Redstate

But freedom always has a cost: In this case, the demand for power soared after Saddam fell -- and crashed the grid. It's been a long, hard fight to get it back up.

Iraq never had an adequate power grid. Under the Ba'athist regime, Baghdad might have enjoyed power 18 or 20 hours a day, but other cities got three or four. One of the first things we did was to distribute power more equitably. Baghdad gets less, so its residents complain -- but if you're in almost any other Iraqi city, you're far better off today than you were three years ago.-New York Post Online

It is common for the Kostodians of Tripe to throw out stats that "prove" how Iraq was better off with Sadam Hussein in power, but this article has information that would prove otherwise as far as the electrical grid is concerned.

Anybody else have trouble when reading the RedHot posts with large blocks of blank text where, presumably, comments ought to be?

I've had instances where something I read at home comes up blank at work, etc.

Am I missing something?

when I use Internet Explorer.

If you flip over to Netscape or Firefox, it's OK.

Front Page headline in my local newspaper today:

Tape shows Bush warned about Katrina

Subhead:

President asked no questions

And how about that lousy &%$#@@*&% President of ours?  He didn't even fly into the gulf and try to stop it!!!!!

I knew I should have voted for Superman.

Believed you for a second.  That's all right, I live for Super Burrito Thursday at Taco Johns.

I'm back in school learning the ins and outs of this new fangled .NET stuff.  For computer science students, MS is offering all of their software free of charge.

Yesterday, I recieved free, full version copies of Visual Studios, MS Virtual PC, Project Pro, Win Server 2K3 Enterprise and Web Editions, MS Office 2K3, XP Pro, Vista Pro, MsSQL, and Visio Pro.  all for the grand total of $0.

Although their motives are clear on this, it's still a good move for them.  I appreciate it.

Might as well get used to it, just thought I'd jump the gun.  Moral of the story, never vote republican and never kiss a bird.

He gives the kids free samples, because he knows full well

That today's young innocent faces will be tomorrow's clientele

-- Tom Lehrer, The Old Dope Peddler

Some things never change.

To many college students turning to Java, and other non-MS platforms.  Additionally, if they really wanted MS, they would steal it anyway.

But nonetheless, free is free.  Well, if you don't consider the ever-climbing price of going to school.

Yes, that is one of those things I often hear from liberals, how there isnt 24 hour power. My reaction always was, wow, that sucks, I hope the fix that soon.

I NEVER knew that they didnt have 24 hour power in the first place. I wonder if my liberal friends ever did either.

Funny how that escapes the news reports.

There wasnt a flake of snow on the ground in CT this morning and already every other school in the state was closed.

Growing up we would barely have one day off a year for snow. As the guy on the radio said this morning: "100% Chance of snow. 150% chance of knee-jerk overreaction."

High school teacher's comments investigated by district

A 16-year-old boy at Overland High School doesn't want to hear what he calls his teacher's left-wing political rants.

Allen's father claims the comments made in the recording are biased and inappropriate for a geography class.

"I'm not saying Bush and Hitler are exactly the same, obviously they're not. OK? But there are some eerie similarities to the tones that they use," says Bennish in his critique of U.S. economic and foreign policy.

Towards the end of the class, Bennish goes on to say, "I'm not in anyway implying that you should agree with me, I don't even know if I'm necessarily taking a position. But what I'm trying to get you to do is to think about these issues more in depth and not to just take things from the surface."

The Cherry Creek School District is conducting a thorough investigation of the complaint from the Overland High School parent and student concerning comments.

The school district says at first glance it does appear the teacher acted inappropriately at the very least.

Good!

I'm afraid I'm a crunchy con.  I garden organically (and even subscribed to the Organic Gardening magazine until that idiotic, non-gardening Maria Rodale ruined it), we don't implant our beef with ral-gro, I cook from scratch so the kids don't get so many preservatives and I would *die before I would eat that nasty processed lunch meat.

