The week progresses. Thursday already, eh? Links!

1. Popular media gets a hold of the NSA kerfuffle. Heh.
2. Sales hype.
3. Apparently “global warming threatens coral” is a real meme.
4. Myths and insurgency.
5. Consider this … from the right.
6. Of DNA tests, rape and Pakistani jurisprudence.
7. Bigger … better?
8. Gorilla’s and cars.
9. Syria and diplomacy considered.
10. Kneejerked journalists.
11. Big collider.
12. Progressivism infection.
13. Meta-data used for network analysis and method. (HT)

Good morning.

1. Apparently there is a misconception that doing the thing you feel is ethical should indemnify you from a jail term. This is wrong.
2. Really. And seriously, let the guy speak, typically guys like that are better advocates for the point of view they oppose than the one they putatively support.
3. Guns and stars.
4. A fool-for-Christ noted.
5. The current not-warming trend may be more extensive than suspected.
6. In the cui bono category.
7. Well, one of them got caught.
8. This is not unrelated.
9. Google’s algorithmic ideology.
10. Yikes.
11. Fukashima an example of nuclear power safety.
12. An shining example of White House open-ness.
13. And … I’ll end with a note that should leave a bad taste in your mouth. Sorry.
14. Oh … I can’t do that.

Whazzup?

1. Natural for a library, I guess.
2. ‘Tis the month for scandals, apparently.
3. Employment and healthcare reforms. Twas a cunning plan I suspect. (Perhaps this should be noted as a preface before the introduction of any Legislature for consideration by our August bodies of state  “Am I jumping the gun, Baldrick, or are the words ‘I have a cunning plan’ marching with ill-deserved confidence in the direction of this conversation”).
4. Ah, if these walls could, err, blog?
5. Why “or” and not “and”.
6. Young atheists and what they say.

Well, not much garnered … I took daughter #1 to a baseball game last night … 1 hour fog delay? What’s up with that? Seriously, fog?

Good morning.

1. Of turbulence and wake.
2. A topic for these guys to look at?
3. How nice that’s settled now.
4. Two points of view of the latest meta-data government capture update, here and here.
5. And here is a roundup of quotes from the Congressional knuckleheads.
6. An epic recalled.
7. Grist for the IRS “Somebody rid me of that troublesome priest” discussion (HT).
8. Careful carver.
9. The fruits of dishonesty.
10. Yah, we know what “meta-data” means … apparently it had to be explained to someone.
11. The cold war revisited.

Woo hoo, 5 days in a row.

1. Of sign and symptom.
2. Data mining has defenders … a question not asked (that I’ve seen)  is how the Feds convinced those numerous corporations to provide access … what sort of perks. IRS kid gloves or Justice Department patent war favors? Hmmm?
3. Talking legality (more here)… 51% is “reasonably sure” … Let’s see the politically neutral IRS isn’t … why are you so sure the politically neutral NSA is?
4. Putting that and drones in a larger context here.
5. Strange jewelry.
6. Exists. Hmm. Regrettable perhaps?
7. Of Scient(ology) and cinema.
8. “Government” here is not the feds … it’s your school board. If you don’t like it, gosh, you can actually do something about it (or if you do like it … you can support it).
9. The “science is settled” and some plots of those settled predictions. Sounds like settled doesn’t mean what they think it means.
10. Remember the atheist meme, “religion is the opiate of the masses” … well not so much, eh?
11. Of games and brains.
12. Of tech and terror.
13. Happiness fail.

G’day.

1. The super sekret plan revealed. (someone is slightly unimpressed)
2. A candidate.
3. A lung recipient selected. See, it is about who you know.
4. Immigration thoughts.
5. Of man and elephant.
6. Evil in our time.
7. A book noted.
8. Some IRS spending tidbits.
9. English history and HBO series ties.
10. A bike race.

Good morning. Yadda yadda yadda, blah blah blah

1. More IRS tricks and missteps.
2. A 14 y/old photographer and some of his pictures.
3. Le Tour and changes in the last century.
4. Some of the  groups not audited by the IRS, ’cause they didn’t have “Constitution” in their tagline.
5. Testifying in regards to IRS investigation.
6. Zooom.
7. Game warden and his guns.
8. Modern healthcare … as we move into the “who you know” regime.
9. Hitler and language.
10. Teh race card, and an example of not getting it at all.
11. The surprise exam.
12. Mistaken notions on what constitutes war noted.

Good morning.

1. Why does Communist chic survive?
2. This is not unrelated to the prior link.
3. Feminist victory, Pyrrhic?
4. Privacy, laws broken, and consequence.
5. Money wasted is money wasted.
6. You might have a drinking problem when …
7. A “disconnect between rhetoric and reality” … when it is intentional we call that lying.
8. Food for thought (HT).
9. Tobacco, harm, and common misconceptions amongst MDs.
10. Military promotions.

Another day, another ???

1. Coming soon, to a watercooler discussion near you.
2. “much more lavish” … another plug for small businesses, which certainly have none of that lavish crap.
3. Syria and stop digging.
4. A homily … and a cherished gospel story.
5. When the proud papa is an artist.
6. A poll in the UK.
7. Economics and …, a quote.
8. Rules.
9. Your President in action … or is that inaction.
10. Of government spending and debt.
11. The left’s anointed spokesperson and his foot in mouth disease.
12. Freedom of speech in Wales.
13. That’s very funny … other funny videos by the same guy can be found as well.
14. Witness and evidence in the Pakistan.

