I can't take these. I cannot take them.

But I guess he's linking these for a reason.

Am I missing out on some customer service here? You guys want these moron harpy apocalypses linked when they come up?

Not to go full-tilt messugenah or anything, but Oy's vey mir.

Posted by: Ace at 12:04 PM | Comments (58)
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Long story short: Obama's lead is a non-convention bounce and will likely persist as long as the normal kind.

"Any pessimism now is dumbness," he said as he appeared to me recently. "A few weeks ago every swing state was coming McCain's way and he had a national lead. And some polls showed him four points and six points behind in New Jersey and New York. And now all that has gone away? Politics doesn't work like that. The American people, even in the midst of an unprecented economic crisis, don't react like that for any sustained period. Those patterns can reassert themselves."

Obi Wan talks to other Republicans, and back in July when Obama was way ahead and Republicans gloomy he said that the whole picture was likely to change dramtically by early september and McCain "would have a lead that lasted longer than just convention bounce."

He says some underlying factors — some new and some old — are still at work and helpful to McCain.

Posted by: Ace at 11:57 AM | Comments (21)
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A week ago I linked this prediction. I don't know if he's a global warming skeptic per se, but he believes the sun's varying cycles have more to do with global temperature changes than CO2 (The Invisible Killer).

Currently, the World Meteorological Organization uses the photochemical model to predict that the Antarctic springtime ozone hole will increase by another 5–10 percent by 2020. In sharp contrast, Dr. LU says the severest ozone loss will occur over the South Pole this month — with another large ozone-triggered hole occurring around 2019.

If the South Pole gets an ozone-hole maximum in the coming weeks, it will strengthen the case for cosmic rays, and endorse a Modern Warming driven by solar variations rather than human-emitted CO2. The solar model is already endorsed by oxygen isotopes in ice cores from both Greenland and the Antarctic, by microfossils in the sediments of nine oceans and hundreds of lakes worldwide, and by cave stalagmites from every continent plus New Zealand.

Well, I don't know if this is precisely what he predicted, but it sure seems like it to me:

(CNN) — This year’s ozone hole over Antarctica is larger in both size and ozone loss than last year, but not as large as in 2006, the European Space Agency said Tuesday.

The hole is actually a thinning area in the ozone layer over Antarctica. This year, the size of the thinned area over the South Pole reached about 27 million square kilometers (10.4 million square miles), compared to 25 million square kilometers (9.65 million square miles) in 2007.

Be careful as you read through the negatives -- a "bigger ozone hole" is a "thinner ozone layer," etc.

I'm also not sure if the maximum predicted is an all-time maximum or a "local maximum." So I guess I don't really know if the prediction has actually come to pass yet... but it seems to be at least getting there.

So:

Global warming alarmists make prediction, which does not come to pass.

Scientist makes contrary prediction in line with solar-warming theory which does come to pass.

Seems clear to me.

Global warming is proven. The science is settled.

Oh, and Sarah Palin is a moron for doubting global warming. But I think that just goes without saying.

Thanks to Arthur for helping me find the old post, and thanks to... not sure, a valued reader and tipster for sending me the CNN slug.

Posted by: Ace at 11:30 AM | Comments (27)
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What a fucking idiot! Who could possibly think the Taliban, in Afghanistan, were working with Maliki, PM of Iraq? And to reduce violence?!!?! What a fucking moron!!!

I'm so glad EJ Dionne was there to catch her "superficial knowledge" and call her on this embarrassing gaffe.

Correction: Oh, wait. She was talking about Jalal Talabani, President of Iraq, who is in fact working with Maliki, PM of Iraq, to reduce violence.

I guess it's not as big of a gaffe as EJ Dionne asserted.

Actually, it sort of seems to kinda not be a gaffe.

Actually actually, it sort of seems to be a gaffe by EJ Dionne. Seems sort of a show of "superficial knowledge" that he didn't know that Talibani referred to Jalal Talibani, President of Iraq, and not "the Taliban," despite the fact that Palin pronounced it correctly and everything.

