Category: Behind The Black

NASA Picks New Chief Scientist

4:57 pm

Today’s announcement by the Obama administration of their choice for NASA’s new chief scientist, Waleed Abdalati, reveals once again how much climate research guides their thinking, not space exploration. Key quote:

His research has focused on the study of polar ice cover using satellite and airborne instruments. He has led or participated in nine field and airborne campaigns in the Arctic and the Antarctic.

This is not a criticism of Dr. Abdalati. His research interests, however, make very clear where the Obama administration really wants NASA to look: down at the Earth instead of up beyond Earth orbit.

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American flag banned from condo complex

12:29 pm

American flag banned from condo complex. Key quote:

The 16 or so units are all alike. Beige with white trim and white mailboxes lined up ever so neatly along the main access road. And that, Coombs was told at a condo meeting, is how it shall stay.

With the obvious exceptions, of course.

A quick trip through the development this week showed that some of the condo owners like big wreaths. Some like small ones. Some like bows on their doors or garland on their banisters. Some like welcome signs on their porches and some don’t. Individuality is allowed for flowers in the summer, Coombs said. But there shall be no flags, and it says so right in the condo bylaws.

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Christmas Jihad in Stockholm

8:10 pm

Feel the love from Islam! Two car bombs go off in Stockholm, Sweden, killing one. Key quote from an email claiming credit for the attack:

“Our actions will speak for themselves. As long as you continue to wage your war against Islam and insulting the prophet and your stupid support of the pig Vilks. . . .” [The email continues by encouraging] all Muslims in Sweden to “stop sucking up and debasing yourselves,” then ends with another exhortation to “all the mujahideen in Europe and Sweden. . . . Now is the time to attack, do not wait any longer. Come forward with whatever you have, even if it’s just a knife and I know you have more than just knives. Do not fear anyone, do not fear jail, do not fear death.”

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George Bernard Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra

8:03 pm

An evening pause: The central scene from the 1976 television production of George Bernard Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra, starring Alec Guinness and Genevieve Bujold.

[The uproar in the streets again reaches them.]
Caesar: Do you hear? These knockers at your gate are also believers in vengence and in stabbing. You have slain their leader: it is right that they shall slay you. If you doubt it, ask your four counselors here. And then in the name of that right [he emphasizes the word with great scorn] shall I not slay them for murdering their Queen, and be slain in my turn by their countrymen as the invader of their fatherland? Can Rome do less then slay these slayers, too, to show the world how Rome avenges her sons and her honor. And so, to the end of history, murder shall breed murder, always in the name of right and honor and peace, until the gods are tired of blood and create a race than can understand.

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Kyoto Protocol is dead, long live the climate fund

8:52 am

It appears the climate meeting in Cancun has ended without much success. Unable to get an renewal of the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, the diplomats instead agreed to create a $100 billion “Green Climate Fund” that is mostly funded by the First World nations but is mostly distributed by the Third World. See the notes at 10:45 am on this blog and at 12:20 am on this blog. Key quote:

[The fund] will have 25 members of developing countries on its board, compared to only 15 for developed countries. This gives developing countries a much stronger role. The World Bank is a trustee.

The real question is whether the new Congress in the U.S. will appropriate any money at all to this scam.

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Court to rule on ObamaCare constitutionality Monday

11:16 pm

Court to rule on the constitutionality of ObamaCare on Monday. Key quote:

Normally, all comprehensive laws contain a boilerplate severance clause: it says that if any portion of the law is found to be unconstitutional, that portion is severed from the rest of the law — that is, the rest of the law stands. But ObamaCare contains no severance clause. Virginia is asserting that if it prevails on its substantive claims, the whole law is unconstitutional. (If Virginia does not prevail, any one of the twenty-plus legal challenges have the same severance argument available.)

This really isn’t the best way to get rid of this idiotic law, but we should also take any bone we can get.

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