Mmmm

I love the smell of intelligent debunking in the morning.

Hey Rosie, you're soap box is gone.

Another One Bites The Dust

First The Man, then Rachel, and now, FM has decided to throw in the towel.

Farewell friend, but I will still beat your ass in any HWC sport!

Speaking of HWC, FM is a contributor to the official Hot Wing Conspiracy Blog, and hopefully he'll have time to post a few recaps or something over there.

Revlon Run/Walk For A Cure

Every year thousands go from Times Square to Central Park in the Revlon Run/Walk For A Cure. It's a worthy cause, and if you know someone who is going to be there, send them sponsorship money! My sister has been "running/walking/dragging herself" through it for 4 years now.

Tony Snow's Cancer Returns

It's true.

And the liberal powerhouses are remarkably tame...or so it seems. Note this on Think Progress:

Comment #22 states:
"#20 firehead
Go ahead scumbags. Wish Tony death. We all know you are so twisted by your own hatred.
And look who shows up to spread hatred. Sorry, firehead. That’s beneath us. Why don’t you say something nice about Tony instead."

However, Comment #20 says this.
"Prayers for a recovery, and for his family.
Glad he has a good health insurance program. Wish the rest of us did." - Hardy Haberman

Or this comment which is currently #21 commenting on "#22"
#22,
I think you’re stretching it. I don’t think Tony Snow got cancer to distract us from the #3 Dem presidential contender.
Best of luck to Tony. Unlike Limbaugh, I’m glad to see that TP readers know that politics is politics, but someone’s health is above pettiness and snark.

Now granted the "firehead" was a raving fringe conservative, but this asks the questions, "How many offensive comments have been deleted already?" And "How many of those deleted comments were death wishes?

But there are others that have not been deleted...yet:
"God’ll get all you GOP sleazebags for selling out the country." - klaus

"Hundeds of people are diagnosed with cancer everyday. It sucks for anyone. Why the fawning over an a-hole like snow? He’s the mouthpiece for a group of thugs that have hijacked our country. He can rot in hell with the rest of them. Niceties are long gone after six years of Bush and his cabal running the show." - buzzbomb

The fringe is still there, they've just been muted.

Democratic Underground hada good idea and nipped the problem in the bud.

Malkin has more.

The NHRA Has Lost A Great Driver

R.I.P. Eric Medlen, 8/13/73 - 8/23/07

If you haven't heard it, NHRA's Eric Medlen passed away last week from injuries related to a practice session crash in Gainsville after the Gator Nationals.

From what I have seen, the car was in the left lane and blew out a right rear tire. The car then turned sharp right head on into the guard rail. Medlen was unconscious when the safety crews arrived at the car, and was taken to the hospital where doctors placed him on life support and discovered he had increasing pressure within his skull. They performed a surgery to alleviate the pressure, but when signs did not improve, the family went with his wishes not to sustain life support.

He passed away on Friday.

The drag racing community has lost a great man. All of John Force Racing was affected, with John Force saying, "Eric Medlen was the son I never had. He was the leader of my next generation of drivers. Robert Hight, my daughter Ashley, and I were with the family throughout this very difficult time. This loss is a huge blow not only to the Medlen family, but to drag racing and to John Force Racing."

The NHRA has already implemented the HANS device, but when you're going that fast, hitting a concrete wall even with safety equipment is going to cause severe injuries There's discussion about using the SAFER barriers, as in NASCAR, but there's only so much you can improve the safety of the track at those speeds.

My Prayers Are With You

Elizabeth Edwards has heard the unfortunate news that her breast cancer is back. Edwards has decided to continue his campaign for president, but for right now, I commend him on leaving the road to be with his wife in her time of need.

John, honestly...The road to the primaries is still a long ways away. Take time off to be with your wife in this time of need, then come back to the campaign trail later this year. You will have my praises.

Larussa Gets A Dewey

A DUI in case you didn't hear. Tony wasn't swerving in between lanes or hitting random objects. Police were tipped off because he was asleep at the wheel in the middle of an intersection.

"I'm not sure what type of statement to give," La Russa said after his team's 2-1 spring training loss to the Florida Marlins on Thursday. "I've been scribbling stuff.

"Last night's situation is the opposite of feeling good. It was an embarrassment, so I apologize to anyone who is close to me, members of the Cardinals organization, our fans. I regret it, take responsibility and I'm not sure there is anything else I can say."

Undercover officers saw La Russa's SUV sitting partially in an intersection around midnight and not moving despite two green lights, police said. Officers knocked on the window and La Russa did not initially respond.

The SUV was in drive and running, with La Russa's foot on the brake, police said. When he woke up, the officers asked him to get out of the SUV. La Russa was cooperative during his arrest, police said.

Well, that sucks. In my opinion any punishment he receives will be justified. Drunk driving is a VERY serious offense that takes the lives of thousands every year. It would not surprise me if Tony got an unpaid suspension from the team for some length of time. And if he is sentenced to time behind bars, then so be it.

It's Hard To Create A Counter-Statement...

When you receive their testimony exactly one minute before the hearing.

Preferential treatment given to Al Gore:
1) He was given a 30 minute opening statement
2) He was allowed an extra 24 hours to submit his testimony, changed from48 hours prior to 24 hours prior.

Al Gore then snubbed his nose at Global Warming skeptics by not only refusing to hear the skeptics side of the story, but he also failed to submit his testimony 24 hours prior to the hearing. He also failed to submit his testimony 12 hours before the hearing, 6 hours before, or even 3 hours before hand.
In fact, Al Gore did not submit his testimony to the senate until 9:59 AM, 29 minutes AFTER Gore was supposed to be there, and only one minute before he began his opening statement. The Republican members of the committee received his testimony at 7AM this morning, a full 21 hours later than agreed to.

Other resources:
Skeptics Guide To Global Warming (2.3 Mb)
NASA Points To Sun As Cause Of Warming
Scientists Question Global Warming Data

$5,000 To Expose Union Lies And Corruption

The Center For Union Facts is running a contest for conservative film makers to create, film, and edit a 30 second commercial to be aired on national TV exposing lies and deceptions within Union leadership. One commercial will be chosen as the winner. Submissions are due by April 29th, and the judging will be the following week. Voting will happen on You Tube through May, and in June the winner will be announced and played on television.

