Good morning.

1. A spanking good movie … but origins of the day are noted in detail.
2. Mr Romney’s inelegant phrase regarding the homeless and the liberal caricature of same noted. The strange thing about that is that basically Mr Romney is right. We’re in a recession. The primary problem/fix is not to centered on the addicted and mentally ill, … right.
3. The left atwitter for about, well, very little.
4. Three books on Orthodoxy, reviewed.
5. How to use that welfare gold-mine?
6. A better measure of unemployment?
7. Counter expectations on deadbeat spouse statistics.
8. Atheist journalist getting double facepalm, rightly.
9. Wishing the risk away, or Mr Obama promises “and a pony too.”
10. One crucial ingredient to good science, … unicorns!
11. New stuff for the boys in uniform.
12. Enemy lists.
13. Cool.

Good morning to all.

1. So, why blog? One reason.
2. Stating the obvious.
3. Boxing and the underside.
4. So, the term “food stamp Presidents” fits Mr Obama or Mr Bush better? Which do you think the media savants figure fits better? Guess then check.
5. Oooh, the horror of going through the tests in a pretty standard 40+ physical. Gosh that’s so not very mean. Oddly enough nobody (on the left) seems to take the obvious freedom tack, i.e., the government monopoly on prescription and medication availability is not so necessary in the information age.
6. Imitation and flattery?
7. Sea levels and the last century.
8. The “wants women to not be able to protect themselves” segment of the left, who remains apparently unaware that, for example, concealed carry has zero impact on the number of shooting incidents (or for that matter that range shooting is fun). I was surprised myself to learn that “open carry in bars” does not lead to more shooting. On the other side of the question, it’s not really that surprising a conclusion coming from the guy you can’t figure out whether allowing his own birth was a harm done to him or not.
9. A city car, how much do you want to bet it won’t be available here?
10. Tool builders on top.

Good morning.

1. Under what pretense is enforcement of belief in the same room as good science? Remember, you’re allowed to question proton stability or the dimensions of the universe, but y’know that’s not on the same footing however as the anthropological influences on climate.
2. Them horrible costs of contraception. People have been known to open a second mortgage to afford their condom habit.
3. A tale of two Sherlocks.
4. Pay and the federal worker, here and here. The second, alas, includes the laughable notion that if government pay was less then we’d see a lower quality in government workers. As if pay was related to quality of work and quality relating firings were common in government.
5. Toys that go boom in the night.
6. More here.
7. Mr Obama as VC entrepeneur … those on the left will of now jump to his defense listing his many successes in this field. Yes? or not?

Good morning. Well, I mean to get an essay out last night, but the family watched the 1967 movie “Bedazzled” instead. Links?

1. Having fun at the Summer palace (I think that’s where they are) in winter.
2. And while we’re considering the East … how about a life remembered.
3. If not child labor at least they needs some actual responsibilities.
4. There was at least one person who rose to the occasion in that tragedy.
5. Climate change of a different sort.
6. Tax the wealthy, a discussion here and here.
7. History re-enacted and/or rebuilt.
8. So … do you think the President traces his family values to the military? More here. Kinda reminds me of the Habermas/Ratzinger debate.
9. Neurons not in your head.
10. When?

It’s not like we haven’t warned you that New York City is rabidly anti-gun (especially its Mayor Bloomberg)

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And you can’t even own a Flintlock in NYC

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What if you’re a citizen from another state with a concealed carry weapon permit?
And, while visiting the 911 Memorial you see a “No Handguns” sign (which surely must mean the place is safe, right?) so you want to do the right thing and check in your legally owned handgun?

From the New York Post,

Really, you can’t bring guns into the 9/11 Memorial?

A tourist from Tennessee waltzed into one of the most secure sites in the city — and politely asked a cop if she could check her weapon.

Instead, she was dragged out in cuffs.

Now, Meredith Graves, 39, is facing at least three years in prison for thinking New York’s gun laws are anything like those in the Bible Belt.

Get it? A law-abiding citizen, albeit very wrong in her understanding of the anti-2nd amendment laws in New York City, was attemtping to follow the law and now faces prison time.

Also in the story,

Mayor Bloomberg, with the help of the five district attorneys, has crusaded against the flow of illegal guns, especially from the South.

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But surely a former Marine can check in his legally owned handgun while visiting the Empire State Building?
From the WSJ,

Some veterans linked to the Leatherneck.com online community started sending letters to city officials Monday urging them to drop the prosecution of Ryan Jerome.

