How Did I Miss This?

Penn State climate professor Michael Mann, creator of the now-it's-just-a-joke hockey stick graph formerly used to support the manmade global warming theory, has threatened to sue the makers of a satirical video on YouTube.  (I've discussed Mann before.)  They answered properly, "Bring it on."

Are Tea Parties All About Racism?

Read any online discussion about the Tea Parties, and sooner or later (usually sooner) a Liberal will either imply or explicitly state that the Tea Parties are full of racists -- reductio ad klanum -- intent on establishing white supremacy (as well as putting women back in the kitchen where they belong.)

Interestingly, one of the major Tea Party organizations, Tea Party Patriots, ran an online poll to see what tea partiers wanted to see in a "Contract From America."  Hundreds of thousands of votes were cast, and the following ten planks were the most popular:

1. Protect the Constitution
2. Reject Cap and Trade
3. Demand a Balanced Budget
4. Enact Fundamental Tax Reform
5. Restore Fiscal Responsibility and Constitutionally Limited Government in Washington
6. End Runaway Government Spending
7. Defund, Repeal, and Replace Government-run Health Care
8. Pass an ‘All-of-the-Above” Energy Policy
9. Stop the Pork
10. Stop the Tax Hikes

Nary a mention of race in there at all.  As I said -- interesting.  Are there any points that should appeal only to white people?

"I Will Always Love You" -- Again

The hottest video online today is a version of the song, "I Will Always Love You" from a Chinese version of American Idol:

The Chinese video, and most other sources, identify this as Whitney Houston's song, because of the popularity of her version, from the movie The Bodyguard:



The song, however, was written by and first made a hit by Dolly Parton in 1974.  She wrote the song about her breakup with longtime musical partner and mentor Porter Waggoner.  Here's an early performance of the song on the Porter Waggoner Show from 1974:



According to Wikipedia, Kevin Costner brought Linda Rondstadt's version of the song to Whitney Houston's attention, which inspired her to record it. 



Finally two more videos featuring Dolly Parton.  The first one, from the movie The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,  represents what I think is the most accurate sentiment from the song -- a love that simply won't work for the people involved:



This last video is what I consider one of the most beautiful duets of the song (Dolly has performed this song with others a million times over the years.)  She recorded it with Vince Gill and had yet another hit with the same song:

Obama's Pitch

As Harry Doyle (Bob Eucker) said in Major League, "JUST a bit outside." (Note that the mascot put the catcher between him and Obama.)

Obama, for all his vaunted athletic skills, seems not to have practiced pitching much since last July.  Together with his terrible bowling during the campaign, this shows that Obama's "athleticism" seems to be pretty much restricted to basketball.