Arlen Specter's new bill will help trial lawyers and terrorists.

The left is always screaming "follow the money." Well, follow the money on Climategate. It leads to the "consensus" builders. Unfortunately, the consensus was built on manufactured and hidden data, lousy computer modeling and men who had a great financial incentive for hiding the truth.

This is a scandal that won't die. Nor should it.

The Tiger crash story gets more interesting.

As predicted by Spencerblog, it appears another woman was involved. The National Enquirer has the story. And let's face it, they got the John Edwards "Love Child" story right.

What is lame is Tiger's attempt to blame the supermarket media for being curious about his extra curricular love life while obviously hiding the truth about what occurred.

In a statement on his website, Woods (or someone authorized by him) wrote:

As you all know, I had a single-car accident earlier this week, and sustained some injuries. I have some cuts, bruising and right now I'm pretty sore.
This situation is my fault, and it's obviously embarrassing to my family and me. I'm human and I'm not perfect. I will certainly make sure this doesn't happen again.

Notice, he doesn't mention how he managed to drive into a fire hydrant, then and a tree, at a speed slow enough not to cause his airbags to deploy.

This is a private matter and I want to keep it that way. Although I understand there is curiosity, the many false, unfounded and malicious rumors that are currently circulating about my family and me are irresponsible.

Fine. But notice he doesn't deny an inappropriate relationship with the woman in question. In the most round about way he seems to admit it while telling everyone it's none of their business.

The only person responsible for the accident is me. My wife, Elin, acted courageously when she saw I was hurt and in trouble. She was the first person to help me. Any other assertion is absolutely false.

Translation: "I got caught cheating. My wife came after me with a golf club. I took off in my Cadillac Escalade to avoid a confrontation. She followed me and smashed out two back windows as I tried to drive away. It distracted me enough for me to plow into a fire hyndrant.

"If I hadn't been cheating, she wouldn't have had to do that. She's brave. She was just protecting her family when she attacked me and my Escalade. I was horny and stupid. I won't cheat again. I promise. Now everybody else, mind your own business. Especially you bastards at the National Enquirer."

Tiger has declined to discuss what happened with the police. I don't blame him. My favorite part of the story is the police chief saying Mr. Woods is under no legal obligation to give a statement. That's damn right.

Meanwhile, the world will construe according to its wits... and Tiger should "no comment" it from here on. He's already in enough trouble.

Jacob Weisberg writes that Obama's first year in office was "brilliant." I was going to post about it myself until I read Roger Simon's brilliant demolition of Weisberg's utterly ridiculous analysis.

Take away Roger.

Salena Zito goes to Indiana, Pa. (birthplace of Jimmy Stewart) where people still find a "wonderful life" despite being ignored by the federal government.

More and more such residents are declaring themselves independents.

"These are the people that might not attend a Tea Party, but they find them aligned with their concerns," says pollster G. Terry Madonna. "They are less and less happy with government ... so they end up unaligned."

But this is especially bad news for Democrats, which is the party of government.

Good news, bad news from an old colleague last week. A message of encouragement and faith. My print column is up.

As for the White House gate crashers story it brings to mind a poem read to me by my mother when I was 8 years old and recovering from surgery in the hospital.

It came from a tomb call The Big Book of Jokes and Riddles and it went like this:

Jack be nimble,
Jack be quick,
Jack jumped over
a candlestick.
Big deal.

When my mom read that I laughed so hard I nearly popped a stitch.

Crashing a party at the White House may not be quite as funny, but when it comes to "big deals" it's about as impressive as jumping over an unlit candle.

The Tiger Woods 2:30 a.m. crash story has more holes in it than Augusta National. (And that includes the par 3 course and putting greens.)

UPDATE: TMZ has a more plausible (yet still unverified) story. It involves another woman, a furious Mrs. Woods and a golf club. This isn't just a great story. It's the punchline to my favorite golf joke.

COP: So, Elin, how many times did you hit him?
ELIN: I don't know four, five... put me down for a six!

Nice!

Daily Howler Bob Somerby takes his fellow "liberals" to task for their brainless hatred and willingness to believe the worst about people from outside their "tribe."

Money Q:

For decades, a large amount of “liberal” politics had really been tribal hatred. This helps explain why there’s nothing resembling a progressive politics in this benighted, laughing-stock nation. In all honesty, pseudo-liberals are in this game so we can vent at the unwashed masses—at the tea-baggers, the redneck racists, the people whose limbic brains don’t work right.

"Climategate" leaves the impression that the global warming game has been rigged from the start.

Charles Krauthammer made an excellent point the other day when he reiterated that the language used by the warmists and their acolytes in the media to discredit skeptics is meant to marginalize them socially as well as politically.

They are called global warming "deniers" the same phrase used to describe "holocaust deniers" to put them all beyond the pale. This is ridiculously unfair and inaccurate given that the holocaust already happened and disastrous global warming is "speculative" based on theories and computers models that have been proven less than wholly accurate at best.

