EdDriscoll.com

Posted 2/1/2003 08:52:51 PM by Edward Driscoll
SICK: While Iraq's statement was by far the vilest reaction to come out of Saturday's tragedy, it wasn't the only reaction in poor taste. Check out this headline: "Purported Shuttle Debris Offered on eBay". Speaking of sick, apparently a fan (or employee) of Howard Stern apparently called CBS, was put through to Dan Rather, clamed that a piece of a piece of shuttle debris had landed in his back yard,but he then realized it was only one of "Ba Ba Booey's" teeth. (Ba Ba Booey is the nickname for Gary Dell'Abate, Stern's sidekick, who does indeed have a prominent set of mandibles). According to this news article, "Sadly, anchor Dan Rather did not at first recognize the cheap joke. But Rather overall was not at his best, overemotional and salting his comments with readings from poems like Bivouac of the Dead and Tennyson's Locksley Hall." UPDATE: Eric Lindholm has more on the Howard Stern debacle at Blogcritics.

Posted 2/1/2003 02:34:51 PM by Edward Driscoll
"THE ZIPPER EFFECT": Glenn Reynolds writes:

it looks like a zipper effect followed by burnthrough and structural damage, leading to the loss of the left wing. They're reporting anomalous heat sensor readings, loss of tire pressure in the main gear on that side, and so on. The shuttle can tolerate the loss of a tile or two. But when the integrity of the tile cover is breached, tiles can be pulled off one after another -- hence the term "zipper effect." Then enough heat can penetrate through in sufficient quantity to destroy or weaken what's underneath. This is a well-understood possibility, so expect a quick resolution (by the standards of these kinds of things) if the evidence continues to point this way.

And Virginia Postrel adds, "For TV cameras to catch the first pieces breaking off the shuttle, those pieces had to be much larger than mere tiles." Before I headed out around noon for some errands, I caught someone on TV saying that this flight didn't have a robot arm in the payload bay--so there was no way for the astronauts to inspect for any damage on the bottom of the orbiter caused during liftoff. UPDATE: Here's an AP article, covering the same basic territory.

Posted 2/1/2003 12:17:58 PM by Edward Driscoll
MACABRE SYNCHRONICITY: About ten minutes ago, a small brown and gray swallow just flew into the sliding glass door of my patio, hiting it very hard and badly wounding himself. My wife and I, after talking over the options, decided, for better or worse, to put him out of his misery. What an awful day.

Posted 2/1/2003 12:03:25 PM by Edward Driscoll
WELL, YOU KNEW THIS ONE WAS COMING: "Iraqis Call Shuttle Disaster God's Vengeance". Unfortunately (and yes, I know, they're just the messengers), it's via Reuters, the "news agency", and ABCNEWS.com, home of that true friend of Israel, Peter Jennings. UPDATE: Rod Dreher writes:

Dan Rather quoted a Reuters dispatch, datelined Baghdad, quoting Iraqis saying that the Columbia disaster was a great thing, that Allah was avenging Iraq. It's probably better not to say what one really thinks when hearing that. But consider this: America and Israel both suffered tremendous shock and loss this morning. Yet it is good to think about the incredible technological and scientific progress made by free men and women in America and Israel, and the ways Americans and Israelis have put that progress to use for the betterment of their peoples, and indeed for all mankind. What Islamic country can make the same boast? What good have Iraqi scientists done for their country, and the world? Many of those states put their technology to use building virtually nothing but instruments of death, war and destruction. By their fruits ye shall know them.

Posted 2/1/2003 11:50:37 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE PRESIDENT'S SPEECH.

Posted 2/1/2003 10:58:53 AM by Edward Driscoll
OF THE CREW OF COLUMBIA, Orrin Judd writes, "you look at that crew--an Israeli, two women, a black pilot, and a native of India--it puts into perspective some of the complaints you hear about what a racist or sexist or whatever society we are. Who would not choose to be their countryman?" The Brothers Judd also have lots of links to additional information.

Posted 2/1/2003 10:37:32 AM by Edward Driscoll
STEPHEN GREEN WRITES:

The Space Shuttle fleet? Grounded, I assume, maybe permanently. The International Space Station? I honestly don't know. Can we keep it manned and supplied without the shuttle? NASA has some serious questions to answer. As I see it, the big issue isn't how today's particular tragedy happened. Instead, we should ask why we're still flying old trucks based on mostly on '60s technology. I know budget cuts are part of the problem, but the bigger problem seems to be a lack of vision at our civilian space agency. Give us a vision, and chances are we'll give you your budget. Show us a real space-age space plane, and we'll show you the money. Or maybe it's our fault, for not having demanded more. The Cold War started us into space. The current war couldn't keep us from continuing to go. So we'll bury our dead and move on. Sadder, wiser, more determined.

Posted 2/1/2003 10:21:51 AM by Edward Driscoll
CNN JUST RAN A STATEMENT FROM EARLIER IN THE WEEK by the Columbia's commander, Col. Rick Husband to commemorate the deaths of the crews of Apollo I and Challenger. And Fox just interviewed Israel's ambassador to the US, who mentioned this drawing, carried by Col. Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut. UPDATE: Rod Dreher has some thoughts on that drawing, and its meaning.

