The Pew Charitable Trusts says my hometown is getting better:

However, it also pointed out successes in the new millennium: more optimism and activism by movers and shakers, an expansion of the tax-abatement program that has fueled a building boom, efforts by universities to improve their surrounding neighborhoods, and economic growth spurred by tourism, an improved airport and the business district at the former Philadelphia Navy Yard.

Or is that because once you hit rock bottom there's no place else to go? Things are still pretty bad:

Philadelphia lost 55,000 residents and 37,000 jobs from 2002 to 2005; a quarter of the population lives in poverty; only one-fifth of residents 25 and older have college degrees; and 56 percent of all households with children have only one parent present, according to the report.

''And while the surge in housing construction and rehabilitation is substantial, many neighborhoods can only be termed urban wastelands,'' the authors wrote.

Labels: Philadelphia

Posted by Ryan S. at 11:08 AM | Permalink | |

This week, it seems there are no heroes (but only because I nominated Professor Legates recently, though he is back in the news).


Trent Lott is my hack this week, as the Senator really wants revenge for what he lost in Katrina:

The Mississippian was "infuriated" by the insurance industry's refusal to shell out for certain Katrina claims, most notably his own. So Mr. Lott is spearheading a ferocious campaign of political revenge that would make even Henry Waxman envious--replete with investigations, voracious trial lawyers, ambitious state attorneys general and threats of punitive federal legislation. And like most personal grievances that get morphed into policy battles, it's ending badly for consumers.

Mr. Lott's beachfront property in Pascagoula--one of three homes he owned--was swept away entirely by Hurricane Katrina's waters. Like many Gulf Coast residents, Mr. Lott was soon reminded by his insurer, State Farm, that his policy only covered wind damage--not flood damage. The senator surely knew that, which is why he'd also purchased federal flood insurance. According to his flood policy that was in effect when Katrina hit, he was covered up to $350,000 in flood damages, and he presumably collected in full. (Sen. Lott's office didn't return my call.)

Yikes. Further proof Republicans no longer want to win.

Labels: Hero/Hack

Posted by Ryan S. at 4:15 PM | Permalink | |

New York Times:

Equally troubling is what we put in place of Apollo. The $38 billion developmental cost of the shuttle has gotten us nowhere in the solar system fast. And the International Space Station could have been built with only half a dozen Saturn V launchings instead of the more than two dozen shuttle trips that will be required to finish it. The bottom line: a colossal misuse of funds and a disheartening lack of progress and loss of time.

The termination of the Saturn V program also had a stifling effect on the robotic exploration of other planets. In essence, we lost the ability to deliver larger, and in some cases faster, payloads elsewhere in the solar system.

Popular Mechanics:

With the iconic Space Shuttle nearing retirement, the pressure is on NASA to design a new manned vehicle — one that will deliver us safely to the lunar surface by 2020 before building a lasting lunar base. From ensuring a safe launch to getting the vehicle back on the ground, here's an inside look at some of the toughest challenges Orion's engineers are now confronting.

Labels: Space

Posted by Ryan S. at 4:25 PM | Permalink | |

Delaware Leaders Join Supporters Of McCain
Representative Mike Castle & Speaker Terry Spence Lead State Exploratory Committee
ARLINGTON, VA - U.S. Senator John McCain's presidential exploratory committee today announced that Rep. Mike Castle and Delaware Speaker of the House Terry Spence have joined the Arizona Senator's team and will serve as the exploratory committee's leadership team in Delaware.

I think it is too early to solidly back anyone for 2008, but this comes as no surprise because both Castle and McCain have what seem to be "what's popular is right" attitudes.

Labels: 2008 Watch, McCain

Posted by Ryan S. at 4:03 PM | Permalink | |

Wired:

The teachers' unions, Jobs believes, are ruining America's schools because they prevent bad teachers from being fired.

"I believe that what is wrong with our schools in this nation is that they have become unionized in the worst possible way," Jobs told a school reform conference in Texas on Saturday. "This unionization and lifetime employment of K-12 teachers is off-the-charts crazy."

and

Jobs has also been a long-time advocate of a school voucher system, another ridiculous idea based on the misplaced faith that the mythical free market will fix schools by giving parents choice.

