Libertyblog

At Least He Didn’t Kill Dr. Kimball’s Wife

One-armed man steals single cufflink. (Via InstaPundit.)

Just Sayin’

If someone says contradictory things, couldn’t some of them be ... lies? (Via InstaPundit.)

I Suppose They Could Look Down Under

Aussie censorship:

[The] Australian Classification Board (ACB) is now banning depictions of small-breasted women in adult publications and films. They banned mainstream pornography from showing women with A-cup breasts, apparently on the grounds that they encourage paedophilia, and in spite of the fact this is a normal breast size for many adult women. Presumably small breasted women taking photographs of themselves will now be guilty of creating simulated child pornography, to say nothing of the message this sends to women with modestly sized chests or those who favour them.

Next: Subsidized implants. (Via InstaPundit.)

Hall of Mirrors

My brother must be so proud of his hometown paper:

A story on Page 1 of Tuesday’s Telegraph quoted a White House official explaining that a Q-and-A session with dozens of teenagers in Nashua High School North on Monday was “off the record.” However, the explanation about the talk being “off the record” was, it turns out, also “off the record” and should not have been quoted.

Thw Q-and-A session did not exist, does not exist, and will never exist. Got it. (Via InstaPundit.)

Doubling Down

Andrew Sullivan uses the occasion of the Breck Girl paternity confirmation to remind us he doesn’t think Barracuda is really the mother of her Down syndrome child. (Via InstaPundit.)

The Prodigal Scribe

A journalist repents on warmism:

I feel I’ve been had.

One thing I could not have known in 1996 was that the IPCC’s warming predictions would be wrong. Mean global surface temperatures have not risen since 1998, and, by some measures, have dropped since 2001. The CRU e-mails show scientists trying to hide this decline, to give one detail—I don’t have room in this column to detail the extent of CRU’s shenanigans, nor could I tell the story as well as others, so please read this “Editor’s Page” online for links (see below).

This doesn’t necessarily mean manmade global warming is disproven. But it does deflate the certainty and moral righteousness of the Al Gores and the IPCCs of the world. At Copenhagen and in Congress, politicians have proposed massive disruptions to our economies and lifestyles in the name of halting global warming. It turns out they’ve been doing so, at least partly, with books that have been cooked more than the planet.

I grew up admiring science and scientists. One of my favorite TV shows as a kid? Carl Sagan’s Cosmos. I took global warming seriously because I took scientists seriously and forgot that they are people, too, no less prone to vanity, piety or hubris than others. When I read about the CRU e-mails, a scandal now known as Climategate, I felt anger and disappointment, some of it directed at myself.

People make these kinds of mistakes all the time, and the motives are no mystery. For the researchers, grant dollars and reputations are on the line. For reporters, global warming offers the thrill of covering The Biggest Story Ever Told, an appeal I could not resist. For politicians, it has offered an endless opportunity for grandstanding and power grabs. Convinced they are saving the earth—what could be more rewarding or important?—all three groups helped each other lose their minds.

It’s time for scientists to do what science is all about: check their work to see if the results can be reproduced. Fresh eyes need to look at the original data the CRU used, to see if they can independently find the same evidence for warming. But wait—that can’t be done. Somehow, the CRU managed to “lose” all its original data.

How’s that for an inconvenient truth?

(Via InstaPundit.)

Take Your Pick

How many folks jinxed the Colts?

• Indianapolis school bus drivers: Asked to start work a couple of hours late today, in case they were celebrating.
  
• Obambi: After assuring us he would close Gitmo and pass health care “reform,” he picked Indy.
  
• Their own head coach: Thank goodness he passed up a chance for a 16-0 regular season so they could be rested for the playoffs.

Bad Imagery

I’m not sure this is the right political moment for Obambi to be talking about his campaign promises and burial shrouds. And remember, it’s not about him.

The Swerve

After many days of ballyhoo, the Tim Tebow ad actually aired during the Super Bowl didn’t mention abortion, alluding only to his mother having “almost lost” him. This let the ad makes its point without bringing up dead babies during a family television show. Smart. This also fooled the Associated Press, which is easier than it ought to be.

