Month: April 2009

Barack Obama on Scare Force One?

That’s the thought that Little Miss Attila’s postulating, at least. I’m not what you’d call convinced, but I am hearing rumors (which, to be fair, are being denied [H/T: Instapundit]) that there were campaign contributors on-board. Which is, unfortunately, the sort of boneheaded move that I’ve already come to expect from this administration*, although in this case I’d really like to be proven wrong.

So I don’t think that there’s any harm in re-releasing the President’s schedule for Monday, as well as the flight records for that particular trip. Just to clear things up.

Moe Lane

PS: And, oh yes: the photos. The damned things cost us $329,000 to take, so let’s see them.

*Note, I do not say ‘this President.’ This time.

Crossposted to RedState.

North Korea to UN: Apologize, or we’ll test some nukes.

…wait, what?

Did something get lost in translation? – Because there seems to be a couple of gaps there in the logic chain.

N Korea threatens nuclear tests

North Korea has threatened to carry out nuclear missile tests unless the UN Security Council apologises for its condemnation of a recent rocket launch.

Pyongyang said it would be compelled to take self-defence measures “including nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests” if no apology was made.

There are times when I suspect that the North Korean regime is deliberately pretending to be barking mad insane, solely out of some twisted sense of humor. I actually don’t know if that is preferable to the alternative – which is that fifty years of combined isolationism and Marxism* can cause actual brain damage in the general population; at least that alternative offers the hope that their engineers won’t be able to put a real bomb together – but it does explain the disconnect here. Which is, for those who are wondering, that informing a world that doesn’t want you to have missiles that can hit Beijing, Tokyo, or Honolulu that you will immediately start trying to make missiles that can hit Beijing, Tokyo, or Honolulu unless you get an apology from the planet over them raising a fuss about your program to create missiles that can hit Beijing, Tokyo, or Honolulu.

Yes, that’s the North Korean position. Think about it too long, and your brain starts to hurt. Which may be the point.

Moe Lane

PS: Out of idle curiosity: is the White House planning to do anything about this, aside from not visit the West Coast for a while?

*Remember, kids: friends don’t let friends go Commie.

Crossposted to RedState.

Probably my last (video) comment on Specter…

…until the election.
Or the primary.
Or, heck, until something interesting happens, really. Anyway, more or less happy with this, but Xtranormal needs a polka track. Yeah, yeah, it’s not like I’m paying for the service, I know.

…although I can see where buying the product might be a good call for some groups.

Exciting day today, all in all.

Not necessarily the bad day that some would fear/hope it to be, but definitely a day. So how to end it?

Well, Stacy has the right idea, but he’s got to learn how to package it better. You can’t just tell ’em; you gotta show ’em.


Whole Lotta Love

Get ’em by the brainstem, just like the Jesuits say you should.

OK, they don’t say that, but that’s because you can’t really say that in Attic Greek.

I think.

Russian navy captures Somali pirates.

The more, the merrier.

Russia captures Somalia pirates

A Russian warship has seized a pirate vessel with 29 people on board off the Somali coast, Russian news reports say.

Guns and navigation equipment were found during a search of the pirate boat, officials were quoted as saying.

Notably absent from this account – or this one, or this one – is any indication that the pirates were let go afterward. It’s suspected that these were the same pirates that attempted to seize a Russian tanker earlier: Continue reading Russian navy captures Somali pirates.

Want to promote ocean biodiversity? Increase offshore drilling.

Put this on the list of “I thought people knew this already:” offshore oil platforms are havens for marine life.

The original plan, mandated by federal environmental “experts” back in the late ’40s, was to remove the big, ugly, polluting, environmentally hazardous contraptions as soon as they stopped producing. Fine, said the oil companies.

About 15 years ago some wells played out off Louisiana and the oil companies tried to comply. Their ears are still ringing from the clamor fishermen put up. Turns out those platforms are going nowhere, and by popular demand of those with a bigger stake in the marine environment than any “environmentalist.” Every “environmental” superstition against these structures was turned on its head.

Marine life had exploded around these huge artificial reefs: A study by LSU’s Sea Grant college shows that 85 percent of Louisiana fishing trips involve fishing around these platforms. The same study shows 50 times more marine life around an oil production platform than in the surrounding Gulf bottoms. An environmental study (by apparently honest scientists) revealed that urban runoff and treated sewage dump 12 times the amount of petroleum into the Gulf than those thousands of oil production platforms. And oil seeping naturally through the ocean floor into the Gulf, where it dissipates over time, accounts for 7 times the amount spilled by rigs and pipelines in any given year.

The article compares Lousiana’s offshore marine environment with Florida’s (which has significantly more restrictions), and notes that the former is generally healthier than the latter’s, particularly when it comes to reef development. This should not be particularly surprising, given that oil companies have two positive incentives to preventing pollution around their sites. The first is, of course, that if they don’t the environmental lobby will do their level best to gut them; the second, possibly more important reason is that every drop of oil spilled is one drop of oil that cannot be sold. And oil is valuable, so maintaining a clean rig that doesn’t leak or corrode will maximize one’s oil-extraction potential. At least until you get to a situation where it’s not profitable to keep the site clean, but that only happens when maintenance costs threaten to wipe out profit, and the only real way that this could happen when it comes to oil is if somebody pushed the tax burden too high.

And, really, what nature-hating idiot would think of suggesting that? Continue reading Want to promote ocean biodiversity? Increase offshore drilling.