Guess which state is obviously the most unionized state in the union. Michigan? Home of the UAW and Motor City? Nope, New York at 26% of the total labor force. The majority of that number comes from government workers. 68.9% of the 1.18 million government workers are unionized, making an average of over $52,000 per year.

And who do they love? Democrats like Tim Bishop (who received over $300,000 in donations). The Unions in New York have given a whopping $3.58 Million to Democrats, compared to $894,000 to Republicans. Charles "I love taxes" Rangel received over $190,000 alone from New York Unions.

New York is also NOT a right to work state. Which means that people are forced to join the unions that they may not agree with. Unions in New York are allowed to take money away from fellow employees as dues even if they are not a part of the union. Most people join the unions on that fact since they are forced into paying the dues, they might as well join. This fact is costing employees in the state of New York as much as 30% of their state income taxes.

Other resources:
UnionFacts.com blog, Labor Pains

60,000!

Yes, I know Wyatt did it ages ago, but I am proud to announce GOPAC recieved it's 60,000th visitor yesterday!

100,000, here I come!!

Oh The Humanity!

Heaven forbid if some one who is applying for Katrina Aid from the government has to find a job before receiving aid from the government. They claim of course that it is an issue of race, and not an issue of necessity.

New Orleans IS in ruins. And it will stay in ruins unless the former citizens of New Orleans get off of their fat government checks, and go help rebuild their city. Companies are offering upwards of $20/hr to help rebuild the city. That's more than some college graduates make after getting out of school, but the relocated citizens would rather live off of the free government money.

Make a difference in your town if you love it that much.

The Media IS Biased, Part 2

Not only has a non-bias study by UCLA found the media to be left leaning, but the vast majority of Americans believe that the media leans left as well.













Then to add MORE fuel to the fire, a Pew Media Believability study showed that there are 5 times more proclaimed liberals (34%) than conservatives (7%) in the national media, and twice (23% to 12%) as many in the local media, despite the fact that the national public has 1.5 times more conservatives (33%) than liberals (20%).

Previous:
The Media IS Biased

"You're Not My Constituents"

When confronted by Code Pink demanding an hour or two of her time because they "represent her constituents," Nancy Pelosi very sternly and obviously upset said "But you aren't my constituents."

Wow. Talk about a slap in the face to the people who put you in office, Nancy.

In the words of Smash, "Lie down with dogs, and wake up with fleas."

The Difference Between A Lie And Deciet, Plus A Look At An "Open-minded" Liberal

I love when a conservative finally says what needs to be said. I have tried to create an analogy for Bush's decision to go into Iraq, but the best I could come up with was this;
You walk into a store, and look at an item. It doesn't have a price tag on it, so you ask what the price is. A clerk finds one with a price tag and it says $5. However, when you go to check out, the cashier rings it up, the corperate headquarters has increased teh price without telling anyone, and the price is now $10.
Did the clerk lie to you if he genuinely did not know the price had changed?"

I again roamed over to Lies.com, looking to see what was going on over there. That's when I read the BEST logic for the difference between Clinton lying about his relations with Monica Lewinsky, and what liberals call "lies" by George Bush. Read it.

A lie is the telling of an untruth that you know at the time was an untruth, with malicious intent. That is my definition, I haven’t looked the word up, but I know if I followed that simple definition growing up, I didn’t get beat. As your definition says, deception does not always imply aim or intention. In simplest terms a lie is pretty much black and white, although the results of that lie can have a wide range of ramifications, usually, but not always negative. Deception has every shade of gray and can also have a wide range of ramifications. We add the malicious intent clause to differentiate lies that cause harm from “white lies”.

When Clinton lied in court, the lie itself wasn’t that bad, two consenting adults having sex. This was a lie because Clinton new at the time he said he didn’t have sex with that woman, he indeed had had sex with that woman. No one knew if he was or wasn’t lying until the DNA was checked on the blue dress. Then he said he hadn’t lied, another lie and then he admitted to having an inappropriate sexual relationship, that was deception to cover the obvious lie. So now we have a lie, that lie is not serious, the ramifications to Clinton’s career may have been serious but the ramifications to the public or to justice were not. Remember a lie is a lie, the level harm depends on the specific case. What raised the bar in this case was that it was material in a sexual harassment case. It always amazed me you guys glossed right over that since you are for women’s rights and all.

...Back to Bush. If he said Hussein had WMD based on the best intelligence available at the time, and the intelligence was wrong, there was no lie. If there was contradictory intelligence and he chose to ignore it, finding the pro WMD intel to more reliable, he didn’t lie. Deciding to go to war with or without WMD proof , as the Downing Street Memo said doesn’t mean he lied, it just means he felt there were enough other reasons to invade with or without WMD. You can disagree with the decision, but that doesn’t mean there was a lie.

Now on to deception. You can deceive without lying, showing a picture of a car you are selling only on the side that was not wrecked for instance. You didn’t say it wasn’t wrecked, but you didn’t say it was either. This would be a harmful and probably illegal deception. If you have information that would help your opponent in a debate, but you purposely don’t give it to him to be used against you, that is a form of deception, albeit on the periphery of the term, but this deception isn’t bad. It is bad for your opponent, but it is not bad for you, and after your (our) interests, everyone else’s comes first.

At this point I haven’t seen any credible evidence this administration lied, and very little that it even deceived. They may not have told every single thing, presidents seldom can. There are national security issues to consider, remember Arabs get CNN too. You also don’t want your enemy to know what you know about them, and the press today, unlike the press in past wars doesn’t hold back information that would be detrimental to this country so you simply can’t give them the information in the first place. He also has political enemies in this country like you guys and all but a couple token Democrats in congress that don’t have the best interests of this country in mind, only their own political ambitions.

Very well said. And now to see the response by an "Open Minded" Liberal

Hi shcb - appreciate your politeness, I realize that does not come easy for self described right wing rednecks, but it has allowed us thinking liberals to understand the (misinformed) reasoning behind the silly (but dangerous and fearsome) things you right wingers and neo cons say. I really feel sorry that you types have to exist in such a treacherous world view of reality; I just wish you would stop trying to impose that “them A-rabs are out to get us”, or whatever other garbage mentality (”you’re either with us or yer gainst us,” says gwb) on everyone else. On that note, please just support peace.

