Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Remembering Abbey Road

To people of a certain age, the Beatles' 1969 album "Abbey Road" meant a lot of things, from such great songs as "Come Together" and "Here Comes the Sun" to the infamous "Paul is dead" clues.

Abbey Road is an actual road in London, where (logically) Abbey Road Studios was located. The Beatles recorded most of their records in Studio 2 of Abbey Road Studios. In 2006, Paul McCartney recorded a show for PBS called "Chaos and Creations at Abbey Road," in Studio 2. Using instruments from the period, he played the very first recorded Beatles song, and traveled through his songwriting career with hits like "Blackbird" and a variation on "Eleanor Rigby." (Plus a quick riff on "Strawberry Fields" on the Mellotron.)

YouTube has the rest of the hour-long special in seven parts. If you're a Beatles/McCartney fan, you'll enjoy spending time watching one of the greatest songwritiers of our time create an intimate experience onstage. Check out all seven parts of "Chaos and Creations at Abbey Road" on YouTube.

Here's part #5:



Saturday, October 20, 2007

$2,100,100


Earlier I wrote about a letter that 41 Democrat Senators, led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and including presidential hopefuls, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Chris Dodd, sent to Mark Mays, head of ClearChannel Communications, demanding that Rush Limbaugh be punished for what they mischaracterized as calling troops who opposed the war "phony soldiers."


The transcript of Rush's comments, as well as a recording of the conversation (which was with a caller) is readily available. Only an intentional misreading could produce the idea that Rush meant anything close to that of which the Democrats accused him.

The Democrats used Senate floor time to chastise Rush, at the same time making the accusations part of the Congressional record. They used government resources -- time, staff, etc. -- to produce the letter. Forty-one Democrats thought it politically expedient to sign on.










In Your Face
Now Rush has turned the tables on the Democrats. Mark Mays turned the letter over to Rush, who put the letter up for auction on e-Bay. The proceeds from the sale of the letter will be matched by Rush, and the total amount donated to the Marine Corps/Law Enforcement Foundation (MCLEF). Rush challenged the Democrats to also match funds for the charity, but received no response.

The auction went on for a week, generating conversation and excitement about Rush Limbaugh and what he was doing. At the end of the auction, the winning bid was an incredible $2.1 million. With Rush's match, the charity will receive over $4.2 million.


More incredible than the selling price of the letter is the chutzpah of Harry Reid. After using the power of his office to try to destroy Rush Limbaugh, he turned around and tried to take credit for the money that was raised for MCLEF (by Rush Limbaugh.) I don't know if all politicians have no shame, but at least one -- Harry Reid -- doesn't even know the meaning of the word.


The Liberal Response
Meanwhile, Liberals are going bonkers over the situation. With the MoveOn.org attack on General Petraeus also backfiring on them, this makes two public humiliations in a row for Liberals. Expect burning buildings and mass protests (since they can't win by debating the issues.)

Sunday, October 14, 2007

David Blaine Street Magic 1 & 2 (Parody)

If you're familiar with the work of David Blaine, and you have any sense of humor at all, you'll laugh until milk comes out of your nose.





WARNING!! STRONG language! (Dirty words)
DON'T WATCH THESE VIDEOS WITH CHILDREN
OR EASILY-OFFENDED ADULTS
IN THE ROOM!!
YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!






...and the sequel....


Saturday, October 13, 2007

Who Has More Credibility...

MILLI VANILLI

Pop musical group who were forced to return their Grammy awards in disgrace after it was discovered that they had lip-synced their songs, including such hits as "Girl You Know It's True" and "Blame It On The Rain"?

or

AL GORE

Propagandist, failed politician, and global warming profiteer, winner of an Academy Award and Nobel Peace Prize, whose film "An Inconvenient Truth" has been deemed to be incorrect, false, misleading, or distorting by at least 500 scientists and a British court?

Alfred Nobel is Spinning in His Grave


Alfred Albert "Al" Gore Jr. is the co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Experts give their opinions:

Gjermund Hagesaether, of Norway's Progress Party: "We believe it is strange to give the prize to Al Gore for having made a film on climate that is subjective, one-sided and full of one-sided assertions."

