This is most severely PG-13 (for BJ references)...

H/T the ever amusing and interesting Baldilocks

Posted by: caltechgirl at 10:40 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Fred Thompson pulls no punches with the U.N.:

Recently, the new UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that the root cause of the current genocide in Darfur is [wait for it...] global warming. Now if you've been following the tragedy of the Darfur region in the African nation of Sudan, you know how absurd that statement is.

There's not room here for even a good summary, but let me make a few points. Sudan straddles the line between Christian African and Muslim Arabic cultures, bordering Egypt and Libya on the north. Bloody regional warfare stretches back centuries but, in modern times, the country has been in pretty much of a constant state of war since the 1950s. It's safe to say that millions have died in wars that are often aimed at control of the rich oil fields in the South. Today, however, the vastly reduced African Christian population isn't even involved. Two Muslim factions, divided along racial lines, are fighting for control of Darfur.

Now it's true that the return of cyclical droughts has made agriculture and life more and more difficult for the people in the region. The impact of the weather, however, doesn't approach the destruction that generations of warfare have worked on the land and the people. With peace and freedom, the economy of Darfur could have easily adapted to any climate change no matter the cause.

Why, then, would the new UN Secretary General blame climate change? I think it's pretty obvious.

Blaming the Islamic government and groups that have manipulated events in Sudan will get him nothing but enemies. Blaming global warming, however, is basically the same thing as blaming America. America is by no means the only major source of greenhouse gases, but we've taken the most political heat. The reason is that congress rightfully balked at ratifying the Kyoto international climate treaties during the Clinton presidency.

There is simply no downside to blaming America, because Americans don't punish their ideological foes. From the UN, we don't even require sanity sometimes. And there might even be an upside to blaming us, since there are Americans who suffer from such ingrained feelings of guilt, they'll support increased aid to both the UN and Sudan.

There is a lesson to be learned here, though. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is arguably the most powerful man in the international community today. We know he's unwilling to blame those who actually gave the orders to commit genocide in Darfur. And apparently he's happy to shift the blame for ongoing deaths to those living peaceful, productive lives in the West.

Now hopefully we can work toward international cooperation with regard to environmental policies that make sense. It's not very encouraging though when the head of the world's leading international body uses climate change as an all purpose excuse in order to avoid hard realities.

And I'd be happy to put the title of this post on my car as a bumper sticker, together with the phrase "Fred Thompson '08".

There's nothing I can add here.  Fred calls out the absurdity better than I ever could.

Run Fred Run!

Posted by: caltechgirl at 07:22 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 Bolton??? Hmm...NOW that I might get into. Really. Yes we need someone to stand up to the wimpy world we live in; we should think of this as doing the world a favor and saving it from Islamic takeover.

Posted by: Raven at June 28, 2007 07:59 PM (sMiuY)

2 And you as their campaign advisor!

Posted by: Greta at June 28, 2007 08:22 PM (Xl4tG)

3 hmmm.. it seems Ki-moon ain't towing the islamic line on Darfur, last year, Sudan's President Field Marshal Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir claimed that reports in western newspapers of hundreds of thousands dead in his country's brutal civil war are all part of an Israeli-led worldwide conspiracy. Run Fred, Run!

Posted by: LindaSoG at June 28, 2007 08:45 PM (GBBmd)

4 That would make an awesome bumper sticker...! I hadn't thought about Bolton, but he's another stand up guy who doesn't pull his punches... Thompson/Bolton it is, and you heard it here first...!

Posted by: pam at June 29, 2007 04:26 AM (l6NIn)

5 I love Fred! So far he has yet to disappoint me. Run Fred Run!

Posted by: Teresa at June 29, 2007 07:48 AM (gsbs5)

6 I'm still hoping for a Thompson/Norris ticket.

Posted by: Boy Named Sous at June 29, 2007 06:14 PM (bM2l6)

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The Army has successfully tested the "F-Bomb":

The Army announced today that the first successful F-Bomb test has taken place in the New Mexico desert. The F-Bomb - which is not nuclear but still produces a mushroom cloud - was begun after the above ground testing ban treaty in the 1960's. "There was a lot of research left undone." according to Dr. Renaldo Hererra, chief of Munitions Linguistics at Los Alamos. "We went straight from the A-Bomb to the H-Bomb, omitting everything in between. The B project showed promise, but C through E were complete failures. It's good to finally have some success."

The test took place yesterday at 5:42 AM, reportedly flooding the Jouququ Valley with brilliant light, and creating a blast that resounded off the surrounding mountains for several minutes. "It was ****ing awesome!" exclaimed General Milton C. Ironcrotch, Commanding Officer of the program, curiously potty mouthed after the test.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 02:42 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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As if I'd tell you. 

Helen and Angus found out what flavor(s) of twins they're getting. 

I'll let her tell you, though.

