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McNeill Assumes Command Of NATO Forces In Afghanistan
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 3: Non-WoT
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16 00:00 Broadhead6 [5] 
17 00:00 BA [6] 
17 00:00 wxjames [5] 
2 00:00 Robert Mugabe [5] 
8 00:00 Nimble Spemble [5] 
6 00:00 DMFD [6] 
1 00:00 Redneck Jim [5] 
1 00:00 tu3031 [6] 
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6 00:00 Whavins Threash2583 [12] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
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11 00:00 GORT [12]
8 00:00 Barbara Skolaut [11]
3 00:00 wxjames [7]
4 00:00 Redneck Jim [7]
2 00:00 JosephMendiola [15]
16 00:00 Angenter Crolugum3645 [10]
6 00:00 Chuck Simmins [9]
11 00:00 49 Pan [10]
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2 00:00 trailing wife [7]
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8 00:00 USN, Ret. [9]
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Page 4: Opinion
13 00:00 Sheamp Ulealing2367 [8]
8 00:00 Frank G [11]
5 00:00 Broadhead6 [5]
3 00:00 DMFD [7]
12 00:00 Mike [6]
9 00:00 wxjames [13]
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Page 5: Russia-Former Soviet Union
4 00:00 Redneck Jim [11]
6 00:00 Frank G [5]
5 00:00 Nimble Spemble [5]
2 00:00 Icerigger [5]
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10 00:00 CB [5]
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7 00:00 trailing wife [12]
-Short Attention Span Theater-
Deportation cases soar as L.A. jails screen for illegals
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/05/2007 18:23 || Comments || Link || [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  go figure! We were told they were all law-abiding (besides the illegal immigration part, of course) non-citizens, doing the work Americans won't do. Hmmm, maybe, since their very first act in America is breaking the law by entering illegally, they might not have so much respect for our laws? Whoda thunk it?
Posted by: Frank G || 02/05/2007 19:13 Comments || Top||

#2  "The benefit is these people who are committing crimes aren't being released onto our streets to commit more crimes. They are being removed from the United States,"

YJCMTSU

Just another form of catch and release. They'll be back South of the Border and then back into the US in a manner of weeks/months. And since municipalities and states refuse to identify those using their services as illegals, they'll just blend in again somewhere among the usual haunts until another American is killed, maimed, robbed, assaulted, raped, etc. at their hands. The first responsibility of any legitimate government is to provide security for its people. If the 'government' can't or won't then to take a phrase from Jefferson, the citizens have the right to alter or abolish that form of government.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/05/2007 19:39 Comments || Top||

#3  That these people are doing work citizens will not do is total horse crap. There are citizens who will take this work. Juste coming across the border is law breaking. The only way to stop this is by making the people employing them pay and by militarizing the border.

everyone who opposes this is a moron.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 02/05/2007 20:10 Comments || Top||

#4  I agree that the border needs to be closed, and with a fence first, which would stop the vast majority, then followed up with other efforts to reduce the rest.

However, this bit about the LA jails does NOT show that the typical illegal is an other-than-immigration criminal.

The article itself states that illegals are about 40k of 170k of their prisoners, or about 25% of the total. However, Hispanics in the general population of Los Angeles County are about 40-45% of the population.

Of this, a rough estimate is that 2,000,000 are illegal aliens. That would mean that only 1 in 50 illegals are in jail, for any reason.

Please fact check this with other sources, as I had to cherry pick for the different stats.

I also might add that 6,000 deportations isn't squat compared to 2M illegals.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/05/2007 21:09 Comments || Top||

#5  I also might add that 6,000 deportations isn't squat compared to 2M illegals.

Agreed, Anonymoose. But the article says that these deportations of illegals from the prisons have doubled and doubled again over the past few years. And, coupled with raids around the country, it's creating an atmosphere in which illegals feel insecure and even threatened enough to simply go back home... and others not to bother trying to come. Before, the flow was competely untrammeled and the Mexican government could look forward to a Reconquista by sheer number of bodies. Now the flow is somewhat constricted, the illegals are finding it somewhat more difficult once they arrive, and community after community is making it clear the situation is unacceptable, no matter that President Bush talks of guest workers and a citizenship track. And then they're all to be DNA tested...
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/05/2007 21:29 Comments || Top||

#6  this is good - I'm all for deportations (the more the better) but we still need a real wall - first and foremost. Then we need to repeal the anchor baby amendment - no more loop holes, no more b.s.

