Archive for News
December 21, 2007
Rethinking The Oscar Yet?
6:39 pm | News | Wisdom | Comments: 5
The school system of England has declared Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth” to be propaganda and is shown in school with a warning message in front of it making viewers aware of this fact. Still, the self-serving and hypocritical Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences decided that the film warranted its highest honor, which actually (prior to this past year) used to mean something. On top of that, the self-serving and hypocritical Norwegian Nobel Institute decided to award Gore its highest honor for the same reasons and with the same effect.
I stick to my belief that think what you will about man-made global warming, you can’t prove that it’s a fact. People trumpeting the “consensus of the scientific community” are full of crap, and now we have (more) proof of this fact. I refer you to a stunning new report by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, which shatters the myth that there is any kind of agreement within the scientific community about this issue. Good read.
May 16, 2007
Science Again
6:34 pm | News | Sci/Tech | Comments: 1
Drudge posted a great link today to a blog post at the U.S. Senate Committee on the Environment & Public Works detailing the shift of momentum in the scientific community away from the media-generated mass hysteria of man-made climate change disaster to the realization that the current global warming trends are far more likely linked to solar cycles than they are to rising “greenhouse gas” levels in the atmosphere. That was a great sentence, if I don’t say so myself.
What this goes to show is that if you can find 100 scientists to spout nonsense about how humanity will be responsible for creating a global-warming catastrophe in the near future, you can find 100 scientists to refute the claim. Lately, it seems that the “global warming skeptics” have been gaining the upper hand. I think one problem with the position of the global warming alarmists is they have the moronic glory-hunting media on their side. Eventually, the media’s method of putting story before substance is going to backfire and the story will suddenly be how wrong people like Al Gore are.
In other science-related news, Bird Flu hasn’t gone away and is still the real global calamity waiting to happen. Lately, the H5N1 Avian Influenza has spread to Indonesia and Japan. It’s killed 172 people worldwide so far, only 39,999,828 people short of the World Health Organization’s death toll predictions. Continue being afraid!
March 14, 2007
Sinners in the Military
6:14 pm | Culture | News | War | Comments: 2
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace, USMC, recently got himself into trouble by stating his personal belief about homosexuality - specifically, that it’s immoral. The statement was made in connection with the long-time debate about United States’ policy for handling homosexuality in its ranks. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is still widely supported by top military brass, and won’t be going anywhere any time soon. It’s also nice that Gen. Pace didn’t apologize for his remarks, but rather clarified that his own personal belief was not relevant to the debate at hand. I instantly like him more than the Pope and other supposedly principled people that have made true statements then in the face of opposition backed down from them in cowardly fashion.
Here’s what I think about homosexuals in the military. You can’t make the morality argument against them, because there’s also a large amount of fornicators and adulterers in the military and nobody seems to have a problem with that. The more meaningful argument made against them is the impact that open homosexuality has on morale, good order, readiness and unit cohesion. Civvies like you and me have a very difficult time understanding what this impact may or may not be, and I will take the word of military professionals who almost unanimously agree that the impact is negative on all these things.
There are lots of people spouting all kinds of nonsense about this issue. A great example would be Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-PA), who says, “The idea that the sexual orientation of any American has relevance to his or her patriotism or ability to fight in the Armed Forces is wrong-headed and harmful to our nation’s security.” This is a laughable argument, paying no attention to any relevant facts in the case, such as the ones I’ve mentioned above. There are many patriotic people that have no business in the military, and who are by various means excluded from military service. The security of the nation is fine; homosexuals make up a tiny fraction of the service-eligible demographic in this country; there’s no danger of running out of volunteers because gays are disallowed from serving. If these folks truly are patriotic, there are innumerable other ways in which to chip in for the good of the country rather than trying to shoe-horn their way into the armed forces.
February 17, 2007
News Items
12:19 pm | News | Comments: 9
If you’re a fan of reading dozens of weblogs commenting on current national and global issues, you’re probably often disappointed by the disconnected and mostly-doesn’t-give-a-crap attitude of SIO. Today, however, I’m catering to you folks because I’ve nothing else to do. So here’s some observations on cosmically important stuff.
- Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems that democrats don’t like George Bush. And I guess the Apocalypse is upon us, too, now that a few more of them got elected.
- Global warming is still a crock of crap. Even if it were true, all that would happen is a few billion of us would die off and only the rich would survive, meaning that rebuilding the human population would be relatively easy.
- Iran will blow us all up in the name of peace and love. You really have to love muslims with nukes.
- More importantly than all of that nonsense, though, Britney Spears shaved her head! And she got red lips tattooed on her wrist!
- Galactc is coming to Grand Rapids on April 17!
August 15, 2006
NASA Lets it Loose
7:47 pm | News | Comments: 6
I certainly hope nobody was dismayed or surprised that NASA “lost” the original Apollo mission tapes, including all the moon landings. People in the know know that the entire Apollo program was a fabrication of the United States government with the sole purpose of discrediting the Soviets. Moon landings? Faked. Wake up people. Big Brother is stealing your lunch money.