Award-winning French geochemist Claude Allegre: "The amount of nonsense in Al Gore's film! It's all politics, it's designed to intervene in American politics. It's scandalous."

Dr William Gray, a pioneer in the science of seasonal hurricane forecasts: "We're brainwashing our children. They're going to the Gore movie and being fed all this. It's ridiculous. We'll look back on all of this in 10 or 15 years and realise how foolish it was."

Dr. Gray added: "It bothers me that my fellow scientists are not speaking out against something they know is wrong. But they also know that they'd never get any grants if they spoke out."

Czech President Vaclav Klausa: "[I'm] a bit surprised that Al Gore has received a peace prize because the connection between his activities and world peace are vague and not very clear."

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

What "Living Green" Means to Al Gore

Deborah Corey Barnes wrote an article which recently appeared on HumanEvents.com that shows exactly which "green" Al Gore is trying hard to generate -- and as you'd expect, it's the color of money.

The money is created by the buying and selling of "carbon offsets." The government would establish arbitrary caps on greenhouse gases for each company. If a company exceeds the amount the government set, it could pay a fine or "buy" pollution credits from another company; if it is under the limit, it could sell the remaining pollution credits to someone else.

What this trading does is create an "emissions market" for traders and brokers to deal in pollution credits. One company already engaged in such activites is Generation Investment Management (GIM), whose chairman and founder is Al Gore.

According to Gore, the London-based firm invests money from institutions and wealthy investors in companies that are going green. “Generation Investment Management, purchases -- but isn’t a provider of -- carbon dioxide offsets,” said spokesman Richard Campbell in a March 7 report by CNSNews.

Read the article to get an idea of the complex regulatory hijinks Gore & Co. are pulling, in order to cash in. If you've ever wondered where Al Gore got his zeal for this global warming stuff, this will help you answer that question.

Monday, October 08, 2007

Hack Journalist vs The Republican Survival Instinct

The Republican Presidential Candidates will debate tomorrow evening (October 9,) and the press is emphasizing the point that it's the first time that Fred Thompson will participate in a debate.

More important, however, will be the behavior of the moderator of the debate, Chris Matthews.

Matthews is the host of MSNBC's "Hardball." At the 10th anniversary party for his “Hardball” show Thursday night in Washington, D.C., Matthews remarked that the Bush administration had "finally been caught in their criminality." He was referring to purported calls from Vice President Dick Cheney's office to MSNBC brass complaining about Matthews' biased comments and coverage on his show.

Another Matthews gem: “God help us if we had Cheney during the Cuban missile crisis. We’d all be under a parking lot.”

MSNBC parent company NBC, which covered the event, refused to release video of Matthews' remarks to the press. They should change their initials to "CYA."

Let's hope that journalist Matthews is put and kept in his place by these men who aspire to become the leader of the most powerful nation on earth.

The Media Begins Its Turn on Al Gore


Recently CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano clapped his hands on CNN’s “American Morning” and exclaimed, “Finally,” in response to a report that a British judge might ban the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” from UK schools because, according to the broadcast “it is politically biased and contains scientific inaccuracies.”


“There are definitely some inaccuracies,” Marciano added during the October 4 broadcast. “The biggest thing I have a problem with is this implication that Katrina was caused by global warming.”


Read more here.

Challenge to "Consensus" on Global Warming

WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new analysis of peer-reviewed literature reveals that more than 500 scientists have published evidence refuting at least one element of current man-made global warming scares.

More than 300 of the scientists found evidence that 1) a natural moderate 1,500-year climate cycle has produced more than a dozen global warmings similar to ours since the last Ice Age and/or that 2) our Modern Warming is linked strongly to variations in the sun's irradiance.

"This data and the list of scientists make a mockery of recent claims that a scientific consensus blames humans as the primary cause of global temperature increases since 1850," said Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Dennis Avery.

The rest of the article is here.