These activists and scientists are NOT rigorously, dispassionately and objectively admitting what they DON'T KNOW. They are acting like they can predict the future when THEY CAN'T. Many of their predictions from just 10 years ago have already been proven wrong. Nonetheless, these people want to impose draconian environmental regulations and costs on a world that is undergoing the worst depression in 80 years.

These people are very close to meeting the definition of fanatics.

Child rapist Roman Polanski is being released on $4.5 million bail from from a Swiss detention facility pending a decision on whether to extradict him back to the U.S. to be sentenced.

He will be under electronic monitoring at his chalet in Gstaad.

I have no problem with this as long as Swiss officials don't go soft and decide his recent incarceration is enough in the way of justice. Justice requires he be returned to the U.S. from which he fled to avoid sentencing for his crimes back in the late 1970s.

It is not the Swiss government's job to punish Polanski. It IS it's job to return him to the scene of his crimes so that he might get his just desserts.

John Stossel writes:

When you knowingly pay someone to lie to you, we call the deceiver an illusionist or a magician. When you unwittingly pay someone to do the same thing, I call him a politician.

Not quite.

We don't unwittingly pay politicians, we KNOW we pay them. We also know they as a group they lie, or least evade telling us hard truths and make tough decisions.

As for magicians, in the 80s a comedian used to do a bit about how he didn't like magicians because their job is to make fools out of us.

As in: "Here's a quarter. Now, it's gone. You're a jerk!"

Magicians have more in common with politicians than they should.

How much sympathy did Ponzi-schemer Joe Forte get from his victims? Nunn.

My print column is up.

I'm just back from federal court in Philadelphia where Ponzi schemer Joe Forte was just sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Over 13 years he fleeced some 76 people out of more than $34 million and ruined dozens of lives.

He said he was sorry.

More tomorrow in my print column

Broomall Ponzi swindler Joe Forte faces the music today.

Here's the column I wrote after Forte appeared in federal court to answer charges against him earlier this year. I think it holds up pretty well.

Rishawn "Cat Killer" Morrison may technically be a "teen" but he looks 30 and not very happy."

He gets house arrest. The good news: The Eagles are interested in signing him.

Scientists withholding information, talking about destroying evidence that refutes their claims, etc.

Yet even a partial review of the emails is highly illuminating. In them, scientists appear to urge each other to present a "unified" view on the theory of man-made climate change while discussing the importance of the "common cause"; to advise each other on how to smooth over data so as not to compromise the favored hypothesis; to discuss ways to keep opposing views out of leading journals; and to give tips on how to "hide the decline" of temperature in certain inconvenient data.

UPDATE: Note that a huge player in this scandal is from our own state university, Michael Mann, director of Penn State's Earth Systems Science Center.

UDATE: Megan McCardle has a fair post on matter. (Fair as in reasonable, not mediocre).

This isn't very nice to our Attorney General.

It's kinda' funny. But it isn't very nice.

Meet Ann McElhinney, documentary filmmaker and skeptic of the environmental movement.

Why? Well, for one thing, it has killed innocent children by the millions.

Cuba prepares for U.S. military attack.

What do those wiley Castro brothers know that we don't?

Headline: Historic health care bill clears senate hurdle

Historic? OK, but then so was Waterloo, the Holocaust and the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

What the Senate agreed to do was NOT pass the bill, but debate the bill.

And those mean old Republicans? According to the AP, they're "eager to inflict a punishing defeat on President Barack Obama," NOT "save the American people from a deficit-busting, liberty-curtailing legislative disaster."

Thank you, AP for that bit of objective, non-ideological fact-checking.

It's being called Climategate and it's possibly a scandal of global proportions.

Late on the night of of November 19, news broke on PJM and elsewhere that a large amount of data had been stolen from one of the major climate research institutions by an unknown hacker and made available on the Internet. The institution is the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit, home institution for Dr Phil Jones and one of the world’s centers of research into anthropogenic global warming (AGW), or “climate change.”

The hackers released about 172 megabytes of data, and we can be sure examining it closely will take some time. But after a few days, certain things are beginning to become clear.

The data appears to be largely, perhaps entirely, authentic.
The emails are incendiary.
The implications shake the scientific basis for AGW, and the scientific reputations of some of AGW’s major proponents, to their roots.

The father of Todd "Let's Roll" Beamer attended the Senate hearings on Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to try KSM in a civilian court.

He was impressed, but not favorably.

The committee, chaired by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.), displayed the division in our country not only visually—the Democrats were seated on the left and the Republicans on the right—but in every aspect of the proceedings. I expected that some members would agree with Mr. Holder and that others would have challenging questions about his decision. What I did not anticipate was the level of partisanship showed by the majority party. It seemed clear to me and other family members of victims that party loyalty is trumping concern for America's security interests.

Krauthammer disagrees with Taylor big time

Frank J. calls Andrew Sullivan "The Mona Lisa of Crazy," picking up where my print column left off.

Jesse Jackson: 'You can't vote against health care and call yourself a black man.'

But you can admit to wanting to castrate Barack Obama and call yourself a black man. As long as you apologize for it.

Great reporting job by Cindy Scharr and Rose Quinn on the stray bullet killing in Chester.

