How Long Until That Pol Says Something Stupid?

"As a hunter and gun owner, I believe that we should protect the Second Amendment right of law-abiding individuals to own firearms. As a dad and grandfather, I also believe that we have a responsibility to make our schools, streets and communities safe. We can do both if Congress steps up. Many of the president's executive actions will help reduce gun violence, but the policies that would have the greatest impact require congressional action."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788732346860457824970267282659
8.html

There's just not a shred of evidence to support the notion that Congressional action will make anyone safer, and the assumption that we should assume government is a source of safety, when historically it is the largest source of risk, is too ignorant for adequate description.

It has become a surprise to me if I read something from a politician that even approaches profundity.  This one was standard fare pol speak.

Most of What You Think You Know About Grammar is Wrong | Arts & Culture | Smithsonian Magazine

According to the author, Churchill's famous quote about the type of English with which he will not put was never said by Churchill.  For that and other details, it was a fun and interesting read!

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Most-of-What-You-Think-You-Know-About-Grammar-is-Wrong-187940351.html?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_campaign=20130124&utm_content=grammar2&device=iphone

Classic Quote, Einstein

"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new."
Albert Einstein

Forced To Pay For Killing

"Christians are often pilloried for imposing private morality on the public. Yet, this fiasco reveals the absurdity of the so-called "war on women." Mr. Green seeks neither to outlaw contraception nor to prevent his workers from using birth control. Hobby Lobby's health plans already cover contraceptives. Moreover, the "preventive medicine" in question remains widely, and cheaply, accessible elsewhere.

"What pills employers furnish ought to be settled privately between management and labor. Instead, the public, or more precisely President Obama's henchmen, foist mandated immorality on private businesses. "Hobby Lobby is a for-profit, secular employer," chastises the administration "and a secular entity by definition does not exercise religion." Thus has the Christian walk been narrowed via royal decree.

"Submit or pay."
http://www.forbes.com/sites/billflax/2013/01/08/hobby-lobby-fights-the-g
ood-fight-against-obamacare-tyranny/

The only way I can view this is with hope that the clear over-reach of the Federal Government will allow someone to stuff Obamacare into history's dustbin.

The Assumption

Most that could be said - variation may be affected by GHG but what drives the variation? Which is the greater factor, and how could that be proved?

Obviously GHG are not the "drivers" of climate or the relationship would not be linear.
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/noaa-2012-was-warmest-and-second-most
-extreme-year-on-record-15436

Why Did No One Help?

Powerful, beautiful writing.

"At 17, I was just a child. Life rewarded me richly for surviving. I stumbled home, wounded and traumatized, to a fabulous family. With them on my side, so much came my way. I found true love. I wrote books. I saw a kangaroo in the wild. I caught buses and missed trains. I had a shining child. The century changed. My first gray hair appeared."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/opinion/after-being-raped-i-was-wounde
d-my-honor-wasnt.html?src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB

Sobering analysis of the price we pay for an overbearing state, which we don't trust and which, at the same time, makes "protecting victims" a job of the police; "not what I'm supposed to do."

" The crux is here that the "cost" is often not a strictly economic or financial cost. Rather it represents in part the opportunity cost of time and the more direct costs that would be incurred for someone who did get involved and then would need to spend hours, days, perhaps even weeks entangled with the authorities. We document in the book cases in India and China where would-be Good Samaritans have ended up being harassed by the police, wrongly accused themselves of being the perpetrators, and, in some cases even being accused by the victims whom they're trying to help. To put it bluntly, most people just don't trust the authorities and aren't willing to take the risk of getting mixed up with them for fear of any or all of these things happening. It's not necessarily that they don't want to help, or somehow apathy is hardwired into Indian culture, but people's desire to help is overwhelmed understandably by their reluctance to suffer unnecessarily as a result of helping."

http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2013/01/05/delhi-rape-why-did-no-one-
help/?mod=e2tw

The Right of the People

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms is an extension of the natural right to self-defense and a hallmark of personal sovereignty. It is specifically insulated from governmental interference by the Constitution and has historically been the linchpin of resistance to tyranny. And yet, the progressives in both political parties stand ready to use the coercive power of the government to interfere with the exercise of that right by law-abiding persons because of the gross abuse of that right by some crazies in our midst."
http://reason.com/archives/2013/01/10/guns-and-freedom