Posted 2/1/2003 10:11:32 AM by Edward Driscoll
GOOGLE NEWS HAS LINKS to articles about the Columbia disaster. As does Sgt. Stryker, who also has links to live video feeds.

Posted 2/1/2003 10:07:14 AM by Edward Driscoll
DALE AMON OF SAMIZDATA HAS SOME THOUGHTS:

I suggest there was damage to the TPS on one wing, causing a burn through and structural damage leading to failure of the wing structure when aerodynamic forces built. The shuttle has very high wing loading, so any loss of margin would be disastrous. If one wing fails, the shuttle will immediately roll violently into the direction of the failed wing followed by god only knows what sort of tumble. It would break up into major components almost immediately. That is what we saw on the clip. There would be very little fuel on board. Only some remnants of RCS fuel, a lot of hypergolics for the APU and perhaps a small left over from the reentry burn. Almost all off this is at the extreme rear in the two lumpy bits either side of the vertical stabilizer. A second scenario is catastrophic failure of the APU's taking out all the hydraulics just when they are needed the most. With or without structural damage directly caused by such a failure, the shuttle will go into uncontrolled tumble and breakup. A third scenario is fatigue failure. I don't feel this is likely, but if so we can kiss our manned space access goodbye. I give almost zero credence to ideas of terrorism being involved. Ten years ago predictions were for the loss of one more shuttle during the space station construction, just by pure probability ("If it's not one damn thing, it's another"). We all prayed we'd continue winning on the dice toss but ultimately knew we'd roll snake eyes.

Posted 2/1/2003 09:52:39 AM by Edward Driscoll
VIRGINIA POSTREL HAS SOME COMMENTS.

Posted 2/1/2003 08:37:55 AM by Edward Driscoll
SPACEFLIGHT NOW is doing realtime posting of updates.

Posted 2/1/2003 08:02:49 AM by Edward Driscoll
SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA is out of communication and lost from radar. Glenn Reynolds is all over the story. UPDATE: Rand Simberg has some informed speculation on what might have happened. (Keyword however, is speculation, as Simberg himself notes.)

Posted 1/31/2003 11:11:32 AM by Edward Driscoll
DENNIS MILLER: Conservative (or at least libertarian) hero. Here is are some of riffs from Wednesday's Tonight Show with Jay Leno:

-- �Sean Penn, for instance, is urging restraint. What could we possibly say to Sean to get him on board? If only Saddam Hussein was a paparazzi.� (Penn once punched a photographer.) -- �The only way the French are going in is if we tell them we found truffles in Iraq.� -- �The French are always reticent to surrender to the wishes of their friends and always more than willing to surrender to the wishes of their enemies.� He also took on liberals for opposing school vouchers when public schools are a disaster and offered this blast at the ACLU's priorities: �The ACLU spent this entire holiday season protesting public displays of the nativity scene. Yeah, that's the problem with America right now: Public displays of Christ's birth, that's the problem. It's unbelievable to me. The ACLU will no longer fight for your right to put up a nativity scene, but they'll fight for the right of the local freak who wants to stumble onto the scene and have sex with one of the sheep.�

I always loved Miller when he hosted "Weekend Update" on SNL. He's been the only successful replacement to Chevy Chase's original stint as "anchorman" (27 years ago, when Chase was actually funny). And I guess spending all that time around Al Michaels when the two hosted Monday Night Football really paid off.

Posted 1/31/2003 09:53:46 AM by Edward Driscoll
I THINK YOU MISSED IT, FRANK: "World champion chess computer software program Deep Junior pounced on a glaring error by Garry Kasparov Thursday to draw level with the Russian grandmaster half-way through their six-game match in New York." (Hal, and Frank Poole, couldn't be reached for comment.)

Posted 1/31/2003 09:48:49 AM by Edward Driscoll
HERE AT EDDRISCOLL.COM, we try to avoid material that would be of prurient interest. We endeavor, always, to maintain a high level of dignity, and an even, proper tone. Therefore, we would never offer a link to something as crude, boorish and in poor taste as this cartoon is. It just wouldn't be our...style. So please don't open the above link (found via Stephen Green) whatever you do. Thank you.

Posted 1/31/2003 09:18:33 AM by Edward Driscoll
MORE STUPIDITY BY DAIMLERCHRYSLER: What are these guys thinking?? Here's our previous coverage.

Posted 1/30/2003 10:37:37 PM by Edward Driscoll
PHIL OF IT: "CPO Sparkey" of Team Stryker has Phil Donahue's number down cold:

The reason why Phil's new show has done so badly is because the people can see that the "the godfather of talk TV" has no clothes. Bill O'Reilley doesn't pander; he calls people to account for their words, doesn't let them evade questions or go on filibusters to prevent others from talking, and to stop such tactics Bill must interrupt them. This often shocks Pundits et al. of the left who've grown used to being slow-pitched by like-thinking journalists. When I saw Barney Frank red with rage on Bill's show one night, I could imagine him thinking, "You're only supposed to only do this to THEM!" You can call it rude, but I call it compelling TV journalism. Another quote from [Bruce Kluger of USA Today's] hit-piece:
Therein lies the problem: Donahue has not lost one bit of smarts since his heyday. American TV has.
That's the problem with so many on the left: they're bigots. They think that most everyone in flyover country is an uneducated rube. Honestly, Phil's tactics are well known, just ask Neal Boortz. Yet, when the people start to see the snake oil salesmen for what they are, it's not the message or the messenger, but the receiver who's at fault for not accepting the message. It's obvious to me, anyway, that such left-leaning pundits really only care about the "right" kind of people.

