At Maggie's Farm, we are always skeptical when people try to politicize science, whether the subject is stem cells or climate. Rush Limbaugh always says "Follow the money," but here our rule of thumb is "Follow the power." Since politics tends to be more about power than about truth, I believe that we are wise to be skeptics.

Monckton has a series in the Telegraph: Climate Chaos? Don't believe it, which I highly recommend. If I could remember who linked it, I'd give them credit. Quotes:

This week, I'll show how the UN undervalued the sun's effects on historical and contemporary climate, slashed the natural greenhouse effect, overstated the past century's temperature increase, repealed a fundamental law of physics and tripled the man-made greenhouse effect.

Next week, I'll demonstrate the atrocious economic, political and environmental cost of the high-tax, zero-freedom, bureaucratic centralism implicit in Stern's report; I'll compare the global-warming scare with previous sci-fi alarums; and I'll show how the environmentalists' "precautionary principle" (get the state to interfere now, just in case) is killing people.

Is Mr. Stern a fearmonger? You bet. TCS. Do human activities effect climate? Sure - they have for 10,000 years, at the margins. But we just have to cope with change. Change is always with us, and we humans are clever sorts.

Image: Work garb in the year 2050, as predicted by global warming fearmongers. Image scientifically demonstrates that the crisis of global warming will result in women going around in scanty clothing. The so-called experts never calculate in just how much money we will all save on winter coats and long johns - and winter heating. Plus the ladies can give their seal coats back to the baby seals.

h/t, Powerline:

If you think dogs can't count, try putting three dog goodies in your pocket, and give him only two of them.

Phil Pastoret

How to get rich in public education. Edn Wonks. Key issue: know nothing about it.

James Bond's guns up for auction. Alphecca. It was more fun when eBay allowed guns.

French union threatens strike to protect Islamist airport workers. What a country. 

A look back at Izzy Stone. New Criterion. He was not a "useful idiot:" he knew exactly what he was doing in defending Stalin. Stone was just another Lefto-fascist benefiting from American freedom while celebrating its absence elsewhere. Like the folks today who love Fidel...but do not move to Cuba.

CA library bans church from using their space, on separation grounds. Ninth Circuit (duh) upholds. Cramer begs to differ.

More Michigan: Even you are better off than the French!

The Kyoto scam, free speech, and global socialism warming: TCS

The Economist has a blog (h/t, Marginal Rev.) This blog competition is getting intense. How can the little guy survive, with day jobs? We demand government support now for our blogging lifestyle, or an entire way of life may disappear.

Hollywood hubris. A quote from Horsefeathers on Clint Eastwood and Flags of our Fathers (the book was fine - not great):

Some men (and women) whom the gods would destroy, they first raise high for all to see. These men (and women) have been so successful, have amassed such wealth, and have acquired so many playthings—the grand houses on Lily Pond Lane, Chateaux en Provence, estates in Scotland surrounded by rushing streams rich with trout, or vast glass and steel condos looking out over Central Park, that they yearn for things that wealth cannot buy. These are men (and women) like George Soros, Barbra Streisand, Steven Spielberg. Besotted with their wealth they forget that they are ordinary men (and women) with small gifts for entertaining or trading in markets. The gods first enchant them with dreams of changing the world and then cast them into the outer space of narcissistic illusion, where they are doomed to watch their own inner movies forever.

One fears that Clint Eastwood is heading in that direction. He has become so successful as an actor, director and producer of movies that he may have forgotten that the gift he was given was to be used simply to entertain us, like a juggler, or a trapeze artist who makes us breathless with fear and then takes a smiling, confident bow.

Now he wants to teach us something important, to tell us what is right and what is wrong about the world.

We need a name for the environmentalist-religious-socialists. They creep me out, too. Gaiatologists?

This guy is a heck of a good shot, with a bow.  Invite him to your next deer hunt.

The election aftermath, anticipated. Wise post at YARGB

Nacho Libre. From the guys who brought you the great Napoleon Dynamite. Here, h/t The Shelf

The stem cell BS: wow - what an advt. Slightly dishonest? Has no-one heard that embryonic stem cells cause cancer? And that there is a slight moral issue here?

Prayers for Cuba, NYC style. Sheesh. Sometimes there is just nothing to say.

Sees it like we do. Mr. Free Market on the global warming scam.

