Better Than Congress

Today's Rasmussen poll places President Bush's popularity higher than the approval ratings for Congress.

Twenty percent (20%) of Americans give Congress a good or excellent rating these days. The latest Rasmussen Reports survey found that 41% say the nation’s legislators are doing a fair job while 38% say poor.

In addition, most Americans have Congress accurately pegged.

Thirteen percent (13%) believe that most members of Congress are sincerely interested in helping people while 70% say the Representatives are mostly interested in their own careers.

At the same time, the President's approval rating (good or excellent) stands at 37%.

Say A Prayer For Jackboot

This Monday JB underwent arthoscopic surgery on his shoulder. Thankfully he is on the mend. He tore it up several times within a year and needed to have a tie rod end cleaned out and lubed. He is in "discomfort" and for the next few days no one is safe.

We all hope that he recovers fully and that no one gets mangled in the process.

More Swill From the Wormening Crowd

Nice new digs here Sig, unfortunately trying to get logged into my own profile has induced grand-mal seizures. This furrin hosting has my reptilian noggin' completely baffled. Nonetheless I'll proceed with the little gem of lunacy.

Southern Ocean Current Faces Slowdown Threat

The impact of global warming on the vast Southern Ocean around Antarctica is starting to pose a threat to ocean currents that distribute heat around the world, Australian scientists say, citing new deep-water data.

Melting ice-sheets and glaciers in Antarctica are releasing fresh water, interfering with the formation of dense "bottom water," which sinks 4-5 kilometers to the ocean floor and helps drive the world's ocean circulation system.

Now I'm really scared. What will we ever do with dense water interference. I do note that most of the density on the issue in general, is that between the ears of the ever-louder, somber, catastrophic proclamations of doom by alleged "scientists", fully dependent on even more studies requiring more studies of course, ensuring their continued employment. Let's see where this one is going (not that we don't already know)

A slowdown in the system known as "overturning circulation" would affect the way the ocean, which absorbs 85 percent of atmospheric heat, carries heat around the globe.

"If the water gets fresh enough ... then it won't matter how much ice we form, we won't be able to make this water cold and salty enough to sink," said Steve Rintoul, a senior scientist at the Australian government-funded CSIRO Marine Science.

Considering the earth's surface is roughly 75% covered by water, you can at least get part of your dire prediction categorized as truthful. I didn't know that we were forming ice, here I was all these years thinking that sub-freezing atmospheric temperatures influencing water produced ice. Dealing with the next bit of blather, ummm sorry Steve but stratification of ocean waters due to salinity and temperature aren't dependent on the ice formations that Halliburton and Cheney operate out of the basement in the White House office building. The introduction of salt, good old NaCl will indeed make water "heavier", but specific gravity (aka density) would be the more appropriate term in the scientific context we're using here. Yes temperature also changes the density of water with colder temperatures making the water more dense. Of interest here is another little fact, that water as it approaches freezing , rapidly decreases in density and increases in specific volume, as most people will know a closed container full of water will be broken as the water changes state into ice and taking up more room. That puts your statement into a bit of conflict doesn't it? If we cool the water further, approaching it's change of state from liquid to solid it won't sink. Notice how icebergs float?

"Changes would be felt ... around the globe," said Rintoul, who recently led a multinational team of scientists on an expedition to sample deep-basin water south of Western Australia to the Antarctic.

Water dense enough to sink to the ocean floor is formed in polar regions by surface water freezing, which concentrates salt in very cold water beneath the ice. The dense water then sinks.

Our academic again resorts to a bit more factual data on his way to the BS flag being tossed out. The water immediately beneath the ice pack has a higher salinity because decreasing temperatures of water reduce it's ability to contain dissolved solids (such as salt). Those poor little salt ions floating around will either find a place they can maintain their self-esteem, dissolved in the water or precipitate out of the solution. Anyone trying to stir sugar into a glass of cold tea will notice this phenomena. Of course, I wouldn't expect you be familiar with this observation, as I'm sure your beverage of choice is pre-sweetened Kool-Aid

Only a few places around Antarctica and in the northern Atlantic create water dense enough to sink to the ocean floor, making Antarctic "bottom water" crucial to global ocean currents.

A fact noted by observing all the other oceans that don't have any water at their bottom.

But the freshening of Antarctic deep water was a sign that the "overturning circulation" system in the world's oceans might be slowing down, Rintoul said, and similar trends are occurring in the North Atlantic.

Well let's think about this tidbit of prevarication with some more insight. The deep water reduction in salinity (freshening) as you put it, would be indicative of the water becoming colder (but not freezing) and it's salinity would decrease as well. The circulatory system that you are carefully trying to put in "danger" is driven primarily by the variance in ocean temperatures vs. depth. It's called convection, and it speeds up as a function of temperature differences. Interestingly (and conveniently for submarine warfare) there are anomalous temperature differences with depth throughout the ocean. They are called thermoclines and useful as the "cold" layers transmit sound much better, allowing a submarine to "hear" much farther than other depths might permit.

For the so-called Atlantic Conveyor, the surface warm water current meets the Greenland ice sheet then cools and sinks, heading south again and driving the conveyor belt process.

But researchers fear increased melting of the Greenland ice sheet risks disrupting the conveyor. If it stops, temperatures in northern Europe would plunge.

Call me geographically challenged, but I though we were just talking about Antarctica? Did Greenland relocate without leaving a forwarding address? Let's go over this shamefully stupid statement. If more ice melts from the pack, it will sink at a faster rate to the lower depths. It's movement would entrain (sorry another scientific term) even more water and accelerate your "conveyor" effect, NOT stop it moron. Thermodynamic processes move at a rate determined by the absolute temperatures of the heat source vs. the heat sink. Now to continue fisking your junk science a little more. About 90% of the solar heating of the oceans occur in the upper few hundred feet of the surface. The heat transfer mechanism is primarily radiant heat, that is, direct impact of sunlight on the surface being absorbed by the non-transparent materials like plankton and assorted algaes along with other contaminants. The sea in turn, releases (or conversely) absorbs it's heat primarily by convection from the atmosphere moving across it's surface. Your ocean Conveyor O' Doom™, is driven by the relative differences in the heat rate of the ocean between the equatorial and polar regions, not melting ice in the polar latitudes. The only reasonable method to impact this would be resetting the earth's polar axis to "0" inclination in it's orbit. I'm sure with the sufficient application of offsets, the Goreacle can correct this too, as a follow-on to inventing the Intertubewebnet. I do notice what must be a typo in your scientific spewage up there. The topic was "Gobal Warming" right? Call me a right-wing knuckle dragger, but how does Global Warming lead to plunging temperatures in Norther Europe? The general rule as I understand it, is earth's atmosphere is warming due to the depradations of man. Butt-kissing academics like yourself are tasked with dithering about to find even more examples of how, what and where civilization is going to do, because it's getting warmer, not colder. I see you are taking a back-door to arrive at the predetermined conclusion, but unfortunately you picked the wrong phenomena. Global Warming that you idiots are so intent on tagging us humans with, would likely bring about an increase in the ocean currents.

Rintoul, who has led teams tracking water density around the Antarctic through decades of readings, said his findings add to concerns about a "strangling" of the Southern Ocean by greenhouse gases and global warming.

Rintoul, leading teams of even more zombies, wasting public funds for decades. The only strangling you can prove involves what some might say choking and chickens, but that's just me.

Australian scientists warned last month that waters surrounding Antarctica were also becoming more acidic as they absorbed more carbon dioxide produced by nations burning fossil fuels.

Acidification of the ocean is affecting the ability of plankton -- microscopic marine plants, animals and bacteria -- to absorb carbon dioxide, reducing the ocean's ability to sink greenhouse gases to the bottom of the sea.