In the article by Kluger that Sparkey quotes, he writes, "Donahue is the Obi-Wan Kenobi of conversation: genuine, affable, well mannered and well informed...." But Obi-Wan was killed by a stronger version of one his peers, wasn't he? I guess the symbolism holds up: O'Donahue is number one in the cable TV ratings and Phil may be collecting unemployment checks in the not-too-distant future.

Posted 1/30/2003 10:14:16 PM by Edward Driscoll
KEEPING KIFFIN: The Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers have very wisely given an a new three-year contract to Monte Kiffin, their defensive mastermind. One of the interesting, and I'm not sure if expected, byproducts of free agency and the salary cap has been the increase of importance in NFL coaches--both head coaches, and their assistants. Once a team reaches the Super Bowl, it's going to be disassembled because teams can't afford to keep their players. So the only consistency is going to come from their coaching staffs. Very wise of the Bucs not to let Kiffen go.

Posted 1/30/2003 09:48:35 PM by Edward Driscoll
SMART HOMES FOR BLOGGERS: While we kick politics around every day here, my primary metier (hey, if Nicholson can use it in Chinatown, I can too...) is writing about technology, including home automation and home theater. My review of one of my favorite home automation books, and some suggested additional reading, is now up on on Blogcritics. UPDATE: In a nice bit of syncronicity, James Lileks' latest Bleat--inspired by a visit to a renovated 1970s shopping mall-- also looks at technology and the future (as well as all the possible futures of the past):

The Mission style was the vanguard of its day, as was the International Style, as was the Mall design of the 70s; they were all a taste of things to come presented for our approval. But now we don�t know what the future is supposed to look like. Ever seen the front of those machines they use to bore subway tunnels? Concentric rings of sharp teeth gobbling and moving, gobbling and moving. That�s the culture we live in now - it consumes today as it bores towards tomorrow, and it�s always fixed on the next six inches it needs to eat. Maybe it�s just me, but it seems as if we stopped looking ten, twenty years ahead, stopped conjuring up these worlds in which everything looked new and improved. If that�s so: why? Perhaps it�s because the present makes those old visions of the future look infantile and silly. We�re not wearing one-piece jumpsuits and taking meals from a pill-dispensing machines, or flying off to work on jetpacks. We have the stuff that counts. We have computers and communicators; we have a global information network, a space station, robot war machines, cybernetic implants. And we still wear jeans and eat hamburgers, and Elvis had a number one song in Airstrip One last year. The very idea of the future is undergoing a renovation - it�s not a city on the other side of a wall. The best lesson may be this: there is no wall. In the end the very idea of �The Future� may turn out to be a 20th century conceit, the reason the globe churned itself up fighting one rancid conception of utopia after the other. The future is back to being what it always was: an accumulation of tomorrows, not a wholesale refutation of today. Now we�re fighting the ultimate futurists: men who concept of the future denies the idea of progress. Their future is a snake biting its tail. Our future: sitting in an early 20th century chair in a mid-century mall connecting to the wireless network with your laptop to make revisions on a project due next summer. It�s not necessarily an inspiring vision; it does not seek to remake mankind and perfect its impurities. It does not promise heaven on earth. But this only means that tens of millions won�t be sacrificed in a lunatic attempt to bring it about.

Exactly.

Posted 1/30/2003 03:39:26 PM by Edward Driscoll
STANDING ROOM ONLY: Al Sharpton sure can pack 'em in! The caption reads:

"Democratic presidential hopeful Rev. Al Sharpton responds to President Bush's State of the Union address during a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2003. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)"

Charles may have been the only person in the room, besides Sharpton. No word yet on what he thought of Sharpton's speech. (Link found via Reason's Hit & Run blog.)

Posted 1/30/2003 01:48:46 PM by Edward Driscoll
AXIS OF JACKHAMMERS: Sorry for the lack of posting this morning. We've begun some fairly extensive remodeling on the house, and this morning was complete chaos, as big portions of our garage floor, and front and rear sidewalks were jackhammered into oblivion to begin the first phase of work. Mr. Blandings, I feel for you.

Posted 1/30/2003 11:18:33 AM by Edward Driscoll
SECURITY AND PATRIOTISM UPDATES: Dave Barry is on the case, explaining what happened to my trousers.

Posted 1/29/2003 09:00:33 PM by Edward Driscoll
HAS AMERICA BECOME REDNECK NATION? My review of Michael Graham's new book is online at Blogcritics.

Posted 1/29/2003 05:54:11 PM by Edward Driscoll
TEMPEST IN A DIXIE CUP: Interesting little dust-up created by a pro-Communist site called Counterspin regarding InstaPundit and myself. Here's the Professor's response. Click on over to Counterspin from it, and you'll see our name briefly mentioned, as well as a link to the original InstaPundit post that started everything. Counterspin seems to have confused me with James Lileks, whose thoughts on A.N.S.W.E.R. I was quoting (and clearly labeled as such), which is awesome company to associated with--maybe I can borrow a cup or two of chops from him.

