Sabotage

2008-09-12 - 11:11 a.m.

There was no post yesterday. We had no internet access AT ALL for most of the day. According to my cable company, a car had hit a connector box and damaged the fiber optic cables. It didn't get fixed until about 8:30pm...and by that time, Brin and I were at the ballgame.

So I hope I didn't scare anyone. It was 9/11, after all.

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Now - the game. Brin's write-up is over here.

The Angels had already clinched their division, so the game was mathematically meaningless. The Angels took a 7-0 lead into the 8th inning, when Justin Speier gave up three runs. In the 9th, it became a save situation when two runners got on base (one of the conditions of the save is if, in the 9th inning, the tying run is on-deck). Frankie Rodriguez came in and got the save - he has now tied the single-season record for saves.

He's got a month to break the record.

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Want to fight global warming? Paint your roof white.

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A sex offender who was released on probation was back in the courtroom when he offered to buy ice cream for two children.

Not too surprising, you say? Well, it is when it happened forty minutes after his release.

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Looks like the Obama campaign needs to train its workers better.

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IMHO, this was a bad idea:

In a monumental ruling, a British jury acquitted six Greenpeace activists of criminal damage charges stemming from what the activists said was an attempt to shut down a coal-fired power plant. The jury decided that the activists' action was justifiable because the plant, which emits 20,000 tons of CO2 every day, will hold some blame for immense damage caused by global warming in the future.

Six activists were acquitted of criminal charges, essentially praised for slowing climate change. The ruling goes against years of convictions for similar actions and essentially praised the activists for their help in preventing global warming. To make their case, the defense argued that much of the lower-altitude areas that surround the plant could eventually be submerged in water from the effects of climate change.

The court allowed scientific experts to present the case, including a NASA climate expert, the British Conservative Party's environmental adviser, and an Inuit leader from Greenland. James Hanson, the NASA representative, told the jury that global warming would cause the extinction of one million species worldwide and that the Kent power plant's emissions would be responsible for 400 of the extinctions.

Five of the six activists scaled the plant's 650-foot smokestack in October last year to paint "Gordon" on the exterior wall. Prime Minister Gordon Brown plans to build new coal-fired plants across England, including another in Kent.

"This verdict marks a tipping point for the climate change movement," said Ben Stewart, one of the Greenpeace activists. "If jurors from the heart of Middle England say it's legitimate for a direct action group to shut down a coal-fired power station because of the harm it does to our planet, then where does that leave government energy policy?"

At least this ruling can't be a precedent for future rulings in this country. But it may make more of them braver.

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Note the title of this article at VanityFair.com:

"Is the Media Powerless to Elect Obama?"

Gee, I coulda sworn it was the PEOPLE who elected a President.

My mistake.

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Okay. There's things to do today before the gig.

Have a good weekend.

Be seeing you.

Jeff - 2008-09-15 08:44:52 - http://musicman6724.diaryland.com
I fear that the criminal case you cited is just a preview of things to come as our entire society is hi-jacked by bad "science," if it can indeed be called science at all.

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