As of 30 September 2009, the biggest newspaper in the US is NOT the NY Times. The top newspaper in the US is a bit of a shocker for Yours Truly.

For ‘Leventy-dozen years, the biggest and best newspaper in the US was the New York Times. “All the News That’s Fit to Print”. “The Newspaper of Record for the United States”. “The Gray Lady”.

Well, things have changed, just a bit.

In First Place, the Wall Street Journal!

In Second, USA Today!

In Third, The New York Times!

Just Dayum! Who’d of thunk it! The NY Times bumped by the WSJ and by USA Today? The sky HAS fallen….

See the rankings HERE.

What’s really astounding is the proportion of circulation to the population of the area served by the newspaper in question. Just for instance, compare the population of NY City to the circulation of the NY Times.

Wow….

Who’d a thunk it?

Massachusetts actually elected a Republican to the US Senate?

Never, in my wildest dreams, did I ever think that would happen!

A close race by a Republican would have been a slap in the chops. THIS is a by-God smack in the head with the Clue Bat.

Mr. President and the rest of the Democratic Party – you guys have got some serious problems, and I don’t think they’re going to go away in the next seven months….

Americans come in all shapes, sizes and colors.

Majed Moughni stands as a Tall Dog in America.

“We’re telling the terrorists we’re Americans. If you want to kill Americans come kill us,” he said.

“We’re going to send you back to the caves of Afghanistan because you don’t belong in a civilized society. Islam is a religion of peace, and you don’t represent Islam. Stay away from us.”

I will add, on behalf of many other Americans, that if you terrorists want to kill Mr. Mougni and his friends, you’d best pack a lunch. We ARE Americans, and we don’t like terrorists. Not. At. All.

See the story HERE.

Dr. Jerry Pournelle has been around for a while. He’s also capable of doing summaries of current events that give you all you need to know for a thumbnail of what’s going on in politics.

Therefore, go and look. As always, you are invited to verify through your own research.

See it HERE.

“Obama says that this wasn’t a screw up, the system is broken. He also says that we are at war.

Actually the system isn’t broken, it has been deliberately gummed up with political correctness. The same nonsense that causes little old ladies to be as likely to get special attention from our incorruptible and intrepid crackerjack TSA officers as would a Nigerian coming on a flight from Yemen and buying his ticket with cash applies to a great many other cases. Obama can only fix that by making it safe to “discriminate”, and he won’t do that. Thus even the most conscientious TSA officer must weigh his possibility of being personally ruined by a charge of racism or being anti-Muslim against the probabilities of detecting an actual terrorist. There are not many terrorists. There are plenty of people willing to charge racism. Like being a “denier”, the charge is sufficient: no real evidence is required, and the result of such calumny is well described in Rossini’s Barber of Seville.”

We’re projected for a 22F low tonight. The low record is 21F set in 1924.

“Global Warming” my behind!

On Christmas Day, this looney-toon tried to blow up an airliner on an international flight from the Netherlands that was landing at Detroit.

The Transportation Security Agency very quickly deployed a set of rules and procedures allegedly designed to counter this new perceived threat. These rules and procedures were distributed to thousands of people, both in government and in the private sector.

Two guys who blog about travel issues pick up on these new rules and procedures, get copies of same, analyze them, and decide that the TSA is over-reacting. They publish the new rules and procedures on their website, along with commentary.

The TSA decides to subpoena Elliot and Frischling (the travel bloggers), and wants to confiscate their computers. Frischling gives up his computer, Elliot declines to do so.

This action hits the news, and instant “stuff”-storm erupts.

Now, the TSA is backing off, saying ‘ because the investigation into the leak of the security directive was “nearing a successful conclusion.” ‘, and also offered to buy Frischling a new computer, because they had managed to corrupt the one they confiscated.

See the Fox News story HERE.

I have several questions and comments.

1. A subpoena is defined by Dictionary.com as: “the usual writ for the summoning of witnesses or the submission of evidence, as records or documents, before a court or other deliberative body.”

The TSA is neither a court or a “deliberative body”. Who in hades gave those clowns the power of subpoena?

2. Did not these idiots speak to legal counsel who would surely have advised them that under the 1st Amendment (Freedom of speech, and maybe press) these guys were covered, and also under the 4th (Search and Seizure) and 5th Amendments (Due Process).

