So You Say

…again.

Study finds strong warming tie to hurricanes
Half of Atlantic temperature increase in 2005 linked to global rise

But then why is the Atlantic measurably cooler this year?

In 2006, temperatures in the Atlantic were slightly* warmer than average, particularly in the Caribbean, but strong southwest trade winds stirred the Gulf of Mexico, keeping the surface waters cool, said Adamec. In 2005, by contrast, the entire hurricane-prone section of the Atlantic was much warmer* than average. In fact, at the opening of the 2006 hurricane season, sea surface temperatures were 2 degrees cooler* than they had been at opening of the 2005 season, said Adamec. The warm temperatures in 2005 allowed a record seven storms to form by the end of July, one of which, Hurricane Emily, set records when it became the first category 5 hurricane to occur in July. All other Atlantic storms of that strength have developed later in the season.

*ths
So, what…?

Maybe less fat polar bears heating things up?

Read more »

Hasta

…la vista.

The Supreme Court on Thursday dealt a blow to longtime illegal residents, ruling that a deported Mexican man who lived in the United States for 20 years is barred from seeking legal residency or other relief in the courts.
By an 8-1 vote, justices said that Humberto Fernandez-Vargas, who was deported several times from the 1970s to 1981, is subject to a 1996 law Congress passed to streamline the legal process for expelling aliens who have been deported at least once before and returned.

Sounds like they’re pretty together on this one.

Whose Side is This Guy On?

As if we didn’t already know.

…More than 600 people, mostly militants, have been killed in recent weeks as insurgents have launched their deadliest campaign of violence in years.
…“It is not acceptable for us that in all this fighting, Afghans are dying. In the last three to four weeks, 500 to 600 Afghans were killed. (Even) if they are Taliban, they are sons of this land,” he said.

Mr. Karzai seems to have forgotten why he needs his bodyguards. And, if memory serves me correctly, while those cuddly Taliban were in power, he wasn’t exactly their best friend after the initial kissy fest…

In 1997, Karzai joined many of his family members in United States, from where he worked to reinstate Zahir Shah. His father was assassinated, presumably by Taliban agents, July 14, 1999, and Karzai swore revenge against the Taliban by working to help overthrow them.

He ran away. No doubt this latest, largely coalition operation is screwing up mutually agreed to plans to leave certain caves unexplored, as in the oh-so-successful joint U.S.-Afghani Operation Anaconda. (Remember that one?)

Of the 2,000 coalition troops involved, about half are Afghan forces whose primary mission is to block al Qaeda and Taliban forces from leaving the area, Franks said.

Dashing mujahadeen scampering about the moutainside on horseback ~ hither, thither, to and fro ~ as Omar and Osama get safely to Pakistan. The Tora Bora Backstab. Karzai’s probably gonna owe some serious chips for not being able to control this present purge. And, like Omar’s singular gaze, he also seems to have a blind spot about certain other citizens in his rush to embrace those ‘sons of this land‘.

A War on Schoolgirls
Unable to win on the battlefield, the Taliban are fighting to prevent half the country’s children from getting an education.
Summer vacation has only begun, but as far as 12-year-old Nooria is concerned, the best thing is knowing she has a school to go back to in the fall. She couldn’t be sure the place would stay open four months ago, after the Taliban tried to burn it down. Late one February night, more than a dozen masked gunmen burst into the 10-room girls’ school in Nooria’s village, Mandrawar, about 100 miles east of Kabul. They tied up and beat the night watchman, soaked the principal’s office and the library with gasoline, set it on fire and escaped into the darkness. The townspeople, who doused the blaze before it could spread, later found written messages from the gunmen promising to cut off the nose and ears of any teacher or student who dared to return.

For all his technicolor robes, Mr. Karzai is barely two steps from the Stone Age cave where Mullah Omar’s beady eye is watching water drip. That omission is hardly surprising, though, as it appears to be…

The Middle East Muslim Male Meme:
Lose a war ~ terrorize little girls.
WIN a war ~ overwhelm the women.

