News

Lots of discussion over this the past few days:

For the first time in 20 years, a government panel is telling women in their 40s to stop getting routine mammograms and recommending that a host of other breast cancer screenings slow down. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force redefines mammogram needs. The United States Preventive Service Task Force announced Monday that it recommends against annual mammograms for women age 40 to 49 because, they say, the benefits of testing do not outweigh the "harms" and risks. [From New Mammogram Guidelines Spur Debate Over Early Detection - ABC News]

I'm very glad my wife's cancer was detected at its earliest possible stage by a routine mammogram at age 45, that these people are morons and that if you want them managing your health care, you're a moron, too.

"Harms?" "Risks?" They are apparently mean the imagined risk due to the tiny radiation dose and still believe in the stupid "no baseline" approach for estimating radiation risk. Like I said, they are morons.

But it's still an outrage and a disappointment:

It’s impossible, really, to caricature this White House; even Josiah Bartlett didn’t run through this many liberal stereotypes in his first season. Obama needs new writers. Blow up the World Trade Center and kill 3,000 Americans? Jail! Don’t buy health insurance? Jail! Win the Nobel Prize for doing jack squat. Travel to Copenhagen to beg and grovel unsuccessfully for the Olympics, and pledge to go visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but blow off traveling to Berlin to commemorate the victory of freedom over Communism (then give a tepid speech on the subject that refuses to acknowledge Ronald Reagan). Commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland by unilaterally abandoning missile defense installations in Poland. Insult and disdain one faithful ally after another - Britain, India, Israel, Poland, Columbia, you name it - and cozy up to our enemies, with nothing to show for it - nothing to show for anything he’s done in foreign affairs. All but ignore democratic protests in Iran while supporting an illegal effort by Honduras’ president to stay on beyond the end of his term. Suddenly complain about corruption and electoral fraud in Afghanistan, while seeking the favor of Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadenijad and Vladimir Putin - heck, Obama endorsed half a dozen people in Chicago more corrupt than Hamid Karzai. On and on and on we go, with President Apology constantly straining to run down his country’s record and talk up the propagandized view of history of its enemies. He’s taken more time to “evaluate” General McChrystal’s recommendations about Afghan policy than it took George W. Bush to invade Afghanistan and capture Kabul after September 11. It would be funny if it wasn’t tragically stupid and bound to get people killed. There is no mistake of our past that Obama is unwilling to remake.

So the presidential candidate that "palled around with terrorists" appointed an AG from a firm that defends terrorists. None of this should be a surprised. I'm really wondering whether Jimmy Carter's second term would have been this bad.

Booster of NASA and the Viet Cong, dead at 92.

This was stupendously dumb. Spectacularly dumb. Stupid with 3 o's dumb.

Exurban Jon asks:

After Obama's latest misstep, I've had a rather horrifying thought: What if Biden's the smart one?

The grade school Christmas Winter Concert that was postponed from last month finally went on last night:

The election of Barack Obama should put an end to the idea that the USA is an especially racist nation. Racism is a universal human tendency and will never be eradicated, but there is no other place on Earth where this could have happened. One simple fact: in every state that I've seen polls from, Obama did as well or better than Kerry among white voters.

This is a very bad day. The very sad news from Bill Kristol:

It's my sad duty to report that our good friend and valued contributor Dean Barnett passed away today. He was a remarkable man--principled, witty, and to all of us, a model of grace and courage. We mourn his passing and cherish his memory.

Less Ice In Arctic Ocean 6000-7000 Years Ago:

Recent mapping of a number of raised beach ridges on the north coast of Greenland suggests that the ice cover in the Arctic Ocean was greatly reduced some 6000-7000 years ago. The Arctic Ocean may have been periodically ice free.

I've been anxiously waiting to see what Don Luskin would say about his nemesis. He doesn't disappoint.