February 2008

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Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.

-Thomas Jefferson

November 30, 2006

Why I Oughta...

George Will is taking Senator-elect Jim Webb to task for his behavior at the White House this week. Reports on the exchange have been sharply divided. Either Jim Webb is a boorish redneck thug who disrespected the entire republic when he got into a pissing contest in the face of diplomacy... or he is a straight-shooting maverick with deep convictions - Sic Semper Tyrannis!

Perhaps I am glad for his election after all! A loose cannon is always entertaining. The fact that he's my loose cannon means I get to enjoy every minute of it on the Richmond airwaves over the afternoon commute. Oh, he's no libertarian, and he's got some dangerous plans for how best to govern me, damn him, but George Allen never expressed a desire to slug anybody, to my knowledge. Mock the cowboy boots and noose if you like, but he's got nothing on Jim Webb. This man has shaken me back to posting!

[slaps Rammage]

Montgomery County, Maryland? Pshaw! Hoist the taxes! Conscript the wealthy! Slug the President! For Virginia!

Posted by Wulf | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

November 16, 2006

Take that, Wulf!

I don't need you to share with me anymore. I got my own 1,000,000 Euros coming my way!

REFERENCE NUMBER: LSLUK/2031/8161/04 BATCH NUMBER: 14/011/IPD

FINAL NOTIFICATION!!!!

Dear Winner,

We are happy to inform you that you have emerged a winner under the
First Category, which is part of our promotional draws. The draws are
being officially announced today 16th of November,2006. Participants
were selected through acomputer ballot system drawn from 2,500,000
email addresses of individuals and companies from Africa,America
Asia,Australia,Europe,Middle East,and Oceania as part of our
International Promotions Program.Your e-mail address,attached to
ticket number QZ-316-NL, with serial number 8222-66 drew the lucky
numbers 9-17-5-73-8-11 and consequently won in the First Category.You
have therefore been awarded alump sum pay out of 1,000,000(One
Million Euros), which is the winning payout for Category A winners.

NOTE: For easy reference and identification,find below your Reference
and Batch numbers. Remember to quote these
numbers in yourcorrespondence with your claims Department.
REFERENCE NUMBER: LSLUK/2031/8161/04
BATCH NUMBER: 14/011/IPD
Please contact microsoftclaim department immediately for due
processing and remittance of your prize money to a designated account
of your choice:

**********************************************************************

Dr Peter Hans
Tel.:+31-644749864
Email: microclaim20@aim.com
microclaim@mail.wowmail.com
***************************************************************
N.B: Any breach of confidentiality on the part of the winners will
result to disqualification. Contact your claim department immediately.
Sincerely Yours,
Mrs Betty Rice
PROMOTION CORDINATOR

Posted by G-Dawg | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

November 9, 2006

So Long, Suckers!

I don't think I will be able to continue blogging. I am going to be too busy spending all of my money! According to an email I received today, I have won the Microsoft Outlook Award Lotteries (which I didn't know I had even entered). I have won 1,000,000.00 Euros! (I don't even know how much that is! First step: Hire someone to convert that to real money, i.e. U.S. dollars.)

From: Mr.Paco Gomez
(Lottery Coordinator)

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

We are pleased to inform you the result of the Microsoft Outlook Award Lotteries,held on the 29th Oct. 2006.

Your e-mail address attached to ticket #:83429/2 with prize #:2/WMO555/1 drew â‚¬1,000,000.00 which was first in the 2nd class of the draws.

You are to receive â‚¬1,000,000.00 (One Million Euros).

Because of mix up in cash payouts, we ask that you keep your winning information confidential until your money (â‚¬1,000,000.00) has been fully remitted to you by our accredited pay-point bank.

This measure must be adhere to avoid loss of your cash prize - winners of our cash prizes are advised to adhere to these instructions to forestall the abuse of this program by other participants.

It's important to note that these draws were conducted formally, and winners are selected through an Internet ballot system from 60,000 individual and companies e-mail addresses the draws are conducted around the world through our Internet based ballot system.