Fix your own country or stand in line. We've got enough Americans who need help and jobs before outsourcing that shit to some illegal.
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 02/05/2007 21:35 Comments || Top||

#7  At least the LA illegals aren't starving to death in tents in Phoenix, moose. (They can starve in Mexico due to the high tortilla costs.)
Posted by: Phineter Thraviger || 02/05/2007 22:31 Comments || Top||


U.S. to expand DNA sampling - illegals, anyone arrested/detained by Feds
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/05/2007 17:37 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Over 100 fossilised eggs of dinosaur found in MP
In a remarkable feat, three amateur explorers have stumbled upon more than 100 fossilised eggs of dinosaurs in Madhya Pradesh. The eggs, belonging to the Cretaceous Era (approximately 144 to 65 million years ago), have been discovered in Kukshi-Bagh area of Dhar district, some 150 kms south-west of Indore.
I find the idea of dinosaurs interesting from an ecological point of view. Think of the ecosystem thatwould be required to support animals that were 90 feet long and traveling in herds. Unless the population was very sparse, it would imply a growing season to be measured in days, weeks at the outside: warmer than today, but also more moisture. Otherwise, a herd of 90 footers grazing continuously would make a plague of locusts look benign.
The rare find is a significant step in the study of the pre-historic life in Narmada Valley. "All the eggs were discovered from a single nesting site in a start to end exploration for 18 hours at the site in Kukshi-Bagh area, 40 kms from Manavar. As many as 6-8 eggs were found per nests," an excited Vishal Verma of the Mangal Panchayatan Parishad, a group of amateur explorers, told Hindustan Times from near the site. "The eggs are from upper cretaceous era when the dinosaurs were yet to be extinct. These eggs can be categorised in three types of soropaud dinosaurs, which were herbivorous. These animals used to come from far away areas to lay eggs on the sandy banks of the rivers in this area, identified scientifically as Lameta bed," Verma said. The dinosaurs were 40-90 feet in length, he added.

Along with the fossilised eggs, the team - comprising two other members Rajesh Chouhan and Govind Verma - also discovered footprints of the dinosaurs through which they could also trace the 'track way' of the heavy animals now extinct.
Posted by: Fred || 02/05/2007 10:19 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Presumably atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were higher then, too, Fred.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/05/2007 10:29 Comments || Top||

#2  I thought this was another George Galloway story...
Posted by: Seafarious || 02/05/2007 10:47 Comments || Top||

#3  You would need global warming to support a terrarium full of dinosaurs.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/05/2007 11:02 Comments || Top||

#4  Presumably atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were higher then, too, Fred.

Much of the fossil fuels we're burning are the carbon trapped (from the atmosphere) by plants of that era and earlier.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 02/05/2007 11:18 Comments || Top||

#5  Methane is a much more prevalent molecule and has a greater effect on atmospheric warming the carbon dioxide. I postulate that the dinosaurs grew to enormous size and multiplied in great numbers numbers. This graet race then migrated to an area overgrown with gigantic white beans. The rest is obvious.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 02/05/2007 12:21 Comments || Top||

#6  That's it, BrerRabbit! A U.N. grant to "study" your theory is coming up!
Posted by: BA || 02/05/2007 14:46 Comments || Top||

#7  Do scientists know if the dinosaurs were cold-or warm blooded? last I heard they were cold-blooded, but school's been many years ago?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/05/2007 15:43 Comments || Top||

#8  Actually, global CO2 levels were likely much lower. It was global O2 levels that were much higher.

There have actually been several periods of higher global O2 levels - the late Permian/early Carboniferous and the late Jurassic/early Cretaceous are two of the most notable with global O2 levels as high as 31% during the earlier period and about 25-27% during the second.

It is believed that this is also what allowed the known periods of giantism in animals, most notably insects.

Posted by: FOTSGreg || 02/05/2007 16:08 Comments || Top||

#9  As to the warm-blooded/cold-blooded argument, it's become pretty clear that dinosaurs may have been an intermediate step with degrees of both.

Lifestyle-wise, the dinosaurs lived and flourished as if they were warm-blooded, but there is some data that suggests they may have been cold-adapted in certain ways that some cold-blooded animals and insects are (there are reports of some species of beetles flying during snowstorms and it is well-known that insects can maintain activity at temperatures far below freezing in some species).

It's most readily assumed that dinosaur physiologies were probably extremely similar to that of birds.

Posted by: FOTSGreg || 02/05/2007 16:12 Comments || Top||

#10  Brawwwwwwwk! Gimme the damn triceratops! Brawwwwwwwk!
Posted by: eLarson || 02/05/2007 16:57 Comments || Top||

#11 

• The richest dinosaur field in India is in the "Deccan Traps" near Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh.

• About 65 million years ago, a huge mass of volcanic rock erupted from the earth, covering 500,000 sq km in Maharashtra and MP with lava 2 km high. This is exactly the time when all large dinosaur species became extinct.

• A small but ferocious dinosaur, about the size of adult humans, was named Jubbulpuria after it was found in Jabalpur by Matley in 1933.