Money Q:

According to the arrest affidavit, a witness heard Johnson and Smith laughing the day after Stewart was shot about “an old lady getting shot in the bed.”

“They don’t give a f—- if one of our moms got shot, so I don’t give a f—- about her,” the affidavit quotes Smith. “Man, f—- that b—-.”

When asked if they had been in the area when Stewart was shot, Johnson allegedly responded, “Yeah, we did that s—-, we was chasing the bull on Franklin Street and hit the corner while we was shooting.” According to the affidavit, Johnson said they didn’t mean to kill Stewart, but added, “It is what it is.”

The two suspects allegedly said they had gone to the William Penn development because of a “beef” over one of their friends being shot in the eye.

I'd have a beef with the anyone who shot a friend of mine in the eye. But I'm pretty sure I wouldn't kill an innocent woman in her mother's home to get even.

BTW, good police work too.

The ever reasonable Stuart Taylor defends the Obama Administration's decision to try KSM in a civilian court.

I am not convinced. But Taylor makes the case much better than Obama's own attorney general Eric Holder.

Taylor for AG.

Forget Swine Flu, an epidemic of Palin Derangement Disorder is sweeping the commentariat community. My print column is up.

UPDATE: My friend Donna checks in to ask:

Is there a vaccine available? According to the "experts", we seniors over 65 are not supposed to be as susceptible to H1N1. Certainly hope this applies to PDD. I have had my flu shot, my pneumonia shot,my booster diptheria shot, and even a shingles shot! I would definitely take a vaccine for PDD. I also recommend that Letterman get in line.

Patterico reports on left-coast justice from the California Supreme Court.

In overturning the conviction of a murderer, the state Supreme Court claimed that the victim didn't "suffer needlessly" while trying to prevent the robbery of her home. The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed:

The jury saw autopsy photographs showing Steacy McConnell’s mangled head, her skull crushed by 15 to 20 blows from a steel dumbbell bar the jury found to have been wielded by Belmontes. McConnell’s corpse showed numerous “defensive bruises and contusions on . . . [her] hands, arms, and feet,” . . . which “plainly evidenced a desperate struggle for life at [Belmontes’] hands.” Belmontes left McConnell to die, but officers found her still fighting for her life before ultimately succumbing to the injuries caused by the blows from Belmontes. The jury also heard that this savage murder was committed solely to prevent interference with a burglary that netted Belmontes $100 he used to buy beer and drugs for the night.

Obviously, the learned justices in California concluded Ms. McConnell suffered just the right amount.

My print column is up.

At the very mention of Sarah Palin's name some people get the vapors.

As David Harsanyi points out you don't have to be a supporter of a Palin presidential run to think the Sarah Palin haters (Andrew Sullivan, Thomas Frank, Maureen Dowd, et al) have issues. They are trashing her autobiography "Going Rogue" with unmitigated glee.

For this bunch it is required to hate Palin in order to be considered cool. Call it "Going Vogue."

UPDATE: WaPo's Richard Cohen joins the club. Make that an institute.

Finally, the Institute for the Study of Sarah Palin will mull what she represents. She has a phenomenal favorability rating among Republicans -- 76 percent -- who have a quite irrational belief that she would not make such a bad president. What they mean is that she will act out their resentments -- take an ax to the people and institutions they hate. The Palin Movement is fueled by high-octane bile and it is worth watching and studying for these reasons alone.

High-octane bile, as opposed to the Anti-Palin Movement which is fueled by love, sweetness and light.

New Report: 49 Million Americans at Risk of Hunger.

I'm one of them. I haven't had my breakfast yet. I'm hungry.

UPDATE: I just had a banana. Make it 48,999,999.

Frank J. has the Top Ten Things Finding Ice on the Moon Means

10. Super yuppies can drink obscenely-priced moon water.

The Aston Valley Baseball League has filed suit against the Penn Delco School District for the school board's canceling their lease and taking back control of the baseball field that was built and maintained by league volunteers for years.

More later.

UPDATE: Just checked the courthouse for the filing but all it contained were preliminary filing from AVBL attorney Frank Catania. These documents signal the intention to sue. But there is no formal lawsuit with a bill of particulars yet.

A strong majority of Americans disagree with the Obama Administration's decision to bring 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed to New York City to try him in a civilian court.

The Atlantic's Andrew Cohen points the finger at the real culprit: YOU!

For years, you didn’t raise your voice and tell your elected officials that you welcomed a fair trial for the detainees under military rules. For years, you didn’t demand that the detainees have lawyers, or access to some of the evidence against them, or meaningful appellate review, or protection from abuse. Either you didn’t have confidence in the evidence against the men, or the application of the law, or you believed that America would somehow be rendered diminished and vulnerable by giving people like Mohammed more justice than they deserve. When the White House and the Congress reluctantly followed the letter but proudly not the spirit of the Supreme Court’s rulings in Hamdan or Hamdi or Boumediene you just changed the channel and moved on with your life.

Don't you hate yourself? No? What? You're wondering who the hell is Andrew Cohen to lecture you? What? You want to punch Andrew Cohen in the face and tell him: "Move to Brussels, hippie!" See, that's what's the matter with America. Not enough people listen to Andrew Cohen and President Obama. They are smart. You are stupid. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! You should be embarrassed.

