There they go again.
As I've mentioned before, my big Hot Button Issue is science being trumped by ideology.
Well it's happening again: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060926/ap_on_sc/hurricane_report_4
The journal Nature is reporting that the White House has blocked a report by NOAA that was to have said that many NOAA scientists think that hurricanes may be increasing in strength and number due to higher ocean temps; higher temps that may be caused by global warming.
This is not a big leap, nor even a big point of contention in the global warming debate, it all sounds fairly conditional, not unusual for a science piece. Got squelched nonetheless :p
For a solid and objective look at global warming and hurricanes, as well as a great discusiion of the inherent problems associated with reporting on this issue, click
here
So, it's not just science that gets trumped by ideology.
While Michael Powell was still running the FCC he commissioned a study to show that consolidation of media ownership wasn't harmful to local programming. Ooops. Turns out locally owned stations produced 5 and half minutes more per half hour than did stations owned by Big Media. An attorney named Adam Candeub, who was with the FCC at the time and is now a law professor at Mich State, said that senior managers ordered that “every last piece” of the report be destroyed.
If you want to send a comment to the FCC go
here.
Remind them that local news broadcasts should be just that: local news.
In a side note: Belo Corp, owner of Dallas' Last Remaining Daily, has laid off staff in an attempt to refocus on local news. Good.
Because I know I'll forget this later.
From The Detroit Free Press:
"According to the dress code, students are allowed to wear school-sanctioned clothing, such as T-shirts bearing the school's mascot or clothing that supports school organizations.
This, according to the ACLU of Michigan, may violate the students' rights, particularly because it allows students to wear clothing that encourages school spirit but bans other forms of expression. ACLU officials have said that they plan to look into the constitutionality of the dress code."
As a Libertarian I share stances with both liberals and conservatives and so I read both types of blogs and get emails from riled up members of both camps. The ACLU is frequently mentioned in disgust by my right-leaning correspondents, ostensibly for living up to the "L" in their name. Never have figured out why right-wingers are agin liberty.
Anyway, I never seem to have anything to retort with except the ACLU defense of the KKK in their desire to march in Skokie over a decade ago. Standing up for the rights of the KKK seems to me like a perfect example of 'defending your right to say that which offends me'. As is this story.
Here, a few patriotic kids (and that's a good conservative thing, yes?) got bounced for wearing T-shirts on 9-11 that included words or pictures, in violation of the dress code. Looks like the ACLU angle is that if school words and images are OK then all bets are off. I don't know if they'll prevail, but at least they get props from me for standing up for conservatives. Under the liberal guise of free speech anyway.
Nice bridge. Set over a river leading into a bay. Nice setting.
Dallas wants to spend big bucks for some Calatrava bridges.
Over a a not so nice river in a not so nice setting. The first proposed bridge came in about three times over budget, and no private citizen jumped forward with a $100 million donation to make up the difference.
Dallas wanted a signature bridge, like this one.
We may end up with initials :p
