The timing wasn't political

Illegal Workers Arrested In 6-State ID Theft Sweep - washingtonpost.com:
"Federal agents targeting illegal immigrants raided meatpacking plants in six states yesterday, arresting hundreds of workers on the uncommon charge of identity theft and shutting down the world's second-largest meat processing company for much of the day."

The next time someone complains about how Karl Rove orchestrates everything the Bush administration does for political effect, remind them of this. A raid like this in October might have saved a few seats in the House and Senate.

Record warmth in Europe

Fake snow in Alps, Moscow blooms: green Christmas?�|�Tech&Sci�|�Science�|�Reuters.com:
"One historian says that Europe has just had its warmest autumn in 500 years. Experts say the mildness might be just a natural freak but many suspect it may be linked to greenhouse gases caused by human burning of fossil fuels."

Stories like this always crack me up. The paragraph quoted above - number three in the story - proposes anthropogenic global warming caused by burning fossil fuels and the concomitant greenhouse gases as a reason for the warmest autumn in 500 years in Europe.

No other reason is proposed with any conviction - "just a natural freak" is hardly a seriously intended alternative. Moreover, no evidence is given regarding high temperatures anywhere else; and we are left to wonder what explanation would be offered for that warm autumn 500 years ago.

If you are cursed with even a little knowledge of climate history, you will recall that fully a thousand years ago there was a period called the Midieval Climate Optimum - at that time, Vikings colonized Greenland where they raised cattle and grew wheat and made at least some forays into what we now call the Canadian Maritimes and New England. The global warming gloom and doomers never bother to explain how that warm period of two to three centuries was caused nor why it was not accompanied by all the horrors they predict for us if temperatures return to that level in our own century.

Another dangerous Democrat innovation

Culture Shock on Capitol Hill: House to Work 5 Days a Week - washingtonpost.com:
"Time away from Washington is just as important to being an effective member of Congress as time spent in the Capitol, Kingston added. 'When I'm here, people call me Mr. Congressman. When I'm home, people call me 'Jack, you stupid SOB, why did you vote that way?' It keeps me grounded."

It's bad enough they are having secret talks with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, now the Dems announce they will spend more time legislating in Washington. As a famous Virginian once said, "No man's life or property are secure while the legislature is in session."

More SSI fraud

Man Accused Of Faking Retardation -- For 20 Years - Local News - local6.com | WKMG:

"The indictment accuses Costello of faking -- or at least exaggerating -- retardation since August 1997, because that is what prosecutors are confident they can prove, Barbosa said. But the pair first received benefits 10 years before that.

"The benefits cited in the indictment totaled $111,000."

Supplemental Security Income may be the most fraud-prove program ever hatched in Washington, DC as this case from Vancouver, WA illustrates.

Yikes!

1 in 7 Mexican workers employed in the U.S.: report - Yahoo! News:
"Up to 9.4 percent of the all persons born in Mexico were living in the United States in 2005, according to the report. In the same year, 14 percent of Mexican workers had jobs on U.S. soil, compared to 2.5 percent of Canadians."

How can you tell?

Scotsman.com News - Sci-Tech - Cats at risk of Alzheimer's:
"Dr Danielle Gunn-Moore, of Edinburgh University, said: 'We've known for a long time that cats develop dementia, but this study tells us that the cat's neural system is being compromised.'"

I always thought cats were born crazy.

The Politicist Illusion

Corriere.it:
"This illusion is generally accompanied by another, which derives from the abovementioned aversion to the realistic evaluation of problems: unwarranted faith in the impact of politics in the narrowest sense of the term, that is politicist politics."

Probably due to faulty translation, this oped by Ernesto Galli Della Loggia is worth puzzling through. Della Loggia focuses on the non-serious way in which his own country's Mideast policies operate. We in the US are so accustomed to reading about our policies, and occasionally those of Britain and France, that it is refreshing to consider that there are other players in this game.

From Pyongyang to Tehran

Corriere.it:
"The second option is nuclear proliferation that military intervention could only delay, the enlargement of today’s nuclear club of nine countries to twenty or more, and the consequent return to a less stable version of armed deterrence. This is the doctrine that at the time of the US-USSR stand-off was known as MAD, or Mutual Assured Destruction, and it would leave us at the mercy of too many potential lunatics. Kim Jong-Il has sounded the red alert."

Good oped column on the nuke proliferation crisis by Franco Venturini in Rome's Corriere Della Serra.

Another lawyer joke, but no so funny

Civil suit may block Saddam's hanging: Lawyer-Rest of World-World-NEWS-The Times of India:

"Giovanni di Stefano, an Italian lawyer on Saddam's defence team, said he submitted papers with the US district court of Columbia on November 28 asking it to overturn the death sentence on Saddam.

"Di Stefano said that his appeal cites the provision of the alien torture claims act of 1789 that provides for redress for wrongful death by detention, torture, imprisonment and kidnap."

