“Because of that blindness, this administration cannot see a foreign terrorist even when he stands right in front of them, fresh from an attempt to blow a plane out of the sky on Christmas Day,” she said.

“There’s no other way to explain the irresponsible, indeed dangerous, decision on Abdulmutallab’s interrogation. There’s no other way to explain the inconceivable treatment of him as if he were a common criminal.”

via Collins: Obama has terror ‘blind spot’ – UPI.com.

Boo! The supposed picture of GOP moderation, Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), basically has no belief that the American justice system cannot properly deal with Adbul Mutallab’s trial. Doesn’t sound to moderate to me.

I think the iPad, as it stands, will help spread the e-revolution for books. I just don’t think, as it stands, it will be the book replacement tool for those who need it most: grade 6-12 children. Most college kids purchase a laptop as their primary educational aide. They may become a widespread tool at primary and high schools in affluent areas, but at 500 dollars per to start + some book licensing fees, I don’t think they are affordable enough. Most textbook upgrades are done incrementally. Rarely do schools outlay the kind of cash that would make a “let’s replace all these books with iPad’s” an even trade. Apple could propose school discounts, but in the Philadelphia Public School system, I just don’t see this as an affordable reality.

Netbook + e-readers and Kindles are on better pace (price and adaptability to various mobile telco environments) to become this type of tool for grades 6-12 and both Netbook + e-reader, Kindles and iPads could drive down costs at the collegiate level where you spend hundreds on once and done books every term. In reality, enough kids are still used to the tactile experience of reading things in hand, they may purchase printers to print on demand from either type of tool.

Note: The iPad doesn’t use SIM cards. It uses a Micro-SIM card. So yes, they are technically “unlocked” but GSM networks use standard SIM cards and this is basically a cynical its unlocked if your mobile provider wants to switch to Micro-SIM technology. Minus some hack to the BIOS routine that loads the SIM info and will port it to other mobile networks, its not unlocked at all. So this is another to wide spread use because if you want to use an iPad, you have to be an AT&T customer because of this proprietary hardware. Thumbs down Apple. Two thumbs down.

The quack where Oprah, Arianna and Jenny McCarthy get their Autism causes insert malady here nonsense has finally been censured for his quackery.

In 1998, Andrew Wakefield, a gastroenterologist at London’s Royal Free Hospital, published a study in the prestigious medical journal Lancet that linked the triple Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine with autism and bowel disorders in children. The study — and Wakefield’s subsequent public statements that parents should refuse the vaccines — sparked a public health panic that led vaccination rates in Britain to plunge.

Wakefield’s study has since been discredited, and the MMR vaccine deemed to be safe. But now medical authorities in the U.K. have also ruled that the manner in which Wakefield carried out his research was unethical. In a ruling on Jan. 28, The General Medical Council, which registers and regulates doctors in the U.K., ruled that Wakefield acted “dishonestly and irresponsibly” during his research and with “callous disregard” for the children involved in his study.

[…]

The General Medical Council, which will now decide whether to revoke Wakefield’s medical license, highlighted several areas where Wakefield acted against the interest of the children involved in the 1998 study. It criticized Wakefield for carrying out invasive tests, such as colonoscopies and spinal taps, without due regard for how the children involved might be affected. It also cited Wakefield’s method of gathering blood samples — he paid children at his son’s birthday party $8 to give blood — and said that Wakefield displayed a “callous disregard for the distress and pain the children might suffer.”
The panel also criticized Wakefield for failing to disclose that, while carrying out the research, he was being paid by lawyers acting for parents who believed their children had been harmed by the MMR jab.

The panel’s ruling follows a refutation of Wakefield’s research from the scientific community. Ten of 13 authors in the Lancet study have since renounced the study’s conclusions. The Lancet has said it should not have published the study in the first place, and various other studies have failed to corroborate Wakefield’s hypothesis.

via Doc Who Tied Vaccine to Autism Ruled Unethical – TIME.

If it takes over a decade to discredit this quacks cooked up research and appropriately discredit his professional credentials, something needs to change about how the scientific and medical experts build public consensus regarding its findings. Wakefield is currently in Austin running an autism research center, so believe that there a bunch of unvaccinated kids running around due to the effective ground work of the marketing firm of Winfrey, Huffington and McCarthy. I doubt we’ll hear any retraction from any of them soon. Meanwhile Winfrey’s final season is being celebrated, the Huffington Post has been held up as the future of journalism and Jenny McCarthy is being exalted as a font of motherly advice and as far as the children who follow the quackery they promote:

Vaccination rates among toddlers plummeted from over 90% in the mid-1990s to below 70% in some places by 2003. Following this drop, Britain saw an increase in measles cases at a time when the disease had been all but eradicated in many developed countries. In 1998, there were just 56 cases of the disease in England and Wales; by 2008 there were 1,370.

Public health has been set back decades.

…and frankly, neither do I.

I completely agree with this scientists summation of cap and trade. No matter what, big polluters will continue to pollute cap and trade just lets them exchange the right to do it. A straight up carbon tax on energy consumption vs. emission of pollutants used to directly fund clean energy solution development and implementation is a better way to go.

More of this open and fair debate please. A clear win for the President.

Vs.