“We Want to Kill Poor People, Preferably Poor, Black People”

That’s the Aha! moment Obambi is hoping for by inviting Republicans to a health care summit. I suspect they won’t accommodate him.

Capitalists, Not Masochists

Wall Street has decided that it won’t pay for the privilege of being publicly sodomized by Obambi and company.

Better, Faster, Cheaper

The smartest man in the world spends thousands of bucks on a Teleprompter, but says stupid things. An Alaska redneck found a better way to say wiser things. (Via NRO Corner.)

UPDATE: Having been (ludicrously) mocked by the left, Barracuda has some fun of her own.

The Left’s View of the World

Why they condescend: Republicans are evil manipulators, Americans are stupid, whites are racist, and conservatives are irrational. (Via NRO Corner.)

And His Good Friend, Dick Gozinya ...

As a follow-up to the story about the poor diplomat with an unusual name, we have another diplomat with an unusual name, from Mark Steyn.

Don’t Try This At Home

No, Fox News, submersing someone’s head in a container of standing water isn’t waterboarding.

A Quick Thought on Keeping Secrets

No, not the Abdulmutallab interrogation, which absolutely should have been kept under wraps. I’m talking about the onside kick the Saints employed to start the second half of Super Bowl XLIV. Coach Sean Payton is reported to have told his team about this at halftime, meaning all forty-whatever players, not just the kicking squad, were in on the ruse. How difficult was it for those on the sidelines to stand where they typically stood, not at their 40-yard line, where the play would unfold? How difficult was it for the offensive players to engage in their normal milling about rather than strap on their helmets prematurely? Payton is a great football coach, but he may have some things to learn about operational security. I’d be curious to see a video comparison looking for clues.

Congratulations to the Saints on their victory. As to all those who thought the corrupt, poorly engineered welfare state of a city somehow deserved this, go fuck yourselves.

Screwup Requires Screwdriver

You will be shocked, shocked to learn that dissent is no longer the highest form of patriotism:

President Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser expressed frustration with Washington on Sunday, saying Republicans are playing politics on national security and making ignorant allegations about the investigation into the Christmas airliner plot.

Saying congressional Republicans are using a “500-mile screwdriver” to criticize the administration about its response to the failed attack in Detroit, Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan said the GOP is motivated by partisan purposes and second-guessing the case.

[...]

The fact that Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was read his Miranda Rights is being tried in civilian court instead of a military one has become a big issue on Capitol Hill. Many Republicans say Abdulmutallab belongs in miltiary court under a different set of rules.

And Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., the ranking Republican on the Senate intelligence committee, accused the White House of its own political games for revealing that Abdulmutallab was talking to interrogators after saying he had clammed up after being read his rights in the first hour of his containment.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., the top Republican on the House intelligence committee, said it’s not possible to take Brennan’s claim seriously that the administration consulted Republicans when its own FBI director, national intelligence chief and homeland security secretary were all out of the loop.

“The mishandling of this case is the Obama administration’s failure, and they have no one to blame but themselves. President Obama failed to respond after the terrorist attack at Fort Hood, and failed to respond immediately after the terrorist attack in Detroit,” Hoekstra said in a statement. “Instead of lashing out politically and attempting to deflect blame, Obama and his advisers need to settle on a coherent and rational national security strategy to help secure our homeland.”

My Prediction

Colts 31, Saints 27.

Get In Line, Buddy

The man who told lies that might impoverish billions, and thereby kill millions, has some regrets:

The scientist at the centre of the “climategate” email scandal has revealed that he was so traumatised by the global backlash against him that he contemplated suicide.

Professor Phil Jones said in an exclusive interview with The Sunday Times that he had thought about killing himself “several times”.

Professor, don’t let me stop you. (Via Drudge.)

The Wages of Appeasement

Obambi wanted to negotiate with Iran. Here’s what he got:

Iran has drawn up tough conditions on its proposed deal to ship out stocks of nuclear fuel, condemning the agreement to failure, The Times has learned.

[...]

Iran’s conditions, contained in a written proposal given to British parliamentarians, include handing over its fuel in two batches on Iranian soil — both deal breakers in previous negotiations.

