Meet the man who has eaten pizza for every meal for 25 years – TODAY.com

Here’s a guy who claims to have lived on nothing but pizza for the past 25 years. And apparently the “experts” are worried that such a monotonous diet is not only unhealthy but “can set you up for a boring diet”

Guys – I think after 25 years he’s answered both the nutrition and boredom aspects of what he’s chosen. Regarding the need for variety in his food, he says:

“I love the nuance of pizza, so I try to vary it in different ways,” he said. “Once a week to be healthy, I’ll eat a bowl of Raisin Bran, but other than that it’s just pizza.”

via Meet the man who has eaten pizza for every meal for 25 years – TODAY.com.

Teens Defend School in Error-Filled Letters

My guess is this will be the last time educators encourage students to conduct a letter writing campaign on their own… this is worse than those pesky tests requiring students to to prove what they have learned.

Earlier this month, The Post exposed a scheme at Manhattan’s Murry Bergtraum HS for Business Careers in which failing students could get full credit without attending class, but instead watch video lessons and take tests online. One social-studies teacher had a roster of 475 students in all grades and subjects.

Red-faced administrators encouraged a student letter-writing campaign to attack The Post and defend its “blended learning” program. Eighteen kids e-mailed to argue that their alma mater got a bad rap.

Almost every letter was filled with spelling, grammar and punctuation errors.

via Teens defend ‘fail factory’ school in error-filled letters | New York Post.

Over FCC Plans, MSM Finally a Bit Curious re Obama Admin – UPDATED

Obama’s FCC comes up with an idea to insert itself into newsrooms to make sure the American public is getting the right kind of news. Howard Kurtz, a long time media observer, wrote a column asking the question “What were they thinking?”

Elizabeth Scalia of the blog The Anchoress responds with this (read the whole thing):

“What are they thinking?” Mr. Kurtz, it’s pretty obvious; they’re thinking no one in the mainstream press has asked them a difficult or challenging question in 7 years, so why would they start now.

• They’re thinking an obsequious press that couldn’t be bothered to sustain outrage over intrusions into its own phone and internet records won’t have a problem with the government parking itself into the newsroom.
• They’re thinking that if the mainstream press could forgive them for considering espionage charges against a member of the press — for doing what reporters are supposed to do — and then re-commence their habitual boot-licking, there is no real risk of media folk suddenly calling out a “red line”, or even being able to identify one.
• They’re figuring that with this president, the mainstream media has no idea what “a bridge too far” might mean. Nor, “abuse of power”; nor “cover-up”; nor “mendacity”, “incompetence”, “ineptitude” or “constitutional illiteracy.”
• They know that half the people in the newsroom are either married to (or social buddies with) influential members of this government, and that everyone is all comfy and nicely settled in for the revolution.
• They know that the press willfully surrendered its own freedoms some time ago, in the interests of ideology, and so they really won’t mind a little editorial supervision from the masters:

. . .we no longer need wonder why the mainstream media seems unconcerned about possible attacks on our first amendment rights to freedom of religion and the exercise thereof. They have already cheerfully, willfully surrendered the freedom of the press to the altar of the preferred narrative. People willing to dissolve their own freedoms so cheaply have no interest in anyone else’s freedom, either.

• They know that if they like their newsroom, they can keep their newsroom, once it has been correctly updated. A Mad Man might sell the scheme as Prexy-Clean. Journalism “new and improved with powerful cleansing agents!”

I hope that helps, Mr. Kurtz.

via Over FCC Plans, MSM Finally a Bit Curious re Obama Admin – UPDATED.

Wood Stoves vs. Solar

Comparing simple wood stove benefits, to both the environment and the owner’s wallet, to solar energy.

Even if the energy savings were equivalent, the Vermont system arguably provides more benefits. I don’t mean to discount the good things about solar power. But what is the logic behind offering incentives that are 10 or 20 times larger for a solar installation that produces less than half as much clean energy as a basic wood heat system? And the power that a solar system creates isn’t automatically greener than the power it replaces. Sometimes solar panels replace electricity generated in high-emissions coal-burning plants, but electricity also comes from hydroelectric, nuclear, or relatively clean-burning natural-gas power plants.

