Midnite Christmas Music - Christmas Time is Here

Thanks to Bert.

The Wombat's Christmas Eve News Feed

A few kernels of news extracted from Wombat-socho's "Live at Five: 12.24.14."

Bush The Elder Hospitalized In Houston - Our best wishes. And don't catch Ebola from the nurses.

NYPD Union Boss Escalates Criticism Of City Hall, Protesters reject Di Blasio’s call for hiatus - Why does all the strife seem to happen in the Blue fraction of the country?

Sheriff Joe’s Bid To Block Obama’s Amnesty Rejected - No standing because he "hadn't shown how it would harm his county".  Did anyone really imagine it would be that easy?

Hayden Panettiere, It’s A Girl! - Another Hollywood actress and Rule 5 subject for Social Security security.

Court Rules Against Greens Seeking EPA Regs For Lead Bullets - Good; it's not that they love the environment so much as they hate hunters.  When I think of all the lead Iv'e left on the bottom of Chesapeake Bay. . .

Merry Christmas! FEMA Demands Flood Victims Return Checks - Hey, I got an idea, let's put the feds in charge of health care!

The amounts owed range from $200 up to $20,000. FEMA, as the result of its audits, now believes the payments were originally made in error. The agency estimates recoupment letters have gone to less than 2 percent of the total number of survivors who got $61 million in assistance.

Amy Adams’ Silence On Sony Hack Gets Her Booted From “Today”

A source said, “Amy said she didn’t want to contribute to the media coverage of it . . . then she was abruptly told that her interview with ‘Today’ was canceled. She was shocked and upset.”. . .

But another source insists five-time Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner Adams “was angry and acting belligerent, she was yelling at ‘Today’ producers, and reduced a young female staffer to tears.”

Sounds like good TV!

Navy Investigates: Did Bin Laden’s Shooter Reveal Classified Info? - Almost certainly, it so common it's hard to avoid, but then the administration does that whenever it's convenient, so either let him off the hook or put one of them in jail, too.


Helena Bonham Carter, Tim Burton Split - Given the pairs films, one can envision this in any number of gruesome ways.

Documentary Confirms Michael Rockefeller Eaten By Cannibals - I sincerely hope they didn't catch anything.

Norks’ Internet Partially Restored After Outage - Now take it down again, and again, and again. . .

American Power: Heidi Klum’s Sharper Image Too Sexy For Vegas - Just too easy.

Despite the holiday madness Wombat-socho has the "Rule 5 Sunday: Bowls, Boobs And Other Entertainments" post up on time and within budget at The Other McCain.

Vox Voxsplained

In the recent internet age, Wunderkind Ezra Klein started as a blogger back in 2003 and worked his way through various liberal media positions (Howard Dean campaign, MSNBC analyst, American Prospect), eventually (2009) landing a sort of stable gig at the Washington Post, where he was the editor of "Wonkblog":

Every morning, I wake up to a half-dozen stories that are clearly important and that any policy site should be trying to follow in some detail. Stories about the troubled implementation of the health-care and financial reform bills, stories about the wrangling over infrastructure spending and energy regulations, stories about the unusual power a bureaucrat or backbencher is exerting over an issue that affects us all. Stories that matter, but that I simply didn’t have the bandwidth to cover.

In other words, a place where liberals could go to get their prejudices confirmed with a smattering of cherry picked data and enough talking points to recite back to other liberals to sound knowledgeable.

Alas, in late 2013, Jeff Bezos, the wunderkind of Amazon bought the Washington Post with pocket change. Sensing an opportunity with a fellow denizen of the dot.com boomlet, Klein made him an offer requiring a much larger role in the paper, and Bezos responded, apparently, with a firm, "hell no"! Shortly thereafter, Klein announced his departure to Vox Media form the new startup site Vox:

In January 2014, Vox announced it had hired Ezra Klein, who formerly served as the editor of the Washington Post's WonkBlog, to be the founder of a new website covering news and politics, codenamed "Project X" and later adopting the simple name Vox. Klein explained in an announcement on The Verge that he felt that current news websites did not provide enough context to the stories they cover, and that he aimed to create a news website that would be "as good at explaining the world as it is at reporting on it". Project X officially launched as Vox on April 6, 2014; its goal is to cover stories dynamically without succumbing to the "incremental" coverage used by traditional outlets, and to "[deliver] crucial context alongside new information" through "cards" that can be accessed through highlighted words within articles.

