Good morning.

1. Duh. It doesn’t matter, carbon taxes are an indulgence offering and a way to keep the poor down … the effect on climate is not relevant to its fans.
2. Looking at spin and Mr Holder.
3. For y’all who think that government isn’t good at anything, a counterexample.
4. Ct-thinking about Cthulhu.
5. From China, here and here.
6. Bayes theorem and sitting on the can vacillating for half a year.
7. Death and the blogger.
8. Yankee independence is apparently not the way to go reading the tea leaves from the state of the onion speech.
9. No. We don’t say that. We just tiredly remark that “not an Emperor” is a feature not a bug.
10. Stereotyping.
11. “Greater” … nope. Greater than one? Probably not.
12. Drones. Not unrelated.
13. After Mr Chu.
14. On guns. Grist for the mill.
15. Good idea or not?

I’ve had my issues with what Pat Robertson has said in the past, and expressed them here. But the news media seems to love to just toss out items from him, even items that may be 6 years old, to keep piling on.

The wonderful Get Religion blog, which I recommend to any Christian, or religious person in general, covers how the press covers religion, both the good and the bad. Yesterday they had a blog post on the Pat Robertson issue, highlighting an article in The Huffington Post that has Robertson saying something he’s always been saying, and calling it news.

After noting that he’s not examining Robertson’s claims, only the reporting thereof, George Conger takes apart the article, noting that when Robertson said that Islam wasn’t a real religion but an economic system in 2007 (and in stronger terms back then), few cared. The Huffington Post calls the 2013 remarks "inflammatory", but if that’s so, why was nothing inflamed 6 years ago?

How many times can you make “inflammatory” comments before they no longer become “inflammatory” — do they become combustible, explosive, or after the passage of time — and when no fire ensues — do they simply become rude?

That’s a fair question.

And what of the actual opinion expressed? If it is incorrect, surely it could be explained why. But the Post doesn’t go into this at all.

The tone of offended outrage adopted by the article, that Pat Robertson has said a terrible thing, is not explored. The Huffington Post believes these sentiments are outrageous, but it does not say why. A long time ago I studied Arabic and Farsi as an undergraduate and took a number of courses in Islam. I have not kept up my studies and have lost my facilities in these languages, but I do recall the academic debates over Islam — whether it was a religion in the sense that Christianity or Judaism understood itself to be a religion, or whether it was a religio-political movement that did not bear a one to one comparison with the other Abrahamic faiths. I offer no answer to these questions. But given the unlimited space available to a Huffington Post author for an article, to denounce him without substantiation is sloppy reporting.

Oh and by the way…

And please note, Pat Robertson is not an “elder statesman of the evangelical movement. ” He is a Pentecostal Christian. There is a difference.

Pat Robertson has much more weekly air time than most on his own show, and thus has loads of time to speak. During those many hours of speaking, he’s bound to say something worth disagreeing with. I’ve done some disagreeing with him myself. But if a journalistic endeavor like the Huffington Post is going to do so, they need to do a far better job than this.

Good morning.

1. So, selling to oligarchs I guess. Seems to me the small town gun store in the US is slightly, err, more prosaic.
2. Hayek and Obamacare.
3. This brings up a (slightly) more serious question. Saltpeter, as every pirate knows, was fed by Captain Treach to his sailors as a anti-viagra agent so they would just get drunk in port and he could get his ship back out. The question is … if you favor the background check thing for guns … why do you not also favor background checks before guys could have saltpeter-free food so prevent rapes (which are far far far more common than the occasional mass shooter).
4. Everybody’s seen videos of the near-to-Moscow meteor. If you haven’t, go here for 5.
5. More attempts to tamper with your freedom of association.
6. Yikes.
7. Advertising.
8. NYTimes and standards of reporting accuracy.

Have a good weekend!

Good morning.

1. The President’s 2nd Amendment remarks noted.
2. Education and results.
3. Rotten to the core.
4. So, what is liturgy?
5. And speaking of churchly things, how about why Lent?
6. Zeitgeist = angst?
7. Whatever your notion of abortion and birth control, uhm, any sane view of goverment as limited puts this as a thing government should not pay for or do.
8. Speaking of ethical dilemmas … here’s one for ya.
9. Let’s see we have a President who in school specifically notes that he sought out Communist and Socialist teachers … seems to me the speaker is wrong, Mr Obama called himself that first.
10. Some more discussion of raising the minimum productivity floor. When I asked for explanation how the President feels this is a “middle class” offering … I got nada. Gosh, that’s a surprise.

Good morning.