Posted 1/29/2003 01:32:55 PM by Edward Driscoll
A TALE OF TWO STAR TREKS: Flak Magazine compares Starship Exeter, which was made for $1.98 and a lot of love, to Star Trek: Nemesis, which was budgeted at 70 million dollars. Guess which comes out the winner?

Posted 1/29/2003 11:10:27 AM by Edward Driscoll
IT'S NOW OR NEVILLE: Rod Dreher links to this New York Times report, and writes, "European intelligence services are finding evidence that Islamic militants throughout the continent are preparing a wave of poison attacks and other assaults on Europe in the event of war with Iraq. This would explain, in part, the reluctance of Europeans to support the coming war. But you have to wonder: do you people really think you can appease these Islamofascist bastards forever?"

Posted 1/29/2003 10:11:47 AM by Edward Driscoll
DAVE, I'M AFRAID: The San Jose Business Journal says, "Your computer could be killing you" (Link via Matt Drudge.) Almost makes you want to take up smoking, instead!

Posted 1/29/2003 10:01:01 AM by Edward Driscoll
WE'RE GOING IT ALONE IN IRAQ. Just us and... ...over 12 other countries. Patrick Ruffini has the list, which is growing. UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal has assembled quotes by eight of their leaders.

Posted 1/29/2003 02:15:01 AM by Edward Driscoll
BAN THE BOMB: UN inspectors uncover proof of Saddam's nuclear bomb plans, according to the UK Telegraph. Meanwhile, England's Independent reports that Iraq has admitted possessing four empty chemical warheads in addition to the 11 empty warheads it said had not been disclosed to UN weapons inspectors because of an "oversight".

Posted 1/29/2003 01:24:06 AM by Edward Driscoll
KEITH RICHARDS IS A MAGNIFICENT BASTARD, according to Dean Esmay. After reading Esmay's post, I'm very much inclined to agree!

Posted 1/29/2003 01:16:10 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE ART OF PLAY CALLING IN THE NFL: Good analysis of an underappreciated art by Dan Pompei of the Sporting News.

Posted 1/29/2003 01:08:01 AM by Edward Driscoll
WHAT HAPPENED TO BUY LOW, SELL HIGH? David Frum writes:

Two years ago, I would have predicted that Social Security reform would take precedence over healthcare, if only because conservative ideas about Social Security were so much more developed than those about health. The collapse of the stock market seems to have changed that � and it now looks as if Social Security is to be shoved off to the indefinite future.

He's probably right, but why? How difficult would it be for George W. Bush to look Congress dead in the eye and say:

"We need to get going on this now. The stock market is off its historic highs, which means most stocks are on sale. And as those stocks begin to rise (and they will, if you pass my tax cuts, etc.), those members of the American public who chose to own them in their Social Security plans instead of getting three percent on Treasury Bonds will have that much more of a head start for when they retire."

I don't think that's too difficult a concept for most people to get. So why can't a Republican president put his mouth where his money is?

Posted 1/29/2003 12:32:15 AM by Edward Driscoll
COMPARE AND CONTRAST THESE TWO DRUDGE HEADLINES: CBS News Post-Speech Poll Gives Bush Major Boost... Veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas: W. Bush 'is the worst president in all of American history'... Helen, here's a fork; you're done. UPDATE: James Taranto writes, in Best of the Web Today:

Helen Thomas, American journalism's crazy old aunt in the attic, apparently is quoted in the Torrance (Calif.) Daily Breeze as saying President Bush "is the worst president in all of American history." We say "apparently" because we haven't actually been able to click through to the link; readers of the Drudge Report seem to have overwhelmed the Breeze's servers. The Wall Street Journal Survey on Presidents, conducted in 2000, found that James Buchanan, who served one term (1857-61) ranked as the worst president in American history. Unfortunately, we're not old enough to remember how Helen Thomas covered his administration.

Heh.

Posted 1/28/2003 11:17:20 PM by Edward Driscoll
STEVEN DEN BESTE IS NOT HAPPY: He's dubbed Bush's speech the "State of the Weasel" address. UPDATE: Stephen Green begs to differ:

The UN, it sounds to me, can choose either to be a part of the existing coalition, or it can go get screwed -- perhaps at their new HQ in Geneva. (OK, so I read some wishful thinking in there at the end.) In any case, I'm more reassured now than I was a week ago, not less.

We'll see. Let's just say I like Lileks' opinion that this speech is the first of a processional, rather than Den Beste's take, but that could purely be wishful thinking on my part. Check back in two or three weeks--we'll know by then. UPDATE: Steven's feeling better about things, after a night's sleep and a lot of email and thinking.

Posted 1/28/2003 11:12:11 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE PROCESSION: One more quote from Lileks. I think he's absolutely right that the SOTU speech is is the first of several comming in short succession, with a definite pattern and buildup in mind:

Compared to last year, an underwhelming speech - but the more I think about it the less that bothers me; it�s probably the right speech for the time. Hard bones to gnaw, not fresh meat you can chomp and bolt. This will be seen as the first of four speeches - the SOTU, the Bush/Blair speech, Powell�s UN speech, and Bush�s address from the Oval Office the night the war begins. I think it was written with that procession in mind, which might explain its tenor.