This also buried some of the richest potential oil reservoirs in India below kilometers of basalt
Posted by: john || 02/05/2007 17:09 Comments || Top||

#12  A story a couple of weeks ago said they found a huge supply of ancient stone cannonballs in Syria. Someone better check 'em again. They might be dinosaur eggs.
Posted by: Penguin || 02/05/2007 19:11 Comments || Top||

#13  from teh title, I figured Helen Thomas did an ovary dump...
Posted by: Frank G || 02/05/2007 19:14 Comments || Top||

#14  teh.....? shit
Posted by: Frank G || 02/05/2007 19:14 Comments || Top||

#15  teh? You must be raelly smart.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 02/05/2007 20:08 Comments || Top||

#16  of coarse
Posted by: Frank G || 02/05/2007 20:51 Comments || Top||

#17  Jeebus, Frank. Ovaries and Helen Thomas...3 words that should NOT go together in a sentence.

Now, who has the steel wool™ to scrub my mental image of that away?
Posted by: BA || 02/05/2007 21:44 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Zim Bank chief deserves Nobel if he brokers contract
Zimbabwe central bank chief Gideon Gono has a greater chance of success brokering a truce in war-torn Iraq than he has trying to get the government, labour and business agree on a common plan to fix the country’s bleeding economy, analysts said Wednesday. Gono pleaded for a social contract, openly admitting that the government’s unilateral approach and a raft of laws and controls it had imposed in a bid to right the economy had failed. The only option left was for labour, the government and employers to come together and agree on a sustainable way out of the quagmire, said Gono, who is widely regarded as President Robert Mugabe’s trouble shooter on the economy.

But previous attempts at achieving a social contract have faltered as the parties to the country's Tripartite Negotiating Forum have disagreed over pricing and productivity issues. This has forced the government to try and go it alone by establishing a statutory Pricing and Incomes Commission that will regulate salaries and prices across the economy. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions has rejected such a commission while business has accused the government of unilateralism and failure to consult.

University of Zimbabwe political scientist John Makumbe said chances of the social contract working under Zimbabwe's current environment were slim because there was simply no common position or understanding among the three parties on most of the major economic issues.

Labour Research Institute analyst Prosper Chatambara said a huge obstacle to a social contract was the lack of political will to take the hard decisions necessary to fix the economy. He said this was so because Gono’s principals in the ruling ZANU PF party and the government were the ones benefiting the most from the country’s economic collapse. Analysts said Gono would have fared better by addressing more fundamental issues such as the exchange rate and the high cost of borrowing money. The governor refused to bow to market pressure to devalue the Zimbabwe dollar, insisting that allowing the local currency to slide would not solve the country's economic woes.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/05/2007 00:15 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You want to fix Zim's economy? Get rid of Bob and his mob. That's a start.
Posted by: Spot || 02/05/2007 8:49 Comments || Top||

#2  No, to fix the economy, we just need to get rid of all the non-Shona speakers. Once there is only one tribe, there will be peace, justice, and harmony.
Posted by: Robert Mugabe || 02/05/2007 15:10 Comments || Top||


Chinese buy-up of Zambia revives old colonial fears
Posted by: Steve White || 02/05/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  See also RESOURCEINVESTOR.com - China declares econ "Special Zone" in Zambia. West vs CHina - what went Right vs went wrong. More Chinese in Zambia and around Africa than Brits at the height of their Empire.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/05/2007 0:52 Comments || Top||

#2  This could get interesting, Barclays aparently wants the farmland, now the Chinese are buying land, It looks to me, like a financial war is going to break out shortly
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/05/2007 9:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Let the bloody Chinese colonize the entire continent of Africa. It will only lead to their undoing.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/05/2007 11:40 Comments || Top||

#4  " Africa now supplies a third of China's crude oil imports"

Follow the money (black gold).

The relationship between Zambia and China may have other benefits to China's overcrowding problems. China exports emigrants to Zambia while Zambia exports AIDS to China.
Posted by: USMC6743 || 02/05/2007 15:20 Comments || Top||

#5  B: Let the bloody Chinese colonize the entire continent of Africa. It will only lead to their undoing.

It depends. Successful colonization depends on two things - numbers and superior firepower. If China sent twenty million settlers into Zambia, which is about the size of Texas, it would triple Zambia's population while not appreciably putting a strain on its natural resources. And twenty million people wouldn't exactly depopulate China.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/05/2007 15:26 Comments || Top||

#6  USMC: The relationship between Zambia and China may have other benefits to China's overcrowding problems.

