Ariel (Arik) Sharon was “…a father of Israel. A man who minced neither his words nor his actions. He is loved, he is hated, he is revered. Death will not change the range of emotions and opinions held on this son of Israel. He will be remembered as a man who saved Israel when she needed him most, more than once.”
Via Harry’s Place and Simply Jews
Comments Off on Arik, R.I.P.
Posted in Blogosphere, Israel, Obituaries, The War, Troops, War Without End
Tagged Ariel Sharon, Arik RIP, Harry's Place, Israel, Simple Jews
“I can hear them slinging pipe on the Flex 5 up the way and when I poke my head out the door, no less than a dozen flare stacks are runnin’ hot out across the pucker brush.”
An oil patch update from gate-guard Andy at My Old RV down well south of the rancho, and that’s without his new solo hearing aid:
“A rattling diesel sounds like they got a clothes dryer with 5 gallon of rock in it running overspeed on the passenger seat next to ‘em. Walking on the caliche rocks sounds like I got feet like a brontosaurus. The generator sounds like a 747 spooling up for take off. It is distinctly unpleasant and near painful.”
Yep. Wait’ll you try the two of ’em at once. You’ll be turning down the volume like I do.
Comments Off on Hot Times In The Oil Patch
Posted in Blogosphere, Science/Engineering, Texana, The Economy
That makes about as much sense as the garbage purveyed by the usual news media suspects (NPR, cBS, etc.) that this latest example of extreme weather may be caused by global warming.
University of Washington meteorologist Cliff Mass succinctly puts their reporting where it belongs: among the fairy stories we heard as children. He does have a bit more concern about AGW than the other meteorologists I respect, but he shows that extreme weather is not, in fact, a trend:
“The media needs to stop pushing this unsupported argument.”
Happily, things already are warming up at the rancho, with highs in the 70s expected by the weekend. How sweet it will be. Of course we are pretty far south.
UPDATE: Joe Bastardi at Weather Bell adds this funny: “The cause for the cold this winter so far was outlined long ago. Yet many media outlets are seriously taking the idea that AGW is causing this as something to consider. Its as if every single event that has happened before [’77 & ’85], doesnt count. How the heck did it get so cold before?”
MORE: Wormtongue’s “science” adviser pushes the bogus extreme weather meme. But of course. Gotta grow those taxes.
Posted in Blogosphere, Science/Engineering, Weather, Weather/Climate
“Stay safe in the central [U.S.]- the next few day[s] will be brutal.”
That’s Joe D’Aleo at Weatherbell, adding to the warnings of regional meteorologists forecasting fourteen hours of below freezing temps for us, starting sometime later this evening. Which we call a hard freeze because we don’t get many of them this far south.
Tonight’s low is forecast to be 23 degrees and Monday night’s just 19 degrees. Hopefully, the air will warm up in between those lows.
Goodbye to the elephant ears in the rancho’s front beds. But they’ll bounce back from the roots in the spring I expect. And as long as the power stays on, we’ll be fine. We could rely on the gas log in the fireplace, if necessary, but we’d rather not.
Posted in Blogosphere, Texana, Weather, Weather/Climate
Tagged Central Texas, hard freeze, Joe D'Aleo, Weatherbell
A hundred and fifteen thousand of them, to be exact, according to Ohio University economist Richard Vedder. That’s what you get when you major in gender studies, sucker.
Meanwhile, the usual Democrat blather about pushing more people through college by handing out cheaper and cheaper loans is fueling an academic arms race that can only end poorly:
“The colleges raise their fees more than they otherwise would,” Vedder says. “This provides extra income for the colleges, which goes for a ton of different things — luxury facilities, more administrators, higher pay for people, and the like — and makes college less affordable.
“So the president, who is now talking, and says, “Gee, we ought to do something about this,” is instead of saying, “Well, let’s get to the root cause of this. Let’s get” — the one thing he can control or Congress can control — “let’s get rid of these programs, or let’s downsize them in some fashion,” instead is saying, “No, we want to keep these programs.”
Make them even bigger and badder. Wormtongue is such a genius.
“I think markets work,” says Vedder. “Sometimes they work slowly. Sometimes they work inefficiently because of subsidies and taxes and regulations imposed on markets that distort them. But I think kids are starting to say no. Enrollments are falling. They’re not rising right now in American higher ed.”
Via Instapundit.
Posted in Blogosphere, Obamalot, The Economy
Tagged college for everyone, janitors with bachelor's degrees, Richard Vedder
The pensions of civilian federal retirees were not affected by the cuts written into law by Republican Paul Ryan and backed by the Democrats. Meanwhile, last year, in the 12th full year of fighting, American troop deaths in Afghanistan finally reached 2,301.
Via Darkwater.
UPDATE: Apparently the law was amended to exempt the pensions of disabled retirees and their spouses from the cuts, while retaining the cuts for all other military retirees. Civilian federal retiree pensions still were not affected.
Posted in Afghanistan, Blogosphere, Obamalot, The War, Troops
Tagged congress cuts disabled veteran retirement, Phase Line Birnam Wood
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 