So, Three-Mile Island was the worst nuclear accident on US soil. How many deaths are epidemologically attributed to the accident. Well, one study I was quoted in passing by a co-worker was that 50-100 deaths resulted from the accident. All these deaths alas, were due to the increased coal mining and pollutants from the increase in coal fired electrical production. 

Who wants to guess that the aftermath of the recent earthquake and reactor incedents have similar “fallout?”

Good morning.

1. Housing and price, or at least supply.
2. NPR and boobs.
3. Computers meet the grenade. 
4. Speaking of weapon-tech.
5. No. It wasn’t because she was dressed in any way shape or form, it was because the guys were not fit company for dogs.
6. Talking Lent.
7. And exactly what is not needed for the Lenten fast.
8. Constitution and sex offender treatment, for non-sex offenders.
9. This is not a defense of Catholic priests and sex offenses but a question about hypocrisy in those who point at only that. There’s an order of magnitude problem lurking in there to grapple with.
10. How to max out the use of faint praise.
11. Economically rational but morally reprehensible normally means don’t do it … unless your a beltway Congress-critter of course.
12. Dude! I, too, like the look.
13. Not why he forded that Rubicon I suspect.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker part of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy?
“One conclusion seems clear: what we’ve witnessed in Wisconsin during the opening months of 2011 did not originate in this state, even though we’ve been at the center of the political storm in terms of how it’s being implemented. This is a well-planned and well-coordinated national campaign, and it would be helpful to know a lot more about it.”

Also from the link,

I don’t want this to become an endless professorial lecture on the general outlines of American conservatism today, so let me turn to the question at hand: who’s really behind recent Republican legislation in Wisconsin and elsewhere?…

…

The most important group, I’m pretty sure, is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which was founded in 1973 by Henry Hyde, Lou Barnett, and (surprise, surprise) Paul Weyrich. Its goal for the past forty years has been to draft “model bills” that conservative legislators can introduce in the 50 states. Its website claims that in each legislative cycle, its members introduce 1000 pieces of legislation based on its work, and claims that roughly 18% of these bills are enacted into law. (Among them was the controversial 2010 anti-immigrant law in Arizona.)

Aside from the fact that there was no “anti-immigrant” law in Arizona, I was left just a bit curious about ALEC. From Wikipedia,

The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, is a non-partisan, non-profit 501(c)(3) membership association of state legislators and private sector policy advocates. Among other activities, the group assists its members in developing model laws for state legislatures and serves as an easy-networking tool for fellow legislators to research how certain policy projects and problems have been handled in other states. ALEC has approximately 2,000 legislative members representing all 50 states, as well as more than 85 members of Congress and 14 sitting or former Governors who are considered “ALEC alumni”. While the alumni elected to the United States Congress and as Governors are often Republican, around one third of ALEC’s legislative members are members of the Democratic Party.

Hmmm. Sounds like a policy group claiming to be non-partisan but which, in all liklihood, leans one way or the other, as long as it’s right.

Do liberals truly believe that politics in America was designed to be exercised in a non-partisan manner?

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Wisconsin public teachers demonstrating to us why limiting power is important
From Ann Althouse, yet another reason to homeschool. Public teachers leading their students in protest chants inside the state capitol. Remember, they have control over your children.

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NPR donates more to left leaning causes
Sorry, I hate stating the obvious.

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Speaking of NPR or – rather – former NPR execs
VIdeo comparing 2 speeches by 2 execs. It’s smackdown time: Schiller vs. Schiller!

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168 out of 1,960,000 = 0.0086%
The number of concealed carry permit revocations compared to permits issued, in Florida.

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A Hellish interview
Yes, the MSNBC interview/skewering of Rob Bell has been covered all over the web, but for good reason. A good object lesson in how one squirms in one’s own loops. The interviewer does a good job of taking the roof off (despite an opening false dichotomy shot).