Jobs argues that vouchers will allow parents, the "customers," to decide where to send their kids to school, and the free market will sort it out. Competition will spur innovation, improve quality and drive bad schools (and bad teachers) out of business. The best schools will thrive.

If you ignore Leander Kahney's pro-union, pro-government schools bias, you see that Jobs has, at the least, libertarian leanings. Pretty cool, huh?

Labels: Education

Posted by Ryan S. at 9:06 AM | Permalink | |

So I have class today, even though today is President's Day. It really isn't too big of a deal, but over Winter Session, we had off for Martin Luther King Day. Could the University be forwarding some kind of agenda through their selection of holidays?

Overall, I'm more annoyed than angry, and I don't really like President's Day all that much. Who wants to celebrate Jimmy Carter and Ulysses S. Grant?

Posted by Ryan S. at 11:11 AM | Permalink | |

This is the face of the anti-war Democrat:

Mr. Murtha has a different idea. He would stop the surge by crudely hamstringing the ability of military commanders to deploy troops. In an interview carried Thursday by the Web site MoveCongress.org, Mr. Murtha said he would attach language to a war funding bill that would prohibit the redeployment of units that have been at home for less than a year, stop the extension of tours beyond 12 months, and prohibit units from shipping out if they do not train with all of their equipment. His aim, he made clear, is not to improve readiness but to "stop the surge." So why not straightforwardly strip the money out of the appropriations bill -- an action Congress is clearly empowered to take -- rather than try to micromanage the Army in a way that may be unconstitutional? Because, Mr. Murtha said, it will deflect accusations that he is trying to do what he is trying to do. "What we are saying will be very hard to find fault with," he said.

Mr. Murtha's cynicism is matched by an alarming ignorance about conditions in Iraq. He continues to insist that Iraq "would be more stable with us out of there," in spite of the consensus of U.S. intelligence agencies that early withdrawal would produce "massive civilian casualties." He says he wants to force the administration to "bulldoze" the Abu Ghraib prison, even though it was emptied of prisoners and turned over to the Iraqi government last year. He wants to "get our troops out of the Green Zone" because "they are living in Saddam Hussein's palace"; could he be unaware that the zone's primary occupants are the Iraqi government and the U.S. Embassy?

Labels: Congress, Iraq

Posted by Ryan S. at 9:46 PM | Permalink | |

I good friend of mine (and a good human being) was killed in a car accident Monday night, so I think I am going to take the rest of the week off, because other things than this blog have priority right now.

He was also a close friend of my buddy Ryan Mc over at Liberal Delight.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord.
And let perpetual light shine upon him;
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen.

UPDATE 4:14PM: UDaily article on Ryan O'Hara is here.

Posted by Ryan S. at 3:03 PM | Permalink | |

Cartago Delenda Est writes:

If You're For The War And You're Not In The Military, You're A Chickenhawk. If You're For The War And You Are In The Military, Shut Up.

Following links from this Glen Reynold's roundup re:Arkin, I came across this good point by Ace of Spades:

Exit question: Since Arkin asserts that the troops should not be allowed to influence the public's opinion on the war, and since the entire left demands that anyone supporting the war become a troop himself -- has the left pretty much created a Catch-22 by which any and all support for the war is illegitimate?

Labels: Hypocracy

Posted by Ryan S. at 7:53 PM | Permalink | |

While sea-ice has diminished in the Arctic since 1978, it has grown by 8% in the Southern Ocean.
So one awkward question you can ask, when you’re forking out those extra taxes for climate change, is “Why is east Antarctica getting colder?” It makes no sense at all if carbon dioxide is driving global warming. While you’re at it, you might inquire whether Gordon Brown will give you a refund if it’s confirmed that global warming has stopped. The best measurements of global air temperatures come from American weather satellites, and they show wobbles but no overall change since 1999.

That levelling off is just what is expected by the chief rival hypothesis, which says that the sun drives climate changes more emphatically than greenhouse gases do. After becoming much more active during the 20th century, the sun now stands at a high but roughly level state of activity. Solar physicists warn of possible global cooling, should the sun revert to the lazier mood it was in during the Little Ice Age 300 years ago.

