Cancer and Cell Phones

New York Times need to learn that neurosurgeons are not cancer experts or cell phone experts:

Last week, three prominent neurosurgeons told the CNN interviewer Larry King that they did not hold cellphones next to their ears. “I think the safe practice,” said Dr. Keith Black, a surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, “is to use an earpiece so you keep the microwave antenna away from your brain.”

These are people that operate on brains.  They are not experts on things that cause cancer.  Their opinions should carry little more weight than any reasonably educated person you pull off the street, which is to say very little.   They do get this right:

Cellphones emit non-ionizing radiation, waves of energy that are too weak to break chemical bonds or to set off the DNA damage known to cause cancer. There is no known biological mechanism to explain how non-ionizing radiation might lead to cancer.

That is pretty much it, end of story.  Basically, cell phones use a weak microwave transceivers to get signals to and from a cell tower.  If microwaves cause cancer, we’re doomed, because they are all around us, all the time.  Cell phone transmit microwaves at fractions of a watt.  A typical civilian marine radar transmits microwaves at 4000 watts of power.  Yet you don’t typically hear concerns about fishermen getting cancer from the boat’s radar unit, or people living near airports getting their brains cooked by the tower’s radar dish, which is even more powerful.

Hat tip to Instapundit

More on NRA Voting Patterns

Some interesting statistics on how NRA members vote.  I hope blog readers who are eligible to vote in NRA elections do so.  It’s really the only way to make sure your views are represented in Fairfax.  Bitter thinks participation is low because of the lack of star power.  I actually don’t tend to vote for the celebrities because they don’t usually need any help getting votes.  I tend to pick about 6 or so candidates, and leave it at that.  Here’s a poll to answer some questions I’m curious about:

[poll 6]

On High Ammo Prices in Alaska

An article from an Ancorage newspaper on high ammo prices:

Just ask members of the Alaska Machine Gun Association, who practically breathe bullets.

“That same ammo that we bought for, say, 6 cents a round three years ago is now 35 cents a round,” said Dave Arieno, president of the club.

Arieno says a United Nations effort to limit the sale of surplus military ammunition, combined with war in Iraq, have boosted some prices. High fuel and freight costs don’t help — especially in rural Alaska.

I can’t imagine the Philly media covering how hard high ammo prices are on machine gun shooters.  Alaska is a different place.

Blacklash Against Toronto Mayor Miller

When you see pro-gun peices in the Canadian media, and editorials talking about the mayor being wrongheaded, it’s probably a good indication he’s stepped out of the mainstream, and into the fringe.  Note the indignation on the part of the olympic shooters?  Big city mayors are a gun rights activist best friend.  They pretty much prove for us that it ain’t going to stop with assault weapons, saturday night specials, or whatever the hell the anti-gun movement is talking about banning these days.  We have more shooters in America than they do in Canada, but that hasn’t stopped the same thing from happening in our cities.

Ask Mayor Squidward

Our local news radio station, KYW 1060AM is hosting a Q&A session tomorrow with Mayor Nutter, and they were nice enough to put a form online so we can submit questions.   Here’s mine:

Mr. Mayor, when you took office, you swore an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and of this Commonwealth.  By restricting the rights of Philadelphians to own firearms for sport and protection, aren’t you violating that oath?

Go ask a question.  Can’t hurt.  Keep it short and polite, but tough.  I don’t expect they’ll ask the Mayor any pro-gun oriented questions, but let the media know that gun owners are out there.  Another one to think about asking him would be what an assault weapon is.  If you’re from the Philadelphia area, definitely make sure to get a question in.