“I always bemoan the state of Indy car racing. Then I watch NASCAR.”

Frank W. James viewed the Daytona 500 over the weekend.

Tim Blair may may still be watching

• Everyone is sitting around while track repairs continue. It’s global warming, people. Just like when the Copenhagen 250 got called off.

• “You woke me up.” Kyle Busch replies to Fox commentators while relaxing during his Daytona siesta.

• Sign now displayed at Daytona Speedway:


• At this rate, the finish of the 2010 Daytona 500 will overlap with the start of the 2011 Daytona 500...

• Drivers are getting back into their cars. Some of them are now remarried and wearing bifocals...

• Drivers once again out of their cars. Track under repair. Race finish expected sometime mid-March.

• The next delay will be due to the inauguration of President Chelsea Clinton.

• We’re down to a one-lap race. They could’ve done this 199 laps ago.

• Green flag. One lap. Oh, and another smiting. THIS RACE WILL NEVER END.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 18:06:20 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Gone Bayh-Bayh...

So The Indianapolis Star and The Washington Post are both reporting that Indiana’s junior Senator Evan Bayh has decided to pass on a run for a third term.  I’ll probably have more to say about this, but a few points come to mind immediately:

So why this decision?  Short of the pending revelation of some yet-unforseen Dark Secret, I would speculate that Bayh’s internal polling is showing that the next campaign would be, for Bayh, a difficult one, and for the Democrats nationally, disastrous.  We’re talking loss-of-both-houses disastrous, which, if true, would also explain Mike Pence’s decision to stay out of the Senate race and remain in the House (in a Republican sweep, Speaker of the House trumps junior Senator).

I would also note that Bayh’s statement, which complains about the stalemate and lack of bi-partisanship in Congress, backhandedly endorses the wisdom of the Republican strategy of refusing to provide the super-majority Democrats with political cover.  Bravo.

Meanwhile, Scott at The Hoosierpundit offers a short list of possible Democrat candidates, but in a subsequent post notes that Indiana University student (and “healthcare activist”) Tamyra D’Ippolito, who had been attempting to challenge Bayh in the primary, was (as of the 12^th) only 1,000 signatures away from getting on the ballot.  Now read on:

Bayh declined reelection at the last possible minute so that no Democrat would be on the [Democrat primary] ballot for Senate in Indiana, and thus Democratic Party insiders (largely Bayh cronies) would pick who is on the ballot in November.

but...

If Tamyra D’Ippolito is on the ballot, then that’s all she wrote.  They can’t pick anyone else. She will be their nominee, period.

The deadline for signatures is Tuesday (tomorrow), noon.  Hey, tea partiers, wanna have some fun and see a real leftist as Democrat nominee?


Elsewhere (more links added 100216  †17:10 ‡23:15):

Previously:  A little nervous, Evan?

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 19:43:21 GMT | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Another day, another snow

Probabilities for 24 hours beginning at 7pm Sunday:

They’re predicting an inch tonight and another inch tomorrow for north Indianapolis, with twice as much on the city’s south side.

Radar already shows light snow falling in Johnson County and points south. Was thinking about running down to Greenwood this evening for Chinese; maybe I’ll skip it.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Dear Diary... at 23:53:45 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Global Warming: Back to Step 1?

Remember this chart?

Looks like we may be headed back to Step 1:

Phil Jones, the professor behind the “Climategate” affair, has admitted some of his decades-old weather data was not well enough organised.

He said this contributed to his refusal to share raw data with critics – a decision he says he regretted.

But Professor Jones said he had not cheated the data, or unfairly influenced the scientific process.

He said he stood by the view that recent climate warming was most likely predominantly man-made.

But he agreed that two periods in recent times had experienced similar warming.  And he agreed that the debate had not been settled over whether the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than the current period.

Okay, assume the highlighted paraphrase accurately represents what Jones actually said.  If so, it’s a major walkback, and SonicFrog explains why:

If there was a warmer Medieval Warm Period, then the current warming could be more likely due to natural variation, instead of CO₂ [or other] man-made [causes], as the models don’t account for this earlier warmer condition.  At the very least, the “certainty” and of doom and gloom warming predictions is overstated, as the world may have been warmer and the world didn’t end.

Warmer before.  World didn’t end.  Owned.

Related:

BBC link via SonicFrog, HT: Bill Quick

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 18:24:09 GMT | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Spread it around!

Commenter Rich Rostrom (over at Weasel’s place), on the prevention of political dynasties:

JW^[1]:  I’d go further: “No one shall be eligible for election to any office of the United States, or of any state, or of any territory, or any local or municipal government under the United States or any state or territory, whose spouse, or sibling, parent, grandparent, or parent’s sibling, by blood, adoption, or marriage (including former marriages), has previously served in that office by election; all seats in any legislative assembly or adminstrative commission being considered the same office.”

This would get rid of Senators Dodd and Bayh, and about 30 Representatives.

It would have prevented Senators Lincoln Chaffee, Al Gore jr., Liz Dole, Bobby and Teddy Kennedy, and a great many others in the past (there were five Senator Bayards from Delaware).  Also Pat and Joe II Kennedy (JFK was in the House for three terms).

One thing – the previous holder has to have been elected.  Otherwise, the opposition could appoint some relative who hates you to the office for a day, and then you’re blocked.

If spreading the wealth around is such a good idea, what about spreading the political power?

------

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 16:03:45 GMT | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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One afternoon at the office

Today they came out and marked the buried fiber...

(That’s the side of a 3' snowbank, at the edge of the parking lot.)

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 22:18:32 GMT | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Monty Python’s Global Warming

Or, what we’d be laughing at, provided the Pythons were (1) still in business, and (2) hadn’t morphed into a bunch of hidebound “progressives”.^[1]

Ladies and gentlemen, scripted by AoS commenter “Merovign, Strong on His Mountain,” I give you The BBC Interview:

more...

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 18:54:57 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Win XP users: Beware KB977165

Windows patch cripples XP with blue screen, users claim

Tuesday’s release included 9 updates. KB977165 appears to be the culprit.

MS Tech Support Thread (via Slashdot)

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 23:27:45 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Certainly a change from pizza...

Joanna:

My friend once commented that she had a vegetarian sandwich for lunch.  I asked her if it was a free-range or factory-farmed vegetarian.

She didn’t get it.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 21:48:25 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Editorz-R-Us

The Wall Street Journal:

For Washington, the winter of 2010, which blanketed the capital with about 45 inches before Tuesday, seems likely to break the record 54.5 inches set a decade after record-keeping began in 1888.

Jeff M:

That’s the kind of writing we can expect from our betters in the media!  Is 1888 the year that record keeping began, or is it the year the record was set?  Kids, don’t leave your modifiers dangling.

Posted by: Old Grouch in The Press at 18:55:01 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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