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What? God’s will for my life might not involve blessing?
Someone asked me for my “life verse” and I couldn’t remember Jeremiah 29:11 so I gave them 29:17. Big mistake! So I made a quick switch to 29:10. Sigh. Now I have to wait 70 years.

It’s not often I agree with Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo, but I certainly do this time. Regarding the issues with the nuclear power plants in Japan that are near meltdown, he advises caution on making pronouncements on the use of nuclear power in general, given that just about any energy source has its drawbacks. There is a bigger picture.

If we imagine a hundred years into the future of fossil fuels and a hundred of nuclear power, at the end of a century, how much damage do we imagine each will have caused? I suspect that if it’s really an either/or, the nuclear route is likely much safer.

Again, I’m not wanting to say anything definitive. But even at these moments when we see the most frightening side of nuclear power, I think we should still draw back and look at the global — meant both literally and figuratively — costs of different fuels and consider the possibility that nuclear power is actually safer for our own health and that of the planet.

It took the 5th strongest earthquake since 1900 and the resulting tsunami to do this. Very little can withstand that.

Good morning.

1. So. If we knew how it would turn out, would we do it anyhow?
2. Facts about the earthquake. 
3. Some meta-links, or a set of interesting links posted here.
4. Is Outrage!
5. Incentives. And … where do their incentives lie?
6. Our spending woes or … the satirical version.
7. Motor Oil (googling around, I found Exxon/Mobil also has developed for testing a similar oil).
8. Not getting the whole broken windows thing. Yes. The window (appliance) dealer might do well, and yes people might dip into the college fund to rebuild … but that just means they can’t spend or invest that money elsewhere.
9. Obama. Man of action … or not. Consistent, yes.
10. Money and value?
11. The snake did it.
12. An interesting question on the Obama mandate-as-tax. What sort of tax, eh?

Meryl Yourish has a run-down on how the Associated Press dials things back when Palestinian terrorists from Fatah murder a Jewish family. They say, "Well, the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades is mostly defunct", while family is completely dead. That’s not even worth mentioning.

And the false equivalence of "violence begets violence" papers over the fact that in response, Israelis block roads and threw stones. And when Israel defends itself, that gets a UN resolution of condemnation.

More at the link.

Good morning.

1. And meaningless jobs … don’t create happiness.
2. Where it’s all about the team … you’ll not find citations of liberals making errors in speeches there.
3. Weather and some predictions. Let’s see, you can’t make accurate very short term (seconds/minutes), short term (week) weather predictions, mid-term (three month) predictions. Yet the claim is that long term (decade) predictions are easy. Well, if “easy” means unverifiable you’re right. Otherwise, not so much.
4. Yah. And he stood there in picture pose for 5 hours while it filled.
5. Coming to a laptop/cell phone near you … in 5-10 years?
6. Prudence.
7. Cinema.
8. Public unions and teaching.
9. Speaking of unions.
10. Words for Japan from India.
11. Kill the fallacy.
12. Trust.
13. What does due processes mean, from an Constitutional perspective?
14. A plug for courting.

Good morning.

1. A film noted.
2. Better than CNN for news on Japan.
3. Lenten links. 
4. The Lenten prototype. Jesus, it might be noted, remarks on “when you fast” … not “if you fast” implying that the whether question regarding the fast is assumed.
5. Byzantine revival.
6. What happens when you can’t do High School Physics.
7. Fears for Nuclear Energies future? I’ve seen nuclear energy proponents talking about this as a big blow, however I’ve not seen any triumphial remarks from nuclear energy detractors pointing to this as a proof positive that nuclear energy is too dangerous to consider.
8. Gender pay gap and abortion.
9. Quake and the bike.
10. Quake and seapower.
11. Quake and the voice of God.
12. Ramblings on the US and our worldview.
13. Mr Bush’s new book a capsule summary/review.
14. Raising kids and atheism, a question asked.

Hunter Baker, writing at "First Things", responds to Jim Wallis’ question "What Would Jesus Cut", referring to government spending. (Which begs the question, would Jesus borrow us into prosperity?)