1. Well, I had PBJ today because it’s Wednesday (normal time Wed/Fri fast) .. Lent doesn’t start for me until Cheesefare on the evening of March 10.  So … why does the East begin Lent on a Monday and the West on a Wednesday and both count 40 days to Pascha/Easter. Well, because the West doesn’t count Sundays as part of Lent but the East does … but the East doesn’t count Holy week as part of Lent. Got it? What I forget is whether the East includes Lazarus Saturday (before Palm Sunday) as part of Lent or not … and one might note that the Lenten fast for the Orthodox continues (of course) through Holy Week.
2. Fer the Ms Palin fans.
3. Doctor or not … for myself I could not really care less if you call me Mr or Dr (and yes, I do have a PhD thing in Physics)
4. That Chicago way.
5. Awe noted. Hmm, anything like the Psalmist noted the fear of God as the beginning of wisdom? How much modern man has learned, eh?
6. Fear or the lack thereof.
7. Notes for future gang wars.
8. Shame and armor.
9. So, why on earth does our President think the “middle class” has any relevance to the minimum wage? And that’s an interesting take on min-wage, not as a wage limiter but a productivity minimum.
10. Debunking (most of) some silliness around the alleged dearth of geniuses.
11. What you don’t want to see in the morning when you go out to your car.
12. Demographic shifts that you don’t hear much about.
13. So much fun might be had coming up with geekish instead of macho handles, so Maverick  and Goose becomes pocket protector-ized and pencil-necked?
14. What will be needed for when revolution hits.
15. Duh. Truth to power becomes Stating the obvious to power.

I believe that, generally speaking, parents have both the right and responsibility to determine the health care of their minor children. The case of abortion, however, adds a additional life to the equation and makes it more difficult.

A pregnant teenager in Houston, Texas, is suing her parents, claiming that they are trying to coerce her to have an abortion. The 16-year-old, who is reportedly two months pregnant, is being represented by the Texas Center for Defense of Life (TCDL), a pro-life legal organization. For now, the girl and her unborn child are protected by a temporary restraining order, but the battle is far from over.

Here’s a poser: The Bible exhorts children to obey their parents. The parents are telling the child to have a legal medical procedure. As the child, you want to obey your parents, and yet don’t want to abort your baby, both Biblically-based beliefs. There are times when we disobey the civil law to follow the moral law, but these are two moral laws.

Tough decision, but I think I support the 16-year-old. What do you think?

When a nut shot Gabby Giffords, the Left blamed it on the Tea Party and thought Sarah Palin should apologize or reach out. LA shooter Chris Dorner idolizes the Left, and suddenly the media is a model of restraint.

Alleged Los Angeles shooter Christopher Jordan Dorner, influenced by left-leaning media coverage of gun crime in the wake of the Newtown shootings, has virtually paralyzed the City of Angels. Floyd Lee Corkins, a gunman incensed by anti-gay marriage bias after reading articles by the liberal advocacy group Southern Poverty Law Center, took a firearm into the Family Research Council’s headquarters with the intention of killing “as many as possible.” He hoped to smash Chick-fil-A sandwiches in the faces of as many corpses as he could. These shooters were clearly moved by left-wing media, and we should thank every benevolent force in the universe that they were. Had either shooter possessed even a tenuous link to a conservative group, a media-driven hysteria about the malevolent influence of right-wing broadcasters and commentators would be gripping the nation today. Fortunately, when a crazed shooter’s ideology is explicitly and demonstrably left-wing, the media displays admirable restraint about linking a gunman’s politics to their acts of violence.

Good morning.

1. So, Mr Obama has some magical mythical pathway to a nuclear weapon free world, … how’s this fit in?
2. Cantor ism?.
3. It is very likely, alas, that the criteria used by liberals which judge most of the GOP as racist, tar your hero such as well.
4. Epistemic closure and some symptoms.
5. A reminder for the POTUS state-of-the-onion speech.
6. When a thing which isn’t happening is discussed over whether that’s a problem.
7. Ya think?
8. A drone discussion.
9. Drones here too.
10. Why? What is simpler than cui bono?
11. Jackboots next?

Western and Eastern Easter/Pascha calendars are very far off this year (Eastern Lent begins at sunset on March 10) … I wish the best for everyone who begins their Lenten fast tomorrow, may your journey be fruitful.

It’s one thing to criticize decisions. It’s another to realize you have to make the same ones you criticized. But Barack Obama has been continuing the same war policies from the Bush administration that he ran against. It’s amazing what getting the job has on your view of the job

If President Obama tuned in to the past week’s bracing debate on Capitol Hill about terrorism, executive power, secrecy and due process, he might have recognized the arguments his critics were making: He once made some of them himself.

Four years into his tenure, the onetime critic of President George W. Bush finds himself cast as a present-day Mr. Bush, justifying the muscular application of force in the defense of the nation while detractors complain that he has sacrificed the country’s core values in the name of security.

(Oh, and the NY Times is just now realizing this?)

