Archive for the ‘Media’ Category
Almost forgot to mention this: Boy Scouts Celebrate 100 Years of Camping, Service
Like Jim Kirk, Murdoc was never a Boy Scout. But my son is in Scouts and it is a great program.
Happy Birthday, Boy Scouts.
Also see: After 100 Years, Are The Boy Scouts Still Relevant?
A lot of people say no. Probably not coincidentally, most of the people I know who say that are the people I know who I disagree with the most strongly on political and societal issues.
I believe that a number of items in the “The Case Against Scouting” section of the linked article are misstated or just plain wrong. I also find it interesting that the case “For” gets half the first page while the case “Against” gets all of pages two and three. I’ll just chalk this up to the idea that the arguments in favor of Scouting are simple, straightforward, and readily apparent to nearly everyone, while the cases against it require a lot of in-depth explanation of nuances and secret Mormon conspiracies.
In August: U.S. report predicts 30,000 to 90,000 H1N1 deaths
The global flu pandemic expected to return to the USA this fall may infect as much as half the U.S. population, flooding hospitals with nearly 2 million patients and causing 30,000 to 90,000 deaths, according to the first official forecast of the scope of the flu season now getting underway.
The report, released Monday by the White House, was prepared by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. It offers the forecast as the most plausible of a range of scenarios that reflect the potential impact of a new form of H1N1 flu, known as swine flu, which the report calls “a serious health threat to the United States.”
From a cursory search online it appears that there have been about 3,000 confirmed H1N1 deaths in the US so far, with a CDC estimate of under 10,000 total. I remain fuzzy on estimate number.
Speaking of estimating, the CDC estimates that an average of 36,000 people die of flu or flu-related illnesses each season. I’ve seen this number a lot over the years. It appears to be based on estimates of averaged estimates of estimates and I’m not sure it means anything. Normal flu numbers aren’t based on confirmed causes at all, as far as I can tell.
Another thing: I’ve never been clear on how H1N1 numbers were expected to affect normal flu numbers, particularly how many H1N1 deaths would “be expected” to have been standard flu deaths without an H1N1 outbreak. Presumably, at least a fair share of those succumbing to H1N1 flu would have caught normal flu instead and died anyway.
I continue to be more than a little skeptical of any of these numbers and of flu shots in general. It would be interesting to know what sort of influences were on the influenza calculations. If I was the type to accuse “big pharma” of scare tactics to drum up sales, I might be inclined to wonder things. Or, gasp, those pushing a need for a major change in the way health care is run in this country.
Regardless, the end of this latest flu scare appears to be in sight with numbers far, far lower than predicted. Though we won’t have “final” numbers for a year or more, it seems the sky isn’t falling, after all. Even when comparing the CDC’s estimates of normal flu deaths the the CDCs estimates of H1N1 deaths.
In the Top Gear episode I was watching last night, Jeremy Clarkson was testing the Range Rover Sport. In a typical Top Gear challenge, he took it off road while being pursued by a Challenger II tank. (Clip below)
During the set-up, Clarkson noted:
“The thing I’m interesting most interested in, though, is the big gun, which, as you can see is rifled for greater accuracy. Unlike those smoothbore American ones, which just hit something [pauses and waves off at the distance,dismissively] over there.”
Marine M1A1 Abrams
What an idiot.
I happen to like both the Challenger 2 and the Leopard 2 quite a bit. I don’t really know which would “win” an equal tank-on-tank battle if all else (particularly crew capability) was equal. I’d have trouble betting against the latest M1s, though.
But I am confident that the dismissal of the smoothbore M1 gun is complete bollocks, as they say.
Anyway, he might be interested to know that the Challenger 2 is finally going to be upgraded to a 120mm smothbore, though I think they’re having budget issues and I don’t know the status of this program. I think it’s supposed to be the L/55 gun, which has a slightly longer barrel than the L/44-based M256 on M1s.
Via Instapundit.
Newsweek: Why losing 84,000 jobs isn’t that bad
For a while on MO, we played a game where we’d look at how job gains or losses were talked about in the press under Bush. One thing that I was almost right about was that when the jobs report got big coverage the day before it was released, the numbers were worse than “expected.” Whenever the report wasn’t covered beforehand, the gains were good or better than predicted and were “unexpected.”
Now suddenly we’ve got an “unexpected” big loss of jobs. First, it was “unexpected.” Now it’s “not that bad.”
Meanwhile, here are some reasons why things might be much worse than 1982.
TSA subpoenas, threatens two bloggers who published non-classified airline security directive
On Friday, December 25, following the incident in which a Nigerian man attempted to blow up a US-bound flight, the TSA issued an urgent, non-classified security directive to thousands of contacts around the world—airlines, airports, and so on. On Saturday, December 26, airlines and airports around the world further circulated that emailed document and began implementing the procedures described. On Sunday December 27, two bloggers published the content of the TSA directive online (some portions had already been showing up on airline websites). And on Tuesday, December 29, Special Agents from the TSA’s Office of Inspection showed up at the homes of bloggers Steven Frischling and Christopher Elliott, and interrogated each on where they obtained the document. Both bloggers received civil subpoenas.