Ohh, you have a 'new' approach I see, and you promptly hop on it to make yourself look even more foolish. Let's talk pH since you brought the subject up. I'll agree that dissolved gases in water affect the pH, one of the gases that could decrease the pH (become more acidic) is CO2, a relatively small component of the gas mixture in the atmosphere, about .04% to be more exact. The two major gases are Nitrogen and Oxygen and a number of smaller fractional gases. Nitrogen is about 80% of the mixture and generally inert, EXCEPT when it's ionized by interaction with solar radiation in the troposphere and even more importantly by lightning. So a nice lighting storm or very clear conditions allowing more solar radiation to penetrate farther into the atmosphere will increase the formation of ionized nitrogen. Gas partial pressure laws will then do their thing and force more ionic Nitrogen into the water and with some more help from Sol, an endothermic reaction causes Nitric Acid to form, acidifying the water. Still with me? Of the .04% of CO2 in the atmosphere only about 1% of that value is from human contributions. If you do the math the result is that an incredibly small amount of the dissolved ocean gas. Perhaps the most laughable statement in your dire prediction is right here. I restate the blockquote by itself for us to laugh at it's shamelessness.

as they absorbed more carbon dioxide produced by nations burning fossil fuels.

So the oceans only absorb CO2 produced by man, ignoring the other 99.06% of naturally occurring CO2. Wow, Halliburton really must be producing some attractive CO2, in order for the oceans to grab up theirs. Now let me turn this whole joke on it's head. We are to believe that Global Warming is going to stop the ocean currents, freeze northern europe and make the southern oceans more acidic because we burn coal in Michigan or drive SUVs in Arizona and generally warm us all to death? Did I get this right? Do you have one clue how asinine this looks? But wait, there's more scary straw-men to toss out for us.

Rintoul said that global warming was also changing wind patterns in the Antarctic region, drawing them south away from the Australian mainland and causing declining rainfall in western and possibly eastern coastal areas.This was contributing to drought in Australia, one of the world's top agricultural producers, he said.

I thought you were studying ocean densities and conveyor belts? Or does invoking the hallowed term of "Global Warming" instantaneously confer the all-knowing, all-seeing wisdom of the Goreacle?

Pathetic, simply pathetic and the saddest of it all, is how many you can dupe into the bald-face lies to pony-up even more money, stolen out of the taxpayer's pockets.

LC JackBoot IC/A-OBR for Sig94

Rinky Dink A Mine Fulla Zinc

Al Gore's fiscal interests in one of the most polluted mines in the country are coming back to bite him in the ass. Can you say hy-poc-racy? I knew you could. From the WSJ Opinion Journal:

The media are finally catching up with Al Gore. Criticism of his anti-global-warming franchise and his personal environmental record has gone beyond ankle-biting bloggers. It's now coming from the New York Times and the Nashville Tennessean, his hometown paper that put his birth, as a senator's son, on its front page back in 1948, and where a young Al Gore Jr. worked for five years as a journalist.

Like a drunken sot arising from a week long binge, the NY Times scrapes the dried snot off its upper lip, pulls its urine stained trousers up from below its knees and finally remembers that it is a newspaper that is allegedly reporting, well, news.

Last Tuesday, the Times reported that several eminent scientists "argue that some of Mr. Gore's central points [on global warming] are exaggerated and erroneous."

*Belch* The Times then orders another round or six, pukes on the beer nuts and slides off the stool. And while it is again relieving itself contentedly into its trousers:

The Tenessean reported yesterday that Mr. Gore received $570,000 in royalties from the owners of zinc mines who held mineral leases on his farm. The mines, which closed in 2003 but are scheduled to reopen under a new operator later this year, "emitted thousands of pounds of toxic substances and several times, the water discharged from the mines into nearby rivers had levels of toxins above what was legal."

Looks like the Times and Al Gore both have problems with nasty discharges. I'm looking for a company that sells dead trout offsets.

Uncle Al won an Oscar for his movie, "An Incontinent Inconvenient Truth" where at the very end of the movie, Gore asks the audience,"Are you ready to change the way you live?" Al sure did. He buys offsets, or rather, he has the people at Generation Investment Management buy them for him.

Mr. Gore's office responded by claiming that the Gores "purchase offsets for their carbon emissions to bring their carbon footprint down to zero." But CNSNews.com reports that Mr. Gore doesn't purchase carbon offsets with his own resources, and that they are meaningless in terms of global warming.

Meaningless, pointless, useless - that just about describes carbon offsets. The more you think about it the less sense it makes.

The offset purchases are actually made for him by Generation Investment Management, a London-based investment firm that Mr. Gore co-founded, and which provides carbon offsets as a fringe benefit to all 23 of its employees, ensuring that they require no real sacrifice on the part of Mr. Gore or his family. Indeed, their impact is also highly limited. The Carbon Neutral Co.--one of the two vendors that sell offsets to Mr. Gore's company, says that offset purchases "will be unable to reduce greenhouse gas emissions . . . in the short term."

But there's no time!! Gore is Agent Jack Bauer of Frothing Moonbat Central. These people and their incontinent truth are literally shitting themselves over the prospect of massive global flooding unseen since the last time Ted Kennedy relieved himself while swimming in the pool at the Y.

No time! It's already too late! But the Carbon Neutral Company, "If You've Got Carbon, Then Clean Out Your Blowhole" even has a carbon calculator designed to relieve you of worry, guilt and assets. Even though we'll all drown, fry or whatever before one offset cancels one snowflake I'll be breaking my ass to shovel next year.

The Times quoted Don Easterbrook, an emeritus professor of geology at Western Washington University, as telling hundreds of experts at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America that "I don't want to pick on Al Gore. But there are a lot of inaccuracies in the statements we are seeing, and we have to temper that with real data." Mr. Easterbrook made clear he has never been paid by any energy corporations and isn't a Republican.

That's okay. Al Gore has never let a fact get in his way, or a dollar get out of his way for quite some time.

Then there is the Gore zinc mine. Mr. Gore has personally earned $570,000 in zinc royalties from a mine his father bought in 1973 from Armand Hammer, the business executive famous for his close friendship with the Soviet Union and for pleading guilty to making illegal campaign contributions during Watergate. On the same day Al Gore Sr. bought the 88-acre parcel from Hammer for $160,000, he sold the land and subsurface mining rights to his then 25-year-old son for $140,000. The mineral rights were then leased back to Hammer's Occidental Petroleum and the royalty payments put in the names of Al Gore Jr. and his wife, Tipper.

Sounds like another retirement plan. And I don't begrudge the man a penny of that. His daddy wanted him and Tipper to have a little something to fall back on and that's just fine and dandy. But don't get all in our faces about pollution when you can go fishing in Al's river and pull out a three headed catfish that has a glow-in-the-dark pecker.

The Gore mines were no small operations. In 2002, the year before they shut down, they ranked 22nd among all metal-mining operations in the U.S., with total toxic releases of 4.1 million pounds.

Four million pounds of toxic releases. That's over 2,000 tons of poison Al has allowed to be dumped into Tennessee rivers. I won't hold my breath until the Times publishes this story. But if a republican was responsible for this? We'd never hear the end of it.

A new mine operator, Strategic Resource Acquisition, is planning to reopen the mines later this year. The Tennessean reports that just last week, Mr. Gore wrote SRA asking it to work with a national environmental group as it makes its plans. He noted that under the previous operator, the mines had, according to the environmental website Scorecard, "pollution releases from the mine in 2002 [that] placed it among the 'dirtiest/worst facilities' in the U.S."

Well Al, I hope you enjoy the Oscar sitting up on your mantle 'cause you sure won't enjoy where I'd like to put it. But it would at least shut one of the holes that you pollute from.

Suicide By Cop

Every so often someone decides to commit suicide by shooting at the police. They know they're finished, it's all over, but they want to make a statement, or go out in a blaze of glory ("Top o'the world Mom!), or whatever reason they have. But they end up pointing a gun or shooting at a police officer. I wish they'd just find a bridge somewhere and jump.

In Syracuse we had an honor killing/death by cop incident yesterday. This happened about a mile and a half down the road from us.

From the Post Standard.

Police said Thach Ros, 62, shot his wife, Sopheap Kim Ros, 52, in the abdomen about 4 p.m. Saturday at their 303 Gere Ave. home. She had been critical condition this morning at University Hospital.

She is still in critical condition.

The shooting started a standoff between Thach Ros that ended Sunday night when a police SWAT team entered the home's basement and exchanged gunfire in the dark with Ros. Ros was killed, but authorities are awaiting autopsy results today to determine whether Ros died from a self-inflicted wound or gunfire from police.

But she wasn't the only one that Ros shot.

Ros' son, Sophin "Peter" Ros, was found dead in the home from a gunshot wound to the head.

This man shot and killed his own son. He shot him once in the arm, once in the stomache and twice in the head. And he killed his 33-year old son for reasons that mystify us, but make all the sense in the world to an Asian. This was an honor killing.

Ros' son, Sophin, disobeyed his father's wishes by marrying another woman. Sophin dishonored his father by making him look foolish.

Ros had arranged a marriage between his son and one of his cousins back in Cambodia. Ros made the arrangement without his son's knowledge and Sophin took exception to this. He married another Cambodian girl and disgraced his father. Four months ago Sophin and his wife moved back into Syracuse.

For some reason Ros also shot his wife; perhaps she was trying to stop him from shooting their son. The other two children fled the second story apartment by running to the rear porch and escaping with the help of police. Responding units cordoned off the area and fired tear gas canisters into the apartment to try to force Ros out. SWAT cops entered the house but were driven back by gunfire. At some point during the standoff, an officer fired when he spied Ros though an upstairs window and may have wounded him.

Ros' pastor tried to talk him out of the house and surrender but all such attempts to negotiate with him failed. Thus the situation lasted for nearly thirty hours as police and friends tried to find a way to spare his life.

But the police cannot let a situation like this last forever. All the nearby residents were evacuated; some had to sleep in their cars overnight. Other residents for blocks around were warned to stay indoors or stay away completely. Traffic was halted and diverted.

Ros either killed himself or was shot to death by a SWAT team late Sunday night.

UPDATE:
Initial reports indicate that Ros probably died from a self inflicted gunshot.

So Far,So Good

The wife and I started our South Beach diets two weeks ago. I have lost over fifteen pounds and she has lost twelve. I have to lose another thirty, or rather, I want to lose it. She won't tell me what her goal is, won't even tell me her weight. But I'm pretty good at estimating weight and I figure she wants to lose at least forty.

We both got serious when my cardiologist saw my blood work and was going to start me on medication for diabetes. I think I screwed up the test by eating breakfast before the blood was taken but he didn't know that. He was going to start me on some pills right off the bat but I told him that I wanted to try diet first. He was reluctant to do so since I have a prior history of heart trouble but he gave me until the end of this month for "lifestyle intervention" to work. After that, it's pounding more pills.

After my heat attack five years ago, although it was very minor thank the Lord, I stopped smoking and ultimately gained about forty-five pounds. I got very sedentary and simply stopped moving around as much as I used to. I got sick and tired of feeding the deer, rabbits, woodchucks, squirrels and every other critter that wanted a free meal so I stopped vegetable gardening and I no longer hunted. I hardly ever went fishing. Everything hurt so I didn't do all the side carpentry jobs that I used to. And I found a substitute for nicotine, yummy dark chocolate *slobber*.

And the pounds grew slowly but surely.

My internist had already warned me months prior to this that I should do something about my weight. So once I told my sweetie what my cardiologist said, she broke out the South Beach diet book and off we went. The grocery bills shot up at least 50%.

Phase I is over. I hated it. I am not a salad person. I love meat and potatoes and almost all veggies. I love eye-talian bread and pasta. And baked goods. And pizza. And I couldn't have any.

Instead I had salads, tuna fish, chicken (I grew feathers), no sugar jello (not bad at all, especially if you throw some no fat Cool Whip on it), pistachio nuts, low fat cheese and Canadian ham. And more salads. Eggs! Lotsa eggs and egg substitute. No bread at all.

But I no longer gasp for breath when bending over to tie my shoes. Just yesterday I wore to work brand new dress pants that I couldn't get into last year. Now THAT was sweet. The buttons on my shirt are no longer screaming for mercy. And I am climbing the stairs much easier.

Oderint, Dum Metuant

Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have issued a statement accusing the U.S. of abusing terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, mass murderer extrordinaire.

I hope we did. I hope we still do.

I really, really hope so.

I hope he shudders in his fitful sleep at night and awakens every fifteen minutes bathed in stinking fear sweat, because of what we do to him.

I hope the taste of food is like ashes in his mouth and he pukes most of it up. He drinks but there no quenching; he eats but there is no satisfaction, because of what we do to him.

I hope he pisses himself in fright every time a guard walks by his prison door, because of what we do to him.

I hope he grinds his teeth to nubs in anticipation of the next dreadful punishment he will receive.

I hope that fear ties his guts up in knots so that constipation grips his bowels like a worm in a steel vise; like a women enduring soul-wrenching birth contractions for days, he names each one of his miserable mouse turds as a beloved child.

I hope that he prays for death, that he waves his ass at his moon god fifty times a day, hoping that death will free him from U.S. custody, because of what we do to him.

Other than heresay, there is no evidence of abuse; but like the Rather/Maple TANG fiasco, it sounds true so it must be true. Enter the new liberal standard of proof.

After all, a terrorist who has murdered 3,000 innocent Americans must be considered trustworthy. And these traitorous senators should be in the cells right next to him.

The Religion Of Peace - NOT

There will be no peace in the middle east until Muslims address the issue of violence sanctioned by their culture, their religion and their governments. The children of a Palestinian terrorist bomber, Rim al-Riyashi, were interviewed by the Hamas media organ, Al-Aqsa TV.

During the TV segment, the interviewer gently asked the children to count the number of Jews murdered by their mother and asked them to recite "Mama Rim," most likely a poem written in honor of the woman's "martyrdom." The interviewer began, "Let's talk with the two children of the jihad-fighting martyrdom-seeker Rim Al-Riyashi -- Dhoha and Muhammad. Dhoha, you love mama, right? Where did mama go?" he asked.

The use of these children for legitimizing unholy terror is disgusting. For a truly horrible picture of these monsters who claim to fight for their god and will use any and all means to glorify murder, read this from Memri:

Following are excerpts of an interview with the children of Palestinian suicide bomber Rim Al-Riyashi, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on March 8, 2007.

Interviewer: Let's talk with the two children of the jihad-fighting martyrdom-seeker Rim Al-Riyashi - Dhoha and Muhammad. Dhoha, you love mama, right? Where did mama go?