And the liberal continues to spit insults at conservatives, despite the fact that all other commentors were very civil.

The St. Petersburg Declaration

Although Islamic followers would call me an infidel, I agree with this speech, given at the Secular Islam Summit on March 5th. In it, it asks of governments:

reject Sharia law, fatwa courts, clerical rule, and state-sanctioned religion in all their forms; oppose all penalties for blasphemy and apostasy, in accordance with Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human rights;

eliminate practices, such as female circumcision, honor killing, forced veiling, and forced marriage, that further the oppression of women;

protect sexual and gender minorities from persecution and violence;

reform sectarian education that teaches intolerance and bigotry towards non-Muslims;

and foster an open public sphere in which all matters may be discussed without coercion or intimidation.

To those who also agree with this speech, I stand with you as a free and equal citizen.

Nerd Moment Of The Day

OK, so I am an engineer student, and yes, I can tend to be a nerd. I had to laugh when one of my classmates pointed out to me that today is "Pi Day."

So, Happy Pi Day!








Other Geeky Moments I've had (You may need advanced math knowledge to get some of these):

• Sitting in math class, realizing that Darrel Waltrip is the derivative of George Bush.
• Again sitting in math, realizing that the FDA is a key part of 3-Dimensional calculus.
• Laughing at the thought of the extension of the function S(x)

Just to name a few.

The Real Reason For Paygo Taxation

The WSJ Editorial page is obviously more economic savvy than the Democratic congress members and senators who support the Paygo method of taxation in America. It all makes sense. Taxes hurt businesses. Increasing taxes hurts businesses that much more.

Suppose you own a business and have a million dollars in cash, with which you want to enlarge your factory or laboratory, building more products, providing more services and hiring more workers. The federal government says it will tax your money away -- but says you will be better off, and so will the economy.

How is that? Well, the taxes, the government says, will reduce the federal budget deficit, and a lower deficit means interest rates will decline. So you will be able to borrow the money back to expand your business -- and at a slightly lower interest rate than prevails today. Feel better now?

If you don't, you will not be thrilled by the House Democrats' paygo budget rule, adopted earlier this year. You will also want to watch the Senate budget resolution being marked up this week in the budget committee, which will set limits under the Senate's existing paygo rule. These rules require that whenever the House or the Senate legislatively expands mandatory spending (mostly for entitlements), or reduces taxes, the hit to the budget must be offset by a cut in other mandatory spending, or an increase in other taxes.

...Paygo is a way of diverting attention from the wisdom taught by Milton Friedman: The true burden of government is what it spends -- not what it takes in taxes. Whether funded by taxes or borrowing, government spending diverts real resources (manpower, land and material) from private to government use.

So let's get this right. You give the $1 Million you MADE to the government because "they know better than you how to spend your money," And now you have to BORROW $1 Million to pay for your upgrades. Now you have to make an ADDITIONAL $1 Million plus interest to pay off that loan.

That $1 Million upgrade has effectively cost you over $2 Million. And this is good for business how?

Global Warming Alarmists Get A Gut-Shot

Hot Air breaks open this can on Al Gore and the Global Warming alarmists. Even the New York Times notes some of the gross errors made by An Inconvenient Truth.

[A] report last June by the National Academies seemed to contradict Mr. Gore’s portrayal of recent temperatures as the highest in the past millennium. Instead, the report said, current highs appeared unrivaled since only 1600, the tail end of a temperature rise known as the medieval warm period…

“Nowhere does Mr. Gore tell his audience that all of the phenomena that he describes fall within the natural range of environmental change on our planet,” Robert M. Carter, a marine geologist at James Cook University in Australia, said in a September blog. “Nor does he present any evidence that climate during the 20th century departed discernibly from its historical pattern of constant change.”

In October, Dr. Easterbrook made similar points at the geological society meeting in Philadelphia. He hotly disputed Mr. Gore’s claim that “our civilization has never experienced any environmental shift remotely similar to this” threatened change.

Nonsense, Dr. Easterbrook told the crowded session. He flashed a slide that showed temperature trends for the past 15,000 years. It highlighted 10 large swings, including the medieval warm period. These shifts, he said, were up to “20 times greater than the warming in the past century.”

The article even states the possibility that recent clean air restrictions have aided in possible global warming by reducing the amount of light reflecting pollution in the atmosphere.

The programme failed to point out that scientists had now explained the period of “global cooling” between 1940 and 1970. It was caused by industrial emissions of sulphate pollutants, which tend to reflect sunlight. Subsequent clean-air laws have cleared up some of this pollution, revealing the true scale of global warming - a point that the film failed to mention.

Reactions from the environmentalists?

Air America Baits Conservative Candidates

Air America president Mark Green sent a letter informing several presidential hopefuls that if they accept, Air America will air a Republican debate, similar to how Fox News was going to do for the Democrats. Call me crazy, but I think the Republican candidates should accept ASAP, and add one stipulation to the agreeance.

The candidates should agree under the stipulation that Air America publicly announce the questions which will be asked at the debate in a reasonable amount of time before hand. This allows the candidates a chance to gather an answer, as well as show that Air America is serious about hosting a REAL debate, not just a chance to bash conservatives.

Then at the debate I can assure you that the trolls will be out in full force, and a VERY large crowd will be listening. As we've seen in the past, the audience will likely erupt in a classic liberal "Shut the conservatives up" frenzy. And all the world will be listening to it happen.

This can do nothing but help the conservative cause. Just imagine the liberals trying to explain themselves after the chaos, and the division within themselves caused by it.

Name The 50 States

Beth did it in only 2 min 39 seconds. I took 4 min 55 seconds, but a good portion of that was trying to spell Massachusetts.

Give it a try.

Just A Reminder

If the fringe left questions anything that John Edwards has said in the past, let's hope they ask him to explain this:

"Serving on the Intelligence Committee and seeing day after day, week after week, briefings on Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction and his plans on using those weapons, he cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons, it’s just that simple. The whole world changes if Saddam ever has nuclear weapons."

