This is not a commercial news site, nor is it necessarily a source
for fresh news; but I do keep up with the headlines, and I keep track
of news items from various sources on a few of my favorite topics.
Lately there is a lot of interest in
the Causes and Effects of High Gas Prices.
You may also wonder about
the Causes and Effects of High Oil Prices.
When you read these topics, one term seems to come up
frequently: ANWR. But instead of
increasing the supply side, some "experts" are now talking about bringing back President
Nixon's 55 mph speed limit.
How did another "energy crisis" develop, only 35 years after the last one? Politics.
For one thing, environmentalists oppose
every practical source of energy, usually because they want to "save the Earth" from things like
global warming. Recently you may have
heard that polar bears have been
listed as endangered, even though they are thriving. This use of
the Endangered Species Act
works because so many poorly educated people
are susceptible to emotional appeals rather
than sound reasoning.
One of my many pet peeves is the general public's over-reliance
on cell phones, and the
rude and annoying behavior of many cell phone users.
Zimbabwe is falling apart, thanks to its feckless
and corrupt dictator, Robert Mugabe. People are starving, store shelves are empty, the inflation rate
is at or near a world record level. Yet the "mainstream" news media are all but totally silent on
this subject.
The news media are also silent about the questions being raised regarding Obama's birth certificate.
No one seems to be able to produce his original birth certificate to prove that he was born in Hawaii.
Why does that matter? If he was really born in Kenya, as some suspect, then he is not eligible to run
for President. Moreover, a lawsuit has been filed claiming that no matter where he was born, he lost
his US citizenship when he was adopted in Indonesia. More
information here.
If you are looking for information about Senator Obama's controversial pastor,
click here. Jeremiah Wright might as well
be Obama's running mate. The two of them seem to be in complete agreement with each other, and
completely out of step with the American mainstream. Information about Obama himself can be
found here.
Ethanol is one of the hottest topics
in the world
of environmentalism, and it is rapidly
becoming more of a problem than a solution, for a number of reasons. The companies that
produce ethanol are essentially receiving "corporate welfare", the price of corn is skyrocketing,
and the whole ethanol push smells
like pork barrel politics. Ethanol
is one of many supposedly good ideas that
may not be so great after all.
The Fairness Doctrine really isn't about fairness
at all. For a while it looked like this issue was fadng away, but it is back in the news.
Commentary on recent Supreme Court rulings, good or bad, can be found
here.
If you're looking for information and opinions about Senator John McCain, look at the bottom third
of this page about his pet project
from several years ago, known as "Campaign Finance Reform." I had almost forgotten about
that page until Senator McCain rather suddenly and mysteriously gained momentum in this
year's presidential race. Now he has been nominated, even though people
from both ends of the political spectrum can't stand the guy.
President Bush signed a new energy bill at the end of December that effectively outlaws the
incandescent bulb. What was he thinking? This means that we will all have to use
Compact Fluorescent bulbs, like them or not,
even though they are far
more expensive than ordinary incandescent bulbs.
So expensive, in fact, that the cost of a fluorescent bulb offsets all of the money you save on
electricity.
In addition to the Hsu scandal, other information about Bill and Hillary Clinton can be found
here. The Clintons are discussed
on the same page because the two of them work together, and you can't vote for one without
getting the other.
The Steven Hatfill subsection has a little
more information, now that the FBI has quietly settled with him. Unfortunately the FBI still
doesn't know who perpetrated the anthrax attacks in late 2001.
All the discussion about the Law of the Sea Treaty ("LOST") is on
the Editorial page.
The aftermath of the 2006 election -- and the
implications for the next two years -- are discussed at length on a new page. At first I was
a little disappointed with the outcome of the election. But since there are no term limits
in the Congress, it's a good thing when the membership changes once in a while. (One of the
most talked-about people in the new Congress
is Nancy Pelosi.) When this page
was first put on line, I thought it would be of interest for a few weeks and then fade away, but
the fruits of Democratic control of the Congress are now apparent.
The government is steadily growing, no matter which party is in control, so there is a law to require
everything that isn't prohibited. Numerous examples are
listed here
and here.
Tuberculosis is one of the health hazards faced
by airline passengers. I don't know why people put up with all kinds
of abuse just to get on an airplane -- besides the
high price of a ticket.
Congressman William Jefferson is the
guy who was allegedly caught with $90,000 in cash stored in his freezer. His defense
consists mainly of a sudden and very phony concern about separation of powers. The people
who continue to vote for him get the representation they deserve.
The EPA is tightening air pollution
standards for lawnmowers in order to justify its existence.
Six Imams at the Minneapolis airport made
quite a stir on 11/20/2006. In case you have been out of touch with the headlines, these troublemakers
were removed from a flight because of their highly suspicious behavior, and now they are filing
lawsuits against the airline and the bystanders who blew the whistle on their activities. Why
Minneapolis? Because there is a large Muslim population there, and it's where the Imams have the
best chance to get sympathy.
The Six Imams case reminds me of the incident
on Northwest Flight 327, which
was apparently a dry run for a terrorist attack.