Dhoha: To Paradise.
Interviewer: What did mama do?
Dhoha: She committed martyrdom.
Interviewer: She killed Jews, right?
Interviewer: How many did she kill, Muhammad?
Muhammad: Huh?
Interviewer: How many Jews did mama kill?
Muhammad: This many...
Interviewer: How many is that?
Muhammad: Five.
Interviewer: Do you love mama? Do you miss mama? Where is mama, Muhammad?
Muhammad: In Paradise.
Interviewer: Dhoha, what would you like to recite for us?
Dhoha: In the name of Allah the Merciful the Compassionate. "When comes the help of Allah, and victory, and you see people entering the religion of Allah in troops, then celebrate the praise of your Lord, and ask His forgiveness, for He is ever ready to show mercy."
Interviewer: What else would you like to recite? You have read the surra: "When comes the help of Allah, and victory." What would you like to recite for us now?
Dhoha: "Mama Rim."
Interviewer: Recite the poem "Mama Rim" for us. Recite anything. What would you like to recite?
Interviewer: Muhammad, do you know how to recite?
Muhammad: Yes.
Interviewer: Go on then, recite something for us. What would you like to recite?
Dhoha: I just remembered.
Muhammad: I am in kindergarten.
Interviewer: Are you doing well in kindergarten?
Muhammad: Yes.
Dhoha: I am in kindergarten, I want to tell.
Interviewer: Go on then, tell us. You're in kindergarten too? Are you in kindergarten, Dhoha? In kindergarten or at school?
Dhoha: In kindergarten.
Interviewer: That's great. One should talk about the innocence of children...
Muhammad: I'm in kindergarten too.
Interviewer: You're in kindergarten too.
Dhoha: I want to talk about kindergarten, I want to talk.
Interviewer: What would you like to recite for us? Have you heard the poem "Mama Rim"? Go on then, recite it for us.
Dhoha: "Rim, you are a fire bomb."
Interviewer: Go on, recite it.
Dhoha: "Your children and submachine gun are your motto."
Interviewer: Muhammad, go ahead and recite...
Muhammad: I'm in kindergarten.
Dhoha: That's it, I'm done.
Interviewer: OK, do you want to go to mama?
Dhoha: Yes.

It is very obvious that these kids have been prepped for this interview with the typical radical Islam bloodthirsty rhetoric. The kids' childish innocence, though corrupted by the soulless ghouls who try to profit from them, still manages to shine forth.

Muhammad is just a little orphan trying to show how proud he is to be in kindergarten.

There indeed must be a special place reserved in hell for men like that interviewer and those who persauded his mother to spatter herself and four Israeli IDF soldiers and abandon these little ones to the machinations of murderers.

More On Gore

In the previous post I took a look at Al Gore's preposterous claim that he is not profiting from the carbon offsets that he does not buy from his London investment firm, GIM, Generation Investment Management. He does make a profit (most likely a pretty healthy one) for two reasons: the investment cost him nothing because it is an offset donated by GIM, and GIM seems to have some pretty smart people running the show.

• David Blood, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, is Managing Partner;
• Mark Ferguson, previously co-Head of Pan-European Research at Goldman Sachs Asset Management and a Global Equities Portfolio Manager, is Chief Investment Officer;
• Peter Harris, previously head of International Operations for Goldman Sachs Asset Management, is Chief Operating Officer;
• Peter S. Knight, formerly Managing Director Met West Financial, lawyer, Chief of Staff for Senator Al Gore (D-TN) from 1977-1989, and Campaign Manager for President Clinton's successful re-election in 1996, is President of Generation U.S.;
• Colin le Duc, previously Director of Research for SAM Sustainable Asset Management in Zurich and strategy consultant for Arthur D. Little in London, is Head of Research; and
• Uncle Al, Chairman, manly inventor of the intertubes and manly ex-Vice President of the United States. Knowing full well that carbohydrate offsets would not be available until he invented them in the year 2011, Gore demonstrated manly love for his wife by inserting his tongue down her esophagus at the 2000 Democratic Convention and removing the sugar laden Moon Pie from her stomach that she had eaten off stage just moments prior.

The biographies of the Board members are here. We already touched on Peter Knight and his narrow avoidance of a federal investigation when Janet Reno was fortuitously distracted by a comely co-ed intern from George Mason.

But what else is going on here? The spokesman for GIM, Richard Campell, gave us a clue. The confusion, Campbell said, arose because GIM pays to offset the energy use of its operations and the personal emissions of its 23 employees, including Gore. And of course the bigger carbon footprint you leave, the bigger the offset and the more money that is donated to your account for investment.

We do not invest in any activity of carbon offset. That's nonsense. We are a fund management business that does sustainability research," he added.

But the offset is an investment in an eco-frienfly business? Who is receiving the dough if the investment pays off? Campell is silent on this. But their website isn't so silent. It gives a clearer picture of what they're about than their spokeman.

Long Term Focus: A majority of a company's value is determined by its long-run performance. Investment results for long-only equity strategies are maximized by taking a long-term investment horizon.

That doesn't sound like research to me, sounds more like a 401k.

We Buy High Quality Businesses:Dominant market positions, strong entry barriers, predictable future, pricing power, and secular growth trends.

Hmmmmmmm. No research here.

At the Right Price: Key to our success is our price discipline and the ability to buy companies at sufficiently attractive prices to deliver performance.

Nope, no research here either. Then there's this:

LONDON, February 26
-- Northern Trust has been appointed by Generation Investment Management ("Generation") to provide full investment operations outsourcing for its assets under management. Northern Trust now provides custody, trade services,fund accounting, transfer agency, performance measurement and clientreporting across Generation's fund range domiciled in Dublin and Delaware,and investment administration support services for Generation in connectionwith its global separate account business.

I'm not a financial wizkid and I sure don't know what this means. I thought GIM had all this experience?

As a new firm, we had the opportunity to partner with Northern Trust early on to position our business operations strategically for future growth," said Peter Harris, Chief Operating Officer of Generation. "One of the key advantages for us in partnering with Northern Trust is the benefits we receive from a well run, established global business with large resources and deep expertise. We want to focus on managing our clients' assets and delivering superior investment performance: outsourcing to Northern Trust enables us to do this whilst providing the outstanding operational support we require as we grow our business."

This still sounds like 401k stuff to me. Anyone out there lend a hand? Partnering to receive benefits from a "well run, established global business" and one with "deep pockets espertise"?

Northern Trust Corporation (Nasdaq: NTRS) is a leading provider of investment management, asset and fund administration, fiduciary and banking solutions for corporations, institutions and affluent individuals worldwide.

I hate to be redundant, but this does not sound like a research company. And notice the use of "affluent individuals worldwide." Sounds to me like rich people with guilty consiences seeking offsets.

Northern Trust, a multibank holding company based in Chicago, has a growing network of 84 offices in 18 U.S. states and has international offices in 13 locations in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. As of December 31, 2006, Northern Trust had assets under custody of US$3.5trillion, and assets under investment management of US$697 billion. NorthernTrust, founded in 1889, has earned distinction as an industry leader in combining high-touch service and expertise with innovative products and technology.

Global Warming is Gore's Retirement Plan

From an article in Investor's Business Daily:

Environmentalism: Gore's carbon footprint may be the size of Godzilla's, but he eases his conscience with 'carbon offsets.' He buys them from himself. And every time someone else buys them, Big Al gets richer.

This carbon offset scam is just that - a scam. It produces nothing, it does not reduce carbon emissions and it only serves to line the pockets of those hooked into the econoscam.

Say you want to fly your Gulfstream private jet across the country regularly to Hollywood premieres instead of taking a Greyhound bus. You buy a carbon offset, giving money to people who will do something like invest it in windmills and solar panels to 'reduce' carbon emissions by an equivalent amount. Your are then declared 'carbon neutral' as you continue to pollute.

So while the hippie is happily polluting, the not-for-profit is stealing it. Or you can own the carbon offset business itself and pay yourself to use that private jet. Plus a nice salary as executive director or any other title that pops into your thieving brain.

Speaking of carbon offsets and shell games, guess where Gore buys his carbon offsets? Well, he buys them from a firm called Generation Investment Management LLP, a tax-exempt U.S. 501(c)3 corporation. The chairman and co-founder is Al Gore. In other words, he buys his carbon offsets from himself. Others who buy these offset are really buying stock in Gore's growing business. You, too, can green up his portfolio, if not Earth itself.

And there's the rub. The shell game is already set up, the screaming loons are in motion to stifle debate, the scientists have been bought through grants and the UN smelled the bribes a thousand miles away and- through the IPCC - are partners in the scam.

The number of companies jumping into this market has multiplied. In 2006, at least 60 sold offsets worth about $110 million to consumers in Europe and North America in 2006, up from a dozen firms selling offsets worth $6 million in 2004. That's a lot of green.

That's a lot of stupidity, and a lot of hippies with guilty consciences. And they want to force you to join them.

