Hot Pants! Hey! Hot Pants Smokin?! Hot Pants Make Ya Sure of Yourself -Good Lord

(above pair, not likely the pair to be worn by Josh Brown)

Seattle Seahawks kicker, Josh Brown, will be wearing "heated pants" while on the sideline at Lambeau Field this weekend. This according to the ESPN article:

Brown told KIRO Radio that no matter how low the temperature drops, his legs will be 75 degrees.

Why hasn't anyone thought of this before?

And below, the song whose lyrics I quote in the title (along with Sex Machine), from Soul Brother Number 1, James Brown (or in the original Japanese　ソウル　ブラザー　No.1　ジェイムズー　ブラウン)

And as far as I know, Josh and James Brown are not related.

Nanny(State) Knows Best

(S)motherism is the newest craze in statecraft. There seems to be few things in life that aren't subject to state interference. The temp you set your thermostat is the latest thing to come under attack here in California. (via Samizdata)

It's for Gaia, so we must submit. We must allow state bureaucrats decide what temps we can set our central air/heat at so that they won't have to build any additional Gaia offending power plants.

I don't think the committee that recommended these changes expected anyone to notice in time to complain before they get slipped into new building codes. Luckily, this is an invasive enough intrusion on people's liberties that this issue should become toxic even for the most liberal politicians and should die a speedy and ignomious death.

Or at least I hope.

Once again though, as with many of these energy type issues, I live my life greenly, not as a matter of Gaiaism, but more frugality and location. It never gets too hot here, with the frequent ocean breezes, so no central air needed, and the few months it's cold enough to require heating, it's never so cold that our old gas furnace can't handle the job without destroying too much of the planet. But if I lived in the desert, that wouldn't be the case, and if they want to change people's behavior, then expose them to the market more, don't regulate frugality. People will change their habits if they see immediate costs to keeping their houses at 68 degrees when nobody's home on a 100+ degree day. The Enron scandal wasn't a scandal born of de-regulation, but of sloppy and easily manipulated regulation. The powers that be see to it that power will never be subject to a true free market. Because of this, folks don't behave as sensibly as they might otherwise. The solution isn't technological, the solution lies with the market. But don't expect that argument to get proposed by any government commission tasked with finding energy 'solutions'.

How High Do You Have to Be to Misspell Your Own Name?!?

This High.

(apparently)

If Pacifist Are So Peaceful, Why Do I Always Want to Punch Them in the Mouth?

Pacifism, as dumb and useless in the cyberworld, as it is in the real one.

(Being peaceful is good, having principles is good, but pacifism is a form of mental masturbation and a cop-out. There are bad people in the world who do bad things, that must be opposed violently)

I'm Allergic to Junk Science and Wild Conclusions . . .

. . . yet I don't think there's an MSM conspiracy to spread these dumb stories like wildfire just to enflame my condition.

Serious allergies are no laughing matter, but I think some folks get a touch out of hand when it comes to their own kids, and are always looking to 'syndromize' every hiccup, cough, and developmental oddity.

From the article:

Mix the lack of hard data with an increasingly complex food landscape, and you’ve got Robyn O’Brien.

“Food allergies just become a focus for a broader fear about the food system,” said the author Michael Pollan, a contributor to The New York Times Magazine.

Mr. Pollan, in both “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and his new book, “In Defense of Food” (January, Penguin), shares many of Ms. O’Brien’s views about industrialized agriculture. He also has a niece with a peanut allergy. So Ms. O’Brien sent him an e-mail message, and a correspondence began.

Ms. O’Brien took his responses as an endorsement of her work, and then mentioned his support in messages to other people. Mr. Pollan, who said he has no idea if her theories are accurate, asked her to stop telling people he was working with her.

Leveraging brief e-mail exchanges with notable people is an important method that Ms. O’Brien uses to build her universe. The unlikely mix includes members of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s staff; Mary Alice Stephenson, a host of “America’s Most Smartest Model”; and, recently, Dr. Mehmet Oz, a regular on Oprah Winfrey’s show.

“The fact that people like him and Malcolm Gladwell, presidential campaigns, celebs take the time to reply means a lot as it gives me hope that people are still engaged,” she said in an e-mail message to this reporter.

While some of her contacts, like Mr. Gladwell, an author and a writer for The New Yorker, don’t remember her, the strategy has worked. Nell Newman, who runs the organic arm of Newman’s Own products, spoke up on her behalf on the national news. Deborah Koons Garcia, the widow of Jerry Garcia and director of the documentary “The Future of Food,” invited her to lunch.

