Month: June 2009

Annnnnd throw out an entire generation’s worth of ecodisaster SF.

The Great Mutated Frog Pollution Scare seems poised to be replaced with The Great… Naturally-Occurring Situation Where One Species Preys On The Other In A Fashion That Only Seems Mean To Us Because We Have Achieved Full Sentience.

Not really as catchy, is it?

Legless frogs mystery solved
Scientists think they have resolved one of the most controversial environmental issues of the past decade: the curious case of the missing frogs’ legs.

Around the world, frogs are found with missing or misshaped limbs, a striking deformity that many researchers believe is caused by chemical pollution.

However, tests on frogs and toads have revealed a more natural, benign cause.

The deformed frogs are actually victims of the predatory habits of dragonfly nymphs, which eat the legs of tadpoles.

John Brunner is probably disappointed – mutated frogs completely fit in with his ecodisaster jones – not that I can be sure, given that he’s dead and everything.

Moe Lane Continue reading Annnnnd throw out an entire generation’s worth of ecodisaster SF.

Meet Representative Alan Grayson (D, FL-08).

[UPDATE]: Welcome, Instapundit readers. Have you seen the latest from Grassley on the IG firings?

He has difficulty keeping his hands to himself.

Literally.

I’ve read the Constitution several times, but I’ve never seen the part that says that elected officials are allowed to physically assault people who’d like to ask questions. Like, say, about his questionable earmark habits:

Congressman Alan Grayson has had a close relationship with the civil rights group for which he tried to get hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars. As WDBO first reported, the freshman Representative requested $350,000 for the Florida Civil Rights Association, despite its history of controversy, and being run by a man the state says is not trustworthy enough to be a bail bondsman.
(H/T: the NRCC)

Finding the constraints demanded by the dignity of the office too much to bear, Rep. Grayson? Because that’s easily fixed.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

“Don’t MAKE me turn this state legislature around.”

I have no particular love for NY Governor David Paterson, given that he had to start his tenure as Governor by mentioning the adultery that he had somehow forgotten to mention to the voters up to that point – but that being said, this was funny:

Gov. David Paterson just put the kibosh on the Senate Democrats’ plans to leave the Capitol tonight, warning that he will sic the State Police on them and try to dock their pay if they don’t show up for the extraordinary session – the third so far this week – he’s calling for 3 p.m. tomorrow.

[snip]

Paterson said “it offends me personally” to hear talk by some senators (“I won’t name any names”) that they don’t really mind being forced to return to Albany day after day because they get to collect their per diems while they’re in town.

The governor said he’s going to ask the state comptroller, and direct the state treasurer (We have one of those?), to “withhold any paychecks or any per diem checks from June 8 forward,” adding: “If you’re not coming to work, you’re not getting paid.”

At least one state Senator (Kevin Parker) reacted to the news that his allowance was being threatened by declaring that this was bull[expletive deleted], that the Governor couldn’t do that, and then sulkily storming off to his room to blast out the most offensive music on his iPod.

Amazingly, I only made one of those three things up.

Anyway, more here and here: there’s supposed to be a session today, and it’s yet to be seen whether the Democratic state senators are going to be needing a timeout or not.

Moe Lane Continue reading “Don’t MAKE me turn this state legislature around.”

Well, this just ate an hour of my life.

Thanks, dude.  A whole bunch.

Plants vs Zombies.

Pretty much what it says. Still doing the free version, but the twenty buck version is probably a good deal. One of those, “Oops, look at the time” games, which is either good or bad.

Moe Lane

PS: This game has nothing to do with either Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! – Strippers VS Zombies or Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead, but the titles were too good to pass up.

[UPDATE]: The comments section was grimly determined to make me watch this video.

I can see why.

Some observations on last night’s health care infomercial.

First off, this is what the White House considers a ‘dialogue:’

graph-copy3

…the rest of us, of course, would call it a “lecture.” One of the funny things about dialogues is that it’s more or less assumed that both sides are prepared to change their minds if necessary. Continue reading Some observations on last night’s health care infomercial.

Michael Williams examines the cap-and-trade bill.

Michael Williams, current Texas Railroad Commissioner* and candidate for Senate, is doing a multi-part survey of the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill currently before Congress. He’s up to Part III (see also Part I & Part II, of course), and here’s what he’s hoping to accomplish with it:

Democrats in Congress, joined with the Obama administration, are proceeding along parallel tracks to impose CO2 regulations so sweeping as to become the most expensive and expansive environmental reach of government into the lives of American families, businesses and consumers in history.

In May, the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved the Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill that is designed to drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions blamed for global warming. The full House could complete action on the bill within the next two weeks.

[snip]

The prospect for cap and trade is less certain in the Senate and the EPA, while poised to finalize its landmark finding, has not done so, yet. If enough Americans band together, we can still protect the American economy, jobs, and incomes from undue and unnecessary CO2 regulations.

Continue reading Michael Williams examines the cap-and-trade bill.

This is not how normal people see the Sanford affair.

Randy Milholland of the webcomic Something Positive is not ‘normal,’ and he would probably be angry with me if I said that he was. But he is clear-headed, and he is not a political obsessive like, well, me – so the designation more or less counts in this context.

Besides, this is, like, wicked funny. Without being particularly partisan about it. Warning: the language is a bit rough, so it’s going under the fold. Continue reading This is not how normal people see the Sanford affair.