The IPCC report on global warming is
full of presuppositions and half-truths. Once again, people are making weather forecasts for the next
hundred years or more, when in reality the best weather forecasters in the country can't make a reliable
five-day forecast.
Global warming skeptics are being actively
squelched, ignored and ostracized. That mean the global warming debate is really just a shouting
match. And the discussion of global warming is being unnecessarily complicated by side issues
like polar bears and rising sea levels.
The Oklahoma City bombing almost made it back into
the headlines in late 2006. A two-year congressional investigation shows the FBI made serious
errors while investigating the incident; however, the reports of the committee's work hit the news
wires late in the afternoon on December 24, 2006. What better time could there be to release a
news story, in order to draw the absolute minimum of attention to it, and provoke the least
discussion? This web site exists for the purpose of keeping stories like this from going
down the media memory hole.
People are starting to hear
about The Secret Superhighway and the plan to use
NAFTA to create a North American Union. But if you get all your information from television, you may not
have heard about it. The mainstream news media have been silent about this issue. Some government
officials deny any plans for the highway, while other officials are justifiably upset about it.
Voter ID laws require
people to produce some valid form of identification before voting. This has especially
upset the leaders of one political party (can you guess which one?) because the laws are designed to
prevent dead people from voting.
Electronic Voting concerns are discussed on the same page.
My biggest question about electronic voting is this: How do you know if you have actually voted, after
you go through the motions? Numerous experts have made it very clear that electronic voting machines
are not tamper-proof.
The news media thrive on sensationalism and
the spread of low-level panic. That's what keeps people hooked on television news programs and
clamoring for government intervention. Much of the so-called news is connected to
environmental false alarms. For
example, one third of the world's population was supposed to have been affected by the bird flu
by now. SARS was supposedly going to kill us all. Before that it was AIDS.
Don't believe what you hear on television!
There is a little buzz about
so-called "Corporate Social Responsibility" these
days, but that's just another synonym for anti-capitalism.
Anti-capitalist troublemakers seem to have
declared War on Wal-Mart lately, and the issue
says a lot about leftists in general. Apparently they take a dim view of competition, rock-bottom
prices and successful marketing, unless it is accompanied by socialized medicine, organized labor, and
generous compensation for every broom-pushing peon in the store.
Stem Cell Research is important enough
for President Bush to use his first veto to stop a bill that would have provided federal
funding for it.
So much has been said about the political bias in
The New York Times that the subject now has a page
of its own.
This just in: Cows are blamed for
global warming in a recent UN report. The report shows that cows emit much
more carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere than cars. (Termites are another big source
of methane and CO2, as well as the occasional volcanic eruption.)
Reviews and rebuttals of Al Gore's movie about global warming can be found
on this page, while the subject of
global warming alarmism in general is discussed in great
detail here.
Always popular: Immigration issues in general, and protest
rallies in particular.
Domestic surveillance, data mining, and so-called
wiretaps are back in the news, and while many people think this is a recent development, I've been
gathering information about it for years. It's nothing new.
The latest about Norman Hsu can be found
on this page. (I
thought Campaign Finance Reform -- the
brainchild of John McCain -- was supposed to prevent scandals like
this. Apparently it doesn't work.)
Dan Rather's lawsuit against CBS is discussed
on this page.
The Minimum Wage has had a page of its own
for a few years already, even when it wasn't steadily increasing. The whole point of my page is
that the minimum wage (like most other government intervention) does more harm than good.
Nancy Pelosi insists on a personal jet (to
be provided at taxpayer expense, of course) large enough to fly non-stop from coast to coast.
More and more people are beginning to ask questions about the collapse of
World Trade Center Building Seven -- which
was not struck by an airplane, but collapsed anyway -- on September 11, 2001.
Texas Governor Perry's vaccination mandate: I
never would have thought Governor Perry would have issued this kind of executive order. It sounds
like something Kinky Friedman would have done.
Broadcasters are off the hook for the moment, due to a recent court ruling
about indecency on the air. But in reality,
when you turn on a television, you know exactly what you're getting into. When someone curses
on television, or exposes herself (or himself), or sets a bad example for your kids, it gets into your
home only because you didn't turn off the television. If it happens more than once, it is only
because you didn't get rid of your television.
The V-22 Osprey is a slow, unstable,
expensive, dangerous and very noisy aircraft, so naturally the orders are pouring in
from the US government.
Last Christmas, the leftist PC Police started a
Battle over Ho-Ho-Ho. In
the name of political correctness, people who play Santa Claus in public are being told not to say,
"Ho Ho Ho" because it might offend women. Even more amazingly, sensible people seem
to be complying with this ridiculous demand.
The Big Dig: is a multi-billion
dollar pork barrel project in Boston. It seems to have more than its share of
major problems, especially considering the amount of money that has been spent on it.
Three Cheers for Joe Vento, the proprietor of
Geno's Steaks in Philadelphia, who put up a sign that says, "THIS IS AMERICA: WHEN ORDERING SPEAK ENGLISH."
Unflattering information about FEMA can be found
here
and here.
Other news items you may have missed have
accumulated here.
Old, stale news and distant memories
There is a page about President Bush trying to put a company from the UAE in charge of
port security.