Good morning

1. A conspiracy theory considered.
2. Yah, and what will we find out in the coming months and years. Betya waterboarding will come back … this time liberals will be defending it.
3. Of life and freedoms.
4. Another reason for the dismal label, a thing is and it isn’t.
5. I suspect the real reason for the contraception kerfuffle is to act as distraction from other follies.
6. Death, space, and an argument recalled.
7. SSM and an argument against it outside of religious reasonings.
8. Anti-drug adverts done right.
9. High capacity mags.
10. Microsoft suckage.
11. A plane (not plain) contest.
12. Border incursions.

Well, last weekend we saw “Parker” … and subsequently I’ve downloaded and read two (and am reading a third) Westlake/Stark/Parker books. Daughter #2 wants to see “Warm Bodies” which may be in the offing. On to links

1. Fancy words don’t make it right.
2. Need’n a little nuclear power, eh?
3. Back up a minute, I know you “can’t joke about” that there, but why? And if you figure it’s an infringement, how to stop it?
4. One of Mr Obama’s most effusive fans realizes he’s been mislead. For the one-liner retort.
5. Talking drones.
6. Although I’m more in agreement with this.
7. Yikes.
8. Now that’s dumb. Penises, not men, rape women (and criminal insanity, social rage and all that have nothing to bear on that). Cars, not drunk drives kill (social irresponsibility has no bearing). Geesh.
9. ‘Cause graft is the Chicago Way, duh.
10. Well, for anyone who doesn’t think there’s an education bubble … think again.
11. I for one, always hated riding a ITT in a crosswind.
12. Remember Ms Clinton’s 3am advert?
13. 3 for Obamacare, here, here, and here.

Well, we made it to Thursday without too too much of the embarrassing theatrics, eh?

1. Now that is quite striking.
2. Ooooh, let’s try to open old wounds.
3. Theology, anthropology and political science all rolled in together. Whaddya get out? The Constitution.
4. Obamacare estimates.
5. If that is not satire, then there’s another reason to call it the dismal science.
6. Never happen. As soon as the Democrats cotton that legalizing polygamy will end the inheritance tax … they’ll be dead set against it.
7. Not an AR. This.
8. Inconsistency.
9. Remembering Plato apparently fondly.
10. Gosh, remember just earlier this week … I linked charts indicating corporate “sitting on cash” is a myth, makes the title tag-line ironic, eh?

Good morning.

1. I’m seeing a lot of dog (not) barking with regards to the left’s defense (or more to the point their lack of same) of Mr Hagel.
2. A quiet retraction.
3. Kinda obvious, eh?
4. That worked out real well.
5. My first thought was taxes … not investors.
6. Maybe it’s this?
7. Interesting hermeneutical divination on the word imminent. More here.
8. Anthro-warming skeptics note warming.
9. Woops.
10. Obamacare and contracteption … following the money trail.
11. A smaller nation doesn’t shy from calling a spade a spade.
12. Now there’s a really dumb excuse. (do you think there would be applause if a Congress-critter said “I coudn’t print it … so I’m passing out pdfs on USB sticks).
13. Cinema.
14. Green and anti-warming hype is more about indulgences than actually changing the world.

Good morning to y’all!

1. Newsflash, some fired employees are disgruntled.
2. Duh.
3. Having taught two daughters to drive stick … it’s really not that hard. I suspect fictional exaggeration.
4. Same sex marriage.
5. Hmm. Not impressed with US foreign policy I suspect.
6. Pretty pistol … one slipped past quality checks however.
7. Chronology of drone strike procedures, aka how we changed in our ways of committing undeclared acts of war.
8. There’s a slang term for that, “short eyes” … the answer isn’t covering the girls … its jailing the pervs in a dark place.
9. So, now everyone knows about Richard III. Here’s an excellent book on his life by one of the best writers of English historical fiction in the stacks.
10. Hence …. dismal science.
11. Heh … and we have found the heel to fill it.
12. Uh. Riiiight. 😉
13. Don’t worry, the liberal elite think SSM is more important (even though the numbers affected are basically on par).

Good morning.

1. Blaster?
2. Well, in the Super-Bowl I liked two ads, this one and this one.
3. What is being taught here?
4. Meta links via Brandon.
5. “No doubt” indeed. There are two ways to tackle runaway deficits, cut spending or raise more in taxes. Alas, studies show only the former works to actually cut deficits.
6. How not to make an argument … present Stalin as a positive example for your side.
7. Someone is unaware that fiscal libertarians can be as reflective as the next guy.
8. A questionable vehicle.
9. I too was confused on why he pretends that’s hard (and btw java’s “jar” command has pretty much the same options).
10. Not for whittling.
11. Praise for Mr Boehner.
12. Trading and causality.