Ah, Monday,

stuff to do. Starting here; Kofi Annan is a liar and alarmist, so what else is new?
This is a heroic set of assumptions, even if you agree that emissions are causing adverse changes in climate. Take the supposedly heightened risk of conflict: The authors suggest that "inter-clan fighting in Somalia" is a product of climate change. A likelier explanation is the collapse of a functioning Somali government and the rise of jihadists in the region.

Enter Mr. Pielke, who, we hasten to add, does not speak for us (nor we for him). But given the headlines the Annan report has garnered, his views deserve amplification. Writing in the Prometheus science policy blog, Mr. Pielke calls the report a "methodological embarrassment" and a "poster child for how to lie with statistics" that "does a disservice" to those who take climate change issues seriously.

I know you've probably heard about this idiocy, but if you haven't, it was NewsWeek(NewSpeak?) editor Evan Thomas actually saying
"I mean in a way Obama’s standing above the country, above – above the world, he’s sort of God."
We're used to seeing 'journalists' and commentators slavering and drooling at the mere sight up The Obama up close, but this takes the disgusting to a whole new level. If Obama stopped walking, Thomas would die; his breathing passages would become clogged with fecal matter. And this clown thinks he is annointed to tell us what we 'need' to know?


I got pretty much all the old grease and oil out of the P14 stock. After cleaning I rubbed in a mix of linseed and mineral spirits(the spirits thins the oil and lets it penetrate deeper) and let that dry about three days, and it's now got it's fourth coat of the finish drying. The surface is sealed, and the wood looks nice, and it should no longer bleed old ick when it gets hot.


I'd forgotten, yesterday was the date of Operation Opera, the Israeli operation to destroy the reactor Saddam Hussein was building. I remember reading about it after; a maximum-range(if everything went right) strike that went off flawlessly. And it kept Saddam from getting nukes.


Why do so many traitors turn out to be like this courtly State Department intelligence analyst from a prominent family who loved to sail and peruse the London Review of Books. Occasionally, he would voice frustration with U.S. policies, but to his liberal neighbors in Northwest D.C. it was nothing out of the ordinary. "We were all appalled by the Bush years," one said. ? 'Witty, intellectual' people with prep-school backgrounds?


Another fine example of major media ethics:
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is currently being interviewed by ABC's George Stephanopoulos, a former employee of former President Bill Clinton. So far, ABC has not disclosed that conflict. I guess he's just continuing his role as a spokesman for Clinton. In my world, that would be a firing offense.
Stephanopoulos is as big a whore as you'll come across; this is just the latest example of what ABC bought when they hired him.


And, as Ace notes, Hezbollah lost in the Lebanon elections.


And now I need to go do constructive things. Or take the long walk I've been trying to do every day to keep my fat ass under some level of control. One or the other.