But her biggest asset might be a relentless drive to wind together obscure health theories, blog postings and corporate financial statements. She then posts her analyses on her Web site.

She chides top allergy doctors who are connected to Monsanto, the producer of herbicides and genetically modified seeds. She asserts that the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network, the nation’s leading food allergy advocacy group, is tainted by the money it receives from food manufacturers and peanut growers.

Does everything have to be a conspiracy? Does every issue have to bring out the anti-corporate nuts? This 'problem' may have a very simple root cause. More people survive early childhood then we are designed for. We are a hearty species, developed to withstand horrendous environments and a whole host of nasty diseases. Even with that, throughout most of human history a good size chunk of infants died before their 3rd birthday. Places with great sanitation, great healthcare, and great access to nutrition have taken away all the old environmental pressures that lead to such high infant mortality rates. The end result is a lot of people who wouldn't have survived to breeding age a century ago, are surviving today. It's not unreasonable to conclude that our gene pool is different, and may be less 'hearty', given that more and more people are surviving past childhood. This isn't a bad thing, but it is the most likely and simplest explanation for the seeming contradiction that as we get healthier as a people, we also seem to be subject to more and more childhood conditions.

Most likely there was as many kids susceptible to this stuff 200 years ago, but they were taken out by cholera or diarrhea or malnutrition before anyone noticed that they swelled up anytime they got near a peanut.

It's much easier to blame modern problems on modern causes, but we may just be 'victims' of our own success as a species. I'm glad our gene pool has expanded, but that doesn't mean the fundamental change in what kind of children survive birth and survive into adulthood hasn't had a profound effect on the kinds of genetic problems that turn up in our offspring. It's a good problem to have, but one that won't go away just by pointing to corporations and making them the big bad scary.

How Long Would It Take for The NYT to Blame Bush . . .

. . . unlike the how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop question, this one is answerable.

It only took 6 sentences before the Bush Administration was the guilty party (as far as the NYT editorial board is concerned) with regards to the latest Iranian provocation.

Persia is ruled by nuts, but that can't be enough, instead it has to be our nut's fault cause he hasn't tried hard enough to reach out to their nuts over the past 7 years.

I say nuts to that.

Instead we should continue to grab hold of the Mullahs by the nuts, and squeeze them, squeeze them hard. They may be crazy, but they're not stupid

It must be so comforting to live in a world where there is one person to blame for everything that happens, one place to point the finger, and one easy answer to all problems (whatever the Bushies are doing, recommend the opposite).

They're going to miss that certainty when it's gone.

"And no, Don Cheadle jumping off of a trampoline doesn't count."

The conclusion to an interesting tale recounted at True Hoop about the quest to witness a basketballer touching the top of the backboard.

(does touching the bottom of the backboard count?)

(not that I can even do that anymore, at one time I could, though)

We Appreciate How You Are 'Thinking Outside of the Box', But Will Have to Get Back to You Later Per Your Suggestion . . .

. . . a suggestion that folks outside of the USA should help elect our president.

Why should pesky nuisances like national sovereignty get in the way of the electoral process?

Tell you what, if you let us set your trade policy, then we might agree, till then, enjoy the show, comment away, but don't expect a vote.

The Joys of Government Mandated Health Coverage

A tale from Great Britain about a not so great aspect of socialized medicine.

You could say this is more about corporate greed, and eeevil corporate practices, but if hospital care were a free market, a shady company wouldn't be able to get away with shady practices without glomming on to the government's monopoly on health services (and hospitals that hired a firm like that would go out of business or contract with some other telcom business).

The author of the tale goes on to a whole littany of bad business practices, all of them being public sector(ish) and government subsidized. When the state becomes the main employer, or makes all the choices, you end up with shoddier service than when free market competition comes into play.

Good thing the pound is worth so much, cause all sorts of daily activities seem to cost an arm and a leg.

You Can Keep Two of Them, All I Want Are Two Freedoms

Pastor Jeff has an excellent post that takes to task the FDR inspired liberalism that has dominated American public thought for quite some time.

Even when conservatives make headway against the ideas put forth by FDR, they have to do so in a manner that doesn't undermine many of the ideas that FDR expressed.

But, the dirty little secret of the 30s, is that what FDR gave us was Fascism-Lite. There was a real fear that the fascism fever that swept across Europe could ignite in the USA during the Depression as well. So FDR gave us a kinder, gentler state controlled economy, and would have controlled more, except for a reluctant Judicial Branch. FDR didn't' save our economy, he most likely exacerbated the crisis with his meddling into the free market. Pick up Amity Shlaes invaluable book for some perspective on this. And for the confluence of liberalism and fascism, no better book puts that in perspective than Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism.

