I love the whiff of political correctness in the morning

Dig we must!

Researchers claim that Stonehenge was built as a symbol of unity by warring factions of Britons.

“When Stonehenge was built,” said Professor Mike Parker Pearson of the University of Sheffield, “there was a growing island-wide culture — the same styles of houses, pottery and other material forms were used from Orkney to the south coast. This was very different to the regionalism of previous centuries. Stonehenge itself was a massive undertaking, requiring the labour of thousands to move stones from as far away as west Wales, shaping them and erecting them. Just the work itself, requiring everyone literally to pull together, would have been an act of unification.”

Every generation reinterprets its cultural heritage as the times demand, but I find it interesting that this “conclusion” is reached at the same time that the UN Migration Committee is calling for the undermining of European borders and expansion of multiculturalism. I sense a concerted push here.

Move the venue to Greenwich and she’d win in mere moments

Daniel Shak tries walking a yard in his wife’s shoes

Down-on-his-luck hedge fund idiot sues ex-wife, claiming she hid her shoe collection during divorce.

Daniel Shak claims Beth Shak never told him about her stockpile of 1,200 pairs of designer shoes when they divorced three years ago.

In addition to her fame as a World Series of Poker player, Beth is known as one of the world’s top footwear aficionados. Her collection has been featured in media outlets from The Post to MTV’s Cribs.

She even has an image of a Christian Louboutin stiletto tattooed on a private area of her body.

Yesterday, she told The Post Daniel would have to have been the most clueless hubby ever to be unaware of her hobby.

“I’m shaking my head over this whole thing,” Beth said. “He is saying he didn’t know the closet in our master bedroom existed.”

From what I’ve observed touring back country mansions, Ms. Shak would find a sympathetic ear here in Greenwich; in fact, she’d probably be pitied for having made such a bare beginning to serious shoe shopping.

 

It is good to be Queen

Always remember, children, the poor have their troubles as well as the rich!

In a reprieve from fund-raising duties, Michelle and daughters are planning a really cool trip to the London Olympics next month. Guess all those patriotic newlyweds really stepped up to the collection plate, eh?

The White House Dossier observes,

It’s not clear why the United States needs to send a delegation to the Olympic games, but nevertheless, Michelle has decided she will bear the burden. The trip is also ostensibly an opportunity for her to promote her “Let’s Move” kids’ fat reduction program, though it’s hard to imagine this will take up a lot of her time.

Ding dong, the witch is dead!

Robert F. sends along this happy news, so we can all relax now:

Do I have to pay a commission on this?

Evil GAR Princess captured, killed by bowhunter.

Crawford, with his fishing bow, stalked the [Alligator GAR] carefully, knowing he might only get one shot.

When he finally fired, he scored a direct hit, unleashing the fury of the 8-foot, 2-inch beast, which created an explosion of mud and water before it ran toward the lake.

Big problem, because the nylon cord had become tangled at Crawford’s feet, and when he grabbed the line, as it began to tighten, it became wrapped around his hand.

The line went taut and the fish yanked the fisherman into the water headfirst. That’s when Crawford’s dog, Bleux, grabbed him by the cuff of the jeans, creating a bizarre riverbank tug-of-war.

Crawford ultimately was able to free his hand from the cord and stand knee-deep in the shallow canal, gripping his fishing bow, the cord still attached to the mighty fish. “There was no doubt who was in control and it wasn’t me,” the fisherman recalled.

The gar stole 200 feet of cord in a battle that lasted 45 minutes, before Crawford reeled it to the bank. Soaked and exhausted, the fisherman straddled the fish, reached for his cellphone — which he had kept in a waterproof case — and dialed a friend.

The friend arrived with a pistol, which resoundingly ended the struggle, and the two men used a rope and an ATV to drag the quarry to Crawford’s house.

It wasn’t until after Crawford had carved up his catch that he learned the Texas bow-fishing record for alligator gar is 290 pounds, and the overall state record is 302 pounds.

Only question is, were those Zombie Bullets in his friend’s gun?

Never mind!

 

What’s all this about global farming?

Founder of global warming hysteria now says he was wrong.

Two months ago, James Lovelock, the godfather of global warming, gave a startling interview to msnbc.com in which he acknowledged he had been unduly “alarmist” about climate change.

The implications were extraordinary.

Lovelock is a world-renowned scientist and environmentalist whose Gaia theory — that the Earth operates as a single, living organism — has had a profound impact on the development of global warming theory.

Unlike many “environmentalists,” who have degrees in political science, Lovelock, until his recent retirement at age 92, was a much-honoured working scientist and academic.

His inventions have been used by NASA, among many other scientific organizations.

Lovelock’s invention of the electron capture detector in 1957 first enabled scientists to measure CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) and other pollutants in the atmosphere, leading, in many ways, to the birth of the modern environmental movement.

Having observed that global temperatures since the turn of the millennium have not gone up in the way computer-based climate models predicted, Lovelock acknowledged, “the problem is we don’t know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago.”

…

Lovelock still believes anthropogenic global warming is occurring and that mankind must lower its greenhouse gas emissions, but says it’s now clear the doomsday predictions, including his own (and Al Gore’s) were incorrect.

…

Among his observations to the Guardian:

(1) A long-time supporter of nuclear power as a way to lower greenhouse gas emissions, which has made him unpopular with environmentalists, Lovelock has now come out in favour of natural gas fracking (which environmentalists also oppose), as a low-polluting alternative to coal.