Posted 1/28/2003 11:07:38 PM by Edward Driscoll
JOE CAMEL: I'd call the following paragraphs the money quote from James Lileks' coverage of the SOTU, but that would mean I'd miss the ten other money quotes:

Defeating Iraq isn�t the camel�s nose in the tent - it�s the camel�s head in the bed of every other Arab leader. Let's say I'm a 44-year old Iraqi man with a two-year old girl and a wife who worked in the Ministry of Justice and came home every day weeping because someone else had been taken away, I would hear this speech and be filled with piercing fear and incandescent hope and the two emotions would wrestle every day until it was over. When you think about it, a postwar Iraq might actually be safer from WMD than New York City. It�ll be over for them. We�ve no idea when it�ll be over for us.

Read the whole thing. (Nice shot of USAF Gen. B. Turgidson, by the way!)

Posted 1/28/2003 09:51:57 PM by Edward Driscoll
BETTER THAN A FOOT MASSAGE: Jules and Vincent rap about the UN, and "the little differences" there. I'll have a Royale--hold the sarin--to go.

Posted 1/28/2003 09:40:04 PM by Edward Driscoll
VERY WISE OF THE PRESIDENT to place InstaPundit deep within NORAD before the SOTU speech. But don't they have LAN jacks there?

Posted 1/28/2003 09:13:51 PM by Edward Driscoll
WHILE HE HAD NEVER VOTED REPUBLICAN IN HIS LIFE, Sgt. Stryker explains why he voted for Bush. And he had very, very personal reasons for doing so.

Posted 1/28/2003 08:58:42 PM by Edward Driscoll
BILL PARCELS IS PUTTING TOGETHER the blueprint for the Dallas Cowboys.

Posted 1/28/2003 08:48:47 PM by Edward Driscoll
1986's THE STATE OF THE UNION, when President Reagan spoke of the Challenger disater, as well as the deaths of other great explorers, is remember by Arthur Silber.

Posted 1/28/2003 08:39:49 PM by Edward Driscoll
SOTU: Want wall-to-wall State of the Union Coverage? Click here for Patrick Ruffini, here for Orrin Judd, and here for Laurence Simon. (I'll add a link to Glenn Reynolds when he's posted his comments.) As for the Democrats' response, Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Green are in agreement that the Democrats have found, as Jonah writes, the "perfect recipe for minority party status". UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan has posted his comments. In a similar vein to Jonah and Stephen, he writes:

In many ways, this was a Kennedy-like speech, a speech a Democratic president could have made, if the Democratic Party hadn't fallen into such moral and strategic confusion. Self-confident, convinced, as he should be, of the benign nature of America's role in the world, ambitious, and warm, it was a tour de force of big government conservatism, mixed with Cold War liberalism.

UPDATE: Blogging newcomer Dennis Rogers agrees with Cosmo's dad, and VodkaMan. UPDATE: Asparagirl chimes in with a subtle point that Bush made.

Posted 1/28/2003 02:47:16 PM by Edward Driscoll
WAR AGAINST IRAQ...OR HUSSEIN? Patrick Ruffini, linking to the New York Times' article on Saddam's body count that we linked to on Sunday writes:

A "war against Iraq" seems like a dangerously inappropriate term after reading an account like this. This is a war against Saddam, not against Iraq.

It's semantics of course, but I disagree; we're at war with Iraq, simply because Saddam Hussein is Iraq. He controls that nation in toto, just as Hitler controlled the German Reich from 1933 to 1945. And to the extent that the vast majority of armed forces follow their lead, when you're at war with a dictator, you're at war with his country. Of course, once the dictator is removed from power (one way or another), it's another story.

Posted 1/28/2003 02:19:37 PM by Edward Driscoll
I'D LINK TO THIS, but then I'd be proving Janeane Garofalo's point.

Posted 1/28/2003 11:56:56 AM by Edward Driscoll
OFFICIAL "NEWS SOURCE" OF THE AXIS OF WEASELS: Steven Den Beste checks in with "Good old Reuters" and their "Old European" slant on things.

Posted 1/28/2003 11:49:58 AM by Edward Driscoll
CALIFORNIA DREAMIN': What would it take to replace about one-third of the petroleum used in transportation, (approximately 10% of the total energy demand of the U.S.) with wind powered energy? This article in Tech Central Station says that:

To generate that amount of energy, the wind turbines would have to occupy approximately 210,000 square miles of area. That's 25% more than the size of California (assuming all of California were suitable for wind resource siting, which it is not). True, the turbines would be spaced apart so that the wind freely meets the blades, leaving room beyond the footprint of each wind turbine for some limited use. So in a sense, California would not be entirely turbine-towered. But it would not be wilderness, either, owing to power lines, service buildings and roads threading the landscape. Moreover, there would be blade throws, tower topplings, destroyed viewsheds and significant kills of endangered birds such as raptors. Technology has in the past and will continue to go a long way toward solving the problems faced by society. But such enthusiasm for technology needs to be grounded in scientific reality. And wishing that wind power will soon support thriving modern economies won't make it so.