3. And would not the legal counsel ask “Has anyone outside the government seen these rules and procedures?”

4. And the TSA’s “successful conclusion” of their investigation?

Earlier in this little commentary I referred to the TSA as being staffed by “Idiots”.

After careful review, especially considering the TSA spokesman’s comment about a “successful conclusion”, I see no reason to withdraw the word.

Interesting week, so far.

Tiger Woods has evidently been, ummm, “fooling around”. A lot.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana, put his girl friend up to be US Attorney for Montana. The GF also worked on his staff, AND did some planning for his divorce from his wife of 25 years AND got a $14,000 pay raise. But they didn’t have a “relationship” until after Sen. and Mrs. Baucus seperated. Riiiiight! See it HERE.

On the Global Warming front, the Climatic Research Unit at the U. of East Anglia (Dr. Phil Jones, et. al.) dumped all of the raw data that they used for their “proof” of humanity-caused global warming. They dumped the raw data because they just didn’t have room for it in their brandy-new building at the U. of E.A. See the story HERE.

I call “bull-shit” on their miserable behinds.

This one is the 2nd part of the “Smoking Gun”. Without the raw data, their work cannot be “peer reviewed”.

I hereby charge that Dr. Jones & Co. did in fact “cook the books”, and did, in fact, destroy the evidence to avoid ridicule and professional ruin, and possible criminal prosecution for misusing tax-payer funds. And since a large chunk of their funding came from the US taxpayer, I really want that raw data to be available for review – especially since the AGW zealots and some politicians claim that this is proof that us nasty old Americans are the major cause of man-caused global warming.

The fact of the destruction of raw data was available to the MSM (Main Stream Media) ‘way back in September 2009 – and the MSM did not report it.

I hereby charge the MSM with collusion to defraud the American and UK taxpayer.

There has been much going on in the last few days – So-called “Health-care reform”, the possible “troop surge” to Afghanistan, the Tiger Woods car crash, the lone terrorist at Ft. Hood.

Almost lost in the noise is the “smoking gun” of the emails of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) based at the University of East Anglia. To summarize, someone broke into the email servers at the CRU and lifted approximately 60 megabytes of emails, then made them available to anyone who might want to look at them. You can view them for yourself HERE.

There is some very interesting reading there, including discussions of how to hide and/or ignore inconvenient data, discredit differing viewpoints, and not comply with perfectly legal requests for information.

The “Scientific Method”, simply stated is:

1. Devise a theory.
2. Gather facts and data.
3. Compare facts to theory.
4. Adjust theory to facts and data.
5. Repeat 1 through 4.

At the CRU, and throughout the “Climate Change Community”, it would appear that Step 4 would read “Adjust facts and data to theory”.

There would also appears to be a Step 4a: “Vilify anyone who questions the results of step 4. Step 5 is NOT required.”

These emails are the “Smoking Gun”. In short, these exchanges reveal science perverted to match ideology, and further, that ideology is inimical to the United States and to the United Kingdom.

When I started this blog gig, I was using BlogSpot – which was OK until I ran into some really vicious formatting issues.

So, I got myself migrated to Movable Type at Total Choice hosting – which went OK until comment spammers laid me low, wrecked Swamp Gas, and TC took an axe to my site.

Well, Swamp Gas is back!  Tammy of AMomAndHerBlog at Gmail Dot Com did some magic with OWW and OWW2 to migrate my Blogspot stuff to here.  Unfortunately, the stuff at Total Choice was almost completely trashed and could not be salvaged.

Thanks for all your efforts Tammy, and you can be sure of referrals from Old Wierd Ward whenever I get the chance.

Now, I’m going to play with WordPress, and probably break it once or twice….

I have sent the following to the President, both of my Senators, and to my Representative. I urge you to do the same.

“Fort Hood Police Sgt. Kimberly Munley, who, though grievously wounded, did stand her ground and return fire, thereby saving the lives of unarmed soldiers and civilians, is hereby nominated by a Citizen of the United States, and Veteran of the Armed Forces of the United States, for the Presidential Medal of Freedom, with Bronze “V” for uncommon valor in the Service and Defense of the United States of America.”