Look, idiot, when a pollster calls, don't tell him what YOU think! Who cares what YOU think? You're a moron! Listen to Andrew Cohen and the President of the United States and repeat after them: "If we don't try the 9/11 terrorists in a civilian court in New York City, the terrorists will have won." Or "This will show the world, America isn't afraid to live up to its principles." Got it, Stupid? Sheesh. Having to explain things to YOU is like talking to a coffee table. Now go back to your pathetic boring little life, doing whatever it is you do do and don't make Andrew Cohen have to lecture you again.

Another shooting in Darby Borough

.A homeowner told police a teenage boy had knocked on the door five minutes earlier complaining about a head injury. When police arrived, the teenager was gone. He was subsequently located at Third and Main streets, semiconscious and bleeding from the back of his head, police said.



The victim, who suffered two gunshot wounds to the back of his head, told police he didn’t know what happened to him. He said he had been on his way to visit a girlfriend in Darby.


This kid must have a pretty hard head. Lucky him.

Father beats son for getting suspended from school and is charged with numerous felonies.

If at anytime during the beating he said "This hurts me more than it hurts you," turns out he was right.

Well, as long as her mom has no problem with it.

WaPo's Ruth Marcus does a nice job holding Republicans to account for the lies they are telling about Obamacare.

But the unpopularity of Obamacare isn't because of Republican lies about it. It's because of the president's lies about it.

Robert Samuelson explains here.

Of whores, law professors and politicians and where the twain shall meet. My print column is up.

Kris Kobach lays out the reasons why the Obama Administration is wrong to try any of 9/11 terrorists in civilian courts in New York City.

The most distressing part of Kobach's piece: It could take 5 years before any such trial begins.

Meet the Obama EPA; hypocritical, paranoid and dissent-stifling.

Kim Strassel has the story.

Kristen Davis (aka The Manhattan Madam) doesn't think highly of Harvard's invitation to disgraced New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

Dear Professor Lessig:

I have been informed that you are having former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer speak on ethics this Thursday November 12, 2009. This sounds fascinating and I would love to attend but the restrictions of my probation won't allow me to travel out side New York City.

For nearly 5 years, I supplied Mr. Spitzer with high priced escorts while he was both Attorney General and Governor. For this crime, I served four months on Rikers Island, had all of my assets confiscated and am now considered a sex offender on 5 years probation. Mr. Spitzer broke both state and federal laws and walked away free.

Good letter. Check out the rest of it.

Most Muslim countries wouldn't have tolerated the likes of Maj. Hasan in their military.

In places like Algeria, Egypt and Libya, Muslim officers watch over their Muslim conscripts with relentless scrutiny lest any unscripted forms of freelance worship sneak into the picture. Their prisons are full of Muslim Brotherhood conspirators undergoing torture--if they haven't already disappeared into secret graves. In Saddam's military, turbulent believers often went straight to the frontlines during the Iran-Iraq war. Others found that their views rebounded onto the limbs and lives of family members in the most palpable of ways.

Read the whole thing, it's fascinating.

Not that we should follow Saddam's lead. But the least we should do is not be cowed by the sort of political correctness that leads people to turn a blind eye to these fanatics.

David Brooks has a man-crush on Sen. John Thune. He explains why exceedingly well.

Lawyers, Guns, Money and Arlen Specter. My print column is up.

Oh, good. A composite sketch of the alleged perp in the attempted bus stop abduction case.

Phones at the police station must be ringing off the hook.

At least, you can tell from the eyes it isn't Roman Polanski.

More on those media mavens who evaded Major Hasan's jihadist motive for murder.

"I cringe that he's a Muslim. ... I think he's probably just a nut case," said Newsweek's Evan Thomas. Some were more adamant. Time's Joe Klein decried "odious attempts by Jewish extremists ... to argue that the massacre perpetrated by Nidal Hasan was somehow a direct consequence of his Islamic beliefs." While none could match Klein's peculiar cherchez-le-juif motif, the popular story line was of an Army psychiatrist driven over the edge by terrible stories he had heard from soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

They suffered. He listened. He snapped.

Yeah, right.

But this too needs to be said. While in some media precincts these sorts of idiotic evasions have been circulated, the real facts of the story have gotten out. Krauthammer quotes NPR's reporting at length. While some commentators and editors continue to avoid certain obvious truths about this terrorist act, a lot of good, solid reporting is being done. The facts are getting out to the public, and the public in general understands what happened at Ft. Hood and why.

More and more it is obvious that the Army brass looked the other way while Maj. Hasan was publicly expressing deeply anti-American and pro-jihadist views. If he had been a white supremecist, he would have rightly been drummed out of the military in short order. But fear of appearing anti-Muslim, seemed to have prevented the top brass from acting in Hasan's case. That fear allowed Hasan to carry out his religious/terrorist mission against U.S. military personnel. Those officers who looked the other way should be held to account.

One of the dumber things that has been said in the aftermath of all this, wasn't said by a media knucklehead. It was said by the Army's top officer, Gen. George Casey.

