A big thank you to all those donated or subscribed during my summer fund-raising drive for Behind the Black. I cannot express deeply enough how much I appreciate your support!
Donations are still welcome, as indicated by the tip jar to the right (or on the bottom of the page on mobile devices). I will simple not beg for them as much, for a little while at least.
Scroll down for new updates.
The University of Kentucky has agreed to pay $125,000 to the astronomer who was denied a job because of academic religious bigotry.
What Congress should cut. And they find $3 trillion in only 14 paragraphs. Key quote:
None of this will be easy. Many will likely demagogue any reduction in the rate of growth of spending as a devastating “cut.” But the politics of spending has changed, and there is an expectation among fiscally conservative voters—Republicans, independents, tea partiers and even Democrats—that the government tighten its belt, just as American families have been forced to do. Some in the Republican establishment have already started complaining that this is too politically difficult. These naysayers misread today’s political climate. Should they succeed in blocking change, tea party voters will hold them just as accountable as big-spending Democrats.
Repeal the damn bill! By large majorities, surveyed doctors believe that ObamaCare will hurt care quality and doctor pay. Key quote:
During the next 5 years, the quality of health care in this country will improve (18%) stay same (17%) deteriorate (65%).
The Affordable Care Act will result in physician reimbursement becoming more fair (9%) neither fair nor unfair (17%) less fair (74%).
Overall, the impact of the Affordable Care Act for patients will be positive (27%) neutral (15%) negative (57%).
Overall, the impact of the Affordable Care Act for physicians will be positive (8%) neutral (14%) negative (78%).
An idiot on parade: Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) said on Tuesday that repealing the national health care law would violate the Constitution. From the comments:
What’s even scarier than this speech, given by crazed Marxist ideologue Lee: The voters who re-elect her, over and over again.
The long lost tomb of the mad Roman emperor Caligula has been found, uncovered due to the arrest of a smuggler who had been raiding that tomb.
What could possibly go wrong? Bill Gates has proposed using cell phone technology to create a register of every birth on the planet.
The confessions of a Greenpeace founder. Key quote:
The truth is Greenpeace and I had divergent evolutions. I became a sensible environmentalist; Greenpeace became increasingly senseless as it adopted an agenda that is anti-science, anti-business, and downright anti-human.
Other quotes of interest:
The collapse of world communism and the fall of the Berlin Wall during the 1980s added to the trend toward extremism. The Cold War was over and the peace movement was largely disbanded. The peace movement had been mainly Western-based and anti-American in its leanings. Many of its members moved into the environmental movement, bringing with them their neo-Marxist, far-left agendas. To a considerable extent the environmental movement was hijacked by political and social activists who learned to use green language to cloak agendas that had more to do with anti-capitalism and anti-globalization than with science or ecology.
And:
There is no cause for alarm about climate change. The climate is always changing. Some of the proposed “solutions” would be far worse than any imaginable consequence of global warming, which will likely be mostly positive. Cooling is what we should fear.
Due to a leak from Wikileaks, the head of one of the companies building the European GPS system has been fired. Key quote:
The [Wikileaks] cable, which was published by the Norwegian daily Aftenposten last Thursday, quoted the [chief executive] as saying, “I think Galileo [the European GPS system] is a stupid idea that primarily serves French interests”, and, in particular, French military interests.
An evening pause: All Jack Nicholson wants is some toast. Five Easy Pieces (1970). This scene is probably more famous than the film itself.
2010 sea level: The largest drop ever recorded? Key quote:
2006 was the first year to show a drop in the global sea level. 2010 will be the 2nd year to show a decrease in sea level. That is correct, 2 of the past 5 years are going to show a decrease in sea level. 2010 could likely show a significant drop global sea level. By significant I mean it is possible that it will likely drop between 2-3 mm from 2009.
All IPCC predictions insist that increased carbon dioxide will cause sea level rise. All these predictions are now wrong, as carbon dioxide is still increasing in the atmosphere but the sea level has actually been going down.
Man faces charges for defying TSA agents. Key quote:
“ What’s really at root in this case is whether travel is a right that we have under the Constitution – an ability to move about the country without having to show papers – which has been one of the defining characteristics of American freedom, “ Hasbrouck said.
And NASA thinks it can compete with SpaceX or Orbital Sciences? The agency is asking for billions more to build the Orion capsule.
Keith Cowing is trying to locate a missing spectacular blow-up poster of the Lunar Orbiter “Earthrise” image from 1966, shown here.
The lead spacewalker for the next shuttle mission, the long-delayed last flight of Discovery, has apparently broken his hip in a bike accident. Key quote:
NASA does not train backup crews and a replacement, even a recently flown veteran, would need time to rehearse spacewalk scenarios and receive mission-specific training for Discovery’s flight. How long that might take, if required, and what impact it might have on the shuttle’s launch date is not yet known.
Finally a response: J. Eric Fuller, the Tucson shooting victim (also a Democrat party campaigner) who blamed Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and Sharron Angle for the shooting was arrested today at an ABC-TV town hall meeting when he threatened the founder of the Tucson Tea Party. Key quote:
When Tucson Tea Party founder Trent Humphries rose to suggest that any conversation about gun control should be put off until after the funerals for all the victims, witnesses say Fuller became agitated. Two told KGUN9 News that finally, Fuller took a picture of Humphries, and said, “You’re dead.” . . . A Pima County Sheriff’s spokesman told KGUN9 News that the department has charged Fuller with one count of threats and intimidation, and said they plan to charge him with at least one count of disorderly conduct.
For today, and today only, the Sun was blank. This blankness ended, however, when a sunspot rotated into view from the far side.
As I asked the last time the Sun was blank in December, will this be the last blank day of the just-ended but very prolonged solar minimum?
