Kobayashi Maru

Observations on political, economic, social and military scenarios that appear unwinnable. In one of the Star Trek films, Captain Kirk beat the 'Kobayashi Maru' training scenario by thinking laterally: reprogramming the simulation. It was designed to test character - to see how people would handle no-win situations.

(Beyond that theme, this blog has absolutely nothing to do with Star Trek.)
The Debut of K. Maru's Singing Career

Makes about as much sense as from Sheryl Crow:

"I have spent the better part of this tour trying to come up with easy ways for us all to become a part of the solution to global warming.

.. Although my ideas are in the earliest stages of development, they are, in my mind, worth investigating.

I propose a limitation be put on how many squares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting."

In your mind indeed, Sheryl. Love the music.

Just please keep your mouth shut if you're not singing, OK? Time was when most people knew where their talents lay..

. and didn't. : "A man's got to know his limitations".

Or in this case, a woman.

For anyone even remotely considering Ms. Crow's ideas, think for a moment about the systemic environmental ripple effects of more people flushing more often to circumvent some loony "per sitting" law, of more hand washings, of more water heated and used, and of more soap down the drain.

Oh, and btw Sheryl...

I've run a marathon faster than your [former] boyfriend. :)

What Ever Happened to Readin', Writin' and 'rithmetic?

With a child awaiting college acceptance letters, really hit home:

...

the UC system's director of undergraduate admissions testified that even if a [high school] course provides all of the material and content expected by the university system, if it is taught from a Christian perspective, the course will be denied for college-prep credit...

Proposed courses rejected by the system include "Christianity's Influence on America," which a UC document cited as "too narrow (and) too specialized" as reasons for not approving the course. Another one was "Christianity and Morality in American Literature." The class was described in documents as an "intensive study in textual criticism aimed at elevating the ability of students to engage literary works.

" Authors students would have studied included Mark Twain, Edgar Allen Poe, Benjamin Franklin and C.S. Lewis.

Except that "narrow and specialized" isn't the real issue...

The lawsuit also contends that the UC system approves other high school courses "so long as they are not ideologically disapproved or disliked." It cites about three dozen courses the plaintiff's attorneys believe fall in that category, including "Existential Literature," "Gender, Sexuality and Identity in Literature," "Intro to Buddhism," and "Feminist Issues Throughout U.S.

History."

Then there's the problem of what is taught once someone gets to UC and why a non-Christian world view might be necessary in order to swallow it:

..

.the lawsuit lists dozens of other UC-approved courses it contends are "much more narrow and specialized," including "A study of Western Caribbean Culture" and "The 60's: A Closer Look.

Not to mention :

Queer Musicology at the University of California-Los Angeles explores how “sexual difference and complex gender identities in music and among musicians have incited productive consternation” during the 1990s.

Music under consideration includes works by Schubert and Holly Near, Britten and Cole Porter, and Pussy Tourette...

UC-Berkeley’s Sex Change City: Theorizing History in Genderqueer San Francisco explores “implications of U.S. imperialism and colonization for the construction of gender in 19th-century San Francisco’s multicultural, multiracial, and multiethnic” community.

The course also covers “contemporary transgender, queer, genderqueer, and post-queer cultural production and politics” and “the regulation of gender-variant practices in public space by San Francisco’s Anglo-European elites.”

If the left didn't own the academy (and keep in mind that this the University of California is a public institution; many private ones are worse), would secular-left politics even stand a chance? What was it they were just saying about "fair and balanced" out in Nevada?

When Ted Kennedy Visits, He Must Feel Right at Home pretty much speaks for itself.

Presidential candidate John Edwards and his family recently moved into what county tax officials say is the most valuable home in Orange County.

.. the tax value will exceed $6 million when the facility is completed.

The rambling structure sits in the middle of a 102-acre estate...

The heavily wooded site and winding driveway ensure that the home is not visible from the road. "No Trespassing" signs discourage passersby from venturing past the gate..

. building plans [show] the Edwards home totaling 28,200 square feet of connected space.

I also like Drudge's headline: "Two Americas".

Yes indeed.

For the record: having this is fine. Making your public persona all about being for the little guy and against the evils of wealthy Republicans and also having this.

.. is not.

It is, at the very least, counterproductive to one's aims and certainly opens one to the charge of hypocrisy. It should raise a major caution flag to those who would believe that Democrats are saints and Republicans are all Jack Abramoff clones. Last I checked, human foibles were equally distributed across the political spectrum.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

For those who haven't heard about the Weather Channel flap or Heidi Cullen, it might be a good idea to first brush up on the plot of . Here's :

Wonya Lucas, Exec. VP and GM of The Weather Channel Networks came from CNN where she helped to shift that network from straight news reporting to "personality-driven" programming.

