Pius XII Memorial Library Government Documents

So much can change in 25 years.  President Ronald Reagan giving it up for Michael Jackson as he honors him for “…proof of what a person can accomplish through a lifestyle free of alcohol or drug abuse.”  The entire remarks are on pages 693 and 694, of the Public Papers of the Presidents, Ronald Reagan, 1984, book one. The digital texts hosted by the University of Michigan University Library archive is searchable. Here is a more demonstrative photo from Wikipedia…

Oh to be a fly on the wall  during presidential meetings — looks like the wish has come true to the tune of 154 hours of Nixon banter. Recorded during 1973 these new tapes augment the more than 2300 hours previously released.  In total (according to the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, the National Archives, and nixontapes.org) 3700 hours were recorded — minus the 18 plus minutes that were erased.  Snippet follows…

[Read more →]

Somehow this State of Missouri website is just too cheery — doesn’t reflect the 1930’s depression-era statistics that are closing in… but perhaps I am just attracted by those great WPA photos. Plus it is rough when you look at the counties where there are no jobs– [Read more →]

Iran has a contested election and the political whims of Europe are shifting right — will Gordon Brown step down?  But here in the USA there is a standard that can’t be beat — exhibit A — the infamous 60th Senate seat in Minnesota, still up for grabs.  You can always trust Congress for comic relief — come on Al!

Senator Coburn from Oklahoma is adamant — “What if you want to drive a gas hog? You don’t have the right any longer in this country to spend your money to drive a gas hog?”  This from a  TV station interview.

This gem is in reponse to the increase in CAFE standards proposed by the President.  Tom Coburn, M.D. earned a spot in “Sixty Second Science” with his quote.  Funny though, it does not seem to appear on his Senate page.

NIF is the current iteration of the 1950s mantra “energy too cheap to meter” that described the joys of nuclear power plants (oops, forgot about the waste, Yucc(o)a).  Here is the blurb for today’s invention…

[Read more →]

Catching up to the revolution in the dissemination of data comes the announcement of DATA.gov, “a searchable data catalog that includes access to data in two ways: through the “raw” data catalog and using tools.”   Wired Blog has a interesting brief note on the introduction. [Read more →]

In the land of make believe-  believe it.  The U.S. Army Special Operations Command is in the house; yes, any house they choose.  And if you don’t believe just read any issue of   Special Warfare.

Not enough the shores of Tripoli, we just now need a riff on CTF 151 which seems to be all pirates all the time.  Still can’t get used to the military putting together an effective fighting force with the levels of bureaucracy and mind-numbing command structure… could it be that anything is possible when your budget is half a trillion dollars?

The infamous Bush torture memos have been released and it seems that water boarding (NYT link) was just one of the heinous methods used to elicit information from captives. But since this started I have wondered why the following statement from 100 years ago was not circulated more widely …

[Read more →]