China's not overcrowded - its population density is about a third that of most of Western Europe, and 1/60 of highly-prosperous Hong Kong. It's just been badly run since the Communist victory in 1949.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/05/2007 15:29 Comments || Top||

#7  Simple solution, A chinese non-communist style of government, Bawahahaha. Sorry, have to catch my breath. couldn't hold a straight face any longer.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/05/2007 15:39 Comments || Top||

#8  What's interesting is that the WSJ ran a similar story a week ago. Interesting where the Grauniad is getting its material.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 02/05/2007 16:12 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Bangladesh appoints new poll chief
Bangladesh appointed a new election chief Sunday nearly a month after national elections were cancelled following accusations of vote-rigging. “Former top bureaucrat A.T.M Shamsul Huda has been appointed as the new chief election commissioner,” the government said in a statement. The government also appointed a former top law ministry official, Sahul Hussain, as a new election commissioner, the government’s press office said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/05/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Was'nt it Stalin who said "It matters not how the people vote, It only matters who counts the votes?"
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/05/2007 9:00 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh security forces detain senior politicians
Security forces in Bangladesh detained seven ex-ministers and several other influential politicians from across the political spectrum on Sunday in swoops on their Dhaka homes, officials and media reports said. They were the most high-profile figures to be detained since the declaration of a state of emergency on Jan 11, which followed weeks of street protests and pre-election violence.

An election planned for late January was postponed, and the interim government charged with holding the poll has vowed to root out corruption from politics and the administration. Those detained in the capital before dawn on Sunday included former interior minister Mohammad Nasim and former state minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir of the Awami League. Nasim’s son, Tanmoy Mansur, said his father was taken away by a squad of police and army around 1:30am. “They gave no reason but said the order to detain him came from the top,” Tanmoy told Reuters by telephone.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) figures detained included former communications minister Nazmul Huda and state ministers Ruhul Kuddus Talukder, Mir Nasiruddin, Amanullah Aman and Iqbal Hasan Mahmud. Security officials, requesting anonymity, confirmed the detentions and said the drive would continue as part of the government’s bid to organise a fair, peaceful and credible election.

The interim authority headed by former central bank chief Fakhruddin Ahmed is strongly backed by the armed forces, which are acting behind the scenes instead of intervening directly, apparently to keep their international peacekeeping profile high.
Posted by: Fred || 02/05/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Find any shutter guns?
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/05/2007 15:14 Comments || Top||


Britain
Urdu will be taught in UK state schools
British teenagers will be able to learn languages such as Mandarin and Urdu as the government tries to make classes more relevant in an age of globalisation, officials said on Sunday. Students have to study a second language between the ages of 11 and 14, although many state schools only offer European languages such as French, German and Spanish. But Education Secretary Alan Johnson is now set to accept an official recommendation that major languages from around the world are routinely offered alongside these. Johnson said that Mandarin or Urdu could be “as important” as European languages in the global economy.
Posted by: Fred || 02/05/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gosh, the students who learn Urdu will be able to understand the Friday sermons and the Muslim gansta raps. Taqqiya is a lot harder when one can't hide behind a false translation.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/05/2007 6:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Urdu and Arabic represent the same version of "globalization" as a Mongol invasion.
Posted by: Excalibur || 02/05/2007 9:22 Comments || Top||

#3  I love the modern age and newspeak.

First the carrot - "British teenagers will be able to learn languages such as Mandarin and Urdu ..."

Then the stick - "Students have to study a second language ..."
Posted by: Urdu you do Mrs Robinson || 02/05/2007 11:36 Comments || Top||

#4  Students have to study a second language ..."

Yes, but theres no statement that urdu is the ONLY choice available.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/05/2007 15:49 Comments || Top||

#5  Will they learn English?
Posted by: James || 02/05/2007 16:58 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Giuliani Nearing Full-Fledged Candidacy
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/05/2007 15:52 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  DEM NATIONAL COMMMITTEE > Guiliani filing reveals extens, questionable business dealings.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/05/2007 20:47 Comments || Top||


Biden Tells Dems He Regrets Obama Remark
Sen. Joe Biden tried on Saturday to stem the damage from the botched launch of his presidential campaign as underdog candidates in the Democratic field looked to gain momentum from the party faithful. The Democratic National Committee wrapped up a three-day meeting that featured speeches from all 10 candidates already in the race or considering a bid. The front-runners all appeared Friday before a packed ballroom.

The crowd thinned to roughly half on Saturday, but those in attendance were no less enthusiastic. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson stirred them by calling for a primary without negative campaigning and saying he would bring troops home from Iraq by the end of the year. "Maybe I'm not up there in all these polls, but you are the deciders, not the man in the White House," Richardson said to cheers. "I say to you today, stay loose. We've got a year to go."

Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack positioned himself as a Washington outsider with a record of real change. He criticized senators in the race who refuse to cut the money that is paying for troops in Iraq. Front-running Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York are advocating a cap to the number of troops and their eventual withdrawal.
Posted by: Fred || 02/05/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder who Biden plagiarized for his initial remarks?
Posted by: 3dc || 02/05/2007 0:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Robert KKK Byrd perhaps 3dc?
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 02/05/2007 2:08 Comments || Top||

#3  "New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson stirred them by calling for a primary without negative campaigning and saying he would bring troops home from Iraq by the end of the year."

So much for Richardson being responsible with regard to the war. Is there and Donk candidate who ISN'T for cutting and running?
Posted by: Dave D. || 02/05/2007 6:15 Comments || Top||

#4  Hey, Dave, I, too "advocate a cap to the number of troops and their eventual withdrawal".

No more than a million troops, and withdrawal after we leave Korea, Germany, and Japan.

Meaningless word, from worthless people.
Posted by: Bobby || 02/05/2007 8:47 Comments || Top||

#5  What pissed me off about the whole Biden thing was how the MSM was so quick to trot out Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton for their reactions. Any pair of idiots who have been so thoroughly discredited as these two have no business in the news. Biden was an idiot to speak without considering the fallout but he's a pussy for apologizing.
Posted by: treo || 02/05/2007 10:19 Comments || Top||

#6  The MSM did not root out Jackson and Sharpton, this was their deal, much more so than Obama's. Obama was initially going to let the Biden comment pass by without comment. But Jackson and Sharpton made it clear that Biden's comments were a slap against them-- the Old Guard-- and that's when this kerfuffle took wing.
Check out some of the recent Mickey Kaus postings and his cites. Jackson and Sharpton need Obama. Obama, the son of an immigrant who lacks family geneology to Jim Crow and slavery, needs Jackson and Sharpton to the extent that they bring him credibility to the community. Jackson and Sharpton will not grant Obama that cred without further schooling in paying respect to the Black leaders who have gone before him.
Posted by: Whavins Threash2583 || 02/05/2007 22:57 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Against the grain: Some scientists deny global warming exists
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 02/05/2007 07:02 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They must be silenced!

William Gray, the hurricane forecaster, had his funding cut off after he 'denied' global warming. The President at the time was not the science-ignorer Bush, but the author of "An Inconvenient Truth" and his boss, Slick Willie.
Posted by: Bobby || 02/05/2007 8:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Even research from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change-- the United Nations agency that heads the worldwide effort to combat global warming -- is bereft of anything here inspiring confidence. In fact, according to the IPCC's own findings, man's role is so uncertain that there is a strong possibility that we have been cooling, not warming, the Earth. Unfortunately, our tools are too crude to reveal what man's effect has been in the past, let alone predict how much warming or cooling we might cause in the future.
Posted by: Bobby || 02/05/2007 8:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Idistinctly remember NASA saying that "Global warming exists, on Mars, Hey Algore, explain that "Inconvenient Truth"
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/05/2007 9:04 Comments || Top||

#4  I believe that UFOs are causing global warming with their craft emissions to destroy humanity so they can take over. We must shoot down all flying things immediately.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/05/2007 9:13 Comments || Top||

#5  This headline is deceptive, in that, unlike those who embrace "man-made" global warming as a religion that will give them power, those who question their religion have different viewpoints:

1) That global warming exists, but as a short-term natural cyclic event, alternating with global cooling.

2) That global warming exists, but as a long-term natural cyclic event.

3) That global warming and global cooling exist in an overall balanced system, which can be temporarily influenced by major events such as massive volcanic eruptions, but then returns to balance.

4) That the models and projections are too inaccurate and primitive to tell, one way or another. That unless it is scientifically established it cannot be proclaimed as the truth.

5) And, of course, in addition to these reasonable arguments against "man-made" global warming, there are kooks who are just as un-scientific in their opposition to the religion.

Both sides have some level of funding by those with vested interests, each trying to subvert the real science of climatology as much as they can.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/05/2007 9:36 Comments || Top||

#6  I can tell you for a fact there are hundreds of US atmospheric scientists that are barred by law from joing the fray against "man caused global warming".
Posted by: anymouse || 02/05/2007 10:35 Comments || Top||

#7  I follow global climate change very closely. There's been some interesting discoveries in the last three or four years, and it doesn't support anthropogenic (man-caused) global warming. The entire global warming meme has been good in one respect - it's forced us to do some serious study of earth and its climate. The battle's not over, but at the moment the Kyoto crowd is having its blocks knocked from under it.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 02/05/2007 12:08 Comments || Top||

#8  Old Patriot

Gerbil Worming is costing 4 billion USD per year. I'd say some pretty serious real science could be done with that amount.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles in Blairistan || 02/05/2007 12:52 Comments || Top||

#9  Anymouse, any chance you're in that group?
Posted by: Shipman || 02/05/2007 15:57 Comments || Top||

#10  If so, Happy WeatherPerson Day!
Posted by: Shipman || 02/05/2007 15:58 Comments || Top||

#11  Ship...Yes.


