My arrogant opinions about politics, culture, science fiction, and whatever else I feel like talking about.

Fascinating News About Cancer

        Apparently, it's been known for some time that chronic inflammation can cause cancer.  A paper in Cell for January 26th reports that a protein involved in the inflammation response,p100, is also involved in normal development in cells.  P100 levels shoot up during inflamation, so it's suspected that chronic inflammation is causing continuing high levels of p100, which may in turn over stimulate the development cycle, till the cell starts growing without end, which is after all what cancer is.

        This in turn suggests that if you can interfere with the normal development cycle molecules, you may be able to cut the risk of cancer.  Or if you can block the action of p100 on the development cycle, that might stop cancer developing.  It will be interesting to see what comes of this.

Posted by: saintonge at 02:37 | link | comments
science, and now for somthng compltly dif

Politics, Politics

        If I had to give up blogging for a while, the last two weeks seems to have been a good time.

        Hillary and Barack are running for President.  *YAWN*  Tell me something I didn't know.  The only important result was a wicked Saturday Night Live parody, available here.

        In Durham, the Duke non-rape non-case continues to disintegrate, with the only question being how much of a world of hurt is Nifong in — Jupiter sized, or maybe only Saturn sized?

        The Senate is going to vote a "non-binding" resolution to encourage al-Qaida, which they consider "Just politics."  They have also approved the appointment of Gen. Petraeus as four-star General, and commander of forces in Iraq, though he said that the resolution would encourage the enemy.  This shows that most Senators are morons and/or scum who put their re-election prospects ahead of the good of the country.  That's something else I already knew.

Posted by: saintonge at 05:07 | link | comments (1)
iraq, politics, democrats, foreign affairs, blowhards, al-qaida, higher noneducation, the duke non rape non case, hillary clinton, u s senate, our new messiah™

In Case You Wondered

        I was sick for the last week, and didn't blog.  Details here, at great length.

Posted by: saintonge at 23:04 | link | comments (3)
and now for somthng compltly dif

Beyond Farce: Nifong Savings Time

        Just when I thought the farcical Non-Rape Non-Case had gotten as ridiculous as possible, it managed to get worse.  We're now into Monty Python territory.

        Nifong has apparently decided to cut his losses in the affair, by asking the NC Attorney General to take him off the case, and appoint a special prosecutor instead  The reason appears to be that Nifong now knows the prosecution has no chance of winning.

        In previous, rather conflicting, versions of the story, two strippers arrived at the fraternity party around 11:50 PM, according to neighbor Jason Bissey.  The two were the accuser, Crystal Gail Mangum, who used the name 'Precious,' and Kim Roberts, who used the name 'Nikki'.  They went into the fraternity house around midnight (Bissey again), and left around 12:50 AM.  During those 50 minutes, "Precious" Mangum performed a nude dance, had a drink, chatted, left the party, came back to the party, and then she was gang-raped by three (or two, or five or twenty) men, for about half an hour, possibly with the assitance of Ms. Roberts.  The three men who raped Mangum (in the up-to-now-final version) called themselves "Matt" (Dave Evans), "Adam" (Reade Seligmann), and "Brett" (Colin Finnerty) and they penetrated her orally (Seligmann), vaginally (Finnerty and Evans), and rectally (Finnerty and Evans again).  After the rape "Precious" was beaten by "Matt," "Brett" and "Dan," the latter not having raped her.  She was then wiped with a rag, dressed and carried out to a car, being unable to move.  The other stripper, Kim "Nikki" Roberts, then drove them away, and Roberts also called the cops to complain of racial epithets being hurled at them.  The police received the call at 12:53 AM.

        The previous versions of the story had some problems, though:

        A) Kim Roberts said it was all a crock, no one was raped.

        B) The description that Mangum gave of "Brett" did not resemble Finnerty in any degree (Finnerty is slender, "Brett" was said to be chubby).

        C) Mangum, shown a picture of Dave Evans, said that the picture looked just like one of the rapists, except that the rapist had a mustache.  Photos taken of Evans before the alleged rape show him without a mustache.

        D) Reade Seligman, one of the three indicted for rape, who supposedly carried Mangum to Roberts's car, was demonstrably nowhere near the frat house around 12:40, the time the rape was allegedly taking place.

        E) The DNA tests didn't show any DNA from anyone at the party on the accuser, although it did show the DNA of her boyfriend, and four other unidentified males (that last isn't particularly surprising, as "Precious" Mangum is a whore as well as a stripper).