Is this like the canary in the coal mine?  Am I turning liberal??

*well - not really DIE, but you know what I mean.

 on admin leave but the students (both pro and con) are staging a walkout.  Shades of Berkeley!  In my day a teacher advocating communism was dismissed with no word to the students.  Some students followed the teacher and are friends to this day, but the general concern - that this stuff does not belong in the HS classroom - is still valid.  I hope the teacher is permanently relieved.  The students walking out for this guy clearly need a better reason to go to school.  Sean Allen on Fox suggested that kids did not learn any geography in this guy's class, only got to listen to his opinions about the world of politics.

 that will improve your chances of long life is not good.  Consider butter, which I never gave up, or red meat -- yum.  What about margarine and eggs and shrimp.  All bad once but now recognized as OK if, and this is the key, it is taken in moderation.  Probably applies to preservatives and lunch meat too.  I guess that one or two drinks a day is still there as well.

BTW, I occasionally bake bread.  It is absolutely amazing how fast it grows mold without those preservatives.  They really do work.

...we as a nation are going to have to reevaluate our failing school system. My personal view is that we get the federal government out of education but I would support any reform that introduces (capitalism) competition into the process be it privatization, vouchers, some combination of the two or almost anything else that gets us there.

I just hope it's sooner rather than later! But not holding my breath.

and politics has little to do with it. I cook from scratch because I do it well, and what I make tastes better than anything pre-packaged. Local produce tastes better than produce raised to be shipped long distances.

Alas my own gardening efforts have proven to be rather pathetic. I blame the weather.

I think they made some kind of medicine out of that mold didn't they?  :)

By the way, we grow our own eggs, and I lots of times churn my own butter (in-laws have a dairy).  I still kinda prefer that whipped butter that they sell at Sam's.  It is just so soft and nice on bread.

As for red meat, I put about 800 pounds at a time in the freezer.  We're big fans.

I may not have a long and happy life, but good food just tastes better.  Compare my hamburger and rump roasts against that nasty bologna.  I don't think I could get hungry enough.

Are you a transplanted Arkie?  If not, it's not the weather.  Get more manure.

And by the way, you are exactly correct that scratch just tastes better.

But I grew up in Jersey. So I still haven't really figured out exactly how the weather works--I know I should be planting things now (actually, about two weeks ago) but I can't seem to get my act together in time. Last summer, we had a pretty serious drought that wreaked havoc on everyone's garden. I'm really going to limit what I try to grow this year. I've had good luck with basil, so I'll grow that again. I'm giving tomatoes another shot. I'll buy some strawberry plants so the birds have something to eat. And yeah, manure. Lots of manure.

feeling good about what you are eating has as much to do with reducing the stress of daily life as anything else.  My guess, living well and enjoying life is good for us all.  So I even take my blogging with moderation.  Of course on election night I am as stressed as the next redstate.

when I was teaching the students got to select their classes and build their own schedules.  My classes were always maxed out first.  I wish it could have translated into more pay, but the teacher's union has the public school system by the short hairs.  Vouchers and free contracts with teachers for jobs including the pay level would do the trick.  Alas, the teacher's union is a powerful ally of the democratic party, so we may as well beat them in elections until they cry, "hold, enough".

I've gotten a vague noton, but what is the "official" definition? A "Berkinstocked Berkian"? Everyone but me seems to know what that means.

Was quite sad to read this news today.  I still can't tell, is he out of material, did his ego get too big, or is this a genius move to stir up controversy and excitement for himself?

All I know is that I want him back.

------------------

(storm center director): "At this point we can't be sure whether the levies will be topped or not..."

Reporter: But that contradicts what President Bush told Diane Sawyer three days after the storm ...

Mr. Bush: "I don't think anybody anticipated the levies being breeched."

----------------

Now, maybe there is other discussion of "breeching" the levies on the tape or elsewhere, but there's a difference between the levies being topped and the levies being breeched.  