Climate history and related archeology give solid support to the solar hypothesis. The 20th-century episode, or Modern Warming, was just the latest in a long string of similar events produced by a hyperactive sun, of which the last was the Medieval Warming.

Read the whole thing.

I'm looking forward to the book.

Labels: Climate Change

Posted by Ryan S. at 8:11 PM | Permalink | |

Mayor Street of my hometown, Philadelphia, has just signed a new ordinance expanding the city's curfew. Since apparently parents don't carte about their kids, it is up to the mayor to be there for them:

''Young people do not belong on the street at 11 and 12 o'clock at night,'' Mayor Street said in a statement released following a bill signing ceremony. ''No good things can happen to young people at that hour.''

Part of the reasoning is to reduce youth violence, and part is for anti-truancy:

''If we keep them off the street and get them back in school, we will be a safer community,'' he said.

Now that seems like a dumb thing to say given the state of Philadelphia schools. There are schools in Philadelphia that are about as unsafe as the streets. There is no discipline, and therefore the "problem" kids are just ushered through. Maybe if parents were encouraged to take responsibility for their kids, we wouldn't need government paternalism.

Labels: Education, Philadelphia

Posted by Ryan S. at 11:53 AM | Permalink | |

Elie Wiesel, author of Night, was attacked in San Francisco by a Holocaust denier:

In a posting Tuesday on the anti-Zionist Web site ZioPedia, a writer using the name Eric Hunt takes credit for the attack: “After ensuring no women would be traumatized by what I had to do (I had been trailing Wiesel for weeks), I stopped the elevator at the sixth floor. I pulled Wiesel out of the elevator. I said I wanted to interview him.”

Wiesel grabbed at his chest and yelled for help, according to the posting. “I told him, ‘Why don’t you want people to know the truth?’ His expression changed, and he began screaming again. …” the posting reads.Police reported that the suspect tried to force Wiesel into one of the rooms, but ran away when Wiesel started yelling.

The online posting states that the writer intended to “bring Wiesel to my hotel room where he would truthfully answer my questions regarding the fact that his non-fiction Holocaust memoir, Night, is almost entirely fictitious.” Later in the posting, the Holocaust is portrayed as a “myth.”

My hack this week is ex-Senator John Edwards, for his hiring and defense of an anti-Catholic blogger. Paul has two great posts about this at the DCBA blog here and here, and it's a much better job than I could do. Here's what he thinks about the whole thing:

There are many Catholics who disagree with Church teachings, but they still don’t want the Catholic Church spoken of this way. This will be passed around in every Catholic Church in America. (And many Protestants won’t be happy about the attacks on religion either.) If Edwards wins the nomination, I think the GOP will have been handed the White House again due to his own incompetence.

Labels: Hero/Hack

Posted by Ryan S. at 5:11 PM | Permalink | |

The big 2-1!!

Some major events that happened on February 8:

• 1692 - A doctor in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony declares that three teenaged girls are under domination of Satan, leading to the Salem witch trials.
• 1900 - British troops are defeated by Boers at Ladysmith, South Africa.
  
• 1963 - Travel, financial and commercial transactions by United States citizens to Cuba are made illegal by the John F. Kennedy administration.
• 1969 - The last weekly issue of the Saturday Evening Post hits magazine stands.
• 1971 - The Nasdaq stock market index debuts.
• 1998 - First female ice hockey game in Olympic history: Finland beats Sweden 6-0
• 2005 - Israel and Palestinians agree to cease-fire.