"Our diversity, not only in our Army, but in our country, is a strength. And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse,” Casey said.

This was beyond insensitive to families of the soldiers under Casey's command who were murdered. It was a ridiculously stupid thing for him to say. But it goes to show just how politically correct even the U.S. military has become when it comes to worshipping diversity.

Let's be clear: There is NO chance the "diversity" of our military services is going to threatened by some imagined backlash to Hasan's crimes. Not a single serious person has argued for removing all the Muslims serving in our military. And no serious person will.

But 14 people are dead. Not because of "diversity" but because too many in the military bureaucracy became too fearful of being accused of being anti-Muslim to deal with an obvious and known security threat.

Heads should roll. Maybe even Casey's if he actually believes his own idiotic statements.

You're going to work early one morning and suddenly WHAM! You're dead.. Thanks to a speeding 18 year old (possibly whacked on drugs) flying through an intersection.

Read the comments on this story and you'll find one from somebody who wants to blame the police.

Sheeez!

State Rep. Bryan Lentz is set to announce his candidacy for Congress.

But isn't he afraid that his much more experienced colleague, anti-global warming zealot Greg Vitali (D-Havertown), will jump into the race?

For some reason, I don't think so.

Powerful words from Dan Henninger on the Ft. Hood massacre and an excellent suggestion for the president.

Read the whole thing.

Mark Steyn weighs in on what happened to 6-year-old Zach Christie, our "zero tolerance" society, and the drones that run our public school systems.

A few weeks ago, Zachary Christie of Newark, in Joe Biden’s Grand Duchy of Delaware, joined the Cub Scouts. In the course of so doing, he acquired one of those combination knife-fork-spoon utensils that come in so useful when you’re in tucking in to a hearty meal round the camp fire. Zachary is only six so he can’t be blamed for not knowing that the Scouts are systemically homophobic and that it’s dangerous to sit round camp fires without wearing protective gear at a distance of at least 200 yards and with a federally-licensed fire control operative supervising conflagration.

Read it all.

Pelosicare guts state tort reform efforts. But what are we to expect from the Party of Trial Lawyers.

A 13-year-old girl from Chadds Fords says a masked man with a knife tried to abduct her from her school bus stop. The cops say the guy fled when the bus came around the corner.

The bus driver told FOX News she didn't see anyone and the girl didn't say anything to her when she go on. The girl texted her father from the bus about what allegedly happened.

Question: Is everybody reasonably sure this guy exists?

So much for that conversation about race.

Somebody quick arrest this woman.

Update: No sooner said, than done.

"That's my sister, see!"

Cuban blogger beaten by Castro's goons.

No comment yet from Mr. Sean Penn, noted Bush hater, Castro apologist and movie actor.

UPDATE: Add "aspiring journalist" to Penn's bag of tricks.

Get this: Ft. Hood was a "gun-free zone." You can't make this stuff up.

More here on this lunacy from Stephanie Gutmann.

Good news from Heaven: 76 Virgins greeted the recently dispatched spirit of mass-murderer John Muhammad and got to spit on it before it was sent to hell.

Nice job, girls!

UPDATE/Correction: It was only the standard 72 Virgins. I was thinking of trombones.

A salute to a vet who wanted to salute others. My print column is up.

Mother and son arrested in bar beating.

The family that preys together, stays together... in jail.

The NYT's David Brooks on "The Rush to Therapy" in the terrorist attack at Ft. Hood.

The conversation in the first few days after the massacre was well intentioned, but it suggested a willful flight from reality. It ignored the fact that the war narrative of the struggle against Islam is the central feature of American foreign policy. It ignored the fact that this narrative can be embraced by a self-radicalizing individual in the U.S. as much as by groups in Tehran, Gaza or Kandahar.

It denied, before the evidence was in, the possibility of evil. It sought to reduce a heinous act to social maladjustment. It wasn’t the reaction of a morally or politically serious nation.

Brooks is being kind (or circumspect) in not naming his own editors as being complicit in this unseriousness. It is liberal elites - both political and in the media - that fall victim to this kind of dangerous political correctness. Even military elites are suseptible to its power in the name of "diversity."

Brooks:

Public commentators assumed the air of kindergarten teachers who had to protect their children from thinking certain impermissible and intolerant thoughts. If public commentary wasn’t carefully policed, the assumption seemed to be, then the great mass of unwashed yahoos in Middle America would go off on a racist rampage.

Such is the contempt these brilliant feelers have for the American people. No wonder, more and more they are being laughed at and ignored.

At least one of the "major" networks employs a commentator with libertarian street cred.

Here's ABC's John Stossel on the Democrats' monstrosity of a healthcare bill:

The 1,990-page bill is breathtaking in its bone-headed audacity. The notion that a small group of politicians can know enough to design something so complex and so personal is astounding. That they were advised by "experts" means nothing since no one is expert enough to do that. There are too many tradeoffs faced by unique individuals with infinitely varying needs.

Government cannot do simple things efficiently. The bureaucrats struggle to count votes correctly. They give subsidized loans to "homeowners" who turn out to be 4-year-olds. Yet congressmen want government to manage our medicine and insurance.