Scott at Powerline takes a look at racial preferences.Go, Scott:

The depth of the racial discrimination practiced in the university setting became evident in the two University of Michigan cases decided by the Supreme Court a few years back. In the undergraduate school, applicants for admission were simply sorted into different pools with lower admission standards if they identified themselves as African-American, Hispanic, or Native American, and higher standards if they identified themselves as white or members of non-preferred minority groups.

In the law school, the university rigged its standards year after year to achieve a minimum 10 percent quota of students from designated "underrepresented" minority groups (African American, Mexican American and Native American).

For years the university covered up the existence of the racial discrimination that it was practicing. Now it defends what it cannot conceal, and it does so in the name of "affirmative action" and "diversity."

The defense of racial preferences in the name of "affirmative action" and "diversity" has become part of contemporary civil rights orthodoxy and many purportedly sophisticated arguments have been advanced to justify them. Hillary Clinton has stated, in express disagreement with Martin Luther King's great 1963 speech on the Washington Mall, "If we don't take race as part of our character, then we are kidding ourselves."

The crisis of depleted fish stocks in the north Atlantic has been slowly evolving for 100 years. The vast schools of "groundfish" - cod, hake, and haddock -are gone; the redfish are gone; the swordfish and big bluefin tuna are in a fight for survival.

The tale of woe is highlighted this week by a piece via the AP here, and another at the WaPo here.

It's the tragedy of the commons. And these commons" aren't really all that large. Most of the Atlantic is very thin in fish. They congregate, during their migrations, on the banks, like George's Bank, Stellwagen, and the Grand Banks, where their food is plentiful.

Government made it worse; federal subsidies for giant trawlers made it possible for fishermen to eradicate entire populations. And the significant commercial fishing lobby in Maine and Massachusetts - with their senatorial allies in John Kerry and Olympia Snow - adopted a "get it while you can" approach, and local politicians take the bait.

Trawlers not only scoop up entire schools, they also degrade the ocean bottom, and catch the bait fish which end up dead in the nets and thrown overboard - along with the dead undersized cod, haddock, and flounder.

The Bush administration, interestingly, has made some real progress towards unwinding some of the anti-conservation regulations in the Atlantic fisheries, but New England politics remains a factor: commercial fishing is "a way of life," despite the fact that it is now dominated by what you might call "Big Fishing." Bush has been a staunch conservationist about fishing in general, also here, most recently. This summer, he signed a bill creating the world's largest marine preserve.

I always have hoped that fish farming would ge a good solution. It's been successful in some ways in some areas - salmon, for instance, oysters and mussels. But problems with disease transmission sunk the cod farming attempts in Canada.

It may be far too late to rebuild the Atlantic fishing stocks. There is a tipping point at which restoration cannot occur. And it is a damn shame, because for us at Maggie's Farm, we care not only on conservation and stewardship grounds - we love to eat fish, and we love to go fishin'. We gain hope from the story of the Striped Bass, which is having a real resurgence since commercial fishing for them has been controlled.

I just finished a book, The Doryman's Reflection: A Fisherman's Life, by Paul Molyneaux. It's not a great book, but it gives a good flavor of what is going on from a guy who has seen the transition from the old to the new ways of fishing, and who understands the regulations, and the science too.

The concern about our fish is not wacky greenie hysteria, it's not crying wolf. It is as real as what happened to the Passenger Pigeon and the Buffalo. There is a role for government here (is that not shocking to hear from us libertarian-minded folks?), and it shouldn't cost the taxpayer a penny.

But, if done right, it will hurt the brave fishermen who daily risk their lives in the rugged and most dangerous occupation in the US. Sad, but necessary: these are not guys who could switch to an office job. The industry has succeeded beyond its ability to sustain itself.

The people have
spoken, and the
Dartmouth People's
Insurrection has won.

Power to the People!

Better check those Diebold machines   pieces of paper vote-counters  heck, there's gotta be a law suit in here somewhere.

One thing for sure: they don't dare call their voters ignorant morons morans!

Woops. I see we have two simultaneous posts on the same subject. Well, it deserves it. Good on us.

One of the few large Ice Age Pleistocene mammmals surviving in North America, and still in some parts of northern Europe, is the Musk Ox. I am always surprised to remember that there are Musk Oxen in Canada - they are rarely a subject of cocktail party conversation - unless you have the bad luck to be chatting with the dull and pedantic Bird Dog.

They are the Bison of the Tundra - but they are not bovines, despite their appearance and name. They are closer to goats.

