Conservative Musings

Happy New Year!

Lady Colonel and I will be on vacation thru the new year, so I figured I'd better say Happy New Year while I can.

In heading to the Orlando area, we rented one of the very few places that hasn't caught up on the "free internet" bandwagon.  (I've kinda thought the free internet part was today's version of the old "free color TV" of old.)  So unless I find time for a Starbucks, posting will be non-existent for a week.

Until then, here's hoping you may have resolutions you can stick with.  Happy New Year!

-Colonel Steve

Quote of the Day

"We spoke to them and told them 'Please, we ask you not to end the cease-fire. Let it continue.  We want to protect the Gaza Strip. We don't want it to be destroyed." - Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during a press conference Sunday in Cairo.

Amazing that someone on the opposing side of Israel actually agrees with Israel.  As Ed Morrissey notes, this action from a Hamas perspective simply backfired.

-Colonel Steve

Another Journalist Thinks You're Not So Smart

Paul Mulshine, of the Newark Star-Ledger, thinks those of us in the blogosphere aren't so very smart.  A peek at some of his opining:

The problem is that printing a hard copy of a publication packed with solid, interesting reporting isn't a guarantee of economic success in the age of instant news. Blogger Glenn Reynolds of "Instapundit" fame seems to be pleased at this. In his book, "An Army of Davids ," Mr. Reynolds heralds an era in which "[m]illions of Americans who were in awe of the punditocracy now realize that anyone can do this stuff."

No, they can't. Millions of American can't even pronounce "pundit," or spell it for that matter. On the Internet and on the other form of "alternative media," talk radio, a disliked pundit has roughly a 50-50 chance of being derided as a "pundint," if my eyes and ears are any indication.

The type of person who can't even keep track of the number of times the letter "N" appears in a two-syllable word is not the type of person who is going to offer great insight into complex issues. But the democratic urge expressed by Mr. Reynolds is not new. Someone is always heralding the rise of "the intellectual declaration of independence of the American people," as H.L. Mencken once put it.

And:

Over the past few weeks, I've watched a parade of top-notch reporters leave the Star-Ledger for the last time. The old model for compensating journalists is as obsolete as the telegraph. If anyone out there in the blogosphere can tell me what the new model is, I will pronounce him the first genius I've ever encountered on the Internet.

Interesting.  Folks like this do wish internet non-geniuses, like you and me, would continue reading their wit and prose.  Sadly, they don't seem to understand that name calling can lose customers.

Guess it takes a non-genius to figure that out.

Update:  Glenn Reynolds has seen the comments about him made in this opining of Mulshine, and rather slams him (rightfully so).

-Colonel Steve

The Electronic Communication Explosion

One more sign that our society communicates more electronically now: "Bush Data Threatens to Overload Archives".  Some interesting points & statistics:

The technical challenge was an inevitable result of the explosion in cybercommunications, which will make the electronic record of the Bush years about 50 times as large as that left by the Clinton White House in 2001, archives officials estimate. The collection will include top-secret e-mail tracing plans for the Iraq war as well as scenes from the likes of Barney Cam 2008, a White House video featuring the first pet.

If the electronic records of the Bush White House total 100 terabytes of information, as archives officials estimate, that would be about 50 times the volume of electronic records left behind by the Clinton White House in 2001 and some five times the contents of all 20 million catalogued books in the Library of Congress.

Sam Watkins, a transition liaison officer at the archives, said his agency was expecting to receive 20 to 24 terabytes of e-mail alone from the Bush White House. By contrast, Mr. Watkins said, the volume of e-mail from the Clinton White House was less than one terabyte.

-Colonel Steve

Sarah's 2009 Calendar

According to Political Ticker at CNN, the Sarah Palin 2009 Wall Calendar is the #2 wall calendar in sales on Amazon.com.  In my own looking into it, all I saw was that she was the #1 sale in office products.  Not that there's alot of competition in office product lines.

Wonder how a Joe Biden calendar woulda done?

-Colonel Steve

Santa's Descrimination?

Sadly, it looks like the same Canadian Human Rights Commision that went after Mark Steyn has now gone after Santa Claus.  Poor, poor Rudolph.

-Colonel Steve

Apollo 8 Plus 40 Years

Being the space nut that I am, I rather forgot about the story that occurred 40 years ago yesterday.  This is the Apollo 8 crew's Christmas Eve message:



What was also interesting was Jim Lovell's story on how it all took place:



-Colonel Steve

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

To All,

Best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral, winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most joyous traditions of the religious persuasion of your particular choice, but with respect for the religious persuasion of others who choose to practice their own religion, as well as those who choose not to practice any religion at all.  Additionally, a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the generally accepted calendar year 2009, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures, whose contributions have helped make our society great, without regard to race, creed, or color.

What I'm really trying to say is Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to All.

(Gee, the conservative way of saying it is so much more concise!)

-Colonel Steve

In Comparison, Louisville Is SO Much Better!

The big news today, in city politics, is Seattle's decision to not use salt for clearing roads.  Also, using rubber tipped snow plows to effectively "pack down" the snow on the city streets.  All in the name of environmental concerns of salt into Puget Sound.

In order to get traction, the city is putting down more sand rather than using salt.  But, as the more snow experienced Denver folks have noted: "We never use sand," said Ann Williams, spokeswoman for Denver's Department of Public Works. "Sand causes dust, and there's also water-quality issues where it goes into streets and into our rivers."  Also noted by the article: Many cities are moving away from sand because it clogs the sewers, runs into waterways, creates air pollution and costs more to clean up.

One more case of environmental savings in one place messing up the environment in another, like compact florescent lights with mercury.  Go figure!

-Colonel Steve

Newspapers Overtaken By Internet

Pew Research Center's survey study shows that, for the first time, the Internet has ranked higher than newspapers as the place for getting news.  Rankings to the question "Where do you get most of your national and international news?" are: TV, 70%; Internet, 40%; and newspapers, 35%.

Strangely enough, there are actually places where newspapers are actually doing well.  One paper, the TriCityNews of Monmouth County, N.J., that concentrates AWAY FROM THE WEB.  And profits.

-Colonel Steve