The pumps might have been able to deal with storm waters coming over the levees, as long as they remained structurally sound.  There's no way to deal with a breech, though, except to wait it out.

I can't find the transcript.  

(The only news station I get during part of my commute is an NPR affiliate.)

Alive I tell you!!!!!!!!!  Harry Reid killed the Patriot Act but it came back to life, 89-10

Think he'll hold a press conference and claim Dems can resurrect the dead?  

I don't see why not, John Edwards said if he and Kerry were elected Christopher Reeve would walk again.  {And no, I am not getting the link for it, if you are posting on this site (Lib or conserv) that statement should be common knowledge to you.}

I use IE at work and Firefox at home, and the missing RedHot text happens on both browsers.

I'm just waiting for Clayton the Magician to fix it and make it all better.

Looks like Casey may have an abortion-rights candidate running to his left in the 2006 Senatorial race:

Kate Michelman, a prominent abortion-rights advocate, said yesterday that she was giving "some thought" to running as an independent in the race for a Pennsylvania seat in the U.S. Senate.

A possible candidacy by Michelman, 63, appears to have much to do with channeling frustration that some reproductive-rights activists have over the National Democratic Party's choice of Bob Casey Jr., an abortion-rights opponent, to challenge Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, who also opposes abortion rights.

...

Polls give Casey a double-digit lead over two-term Santorum, 47. But a Quinnipiac University survey from December suggested that Casey could lose support as his abortion stance drew more attention. It found that almost a third of respondents who identified themselves as pro-Casey and pro-abortion rights said they would not vote for him after being told he opposes abortion. Sixty-six percent would stay with him, the poll found.

This has to be the best news that Santorum has received in quite a while.

Remember the cascade of criticism from womens rights organizations when Bill Cliton enjoyed his young interns attentions?  How they compared him to those corporate leches who preyed on their young assistants and demanded his removal like all the rest of the bigshot CEO's?  Nor do I.

It takes a true belief in the cause to do what is right from your perspective.  And this really isn't a NOW thing, it's a Dem thing.  Michelman is most likely firing a broadside at Junior to get his attention.  I kinda feel sorry for him being in such a tight box.  Not that sorry tho.

your color scheme. I'm just talking thru my * here, but maybe set, in your Display prefs, your Color Scheme to (gag) 'Windows Classic' to see if that clears it up.

Hey, it's an open thread.

But be there.

given the posts in RedHot re: Thomas and Moe.

Who is the Supreme Nerd in Redstate community?

I think I might have Moe beat at least, and maybe Thomas, but then again, I have never LARP'ed, and have only attended two GenCons and one ComicCon....

Time to flaunt your nerd credentials.  Who is the One Nerd to Rule Them All?

-TS

Do eggs grow on a tree or a bush?

Reminds me of my twin sisters, who, when they were 3 years old, prayed as follows in Sunday School (we don't know which one said which, because they are identical twins, and the SS teacher couldn't tell them apart):

Sister #1 -- Thank you God for the chickens that laid the eggs for our breakfast.

Sister #2 -- And thank you God for the pigs that laid the bacon.

Or, if you want to know where grits and chitlins come from, check out this link:

 http://www.redstate.com/comments/2006/1/4/181129/0047/140#140

The one nerd to rule them all.  It might be me.

After all, I did carry the One Ring, if only for a short time.

We all carried the One Ring at one time or another in our nerd careers.

• Mastery of 2ed AD&D rules is a given; question is, mastery of latter generation rules.
• Reading scifi & fantasy is a given; question is, which authors, and which titles?
• Star Wars, Star Trek, Matrix, LotR are all givens; question is, what else?
• Comics?  Just how deep is your involvement in and knowledge of the genre?
• Ever build your own computer?  Your own transistor?  Your own vacuum tube?

Come now, there have to be more nerds than this.

-TS

I'll concede that you may be more of a geek than me.

I feel better already!