Al Gore has a sincere investment in the theory of disastrous global warming: lots of money and his sizable ego. But when it comes to science, sincerity is no substitute for disinterestness, reports Holman Jenkins.

The truth is, evidence of man's impact on climate remains maddeningly elusive, in part because man's impact on climate is so small as to be hard to disentangle from natural variability. This is not Mr. Gore's position, of course. If anything, however, the case for action has become less closed since he pronounced it closed in 1989, if only because of the huge sums and manpower poured into the subject to little avail.

Read it all.

More here from George Will on the absurdity that is the Waxman-Markey climate bill.

(It's) goal is just slightly more than 1 billion tons of greenhouse-gas emissions in 2050. The last time this nation had that small an amount was 1910, when there were only 92 million Americans, 328 million fewer than the 420 million projected for 2050. To meet the 83 percent reduction target in a nation of 420 million, per capita carbon-dioxide emissions would have to be no more than 2.4 tons per person, which is one quarter the per capita emissions of 1910, a level probably last seen when the population was 45 million—in 1875.

Not since Steve Martin set the small goal of becoming the "All Being, Master of Space, Time and Dimension" has a goal been so laughably unattainable. But then, Martin was going for laughs. Vladimir Waxman and Karl Markey are going for something else.

ReasonTV presents: How UPS wants to increase Federal Express' labor costs with the help of the Obama Administration.

Educational and fun too.

Spencerblog is a "Mad Men" fan. Sunday night was the season finale on AMC. The show did not disappoint.

For more read Thomas Hibbs' review on NRO.

My one prediction for this unpredictable show next season: Betty (the smokin' January Jones) will not be happy in her new relationship.

Bill Bennett on the "officer-terrorist" at Ft. Hood.

Heads should roll.

Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria, no conservative he, sees what his fellow liberals refuse to: The Rise of the Right.

The bottom line on last week's elections is simple—the Republicans did well. Yes, these were a grab-bag collection of races with local particularities and low turnout. But notice that independents, who had shunned the GOP over the last few years, voted for the party in large numbers. And the overall results are consistent with a surprising trend across the Western world—the rise of the right.

Democratic leaders especially should read the whole thing.

Update: More here, on the GOP victory in Virginia from Jennifer Rubin.

Paul Krugman is frightened by the use of Hitler references at rallies against Obamacare.

Funny, we don't recall Krugman being frightened by leftists and their Hitler references to George W. Bush (just keep scrolling) during his time in office.

If Krugman's fellow leftists use Hitler comparisons, no problem. If anti-Obamacare protestors use them, "something unprecedented is happening... and it’s very bad for America."

The New York Times supposedlly hired Krugman because of his expertise in economics. What it got was a far-left partisan hack who is becoming more unhinged by the day.

UPDATE: New and improved link above for all those tasteful Bush=Hitler photos.

Rough sledding ahead for Obamacare in the Senate.

“They know they don’t have 60 votes,” said former Senator John Breaux, who now heads a lobbying firm that represents the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the drug industry’s Washington trade group. “They have to go back to the drawing board” on the plan to set up a government-run insurer, he said.

sweet!

James Taranto does a nice job summing up media coverage that attempts to cover up the motivations of Maj. Hasan, the Muslim extremist and suicide shooter who massacred 13 soldiers at Ft. Hood.

He also cites newspapers that didn't shrink from providing inconvenient facts:

The Sunday Telegraph reports that Hasan "once gave a lecture to other doctors in which he said non-believers should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats":

He also told colleagues at America's top military hospital that non-Muslims were infidels condemned to hell who should be set on fire. The outburst came during an hour-long talk Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, gave on the Koran in front of dozens of other doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington DC, where he worked for six years before arriving at Fort Hood in July. . . .

Fellow doctors have recounted how they were repeatedly harangued by Hasan about religion and that he openly claimed to be a "Muslim first and American second."
One Army doctor who knew him said a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim soldier had stopped fellow officers from filing formal complaints.

More here.

UPDATE: In related news...

Tunku Varadarajan coins a new phrase to describe a Muslim seemingly assimulated to this country and Western values who snap.

The difference between "going postal," in the conventional sense, and "going Muslim," in the sense that I suggest, is that there would not necessarily be a psychological "snapping" point in the case of the imminently violent Muslim; instead, there could be a calculated discarding of camouflage--the camouflage of integration--in an act of revelatory catharsis.

In spite of suggestions by some who know him that he had a history of "harassment" as a Muslim in the army, Maj. Hasan did not "snap" in the "postal" manner. He gave away his possessions on the morning of his day of murder. He even gave away--to a neighbor--a packet of frozen broccoli that he did not wish to see go to waste, even as he mapped in his mind the laying waste of lives at Fort Hood. His was a meticulous, even punctilious "departure."

Read it all.

I don't blame Barack Obama for the scourge of balding bears but Frank J. does. Shame on Frank J.

UPDATE: Maybe it's the bears' way of protesting Obama's economic policies, by going pachyderm to show their support for their American cousins.

