As the twisters may hit the most populated area, this has the potential to be worse than the Moore strikes.

Oh, No: Now tornado sirens are going off in Moore, too.

The tornado (one of them) is expected to hit downtown OKC in the next three minutes, per Shep Smith.

Losing Destructive Power? Shep just explained something I don't understand -- something about a down-draft rearward wind, or such -- which may have knocked the storm cell down a notch in power.

UPDATE [DIT]: Casualties reported at a Holiday Inn in Earth City MO, about 10 miles NW of St. Louis. The ball game at Busch Stadium was called off tonight.

Just lots of confusion and bad storms. Watching KMOV for coverage.

MORE: No casualties at the Holiday Inn (Express)

Posted by: Ace at 04:09 PM | Comments (493)
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Europe just suffered the coldest spring in 20 years, with average temperatures down a full two degrees C; France got shellacked with a 3 degrees C drop.

The last Year Without a Summer lasted 40 months. That very cold summer was caused by volcanoes churning up ash into the skies. But there isn't any noteworthy volcanism going on now.

Which means this must be caused by something else.

You guessed it, Global Warming. Global warming is causing the frigid temperatures in Europe.

Note: I got this story from a French newspaper (Le Monde). I looked for an English-media source picking up on the story. Shock -- there isn't one. The press in England and the US has decided they don't want to talk about the possible Year Without a Summer.

Thus, the crappy translation.

(Note, though: The generally poor (cold) weather of spring is discussed at different places. It's attributed to global warming.)

Corrected: I first called 1816 the start of "the Little Ice Age." That's wrong. The Little Ice Age ran from around 1350 to 1850 -- so it contained the especially-cold 1816-1819 period, but it didn't kick it off and wasn't caused by the cold snap of 1816.

That was just what we call a "complete mistake."

[Update JohnE.]: Possible explanation for the Little Ice Age below.

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Posted by: Ace at 03:32 PM | Comments (184)
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A legion of rogues.

Posted by: Ace at 02:48 PM | Comments (197)
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Take shelter.

Awful. Good luck, Oklahoma readers. Get some books and candles and food and get into a basement. *

* I assume this is good advice. If it's not, please ignore me.

Ominous Skies:

Posted by: Ace at 01:48 PM | Comments (184)
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How We See Ourselves in Online Fights:

How Everyone Else Sees Us:

Picture via @jonahgoldberg. I have no idea what it's about or why it was made. But I thought I had to find some way to share it.

They're corgis, apparently.

I asked a really dumb question, but I have to know: Is it possible this is real? Like, they put little weapon-gloves on the corgis to make them hold the weapons?

Because I'd like it to be real.

Posted by: Ace at 01:23 PM | Comments (188)
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At Gateway Pundit, notice the words McClatchy (generally a liberal organization) uses to describe this.

While the developing scandal over the targeting of conservatives by the tax agency has largely focused to date on its scrutiny of groups with words such as “tea party” or “patriot” in their names, these examples suggest the government was looking at a broader array of conservative groups and perhaps individuals. Their collective experiences at a minimum could spread skepticism about the fairness of a powerful agency that should be above reproach and at worst could point to a secret political vendetta within the government against conservatives.

That's not minimizing this, as we've come to expect. That's discussing it plainly.

They discuss several stories of groups which did not have "tea party" and "patriot" in their names, strongly suggesting this was a general vendetta against conservatism.

For example:

Sue Martinek of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, already knows what happened to her and others involved in the Coalition for Life of Iowa.

...

Martinek said the woman never offered a first name. A womanÂ’s voice on a recording at her phone number doesnÂ’t give a name, and messages left by McClatchy brought no response.

Richards told Martinek by phone in early 2009 that the groupÂ’s application had been approved, Martinek said. But Richards added a condition, according to Martinek. Board members first needed to sign a letter promising not to picket in front of Planned Parenthood offices, Martinek said.

...

Ironically, Planned Parenthood does enjoy the type of tax-exempt status that MartinekÂ’s group originally sought.

Again, not minimizing this.

Posted by: Ace at 12:47 PM | Comments (232)
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Party of science.

I thought the "E=MC^2" on the whiteboard was helpful. It let me know I was about to have my face blown off with some epic scientific science. more...

Posted by: JohnE. at 12:07 PM | Comments (334)
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Howdy, Morons and Moronettes. tmi3rd here, and I'll be filling in tonight for CDR M and Maetenloch, who had other pressing engagements. Apparently, smoking and curing hobo meat takes time and care, and that tranny hooker porn ain't gonna watch itself.

For those who miss the regulars, they should be back at their regularly scheduled time... as long as the dead hoboes didn't have hepatitis, worms, or something equally appetizing.