This is really the face of the deal we make with the devil in those Islamic snake pits. They turn on each other and back again as easily as 5 year olds fall in and out of best-friendships. The only difference is the body count.

What WMDs? We Don’t See No Steenkin’ WMDs!

I started reading about this yesterday

Emerging buzz seems to be focused on why it took so long to release info about 500 chemical-weapons shells found in Iraq. Allah’s got video of Santorum and chock full of links.

CNN is completely ignoring it, naturally. Drudge is more concerned about Dan Rather.
The BBC is ignoring it, as well.
Let’s see how it plays out.
Gateway Pundit has a good round-up of the info available.

Bomb Class At 9 AM; Home-Wreck Is At 11

Tim Blair has a report on a nice Jihadi Academy that your earthquake relief dollars may be supporting:

SCHOOL PRINCIPAL ABDUL HADI: Do for Allah.
CHILDREN: Do for Allah. Do for Allah. Do for Allah. Do for Allah. Do for Allah. Do … for … Allah. Do … for … Allah. Die … for … Allah. Die … for … Allah. Die for Allah. Die for Allah. Give for Allah. Die for Allah. Obey for Allah. Give for Allah. Pray for Allah.

I wonder if they set that to music?

REPORTER: The American Government says they should be banned? And that they say that they’re… What do you say about that?
BACHT NAWAZ: Ah, I should say that these people – about Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the people who have been working for us – they are so polite, they are so humble, they are so honest, they are so nice, that it will be injustice if the America asks for the ban on them, Jamaat-ud-Dawa. They are very humble, they don’t harm the people, who are innocent people. If they are fighting for the freedom, for the people who are under oppression, then it is OK.

Well, I’m glad we know when it “is OK.”

I’m No Big Phan Of Phat Phil’s…

But I completely disagree with Shipnuck on this:

Wanna know why Phil Mickelson lost the Open? He was having too much fun. The U.S. Open is not supposed to be fun, but he spent most of last week romping around like a schoolboy enjoying the first week of summer.

I think it’s great that Phil was interacting with the fans, signing autographs, setting up writers on dates. I wish more stars at his level showed such care for the fans; you know, the people who pay their salaries.
Good for him.

He’s Not Ronery

Say “Hello” to Kim Jon-Il’s heir, Kim Jong-Chol

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il’s son and heir apparent, Kim Jong-Chol, toured Germany earlier this month to see concerts by rock star Eric Clapton.
Fuji TV broadcast secretly filmed footage showing a man resembling Kim Jong-Chol accompanied by his apparent girlfriend and several North Korean bodyguards.

Perhaps instead of Jimmy Carter, next time we need a Special Envoy to North Korea I suggest we send Arnold Schwarzenegger, since Jong-Chol may be literally a bit of a, um…girly man:

Seoul’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper said Jong-Chol traveled to France and other European countries earlier this month to visit a hospital. Jong-Chol reportedly suffers from a rare illness that results in his body producing excessive amounts of female hormones.

“Sigh. Why can’t everyone be intelligent like me?”

A Surprise Out of the EU-US Summit

A pretty stinging rebuke…of U.S. critics.

“That’s absurd,”Bush snapped at a news conference in response to an assertion that the United States was regarded as the biggest threat to global security.”We’ll defend ourselves, but at the same time we’re actively working with our partners to spread peace and democracy.
Unbidden, Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel rose with an impassioned defense that seemed to surprise the president.
“I think it’s grotesque to say that America is a threat to the peace in the world compared with North Korea, Iran, a lot of countries,”Schuessel said. Europe would not enjoy peace and prosperity if not for U.S. help after World War II, he said.

What the good Chancellor said (and I’ll paraphrase here, as I can’t find the transcript yet) was that he’d been born in ’45 and Europe was in ruins. The United States spent billions of dollars and many years to raise an enemy up into freedom and prosperity.

“Where,” he asked “would Europe be now without the United States?”

