Whiskey Fire

The Smart Ones

The Internet Right believes that they Know Things, which is amusing, yet troubling.

Here is a comical emanation from Freedom Works, for instance. The barely sentient chimpanzee who was paid in syphilis to produce it believes that he has Done a Number on the Left because on the occasion of the first Earth Day in 1970, a lot of people said "we're fucked if we don't do anything."

And then the Federal Government created the EPA, and in lots of easily measurable ways it worked, and so the bad things predicted in 1970 about what would happen if nothing were done... turned out to be broadly accurate, because something was done!

Hooray for democratic government! The river in your city is unlikely to ignite; that is a Win for Freedom from Combustible Rivers.

But there are always gigs open for revisionist history, as this Townhall monkey demonstrates in his desperate, screechy plea for MOAR BANANAS. Best part!

What is true, I venture, is that our national trip into the vortex of the Iraqi-Afghan-Muslim-terror-war whirlpool was predestined under existing circumstances -- an aspect of fate; postponable, maybe, but unavoidable.

Such was always the dolorous fate of the Ty-D-Bowl Commander-in-Chief-Man, I guess.

As to why exactly these people write like Bulwer-Lytton just ate six cans of beans, who can say, but light a match under them, I dare you. Or inquire about who generally you can count on for a fancy prose style?

Other Dexter-class geniuses inform us that it is totally stupid and perhaps gay but anyway LIEBERAL to at all wonder if the older Boston bomber might have gone crazy, at least partially, because he got hit on the head a lot.

Here is the Snappy Riposte of Jim Treacher, who if he has not been hit on the head a lot, is devoid of excuses for talking:

As for Tamerlan’s little brother? That wuss doesn’t look like he could beat up Honey Boo Boo. Although he’s almost as good as her at driving a car.

Honey Boo Boo! Wuss! Honey Boo Boo! These are jokes! AIRPLANE FOOD IS NOT VERY GOOD!

The little brother was a wrestler; "Jim Treacher" is someone who exists on the Internet. Let the utterly pointless asinine cock-measuring begin!

"Treacher" wants us to know that it is absurd to think that one of the reasons the older brother started to go crazy might be brain damage, because the Obvious Answer is Islam. This is because almost every Muslim plants bombs and shoots cops, while every multiple concussion sufferer hugs kittens.

Which is not to say that the concussion theory is all-explanatory! It obviously isn't! Yes, crazy far-right Islamism exists! (Al Qaeda is obviously far-right, conservative-fascism. Radical Islam is dangerous, like the NRO Fifth Column.)

But is "Islam!" an even worse explanation?

Let's ask Katie!

Guns, guns, guns. Love, love, love. America needs guns and love.

See?

Now we have made progress.

When You Are Proudly Ignorant, You Can Be a Top Genius

The Hieinerockets are not much thinkful but are Top Genius!

The IPCC is now working on report number five, and the current draft has been leaked. It contains a bombshell that may or may not survive in the final product; but in the meantime, the cat is out of the bag.

Or not.

SCHOLARSHIP.

Poor Otis Dead & ...

I hope there is none of this at Thers' lake.

Or this.

Was DuMaurier Right?

— Bouffe

Marco Rubio, Bapto-Catholic, Condemns Catholic Church In Cuba

Sweet Blood of Jesus, is there anything actual for which sad Senatorial sack Marco Rubio might denounce the Roman Catholic Church? Anything at all?

Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said Wednesday that he is “deeply concerned” that the leadership of the Catholic Church has “negotiated themselves a space of operation” in Cuba “in exchange for looking the other way,” and expressed concern that Pope Benedict XVI’s upcoming trip to the island may “reinforce that arrangement.”

Rubio, a Catholic, said during a discussion at The Heritage Foundation that the Catholic Church has “negotiated a political space for themselves in exchange for their moral imperative.”

Volunteering an example, Rubio said, “last week… the church invited — the cardinal invited — Castro thugs to come into the church and remove people.”

Rubio also denounced the church for “actively participating in exiling dissidents,” sarcastically adding, “somehow exiling someone to Spain is a humanitarian measure.” (SEE ALSO: Marco Rubio was a Mormon once)

During the event, Rubio discussed Cuban oil exploration and expressed concern that the Communist government may in the future find a new source of revenue in oil exports. He said that a greater concern, however, is the potentially devastating effect of a Cuban oil spill on his state’s environment.

Will not be arsed to see what Sen. Rubio's position on BP oil spills might be, but why would one expect him to be any less hypocritical? Speaking of, from the Wiki:

Rubio attends Catholic Mass as well as a Southern Baptist church in West Kendall, Florida.^[34][9][35].

Apparently some of us can have it both ways.

— M. Bouffant (Also at Tedium Central, w/ video of Rubio babbling which, between TypePad's pickiness & TheDC's cheesy embed code, won't display here.)

