January 8, 2014

Dude, where are my sunspots?

Welcome to Solar Maximum!  Sorry, it turns out to not be much of a solar maximum.  Not only is it a weak solar maximum, but it's late.  It was supposed to be here back in 2011.  But what can we say about natural events?  Just...

June 13, 2013

Big Metadata

The National Security Agency (NSA) is obtaining a complete set of users' phone records from Verizon by means of a secret court order under the auspices of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), so reports the UK Guardian. We are ...

February 3, 2013

And the Sunspots Came

The fun thing about climate predictions is that you do get results. So prophecies can be checked. February 2010 was the first month in which the sun was observed to be sunspot-free since 2007.  We marked the event here.  Now it is 2013, the...

November 4, 2012

Cracking Down on Double-Voting?

KXNT News Las Vegas, a CBS affiliate, reports today that a woman has been arrested for attempting to vote twice.  The woman, a registered Republican, is accused of voting at a polling place in Henderson and then attempting to vote at another pol...

January 23, 2012

What would Chuck Norris do?

Chuck Norris has spoken, and his endorsement goes to Newt Gingrich. That should effectively end the process since it is a well-known fact that Chuck Norris is tough.  You think no one messes with Joe Biden?  No one messes with Chuck Norris....

October 20, 2011

Biden: Facts Lost in Translation

On October 19 Jason Mattera of Human Events gave Vice President Joe Biden the opportunity to clarify his assertion that rape and murder would increase if the Republicans failed to pass the president's Jobs bill.  Mr. Biden insisted that "Murder ...

December 29, 2010

Thanks in advance

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October 8, 2010

Ninth Circuit Court Reverses Self

The 9th  U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the most reversed of court of all, has reversed itself. In January a three-judge panel of the court ruled that Washington state could not prohibit inmates from voting on the theory that the state's prohibi...

September 10, 2010

Campaign enters new phase

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July 27, 2010

The Battle for the Small Donor

Monday's mail brought competing solicitations for small donations -- one from the DNC, the other from the RNCC. Contrasting the two may provide some insight into the marketing campaign shaping up for November.The DNC appeal, signed by Governor Tim Ka...

July 21, 2010

Another Day, Another Bit of DNC Strategy

As predicted the DNC is rolling out a series of initiatives in the form of e-mail messages to rally the troops. They can be instructive. Monday's missive from the DNC tackles the problem of unemployment and how it is mostly the fault of the Republica...

July 14, 2010

Five Facts About Carly Fiorina

The Democratic National Committee is circulating an e-mail message with the subject Five things to know about Carly Fiorina. Could there be any doubt as to how favorable these facts would be to Ms. Fiorina? Probably not very much, given that the Wash...

March 1, 2010

Here comes the sun(spots)

February, 2010, was the first month since 2007 with sunspots every day according to Spaceweather.com for February 27. A quick check of February 28 confirms the streak. So far there have been only 2 spot-free days in 2010. By comparison there were 26...

January 27, 2010

What a successful one-term president looks like

In an interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC's World News President Obama said:I'd rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president...At the 25% point in his first term it may be interesting to compare Mr. Obama to an actual ...

January 15, 2010

Are We Stimulated Yet?

About this time last year, the nation was debating the need for the government to take action to save the economy from certain doom. The government had already saved the financial sector from certain doom with the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act...

November 6, 2009

Mark the Date

This coming Saturday, November 7, is an auspicious anniversary. It was on this day in 2008 that President-Elect Obama held his first press conference and introduced the world to the Office of the President Elect, complete with official-looking logo. ...

August 9, 2009

Health Care Funds for Community Organizations

A provision in HR 3200 (health care reform) seems to provide community organizations and other agencies special access to a program related to linguistic services for Medicare providers.In reviewing HR 3200, the current health care proposal before th...

April 22, 2009

Measured statement on global warming from NASA

For the eve of Earth Day, NASA published an unusually measured statement on global warming.The April 21 issue of NASA's popular Astronomy Picture of the Day was about global warming and shows a heat map that may be representative of future trends. If...

March 6, 2009

Warning! Bracket Creep Ahead!

With a guarantee that only those making more than $250,000 a year will see a tax increase it is probably a good time to talk about something that has not been a problem for decades: Bracket Creep.Bracket creep is the result of a progressive tax syste...

February 11, 2009

What is Plan B?

It seems certain at this point that the Economic Stimulus plan will be implemented at some point in the near future. It may be completely successful, it may be a total failure, or it may hit somewhere in between. Rational people hope for the best, bu...

April 19, 2007

Good Fences

Mexico has found an ally in the European Union’s Javier Solana in their campaign to prevent the US from building a border fence. A remarkable coup, given that the EU has its own fence as part of a plan to maintain control over immigration from ...

April 10, 2007

The Imus insult (updated)

Even by modern tabloid standards the outrage over Mr. Imus' thoughtless comments is remarkable.It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing - MacbethName-calling is a technique that will neither be perfected nor improved....