Mike's Noise

Brainstorming outlawed in UK

The Irish do their part to accelerate the dumbing-down of Western civilization:

'Brainstorming', the buzzword used by executives to generate ideas among their staff, has been deemed politically incorrect by civil servants because it is thought to be offensive to people with brain disorders.

Instead staff at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) in Belfast will use the term 'thought-showers' when they get together to think creatively. A spokeswoman said: 'The DETI does not use the term brainstorming on its training courses on the grounds that it may be deemed pejorative.'

Sources inside the department said there was concern that the term would cause offence to people with epilepsy as well those with brain tumours or brain injuries.

Thought shower?  How 'bout a scintilating papaya-guava-aloe vera body wash to turn your shower into a totally organic experience?  Or maybe just a good old jolt of Irish Coffee.  That ought to get the old creative juices flowing.

Ugh.

(h/t A Small Victory)

Courting Secularism

This week the Supreme Court wrapped up its yearly session, issuing a number of decisions while keeping those waiting for retirement announcements in suspense.

I'd like to write a bit about the two cases related to the display of The Ten Commandments, Van Orden v. Perry and McCreary County v. ACLU.

The Court ruled 5-4 in the McCreary County case that a framed display of the Ten Commandments was illegal in a court of law if its purpose was to suggest that our legal system owes anything to Judeo-Christian religious thought.  It also ruled 5-4 in the Van Orden case that a depiction of the Ten Commandments in a facility exclusively used for governmental activity was legal if the depiction had historic or artistic value.

A quick study of the two cases (PDF of McCreary here and Van Orden here) involving the Ten Commandments reveals that the Supreme Court is conflicted as to exactly what depictions of religious writings are acceptable for government property.  Clearly the Justices have a problem on their hands - they have been cowed by recent anti-Christian activism, while at the same time they are obligated to refrain from a ruling that would condemn their own venue as un-Constitutional:

Directly above the Bench are two central figures, depicting Majesty of the Law and Power of Government. Between them is a tableau of the Ten Commandments. The group at the far left represents Safeguard of the Rights of the People, and Genii of Wisdom and Statecraft. At the far right is the Defense of Human Rights.

Difficult decisions indeed.

Happy 75th Birthday to Dr. Thomas Sowell

Dr. Thomas Sowell turns 75 years old today.

He is one of the most brilliant Black intellectuals of the last 50 years, and his weekly column is always a must-read dose of common sense thinking on economics and modern society.

Incidentally, Rush Limbaugh is fond of describing Dr. Sowell as probably the only other person in the world that he would be willing to exchange brains with.

Happy birthday Dr. Sowell, and thanks for your dogged effort to expose the follies of leftist thinking and socialist economics.

(h/t Scott Johnson at PowerLine)

ABC cans "Welcome To the Neighborhood"

This morning Drudge ran a red-letter link to this story from the Washington Post:

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- "Welcome to the Neighborhood," an ABC reality series that pushes hot buttons of racism and anti-homosexuality, was pulled by the network before its debut.

The program had drawn criticism from groups claiming it risked fostering prejudice.

In a statement Wednesday, ABC acknowledged the delicate nature of the series in which families asked to pick a new neighbor are made to expose and overcome their biases.

"Welcome to the Neighborhood" demonstrates what happens when people are forced to "confront preconceived notions of what makes a good neighbor," the network said.

"However, the fact that true change only happens over time made the episodic nature of this series challenging, and given the sensitivity of the subject matter in early episodes we have decided not to air the series at this time."

The six-episode show, which was to debut July 10, follows three families in Austin, Texas, who are given the chance to choose a new neighbor for a house on their street.

Each family initially wants someone similar to them _ white and conservative.

Instead, they must choose from families that are black, Hispanic and Asian; two gay white men who've adopted a black child; a couple covered in tattoos and piercings; a couple who met at the woman's initiation as a witch; and a poor white family.

In the early episodes, one man makes a crack about the number of children piling out of the Hispanic family's car and displays of affection between the gay men provoke disgust.

Surprise, surprise, surprise - who'd have thought that Hollywood would ever come up with a "reality" show (and I use the term generously) that re-enforces every liberal stereotype about white Bible-belt conservatives!  I mean really.