Eye Bleach: Clouds, A Tree, The Moon

— M. Bouffant

Higgs boson versus the G.O.P. Primary

Jeff Forshaw

I have been waiting more than 20 years for this. Personally, I am most excited by the possibility that there is no Higgs particle and that nature has chosen a different path. If that is the case, then we are going to have to be patient for a little longer. It will be worth the wait. Jeff Forshaw is a professor of theoretical physics, University of Manchester, and co-author with Brian Cox of The Quantum Universe: Everything That Can Happen Does Happen (Allen Lane)

Mary and Ian Butterworth, Imperial College London, and Doris and Vigdor Teplitz, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, USA

How Particles Acquire Mass The Higgs boson is a hypothesised particle which, if it exists, would give the mechanism by which particles acquire mass. Matter is made of molecules; molecules of atoms; atoms of a cloud of electrons about one-hundred-millionth of a centimetre and a nucleus about one-hundred-thousandth the size of the electron cloud. The nucleus is made of protons and neutrons. Each proton (or neutron) has about two thousand times the mass of an electron. We know a good deal about why the nucleus is so small. We do not know, however, how the particles get their masses. Why are the masses what they are? Why are the ratios of masses what they are? We can't be said to understand the constituents of matter if we don't have a satisfactory answer to this question.

Rick Santorum:

Discussing controversial classroom subjects such as evolution and global warming, Santorum said he has suggested that “science should get out of politics” and he is opposed to teaching that provides a “politically correct perspective.”

Any Questions?

Summary: CERN operates the Large Hadron Collider.

The G.O.P. operates the Large Hardon Collider.

UPDATE: I finally got around to trying to fix the suet feeder.

I'm guessing Downy.

(Posted by ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© and cross-posted at my place. Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions.)

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Tawny Emperor, Asterocampa clyton

I took a blurry pic of one of these butterflies earlier this month. Saturday, I hiked up the hill opposite the mountain our house is on, and chased two Tawny Emperors up and down a gravel road for a half hour or so.

The Tawny Emperor is not nearly as willing to sit and pose for a picture as a Monarch or Tiger Swallowtail.

Maybe I'll get pictures of a Zebra Swallowtail someday? Or a Luna Moth...I saw one here, one night many years ago. This side of Cold Run Valley Road features the main buildings of the Coolfont Resort.

Coolfont's Treetop House officially closed last June. Since then, the resort has operated on a limited basis. The Carl M. Freeman Companies purchased Coolfont in November, 2005. All present buildings except for the historic Coolfont Manor House will be removed next year as work begins on a planned resort community featuring 1,100 homes. General plans for a 1,100 home resort consisting of mostly vacation homes and condos were announced in September after a week of meetings and workshops involving Freeman company officials, architects, planners, public service officials and community members. The new Coolfont homes will be built in clusters to preserve green space and will be constructed over the course of 10-12 years.

Or whenever a gigantic real estate bubble comes back. Anyways, here's a few pics I took on the way to the butterflies.

(Posted by ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© and cross-posted at my place. Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions.)

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Nuthatch visit

It rained again all day on Thursday, and when the rain was done fall was here. Today it's dry, sunny, and 56 degrees out.

(Posted by ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© and cross-posted at my place. Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions.)

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Cast Into The Pit, I Wish

Not unlike three, five or whatever-yr. olds howling & screeching "But you said! You said so!" at their parental units, the sort of people who enjoy standing downwind from a blazing campfire are still on about the phrase "global warming."

Whoever first used the phrase (As an easy introduction to the great big complicated ideas that the like-to-breathe-shit people would have had trouble wrapping their tiny minds around?) is no doubt sorry now, as the appearance of any temperatures much above 50°F results in this kind of drivel from Bow-Tie Daddy Carlson's Daily AP Feed.

Dr. Patrick J. Michaels, a senior fellow in environmental studies at The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C., told TheDC that global warming proponents wrongly try to justify numerous weather patterns as being the result of global warming. “Global warming scientists say it will be warmer, colder, snowier, and less snowy all at the same time, which is impossible. Anyone who follows global warming knows the theory is rife with exaggeration,” Michaels said. “What’s disturbing is to see The New York Times put a really fringe idea on their editorial page. Obviously they’re panicking about people’s distrust of the political nature of global warming science. It struck me as desperation pass, knowing the people are abandoning global warming as a signature issue.”

Yes, someone from the Cato Institute said "political nature of global warming science," yet was not referring to himself. Not that the fair & balanced responder acquitted himself well, even allowing for, shall we say, selective editing on the part of typist Donovan.

“Basically anything that would appear like magic would throw the laws of physics into question,” Brad Johnson, a climate editor at the Center for American Progress, a progressive Washington, D.C. think tank, told The Daily Caller. “The only way to disprove the global warming theory is if magic is real and that our understanding of the universe is completely wrong.”

On & on it goes. My real purpose is to display this for all to see, which has been at "TheDC" since 1740 Eastern (W/ an update at 1805.) & remains uncorrected as of almost midnight ET.

Cretins.

M. Bouffant (Plus which, hither.)