William K. Wolfrum

I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about global warming. One, I live in Brazil, and I’m landlocked. Watch any disaster movie, with the exception of maybe Starship Troopers. South America is always just fine.

Also, I don’t worry about it for thesame reasons I don’t worry about death. Global warming is coming, and whatever it brings, it’ll bring. Will it suck? Yes, horribly. New York and lots of New Yorkers, among others will be greatly missed.

But face it, the world in general is not going to do anything to stop it. Not China, and definitely not the U.S.

To Wit:

Twelve states, led by Massachusetts and joined by the District of Columbia, are objecting to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to decline to issue emissions standards for new cars and trucks. They and the environmental organizations that support them say the standards should be the first step in a broader effort to reduce carbon dioxide and other gases that they say are harming the atmosphere and leading to global warming and rising sea levels.

But they faced a court sometimes skeptical about whether the remedy they seek would make much difference in the long run, and whether they can even show they are facing the kind of imminent harm that is required before they can press their case.

“I mean,” asked Justice Antonin Scalia, “when is the predicted cataclysm?”

Scalia was one of several justices to remark on a lack of scientific expertise during an hour of questioning that touched on whether the states have “standing” to challenge the EPA’s refusal, the level of evidence proving the existence of global warming and its causes, and even whether unilateral action by the United States to reduce greenhouse gases would hamper negotiations with other countries on the issue.

Sorry to sound so defeatist, but when the Supreme Court refuses to believe, there’s just no sense in worrying about things. It’s not like the planet will be destroyed, after all. Justa lot, if not all humans will. I’ll do what I can on a personal level, but let’s be honest here. It’s coming. No one in any position of power will do anything about it until it’s far, far too late.

So while the work of so many is appreciated and to be respected, and Al Gore’s “An Incovenient Truth” is to be admired, the fact is that his movie was misnamed.

Global Warming, and the havoc that it will bring to humans is an Inescapable Truth.

–WKW

What’s best about the current administration is not that they lie and manipulate - all administrations do that - it’s that they make no effort whatsoever to hide the fact that they lie and manipulate. And the mainstream press never calls them on it.

From the AP:

Members of the government board appointed to guard privacy and civil liberties during the war on terror say they’re impressed with the protections built into the Bush administration’s electronic eavesdropping program.

The five-member Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board received a long-awaited briefing on the secret program last week by senior members of the National Security Agency. Yesterday two of the members said they wished the administration could tell the public more about the safeguards to ease distrust of the NSA’s monitoring of phone calls and computer transmissions.

Oh, by the way, the “government board appointed to guard privacy and civil liberties during the war on terror” consists of Bush and GOP pals like Carol Dinkins, Ted Olson and Alan Raul, a former Reagan White House lawyer.

“In fact, I think the public may have an underappreciation for the degree of seriousness the government is giving these protections,” said Raul.

And the “liberal media” just runs with it.

Gavin at Sadly, No and Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory tear it all to shreds quite nicely, however, as does Anonymous Liberal.

–WKW

Seeing Newt Gingrich glow when speaking - at a dinner honoring free speech - about curtailing freedom of speech in the United States due to terrorist threats, it drives the point home - those who do believe in free speech need to fight with their every fiber to keep the Internet a bastion of free ideas and thought.

It’s why when I see stories like “Crime 101: YouTube’s How-To Guide to Delinquency” from Fox News, I get a jolt in my gut. Fox News does the government’s bidding, or at least the authoritarian side of the government. The side that would rather see the workers and masses quiet, fearful and docile.

When it launched its Web site in December 2005, YouTube co-founder Steve Chen said the site’s technology ensured “that watching and sharing videos is fast and fun.”

But FOXNews.com found videos that law enforcement officials might find unsavory, including how-to’s on computer, bicycle and car theft — and, a special video on stealing coffee from the grocery store.

I’m a boxing fan, and have long admired fighters who are willing to work the other man’s body. Body shots will wear down a fighter, it just takes some patience and dedication. Stories like this are the body shots that will be and have been raining down on the Internet.

“We have such a broad commitment to the First Amendment and to free expression. I mean we even allow Web sites that talk about how to make an atomic bomb and have all kinds of information about explosives,” said James B. Jacobs, a law professor at New York University. “You know, democracy is a dangerous business and free speech is a dangerous business. I doubt that there is anyway you could impose criminal penalties on stuff like that.”

