Don't miss Wednesday's huge moon illusion

The moon illusion, as it's known, is a trick in our minds that makes the moon seem bigger when it's near the horizon.

The illusion will be particularly noticeable at this "solstice moon," coming just two days before summer starts in the Northern Hemisphere. The reason, according to NASA, lies in lunar mechanics: The sun and full moon are like kids on a see-saw; when one is high, the other is low. This week's high solstice sun gives us a low, horizon-hugging moon and a strong, long-lasting version of the illusion.

Many people swear it's real, suggesting that perhaps Earth's atmosphere magnifies the moon. But it really is all in our minds. The moon is not bigger at the horizon than when overhead. If it's any consolation, space station astronauts report the same effect.

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Haditha Hoax: Apparent Last Chapter

A military judge has dismissed the charges against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani.

The hoax screeches to its final terminal -- as we predicted it should two years ago.

[expect a PBS Frontline* piece investigating who's responsible - soon ... ]

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FLASHBACK:

'Frontline' Haditha Story Short on Facts

“Frontline” story on PBS, “Rules of Engagement,” omitted key facts that help exonerate the Marines accused of killing innocent Iraqi civilians in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005.

”Frontline” accepted without question the legitimacy of the so-called Hammurabi Human Rights Association and allowed its alleged head man Abdul-Rahman al-Mashhadani to tell their story even though the organization consists solely of himself and one Thaer Thabit al-Hadithi — the original source of the video excerpts “Frontline” showed.

Moreover, “Frontline” neglected to inform viewers that the same Abdul-Rahman al-Mashhadani had just been released from almost six months captivity for insurgent activities.

There were other serious flaws in “Rules of Engagement,” ...
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When Will Murtha Apologize?

A military judge has dismissed charges against a Marine officer accused of failing to investigate the killings of 24 Iraqis. The charges were dismissed without prejudice... [snip]

Democrats in Congress -- led by Jack Murtha and echoed by no less than Senator Kennedy -- gleefully picked up the refrain that our military was rapists, murderers, uncontrolled criminals.

Murtha, Kennedy, and all the others that piled on here owe all of these people and the people of the United States of America the US Marine Corps an apology on public television with everybody knowing that it's coming, so as many people as saw their accusations see their retraction.

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Obama’s America Is September 10th America

Sen. Obama, the Democrat’s presumptive nominee, made some astounding statements yesterday which provided his views on confronting the most urgent challenge facing the American people — that of radical Islam.

Taking aim at the Bush approach of regarding our terrorist enemies as, well, enemies, rather than criminal defendants clothed in all the rights and privileges of those American citizens whom these enemies pledge to kill, Obama asserted:

What we know is that, in previous terrorist attacks — for example, the first attack against the World Trade Center, we were able to arrest those responsible, put them on trial. They are currently in U.S. prisons, incapacitated.

And the fact that the administration has not tried to do that has created a situation where not only have we never actually put many of these folks on trial, but we have destroyed our credibility when it comes to rule of law all around the world, and given a huge boost to terrorist recruitment in countries that say, “Look, this is how the United States treats Muslims.”

This is a remarkably ignorant account of the American experience with jihadism. In point of fact, while the government managed to prosecute many people responsible for the 1993 WTC bombing, many also escaped prosecution because of the limits on civilian criminal prosecution...

[And remarkably dangerous. We arrested those responsible for the 1st WTC attack after they'd successfully conducted it. The mechanism of law enforcement deterrence is retribution - after the crime. How can that possibly work against suicide bombers? They cannot be 'deterred', they must be found and removed before they can do harm.]

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GIULIANI ENTERS FRAY

"Throughout this campaign, I have been very concerned that the Democrats want to take a step back to the failed policies that treated terrorism solely as a law enforcement matter rather than a clear and present danger," Giuliani said in a statement released by the McCain campaign.

"Barack Obama appears to believe that terrorists should be treated like criminals -- a belief that underscores a fundamental lack of understanding regarding our national security. In a post-9/11 world, we need to remain on offense against the terrorist threat which seeks to destroy our very way of life."

As Politico's Ben Smith notes, both John Kerry and former counter-terrorism official Richard Clarke fired back in defense of Obama. Said Kerry: "[McCain] has fully embraced, willfully, openly, fully embraced the failed tragic policy of the Bush Administration over the last 7 and a half years, and he’s really defending a policy that’s indefensible."