"When I made the decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power, Congress approved it with strong bipartisan support. I also recognize that some of our fellow citizens and elected officials didn't support the liberation of Iraq. And that is their right, and I respect it. As President and Commander-in-Chief, I accept the responsibilities, and the criticisms, and the consequences that come with such a solemn decision.
While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began. (Applause.) Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war. These critics are fully aware that a bipartisan Senate investigation found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence community's judgments related to Iraq's weapons programs.
They also know that intelligence agencies from around the world agreed with our assessment of Saddam Hussein. They know the United Nations passed more than a dozen resolutions citing his development and possession of weapons of mass destruction. And many of these critics supported my opponent during the last election, who explained his position to support the resolution in the Congress this way: "When I vote to give the President of the United States the authority to use force, if necessary, to disarm Saddam Hussein, it is because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a threat, and a grave threat, to our security." That's why more than a hundred Democrats in the House and the Senate -- who had access to the same intelligence -- voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power." - George W. Bush, November 11, 2005

And there are more quotes that need explaining by Democrats.

Hot Wing Conspiracy Sports

The Hot Wing Conspiracy and its inner workings have joined the blogosphere at Hot Wing Conspiracy Sports. All HWC bloggers have been sent an invitation to contribute, and shortly I will reload the Hot Wing Conspiracy blogroll with the graphic being a link to HWC Sports.

Stupid 9/11 Truthers

I occasionally go to the page Lies.com due to graphical analysis of the Iraq War with Vietnam. The Iraq War has no entered the same part of the graph where Vietnam gets ugly, and yet, Iraq is still at a stable number roughly about 100 per month. Is 100 soldiers per month upsetting, yes. Everyone would love to see 0 per month, but in the words of Bush, "It's not the fight we wanted, but it's the fight we're in."

But what caught my eyes was the comment of some idiot truther, who after seeing the smoke and mirrors of Dylan Avery took it hook line and sinker. Here's the post:

Iraq is far worse than Vietnam..because Iraq is the start of a global positioning in the world by this administration.
I am sick and tired of all these idiots that swallow the rhetoric passed out by the leashed mass media with their cute keywords ,spat out every five seconds so brain dead flag waving morons can reiterate them with an assumed air of authority …”cut and run” “fight them over there so we dont fight them over here ” “war on terror”…Its like training chimps.
Look into the events of 911..read ..listen ..and question ..most of all question…
Why when every major media outlet going stuck a mic under someones face when they were covered in dust and interviewed them and they said “I heard an explosion below me on the 7th floor ” or I heard a large explosion in the basement ” or a fire chief says I saw huge explosion damage in the basement with the marble wall blown off…were these interviews buried ..never to be shown again by the likes of cnn or fox or abc??? why were over 500 radio messages between firefighters or police or emts and their control stations held by the government under national security ???and when some were released recently under great pressure they too contained NUMEROUS reports of explosions going off that had nothing to do with the planes?
Why did the buildings fall at freefall speed ( scientifically proven ) when it would be scientifically impossible to do so if it encountered resistance at every level on the way down ( science proves the only way is if the base and key points all the way up were demolished in unison)??
Why is this the only steel structure in history to fall as a result of fire?despite the fact that a firefighter having got to the floor where the plane hit , called his control and said it was managable?
Why did WT7 fall when it wasnt even hit by a plane?
Why has traces of thermite been found on supporting beams at the base?
The numerous helicoter footage from news crews show a 15-20 ft hole initially at the Pentagon ( before firefighters pulled the facade down later )
A Boeing 757 has a 112 ft wingsan with two 6 ton engines made of titanium and steel 60 feet apart from each other .
How does two 6 ton engines 60 feet apart hit a building at 500mph and not make a dent on the wall or windows yet somehow slip into a 20 ft hole?????
How does a whole plane melt into nothing ( the official government suggestion) when steel and titanium will melt at 2600f and a carbon based fire could only reach 1300f maximum under ideal circumstances ( not this one either)..These are scientifically proven facts.
This is not fantasy ladies and gents …This is what your government wants you to believe unquestioningly.
The threat to this country was manufactured by a government who wanted a conflict with the middle east for oil and global expansion .This war will expand .
Your government has been complicit in the worst mass murder this country has ever witnessed and you sit back and argue the pros and cons of a war strategy.
History will condemn this time as one of the all time shameful episodes in human endeavours second only to the holocaust.
Read and question…smoke and mirrors

And of course, I HAVE to give my rebuttal:
People hearing blasts below their feet - Truthers base this mostly on seismic data which shows large spikes when the buildings hit the ground, but htey mostly ignore the increasing magnitude of the spikes before hand, caused by the fact that an increasing portion of the building is falling on itself as time goes, until finally hitting the ground. As for the people, when you are in a building, when a large vibration shakes the building it litterally shakes the WHOLE building, including the floor. If you are in the building, those vibrations actually travel down the supports of the building faster than the sound actually travels through the air. Therefore the sound of the crash actually sounds like it is from within the building before the sound outside the building reaches your ears. The difference is very great. The speed of sound in air is approximately 760 MPH, but it is over 12,200 MPH through the steel. So over 1000 feet, what you can feel shaking the building, and hear from those vibrations is almost instantly, then you hear the actual BOOM approximately 1 second later, giving the impression that something exploded below you. GOPAC - 1, Truther - 0

Buildings fall at freefall - I'm not even going to talk about this crap. Look here, and notice that the building has not caught up to the FREE-FALLING debris next to the building. GOPAC - 2 Truther - 0

The only steel structure to fall due to fire - OK, here's the scoop. There's a MAJOR structural difference between the WTC and normal sky scrapers. Normal scrapers are built like the Empire State building. They are a massive set of steel beams stacked in a slab shape one on top of each other in dimensions of say, 30' wide, by 30' long by 11 feet tall. The World Trade center was VERY different. ALL of the main, load bearing beams were on the OUTSIDE frame of the building, leaving the inside of the building very open for office space. The inside floors were nothing more than 1 1/2 inch steel tubing arranged in a triangular truss shape. It is a light-weight and strong configuration...when it's not heated. Steel loses over half of it's strength at only 1100 F, and has only 10% of its strength by the time it gets to 1800 F. The jet fuel was estimated at burning between 800 and 1500 F. Think about this for a second, a 757 crashes into the building and takes out a 3 floor section of the main load bearing beams, then sets a fire to those floors. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this one out. USA Today has a VERY nice flash animation of the explination. GOPAC -3, Truther - 0