In contrast, all residential oil-burning heaters release carbon that has been locked underground for eons, adding to the net load of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Wood isn’t like that. A tree pulls carbon out of the air as it grows; when you burn it the CO2 returns to the atmosphere, where other trees can use it in turn. The same thing would happen if the wood were left in the forest to rot. And it’s not like we’re short on trees. “A lot of forests in the U.S. are vastly overstocked with fuel,” says Steve Marshall, assistant director of cooperative forestry at the U.S. Forest Service. Responsible thinning operations can yield plenty of environmentally friendly fuel.

via How Unheralded Wood Stoves Could Save the World – Popular Mechanics.

Calif. Senator Charged in Big Corruption

Democrats have been in control of California legislature for over 40 years. When you think of all the problems in this state (are we not the laughingstock of the country?) then keep this in mind.

LOS ANGELES –  A California state senator was charged Friday with accepting $100,000 in bribes, lavish trips and no-show jobs for his children in exchange for pushing legislation to benefit a hospital engaged in billing fraud and participating in a film industry tax scheme that actually was an FBI sting.

The 24-count federal indictment against Sen. Ron Calderon, a Democrat from a politically prominent family in Los Angeles’ blue-collar suburbs, depicts a rogue legislator eager to trade his clout at the state Capitol to enrich himself and his family. His brother Tom, a former state lawmaker-turned-lobbyist, was charged with money-laundering for funneling bribes through a tax-exempt group he controlled, prosecutors said.

via Calif. senator charged in big corruption case | Fox News.

Fox News vs. Yahoo News

So here’s FoxNews.com lead story vs. Yahoo.com on this fine Saturday morning… I don’t know, I’ve been paying closer attention to what’s going on with Russia and her immediate neighbors. Ever since the collapse of USSR these satellite countries have internal struggles between citizens friendly to Russia (if not having actual Russian heritage) and those wanting to break all ties and join western Europe.

This is from the Fox News article:

Russia, the United States and the European Union are deeply worried about the future of Ukraine, a nation of 46 million whose loyalties and economy are divided between Europe and longtime ruler Moscow.

In a special parliament session, lawmakers warned that the country risks being split in two. The country’s western regions want to be closer to the EU and have rejected Yanukovych’s authority in many cities, while eastern Ukraine — which accounts for the bulk of the nation’s economic output — favors closer ties with Russia.

But many in America who get their minimum daily allowance of news from the likes of Yahoo (probably the most popular start page on the web) are treated to Olympics, goat videos, and Dancing With The Stars.

Not good America.

Kerry Is Flat Wrong on Climate Change

This reinforces the Faith in Science, Not in Scientists post from a few days ago:

We are reminded of the dangers of consensus science in the past. For example, in the 18th century, more British sailors died of scurvy than died in battle. In this disease, brought on by a lack of vitamin C, the body loses its ability to manufacture collagen, and gums and other tissues bleed and disintegrate. These deaths were especially tragic because many sea captains and some ships’ doctors knew, based on observations early in the century, that fresh vegetables and citrus cured scurvy.

Nonetheless, the British Admiralty’s onshore Sick and Health Board of scientists and physicians (somewhat akin to the current Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) dismissed this evidence for more than 50 years because it did not fit their consensus theory that putrefaction (or internal decay) caused scurvy, which they felt could be cured by fresh air, exercise and laxatives.

via Richard McNider and John Christy: Why Kerry Is Flat Wrong on Climate Change – WSJ.com.

Actor’s Last Wish

Found this headline on Fox News website… um, wasn’t getting high on drugs his last wish?

Introverts & Extroverts

This is from the comments of an article about introverts written by Dr. Helen Smith. It totally explains my lifelong effort to avoid people.

Introvert means “a person who is drained of energy by interaction with many other people”.
Extrovert means “a person who gains energy by interacting with many other people”.

via Dr. Helen » Quiet.

Faith in Science, Not Scientists

Hey science community – READ THIS!