Indeed. Thank you, sir.
UPDATE: The Gateway Pundit (As I knew he would!) tracked down the whole thing! Read and be truly amazed:

CHANCELLOR SCHÜSSEL: Let me add — let me add something. I think Austria is really a good example to show that America has something to do with freedom, democracy, prosperity, development. Don’t forget I was born in ’45. At that time, Vienna and half of Austria laid in ruins. And without the participation of America, what fate would have Europe? Where would be Europe today? Not the peaceful, prosperous Europe like we love it and where we live.
Nothing — I will never forget that America fed us with food, with economic support. The Marshall Plan was an immense aid and incentive to develop industry, agriculture, tourism. And by the way, I said it to the President, the Marshall Fund is still working in Austria. It’s now transformed into a kind — in a fund for research and development — still working.
The American people, at that time, the American government invested billions of dollars in Europe to develop the former enemy. And now we are a partner. So I think it’s grotesque to say that America is a threat to the peace in the world compared with North Korea, Iran, other countries.

Our Library System’s So Pitiful

…I’m not sure we’re faced with such choices.

Grisham En Espanol? No Mas for Ga. Library
The library system in this suburban Atlanta county says no mas – it won’t buy any more thrillers, romance novels or other works of adult fiction in Spanish.
The decision has angered Hispanic leaders and thrust Gwinnett County – where one out of six residents is Hispanic – into the nation’s immigration debate.
Last week, the library board in this fast-growing county of 700,000 people eliminated the $3,000 that had been set aside to buy Spanish-language fiction in the coming fiscal year. It offered no explanation, but the chairman said such book purchases would lead readers of other foreign languages to demand the same treatment.

But, having said that, with the nickel and a half they do spend in an attempt to keep us marginally literate, English would be a good choice.

I Could Tell You For $115

Larry Ellison of Oracle stiffs Harvard.

“He was enthusiastic and I am deeply committed to this project,” said Prof Murray. “Right now we just don’t know whose health systems are working and what should be done to improve health, which is one of the largest sectors in the economy globally.”
A spokesman for Mr Ellison at Oracle refused to comment yesterday.

Okay ~ back off the Big Macs, drink more and eat only dark chocolate. No white after Labor Day.
And cancel your AOL subscription.
Academic barnacles.

You Can Get Online

…but you can never leave.

How hard can it be to cancel an AOL account?
One man’s frustrating call, caught on tape, resounds in the blogosphere
…CNBC later interviewed Ferrari by phone about his experience. “I’ve never ever experienced anything like that,” he said.
He recounts how the AOL representative as a last resort even asked if his dad was home.
“I think I could’ve put up with everything, but at the point when he asked to speak to my father, I came very close to losing it at that point,” said 30-year-old Ferrari.

UPDATE: Vincent’s Blog and THE PHONE CALL.

AOL Guy: I don’t know what anyone’s done to you, Vincent…
Vincent: You’re annoying the SHIT out of me, that’s what you’re doing.

Good Lord, Vincent. You win a Warm Swill jelly donut for not going berserk.

Warm Up The Enola Gay

I’m just so disgusted by the way those poor men were butchered by the “insurgents” that my usual standards of christian restraint are being sorely tested. I basically at this point still want to turn the whole place into glass, to be quite frank.
Which led me to mention in a conversation today whether Paul Tibbets was still alive (he is, actually) and whether at 91 he could still pilot the Enola Gay and deliver the package. My google search turned up the following quote from Tibbets which gave me a good black humor laugh:

“We’ve never fought a damn war anywhere in the world where they didn’t kill innocent people. If the newspapers would just cut out the shit: ‘You’ve killed so many civilians.’ That’s their tough luck for being there.” – Paul Tibbets to Studs Terkel, 2002

Heh.

Gee, Thanks For The Vote Of Confidence, Angelina

She makes a stunning statement:

“Just because you’re a Republican doesn’t mean you don’t care about children.”

I’m sure she will be swiftly and roundly criticized for such heresy.

NK Missile Status

So now NK wants “direct negotiations” with the US about this

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea said Wednesday it wants direct talks with the United States over its apparent plans to test-fire a long-range missile, a day after the country issued a bristling statement in which it declared its right to carry out the launch.
Tensions in the region have soared following intelligence reports that the North was fueling a ballistic missile believed capable of reaching U.S. territory. The United States and Japan have said they could consider sanctions against the impoverished state and push the U.N. Security Council for retaliatory action should the launch go ahead.