Posted by: anymouse || 02/05/2007 16:34 Comments || Top||

#12  Another fact that enviro-fascists always omit is that plants LOVE CO2.

CO2 levels have been declining over the last 200 My. Over the last 500 My CO2 levels have ranged 3-5x as high as they are now, both during relatively cool and warm periods.

Further CO2 levels have gone slowly down and then sharply up FOUR times in the last 400,000 years. There is no evidence that the current climate trends are fundamentally driven by human activity. There is ample evidence that the planet's climate is ALWAYS changing, over geological ages; scientists still don't quite understand why this has kept happening.

I for one am glad I don't live in an Ice Age. We wouldn't have enjoyed the agricultural revolution and industrial revolution without the global warming that started 12,000 years ago.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 02/05/2007 18:02 Comments || Top||

#13  The truth is that the world's climate is warming and cooling, it depends on the baseline you choose, i.e. the point you start measuring from.

The above statement is true at all times, except when the climate is at its hottest and coolest point in the last 4 billion years (or whatever).
Posted by: phil_b || 02/05/2007 18:10 Comments || Top||

#14  I am personally quite happy to play along with Global Warming just until we get the US nuclear industry back on track. If, in the meantime, people want to buy hybrid cars and groan about the evils of air conditioning I'll happily nod along (or nod off). We need nuclear energy, and Global Warming is providing the useful idiots necessary to get it.
Posted by: Iblis || 02/05/2007 18:52 Comments || Top||

#15  Environ-activists on CNN's were calling for direct Govt intervention and control of the issue, to include some form of profess punishment-censure for those whom argue agz Mankind being the Cause = Sole/Primary Cause of GW. LEFT > NO LONGER A DEBATE - ARE DEMANDING GOVT AND ONLY GOVT CONTROL NOW. You know, why the WOT = 9-11 is about Radical Islam and only Radical Islam.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/05/2007 19:29 Comments || Top||

#16  Kalle: An interesting twist to CO2 discovered a while back, is that plants breathe in CO2 through pores in their leaves. They have to open their pores to inhale, and when they do so, it lets water evaporate. When there is more CO2, they don't need to open their pores as much, so they need less water.

Needing less water, they absorb less from the ground. In turn, this frees up water for other plants to use. So if there is a lot of CO2 in the atmosphere, you get a lot more plants, and the ground becomes moister.

So more CO2 means more plants, and less desert. Because CO2 is their food, plants also tend to grow larger, as long as there is plenty of sunlight to convert CO2 to sugar.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/05/2007 21:16 Comments || Top||

#17  I know it gets warmer and cooler here every day.
Should I be keeping records ?
Who do I report to ?
Global warming seems to go around the earth following the Sun, therefore, global warming is tidal, and caused by the moon.
Posted by: wxjames || 02/05/2007 21:28 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Mahathir nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
Bosnian groups have nominated Malaysia’s former premier Mahathir Mohamad for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for helping the country after its bloody civil war, the Star newspaper reported on Sunday. It said that he was nominated by four civil groups in Bosnia spearheaded by former president Ejup Ganic. Mahathir was described in their nomination paper as the developing world’s “most courageous advocate,” the newspaper said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/05/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Lots of vanity nominations nowadays.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/05/2007 5:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Toss your political rival in jail with a trumped-up conviction for homosexual behavior, win a Nobel Prize. I don't think this works for me.
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 02/05/2007 8:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Anyone know what it takes to nominate someone? I want to nominate Charles Johnson.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 02/05/2007 9:15 Comments || Top||

#4  Amazing how the Nobel Peace Prize has become devalued. It's almost like a badge of dis-honor these days, considering some of the recent awardees.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 02/05/2007 9:21 Comments || Top||

#5  Al Gore or this guy?
Tough choice for the commitee. Maybe Carter for the deuce as a compromise.
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/05/2007 18:13 Comments || Top||