The promotion is sponsored and promoted by WORLD MICROSOFT OUTLOOK PROGRAMM.

We congratulate you once again. We hope you will use part of it in our next draws; the Jackpot winning is 2, million Euros.

Remember, all winning must be claimed not later than 20 days.

After this date all unclaimed cash prize will be forfeited and included in the next sweepstake.

Please, in order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications remember to quote personal and winning numbers in all correspondence with us.

Congratulations once again from all members of Internet Microsoft Lotteries.

Thank you for being part of our promotional program.

For immediate release of your cash prize to you, please kindly contact our Paying Bank (Liberty Seguros Banco E.S.Madrid,)

Send them the following Information Through the Email Address below:
(i). Your names
(ii) Contact telephone and fax numbers
(iii) Contact Address
(iv) your winning numbers
(v) Quote amount won.

Liberty Seguros Banco E.S.
Mrs. Helena J. Garcia.
Email : LibertySeguros_Banco@zensearch.com
Tel: +34-691-062-729
Fax: +34-657-348-195

Congratulations once again.
Yours in service,
From: Mr.Paco Gomez
(Lottery Coordinator)

Good luck to you all. Leave me your address in the comments section, and I'll send you some postcards from wherever I go with all of my money!

Posted by Wulf | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

November 8, 2006

Shameful

(Updated 7:21 pm 8 Nov.)

Virginia voters yesterday easily passed an amendment to the state constitution that defines marriage as between one man and one woman.

The proposal, which will be added to the Bill of Rights of the Virginia Constitution, outlaws same-sex marriage and civil unions, as well as domestic partnerships and any relationship between unmarried couples that approximates marriage.

(Richmond Times-Dispatch)

That's correct - it's in our Bill of Rights. Sick, ironic... shameful.

Update: There were a lot of commentaries against this amendment. Last week, David Boaz of the Cato Institute wrote:

There's never been a same-sex marriage in Virginia, and they've been outlawed by statute for more than 30 years. So why are Virginia voters being asked to vote on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage?...

The irony in Virginia is that conservatives fearful of an out-of-control judiciary are in fact inviting the judiciary to get involved in micro-managing family law...

This amendment goes too far. But even its first sentence — the ban on gay marriage — is unworthy of a state that was the birthplace of American freedom. It is a cruel irony that this amendment to restrict contract rights and exclude loving couples from the institution of marriage is to be added to Virginia's Bill of Rights, a document originally written by the great Founder George Mason.

And Virginians voted for it.

Posted by Wulf | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

November 6, 2006

Reading Spellings

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings scares the crap outta me.

Spellings and others would like a national database that discloses things like graduation rates, how well students are educated and how much they earn afterward.

"I think it will happen" because families want it, says Spellings, the mother of a college student herself. "Consumer demand is a big part of this."

She's in which political party? Criminy, if it's consumer demand, then what's the problem? Why does the government need to involve its fat self?

Posted by Wulf | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

November 5, 2006

Why didn't the Supreme Court play in this year's ads?

Back in January, during the Samuel Alito confirmation process, I noted the following:

If the Democrats had any confidence in their ability to win the Senate in the 2006 elections, they would have filibustered Alito and forced the Republican hand. But it seems they are wisely saving the filibuster issue for the next nominee - the one to replace John Paul Stevens. We speculate the elderly Justice Stevens will retire (or be poisoned) before the end of Bush's term. And you thought we had heard the end of the "nuclear option" vs "constitutional option" debate, and the (un)importance of Roe vs Wade.

I am very surprised that this has not been a prominent part of the Get Out The Vote efforts. I mean for the Democrats, and for the Republicans. The process is so contentious that it seems like a great strategy for both parties to rally the base. Stop the ACLU posted an article on it last night, linking to this ~~story~~ rumor about Justice Stevens’ health. But the guy is four hundred thirty six years old, according to Ace. He doesn’t have to be in poor health right now in order for SCOTUS appointments to be a GOTV issue. It’s just really surprising to me that so little noise has been made about this, what with control of both houses having been called into question this cycle. If it doesn’t get mentioned in the ads, it won’t be on people’s minds. SCOTUS: Out of sight, out of mind.