As Lovelock observes, “Gas is almost a give-away in the U.S. at the moment. They’ve gone for fracking in a big way. This is what makes me very cross with the greens for trying to knock it … Let’s be pragmatic and sensible and get Britain to switch everything to methane. We should be going mad on it.” (Kandeh Yumkella, co-head of a major United Nations program on sustainable energy, made similar arguments last week at a UN environmental conference in Rio de Janeiro, advocating the development of conventional and unconventional natural gas resources as a way to reduce deforestation and save millions of lives in the Third World.)

(2) Lovelock blasted greens for treating global warming like a religion.

“It just so happens that the green religion is now taking over from the Christian religion,” Lovelock observed. “I don’t think people have noticed that, but it’s got all the sort of terms that religions use … The greens use guilt. That just shows how religious greens are. You can’t win people round by saying they are guilty for putting (carbon dioxide) in the air.”

(3) Lovelock mocks the idea modern economies can be powered by wind turbines.

As he puts it, “so-called ‘sustainable development’ … is meaningless drivel … We rushed into renewable energy without any thought. The schemes are largely hopelessly inefficient and unpleasant. I personally can’t stand windmills at any price.”

(4) Finally, about claims “the science is settled” on global warming: “One thing that being a scientist has taught me is that you can never be certain about anything. You never know the truth. You can only approach it and hope to get a bit nearer to it each time. You iterate towards the truth. You don’t know it.”

Billions and billions of dollars wasted on a theory, not facts.

Off to the (old) high school

Salute to Veterans celebration/tribute on the field. No jets overhead this year or Navy Seals dropping in by helicopter but at 3:00 the Marine Drill Team will show their stuff – from what I’ve heard, for years, it’s quite a sight. I’m not a veteran nor did I vote for John Kerry, but I have many friends who are (and didn’t) and I go for them and their peers.

Profiles in courage

I am the very model of a modern major politico

Cuomo endorses Charlie Rangel. Or as Glenn Reynolds puts it, “he may be  a corrupt bastard but he’s our corrupt bastard!”

Whatever happened to the “Parking Fund”?

One for the town, three for me!

Discussion of proposed parking meters in East Port Chester included mention of raising an estimated  $250,000 in revenue from such meters. That’s a decision for the pool users in our western side of town to decide, so far as I’m concerned, but it did remind me that we once had a parking fund in excess of $1 million ($10 million? I don’t recall)  that was supposed to pay for a parking lot in downtown Greenwich. That never happened, with each and every proposed location being rejected, including one underneath the then-proposed Richard’s building, which seemed like a good idea to me. Assuming we’ve given up ever building a new facility, where’d the money go? Is it still sitting in some dedicated fund or was it dumped into general revenue? I’m not even suggesting skullduggery here, I’m just curious. Readers?

Forget Nutella, how about warning labels on Greenwich Time?

Drunk round-up, Greenwich Point

Greenwich Time republishes a governmental press release as genuine reporting:  Marine police will be targeting drunken boating this weekend.

Operation Dry Water takes place Friday through Sunday. Those caught operating a vessel under the influence may suffer penalties that include arrest, fines and loss of boating privileges.

Despite the fact that it is against federal and state law for a person with a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or higher to operate a recreational vessel, BUI continues to be a major problem in the United States and accounts for a disproportionate number of on the water deaths, according to the U.S. Coast Guard’s report, “2011 Recreational Boating Statistics.”

Recreational boating fatalities jumped last year to their highest levels since 1998, and BUI was the leading contributing factor, according to the report.

Okay: I’m a boater and I’m a skeptic so I was curious to see if there was anything behind this “article “and whether, had Greenwich Time looked, instead of just republishing filler, they’d have found any information useful to GT readers who wanted to put these numbers in perspective. I Googled up the true information in seconds: the GT itself mentions but doesn’t link to  (I will: here it is)  the very Coast Guard report that provides most of the answers. Had GT’s reporter actually read that report he might have learned something.

Here’s the real (non) story:

In the northeast,  there were 51 deaths in 2011 compared to 50 in 2010. Almost half involved non-motorized craft which will not be  part of this weekend’s   program, presumably:

Boating fatalities were divided between 29 deaths on motorized vessels and 22 deaths on non-motorized vessels.

Due to the tremendous growth in kayaking over the past decade, and the long-standing interest in canoeing, northeastern paddle-sport fatalities are typically double the national average.

What kind of actual numbers are we talking about? Fortunately, the Coast Guard provides that information:

758 deaths = 6.2 fatalities per 100,000 boaters, or put another way, of 12,225,806 boaters, 758 died.

Alcohol was the primary cause of 16% of those deaths: 121 deaths, out of 12,225,806 boaters. So much for it being “the leading contributing factor”, as Greenwich Time so witlessly repeats.

In Connecticut last year, 8 people died in boating accidents. Using the Coast Guard’s 16% calculation for alcohol involvement, one person died from boozy boating.

Has there in fact been a significant increase in boating deaths, alcohol related or otherwise? No. There were 758 last year, 672 in 2010, 821 in 1997, and numbers in that range during the intervening years. And in fact, (see p.54 of the Coast Guard Chart), accidents in general, power and non-power boats combined, have significantly declined while fatalities have remained flat.

I’m not advocating excessive drinking while boating; in fact, drunk boaters really piss me off. But I’m even more ticked off when publications still posing as independent news reporters blindly and unquestioningly republish hand outs from public relations departments, governmental or private, without thought, effort or even a warning to readers that the information they’re being fed hasn’t had even a cursory evaluation for accuracy.