Banned By Bloomberg

An excerpt from VP Cheney's new memoir:

Tim closed the interview with a remembrance of Father Mychal Judge, the chaplain of the New York City Fire Department. Father Mike was killed at the World Trade Center on 9/11 by falling debris as he administered last rites to a first responder. Tim told of the firefighters who carried Father Mike’s body to their firehouse and who together with Father Mike’s fellow Franciscans sang the prayer of St. Francis. “May the Lord bless and keep you and show his face to you and have mercy on you.” “That,” Tim said, “is the way of New York. That is the spirit of America.” The Meet the Press crew members stood and applauded at the interview’s end.

That is what Mayor Bloomberg finds unfit company for the tenth anniversary 9-11 memorial. He's not only excluding clergy, he's not inviting first responders.

I Like It

John C. Wright coins a term:

The old Puritans did not want anyone, anywhere, to be outside the reach of their command, for fear anyone would have abnormal or unchaste sexual passions.
The new Puritans do not want anyone, anywhere, to be outside of the reach of their command for fear anyone would have the normal and chaste sexual passions, or, worse, a healthy dislike of the abnormal, perverse and unhealthy, or to teach their children likewise. Let us call them the Impuritans.

Curtsy: American Digest

Annals of Self-Awareness, 7

Warren Tax-Me-More Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway owes taxes going back to 2002.

I'm not a believer that high taxes are salutary for the economy, but it's at least debatable. I'm a little unclear on the Buffett-Geithner-Daschle-Holder-Sebelius-McCaskill-Rangel model in which our programs are sustained by unpaid taxes.

It's The Sun, Stupid

So says my spy in New York, in sending along this bit of news from Lawrence Solomon (who's written a book on scientists who've stood firm against the global warming juggernaut) on the warmening front.

new findings point to cosmic rays and the sun — not human activities — as the dominant controller of climate on Earth.
The research, published with little fanfare this week in the prestigious journal Nature, comes from über-prestigious CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, one of the world’s largest centres for scientific research involving 60 countries and 8,000 scientists at more than 600 universities and national laboratories. CERN is the organization that invented the World Wide Web, that built the multi-billion dollar Large Hadron Collider, and that has now built a pristinely clean stainless steel chamber that precisely recreated the Earth’s atmosphere.

Apparently numerous experiments have definitively demonstrated the validity of the "cosmic ray" explanation of global warming. The article chronicles the intense opposition the theory's received since it was first proposed by two Danes years ago, but also how dogged determination -- and actual Science-- has gradually persuaded people in the field. Not that the propagandists are going to let you know:

this spectacular success will be largely unrecognized by the general public for years — this column will be the first that most readers have heard of it — because CERN remains too afraid of offending its government masters to admit its success. Weeks ago, CERN formerly decided to muzzle Mr. Kirby and other members of his team to avoid “the highly political arena of the climate change debate,” telling them “to present the results clearly but not interpret them” and to downplay the results by “mak[ing] clear that cosmic radiation is only one of many parameters.” The CERN study and press release is written in bureaucratese and the version of Mr. Kirkby’s study that appears in the print edition of Nature censored the most eye-popping graph — only those who know where to look in an online supplement will see the striking potency of cosmic rays in creating the conditions for seeding clouds.

Conclusion:

CERN, and the Danes, have in all likelihood found the path to the Holy Grail of climate science. But the religion of climate science won’t yet permit a celebration of the find.

Clarence Thomas As Frodo

Not quite sure what's with Conservatives and Lord of the Rings comparisons these days, but it's good people are finally catching on. Walter Russell Mead notes the recent New Yorker profile of Clarence Thomas. Author Jeffrey Toobin writes:

In several of the most important areas of constitutional law, Thomas has emerged as an intellectual leader of the Supreme Court. Since the arrival of Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., in 2005, and Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., in 2006, the Court has moved to the right when it comes to the free-speech rights of corporations, the rights of gun owners, and, potentially, the powers of the federal government; in each of these areas, the majority has followed where Thomas has been leading for a decade or more. Rarely has a Supreme Court Justice enjoyed such broad or significant vindication.

Mead observes:

This is one of the most startling reappraisals to appear in The New Yorker for many years. ...

