Author Archives: Bok
Most Transparent Administration
President Obama promised us the most transparent administration in history. It hasn’t worked out that way. Leonard Downie, Jr., the former executive editor of the Washington Post, said, “the administration’s war on leaks and other efforts to control information are the most aggressive I’ve seen since the Nixon administration”. NYT reporter James Risen has called Obama “the greatest enemy of press freedom in a generation”.
But he’s getting better reviews from the Taliban, and not just because he gives them such great deals. They know when we are bugging out of Afghanistan because the president told them so. They might also know who runs the CIA in Kabul because the administration accidentally leaked his name.
War on Birds
The Atlantic reported in late April that a huge solar power plant in the California desert is scorching birds with 800 degree heat.
The Ivanpah plant uses 300,000 mirrors to focus the sun on a water filled boiler. When birds fly through that beam the effect is the same as when you focused the sun through a magnifying glass to scorch an ant. Oh, you didn’t do that when you were a kid? Well, here’s what happens:
At times birds flew into the solar flux and ignited.
Not only that:
“It appears Ivanpah may act as a ‘mega-trap,’ attracting insects which in turn attract insect-eating birds, which are incapacitated by solar-flux injury, thus attracting predators and creating an entire food chain vulnerable to injury and death,” concluded scientists with the National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory in a report that investigated 233 bird deathsrepresenting 71 species at three Southern California solar power plants.
War on Birds
Bird immolation’s not your style? Well, did you know windmills are licensed to behead bald eagles?:
A leading bird conservation organization—American Bird Conservancy (ABC)—has announced its intention to sue the Department of the Interior (DOI), charging DOI with multiple violations of federal law in connection with its December 9, 2013, final regulation that allows wind energy companies and others to obtain 30-year permits to kill eagles without prosecution by the federal government. The previous rule provided for a maximum duration of five years for each permit.
Hardly seems fair if you have malaria due to the ban on DDT in order to save bald eagles.
West Point Speech
The president gave the commencement address at West Point this week. The speech apparently didn’t have enough trigger points or insensitive comments to get him thrown out. The graduating West Point cadets tolerated their commander’s speech but didn’t give him a very rousing response. Quiet as a mouse according to Krauthammer.
West Point
Patching up his previous comments, Obama insisted he believes in American exceptionalism with every fiber of his being. But just because we are strong like hammer doesn’t mean everyone else is a nail. We must lead by example. Presumably North Korea, Syria, and Iran will follow. It was a little confusing.
Dick Cheney was not convinced.
Trigger Warning
Trigger warnings are the new spoiler alert on campus. Some students are demanding that professors include a warning if course material will include any of the usual offensive suspects like racism, sexism, ableism, classism, or anything else that makes them uncomfortable.
Here’s a link to Bret Stephens‘ advice to the class of 2014: “Those of you who want to lead meaningful lives need to begin unlearning most of what you’ve been taught, starting right now.”
Victory Tea Party
Mitch McConnell stomped his Tea Party primary opponent on Tuesday. The Daily Beast says the Tea Party is “losing battles but winning the war” by pulling establishment Republicans their way.