In other words, they’re trying the old “bribe-us-to-be-good” bit which worked out so well for us with Envoy Jimmeh the last time. I hope we keep saying ‘get stuffed.’

“North Korea as a sovereign state has the right to develop, deploy, test fire and export a missile,” he said. “We are aware of the U.S. concerns about our missile test-launch. So our position is that we should resolve the issue through negotiations.”

This is really the key, isn’t it? This is the point that Bush has grasped and all too much of the West sputters on: in this day of widespread high technology and weapons that can deal death to millions half a world away can we still afford to allow nations that we can not trust to develop and export, let alone use, such weapons? I’m sorry, but the answer is quite simply “no.” We can not allow weapons of mass destruction to be built around the world, and we can not allow countries to export delivery systems for them. It is insane. The West needs to shake off its instinctive anti-US twitch and realize just what is at stake here.
Why is it that the very people who screamed the loudest for the US to destroy its nuclear weapon stocks and marched with all those paper mache heads in the 80s are now seemingly using those heads to think as they scream for Iran’s and North Korea’s “right” to have nuclear weapons of their own?
And we are the reckless cowboys?

I’m Watching “Team America” Again Tonight

Because I want to see a lot of bastards like this

and this

die.
A lot.

Two Soldiers Found Dead

Looks like those poor men have been found.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — An Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman said Tuesday that two U.S. soldiers missing since Friday have been found dead, Reuters reported.
U.S. military authorities in Baghdad told CNN they could not confirm the report.
“The two soldiers were killed and they were found in Yusufiya near an electricity plant,” Major General Abdul Aziz Mohammed told a news conference in Baghdad, Reuters said.

Let’s hope we get the bastards that did this.
And our prayers for these young men and their families.
ths UPDATE: Oh, God. You knew we were going to hear this, but I was hoping against hope we wouldn’t. That they’d find them and get them out. Double your prayers to their families, for strength in bearing what they’re going to learn.
Update and Bump: The bodies were booby trapped

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — The bodies of two U.S. soldiers found in Iraq Monday night were mutilated and booby-trapped, military sources said Tuesday.
…The bodies also had been desecrated, and a visual identification was impossible — part of the reason DNA testing was being conducted to verify their identities, the sources said.
Not only were the bodies booby-trapped, but homemade bombs also lined the road leading to the victims, an apparent effort to complicate recovery efforts and target recovery teams, the sources said.
It took troops 12 hours to clear the area of roadside bombs. One of the bombs exploded, but there were no injuries.

I know this is the reaction they want to provoke, but I freely admit it’s a good thing there are no weapons within my reach right now. Bastards.

Gulf War Rumors

Another one of those reports that you get nervous about:

Less than a month ago I posted on the military preparation going on in the Gulf.
Additional elements are pointing towards the seriousness of the preparation in place. For instance Qatar helped by the IAEA and Western nuclear powers is putting in place a defense plan against nuclear radiations.
Also Assafir reported that Gulf monarchies just finished preparing an emergency plan in case of a blockade of the Strait of Ormuz, which Iran has threatened to block. The Gulf Countries Transportation Ministers have signed on the plan which consists in using alternate ports for mostly oil transport.
Finally most Arab countries are furious about the very close rapprochement between Iran and Syria. In fact, just a few days ago, the Defense Ministers of these two countries inked a military agreement to protect themselves against ” US and Zionist threats”. This agreement entails that if one of the two is attacked then the other one will come to the rescue.
Skies are definetely getting darker again in that region…

But I’m not sure that “most Arab countries are furious ” helps us in any way, because they still hate us more. Oh sure, they’ll gladly have us solve problems for them but we can’t expect any thanks.

It may seem like a small thing…..

but next time you contact you Congressman/Senators, tell them to vote yes on House Bill 4806, the Military Toy Replica Act, when it comes before them. I mostly build model cars these days, but do the occasional tank or aircraft. And the licensing has just about killed the model car hobby. Don’t let it kill the rest of the model hobby.