There are few articles of faith as firmly fixed in the liberal canon as the belief that Clarence Thomas is, to put it as bluntly as many liberals do, a dunce and a worm.  Twenty years of married life have not erased the conventional liberal view of his character etched by Anita Hill’s testimony at his confirmation hearings.  Not only does the liberal mind perceive him as a disgusting lump of ungoverned sexual impulse; he is seen as an intellectual cipher.  Thomas’ silence during oral argument before the Supreme Court is taken as obvious evidence that he has nothing to say and is perhaps a bit intimidated by the verbal fireworks exchanged by the high profile lawyers and his more, ahem, ‘qualified’ colleagues.

At most liberals have long seen Thomas as the Sancho Panza to Justice Antonin Scalia’s Don Quixote, Tonto to his Lone Ranger.  No, says Toobin: the intellectual influence runs the other way.  Thomas is the consistently clear and purposeful theorist that history will remember as an intellectual pioneer; Scalia the less clear-minded colleague who is gradually following in Thomas’ tracks.

 Why does it take Progressives twenty years to catch on to things?
Curtsy: Michael Walsh

Irene Is Beautiful in God's Eyes

Shamelessly pinched from space.com, where you should go see this embiggened.

She's not so bad from this distance, but I fear up close she's gonna be a dog.

Was There A Jack Straw Dartboard?

The Qaddafi compound turned up a photo album of Condi Rice, for whom it seems the Dear Libyan Leader had a major "thing."

But we know she only had eyes for a certain Labour Party Foreign Secretary.

Mild Rumblings, Media Unhinged

Some internet wag posted this photo as evidence of today's devastation, and the photoshops are springing forth, new life rising from ashes, in a touching display of triumph over adversity.

For the sake of the external hard drive I'll record that my first felt earthquake (they actually do happen here somewhat regularly) was an interesting experience. I'd just returned from the office and was eating a late lunch with my kids when Girl Weed said, "Is the house shaking?" She said it before I noticed anything, but then I felt it too and my mind went flitting, searching for a cause: big truck? washing machine? samsonite gorilla? house collapsing of old age? terrorism? But when I reached "earthquake," the mind settled. It was actually sort of comforting in opposition to terrorist attack and I felt oddly calm. Moved the kids to an inner door jamb, and rode out the queer feeling for 30 seconds to a minute. No fear, which was strange since frightening possibilities did occur to me. The kids didn't seem troubled in the least, either.

We waited around a few minutes to see if anything else would happen, but then all seemed normal, so we went about our business. (The walls do have some minor cosmetic damage: cracks in the plaster. Oh, and some books fell off a shelf in Mr. W's study.)

The radio reporters were unhinged. They kept informing us of "unconfirmed reports" of a zillion worries no one would have had without them, or suggesting problems they knew perfectly well were unlikely. "The Washington Monument is tipping!" (Seems like that one would have been pretty easy to confirm.) We are waiting to hear whether or not a tsunami was triggered! The quake was centered in Mineral, VA and that's where the nuclear power plants are, we're waiting to hear!

This would be followed a minute or two later by condescending assurance that no tsunami had been triggered, and the nukes were taken off line as a precaution, standard protocol, but no damage was being reported. Journalists were the only ones worried about these things, and then they had the nerve to act as if we the listeners were being big babies about the whole thing!

The best part was when they were speculating about the devastation that might be wrought by aftershocks while we were experiencing one, just sitting in traffic. We're sitting there with the trembling barely perceptible beneath our tires, and the guys are going on and on about whether we'll have any aftershocks.

At one point I turned to the kids and told them I was very disappointed in their calm. Don't you know it's your civic duty to panic! Panic now!

Sheesh. The last people I'd want around in an actual emergency or natural disaster are these media fiends who don't know their duty is to disseminate information in such a way that people stay calm and act rational. I felt like I wanted an ordinary individual to break into the studios and tell all the reporters to take a deep breath and report in single file to the nearest exit.

Update: There was some mild damage; and the zoo creatures went wild right before the quake hit.

"A Meek Man of Mighty Action"

Under the crush of deadlines I'm only just getting to all the wonderful BXVI addresses for World Youth Day. Rueful Red, however, sent me a link to sum things up.

Usual pattern: the press says it'll be a disaster because no one likes the Pope; even the Catholic commentariat speculates this country is particularly and uniquely hardened and secular; then the Beeb says it IS a disaster because there are some protests.

But then no one can resist the joy and fervor of a bazillion young people longing for something more than lives of low-ball utilitarian calculus, and the supernatural reality of Peter confirming the brethren kicks in.

