Market Solution to Global Warming

Most of the really pro-free market guys say they don't believe in global warming, despite the science. Why is this? They seem to like science when it produces profitable technology, but not in this case. Why? I suspect it's because if they admit that global warming is real, that it is caused by human activity, and that it will cause massive problems very soon, their ideology provides no solutions.

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that global warming is real, human caused and soon to do great damage. What is the free market solution to this? If clean energy doesn't become more profitable than fossil fuels in time to prevent catastrophe, how is the market going to address this problem? How do you fix this without state intervention?

You Think People'd Be Used to Snow by Now

This basically sums up my opinion of people whining about snow. Every time this happens people act like it's the first winter EVER and they have no idea what to do about this bizarre phenomenon that is snow.

They're After Your Women!!

Rabbis' wives in Israel are telling Jewish girls not to get into relationships with Arab men.

The statement was made in a letter organized by Lehava, an organization aimed at what it calls "saving the daughters of Israel" from assimilation. The group runs a shelter for Jewish women who have left their Arab partners and is calling for a boycott of a supermarket in Gush Etzion that employs Arab men and Jewish women.

And to avoid such a danger, they are telling them "Don't date non-Jews, don't work in places where there are non-Jews, and don't perform national service together with non-Jews". Why, you ask? Because "As soon as you're in their hands, in their village, under their control, everything changes." These sneaky Arabs may even try to disguise themselves as Jews! "In some of the places where Jewish girls might work, like supermarkets or hospitals, 'there are no few Arab workers who use a Hebrew name,' it [the letter] states. 'Yusuf turns into Yossi, Samir turns into Sami and Abed turns into Ami.'"

This is a totalitarian level of paranoia. Fortunately, the ladies who wrote this are on the fringes of Israeli society. A country in which this kind of talk is taken seriously could never be a free one. And it's not like they are talking about some serious epidemic of Jewish girls being whisked away by Arab men. According to the article in Ha'aretz, a paper not exactly known for its liberalism,

A protest in Bat Yam this month previously coupled the real estate issue with warnings that Jewish women should stay away from Arab men, though no convincing evidence was provided to indicate that such a phenomenon exists on a broad scale or that an increasing number of Jews are dating Arabs.

The letter also warns, "Your grandmothers never dreamed or prayed that one of their descendants would commit an act that would remove future generations of her family from the Jewish people". So remember girls, keep your race pure!

Apparently the Guy with $12.7 Billion Is Getting Ripped Off

Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, is suing AOL, Apple, eBay, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples, Yahoo, and YouTube for infringing on his patents for "related links", "alerts" and "recommendations".

This is the second time he's tried to file this lawsuit, because the first time the courts wouldn't here it due to the fact he was basically claiming that he invented the majority of the services that every major site on the internet provides. The language of the patents is so vague that one wonders how they even qualified as patents. The patent for "alerts" describes them as "displaying information to a user in an unobtrusive manner that occupies the peripheral attention of the user." In other words, Paul Allen is claiming to have invented putting shit to one side of the screen.

Also, I LOLd when I saw that the site that featured this story had two links below the first two paragraphs labelled "See more of our latest Patents coverage" and "add an alert for future coverage of Patents."

Oopsie Doopsie

The feds are investigating whether Christine O'Donnell misused campaign money. She denies it of course, but it wouldn't surprise me if the allegations were true. Not because I think Christine O'Donnell is corrupt, but because she seems like the kind of person who would consider getting a manicure before a big political rally should be considered a legitimate expense.

Yay! Death Panels

When the opponents to Obamacare were trying to come up with ways to make it sound scary, they thought up "death panels". It is the job of these panels, they claimed, to review whose granny gets her plug pulled to save money to care for the next person. What was actually in the legislation is a provision that would pay for a person to consult their doctor about what they would like done should they ever end up a vegetable and unable to make decisions about their own care. They would see their doctor, the doctor would tell them their options, be it staying on life support indefinitely or a DNR, and Obama's health care package would cover that doctor visit.

Opponents of this cite Terri Schiavo as an example of its dangers, but, ironically, if Terri Schiavo had had this option, she could have gotten her wishes down on record, and could possibly still be alive today. Fortunately, it looks like this consultation will be covered by Medicare as of January 1st despite the ridiculous opposition against it.

Palin Doesn't Understand Conservationism

"Where do you think those pencils and paper came from?" Yeah, they came from trees. We all know that. The point is that we'd like to continue to get those things from trees. In order to do that you need to harvest them sustainably. And this doesn't just apply to trees, but everything else that can only be replaced at a finite rate.