Eh, it doesn't matter. Palin is stupid and EJ Dionne is smart. Even if he doesn't know who the president of Iraq is. It's not like that country is in the news much anyway.

Posted by: Ace at 11:09 AM | Comments (53)
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He is a current radical.

He is former terrorist.

And a proud, unrepentant one at that.

You're welcome, MSM. You keep making that error. Here, for example.

Just wanted to help you out.

Rocketeer--

Jesus was in the Weather Underground.

Pilate was one of the Keating Five.

Yes I heard that too. Ethan Winner told me.

Posted by: Ace at 10:16 AM | Comments (86)
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Nothing to do with the bailout, tonight's debate, or Obama's ties to domestic terrorists, but I did finally buy gas for less than $3 a gallon today. I paid $2.94 for 10% ethanol mix at Wight & Short this morning. Straight gas is running an extra dime a gallon, so it'll probably be under $3 by Thursday at the latest if it stays on this pace.

Yeah, my life is fascinating. So what?

Aside to the aside [Dave in Texas]: A week or so ago I mentioned gulf refineries hitting capacity again after Ike, and a commenter asked a question (or made a complaint, I forget which) why gasoline prices don't rise and fall with the price of crude. The answer is they do (and are now). Crude oil over the past 5 years or so has averaged anywhere from 52% to 58% of the cost of a gallon of gasoline. Almost all of the other costs are fixed (extraction, transport, refining, marketing and distribution, rack blends and delivery, and of course, taxes). The fluctuation of oil price has to make its way through the system. At 4 bucks a gallon, crude represented about $2.10 of that. It's since dropped anywhere from .75 cents to a dollar a gallon, depending on where you are. Roughly 30% 33% (loose shit on me).

About the same drop as crude from $150bbl to under $100.

SO what? Do I like the lower price? Well hell yes, I do, feeding the DiT Silverado is a bitch at four bucks a gallon. But the drop in crude is almost directly tied to a market expectation that demand will be lower, because of a shrinking economy. Do I like that part? No.

So it's a mixed blessing for me. I'm glad to fill up for less than $70. The rest of it, maybe not so much. Thoughts?

Also, thank God for bacon.

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at 09:58 AM | Comments (66)
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Bernacke's on now, but he's blathering, I don't know if he's confirming this plan or not.

Posted by: Ace at 09:40 AM | Comments (49)
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Pomposity invites lampoon.

Thanks to Gunslinger.

Posted by: LauraW at 09:36 AM | Comments (13)
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A different kind of same old politics.

I'm told the following, though:

First of all, campaign pollsters really do just ask "Which of the following arguments would work with you?," and not to push-poll, either. Just to see what might be worth spending money on in a commercial, or pushing as a stump attack. I think at least some of the claimed "push polls" in recent years -- since the media discovered them in 2000 -- are really just plain old polls. I guess the standard is if a Republican is asking, it's a push-poll.

The other thing is that a push-poll wouldn't ask all the demographic stuff. They just want to push the message, not gather up your demographic details.

This could even be McCain polling about his own negatives and possible vulnerabilities.

Posted by: Ace at 09:13 AM | Comments (11)
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Not Really a Correction, But Whatev's: The heist actually occurred in a suburb just north of NYC, Nanuet. That's still "NYC" for all purposes that count -- namely, the media market.

Oh, and also: Ayers and Dohrn were raising the child of Kathy Boudin, who was in federal prison for that robbery/murder, when they hosted his political coming out party. He didn't sort of notice an extra child floating around at his political fundraiser coffee?

I guess there's no point Katie Couric asking Obama what newspapers he reads. Apparently the answer is "none at all."

Photoshops courtesy of Lunde Designs. That's Unabomber/Domestic Terrorist Ted Kaczinsky as the "School Reformer," by the way. In case you've forgotten. I glitched on it for a second, personally. Thought maybe it was Gary Busey after a weekend of methamphetamines and highway collisions.

Posted by: Ace at 09:07 AM | Comments (62)
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