Obama’s HHS Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, admits to double counting some savings that ObamaCare™ would bring. Not really news, except for those who haven’t been paying attention.

Media Matters, an allegedly non-partisan press watchdog group, has a Transparency project that lists major donors to conservative and libertarian organizations. "The Agitator" notes that, while a number of those conservative organizations themselves already provide this transparency, Media Matters itself does not.

Who’s going to clean up this mess in Wisconsin?

It could cost as much as $7.5 million to repair damage protesters have done to the Capitol Building marble say officials in Madison. Fixing posters to the marble with tape and glue appears to have done the bulk of the damage.

During testimony Thursday, a representative from the Attorney General’s office said a contractor estimated it would cost $500,000 to remove all of the posters and garbage. He says it would cost $6 million to restore the marble inside of the Capitol building and another $1 million to touch up the marble outside of the building.

Guess who came to the rescue? The Tea Party. Liberals trashed it, conservatives will care for it.

Mark Steyn notes a very odd way to say, "Thank you.". A young Kosovar is who killed 2 US servicemen in a Frankfurt airport. I mean, we didn’t even wait for UN resolutions before helping Kosovo get its independence. That’s gratitude?

Remember how upset the Left was about indefinite detentions and military tribunals at Guantanamo, and how much the press covered it? Yeah, well, all that is back on again and now they’re rather quiet about it. Wonder what changed.

Michael Moore and Rachel Maddow say, no, we’re not broke as a nation. Reality begs to differ.

Bummer. A set-back for reprogrammed adult stem cells. Undisturbed adult stem cells continue to be extremely useful, but trying to reprogram them into what are essentially embryonic stem cells is having problems.

Look, if you’re going to be biased in what you say, I have no problem with that. Just be honest about it. NPR isn’t. James O’Keefe strikes again at the heart of liberal bias at the network. NPR tries some damage control, but Patterico calls their ombudsman on it. Predictably, liberals now deplore gotcha’ journalism. (Though calling up a governor and misrepresenting who you are is just fine. Wonder what changed.) And apparently O’Keefe isn’t done with the revelations.

The UK’s CEO of the national power grid is predicting that blackouts will be just a part of the new normal once wind turbines become more prominent and supplant other means of electricity generation. How long before paying to not get blacked out becomes popular, and the politization of energy begins?

Civility Watch: Credible death threats against the Palins.

And finally, the Society of Centurions is named after the Centurion who was at the cross when Jesus died, and ultimately admitted, "Surely he was the Son of God". It is an organization for former abortion providers. Changing one’s view on abortion is one thing. Considering it wrong after you’ve provided them is another thing entirely. Priests for Life admonishes, "Let’s pray for the Centurions, and may their numbers increase!" Amen.

Good morning.

1. A proxy for Presidential popularity measured.
2. Smash, with color.
3. Hmmm. China’s growth and cost.
4. Uhm, auto-stop features do not require hybrid cars, even though auto-stop is found on all hybrids.
5. Repurpose your bike pump?
6. The priest in the brothel.
7. The Canon of St. Andrew, Ukraine and I’d show you pictures from our parish … but our parish website has no perma-links for photos for the next few days you can see them here.
8. Gender imbalance and economic risk taking.
9. Unintended consequences of consumer protectionism, although I’d suggest those “unintended” consequences were in fact easily predictable.
10. ID and a Constitutional can of worms.
11. Three Lenten meal suggestions.
12. Words to fear.
13. Women in science.
14. Recent discussions on the ontological argument discussed.

Via Hot Air, Senator Rand Paul schools administration officials on the issue of “choice”. Under liberals’ logic, it’s okay to kill babies but we can’t buy light bulbs we want or a toilet that will flush. Click the image to watch.

