I noted this earlier, but I've spread the meme.

Hot Chicks with Douchebags isn't Jim Treacher's site.

So I merely got the attribution wrong. The quotes are otherwise accurate.

Why did I get this wrong? Well, someone in the comments said "Check out Treacher's hilarious new site" or words to that effect. I didn't check; just assumed he was right. He doesn't seem to have been.

I regret the very minor error in misattributing this to Treacher. I did get it right that it was "very funny," though.

Media Never-Say-I'm-Wrong Effect Sets In: I kinda now feel like the media must when it blows a major story, and yet wants to keep arguing that it's "fake but accurate."

Because now I really do have this feeling that this really is Treacher's site, but he wants to do it annoymously, and I got the "scoop" on its true author.

How stupid is that? I did no research. I just flat-out regurgitated someone else's claims without checking. I have nothing invested in this, ego-wise.

And yet that's the feeling I have: "I'm not wrong, I'm merely not vindicated by history yet."

Just think that's an odd bit of understanding about the media -- an innate pride of authorship over one's errors.

Eh, the hell with it. It's Treacher's site and he's a goddamned "internet political partisan" and a liar if he denies it.

Posted by: Ace at 02:49 PM | Comments (6)
Post contains 243 words, total size 2 kb.

To quote from the Vietnam era, advisedly, is there light at the end of the tunnel?

Baghdad is still enjoying some days of relative calm interrupted only with minor sporadic incidents. In general thereÂ’s a feeling that these days are better than almost any other time in months. This is more evident in the eastern side of Baghdad than the western part, because the former part has received more US and Iraqi military reinforcements than the latter.

...

I do trust the cheering crowd; the average people who are weary of the violence. They clearly expressed their desire to see sectarian portioning reversed because they have seen what forced displacement has wrought upon civilians. Those people were not thinking of the motivations of politicians or clerics. They were speaking from their hearts.

...

In other encouraging news, I saw on the local Baghdad news that US and Iraqi soldiers have discovered about 60 weapon caches since the beginning of this month, and detained more than 140 suspects during the same period.

Other incidents that indicate a positive change in MalikiÂ’s policy are the arrest of deputy minister of health Hakim al-Zamili, and the deployment of IA soldiers to provide security for hospitals in Baghdad instead of the FPS.

...

The arrest of al-Zamili indicates that the new plan will not hesitate to target leaders of militant groups no matter what their position in the government was. The Sadr movement responded to the arrest only by saying that it was an insult to all Iraqis. One of their spokesmen said, in a clear sign of helplessness, “If one from our movement is to be arrested, then others from other factions should be arrested as well”.

A reduction of violence requires two parts: A general weariness of killing and butchery and disruption of life, and some amount of hope that the situation can change, if enough people want it to.

Al Qaeda and the Sadrists have, inadvertantly, produced the first requirement -- a desire for peace. It may be that the most important effect of the surge is producing the second requirement -- a reasonable optimism that peace is actually possible.

Posted by: Ace at 02:18 PM | Comments (11)
Post contains 369 words, total size 2 kb.

A major book finds that cosmic rays create clouds, which, in turn, reflect the sun's warming light back into space. Fewer cosmic rays equal fewer clouds and hence rising temperatures.

Unanswered is how SUV's are influencing the sun to lower its cosmic ray emissions.

The controversial theory comes one week after 2,500 scientists who make up the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change published their fourth report stating that human carbon dioxide emissions would cause temperature rises of up to 4.5 C by the end of the century.

Mr Svensmark claims that the calculations used to make this prediction largely overlooked the effect of cosmic rays on cloud cover and the temperature rise due to human activity may be much smaller.

He said: "It was long thought that clouds were caused by climate change, but now we see that climate change is driven by clouds.

"This has not been taken into account in the models used to work out the effect carbon dioxide has had.
advertisement

"We may see CO2 is responsible for much less warming than we thought and if this is the case the predictions of warming due to human activity will need to be adjusted."

Mr Svensmark last week published the first experimental evidence from five years' research on the influence that cosmic rays have on cloud production in the Proceedings of the Royal Society Journal A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. This week he will also publish a fuller account of his work in a book entitled The Chilling Stars: A New Theory of Climate Change.

A team of more than 60 scientists from around the world are preparing to conduct a large-scale experiment using a particle accelerator in Geneva, Switzerland, to replicate the effect of cosmic rays hitting the atmosphere.

They hope this will prove whether this deep space radiation is responsible for changing cloud cover. If so, it could force climate scientists to re-evaluate their ideas about how global warming occurs.

Yeahhh... I wouldn't count on that.

In related news, the Academy Award Committee has just nominated Cosmic Rays for the Irving G. Thalberg Lifetime Achievement Award.

From Drudge: Czech president calls global warming a myth and questions Al Gore's sanity.

Sweet.

Politicizing Science: The left doesn't seem to mind shutting up scientists who disagree with them. A campaign is underway to strip an Oregon climate-change skeptic of his unofficial title of state's official climatologist.

I know that unofficial/official thing doesn't make sense. Apparently Oregon did at one time have such a post, but no longer does. However, a college in Oregon granted him a post which has been called the equivalent. The left of the blogosphere pounced on the error of calling him the official state climatologist, and appears to be right.

But they're still trying to punish up by taking away a respected college title.

Shut up, they explained.

Posted by: Ace at 01:49 PM | Comments (21)
Post contains 494 words, total size 3 kb.

Businesses creating fake blogs or fake comments purporting to be thrilled consumers may be knocked for false advertising.

Actually, this makes sense, doesn't it? It is false advertising. Still, it seems to be of a piece with the EU's general urge to control everything they can. The actual law here isn't especially odious, but the impulse that animates it is.