Why did WTC7 collapse of fire? - Umm...I don't know...maybe burning debris? GOPAC - 4 Truther - 0

What about the engines at the pentagon? - Notice there are multiple holes in this picture. There's one about 2/3 to the top on the left side, the next is 1/3 of the way from the bottom a little farther right, then the last is at the bottom, about 1/4 of the way over to the right. I wonder. Could those be the fuselage and engines? Truther-boy claims that the engines are a full 60 feet apart, however a look at the boeing page shows that based on the wheel base, the dimension is actually more about 48 feet apart. On top of that the body of the plane is 12' 4" wide, so that leaves all of 18 feet from the edge of the fuselage to the center of the engine, not including the width of the engines closing the gap further. There aren't many usable images in this contradiction, but not many is better than none. And this picture clearly shows where the left engine impacted away from the collapse. GOPAC - 5, Truther - 0

How does a plane melt into nothing? - Umm...genius, you answered your own question when you talked about the engines hitting at 550 miles per hour. Let's see, an aluminum framed plane hits a concrete and steel building at 550 miles per hour. Who's gonna win that battle? Evidence of the plane is all over the place, but I guess they just missed it. GOPAC - 6, Truther - 0

Looks like you've been beat.

HWC Baseball Season II Draft Analysis

Season two of HWC Baseball is coming up to full swing as the draft was performed late Tuesday, or early Wednesday. as promised, it's Sunday, and it's time for the GOPAC draft analysis. There were 336 players drafted, and some have already been cut.

First, I'll start with my team, then check the others.

Cookeville Engineers
Even though I was given the 13th draft position, I am VERY pleased with my draft results, and I may have the dominant pitching staff in the league. I drafted Chris Carpenter, Justin Verlander, John Smoltz, Adam Wainwright and Anibal Sanchez. Along with them I took the Stolen base leader, Chone Figgins. After the draft, I was upset at the fact that I only had 2 relievers, only one of which was a closer. So I traded in Jeff Francis from the Rockies for Derrick Turnbow (A player The Man played with in little league). I figured, yes, Francis was the best pitcher for the Rockies with 13 W's, however, at a 4.16 ERA and a WHIP of 1.29, the 24 saves Turnbow got trumps the mid-level performance Francis accomplished last season. I made the choice of pitching over hitting, and it may have payed off. My weakness, most offensive stats.

Wookies Will Repeat
John stated in the league that he would be happy as long as he got Pujols again. Well, he was first pick so he did get Albert Pujols, but there are no other real stars that he picked up. The best pitcher he has is Erick Bedard of the Orioles, but even then his ERA is a 3.76 with a 1.3+ WHIP, and now that losses count, his 11 are a vast equalizer. Hitting wise he has Pujols, and a couple other power hitters, but his real strength will be in the stolen bases. With two players combining for 96 taken bases. Also with Pujos, the Runs and RBI stats are going to be up there as well. Wookies weakness will be their pitching staff, especially in the losses and saves.

The PAWS
The PAWs got the 2nd draft spot and used it well to their advantage. He used his first and second picks evenly picking up Johan Santana and Vernon Wells. One noticeable thing that Lawhawk did was pick up Derick Lee, the star first baseman of the Cubs who was out most of the season with an injury. It's a big gamble, but if it pays off, it may be a season maker. The other major pick, Dan Uggla. He's going to have another stellar offensive season this year. But that's about where the PAWs stop. They've got a few key players, but the rest is not very strong. Lawhawk's strength will rely on Santana and Wells, but their weakness will be in the bullpen and in the stolen base stats. Along with many other managers, the destruction of the "Holds" stat caught teams with too many middle relievers, and no closers.

bRight & Early
bRight had an excellent season last year finishing 3rd in the playoffs, and he has done his homework. I think b&E learned the keys to the game. A large set of mid-level players leaves the ones dependant on stars in the dust. bRight used his first 4 draft picks on Jose Reyes, Andruw Jones, Johnny Damon and Joe Mauer. After that he started on the pitchers. He picked up J.J. Putz and Mike Mussina. Finally in the 11th round he picked up 19 time winner Chien-Ming Wang, but again, the loss of the holds stat took him by surprise. His strength is going to be his equality all around. But his weakness will also be his equality. He's not going to out shine you with his star player, he's going to out pace you and beat you or lose to you in the final stretch.

Leones de Yucatan
Vex has decided to add a bit of Spanish flair to his team this season, as (translated) the Yucatan Lions. Vex, did you move to Mexico? Well, his team is very much centered around the big hitters. Only 4 offensive players have less than 20 home runs, and 4 of the big hitters have over 30. But that comes at the expense of his pitching staff. His most winning pitcher is Ian Snell with 14 wins, but 11 losses and an ERA of 4.74. Vex plays my Engineers in week one and if he wins, it will be a 7-6 pitcher-hitter game. Vex's strengths will be in the long ball and possibly stolen bases, but his weakness is definitely going to be in pitching as a whole.

Robots Eat Babies
The Man had the 5th draft spot, and used it to pick up monster hitter Ryan Howard. One thing that I don't agree with The Man is the pick up of Jason Isringhausen. Adam Wainwright picked up as the closer in the last part of the season after Izzy had to have hip surgery. If that hip goes bad again, that could leave him in the crapper. The Man does have a great bullpen if Izzy stays healthy. Along with Izzy he picked up Todd Jones, the Detroit closer who finished the season with 37 saves. This leaves a 2006 total of 70 saves for The Man. As for the starting rotation, Robots has Bonderman, Haren, and Pettite, but the losses built up by those pitchers may be a big factor in the match ups. The Man's strengths are his two closers and offensive K's. Weaknesses; Losses, ERA, WHIP, and offensive consistency.