Remarkably, there is a group in Alaska which is breeding them for domestication, which does seem 6000 years too late. A bit about these remarkable critters here.

Can they be hunted? Once you get up there, it's too much like shooting a cow in a pasture. The Eskimos kill them, though, but they kill anything, including seagulls.

The Stone Age did not end for lack of stone, and the Oil Age will end long before the world runs out of oil.

Sheikh Yamani (h/t, Anchor Rising)

Welcome to the Farm, all of you friendly visitors from RWNH. Check out ye olde blogge, and visit us again - we are unpredictable, and pretty good.

Everybody else is commenting on Kerry, and our editor wanted something from me, since he is my Senator (although I have never voted for him).

Let me begin by saying that I do not think that Kerry misspoke. I believe he said what he meant, regardless of whether it is what he was scripted to say.

Why do I think that? Because what he said is classic, typical Eastern lefty condescending elitist talk: I hear this kind of thing at every Cambridge cocktail party. It is completely normal talk in the Kerry's circles. And because he is still stuck in 1968.

But, just for the heck of it, let's be generous and give him the benefit of the doubt, and imagine that he made a non-Freudian slip of the tongue.

Say he made a little mistake of wording, but that can be a big mistake for politicians: they are not supposed to ever say what they really think.

And when they make a mistake, regardless of how it occurred, the right thing to do is to say that you goofed.

Everybody makes mistakes in life - mistakes of judgement, impulsivity, recklessness, fecklessness, foolishness, nervousness, over-emotionality, or sheer cussedness. But mistakes stick to a person when:

1. they crystallize something already felt about the person (eg Dukakis and the tank helmet, or Dean's scream).

2. the mistakes are so repetitive that it is clear that they are not anomalous, but personal characteristics (eg Clinton and Monica, or Mark Foley - remember him?).

3. they are mishandled in such a way as to make a smaller goof into a big mistake (eg Clinton and Monica). We recommend self-deprecating humor as the best way to go.

4. it's a key moment, like an election, (or in romance) when every little thing is scrutinized. (eg in a passionate moment with Bill, sighing "Oh, Carl, you're so...manly.")

Kerry's little slip had the misfortune of embodying all of the above.

Image above: Kerry at Yale, where his grades were worse than George Bush's. Believe me - neither of them could get into Yale today.

 Image: from AOL news.

(Editor's note: Dr. B emailed me this incomplete draft to look over, but I figured we'd post it due to timeliness. She can complete it at her leisure. I added the images.)

From a piece about the Michigan rust-belt economy at Polipundit:

So can you guess in which direction taxpayers are moving between these two states? Here are the U-Haul rates for a 26-ft truck on October 29, 2006 (an arbitrary date):
Detroit to Nashville: $1659.00
Nashville to Detroit: $295.00

Excellent summary of the current state of the ACLU at Tammy Bruce (h/t, Driscoll).

I know well that the ACLU was founded by communists, but it once had a worthy mission nonetheless. No longer. Now it's mission is to undermine America and to subvert freedom and tradition. It is astonishing to me that they get $ support from the US government: Chavez or Osama would be more likely sources.

The ACLU is just one of many non-profits which have been taken over by Leftists, to their detriment. We have written about the YWCA, Planned Parenthood, the World Council of Churches, and the UCC, but there are many more examples.

And in case you have never checked it out, Stop the ACLU website is always on their case.

WHATEVER YOU DO IS WRONG

When you sit in the blind awaiting the flight

Of the white-breasted northern sprig,

While they circle high and think to light,

And they look so close and big,

You whisper your pard, as you both crouch low,

“Now! – Don’t wait too long!”

You shoot – too far – and off they go;

Whatever you do is wrong!

 

Then you curse yourself for a fool greenhorn,

Your pride has had a blow;

Sullen you sit and smoke and mourn,

When – in comes a bunch, fair low!

You watch them circle ‘round and ‘round,

“Just let them work along!”

When – off they swing, southward bound;

Whatever you do is wrong!

 

And so, through life, a poor wretch tries

To do what he thinks is right,

To place his funds so that when he dies

His family’ll be sitting tight;

To raise the young with the best in mind,

And sometimes it works like a song,

But often he finds like the man in the blind,

Whatever you do is wrong!

 

Still, I think that the God who sits in His sky,

And watches each man in his blind,

When it comes time for the hunter to die,

Surely, He’ll keep in mind

That each tried to do what it seemed he ought,

And He’ll put us where we belong;

For He’ll understand the fellow that thought

Whatever he did was wrong!

