Random links, no. 12-Capt. Bligh, "death cookies", and beautiful volcanoes

I haven't done a random links post in a dog's age-Nov. 24, 2008, to be exact. No, I haven't been saving these links since then-these are fresh off the Net.

1) Captain Bligh-not a bad guy.  As always, Hollywood isn't to be trusted with history. But the Navy Captain being called The Female Captain Bligh, Holly Graf, apparently deserves her rep. I hear the Navy plans to put her out to sea in a canoe with just a sextant and a loaf of Wonder Bread. No breadfruit.


2) Just in time for Lent: Anti-Catholic theological bigotry is still with us, unfortunately. I notice this particularly among Catholics who convert to evangelicalism. They fall into the trap of thinking that their new flavor is the only real one. Guys, 2000 years of history says you're wrong.


3) What parallel universe must you occupy to think 36,000 jobs lost represents progress? Harry Reid thinks it's wonderful news. Then again, so did Wall Street. Months into a "recovery", smaller job losses than forecast are cause for rejoicing? And, as Peter Bella suggests, you should remember the number 9.7. Not only is that the current unemployment rate (this, after the Administration said that the $862 billion stimulus plan would keep it below 8%), but that's how much new debt Obama's policies are dumping on tommorrow's taxpayers-there will be $9.7 trillion in new debt by 2020.


4) I'll take global warming, if it's all the same with you-716.5 million years ago, in a "snowball Earth scenario", sea ice reached the equator. I love the faux precision, by the way, of the report saying "716.5 million years ago", instead of "about 716 million years ago", as if we really could be that precise.


5) Lyndon Johnson-Israel's greatest friend? I thought that was Harry Truman.



6) Volcanoes can be beautiful.

7) A LIFE photoset of baseball greatest's southpaws, starting with noted Red Sox lefty Babe Ruth. I hear he also had some success in New York. Also from LIFE-baseball's ugliest uniforms. 

8) Who knew "sturm und drang" composer Gustav Mahler once wrote a piece called "Fluffy Bunnies"?

A nation of hypocrites?

If you read this blog, you: 1) Have way too much time on your hands; and 2) Know that I favor a Jack Kemp/John McCain style of conservatism, with goals such as free markets, free trade, pro-life policies, school choice, a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants (call it "amnesty", that dreaded word, if you want-coming to the US to improve your family's well-being is no sin in my book), etc.

I also believe, with McCain (but I doubt that Kemp would've agreed) that cutting spending is more important than cutting taxes. Simply cutting taxes, though always a worthy endeavor, won't make government smaller. It never has. And it's the massive size of our contemporary government, however its spending is financed, that impedes economic growth, and limits the opportunities of those at the bottom of the economic ladder.

And we have a public that, broadly speaking, agrees with these goals. Poll after poll shows that people favor a less intrusive, less expensive state. There are twice as many self-described conservatives as liberals. Yet government grows and grows, and Pres. Obama, if allowed to work his fiscal "magic", would have us turn into a European-style welfare state faster than you can say "Social Democrat." And people who favor the ever-expanding state sure don't have any problem winning elections. Think of pork kings Robert Byrd in "conservative" West Virginny, and Jack Murtha in (no less) conservative Western Pennsylvania.

So-are we just hypocrites? We say we want less government, but really mean we just want less government for the other guy, but more for ourselves. We still want our farm subsidies, our corporate welfare, our endlessly-extended unemployment insurance, our government cheese.

Yes, we are hypocrites. We don't live up to what we say we believe. So why should politicians cut anything?

I am showing remarkable personal growth

A few moments ago, I resisted the urge to post a comment on someone's blog. She'd said that "Spring is still three weeks away" on her blog. Now, any dummy knows that meterological Spring actually begins March 1. It's true that astronomical winter has some three weeks to run, but on average temperatures have been rising for weeks now in the Northern Hemisphere.

As a kid I was always the type to correct adults when they said things I knew were wrong. I'd read a lot, in fact had taught myself how to read, and thought I knew it all. And, within the frame of what I was interested in (science), and could understand, I probably did.

I once told someone that they were wrong, that the day isn't 24 hours long, but actually times out to 23 hours 56 minutes, and 4.1 seconds. (This is true, by the way.) I was not a popular youngster.


I've made up for it by being an unpopular adult.

That transition from childhood to adulthood was a rough one, and marked the end of certainty for me. When I was a kid I was absolutely certain I wanted to be a scientist. Suddenly, at thirteen, that idea seemed dorky, and I lost my nerve. (That was  a rough year-my Dad died, I was in five different schools, etc.) I still don't know what I want to do with my life.

One of my brothers made the grade, though, and got a doctorate in Chemistry. I got a Chemistry award in Junior High (that now-antiquated institution)-that's as far as I got.

Play Obama bullshit bingo!

It's fun for the whole family!

Whenever The Blessed One utters one of his usual catchphrases that seem to elicit the truth, but instead obscure it, stand up, yell "Bullshit!", and put a little circular doohickey on the appropriate spot.

First to win Bingo gets an all-expenses paid trip to Burbank. 


Drinking optional.

Obama, heal thyself

Do you find it intriguing that the President wants to remake the health care system in his own paternalistic image, but Big Daddy can't quit his own smoking habit?

This is a man pushing 50. We all know he's thin, but let me tell you-my father was quite thin, but he smoked and had his first heart attack at 53. Men, when they hit fifty, (I'm 50 myself) need to be aware that their coronary risk is just now being seriously activated.

Me? I get a lot of excercise, don't smoke, rarely drink, and carry maybe 185-190 pounds on a 5'10" frame. I need to lose 20-25 pounds. I've got a boatload of coronary risk in my family-not just my father, but one Granddad died of a stroke in his mid 70's, the other of a heart attack, also in his mid 70's.


By the way, I don't know that I buy the idea that moderate drinking really is good for you. First, how many people actually drink that way-one or two a day for men, one for women? I do have a brother in law who drinks exactly two beers a day, but he's a strange bird anyway.

Second, alcohol raises the risk of a variety of cancers. The combination of booze and cigs is especially bad.