        Nifong originally got around the DNA evidence by omitting the parts about the unidentified men, and just telling the defense that no matches had been made with the DNA of the accused.  The rest of the DNA evidence was surpressed.  After the fact came out of the unethical, illegal, and immoral supression of exculpatory evidence, Nifong sent Linwood Wilson, an assistant DA, to talk with "Precious" about the alleged rape, the first time anyone in the prosecutor's office ever discussed the alleged crime with her.  Wilson came back with a new statement that changed the story line completely.  But in trying to avoid the old problems, the new story created others.

        In the new version, accuser "Precious" arrives at the frat house at 11:10 PM.  After a minute, she & Nikki go into the frat house, prepare for their dance, dance, leave, come back in, and are forcibly separated.  The sexual assault begins by 11:40.  One of the attackers now uses four different aliases, a second uses two aliases, and the third uses none.  The attackers may or may not have penetrated Mangum's vagina with their penises (this led to the rape charges being dropped last December 22nd, the day after the interview with Wilson).  In this version, Reade Seligmann declines to orally assault "Precious," as he is engaged to be married the next day.  Instead of Seligmann forcing "Precious" to blow him, it's Finnerty who does this.  When it's over, someone hands one or more white towels to the rapists, which is used wipe her off, wipe Dave Evans's penis off, and wipe the floor where she had spit Finnerty's ejaculation.  The attacker runs out of the house, hesitates for a bit in the back yard, and finally leaves.  Then the story stops for fifty minutes or so, and then Roberts calls the cops.

        Alas for Nifong.  Though having Mangum show up at the fraternity house an hour earlier erased some of the problems with the previous stories, the new time opens itself to other objections:

        F) A photo of Mangum shows her when she says she is arriving.  She's only wearing one shoe, and the photo is time-stamped 12:35 AM.  This makes no sense in terms of the new story, but fits perfectly with statesments by Roberts and the party goers, who said a drunken "Precious" left her shoe behind when she left, but came back to get it.

        G) Other photos show Mangum dancing, and they are time-stamped 12:00 to 12:04 AM.

        H) Mangum's own cell-phone records show her on the phone five times between 11:10 PM and 11:40, when she is supposedly getting ready to dance, dancing, and being pulled into the bathroom against her will.

        I) Reade Seligmann had another ace in the hole: at 11:50, when he was supposedly watching Evans and Finnerty sexually assault "Precious" Mangum, he was talking on the phone with his girl friend, to whom, by the way, he is NOT engaged or married.

        I) The new story fits with a white towel police found at the frat house, which had Evans's DNA, but said towel doesn't have any DNA from Mangum, from Finnerty, from the boy friend or from Mangum's johns.

        J) The new story is so inconsistent with the older stories that it undercuts the accuser's already low credibility even further.

        A PDF of the accuser's new story can be found here, and a PDF of the defense attorneys' supplemtary motion to dismiss is here.  The second PDF brings up inconsistencies in Mangum's statements that I haven't even touched on.

        Apparently, Nifong decided to push this ridiculous prosecution because he couldn't get re-elected if he didn't, and he really wanted to be re-elected in order to secure a pension for himself.  As things stand, I think he'll be thrown out of office before the pension is vested, and lose a fortune in legal bills as well.

        Frankly, it couldn't happen to a more deserving swine.

Posted by: saintonge at 02:53 | link | comments
politics, crime, dishonesty, i am not making this up, the duke non rape non case

The Plug-In Hybrid Mileage Lie Continues

        Another article was in the Wall Street Journal, exagerating the mileage of plug-in hybrids.  It pissed me off enough that I sent them this in reply:

---

Subject:
Re: Gentlemen, Start Your Plug-Ins

Comment:
How does 500 miles per gallon sound to me?  Dishonest.

        If you burn fuel at an electric generating plant, send it over the wires, charge batteries in a plug-in hybrid automobile, and then count the miles traveled on that electricity as "free", then YOU ARE A LIAR.  And counting the gasoline used in a vehicle per miles per gallon, but not ethanol, makes you A DOUBLE LIAR.

        The Journal should be ashamed of itself for publishing such transparent dishonesty.

        And the remarks about cars "left connected to an electrical socket after being fully charged" being used for peak power is A TRIPLE LIE.  If the batteries in all these plug-in hybrids are being drained into the grid, that means that when someone goes outside to use one, he'll have to use the engine anyway — and auto engines aren't nearly as efficient as electricity, ACCORDING TO YOUR ORN ARTICLE.

        An honest article about plug in hybrids would tell us how much electriciy we'll need to generate to power these cars, what the enviornmental impact would be, what the costs of replacing all our cars with hybrids would be (so far, they're far more expensive than conventional autos), and other such things.  Instead, you printed a propaganda piece.