Skeptics of this scheme — perhaps we should call it a scam — include, interestingly enough, Steve Rayner, a senior professor at Oxford and a member of a group working on the reduction of greenhouse gases for the U.N.'s International Panel of Climate Change. 'What these companies are allowing people to do,' said Rayner, 'is to carry on with their current behavior with a clear conscience.'

This is not about conscience or the climate, it's about cash.

Gorebucks that is.

3/13/07 UPDATE:

One of the commenters (thanks Fred) was kind enough to leave this link to the Cyber News Service, where the company spokesman denies that Gore is profiting from carbon offsets.

Al Gore is not profiting from his crusade against global warming, a spokesman for an investment firm co-founded by the former vice president said Tuesday.

Gore's London-based employee-owned company, Generation Investment Management (GIM), purchases -- but isn't a provider of -- carbon dioxide (CO2) "offsets," said spokesman Richard Campbell.

GIM is strictly an investment firm that considers how eco-friendly corporations are in assessing long-term sustainability, Campbell told Cybercast News Service by phone from London.

Fair enough. We'll listen.

The confusion, Campbell said, arose because GIM pays to offset the energy use of its operations and the personal emissions of its 23 employees, including Gore.

So, the firm will cover the cost to offset the energy use at Gore's home, or his global jet travel, as it would the offset cost of any other employee, Campbell said.

So the confusion is that Gore doesn't profit from his crusade but that GIM pays for the carbon offsets so that Gore doesn't have to? Gore still derives a benefit from GIM, namely, Gore can say that he lives a "carbon neutral" lifestyle but doesn't have a pay a cent for it because the company he founded pays for it. Ahhhhhh, I think I smell a profit here. The profit being that cheapskate Gore skates on the carbon offset and pockets the difference.

The fact that Gore's Nashville home runs up electricity bills averaging $1,200 per month was publicized last week by the Tennessee Center for Policy Research.

I don't spend that much for electricity in a year and a half. But I don't claim to be carbon neutral either. And who runs GIM that enables Al "I Hate Carbon" Gore to make this claim at no cost?

The president of GIM's U.S. operation is Peter S. Knight, who served as Gore's chief of staff in the U.S. Senate and later as campaign manager for the Clinton-Gore reelection campaign in 1996.Knight is a controversial figure.

In 1999, Republicans on the House Commerce Committee asked then U.S. Attorney Janet Reno to investigate whether a $1 million payment to Knight from a Tennessee developer was an illegal contingency fee for helping get the Federal Communications Commission to move to the development.

Knight and the developer, Franklin Haney, said the payment was for legal fees for Knight's work on several projects. Reno declined to investigate.

I can't speak for the reader, but this certainly does not inspire confidence in me. And since Gore refuses to disclose his income, there is no way to see what other "benefits" Gore is reaping form his association with GIM. But there are other considerations. GIM is an investment firm that takes money that Al Gore doesn't give them and "invests" it for him in eco-friendly businesses.

> We buy high quality businesses and management teams whose securities are attractively priced to deliver excess returns over the long-term.
> Generation's strategy is to invest in long-only, global, public equities with a concentrated portfolio of 30-50 companies.
> We Buy High Quality Businesses: Dominant market positions, strong entry barriers, predictable future, pricing power, and secular growth trends
> With High Quality Management Teams: Culture of Integrity, respect for shareholders, well managed for the long term
> At the Right Price: Key to our success is our price discipline and the ability to buy companies at sufficiently attractive prices to deliver performance

My take on this is simple. Remember Hillary Clinton's spectacular success in the futures market?

On October 11, 1978, the future First Lady, a neophyte investor with an annual income of $25,000, opened a commodity-futures account with a deposit of $1,000.

Her first trade was the short sale of ten live-cattle contracts at a price of 57.55 cents a pound: a commitment to deliver in December of that year 400,000 pounds of cattle with a market value of $230,200. One day later, she bought the contracts back at a price of 56.10 cents, just 0.15 cent above the low of the day, pocketing $5,300 for a return of 530 per cent.

Mrs. Clinton continued to be a net winner at the game. By the time she closed her trading account ten months later, she had racked up $99,541 in profits, a spectacular 10,000 per cent return on her initial investment of $1,000. Either Mrs. Clinton was a better trader than the legendary George Soros, whose best-ever annual return in thirty years of trading was 122 per cent, or she was led by an invisible hand.

Looks like Al Gore did learn something from the Clinton's after all.

He learned how to cover his scheming ass.

How Cold Was It?

MINNEAPOLIS - A North Pole expedition meant to bring attention to global warming was called off after one of the explorers got frostbite.

I'm dying here. This is just too rich. I got wind of this from the Dread Rotti Imperator, Misha I, and I can't stop laughing.

The explorers, Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen, on Saturday called off what was intended to be a 530-mile trek across the Arctic Ocean after Arnesen suffered frostbite in three of her toes, and extreme cold temperatures drained the batteries in some of their electronic equipment.

This little piddy went subzero, and this little piddy turned blue; this little piddy fell off ... Too bad they brought the heat resistant-Global Worming batteries with them.

On Monday, the pair was at Canada's Ward Hunt Island, awaiting a plane to take them to Resolute, Canada, where they were to return to Minneapolis later this week.

Like all eco-loons, they are not willing to go the distance when it actually costs them something, like body parts. The heart and soul of the whole warming scheme is that it is going to cost YOU, the tax payer. It costs the taxpayer to hire these SOB's so they can make grand entrances and falsify data, it costs the taxpayer to host these ridiculous international conferences where they can beat their breasts and scream Death, Doom and Destruction if we don't do something Now.

But how cold was it?

Then there was the cold - quite a bit colder, Atwood said, then Bancroft and Arnesen had expected. One night they measured the temperature inside their tent at 58 degrees below zero, and outside temperatures were exceeding 100 below zero at times, Atwood said.

That is really cold. Almost as cold as Hillary's side of the bed. Almost as cold as Maureen Dowd's chances of marrying a straight guy. And no where near as cold as that part of Hell where Gore is going to find himself when global warming kicks in.

I am kinda glad these women had enough sense to get their asses out of danger, but they screwed up. You always prepare for the worst eventuality in these kinds of expeditions, like - gee - it is the Artic, it is winter, and it could get real c-c-c-cold. But my sympathy extends only so far for people who refuse to acknowledge the incredible complexity of creation and think that they know better.

These idiots were going to gather "photographic evidence" (??) of global warming and even go swimming. What photographic evidence? Palm trees? Sandy beach cabanas?

"They were experiencing temperatures that weren't expected with global warming," Atwood said. "But one of the things we see with global warming is unpredictability."

Another thing you see with global warming is nutroots roaming around ice fields without a clue as to what they are doing. As for unpredictable, you never know what an idiot will do.

Can I Supersize That Coffin For Ya?

Funeral homes across the country are forced to deal with a new problem, the uber corpse, as overweight fatties overwhelm traditional burial arrangements.

Funeral homes and the Snohomish County medical examiner's office are having to find larger equipment such as cots and power hoists to accommodate a growing number of deceased obese people. The trend has led to the use of bigger cots, larger cremation and embalming facilities, and more staff and power hoists to properly care for overweight people who die.

Jumping up and down on Ted Kennedy's size XXXL ass to make it fit inside a L coffin would be a an event worth watching. The sixteen pallbearers lined up on each side of the coffin may find it disquieting that its sides are bulging, ready to spill the contents.

"It's very important that you treat the deceased with dignity and respect," medical examiner spokeswoman Carolyn Sanden said.

And the familia will see how backing up that shiny, black Cadillac payloader to the grave site *beep* *beep* is real dignified.

About 22 percent of adults in Washington state are obese and another 36 percent are overweight, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nationwide, an estimated 33 percent of adults between 20 and 74 years old are obese.

