Spencerblog

"Shut Up!" the EPA Explains

2009-07-04T06:22:00.003-04:00

Here in the Czech Republic, President Vaclav Klaus is a critic of doomsday theories on climate change. Back home in the new Obama Administration raising questions about the cost and efficacy about its climate change policies gets a muzzle slammed over your mouth. Even for people whose job it is to look into this stuff.

Remember Jim Hansen? No, not the muppet maker. That's Henson.

Hansen, a NASA scientist and anti-global warming zealot, (he recently got himself arrested protesting a coal plant). He claimed the Bush Administration tried to silence him and the Chicken Little community squawked their little head off.

Kim Strassel reveals the hypocrisy of those who claim scientific freedom must trump ideology. Not in the Obama Administration.

SHOCKER!

2009-07-04T05:35:00.003-04:00

Not only did team USA Cincy (50 and Over) pull off an upset of Team Dominica, we went on to beat a very good German team and then held off the host Czech team that beat us in game two.

That puts us in the finals against Poland.

Out of 29 teams, we're in the final two. Surprising, to say the least. Our success has totally screwed up all our travel plans and plane reservations.

The final is Sunday at 2 p.m. (that's 8 a.m. EST), our flights were all for Sunday morning. Staying is costing hundreds, if not thousands. What are we gonna' do? Forfeit?

We are surviving on the talents of three former major college players, John Johnson from Michigan, Jim Sweeny from BC and Bob Bigelow from Penn. The rest of us are role players.

While other teams have been dressing 10, 12, and 14 players, we only have eight. The games are very physical and come down to a war of attrition.

Down one with 10 seconds left last night, Johnny got fouled taking a three pointer and then hit ALL THREE free throws to give us a 2-point win. NOBODY hits ALL three free throws in that situation but he did.

As for city of Prague, it is everything we were told before we came. Prague Castle is one of the most amazing things in the world. It took 500 years to build and you could take a couple of days checking out all its nooks and crannies. SpencerPrague saw what we could in an hour and then retreated to the beer garden nearby that overlooks the city.

Every one is tired and sore but the Thai Massage place around the corner from our hotel has worked magic.

One more game and then home. We hope.

A Word From SpencerPrague

2009-07-01T11:49:00.003-04:00

Just checking in from Praha, where team USA Cincy will be playing a 50 and Over team from the Dominican Republic in a couple of hours.

That is what Spencerblob is doing here, embarassing his country playing age-inappropriate basketball internationally.

Team Cincy has four players out of eight that could be playing in the 55 and over bracket. While Team Dominica has at least three players who can still dunk - one who can do so from a standing start under the basket. This may not be pretty.

But Prague is. It's a beautiful city with lovely churches, castles, cafes, women and beer. Casinos too.

We have two games under our belts. The first an easy win over a German team that may have been drunk before the game. They certainly were after. They cheerfully toasted us from a beer garden over the entrance to the gymnasium as we left.

Lost to the hosting Czech team by a point. The home fans were very proud of their old boys.

If Team Cincy loses by less than 20 tonight, it will be a miracle.

Spenceblog Announcement

2009-06-26T12:51:00.004-04:00

Spencerblog is in the Czech Republic or as we are now calling it, SpencerPrague. Postings will be light and will also depend on whether I can find an adapter for the nutty electrical outlets here.

In the meantime, while I will be off print-wise next week, I will have a column in this Sunday's Times about the Penn Delco School District and its weird treatment of the Aston Valley Baseball League.

Czech it out!

Lazaroff Update

2009-06-25T09:10:00.002-04:00

Dr. Jerry Lazaroff, the Media child psychologist acquited of molestation charges, informs me that his license to practice has been reinstated and he will go back to work for the county court system this Monday.

Good for him. And kudos to Judge Joe Cronin and Court Administrator Phil Damiani for helping make it happen.

Cunningham's Killer Sentenced

2009-06-25T07:43:00.004-04:00

Killer Ramir Steve gets life.

From our story:

Following the decision, the victim’s family issued a statement that “there is no winner in the outcome of this tragedy, only two families who have lost their son and brother.”  

The statement handed out by the victim’s father, John Cunningham, expressed “no ill will toward the Steve family” and stated it will “continue to pray for them as well as Ramir.”

No blood lust. No anger. Just sadness and class. Makes you want to cry.

The Opposite of Courage

2009-06-25T07:36:00.003-04:00

Ann Bayefsky at Forbes let's Obama have it for his Iran dithering.

Money Q:

This is a man who embodies the opposite of the courage to act. His appalling ignorance of history prompted him to claim at his press conference that "the Iranian people … aren't paying a lot of attention to what's being said … here." On the contrary, from their jail cells in the Gulag, Soviet dissidents took heart from what was being said here--as all dissidents dream that the leader of the free world will be prepared to speak and act in their defense.

No Men Need Apply

2009-06-25T07:33:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the "man-cession"

Fiscal Responsibility and Hypocrisy

2009-06-25T07:21:00.003-04:00

Am I reading this correctly. Are Steny Hoyer and George Miller saying Congress must pay as it goes for what it spends?

Because, if so, what's with Obama and the Democrats quadrupling of the deficit?