He’s accused of trying to check his gun, registered in his home state of Indiana, while visiting New York City in September. They say he was acting responsibly and got bad information about city rules.

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Well how about the guy recently arrested in New York City, for possessing a firearm, who claimed to be a Navy SEAL?
The authorities, not believing him, threw him into a psych ward. Turns out… he was telling the truth!

From the New York Post,

His story about being a Navy SEAL wasn’t so fishy after all.

The Virginia man arrested for gun possession in Manhattan Thursday and thrown in a psych ward when he claimed to be a member of the elite military unit but couldn’t provide proof was telling the truth, The Post has learned.

Oops.

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It looks like Tennessee lawmakers are not too thrilled with the treatment of Meredith Graves
From the New York Daily News,

A Tennessee lawmaker angry that a home state tourist was busted with a loaded gun at Ground Zero introduced is threatening to go after New Yorkers who speed in his state.

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CNN report on Jerome and Graves

Good morning.

1. A global warming statement posted, will this mean that liberals will no longer to be fans of Mr Rutan and his wonderful toys?
2. And, my commenters strenuously object when I point out that in my youth, global cooling was the fear. See, some proof? I remain confused on why increases in the quantity and quality of arable land isn’t a good thing.
3. Well, Mr Obama will be able to lock up the “please sir, may I have another … (whack)” crowd.
4. Computational complexity and popular games.
5. Well, that’s half right. Mormons are not a Protestant sect. Mormons are properly termed a “Christ cult”. Nicene Christian sects are also Christ Cults. Fair or not, Nicene Christians, especially within the context of discussions with Nicene Christians group all Nicene affirming Christ cults as Christian. Got it? It’s really not that hard. Oh, and Protestant sects is the label for those Christ cults that broke from the Roman Catholic church during the reformation.
6. Hope, change and Libya.
7. Well, there’s the cutest thing you’ll see all day.
8. Mr Obama, misleading from the front.
9. The Serbs and Ms Jolie’s movie. The Serbian members of our church are very nice people, and I wish we’d sing their music more because it’s beautiful. The point is, my contact with Serbs and Serbians has been quite positive.
10. The third term loophole.

Good morning.

• Of the generations of men and the passage of tim
  e.

• The “history”
  channel, why scare quotes? Check the link.

• So, what is Mr Rove noted for, especially by the Democrats? It seems the biggest difference
  between what they complain about regarding Mr Rove and the activities of Mr Obama is for which side on which they strive.

• More unusual campaign
  tactics.

• The SOTU speech, highlighting contradictions
  and a flowchart
  and a little highlighting of characteristic Obama dishonesty

• One more on the speech. So look at the first two quoted pieces here
  . How can a person say those things in one speech and not be termed a deceitful liar? How can Democrats defend this man regarding this sort of dishonest? I really don’t understand it.
  
     
• So, how did Mr Romney manage to pay 13% in taxes while making 20 millions? By donating 16% of his income
  to charity. Odd that both Mr Romney and Mr Buffet share the same opinion on the efficacy of government spending vs their own charitable contributions. Can we not pretend those of us who don’t make millions also
  share that same opinion about government efficiency vs our own charity?

• So many crocodile tears
  . It strikes me as very false when lots of people suddenly “like” you, praise you, and talk about how wonderful you are when you’ve been affected by tragedy … and the never even noticed you prior to the event. Seems very fake to me.

• 100% to 1000% yield
  ? Who thinks that’s a good idea? Seriously.

• This quiz has been going around
  . I scored 12-15. How about y’all?

• Geek zoooom

• Monster
  ? I’d have thought coward the better term.

Well, yesterday I walked in and wham! calls and stuff started piling on just as I walked in. Links?

