assessing vice-presidential picks. Does the candidate “make the opposing campaign manager throw up.”

Carville doesn’t name names, but he predicts McCain will surprise us. “McCain and I share something in common,” says the Ragin’ Cajun. “We’re both craps shooters. And just by nature, craps shooters always want to put their stack in the middle of the table.”

The Democratic analyst and pollster Stan Greenberg said Wednesday they see nothing to fear from a Romney pick, await a surprise.

James Hanson refuses to discuss views at William & Mary

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:40:59 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: It's tough finding outlets when you are censored.

Clip Source: media.www.vainformer.com

Dr. James Hansen, NASA climatologist and major figure in the debate on global climate change, recently refused a paid invitation to speak and debate at the College about his positions on global warming. Braum Katz ('09) -- secretary for the College's Department of Student Rights, director of the newly-created William and Mary Society for Academic Freedom and Diversity and Informer writer -- invited Mr. Hansen via e-mail.

"For this fall," Mr. Katz wrote in his e-mail to Mr. Hansen, "we are hoping to host a debate on global climate change and its implications. Patrick Michaels has agreed to come, and my organization would like you to come and debate Dr. Michaels in Williamsburg. The date is very flexible, and we can tailor the day of the debate completely to your schedule. We will be able to pay for your travel expenses and offer you an honorarium for your time. Please let me know if you would be interested."

Mr. Hansen's response was, simply, "not interested."

Safe nuclear dump discovered

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 05:41:17 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: russiatoday.ru

Russian geologists have discovered a new mineral which absorbs radiation from liquid nuclear waste. They are now striving to chemically clone it, in the hope it may help solve the problem of radioactive waste disposal.

The Khibinsky Mountains in the Arctic Circle are home to one of the world’s richest mineral quarries. About 10 per cent of all new minerals are discovered there – and the new one, Ivanukite, was no exception.

The new mineral was tested and named at the Kola Science Institute.

The geologist who discovered it, Viktor Yakovenchuk, says it’s capable of absorbing radioactive substances like caesium and rubidium from water-based solutions, and storing them inside.

And radioactive water would be completely safe after coming into contact with Ivanukite.

Comparing "awful" economies

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 05:49:42 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: corner.nationalreview.com

It’s the Politics, Stupid:
Comparing Labor Market Data in 1996 and 2008
Democrats on the Economy in 1996:
“Our economy is the healthiest it has been in three decades.” (President Bill Clinton, State of the Union Address, January 23, 1996)
Democrats on the Economy in 2008:
“The bottom line is that this administration is the owner of the worst jobs record since Herbert Hoover." (Senator Charles Schumer, Press Release, March 7, 2008)

Key Labor Market Statistics in 1996 and 2008

March 1996 March 2008

1. U.S. Unemployment Rate 5.5% 5.1%

2. Number of Long-Term Unemployed 1.33 million 1.28 million

3. Average Weeks Unemployed 17.3 weeks 16.2 weeks

4. Median Weeks Unemployed 8.3 weeks 8.1 weeks

5. Not in Labor Force because discouraged over job prospects 451,000 401,000

6. Democrats calling for Extended Unemployment Benefits? No Yes

7. President’s Party Affiliation Democrat Republican

Theory on Relationship of Sunspots and Jovian Planets

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 06:40:45 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: www.americanthinker.com

But the most fascinating and encouraging news for the deniers is from Australian astrophysicists I.R.G. Wilson, B.D. Carter, and I.A. Waite. They have developed a theory that the sunspot cycle and its intensity is driven by the gravitational relationships between the Sun and the Jovian planets Jupiter and Saturn.

The Sun wobbles a bit around the center of the Solar System. Sometimes the center of the Solar System lies outside the surface of the Sun, only 1,000 times heavier than Jupiter and 3,000 times heavier than Saturn. All that wobbling seems to affect the behavior of the Sun.

Here is the nub of the paper, as explained by author Ian Wilson to Andrew Bolt.

It supports the contention that the level of activity on the Sun will significantly diminish sometime in the next decade and remain low for about 20 - 30 years. On each occasion that the Sun has done this in the past the World's mean temperature has dropped by ~ 1 - 2 C.

Now who's in denial?

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 06:45:12 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: And now with a straight face liberals say we'll have to starve the people in order to save the planet. Now who's in denial?

