URLs du Jour

2022-03-18

  • Fill in the blank: "Biden is in         denial" Kim Strassel has today's answer: Biden Is in Climate Denial.

    Republicans know it. The European left knows it. Joe Manchin knows it. Even some of the Beltway press knows it. Now let’s see how long it takes Joe Biden to recognize that the Ukraine war has reset energy politics and that his climate agenda risks dooming his party this fall.

    He certainly hasn’t sussed it out yet. The Joe Biden who showed up Monday at his first in-person fundraiser as president sounded like a man in a time warp. “Let me begin by saying: [Climate change] is the existential threat to humanity,” he opened, proceeding to recite an environmental agenda identical to the one he campaigned on. Ukraine got one mention, and only then as further reason why Americans (among other things) need to “weatherize homes and businesses.”

    Our Getty image du jour is of a recent march by "climate activists". Among their demands, you'll note, is to "Stop the MVP". That's the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a nearly-completed 304-mile natural gas conduit that's been held up by legal wrangling over a 3.5 mile segment that crosses Jefferson National Forest in Virginia.

    I have no idea whether President Wheezy will continue his hostility toward domestic energy production. Part of me would enjoy watching him and his fellow Democrats continue their electoral kamikaze mission toward November. However, I have an aversion to becoming a bastard freezing to death in the dark.

    Yes, I'm old enough to remember that slogan on bumper stickers back in the 1970s.


  • But talking about a 1970s flashback: At Reason, Robby Soave finds a reason to cheer: The Senate Unanimously Voted To Make Daylight Savings Time Permanent, a Great Idea.

    In a rare example of Congress doing something that isn't totally useless or foolish, the Senate voted Tuesday to make Daylight Saving Time permanent. Impressively, the vote was unanimous.

    Sen. Marco Rubio (R–Fla.), one of the bill's cosponsors, hailed its passage as a step in the right direction.

    "Just this past weekend, we all went through that biannual ritual of changing the clock back and forth, and the disruption that comes with it," he said in a statement. "And one has to ask themselves after a while, 'Why do we keep doing it? Why are we doing this?' "

    Sure, but leave it to the long-memoried party-pooping folks at the Washingtonian to remind us: The US Tried Permanent Daylight Saving Time in the '70s. People Hated It.

    If you're interested, Scott Lincicome, in an article from October 2021, said that Rubio had the right idea, but the wrong solution, which would be #EndDST. Jeff Jacoby is also in favor: Heed the science and abolish daylight savings time.

    My own (admittedly radical, and hopelessly unrealistic) solution here: the complete separation of time and state; we should all just use UTC. (Since I wrote that post back in 2013, Steve Hanke and Christopher Arena came out in favor as well.)


  • I'm more of a "despiser" than a "hater". But Dan McLaughlin has no compunction about using the H-word: President Woodrow Wilson: A Hater's Guide. And, yes, this kind of continues the previous item:

    [NRPLUS] If you were dragging getting out of bed to start this week, thank Woodrow Wilson. Daylight saving time is just one of a battery of ways that Wilson and his presidency changed America, most of them for the worse.

    I come now not to explain Wilson, but to hate him. A national consensus on hating Wilson is long overdue. It is the patriotic duty of every decent American. While conservatives have particular reasons to detest Wilson, and all his works, and all his empty promises, there is more than enough in his record for moderates, liberals, progressives, libertarians, and socialists to join us in this great and unifying cause.

    The phrase "human pile of flaming trash" is invoked. These days, the "racist" slur is applied with a very broad brush, but Wilson was the real deal. And that's only one reason why he should live in infamy.


  • Like Emily Litella, but much slower to say "never mind". Glenn Greenwald notes: The NYT Now Admits the Biden Laptop -- Falsely Called "Russian Disinformation" -- is Authentic

    One of the most successful disinformation campaigns in modern American electoral history occurred in the weeks prior to the 2020 presidential election. On October 14, 2020 — less than three weeks before Americans were set to vote — the nation's oldest newspaper, The New York Post, began publishing a series of reports about the business dealings of the Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, in countries in which Biden, as Vice President, wielded considerable influence (including Ukraine and China) and would again if elected president.

    The backlash against this reporting was immediate and intense, leading to suppression of the story by U.S. corporate media outlets and censorship of the story by leading Silicon Valley monopolies. The disinformation campaign against this reporting was led by the CIA's all-but-official spokesperson Natasha Bertrand (then of Politico, now with CNN), whose article on October 19 appeared under this headline: “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say.”

    Another thing to bring up when people gripe about America's cratering trust in the MSM and "Big Tech". It's a self-inflicted wound.

    [The Emily Litella reference too obscure? Educate yourself! Yes, another 1970s flashback.]


  • The most NPR headline ever? Well, it's definitely high on the list: NASA says it can't put the first person of color on the moon until at least 2025.

    As he announced the slower timeline, [NASA Administrator Bill] Nelson emphasized the project's main goals: to put U.S. astronauts back on the moon.

    "The human landing system is a crucial part of our work to get the first woman and first person of color to the lunar surface, and we are getting geared up to go," he said.

    Yes, getting those checkboxes checked is a NASA Official Goal.

    I came across that article while checking the latest Artemis news: the Space Launch System (SLS) with Orion capsule atop rolled out to the launchpad last night. Launch is scheduled for "no earlier than May". The capsule will not be crewed by humans of any color or sex.

    Recommended reading: Get rid of NASA's bloated bureaucracy.