Gleen Greenwald could not be reached for comment, though he's said to be "extraodinarily relieved" to learn that Brazil is not part of the EU.

Thanks to Retired Geezer.

Posted by: Ace at 01:42 PM | Comments (6)
Post contains 97 words, total size 1 kb.

Via Althouse, who digests Chapman's piece as "Hey, no fair nominating such a strong candidate."

He seems to be using the Fag-Fu Jujuitsu defense:

The GOP has morphed from a party that reveres limited government to a party that is girlishly infatuated with executive authority.

In other words, if you prefer an executive who shows strength, that means you're really a homo because you lack that strength yourself and need the Big Strong Arms of a Take-Charge Executive wrapped around you. You also, probably, enjoy Feeling The Weight Of A Muscular Executive on you, too.

Meanwhile, if you prefer a weak, namby-pamby executive, endlessly kowtowing to tyrants and negotiating with terrorists, that proves how darned strong you are, because your fundamental heterosexual big-cock-a-swingin' might is enough for both you and your government as well. When the government feels a little down, you'll manfully offer it your varsity sweater. And then, you know, bang the shit out of it.

The overcompensation is similar to the leftroots' frequent cry that they're all too gosh-darn manly and tough, strong to take terrorism seriously. It's the rightwing pansies who crap themselves over silly little things like the SkyBomb conspiracy.

Posted by: Ace at 01:04 PM | Comments (17)
Post contains 215 words, total size 2 kb.

Crisis averted, for the fifteenth time. It's becoming predictable.

Negotiators reached a tentative agreement on initial steps for North Korea's nuclear disarmament, the U.S. envoy to the talks said Tuesday.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said the agreement outlined specific commitments for North Korea and would set up working groups to implement those goals to begin meeting in about a month. He declined to give other details.

"I'm encouraged by this that we were able to take a step forward on the denuclearization issue," Hill said.

The agreement could mark the first step toward disarmament in more than three years of inconclusive negotiations and deadlock. The process reached its lowest point in October when North Korea conducted its first nuclear test explosion.

The draft agreement came after 16 hours of what Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang called "extraordinarily intensive consultations" on the fifth day of talks.

"Some positive results have been achieved," Qin said, but added that the negotiators would have to meet again later Tuesday in Beijing.

Japan's chief envoy said it was "too early to tell" if his government was satisfied with the deal.

"I believe that countries have compromised somewhat toward an agreement," Kenichiro Sasae said, declining to give any specifics.

I doubt it.

Posted by: Ace at 12:41 PM | Comments (11)
Post contains 215 words, total size 1 kb.

As most of you know, I don't (as of yet) have a candidate for President in 2008.

Romney comes close, but lost me at the NRO conference with one of the weakest positions I've heard on the fundamental issue of dealing with Islamic Jihadism. Giuliani is probably next in line, but his social positions as Mayor of New York, and his willingness to switch gears now, concern me. Gingrich suffers, in my opinion, from his likely inability to get elected due to residual negatives from his time as Speaker. McCain is a non-starter.

So what is a good Conservative to do?

My answer: Vote in the Democratic Primaries.

That's right. I think that, where possible, Conservatives should strategically vote in the Democratic primaries. If you think Clinton is the most dangerous candidate in the field, what could be better than voting against her twice?

So, at this moment, I am going to cast a vote for whoever appears to be the weakest major Democratic nominee in the primaries (in my opinion, that is the Silky Pony, John Edwards, at the moment). Then I'm going to vote for whoever the GOP nominates in the General Election.

Hopefully, the dynamics will change in such a way that I don't have to do this. I'd love to be convinced that one of the entrants on the GOP side is a true-blue conservative for whom I could eagerly vote.

But right now, that's my plan and I'm sticking to it. How many of you are with me?

Posted by: Jack M. at 07:03 AM | Comments (24)
Post contains 265 words, total size 1 kb.

The old commenting system -- the one accessed by clicking "Comments" -- seems to be down.

The new comment system -- which is accessed by clicking "New Comment Thingy" -- seems to be working.

Not sure what the trouble is. We've got a huge amount of comment spam lately, and that attacks the old comment system. So they may have finally brought it down, or maybe Pixy disabled it to try to stop the spambots.

Correction: Jim Treacher says "Hot Chicks With Douchebags" isn't his site.

Message from Pixy: Uh. Oops. Ace's second guess is sort of correct. I was tweaking the old comments thingy to dodge the spam, and got interrupted by another emergency, and then didn't actually finish the tweaking. Should be working again now, at least on the most recent posts.

Posted by: Ace at 11:32 AM | Comments (134)
Post contains 138 words, total size 1 kb.

Featuring heavy metal and Cheney-esque facts about sloths.

Posted by: Ace at 10:14 AM | Comments (26)
Post contains 10 words, total size 1 kb.

Being the swinging social animal that I am, I spent my Saturday night like most big time playas: I sat at home watching the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona on my new HDTV.

Why should you care? You shouldn't really. But since most of you morons live vicariously through our posts, I figured I'd share.

So what did I take away from tonight's race? That Tony Stewart executed one of the nicest "bump drafts" in a long time to take the lead and win. And, yes, "bump draft" is a phrase that makes me giggle like a teenager on nitrous.

Also, that Daytona under the lights is a really nice track. And FOX's Nascar coverage just keeps getting better.

Finally, it made me want to go see a couple of races this season at tracks I haven't been to before. I've been to Talledega, Atlanta, Bristol and the Brickyards at Indy. Anyone out there got any recommendations for where I should go next?

I think I'm going to cap off my exciting evening by watching the end of the Florida/Kentucky Basketball game.

I just wish Johnny Coldcuts was here. He makes watching these events so much more fun.

Posted by: Jack M. at 07:17 PM | Comments (40)
Post contains 207 words, total size 1 kb.