It's been almost a year; how it going?  Not so well, if you look at this report from the Washington Free Beacon:  The Year in #VoxFails

What went wrong? Well, we know the earth's rotation is slowing down, very slowly, due to, among other things, tidal resistance, thus all other things being equal each year the night of the winter solstice ought to be a very tiny bit longer than the last. Alas, all things are not equal, and there's a bit of variance.

Sonny Bunch also documented a list of other Voxsplainations gone awry:

One of their writers boldly claimed that David Chase had, finally, confirmed that, yes, Tony died at the end of The Sopranos.

Except, oops, Vox’s writer had more or less totally made it up.

Then there is their expert explaining of the Middle East, where it was voxplained to us that the dastardly Israelis were considering shutting down an actual bridge connecting the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in order to mess with the Palestinians.

Except, oops, no such bridge exists, as anyone who knows anything about the geography of that area could have told you.

I was shocked to discover from Vox that protesters in Hong Kong had adopted the “hands up, don’t shoot!” mantra from protesters in Ferguson, Mo. What a fantastic example of the power of social media and the smallness of our interconnected world. We truly live in an age of wonders!

Except, oops, there’s literally no proof whatsoever that the Hong Kong protesters had done any such thing.

Not knowing much about the rap musics, I was more or less the target audience for an explainer on Iggy Azalea, whom Vox claimed had decreed herself the “queen of rap.” Please, enlighten me! Tell me about this talentless white person who is, gasp, appropriating all the culture. I need to know!

Except, oops, it wasn’t Iggy Azalea who had declared herself the queen of rap but a fan account that has literally no ties to Iggy Azalea.

Having never been to Boulder, Colo., I was pretty impressed by the fact that the city had such a bladder control problem. More than a hundred toilets per resident? WOW!

As someone who spends a lot of time thinking about copyright and intellectual property, I was terribly intrigued by the notion that the government can’t claim a copyright on its coins. Seems like that could lead to some problems, no?

Except, oops, “This article was totally wrong.”

I could go on, but hopefully you get the point: never ever ever ever trust any single solitary thing that you read at VOX DOT COM. EVER. There’s roughly a 100 percent chance that they have gotten the story either partly or wholly wrong.

A pretty amazing list for one year for a website dedicated to bringing the fact to the public.

A Dog's Christmas

Yep, it's a Siberian Husky. But the good news, is that the her family figured out it was her, and came back to pay:

FDA Prepares to Lift Gay Blood Donation Ban

FDA to propose altering ban on gay and bisexual men who want to donate blood

Since the onset of the epidemic of AIDS among gay/bisexual men, and intravenous drug abusers in the 1980s, one of the more obnoxious aspects of donating blood has been the extensive questioning regarding sexual practices and drug use. It used to be that you had to sit while a nurse asked you if you had ever had sex with another man, even once, ever used a non-prescribed injectable drug. Now, the nurse leaves the booth, but you still get the same questions, merely from a laptop connected to the internet. And we know how private that is. 

In the United States, the FDA mandates that people who answer yes to these questions are permanently banned from donating blood, for fear of infecting people who receive transfusions and others who receive other "blood products" as they are known

Gay activists have struggled with this ban for years, saying that it is somehow illegal discrimination to ban 1-3% of the population from donating blood based on their sexual orientation. This, of course, is patently false, as would be blood donors are not required to answer analogous questions about lesbian sex because, well rug-munching is not a risk factor for AIDS.

However, the FDAs new proposal is less than satisfying to gay men because it requires a year of celibacy before donating blood. Yeah, that'll happen, because donating blood is much more rewarding than sex.

The Food and Drug Administration plans to lift its lifetime ban on blood donation for men who have had sex with other men, and will propose replacing it with a one-year ban after homosexual activity, the agency announced Tuesday.

Gay rights groups, which have long advocated a change to the ban, largely decried the announcement, saying that expecting gay blood donors to remain celibate for a year is not reasonable or medically necessary.