For weeks, Wisconsin’s Democratic State Senators have been hiding out in Illinois to prevent a vote on a budget bill that would strip public employee unions of their collective bargaining rights. Republicans became so fed up with the Democrats’ run and hide strategy they decided to separate the collective bargaining provision from the rest of the budget and vote on it anyway:

Wisconsin lawmakers voted Thursday to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from the state’s public workers, ending a heated standoff over labor rights and delivering a key victory to Republicans who have targeted unions in efforts to slash government spending nationwide.

The state’s Assembly passed Gov. Scott Walker’s explosive proposal 53-42 without any Democratic support and four no votes from the GOP. Protesters in the gallery erupted into screams of “Shame! Shame! Shame!” as Republican lawmakers filed out of the chamber and into the speaker’s office.

The state’s Senate used a procedural move to bypass missing Democrats and move the measure forward Wednesday night, meaning the plan that delivers one of the strongest blows to union power in years now requires only Walker’s signature to take effect.

He says he’ll sign the measure, which he introduced to plug a $137 million budget shortfall, as quickly as possible — which could be as early as Thursday.

“We were willing to talk, we were willing to work, but in the end at some point the public wants us to move forward,” Walker said before the Assembly’s vote.

This is the first step in Wisconsin’s efforts to regain fiscal sanity and Governor Walker and his fellow Republicans should be applauded for their courage in standing up to the bullying tactics of the unions and the Left.

By the way, if you’re still in doubt about whether public unions are bad for our country, check out this post by Mike Flynn at Big Government which will tell you all that you need to know.

Good morning.

1. Correction and an argument for union protection in the public (not private) sector.
2. The coming demographic crisis in China.
3. Uhm, I can’t imagine the Irish population in either city is a significant percentage.
4. A question for economics and income stratifcation.
5. Torture.
6. Iranian hardware in Afghanistan. Who paid for them?
7. An item in the news lately.
8. Performing for monsters?
9. Kinda like pacifists paying taxes in wartime. Hmm.
10. In the when in a hole, keep digging mode, or not? More seriously, I’m curious at the left, who largely was behind the objections to largely symbolic statues in courthouses because of relgious content now supports  not-just-symblic statutes in the books of the same sort in those same houses. Since when has the left been so supportive of involuntary clitorectomies and highly assymetric divorce laws anyhow? And why? 
11. Looking at warming predictions … 20 years predicted 2-4 degrees warming, the result basically none. 
12. The beautiful results of heresy, specifically the possessor vs non-possessor conflict. As you can see, the possessors won.
13. An Obamacare riddle.
14. Coptic Christians, canary or match?

Palin says Kathy Griffin is a 50 year-old bully
Oh, come on Sarah. Let’s not be denigrating all the bullies out there by associating them with Griffin.

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And iPods for all…
Jesse Jackson Jr. does his best Liberal argument for how the government best needs to provide for its citizens, including the right to have a decent home.

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Thief / burglar / home invader calls 911 to report that the homeowner may be armed
Well, I suppose it follows that if you have a right to a home, then the home doesn’t have to necessarily be owned by you.

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PJs Day at school?
Good idea, or just kinda weird?

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Taliesin is tumbling (and Falling Water is falling apart)
If an architect designs a house and the house, despite being revered as a work of art, falls apart, is it not logical to conclude that the architect, while (perhaps) an artist, was a lousy architect? What is one to make of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin? At least it isn’t yet part of the dreaded A.R.T. Syndrome.

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Anti-gun legislator shoots home invader
Nope. No contradiction here.

Good morning.

1. Some fun to start, here (which reminds me of my own haircare practices) and the old non-sequitor.
2. On that non-sequitor thing… uhm.
3. Considering intervention.
4. The first four days of Lent liturgically in the East, pictures here and here.
5. What is that canon of St. Andrew?
6. The insenstive man.
7. Another strike against unions and regulatory barriers.
8. A college course?
9. Are those the only three possibilities?
10. Culture and schooling.
11. That ice is complicated is just the tip of the berg … which is why making predictions is premature.
12. Spring.
13. Bad news for the Obamacare supporters, yet another reason for its implementation is unwarranted.