Three Cheers for Sister Sarah

Pat Walshe, 1900-1991

This might not change your whole world, but this is a cool site, I do think so. Just look at this:

Walshe, Pat b. July 26, 1900 d. December 11, 1991
Actor. Played "Nikko" the head winged monkey in the 'Wizard of Oz.' (Bio by: Gravefinder)
Westwood Memorial Park, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, USA

http://www.findagrave.com/php/famous.php?page=date&diedOn=1

Kant writes, "Always recognize that human individuals are ends, and do not use them as means to your end."

I like the first part of the sentence. It makes a point the rest fouls. I think, not reading German, that the quotation is closer to "Every man is an end unto himself." Nikko was a man. Who'd have thought? He died ten years ago, and I didn't give it any notice. That's not surprising. It's surprising, as I read on eugenics, that he might not have lived at all, had elites their way.

Sarah Palin at Fort Hood

Sarah Palin arrived at Fort Hood, Texas to sign her book, Going Rogue.

Death comes, silent, in the night

Charlie died a week or two ago-- those who say aren't so sure, having forgotten the details, not having gone to the funeral, he not rising for the occasion, another day passing into the eternal darkness along with Charlie. Let's have another coffee. Who takes cream?

Those who come, go. I don't know where they go. I know they don't return to me. If they look back on us the living they might sigh and wonder how it is they lived lives so meaningless that no one notices their personal passing. Life is very long. Then how might it feel to have lived a whole life-time and to have passed without making so great an impression that no one bothers to mention the last of your life at all till time goes by and it only comes up as an aside? If ones life means so little to others, how much could it have meant to oneself? This is how the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.

Me? I say, "So long, Charlie."

A penny for the old man.

I'd like to write more, something significant to give you some sense of the man and his worth, but there is nothing for me to add. Another dead guy who didn't make any impression on me at all. That's the grief in it.

Global Warming Hoax Heating Up to a Boyle

The headline of the times.

East Anglia CRU: welcome to the Piltdown Institute of Mann-made Global Warming

Gerald Warner writes in The Telegraph that:

It looks as if the Phil Jones University will have to be renamed, at least temporarily, since Phil himself is taking a short sabbatical while the decorators move in to do some heavy whitewashing. While we all have every confidence he will soon be back in charge of the CRU (Creative Research Unit), devising ever more inventive “tricks” to “hide the decline”, I suggest the interim title of The Piltdown Institute of Mann-made Global Warming.

Speaking of Michael Mann, the jolly hockey stick merchant himself is also undergoing investigation – not to worry, it is of the most grudging and perfunctory kind – at Pennsylvania State University. The University’s statement announcing the investigation is so complimentary to Mann, it almost reads like the press release of the verdict, published prematurely.

But there is a lot of this unhealthy investigative mentality manifesting itself in America. Today, on Capitol Hill, the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming will question two top officials of the Obama administration: White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director John Holdren and Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

While these “consensual” warmists can expect a soft ride from Democrats, Republican Congressmen are expected to challenge them over the Climategate e-mails and computer data. Republicans are more than distrustful of Holdren since a book he allegedly co-wrote in 1977, supporting forced abortion, mass sterilisation via the water supply and Planetary Government to fight overpopulation, has been displayed on the Internet. It is the Planetary Government stuff that, on the eve of Copenhagen, is striking a particularly unhappy resonance.

But the startling development is that, slowly, inch by inch, the mainstream media in America are being forced to address Climategate. Even ABC has now run an even-handed debate on the revelations. One of the causes of this new realism, after 12 days, has been the number of senior scientists breaking ranks to denounce the scandal and express reservations about AGW. The comic singers at East Anglia made a fetish of “peer review”: they should see some of the reviews their activities are now receiving from their peers in America.

But other comic singers are coming forward to take their place (and I don’t mean those great Minnesotans singing “Hide the decline!”). As Copenhagen draws closer, coinciding with an exponential growth in AGW scepticism thanks to the Piltdown Institute at UEA, some fanatics have decided to up the ante. The recent prediction by Professor Kevin Anderson, Director of the Tyndall Centre, that unless Copenhagen produces massive results there will be 8.5 billion deaths has provoked much hilarity in America.