Stu Rothenberg backhands the leftist's meme on the failure of Republicans to win in New York 23rd District. It had nothing to do with the party faithful rejecting a moderate candidate.

Dede Scozzafava, the choice of ridiculously out of touch GOP bosses, was a far-left liberal who supports gay marriage, abortion on demand and Obama's huge stimulus plan that not a single Republican in the house supported.

Call her what you want but Republican "moderate" doesn't apply.

The big question about the new film Avatar.

Can a movie studio make money on a film based on an original and unfamiliar story, with no Hollywood superstars, a vanishing DVD market and a price tag approaching $500 million?

Having seen the previews the answer is "No!"

This looks like one of those straight to DVD jobs, if not for the ridiculous budget. Prediction: This is James Cameron's Titantic. His ego plays the iceberg.

What Pelosicare will do.

Buses run as SEPTA ends strike.

Gee thanks, guys.

David Warren on the media cliches, false presidential sincerity and political correctness in the aftermath of the Ft. Hood Massacre.

Money Q:

President Barack Obama's display on Thursday made my point more clearly than it usually can be made, for he turned on a dime. He assumed the "presidential grieving tone" over the Fort Hood massacre, the moment after he'd just done an equally scripted segment of light joking banter for the benefit of the Tribal Nations Conference he was addressing. Millions in the television audience must have watched this incredibly cynical "quick flip." I wonder how many noticed it?

More than a few.

Remember that classic National Lampoon cover? A couple of environmentalists and their publishing company do, which explains "Time to Eat the Dog? The Real Guide to Sustainable Living.

Did you know your dog has a bigger carbon paw print than a Toyota Land Cruiser? Well, it does. Read the book.

My buddy Mulshine said a UPS driver, had a better title:

Wok the Dog!

Pelosicare clears the House.

Money Q:

The legislation would require most Americans to carry insurance and provide federal subsidies to those who otherwise could not afford it. Large companies would have to offer coverage to their employees. Both consumers and companies would be slapped with penalties if they defied the government's mandates.

United in opposition, minority Republicans cataloged their objections across hours of debate on the 1,990-page, $1.2 trillion legislation.

"We are going to have a complete government takeover of our health care system faster than you can say, 'this is making me sick,'" jabbed Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., adding that Democrats were intent on passing "a jobs-killing, tax-hiking, deficit-exploding" bill.

It's election time at the gun club. My print column is up.

UPDATE: After only half the vote was counted last night but running 2 to 1 against Dottie Berry, she congratulated her opponent, John Hendry, on his victory and left the club to go on a long-planned vacation. More than 600 members of the Delaware County Field and Stream Association turned out to vote over the weekend in this contentious election.

More tomorrow.

UPDATE II: Berry running mate Don Taylor just checked in to say the vote went 4 to 1 againt their ticket.

"I thought it was going to be closer. All you can do is put yourself out there. The membership has spoken. It was an historical turnout. If nothing else the club had a sense of the democratic process."

Even better, no one was wounded or killed.

Congrats to the winners, John Hendry, Bud Feindt (as in Pint), John Moloko and the rest of their slate.

Our Vicky Thomas reports on the Special Olympics at Villanova University this weekend.

The athletes (of which Jake Spencer is one) are the stars. But the heroes are the incredibly kind Villanova students who show up to cheer them on.

Not to mention the parents and adult volunteers from all over the state who drive, coach and care for them.

Kudos to them all.

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs: "Can you imagine if, 5 Years Ago, People Had Protested With Hitler Pictures?"

Ah, yeah.

Richard Lowry on the Dems' Election Day crack-up.

On November 3, the fairy tale died. The election results in Virginia and New Jersey dismantled the self-satisfied, just-so story that Democrats have been telling themselves about last year's election.

Sing with me now:

Fairy Tales can come true,
It can happen to you
If you're dumb at heart...

Almost forgot - My print column about Greg Vitali's free-lunch climate-change bill is up.

Tuesday, the myth of the country's Democratic reallignment is demolished.

The Democrats have hit their tipping point.

Kim Strassel reports:

"We don't look at either of these gubernatorial races . . . as something that portends a lot for our legislative efforts," insisted White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Tuesday, as New Jersey and Virginia voters gave Democrats a thumping. Unfortunately for the White House, its opinion no longer counts.

On Jan. 20, Barack Obama began a race against time. The White House knew its liberal agenda would prove unpopular in many parts of the country represented by Democrats. So long as the president looked strong, those Blue Dogs and freshmen and swing-state senators would stick. Show them any sign of weakness, however, and rattled Dems would begin to care more about their own re-elections than they did their president.

Tuesday, the White House hit that tipping point.

Read the whole thing.

I'm hoping to do this, but at 90.

If Obamanomics can bring a GOP governor to a state as blue as New Jersey, can Massachussetts be far behind?

Has Nancy Pelosi gone insane?

"It reminds me of Major Nicholson, the obsessed British major in the film 'Bridge on the River Kwai,'" one Democrat told me. "She is fixated on finishing her health care bridge even as she's lost sight of where it's going and what damage it could cause to her own troops."