Good morning.

1. Averages.
2. A interesting prototype for a toy.
3. A quote … which is not unlike the phrase I occasionally tell my kids when the utter the “I’m bored remark” (which oddly enough rarely comes to my ears now). My reply invariably is that “your boredom is a problem with you not the universe which you inhabit.”
4. Warming and causes … a suggestion.
5. Nuptials to remember.
6. Regarding visiting Mars.
7. Frequent visitor noted.
8. Mainstream education moving online?
9. Experts they are not.
10. Fishing the adage, “Give him a fish …” which brings to my mind the always humors Christopher Moore addition “turn him into a fish and his family eats for a week” from Lamb.
11. Mad skillz.
12. Time after time (HT).
13. Post boomer?
14. For the burn your money crowd.

Yo.

1. The tip/top of the iceberg.
2. Holder and the lying game … in a word, weak tea … supported here and here.
3. More on Holder here.
4. A commencement address of note without inappropriate jokes (HT: Mr Burgess-Jackson).
5. Yikes.
6. Put that same metric on Mr Obama and Mr Kerry (the last two Democrat Presidential) and they too “did nothing”.  But I doubt Mr McElwee would say they did nothing. Why might that be?
7. Brendan points out some of the real failings of consequentialism. I might add that a wise friend of mine equated asceticism with prayer.
8. The capstone of the liberal media not doing so well.
9. Coming to a zoo near you in a decade or so.
10. Fine tuning.
11. Marriage, France and a speech.
12. So will that end the homicide bombers terror trend?
13. A lock.
14. A quote.
15. Another.
16. Twitter travels in time.
17. A short film, beware the dust in the air.
18. Academic mediocrity and our President.
19. A film noted.

Tonight I return the Internet black hole, I’m trying the third hotel (and final) in the area to see if they, unlike the others, have “high-speed” internet that is faster than dialup.

1. An ethics question.
2. “Other weapons systems” … equals drones?
3. Fur yur amoozment.
4. Not a co-conspirator.
5. Fine tuning comes to inflation.
6. 13 years ago, Honda sold a 1 liter three cylinder inline powered car … still waiting.
7. And you tell the wife, parents, and children of the dead patient you “did no harm”? This isn’t an ethical dilemma.
8. Of names and men.

OK. Remember today, first off … do no harm.

I hope everyone had a good memorable Memorial day. If you want to read something patriotic, I often recommend the first chapter or two or the Book of Ruth. Ruth’s declamatory statement to Naomi strikes me as the essence of patriotism.

1. I have to confess, unlike many readers, I find the likability of the protagonist important, for example that was a reason I couldn’t stand the Thomas Covenant series. The protagonist doesn’t have to be likable I guess, but it really really helps if there is someone who is likable.
2. Legal-like moonshine.
3. Law and drones continued.
4. Academic failings.
5. Theodicy and Presidential statements … so do you think Presidents and other politicians actually read the context of the verses they choose? Did this President do so?
6. Liberal hack and … uncivil as well? Don’t worry the liberal hack thing will keep him is moonlight job as a NYTimes pundit and liberals stapled to the cause will never believe he might say or do wrong.
7. Scandal in India.
8. Future’s so bright and all … maybe.
9. Star Trek, sliced and diced (spoilers aplenty) (HT Ms (slightly) Mad Minerva).
10. Bars of the uneven kind.
11. PEDs and a mountain.
12. So … you’re in Nashville. Where to go? What do do? How about this?
13. Benghazi the narrative in local context.
14. Not a lot of running on warships, eh?
15. A very bad day.

Busy morning for me. You?

1. If our plan holds, this is the next “family” car after the kids move out … or the equivalent in 2017.
2. A few years in the cellar.
3. “Mystical” … what does that mean to ABC I wonder.
4. The standards … they are double, eh?
5. An aesthetic is a method for evaluating art. By what aesthetic is that worth that much? Not one I might fathom.
6. Some games and a photo-essay.
7. Two very different posts on exercise, here and here.
8. While you’re thinking about the IRS.
9. Ink on skin meets religion in the Middle East.
10. OK liberals … defend this! or this.
11. School and men.
12. Frakking and the obvious.
13. He calls it “inexcusable” and is right glad his Chicago training taught him how to have no tracks back to himself on this one … at least as long as those losing their jobs keep their mouths shut.
14. And we end with a discussion of a fictional figure in popular media.

Moving on

1. Do drones work?
2. More on the same.
3. Researching for the government. Heh.
4. The liberator and open source.
5. First there was lather rinse repeat now we find eat, pray, drink.
6. Liberty. Three notions of liberty (freedom to choose, loving neighbors/community, and now … freedom to make laws). Do they differ at the core or just the edges?
7. Cheating.
8. Multi-culturalism and its claims … a test lab.
9. The last weeks scandal that was lost.  Another list. A prediction … I’m not convinced he’s lost them yet.
10. Dogs and medical methodology and recommendations.
11. “We don’t rush in half cocked” …  of course we do, if we have to. Remember McClellan  and the Civil war … responding too much to the fear of losing and the unknown leads merely to just plain losing.
12. Biden-the-knucklehead takes credit for the White House promoting fracking. Promoting fracking? What is he smoking?
13. Danger danger Will Robinson!!!