RFTR
RFTR took the 6th spot, and used it to pick up A. Rod, then in the 2nd round picked up Jimmy Rollins. RFTR is going to be another power house with 6 of 12 offensive players having 20+ home runs. But again that comes at a cost to the pitching staff. Only one of his starters has more than 12 wins, but that is Greg Maddux who finished with 14 losses. He also picked up Roger Clemons who has again "retired" for the time being. One place where RFTR is going to shine though ironically is in pitching. He did notice that holds were eliminated and has 3 pretty strong closers. He picked up David Weathers who picked up the closing job from Todd Coffey, Tom Gordon, and Billy Wagner, combining for 86 saves in 2006. Beware in the late innings of RFTR, but his weakness will definitely show in the first 6 or 7.

Maximum Poo
Tyler D returns this year after his team last year, CZC Owns, finished 15th of 16 teams. This year Tyler went for consistency in batting. 7 of his players had over a .290 batting average in 2006, and the lowest is just a .270. My engineers have 4 players lower than that. Things are definitely looking up for this team. One place I expect Max to win every week is in Offensive K's. He's only got two players over 100 K's, so don't expect to win a hitting battle very often. Pitching is decent, with starters like Josh Beckett, Ted Lilly and especially Roy Oswalt. In the bullpen, it's not a pretty sight.There's only 2 possible closers, Ryan Dempster and Dan Wheeler. Wheeler might be a good pick, but he has to prove again that he's better than Brad Lidge. Tyler's strength will be the batting average and most of the offensive stats, but his weakness will definitely be in his closers, and in the possible wasted draft pick in Kerry Wood.

Organic Snake Oil
I'm not afraid of this team as much as I am of the manager. He has 4 championships in fantasy baseball, and another 2nd. This guy is a champ and it shows. His team looks like the guy who digs deep in a league to find the sleepers, then comes out of nowhere to take the win. He is also going to be the hands down save champ with 3 very strong closers. For his rotation he is doing what many teams did last season. Have 2 closers, 3 middle relievers, then 2 starters every day. Snake has only 4 starters, and the rest are all possible closers. On offense, Snake might be in a bit of a hole. His starters lack a high average, and he doesn't have too great of power hitters. His strength will be in the closers, but there's not too much more that they will excel in. Words to the wise, a gamble can pay off big, or it can go down in flames. His rank may follow suit.

webcats
The cats are back this season, and they've grown some claws. They drafted Big Papi, Troy Glaus, and Raul Ibanez on offense, and Chuck James, Jeff Suppan, and Derek Lowe in pitching. But that comes at a cost of offensive K's, and saves. He has two relievers, and neither of them are closers. On offense with heavy hitters come a lot of "Swung on and miss." The cats have only one player who batted over 300 last season. For the cats, he is strong in the long ball as well as, oddly, losses. With an average of only 8 losses per season per starter, this team will likely win the fewest loss stat every week, but not much more.

Joe's Keizer Killers
Joe is new to Yahoo! fantasy sports (first team under that log-in) and it looks like his pre-rank picks were done by Yahoo! which is an advantage to OTHER teams. Often times prospective great players whose O-rank is in the top 100 fail miserably in the regular season. He was also the poor sap who picked up Barry "Juicy" Bonds. His main strength will be in stolen bases and possibly in the long ball, but in pitching, Joe's probably going to be lacking. Safety Man picked up Bonds last season thinking walks was included, but unfortunately for him it wasn't, and it's not this year either which may explain why Bonds lasted on the free agent list all the way until the middle of the 13th round. Joe's Strength is in his home run hitters, but his weakness is the chance that he's a set and forget player.

Fmragtops Spewers
FM finished runner up last season in a set of tricks put up by Yahoo! that made the final match go 2 weeks instead of one, leaving fm not checking his team for the better part of the last week. FM used his first pick on speed which was a good choice considering most of the ultra stars were taken in the first 10 picks. After that was heavy hitter Travis Hafner. Last season fm went with the "platoon" strategy for pitchers, but this season he's opted for more offensive players than pitchers. Not sure how much I agree with that choice, but it's not my call. FM also managed to steal the number 1 and 3 top savers, as well as some possible closers on top of that. However that leaves FM with only 4 starters when most teams have at least 5 in a rotation. That means that he is going to have at least one, maybe two missed starts per week, and that can be the difference between having more K's, a better ERA, and more wins than your opponent. FM's strength is in his offensive staff. A full set of bench players in case of injury helps, but that's a the steep cost of having at best a mediocre pitching staff.

Anna Benson Is Yummy
Poor Wyatt. Last season I halfway dragged him into HWC baseball only to finish 13th. This season though, the lawman looks to be stronger in most places. Unfortunately in the places he looks off are the same places he struggled last season. The relievers. Wyatt drafted two possible starters who combined last season to a total of 10 saves, but one thing you won't see his players do much is get a K when they step up to the plate. Batters like Carlos Lee who only struck out about 10% of the time make for great players because they are 9 times out of 10 hitting the ball into play. That figure not only reflects on K's but shows in the batting average, RBI's and scores. I don't think he'll take the cup, but he should make the playoffs. Wyatt's strengths are going to be in both sets of K's, wins, as well as in hits. But he is going to severely lack in the saves and loss range.

PFB
Private Pigg finished 8th last season, and is looking for power this season. He's got 4 players who combined for 132 home runs last season, but when you over pick in one area, you end up lacking in another. That lack is going to show in batting average. He's got one player who had over a .300 last season, one with a .295, then it falls to 3 in the low .280's and it gets uglier from there with 4 batters under .255 averages. But at least his players don't fan much. He's got 4 players with over 100 K's, but all of the others are under 90, with some in the 60's and 50's. That will make for a great RBI team. Saves will not be struggling either as he has 3 closers who combined for 78 saves in 2006. Losses are going to be in high order for PFB. He only has 2 starters who had an over .500 win percentage. His strength will be in home runs, RBI's and Runs, but his weakness will be in his batting averages, and losses. Even with that he may be a contender for the podium.

