CNS: “Obama Admin Asked School to Cover Up Christian Symbols”
Pew Research: “No Decline in Belief That Obama is a Muslim”
What’s The Opposite Of Diversity?
Readers may detect a familiar pattern here. If someone is invited onto campus to discuss a controversial subject – say, illegal immigration– the most righteous response is not to refute that person’s arguments, which would entail some effort and minimal civility. Good lord, no, there’s no time for that. (And why run the risk of hearing new information – and worse, rethinking one’s own position?) Instead, simply ensure the guest cannot air any argument at all. Then there’s not much to refute. One can simply sloganeer triumphantly and, of course, paraphrase. Call what the speaker would have said “hate speech,” then no-one will be curious and people will stay clear.
That’s not to say it always works – “Nice going, geniuses! What’s your next trick gonna be?”
“I got 99 problems but your Navy ain’t one.”
The Somali Pirate Blog.
Via Jules Crittenden – “Anyway, that gave me an idea. Our TOTUS can negotiate with their fax machine.”
Reader Tips
Good evening, welcome to the Wednesday Night edition of SDA Late Nite Radio. Our theme tonight is the triumph of the individual over regulation, in the context of sports.
In ski-jumping, minute aerodynamic forces can easily make the difference between being an adored gold medalist who will be plied with free food and beverage for the rest of his life or a trivial, forgotten figure who has to pay for his own drinks. A few years ago the International Ski Federation realized that a particular type of person — short-ish, wide-ribbed when viewed from the front but thin from the side, and with a faraway look in the eyes — had an unfair advantage in the sport, and decided to handicap such skiers by making them use shorter skis in an attempt to even out any aerodynamic advantage.
The problem is that “tall jumpers tried to lose weight in order to use the advantages of the longer ski. The ski federation reacted by implementing the body mass index (BMI) as a gauge,” in part because “the skinny bodies of jumpers, along with the presumption of anorexia, were tarnishing the image of the sport, which in the past had always been symbolic of strength and masculinity.”
Finnish ski-jumping hero Matti Nykanen, who won four Olympic gold medals and nine world championship medals, is widely considered the greatest ski-jumper in history. Standing 5’10” tall and weighing 119 pounds, he is fortunate to have competed before such BMI handicapping, inasmuch as he has since managed to parlay his famous jumping exploits into a second career as a rampaging, frequently-arrested Finnish national drinking hero and singer. Tonight, for your listening pleasure, we present Matti Nykanen, pictured with his fourth and fifth wife, performing his soaring paean to the benefits of participation in sports, Urheilu On Ihanaa.
The thread is open for your Reader Tips.
I Don’t Really Have A Blog In This Fight
But this is pretty funny, nonetheless…
What Would We Do Without Scientists?
“The Hype of Science: Leading journals including Science and Nature are exaggerating research novelty“
When original and interesting research is distorted to garner additional attention, both the work in question and previous studies can be shortchanged. Here, I will describe a recent and notable case from the journal Science in which the perceived novelty and importance of a study were significantly enhanced…
Update – sorry about that. The link requires (free) registration, and as I’ve done that some weeks ago, I didn’t notice it wasn’t a readily accessible page when I wrote the post.
Teaser below the fold, so you can decide for yourself if you want to go to the trouble to catch the rest…
Party Like It’s 1773
It’s tax day in the US, and the “severely normal” take to the streets. A google map of today’s Tea Party Protests across America:
Postcards from the suicide watch;
…from most Big Media, “confusion and ambivalence.” “A good story is to be had, but it’s not exactly a story they want to tell. So what to do?”
It’s why Sean Hannity will be covering the Atlanta event for Fox News from CNN’s doorstep. It’s also why CNN has slipped to third place among cable news channels.
Lots at Instapundit, plus Pamajas Media will be collecting and providing coverage all day.
The First American Prime Minister In Waiting
Make Them Stop!
“Those Jooos we’re openly promising to exterminate are threatening us.”
Thanks For The Suggestion, Doug
But at this time I have no plans to expand my art business to include this medium.
Reader Tips
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our Tuesday night open music show, here is Mr. Frank Sinatra performing Fly Me to the Moon in St. Louis, in 1965 (2:31).
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
Imminent Danger
The milbloggers have the decoding rings out on the Captain Phillips rescue. Greyhawk;
[W]hen I watched the press conference, what stood out in my mind were the repeated references to these three points:
1. The hostage was in imminent danger with an AK47 pointed at him
2. The hostage was in imminent danger with an AK47 pointed at him, and
3. The hostage was in imminent danger with an AK47 pointed at him.
The tests for our President continue and I now have multiple confirmations saying that the initial set of rules that Obama put on the Navy forbid any active attempts to rescue the hostage and only after they requested he reinstate their authority to act if the hostage was in imminent danger did he do so.
Read both links.
Harm Reduction – A Photo Essay
Tammy Robert’s Portrait of a City in Needles
I’ll say it again – if the so-called “Health” regions wish to continue shoveling millions of “free” needles into the dead-ender community, they should be legally obligated to have each and every one identified with a bar code.