---

Posted by: saintonge at 19:37 | link | comments
dishonesty, illogic, annoyance

Very Interesting Post on Productivity

        It's a review of William Lewis's The Power of Productivity.  There's also a good interview with Lewis here.

        What Lewis basically says is that around the world, special interests have used government to prevent competition, and then the interests settled back, fat, dumb, and happy, to screw the consumers.  The developed world managed to get out from under that trap, for the most part, for a while.  Aside from the U.S., most of the developed countries have since returned to anti-competitive national policy, and the 'Third World' has always been anti-competitive, as well as having too large a government.

        In the entire 'third world', the only country that escaped from this is Chile, because of Pinochet's military dictatorship.  The rest are mired in anti-productive policies.

        Of course, if some people *cough* Jerry Pournelle *cough* have their way, we'll join them in stagnation.

        Meanwhile, read the review or the interview, or both.

Posted by: saintonge at 00:59 | link | comments

Old News

        France helped the Hutu govenrment of Rwanda commit genocide.  In other breaking news, water is wet, fire is hot.

Posted by: saintonge at 23:32 | link | comments
sarcasm, france, evil, i am shocked shocked

And Meanwhile

        One must note that the, bad as our loss of self-confidence has been, the Europeans are in much worse shape.  I don't think Orwell would be surprised.

Posted by: saintonge at 21:56 | link | comments
europe, islam, hypocrisy, evil, dishonesty, war with jihadism, stupidity springs eternal, war is peace etc

On, the Other Hand, Maybe God Will Take Care of Us

        There's evidence that Saudi Arabia and Iran are running out of oil.  Since they are the main funders of terrorism and Islamic jihadism, my pessimism from my last post may be justified, but irrelevant.

        Wouldn't be the first time we lucked out.

Posted by: saintonge at 21:08 | link | comments
usamerica, war with jihadism, saudi arabia

How to Lose a War

        We are losing the War with Jihadism. This is an unconscious choice on our part, but it is our choice.

        Consider the following from The Fourth Rail's roundup of the Jihad:

        In the tribal areas along the Afghan border, the Taliban and al-Qaeda have officially taken control over North Waziristan with the signing of the Waziristan Accord in September, and unofficially taken control of South Waziristan after the Pakistani Army abandoned control of the agency. . . .

        Iran still shelters over 100 al-Qaeda leaders, including Said bin Laden, Osama's son, and Saif al-Adel, al-Qaeda's strategic planner. Muqtada al-Sadr receives the support of Iran, which is working to destabilize the Iraqi government and fomet civil war.

        Guerrillas win by finding a sanctuary in which they can survive without being attacked, but from which they can attack their enemies.  The decision to allow this means we can't win, and the loss of will evident in the country means we are losing.

        Unless we are willing to attack Pakistan, or force the Pakistanis to clear up Waziristan, we've lost in Afghanistan.  Unless we take out Iran, we've lost in Iraq.

        And no, I don't like those conclusions any more than most of you do.

Posted by: saintonge at 10:41 | link | comments

LUCY'S BLADE sorta published

        Lucy's Blade, by my friend John Lambshead, whom I hope to meet one day (ain't the Web neat?), is available from Baen as an electronic Advanced Reader Copy.  It will be out in "May," meaning the last week of April, in hardcover at twenty-four dollars (prices higher overseas, and yes, you foreigners have my sympathies for the way your publishers gouge you) or regular eBook price of six dollars, but you can buy the eARC now for only fifteen dollars, and also get the copy edited final eBook version free when it comes out (Man, I love Baen's marketing policies).

        I just finished it, and it worked out differently than I expected, but quite well.  Say four and a fraction out of five, which is very good indeed for a first novel.  Recommended.  Even if John weren't a friend, I'd be glad I spent the extra nine on this one.

        John's author bio, from the book:

        Dr. John Lambshead is senior research scientist in marine biodiversity at the Natural History Museum in London.  He is also the Visiting Chair at Southampton University, Oceanography, and Regent’s Lecturer, University of California.  He has authored almost a hundred academic/scientific publications.  In their special 2000 millennium edition, London’s Evening Standard newspaper nominated him as one of London’s top 100 “unknown thinkers” for his scientific research. He has kept sane by writing military history books and designing computer and fantasy game, and designed the world’s first icon-driven game, based on Frederick Forsyth’s movie, The Fourth Protocol. He is married, lives in Kent in southern England, and is putting two daughters through university, so he really needs you to go out and buy his books.