And last year on this day:

• Palestinians attack Temporary International Presence in Hebron offices in Hebron; International observers end decade-long presence

People I share my birthday with:

• 1677 - Jacques Cassini, French astronomer
• 1820 - William Tecumseh Sherman, American Union general
• 1828 - Jules Verne, French author
• 1851 - Kate Chopin, American author
• 1931 - James Dean, American actor
• 1932 - John Williams, American composer and conductor
• 1940 - Ted Koppel, American journalist
• 1941 - Nick Nolte, American actor
• 1955 - John Grisham, American novelist
• 1961 - Vince Neil, American musician (of Mötley Crüe)
• 1968 - Gary Coleman, American actor
• 1974 - Seth Green, American actor

Deaths:

• 1587 - Mary, Queen of Scots (b. 1542)
• 1956 - Connie Mack, baseball manager and executive (of the Philadelphia A's)

Liturgical Feasts:

• Saint Jerome Emiliani
• Saint Juventius
• Saint Meingold of Huy
• Saint Jacoba (d. 1239)

Happy birthday to anyone else reading this with whom I share today!

Posted by Ryan S. at 9:13 AM | Permalink | |

I have yet to throw my support behind any 2008 candidates, and for good reason. Sure, there are some I will not vote for at all (namely McCain, Romney, Biden, Clinton, Obama) for one reason or another, but I've tried to keep an open mind to both Republicans and Democrats.

I realize that there is no perfect candidate for me out there because I most likely will not agree with a single candidate on every issue. That being said, I'd rather support a candidate that I mostly agree with who is also a good leader, than someone who I agree with, but has no evident leadership status.

Electability is a factor here, but I very much think a conservative leader who is able to clearly articulate ideas and solutions for the issues of today-- coupled with a Reaganesque optimism-- could carry the White House in 2008. So far, no one stands out to me based on that criteria.

Foreign policy is going to end up to be the issue that is a dealbraker because that is the most important function of the executive. To continue along those lines, the fates of candidates in both parties rest with what happens in Iraq, which will shape how this election unfolds.

So who are you supporting (if anyone). Make your case in the comments!

Labels: 2008 Watch

Posted by Ryan S. at 12:16 AM | Permalink | |

While many Black History Month celebrations focus on either black nationalists or communists like W.E.B. DuBois or Malcom X, why not focus on Booker T. Washington or Zora Neale Hurston?

The individual who can do something that the world wants will, in the end, make his way regardless of race.- Booker T. Washington

Republicans have a long history of policies that gave blacks the freedom to excel based on their own merits as individuals, not because some government agency liked the color of their skin. Just a couple examples are here:

Few black Americans know that it was Republicans who founded the Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Unknown also is the fact that Republican Senator Everett Dirksen from Illinois was key to the passage of civil rights legislation in 1957, 1960, 1964 and 1965. Not mentioned in recent media stories about extension of the 1965 Voting Rights Act is the fact that Dirksen wrote the language for the bill. Dirksen also crafted the language for the Civil Rights Act of 1968 which prohibited discrimination in housing. President Lyndon Johnson could not have achieved passage of civil rights legislation without the support of Republicans.

Critics of Republican Senator Barry Goldwater who ran for president against Democrat President Lyndon Johnson in 1964, ignore the fact that Goldwater wanted to force the Democrats in the South to stop passing discriminatory laws and thus end the need to continuously enact federal civil rights legislation.

Those who wrongly criticize Goldwater, also ignore the fact that President Johnson, in his 4,500 State of the Union Address delivered on January 4, 1965, mentioned scores of topics for federal action, but only thirty five words were devoted to civil rights. He did not mention one word about voting rights. Then in 1967, showing his anger with Dr. King's protest against the Viet Nam War, President Johnson referred to Dr. King as "that Nigger preacher."

The National Black Republican Association has the rest of that article. However, it seems that somehow Democrats have convinced blacks that there are inferior and must have the protection of the federal government to even survive. Don't believe me? Check out Jason's latest:

The black middle class exists today only because of massive and liberal government intervention. The Great Society, bringing forth civil rights and affirmative action, ranks right up there with the Civil War as a liberating force for black people in America.

Hmm. Well first, thanks to repressive Democratic laws in the South after the Civil War (Jim Crow, anyone?), it wasn't quite as liberating. He goes on:

GOP leaders go to court seeking to put and end to racial favoritism. They want to return to the pure meritocracy we had prior to the riots. And we wonder why blacks don’t like the GOP. (Emphasis Mine)

So basically, Jason is saying that without the government intervening on their behalf, blacks would be in the bottom levels of society, because in a merit-based system, they are inferior. No wonder he's in the same party as Joe "Clean Cut" Biden.