Clip Source: www.americanthinker.com

Liberals tell us that we mustn't develop energy resources because of the impact on the polar bear -- even though polar bear numbers are on the increase. We shouldn't develop oil resources in ANWR because it is a pristine wilderness. We shouldn't develop offshore oil resources because 40 years ago there was an oil spill in the Santa Barbara Channel. Anyway there's no point in developing oil and gas resources because it won't make any difference to the price of gasoline. Anyway we are running out of oil and gas so there isn't any point in developing any more oil and gas resources. We shouldn't mine coal because coal creates global warming. We shouldn't develop nuclear power because Jane Fonda once made a scary movie about it. We should develop solar and wind power, "renewables," even though both are extremely expensive right now. But we shouldn't build wind farms where Ted Kennedy could see the wind turbines from his window.

China isn't so stubborn after all

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:54:05 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: You cannot cook canine any ol' way. The Western standards require the finest chefs.

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Beijing has asked hotels and restaurants in the city to take dog meat off the menu for the duration of next month's Olympics and September's Paralympics.

Another Leftist Icon Comes to His Senses

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 08:57:30 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: This is a great article about the transformation of David Mamet from Liberal to Conservative. I do not know who David Mamet is but I find the story rather familiar in my own transformation and in the natural maturity of many as they gain wisdom and perspective.
It gets frustrating at times seeing and hearing comments that are based on such lack of clarity. This is more evidence that the natural growth and transformation is toward a Libertarian stance founded in clear-mindedness, Conservative stance on constitutional intent, and Incrementalism as the wisest approach to societal advance in the face of fascist-progressivism.

Clip Source: johnwarren.vox.com

yet another Leftist icon, David Mamet, announced he is coming to his senses.

Mamet chose to “come out” with an op-ed published by Norman Mailer’s rag, The Village Voice, entitled, “Why I am no longer a ‘Brain-Dead Liberal’,” in which he outlines, in some detail, his migration from the Left.

Mamet opens his essay with a quote from macro economist John Maynard Keynes, who responded to a challenge about his changing views, saying, “When the facts change, I change my opinion. What do you do, sir?”

Keynes, whose early 20th century writings advocated the “New Deal” socialist economic policies still embraced by Democrats, was roundly criticized for adjusting his economic opinion after free market economist Friedrich von Hayek critiqued Keynes’ 1930 Treatise on Money

after reading Hayek’s seminal condemnation of socialism, The Road to Serfdom, Keynes proclaimed, “Morally and philosophically I find myself in agreement with virtually the whole of it:

Pretty Egg Art

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 18:20:58 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: www.ragandbone.com

Modern egg master Franc Grom creates eggs which give Ferberge a run for his money. Grom uses a small electric drill to create approximately 2,500 to 3,500 holes in each eggshell. Inspired by traditional Slovenian designs, he has been known to pierce a shell as many as 17,000 times. They’re so fragile and beautiful. Imagine the patience!

Age of ....

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:33:28 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: www.marriedtothesea.com

Tags: ignorance

Wikipropaganda

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 07:37:14 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: I checked with Peiser, who said he had done no such thing. I then corrected the Wikipedia entry, and advised Peiser that I had done so.

Peiser wrote back saying he couldn’t see my corrections on the Wikipedia page. I made the changes again, and this time confirmed that the changes had been saved. But then, in a twinkle, they were gone again. I made other changes. And others. They all disappeared shortly after they were made.

Turns out that on Wikipedia some folks are more equal than others. Kim Dabelstein Petersen is a Wikipedia “editor” who seems to devote a large part of his life to editing reams and reams of Wikipedia pages to pump the assertions of global-warming alarmists and deprecate or make disappear the arguments of skeptics.

Holding the far more prestigious and powerful position of “administrator” is William Connolley. Connolley, a ruthless enforcer of the doomsday consensus, may be the world’s most influential person in the global warming debate after Al Gore.

Clip Source: article.nationalreview.com

I first noticed this when I entered a correction to a Wikipedia page on the work of Naomi Oreskes, author of the now-infamous paper, published in the prestigious journal Science, claiming to have exhaustively reviewed the scientific literature and found not one single article dissenting from the alarmist version of global warming.

Of course Oreskes’s conclusions were absurd, and have been widely ridiculed. I myself have profiled dozens of truly world-eminent scientists whose work casts doubt on the Gore-U.N. version of global warming. Following the references in my book The Deniers, one can find hundreds of refereed papers that cast doubt on some aspect of the Gore/U.N. case, and that only scratches the surface.