Now that I know, however, it's off to the yarn store for appropriate baby-colored yarn.  I already have a pattern in mind.

I wish all you people would just quit having babies, already!  I'm already behind with their presents! (j/k)

Posted by: caltechgirl at 09:38 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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AT&T is offering $10/month DSL service to some eligible customers as part of a deal brokered with the FCC to garner approval for their takeover of BellSouth:

The $10 offer is available to customers in the 22-state AT&T service region, which includes former BellSouth areas, who have never had AT&T or BellSouth broadband, spokesman Michael Coe confirmed Monday. Local phone service and a one-year contract are required. The modem is free.

The plan was not mentioned in a Friday news release about AT&T's DSL plans, and is slightly hidden on the AT&T Web site. A page describing DSL options doesn't mention it, but clicking a link for "Term contract plans" reveals it. It's also presented to customers who go into the application process, Coe said.

The service provides download speeds of up to 768 kilobits per second and upload speeds of up to 128 kbps, matching the speeds of the cheapest advertised AT&T plan, which costs $19.95 per month in the nine-state former BellSouth area and $14.99 in the 13 states covered by AT&T before the acquisition.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 12:55 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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With the author's name on the Birthday Honours List this year, British muslims are renewing their "jihad" on on author Salman Rushdie:

A Pakistani minister says Muslims would be right to carry out suicide attacks over author Salman Rushdie's knighthood.

Religious Affairs Minister Mohammed Ijaz ul Haq told the country's parliament: "The West is accusing Muslims of extremism and terrorism.

"If someone exploded a bomb on his body he would be right to do so unless the British government apologises and withdraws the 'Sir' title."

In Multan, effigies of the writer and the monarch have been burned by about 100 students carrying banners and chanting "Kill Him! Kill Him!"

Posted by: caltechgirl at 11:11 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Thanks for my earworm.  Good thing I actually like it!

Posted by: caltechgirl at 09:36 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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And they're not all "graduate student" positions.  Really.

And folks, #10 is "Whale Feces Researcher".... makes me appreciate my job (which I love) all the more.

h/t HWNNL

Posted by: caltechgirl at 11:25 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I find it very interesting that one of Fred's strategies so far has been to talk about the subjects that other candidates shy away from, including Israel and communism in Latin America, most notably in castro's Cuba.  Fred takes on castro again, in this piece, which puts castro AND hugo chavez into some historical perspective:

We're coming up on the 45th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis and I think it's worth talking about. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy faced down the USSR, risking total war, and forced the Soviets to remove ballistic weapons from Cuba. Missiles located less than a hundred miles from America were aimed at the US.

A lot of people, I think, have forgotten. Most schools don't even teach about it in any real detail. Judging by the indifference that many people have to the nuclear arming of Iran, I think it's a lesson almost entirely lost -- except among Cuban-Americans.

Over the years, they've never stopped watching "el Comandante" -- or warning us about him. At the same time, they've been criticized by people who say that Castro is really no threat. Current events in South America, though, have proven that we should have been listening to our Cuban-Americans friends.

Last week, when Hugo Chavez officially killed press freedoms, even a big part of Venezuela's far left seemed to realize that theyÂ’d created a monster. Unfortunately, it may be too late. He's already packed Venezuela's high court, legislature and military with his loyalists. Right now, he's operating without any check or balance.

During his rise, Venezuelans say that Chavez spent hours a day on the phone with Castro. Additionally, Castro sent thousands of his Communist apparatchiks to help transition Venezuela from a free country to a totalitarian state.

Without Cuban “help,” Venezuela wouldn’t be in the terrible mess it is today. Castro, after all, has been at this since the 1960's and he's given Chavez the benefit of his experience.

There's one big difference between Venezuela today and Cuba then, however. Castro needed Soviet aid to push his so-called "revolution." Chavez does not. One of his first moves was to bolster the Cuban dictatorship with oil subsidies -- a hundred thousand barrels a day to the tune of two billion dollars a year. One of the main factors preventing Cuba's transition towards democracy is Venezuelan oil wealth. On June 26, that wealth could increase significantly, as Chavez says heÂ’ll nationalize the petroleum industry on that date.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 11:05 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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An explanation here.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 02:37 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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New to the ImWithFred site, as of today, Fred's Blog. It has a feed, too.  If you're a "Friends of Fred" member you can log in and comment, too.

Here's what Harvey usually refers to as the "obligatory sucky first post":

Folks, I'm on the road, but wanted to drop you a note of thanks for making the ImWithFred.com website launch a huge success.

Also, I'd like to mention that I'll be appearing on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" tonight, June 12. So stay up with us and watch, or record it to watch at your convenience.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 12:17 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Run and Hide, my good man.  Today of all days.  And take your trusty irons with you.

It's Zombie Uprising day!

