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Oregon GOP's Strange Behavior Ignites Wu Hopes

Oregon Republicans have an established history of schizophrenic behavior, which embattled Democrat Congressman David Wu hopes to capitalize upon as he launches a preemptive bid for election to an eighth term. Despite recent news reports of bizarre behavior and calls for his resignation, Rep. David Wu (D-Ore.) has filed for reelection.

Wu filed a statement of organization with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday to be able to run for his seat in 2012.

Noting that Republicans were well-positioned to take the Oregon governorship during the last election but chose to run a washed-up basketball player rather than the clearly more qualified Allen Alley, Wu commented that Republicans are crazier than he is, so why not file for reelection?

While the gubernatorial race was among the closest in Oregon history, it was a race between a re-tread and a basketball player; many voters simply threw up their hands. The election illustrated the dissatisfaction of Independent and even Democrat voters in Oregon, but in the final analysis, even they couldn't bring themselves to vote for the ball player.

It might have been, and likely would have been, entirely different in terms of outcome had Republicans backed a qualified candidate for office; lending credence to Wu's contention.

And already, Wu has begun lining up backers: State Sen. Bruce Starr (R) has indicated that he'll run against the recumbent incumbent congressman; a sure sign that the Republican establishment in Oregon will support Wu's return to congress in the next election.

Related articles

• Oregon Newspapers and GOP Urge Democratic Congressman David Wu To Resign (huffingtonpost.com)
• Oregon Congressman David Wu: I'm Receiving Mental Health Treatment (huffingtonpost.com)

Man-Made Global Worming Laws Kick In

Image via Wikipedia

The Government says the switch to low-energy bulbs, which use just a quarter of the energy of a conventional bulb, will reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by around
five million tonnes a year – the equivalent to the emissions from a typical one-gigawatt coal-fired power station. A single bulb can save a household around £7 a year.

But critics complain that compact fluorescent low-energy bulbs contain mercury, making them dangerous to dispose of, and give off a harsh light.

There have also been complaints that the flicker of compact fluorescent bulbs can trigger migraines and epileptic fits.

Well, that's a small enough price to pay - but speaking of prices, who stands to gain from all of this silliness? Certainly, it isn't you.

Carbon dioxide isn't toxic; mercury is. So to "save energy and reduce CO2 emissions", government requires you to install toxic substances into every room in your home. Oh, right: "We're from the government. We're here to help."

While no mercury is released when the bulbs are in use, taking precautions when throwing them out is important. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that three per cent of the total mercury in discarded fluorescent lamps is released to the atmosphere when they break during transportation to a disposal facility. Other researchers estimate emissions are as high as 17 per cent.

If a fluorescent bulb ends up in a landfill, the mercury can leech into the surrounding soil or be released into the atmosphere. If it is incinerated, the amount of mercury released into the atmosphere may be higher, according to Health Canada.

While fluorescent bulbs contain about five milligrams of mercury — less than in a watch battery, according to Natural Resources Canada — Health Canada recommends that items containing mercury be treated as hazardous waste.

And what if a "bulb" breaks in the home? Right.

 

What's Drugs Got To Do With It?

Apologies to Tina Turner ("What's Love Got To Do With It?") - but on the headline itself, here's a peek:

Amazing how fast you spiral, without even knowing it's happening.

Rep. David Wu may not be into meth, but he should pay attention anyway. As noted, amazing how fast you spiral, without even knowing it's happening.

Harvard Slaps MO

Image by cliff1066™ via Flickr

This is harsh, but spot-on. One brief snip: Given her unelected status, it is inexplicable that the president’s wife needs her own press secretary, her own chief of staff, or her own staff at all, let alone an agenda for them to implement...A candidate’s spouse does not “run” for First Lady.

Well worth the time to read, despite the obligatory shots at Palin and Limbaugh. Not exactly what you'd expect to see coming out of a place like Hah-vahd.

It’s either Obama or America. There cannot be both.

Madison, Wisconsin: The Best Thing Ever For Conservatives

The union thugs and other Leftist "protesters" are killing themselves. It's a beautiful thing to behold. 

On Saturday night’s broadcast of “Geraldo at Large,” Fox News correspondent Mike Tobin took some critical shots at protesters attempting to shout down and disrupt his broadcast. He told host Geraldo Rivera he has observed hate and an effort to shut out other viewpoints.

“One thing I think should make clear – the people coming after us from every live shot here, these people hate,” Tobin said. “These are people who don’t respect diverse viewpoints. In fact, they’re so afraid I’ll present a diverse viewpoint, that’s why they try to heckle me and shut down every live shot. They’ve made it clear, that what they want to make it harder for me to do my job. They are proud of that when they disrupt a live shot, when they really trample over the First Amendment rights or the First Amendment’s obligations of a reporter. Now, I am not saying that’s all of the people. Those are the people that come here and heckle and try to disrupt things. I look in their eyes – there is hate in their eyes. They don’t want to hear any kind of viewpoint that is different from their own. That’s why they do what they do.” Comment:

A friend of mine who has admitted to thinking I was exaggerating the nature of the left and the nastiness of their behavior, attended the Madison Tea Party last week with his wife and daughter. I suggested he leave his daughter at home, but he took her anyway.