1. Unintended consequences of our broken patent law, that is more and more we depend on trade secrets.
2. Making the rich “pay their fair share” … hmm. Another unintended consequence on the way. With Mr Romney as an example, apparently why his taxes are lower than what you might naively expect is because he invests in tax protected bonds and such. So … if the response is to get rid of that loophole, that will make such bonds more expense. What are those bonds? Hmm, education and public works make a large part of that market. So, the consequence of killing that loophole will make school improvement and government projects harder to fund. Is that what you really want?
3. How to do bad science, a primer for the statistically naive.
4. This is not unrelated, i.e., more scarcity scares examined. Oh, from that same site … that must have made an interesting (and somewhat loud) noise when it went bang.
5. Some of us are better at learning how to do that than others.
6. Austerity, oddly enough can work.
7. A top 10 list.
8. Secular penance and repentance? How does that work?
9. The White House principal, do not interfere in family matters, i.e., which to them means allow abortion. Yet … then why have they decided to terminate farm children working on the family farm? Hmmm? Seems to me that violates their stated principal.
10. The master is surprise, pleasantly.
11. A tool for the next oil spill?
12. Belongs to the 99% … in his  own (1%) mind perhaps.
13. Seems to me that’s $100 million better spent on R&D.
14. Value? What’s that mean. Price? Utility? Purpose? The statement “cannot tell the value of X from Y” means what?
15. Someone apparently would prefer to whack strawmen. Mr Mankiw is a “conservative” economist. Read his blog, his book, his course material and then you can argue about what actual real-life “conservative” economists argue. Here is a link to Mr Mankiw’s blog.
16. “Pain killing injections” a headline noted about Mr Urlacher is more than a few places. The Tribune article I read the other day had the same headline. Reading further however, we find “Teradol” doesn’t haze (reduce) pain at all, but is an anti-inflamatory agent. I guess “multiple anti-inflamatory injections” doesn’t have the same cachet … even if that is the accurate interpretation.
17. Seems to me the first step isn’t randomly attacking the problem by fixing the “five most common problems” but get a ODB scanner on on it and read the code. Any (most?) parts stores will do that for free. Then you have a hint as to what to fix.
18. Hosanna-Tabor and consequences for foreign policy. Hey, does anyone know of any left leaning defenses (blogs?) of the President’s position on that?

What’s better than a breakfast burrito?
Nothing! But a burrito wrap around your camera lens might come close.

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Why do virtually all roadside memorials include a cross?

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Quiet
The book is out. All you introverts should give it a look see (and all you extroverts should really give it a look see).

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Google’s sense of humor
search for “askew”

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Grabbing your own photos from space
This happens a lot now… and it’s pretty cool.

Potentially good news for the defense of marriage Proposition 8

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Daytime Curfew for youth > 18 years-old;  Gov’t Protection or Big Brother interference?
In San Luis Obispo County an ordinance is being proposed for a daytime curfew for those under the age of 18. From HSLDA,

If passed, this curfew will affect the flexibility and freedom of homeschool students to be in public places during school hours. Homeschool children, even those from outside San Luis Obispo who are just visiting, could be stopped to verify who they are and that they have a valid excuse to be in a public place. HSLDA recently settled a lawsuit against Los Angeles for false arrest of two homeschool students under a similar law.

From the San Luis Obispo Tribune,

Students do have a number of valid reasons to be out and about during the day. They may be homeschooled; enrolled in independent study or work experience programs; on the way to or from a doctor’s appointment; or they may attend an alternative school that has half-day sessions.

The ordinance includes exemptions for such cases, but here’s the rub: How is a law officer supposed to know whether or not students have a valid reason for being out of school unless they stop and talk to them?

…

The fact is, California already has truancy regulations on the books. Parents can face fines and even jail time if their children repeatedly skip school. The students themselves can lose their driver’s licenses.

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Republican Latinos in California? Yes!

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Ex-wife of Los Angeles Lakers’ player gets to keep 3 mansions
which are worth $18.8 MM (approximately). Not a bad deal.

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Compare CCW Permit issuance: Urban vs. Rural
Red – Yellow = no issue; Dark Green = will issue for personal protection

Good morning.

1. Mr Paterno as confused grandpa … and why be confused about Mr McQuery? Do you think that generations of teaching moral relativism to replace “do the right thing” has no consequences?
2. Lag times in production consequences and data to prep you for Mr Obama’s campaign upcoming lies regarding oil production in his tenure.
3. Apple and OWS.
4. Grist for the education debates.
5. Some post Sanctity of Life Sunday thoughts offered. More here.
6. More Democrats misbehaving.
7. Links for the philosophically minded.
8. Hashing out Antisemitism.
9. “Fast and Furious” one of 10 (?!) similar operations.
10. The Slavery Question and the early church.
11. When  is a default not a default?
12. Going green and the oops factor.

Plugged In, and Trippin’! Literally
Study finds injuries increase with the frequency of headphone use,

Serious injuries sustained by pedestrians while listening to headphones have more than tripled in six years, according to a new study published this week in the journal Injury Prevention.