I am a little curious to know what Justice Stevens will have to say about the confirmation hearings for whoever is nominated to be Stevens’ successor (assuming he lives through the confirmation process, that is). After all, he didn’t seem to have any problem discussing John Roberts during his confirmation. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, but commenting on your own successor might be even more bizarre.

Posted by Wulf | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

November 3, 2006

Marytrdom for Thee

Not all Palestinians are so keen on martyrdom. Some prefer to be rescued by hiding behind women and counting on the chivalry of the Israeli army. And I can’t fault them for wanting to live – except that they’ve been feeding that martyrdom line to the kids for so long. We see it time and time again – “martyrdom for thee, but not for me”.

Posted by Wulf | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Stern Language

I like Sir Nicholas Stern. He’s got a name that lends itself quite nicely to the type of cheap wordplay that is so popular with newspapers and blogs. It really doesn’t go beyond that – I was not at all familiar with the man until last week. The head of Britain's government economic service and the former World Bank chief economist, Stern recently published a report on the economics of climate change (some highlights here and some reactions here). It’s causing quite a stir.

The Economist:

Gordon Brown, the chancellor of the exchequer, asked Sir Nicholas to look into the economics of climate change because he wanted some solid material to counter the argument of those who accept that global warming is happening but believe mitigating it is too expensive to be worthwhile. That view is rare these days in Europe, but common in America, where it is often infused with the belief that attempts to control greenhouse-gas emissions are part of a European socialist conspiracy to undermine the American way of life.

Sir Nicholas has tried to assess the future costs of climate change—drought in Africa, floods in Europe, hurricanes in America, rising sea levels around the world—and has set them against the costs of cutting fossil-fuel usage enough to stabilise carbon-dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere. His answer to the second part of this calculation is fairly uncontroversial. The costs of switching away from carbon should not be huge because of the rise in fossil-fuel prices and the fall in alternative energy prices. Sir Nicholas reckons that the world could stabilise concentrations at a reasonable level at a cost of 1% of GDP by 2050. Many other economists have looked at the matter, and most agree with Sir Nicholas.

But Sir Nicholas dissents from the general view on the costs of climate change itself. Most economists who have looked at the matter up to now reckon that, if greenhouse-gas emissions continue on their current path, the costs of climate change would be between zero (where the benefits of warming to cold countries balances out the costs) and 3% of global output over the next 100 years. Sir Nicholas thinks they would be a massive 5-20% over the next century or two: in other words, world output could be up to a fifth lower, as a result of climate change, than it otherwise would have been.

…Sir Nicholas has received plenty of support from economists (four Nobel prize-winners have endorsed the report) and a certain amount of criticism…One complaint is that he has selected the most pessimistic research and ignored more conservative work… Another criticism is that figures on the economic costs of climate change are bound to be nonsense because they are based on a cascade of uncertainties.

But neither point invalidates Sir Nicholas's central perception—that governments should act not on the basis of the likeliest outcome from climate change but on the risk of something really catastrophic (such as the melting of Greenland's ice sheet, which would raise sea levels by six to seven metres). Just as people spend a small slice of their incomes on buying insurance on the off-chance that their house might burn down, and nations use a slice of taxpayers' money to pay for standing armies just in case a rival power might try to invade them, so the world should invest a small proportion of its resources in trying to avert the risk of boiling the planet

Is this a fair point?

Posted by Wulf | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

November 2, 2006

QOTD

Today's Quote of the Day goes to Tom Firey at Cato-at-Liberty:

Like a Rorschach test, we can look at Senator Obama’s not-yet-established political profile and see the outlines of our own beliefs — whatever those beliefs may be.

What a great analogy.

Posted by Wulf | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

November 1, 2006

Charter Schools

Perhaps this bears watching.

New Orleans has become the country's leading laboratory for charter-school experiments.

Posted by Wulf | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)