Brazil considers possible Amazon invasion scenario: The Wackiness of Nations?: "'There is no country threatening Brazil but we need a dissuasive power for the remote possibility (an invasion) could happen,' Jobim told the news conference."
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I would defer to my colleague Brandon Valeriano on this, but my initial impression is that it proves that people are nuts. Can you imagine trying to invade Brazil by hacking your way through the Amazon? In order to get to where the people of Brazil live, an invader would have to cross the 7 million square kilometers (1.2 billion acres) of the Amazon rain forest. The population density approaches zero there, unless you count snakes longer than your car, spiders bigger than your head, fish with teeth like a coffee grinder, insects that carry horrific diseases you can't pronounce, and jaguars that you can't hear until they have their jaws around your skull. The only rational explanation I can come up with is the fear that Columbia (helped by the US) will try to steal some of the rain forest and Brazil will have to defend its far-flung borders. Imagine for a moment the cost of policing that border. It would make the US-Mexico border issues look like two kids drawing a line with their fingers in a sandbox. In other words, nobody wants to invade Brazil, and Brazil can't defend the Amazon borders anyway, so what is the point of worrying about it?
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
10 Pieces of U.S. Infrastructure We Must Fix Now - Brooklyn Bridge, Chicago, New Orleans - Rebuilding America - Popular Mechanics
10 Pieces of U.S. Infrastructure We Must Fix Now - Brooklyn Bridge, Chicago, New Orleans - Rebuilding America - Popular Mechanics
Check out number one. Hint: it's close. Very close.
Check out number one. Hint: it's close. Very close.
Trustee accused of racist comment :: The Courier News :: News
Trustee accused of racist comment :: The Courier News :: News: "CARPENTERSVILLE -- Village Trustee Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski, who tried to get fellow Trustee Paul Humpfer kicked off the village board last week in the wake of his domestic battery conviction, has been charged with disorderly conduct and accused of making a racist remark.
Village police said they issued Ramirez-Sliwinski a $75 ticket on Monday charging her with disorderly conduct after she admonished her neighbors' children for climbing a tree near her home on Sparrow Road, referring to them as 'monkeys.'"
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She was an Obama delegate, but the campaign persuaded her to "step down."
I call my 10 year old twins "monkeys" all the time, because sometimes their behavior reminds me of the primate house at the zoo. If I saw my kids climbing too high in a tree, and I was trying to get them to climb down, I might make a monkey reference myself. I guess I can't be an Obama delegate.
The idea that a person could be charged with a crime for saying this is beyond ridiculous. It is obviously a First Amendment violation. I hope she takes these clowns to court. Oops. I said "clowns." Don't call the Language Police on me!
Village police said they issued Ramirez-Sliwinski a $75 ticket on Monday charging her with disorderly conduct after she admonished her neighbors' children for climbing a tree near her home on Sparrow Road, referring to them as 'monkeys.'"
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She was an Obama delegate, but the campaign persuaded her to "step down."
I call my 10 year old twins "monkeys" all the time, because sometimes their behavior reminds me of the primate house at the zoo. If I saw my kids climbing too high in a tree, and I was trying to get them to climb down, I might make a monkey reference myself. I guess I can't be an Obama delegate.
The idea that a person could be charged with a crime for saying this is beyond ridiculous. It is obviously a First Amendment violation. I hope she takes these clowns to court. Oops. I said "clowns." Don't call the Language Police on me!
the Mail online
the Mail online: Global Cooling?: "The world will experience global cooling this year, according a leading climate scientist. The head of the World Meteorological Organisation said La Nina - the weather phenomenon which is cooling the Pacific - is likely to trigger a small drop in average global temperatures compared with last year. The prediction - which follows a bitterly cold winter in China and the Arctic - is prompting some sceptics to question the theory of climate change."
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Of course, the global warming people say this global cooling has nothing to do with global warming. I have no problem agreeing that there has been a worldwide warming trend. It started in about 1850. I am not so sure about the causes, though. Greenhouse gases, solar activity, and maybe other causes are involved, but the proportions are unclear--not only to me, but to the global warming zealots. The difference is they won't admit that. They are determined to scare people into taking drastic steps, so they won't acknowledge any of the uncertainty on their side of the argument. I have not trusted the environmental movement since I took college biology. We read Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb, and I got so depressed that I was ready to jump off a building. Then it turned out that the book was a load of garbage. As the Wikipedia entry says, "A best-selling work, it predicted disaster for humanity due to overpopulation and the "population explosion". The book predicted that "in the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death", that nothing can be done to avoid mass famine greater than any in the history, and radical action is needed to limit the overpopulation."
College students like me were sold this bill of goods as absolute, unquestioned truth by our science teachers. They, like Ehrlich, were full of it up to their eyeballs. And today you'd never know this happened. They have a new hobby horse to ride, and it is called "global warming." I'm hanging onto my winter clothes, thanks just the same. I think I'll be needing them.
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Of course, the global warming people say this global cooling has nothing to do with global warming. I have no problem agreeing that there has been a worldwide warming trend. It started in about 1850. I am not so sure about the causes, though. Greenhouse gases, solar activity, and maybe other causes are involved, but the proportions are unclear--not only to me, but to the global warming zealots. The difference is they won't admit that. They are determined to scare people into taking drastic steps, so they won't acknowledge any of the uncertainty on their side of the argument. I have not trusted the environmental movement since I took college biology. We read Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb, and I got so depressed that I was ready to jump off a building. Then it turned out that the book was a load of garbage. As the Wikipedia entry says, "A best-selling work, it predicted disaster for humanity due to overpopulation and the "population explosion". The book predicted that "in the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death", that nothing can be done to avoid mass famine greater than any in the history, and radical action is needed to limit the overpopulation."