"It's not unusual to encounter 300-pound people now, which used to be the exception rather than the rule," said Jim Noel, who has worked 47 years in the funeral-home profession and is executive director of the Washington State Funeral Directors Association.

In Snohomish County cases investigated last year, the medical examiner provided the weight of 326 people, with 84 adults considered obese based on their body-mass index, which takes into account height and weight.

Fifteen weighed more than 300 pounds, and a 6-foot-tall, middle-aged man weighed 499.

The other side of the agrument is: how old are these people? Overweight people usually have accompanying health problems that hasten their demise.

Injuries to workers removing and transporting heavier bodies have cost an average $16,000 a year since 2003, according to staff reports to the County Council.

[...] The county also has spent $18,000 in recent years on larger tables and electric hoists because the older, smaller tables couldn't accommodate rolling a body over for examination.

Pretty soon they'll be using forklifts. Some of the article deals with winching dead bodies onto examination tables. It sounds like a Japanese whale factory.

Webster has seen cases where families have bought custom-sized caskets, and the family of one 784-pound woman had to buy three cemetery plots.

That's not a burial plot, it's a landfill project.

Nazi Catholic Bishops

From the Arutz Sheva, Israel National News.

A group of German bishops visited Israel and the "occupied territories" and expressed dismay at the fortifications and check-points that separate Jews from murderers. They didn't put it quite like that, though. In fact, they offered their piety and pity to terrorists who must climb fences and pass through check-points before they can detonate themselves along with Jewish men, women and children.

Ya gotta wonder if these guys aren't crackheads impersonating priests. Maybe thay can volunteer strapping the explosive gear around the chests of terrorists and giving them rides to the checkpoints. Or perhaps they'd like to strap on a one-way ticket to Allah themselves?

One bishop compared those obstacles to the Berlin Wall. Another referred to Ramallah as the Warsaw Ghetto.

No mention, from these bishops, about the thousands of Palestinian Arab suicide bombers who made these barriers necessary. No mention that those barriers have saved countless Jewish lives. Jewish life has never been high on the German agenda. Likewise, nothing from these bishops about Arab school books that teach hatred of Jews and, yes, even Christians.

If you want a gander at some Palestinian "educational material" look at this, or look at Palestinian kids "playing" at beheading someone. The Berlin Wall was built to keep an enslaved population in. The Israeli security wall is being built to keep murderous Palestinians out.

As reported in the UK Telegraph: "Bishop Gregor Maria Franz Hanke said he planned to amend this year's Easter message to German churches to include the delegation's impressions and to demand a change to the situation." Translation: "Hitler didn't finish the job."

The bishops, 27 of them on this tour, were evidently nostalgic for the good old days, when it was "Springtime for Hitler," and Jews throughout Europe had no choice but to submit for the cattle cars and crematoriums. These days, the Jews have a nation and an army. These days, the Jews can actually defend themselves.

And they'd better. No one defended them during the Holocaust and no one will now. I very much doubt the US would step in if Israel were attacked again.

We can only imagine the frustration of these bishops, who had no Gestapo to call upon to solve the Jewish Question over in Israel. Everywhere they looked - Ach Gott! - Jewish soldiers!

Remember to send the IDF a pizza.

Hmmmmmmmmmm. Pizza!

I can't have any. I'm on a diet.

Idiots

Sometimes the irony just drives me right out of my skull; like this story:

Priests to purify site after Bush visit

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) -- Mayan priests will purify a sacred archaeological site to eliminate "bad spirits" after President Bush visits next week, an official with close ties to the group said Thursday.

"That a person like (Bush), with the persecution of our migrant brothers in the United States, with the wars he has provoked, is going to walk in our sacred lands, is an offense for the Mayan people and their culture," Juan Tiney, the director of a Mayan nongovernmental organization with close ties to Mayan religious and political leaders, said Thursday.

I want to grab these idiots by the throat and do to them what their ancestors did to their own people.

Human sacrifice was perpetrated on prisoners, slaves, and particularly children, with orphans and illegitimate children specially purchased for the occasion.

The Mayan religion was brutal, and filled with bloody rituals such as this:

The priest would watch in the night sky for the star of fire to reach the zenith. Once it did, the priest would remove the heart of this man, and replace it with a piece of wood, that was laid on a piece of turquoise. This is where the priest would start the new fire that would once again light the city.

The Mayans even had a month - Tlacaxipehualiztli - which means the flaying of men to honor their god Xipe-Totec. This god was worshipped by sacrifice and dancing by priests wearing the flayed skin of victims.

And they're going to purify the site because President Bush is fouling the land. Idiots. And there are six million of these Mayan ass clowns.

40 Reasons To Arm Yourself

I saw this over at Militia Jim's site and couldn't control myself, I just had to steal it.

40 Reasons to Ban Guns

1. Banning guns works, which is why New York, DC, Detroit & Chicago cops need guns.

2. Washington DC's low murder rate of 69 per 100,000 is due to strict gun control, and Indianapolis' high murder rate of 9 per 100,000 is due to the lack of gun control.

3. Statistics showing high murder rates justify gun control but statistics showing increasing murder rates after gun control are "just statistics."

4. The Brady Bill and the Assault Weapons Ban, both of which went into effect in 1994 are responsible for the decrease in violent crime rates,which have been declining since 1991.

5. We must get rid of guns because a deranged lunatic may go on a shooting spree at any time and anyone who would own a gun out of fear of such a lunatic is paranoid.

6. The more helpless you are the safer you are from criminals.

7. An intruder will be incapacitated by tear gas or oven spray, but if shot with a .357 Magnum will get angry and kill you.

8. A woman raped and strangled is morally superior to a woman with a smoking gun and a dead rapist at her feet.

9. When confronted by violent criminals, you should "put up no defense - give them what they want, or run" (Handgun Control Inc. Chairman Pete Shields, Guns Don't Die - People Do, 1981, p. 125).

10. The New England Journal of Medicine is filled with expert advice about guns; just like Guns & Ammo has some excellent treatises on heart surgery.

11. One should consult an automotive engineer for safer seat belts, a civil engineer for a better bridge, a surgeon for internal medicine, a computer programmer for hard drive problems, and Sarah Brady for firearms expertise.

12. The 2nd Amendment, ratified in 1787, refers to the National Guard, which was created 130 years later, in 1917.

13. The National Guard, federally funded, with bases on federal land, using federally-owned weapons, vehicles, buildings and uniforms, punishing trespassers under federal law, is a "state" militia.

14. These phrases: "right of the people peaceably to assemble," "right of the people to be secure in their homes," "enumerations herein of certain rights shall not be construed to disparage others retained by the people," and "The powers not delegated herein are reserved to the states respectively, and to the people" all refer to individuals, but "the right of the people to keep and bear arms" refers to the state.

15. "The Constitution is strong and will never change." But we should ban and seize all guns thereby violating the 2nd, 4th, and 5th Amendments to that Constitution.

16. Rifles and handguns aren't necessary to national defense! Of course, the army has hundreds of thousands of them.

17. Private citizens shouldn't have handguns, because they aren't "military weapons'', but private citizens shouldn't have "assault rifles'', because they are military weapons.

18. In spite of waiting periods, background checks, fingerprinting,government forms, etc., guns today are too readily available, which is responsible for recent school shootings. In the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's,anyone could buy guns at hardware stores, army surplus stores, gas stations,variety stores, Sears mail order, no waiting, no background check, no fingerprints, no government forms and there were no school shootings.

19. The NRA's attempt to run a "don't touch" campaign about kids handling guns is propaganda, but the anti-gun lobby's attempt to run a "don't touch" campaign is responsible social activity.

20. Guns are so complex that special training is necessary to use them properly, and so simple to use that they make murder easy.

21. A handgun, with up to 4 controls, is far too complex for the typical adult to learn to use, as opposed to an automobile that only has 20.

22. Women are just as intelligent and capable as men but a woman with a gun is "an accident waiting to happen" and gun makers' advertisements aimed at women are "preying on their fears."