The crowd-pulling power of Benedict XVI is almost miraculous, given the contrast with his openly charismatic predecessor, and his former image as a conservative “enforcer”. Who could have predicted that at World Youth Day in Spain – which was not even his first visit to that country as Pope – he would attract a crowd of a million young people? Not the BBC, which decided to play down the week’s events in a manner that one commentator described as “almost parodic” in its grouchiness.

(The Beeb thought the story was the 5000 anti-Catholic--mostly gay, from the pictures-- protesters, not the more than a million participants. What did they think this was, the March for Life?)

More to come on the subject of what the Pope actually said, but my spy in Colombia sent me an editorial in Spanish that says basically the same thing: the press tried to insist the Pope could never reach anyone, and he had a triumph, once again. 

Up!

Correggio's Assumption of the Virgin, detail

The Virgin

Mother! whose virgin bosom was uncrost
With the least shade of thought to sin allied;
Woman! above all women glorified,
Our tainted nature's solitary boast;
Purer than foam on central ocean tost;
Brighter than eastern skies at daybreak strewn
With fancied roses, than the unblemished moon
Before her wane begins on heaven's blue coast;
Thy Image falls to earth. Yet some, I ween,
Not unforgiven the suppliant knee might bend,
As to a visible Power, in which did blend
All that was mixed and reconciled in Thee
Of mother's love with maiden purity,
Of high with low, celestial with terrene!

               

--William Wordsworth 

Happy Feast Day!

Parents of the Decade

Stage moms? parents pleading for special treatment for their kids, people who refuse to believe their darlings do anything wrong or are anything less than gifted? Got your antidote right here. Behold: a mom saw her child --an Olympian, no less, so the humiliation stakes are higher-- looting on tv, and called the police on her in a heartbeat.


Curtsy:Hot Air

Grey Lady Turns Pro Life

I can only conclude from the NYT Magazine's story, The Two-Minus-One Pregnancy, that the Formerly Grey Lady is on a crusade to end abortion by shining a spotlight on its practice. She certainly couldn't be praising this behavior, right?

The story opens with a woman looking at her twins on a sonogram, and then having the machine flicked off so she wouldn't have to watch one twin die at her bidding. Her justification? I'm just going to let it speak for itself.

As the doctor inserted the needle into Jenny’s abdomen, aiming at one of the fetuses, Jenny tried not to flinch, caught between intense relief and intense guilt.

“Things would have been different if we were 15 years younger or if we hadn’t had children already or if we were more financially secure,” she said later. “If I had conceived these twins naturally, I wouldn’t have reduced this pregnancy, because you feel like if there’s a natural order, then you don’t want to disturb it. But we created this child in such an artificial manner — in a test tube, choosing an egg donor, having the embryo placed in me — and somehow, making a decision about how many to carry seemed to be just another choice. The pregnancy was all so consumerish to begin with, and this became yet another thing we could control.”

 Bad Rachel has strong words on the topic.

Off Grid For A Bit

Well...off 'net, anyway. A tweet is not out of the question,though.

Don't Dare Disagree With Steve Driehaus

Here's a frivolous lawsuit that just won't die. ex-Rep. Steve Driehaus has been suing the Susan B. Anthony list for defamation over a billboard they ran in his district. He was a pro-life Democrat who supported Obamacare and they targeted him with this

I was under the impression this was dropped months ago, but no, a federal judge has ruled there's no evidence Obamacare funds abortion, in spite of the White House admitting that it does and, in fact, just added insult to injury when Kathleen Sebelius ruled that all employers and all insurance companies must pay for contraceptives, even abortifiacient methods. (There may be an exception for literal Churches, but not for religiously-affiliated social action groups such as Catholic Charities.Way to respect the free exercise rights of your citizens, Boys!

The President of SBA List, who is threatened with jail time under the Ohio statute if convicted, is a personal friend, so naturally that's my first concern, followed by the chilling implications for free speech for the rest of us. Telling people what's in a bill a politician voted for is not protected speech? Way to respect the free exercise rights of all Americans, boys! 

The judge, who apparently read no newspapers during the prolonged fight over the Stupak amendment, claims he can't find any evidence Obamacare funds abortions, but I just googled "obamacare covers abortions" and came up with 393,000 results, including the fact that the CRS reported the bill permitted abortion funding and the House amendment which would have banned abortion funding was stripped from the final bill. If you strip a funding ban from a bill, it's because you intend the funding to exist!

