Weekly Whitley

This is the only live performance of "Big Sky Country" I am aware of that wasn't a solo performance. It's also pretty awful. It's extremely earlier in Chris's career, and he looks a bit like a deer in the headlights. Perhaps the worst thing though, he hardly touches the guitar.

Anyone who saw him perform live (I'm looking at you Boz) is certain to agree this was not Chris's element. He was much more comfortable by himself, pounding out something dirty on twisted steel.

How About That?

Propaganda corrected:

A Pentagon report requested by President Obama on the conditions at the Guantánamo Bay detention center concluded that the prison complies with the humane-treatment requirements of the Geneva Conventions.

So, all that "war criminal" stuff was just meaningless talk? Well, no. More likely will be the marveling that Gitmo magically came into compliance with Obama in office. It's the change we were hoping for.

In other "oops" news, sea ice in the Arctic was mistakenly underestimated by an area roughly the size of California. Never fear though, say the scientists; there's still plenty of reasons to fear.

I Suspect Bobby the Brain Might Be Behind This

Back in the day Minnesota was quite a haven for professional wrestling. Scroo Loo remembers watching All-Star Wrestling after church on Sunday, and I once went to the armory (I think) to watch a live taping with my scout troop.

So when I saw the headline "Elderly wrestling legend investigated in death of nursing home roommate..." at Drudge, I had a feeling I would be familiar with the suspect. When the link opened the Pioneer Press, it was all but assured. Sure enough:

Minnesota wrestling legend Verne Gagne, who climbed to fame as a likeable giant of the ring, is under police investigation in the death of a fellow resident at a Bloomington care facility, a local television station is reporting.

According to the report, despite suffering from Alzheimer's, the 82-year-old Gagne can still body slam quite nicely. Unfortunately, in this case it was a 97-year-old fellow patient.

Since we're on the subject, here's a few more names that might ring a bell: Jerry Blackwell, Mean Gene Okerland, Rick Martel, Tito Santana, Nick Bockwenkle, Andre the Giant, The Fabulous Freebirds, Curt Henning, Bobby Heenan, Rowdy Roddy Piper, and Rock n' Roll Zumhofe.

Did I miss anybody?

And, for the hell of it, Greg Gagne unveiling Bobby Heenan's weasel suit, with the already retired Verne chasing The Weasel out of the ring:



Who doesn't remember that?

Lincoln/Bush

From the "Maybe I'm Crazy" file, evidence that I am, in fact, not.

Eric Posner compares Bush and Lincoln in areas of war policy:

Lincoln was a pragmatist; he did not make a fetish of the rule of law. He disregarded the constitutional limits on executive power just as he disregarded international law, believing both would have to bow to his big idea—the preservation of the union. Bush took a similar view, albeit with a different big idea—the war on terror. His presidency did not fail because he neglected Lincoln’s legacy for the rule of law. Bush’s presidency failed despite the fact—or because—he honored that legacy.

Ilya Somin adds depth here.

Another similarity, both Bush and Lincoln were reviled in the media. The only difference is that Lincoln presided 150 years ago and most of the treatment he received has been removed from the narrative.

Change(less)

Moe Lane responds to the news that Obama's nominee for Solicitor General believes the U.S.A. can hold suspected terrorists without trial:

This (Hee-hee-hee-HA!) is, of (HAH-HAHH!) course, not no (HWAAHHAAAH!) …ticiably
different from (MABBRRHH-HAA-HHHAHHH!) Bush’s posi (MBWAHHH-HAAA!!!!)…tion on the (HA-AAA-HAAAA-HAAAAWAHAA-HAAAAAA1!!!!!) subject, (HAHH-SMHGDG-SNORT) which should. make. for. some. in.ter.es.ting. co.mmen.tar.y. from. the. Left…

:silence:
:breaks:

MWHAAA-HAHH-AHHA-HAAAA-HAAAAA!!!!!! HA-HA–HAAAA-HAAA, HAHHH-AAHHAAAA, MWHOOO-AHHH-AHHH-BEWAAHH-HAH-AAAHAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have a special prize for the first evidence anyone presents me of a leftist organization burning Obama in effigy or demanding his arrest on war crimes.

Just Because

More terrible global warming related news:

When it comes to global warming, the canary in the coal mine isn't a canary at all. It's a purple finch. As the temperature across the U.S. has gotten warmer, the purple finch has been spending its winters more than 400 miles farther north than it used to.

And introducing an entirely new criteria for conclusion:

The study "shows a very, very large fraction of the wintering birds are shifting" northward, said Terry Root, a biologist at Stanford University. "We don't know for a fact that it is warming. But when one keeps finding the same thing over and over ... we know it is not just a figment of our imagination."

Memo to high school science teachers: Science now dictates something can be attributed to global warming based on the "Not just a figment of the imagination" theory.

We're All Going To Die: Part XXVII

We've hit a new low in global warming reportage. Here is the latest:

Last year, an anxious, depressed 17-year-old boy was admitted to the psychiatric unit at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. He was refusing to drink water. Worried about drought related to climate change, the young man was convinced that if he drank, millions of people would die. The Australian doctors wrote the case up as the first known instance of "climate change delusion."

In a temperature controlled world, the reporter might take pause at the word "delusion." But this is a warming world (any and all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding), and in such a world Emily Anthes instead chooses to do her part to create more delusion. Some examples:

*Climate change is expected to create about 200 million environmental refugees by 2050, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change...

*Indeed, climate change may eventually deplete natural resources, make it more difficult for people to live off the land, and disrupt the global food supply.

*On the other side of the globe, the changing Arctic climate is expected to make hunting and fishing far more difficult for the people who live there. The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment says that such changes threaten Inuit culture, and that increases in domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and suicide may result.

Not coincidentally, the cure for climate change delusion is the same as the cure for global warming:

In the long term, we may also derive some psychological benefit from banding together with other citizens to mitigate the effects of global warming.

What a coincidence!

Tax Cheats

VDH pretty much nails the tax hypocrisy of the left:

Millions of Americans don't have either Daschle's or Geithner's resources, yet they pay dearly to go to accountants, honestly turn over all their records, and then pay the full amount of taxation in accordance with their understanding of the law, and the advice they receive from professional accountants.

Yet men both much richer and much more informed about the U.S. tax code not only don't do that, but feel no compunction to rectify mistakes unless they cause embarrassment enough to thwart their careers. Two subtexts as well: there must be many more Daschles and Geithners floating around Washington who don't show up on the radar unless they want a top political appointment; and, two, the old liberal creed that taxes are good and patriotic and are avoided by greedy, selfish conservative elites seems shattered by these examples.

It was Biden who most recently said that paying higher taxes is "patriotic." Does these late developments mean we can finally refer to certain members of the Democratic Party as un-American?

Weekly Whitley

A little Automatic from Terra Incognita: