THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER

Times Wastes Too Fast

A remarkable, very readable Web-centric piece on Thomas Jefferson, warts and all. His Aunt Judith, his father's sister, was Mr. B's seven greats grandmother.

Via In Search of Jefferson's Moose.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 12:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sarah: Happy Fourth!

From her FaceBook account today regarding her announcement Friday that she will be resigning:

"The response in the main stream media has been most predictable, ironic, and as always, detached from the lives of ordinary Americans who are sick of the 'politics of personal destruction.' How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it’s about country."

Heh.

UPDATE: I laugh at all the "wise ones" who contend that her political career is over, etc. My bet is: She's going to become the campaigner who makes it possible for the Republicans to win back one or both houses of Congress, then use that IOU to take the nomination in 2012.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 06:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Carbon Dioxide Mapping

You might think, with all the AGW hysteria, and the Dems rushing to double our electric bills, that the whole globe would be saturated in CO2. You would be wrong. Sure, this satellite mapping of the earth's atmospheric distribution of carbon dioxide is a year old. But it's also the first one ever made, and was assembled from data collected between '02 and '08. The first one ever made. Think about that for a minute. I'm no great hand at graphics, but it sure looks to me like the major culprits are California and China. So how about it Speaker Pelosi? How about starting by doubling your energy bills?

Via Baby Troll.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 12:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Run, Sarah, run

I'm still hopeful. Her resignation eliminates any claims of conflict-of-interest between running for the 2012 nomination and her job as Alaska's governor. The Left will continue to hate and mock her, as this low blow demonstrates. So what's new about their lack of taste? The Right will continue to love her, especially us commoners. The Independents, as always, will get to decide.

UPDATE: The Puffington Host pulled the mockery at the second link, which was, once again, about Sarah's retarded son. But Michele Malkin captured the page for, uh, "posterity."

Posted by Dick Stanley at 06:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Traitor to the Earth"

The NYTime's shrill economist Paul Krugman is the latest shouter to accuse AGW critics of insufficient fealty to the planet. As if we had any place else to go, thanks to our greedy pols who effectively killed the space travel program after Apollo. Henceforth, we got low orbit "travel," and no more.

Here's an easy-reading answer to Krugman, et al. Reminds me of a chat I had with a local meteorologist friend not long ago. He's often told me how the best computer forecast models struggle with predicting Texas weather more than a few days out. The atmosphere is just too complicated.

Yet he believes in AGW predictions out to fifty years because "those are different models." Smile. I suspect, since he can see as well as me that temperature data since 1998 has conflicted with the predictions, his belief has more to do with the politics of his employers who pay his salary. As for Krugman, well, he's been predicting economic collapse since, oh, 2001. How's that coming, Paul?

Via Fresh Bilge.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I don't do height well

So this view from the 103rd floor of the Sears Tower makes my palms tingle and my toes curl. Ouch.

Via Drudge.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Banana Democrats

Well, Barry's inclusion here is not that odd, really. Afterall, it's not like it's Iran or anything.

UPDATE: Excellant analysis here by two birds of dissimilar feathers. And one more.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Keyword drivers

One of the five following keyword phrases likely brought you here, according to search analytics at compete dot com:

* Texas fry pans

* Pictures of thunderheads

* Rabbit coloring sheets

* Love is a wild assault

* Dr. Perper's head

Well, I can vouch for the popularity of the last two, which, indeed, correspond to onetime posts. I also recall a picture of a thunderhead from space. But fry pans? Rabbit coloring sheets? Ahem. No, I think not.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 08:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Airbus down, again

Is this just an unlucky break for the French aircraft manufacturer? Two ocean crashes in the same month. Is it the weather, again? Or is something else afoot?

Posted by Dick Stanley at 06:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Cats and dogs

Rain, rain, glorious rain. Boy did it pour this morning. For a good ten minutes, overwhelming the gutters as always, raising anew the question of why we have gutters at all. Water even ponded in the Back Forty. It kept our high temp for the day at no more than 88 degrees. Whoo-hoo.

Mrs. Charm said she had left the "rain magnets" out, meaning the cushions on the aluminum chairs on the patio, and that must be what did it. Uh, actually it was a weak cold front. But, whatever. We'll take it--especially considering that some people missed it altogether.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 06:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

FM 2222

I probably ought to file this under Obituaries as it must have been taken before the road was widened a decade or so ago. Once upon a time, say, back in the late 70s, this was a fairly typical scene around Austin--uncluttered, pristine, and pleasant. The rest of the photos here, while certainly interesting, are more up-to-date and representative. Alas.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 08:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Vanities

Mr. Boy went off to four weeks of day camp at the JCC this morning. He rebuffed Mrs. Charm's offer to help him find his group at the flag raising. Being a rising fourth grader he's too big for nanny stuff. He was looking forward to a hot game of Ga-ga, an Israeli form of dodge ball. With a forecast high of 102, it definitely will be hot.

Meanwhile, I was honored to have two posts linked in the new Haveil Havalim, a carnival of Jewish blog posts founded way back when by Soccer Dad. It is, appropriately, the Hot and Humid Edition. Haveil Havalim means Vanity of Vanities, a reference to King Solomon's discovery that materialism for its own sake is a dead end. Or something like that.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rain ahead...

Well, a reasonable chance for some tomorrow night, anyhow, which will feel good after today's hundred degree heat (it's 100 in the city at the moment). But the real chances, according to the federal Climate Prediction Center begin in October and last through April of next year. Thanks to the anticipated return of El Nino, they're forecasting precip to be above normal for that period. After two years of dry, that would be sweet.

Via KVUE's Mark Murray.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 03:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Global warming, or politics?

Surprise, surprise. Barry's EPA hasn't done its homework:

"EPA has not done its own evaluation of the global warming theory. Rather, it has relied on analyses by others, mostly the U.N.'s IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report. That report, however, was a political document, not a scientific one."

EPA has, however, quashed an in-house rebuttal of the Dictator's Club. Can't have dissension, oh no. That wouldn't be, uh, scientific.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 01:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

ObamaCare

Like Barry says, sometimes we'll just have to forgo surgery and take painkillers, instead. What a humanitarian. Does he ask ACORN to give up its eight billion in "stimulus"? Oh, but that's different.

Via DebbieSchlussel.

MORE: Even the Gerbilists say his recent "infomercial" with so cooperative aBC was a flop. Except on one point: he admitted he wouldn't make his own family stick to the public plan. What a man.

Posted by Dick Stanley at 03:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)