Wednesday, February 28, 2007


Barack Obama wants to Play Politics With Homeland Security Funds
Barack wants to increase his chances of winning the Democrat nomination by giving more funding to those states who will vote early in the primaries.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama wants to change the government's formula for giving states money for homeland security, with the early voting states getting a little extra.
Obama wants states that have a bigger risk from the terrorist threat to get more of federal homeland security dollars - also a recommendation from the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks. That's an unpopular idea among lawmakers from smaller states who would lose funding on the switch.


Isn't that nice of the little snot?

Sunday, February 25, 2007


Lake Tanganyika
Cichlids from Lake Tanganyika have long been my favorite tropical fish. After a hiatus of many years, I finally got back into them by setting up this 30 gallon tank. The water from my well is hard and alkaline, and is thus ideal for keeping these fish.
I like to keep my tanks lightly stocked. I have two Tropheus moorii Kasabe, three Telmatochromis bifrenatus, and a Synodontis multipunctatus. There are also three feeder minnows that are left over from when I was cycling the tank. They have done well and I am leaving them in there to serve as dither fish.
I feed them well with frozen brine shrimp, Tetramin tropical flakes, and Spirulina flakes. I do a 4 gallon water change at least twice a week. Filtration using a Penguin biowheel. Temperature stays at a constant 80 degrees fahrenheit.
I have kept Tropheus before, but this is my first time with Telmatochromis. They are very similar in form and behavior to Julidochromis but not quite so vicious. The Tropheus and the Telmatochromis ignore each other, concentrating their attentions to their own species.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Multicuturalism in Scotland

Western Resistance has an excellent article written by a man in Scotland who tells of his experiences with muslim immigrants.

I had friends in Glasgow a hundred miles North I decided to head up and look at opportunities. ....It began the first night, the upstairs neighbours began shouting and screaming, a man was hitting his wife, the noise was unbearable, they were Pakistani, the area was home to the largest Pakistani Muslim community in Scotland. I had looked at the area and was bedazzled by the ornate Georgian architecture; I had forgotten to take a look at the more important social dimension.
Pollokshields is large area, E Pollokshileds where I live is majority Pakistani Muslim neighbourhood. I walked the streets I smiled at my neighbours they mostly ignored me. A car drove by one day a youth stuck their head out of a car and shouted, "White bastard" at me. A week later I noticed a young man driving aggressively on to a junction nearly hitting another oncoming motorist, he jumped out of his car shouted "White Bitch" at the driver then sped off. The same week I was walking past my Local Park, I watched as a young boy off about eight was chased from the Park crying by two young UK Pakistanis, I shouted as the boy was obviously very distressed, the other boys looked at me confused, and shouted something in another language I did not understand.

And it gets even worse:

Well a week after that mid March 2004 a young Native Glaswegian boy was abducted, at the end of my street by four Pakistani Muslims, tortured and then burned alive, I won't go into details but as you may know Kriss Donald suffered an horrific death and for no apparent reason whatsoever other than he was white.

This Scottish Ladd draws his conclusions about the "religion of peace":

I have learned a lot, I have lived with the Muslims, I have learned that they have no desire to integrate into European culture or the European value system, I have learned that they have no interest in UK culture or anything else, they have Islam. Islam consumes them, it owns them, and it is them. That is what they are they are Muslim, a Muslim is loyal to Islam, Islam is a theocratic ideology, its goal is the spread of Allah's will, this task is the task of all Muslims. Muslims engage with us the "Kuffar" Not because they want to, but because they have to, if they did not have to they wouldn't.

And we hear similar stories from others who have their encounters with the Religion of Peace.

Hat tip to small dead animals.


Mountain of the Week
Mount Erebus, in Antarctica. I'll bet it gets really cold up there.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007


Stamp of the Week: Two Penny Blue
The second stamp to hit the scene. These was first issued just a few days after the penny black.
It's interesting how both Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Philip are both descendants of this woman (Victoria). We could compute the coefficient of inbreeding for the royal family.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007


Planet of the week: Uranus
Besides being the butt of Starship Enterprise jokes, it's the seventh planet from the sun. It can be seen as a very faint star with the naked eye if you know exactly where to look. Even a large telescope will not reveal much.

I'm Orca, Fly Me
There is no way that I will ever get on a plane that looks like a beached whale. I would rather walk.
Thomas Lifson at The American Thinker has an excellent essay on the woes of Airbust....er, Airbus: The Self-Humiliation of Airbus.
The root of the problem with Airbus is government interference in the business.
Sadly, the US federal government also gets involved in Boeing's business, although it is to a much lesser extent than the Europeans do with Airbus. Of course, part of Boeing's business is defense contracting, for which it is impossible for the government to avoid. But Uncle Sam should stay out of the commercial aircraft business.
Lifson has valid point when he says:


American partisans of Boeing should take no comfort, though. The world desperately needs viable competition in this business.