Which is why I chuckled when reading that New York Governor George Pataki has "recently joined a growing chorus calling for a renewable future":

"Within the next 10 years," Pataki said in his recent State of the State Address, "at least 25 percent of the electricity bought in New York will come from renewable energy resources like solar power, wind power, or fuel cells."

The answer my friend...

Posted 1/28/2003 11:11:20 AM by Edward Driscoll
BARRET ROBBINS UPDATE: Robbins, who was the chief source of the Raider's distractions prior to the Super Bowl, is under a suicide watch, according to this ESPN.com article. ESPN quotes a "source close to the Oakland center" who says that Robbins "was believed to have stopped taking his prescription medication for depression 'some time ago.'"

Posted 1/28/2003 11:00:29 AM by Edward Driscoll
IT'S REPORT CARD DAY! Small Victory's sources have snuck out a copy of Saddam's report card. Let's just say that Saddam's grades are made lower by his not playing nicely with others...

Posted 1/28/2003 09:54:48 AM by Edward Driscoll
"JEWISH PRACTICES": Virginia Postrel (recovering from Lasik surgery), highlights a fascinating letter from a reader in Brussels on the long-standing connection between anti-Semitism, anti-free markets and anti-globalization in Germany. Leave it to 1930s Germany to consider "free gifts" in marketing as "Jewish practices". And to 2003 German protesters, to do this.

Posted 1/28/2003 08:55:22 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE MUMIA CONNECTION: Why do antiwar contributions go to Mumia Abu-Jamal�s defenders? Byron York explains. Well, now we know why there are so many "free Mumia" shouts at pro-dictatorship rallies. Will they protest for this guy's release, as well?

Posted 1/28/2003 08:51:52 AM by Edward Driscoll
PROTEST THE WAR, EARN EXTRA CREDIT: "An open letter was recently sent out via e-mail to faculty and staff at the University of California, Santa Barbara by supporters of the �Campus Community Peace Group,� co-organized by two UCSB professors.", according to Stanley Kurtz. Kurtz adds:

The letter suggested that professors offer extra credit to students who attend, and write a report, on anti-war events. In effect, these professors want to use grades as bribes to get students to protest the war. If that isn�t an abuse of professorial power for political purposes, what is?

Good question.

Posted 1/27/2003 09:57:32 PM by Edward Driscoll
"DYNASTY? BUCCANEERS AIN'T JOAN COLLINS": Don't look for them to repeat next year, says Rick Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News.

Posted 1/27/2003 09:31:19 PM by Edward Driscoll
DATA CREEP: Brian Doherty of Reason asks, "If Gunowners are in a Database with Criminals, Then..."

Posted 1/27/2003 06:31:57 PM by Edward Driscoll
CONGRESS DECLARES 2003, "The year of the blues". It usually is, whenever they're in session.

Posted 1/27/2003 04:29:02 PM by Edward Driscoll
CATS AND DOGS: Steven Den Beste is praising Hans Blix. No, really! Den Beste writes:

Credit where credit is due: the Blix report to the Security Council seems to be reasonably truthful and fair. He didn't try to justify or ignore or cover up the fact that Iraq is not actually wholeheartedly cooperating with the disarmament process, and clearly pointed out the fact that the effort to interview Iraqi scientists had been a bust. He pointed out that the 12,000 page report filed by Iraq was nearly all old material, and that little or none of it applied to the years after 1991. He pointed out that there were substantial stocks of weapons known to still exist when the inspectors left in 1998 which had not been accounted for. It is not what I had expected, and I am impressed. It seems to be an accurate appraisal of what has happened, and it is equally clear that it shows that Iraq has not actually embraced this as an opportunity to voluntarily disarm, as it was required to do. * * * In fact, reactions from all over the world were totally predictable. Everyone had already decided what they would say even before Blix and El Baradei made their reports, but with Blix frankly stating that Iraq has not fully cooperated it makes some of those responses seem a bit lame. For instance, Germany's Joschka Fischer stated that "war is no answer" and said that the inspections required more time. I'm told by a friend in Germany that this may well not be Fischer's own opinion, but it doesn't really matter. Germany still opposes war and always will as long as Schroeder is chancellor, unless Germany itself becomes the victim of a major terrorist attack.

In the mid 1980s, Robin Williams used to do a funny routine (back when he really was funny, and before he turned into Mr. Weep-a-Rama in the movies) that because British bobbies were unarmed, all they could do when faced with an armed criminal was to yell "Stop! Or...I'll say 'Stop!', again!" The EU--because they are unarmed bobbies, wants to say the same thing to this armed criminal. Hey France and Germany...it's now or Neville!

Posted 1/27/2003 04:21:35 PM by Edward Driscoll
YOU DON'T SAY! AP headline: "U.S. Moving Toward Showdown With Iraq"

Posted 1/27/2003 04:18:16 PM by Edward Driscoll
TERRY TATE, OFFICE LINEBACKER!!! This was one of the better commercials during the Super Bowl yesterday. James Lileks dubbed it his favorite ad:

One simple idea: huge human meat-anvil is hurled at frail cubicle dweebs, and after he knocks them down he berates them. Hilarious, utterly unconnected to the product, but when it was done I could hear the word REEBOK throbbing in my brain in great loud red letters.

