evolution

“Wedding-night consummation losing allure?” (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Toby Young could not be reached for comment.

UPDATE: Somewhat related is this: World-wide “Admire Your Own Genitals” Day. [inherited from: Tinkerty Tonk.]

There’s a study going on in my former stomping grounds which will affect whether or not wind is further developed as an energy source in Kansas. Here’s a Reuters story with some background on it.

The research, which is being funded by a range of public and private sources, including the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (headed by former Republican Gov. Mike Hayden, a Sebelius appointee) and the ostensible wind farm developers themselves. Special bonus: Two researchers from K-State are carrying out the study.

Riley County placed a moratorium on new wind farm construction that expired a year and a half ago — which was not, as far as I know, removed. (If you’d like to provide more information than my searches turned up, feel free.)

A concern — besides the obvious NIMBY-related concerns, and the Reuters story mentions such concerns popping up among certain statist patricians in Massachusetts (Romney and Kennedy, now there’s a pair) — is that wind farms in the Flint Hills area will affect the natural habitat of Kansas’s prairie-chicken, the numbers of which are dwindling. This study appears to have the blessing of both the local conservation groups and the energy companies, which as I said partially funded the research. This is a switch from the debates surrounding the moratorium, the nature of which you can get from this story which ran in my alma mater’s newspaper, the Kansas State Collegian. The study will analyze the impact of existing wind farms on prairie-chickens in locations throughout Kansas over a period of four years to see what, if any, harm is done to them by the wind turbines.

I recall my reaction at the time being something like schadenfreude at the irony of environmentalists opposing a clean energy source on environmental grounds. I was teaching then, and therefore consuming large quantities of Boulevard Wheat to deal with the pain, and I’ve had time to think since then.

Placing myself at the energy companies’ points of perspective, I might be a little irritated at first, and then come to see the benefits of funding such a study. The biggest benefit I see besides a potential source of revenue is the benefit of positive public relations. Companies who build wind farms here can justifiably claim that they took every step to minimize harm to the environment while providing valuable service to their customers. From the environmental groups’ perspectives, the benefit is again PR — they can justifiably say, again, that they cooperated with energy producers to produce a valuable benefit for minimal ecological cost; also, they fight what I see as an obstructionist reputation. In addition to that, there is the added benefit of collecting data on the birds, which I’m sure will be valuable (although I cannot say how; my academic training being in mathematics and all).

In any case, I’d be interested to see what this study comes up with. I don’t think there are any problems to be found here except the length of time involved, but that seems a small price to pay. The energy companies and environmental groups put their heads together with public officials and came up with a solution that appears to have pleased just about everyone. With this sort of careful planning, I believe it is possible to achieve what I feel is one of the top national security goals of our time — energy independence. It is a bonus, I think, to do it with minimal harm to the environment.

Plus, talking about this story gives me a chance to re-post this Photoshop from a while back:

I’m close to moving on a new computer purchase. It may be two weeks hence, because the rent is due this week, but certainly by then I’ll be ready. (I’m trying to decide if I want to pay for it all at once or, say, put it on the plastic and pay for it over a period of four months. I generally hate carrying credit card debt, and I don’t usually do it.)

I’m looking at a Dell XPS 400, with the 3.0GHz Pentium dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7800 video card with SLI. I can get a bit of a deal on the Dell 20″ widescreen flat-panel monitor, too. (Later I might buy a twin unit for it.) My family, my current employers, and my previous employers all did business with Dell, and none have been disappointed. I’ve heard about the horror stories of other bloggers (Jarvis in particular), but that has not been my experience.

I decided not to build one. I can build the machine by itself for around $1200, but by the time I bought a good flat-panel monitor and a copy of Windows (since I intend to do some gaming), I’d be at or possibly over the $1600 asking price for the Dell machine, and I’d be on my own for support with fewer warranty options from the very beginning. I’ve decided that’s not worth it.

Details here.

It’s too bad the Royals can’t fire the one man who needs to lose his job, and that would be David Glass.

Allahpundit has the latest, including links to an interview with a Marine who was sitting in the vehicle next to the one who was killed which apparently sparked the incident. It’s long, and I haven’t watched it yet, but it appears from what I’ve seen that this Marine was grievously wounded by the explosive and thus can’t provide too many details about what happened.

The Almighty One also has a link to an interview with the dead Marine’s father, who has spoken with other members of the unit.

John Cole has a link to an interview with a journalist that travelled with the unit whose actions are in question, which leads him to make the following conjecture: “I really do think Damon is probably painting the most accurate description of events (at least from the evidence I have seen)- that it was, as she wrote, ‘a rampage by a small number of Marines who snapped after one of their own was killed by a roadside bomb.’ This is what I think happened- a small group of frazzled Marines, under a great deal of stress and pressure, lost control when one of their buddies was killed and went on a ‘rampage.’ It does not excuse their behavior, but it does help to explain it.”

The journalist’s (CNN’s Arwa Damon) piece is a good one, describing in grim detail the outlook for the typical Marine in Haditha, a virtual hive of IEDs and insurgents blending with the civilian population. As Cole said, these details help provide an explanation for this alleged behavior, but they are not an excuse for it. We shall see what the investigation brings. I’d be surprised if it differs too much from Cole’s conjecture.

