They're not pro-environment. They're just on the other side.

When alleged people like James Wolcott actively root for hurricanes to kill as many people as possible, and a bitter old hag like Germaine Greer celebrating the death of Steve Irwin just because he wrassled some poor defenseless vipers and crocodies, we've got a fundamental flaw in basic humanity.

I'm trying to track down one of my favorite quotes, similar to Germaine Greer's whining about animals needing space while noting her home "in the rainforest."

Shortly after 9/11, a female novelist, either Alice Walker or Barbara Kingsolver (the latter I think), whined that George Bush and his neocon cronies would despoil the earth. She wrote this from her home in a "environmentally sensitive" forest, she noted. Apparently unaware of the irony.

(Note that quote might not be accurate.)

I am almost postive Andrew Sullivan had it on his website.

But I can't find it. Anyone remember this one?

Slublog Found It: It was a fundraising letter printed in The Nation:

But the fact is, we now have a new administration that's hostile to the things I love most: human kindness, the dignity of diversity, and the wild glory of life on earth. It's time to move on from denial to the next stage, which would be bitter cynicism or action. I'm opting for action, because I don't really have a choice. Looking out my window right now I can see my two girls outside under the mesquite trees in this precious riparian woodland where we live, and my heart starts to break for all the beautiful things they'll never see if I allow unchecked Bushwhacking in the next four years. Civil rights and reproductive choice I suppose we could win back in time (though not the lives lost along the way), but the waters and wild lands devastated will never come back. So I've taken a vow to spend at least some part of every week protecting the truths and places I treasure.

Anyone want to bet that a major part of Kingsolver's agenda is blocking people from building homes in "precious riparian woodlands"?

She can build a home there; you can't. See, she'd just live there, play in the woods a bit, have the occasional barbeque, all preserving this precious riparian woodlands.

Whereas you morons would probably light the forest on fire for no reason, or capture small animals and then fart on their heads until they died from methane poisoning.

Barbara Kingsolver has the taste and education to know that man shouldn't fart God's creatures to death.

I don't understand how someone can write something like this and not comprehend what she's saying.

As the saying goes, a gallon of irony spilled, but not a drop splashed on her.

Posted by: Ace at 12:52 PM | Comments (31)
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Forget Rathergate-the biggest news from CBS today is that Phase Two in "Operation Planned Obsolescence" is about to begin.

We all know, of course, that Katie Couric has been tapped to be the new face of their evening newscast. Certain other changes, however, have been less widely reported.

That means a NSFW joke or two for you after the jump. more...

Posted by: AndrewR at 12:40 PM | Comments (10)
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NYT link. Here's the good stuff.

What could be a major discovery of domestic oil in the Gulf of Mexico was announced today by a trio of companies led by Chevron Corporation.

The discovery, in the deepest water yet explored in the Gulf, could be the biggest domestic oil field since the northern Alaska field opened a generation ago.

The news pushed the price of crude oil to a five-month low of $68.38 a barrel in midday trading, although tensions in the Middle East and the threat from hurricanes remained as concerns for traders.

The new field’s location near the coast of the United States makes it particularly attractive, said J. Larry Nichols, the chairman of Devon Energy Corporation of Oklahoma City, which holds a 25 percent interest in the find. The discovery “could not have happened in a better place,” he said in a news conference.

Sweet, sweet light crude.

Posted by: Ace at 12:34 PM | Comments (37)
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More homework from liberal nags:

That milestone moved Rochelle Riley, columnist at the Detroit Free Press, to urge women across the country to watch Couric.

"You don't have to be a fan," Riley wrote. "You don't even have to like the news. But progress requires it."

Let's see... we're supposed to sign oaths to watch Keith Olbermann every night and Al Gore's fantasia An Inconveniet Truth. We're supposed to worship Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert.

And now women have to watch Katie Couric.

Given that liberals usually claim (without being asked) they don't watch TV, they sure seem to be giving us quite a busy schedule of TV watching, don't they?

Thanks to PetiteDov.

Posted by: Ace at 12:26 PM | Comments (133)
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Curiously unmetioned by the MSM.

In the same breath he lauds George Galloway.

Hint: If you're being praised by Al Qaeda, you're doing something wrong.

NewsBusters quotes Sy Hersh from last year:

"We are being taken over basically by a cult; eight or nine neo-conservatives have somehow grabbed the government."

"Somehow grabbed the government."

That "somehow" would be the elections of 2000, 2002, and 2004, for those keeping track.

Again, thanks to... oh, you know who.

Posted by: Ace at 12:02 PM | Comments (12)
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They're just on the other side.

In this case, "the other side" is a longing for as many humans to die as possible.

What seems to have happened on Batt Reef is that Irwin and a cameraman went off in a little dinghy to see what they could find. What they found were stingrays. You can just imagine Irwin yelling: "Just look at these beauties! Crikey! With those barbs a stingray can kill a horse!" (Yes, Steve, but a stingray doesn't want to kill a horse. It eats crustaceans, for God's sake.)