[no 2nd successful attack in America in 7 years - indefensible ]

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Obama advisers say bin Laden can appeal to U.S. courts

WASHINGTON Barack Obama's foreign policy advisers said Tuesday that Osama bin Laden, if captured, should be allowed to appeal his case to U.S. civilian courts, a privilege opposed by John McCain. Responding to questions from The Examiner, Sen. John Kerry and former White House counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke said bin Laden would benefit from last week's Supreme Court decision giving terrorism suspects habeas corpus, the right to appeal their military detention to civilian courts...

[>300,000 prisoners after WWII, zero were given lawyers - and that after the war was over, not still in progress...]

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Europe Needs America

[HT:KW]
French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced France’s new defense policy and it represents an historic departure. Despite the media chorus telling us that the last eight years have driven a wedge between the U.S. and Europe, Sarkozy wants to cuddle. France will be an active part of NATO’s command structure for the first time since Charles de Gaulle turned his back on the transatlantic alliance in 1966.

In the end, it’s Europe that has to do something about its go-it-alone attitude. With American operations in Iraq meeting greater success and with Muslim integration in Europe proving evermore challenging, savvy European leaders know whose post-9/11 model they need to follow in both civil and military affairs. The truth is, the only way George W. Bush could have destroyed U.S.-Europe relations would have been to broadcast American weakness in a free world under threat... [snip]

Sarkozy has proved himself an admirable leader and reliable friend of the U.S. He, Gordon Brown, Angela Merkel, and Silvio Berlusconi are part of a wave of European heads of state who unabashedly cop to appreciating American strength.

[Charles Krauthammer recently observed: Don't listen to Europe's media, listen to its voters; in the last few years they've elected pro-American governments in Britain, France, Italy and Germany simultaneously for the first time in over 50 years...]

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Report Shows U.N. Development Program Violated U.N. Law

[HT:GM]
After more than two years of accusations and probes into the operations of the United Nations Development Program in North Korea, a weighty report finally reveals how routinely, and systematically, the agency disregarded U.N. regulations on how it conducted itself in Kim Jong-Il’s brutal dictatorship, passing on millions of dollars to the regime in the process. (Snip) The report depicts an organization that for years apparently considered itself immune from its own rules...

[not to worry: it's a UN report; probably fabricated]

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New front opens on evolution wars

A battle over science education could soon spill into the courts in Louisiana, where looming legislation would allow teachers to bring up scientific criticisms of evolution, global warming and other hot-button topics. The state House approved the bill Wednesday on a 94-3 vote.

[we now need legislation to allow teachers to 'bring up scientific criticisms' - in our schools. Heaven forbid we inject varied opinion into 'learning'. we need universal vouchers]

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.
"Amazingly, although the risks of action are arguably at least as real as the risks of inaction, Canada and other countries are rushing into Earth-altering carbon schemes with nary a doubt. Environmentalists, who ordinarily would demand a full-fledged environmental assessment before a highway or a power plant can be built, are silent on the need to question proponents or examine alternatives."

Lawrence Solomon
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NYT Double Standard Alert: GOP 'Death Tax' in Quotes, Dem 'Windfall Profits' Not

In Wednesday's off-lead story by Michael Cooper and Larry Rohter, the New York Times found both McCain and Obama retreating to home base when it comes to economic solutions. But the Times' unconscious embrace of liberal conventional wisdom was evident in how it treated much-argued political terms like "windfall profits", "the death tax," and even "victory" in Iraq.

And look how the Times used quotation marks as warning flares or to suggest a conservative position was dubious. While "victory" and "death tax" were seen as partisan Republican terms and secured in protective quotes, Democrat-loaded terms like "windfall profits of oil companies" weren't put in quotes but stood unencumbered and presented as fact, even though the phrase "windfall" is calculated to make it appear oil company profits are somehow unjust or unearned...

