Free kibbles

Iran likely to have enough fissile material to make a nuclear bomb next year.

Foxnews has a special called Earmarks for profit. Not only do politicians buy votes with earmarks - earmarking money for the businesses of friends and family in return for campaign contributions - but they also earmark money for companies in which they own stock. The culture of corruption in Washington is so pervasive, our politicians do this in plane sight and even defend it (though they did try to hide the specifics by removing the earmarks from legislation and putting them in companion comments. Of course, these non-legislative earmarks are illegal by definition, and the Justice Dept. should prosecute every congressman who did it.)

Give me a break. A report concludes that human development (they call it losing nature), will reduce the world's GDP, disproportionately impacting the poor. If human development reduced GDP, it would stop. Nobody builds stuff to lose money. That's just dumb.

Texas Supreme Court orders the state to return Yearning for Zion Ranch children to parents. Another victory for the rule of law.

UN Chief acknowledges progress in Iraq, and the BBC reported it. I didn't notice it in any US papers.

Disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan claims the charges against him of propagating nuclear secrets are trumped up. That's interesting.

China may have copied data from US commerce laptop. Why would a US official leave his notebook unattended in China? Our government is full of idiots.

The economy picked up to 0.9% growth.

McCain has definitely boxed in Obama about visiting Iraq. Obama has no choice but to visit Iraq or look cowardly and intentionally uninformed. When Obama goes, McCain should immediately claim that it was McCain's leadership and his ability to work across party lines, that got Obama to go.

Cato informs that fuel efficient cars pollute less than mass transit systems.

Cato reports that the Roberts Court is not ideological, but decides cases based on the law. That's what the Court is supposed to do, and it's a wonderful change from the activist courts of the last 50 years. The article mentions an interesting philosophical difference between justices on how much weight they give to precedent. I'm with Scalia and Thomas - the law is more important that precedent. Bad precedent should be corrected.

Stonehenge was uses a burial sight 500 years earlier than previously thought.

Petition to allow drilling for oil in currently forbidden areas.

Good for the WSJ to come right out and say Blame Congress for High Oil Prices. The essay shows how government policy today is similar to government policy in the '70s, and those policies created the energy crises then and now. 15% of the cost of gasoline is taxes and only 4% is oil company profit. Of course to professional politicians, taxes are good and profits are bad. And the oil companies don't set either the price of oil or gasoline.

Under the pall of $4 per gallon gasoline prices, the Senate begins debate on the Warner-Lieberman bill, a carbon cap and trade bill that is really a hidden tax, supported by John McCain that the WSJ says "would impose the most extensive government reorganization of the American economy since the 1930s." The article explains that this is really a massive wealth redistribution scheme camouflaged as environmentalism.

Animal incorporates genes from other species.

Scott McClellan and silly liberal blogger don't seem to understand the difference between leaking classified information and declassifying information to make it available to the people. The same liberals who say the Bush administration is too secretive are now attacking him for allowing the NIE on Iraq to go public.

Fear of Obama will make people hold their nose and vote for McCain.

I sure hope this spotlight on unAmerican caucuses will lead to their abolishment. But since Democrats love coercion instead of freedom, supporting card check instead of secret ballot for unionizing, I doubt they'll get rid of the caucus system.

Walmart pressures suppliers to keep costs low. Hooray for Walmart and the free market.

Businesses are switching to 4 day work weeks and telecommuting to save employees gas money.

These people deserve to be punished for bestiality, but what law gives the judge the power to forbid them from ever owning dogs?

Spanish speakers outnumber English speakers in Miami. That's ridiculous.

Researchers discover the UN CO2 emission cutting program is a scam. What a surprise.