Remarkable - don't miss this: A German scientist did a comparison test to see how many people could tell the difference between the first and second picture.  3 things were different.  Only 49 out of 8,000 were able to solve it.  Can you?  Click below:

COMPARISON TEST

As usual, when Dust My Broom posts a blues mix, it's pretty darn decent. Last night he included a recording by Roy Buchanan, the guitar legend. (He also has Marcia Ball, the New Orleans piano player and blues belter who I saw in CT a year ago. She is a firecracker.)

Roy's bio here. Amazon has some Buchanan recordings.

Thanks to our Aliyah Diary guest author for bringing to our attention Armand Laferrere's essay The Huguenots, the Jews, and Me. Laferrere's piece explains some of the history of the growing links between Protestants and Jews in a hostile world.

The book by Matthew Levitt is Hamas: Politics, Charity and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad. Levitt, now deputy assistant secretary for intelligence in the Treasury Department, is interviewed here.

Levitt's "Hamas" (AZURE 26, Autumn 2006, reviewed by Leiter) and Laferrere's "The Huguenots, the Jews, and Me" are conceptually
related.

Laferrere's deeply personal essay describes a worldview established by the Reformation, refined by Calvin, and later articulated by Max Weber.  This worldview, Laferrere writes persuasively, connects the French Huguenot (Calvinists) and himself to the Jews.  Laferrere explains this in terms of the French Catholic persecution of the Huguenots. But Weber teaches us another perspective.

Weber, an economist and sociologist, connected the economic/social rise of capitalism (i.e. the rational group/societal pursuit of economic gain) with  Calvinist revision of a religious worldview, a revision begun radically by Martin Luther in his shift from Catholicism to Protestantism, but refined by Calvin. The latter emphasized worldly gain as a sing of salvation, emphasized group/societal wealth along with individual asceticism and modesty. That is, Weber argued, Calvinist "religious" beliefs influenced the
new economic belief and actions of capitalism. In fact, Weber cites Ben Franklin's recasting of Calvinist values into very secular anodyne proverbs about work.

How is this connected to the book, "Hamas"? Levitt argues that the contemporary Western constructs of "religion," "charity," "political versus militant" wings of an organization do not hold for Hamas (nor for Hezbollah, nor for militant Islam, including the Iranian regime).  Rather, there is a more seamless fabric of beliefs that cross Western boundaries such as "religion" or "politics" or "economy."

A quote from Leiter's review:

"...It is in this context that Levitt makes one of his most important contributions to our understanding of how terror works. Fungible funds, it turns out, are only part of the problem. The crossover between dawa and terror, he shows, extends to works of charity themselves. Ambulances are used to transport suicide bomb belts, schools are used to hide weapons, and charitable organizations are used as recruiting centers for terrorists. Hospitals are used to procure ingredients for bombs, such as the nitric acid and hydrogen sulfide used to produce nitroglycerin explosives, and hydrogen peroxide to make an explosive called tatp, which is favored by Hamas. Dawa-supported doctors use their freedom of travel privileges to smuggle suicide bombers into Israel. Likewise, libraries supported by the Hamas dawa are used for the dissemination of radical sermons glorifying death and murder, and in what is perhaps the most potent symbol of the link between dawa and terror, mosques are used for storing weapons and hosting operational meetings. In short, Hamas offers a holistic religious doctrine that treats good works toward coreligionists and terrorization of the enemy as two sides of the same coin."
Ironically, Weber makes an argument that with the rise of Protestant/capitalism, the societal (Catholic) compartmentalization of religion (otherworldliness) and secular become woven together. In fact, a change in religious worldview results in a change in secular action (in contrast to Marx's argument).

Clairvoyantly, the editor of Ha'Aretz, Carlebach wrote in 1956, shortly before his premature death, that the West did not comprehend the way of thought of Arab societies and how different is this way of thinking from the heirs of Western Enlightenment.  Carlebach did not use the perhaps more precise concepts nor terms used by Weber, but he seemed to get the basic idea.  And, Carlebach argued, if the West didn't get the difference in thinking about human relationships, then it didn't get the great struggle brewing between Islam and the West.

Levitt's book is a conceptual contribution to a Weberian understanding of the worldview of Hamas and related societies. To understand them better is understand the dedicated (mortal) enemies of not only the Jewish States, but also of a way of thinking and being and living together shared in the West.

Nathan Szajnberg, MD
Jerusalem