[minor but legitimate: quotes in this context are used to convey dubiousness, or alleged, claimed etc. Conversely, their lack implies a phrase is ordinary, mainstream, accepted (often factually). Play along: note how quotes are/aren't used in this fashion when you read - the prevalence of this {sophomoric} tactic will surprise you {or not}]

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UNHEALTHY SITUATION

California

One of Sacramento's great laments is the number of Californians without health insurance. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators ought to look eastward to find a solution. Not to Massachusetts, where government-imposed, so-called universal health care has increased costs and taxes, is running at a deficit, doesn't cover everyone as promised, and imposes fines on anyone who won't buy state-mandated coverage.

Instead, Sacramento should look to Florida and even New Jersey, which point the way to substantially reducing health insurance costs with a more market-based approach.

In Florida:

• The legislature unanimously approved allowing insurance companies to sell stripped-down, no-frills policies, exempted from more than 50 state-imposed mandates.
• Floridians now can shop cafeteria-style, picking and paying for only the coverage they desire, trimming their costs dramatically and getting only what they deem necessary.

In New Jersey:

• A family's annual health care policy costs $10,398, compared with the national average of $5,799.
• Responding to this exorbitant cost, a New Jersey Republican assemblyman is introducing a reasonable remedy, which would permit New Jersey residents to buy low-cost health insurance from any registered policy in any of the 50 states.
• Allowing purchases across state lines gives buyers alternatives to New Jersey's expensive coverage, inflated by multiple mandates on in-state insurance sellers.

Knocking down the props that hold up prices can be done in California without adding a dime to anyone's tax burden or policy premiums. If more-affordable coverage really is what the Legislature and governor want to accomplish, Florida and New Jersey point the way...

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When I Was a Boy, America Was a Better Place

When I was a boy, America was a freer society than it is today. If Americans had been told the extent and number of laws that would govern their speech and behavior within one generation, they would have been certain that they were being told about some dictatorship, not the Land of the Free. Today, people at work, to cite but one example, are far less free to speak naturally. Every word, gesture and look, even one's illustrated calendar, is now monitored lest a fellow employee feel offended and bring charges of sexual harassment or creating a "hostile work environment" or being racially, religiously or ethnically insensitive, or insensitive to another's sexual orientation.

Meanwhile, all employers in California are now prohibited by law from firing a man who has decided to cross-dress at work. And needless to say, no fellow worker can say to that man, "Hey, Jack, why not wear the dress at home and men's clothes to work?" An employer interviewing a prospective employee is not free to ask the most natural human questions: Are you married? Do you have a child? How old are you? Soon "How are you?" will be banned lest one discriminate on the basis of health... [snip]

One might argue that these are the same laments that every previous older generation has expressed -- "Ah, when I was young" But in America, that has not been the case. In America, the older generations used to say the opposite -- "When I was a kid, things were worse."

Can we return to the America of my youth? No. Can we return to the best values of that time? Yes.

But not if both houses of Congress, the presidency and the Supreme Court move the country even further leftward. If that happens, many of the above noted changes will simply be accelerated: More laws restricting "offensive" speech will be enacted; litigation will increase and trial lawyers will gain more power; the American military will be less valued; trees will gradually replace the flag as our most venerated symbol; schools will teach even less as they concentrate even more on diversity, sexuality and the environment; teenage sex will be increasingly accepted; American identity will continue to be replaced by ethnic, racial, gender or "world citizen" identity; and the power of the state will expand further as the power of the individual inevitably contracts.

It's hard to believe most Americans really want that...

[...but silence will be interpreted as consent - if we don't manage our government, the special interests extremists will][Recommended > ]

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Life Expectancy Hits Record High in United States

Americans' life expectancy reached a record high of 78.1 years in 2006, with disparities among ethnic groups and between the sexes generally narrowing, according to government data released yesterday. The death rates from most diseases went down, with influenza mortality falling steeply and AIDS mortality marking its 10th straight year of decline. Infant mortality in 2006 also fell from the previous year, continuing a trend stretching back nearly 50 years.

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Colorado to Offer 'Sniff Lottery' Scratch Tickets

Denver - When is a lottery scratch ticket not just a scratch ticket? When it's a scratch, and sniff, ticket. Starting Monday, the Colorado Lottery will begin selling $3 Scented Crossword tickets through lottery retailers statewide. They're available in three varieties: Crossword Bouquet, Chocolate Crossword and Coffee Crossword. Lottery officials say the scents are activated when players scratch off the latex on the tickets' play area

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