23. Ordinary people in the presence of guns turn into slaughtering butchers but revert to normal when the weapon is removed.

24. Guns cause violence, which is why there are so many mass killings at gun shows.

25. A majority of the population supports gun control, just like a majority of the population supported owning slaves.

26. Any self-loading small arm can legitimately be considered to be a "weapon of mass destruction" or an "assault weapon."

27. Most people can't be trusted, so we should have laws against guns, which most people will abide by because they can be trusted.

28. The right of Internet pornographers to exist cannot be questioned because it is constitutionally protected by the Bill of Rights, but the use of handguns for self defense is not really protected by the Bill of Rights.

29. Free speech entitles one to own newspapers, transmitters, computers, and typewriters, but self- defense only justifies bare hands.

30. The ACLU is good because it uncompromisingly defends certain parts of the Constitution, and the NRA is bad, because it defends other parts of the Constitution.

31. Charlton Heston, a movie actor as president of the NRA is a cheap lunatic who should be ignored, but Michael Douglas, a movie actor as a representative of Handgun Control, Inc. is an ambassador for peace who is entitled to an audience at the UN arms control summit.

32. Police operate with backup within groups, which is why they need larger capacity pistol magazines than do "civilians" who must face criminals alone and therefore need less ammunition.

33. We should ban "Saturday Night Specials" and other inexpensive guns because it's not fair that poor people have access to guns too.

34. Police officers have some special Jedi-like mastery over handguns that private citizens can never hope to obtain.

35. Private citizens don't need a gun for self- protection because the police are there to protect them even though the Supreme Court says the police are not responsible for their protection.

36. Citizens don't need to carry a gun for personal protection but police chiefs, who are desk-bound administrators who work in a building filled with cops, need a gun. (My personal favorite)

37. "Assault weapons" have no purpose other than to kill large numbers of people. The police need assault weapons. You do not.

38. When Microsoft pressures its distributors to give Microsoft preferential promotion, that's bad; but when the Federal government pressures cities to buy guns only from Smith & Wesson, that's good.

39. Trigger locks do not interfere with the ability to use a gun for defensive purposes, which is why you see police officers with one on their duty weapon.

40. Handgun Control, Inc., says they want to "keep guns out of the wrong hands." Guess what? You have the wrong hands.

Attack Of The IUM's

The Russian's seem to be using a tag-team approach to poisoning people. First it was Polonium and *tag* now it's Thallium.

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Two American women who were hospitalized in Moscow earlier this week with possible thallium poisoning were in fair but stable condition Thursday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, the hospital said.

Marina Kovalevsky, 42, and her daughter Yanna, 26, were released Wednesday from the Sklifosovsky Clinic in Moscow. Thallium is a colorless, odorless and tasteless metal which, even ingested in small amounts, can be deadly, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Both Kovalevsky's were born in Russia and escaped emigrated to the US in 1989. They go back to Mother Russia on a regular basis and flew there in mid-February to attend a wedding. Then they were poisoned. Yanna and her mother were released from the hospital and returned to Los Angeles yesterday (Wednesday). The mother is a physician.

Moscow's top public health doctor, Nikolai Filatov, said thallium poisoning had been confirmed, according to the RIA-Novosti news agency.

Thallium is fatal in amounts as low as one gram. Thallium is used in many ways, but never as a condiment. Except in Russia.

Saddam Hussein used it to kill his rivals and thallium was first suspected as the poison used to murder former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.

UPDATE

And the FBI has decided to take a look into this. There is a possibility that they were poisoned prior to leaving the US to fly to Russia.

I Want One Of These Too!

The Israeli's have raised the stakes on terrorist acts. Now there is a silent stalker, an inhuman force that will kill remorselessly, that has no heart, experiences no regrets... and runs on batteries.

Meet the VIPeR.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli defense firm on Thursday unveiled a portable robot billed as being capable of entering most combat zones alone and engaging enemies with an onboard armory that includes a machine-pistol and grenades.

The VIPeR, roughly the size of a small television, was invented as part of Israel's efforts to develop weaponry that could reduce the risks to its forces from hand-to-hand fighting against Palestinian or Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.

It's the size of a small TV and it comes with its own limited remote control, it can only "turn off" terrorists.

The manufacturer, Elbit Systems Ltd., said that the VIPeR's small size and dual treads enable it to move "undeterred by stairs, rubble, dark alleys, caves or narrow tunnels".

As well as bomb-sniffing and bomb disposal equipment, the VIPeR can carry an Uzi machine-pistol or plant a grenade. The weapons would be aimed using an onboard video camera.

Now there is something else for terrorists to worry about. Let them lose sleep.

Can you imagine about a hundred of these things coming towards a terrorist hidey-hole? There just has to be a remote camera capability in order to record the good natured hijinks.

Maybe we'll see some footage on America's Deadliest Home Videos.

I assume the two antennas on the back of the unit are for motion and armament control.

According to Elbit, which has close links with the Defense Ministry, Israel plans to deploy the VIPeR among its infantry units after field tests. The robot could also be of interest to foreign police units or U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Oh, I'll bet someone is interested. There's gotta be some cool nicknames for this thing.

I Want One

What I really want is a ray gun that will make you crap your pants. But until the "Brown Ray Laser Blaster" is invented, this one will do:

The new technology has been given an acronym, EPIC, for Electromagnetic Personnel Interdiction Control. The idea is that intense radio-frequency emissions – capable of passing through walls – would be used to temporarily disrupt the balance and coordination functions of targets' inner ears, knocking them down relatively harmlessly.The Navy notes that "second order effects would be extreme motion sickness," suggesting that in fact the order given by future Captain Kirks may be "set phasers on 'puke'".

The intention of the programme is to avoid unnecessary harm to the target, but unconscious vomiting would seem to present something of a choking hazard. Still, EPIC-based regurge blasters would seem less brutal than the microwave-oven cannons already tested, which are designed to disperse crowds by lightly frying their outer skin layers.

That's "lightly but deliciously frying." So it's either salted people chips or the GutWrench 3000. I'll wait for the technology to make them poop and puke at the same time. Call it the Spewer XLS.

She's Gone

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- Astronaut Lisa Nowak was fired from NASA on Wednesday, a month after she was charged with trying to kidnap a woman she regarded as her romantic rival for the affections of a space shuttle pilot. NASA officials said Nowak's dismissal did not reflect the space agency's belief in her guilt or innocence.

They just didn't want to get stuck with the dry cleaning bill.

In her honor, Mattel is coming out with a new BB gun that shoots poo pellets.

Nowak, who had an affair with a fellow astronaut, accosted her lover's new girlfriend at an Orlando airport. She wore a diaper so she could drive non-stop from Houston.

She allegedly pepper-sprayed the woman through a partially lowered car window. In Nowak's vehicle, police found a BB gun, new steel mallet, a knife and rubber tubing. [...] Nowak, 43, pleaded not guilty to attempted kidnapping and burglary with assault. She was released on bail wearing a monitoring device on her ankle.

She is also prohibited from buying Depends™ and must produce proof every twelve hours that she has had a bowel movement.
___

Chiamus And Reversal

From Dictionary.com
chi·as·mus [kahy-az-muhs]
A reversal in the order of words in two otherwise parallel phrases, as in “He went to the country, to the town went she.”

Shakespeare enjoyed this literary device. One example is this from King Henry IV, Part Two:

Chief Justice: Your means are very slender, and your waste is great.

Falstaff: I would it were otherwise. I would my means were greater and my waist slenderer.

A variation of this is used to arrange events or narrative elements in reverse order. When used in narrative events it is the literary signature of the author. When used in the course of actual human events, it is the signature of God.

We see this in the Book of Esther.