Rock, Paper, Scissors

Resident Druid that I am, even I have a problem with this.

Participants at this summer’s national meeting of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will be asked to ratify a paper that says the Trinity is female.
The 217th General Assembly will be asked to ratify the 40-page report, “God’s Love Overflowing,” which suggests “Mother, Child and Womb” as terms equally appropriate to “Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”
“In recent years new ways of speaking of the Trinity in the prayer and theology of the church have been proposed,” the report states. “Some of these proposals are helpful; some are unsatisfactory. What must be clear is that we cannot distinguish the persons of the Trinity simply by assigning different attributes or acts to each of the persons. The divine attributes are held in common by all three persons: all are holy, all are loving, all are wise and powerful. Similarly, an action of God cannot be restricted to one of the three persons. All of the acts of the triune God are indivisible.”
…”In praising the triune God we use biblical language, both classic – Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and surprising – Mother, Child, and Womb,” the report says. “We may use words that speaks of the inner relations of the Godhead – Lover, Beloved, Love, and those that speak of the loving activity of the Three among us – Creator, Savior, Sanctifier, Rock, Redeemer, Friend, King of Glory, Prince of Peace, Spirit of Love.”

According to an AP report this morning (which I canNOT find online), the delegates voted yesterday to “receive” this policy paper “on gender-inclusive language for the Trinity, a step short of approving it”.

“This does not alter the church’s theological position, but provides an educational resource to enhance the spiritual life of our membership,” legislative committee chair Nancy Olthoff, an Iowa laywoman, said during Monday’s debate on the Trinity.

Church officials get to propose ‘experimental liturgies with alternative phrasings for the Trinity’. In my jaundiced eye, that’s all well and good, inclusive and cutting edge but…anything that leaves “Son” out of it sort of defeats the whole point of “Christian”, does it not? Jesus was a real, LIVE person, not a “fill-in-the-blank” concept.
UPDATE HAH! The AP link, thanks to Bingley’s beady eyes and Mark in Mexico. Now, who the hell is St. Athanasius?

Read more »

In Knowing, There is Peace

And after 60 years, closure.

U.S. WWII Sub Appears to Have Been Found
For 60 years, Nancy Kenney wondered what happened to her father. The submarine that William T. Mabin was in disappeared while he and his crewmates were on a mission to attack a Japanese convoy in the last months of World War II.

Now, the Navy says a wreck found at the bottom of the Gulf of Thailand appears to be the sub, the USS Lagarto.

North Korean Missles

Well, we’ll just have to see how this pans out. If they launch, will we try and shoot it down? Can we dare not to?
None of these scenarios is terribly appealing.
Good thing we gave them the nuke technology, huh?

At Least You’re Safe in Your ICU Bed

… when those New Jersey taxes cause a cardiac arrest……for now.

Earlier Monday, Mr. Corzine backed away from a plan that would have brought in $430 million by taxing hospital beds in the state, conceding in a morning radio interview that the plan was dead. “I’ve relented on that,” Mr. Corzine said in an interview on WKXW-FM, 101.5. “There are fights you’re going to have. That isn’t the biggest part of my budget. And it’s out.”

And it was a humdinger of a plan, too.

…Gov. Jon S. Corzine in his proposed budget called for a monthly tax on hospitals at a rate of about $1,400 per bed. Half of the $430 million raised would go to the state’s general fund for a variety of programs. The other half would be used to increase the amount of matching funds the state receives from the federal government under the Medicaid program, which covers health-care costs of the poor.

You all sure can pick ’em.

The NOLA Police

Are they useless or what?

NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Acting at the mayor’s request, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Monday she would send National Guard troops and state police to patrol the streets of New Orleans after a bloody weekend in which six people were killed.

Now I am glad that Mayor Noggin did this, as it will give them a chance to get reorganized and get some seemingly sadly needed efficiency…esprit…heck, I don’t know, but that police force sure seems to need something. Is there any reason why the top brass in the department should not be canned? Imean, first there was their disgraceful action in the wake of Katrina, and now look at this:

The police force has been operating with depleted ranks. It has about 1,375 officers, compared with about 1,750 before Katrina. The city’s pre-Katrina population of 465,000 has rebounded to about half its size.