#6  My prediction - either Ahmadinejad or Chavez. Long shot - Mugabe.
Posted by: DMFD || 02/05/2007 18:43 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Super Bowl Ads of Cartoonish Violence, Perhaps Reflecting Toll of War
Only the Times could come up with this angle...
By STUART ELLIOTT
No commercial that appeared last night during Super Bowl XLI directly addressed Iraq, unlike a patriotic spot for Budweiser beer that ran during the game two years ago. But the ongoing war seemed to linger just below the surface of many of this year’s commercials.
Really? I, like, totally missed that.
More than a dozen spots celebrated violence in an exaggerated, cartoonlike vein that was intended to be humorous, but often came across as cruel or callous.
Super Bowl Commercials Suck: Bush Blamed...
For instance, in a commercial for Bud Light beer, sold by Anheuser-Busch, one man beat the other at a game of rock, paper, scissors by throwing a rock at his opponent’s head.
Vicious, alcoholic, carnivore, heterosexual, warmonger BEAST!
In another Bud Light spot, face-slapping replaced fist-bumping as the cool way for people to show affection for one another. In a FedEx commercial, set on the moon, an astronaut was wiped out by a meteor. In a spot for Snickers candy, sold by Mars, two co-workers sought to prove their masculinity by tearing off patches of chest hair.
Super Bowl Commercials Suck: Women, Minorities, Gays Hardest Hit..
There was also a bank robbery (E*Trade Financial), fierce battles among office workers trapped in a jungle (CareerBuilder), menacing hitchhikers (Bud Light again) and a clash between a monster and a superhero reminiscent of a horror movie (Garmin). It was as if Madison Avenue were channeling Doc in “West Side Story,” the gentle owner of the candy store in the neighborhood that the two street gangs, the Jets and Sharks, fight over. “Why do you kids live like there’s a war on?” Doc asks plaintively. (Well, Doc, this time, there is.)
They should've had the 101st walking down the street gunning down puppies and kittens. But I don't think this guy would've got the symbolism.
During other wars, Madison Avenue has appealed to a yearning for peace. That was expressed in several Super Bowl spots evocative of “Hilltop,” the classic Coca-Cola commercial from 1971, when the Vietnam War divided a world that needed to be taught to sing in perfect harmony.
Ooooooh! That was soooooo...gay!
Coca-Cola borrowed pages from its own playbook with two whimsical spots for Coca-Cola Classic, “Happiness Factory” and “Video Game,” that were as sweet as they were upbeat. The commercials, by Wieden & Kennedy, provided a welcome counterpoint to the martial tone of the evening.
I wish Halliburton had bought ads. This guy would've had a stroke...
Those who wish the last four years of history had never happened could find solace in several commercials that used the device of ending an awful tale by revealing it was only a dream.
There's no place like home, Toto! There's no place like home!
The best of the batch was a commercial for General Motors by Deutsch, part of the Interpublic Group of Companies, in which a factory robot “obsessed about quality” imagined the dire outcome of making a mistake.
I dunno. I was watching the game with my robot, and that one kinda freaked him out. We had to have a long talk.
The same gag, turned inside out, accounted for one of the funniest spots, a Nationwide Financial commercial by TM Advertising, also owned by Interpublic. The spot began with the singer Kevin Federline as the prosperous star of an elaborate rap video clip. But viewers learned at the end it was only the dream of a forlorn fry cook at a fast-food joint.
No. That's his actual job now.
Then, too, there was the unfortunate homonym at the heart of a commercial from Prudential Financial, titled “What Can a Rock Do?” The problem with the spot, created internally at Prudential, was that whenever the announcer said, “a rock” — invoking the Prudential logo, the rock of Gibraltar — it sounded as if he were saying, yes, “Iraq.”
This guy needs help. He's got the BDS realty, really bad...
To be sure, sometimes “a rock” is just “a rock,” and someone who has watched the Super Bowl XIX years in a row only for the commercials may be inferring things that Madison Avenue never meant to imply.
"A rock"= "Iraq". Get it? Me neither...
Take for instance a spot by Grey Worldwide, part of the WPP Group, for Flomax, a drug sold by Boehringer Ingelheim to help men treat enlarged prostates.“Here’s to men,” the announcer intoned, “to guys who want to spend more time having fun and less time in the men’s room.” It was not difficult to imagine guests at noisy Super Bowl parties asking one another, “Did he just say, ‘guys who want to spend more time having fun in the men’s room?’”
He should also get maybe a hearing test.
Another off-putting moment was provided by a stereotyped character in a commercial by Endeavor for a hair dye, Revlon Colorist. He was described as the stylist for the singer Sheryl Crow, and he was clearly miffed about her using the product. “Revlon? Color?” he asked, pouting and rolling his eyes. “I am the colorist.”
A "colorist", man? That's gotta be bad in Timesworld, right? I mean, there's an "ist" on the end of it, and that can't be good...
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/05/2007 09:48 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What's funny about a comb over beard?
Posted by: Sneaze || 02/05/2007 10:41 Comments || Top||

#2  It was all too obvious in the Go Daddy commercial.