We have at our disposal the greatest collection of information at our fingertips. We don’t have the bullhorn that the corporate media has, but we have this. This pulpit which allows us to scream into the void, knowing at very least that someone somewhere will hear. And as the mid-term elections showed, the screaming can turn into a roar.

But they will take this final pulpit away if we let them. They will continue to work the body. And we need to stand up to it. Fighting to keep our free speech is a dangerous business, but we must keep up the fight.

–WKW

President George W. Bush’s summit with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was postponed Wednesday after a memo turned up saying that the U.S. thinks al-Maliki is a punk. Bush called al-Maliki to discuss the situation. The leaked transcript of the phone conversation can be seen below:

Bush: So Nouri, what’s up? How’s everything treating you?

Bush: Listen bitch, that’s not what I asked.

–WKW

The new catchphrase sweeping the nation is officially “San Francisco Values.” You hear it constantly in regard to Nancy Pelosi, or any other liberal politician the right wants to try and smear. So, as I am someone who is always tryingh to help, let me define what “San Francisco Values” mean, from a left and right perspective:

From the Left

We’re tolerant and creative. Side with us, we’re progressive.

From the Right

There are lots of homosexuals in San Francisco. Side with them, you’re a homosexual.

Hope that cleared things up.

–WKW

Is it just me, or does the Mainstream media make a habit of running certain stories between the hours of 1 a.m. and 6 a.m.?

Take the Bush Administration’s latest bitch-slapping by a federal judge. The Associated Press ran a story about U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins’ decision that a Sept. 24, 2001 order that made 27 groups and individuals “specially designated global terrorists” was unconstitutional.

From the AP:

Some parts of the Sept. 24, 2001 order tagging 27 groups and individuals as “specially designated global terrorists” were too vague and could impinge on First Amendment rights of free association, U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins said.

The order gave the president “unfettered discretion” to label groups without giving them a way to challenge the designations, she said in a Nov. 21 ruling that was made public Tuesday.

The judge, who two years ago invalidated portions of the U.S. Patriot Act, rejected several sections of Bush’s Executive Order 13224 and enjoined the government from blocking the assets of two foreign groups.

This story was featured prominently at FoxNews.com (underneath a story about how a judge ruled that U.S. currency is unfair to the blind. Oh those out-of-touch judges!) up until about 6 a.m. EST, but has since dropped down the page, with the latest news on Madonna receiving much bigger play. Perhaps not surprisingly, the court decsion ranks as the most -read story on Foxnews at the moment.

On CNN.com, the story doesn’t receive any front-page mention. Snoop Dog getting arrested, Borat causing the Pamela Anderson-Kid Rock divorce, a mom killing her kid in the microwave, and so on. Bush losing some of his self-claimed authority in court is not at all newsworthy to CNN.

Yet the term “liberal media” lives on, despite having the same meaninglessness as the term “virgin whore.”

–WKW

In a meeting of the minds that didn’t take up all that much room, Hugh Hewitt was interviewing Christopher Hitchens and Hitchens went off on Harry Reid being Mormon:

CH: No, he’s a Smithite, for Heaven’s sake. I mean, he believes that some idiot found gold plates buried in the ground.

HH: But it is religious bigotry to call that out. And do you make similar comments…

CH: No, it’s not me who says he’s a Mormon. Excuse me, it’s he who says it.

HH: I know that, but I still think…

CH: I say that anyone who believes that stuff is an idiot.

HH: I know you believe that, but isn’t it sort of randomly bigoted to bring that out and throw it onto the table?

CH: Not at all, no. It’s essential to point out…

HH: I disagree.

CH: Especially at a time when people are always saying it’s the Republican Party that’s run by religious crackpots and nutbags. And it’s very important to point out these people have a big foothold in the Democratic Party, too.

HH: I think that’s terribly religiously bigoted. I think that is up there with, like, saying about Jesse Jackson that he’s African-American in the course of commenting on him.

CH: Well, I don’t really see how he could keep that a secret, how one could…

HH: Well, it’s not a secret that he’s a Mormon. It’s just sort of a random attack on a guy’s faith. I don’t like Reid at all, but…

CH: No, I think less of him because of the stupid cult of which he’s a member. I would say the same if he was a Scientologist.

Remember kids, there’s a reason people go off on Scientology and Mormonism and call them cults - it’s because they are recent enough for us to know how they got started.

Hitchens should be ashamed of himself for singling out Mormonism and apologize to all Mormons. All religions are cults, after all. To pick only on the Mormons is bad form.