State of the Union Guest Cindy Parker-Martinez’s postion:

Cindy Parker-Martinez (Belle Isle, FL)

Cindy is a mother of two young children, who shared her story of the problems her family faces with the current health care system at a Health Care Community Discussion held at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, one of thousands of discussions held nationwide in December 2008. In April 2008, Cindy, her husband, and her son were all denied insurance coverage on the individual insurance market because of pre-existing conditions. Her 11-month old daughter was also denied coverage due to an insurance company age requirement of 12 months. Both Cindy and her husband are currently uninsured because they cannot afford the insurance offered at her husband’s employer. Although they previously paid their premium, they could not afford to keep up the monthly payments after receiving thousands of dollars in medical bills from her husband’s unexpected 6-day hospital stay for pneumonia. Their family’s income is too high for them to qualify for Medicaid. Cindy and her husband currently have no insurance and have thousands of dollars in medical debt.

via Ezra Klein – The SOTU guest list.

It’s the choice of the congressional Democrats and the President.

Hooray for Hollywood…

#1, Hollywood Freeway, Los Angeles

Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 686

Worst bottleneck: Southbound, Vermont Avenue

Length of worst bottleneck: .64 mi

Weekly hours of congestion on worst bottleneck: 77

Speed of worst bottleneck when congested: 14 mph

The expert opinion: “I recall they would say things like it’s a 20-minute trip downtown on the Hollywood Freeway,” Metropolitan Transportation Authority chief executive Art Leahy says on traffic when he was growing up in Los Angeles. “No one anticipated the congestion that would emerge.”

via America’s 75 Worst Commutes – The Daily Beast.

The Schuylkill Expressway here in Philadelphia is #20. Its understandably high, its an old highway and is doomed to be too small for those who need to use it on a daily basis. The real relief comes from a clean reliable light rail system that connects suburban communities to the downtown Philadelphia area.

Today, Erroll Southers, President Obama’s nominee to head the Transportation Security Administration TSA, announced that he was withdrawing from consideration because “his nomination had become a lightning rod for those with a political agenda.” Indeed, Southers’ most vocal opponent was Sen. Jim DeMint R-SC, who was blocking the highly qualified nominee “to prevent TSA workers from joining a labor union.” Following the failed Christmas Day bombing when it became increasingly clear how much the TSA needed a director, the right wing insisted on playing politics with Southers’ nomination.

via Think Progress » Long-stalled TSA nominee Erroll Southers withdraws Republicans’ political opposition.

This past summer and Christmas the Congress went home without staffing the administration. DeMint won, Reid lost as a result Obama lost. He’s a f*cking police chief and veteran. If you can’t shame a Republican into confirming a police chief and veteran than what can you do? Recess appointments are always an option, but Reid should have taken one of the vacations and said we ain’t leaving until we approve every one of Obama’s nominees Dems have votes for. The government needs to be staffed appropriately and its a year into the Administration.

Next time Nominations before vacations.

Trijicon decides that their religious views matters more than US Military Code or the strategic mission of the military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Trijicon, a sighting manufacturer based in Wixom, Mich., has several multimillion-dollar contracts with the Pentagon to make sights.Along with the sights stock number, there are coded Bible passages from the New Testament engraved on the sights.

One reads JN8:12, an apparent reference to John 8:12, which says, “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

“Trijicon did not return calls for comment yesterday but confirmed the engravings to ABCNews.com. And the companys mission statement is steeped in religion, saying it strives to follow morals “based on Biblical standards.”

Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said the sights endanger troops. “This plays right into the hands of maniacs who say, ‘Look, it’s a jihad,'” he said, adding that he’s received several complaints from soldiers and Marines.

via Michigan weapons company Trijicon takes flak over soldiers rifle scopes branded with Bible verses.

Apparently they think they have answered the question: What Would Jesus Shoot?

Here is a pretty long list for donating to a variety of NGOs who are on the ground helping to provide relief for Haiti.

Text HAITI to 90999 to donate $10 to the American Red Cross

Text QUAKE to 20222 to donate $10 to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund

Text HABITAT to 25383 to donate $10 to Habitat For Humanity

Text OXFAM to 25383 to donate $10 to Oxfam A

Text HAITI to 25383 to donate $5 to International Rescue Committee

Text HAITI to 45678 to donate $5 to the Salvation Army in Canada

Text YELE to 501501 to donation $5 to Yele

Text RELIEF to 30644 to get automatically connected to Catholic Relief Services and donate money with your credit card

Text HAITI to 864833 to donate $5 to The United Way

Text CERF to 90999 to donate $5 to The United Nations Foundation

Text DISASTER to 90999 to donate $10 to Compassion International

via With Mobile Giving To Haiti Passing $20 Million, Text Fundraising Comes Of Age.

The “Triangle Of Wickedness”

Presumably, that’s Ahmadinejad’s response to Bush’s “Axis Of Evil”. He needs a Frum or two.

via The “Triangle Of Wickedness” – The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan.

Axis of Evil always sounded dumb as Triangle of Wickedness, but maybe that’s the Yes We Can dog whistle I am tuned to. Either way, sloganeering works and the only reason Ahmadinejad’s may not is because he is actively support beat downs, murders and arrests of his people who are protesting the fraud election that delivered him a second term.