So contrary to people like Benjamin Banneker, Booker T. Washington, and Barack Obama, Jason thinks that blacks are too inferior to be successful.

Posted by Ryan S. at 10:50 PM | Permalink | |

While everyone concedes that the Earth is about a degree Celsius warmer than it was a century ago, the debate continues over the cause and consequences. We don't deny that carbon emissions may play a role, but we don't believe that the case is sufficiently proven to justify a revolution in global energy use. The economic dislocations of such an abrupt policy change could be far more severe than warming itself, especially if it reduces the growth and innovation that would help the world cope with, say, rising sea levels. There are also other problems--AIDS, malaria and clean drinking water, for example--whose claims on scarce resources are at least as urgent as climate change.

The IPCC report should be understood as one more contribution to the warming debate, not some definitive last word that justifies radical policy change. It can be hard to keep one's head when everyone else is predicting the Apocalypse, but that's all the more reason to keep cool and focus on the actual science.

Read the whole thing. This basically is what Hube and I have been saying for some time now.

Labels: Climate Change

Posted by Ryan S. at 1:18 PM | Permalink | |

TIME:

"Obama's mother is of white U.S. stock. His father is a black Kenyan," Stanley Crouch recently sniffed in a New York Daily News column entitled "What Obama Isn't: Black Like Me." "Black, in our political and social vocabulary, means those descended from West African slaves," wrote Debra Dickerson on the liberal website Salon. Writers like TIME and New Republic columnist Peter Beinart have argued that Obama is seen as a "good black," and thus has less of following among black people. Meanwhile, agitators like Al Sharpton are seen as the authentic "bad blacks." Obama's trouble, asserted Beinart, is that he will have to prove his loyalty to The People in a way that "bad blacks" never have to.

Edwards on Obama on Iraq:

He wasn't burdened like a lot of us with the information that we were receiving on the intelligence committee and as members of the United States Senate. We were getting very detailed, intimate information about what was actually happening in Iraq.

Labels: 2008 Watch

Posted by Ryan S. at 11:47 AM | Permalink | |

With apologies to Paul:

"The eyes of all America are upon us. As we play our part posterity will bless or curse us."
- Henry Knox, chief Artillery officer of the Continental Army and the first Secretary of War.

"Let us cross over the river and rest in the shade of the trees."
-the last words of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson

I saw a werewolf drinking a piña colada at Trader Vic's
And his hair was perfect.
--Warren Zevon, Werewolves of London

"Bunch of savages in this town."
-Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson) Clerks (1994)

"You're the laziest non-Communist I've ever met!"
-Red Forman, That 70's Show

"Flesh-and-blood is weak and frail,
Susceptible to nervous shock;
While the True Church can never fail
For it is based upon a rock."
--T.S. Eliot, The Hippopotamus

"God is not a bowl of oatmeal!"
-Professor Katherin Rogers

"If there were no God, there would be no atheists."
-G. K. Chesterton

"It is idle to talk always of the alternative of reason and faith. Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all."
-G.K. Chesterton

"We shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender"
-Sir Winston Churchill

"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside a dog, it's too dark to read."
-Groucho Marx

"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well-known is this: never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!"
-Vizzini, The Princess Bride

"Therefore, all of you: Avoid vices, cherish virtues; raise up your minds to blameless hopes; extend your humble prayers into the lofty heights. Unless you want to hide the truth, there is a great necessity imposed on you-- the necessity of righteousness, since you act before the eyes of a judge that beholds all things."
--Boethius (A.D. 480-525), Consolation of Philosophy, Book V, Prose 6

"Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt."
-Herbert Hoover (attributed)

Posted by Ryan S. at 11:24 AM | Permalink | |

I'm sure you've all seen this image:

Well, Riehl World View has the story behind it:

But what's this? Scroll down and you'll see the same picture was first published with a credit to another person on the trip and the caption made it clear what was really going on.

Mother polar bear and cub on interesting ice sculpture carved by waves. photo © Amanda Byrd.

Wow! I didn't know Global Warming caused .... waves, too!