Others were heartened by the relaxation of a long-criticized ban. “This is a very good next step in a process that began in the early 1980s,” said Jay Menitove, who chaired a federal advisory committee that recommended the change.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said, “There’s no doubt about it, that any way that you can safely add to the pool of donors to counter this chronic shortage of blood is a good thing.”

The recommended change could increase the U.S. blood supply by 2 percent, researchers said.

I'm looking forward to yet another change in the questions the next time I try to donate blood. I had been getting rather bored with the old set.

 I'm also predicting very few new blood donors as a result.

Santa's Little Helpers

Christmas Eve, time to honor those little elves that help Santa deliver all the presents:

"Now Dasher!

Midnite Christmas Music - Red Head Express Medly

Four red headed sisters. I think that's one less than a critical mass.

Big Fish, Small Pole

It must be pretty awesome to be standing on crystal clear ice and bringing in such a big fish on a little ice fishing pole. It's almost enough to make you want to go ice fishing. Almost. . .

It's also pretty awesome that they released it. I'd have been tempted to keep it, PCBs, methylmercury and all.

Be Careful Out There

The water is cold and unforgiving this time of year: Duck hunter drowns after boat flips

A Harford County man drowned in Eastern Bay Saturday morning, Dec. 20, after his boat overturned while he was waterfowl hunting with friends. Brian Durham, 57, of Belcamp was part of a three-man hunting trip to the area to shoot some ducks in the cold waters off McDaniel the week before Christmas.

Durham and his friends set out on the Miles River in two boats. Durham was alone in a 10-foot “sneak” boat, and the other two men were in a larger boat. They settled down about 150 yards apart to wait for ducks.

According to the other men, at about 10 a.m., a flock of ducks approached and shots were fired. They said Durham apparently missed and was talking to them by two-way radio. They said he reloaded and several minutes passed.

Another flock of ducks approached and Durham fired three rounds, according to his friends. He apparently missed again, they said.

They tried to call him on the radio, but there was no answer. The men told Department of Natural Resources officials that they thought Durham did not respond because he was angry at missing and was reloading.

After about five minutes, they tried to call him again, but had no response, so they got out binoculars and saw his boat had turned upside down.

Durham’s friends rushed to the scene, according to the DNR report. They told officials they found their friend floating face up, unconscious.

“He was not wearing a lifejacket,” DNR spokesperson Candy Thomson said.

Always wear a life jacket. If you're on the water a lot, get two; one for warm weather, and one for cold weather. I have an automatic inflation "SOSepnders" for warm weather, and a Stern "Float Coat" for cold weather. You may have seen pictures of them both here. Fortunately, I've never used either for the their flotation.  The float coat is great insulation in cold weather, though.

Virginia Man Sets Dinghy Record

Norfolk man's dinghy journey sets Guinness record

Guinness Book of World Records' website says Robert Suhay sailed 283.5 nautical miles, or 326.24 miles, on July 2. That's the longest single-handed distance sailed in a dinghy by a male.

WAVY-TV reports that the 51-year-old Suhay battled Hurricane Arthur as he traveled up the Chesapeake Bay to Maryland. He received a certificate from Guinness earlier this month.

Online: Guinness Book of World Records: www.guinnessworldrecords.com

His own report is here. Actually, the trip took 77 hours, from June 28 to July 3, from Virginia Beach, up to the Sassafras River and back down to Solomons Island. The distance was calculated using his GPS track. 

Not Even Close

Stacy McCain comes up for some air in his deep dive into feminist literature propaganda to deal with a bit of popular fluff: No, Actually, You Don’t

So I was 3,000 words into a book chapter about feminism and took a break. Someone called my attention to this:

“girls want sex just as much as guys do, we’re just taught that we should be ashamed of it rather than proud.”

Don’t know who the original source is for this asinine claim, but it’s been shared nearly 60,000 times on Tumblr, which tells me that many young fools actually believe this dangerous nonsense. There is abundant research about the differences in male and female sex drives, even if ordinary common sense did not tell us so.

