Have I ever mentioned that the sun sucks...

Kyle Smith negatively reviews Gore's new film, "An Inconvenient Truth." I haven't seen the documentary, so I can't comment on its entertainment value. However, I can see through Kyle Smith's negativity.

First, Kyle claims "there is wide disagreement about whether humans are causing global warming." Unfortunately, Kyle doesn't seem to keep up on his science news. The U.S. Climate Change Science Program issued a statement contrary to Kyle's: "This significant discrepancy no longer exists because errors in the satellite and radiosonde data have been identified and corrected." This revelation came a day after the government study which claimed greenhouse gases have reached a record high.

Kyle's second argument attacks Gore's administration: "His charts say global warming got worse in that time." So, while in office he didn't fight for the environment. He's brightened up a bit since then. At least he no longer claims to have invented the Internet.

Kyle's next attack seems odd: "Global warming hasn't noticed that we got the lead out of our gasoline or that Stage One smog days in Los Angeles fell from 121 in 1977 to zero in 2004. All regulations and taxes to date have done nothing. Does this hint that pollution isn't the cause?" Really. Then what lowered the smog rate in Los Angeles? Yep. Regulations. According to Los Angeles' Wikipedia entry, the smog in Los Angeles "brought much attention from the state of California to the need for low emissions vehicles." This, in turn, led to the reduction in smog. If Kyle needs more hints that smog is very much man-made, he can check out some pictures of the growing China metropolis. The smog didn't seem to be a problem until China began industrialize itself.

His final blow: "Even when bombs are flying, Gore promises to measure CO2 first." Sadly, Kyle, and many others, live in a world they believe is short-term. The number of deaths a terrorist can accomplish has proven to be fairly low, albeit shocking. Nature, however, is a much harsher mistress who can leave huge body counts behind her wake. So Kyle, even as the bombs fly, we need to look beyond them. Focusing on one problem, only causes the others to fester.

It took the White House too many years to acknowledge the Earth was warming. Let's hope they speed up the process of recognizing that man is a substantial cause of the process.

Don't die.

Cheesy cheese cheese cheese... and cheese.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has released a scathing report on the 2004 elections. He focuses on Ohio, of which he claims was one of the dirtiest elections in US history.

RFK Jr. points out Ohio used caging, refused to hand out provisional ballots despite law which required it, did nothing to alleviate long lines/waits for mostly minority neighborhoods, purged voter registrations, and forced registrations to use a particularly odd, heavy bonded paper which was not readily available/distributed.

Its an interesting development, and one which should be investigated more fully before the Ohio ballots are shredded in November of this year.

Don't die.

When you go to a rock concert, you better bring your horns.

Wired Magazine has an interesting article about the downfall of do-it yourself chemical experiments. Fear is a driving factor throughout the entire article: fear of terrorists, fear of drug dealers, and fear of injury. Its amazing how powerful our fear is growing.

Don't die.

Dune was the greatest sci-fi epic ever composed, and the truth is, Herbert stole all my ideas.

The checks and balances between the branches of government has been on shaky ground lately. This shaky ground, however, has not increased by the Justice Department's raid of William Jefferson offices.

He was caught on tape accepting a bribe. The man ignored a subpeona. A warrant was issued to search his offices. These are valid steps to capture any criminal. It is not fishing and it does not violate any of the Congressman's rights.

The checks and balances written into our Constitution are not there to protect a Congressman from valid accusations, but to keep him sheltered from false persecution. A Congressman cannot break the law, and think his office will protect him from facing its consequences. In fact, his office would only compound the problem, as he is in a position of great power and responsibility.

No. Willam Jefferson needs to be stripped of his office and spend a bit of time staring between the slits of bars.

Don't die.