Very true. Lockheed left the commercial jetliner business years ago, and McDonnell-Douglas is no more. We need competition in the industry which is only a duopoly at this moment.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Washington's Resignation Speech

One of the most important events of history occurred when George Washington relinquished his control of the Continental Army in 1783, to return to private life. He could have been king of the USA had he so chosen, but he singlehandedly decided that we would have a democracy in the USA.

Here is the original draft of the speech he made in Maryland that day.

Can anyone picture any of the heroes of the left, like Castro, Guevara, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, or even Bill Clinton doing such a thing after having acquired such power by commanding the US army to victory? Of course not. The left despise Washington and most universities don't even celebrate his birthday or Lincoln's birthday as holidays any more.

Hat tip to Blue Crab Boulevard.

Saturday, February 17, 2007


Mountain of the Week
Pike's Peak. This one is a bit easier to climb than the others.

Baldy of the Week
Britney needs a new stylist.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

PETA Terrorists Target Phillipine Pork Eaters

Not content to limit their harassment to just Americans, the scum at PETA are taking their freak show to the Phillipines.

I hope that no one is fooled by these terrorist scum. They could care less about animals. They just want to spread trouble and lunacy. Many of their members also have ties to violent groups such as ELF (Earth Liberation Front) and ALF (Animal Liberation Front). Moreover, Ingrid Newkirk, their president, once advocated starting an epidemic of foot and mouth disease (an illness that can kill cattle) here in the USA.













Stamps of the Week


First two official U.S. stamps. Issued from 1847 to 1851. Too bad they had to put these ugly old men on them.






Her Thighness Buys an Endorsement
Hillary Clinton has had her hopes for the Democrat nomination bolstered by the endorsement of South Carolina state senator Darryl Jackson. This occurred just days after her campaign agreed to pay his consulting firm nearly $200,000.


Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign reached a deal to pay a key South Carolina black leader's consulting firm more than $200,000 just days before he agreed to endorse her run for president, it was revealed yesterday.
The arrangement involves South Carolina state Sen. Darrell Jackson, a well-connected African-American leader and pastor whose support is coveted by national campaigns.

Will we hear much about this in the lamestream media? Don't hold your breath. They're only going to report negative news about McCain, Romney, or Giuliani.


Hole of the Week
Meteor crater just outside Winslow, Arizona. If you're ever in that part of the state, don't miss it. It's better than the Grand Canyon.
Anti-Americanism

Janet Albrechtson has written an excellent essay in the Australian: "Protector of the free world deserves better."



But the problem with what Martin Amis calls the rodeo of anti-Americanism drawing crowds across the globe is that the antagonism is fuelled not just by what America does but also, in no small part, by what America is. It's here that rationality vanishes among even the most intelligent Westerners. British author Margaret Drabble summed it up thus: "My anti-Americanism has become almost uncontrollable. It has possessed me like a disease. It rises in my throat like acid reflux."

And we hear of the desire of the America haters to bring the USA to heel:

And so Norwegian Nobel laureate Knut Hamsun hated the US for being too big and too fast. Anti-Americanism has morphed into a desire to bring America to heel, something that coincides with the goal of Islamists. But if the big, fast rich guy retreats, it's worth asking who will step up to the plate when the West needs things fixed. The dawdling burghers of Europe may recall that small and slow did not help the Kuwaitis, Bosnian Muslims, Kosovars, Afghanis or the tsunami victims.

Janet has more words of wisdom:

But the distinguishing features of anti-Americanism are its intellectual dishonesty and irrationality. US malevolence is assumed, not proven.
So the Islamic world will complain the US is anti-Muslim while overlooking Bosnia. Europeans regularly overlook the fact that American power, resolve and, yes, idealism, delivered them from both Nazism and communism. Nor, when they nip down to the corner store for some foie gras in their BMWs or Citroens, do they remember the contribution the Marshall Plan made to their postwar prosperity.

I think Janet is missing something here. Remember that many Europeans really wanted nazism and communism. Perhaps that is one of the reasons for much of the anti-Americanism

Wednesday, February 14, 2007


Planet of the Week: Saturn
What a beauty.

The Right to Bear Arms
"To preserve Liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." (Richard Henry Lee, Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress, and member of the first Continental Congress, which passed the Bill of Rights)
Without our right to bear arms, we would have no other rights. The government would treat us like so many cattle. You can see how racists like Ray Nagin would act if they could get away with it.
Victory for Second Amendment Rights

As you will recall, the Second Amendment Foundation and National Rifle Association filed a lawsuit against Ray Nagin, the racist mayor of New Orleans, and police superintendant Riley for the illegal seizure of guns from law-abiding citizens during the days following the devastation of hurricane Katrina. Now the judge in the case has found Nagin and Riley in contempt of court:


BELLEVUE, WA – A United States District Judge in New Orleans has granted a motion to hold Mayor C. Ray Nagin and Police Superintendent Warren Riley in contempt for failure to provide initial disclosures and answers to discovery in a lawsuit filed by the Second Amendment Foundation.
Judge Carl J. Barbier issued a blistering rebuke to New Orleans’ defense counsel for conduct that is “wholly unprofessional” and warned that it “shall not be condoned.” Judge Barbier ordered defense counsel to reimburse SAF’s attorney $1,365. SAF is joined in the lawsuit by the National Rifle Association.