As far as I can tell, these guys didn’t do anything wrong, either legally wrong or ethically wrong. Nothing at all. Maybe I’m missing something, so point it out for me if I am.
Meanwhile, the day before the first bomb attack I posted on GunPundit that I didn’t think a press release about new Federal Air Marshal guns was a big deal, but that other “improperly redacted” information posted by the TSA itself, including information about security scanner weaknesses and the size of wire that was undetectable, WAS a big deal.
Why no heavy-handed response to their own leaks but they jump all over a couple of bloggers who posted already-public information?
Could it be because they’re basically idiots? Just a thought.
Also, they declared that they’ve had a “very good year.”
Actually, it’s hard to tell whether these are cases of going after “easy targets” instead of hard ones, or if they’ve just got a different set of enemies than they should. Probably a combination of the two.
One would think that responding to a terror attack with less moral clarity and forcefulness than that displayed after the Fort Hood attack would have taken some doing. But the Obami have managed to pull it off. Between Janet Napolitano and the president, they’ve managed to convey confusion, denial, and willful indifference to the nature of our enemies.
and
I would think that Democrats must be awfully nervous. They’ve spent years and years trying to live down the reputation as being ”weak on defense” and then along comes a president who seems at best a reluctant commander in chief and at worst devoted to returning to a pre-9/11 mentality – which, after all, left us vulnerable on 9/11 in the first place.
Actually, they seem intent on a pre-9/11 mentality regarding our enemies but a post-9/11 mentality when it comes to your average American citizen.
This is from the AP, not The Onion:
Big first year leaves Obama tired
After a sleepless, overnight flight to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month, President Barack Obama made a not altogether surprising admission. He was tired.Who could blame him?
It goes on to talk about how hard the decisions about the recession and the auto workers union bailout and the health care bill.
Amid golf, tennis, gym workouts and dinner, Obama has been called on to monitor the airliner attack in Detroit last Friday and what appeared to be another attack on Sunday — that incident turned out to be a false alarm. On Monday, Obama worked out in the morning and played tennis before making his first public remarks on airline security, then hit the golf course.
So much for putting aside the stress of work.
Poor guy. They also seem to laud Obama for getting by on six hours of sleep or less when Bush made getting eight hours a priority. (Note that they don’t say Bush stopped working to make sure he got eight hours, they just hope you think it.)
The article reads like satire.
Poor guy got pulled away from a golf game because a terrorist attack failed. And then again, a couple of days later.
Bush only had to deal with terrorist attacks one day. No wonder he could make eight hours of sleep a priority.
Oh, yeah. Fire Janet Napolitano. The White House could at least try to look like they care. But an administration that seems to put appearance over substance can’t even be bothered to keep up appearances on the war.
I’ll start worrying more about Americans without jobs or health care when I’m confident I can worry less about Americans getting killed in the war. The White House apparently sees it the other way around.
Remember when the New York Times wouldn’t run stories on the ClimateGate emails because those were “never intended for the public eye”?
Eric Schmitt, Robert F. Worth, and the Gray Lady ran this today:
U.S. quietly takes terror war to Yemen
In the midst of two unfinished major wars, the United States has quietly opened a third, largely covert front against Al Qaeda in Yemen.
A “largely covert” war being covered in the New York Times. If global warming research funding is threatened, can’t run the story. But if it’s only US troops and foreign policy jeopardized, go with it. I mean, what’s so secret about a secret war, anyway?
Apparently the “firecrackers” a Northwest/Delta passenger lit earlier today at Detroit airport were a lot more than just firecrackers. Fortunately, the incendiary bomb fizzled.
U.S. officials say a Northwest Airlines passenger from Nigeria said he was acting on behalf of al-Qaida when he tried to blow up a flight Friday as it landed in Detroit.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., identified the suspect as Abdul Mudallad, a Nigerian. King said the flight began in Nigeria and went through Amsterdam en route to Detroit.
One of the U.S. intelligence officials said the explosive device was a mix of powder and liquid. It failed when the passenger tried to detonate it.
The passenger was being questioned Friday evening.
Both of the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing.
The motive of the Christmas Day attack was not immediately clear.
Murdoc’s just a dumb blogger, but he wonders if the guy’s motivation may have anything to do with the war.
Every time hardcore Righties probably feel the need to manufacture lies about what lunatic Lefties said, Chris Matthews’ show is on and he saves them the trouble.
He called West Point an “enemy camp.”
Game-winning shot at The Corner:
Chris, he’s commander-in-chief.
Chris Matthews, still a suspected Karl Rove plant.
The New York times didn’t want to publish any of the scandalous “Climategate” emails because they “were never intended for the public eye” but has no problems writing about a “black jail” at Bagram.
It’s almost like they’re selective about their willingness to publish controversial items.