Depeleted ranks my left, er, foot. Before Katrina there were roughly 266 residents per officer. Now there are roughly 169 residents per officer. And things are worse?
Now I realize that the efficacy of a police force also depends heavily on the civic spirit of the populace; if the general population does not respect the political leadership and the police then they will not tend to respect the laws and the city will be very difficult to keep safe and orderly. This seems to me to be a perfect chance for Noggin to show that he is indeed a ‘reform’ mayor who can restore order and respect for the law.
However, it seems that the NOLA police chief is more concerned about the image to tourists than he is in building trust with the residents:

Riley assured residents that the Guard was “not coming in and taking over the city.”
“You will have to look for them to find them,” Riley said. “They will not be uptown, downtown or in the French Quarter. Our people will be there. This will allow us to have more of our people there.”

In other words, if you live here we will treat you like a criminal and have the Guard posted by you, but please come and spend money here and chat with the fat friendly cop on Bourbon Street.
Doesn’t sound like a formula for success to me, but more like a way to shift some blame to the Guard when things don’t work out.
Update: Michelle Malkin hits this from another angle.

The Duke Rape Case

…in some deep, DEEP doo-doo. MSNBC’s Dan Abrams has gotten his hands on the prosecution documents and they don’t add up. VIDEO here. One of his most interesting points? NOT the inconsistencies of the accuser’s story, medical reports, etc. but…

“…When you look at of the dates on some of the documents that were subpoenaed by the prosecution, you have the DA making statements about them before he even had access to them. Making statements about this case well before, it would seem, he’d even seen alot of the evidence.“

Add today’s news to the headline story in Newsweek:

The prosecutor insists his rape case is strong. One big problem: the facts thus far.

…with it’s litany of prosecutorial arrogance…

…The media coverage of the case has been enormous. NEWSWEEK put the mug shots of two of the players—Reade Seligmann, 20, and Collin Finnerty, 19—on its cover the week after they were indicted. Some early accounts raised doubts about the guilt of the players, but the story more typically played as a morality tale of pampered jocks gone wild. Lately, as more evidence from police or medical reports have been filed or cited in court documents by defense lawyers, the national and local media have been raising questions about Nifong’s conduct of the case and his motivations.
Asked for an interview last week by NEWSWEEK, Nifong declined, but sent an angry e-mail accusing the national media of getting spun by defense lawyers and sticking to his earlier comments to the press. “None of the ‘facts’ I know at this time, indeed, none of the evidence I have seen from any source, has changed the opinion that I expressed initially,” he wrote. He lashed out at “media speculation” (adding, “and it is even worse on the blogs“). He said that he was bound by ethics rules against commenting any more about the case or evidence.
…Nifong called the lacrosse players “hooligans” who were stonewalling. In fact, when police asked the three co-captains who rented the house to come down to the station for questioning two days after the incident, all of them readily agreed. None tried to get a lawyer and all volunteered to take lie-detector tests (the police declined their offer).
…Later, Roberts changed her story and said that a rape might possibly have taken place. But that was after Nifong had helped her get favorable bail treatment for violating probation (she had pleaded guilty to embezzlement charges in another case). Roberts later contacted rap star Lil’ Kim’s publicist “for any advice as to how to spin this to my advantage.”

Read the whole thing. It will curdle your blood. He’ll get re-elected on the ruin of those three lives.

Dutch Pantser Unit Spotted

Good thing it’s summer:

Football’s governing body has explained why up to 1,000 Dutch fans watched a World Cup tie wearing no trousers.
Around 1,000 fans arrived for the Ivory Coast tie in their traditional bright orange trousers – but bearing the logo and name of a Dutch brewery.
To protect the rights of the official beer they were denied entry, so the male fans promptly removed the trousers and watched the game in underpants.

(h/t to Lamplighter)
And that official beer?
Budweiser.
blech