Michelle Malkin also links this morning to the ever-readable Brian Maloney at Radio Equalizer, who informs us that it was liberal groups who eventually pressured ABC into pulling the show.  Particularly enraged were fair housing advocates, who were horrified at the prospect of neighbors voting to choose their neighbors.

I'm not surprised that conservatives didn't have much to say about this show, since Hollywood functions pretty much as a 24/7 smear machine for anything linked to Christianity, the Republican party, or the South.  Yep - our expectations are that low.   Anyone remember the awful "New Beverly Hillbillies" idea hatched by Les Moonves at CBS?  That insulting bit of trash brought the full fury of Zell Miller, who charged CBS with exploiting "bigotry for big bucks."

If Hollywood wants to give us real alternative entertainment, then why not have Ted Danson re-create his infamous black-face routine for prime-time TV, or maybe do a show about a white, Christian, Republican family from Louisiana moving into an upscale ultra-liberal neighborhood in D.C. or Berkeley?  My intuition tells me that you would find a far higher gross-out factor there than anywhere in Austin.

UPDATE ... or maybe they could show a video of this lovely little spat between Pennsylvania Democrats (h/t again to Michelle Malkin)

Bush clairvoyance at the AP

The special clairvoyance of mainstream media reporters that allows them to file stories about events before they happen has been dubbed the Lapham effect.  An alert reader notified Michelle Malkin of this story on the AP newswire this afternoon:

FORT BRAGG, N.C. - President Bush on Tuesday appealed for the nation's patience for "difficult and dangerous" work ahead in Iraq, hoping a backdrop of U.S. troops and a reminder of Iraq's revived sovereignty would help him reclaim control of an issue that has eroded his popularity.

In an evening address at an Army base that has 9,300 troops in Iraq, Bush was acknowledging the toll of the 27-month-old war. At the same time, he aimed to persuade skeptical Americans that his strategy for victory needed only time — not any changes — to be successful.

"Like most Americans, I see the images of violence and bloodshed. Every picture is horrifying and the suffering is real," Bush said, according to excerpts released ahead of time by the White House. "It is worth it."

It was a tricky balancing act, believed necessary by White House advisers who have seen persistent insurgent attacks eat into Americans' support for the war — and for the president — and increase discomfort among even Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Of course media clairvoyance is nothing new, really.  Last fall, the New York Times published a story containing incendiary quotes by President Bush that were made at a private luncheon.  Interestingly, the story was written by a reporter who did not attend the luncheon, and to further complicate things, no transcript of the President's remarks was ever released.

Read Nick Schulz's great Tech Central Station article for more background on this phenomenon and why it happens so often.  And in all honesty, the Lapham effect seems equally potent against liberals as well as conservatives. 

Day of the living dead ... coming soon

As linked on the Drudge Report, from News.com.au:

Pittsburgh's Safar Centre for Resuscitation Research has developed a technique in which subject's veins are drained of blood and filled with an ice-cold salt solution.

The animals are considered scientifically dead, as they stop breathing and have no heartbeat or brain activity.

But three hours later, their blood is replaced and the zombie dogs are brought back to life with an electric shock.

Plans to test the technique on humans should be realised within a year, according to the Safar Centre.

However rather than sending people to sleep for years, then bringing them back to life to benefit from medical advances, the [researchers] would be happy to keep people in this state for just a few hours.

But even this should be enough to save lives such as battlefield casualties and victims of stabbings or gunshot wounds, who have suffered huge blood loss.

After reading the article, my first thought was, "if they could find a way to replace the saline solution with bourbon, then the Democrats could keep Ted Kennedy in the Senate forever."

But then I got to thinking a little deeper about what is at stake here, especially if this technique works on humans.

Ground Zero memorial update

After a fiery Wall Street Journal op-ed by Deborah Burlingame exposed the plans of the leftist "International Freedom Center" to erect an anti-American and anti-military museum at the site of the former World Trade Center in New York City, people started paying a lot more attention to the proposed content of the memorial.  And rightly so, because more digging has turned up more outrageous items.

Last week, New York governor George Pataki was forced to issue a terse statement regarding the proposed degrading and anti-American propaganda slated for display at the Ground Zero Memorial:

“We will not tolerate anything on that site that denigrates America, denigrates New York or freedom or denigrates the sacrifice and courage that the heroes showed on Sept. 11.”

He added, “The [New York] Daily News did a good service by pointing out some of these things. We do not want that at Ground Zero; I do not want that at Ground Zero and to the extent that I have the power, it’s not going to happen.”

