Uhhh… ok.
A little mathematical context to the spill size can put the environmental catastrophe in perspective. Viewing it through some lenses, it isn’t that huge. The Mississippi River pours as much water into the Gulf of Mexico in 38 seconds as the BP oil leak has done in two months.
Yeah, and the sun puts off more radiation in 2 seconds than Chernobyl did through that entire disaster. And the point would be…? The facts they’re conveying are true, I’m sure. And yes, BP CEO Hayward’s comment that the spill’s volume, even now, is tiny compared to the Gulf’s volume of water. How does any of that lessen the impact this spill is having on people, the environment, and our economy? It doesn’t and, frankly, it sounds a bit like belittling the concerns people have about the spill to frame it in this light. Perhaps we can save such comparisons until after we’ve got the leak under control, hmm?
June 21st, 2010
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Being the techno-type that I am, this notice by HP of their intent to acquire Palm, Inc (makers of the original PDA, the Palm Pilot) caught my eye. HP is apparently going to pay about $1 billion in cash for the struggling handheld computer manufacturer.
Palm got itself into position for a turnaround last year, when it released a sleek, new touch-screen smart phone called the Pre and fresh operating software for it that won good reviews. But consumers still were slow to embrace the Pre and its newer, smaller sibling, the Pixi.
In the most recent quarter, Palm sold just 408,000 phones — down 29 percent from the previous quarter.
By comparison, Apple sold 8.75 million iPhones during its most recent quarter.
HP hopes Palm’s webOS operating system, which runs the Pre and the Pixi, will help it participate more aggressively in the fast-growing market for Internet-connected mobile devices. HP has a line of phones called the iPAQ, but it had one-tenth of 1 percent of the worldwide cell phone market last year, according to IDC. HP shipped just 100,000 units.
Against Blackberry and the iPhone, neither HP nor Palm stood a chance. I had one of the early Palm Pilots and it was truly a helpful device. They just didn’t keep up in terms of features and performance, however, and the advent of the smartphone (which is really the coupling of a PDA with a cell phone into a single device) pretty much killed the market for a standalone PDA overnight. Palm’s attempt to enter that market with the Pre was a good try but way too late to the market to overcome Blackberry and Apple’s lead. (To say nothing of Nokia and Motorola.)
HP can dump a pile of cash into development and they have the computing manufacturing ability to put a quality product on the market, if they choose to do so. We’ll have to see how bad they want it.
April 28th, 2010
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Sarah Palin comments:
The truth is this: by his actions we see a president who seems to be much more comfortable with an American military that isn’t quite so dominant and who feels the need to apologize for America when he travels overseas. Could it be a lack of faith in American exceptionalism? The fact is that America and our allies are safer when we are a dominant military superpower – whether President Obama likes it or not.
Indeed.
April 16th, 2010
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In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus 2 that the whole world should be enrolled.
This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.
While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear. The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord.
(Luke 2)
December 25th, 2009
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I’m out of town traveling for the holidays but I wanted to extend to all of my readers a wish for a very Merry Christmas. May the spirit of the season and the grace of God fill your hearts and homes with the peace and joy of the season.
Merry Christmas to all… and to all a good night.
December 24th, 2009
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Via Bearing Drift, we have this great interview segment from Bob McDonnell:
(Video by WTVR-TV Richmond, Channel 6 News. Excellent embeddable video, guys, well done!)
September 4th, 2009
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Former Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) has been convicted in federal court on several counts including bribery and money laundering:
A former U.S. congressman was convicted Wednesday of taking bribes in a case in which agents found $90,000 in his freezer.
Former Rep. William Jefferson, a Democrat who had represented parts of New Orleans, was accused of accepting more than $400,000 in bribes and seeking millions more in exchange for brokering business deals in Africa. A federal jury convicted him on 11 of 16 counts, including bribery, racketeering and money laundering.
Interesting conviction, considering the moves various Congresscritters took to distract attention away from Jefferson’s criminal activity. It’s nice to see that a jury of American citizens had better priorities.