July 28, 2006
Glory Days Gone By
2:28 pm | Culture | News | Comments: 6
Today we all read the news about Kazaa paying $150 million to settle a piracy lawsuit. I think we can all officially agree that the days of downloading our favorite songs for free are over. In the past downloading music was new, fun, and its illegality was shrouded by uncertainty and easily dismissed. Not so these days, as music file-sharers have been sued left and right resulting in billions of dollars in settlements. Downloading music for free is illegal, no question about it.
Some misdirected individuals say that it’s not illegal because you’re not downloading music, you’re downloading data. That doesn’t matter, because we’re not talking about what it is that you’re downloading, we’re talking about who owns what you’re downloading. Whether it’s “music” or just data, it is the intellectual property of the artists that recorded it and record labels that published it and therefore when you download it off a peer-to-peer filesharing service for free you’re stealing it.
It’s the same with acquiring any other software for free. You know that copy of Office you’re running that your buddy slipped you on those blank CDs scribbled with sharpie? You might as well have walked into a BestBuy and shoplifted it. Same with that Michael Buble (dumbest name ever) album on your hard drive that you managed to get off BearShare. Save yourself some trouble next time and just lift it from your local Sam Goody. Don’t, actually. Because it’s wrong to do such things.
Those of you that know me know that I have downloaded lots of songs over the years since the glory days of Napster. I mention this to turn aside the inevitable wave of “you do it too” accusations. The point is that if we look at the facts, downloading music for free is stealing. So I’ll let you all make your own decision on how to approach it.
April 10, 2006
What Not to Do
12:12 pm | News | Comments: 7
Let’s say you have some vital information that is critical for the saftey of the nation. It needs to get to the proper authority, right? There are alot of options for you, actually. The list of many different organizations you can contact include the F.B.I. and the Federal Department of Homeland Security directly. It’s usually a bad idea, however, to jump over the White House fence and demand to see the President of the United States. Sequences like this remind of that montage in Ocean’s 11 of guys that tried to steal money from casinos. It just doesn’t work. How crazy do you have to be to think that the Secret Service is going to say, “Oh, well, this guy has vital intelligence information to give to the President. We’d better show him in.”? The guy was probably on quite a rush while he was yelling at the Secret Service agents pointing rifles at him. I wonder, though, what went through his mind as the cold steel of the handcuffs started digging into his wrists. Hopefully it was, “Wow. I need to stop being a nutjob.”
April 6, 2006
No News is No News
8:30 am | News | Comments: 17
First off I want to apologize to people whose comments are getting auto-moderated (that’s why they’re not showing up right away). I have no idea why it’s doing that. I have my top people working on the issue round the clock, and in the meantime keep commenting and I’ll just approve it (if what you say is hip enough).
It’s only been a few days and I’m already so sick of hearing about Katie Couric. This is the biggest non-story ever, in my opinion. Who cares about where Katie Couric happens to be working? Who cares about network news anchors? Who cares about the fact that she’s a woman? Nobody, nobody, and nobody. You have lots of women out there who say they wish it weren’t a women’s-movement issue. Then you have people like the stooge (stoogette?) that wrote this article today. The most ridiculous aspect of the article is that it completely focuses on all the wrong reasons for Couric getting the job - her bad interviewing habits, her good (?) looks, etc. Great line at the end is “Let’s hope she keeps those blond highlights and the camera catches her legs and those great shoes every so often when she moves to the desk where no woman has sat before.” Now that is something that makes me want to vomit.
March 21, 2006
Lawns Are Evil
9:57 pm | Culture | News | Comments: 17
I just read a news story about an old geezer who shot a kid that walked across his lawn. I have a memo for you, Grandpop. Grass is a weed. Additionally, there must be a better way to solve the problem of little whipper-snappers walking across your weeds than shooting the whipper-snappers in the face with a shotgun. I spent too many years in lawn country. If you’ve heard of people with meticulously groomed lawns, I have seen world-record meticulously groomed lawns. It always struck me as the most ridiculous thing to be obsessive about. Grass should only be there to prevent the dirt around your house from eroding. Instead, people pour their heart and soul into their lawns, and said uber-lawns are quite often seen in front of dumpy little houses. Back in my suburban days I distinctly recall three or four old fogeys charging out of their house and yelling at me for stepping on their beloved grass. Little did I know at the time that my very life was in danger.
I recall the story told amongst the grizzled veterans of Kooy’s Lawn Care of an old lady known only as “The Hawk”. This old bag was seen - by my own eyes, as well - spending untold hours of summer days hovering over her already-perfect lawn. Often she would be seen bending down and picking something out of what appeared to be a spotless portion of grass. It is rumored that the old lady was actually removing similar yet slightly different species of grass from amongst her pristine sod. Would The Hawk kill for her lawn? Quite likely. The whole business is most certainly out of control.
October 10, 2005
Say Goodbye to Cookies
12:03 pm | News | Random | Comments: 15
After discussing the issue at length, it was decided that rather than serving cookies after morning worship we should instead hook up a deep fryer. The variety would be endless. In addition to the staples such as french fries, chicken strips, and potato chips, some of the better ideas for the deep fryer included watermelon, cheese, and brownie batter. Everybody could bring their favorite food to throw into the deep fryer, or just eat french fries instead. Any other good deep fryed food suggestions are welcome.