The image has been used in a variety of environmental campaigns over the years, sans the original caption, of course. Here it was used to solicit public comments to Save da' Bears! They've now been, or soon will be listed as an endangered species. It seems the picture makes some people cry. But the Global Warming folks know that, based on this report. Read the bragging over the media manipulation:

One of the credos of journalism is to seek balance in a story, to cover "both sides." But reporters' dogged tendency to do so on the issue of a human role in global warming has had a detrimental impact on the public's understanding of the subject, say many scientists who criticize media coverage of climate change.

In just the last year White said he has noticed a significant shift in media coverage of the subject.

"The reporting is better because I don't see the 'other side' anymore."

And the polar bears make good ammunition - when the caption is inaccurate, of course:

White isn't averse to using elements that people can grasp and relate to, like vanishing sea ice and what that means for polar bear habitat and survival.

"Scientists miss that, " White said. "Many of my colleagues complain that it's all about polar bears -- it is all about polar bears, it's all about seals. You use the ammunition you have."

And they basically admit to exploiting hurricane Katrina, too.

White also said Hurricane Katrina has been a major influence on the press's new focus. While it's impossible to say conclusively that global warming is to blame for Katrina's strength, White said, the storm was nonetheless a huge catalyst for a growing press interest in warming and rising seas and their effects.

"I've come to appreciate the power of these seminal events," White said. "These are galvanizing events that focus people's attention on the problems."

Read the whole thing for the scientists complaining about too much ice in the Arctic.

Labels: Climate Change

Posted by Ryan S. at 12:06 PM | Permalink | |

My hero this week is Professor Legates from my college, the University of Delaware, for speaking out on climate change:

Delaware's state climatologist has found himself in the middle of a political squall after taking skeptical stands on global warming and climate change -- in one case directly contradicting the state's own policy.

David R. Legates, a University of Delaware geography professor, co-wrote a "friend of the court" brief that opposed Delaware's position in a multi-state U.S. Supreme Court case.

In the appeal, state regulators argued that carbon dioxide from new cars should be regulated because of evidence the gas was contributing to rising global temperatures, climate shifts and changes in the environment. The Bush administration and industry critics opposed the demand, saying the dire warnings are unproven.

Enter Legates, a Ph.D. climatologist who received the title of state climatologist in 2005 from Daniel Leathers, now the head of the University of Delaware's geography department.

(hat tip to Hube!)

My hack this week Mohammad Naseem. He's a Muslim cleric in England, comparing England to Nazi Germany:

Speaking outside the mosque shortly before the prayer session began, he compared the current situation, and anti-terrorism legislation introduced in Britain in recent years, to Nazi Germany.

"The German people were told the Jews were a threat. The same thing is happening here. The Muslims are now the bogey people," he said.

That's funny, I don't remember hearing of Jews blowing up German trains, nor have I heard anything of England putting Muslims in camps.

On a lighter note, did anyone else see Scrubs last night? Great episode, and a great running plotline on Iraq debates.

Labels: Climate Change, Hero/Hack

Posted by Ryan S. at 2:24 PM | Permalink | |

Some impressive-sounding international panel is going to say that global warming is 'very likely' man made. The accompanying graph to the BBC article shows temperatures going back to 1950, obviously to exaggerate the temperature change. Think about it, if there were no 'climate crisis' who would pay for the cushy hotels, airfare, and booze of these scientists?

What could be causing this climate variation? The sun maybe? Check out the temperature to sunspot graph:

Labels: Climate Change

Posted by Ryan S. at 7:22 PM | Permalink | |

OSLO, Norway — Former Vice President Al Gore> was nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his wide-reaching efforts to draw the world's attention to the dangers of global warming, a Norwegian lawmaker said Thursday.
"A prerequisite for winning the Nobel Peace Prize is making a difference, and Al Gore has made a difference," Conservative Member of Parliament Boerge Brende, a former minister of environment and then of trade, told The Associated Press.

Hmm...come to think of it, maybe all the hot air that Al Gore lets escape into the atmosphere when he talks about global warming is causing global warming. Nah, it's probably the private jet he uses.

Labels: Climate Change

Posted by Ryan S. at 10:26 AM | Permalink | |