What is even worse is the manner in which the guns were seized by the police:

“They seem to forget that we went to court over a serious civil rights violation,” Gottlieb continued. “In the days following Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans dispatched police officers and National Guard troopers to confiscate firearms. In many cases, citizens were disarmed at gunpoint, without warrant and without probable cause. Nagin and Riley, and every other official in New Orleans who was part of this outrage, need to understand that the Constitution may not be suspended in New Orleans or anywhere else by a natural disaster, or on somebody’s whim.

Beware, there are many people out there who would take your rights away in a heartbeat. Nagin and Riley are two of them.

Saturday, February 10, 2007


Stamp of the Week: Inverted Airmail
Flying upside down can earn you $200,000

Mountain of the Week: K2

Friday, February 09, 2007



The Cowboys Have a New Coach




Wade Phillips is the new coach. He is a plausible choice. It's interesting how the Cowboys had just one coach for their first thirty years while Clint Murchison and H. R. Bright were the owners. And since Jerry Jones bought the team, they have had six: Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer, Chan Gailey, Dave Campo, Bill Parcells, and now Wade.


Unlike many Cowboys fans, I was not upset when Tom Landry was replaced in 1989. I was living in Dallas back then and many of the faithful felt like Jones had blasphemed the Holy Spirit. Jones could have handled the firing better but Landry had had several losing seasons and it was clearly time for him to go. And Jimmy Johnson's stunning successes vindicated that decision.


But I still miss Tom Landry. There was something special about having that man with the funny hat standing on the sideline. You knew that there was good football being played.

Thursday, February 08, 2007


Do Stock Investors Cushion the Impact of a Recession?

In the above graph, the upper line shows what happened to real GDP during the 2001 recession. It was a very brief, mild recession. Perhaps one of the reasons why it was so mild was because stock owners took their time selling off their stocks. 18 months elapsed between the peak of the business cycle and the minimum stock price as measured by the S&P 500.
I estimated a dynamic macroeconomic model in four variable: GDP, interest rates, investment, and stock prices. Then I estimated what would happen if stock investors immediately sold off their stocks as soon as the recession began. The lower line shows what the model estimates would have happened to GDP. The recession would have been six times worse than it actually was.
Anyone who is interested may see the paper here.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Surprise, Surprise!

It's no big surprise that Dr. Timothy Ball's credentials would be called into question after his article in the Canada Free Press questioned the fashionable theories behind global warming.

If you look at the history of the left, that's the only type of arguments that they ever use: Ad hominem attacks, outright lies, half-truths, and insults. They use such tactics on every subject, including gun control, racist "affirmative action" policies, and government intervention in the economy.

Dr. Ball has a Ph.D. in geography with a specialization in climatology from the University of London. And even more important, he is someone who thinks for himself and isn't afraid to call things as he sees them.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Global Warming is not due to human contribution of Carbon Dioxide

I read an excellent article by Canadian climatologist Timothy Ball today. A few excerpts:


Believe it or not, Global Warming is not due to human contribution of Carbon Dioxide (CO2). This in fact is the greatest deception in the history of science. We are wasting time, energy and trillions of dollars while creating unnecessary fear and consternation over an issue with no scientific justification.

So what is causing the ever-so-slight warming trend?

The world has warmed since 1680, the nadir of a cool period called the Little Ice Age (LIA) that has generally continued to the present. These climate changes are well within natural variability and explained quite easily by changes in the sun. But there is nothing unusual going on.

The only thing unusual going on is the mass hysteria caused by the global warming zealots.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Palestinian W. Bank residents: 'We don't deserve a state'

As the fighting continues in Gaza, we hear again from the Religion of Peace:


"Everyone here is disgusted by what's happening in the Gaza Strip," said Shireen Atiyeh, a 30-year-old mother of three working in one of the Palestinian Authority ministries. "We are telling the world that we don't deserve a state because we are murdering each other and destroying our universities, colleges, mosques and hospitals. Today I'm ashamed to say that I'm a Palestinian."

Hmmmm.....

Hafez Barghouti, editor of the PA-funded daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, said he was concerned that the fighting would tarnish the image of the Palestinians. "Tens of millions of people now look at us as worthless gangsters with no values," he complained.

There's just one thing I don't understand. How come all those self-proclaimed intelligent, nuanced, denizens of the Left haven't spun this as Bush's fault? Isn't there some global warming angle? They must be slipping.