Here's an interesting graph that breaks down support for gay marriage by state and age group. Overall about 55% of people oppose gay marriage (44% support) according to this CNN poll. but as you can see from the graph support varies quite a bit by state. And there's a consistent generation gap with younger people supporting gay marriage and older people opposing it.

Over time you'd expect the 18-29 year-olds to become somewhat more conservative, but I doubt that they'll change that much. So it looks like gay marriage of some kind is inevitable in a few decades.

Posted by: Open Blog at 01:20 PM | Comments (186)
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Because warhead design is an integral part of a 'peaceful civilian' nuclear plan.

The report is from that hotbed of neo-con warmongering, the Guardian.

The very existence of the technology, known as a "two-point implosion" device, is officially secret in both the US and Britain, but according to previously unpublished documentation in a dossier compiled by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iranian scientists may have tested high-explosive components of the design. The development was today described by nuclear experts as "breathtaking" and has added urgency to the effort to find a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis.

The sophisticated technology, once mastered, allows for the production of smaller and simpler warheads than older models. It reduces the diameter of a warhead and makes it easier to put a nuclear warhead on a missile.

But don't worry, Captain Smart Diplomacy is on the case.

Related enough:

Good News! Obama finally requires pre-conditions and promise of concessions before meeting with world leader.

Bad news....It's Bibi Netanyahu.

Posted by: DrewM at 01:04 PM | Comments (58)
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I left for Vegas last night to celebrate a friend's 40th birthday party. His wife put me (and a few other old friends) up at the Encore. Pretty cool.

Sorry I couldn't say anything about quitting early last night, but my friend knows about the blog and he has been Mr. Detective about trying to find out if there was a surprise party planned for him. So I had to pretend nothing was going on.

At any rate, I usually say "Open blog, but I'll be around a little." This time I have to say "Open blog, and there is just really no chance at all I'll be around, unless I hit the Fortune Bonus in Pai Gau and want to hoot about it."

Anyone See Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann Last Night? Regarding the Fort Hood massacre, Matthews and Olbermann kept trying to sell post-traumatic stress syndrome. When it was learned this guy had never been in combat, they tried to sell the idea that he had PTSD from listening to other soldiers' accounts of PTSD.

When it was revealed that he was Muslim, and hated the war, and was always screaming about the war, and hated Obama because he thought Obama would end the war, they continued trying to sell some kind of PTSD by proxy.

Matthews was particularly sick-making as he sounded very sympathetic notes about this poor, poor abused man, forced to deploy to a war he didn't believe in. Even after the facts were revealed, he was still trying to excuse this and blame this man's mass-murder on Bush's foreign policy

I guess I don't blame them for avoiding jumping the gun and blaming it on Sudden Jihad Syndome. I guess I can understand the reluctance to engage in that kind of speculation. (On the other hand, they sure were willing to speculate along the lines of every other conceivable motive.)

But once the facts came in? And this fat butterheaded bastard is still trying to tell me that basically this is all my fault for starting a war that this poor man had to deploy to?

Inexcusable.

Posted by: Ace at 11:38 AM | Comments (182)
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When Nancy Pelosi said "we won", wens-to-break-campaign-promises&catid=60:st-lawrence-news&Itemid=175">she was right.

Owens indicated in a press release that he was now in favor of the bill in direct contrast to his earlier position during his campaign.

During his campaign for Congress, Mr. Owens assured voters that he felt the public option had no place in the health care reform bill. Contrary to that position, Mr. Owens now indicates that he intends to vote in favor of the bill even though it now contains a public option.

Owens also promised to vote against cutting Medicare benefits, taxing health care benefits, and increased taxes on the middle class. All of those are "features of the House bill.

Here's the Owens statement of support for the bill.

Heck of job Republican County Chairs, heck of a job.

Thanks to Heather Radish in the comments.

(I removed the email gag)

Posted by: DrewM at 11:25 AM | Comments (119)
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A couple of notes...

Ace is, um, "on assignment" and asked me to declare an Open Blog.

Soldiers' Angels has a few projects underway for the folks at Ft. Hood.

Also at Soldiers' Angels...The annual Project Valour-IT fundraiser.

Project Valour-IT, in memory of SFC William V. Ziegenfuss, helps provide voice-controlled/adaptive laptop computers and other technology to support Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand wounds and other severe injuries. Technology supplied includes:

-Voice-controlled Laptops - Operated by speaking into a microphone or using other adaptive technologies, they allow the wounded to maintain connections with the rest of the world during recovery.

-Wii Video Game Systems - Whole-body game systems increase motivation and speed recovery when used under the guidance of physical therapists in therapy sessions (donated only to medical facilities).

- Personal GPS - Handheld GPS devices build self-confidence and independence by compensating for short-term memory loss and organizational challenges related to severe TBI and severe PTSD.

Apparently the HQ is on Team Marines but the money all goes to the same great cause.

Posted by: DrewM at 11:16 AM | Comments (23)
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Deviate and you are clearly inciting hatred.

Newsbusters has a few examples of the developing narrative.

Whatever you do, ignore the potential for jihad. Things like...

Soldiers reported that the gunman shouted "Allahu Akbar!" — an Arabic phrase for "God is great!" — before opening fire, said Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the base commander. He said officials had not confirmed that Hasan made the comment.

Or this.