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Hey, let’s bring some MERCURY into our homes!
From the Jerusalem Post,

…from this point onward, only incandescent bulbs of 60 watts and less will be retailed. This limits our choice – like it or not – to compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), those squiggly, coiled bulbs initially hailed by environmentalists as saving as much as 50 percent of energy consumption, while lasting eight times longer. In truth, some CFLs malfunction far more quickly than advertised and they remain expensive.

…

There’s more. Each CFL contains small quantities of mercury and other toxins. If a bulb breaks at home, its fragments are dangerous to bare skin and need special handling and cleaning up. Even vacuum cleaners won’t do because they might spread the contamination.

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Can Science Inform Our Understanding of God?

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Homeschooled students in university science classes: strengths, and weaknesses
The points from this university science professor (HT: Old-Earth Creation Homeschool) echo my own observations and thoughts. From the post,

Desirable characteristics:

1. They are independent learners and do a great job of taking initiative and being responsible for learning. They don’t have to be “spoon fed” as many students do. This gives them an advantage at two specific points in their education; early in college and in graduate education.

2. They handle classroom social situations (interactions with their peers and professors) very well. In general, my homeschooled students are a pleasure to have in class. They greet me when the enter the class, initiate conversations when appropriate, and they don’t hesitate to ask good questions. Most of my students do none of these.

3. They are serious about their education and that’s very obvious in their attitude, preparedness, and grades.

Areas where homeschooled students can improve:

1. They come to college less prepared in the sciences than their schooled counterparts – sometimes far less prepared. This can be especially troublesome for pre-professional students who need to maintain a high grade point average from the very beginning.

2. They come to college without sufficient test-taking experience, particularly with timed tests. Many homeschooled students have a high level of anxiety when it comes to taking timed tests.

3. Many homeschooled students have problems meeting deadlines and have to adjust to that in college. That adjustment time in their freshman year can be costly in terms of the way it affects their grades.

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The face of a Post-Christian Europe?
Rest assured, while Christian churches continue to close, the Church will not disappear (until it’s time to leave).

Good morning.

1. It’s all about focus … whaddya think of this art piece?
2. I haven’t read them all yet, but I agree, a disappointing set of answers. “Action as a principle” is the best one I saw in a quick scan of replies.
3. Build a better battery and the world will beat that path to your door. How about a better FFT?
4. Stimulus then … and now on account of decades of environmental activism and barriers to construction … that wouldn’t be possible so stimulus today amounted mostly to repaving roads that didn’t need it yet. Now there’s a legacy for which Mr Obama must be very proud.
5. In praise of really bad science, and perhaps praise is deserved.
6. A partial defense of SOPA/PIPA.
7. On those who think Mr Tebow prays for victory (haven’t apparently noticed he thanks God when he loses).
8. It’s unclear what they fear, that these two Democrat majority companies might be compared?
9. Not that’s educational, let’s have a debate … and then in the aftermath one side is termed “a bully” for merely participating.
10. Losing our edge, evidence here.
11. Drones in combat.
12. Zoom.
13. Apparently every statement made by the DNC is “officially doctrine” for every Democrat.
14. History and 4 bits.

Back home, whoo hoo. Links?

1. Medicare and FICA aren’t taxes? FICA is 15% and Medicare 5% … so that makes 20% to start.
2. Energy and a pipe.
3. Speaking of energy.
4. Sex and discrimination and a case of abuse ignored.
5. Speaking of sex roles, looking at advice from more than a century past.
6. If this was fiction, we wouldn’t find it credible. And … by the way … we’re all just softies and wimps.
7. Cost control failure.
8. Some advice from a noted Alexandrian ascetic.
9. More from a different one here.

Links?

1. So, a technique popularized in narratives but proven ineffective … and now encouraged in public schools. So is that “go figure” or “color me (us) unsurprised.” And “brainstorming” isn’t skunkworks. Skunkworks techniques do work.
2. The march of bad science, how it works edition.
3. Bang!
4. A question.
5. Hall of fame or shame?
6. So the Dems think that inequality is high on that list. Apparently Gallup doesn’t even find it in the top 5 (or 10?).
7. The rigors of yoga.
8. It’s not a mild winter everywhere it seems. When the cold masses don’t come south … that isn’t because they aren’t cooling someone off.
9. Disease and resistance.
10. NYT plays the straight man to great effect.
11. Faith, science and a liberal icon.
12. Should there be an agency for that?