Never mind that CNN's ratings fell as a result of its leftward lurch. Under Lucas' direction,

The Weather Channel is launching a new website and broadband channel dedicated solely to global warming called [link added] and has a weekly program called "The Climate Code," [hey, historical fiction-as-fact worked for Dan Brown] devoted almost entirely to liberal advocacy on climate matters..

. Dr. Heidi Cullen.

.. serves as the network's cheerleader for global warming hysteria.

Cullen's supposed expertise on climatology includes, among other things, earning a bachelor's degree in Near Eastern religions and history from Juniata College.

On Thursday, Cullen :

..

.after more than a century of research--based on healthy skepticism--scientists have learned something very important about our planet. It's warming up -- glaciers are melting, sea level is rising and the weather is changing.

The primary explanation for this warming is the carbon dioxide released from--among other things--the burning of fossil fuels.

In addition to the condescending tone, there are at least seven incorrect, misleading statements in just this one short paragraph. I'll fisk those later, but won't be able to add much to the 1200 commenters who have already done so with exceptional logic and civility.

(Why is it that more commenters on the right seem to be able to make a point without resorting to profanity?)

But that's not what started the flap. That was only Cullen's spin on the flap.

Her . It drew over 1600 comments. What got everyone excited was this:

If a meteorologist has an AMS Seal of Approval [and].

.. can't speak to the fundamental science of climate change, then maybe the AMS shouldn't give them a Seal of Approval.

.. It's like allowing a meteorologist to go on-air and say that hurricanes rotate clockwise and tsunamis are caused by the weather.

It's not a political statement...

it's just an incorrect statement.

In other words, if independent weather forecasters won't agree to put the label of settled, proven science on a deeply controversial long-term hypothesis and agree to become public advocates for one particular point of view on it then they shouldn't be allowed to work. It's the kind of stuff one would expect to find in a totalitarian state--or maybe a union, a university, or a newsroom.

Cullen's comparisons to hurricane rotation and tsunami genesis are thoroughly disingenous. Both are much smaller phenomena than centuries of global climate: more isolatable, common and easily observable. Cullen's flaw in reasoning (or sleight-of-hand) involves using examples that most people automatically think of as involving prediction.

Yet the particular examples she uses (the internal dynamics of hurricanes and the origin of tsunamis) do not.

Why it's taken this long for such an Orwellian suggestion to rise to media prominence is anyone's guess. Speaker Pelosi's call for hearings is one possible spark.

The looming State-of-the-Union speech (in which its rumored the president will speak about, and possibly 'cave' on, climate change orthodoxy) is another. It almost doesn't matter who started it. The suggestion is real; it is chilling (pun intended); and its proponents are defending it vigorously.

A third and equally plausible explanation for the timing is by meteorologist James Spann who works for a local ABC affiliate in Alabama. (Sadly, that locale automatically makes him less credible in liberal eyes. His mention of God no doubt puts him beneath derision.

) His response got picked up by Drudge and on . Spann writes:

Well, well. Some “climate expert” on “The Weather Channel” wants to take away AMS certification from those of us who believe the recent “global warming” is a natural process.

So much for “tolerance”, huh?

I have been in operational meteorology since 1978, and I know dozens and dozens of broadcast meteorologists all over the country. Our big job: look at a large volume of raw data and come up with a public weather forecast for the next seven days.

I do not know of a single TV meteorologist who buys into the man-made global warming hype. I know there must be a few out there, but I can’t find them. [emphasis added] Here are the basic facts you need to know:

*Billions of dollars of grant money is flowing into the pockets of those on the man-made global warming bandwagon.

No man-made global warming, the money dries up. This is big money, make no mistake about it. Always follow the money trail and it tells a story.

Even the lady at “The Weather Channel” probably gets paid good money for a prime time show on climate change. No man-made global warming, no show, and no salary. Nothing wrong with making money at all, but when money becomes the motivation for a scientific conclusion, then we have a problem.

For many, global warming is a big cash grab.

*The climate of this planet has been changing since God put the planet here. It will always change, and the warming in the last 10 years is not much difference than the warming we saw in the 1930s and other decades.

And, lets not forget we are at the end of the ice age in which ice covered most of North America and Northern Europe.

If you don’t like to listen to me, find another meteorologist with no tie to grant money for research on the subject. I would not listen to anyone that is a politician, a journalist, or someone in science who is generating revenue from this issue.

Spann's claim about billions of dollars in grant money flowing to those who will add to the global warming 'consensus' is not far off. I was faced with a professional dilemma last year when a colleague approached me about doing contract work for a major foundation that wanted to develop scenarios on climate change. Tentatively interested (I like working; I'm good at what I do--scenarios; I studied this stuff in school and have done plenty of research since; and I have no shortage of opinions on the subject) I asked him about the sponsor's motivation and how open they were to investigating the topic as widely and honestly as I thought necessary.