–WKW

Walter Williams, the George Mason University professor and Townhall.com columnist who complained that the U.S. is filled with too many hand-wringers to obliterate the Middle East with nukes, made it clear that Iraq is in the throes of Civil War.

While comparing terrorists to Hitlers, Williams wrote this for TownHall: “Today’s Americans are vastly different from those of my generation who fought the life-and-death struggle of World War II. Any attempt to annihilate our Middle East enemies would create all sorts of handwringing about the innocent lives lost, so-called collateral damage.”

Aside from enjoying the taste of massive genocide on a global scale and mocking those that find that idea heinous, Williams also dabbles in historical interpretation. Here’s something he wrote for Jewish World Review in 1998:

“Actually, the war of 1861 was not a civil war. A civil war is a conflict between two or more factions trying to take over a government,” Williams wrote in the article “The Civil War wasn’t about slavery.

There you have it, friends. The U.S. has never been in a Civil War. But Iraq is currently knee deep in one.

–WKW

Ronaldinho Gaucho may not win European Player of the Year following a rather dismal effort in the World Cup (look for Theirry Henry to add that piece of hardware to his collection), but the Brazilian’s brilliant bicycle-kick goal to put the finishing touch on Barcelona’s 4-0 victory over Villareal on Saturday showed once again that we are in the presence of greatness.

Soccer fans won’t want to miss Barcelona take on Werder Bremen on Tuesday, Dec. 5 in UEFA Champions League action, where the titleholders will need a victory over the talented German team to move to the final 16 of the biggest club tournament in Europe.

–WKW

It is clear that the Western world has failed its young girls. In Brazil, there is the story of Ana Carolina Reston, a fashion model who died at age 21, with less than 90 pounds covering her 5′ 10″ frame.

Reston, like many other women before her, died due to anorexia, and due to a media perception gone insane, and due to ordinary people being unwilling to tell their young girls that the way women are portrayed in newspapers and magazines is just bullshit. Reston was one of those women, and died because her mind got twisted trying to remain one of them.

“Take care of your children … no money is worth the life of your child, not even the most famous (fashion) brand is worth this,” her mother, Miriam Reston said afterward.

But children like Reston are not being taken care of, and with the help of the Internet, they are finding group support to try to achieve bodies that can’t coexist with nature, or life.

There is X3Thinspiration’s Web site, which is run by a young girl named Jordan, and is presented with the words “Your Skin and Bones turn into something beautiful.”

There is BonesareBeautyxX’s site, which has these words as a mantra:

“One day I will be thin enough. Just the bones, no disfiguring flesh. Just the pure clear shape of me, bones. That is what we all are, what we’re made up of and everything else is just storage, deposit, waste. Strip it away, use it up”

Like many other things we consider fringe, the pro-anorexia, pro-eating-disorder world is quite busy on the Internet. The term “pro-ana” (pro-anorexia) will get you about 750,000 hits on a Google search, led by the Pro-Ana Nation Web site.

From the girl who started Pro-Ana Nation:

I wanted to be the perfect little girl in the perfect American world.

It was easy to hide my eating disorder, at least for a couple of years. Time went by and I slowly managed to reach my goal weight, 95 lbs, which was not bad, considering I am 5’7”.
Everything was great until my family pressured me to get medical attention. I was hospitalized and tube fed. It was hell.

During my recovery, I lost control because of the medication I was taking, and I quickly gained weight. I felt lonely, fat and depressed. I need to be be skinny, I need control, so anorexia has become a part of my life.. again.

I have always had a little dictator inside me, forcing me to continue this path and never be satisfied with myself. Ana keeps reminding me that I will never be good enough, not until I am light as air.

Her words are haunting, and even more so when you realize how many girls there are like her out there. Because of the media. Because of communities. Because of parents. We have all failed them. We have allowed young girls to become warped, as they are endlessly assaulted by images of women who are not real. The media has run wild, and we have let them, and we have set a trap for a generation of young girls who will never be able to see themselves as good enough.

An eating disorder is not a lifestyle choice. Starving yourself is a sickness. And for our girls, it is a sickness we’ve allowed them, even pushed them to attain. We have created a generation of girls who want to be light as air. And like Reston, they are succeeding.

There are places on the Internet where you can find information of you have a friend or loved one with an eating disorder, like Something Fishy, which is full of information, links and resources.

At very least, we owe this to the young girls in our lives: let them know they are beautiful as they are, and that the images they see on TV and in magazines are just that, images. Actresses and models are not reality, they are.

We have failed our girls. And we need to start making things right again.

–WKW