Don Surber: Obama’s Top General Regrets Leaving Iraq - I thought we were supposed to be listening to the generals? Or is that one of those rules that only apply when Republicans are in charge?
Joe For America: Time To Actually ARM Our Armed Forces? - Yes, but it seems that some of them may have taken the initiative on that.
Reinhold told reporters at a news conference in Chattanooga that Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez smashed through the gate of the reserve center last Thursday and was almost immediately confronted by a service member who had his own gun.
The service member fired several rounds, but it has not yet been determined whether he managed to hit Abdulazeez, who quickly entered the reserve center looking for targets, mortally wounding the sailor inside the building.
Protein Wisdom: Drag Queens Banned From Pride Event “Because They May Offend Transgender People” - It's always amusing when the left eats its own, but even funnier when they're cross dressers.
The Gateway Pundit: Obama Bundler Tries To Buy Off Rape Victim
Well known Democrat party donor Terry Bean is facing charges of sexual abuse, stemming from a 2013 romp in the sack with a 15 year old boy.But it wasn't a dead boy, so it can't harm a democrat
He’s now trying to buy the victim off, but the Judge had other ideas.
The Lonely Conservative: Another Obama Accomplishment – 3 Million More Kids Living In Poverty - Obama loves poor kids; that's why he made so many of them.
This Ain’t Hell: VA Chief Indicted – 50 Counts Of Falsifying Medical Records - Trump is right, the VA scandal isn't getting enough coverage. It's not entirely fair to pin it all on McCain though; just his fair share.
Weasel Zippers: Obama Nixes Lines In New Citizens Oath Of Allegiance Pledging To Take Up Arms To Defend U.S. - Why should they be any more willing than the POTUS?
Megan McArdle: Americans’ Air Conditioning Habit Is Eco-Friendly - This is the article I really wanted to highlight. How can this woman put out such sensible material day after day? Doesn't she know there's an end to it somewhere and you shouldn't run through it so quickly?
Any American who has spent much time around visiting Europeans has probably had some version of this conversation: "Why do you use so much air conditioning?" they ask. "Your buildings are ridiculously cold. I have to wear a sweater inside in the summer! And it's bad for the environment. You shouldn't do that."Sorry, Megan. Facts are not the point. The point is the Europeans need some excuse to look down on the United States, until it's time for us to save their ass.
Well, if you haven't had the pleasure, the Washington Post has brought that argument home. "The weather in Washington, D.C., and Berlin, Germany, has been pretty similar recently," a correspondent in Europe writes. "There is one striking difference between the two capitals, though: Whereas many Americans would probably never consider living or working in buildings without air conditioning, many Germans think that life without climate control is far superior."
. . .
For Europeans reading this, I may actually be able to clear up this baffling issue: Americans use air conditioning more because America is a lot hotter than Europe is. For example, in Washington, where the weather is apparently "pretty similar" to Berlin, it is expected to be 87 degrees Fahrenheit (31 Celsius) tomorrow. In Berlin, Weather.com informs me that temperatures are expected to be a torrid, sultry ... 75 Fahrenheit (23 Celsius).
Of course, on any two random days, the weather might be unseasonably cold or unseasonably hot. You really need to look at monthly averages. And lo and behold, when we look, we discover that Washington has an average temperature of 88 degrees in July, while Berlin has an average temperature of ... 73 (yes, that is indeed 31 and 23 Celsius).
And we're not talking about a place that's really hot, like Dallas (average July temperature is 96, or 36 Celsius) or Phoenix (106, or 41 Celsius). We're just talking about a rather ordinary American city in roughly the middle of the country's north-to-south span.
and yes, it's ecofriendly:
You could argue that if Americans had not migrated en masse from the temperate north to the blistering sunbelt, we would need less energy for climate control. You could argue that, but you'd be wrong. Americans still expend much more energy heating their homes than cooling them. That's actually not that surprising. The difference between the average temperature outside and the temperature that is comfortable inside is generally only 10 to 20 degrees in most of America, for most of the summer. On the other hand, in January, the residents of Rochester, New York -- the cold, snowy, rapidly depopulating area that my mother hails from -- you need to get the temperature up from an average low of 18 degrees (-8 Celsius) to at least 60 or 65. That takes a lot of energy.If the Europeans want to brag, let them go without heat, like the people in Florida.
On average, the move from cold areas to warm ones has actually saved energy, not caused us to use more. So why are we so down on air conditioning, while accepting flagrant heat use as normal? In part, it's because air conditioning still seems optional. Unlike a cold winter with no heat, a hot summer with no cooling won't definitely kill you.
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