Long before scientists were able to demonstrate the influence of testosterone in male sexual behavior, the greater urgency of male sex drive was widely understood as a fact of human nature. Only the egalitarian ideology of feminism could cause anyone to believe that “girls want sex just as much as guys do.” This is simply not true, as anyone might discover if they cared about scientific evidence or, alternatively, if they would bother asking males about it.

It's pretty simple science; men with more testosterone have higher sex drive than men with less; even women with more testosterone have higher sex drive than women with less, and overall, women have much lower testosterone than men. It's simply science.

Really, let any man recall how it was to be a teenage boy, caught in the overpowering grasp of that adolescent testosterone surge. Every teenage boy is a potential crime wave and only the most stringent discipline and social restraints can prevent him from running completely amok, wreaking havoc as a result of his chaotic impulses.

Mostly we try to forget, but yeah, and many of them go on to become their own private crime waves. Most get it under control, but not all, alas.

Feminists have spent so long trying to convince us males and females are “equal” — meaning that they are basically the same — that some people have apparently begun to believe this is really true, but it’s not. Anyone who makes feminism the basis of their choices is in for a rude awakening the first time they encounter the reality of human nature.

We are a dimorphic species. Male and female may be equal under law in this country (and even that is questionable), but they are not equal physically, and or behaviorally.  The same things that produce men's heavier, stronger bodies, with the superior ability to build muscle also play with the nervous system and produce, different outcomes to behavior under the same circumstances.

From the point of view of evolution, men have evolved to reproduce at the drop of a hat; time in the paleolithic was short and brutal, subject to instant cancellation in the course of daily life. However, for women, charged with the primary duty of raising the next generation, a long and arduous task, having a strong protector to keep away the Cave Bears and Giant Hyenas (not to mention pterosaurs), and incursions from the tribe next door have driven the primacy of the pair bond. The two sexes evolved different, but complementary strategies for mating.

Perhaps time will breed this propensity out of the species, or at least reduce it to a remnant if it becomes less useful, live a behavioral appendix. But until then to deny it is to fly in the face of human nature, and that is a sure recipe for disappointment and disaster.

Despite the holiday madness Wombat-socho has the "Rule 5 Sunday: Bowls, Boobs And Other Entertainments" post up on time and within budget at The Other McCain.

Fire and Ice

or what to do on a slow day in Kamchatka. Make videos of lava flowing over snow.

Watching lava fight with snow in Kamchatka:

You might guess that these red-hot lavas would burn through the snow almost instantly, reducing the surroundings to slush and steam. However, you’d be wrong. The ʻaʻa lava flows actually produced surprisingly little melt, though the snow beneath them would be gone in less than 24 hours. That’s partly because the blocky crust armoring the underside of the flow (at a cool 900 °C) insulates the snow from the hotter core of the lava. But it’s also because the snow, which contains so much air space, is a poor conductor of heat.

The pahoehoe flows were a different matter. Rather than rolling along atop the snow, they pushed down into it, producing some wild stuff— plowing up fractured blocks of snow, and even inflating domes beneath the surface that would then melt the snow above. This interaction produced more meltwater, which seeped through the snow and transferred heat much more effectively than the lava could do alone.

Even so, these flows were moving pretty slowly, and while the pahoehoe flows could produce some streams and small outbursts of meltwater, it wasn’t nearly enough to generate the kinds of dangerous mudflows common for more explosive eruptions.

Pretty hot cool ?, right?

Count this as stuff that Ted sends.

Naughty and Nice

A little too much eggnog on the left?

Despite the holiday madness Wombat-socho has the "Rule 5 Sunday: Bowls, Boobs And Other Entertainments" post up on time and within budget at The Other McCain.

Midnite Christmas Music - "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy"

Wombat's Monday News Fodder

A few morsels from today's "Live at Five: 12.22.14"

Two NYPD Officers Ambushed, Killed - I already covered this yesterday, but DeBlasio is now backing off his attacks on the NYPD who dissed him by turning their backs on him at a news conference. The left is worried that this will muddle their narrative. The right should make sure of it.

Florida Officer Killed In Weekend’s Third Murder Of Police: Officer Kondek shot, then run over by criminal attempting to avoid arrest - Is this a result of Ferguson/New York related anti-police protests?  Maybe, maybe not. But they certainly didn't help.