        Under a clever pseudonym, "John Lamshead," he also authored Warhammer: Fall of the West.  Picture of John, along with daughter, overly expensive, one of, here.  John is believed to be the bareheaded one.

Posted by: saintonge at 23:19 | link | comments
books, john lambshead, lucys blade snippets, and now for somthng compltly dif

THE NEW YORK TREASON Gets Caught Lying Again

        Last April, in The New York Treason Magazine, there was a cover story on abortion in El Salvador.  It prominently played up the story of one Carmen Climaco, who was allegedly one of "a few" women serving thirty years in prison for having an abortion.  No other names of these "few" women were given.

        Only problem is, the story is a complete crock.  Climaco was convicted of bearing her child to term, and then strangling it after birth.  The claim that she'd had an illegal abortion was made by her at the trial, and rejected as false by the judges.

        So an anti-abortion web-site called the Treason on this last November.  The Treason then decided to actually check a few of the facts, by obtaining the court documents in the case (the author of the story hadn't bothered, and neither had anyone on the Treason Magazine staff.  The Treason also decided to defend the accuracy of story, BEFORE bothering to check the facts!  The response stated:

        “We have no reason to doubt the accuracy of the facts as reported in our article, which was not part of any campaign to promote abortion.”

        Note, again, this was BEFORE bothering to check the facts.  One of the authors of this reply was the standards editor for the Treason!

        After the court records were translated into English, showing that an autopsy had been performed on the dead baby, and the autopsy doctor's testimony was that it was a full-term fetus, born alive and breathing, but murdered after the birth, the Treason's editors decided that there was no reason to print a correction to the story.  Although they don't speak Spanish, and don't make routine journalistic inquiries, they have somehow determined that the courts in El Salvador are "terribly politicized,” and besides the story was “as accurate as it could have been at the time it was written,” since apparently no one could actually expect the reporter to go to the court and try to obtain the trial transcript.

        And they expect us to believe they aren't pushing a political agenda!  Are they really that stupid?  Are they insane?  Or do they just hold their readers in contempt?

Posted by: saintonge at 05:46 | link | comments
politics, crime, msm, hypocrisy, inaccuracy, dishonesty, stupidity springs eternal

The Intellectual and Ethical Bankruptcy of the Left

        It's on display, as liberal/lefty outlets get upset and disdainful over Saddam's execution.

        The sensible thing was the reaction of the Iraqis to New York Treason reporter John F. Burns:

        That I could feel pity for him struck the Iraqis with whom I talked as evidence of a profound moral corruption.

        Indeed.^®.

Posted by: saintonge at 04:26 | link | comments

And Don't Forget

        The voting is open for Idiotarian of the Year, 2006, and Anti-Idiotarian of the Year, 2006 at Little Green Footballs.

Posted by: saintonge at 03:05 | link | comments
stupidity springs eternal

Oh, Gee, THAT Will Help

        Duke University has seen it's applications for admission drop, so it's trying a public relations campaign, one designed to make Duke ATHLETES look better.

        What Duke needs to do is fire President Brodhead, and require the professors who "spoke up" about the case to pay the students legal bills, or quit.  The fact that the University Administration thinks it can get out of this without adressing the issue of the faculty's and adminstration's behavior shows how truly dim they are.

Posted by: saintonge at 02:56 | link | comments
spin, stupidity springs eternal, wishful thinking, the duke non rape non case

Democratic Congress Ethics Watch

        John Conyers of Michigan, chairman-designate of the House Judiciary Committee, has admitted to violating campaign law by having his staff work on his reelection campaign.(Hat tip: Bill Quick and Glenn Reynolds)

        But he's sorry, he says, and apparently doesn't have to repay the money the public paid his staff to help him retain office.  And naturally, he won't have to give up his chairmanships.

        This tells you all you need to know about the seriousness of the Democrats in re 'cleaning up Washington.'

Posted by: saintonge at 02:46 | link | comments
democrats, hypocrisy, congress, dishonesty, crooks

Possible Medical Breakthrough

        A British/Belgian team thinks it's close to a universal influenza A vaccine as does another Swiss team.  And they have hopes for the milder influenza B.  No guarantees, but this research would save hundreds of thousands of lives yearly, if it works, and vastly reduce routine winter misery.

        Hat tip: Outside the Beltway and Instapundit.

        And by the way: HAPPY NEW YEAR!  As I was typing this, it official became 2007 in Minneapolis.

Posted by: saintonge at 02:13 | link | comments
science, and now for somthng compltly dif