August 6th, 2009
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And this time it’s not a joke. At the moment I’m borrowing a connection at Fairfax Hospital recovering from a cardiac stent insertion. I should be OK but that’s where I’ve been the past 4 days.
More in a day or so.
May 1st, 2009
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That line out of the commonly-known Miranda warning won’t be in there much longer if the Obama administration has their way. I noted this back on Thursday but didn’t have much of a chance to comment until now. The case in question is Michigan v. Jackson which was appealed to the Supreme Court in 1986. In that case, the Court ruled that police were not allowed to initiate questioning of a suspect who has asked for a lawyer until that lawyer is present. The administration’s position is that the Court should overturn that ruling.
The justices could decide as early as Friday whether they want to hear arguments on the issue as they wrestle with an ongoing case from Louisiana that involves police questioning of an indigent defendant that led to a murder confession and a death sentence.
The Justice Department, in a brief signed by Solicitor General Elena Kagan, said the 1986 decision “serves no real purpose” and offers only “meager benefits.” The government said defendants who don’t wish to talk to police don’t have to and that officers must respect that decision. But it said there is no reason a defendant who wants to should not be able to respond to officers’ questions.
At the same time, the administration acknowledges that the decision “only occasionally prevents federal prosecutors from obtaining appropriate convictions.”
Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air wrote on this on Friday saying that the only outlet covering this was a British paper. Apparently he missed the Fox News story I’ve linked. His primary complaint, however, is spot on:
Can you imagine what the outcry over this would have been had President John McCain, or for that matter President George W. Bush, had tried this? Newspapers around the nation would have decried his assault on civil liberties. PFAW and the ACLU would have staged rallies in every American city, and they would have called Bush, McCain, or any other Republican a fascist for denying legal counsel to people under police questioning. We’d have an endless line of appearances on television news programs from people who got coerced into false confessions after having been denied counsel.
Indeed. The story I’ve linked speaks of how “disappointed” civil-rights groups are but there’s been precious little they’ve had to say on the matter. Were this happening just 6 months ago, it would’ve been “outraged” not “disappointed” and there’d be an endless litany from the media instead of just this 1 story.
It’s almost as though all that concern about people’s civil rights were just political smokescreens. Hmmm.
April 26th, 2009
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Back in 2005 President Bush signed the Lawful Commerce in Arms Act which was passed to prohibit frivolous lawsuits like those filed by the City of New York and Washington, DC that sought to hold gun manufacturers responsible for criminal acts committed by 3rd parties who happened to use their products in their crimes.
In the face of legislation, duly passed and signed into law, that explicitly stated that any such lawsuits currently ongoing were to be dismissed, a New York judge ruled to allow one to continue. The manufacturers appealed and the US 2nd Court of Appeals ruled in their favor, overturning the lower court. NYC appealed that one to the Supreme Court. Today, the Court declined without comment to hear the case.
This looks to be the end for the NYC & DC lawsuits filed against several firearm manufacturers claiming that their legal products create a nuisance for the City. From (ironically) Bloomberg News:
The U.S. Supreme Court left intact lower court decisions shielding Smith & Wesson Holding Corp., Sturm, Ruger & Co. and other gunmakers from lawsuits pressed by New York City and shooting victims in Washington, D.C.
The justices, without comment, rejected appeals that sought to revive the two suits and challenged the constitutionality of a federal law signed in 2005 by then-President George W. Bush to protect the industry from a wave of lawsuits.
The New York and Washington suits were among dozens that sought to hold the firearms industry accountable for urban violence, claiming that manufacturers knew their weapons would fall into the hands of criminals. Most of those suits have been dismissed.
The New York suit, filed in 2000 by then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, sought court-ordered changes to industry practices to keep illegal guns out of the city. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York rejected the suit last year, overturning a trial judge.
And that, folks, should be the end of the matter. The law was passed by the people’s representatives and now has been held to be completely Constitutional. I hope this puts all of those lawsuits still hanging around on judicial life-support out of our misery.
March 10th, 2009
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