Friday, March 17, 2006

give some love to Eliot

I hope this guy is seriously considering a presidential run in 2008:

A federal appeals court today overturned the Environmental Protection Agency's attempt to exempt power plants, refineries and other pollution sources from Clean Air Act rules that require them to install costly new pollution controls whenever they make changes that increase their emissions...

"We decline such a world view," said the unanimous decision of a three-judge panel that included Judge Janice Rogers Brown, a conservative appointed last summer by President Bush...

Plaintiffs in the case — more than a dozen states, including New York and California, and a large group of environmental organizations — hailed the decision as one of the most important in years for environmental protection. The law governs more than 800 power plants around the country as well as 17,000 factories, refineries and chemical plants.

"This is an enormous victory over the concerted efforts by the Bush administration to dismantle the Clean Air Act," Attorney General Eliot Spitzer of New York, whose office argued the case for the states, said in an interview. "It shows that the administration's effort to misinterpret and undermine the statute is illegal."


This is really good news for kids around the country - cleaner air means less asthma and longer lives. A cookie for Justice
Brown, too.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

I love Chinese food....

...but this menu may be a little exotic, even for me!

From The Department of Poor Translations, with hat tip to PZ Myers at Pharyngula.

Friday, March 10, 2006

"winter of our discontent"

Heh heh:

More and more people, particularly Republicans, disapprove of President Bush's performance, question his character and no longer consider him a strong leader against terrorism, according to an AP-Ipsos poll documenting one of the bleakest points of his presidency.

Nearly four out of five Americans, including 70 percent of Republicans, believe civil war will break out in Iraq - the bloody hot spot upon which Bush has staked his presidency. Nearly 70 percent of people say the U.S. is on the wrong track, a 6-point jump since February.

"Obviously, it's the winter of our discontent," said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla.


Another pony for Holden!

But the real question continues to be - with everything finally spiralling down the shitter, will the Dems finally grow enough spine to start acting like a real opposition party, and a real alternative to the incompetence and corruption now rampant?

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

not funny

Teh stoopid:

Three college students from the prosperous suburbs south of Birmingham, two of them 19 and one 20, were arrested today in the burning of nine Baptist churches in rural Alabama last month that federal officials say was a prank that spun out of control....

The identities of the accused came as a surprise to investigators, who had speculated that the arsons were the work of people intimately familiar with the remote rural roads where the fires were set, not products of Birmingham's upper-middle class, one the son of a doctor and another of a county constable.


You would have thought that their parents would have taught them better. Maybe not. Listen, this "people intimately familiar with the remote rural roads" shit is code for "we thought we were looking for someone of a particular social class" that doesn't inlcude sons of doctors. Sorry! Since when are ignorance and stupidity in short supply on college campuses? And can't we all name a particular case of a ne'er-do-well scion of a prominent family, who screws up everything he's ever tried as an adult, and smirks as if he thinks its all a joke?

Oh well, all three are adults - throw the book at 'em! Having a prison record may save us a lot of pain later, say, if any of these three should ever decide to run for public office.

another new species

Actually, an entire new family and genus had to be created for this cool creature:



Remember the mnemonic: King Philip chases old, fat Girl Scouts - Kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species. This animal (kingdom) is an arthopod (phylum) crustacean (subphylum) of class malacostraca and order decapoda, family Kiwaida, genus Kiwa, species hirsuta. I'm skipping the subclasses, suborders, infraorders, superfamilies here - the crustaceans look like they are pretty complicated, taxonomically speaking. Check out the Integrated Taxonomic Information System sometime, it is kewl.

Anyway, there are probably lots more creatures like this in the deep oceans, still waiting to be discovered. Lets hope we don't kill them all off by acidifying the oceans to death, first.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Ummmm, guys....

...this is something you all pretty much take for granted.

All freedoms proceed from the right to bodily integrity; none are assured without that first freedom.


True from 'Gitmo to Pierre.

So, y'all are going to bank some spunk and go get a vasectomy so you don't get anyone pregnant unless you both decide in advance that a child is the intended result, right?

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Women, get ready

First, go read this:

Section 1. The Legislature accepts and concurs with the conclusion of the South Dakota Task Force to Study Abortion, based upon written materials, scientific studies, and testimony of witnesses presented to the task force, that life begins at the time of conception, a conclusion confirmed by scientific advances since the 1973 decision of Roe v. Wade, including the fact that each human being is totally unique immediately at fertilization.....

Section 2. That chapter 22-17 be amended by adding thereto a NEW SECTION to read as follows:
No person may knowingly administer to, prescribe for, or procure for, or sell to any pregnant woman any medicine, drug, or other substance with the specific intent of causing or abetting the termination of the life of an unborn human being. No person may knowingly use or employ any instrument or procedure upon a pregnant woman with the specific intent of causing or abetting the termination of the life of an unborn human being.
Any violation of this section is a Class 5 felony.
Section 3. That chapter 22-17 be amended by adding thereto a NEW SECTION to read as follows:
Nothing in section 2 of this Act may be construed to prohibit the sale, use, prescription, or administration of a contraceptive measure, drug or chemical, if it is administered prior to the time when a pregnancy could be determined through conventional medical testing and if the contraceptive measure is sold, used, prescribed, or administered in accordance with manufacturer instructions.


Not sure I whether I believe that last part; it would allow the use of the "morning-after" pill.

If this worries you as it does me, go read this. It may soon be time for the Jane's Collectives to start up again, because Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, Alito, or any legislative body don't own or wombs, no matter what they might like to think.