College students like me were sold this bill of goods as absolute, unquestioned truth by our science teachers. They, like Ehrlich, were full of it up to their eyeballs. And today you'd never know this happened. They have a new hobby horse to ride, and it is called "global warming." I'm hanging onto my winter clothes, thanks just the same. I think I'll be needing them.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
'Ruthlessness gene' discovered : Nature News
'Ruthlessness gene' discovered : Nature News: "Selfish dictators may owe their behaviour partly to their genes, according to a study that claims to have found a genetic link to ruthlessness. The study might help to explain the money-grabbing tendencies of those with a Machiavellian streak — from national dictators down to 'little Hitlers' found in workplaces the world over."
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I wonder what sorts of social roles these "little Hitlers" are attracted to? Probably positions where they can have power over people and can make their lives miserable, and where they have few if any checks on that power. Let's see...where might we find positions like that?
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I wonder what sorts of social roles these "little Hitlers" are attracted to? Probably positions where they can have power over people and can make their lives miserable, and where they have few if any checks on that power. Let's see...where might we find positions like that?
La Plaza : Los Angeles Times : Mexico reconquers California? Absolut drinks to that!
La Plaza : Los Angeles Times : Mexico reconquers California? Absolut drinks to that!
Check out Absolut's new map of the continent.
Check out Absolut's new map of the continent.
Lawmaker questions U. of I. demographics :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Education
Lawmaker questions U. of I. demographics :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Education: "A state lawmaker is questioning whether the University of Illinois should continue to accept international students at the current high clip, even as competition remains intense for admission to study at the state's flagship public university. The Chicago Sun-Times reported last week that the school has more international students on campus than any other public university in U.S. history."
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This could become a big issue because, just due to demographics, over the next few years there will be an increasing number of Illinois students applying to universities...including the U of I.
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This could become a big issue because, just due to demographics, over the next few years there will be an increasing number of Illinois students applying to universities...including the U of I.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Good deed lands Boca couple in trouble with condo board -- Rentals, Broward County, Paul Ryan -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Good deed lands Boca couple in trouble with condo board -- Rentals, Broward County, Paul Ryan -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com: "He was a 'gentle' Army veteran living quietly in his Boca Raton condo when his world came apart. Two years ago, former Postal Service worker Paul Ryan, 60, had a nervous breakdown and couldn't work, care for himself or pay his bills. He has no family to help him. With Foreclosure on his Boca Verde apartment imminent, Rhode Island real estate investors Carol and Sabatino Ranucci stepped in. The snowbirds have owned a unit in the same building as Ryan for more than 20 years. They saw he had no place to go and rushed to his aid. The Ranuccis paid his bills, took him to doctors, picked up his medicine and helped him get disability benefits. In March 2007, they bought the 1,043-square-foot apartment that he had purchased in 2003 and let him stay at no charge. Now, however, the Boca Verde condo board wants Ryan out. It has filed a lawsuit that could become a test of how much discretion directors have when it comes to enforcing rules."
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I'm always getting knocked for pointing to nasty, stupid things condo and HOA boards do. I would be happy to post links to stories about boards showing common sense and human decency and helping their members find solutions to their problems. Unfortunately, such things things either don't seem to happen very often, or if and when they do they don't make it into the local press. Maybe the people who are so convinced that these associations are terrific could start sending me all these good news stories they claim are so common.
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I'm always getting knocked for pointing to nasty, stupid things condo and HOA boards do. I would be happy to post links to stories about boards showing common sense and human decency and helping their members find solutions to their problems. Unfortunately, such things things either don't seem to happen very often, or if and when they do they don't make it into the local press. Maybe the people who are so convinced that these associations are terrific could start sending me all these good news stories they claim are so common.
Friday, April 4, 2008
HILLARY IS ONE BIG 'MIS'TAKE - New York Post
HILLARY IS ONE BIG 'MIS'TAKE - New York Post
You read this story, with all the equivocations and denials and non-denials and intentional obfuscation, and one question comes to mind: Is Hillary Clinton a sociopath?
You read this story, with all the equivocations and denials and non-denials and intentional obfuscation, and one question comes to mind: Is Hillary Clinton a sociopath?
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Judge admits mistake in kicking whites out of court - CNN.com
Judge admits mistake in kicking whites out of court - CNN.com: "CNN) -- An Atlanta, Georgia, judge who ordered white lawyers out of his courtroom so he could lecture African-American defendants called that decision a 'mistake' Tuesday night."
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Gee, do you think so?
Many judges seem to think they have some sort of roving commission to make the world a better place by haranguing people about how to live their lives. They don't get this concept that they have a limited governmental function to perform and they should stick to calling the balls and strikes and leave the preaching to the clergy.
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Gee, do you think so?
Many judges seem to think they have some sort of roving commission to make the world a better place by haranguing people about how to live their lives. They don't get this concept that they have a limited governmental function to perform and they should stick to calling the balls and strikes and leave the preaching to the clergy.
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