Come on, Congress, now. Smile on your people — everybody come together and erase those borders right now:

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico - The funeral didn’t make much news; funerals here rarely do. Instead, a quiet resignation suffused La Paz funeral home, where a few relatives and friends paid final respects to Rodolfo Alejandro Equia Guerrero, a law enforcement official gunned down a week ago.

“The killers seem bolder, without any fear,” said Brenda Equia, 24, the deceased man’s niece, as she bounced her 1-year-old daughter, Briana, on her lap. “So much death leaves you numb, even when your own relative is the victim.”

Already this year, at least 114 people have been killed, compared with 45 this time a year ago. The reason, authorities say, is continued fighting between rival drug organizations, with the Sinaloa cartel solidifying its presence on Interstate 35, a vital cocaine and marijuana smuggling route into Texas.

The cartel is expanding its reach along the Texas border, officials say, even as it presses its battle with the rival Gulf cartel for control of the I-35 corridor and establishes itself deep inside Nuevo Laredo - to which it has been transferring some of its operations from Monterrey, Mexico, and Laredo, Texas.

I’d say nearly half of Kansas’s population lives on or near I-35.

The young lady whose uncle was murdered says, “The killers seem bolder, without any fear,” and why should they? They know that this country is too cuckolded to do anything about it, and the Mexican government — whether due to ineptitude, apathy, or avarice — is nowhere to be found.

The story goes on to detail the murders of several Mexican city police officers — often in broad daylight, and includes the following nugget:

The Sinaloa cartel is “feeling quite comfortable,” said a U.S. investigator, speaking on condition of anonymity. “They have the upper hand, and they’re moving towards Matamoros.

“Again, Chapo’s goal is to control the U.S.-Mexico border, and he’s determined to achieve his goal, no matter the cost,” the official said, referring to reputed Sinaloa kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

Guzman’s hit squad, known as Los Negros or Los Pelones, is battling enforcers for the Gulf Cartel, called Los Zetas. Their weapons of choice in carrying out executions are high-powered automatic rifles and grenades.

If this story is anything, I believe it’s an argument for a “high fence, wide gate” border-security model as put forth by Tom Friedman. (And, of course, neither he nor I are necessarily talking about an actual physical barrier.) Any immigration reform that hinders or prevents willing immigrants who want to join other Americans in a better life damages us as a nation. Any immigration reform that doesn’t also include serious border security measures is not worth considering.

I hope so. Mostly out of a desire to laugh hysterically.

The campaigns to combat the effects of ‘passive smoking’ are widely credited for Europe’s growing number of smoking bans. Now alcohol is in the sights of the public health lobbyists, and they have invented the concept of ‘passive drinking’ as their killer argument.

I have seen a leaked draft report for the European Commission, which is due to be published some time in June. It makes claims about the high environmental or social toll of alcohol, the ‘harm done by someone else’s drinking’. The report is likely to inform proposals for a European Union alcohol strategy later this year.

Dr Peter Anderson, the report’s lead author, who has a background in the World Health Organisation (WHO) and plays a leading role in Tobacco Free Initiative Europe, tells me that the concept of social harm takes the alcohol debate beyond the traditional limits of individual choice and addiction. ‘You can make the argument that what an individual drinks is up to them, provided they understand what they are doing and bearing in mind that alcohol is a dependency-producing drug…. But when you talk about harm to others then that is a societal concern and justification for doing something about it. I think that is an important argument. If there was not harm to others then the argument gets a little less powerful’ (1).

There are also several dozen jokes here about the United States being a “young country”, and how we need to learn from Europe’s history… but I’m tired tonight, so I’ll let you write them.

[inherited from: Say Anything.]

Former Kansas GOP chairman Mark Parkinson switched his party membership to Democrat, which I think is a testament to the Kansas Republican Party’s monumental ineffectiveness. Looks like it’s easier to switch than to fight for an organization one believes in.

A lot of people think that this move is to clear the way for him to be named as John Moore’s replacement for the job of Lieutenant Governor on Sebelius’s ticket. I don’t think it would matter who she named; short of a video of her dancing around a burning Hum-vee, firing an AK-47 into the air, and chanting “SCREW THEM“, she’s going to win easily this November.

So, it is with that cheery GOP outlook that I tell you that gubernatorial hopeful Robin Jennison picked State Sen. Dennis Wilson (R-OP) as his running mate.

A major reason for both of these choices was the always-entertaining “geographic balance”, a contrivance that states basically that voters are too dumb to look past their immediate field of vision to make up their minds about a candidate. Sebelius, despite being from northwest Kansas, managed to cream Tim Shallenburger, who is from the more populous Northeast Kansas and also happened to be State Treasurer and a former Speaker of the House.

As I’ve said, I have no real problems with Gov. Sebelius, and a lot of problems with the direction of the GOP and conservatism in general in this state. I suspect a lot of other people feel the same way. Sebelius will win going away in November; I think she deserves to.

RELATED: Sebelius sinks her chances at winning the Democratic nomination for President.

Courtesy of Allahpundit (here and here) with bonus opinion from the Commissar here.

Whatever happened here, we can’t afford to dismiss it lightly.

Hosted this week by “Big Daddy” Don Surber.