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Joe Knippenberg parses an analysis of the Democratic Party's ailments as penned by two scholarly Democrats, William Galston and Elaine Kamarck. As usual Prof. Knippenberg seems to get it largely right. Some highlights from Knippenberg's piece: In sum, Galston and...

Lance Berkman just blasted a pitch out to put the 'Stros up 4-2, driving in Biggio and Burke. Goodbye, sloggers. Man, how loud is this contraption that the Astros play in, anyway? Jeesus, it's almost deafening just listening on TV....

So I get up at 6 this morning to go to a meeting. Except that nobody told me that it was moved to next week. Other than that, how was my day? I'm glad you asked. I have a bit...

Body chipped from glacier likely a WWII airman

The only problem the Chief has with this is NOT the factual circumstances of the story itself, but rather with the journalistic caution.

"...Likely a WWII Airman."

Well now. This is hard. Human remains were found in a cake of ice. 13000 ft up the mountainside. Wearing WWII Army uniform, flight suit, and parachute. Had obviously been up there for some period of time. NOW - what are the possibilities. WWI, WWII, Korea, Viet-nam era, or Civilian?

Hmmmmmm? (Think, think!) A WWII outfit? Well now, we can say he was
"...Likely a WWII Airman." Phew! Anything to avoid coming to a simple conclusion based on clear factual evidence, which might set a bad journalistic precedent for the rest of the media.

In fairness, the DC Times is generally a cut above the rest of the MSM - but this is NOT one of their higher moments - maybe that's why it struck my attention.

I've been writing about free speech of late because some of SDP's critics are so obviously hostile to the idea. Fortunately these would-be bullies are about as threatening as the Smurfs discussed in my last post. NCATE is another matter....

This is to demonstrate how potentially easy it could be to start a conspiracy theory.

Has anyone elxe noticed the resemblence between Homeland security boss and Lenin?

Nah. Couldn't be, could it?

Deal 'opens the door' to wind power

DEFINITELY A WIN-WIN-WIN for South Dakota's Economy!

One of the biggest hinderances to the development of more wind power in South Dakota has been a lack of enough transmission line capacity to get the electricity to where it's needed.

There is a positive logic to the addition of a new coal-burning plant also. The US has an abundance of coal, and large deposits of high quality low-sulfur coal are just to the west in Wyoming. There is a synergy that comes into play here with a three-way synergistic development of South Dakota's utility and transportation infrastructure which is catalyzed by the planned construction of a new coal-burning power plant at Big Stone.

The first element of this synergy is the expansion of the DM&E Railroad, which, in spite of the usual opposition from envirowacko activist groups and assorted other NIMBY (Non-In-My-Backyard types pushed through approval of extending it's lines into the Wyoming coal fields, and upgrade of its existing mainlines to handle the greatly increased traffic that results from this. (See note 1 in extended entry) This increases the availability of coal for new plants.

With the abundance of coal, and modern abatement technology, it is possible to burn low-sulfur coal with a minimum amount of air pollution, plus it helps to increase the electric power capacity, which is an essential positive factor for continued economic growth in the area. (See Note 2)

Finally, this proposed coal plant will bring in a significantly serious excess in electrical power transmission capacity, above and beyound the needs of the new plant. This excess capacity is available for the development of large(r) scale wind turbine developments, which (a) provides yet more electricity, (b) is a clean, renewable energy source, and (c) provides yet another boost to the local economic structure.

So, what's the "win-win-win"? More needed electrical power, use of domestic coal instead of imported oil, and the enabled development of even cleaner wind power capacity. Three birds with one "Big Stone". Not too bad.

ssAnne Applebaum, author of Gulag, has a great piece in the Washington Post contrasting the trial of Saddam Hussein with the Nuremburg trials in Germany following World War II. Excerpt:Yet Nuremberg was, in retrospect, a huge success, and as the...

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