Regardless, while one should trust science as a method — honestly done, science remains the best way at getting to the truth on a wide range of factual matters — there’s no particular reason why one should trust scientists and especially no particular reason why one should trust the people running scientific institutions, who often aren’t scientists themselves.

via Instapundit » Blog Archive » MOCKING CHRIS MOONEY FOR TROLLING. When it comes to faith in science, I’ll stand by this: Regard….

More Taxes = More Votes?

Love this logic… since it’s evil to be rich (unless, of course, you’re George Soros) and the penalty for being so is to pay your fair share, then it’s only logical (or fair to use a popular adjective) that the amount you pay equals the voice you have in government. If you pay a lot of taxes then you get a lot of votes. If you pay no taxes (I’m looking at you on government assistance or corporations using tax shelters) then you get  no votes.

Because we’re talking about fairness, right?

If our political liabilities — taxes — should be as a matter of justice proportional to our income, then why shouldn’t our political input be likewise proportionate?

via Instapundit » Blog Archive » KEVIN WILLIAMSON: Tom Perkins Has A Point: Our Taxation System Is Morally Insane. Today, he is ….

GOP challengers see opportunity in California water crisis | Fox News

This. I’ve been saying for years that we don’t have a water shortage problem – we have a water storage problem. So out here on the West Coast, where we have a DRY climate and we occasionally experience DRY winters, we should plan ahead and build some handy water reservoirs!

The drought emergency Brown declared last month has added to the pressure on the Democratic governor to address longstanding problems with the state’s water storage and delivery systems. Brown has proposed a $25 billion plan to build two massive tunnels to ship water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River delta to farms and communities.

The two Republican candidates, Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks, and Neel Kashkari, a former U.S. Treasury official, both say the most pressing need is for more water storage, although it would do little to help ease the current shortfall.

“Let’s get going with the piece of this that everybody agrees on — the storage. I think we can get support for that,” Kashkari said.

Although Democrats and environmentalists have often resisted building reservoirs and expanding the state’s storage capacity, instead favoring water conservation, Kashkari said “the politics have changed,” amid the crisis. He said he believes there is now consensus.

via GOP challengers see opportunity in California water crisis | Fox News.

The End of Snow? – NYTimes.com

The End of Snow? – NYTimes.com

BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!

Taking names… Porter Fox, you are on the watch list for ridiculous predictions. The east coast has just endured their 2nd major winter storm, and you cling to your beloved idea that global warming is a danger to us all.

And the very next day we run into this article from Popular Science about not enough salt for cities trying to climb out of all the snow this winter:

“We mine and stockpile salt throughout the entire year to support our customers during the winter, so it’s not like we do it all right before the snow hits,” she says. “But with this severe winter season, within the last month or so, the orders for icing salt have surged with the intensity and frequency of the cold weather across the country. Logistics can become a challenge when the majority of customers want salt delivered at the same time.”

Add to this record snowfall in Japan.

Eleven people died, more than a thousand were injured and tens of thousands lost power when the worst snowstorm in decades hit Tokyo and areas around the Japanese capital before heading north to blanket the tsunami-hit Pacific coast.

Who you gonna believe, global-warmists at the NYT or your lying eyes!

Feminism Today – “I Want!”

Feminism is not an idea or a collection of ideas but a collection of appetites wriggling queasily together like a bag of snakes. Feminism has nothing to do with the proposition that women should be considered whole and complete members of the body politic, though it has enjoyed great success marketing itself that way. . . .

A useful definition is this: “Feminism is the words ‘I Want!’ in the mouths of three or more women, provided they’re the right kind of women.” Feminism must therefore accommodate wildly incompatible propositions — e.g., (1) Women unquestionably belong alongside men in Marine units fighting pitched battles in Tora Bora but (2) really should not be expected to be able to perform three chin-ups. Or: (1) Women at Columbia are empowered by pornography but (2) women at Wellesley are victimized by a statue of a man sleepwalking in his Shenanigans. And then there is Fluke’s Law: (1) Women are responsible moral agents with full sexual and economic autonomy who (2) must be given an allowance, like children, when it comes to contraceptives.

via Instapundit » Blog Archive » KEVIN WILLIAMSON: The Feminist Mystique: It has become simply “I Want!” in the mouths of a mi….