Always the apparently-irresistable impulse to crow about how scary-smart one is. Here, Greer is mighty impressed with herself for knowing, unlike Irwin, that stingrays do not eat horses.

All Australian children know about stingrays.

...

The lashing response of the tail is automatic; the barb is coated with a bacterial slime as deadly as rotten oyster toxin.

The suggestion here is that Irwin didn't know, despite the fact that Greer just imagined him saying "This thing could kill a horse!"

As a Melbourne boy, Irwin should have had a healthy respect for stingrays, which are actually commoner, and bigger, in southern waters than they are near Port Douglas, where he was killed. The film-makers maintain that the ray that took Irwin out was a "bull ray", or Dasyatis brevicaudata, but this is not usually found as far north as Port Douglas. Marine biologist Dr Meredith Peach has been quoted as saying, "It's really quite unusual for divers to be stung unless they are grappling with the animal and, knowing Steve Irwin, perhaps that may have been the case." Not much sympathy there then.

Or from Greer. It gets worse.

...

What Irwin never seemed to understand was that animals need space. The one lesson any conservationist must labour to drive home is that habitat loss is the principal cause of species loss. There was no habitat, no matter how fragile or finely balanced, that Irwin hesitated to barge into, trumpeting his wonder and amazement to the skies. There was not an animal he was not prepared to manhandle. Every creature he brandished at the camera was in distress. Every snake badgered by Irwin was at a huge disadvantage, with only a single possible reaction to its terrifying situation, which was to strike. Easy enough to avoid, if you know what's coming. Even my cat knew that much. Those of us who live with snakes, as I do with no fewer than 12 front-fanged venomous snake species in my bit of Queensland rainforest, know that they will get out of our way if we leave them a choice. Some snakes are described as aggressive, but, if you're a snake, unprovoked aggression doesn't make sense. Snakes on a plane only want to get off. But Irwin was an entertainer, a 21st-century version of a lion-tamer, with crocodiles instead of lions.

Venomous snakes don't ever bite, then. And if they do, it's your fault. The expert herpetologist Germaine Greer just informed us of this.

This is probably a surprise to every hospital in the world that carries antivenins, but, again, she lives in a rainforest. She's in touch with the auras of nature.

And of course the absurdity of a woman living in "the rainforest" lecturing others about giving animals "space" is laughable.

Apparently only leftists are permitted in the wilds, or in sensitive rainforests, or etc. Because only they can appreciate nature.

She's allowed to build a home in a natural animal habitat. You aren't. Simple as that.

In 2004, Irwin was accused of illegally encroaching on the space of penguins, seals and humpback whales in Antarctica, where he was filming a documentary called Ice Breaker. An investigation by the Australian Environmental Department resulted in no action being taken, which is not surprising seeing that John Howard, the prime minister, made sure that Irwin was one of the guests invited to a "gala barbecue" for George Bush a few months before. Howard is now Irwin's chief mourner, which is only fair, seeing that Irwin announced that Howard is the greatest leader the world has ever seen.

By whom was he "accused"? Greer doesn't say, of course. Because it was by hectoring hags likeherslef.

The animal world has finally taken its revenge on Irwin, but probably not before a whole generation of kids in shorts seven sizes too small has learned to shout in the ears of animals with hearing 10 times more acute than theirs, determined to become millionaire animal-loving zoo-owners in their turn.

The man isn't even in the ground yet. But the impulse of a leftist is to denigrate anyone whom the hoi polloi might like, and to do so in the nastiest terms possible.

That's how they maintain their entirely-undeserved sense of superiority. By constantly denigrating their assumed inferiors.

I should say that Irwin can be criticized -- just like the "Grizzly Man," he antagonzed dangerous animals and, by seizing them (but not killing them), he may have made some of them more willing to attack human beings. After all, if a snake learns that a human being will manhandle it, and yet seems incapable of actually killing it, its fear of human beings is lessened.

But that criticism would require Greer to be on the side of humanity to make. And she believes herself to be superior to -- indeed, very nearly a different species than -- 99% of humanity. So she cannot cause herself to worry about mere humanity; she's above us, and, as such, cares for more important species, such as crocodiles and rattlesnakes.

Thanks to Larwyn, via Tim Blair.

They Never Miss An Opportunity: Bill Maher:

For example, Maher showed little regard for America by stating (emphasis mine): “You know, this country is, I've said this before, I'm going to keep saying it, it's a pitiful, helpless giant.” Think he was kidding? Later, Maher elaborated: “Again, because it's a stupid country with stupid people who don't pay attention.”

It's hysterical that he goes on to slam the religious for their "arrogance" and "certainty" about their beliefs.

Bill, Germaine -- if you're so wicked-smart and superior, shouldn't that be obvious to the rest of us? Why is it you have to proclaim your superiority at every turn?