Funny, I was just the opposite--I remembered the ad, but couldn't remember what it was selling. Hope Terry won't pummel me into the not-so-frozen tundra of my backyard because of that.

Posted 1/27/2003 03:55:05 PM by Edward Driscoll
SLOGAN OF THE DAY:

Created by Michael Ubaldi, for his uBlog. Be sure to read the post below it. (Link via Team Stryker.)

Posted 1/27/2003 03:49:00 PM by Edward Driscoll
"ALL THAT PUBLICITY IS A PLOT": Joanne Jacobs has lots of fun deconstructing Janeane Garofalo's theory that the media puts anti-war celebrities on the air only "so they can marginalize the movement".

Posted 1/27/2003 12:52:49 PM by Edward Driscoll
DEAN OF IRONY: George Will writes:

In his speech last week at a Roe v. Wade celebration�a pandering festival attended by all the aspirants�[Howard] Dean said he is running because "I don�t like extremism." Then he said that unless Bush is defeated, "Next thing, girls won�t be able to go to school in America. You watch."

C'mon Howard--that line is so 1986!

Posted 1/27/2003 12:03:23 PM by Edward Driscoll
APOLLO 1: Today is the 36th anniversary of the tragic fire that killed three astronauts, including the second American into space, and the first American to walk in space. Orrin Judd has a contemporaneous news article and a quote from Tom Wolfe. UPDATE: Rand Simberg has more, including this telling line:

A key difference between this accident and the Challenger catastrophe was that in Apollo, we had a goal and a schedule. Accordingly, we dusted ourselves off, analyzed the problem, addressed it, and kept to the schedule. With the Shuttle, the political reality was that there was no particular reason to fly Shuttles--no national commitment would be violated, no vital experiments wouldn't be performed, no objects would fall from the sky on our heads, and no elections would be lost, if the Shuttle didn't fly. So, two and a half years after the Apollo I fire, we landed men on the Moon. Two and a half years after STS 51-L, the fleet was still grounded. It didn't fly again until two years, nine months later.

Maybe this (if it's true) will instill a sense of purpose at NASA for their manned space flights. God knows they need it.

Posted 1/27/2003 10:59:54 AM by Edward Driscoll
WEAPONS OF MASS DISTRACTION: Modern art was used as torture during the Spanish civil war:

A Spanish art historian has uncovered what was alleged to be the first use of modern art as a deliberate form of torture, with the discovery that mind-bending prison cells were built by anarchist artists 65 years ago during the country's bloody civil war. Bauhaus artists such as Kandinsky, Klee and Itten, as well as the surrealist film-maker Luis Bunuel and his friend Salvador Dali, were said to be the inspiration behind a series of secret cells and torture centres built in Barcelona and elsewhere, yesterday's El Pais newspaper reported. Most were the work of an enthusiastic French anarchist, Alphonse Laurencic, who invented a form of "psychotechnic" torture, according to the research of the historian Jose Milicua.

Too bad this didn't come to light 30 yeard ago. Monty Python could have gotten much mileage out of this article: "Stop, or I'll Mondrian!" "For years, Spanish scientists had worked for a way to break the impass of their civil war. Finally, they invented...The Killer Kandinsky!" "Biggles! Hand me...(long dramatic pause)...The Picasso!! Buhwahahaha!!!!" (Link found via NRO's The Corner.)

Posted 1/27/2003 09:48:44 AM by Edward Driscoll
ESPN'S JOHN CLAYTON reminds us that the Super Bowl trophy is named after a coach, not a player, something that Al Davis has forgotten--twice.

Posted 1/27/2003 09:43:26 AM by Edward Driscoll
CHIRAC'S VISION: What the world will look like in 2004, if Bush doesn't liberate Iraq.

Posted 1/27/2003 09:20:30 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE PERFECT STORM: John Gruden knew so much about his former team and its quarterback "that he designed a perfect game plan that his Tampa Bay Buccaneers used to rout the Oakland Raiders 48-21 in the Super Bowl on Sunday", according to this AP article:

``Jon Gruden was Gannon,'' Bucs defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin said. ``Nobody can be like Gannon like Gruden can. He taught Gannon. He was in Gannon's head.'' Gruden got into Gannon's wheelhouse so much that the NFL's MVP threw a season-high five interceptions, three of which were returned for touchdowns by Tampa Bay's stifling defense. In Thursday's practice, Gruden even took over as quarterback on the scout team and ran several plays. ``The film illustrates that I did complete two or three passes. I was very intimidating under center,'' Gruden joked after the game, surrounded by his wife and three young boys.