He gave a Grand Rounds presentation. . . You take turns giving a lecture on, you know, the correct treatment of schizophrenia, the right drugs to prescribe for personality disorder, you know, that sort of thing. But instead of giving an academic paper, he gave a lecture on the Koran, and they said it didnÂ’t seem to be just an informational lecture, but it seemed to be his own beliefs. ThatÂ’s what a lot of people thought.

He talked about how if you’re a nonbeliever the Koran says you should have your head cut off, you should have oil poured down your throat, you should be set on fire. And I said well couldn’t this just be his educating you? And the psychiatrist said yes, but one of the Muslims in the audience, another psychiatrist, raised his hand and was quite disturbed and he said you know, a lot of us don’t believe these things you’re saying, and that there was no place where Hasan couched it as this is what the Koran teaches but you know I don’t believe it. And people actually talked in the hallway afterwards about ‘is he one of these people that’s going to freak out and shoot people someday?’

Follow the link to Instapundit. There's more about Hasan including a report that he'd been reprimanded for "proselytizing about his Muslim faith with patients and colleagues".

Today President Shout-Out said we shouldn't jump to conclusions.

"We don't know all the answers yet. And I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts," Obama said in a Rose Garden statement otherwise devoted to the economy.

Funny but he was willing to reach conclusions within hours of the murder of abortionist George Tiller. Interestingly, it took Him 2 days to issue a statement when a Muslim terrorist killed a soldier at an Army recruitment office in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Seems some incidents call for restraint and others call for immediate conclusions.

Also, compare and contrast the media reaction.

Immediately Tiller's murder an act of domestic terrorism (here, here and here for just a few examples. Warning: liberal sites).

Now however, we must not even consider the idea that Hasan is a Muslim terrorist. Wouldn't want to spread fear and hate.

Just to be clear, jumping to conclusions is not what anyone is advocating. My problem with Obama and his courtiers in the media is that there are certain classes and subject which may not be speculated about but there are clearly some times when it's ok.

The media is most definitely jumping to conclusions, one unconnected to anything we know about Hasan while at the same time ruling out any consideration of a subset of the things for which there is evidence or at least indications.

Right now the Army Secretary and Chief of Staff are meeting the media at Fort Hood. They keep talking about 'stress' and 'suicide' while absolutely avoiding anything inconvenient about Hasan. It's dishonest and dangerous.

And below the fold, since I want to do what little I can to keep this alive, the Presidential Shout-Out not heard round the world. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 10:41 AM | Comments (215)
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Lone gunman attack.

Reports say 2 dead and the police chief said 5 people were transferred to the hospital but won't say their status.

Police say the guy's name is Jason Rodriguez, 40 years old.

He's at large and then they say he's a former employee at one of the places he shot up.

Posted by: DrewM at 09:25 AM | Comments (214)
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Didn't Nancy tell us several times that of course she had the votes for health care? Well, maybe not so fast. Tomorrow's scheduled vote might slip to Sunday or later.

A House leader says Democrats haven't yet lined up enough votes to pass their health care overhaul bill.

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland says the vote that House Democrats had scheduled for Saturday could slip to Sunday or early next week.

Hoyer acknowledged to reporters Friday that Democratic leaders don't yet have the 218 votes needed to pass President Barack Obama's historic health overhaul initiative.

Obama was supposed to go up to the Hill today to lobby for the bill but has put that off until at least tomorrow.

Thanks to @gabrielmalor.

Incidentally, if you can't get enough of us moron posters here, you can follow us on Twitter: @aceofspadeshq @slublog @DaveinTexas and myself @drewmtips.

There are also a bunch of moron commenters around on Twitter as well.

UPDATE (Jack M.): I would get on twitter, but the limited number of letters plays hell with my Suzanne Sena inspired epic poems. Are there such a thing as epic tweets? Hmmmmm.....As for LauraW's absence in the above list, well everyone knows that humpbacks can't type! Or read. Or engage in quasi-social activity of any kind, really. So she has that going for her, which is nice.

MORE [DrewM.] Laura is on Twitter @laurww. Follow her before she follows you!

Posted by: DrewM at 08:47 AM | Comments (160)
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Maybe Pelosi is channeling Ferdinand Foch?

...Saturday, the House will take up a 2000 page health care bill that will raise taxes, cut Medicare, and cost more than a trillion dollars. That is the political version of Foch telling his troops to attack in the face of the German machine guns in the bloody fields of the Somme River Valley. It may seem to be politically courageous to the liberal Democratic leadership, but it is political suicide to the 75 or so vulnerable moderates who will face the ire of the voters in a year.

FochÂ’s tactics during the Great War, as it was called back then, unnecessarily killed thousands of French troops at the Battle of the Somme, leading to his eventual dismissal and an unhappy place in history.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 07:57 AM | Comments (129)
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Ft. Hood police officer Kimberly Munley. She's in stable condition.

Munley, who had been trained in active-response tactics, rushed into the building and confronted the shooter as he was turning a corner, Cone said.

"It was an amazing and an aggressive performance by this police officer," Cone said.

Munley was only a few feet from crazed Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan when she opened fire.

Well done Officer Munley. Wishing you a speedy recovery.

via mkhammer at twitter

One more thought (expressed already by a few commenters, but worth repeating), LTG Cone speaks about her training in "active-response tactics", i.e. she didn't wait for backup, they didn't surround the place with overwhelming force. She arrived on the scene, charged in there, confronted this son of a bitch and took him down. Because of that she saved more lives.

Lessons learned.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 06:33 AM | Comments (336)
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