Despite the headline on this story, it seems the case has already been thrown out on the grounds that Giovanni di Stefano, Esq. is not a member of the bar authorized to practice in the US district court for the District of Columbia.

Answer to reader question

Backscatter X-ray Technology:
"A passenger is scanned by rastering or moving a single high energy x-ray beam rapidly over their form. The signal strength of detected backscattered x-rays from a known position then allows a highly realistic image to be reconstructed. Since only Compton scattered x-rays4 are used, the registered image is mainly that of the surface of the object/person being imaged. In the case of airline passenger screening it is her nude form. The image resolution of the technology is high, so details of the human form of airline passengers present privacy challenges."

In answer to a question, here is a brief discussion of the backscatter x-ray imaging technology from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC - not to be confused with with another EPIC, the El Paso Intelligence Center of War on Drugs fame). Use the link to the EPIC site here and you will find links to dozens of news articles and other resources on this and related topics.

A sign of the times

Myer escapes fine over illegal sign - National - theage.com.au:
"Council planning spokeswoman Catherine Ng said the signs blocked views along Little Bourke Street."

Follow the link and see the "offending" image for yourself; but, for my money, the massive photo of former Miss Universe Jennifer Hawkins constitutes a premium view all its own.

Life imitating art in Hollywood

Producer Sentenced In Fraud Case Regarding Bogus TV Show - News - nbc4.tv | KNBC:
"U.S. District Judge Manuel Real said the sentence [one year, not the 57 months requested by prosecutors] was designed so [Joseph] Medawar -- who spent his victims' investments on such expenses as a $40,000-per-month rented mansion for the bogus series' supposed leading lady -- can begin earning the money he will need if he is to make the court-ordered restitution of $3.46 million to his victims. Under the judge's order, that amount could be reduced by roughly $1 million if the losses cannot be verified."

Like the Mel Brooks film The Producers, Medawar sold interests in a non-existent production until he found out the FBI was nosing about and then actually began shooting a pilot to look less like a crook. Still, I think the judge was right to emphasize restitution in sentencing.

Of course, it's not clear where the money will come from. The Internet Movie Database (imdb.com) shows the last of Medawar's seven producer or executive producer credits was 1992's Sleepwalkers. That film, with a screenplay by Stephen King won awards at the fantasy film festival in Rome. Perhaps Medawar can turn this experience into a film - comedies about the venality of Hollywood (Get Shorty, The Player, Bowfinger, etc.) often do fairly well.

A voyeur's dream for airport security

BREITBART.COM - Revealing x-ray machine raises privacy concerns in US:
"The Transportation Security Officer operating the system will also not be able to print, store or transmit the image and will be viewing the x-ray in an area not visible to the public."

This X-ray technology for creating images that see through clothing while showing skin - as well as guns, knives, and so on - has been kicking around airports in the US and Europe for two years or more. Every time it pops up, the embarrassment factor causes officials to back off from spending millions to put it into use at all airports. (There is also an infrared technology with similar capabilities, I believe.)

Note that the statement quoted above does not say that images cannot be stored or printed by the system, only that this will not take place at the same location where a live operator is viewing images of passengers. The system will need an image capture capability so that suspicious objects seen by the operator can be documented to justify more intrusive search methods when needed. It will probably be decided to keep a record of all passenger images until the flight ends so that, in event of an incident, the images can be reviewed to see how contraband might have been smuggled past the TSA screeners.

Gingrich declares himself an enemy of constitutional government

The 1st Amendment Is Not a Suicide Pact: Blocking the Speech That Calls for Our Death by Newt Gingrich - HUMAN EVENTS :

"The fact is not all speech is permitted under the Constitution. The 1st Amendment does not protect lewd and libelous speech, and it should not -- and cannot in 2006 -- be used as a shield for murderers.

"Former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy put it best: 'With an enemy committed to terrorism, the advocacy of terrorism -- the threats, the words -- are not mere dogma, or even calls to 'action.' They are themselves weapons -- weapons of incitement and intimidation, often as effective in achieving their ends as would be firearms and explosives brandished openly.'"

Former US House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) at times says some reasonable things, but this is one of those times when he goes off the deep end.

Gingrich, for an intelligent fellow, seems too easily to miss the mark in this context. He makes mention of obscenity and libel as categories of speech which are actionable at law without making the obvious observation that it is precisely free speech which makes those offenses possible. Under a regime of prior restraint, which he appears to advocate with respect to folks who might say something useful to terrorists, only approved speech is possible and obscenity and libel would not be approved.

The fact that, under our constitution, the general government has no power to control speech content in advance is a principle too dear to throw out for fear of what some enemies will do with it. To grant such a power to government will, sooner or later, lead to efforts to muzzle essential political speech. This is what we see happening now in Venezuela where newly re-elected president Hugo Chavez is openly considering shutting down private media outlets that challenge the growing cult of personality fostered by the government's own media. Closer to home, but further removed in time, we have the examples of the Alien and Sedition Acts under President John Adams and the suppression of Democrat newspapers by President Abraham Lincoln during the Late Unpleasantness.