The Labor Department says recent job losses are behind an increase in the state’s unemployment rate.
Ya think?
Month: April 2008
Hurricanes Not So Much a Problem
Apparently global warming may not increase hurricane frequency. I am not a climate scientist, so I don’t claim to be an expert, but I do have a pretty good grasp on science in general, and have a fair amount of knoweldge of complex systems, but most of the claims as to the effects of global warming have never passed the smell test. We do know that CO2 is a greenhouse gas, and we know atmospheric levels of it are rising. We also know that computer models show more CO2 in the atmosphere leads to warmer temperatures. Are the computer models right? Maybe. But I’m skeptical that a complex system like climate can be predicted with even a modicum of certainty.
I work in the pharmaceutical industry, and we do a lot of complex systems modeling, particularly how ligands bond to proteins. In fact, what I do for a living is build and maintain supercomputer clusters so these types of calculations can be done. There have been many good scientists who claim that certain methods of doing this kind of modeling are the greatest thing to come along since sliced bread. People want to believe in what they are doing, even if it’s not really good science. I’ve seen too many people collectively buy into a lot of these fads to believe that consensus is always good science. It hasn’t been always in the pharmaceutical field. I’m skeptical of any claim that climate science is also not collectively prone to the same errors.
I’m not saying global warming isn’t happening, or it isn’t something to be concerned about. But I remain highly skeptical of people who claim to be able to model a complex system to such a degree as they can tell you global warming will lead to more droughts, rainfall, hurricanes, or mass extinctions.
New York Sun Buys AHSA Jive
According to Jay, who says:
Calling the AHSA a “moderate gun rights organization†is like characterizing the Son of Sam as a “two bit criminal.†The AHSA is an anti-gun front group. Nothing more.
Yep, absolutely. People who are moderately pro gun, and claim to represent the interests of hunters and shooters, don’t donate $5000 to a group called Handgun Control Inc. Ten grand if you count his wife.
Quote of the Day
Christine M. Flowers at the Daily News:
Philadelphia has been ignored in Harrisburg. It does have special problems. But acting like defiant and belligerent children when we don’t get our way isn’t going to solve those problems. It’s just going to confirm what the people in northeastern and western and central Pennsylvania already think of us.
That we’re a lawless city.
Yes, it will. Not to mention that it’s not a great idea, in a city infested with lawlessness, to have the Mayor, Police Chief, and City Council themselves flout the law so flagrantly.
Secret Compartments
Apparently it’s illegal in Illinois to have a secret compartment in your car. Outrageous. The law itself can be found here. Looks like it makes the vehicle subject to forfeiture, and its owner subject to a class 4 felony.
Shields Calls for Nutter’s Arrest
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:
Philadelphia’s latest effort to curb violence through gun control was temporarily blocked by a city judge yesterday in a ruling that both sides welcomed, and that left a National Rifle Association lawyer calling for Mayor Nutter’s arrest for “official oppression.”
Common Pleas Court Judge Jane Cutler Greenspan granted the NRA a temporary restraining order that blocks enforcement of a package of five gun-control laws passed last week by City Council and signed by Nutter.
Greenspan stressed that she was “just trying to preserve the status quo” until an April 28 hearing on whether to issue a preliminary injunction freezing the laws longer.
The only problem is, you actually have to opresss someone before you can be charged with official oppression, and the restraining order granted against enforcement will eliminate this possible route of action. As much as I’d like to see the Mayor and City Council arrested for flouting state law, this is just posturing until they actually enforce the ordinances.
Fired for TSA Stupdity
US Airways is probably the crappiest airline on the planet.  Now there’s another reason that’s true. Bitter and I are driving to Louisville in May, because of how much flying sucks. Hopefully I won’t be flying again until Reno in October.
Shot of the Week
Silhouette tonight was so so. I still can’t shoot pistol silhouette for crap. But my number came up in shot of the week. That’s where we write our name or membership number on a dollar bill, put it in the pot, and take chances that our dollar bill will be drawn. If you hit shot of the week, you win. If you miss, the money goes to the next week. Last week someone missed. Mine had yet to come up, except for tonight. The pot was 19 dollars. The challenge is to shoot a 1/10th scale animal at 25 yards. It’s about this size, depending on your screen resolution:
Roughly the size of a quarter, cut out into a chicken shape. I hit it in the ass with open sights, much to my surprise, so I decided the 19 dollars would go toward beer money for the week. That made up for shooting horribly in pistol.
Colleges teach a lot of things these days …
… but apparently respect is not one of them. Just because someone has the constitutional right to do something, doesn’t mean it ought to be done, and doesn’t mean I won’t call you an asshole for doing it.
You have to wonder if Mr. Art Project had to watch his friends getting shot and blown up, had to kill other human beings, and endure psychological stress beyond what most people imagine, all because he thought the piece of cloth disrespectful college kids so casually walk all over was worth all that, whether he might be able to put himself in a shoes of a veteran who had. I’m not an advocate of legally mandated flag respect, but that doesn’t mean I think these kinds of people aren’t asshats.
Lessons to Learn
From this incident in California:
The officer was struck with the bat as he walked out of his office and fell backward in a daze, Dyer said.
As the officer tried to draw his firearm, the weapon’s magazine clattered to the floor, Dyer said.
The student with the bat approached the officer again, the chief said, prompting the officer to reach for a second firearm attached to his ankle.
Magazine disconnect safeties do not belong on guns which you carry to use in self-defense. If the magazine drops during a scuffle, you want a gun that will go boom when the trigger is pulled. Absent that, not much beats the old New York reload.
Hat Tip to Dave Hardy.