Naturally I was surprised to read on Wikipedia that Oreskes’s work had been vindicated and that, for instance, one of her most thorough critics, British scientist and publisher Bennie Peiser, not only had been discredited but had grudgingly conceded Oreskes was right.

Tags: wikipedia, global warming, lawrence solomon, "the deniers", extreme left perspective

Three New Deals

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:05:03 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: books.google.com

Three New Deals: Reflections on Roosevelt's America, Mussolini's Italy, and ...

Today FDR's New Deal is regarded as the democratic ideal, the positive American response to the economic crisis that propelled Germany and Italy toward Fascism. Yet in the 1930s, these regimes were hardly considered antithetica...

More about this book

Broadcast Industry "Rocked"

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:50:46 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: www.drudgereport.com

While newspapers and traditional broadcast media are experiencing declining revenues, Limbaugh's golden microphone has turned diamond-laced:

Earnings now pace him ahead of the annual salaries for network news anchors: Katie Couric, Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer — combined!

The deal represents a stunning triumph over the establishment by an outsider who connected with and captured the spirit of the nation's heartland.

The American broadcast industry is rocked, realigned and blasted into a new orbit, yet again, by Rush Limbaugh, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

In what is being described as an unprecedented radio contract, Limbaugh will keep his syndicated show on-the-air and e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e through 2016 with CLEAR CHANNEL and PREMIERE RADIO.

LIMBAUGH SIGNS THROUGH 2016; $400 MILLION DEAL SHATTERS BROADCAST RECORDS

Did Patriotism Matter

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:13:47 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: article.nationalreview.com

both German and French generals assessed French military forces as more likely to gain victory, and virtually no one expected France to collapse like a house of cards — except Adolf Hitler, who had studied French society instead of French military forces.

Did patriotism matter? It mattered more than superior French tanks and planes.

Most Americans today are unaware of how much our schools have followed in the footsteps of the French schools of the 1920s and 1930s, or how much our intellectuals have become citizens of the world instead of American patriots.

Our media are busy verbally transforming American combat troops from heroes into victims, just as the French intelligentsia did — with the added twist of calling this “supporting the troops.”

Will that matter? Time will tell.

ANWR - Perspective

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:52:20 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: globalwarminghoax.wordpress.com

THIS IS WHAT THE DEMOCRATS, LIBERALS AND “GREENS” SHOW YOU WHEN THEY TALK ABOUT ANWR

…and they are right… these ARE photographs of ANWR

ISN’T ANWR BEAUTIFUL? WHY SHOULD WE DRILL HERE (AND DESTROY) THIS BEAUTIFUL PLACE?

WELL… THAT’S NOT EXACTLY THE TRUTH

Do you remember the map?
The map showed that the proposed drilling area is in the ANWR Coastal Plain
Do those photographs look like a coastal plain to you?

WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?

THE ANSWER IS SIMPLE…

THAT IS NOT WHERE THEY ARE WANTING TO DRILL!

THIS IS WHAT THE PROPOSED EXPLORATION AREA ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE IN THE WINTER

AND THIS IS WHAT IT ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE IN THE SUMMER

HERE ARE A COUPLE SCREEN SHOTS FROM GOOGLE EARTH

AS YOU CAN SEE, THE AREA WHERE THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT DRILLING IS A BARREN WASTELAND.

HERE IS A PHOTO (SHOT DURING THE SUMMER) OF THE
“DEPLETED WILDLIFE” SITUATION CREATED BY
DRILLING AROUND PRUDHOE BAY *…
DON’T YOU THINK THAT THE CARIBOU REALLY HATE THAT DRILLING?

HERE’S THAT SAME SPOT DURING THE WINTER.

*Key Labor Market Statistics in 1996 and 2008*
	March 1996	March 2008
1. U.S. Unemployment Rate	5.5%	5.1%
2. Number of Long-Term Unemployed	1.33 million	1.28 million
3. Average Weeks Unemployed	17.3 weeks	16.2 weeks
4. Median Weeks Unemployed	8.3 weeks	8.1 weeks
5. Not in Labor Force because discouraged over job prospects	451,000	401,000
6. Democrats calling for Extended Unemployment Benefits?	No	Yes
7. President’s Party Affiliation	Democrat	Republican