I thought that the girl with the wet t-shirt was a perfect metaphor for the occupation of Iraq.
Posted by: Danking70 || 02/05/2007 10:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Best comment I've seen so far on the game:

I’m happy that I live in a country where a young African-American child can dream that one day, he too will grow up and coach a team that loses the Super Bowl because his white quarterback isn’t very good.
Posted by: Mike || 02/05/2007 11:51 Comments || Top||

#4  The one that got me had Katie Couric declaring "we hear lots of bad stories about America..." Talk about a tin ear.
Posted by: Grunter || 02/05/2007 12:03 Comments || Top||

#5  This guy better put earplugs in pronto, his brains have melted and are leaking down the side of his neck...
Posted by: Seafarious || 02/05/2007 12:05 Comments || Top||

#6  And your ratings are shit, Katie. Ever sit down and try to figure out why that is?
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/05/2007 12:08 Comments || Top||

#7  The fact that Katie was trying to drum up ratings with Superbowl ads says a lot about what's become of CBS news.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/05/2007 12:31 Comments || Top||

#8  Video review of the Superbowl ads here (7 minutes, pretty good).
Posted by: Mike || 02/05/2007 12:39 Comments || Top||

#9  It's increasing clear that working for the NYT is the cause of serious mental illness. In adhering to sound lefty policy, we should offer them the services of Dr. Kevorkian.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 02/05/2007 12:48 Comments || Top||

#10  For a while in the 80s, it was a fad, almost a fetish, for pop-culture critics (People magazine etc.) to make outlandishly strained claims of political symbolism and motivation in their reviews. One critic blasted the 1953 version of War of the Worlds as a McCarthyite propaganda piece designed to incite Cold War hysteria. He could not explain the relative impotence of the military in the film or the ultimately pacifist and internationalist symbolism of the film's conclusion, though he did mention these as a "strange anomaly," strange only because they didn't fit his forced characterization.
This is rather similar to the current "Blame America" fetish among graduate students, which seeks to attribute events as long ago as the mid 19th century to current administration policies, and quotes such long dead critics as General Smedley Butler (1881-1940) in an effort to prove American malfeasance.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 02/05/2007 13:30 Comments || Top||

#11  This guy likes the Federline commercial?

Does he not get the irony in supporting that commercial? I mean, it belittles the poor™, and shows rap in a bad light. How many LLL "groupies" can you offend in one commercial?
Posted by: BA || 02/05/2007 14:52 Comments || Top||

#12  I thought the Federline ad was hilarious, m'self. At least K-Fed is self-aware.
Posted by: Mike || 02/05/2007 14:55 Comments || Top||

#13  a story...

A man is asked by his therapist to identify what he sees in a series of inkblots.

"That? That's two people having sex."
"So's that one."
"Whoa... that one's a guy and two girls. Dang."

The therapist nods sagely and says "I think you may have a preoccupation with sex."

"ME? YOU'RE the one showing me all the dirty pictures!"
Posted by: eLarson || 02/05/2007 16:55 Comments || Top||

#14  eLarson has it: Some people will see whatever it is they want to see, and to make this happen, will bend reality into shapes that would make your eyes curl.

This man is probably not well - seriously. Bookmark his name and check rehab clinics booking sheets...
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 02/05/2007 19:12 Comments || Top||

#15  The All-Midwest = "Battle of the Midwest" turned out to be more "Battle of the Referees/
Regulations", considering how many challenges and counter-challenges were made. SIGN OF THE TIMES - Head for the Hills and hide the women, the NFL is now the People's Gubmint Ministry of Regul Pigskins.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/05/2007 19:20 Comments || Top||

#16  Right on Joe, and don't hit the QB below the knees/above the shoulders/wrap him up, etc. -NFL = Non-contact Football League.

As to the article - it's a wonder this guy can boot up a computer - what a clown.
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 02/05/2007 21:43 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2007-02-05
  McNeill Assumes Command Of NATO Forces In Afghanistan
Sun 2007-02-04
  Truck boomer kills 135 in deadliest Iraq blast
Sat 2007-02-03
  22 killed and 245 wounded since Thursday in Trucefire™
Fri 2007-02-02
  Three wannabe head choppers in Brit court
Thu 2007-02-01
  Hamas ambushes Gaza "arms convoy" , Trucefire™ holding
Wed 2007-01-31
  Mo Jamal Khalifa mysteriously bumped off
Tue 2007-01-30
  Chlorine Boom in Ramadi
Mon 2007-01-29
  US and Iraqi forces kill 250 militants in Najaf
Sun 2007-01-28
  21 dead in festive Gaza weekend
Sat 2007-01-27
  Salafist Group renamed "Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb"
Fri 2007-01-26
  US Troops Now Directed To: 'Catch Or Kill Iranian Agents'
Thu 2007-01-25
  Bali bomber hurt in Filipino gunfight
Wed 2007-01-24
  Beirut burns as Hezbollah strike explodes into sectarian violence
Tue 2007-01-23
  100 killed in Iraq market bombings
Mon 2007-01-22
  3,200 new US troops arrive in Baghdad


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