Satanists Mount Holiday Display With Little Fanfare - Ignore the silly little devil worshipers. That will piss them off the most.

Christie Tells Obama to Demand Return Of Cop-Killer Chesimard To Start Cuba Talks - There are a lot of things that need to be cleared up with Cuba before we start swapping spit with them. Their political prisoners, and their protection of US criminals are high on the list. Kudos to Christie for keeping that up front and center.

US Asking For Chicoms’ Help With Sony Hack? - Who do you think taught the Norks how to hack?

Kristen Bell

Kristen Bell, It’s Another Girl! - Another Social Security supporter among previous Rule 5 girls.

Wisconsin Government Accountability Board Agents Continued Partisan Probe In Defiance Of Judges - For continuing coverage of the amazingly lawless persecution of conservatives in Wisconsin, you need to see Althouse, who covers it routinely.  Her point on this one was that people trying to enforce the letter of the law, had better be prepared to abide by it:

The GAB is enforcing the letter of the law on its targets. You cannot defend them by saying but they are good people who mean well and who never departed from the spirit of the law. Sticklers must be judged by stickler standards.

Saudis Won’t Cut Oil Output - The quicker you run out the better.

Dollar matches Two-Year High against Euro; Rupiah Strengthens and Santa Comes Early As Gasoline Falls To Lowest Prices Since 2009 - Keep on Frackin' Momma, Frack my Blues away

Facebook Accused Of Bowing To Putin - If you had to choose between fearing Putin or Obama, who would you pick?

Madonna’s “Early Christmas Gift”: Six Songs From New Album - Trying to milk a little attention out of the Sony hacking affair.

Conservatives4Palin: Former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik – DiBlasio And Sharpton Have Blood On Their Hands - It's not a sure thing that  Ismaaiyl Brinsley would not have killed police officers in Baltimore after killing his girlfriend, but in the absence of the ruckus over Garner it's dubious he would have bothered to go to New York to do it.

Protein Wisdom: “Lena Dunham, Al Sharpton, Eric Holder, And The New Barbarism” - For 100, Alex What are three dangers to civilization and their common goal.

Mandy Rice-Davies

Mark Steyn: He Would, Wouldn’t He? - Mandy Rice-Davies, a "figure" in the Profumo scandal which toppled the McMillan government in the UK back in 1963 has died.

The face of Britain's protean sex scandal was her flatmate Christine Keeler, a more fragile beauty, but Mandy was its voice - the only one among the dramatis personae who seemed to be having a grand old time as the cameras clicked and the hacks barked. She provided almost all the memorable soundbites, commencing with her assertion that she was the Lady Hamilton de nos jours and continuing through to her scornful retort in court to the news that Lord Astor had denied sleeping with her: "Well, he would, wouldn't he?"

Weasel Zippers: You Knew It Was Coming – Cop Killer Had “A Troubled Childhood” - Duh, He was from Baltimore.

Despite the holiday madness Wombat-socho has the "Rule 5 Sunday: Bowls, Boobs And Other Entertainments" post up on time and within budget at The Other McCain.

Chesapeake Activist Claims Climate Illness

Environmental activist has Lyme disease

An environmentalist who has been prominent in the opposition to the plan to convert a Calvert County gas plant into an export facility has Lyme disease. Mike Tidwell, the founder and president of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN), made the announcement Dec. 11 in a letter to supporters.

Tidwell, a Takoma Park resident, stated he began to experience symptoms of the disease last spring. He was diagnosed with Lyme disease in October.

“I’m now part of a major epidemic—one likely linked to global warming,” Tidwell stated. “Lyme disease cases have skyrocketed in recent years and federal data show a parallel with rising temperatures. Globally, scientists say cases of tick- and mosquito-borne diseases will increase with climate change.”

Tidwell and his organization have participated in protests against Dominion’s plan to build a $3.8 billion liquefaction facility at Cove Point Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Plant in Lusby. The project has begun after a lengthy permitting process, which included public hearings held by the Maryland Public Service Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). It was the latter agency that granted final approval for the plan this past September.

