Digital Brainwaves

Apparently, new studies suggest that global CO₂ output must be ceased altogether in order to curb global warming. Two points on that:

1. Get the entire population of the world to give up their cars, trucks, minivans and SUVs? Good luck with that.
2. Considering that Earth isn’t the only planet whose temperature is changing like this, maybe we should look at some other ideas.

There’s a few other points that could be made, but this is a good start. Feel free to contribue in the comments below.

I’d sat on this for a week and a half, and had bookmarked it but neglected it, but was reminded of it again today.

Rush Limbaugh read this column by The Aspen Times Weekly’s Gary Hubbell on his show on February 19th, and I think it’s dead on. I’d almost forgotten about it until Glenn Beck interviewed the column’s author Wednesday morning. A few snippets:

There is one group no one has recognized, and it is the group that will decide the election: the Angry White Man. The Angry White Man comes from all economic backgrounds, from dirt-poor to filthy rich. He represents all geographic areas in America, from urban sophisticate to rural redneck, deep South to mountain West, left Coast to Eastern Seaboard.

The Angry White Man is not a metrosexual, a homosexual or a victim. Nobody like him drowned in Hurricane Katrina — he got his people together and got the hell out, then went back in to rescue those too helpless and stupid to help themselves, often as a police officer, a National Guard soldier or a volunteer firefighter.

He also votes, and the Angry White Man loathes Hillary Clinton. Her voice reminds him of a shovel scraping a rock. He recoils at the mere sight of her on television. Her very image disgusts him, and he cannot fathom why anyone would want her as their leader. It’s not that she is a woman. It’s that she is who she is. It’s the liberal victim groups she panders to, the “poor me” attitude that she represents, her inability to give a straight answer to an honest question, his tax dollars that she wants to give to people who refuse to do anything for themselves.

Go have a look, it’s worth the read.

Biggest news of the day, hell of the year so far, was– no, not the iPod shuffle price drop. Fidel Castro announced his intention not to seek reelection by Cuba’s parliament this weekend. His younger (albiet only by five years) brother Raul will likely take over, though who knows how much longer he’ll be around either?

Raul says he wants to implement reforms, but I’m skeptical until I see it, or until someone who isn’t a Castro or any other member of his party takes control through democratic election. Scott Ott, though, thinks he has the perfect successors:

Rumors in Cuba carry the currency of mainstream media coverage in the U.S., and many Castro-supporters are eager to find new leadership that combines Castro-like charisma with iron-fisted leadership tactics and revolutionary support for government-run health care, education and industry.

“A Clinton-Obama ticket,” said one unnamed Cuba scholar, “combines the power and the glory that was Fidel Castro, with the unshakable commitment to collectivism, controlled economies, and virulent resistance to the United States as a superpower.”

I don’t know all the details on this story, so I’m opening up to commentary on the issue.

Yesterday the US Senate rejected an amendment to S.2248 (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2007) that would have removed language from the bill granting immunity to the telecommunications industry regarding wiretapping of terrorist communications, thus, essentially, granting such immunity. The bill was passed shortly thereafter. This language did not appear in the House version of the bill, so this will be hashed out in conference committee soon.

The measure will, if I’m reading this right, close up any ambiguity as to the legality of the NSA warrantless wiretapping program that President Bush enacted shortly after September 11, 2001. The imminity language, again, if I’m following this correctly, would protect the telecommunications industry from prosecution if any laws were broken before this legislation comes into effect.

I’m not sure where to come down on this issue. Maybe my understanding of criminal law is flawed, but if this bill makes the program legal, doesn’t it no longer matter if their activities were against the law before? The Bush Administration and the industry both keep saying it was legal before anyway, so if that were the case, wouldn’t the courts find in their favor anyway?

I open the topic up to your discussion, as it’s confusing the hell out of me. Keep your comments civil, or I reserve the right to edit or delete them, and I will be the sole arbiter of such.

I’m a space shuttle junkie, and will be eagerly watching for a possible launch this afternoon of Atlantis into orbit to work on completion of the International Space Station. Follow along at Spaceflight Now’s STS-122 Mission Status Center, or watch NASA TV online.

Surprisingly, a news publication has recognized the work General David Petraeus has done in Iraq to help improve conditions and make it a better place for Iraqis to live, naming him Person of the Year.

Unsurprisingly, it was not a U.S.-based publication.

Michael Yon reprints the following from December 31st’s issue of the U.K.’s The Sunday Telegraph:

…the reason for picking Petraeus is simple. Iraq, whatever the current crises in Afghanistan and Pakistan, remains the West’s biggest foreign policy challenge of this decade, and if he can halt its slide into all-out anarchy, Gen Petraeus may save more than Iraqi lives.

A failed Iraq would not just be a second Vietnam, nor would it just be America’s problem.

Click through to read further.

For the fourth time in as many years, a NASCAR national racing series is changing its name.

Following the Winston Cup’s changeover to the NEXTEL Cup in 2004, and then to the Sprint Cup next year, along with the Busch Series transforming to the Nationwide Series next year as well, comes word from SceneDaily that the Craftsman Truck Series will have a new name in 2009.

TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that the U.S.-brokered Mideast peace conference was a “failure” and that Israel is doomed to “collapse,” lashing out at the Annapolis gathering that many saw as aimed at isolating Iran.

“…even if I have to whip out my A-bomb and do it myself!!!1!one!”

Warren Buffett thinks your money should belong to the government when you die.

He’s been telling the Senate Finance Committee that, rather than continue a gradual repeal, the estate tax should be reimposed:

“I think we need to … take a little more out of the hides of guys like me,” Buffett told the panel.

One of the world’s richest men and biggest philanthropists, Buffett has been outspoken against efforts, mostly by Republicans, to repeal or reduce the federal tax on inheritances. Democrats argue that a repeal would amount to a huge windfall for the nation’s wealthiest families.

The idea that the government can take any of your money and assets away just because you’ve died is, to me, ludicrous. I earned the money, and presumably paid income taxes on it when I got it… why would you tax me again? It’s tantamount to being penalized for having made too much money. Isn’t individual prosperity the goal of our economic system?

Hell, if you’re going to do that, why stop with just a percentage? Take the whole damned thing! Effective immediately, all personal assets become property of the government when you die. You can will your heirs nothing.

I earn my paycheck fair and square — let me decide what gets done with it, and the government can keep their grubby mitts off of it.

Howard Moscoe is out of his mind.

Having solved all of the other problems Toronto is facing, this City Councilman thinks American change should be banned from the city transit system.

For a great many years, the United States Dollar has been valued higher than the Canadian Dollar. I can’t speak for many other areas in the U.S., but in western New York, here near the border, very often Canadian change has been accepted at par with U.S. change. It hasn’t been worth the effort to try to sort it out, even at nearly 2-to-1 exchanges, so it’s just been accepted.

In the last few months, with a weakening U.S. Dollar and a strengthened Canadian Dollar, the exchanged has tilted in Canada’s favor, with $1 CAD buying you $1.04 USD at the time of this writing, and as much as $1.07 in recent weeks. So now that the Loonie has edged just ever so slightly ahead of the American buck, what’s Moscoe’s bright idea?

Unilaterally reject U.S. coins on buses, streetcars, and in parking meters.

When, from what I’ve read, the City of Toronto is already scraping the barrel for cash to keep public transit running at at least the same levels as now, the millions of dollars it would cost to implement such a filtering system is somehow worth getting back the penny you’re losing off the occasional American quarter?

Fortunately, the rest of the city council didn’t think so, shooting down this silly proposal. Methinks the councilman may want to reexamine his priorities.