Update as we head to publishing time: prayers for everyone in central Oklahoma. It's just been one thing after another for these folks. The situation is still active as of 9 PM Central, so I'll offer no updates- they won't be timely.

Please, if you're in the affected area, stay tuned to your local emergency management broadcasting, and stay safe.

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Posted by: Open Blogger at 06:04 PM | Comments (762)
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Discussing a new factoid that 40% of mothers were now the primary breadwinners in their families, Erick Erickson commented that the situation was bad for children.

Which isn't all that objectionable.

But then he went a little Anchorman and opined that nature intended men to dominate women in the family sphere -- and that's Science.

So I ignored this story hoping it would go away because it's just going to cause a lot of shouting and RINO vs. True Con fighting.

But Megyn Kelly has upset my plans and forced me to mention it.

I have three observations, which don't really explain anything. They're just explanations.

First: One of the biggest problems with social conservatism as far as politics -- as far as the politics of the thing, mind you, not the truth -- is that the hedonistic message is live for yourself, live for today, and social conservatives are constantly being big buzzkills by saying, "Let's remember the children, huh?"

If you look at the abortion debate, or the social conservatives' arguments that people should have little to no sex outside of marriage, what is that about? The leftist media always casts this as "trying to control people's lives," and I suppose it is, but what is it really about?

It's about children. Sex outside of marriage will lead, inevitably, to two things:

1. Pregnancies terminated by abortions.

2. Pregnancies carried through to term with a child now born into a single-parent family.

A cavalier, loose attitude about sex is just buttered pickles for everyone... except the actual victims of it, which is children either born into poor circumstances or fetuses/babies (however you term it) aborted before they can even have those poor circumstances.

Now, as a political matter, as a message for a populace which is increasingly lazy and narcissistic, which is the politically winning message? And which becomes the Square, Nagging, Buzzkill message?

I think this argument illustrates the ever-present tension that exists between personal fulfillment and what's best for children.

Second: As you can see from Megyn Kelly's hostile reaction -- why, she almost seems like a Smelly Pirate Hooker here in her anger about Erickson's "Science (TM)"-- no one really wants to hear outsiders criticizing his or her personal choices.

And there's really no way to cast Erickson's argument as anything other than a criticism of Megyn Kelly's choices -- though he tries to soften it up and fudge it up, he is, or at least was, saying that Megyn Kelly was short-changing her kid by continuing to work.

There's no way to fudge that. It's what he said. Megyn Kelly refuses to permit him to fudge it. There's no way that you can lay down the marker that "Women who work are doing a disservice to their children" and then think a working mother is going to be mollified by a "Well if that works for you..." fudge.

Third: One problem I have with this: If you're going to lay down that marker, then don't run away from it when challenged by Megyn Kelly. I mean, if you believe that, then stand up for it and declare it proudly. If it was true when Megyn Kelly wasn't around to hector you, it remains true when she is around to hector you.

I mean, if this was important enough to say, then it's important enough to say when under fire. If it's not important enough to say, maybe it wasn't important enough to say the first time.

Just a thought.

I think, as a general matter, it is very easy and emotionally rewarding to criticize other people, which is why all human beings, since the beginning of human speech, have spent such a large amount of their time doing so (and some people, like myself, have chosen criticizing others as a career!).

Eh, I don't know. I don't know what to make of it all. I'm not going to settle the argument this afternoon so I won't bother trying.

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Posted by: Ace at 11:00 AM | Comments (513)
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At Ricochet.

Beginning at around 27:45 and going forward to about 35:00, there are three interesting points:

1. Obama talks as if he's not president. For example, in his Major Foreign Policy Distraction, he complained that force-feeding hunger-striking jihadis at Guantanamo didn't represent us at our best. He seems to have forgotten that with a single phone call he could order the force-feeding to stop.

2. The liberals have internalized this bizarre narrative, and always omit Obama from negative stories, as if it is literally, physically impossible that Obama might be part of the problem.

3. This hasn't been talked about much -- and I keep wanting to talk about it. A few weeks ago, Obama told the Washington Post that he often daydreams that he'd like to go "Full Bullworth" on the country. Now, Bullworth was a movie about a suicidal politician who decided to just Tell The People The Truth before he died. His truth, you won't be surprised to learn, was all left-wing cant that of course are obviously true but no one ever says. (Except the left, constantly.)

Consider all that is admitted there:

1. Obama is confessing he's not telling the people "The Truth" at the moment.

2. Obama is virtually confessing that his idea of the truth -- long hidden from the people -- is a series of left-wing "Truth Bombs" that he'd like to drop on us but of course he can't.

Um, why not? Oh right, because it would hurt him politically and that's the only thing that matters.

Posted by: Ace at 09:13 AM | Comments (442)
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