Then, when the day comes that someone or their child suffers a needle prick they didn’t sign up for, the source can be traced and the enlightened progressives responsible for transforming the city parks into free range infection zones can be sued into the oblivion they so richly deserve.
One little bar code, and I guarantee the current drug dealer support and subsidization program dressed up as “needle exchange” would come to a screeching halt.
Call your city counselor, call your MLA.
Via John Gormley Live.
Farewell, Footballs
“Non-Muslims in Europe who want to fight against Islamization are up against the cultural, political and media elites in their own countries, as well as the European Union, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, which is the largest voting block at the United Nations, and finally the entire Islamic world backed up by Saudi petrodollars. If you seriously believe that a few scattered and generally disliked groups of neo-Nazis represent a greater threat to freedom than the Alliance of Evil I just described then your understanding is fundamentally out of tune with reality….”
h/t Bernie and EBD
State Of The Disunion
Is there nothing that Obama can’t do?
WAKE UP CALL: TEXAS GOV. BACK RESOLUTION AFFIRMING SOVEREIGNTY
Tue Apr 14 2009 08:44:54 ET
AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry joined state Rep. Brandon Creighton and sponsors of House Concurrent Resolution (HCR) 50 in support of states’ rights under the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“I believe that our federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of our citizens, and its interference with the affairs of our state,” Gov. Perry said. “That is why I am here today to express my unwavering support for efforts all across our country to reaffirm the states’ rights affirmed by the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I believe that returning to the letter and spirit of the U.S. Constitution and its essential 10th Amendment will free our state from undue regulations, and ultimately strengthen our Union.”
Perry continued: “Millions of Texans are tired of Washington, DC trying to come down here to tell us how to run Texas.”
A number of recent federal proposals are not within the scope of the federal government’s constitutionally designated powers and impede the states’ right to govern themselves. HCR 50 affirms that Texas claims sovereignty under the 10th Amendment over all powers not otherwise granted to the federal government.
It also designates that all compulsory federal legislation that requires states to comply under threat of civil or criminal penalties, or that requires states to pass legislation or lose federal funding, be prohibited or repealed.
It ain’t just “right wing” talk radio anymore.
More here (h/t Sounder)
Reader Tips
 |
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our Monday night jazz show, here are Manny Oquendo and his Conjunto Libre performing some delightful salsa, featuring Andy Gonzales, Herman Olivera, Papo Vasquez, and Jimmy Bosch, with Steve Turre on conch (5:30). Question: is there any reason, in principle, why a human and a conch shell couldn’t have done that or equivalent together, tens of thousands of years ago?
 |
Obviously, the sax would be right out, since it hadn’t been invented yet, but the conch and humans had. So? Could it be that proto-Romeo wooed proto-Juliette by blowing a conch shell? Hey baby, wanna’ come upstairs and see my resonant cavities? Ah. Well, what about my Archimedes’ screw? What’s that, you’re busy being obsessed with the current U.S. administration? Well, I can’t compete with that kind of distraction. I might as well pretend there’s some sort of great collapse going on, or not believe in the Beer-Lambert law.
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
You Mean Topographically?
The most famous line in Canadian television history….
“Brent, why don’t you look Fitzy’s grandma in the eye, and give her one good reason why this town can’t build a great big dirty hoe.”
The final episode of Corner Gas airs tonight.
Tape This Reminder To Your Wallet
“With [Larry Hubich, the President of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour] public proclamation that the United Way is a community unionist partner, the organization has officially gone from a fund-raising entity to a political action committee for the left.”
Let’s All Just Pee Sitting Down
“Even France is outselling the Canadian Wheat Board these days”
The Wheat Board says it needs more wheat, quick.
Even France is outselling the Canadian Wheat Board in the world export market for wheat and barley these days.
French non-durum wheat exports to Feb. 28 in the 2008-09 crop year that began Aug. 1 were 9.6 million tonnes to the Wheat Board’s 7.5 million. French exports are up 45% over 6.8 million a year ago vs. the Board’s 10% gain. French barley exports are 3.0 million tonnes, up from 2.5 last year, while the Board’s were 745,000 tonnes, down from 1.84 million in the year-ago period,when private exporters were briefly in the market. About 60% of French wheat exports were to destinations outside the EU.
But just you wait. The Board said last week it needs heavy deliveries of upper-grade wheat and durum through the end of May in order to meet sales commitments. Seemingly touchy over suggestions that it is not exporting grain in amounts proportional to the big increase in 2008 production, it has been going out of its way to proclaim that it is doing exceedingly well.
Meanwhile…
Rolf Penner – Here’s what’s on today’s Canadian Wheat Board menu for spring wheat and how it stacks up to the open market. For those of you who don’t like to decide when you should price your grain there’s the good old pool. According to the Boards latest guesstimate they think they might be able to get you $241.69/tonne for your crop (with the standard Mb deduction taken off), but of course they’re not making any promises on this.