They couldn’t get through the dense formation of union protestors that ringed the capitol square (an intentional ploy by the union organizers to block Tea Partiers), but he did witness the vulgar, obscene, hate-filled, violent signs and language of the left, and he is still livid a week later. He has turned from a lukewarm to a smoking hot opposition to anything the left stands for. The left just made another lifelong enemy.

The problem here is that Americans in general don't want to believe that people can be so evil. You can describe the things Leftists do, but their natural tendency is to presume that you must be exaggerating. But when it's up there, front and center, as in Madison, the evil can't be denied.

Related articles

• Fox News Reporter Gets Hit While WI Protesters Scream 'Fox News Lies' (mediaite.com)

Puppet In The Pearl

Image via CrunchBase

The Zero actually has a decent article on open-source software development and Portland's role in that little wave. The story's built around puppet labs, which has built a devoted client base including Twitter, Google, and the New York Stock Exchange. Not bad for a six-year-old open source project. The story's interesting, but the comments are really entertaining.

Related articles

• Puppet Labs (readwriteweb.com)
• Puppet Labs Secures $5 Million Funding for Open Source Server Automation (readwriteweb.com)
• Puppet Enterprise - managing physical, virtual or cloud-based systems (zdnet.com)

5300 Years Ago

Humans are actually designed for a lifespan of 40-45 years. This is what you might have looked like toward the end of that time. Your lifespan has been artificially extended, due to things like cleanliness and medicine. And not getting bonked on the head, which is also important. In any case, this is the most detailed reconstruction ever done to date. Today, people claim that you'll look like this if you smoke, drink, or drive a car.

None of which was possible 5300 years ago.

 

Related articles

• 5,000-Year-Old Ice Mummy Face (foxnews.com)

Living Down To The Name

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Mitch Greenlick does pretty much what his name implies: he's a "Green" licker, and whoever voted him into Oregon office should really reconsider their action. It is Representative Greenlick’s House Bill 2645 which aims to smash all three counties Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas into a single county.   His defense was that since they were all under Metro’s regional government control why not just surrender.  Rep. Greenlick’s other famous bill so far has been House Bill 2228, which outlaws letting children under 6 from riding in bike trailers.   When pressed by the media after he outraged the biking community he admitted that he didn’t bother to look into the issue before creating this bill and wanted to form his idea after people debated on it. For Greenlick, you can actually threaten to take away people’s rights, and then personally benefit from the dialogue that scared citizens offer in defense of their liberty. Representative Greenlick also has a bill (HB 2644) to tax soda pop to discourage people from drinking beverages he does not approve of. Representative Greenlick’s latest outlaw bill is HB 2233. This bill would outlaw citizens from buying cigarettes or cigars without a doctor’s prescription.

Unsurprisingly, the idiot is a Democrat. From Portland. His mantra is typical: I don't like it; let's ban it.

Related articles

• "If it saves the life of a single child..." and other nonsense (stat.columbia.edu)

Think They Can't Do It?

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They already have. Unlike AlGore, who claimed to have helped invent the internet, DARPA actually did it. And they've been moving on. They've gotten into robotics in a big way, and what they've been doing is spooky. They've built a T-800 series of Terminators. Well, they're supposed to help people, so it must be okay. Their new Cheetah project is also supposed to help people. As the name implies, Cheetah is designed to be a four-legged robot with a flexible spine and articulated head (and potentially a tail) that runs faster than the fastest human. In addition to raw speed, Cheetah’s makers promise that it will have the agility to make tight turns so that it can “zigzag to chase and evade” and be able to stop on a dime. Sounds helpful, eh?

Prototype for Cheetah is underway. Ever wonder what a robotic predator looks like?

It's pretty interesting. Fortunately, it will only be deployed to help. It probably needs to be able to outrun people so that it can save them from natural disaster, and all. 

Related articles

• Darpa's Cheetah-Bot Designed to Chase Human Prey (wired.com)

So Much For The Consensus

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World-renowned physicist Professor Freeman Dyson has been described as a 'force-of-nature intellect'. He's also one of the world's foremost climate change sceptics. In this email exchange, our science editor, Steve Connor, asks the Princeton scholar why he's one of the few true intellectuals to be so dismissive of the global-warming consensus.

When I was in high-school in England in the 1930s, we learned that continents had been drifting according to the evidence collected by Wegener. It was a great mystery to understand how this happened, but not much doubt that it happened. So it came as a surprise to me later to learn that there had been a consensus against Wegener. If there was a consensus, it was among a small group of experts rather than among the broader public. I think that the situation today with global warming is similar. Among my friends, I do not find much of a consensus. Most of us are sceptical and do not pretend to be experts. My impression is that the experts are deluded because they have been studying the details of climate models for 30 years and they come to believe the models are real. After 30 years they lose the ability to think outside the models. And it is normal for experts in a narrow area to think alike and develop a settled dogma. The dogma is sometimes right and sometimes wrong. In astronomy this happens all the time, and it is great fun to see new observations that prove the old dogmas wrong.

Unfortunately things are different in climate science because the arguments have become heavily politicised. To say that the dogmas are wrong has become politically incorrect. As a result, the media generally exaggerate the degree of consensus and also exaggerate the importance of the questions.

It's amusing to watch a "science writer" try to take on an intellectual heavy-weight.

 

Related articles

• "Britons going cold on global warming: Number of climate change sceptics doubles in four years" and related posts (awesternheart.blogspot.com)
• Freeman Dyson v the 'Independent' (blogs.telegraph.co.uk)