Which is amusing because the actual climate in the region, the southern mid-Atlantic has actually been cooling at a rate of circa 2-3 F per decade for the last 10 years or so (see right).  So if he wants to blame his Lyme disease on the cooling climate, he's welcome to make that argument, if he would like. You see, global warming isn't necessarily the same as regional warming.

Of course, what has really led to the apparent rise of the Lyme disease is the numbers of one of its important host species, the White-tailed Deer, host of the Deer or Black Legged Tick which often carries Lyme disease. In the absence of controlling predators, and with plenty of suburban plantings to eat, these deer have become ubiquitous residents in close proximity to humans. We have them tramp through our yard frequently at night, and often see them.  At the turn of the 20th century, White-tailed deer had almost been eliminated from the eastern United States, only a determined plan to protect them has brought their populations back to the point that they have become a bit of problem species.

While I wouldn't wish Lyme disease on anyone, I also wish Tidwell wouldn't attempt to use it in such a bogus attempt to bolster his climate victim credentials.

Chesapeake Poacher Dodges the Pokey

St. Michaels man gets probation, must pay restitution in rockfish poaching scheme

Illegally netted Striped Bass

A St. Michaels fisherman received probation Friday for helping illegally harvest tens of thousands of pounds of striped bass from the Chesapeake Bay, but must pay $40,000 in fines and restitution for what the sentencing judge called an "egregious" offense.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard D. Bennett told Lawrence Daniel Murphy he seriously considered jailing him, but went along with the prosecution's recommendation for probation because of Murphy's relatively minor role in a fish poaching conspiracy involving three other Eastern Shore watermen.

However, Bennett said he wanted to hit Murphy in the wallet to send a message to other watermen that illegal fishing is a "very, very serious matter." Striped bass, also known as rockfish, are Maryland's state fish.

The judge ordered Murphy to pay a $10,000 fine, plus $30,000 in restitution to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources for the fish he'd helped illegally harvest.

He was just the hired help, but apparently he must have known what was going on. There's one more important sentence to be meted out, that of Michael Hayden, accused of attempting to intimidate witness:

Hayden's sentencing has been postponed until February, as the judge weighs whether to consider allegations Hayden attempted to intimidate the other fishermen not to cooperate with investigators.

I get the feeling that Judge Bennett's full wrath will come down on Mr. Hayden. It's one thing to kill some fish, but when you start threatening the court system, the judges get irate.

Rosie Jones Christmas Special

Boy, does that snow look fake.

Despite the holiday madness Wombat-socho has the "Rule 5 Sunday: Bowls, Boobs And Other Entertainments" post up on time and within budget at The Other McCain.

Midnite Christmas Music

Katy Perry gets new lyrics to perform on the spot:

They Got What They Wanted

New York City marchers on Dec 13, led by Al Sharpton.

The news, of course, is about the Baltimore gang banger Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who killed his "girlfriend", left ominous words about killing two of them for every one of his on Instagram, and then shooting and killing two New York City policemen, Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, while they were sitting in their squad car in Brooklyn, before killing himself.

“I’m Putting Wings on Pigs Today. They Take 1 Of Ours…Let’s Take 2 of Theirs #ShootThePolice #RIPErivGardner #RIPMikeBrown.” He concluded with, “This May Be My Final Post.”

Al Sharpton, who led the protest above backpedaled with:

“Any use of the names of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, in connection with any violence or killing of police, is reprehensible and against the pursuit of justice in both cases,” Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement.

New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio, with who notoriously warned his half Negro Black, African American son about the New York Police, said the soothing things in public that you would expect:

Fighting back tears, New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio described the murders as “an assassination” that were carried out in “execution style.” The loss, he said, “goes at the very heart of our society, our democracy.” “When a police officer is murdered it tears at the foundation of our society. It is an attack on all of us, it is an attack on all we hold dear,” DeBlasio explained. “Our entire city was attacked by this heinous individual.”

But the police of New York were less than satisfied, and turned their back on the Mayor when he visited the hospital where the stricken policemen were taken.

Just offhand, I would say that President Obama's plan to fix race relations in the United States by executive order is going about as well as you might have expected.