Star of the Week

Since I'm taking a tour of the solar system, I might as well mention its most important member. Here she is during a total eclipse. I have never seen a total solar eclipse but I have heard it said that the sun's corona is the most spectacular sight one can ever view.

Like most stars, the sun's output varies over time. The effects of the variation have been observed on the other planets in our system, as well as on the earth. Since the sun is the primary source of all of our light and heat, does it not make sense to consider the variations in its output as a potential cause of the slight warming the earth has experienced (about one degree celsius over the last 150 years)?

Larry "Bud" Melman: 1922 - 2007

R.I.P.

Ugly Moonbat of the Week: Eleanor Clift

She's always acting like she's pissed about something. If I looked like that I wouldn't be very happy either.

Planet of the Week: @!#%$^&$

Oops! Ran out of planets. Have to start on the moons now.

And yes, Pluto is a planet, in spite of what the IAU says. Because I say so.

Stamps of the Week

"Been a long time, since I've rock and rolled..."

Mountain of the Week: Guadalupe Peak

Tallest mountain in Texas.

The Christian Science Monitor Declares Itself Stupid

I knew it wouldn't be long before the lunatics on the left would begin wailing and lamenting the brilliant decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals to strike down DC's ridiculous gun control laws. Indeed, the Christian Science Monitor has done just that, and have also betrayed how little they understand the issue.

That amendment states: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." The wording clearly applies to only the common defense, the high court ruled nearly 70 years ago, with a gun right grounded only in relation to state militias.

And of course if these jarheads at the CSM would bother reading the new decision, they would understand just how eggregiously the supreme court was in error. There is no question as to the founding fathers' intent with regards to the second amendment. It was put there to guarantee individual rights to keep and bear arms.

And now we have got the gun-haters really worried:

Now there's a possibility that a more conservative Supreme Court might endorse this lower-court decision. If so, the justices will need to acknowledge that public safety requires regulation of firearms.

The supreme court has disappointed me so many times (e.g. Kelo case) that I am not going to speculate on what they will do. But I certainly hope that they endorse the recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals. Public safety does not require regulation of firearms. It needs more firearms in the right hands. Law-abiding people should have the right and the means to defend themselves against criminals and against a tyrannical government.

Anyone who wants gun control may move to a country that has gun control. Such people do not deserve to live in a free society.

Was Ghandi Really So Great?

I never knew very much about Ghandi. His name is often referred to in a very reverential manner, as though he is someone to be worshipped. He led India's independence movement from Britain. But the empire shed most of its colonies during the mid-twentieth century anyway. And I always wonder about some guy who ran around in his underwear all the time.

Fred Thompson has a very revealing article about Ghandi in National Review Online:

During World War II, Gandhi penned an open letter to the British people, urging them to surrender to the Nazis. Later, when the extent of the holocaust was known, he criticized Jews who had tried to escape or fight for their lives as they did in Warsaw and Treblinka. “The Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife,” he said. “They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs.” “Collective suicide,” he told his biographer, “would have been heroism.”

Collective suicide is heroism? Hmmmmmmmm..... I would hate to learn what Ghandi would call cowardice.

Now that I think about it, the people whom I recall speaking reverentially of Ghandi were those of the.....well.....you know those people I don't like whom I refer to collectively as the "left". Now it all makes sense. When they're not worshipping butchers like Che Guevara or Mao Tse Tung, they are worshipping half-naked pygmies who advise others to "offer themselves to the butcher's knife".

Hat tip to Powerline. They refer to Ghandi as "the most overrated man of the twentieth century". Perhaps the underwear man should also get an award for the most underrated villain?

More on the Brilliant Court Decision Concerning DC's Gun Ban

John Lott cites some eye-opening statistics concerning crime in DC both before and after the gun ban that occurred in 1976.

In the five years before Washington’s ban in 1976, the murder rate fell from 37 to 27 per 100,000. In the five years after it went into effect, the murder rate rose back up to 35. During this same time, robberies fell from 1,514 to 1,003 per 100,000 and then rose by over 63 percent, up to 1,635. The five-year trends are not some aberration. In fact, while murder rates have varied over time, during the 30 years since the ban, the murder rate has only once fallen below what it was in 1976.

I am amazed by the total lack of any reason or logic on the part of the gun control advocates. What in the world makes them think that someone who is willing to commit murder or armed robbery is going to care about some law banning guns? All that they will accomplish by banning guns will be to take them away from law-abiding people. And this will hurt the poor people who live in rougher neighborhoods much more than anyone else.

The mind boggles.

Planet of the Week: Pluto

Discovered by Ckyde Tombaugh in 1930. Very small and far away, the ninth planet from the sun is difficult to see even with a decent-sized telescope. I have only seen it once and that took several hours of scanning the sky and pouring over star charts, trying to make out a 13th magnitude star in the right place.

Pluto has one large moon: Charon. And two small moons recently discovered: Nix and Hydra. It will be interesting to hear Donald Trump's plans for all this new real estate.

August 24, 2006. A date that will live in infamy. The International Astronomical Union downgraded Pluto's status to "dwarf planet". This was one of the stupidest and most asinine decisions ever made by any scientific body in the history of mankind. I'll bet that every one of the idiots who made that decision will also vote for Hillary for president in 2008.