[...]

Mr Wallace told the Times that the proposal called for an initial batch of 160 kg of 3.5 per cent low enriched uranium to be swapped for the corresponding quantity of 20 per cent enriched uranium.

Mr. Wallace said the Iranians were asking for the swap to take place within Iran and for the higher enriched fuel to be handed over simultaneously rather than delay long enough to reprocess the Iranian material.

A further 800 kg would be sealed and handed over to the safekeeping of the IAEA until the first deal was completed.

(Via Hot Air.)

A Useful Alibi

Will NY Governor David Paterson employ the “I’m blind, I thought it was my wife” excuse for alleged marital infidelities?

What Does He Mean?

Obambi faces his supporters, dodges reality:

President Obama on Saturday sought to assure despondent Democrats he would not abandon his commitment to overhauling health care and would work to counter GOP challenges to their congressional dominance.

At its winter meeting, a defiant Democratic Party worked to project a message of strength even as loyalists acknowledged the prospect of several defeats in November.

[...]

While Republicans have stood in solid opposition to the president’s proposed overhaul of health care, Obama insisted he wasn’t willing to abandon his top domestic priority that consumed months of his agenda and has produced slim hints of victory.

“Let me be clear: I am not going to walk away from health reform,” Obama said, bringing the audience in the hotel ballroom to their feet.

Nowadays, that statement means one of two things: He will either keep beating the dead horse of the failed far-left bills, a political impossibility to pass, or he will start over and embrace more moderate ideas including tort reform. Had he elaborated on either option, half of that audience would not have risen to their feet. What a cowardly and disingenuous man. And “Let me be clear” only makes him laughable to boot.

So Obambi

He knows how to say “United States” in French, but doesn’t know how to say “corpsman” in English.

Worse Than a Boy Named Sue?

Cookie pusher problem:

A high-ranking Pakistani diplomat reportedly cannot be appointed ambassador to Saudi Arabia because in Arabic his name translates into a phrase more appropriate for a porn star, referring to the size of male genitals, Foreign Policy reported.

The Arabic transaltion of Akbar Zeb to “biggest d**k” has overwhelmed Saudi officials who have refused to allow his post there.

Zeb has run into this problem before when Pakistan tried to appoint him as ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, where he was rejected for the same reason, according to Foreign Policy.

Yeah, but does it help him get dates? (Via Power Line.)

And Yet “Roast Duck with Mango Salsa” Would Have Been Wrong Too

NBC caught stereotyping. (Via Lucianne.)

Somebody Stop Me!

Senate Dems complain Obambi has left governing up to ... them.

Sodomy, Socialism, and Surrender

Dem allegiance to one of these is now confirmed by polling data:

Only 17% of Republicans have a positive image of socialism (and where are those 17% anyway?), while 53% of Democrats feel positively towards it.

That, Obambi, is why we call your health plan Bolshie bullshit.

Hold the Vegetables

The brain dead may not be.

How to Get the MSM to Promote an “Undocumented Worker” to “Illegal”

Let him kill five people.

Taking Survivor to the Next Level

Civilization gone awry:

Show Lets Viewers Decide If “Reality Stars” Get Abortions

(Via NRO Corner.)

Nonexistent Lists

With Joe McCarthy it was Communists in the government, with Eric Holder it’s jihadists behind bars.

A Bad Lot

The crooked banker isn’t the worst statewide candidate the Dems have spewed forth in Illinois. We are reminded that (a) this system produced Obambi and (b) Obambi made no effort to change it.

Disgusting

A story about an 11-year-old giving birth without a single word regarding a criminal investigation.

IPCC Under Water—Netherlands, Not So Much

Global warmists submerged in factual errors:

The IPCC’s beleaguered climate report faces the prospect of still more errors, as Dutch authorities point out factual inaccuracies about the Netherlands.

Dutch environment ministry spokesman Trimo Vallaart has asked the U.N.’s climate change panel to rethink its assertion that more than half of the Netherlands is below seal level. Dutch authorities explain that, in fact, only 26 percent of the country is below sea level.