Posted by: caltechgirl at 12:02 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I got yer "No Blood for Oil!" right here:

Red Cross Offering Gas For Blood

Lucky Winner Will Get $3,500 In Gasoline

PHILADELPHIA — American Red Cross officials are offering the chance to win free gasoline as an incentive to get more Pennsylvania and New Jersey residents to donate blood.

This summer, each donor will automatically be entered in a drawing to win $3,500 worth of gasoline. Entries for the first drawing, July 23, are already being accepted. An identical raffle will start July 23 and run through Sept. 16. Every day, the Red Cross also will award a $25 gas card to a randomly selected donor.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 08:28 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Thirty years ago all the buzz was about girls falling behind academically.  We HAD to fix that.  Change the classrooms.  Make them more girl-friendly.  Give the girls more role models, more chances.  Affirmative action for girls, right?

Well, it looks like we did TOO good a job.  As this article points out, boys are now falling far behind girls, and are testing at a lower level than they were 35 years ago.

“Boys are in trouble,” said Krista Kafer, visiting fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum. “The facts are quite clear; boys trail girls in most indicators of academic excellence such as, school engagement, achievement scores, and graduation rates at secondary and postsecondary levels.” Kafer presented these facts in her latest IWF position paper, Taking the Boy Crisis in Education Seriously: How School Choice Can Boost Achievement Among Boys and Girls.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, shows an overwhelming amount of data that supports KaferÂ’s theory. Take a look:
* A 2005 NAEP study revealed that a third of 12th grade boys cannot read a newspaper and understand what they are reading.
* The NAEP “Long-Term Trend Test” (started in 1971 and has remained unchanged to better track academic trends over time) showed that at age 17 boys’ reading achievement was fourteen points lower than girls’ and in fact is lower than it was in 1971.
* The same test also shows that scores for the 12th grade reveal that in math, girls have improved while boys have slipped. In reading, girls have improved a little while boys have fallen behind even more.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 06:55 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Run Fred, Run!

Today's editorial (too good for a short excerpt):

Well, he's done it. Hugo Chavez was already systematically silencing criticism of his autocratic rule through threats and intimidation. Journalists have been threatened, beaten, and even killed. Now he's shut down the last opposition television networks in Venezuela and arrested nearly 200 protesters, mostly students. It's a monumental tragedy and the Venezuelan people will pay the price for decades to come. Americans are also at risk as he funds anti-American candidates and radicals all over Latin America.

It's equally tragic that the U.S. is in no position to provide the victims of this emerging dictator with the truth. There was a time, though, when Americans were on the frontlines of pro-freedom movements all over the world. I'm talking about the "surrogate" broadcast network that included Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, often called "the Radios."

[...]

Cynics still say that the USSR fell of its own weight, and that President Reagan's efforts to bring it down were irrelevant, but Boris Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev say differently. Both have said that, without the Radios, the USSR wouldn't have fallen. The Radios were not some bland public-relations effort, attracting audiences only with American pop music. They engaged the intellectual and influential populations behind the Iron Curtain with accurate news and smart programming about freedom and democracy. They had sources and networks within those countries that sometimes outperformed the CIA. When Soviet hardliners and reformers were facing off, and crowds and tanks were on the streets of Moscow and Bucharest, the radios were sending real-time information to the people, including the military, and reminding them of what was at stake.

Then we won the Cold War. The USSR collapsed in 1991, and America relaxed. Military downsizing began and the Radios began to reduce broadcast air time to target countries.

Now, of course, we know that the Islamofascists, many trained by the old Soviets, were making plans and plots of their own. Unfortunately, the plans to broadcast a pro-freedom message into Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Kurdistan, and Ukraine were shelved or diluted. Reagan's ideological audacity was replaced with a more "diplomatic" tone.

And see where it's got us? Not only has Islamic totalitarianism spread without a true ideological challenge, many of the freed Soviet bloc countries are slipping back into repression. Russia is making the same old threats and even protecting Iran's efforts to build nukes.<

We'll never know if Afghanistan might have rejected al Qaeda if America had actively engaged that country as we did those Eastern Europeans. We can't know if Venezuelans would have chosen liberty over the false security of authoritarianism if they had been challenged to face the issues. I do know, though, that it's time for a new generation of Americans to stand up for freedom — like others before us. And this time, we’ll have a whole new set of media technologies.(emphasis mine --Ed.)

Posted by: caltechgirl at 12:19 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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First up, AWTM's precocious 3 year old, the Pink Ninja, echoes my own sentiments during a tour of the National Infantry Museum at Ft. Benning, GA.  Hubby was 1st. Cav.  'Nuff said.


Second, VW shares more toilet humor from Tot.... (drink warning!)

Enjoy!

Posted by: caltechgirl at 09:25 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Here's a little Kitty Office Space for you:



Courtesy the geniuses at ICANHASCHEEZBURGER.com

Posted by: caltechgirl at 08:53 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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