Posted by: Ace at 11:51 AM | Comments (67)
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No idea what this is all about. Lots of chitty-chat. No robots, no Vipers, no knockers.

Still. It's geeky, so up it goes.

Thanks to Chad.

Posted by: Ace at 11:35 AM | Comments (11)
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Here.

This Weekly Standard piece quotes from Appendix 4.

Like Newcomer, Tytell came to some quick conclusions. He told the panel that even while watching the September 10 CBS Evening News broadcast at home, he'd known "within 5 seconds" that something was wrong with the documents CBS was showcasing as newly discovered memos from 1972. In fact, on September 10--the same day Newcomer sent his essay to members of the media--Tytell had contacted CBS to explain "in detail why he believed the Killian documents were likely fakes."

Eventually, the panel hired Tytell to serve as its document expert. He examined the Xeroxes carefully and came to three conclusions: (1) Previously released Texas Air National Guard documents from the early 1970s had been created on an "Olympia manual typewriter." (2) The four disputed Killian memos "were not produced on an Olympia manual typewriter." And (3) "The Killian documents were produced on a computer in Times New Roman typestyle."

...

And even allowing for these mounting improbabilities[of high-end typesetting machines with advanced features used, for some reason, to generate mundane intraoffice memos], the typestyle from such a modified Selectric Composer still would not have matched exactly the type in the Killian memos. The two typestyles are "very close," Tytell concluded, but there are "noticeable differences." Tytell told the panel that he did "not believe that any manual or electric typewriter of the early 1970s could have produced the typeface used in the Killian documents." As the panel sums up his findings,

the documents appear to have been produced in Times New Roman typestyle. . . . Times New Roman was only available on typesetting and other non-tabletop machines until the desktop publishing revolution in the 1980s. Therefore [Tytell] concluded that Times New Roman could not have been available on a typewriter in the early 1970s and the Killian documents must have been produced on a computer.

Which brings us back to Joseph Newcomer. After all his careful study, Peter Tytell reached exactly the same conclusion as Newcomer. And, like Newcomer, Tytell offered a forthright judgment. The panel reports, "Tytell concluded that the Killian documents were generated on a computer."

So, again, how did Thornburgh and Boccardi manage to walk away from their own expert's unambiguous verdict? The answer is hidden in footnote 16 on page 7 of Appendix 4:

Although his reasoning seems credible and persuasive, the Panel does not know for certain whether Tytell has accounted for all alternative typestyles that might have been available on typewriters during that era.

If they were concerned about gaps in Tytell's knowledge, did the panel consult other experts? No. Instead, Thornburgh and Boccardi solicited the opinion of this single expert; then, when he reached an unwanted conclusion, they turned their backs on it.

Correction: I asked Allah to help me search-- for some reason, I couldn't find it -- and of course he came up with it in three seconds.

I apologize for writing that the appendices were no longer on CBS' website. I should have known my searching skills were not up to the task.

Posted by: Ace at 11:18 AM | Comments (15)
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Astonishing.

I am still incensed at the Thornberg-Boccardi report, as corrupt as document as the orginal Rathergate forgeries. Knowing who was paying their salaries, they refused to conclude the obvious -- that the documents were plainly forgeries -- and allowed CBS, Dan Rather, and Mary Mapes to continue insisting the matter was unresolved.

An appendix by an expert in the field left little doubt that the "documents" were crude forgeries obviously typed up in the past several years on MSWord, but no one cites that, now do they? Instead, the non-expert and corrupted opinion of Thornberg and Boccardi is cited as the report's true conclusion, that we don't know and we may never know.

CBS paid these guys to whitewash the scandal and CBS got its money's worth.

Posted by: Ace at 10:46 AM | Comments (8)
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There seems to be a welter of arrests lately. Is this that "international cooperation" that Bush is unable to obtain due to his cowboy ways?

Danish police have arrested nine suspected terrorists, the country's security intelligence service announced on Tuesday. The nine, all believed to be men under the age of 30, were detained in overnight raids on Denmark's third largest city of Odense. All had been under surveillance "for some time," and were detained on suspicion of planning terrorist acts.

The arrests happened in the Odense suburb of Vollsmose, Lars Findsen, head of the Danish Security Intelligence Service (Pet) was quoted as saying. He said the suspects "had acquired material ... to build explosives in connection with the preparation of a terror act".

Gateway Pundit notes, via Iranian media of all places, that one of the Germany train-bomb suspects was arrested en route to meet a "Muslim leader" in Odense.

Thanks to Larwyn.

Dan Riehl notes the BBC only describes them as "men under the age of 30" (broad strata, etc.) and that Al Jazeera seems more honest than the BBC in suggesting a link to the Mohammed cartoon violence.

Pretty sad when the BBC is more in the tank for the jihadis than even Al Jazeera.

Posted by: Ace at 10:17 AM | Comments (7)
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