Some of that was based on the consideration that the global population is currently 6.8 billion. But what Anderson said was: “If you have got a population of nine billion by 2050 and you hit [temperature increases of] 4C, 5C or 6C, you might have half a billion surviving.” Clearly the principle is: if the public are laughing at dodgy climate predictions, ramp up the scare. You have to feel sorry for sophisticated AGW propagandists such as George Monbiot, who must have his head despairingly in his hands over this kind of fruitcake prediction: for him, it must be like Alastair Campbell listening to an utterance by John Prescott.

It is arguable, however, that Anderson’s 8.5 billion claim represents near-scepticism, considering that James Lovelock, inventor of the Gaia theory, has predicted 10 billion deaths this century. Let’s run a Fruitcake Stakes: can anybody find a higher prediction from some demented AGW alarmist? My own prediction is that Copenhagen will wipe out trillions – of US tax dollars and other Western nations’ economies.

Finally, a very warm (what else?) welcome to Professor Peter Liss who has come aboard as acting director at the UEA’s Piltdown Institute and will be in charge of our entertainment for the immediate future. A couple of helpful tips to the new incumbent: 1) Hide the decline (obviously) and 2) That tree-ring data gives very obtuse results – it might be a better plan to consult the tea-leaves instead.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/geraldwarner/100018534/east-anglia-cru-welcome-to-the-piltdown-institute-of-mann-made-global-warming/

Hide the decline, if you don't mind.

John Stewart on Climategate

Climategate

James D. Baker, "Stuck On Stupid ... Again," American Thinker. December 01, 2009

Meanwhile, it appears a new consensus is forming. Google search results for “climategate” are now at 13.4 million hits, up from 10 million two days ago, up from zero a week ago.

Posted at 07:29 PM

Or. as of now [12:41 A.M.]: Results 1 - 10 of about 17,000,000 for climategate. (0.09 seconds)

Giving Thanks for Pane and Loss

Thanksgiving usually conjures images of turkeys. I think today of Vesuvios Bakery.

JAMES ANGELOS
February 20, 2009

THE Vesuvio Bakery on Prince Street in SoHo was much adored, even among those who never patronized the venerated establishment. The bakery, with its often-photographed lime green storefront and its rare coal ovens, began producing Italian bread and biscuits in 1920. It was a remnant of a time when many more immigrants from Italy, and far fewer designer shoe shoppers, walked the neighborhood’s cobblestone streets.
For much of the bakery’s life, the business was run by Anthony Dapolito, a beloved neighborhood figure who died in 2003. Mr. Dapolito was born the year his parents opened the bakery, and as a boy, he delivered the bread on a horse-drawn wagon. Later, Mr. Dapolito became a widely known community advocate, and the bakery served as a meeting spot.
“People would go in there, buy a loaf of bread and complain,” said Frank Genovese, the proprietor of Milady’s Bar, another longtime establishment, which is next door to the bakery.
Mr. Dapolito sold the bakery shortly before he died, but the business survived, at least in name. The new owners converted the interior into a cafe and offered items like tiramisu lattes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/nyregion/thecity/22vesu.html
It's gone now. Things change. I'm thankful I was able to eat Vesuvio buns and bread over the years. I remember my grandparents, much loved by all who knew them. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi? Yeah; and it leads to something else: a new world, a world like that of the Pilgrims creating a place for my grandparents and Vesuvio's Bakery and Americans today and tomorrow. I'm thankful for what I've had. I will be thankful for what I get, should I be so lucky again.

A gentle reminder that my book, An Occasional Walker, is available at the link here:

http://www.amazon.com/Occasional-Walker-D-W/dp/0987761501/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331063095&sr=1-1

And here are some reviews and comments on said book:

http://nodhimmitude.blogspot.com/2012/04/dagness-at-noon.html

Global Tragedy (3)

Global Tragedy (2)