Baseball rulz!
Sssteve finished MISERABLY (14th) last season, and is looking up, and is he over going where he is looking. At first glance, I thought his team looked like it could use some improvement, but on further look he looks like a good contender for the cup. He's got 4 batters over 30 home runs, only 4 batters who are BARELY over 100 K's, 3 pitchers with 13 or more wins, 5 closers, 5 batter over .300, and only one pitcher with an ERA over 4.00. Sssteve, if you don't finish in the top 3, I will BEAT you! Sssteve's strengths are almost everything. Very consistent, and will win often. However he does have 2 weaknesses; stolen bases and wins per week. He's only got 4 starters, so like FM he will struggle to come out on top in wins each week, but that can be remedied with dropping a bench player and picking up a starter.
JAX Juggernauts
Poor Safety Man, he got last draft pick, and it looks like he didn't even try to set his pre-ranks. He picked up Curt Schilling and Carlos Zambrano, but Schilling is getting older, and a Cubs pitcher is always a shaky pick. Randy Johnson was also picked up and at least he will give the Diamondbacks some wins, but probably not many. On offense the story is best summed up by a quote from one of his smack talks. "My offense is anemic." If they go well, his strength will be the few sarters he picked up, as well as stolen bases, but his weakness will be in just about everything else.

My predictions of finishing the year:
Top 3: bRight & Early, Baseball rulz!, and PFB (not in that order)
Better Luck Next Year: JAX Juggernauts, Joe's Keizer Killers, and webcats

Seattle Ignorance To NASCAR

Ignorance of racing events like NASCAR or any form of circular track racing is very wide spread. People who have not studied the sport claim "It's not even really a sport. All they do is drive around in a circle for 400 miles."

Yes, forget the fact that the inside of the car is often over 140 degrees for 4 hours strait, and the drive is sitting less than 2 feet above the 400 degree exhaust pipes. It's not a tough sport. There was one race where a driver sweat so much that the water pooled at the bottom of the seat, then to make things worse, because the seat is so close to the hot exhaust pipe, the water was literally boiling against his skin. If nothing else Stock Car racing is one of the most gruelling endurance sports you can imagine. Or, forget the fact that Ryan Newman is a Purdue graduate in my field of engineering. NASCAR is a sport for redneck idiots.

Anyone who has played a game like Gran Turismo, or any of the newer NASCAR games for the Playstation 2 and XBox/XBox360 knows how many variables this sport can depend on. Tire pressure that is changed by less than 0.25 psi can be the difference between finishing first or finishing worst.

But the ignorance doesn't just sit on the track. It extends to the fans. Being a NASCAR fan apparently entitles you to being a racist, a redneck, and trailer park trash, all for the fact that you enjoy racing. In Seattle Larry Seaquist, a state politician was quoted saying "These are not the kind of people you would want living next to you. They'd be the ones with the junky cars in their front yard and would try to slip around the law." When asked about 7 time Cup Champion (and all time record 200 race winner) Richard Petty, Washington State House Speaker Frank Chopp's sarcastically stated, "You mean the guy who was picked up for DUI?" There's more than just the derogatory underlying of the statement, but also, Richard Petty not only doesn't drink alcohol, but when he started racing, he made a deal with his mother never to accept sponsorship money from alcohol. He, nor his company have ever put a decal on their cars for an alcoholic beverage, nor have they ever entered the exhibition Budweiser Shootout in Daytona.

Stock Car Racing is not only entertaining to the fans, but it brings in fortunes to the local governments in the area. Even though Nashville Superspeedway can only hold about 40,000 fans, on just 5 weekends per year, the track has become Wilson Countie's largest single taxpayer at over $1 Million per year. And that's without the Nextel Cup. Estimates guess that if the cup would come to Nashville, tax revenues from the track alone could go up 10 fold, not counting the added income from hotels, restaurants, and other businesses.

Other racing fans speak their minds about the ignorant statements made about racing.

In the words of Jerry Brewer:
"...Then they're saying Washington still thinks NASCAR stands for New Auto Sport Centered Around Rednecks. ...My cow died last night, so I don't need your bull."

When In Need Of A Good Point

Look to Cox & Forkum. this picture says it all. And for those of you who don't think this will happen if something like Hillary-Care goes into affect, look to Canada.

Look at the chart that it gives. The average wait time for a critical procedure in Canada is 124 days. "Hey, you've got a cancer that if we can surgically remove it in the next 3 months you'll have a greatly increased chance of survival. If you'll just sign these papers we will try to fit you in after about 4 months."

That isn't just in critical procedures. Even simple procedures have an average wait time of 17.7 weeks, with some provinces having an average wait time of up to 6 months.

Canada is also ranked 24th of 27 countries in their age adjusted doctor-to-population ratio.

Picture H/T: C&F

HWC Baseball Is All Set

Look here at GOP and College for a season preview of Hot Wing Conspiracy Baseball. The league was locked at 16 teams, and the draft has commenced. I came out of the draft pretty well with a VERY solid starting line up, a decent set of relievers and a consistantly good set of players in the field.

I will go into further detail Sunday the 11th.

Put That In The "Why Didn't I Think Of That" Folder

Green power is a very hot topic right now, but advocates of green power continue to find reasons NOT to use green power.
When a proposal comes up for using solar energy, Earth Activists complain that the land needed to build a solar plant is too great and will negatively affect the animals in the area.
When a proposal arrives for wind power, people complain that it is an eye-sore, and that birds might fly into it and become injured.

The only other alternative is hydro-electric power. But that requires a river, as well as the building of a dam and the flooding of thousands of acres of land.



Until now.



Popular Mechanics has an idea for the city of New York that might solve some of the problems which exist in green power. Wind turbines...under-water. Like the flashlight you shake to make light up, it seems so simple that the fact that it has never been thought of makes one smack themselves in the head and think "Now why didn't I think if that!!??"



The idea is the same as a wind turbine in the fact that you need a flowing fluid to rotate blades which then rotate a generator. However, conventional thought have limited that fluid to air, but now, water is being looked at as a viable flowing fluid. The power produced by these turbines can be upwards of 35 KW each at a flow of 4 knots. The blades are 16 feet in diameter and require a depth about 28 feet to operate.

If this technology comes to be, our rivers and oceans could produce around 130,000 GW-h per year, or 3.6% of the electrical output of the United States.

H/T: Glenn Reynolds

Bank of America's Unintended Consequence

Bank of America recently decided to assist illegal immigrants by giving them BoA credit cards without needing a valid social security number to get the card. The only stipulation is that you have a Bank of America account (presumably to take money from if you default on the card). However there is something that I feel Bank of America did not intend on:
The rise in identity theft and credit card fraud that is going to occur thanks to their new policy.