Oh, it's George Bush's fault. Nevermind.

Sanford Over and Out

2009-06-25T07:13:00.002-04:00

South Carolina's Republican governor Mark Sanford disappears for a week and then comes home to admit to an affair with some woman from Argentina.

Mrs. Sanford is not pleased. She didn't appear at his mea culpa press conference. Good for her.

An affair is one thing. Disappearing for a week to break it off is another. He's done

Teaching a Lesson to Teachers

2009-06-24T07:31:00.005-04:00

A teacher in Germany has lost a lawsuit trying to down a website that allows students to grade teachers. The head of the teachers' association is unhappy.

From the story:"

It is inexplicable that the BGH values the personal rights of teachers less than an anonymous assessment of teachers by students on the Internet," Association president Josef Kraus said, referring to the federal court.

It is very explicable. It's called free speech and its nice to see it being protected in other parts of the world.

Martin Luther Hansen

2009-06-24T07:05:00.003-04:00

Coalbuster and government employee James Hansen gets arrested at protest.

Is that Cindy Sheehan next to him?

Thornbury Offers Free Permits to Greenies

2009-06-23T07:11:00.004-04:00

Thornbury Township is helping its residents go "green" by not charging for permits to transition to clean energy.

Township supervisor Jim Raith says like "geothermal and solar, etc."

Ecetera?

Does that mean we can expect seeing more windmills in Glen Mills? Probably not. Another term for "clean energy" is "expensive energy."

But as with many "green" ideas, it's the thought that counts.

Twin Guilty in Cabbie Killing

2009-06-23T07:06:00.002-04:00

Romar, I mean Ramir Steve, convicted in cabbie murder.

Tough case.

"Help, I'm Bleeding!"

2009-06-23T07:01:00.002-04:00

Perez Hilton punched in the face.

Go figure.

The good news? He made the Drudge Report again.

Whistleblowing in the Dark

2009-06-23T06:44:00.004-04:00

Saunders on whistleblower Walpin who was fired by the White House for murky reasons.

Didn't NASA's James "Chicken Little" Hansen manage to keep his job during the horrid Bush Administration? Apparently the Bushies were cowed when he took the Peter Venkman approach to his critics.

"Back off man, I'm a scientist."

UPDATE: See today's Daily Times editorial on Walpin.

Independents Day II

2009-06-23T06:39:00.003-04:00

Obama is losing the confidence of independent voters, like Spencerblog for instance.

But then we had little confidence he would lead the country in the right direction in the first place.

CBS Scoops Itself

2009-06-23T06:31:00.003-04:00

Interviewed by CBS last Friday about the protests in Iran and Obama finally comes out in support of the Iranian protestors. And CBS drops its scoop... of ice cream.

Overboard!

2009-06-22T15:24:00.003-04:00

The U.S.S. Welfare State has hit an iceberg.

Money Q:

Any sober examination of figures like these suggests that the system has promised more than it can realistically deliver. We are borrowing not to finance investment in the future but to pay for today's welfare -- present consumption. Sooner or later, the huge debt will weaken the economy. Nor would paying for all promised benefits with higher taxes be desirable. Big increases in either debt or taxes risk depressing economic growth, making it harder yet to pay promised benefits.

President Obama is not responsible for the growth of the welfare state before his administration. But he is certainly responsible for it now. And he doesn't seem to think its a problem.

Nuke Happy?

2009-06-22T15:17:00.002-04:00

Your happy thought for the day: Al Qaeda would be happy to nuke the U.S. if it got its hands on one.

Headline: Al Qaeda says would use Pakistani nuclear weapons
What? Nork Nukes not good enough for ya?

What the B.F.?

2009-06-22T15:05:00.003-04:00

Three apparent B.F. Skinner devotees have e-mailed (one all the way from Norway) to tell me the quote I attributed to the famed psychologist in Friday's column is wrong.

The quote: "The object of life is to gratify yourself without getting arrested."

I came across it while reading a Walker Percy novel called "The Thanatos Syndrome." The protagonist in the book, a psychiatrist, so quotes Skinner, incorrectly it turns out.

It turns out the object of some people's lives is to search the Internet for incorrect quotes attributed to B.F. Skinner and correct them.

We stand corrected.

Kill Me If You Can

2009-06-21T20:14:00.003-04:00

The World's Shortest Slasher Flick. Pretty derivative but the surprise ending is worth it.

Haywood You Be My Dad?

2009-06-21T08:20:00.001-04:00

Nice Father's Day story by Patti Mengers on Coach Craig.

Obama Fiddles, Tehran Burns

2009-06-21T08:05:00.003-04:00

Protesters in the streets, violence, authoritarianism and our ice-cream eating President: The music video.

Of course, its not really fair but that didn't stop the left from composing similar unflattering ditties about his predecessor.

It's about time Obama spoke out forcefully against the mullah's crack-down and on behalf of Iran's democratic movement.

Brothers of Different Mothers?

2009-06-21T07:59:00.002-04:00

"Hey, Obama has just nationalized nothing more and nothing less than General Motors. Comrade Obama!" - Hugo Chavez.

Ed Fuelmer discusses the implications.