According to an AFP story, IPCC experts calculated that 55 percent of the Netherlands was below sea level by adding the area below sea level -- 26 percent -- to the area threatened by river flooding -- 29 percent -- Vallaart said. “They should have been clearer,” Vallaart pointed out, adding that the Dutch office for environmental planning, an IPCC partner, had the exact figures.

Of course, any numbers for the Netherlands should be asterisked. Much of it was created by tinkering with nature in the first place.

Louder Please, Your Honor, They Didn’t Hear You in Montana

If I’m promoting a book some day, I hope a judge creates buzz like this for me:

A judge declared Friday that a former aide to John Edwards was in contempt of court, demanding that he turn over a “personal” videotape being sought by Edwards’ former mistress.

Superior Court Judge Abraham Penn Jones reprimanded Andrew Young in a court hearing Friday but declined to put him in custody. The contempt ruling will be lifted if Young turns over a videotape “of a personal nature” and other items by Wednesday, Jones said.

“These items are to be produced and turned over to the court,” Jones said. “The court will put them under lock and key -- and under seal -- until the lawsuit is resolved.”

Who Are the Idiots?

Charles Krauthammer takes on the temperament of the left:

A year later, after stunning Democratic setbacks in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts, Obama gave a stay-the-course State of the Union address (a) pledging not to walk away from health-care reform, (b) seeking to turn college education increasingly into a federal entitlement, and (c) asking again for cap-and-trade energy legislation. Plus, of course, another stimulus package, this time renamed a “jobs bill.”

This being a democracy, don’t the Democrats see that clinging to this agenda will march them over a cliff? Don’t they understand Massachusetts?

Well, they understand it through a prism of two cherished axioms: (1) The people are stupid and (2) Republicans are bad. Result? The dim, led by the malicious, vote incorrectly.

Liberal expressions of disdain for the intelligence and emotional maturity of the electorate have been, post-Massachusetts, remarkably unguarded. New York Times columnist Charles Blow chided Obama for not understanding the necessity of speaking “in the plain words of plain folks,” because the people are “suspicious of complexity.” Counseled Blow: “The next time he gives a speech, someone should tap him on the ankle and say, ‘Mr. President, we’re down here.’”

A Time magazine blogger was even more blunt about the ankle-dwelling mob, explaining that we are “a nation of dodos” that is “too dumb to thrive.”

Obama joined the parade in the State of the Union address when, with supercilious modesty, he chided himself “for not explaining it [health care] more clearly to the American people.” The subject, he noted, was “complex.” The subject, it might also be noted, was one to which the master of complexity had devoted 29 speeches. Perhaps he did not speak slowly enough.

Asshat Defined

WaPo’s Dana Milbank spends nine petulant paragraphs ridiculing Scott Brown for demanding his Senate seat now, only to have the Senate suspend its business, leaving Brown with nothing to do but hold a press conference. Then Milbank gets down to reality, explaining that Brown stopped Dem shenanigans:

But they don’t like the way he votes, so hours before Brown’s arrival, Senate Democrats used their 60-vote majority one final time, breaking a Republican filibuster and confirming Patricia Smith to be solicitor in the Labor Department.

Still, the urgency requiring the hastily arranged swearing-in ceremony was something of a puzzle. Democrats had already agreed that their health-care reform bill was dead, so that couldn’t explain it.

Was he rushing to town to vote against a jobs bill? That would be awkward, because Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, is a co-sponsor of one of its main provisions. He may have been in a hurry to block Obama’s nominee to the National Labor Relations Board, but this was hardly top priority for Massachusetts voters.

I’ll let Brown assess what are Massachusetts voters’ priorities. Health care wasn’t the only Dem overreach Brown promised to end.

Meanwhile, a man who’s entire life is a joke calls Brown’s candidacy a joke. Patrick Kennedy (D-Rehab):

“Brown’s whole candidacy was shown to be a joke today when he was sworn in early in order to cast his first vote as an objection to Obama’s appointment to the NLRB,” Kennedy said Thursday.

The left is acting like a child deprived of its favorite toy. (Via Drudge.)