Two Things

But first . . .

This mock 30-second spot for libertarianism. It’s funny!

(Thanks, Bob Miller – who writes: ‘Life has taught me to be wary of anybody with a ‘philosophy.’ Whatever happened to good ole American pragmatism?’)

(In fairness: libertarians would decry the lack of order depicted in the ad. A strong government police force would secure private ownership of the beach, to which the owner could then, at his option, allow public access for a fee or out of charity.)

And now . . .

YESTERDAY

Yesterday, I posted a few thoughts about Memorial Day, pride (and the President’s proclamation thereof), NBIX and BOREF. I mention this in case you had the good sense to be away from your screen for the holiday.

Today, I welcome you back from what I hope was a fantastic long weekend. Apart from five stitches Charles got from sawing off a branch and, potentially, his left forefinger, ours was the best ever. Blessings counted nonstop.

The weekend was a chance to catch up a little.

Hence:

THINGS I MEANT TO LINK YOU TO AT THE TIME

From conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks October 23, 2009 (no telling what crumpled clippings I’ll find at the bottom of my bag):

. . . The news is good. In fact, it’s very good. Over the past few days I’ve spoken to people ranging from Bill Gates to Jeb Bush and various education reformers. They are all impressed by how gritty and effective the Obama administration has been in holding the line and inciting real education reform. . . .

☞ We have a wonderful President facing devilishly complex problems and an intransigent* opposition. Let’s support him.

*The current and two past Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . . . Admiral Mullen, Collin Powell, and General Shalikashvili . . . all support repealing Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell – and former captain John McCain is so sure they’re wrong he’s going to filibuster it?

THINGS I MEANT TO LINK YOU TO AT THE TIME – II

Only slightly less crumpled, from the April 12 New Yorker:

. . . The e-mail brouhaha was followed by-and immediately confused with-another overblown controversy, about a mistake in the second volume of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fourth Assessment Report, from 2007. On page 493 of the nine-hundred-and-seventy-six-page document, it is asserted, incorrectly, that the Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035. (The report cites as a source for this erroneous information a report by the World Wildlife Fund.) The screw-up, which was soon acknowledged by the I.P.C.C. and the W.W.F., was somehow transformed by commentators into a reason to doubt everything in the three-volume assessment, including, by implication, the basic laws of thermodynamics. The ‘new scandal (already awarded the unimaginative name of ‘Glaciergate’) raises further challenges for a scientific theory that is steadily losing credibility,’ James Heiser wrote on the Web site of the right-wing magazine New American.

No one has ever offered a plausible account of why thousands of scientists at hundreds of universities in dozens of countries would bother to engineer a climate hoax. Nor has anyone been able to explain why Mother Nature would keep playing along; despite what it might have felt like in the Northeast these past few months, globally it was one of the warmest winters on record.

The message from scientists at this point couldn’t be clearer: the world’s emissions trajectory is extremely dangerous. Goofball weathermen, Climategate, conspiracy theories-these are all a distraction from what’s really happening. Which, apparently, is what we’re looking for.

☞ Education (thing #1, above) is the future of our country. The environment (this thing) is the future habitability of our planet. Democrats are on the right side of this one, too.

Which brings us to . . .

BP – EVEN WORSE THAN YOU THOUGHT

From investigative journalist Greg Palast at BuzzFlash:

With the Gulf Coast dying of oil poisoning, there’s no space in the press for British Petroleum’s latest spill, just this week: over 100,000 gallons, at its Alaska pipeline operation. A hundred thousand used to be a lot. . . .

In one case, BP’s CEO of Alaskan operations hired a former CIA expert to break into the home of a whistleblower, Chuck Hamel, who had complained of conditions at the pipe’s tanker facility. BP tapped his phone calls with a US congressman and ran a surveillance and smear campaign against him. When caught, a US federal judge said BP’s acts were “reminiscent of Nazi Germany.” . . .

. . . Bob Malone, until last year the Chairman of BP America, was also Alaska State Co-Chairman of the Bush re-election campaign. Mr. Bush, in turn, was so impressed with BP’s care of Alaska’s environment that he pushed again to open the state’s arctic wildlife refuge (ANWR) to drilling by the BP consortium. . . .

☞ Which brings us to this . . .

STARTLING ADMISSION

From the Borowitz Report:

Startling admission from Osama Bin Laden:
Bin Laden Says He’s ‘Professionally Envious’ of BP
‘I’ve Got to Step Up My Game,’ Says Madman . . .