This stuff shouldn't be news to anybody. But we've had decades of rhetoric that has distorted the use of all these terms so that nobody who is liberal could ever be considered a fascist (even though fascism is about state control of the economy, and so is liberalism). Also, nobody questions the fact that the kinds of measures FDR took to 'fix' the economy have failed every other time and in every other country where they were copied, and whenever the free market has been allowed to work through a correction, a boom time generally followed a recession within a few years, not after nearly a decade like under FDR. He retarded the economy with his policies, all in the name of compassion and protecting folks from 'want'. Rather than really helping people back on their feet, he turned more folks into beggars on the government dole.

What we want (or should want), and what we deserve is pretty simple. Everyone should have equality of opportunity. But what liberals have been promising since FDR's time is equality of results. That way lies danger, that way lies populist anti-corporate stupidity and hostility towards profits. If Sen. Obama were to govern as he is running, he'd be Carter II (this is a serious enough issue to actually use he who should not be named's last name), for that matter so would Gov. Huckabee.

Hopefully, Americans will reject this populist fever that seems to be spreading and the candidates spreading it, or at least whichever person becomes President will be smart enough not to enact any of the populist reforms they hope to get elected on.

Late Night Returning Shows: Comedy Central Edition

"A" Daily Show With Jon Stewart returned, wasn't that funny, he seemed a bit bitter, and maybe not entirely pleased with the WGA. Had on a labor relations prof from Cornell (aka Commie Studies), and they rambled on about the eeevils of 'the man'.

The Colbert Report was much better, he brought the funny. He doesn't need writers, though clearly his bits are prepared, the rules seem to be different for cable and network, so as long it's not a violation if he writes material for himself to perform. He was able to stay in his Colbert character, and had a lively interview with a rather annoying Andrew Sullivan.

Yeah SCABS!!!

This strike is lasting at least till April, that seems pretty clear now, nothing's going to happen until the SAG contract is about to expire.

Also, here's a strike related gallery of regrettable beards.

(which reminds me, I should really shave, people might mistake my lazy beard for a 'strike beard')

I Admit It, This Post Is Really Just an Excuse to Show A Photo of Jeri Ryan . . .

. . . but the hard part, choosing just one. Being a nerd/geek, had to go with one in full 7 of 9 gear.

Did her divorce from Jack Ryan pave the way for Pres. Obama?

I blame the California judge who unsealed the divorce documents over the objections of both Jack and Jeri Ryan. There was no reason for this to be public, and Jack Ryan shouldn't have dropped out, they went to France, he wanted to do some kinky stuff with his smoking hot wife in front of other a bunch of foreigners, big deal, end of story.

If I Had a 22 Year Old Girlfriend, I'd Totally Buy Her This T-Shirt (at Least One Size Too Small)

This shirt, probably not a good idea to wear if you're old enough to remember the 70s. But for anybody under 25, have at it.

Triple Fake-Out From William Kristol?

William Kristol's first column for the NYT is full of praise and admiration for Gov. Mike Huckabee.

My first reaction is Where's The Feet?!?

My second reaction is, guess he wants people to talk to him at NYT soirees.

My third reaction is that maybe he's making the case that the GOP shouldn't fear a Huckabee nomination so that the Dems will fear him, and the liberal press will begin ripping into him before the primaries are over.

It's not just a head-fake, its a triple fake-out, he's pretending to like an unlikeable candidate, so that liberals think that conservatives might actually like this guy, and by doing so he hastens the attacks on Huckabee that will help change the nature of the primaries so that there is no chance of actually having a Huckabee nomination (which would be just as big of a disaster as liberals would hope it would be).

I'm not a huge William Kristol fan, though I do like the Weekly Standard, he's my least favorite writer there, I prefer a more direct Fred Barnes type. The gnashing of teeth and wailing over his new gig at NYT has been amazing and instructive, though.

It's quite possible that he's loony enough to think a Huckabee presidency is likely to happen, and that it would be good for conservatives. It's not likely, and his conservative Christian tinged populism would be disastrous (not as disastrous as Obama's liberal Christian tinged populism, though).

Bill Gates, One of the World's Richest People, Or One of the World's Funniest?

Great video over at Gizmodo, but I think his position on the wealth continuum is still well beyond his status on the comedy continuum, but if he's willing to give me $40Billion or so, I could help him close that gap.