Story here:

A MAN who lived in his own “zoo” of lizards and insects was fatally bitten by a pet black widow spider — then eaten by the other creepy-crawlies.

Police broke in to Mark Voegel’s apartment to find spider Bettina along with 200 others, several snakes, a gecko lizard called Helmut and several thousand termites had gorged on his body.

Given my experience with those named Bettina, looks like he got that black widow’s name right.

This accidental death never would of happened if non-experts, i.e. citizens were prohibited from having these kinds of animals. Oh wait turns out they are. And yet this tragedy, if you want to call it that, still happened.

Some University of Maryland cashier refused to ring up a student wearing a pro Israel shirt.

The student was able to get another cashier to complete the transaction, but the episode led to a big flap over the rights of customers and cashiers. A spokesperson for the Food Collective says, “no one should have to have contact with people whose views they find hurtful.”

In America you have a constitutional right to not have your feelings hurt. Just as the 9th circuit court of appeals, oh and Darwin would have it.

The whole political process is being corrupted by campaign donors. Congressmen rely on big donors to get elected with the unfortunate consequence of such contributors having much more say over legislation than the little guy. For example:

“College professors and others in the education field have contributed more money than the oil industry and drug makers, with the nearly unanimous goal of putting a Democrat in the White House,” the report said.

We must ban together and take back our democracy from these rich progressives. Lets hear your outrage Darwin!

New technology has developed opening the door to flexible batteries.

Apparently woman in the Kashmir region between Pakistan and India are arming themselves as a way to protect themselves from Islamic militants. This strikes me as an incredibly foolhardy move. Guns are dangerous and someone may be shot accidentally. This will also make it easier to gain access to firearms for those that would do unjustified harm. Its better to rely on the authorities, some might say experts, to protect you from religious fanatics in a remote area.

Putting sarcasm aside, this is what the second amendment is all about. Guaranteeing your right to protect yourself from anyone you believe would do you harm. Having the right to arm yourself gives you the ultimate freedom to protect yourself and those you love. It’s a statement about who is responsible for your safety and preservation. A statement that says at the end of the day, you are.

I was on Rotten Tomatoes today and I saw this.

Could we be seeing a new golden age in cinema? Its remarkable how many movies have such high scores. Almost every week a movie goer could see at least one movie, if not more, that scores close to 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. I have no doubt part of the reason we are seeing such great movies is because technology has done a fine job of reducing the cost of movie making. All aspects of producing a film like shooting, editing, and distributing have seen drastic reductions in cost thanks chiefly to computers. This means more people can compete, and when their is competition their is excellence. Free markets playing a role in better cinema? You better believe it.

Both Darwin and Jamie have made this argument against me on several occasions. Here is a decent oped piece arguing against it.

Rules.

Rules?

Apparently there was a problem in the methods used to ascertain the average temperature of the US. This has lead to a major revision in the hottest days of the last century. It’s this kind crap that will lead to serious discounting of scientific findings in the future. Particularly when you consider the big deal that was made by a chunk load of scientists about a consensus. Hey I have an idea! if you want people to believe in global warming why don’t you collect valid data to prove its existence instead of voting on it’s existence. I know its radical, but it might just be more effective, to you know, prove it’s existence instead of morally forcing it into existence.

This is a huge story, but has an absolute dearth of media coverage. Last I checked only Fox News has covered the story. Lets see if we can construct a story similar in fashion, but with different political overtones and see if the media responds differently. What we have here is a bureaucratic organization making a big deal about some evidence ostensibly proving their highly contentious political claim. Based off of this evidence they argue for immediate and severe action.

Can you think of anything that has happened in the last five years like that? I can’t think of a single example. What a relief, I guess the MSM is not bias….oh wait. Shit, I just thought of an example. That damn WMD thing. Turns out the Bush administration had lots of evidence ‘proving’ their existence, yet after the invasion, WMD were no where to be found. The press had an absolute field day with this. And the coverage lasted literally for years. It never ended. Yet revision to evidence in global warming doesn’t even yield small story coverage for one day. Can you say bias?

I will grant you that while the characteristics of the the two examples are very similar their magnitude is not quite the same. This should certainly lead to differential treatment of press coverage of the two stories. But to not cover a story which removes the fact that the hottest decade was the nineties after the press has presented that as fact for global warming on many occasions borders on absurdity. How the fuck is that not news?

One final thing. Several of the sources I have read have indicated that the NOAA, the government organization charged with tracking the country’s temperatures, has refused to give out the algorithms used for such calculations. If true, seriously what the hell is that? Really makes this whole global warming thing that much more suspicious. Really starts to reek of religion. Our methods for temperature ascertainment have been revealed to us by a divine entity. Only the chosen true believers are pure enough to view this divine equation. Skeptics need not apply.