He made clear that the scenarios would need to focus solely on different ways that man-made climate change could be harmful and how vast sums of money ought to be spent to combat it.

I turned him down. I have since learned that others were not so scrupulous.

Reviewing their work is little different from reading a favorable review of Al Gore's movie.

, oil companies are by contrast dropping paltry sums (and with fewer strings attached) to those investigating climate change. (For the record, I am not working, nor have I worked for or taken any kind of compensation from any of them on any basis.

)

of the Cullen flap but tellingly ends its article with a summary of recent unseasonable weather around the world--as relevant to proving climate change is dire, man-made and long-term as is a graph of the temperature in my basement. NRO has little commentary to add to the stories I've already cited, however are not to be missed.

: Cullen's paycheck and career are staked to her support for global warming orthodoxy.

That line of thinking is unnecessary to the larger argument laid out here, but it's worth noting in passing. It becomes more germane to the degree that those on the left accuse some of global warming's detractors of having strong financial incentives. :

This whole global warming thing is a political movement.

It is a refuge for displaced socialists and communists who simply want big government and total control or as much control over people as possible. It's a way to get money. It's a way to get paid via study grants and this kind of thing.

Hurricanes, Snowstorms and the MSM I've spent considerable time in Nebraska on business and , doing research for a novel. To those on the populous coasts and even to many midwesterners, the state is a bit of an enigma--far enough from Chicago or Denver to be out of range for easy exploration by car and not possessing any one particular 'draw'.

Warren Buffett's home town (Omaha) is about as much as many people know about the place. And yet, it is beautiful in its own way, especially the Sand Hills 4-5 hours west of Omaha--a strangely sublime piece of natural real estate I hope to visit again when I have more time.

Many bi-coastal, fly-over types (a category I still fall into) would probably be surprised to learn that the easy stereotype of Nebraska a lily-white and homogeneous (among other things) is patently false.

Nebraska's capitol (Lincoln) was a major destination for former slaves. Camping halfway between there and Omaha last July, I was treated to mariachi music from the large Hispanic contingent a few sites over. To walk down the street there feels as diverse as just about anywhere else I've been except maybe Brooklyn or London.

Stopping in tiny Grand Isle, two hours west of Lincoln (and on the edge of true wilderness) I was only slightly shocked when an Hasidic Jew (clearly a local, not a tourist) pulled in next to me at the local Wal-Mart.

With that as background, I am perplexed that the devastating blizzards plaguing that state this winter (along with Kansas and eastern Colorado) are getting only passing mention in the MSM. Yes there are , but there is no media stampede or anything close to it despite effects that promise to be nearly as devastating to lives and livelihoods on a per capita basis as Hurricane Katrina.

No Hollywood celebrities have . No prognostications have been offered by national politicians about the unfairness of it all. It doesn't fit either the global warming or the racism narrative.

And ...

the lone Democratic senator being well to the right of Republicans such as Olympia Snowe (Maine) or the deposed Lincoln Chaffee (RI). And so, this natural disaster is just..

. a story..

. with a small 's', not a national media frenzy.

New Ground for Women...

or Not

Funny but I don't remember when Condi Rice got appointed as the first female Secretary of State. Methinks it has less to do with gender and more to do with liberal credentials..

. if I may be permitted to state the utterly obvious.

Rathergate, Round Two: Strangled Baby or Aborted Fetus? No Dan Rather this time, but implications just as large despite "black hole" news cycle timing. Credit the New York Times' ombudsman (real title: "public editor") with playing it straight in his piece yesterday: .

Apparently there are still a few honest men (and women) in the MSM. One must give great credit to Calame who , as well as some credit to the paper for having him on staff at all. I said some.

By definition, employing someone whose job it is to publicly embarass you indicates that either a) you are insane, b) you are honest and want to stay that way, or c) you are totally dishonest, but recognizing as much, know that having someone to occasionally point out a few of your faults makes you appear far more honest than you are.

, including background on players in the original story (on abortion in El Salvador)-- (archive$ only). The short version: the freelance writer works for NPR and has held "teach-ins" at Gitmo.

The translator works for the organization (Ipas) that had the most to gain from the story! (No, I'm not making that up.)

Interestinly, :

On December 31st, The New York Times called attention to the tragic situation faced by women in El Salvador who must make crucial reproductive choices.

To my mind, this seems to obliquely imply that even if the particular case in question in the April NYTM piece is one of infanticide, that post-birth murder is the result of a larger "tragic situation". In other words, making excuses for the type of murder that everyone can agree on.

H/T: .