Category — Uncategorized

As of 4:00PM CDT the Gulf Coast has a concern called Tropical Storm Ernesto.

Currently it is north of Venezuela, but the current track has it passing just south of Cuba and entering the Gulf of Mexico as a hurricane.

In Freedom? Yeah right. Badtux feels that there is a problem in the government position expressed in the BBC article, US charges Hezbollah TV provider

A US businessman has been charged with offering broadcasts of Hezbollah’s al-Manar satellite television station to customers in the New York-area.

Javed Iqbal, originally from Pakistan, is accused by prosecutors of doing business with a terrorist entity.

Glenn Greenwald, as an attorney, might wonder why this screed by Walter E. Williams doesn’t get Townhall classified as a “terrorist entity”. I would think that a call to eliminate the people and nation of Iran with nuclear weapons would fit the definition used for Al-Manar: advocating violence.

You have to wonder about these decisions, especially since Quotations From Chairman Mao Zedong and Mein Kampf are readily available.

CNN reports that Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center, is retiring:

Max Mayfield, who oversaw the nation’s tropical-storm forecasting during the Atlantic’s most destructive period on record, said Friday that he will retire.

Mayfield, 57, told his staff he will retire in January but had no single reason for leaving the center, which he has led since May 2000.

“I’ve been here 34 years and as Forrest Gump said in the movie, ‘I’m tired and I want to go home,”‘ The Miami Herald reported on its Web site.

Max is very familiar to those of us who live on the Gulf Coast. You have to wonder if all of the attempts to reduce the capabilities of NOAA played a part in his decision.

Today Professor Cole suggested:

And, wouldn’t it be easier for the Israelis to give back the land they stole in 1967 to Lebanon and Syria and make peace, and let the Palestinians have their little state, and pay reparations for 1948, so then they wouldn’t have to try to police all their neighbors all the time? They are getting worse at the policing over time, anyway.

Obviously, this can’t work because it addresses all of the concerns of all of the parties involved, and undercuts all of the justification for the continuing war.

If Israel did this, Hezbollah would have no justification for its militia; the Ba’athists would lose their main justification for continuing to rule Syria; Hamas would have no justification for their militia; al Qaeda would lose one of its foundation issues. If Israel did this, the War On Terror™ would fade into history; so it will never be allowed to happen.

The Earth Astronomers have demoted Pluto to a dwarf planet ordered it to play in the Kuiper Belt, pushing it out of the big leagues.

There has been no local reaction yet.

From CBS: Student Loan ID Data Breached.

All of the personal information for 21,000 people with student loans was available on the Internet after a software upgrade. It was the Department of Education that messed up this time.

These people just can’t be trusted with anything. They outsource all of these projects and no one is responsible for anything.

Facing South links to the Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch report, One Year after Katrina [PDF] that highlights some good, a lot of bad, and way too much ugly 12 months after this disaster.

Scout of First Draft has returned to New Orleans and has been posting videos to remind people of what has and hasn’t happened.

Anntichrist S. Coulter of Blonde Sense writes of her experiences in What I remember, one of the strongest memories being the total failure of the Red Cross for days as it waited for the Feds to tell them they could help.

Despite my personal aversion to the Salvation Army for some of its policies, an aversion that means I will not support their normal operations, when it comes to a disaster, that’s where I send my money. The Salvation Army goes in and goes to work feeding people and helping them out, without waiting for government permission.

CNN reports Northwest jet turns back; 12 arrested:

Some of the passengers pulled out cell phones during the flight and appeared to be trying to pass the cell phones to other passengers, a U.S. government official said.

In addition, some passengers unfastened their seatbelts while the light requiring they be fastened was still illuminated, the official said.

…

The passengers who were arrested were looking into plastic bags and were busy with their cell phones, an airline source in Amsterdam said.

An AP report adds:

While Flight NO0042 was over German airspace shortly after takeoff, the pilot radioed for permission to return to Schiphol Airport and asked for an escort of jet fighters because some of the passengers were acting suspiciously, the Defense Ministry said.

Northwest Airlines flight NO0042 originates in Minneapolis and goes to Mumbai [formerly Bombay], India with a stop in the Netherlands. I wonder what the chances are that some of the passengers are dark skinned Asians speaking something other than English? They don’t obey the “fasten seat belt” sign, they rummage in plastic bags, and they pass things around – Omigod! It sounds like an extended family traveling together!!

Update: Dutch spokesperson plays Emily Litella tape.

One of the Grumpy Forester‘s least favorite politicians has had another attack of foot in mouth disease.

Senator Conrad Burns [R-MT] is really concerned about immigration issues, unless he needs a roof on his house.

Yeah, and having lived along the Mexican border I’m really certain all of those western state Republicans have checked the immigration status of the people doing their yard work.

At 10PM CDT we have our fourth named storm of the season, Tropical Storm Debby.

Currently it is on track to be the first hurricane, but the models indicate it isn’t considered a threat to land.

There is a possibly more threatening wave sitting off the north coast of South America, but we have to wait to see what it’s going to do.

PZ Myers has a great video if you are devotee of Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

Sad, but true, some people have no respect.

Last month it was the report on private versus public schools showing no noticeable difference and this month we discover Report: Public Beats Charter In Scores.

Giving out vouchers is a waste of money, because public schools are as good as private schools, and better than charter schools, if the tests that the Department of Education insists everyone take are to be believed.

In Florida there is no accountability for charter schools. Just handing out tax dollars to private groups without requiring accountability is criminally stupid.

Astronomers are embarrassing themselves in Prague in a knockdown brawl about the status of Pluto. John McKay covers the details at archy.

In other science news, Michael Bérubé looks at the Department of Education Smart Grants program that lost evolutionary biology. You have to wonder if they checked Dobson’s pockets after his last visit.

For some reason, despite all of the happy talk from the spokesweasels at the Pentagon, Thousands of Marines face involuntary recalls.

These are people who have completed their four-year active duty enlistment in the Marines, but not the entire eight-year reserve commitment. This is one of the differences between this war and Vietnam – they didn’t pull this kind of crap during Vietnam.