Victory over communism! The New Mexico state legislature is considering a resolution that will declare Pluto a planet.

Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkey of the Week

Frere Jacques says he is calling it quits as President of France. Well BOOHOO. We're reaslly gonna miss him. Now the frogs might have to settle for someone who is slightly competent. The IBD laments his departure:

By last year, Chirac's stock had fallen so far that his big plan to 'restore' Gallic pride was — no joke — to create a government-funded alternative to Google. Ah, the glory of France.

As a stockholder of Google, I was quaking in my boots at the thought of competing with "Froggle", or whatever they were gonna call it. It just wouldn't be fair, Jacques. Let us poor Americans have at least some tiny part of the internet. Don't hog it all for yourself.

The Oscar-Winning Moonbat

Not content to rest on his laurels from having invented the internet, Owl Gore wants to save us from global warming. The New York Times, of all things, has a good article on how the Dimpled Chad Man has distorted the views of scientists regarding the role of CO2 emissions in global warming.

Whenever I think of how close this jackass came to becoming president, I feel a chill run down my spine. It makes me utter a silent "thank you" to President Bush.

Mountain of the Week: Popocatepetl

Like its sister Iztaccihuatl, El Popo is near Mexico City. This volcano has been active recently.

Victory for the Rights of Law-Abiding Gun Owners in D.C.

HOORAY! The Washington Post reports:

The 2 to 1 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit struck down sections of a 1976 law that bans city residents from having handguns in their homes. The court also overturned the law's requirement that shotguns and rifles be stored disassembled or with trigger locks. The court grounded its unprecedented ruling in the finding that the Second Amendment right to bear arms extends beyond militias to individuals. The activities the Second Amendment protects, the judges wrote, "are not limited to militia service, nor is an individual's enjoyment of the right contingent upon his or continued intermittent enrollment in the militia."

It's about time that the courts started recognizing what the Founding Fathers' true intent was in crafting the second amendment. They were quite clear that it was an individual right, in spite of the way that some idiots have tried to interpret the wording of the amendment. Of course, the socialists at the Post don't see it that way:

If allowed to stand, this radical ruling will inevitably mean more people killed and wounded as keeping guns out of the city becomes harder. Moreover, if the legal principles used in the decision are applied nationally, every gun control law on the books would be imperiled.

It is ridiculous to think that this ruling will mean more people killed or wounded. Someone who is going to use a gun in a crime could care less what the gun control laws say. They only have the effect of disarming law-abiding people. But I do hope that they are correct that every gun control law is now imperiled.

John Lott has more on this.

Read the court decision here. One important exercept:

To summarize, we conclude that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. That right existed prior to the formation of the new government under the Constitution and was premised on the private use of arms for activities such as hunting and self-defense, the latter being understood as either resistance to either private lawlessness or the depredations of a tyrannical government (or a threat from abroad).

Hatemonger: One of My Favorite Blogs

Whenever I get a chance to read the blogs, one of the first ones I go to is Hatemonger. Their crack young staff know how to separate the truth from BS, as evidenced by their insightful post on the recent conviction of Scooter Libby:

It just goes to show you how pathetic is the far Left in this country. Bereft of any significant political victories, our lefty pals must imagine that the conviction of “Scooter” Libby amounts to an indictment of the Bush doctrine, the Republican Party, Dick Cheney, apple pie, the Fine Young Cannibals, &c.

Hatemonger has some of the best political analysis to be found on Al Gore's internet. I give it two thumbs up.

Stamps of the Week: Mauritius Post Office

Issued in 1847, only about two dozen of these little gems still exist. One will set you back about $2 million today.

Planet of the Week: Neptune

The planet's existence and position were predicted by two mathematicians: John Adams and Urbain Leverrier, who studied the orbit of Uranus and realized that there was another planet further out there that was affecting its motions. The actual discovery was made by Johan Galle and Heinrich d'Arrest at the Berlin observatory.

Ivan Safronov Falls Out of a Window

Ivan Safronov, a Russian journalist who was about to report on Russian sales of armaments to terrorist regimes in the middle east, including Iran and Syria, died last friday when he fell out of a window. One would think that Putin's goons would find a more imaginative way to murder him than by accidental defenestration. Perhaps Vladimir should read up on the ways of his hero Joe Stalin:

Allegedly he [Sergo Ordzhonikidze, one of Stalin's closest supporters] had told Stalin it was time to stop the arrests. Stalin responded by sending him three NKVD men, a doctor and a revolver, offering him the choice of suicide or execution. Ordzhonikidze said goodbye to his wife and duly shot himself, whereupon the doctor diagnosed failure of the heart.

Alex de Jonge, "Stalin and the Shaping of the Soviet Union", p. 331.

Reason #3 Why I'm Not Voting for Hillary

The woman is as phony as a three dollar bill. Get a load of this recent speech where the Oinkubus effects a southern drawl. (She's a native of Chicago).

Mountain of the Week: Iztaccihuatl

The name literally means "white woman". It is a dormant volcano near Mexico City.

I named my younger Springer, Daphne Iztaccihuatl, after the mountain.