I came upon this concept in the car this afternoon and it hit me like a ton of bricks. Bank of America has actually made it EASIER for an identity thief to steal your information and create a fake credit card that you have to pay for.

Here is the situation:
BoA sends you a bank statement every month/quarter/year with your account information, full name and address. Usually in order to fill out a credit card app, a thief would also need your social security number. Now, with BoA not needing that, all the information a thief needs is right there for whoever decides to raid your mailbox. The only thing left to do is find a BoA credit card application and file a false application. That theif now can spend thousands of dollars with your name on it.

Needless to say I won't have anything to do with Bank of America.

Huffington Condemns Assassination Chic

Less than a day after removing the hateful comments from her site, Arianna Huffington did the right thing when she said this:

Before I get into how ludicrous this claim is, let me be absolutely clear: No one at HuffPost is defending these comments -- they are unacceptable and were treated as such by being removed. They were not made by me, by our editors, or by our bloggers. They were made by anonymous visitors to the site -- visitors that make up a very, very small unrepresentative portion of our readers.

However, although Think Progress calls out conservatives for pointing at the fact that fringe left supporters stated that they wished Dick Cheney dead, the site never actually condemns those comments. You can read the entire article, and even the original post which covered the attempted assassination, but there is no clear condemnation by TP contributors of comments supporting the assassination of VP Cheney.

...And for the record, the comments were not anonymous. Many gave their names, as well as giving an e-mail address, some even have liberal blogs of their own. TP claims that it is a bunch of right wing trolls who take on the identity of a crazed liberal. Well, if TP wants to reduce the risk of a "right-wing conspiracy, bent on making them look evil" invading their site, then they should do as HotAir does, and require readers to register with the site before they are allowed to post comments.

And the "Kill Cheney" train lives on with at least a few TP commentors.

Meanwhile, Conservatives, including myself, are beginning to jump ship from the "A.N.N. Coulter."
Via Malkin:

"At left-wing conferences, you leave hating America. At right-wing conferences, you leave loving America."

That's exactly how I felt at the end of the dinner after shaking the hands of the disabled vets who came by crutch and wheelchair from Walter Reed to spend a few hours at CPAC.

Enter Ann Coulter.

Her "faggot" joke was not just a distraction from all the good that was highlighted and represented at the conference. It was the equivalent of a rhetorical fragging--an intentionally-tossed verbal grenade that exploded in her own fellow ideological soldiers' tent.

I Would Be That Man

From First With Flair:

One sunny day in 2008, an old man approached the WhiteHouse from across Pennsylvania Avenue , where he'd been sitting on a park bench. He spoke to the Marine standing guard and said, "I would like to go in and meet with President Hillary Clinton"

The Marine replied, "Sir, Mrs. Clinton is not President and doesn't reside here."

The old man said,"Okay," and walked away.

The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, "I would like to go in and meet with President Hillary Clinton".

TheMarine again told the man, "Sir, as I said yesterday, Mrs. Clinton is not President and doesn't reside here." The man thanked him and again walked away.

The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to the very same Marine, saying "I would like to go in and meet with President Hillary Clinton."

The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man and said, "Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to speakto Mrs. Clinton. I've told you already several times that Mrs. Clinton is not the President and doesn't reside here. Don 't you understand?"

The old man answered, "Oh, I understand you fine, I just love hearing your answer!"

The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, "See you tomorrow."

Won't that be a great day!!!

Good times.

The Worst Villains

In following Wyatt, and now FM, I'm going to list my top 5 movie villains in movie history. These are the people that I absolutely despise and if they died in the movie, I gladly cheered. Wyatt's were Goldfinger, Mr. Blonde, Jonny Ringo, Darth Maul, and Agent Smith. Fm chose on top of that Hans Gruber, Vader, and Dracula. He stole one good one from me, but those guys are small time. Goldfinger does have the classic "No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die," is classic, but I've got better.

5. Longshanks/King Edward I - Braveheart: With solutions to ridding the English Island of the Scots by breeding them out, and offering a bounty for William Wallace by saying, "Bring me Wallace. Alive if possible, dead... just as good." The man was so evil, he threw his only son out the window of his castle, and when asked if he should use archers in a preliminary strike, he said, "Not the archers. My scouts tell me their archers are miles away and no threat to us. Arrows cost money. Use up the Irish. Their dead cost nothing. " Then after that he fires the archers into the crowd, killing ally and enemy alike. I cheered when the lady told him the blood line stopped at his deathbed.

4. Throne Stealer Commodus - Gladiator: Kills his own father when he chose Maximus as rightful heir, spends the rest of the movie lusting for his own sister, then goes ballistic when Maximus shows back up. "They tell me your son squealed like a girl when they nailed him to the cross. And your wife... moaned like a whore when they ravaged her again and again... and again." Then to try and ensure a victory over Maximus in the final fight, he stabs him in the artery to ensure he dies. Pure evil.

3. Verbal Kent - The Usual Suspects: (Spoiler) Kevin Spacey did a great job as this sneaky little weasel worked the crowd like a champ. No one would have expected that the greatest killer in the movie was the CRIPPLE (who wasn't actually crippled)."Keaton always said, 'I don't believe in God, but I'm afraid of him.' Well I believe in God, and the only thing that scares me is Keyser Soze." Not to mention, "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." Greatest trick, indeed.

2. Emperor Palpatine - Star Wars Series: If nothing else, he is the longest running villain of all. For six movies, starting from a lowly power hungry senator, to the viscous revealed Dark Lord/Dictator in the latter parts of the series. Screw Darth Vader, Palpatine MADE Darth Vader. The pure essence of the evil dictator, who got what he deserved from his own apprentice, and makes Vader look like a Hero.



1. Col. William Tavington - The Patriot: Jason Isaacs bleeds wretchedness from every orifice in this movie. From the first scene to the last, lines like "You! So you're the ghost are you? I remember you, and that farm. That stupid little boy. Did he die? Hmm? You know it's an ugly business doing one's duty...but just occasionally...it's a real pleasure." I only wish I could have been the one to drive that bayonet into his belly.