At issue are two controversial cultural groups that were picked to occupy a major building at the heart of the site - and have enraged 9/11 family members who say their murdered loved ones are being disrespected.

The larger museum, the International Freedom Center, has sparked fears it will focus on acts of U.S. wrongdoing, like slavery and treatment of American Indians, while the Drawing Center, now based in SoHo, was exposed in The News as displaying graphic and vulgar art attacking America’s war on terror.

Here's some more info about the SoHo-based museum The Drawing Center, which apparently specializes in anti-American art pieces.

Even after this statement, many are not convinced that the Governor of New York can or will do anything to stop moonbats from taking over the Ground Zero memorial.  I partially agree, because the fact that the Governor of New York had to step into the fray seems to illustrate how far this process had gotten before anyone really noticed.  And now it may be too late.  I for one will be ashamed if a demeaning display of Leftist hate for our armed forces and our President ends up being the "memorial" that New York chooses to erect.

Forty years ago, no one would have dared to even utter the notion of building a museum that depicted Americans brutalizing Native Americans or condoning the practice of slavery on top of the remains of the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. 

Censorship?  Repression?  No.  Try respect.  And common sense.  No one else but today's moonbat left has ever felt the need to assuage their own misplaced guilt by inflicting a great racial and cultural slur upon the innocent victims of premeditated violence.

In all fairness, I wonder -  if Palestinians ever get the opportunity to build a museum for the likes of Rachel Corrie, will the IFC's benefactors show up there and insist on placing this photo at the museum's entrance, and demand that the museum constantly remind visitors of how many innocent civilians have been left dead or grievously wounded at the hands of Palestinian terrorism over the last thirty five years?  Don't worry, I'm not holding my breath.  The mission of the IFC and other similar organizations seems to be uniquely directed at the United States.

If you are outraged by all of this, visit 911familiesforamerica.org and takebackthememorial.com to find out what you can do, and to sign the petition requesting an end to this insult.

Shredding propaganda - it's a beautiful thing

This is choice:

Memorial Day is a day of remembrance and honor for the majority of people. For a select few, those committed to a “peace at any price” world-view, Memorial Day is a day to protest war, warriors and to hand out printed propaganda. This year in Columbia Missouri, at the Air Show and the Memorial Day Parade the “Peace at any price” propaganda ended up in shreds – literally.

By an earlier federal court ruling, the Veterans group that hosts Missouri’s Air Show was forced to allow the peace groups to hand out their literature and carry protest signs onto the tarmac of the event. The court ruled that protesters had the right to free speech. So, we provided some free speech of our own, by the name of Operation Simply Shred.

A simple concept, legal, moral, and deliciously humorous – Operation Simply Shred provided a polite, free and immediate shredding service for any unwanted political literature or flyer that an Air Show or parade attendee did not care to keep any longer. Small, powerful battery operated shredders in the hands of polite and helpful volunteers allowed any citizen to exercise their own First Amendment right to shred any flyer or propaganda piece handed to them by a “peace at any price” protestor just seconds after they received it. And it was environmentally friendly to boot.

Go to Little Green Footballs and read the whole thing.  And please view the slide show put together by Operation Simply Shred volunteers.  It's priceless.

Maybe next year the group can wear T-shirts with Fawn Hall's picture on them.

"Deep Impact" Slated for July 4

For amateur astronomy geeks (sort of like myself) July 4 looks to be an interesting day.  NASA plans to launch a wine-barrel-size projectile from the "Deep Impact" space probe into the head of comet Tempel-1, hopefully gouging out a cone-shaped hole (similar to what happens when a BB hits window glass) that will reveal the composition of the comet's core.

Scientists aren't sure what the exact effects of the collision of the man-made projectile and the comet will be (though they have positively ruled out any doomsday scenarios) but they hope that the energy of the impact will briefly cause the comet to become visible over parts of the Western Hemisphere.  Of course NASA instruments and telescopes will be trained on the comet to capture the event.

I don't know how many amateur astronomers blog, but I will try to find any amateur images of the comet impact that are available, and link to them in a follow-up post.

Here is the official NASA home page for the "Deep Impact" mission.

More coverage at Astronomy Magazine online.

The Virtual Victrola - June 26 Edition (inaugural post) - Crosby vs. Crosby

This post has been moved here.