Peter King adds that he thought Gannon "would play an outstanding game Sunday":

Gannon was hot going into the Super Bowl. Reigning MVP. Great run in the playoffs. And the way he was abused by the Bucs defense showed just how special the Tampa Bay unit was, and is. Gannon's first 10 drives:
1. Seven plays, 14 yards, field goal. 2. Three plays, one yard, punt. 3. Three plays, six yards, punt. 4. Three plays, eight yards, interception. 5. Three plays, 11 yards, interception. 6. Three plays, minus-one yard, punt. 7. Six plays, 19 yards, punt. 8. Three plays, four yards, halftime. 9. Three plays, eight yards, punt. 10. Two plays, eight yards, interception. Score after 10 Oakland possessions: Tampa Bay 34, Oakland 3.
I found it laughable listening to the Raiders after the game passing off the incredible dominance of the Bucs defense as their own deficiency. "It wasn't their speed," said Callahan. "It was us not executing." "I'm not going to pay their defense any lip service," said Porter, the Raiders wideout. "It wasn't their defense. It was us not executing." Attention Raiders: You didn't execute because that defense kicked your rear ends. It's a pretty simple thing. And now, it's a defense for the ages.

No wonder Warren Sapp looked like he was beaming enough to light up San Diego, as he pulled an enormous full corona out of its wrapper at the end of his press conference.

Posted 1/27/2003 09:02:02 AM by Edward Driscoll
IS CANADA COMING ON BOARD? This post by Charles Johnson certainly seems to indicate that.

Posted 1/26/2003 07:56:37 PM by Edward Driscoll
I DIDN'T WATCH THE SUPER BOWL IN HDTV (I replaced the HDTV tuner in my den with an UltimateTV PVR a couple of years ago), so I don't know the game looked in high-def, but this article says it was pretty good. And it "was so much more technically advanced and esthetically pleasing than its first HDTV Super Bowl in 2000, it was almost like comparing black and white TV to color." Too bad the game was such a blowout, however. Oliver Willis has coverage of some of the highlights, however...

Posted 1/26/2003 03:16:15 PM by Edward Driscoll
OLIVER WILLIS IS FOOTBALL BLOGGING: Click on over for regular updates during the Super Bowl. We've got about 15 people scheduled to show up (with about seven here already), so don't expect many updates until later.

Posted 1/26/2003 12:23:34 PM by Edward Driscoll
SOUNDS LIKE MATERIAL BREACH TO ME: Hans Blix is about to issue his report on Iraq. Check out the opening two paragraphs from this AP article:

Iraq's arms declaration is incomplete, its scientists aren't cooperating with inspections and Baghdad is obstructing the use of a U-2 plane which could be helpful in the hunt for weapons of mass destruction. After two months on the job, the chief weapons inspectors, who will issue their current assessments to the Security Council on Monday at 10:30 a.m. EST, can't confirm claims by the Bush administration that Iraq is rearming. Inspectors still don't know what happened to Iraq's stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons or how much time they have left to find the answers.

And then there's paragraphs one, two, four and five of the UN resolution regarding Iraq, all of which Iraq is in violation of. It's going to be a fascinating State of the Union speech on Tuesday... UPDATE: Colin Powell, the most dovish member of the administration said today that "he has lost faith in the inspectors' ability to conduct a definitive search for banned weapons programs", according to this AP article.

Posted 1/26/2003 12:21:38 PM by Edward Driscoll
HOW MANY PEOPLE HAS SADDAM HUSSEIN KILLED? The New York Times runs the numbers, but doesn't bother to provide a total at the end. However, if amount of dead from both sides during the Iran/Iraq war of the 1980s are included (and of course, it's entirely possible that both sides inflated those numbers), then the number of dead is easily in the seven figures. The author of this piece speaks disparagingly of Hussein's Stalinist techniques, including his use of "handlers" to control foreign journalists. We tried to contact Walter Duranty for a rebuttal, but he couldn't be reached. (Sorry to carp. I'm just happy to see the Times onboard with denouncing Hussein.)

Posted 1/26/2003 12:20:37 PM by Edward Driscoll
"BACK AND TO THE LEFT"--Oliver Stone's new movie is his ultimate conspiratorial fantasy, as he tries to make Fidel Castro look like a good guy. Here's Page Six of the New York Post:

OLIVER Stone has earned the wrath of many Cuban-Americans by cozying up to Fidel Castro to make "Commandante," his flattering documentary about the communist dictator. Stone, who lobbed softball questions to Castro and let him come off as a witty charmer, seemed to be gloating at Sundance. "It is amazing," said one moviegoer. "He sits there and announces that Fidel could at any time say 'cut,' and redo any scene that he didn't think was flattering. The whole movie consisted of Fidel doing p.r. for himself, tossing out jokes and avoiding any questions that would make him admit to any sort of torture or cruelty." The highlight of the documentary is a scene where Stone expresses amazement that the tyrant had "never seen a psychiatrist." Stone asks Castro several times about the possibility of his seeing a shrink. Castro finally puts his head in his hands and sighs loudly.

For more on film directors and and their love for left-wing dictators, click here. And here.

Posted 1/26/2003 12:19:53 PM by Edward Driscoll
GOIN' HOME: ESPN is reporting that Raiders head coach Bill Callahan put Barret Robbins, his Pro Bowl, All Pro center, on a plane back to Oakland, because he missed virtually all of yesterday's practice. As the announcers on ESPN said, Callahan wants to make a statement that no one player is bigger than the game. It will be interesting to see how the distraction of Robbins' actions, and how Callahan adjusted to it, will affect the game today. Here's an earlier report, from ESPN's Web site, written before Robbins was sent home.