Last Sunday we listened to a great sermon on how God uses people and events. He weaves a tapestry of intertwined lives that, to the persons actually involved, is hidden. But to the dispassionate observer it is a thing of beauty. This morning we were treated to a glimpse of how His Providence is revealed even when His Name is not mentioned a single time, nor a single act ascribed to Him. He reveals himself in the timing and sequence of events.

There is a duality of events in the Book of Esther. The Book starts with two feasts hosted by Xerxes, one for for nobles throughout the Persian Empire (Est. 1:3) and another for the nobles in the palace at Shushan (Est. 1:5). The Book ends with the two feasts of Purim, one for Jews throughout the Persian Empire(Est. 9:17)and one for the Jews in Shushan (est. 9:18).

Between these four feasts, there are two instances of Xerxes giving his ring as a symbol of authority; once to Haman to authorize the killing of the Jews (Est. 3.12), and another time to Mordecai to authorize the Jews to defend themselves and take for spoil those who would do them harm (Est. 8:10).

And lastly, between the two authorizations, there are two banquests given by Esther for Xerxes and Haman. And in between the two banquets of Esther is the pivotal point of the entire Book where God reveals His Hand. For between the two banquests of Esther the King cannot sleep (Est. 6:1).

The Great Global Warming Swindle

Finally someone is providing a documentary to counter the insanity of global warming.

Accepted theories about man causing global warming are "lies" claims a controversial new TV documentary. ‘The Great Global Warming Swindle’ - backed by eminent scientists - is set to rock the accepted consensus that climate change is being driven by humans.

This is a british film that hopefully will find its way eventually to our side of the pond.

The programme, to be screened on Channel 4 on Thursday March 8, will see a series of respected scientists attack the "propaganda" that they claim is killing the world’s poor. Even the co-founder of Greenpeace, Patrick Moore, is shown, claiming African countries should be encouraged to burn more CO2.

Nobody in the documentary defends the greenhouse effect theory, as it claims that
climate change is natural, has been occurring for years, and ice falling from glaciers is just the spring break-up and as normal as leaves falling in autumn.

Don't wait for the Motion Picture Academy to give an Oscar for this one. Ain't gonna happen. Ever.

Brit director Martin Durkin said:

I think it will go down in history as the first chapter in a new era of the relationship between scientists and society. Legitimate scientists – people with qualifications – are the bad guys.

"It is a big story that is going to cause controversy. "It’s very rare that a film changes history, but I think this is a turning point and in five years the idea that the greenhouse effect is the main reason behind global warming will be seen as total bollocks.

"Al Gore might have won an Oscar for ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, but the film is very misleading and he has got the relationship between CO2 and climate change the wrong way round."

This a big story. I can't wait to see how it is attacked by the Gorebots and other assorted slobbering tree huggers.

Welcome To The Job

There are times when a cop wishes that his badge is literally as big as a garbage can lid. Two days ago Officer Stuart Ingram of the NYPD experienced this.

NEW YORK — An emotionally disturbed man driving his car on a sidewalk nearly ran over a nun on Thursday before trying to stab a rookie policeman in the chest and breaking his knife on the officer's shield, authorities said.

Talk about the Provenance of G-d. Most of the time an attack like this would have the blade slide off the metal and go into the officer's soft body armor. Bullet resistent ballistic panels are not meant to stop knives and do a very poor job of protecting against puncture wounds.

The unusual string of events started in Queens about 5 p.m., when the man left the scene of an accident and started barreling down a sidewalk where the nun was walking, police said.

Another man pushed the nun out of the way of the oncoming car, which struck a tree and a wall before coming to a stop, the New York Police Department said. When the driver tried to run away, two people tried to stop him, but they backed off when he threatened them with a kitchen knife, police said.

Much more of this and you'll be fingerprinted and issued a license before you can pick up a set of Ginsu's.

Two responding officers confronted the driver, who then tried to stab one of them, Stuart Ingram, in the chest, police said. Ingram said later he told the man repeatedly to drop the knife but the man lunged at him with it. He said the knife hit his badge and shattered.

Ingram said he struck the man with an expandable baton and, with the help of a civilian, subdued him. "That's when we apprehended him," Ingram said coolly at a news conference.

My personal preference would be that Officer Ingram struck him multiple times with a .45 caliber hollow point, but hey, I wasn't there. BC, Imperial Torturer of the Rott also recommends the .45 Goblin Stopper. But in any respect, we're all thankful that Officer Ingram walked away from this encounter. Nice grab!

There seems to be a bit more knife work out there. From the UCR reports I know that there has been a small uptick in the percentage of aggravated assaults committed with a knife, from 18.6% of all agg. assaults in 2004 to 18.9% in 2005. In 2006 the preliminary UCR for NY State shows a 3% increase for agg. assault, but no weapon distribution as of yet.

My read on this is that people have been offing one another since Cain slew Abel. And you can bet your ass he didn't use a Glock.

If a gun is not available, a knife will do. If there isn't a knife handy then a baseball bat certainly is useful. If the sporting goods store isn't open yet, then that broken chunk of cinder block will do the trick. No construction materials laying about? Well, go to it with fang and claw.

Weapons are only instruments that reflect human intent. As long as human intent is evil, the laws that ban one type of weapon or another are useless. Virtually anything can be used as a weapon or dangerous instrument. Sugar-free or not, even a big bowl of strawberry jello (I prefer raspberry) is deadly if you cram someone's head in it.

Marine Ballerinas

No, I'm not talking about Mincing Marines from the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Platoon. These are little girls, daughters of real Marines stationed at Camp Lejuene. They are asking for donations to pay for combat tutus, well - costumes, dancing shoes and other ballerina necessities.

As many of you know, the Camp Lejeune Ballerinas had a VERY successful recital in December. There was not a dry eye in the house!! Through donations from bloggers around the world, they were able to raise enough money for the December recital and a portion towards the much larger recital in May of 2007.

There are 12 new little ballerinas on the roster this semester! The May recital is a USO/Stage Door Canteen type review. The girls will perform in dance numbers from the 1940s all the way up to music from 2007.

And here's the kicker.

And of course, this time there will be many more fathers who will be deployed during this recital.

I have four daughters and I know it would break my heart not to be there for their special time. And I know these little ones need their Dads.

Let's do what we can for these kids. May is fast approaching.

So say a prayer for the safe return of the deployed parent and give what you can for the kids. Let our troops know we stand behind them and their families.

The donation icon is on the bottom left side of the site.

Polonium 210 - The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Just when you thought it was safe to comment on the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.

WASHINGTON - FBI agents say they are assisting police in suburban Washington who are investigating the shooting of a Russian expert — a man who spoke out on "Dateline NBC" last weekend and strongly suggested that remnants of the KGB were responsible for the bizarre poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko.

The Russian expert, Paul Joyal, was shot Thursday night as he got out of his car in front of his house in Adelphi, Md. Investigators in Prince Georges County say a witness claims to have seen two men running away after the shooting. Joyal remains hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the midsection. Authorities have not said whether they've been able to talk to him.

It could have been worse. They could have poured him a cup of tea.

On last weekend's "Dateline," he said of Litvenenko's death: "A message has been communicated to anyone who wants to speak out against the Kremlin: 'If you do, no matter who you are, where you are, we will find you and we will silence you — in the most horrible way possible.'"

Deja vue all over again. And the action also picked up on the other side of the pond.

In an odd twist, another person who appeared on the "Dateline" broadcast died of a heart attack last month. Reporter Daniel McGrory of the Times of London, who has written about the Litvinenko case, died Feb. 20, before the "Dateline" segment was broadcast. He was 54. His family said he "died suddenly at home." He was a veteran British foreign correspondent who had reported from several war zones. Just before his death, he had been reporting in Pakistan.

When I hear of an "odd twist" I usually think of two women wearing the same dress to an event, or a math whiz flunking an English test. But two people who appear on the same show criticizing former KGB agents suffer death or near death within a short time of each other?

If a dead gazelle shows up in the jaws of a leopard, is that an "odd twist?"