The judge's assertion that there's no money "appropriated" for abortion is either colossally ignorant or willfully dense. Let him tell us how much is "appropriated" for hip replacements or anti-statin drugs in the bill. Does he think anything not explicitly mentioned isn't covered? Because it would be interesting to discover we just passed a massive, economy-crippling entitlement entitling us to nothing whatsoever (except contraceptives, thanks to our esteemed HHS Secretary). I bet even Grandma doesn't know that's what's in the bill!

On a side note, it is sort of amusing that the judge thinks accusing someone of supporting abortion funding is defamatory. I would like him to elaborate on that, please.

Snakes On A Car

A couple of nights ago I enjoyed getting the willies from an incident in #1 Ladies' Detective Agency during which Mma Ramotswe escapes a cobra which gets entangled in her engine when he darts across the road in front of her. In the course of the account we learn this is a common occurrence in Botswana, and I was praising the Lord once again that I live in the United States. It may be inferior to Botswana in kindness and tribal wisdom, but at least we don't get snakes in moving cars.

Then CMR went and posted this, ripping yet another of my petty securities out from under me. As I was watching it, I happened to put my bare foot down on my computer cord...and jumped halfway to the sky. Which probably means I have to concede Round 2 to the snake.

Update: Brett McS just sent me 87 reasons to re-think my choice of Oz as emergency back-up country. Men laying pipe for a water line found these babies just sitting in one of 'em. /shudders

Please Oh Please Don't Favor Chimeras

I'm on a compleat Alexander McCall Smith bender. I've been waiting to read #1 Ladies' Detective Agency for ages, but it's always checked out of the library, so I went for the three volumes of Two-and-a-Half Pillars of Wisdom (possibly the funniest things I've ever read, but then I am a peculiar sort of person: namely, the kind that finds mocking of the categorical imperative hilarious), followed by La's Orchestra Saves The World, and then my library hold on #1 Ladies & the first two sequels came in. Wonderful stories, each in a very different vein. I've been delighted and impressed.

I'm well aware I'm late to this party, but the guy's featured on NPR so much I was turned off for awhile. (They make everything sound so smarmy.) Anyway, I bring this up because: have you seen the guy's CV by any chance? Turns out before he was an accomplished author (Commander of the British Empire for contributions to literature) he was an expert on medical law and bioethics; wrote the only textbook on the Code of Law in Botswana; co-founded the University of Botswana; taught law at the University of Edinburgh; chaired the British Medical Journal's ethics committee, etc., etc., etc. with more honorary degrees than can be counted, and oh, by the way, started an orchestra in which he plays bassoon, and founded an opera company in Botswana, for which he penned the libretto for their first performance. 

It gets dicey, though. He was also once vice-chairman of the UK's Human Genetics Commission and a member of UNESCO's International Bioethics Commission. Usually the work of the bioethicist is to proclaim that anything Science wants to do is ethical (my Latin minions have helped me dub this logical fallacy empirica ergo moralia, as dubious if not moreso as post hoc propter hoc)  and nothing good can come out of a Genetics Commission. Or UNESCO, for that matter. What if he's on the Dark Side? I would be broken-hearted. I am afraid to look! Though I suppose curiosity will get the better of me by the end of the week.

Post-Google Update: Well. I suppose being on the round-table that produced this paper doesn't necessarily mean he favors its conclusions...though if not, I'd expect a footnote to indicate dissent. Disappointing. I am choosing to interpret the matter as he retired from the Dark Side in favor of literature, where he can be a force for good.

A Good Deal

Bill McGurn 'splains why this debt ceiling bill is a game-changer and Rush and all those who are disappointed are flat wrong. I will also be so bold as to say McCain was right when he made this infamous remark everyone took umbrage at. For the record, he didn't call anyone a hobbit as if that were an insult. His point was that the tea party candidates who were dumping on Boehner as a squish and quashing any deal consider themselves hobbits assaulting Mordor, whereas they'd be better served to understand they are elected officials and there are real limits imposed by the political process. You cannot be 1/3 of the bargaining process and impose terms on others.

From behind-the-scenes reports, I think Boehner has been terrific in these negotiations and has come out victorious in spite of members of his own party undercutting him at every turn. The tea party candidates are great, but sometimes they function like the kind of pro-lifer who won't vote for a bill to ban abortion except in cases of rape and incest because all the babies aren't saved. In politics, you take the victories you can and then work for the next one; you don't try to fix everything in one fell swoop.

Fair Share

Chip Blok

Satan Sandwich

The Chief of the Congressional Black Caucus says the debt deal is a "sugar-coated Satan sandwich." Like that's a bad thing. Separation of Church and state means the government must be neutral between God & Satan, I thought.