What does she care if a few Democrats lose their seats in the next election. Her seat's safe. Harry Reid's? Not so much.

There is no joy in Mudville.

Republicans win governorships in "purple" Virginia and "blue" New Jersey. Independents who voted for Obama last year are disappointed in his presidency so far. Proposed higher taxes, huge deficits and an explosion of government spending and power, have them peeling away from Democrats in droves.

Obama has three years to right his own ship. But last night's election returns do not bode well for the party as a whole next year.

Suddenly, millions of voters don't think the country's in the very best of hands.

UPDATE: In New Jersey, in particular, where Obama appeared three times to bolster support for Jon Conzine, voters were not swayed.

"Get a mop," was one of Obama's big campaign lines. In New Jersey, the voters did.

UPDATE II: And that's bad for Obama and other big-government progressives.

In a galaxy not so far far away, BEER!

If Basil's the designated driver get me a go-cup for the trip back to earth. Ummm, Beer!

John Linder and Portia West proved how Democrats could win in the city of Chester. Put up good and mature candidates, well-known in the community and work hard to get them elected.

Fred Pickett might be an excellent basketball coach but that doesn't mean he's necessarily well-qualified to help manage a city government.

Linder and West are hardly radical insurgents from the Barbara Bohannon Sheppard school of political symbolism. They are thoughtful, responsible people who it appears will work with the Republicans on council and Mayor Wendell Butler to manage the city - to the extent that Chester is a managable city.

Elsewhere, Republicans manage to win county-wide offices by large margins which, given the big increase in Democratic registration over the last couple election cycles, is a tribute to the GOP machine.

Pastor Keith Collins lost last night. But he should stick around the county political scene. He's got the personality, work ethic, and talent of a winner. My print column is up.

Meet Congressman Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), pompous liberal and sanctimonious Republican hater.

Stuart Rothenberg has seen enough to hold him up as the poster boy on how NOT to run for re-election.

Spent the morning riding around with County Council candidate Keith Collins. Good guy. But he has no chance in hell of winning.

Went to Chester and ran into Thaddeus Kirkland, John Linder, Portia West, and even Mayor Wendell Butler working the polls. Beautiful morning but turnout seemed lighter than light. It was downright effervescent. Maybe everyone is sleeping in after last night's World Series game.

If you went to sleep early thinking the Phil's 8-2 to lead was safe in the 8th, I envy you.

More on Collins in tomorrow's print column.

State Rep. Greg Vitali is on his way in to the Daily Times to explain why it's not only environmentally important for the state to pass new mandates on energy providers and businesses to use cleaner energy, but how it makes economic sense and will create jobs.

I can't wait.

A director of a Planned Parenthood office quits after viewing an ultra-sound video of an abortion.

And what does Planned Parenthood do about it? It sues her.

Historian Paul Johnson explains why conservatism will never die.

A true conservative today should stress construction, encouragement, moderation and understanding instead of destruction, prohibition, extremism and slogans. A conservative thinks in terms of countless minor corrections and improvements based on experience and experiment rather than in terms of a universal, uniform solution based on theory and enforced by inflexible law.

A conservative, in the best sense, sees the world and its inhabitants as an interdependent organism, comprising innumerable local communities and territories, each adapting to particular conditions. A conservative is someone who goes with the grain of humanity and the nature of the physical world, rather than trying to regiment and fashion a utopia through force of law. And, needless to say, an acceptable conservative is not one who thinks all the answers are obvious but is a modest person who admits that problems are not easily solved, that perfection is unattainable in this world and that it is often necessary to admit mistakes, change one's mind and start again.

Read the whole thing.

Read all about it: The "worst bill ever." All 1,990 pages of it.

Ouch!

That said, there is no reason to believe this series is over. The Phillies are not in the World Series by mistake. They played their way here and are perfectly capable of beating any team in baseball three straight games, including the New York Yankees.

Tonight, the best pitcher in baseball, Cliff Lee, takes the mound. With their backs against the wall who doubts the World Champions won't rally behind him?

Back in New York, if the Phillies can get an early lead in Game 6, the Yankees might start getting nervous. Win that and anything can happen in Game 7. The Yankees have proven their ability to collapse when the Red Sox came back from a 3-0 deficit to beat them in the 2004 ALCS.

The Phillies can still win this thing.

It's my birthday and I can dream if I want to.

Pedro Feliz just tied Game 4 in the bottom of the 8th with a Home Run!

ACORN rallies for a supermarket in Chester.

Hmm. If ACORN thinks it so important for the citizens of Chester to have a supermarket, why doesn't build them one? ACORN received tens of millions in federal funds over the last ten years, certainly enough to build a $4 million supermarket.

Recently, America learned ACORN was more interested in giving advice to hookers and pimps on how to import child prostitutes into this country than opening grocery stores for the poor.

It would probably be illegal for ACORN to use taxpayer money to open a for-profit business but why should that stop them? Poor people and their advocates can't be expected to obey the laws everybody else has to live by. It's just not fair.

Eagles hammer Giants. Looks like Andy Reid is on the receiving end of a hip pointer.

George Will on the rise of "Thuggish Liberalism."