Interesting asbestos-article in Reason today. Why does it take an obscure, tiny libertarian magazine to tell me, on a trial-lawyer ridden (and supposedly journalist-covered) issue, that:

Asbestos has been used at least since Roman times, and ancient medical authorities noted that workers whose job was to handle the fiber developed diseases of the lungs. By the early 20th century insurance companies recognized asbestos fabrication as among the occupations most dangerous to human health, and by the 1930s-that is to say, before the outbreak of World War II-workers' compensation systems listed asbestosis as a compensable condition. In short, contrary to what is sometimes imagined, the hazardousness of airborne asbestos fibers was in no way a secret somehow confined to the executive offices of asbestos-mining tycoons. It was very much common knowledge to those who took an interest in industrially caused disease, including the federal government.

Wouldn't this kind of inconvenient fact be pertinent to every story (not to mention every jury in every massive legal case) involving asbestos? Reminds me of the little-noted fact that cigarettes were called "coffin nails" during the Civil War...
JMR

To celebrate February 14th as the traditional day of love, I would like to throw my name into the hat for being the father of Anna Nicole's baby.  Okay, so I admit that I've never met her much less have been intimate with her but IMHO neither have half the men claiming to be the father.  There's a lot of money on the line here.  My wife says, go for it honey...

What kind of "misspoken statement" will it take for the MSM to divorce from Obama? Any predictions?

I was talking today to a couple of former shipmates, and we recalled a mid-air collision of two P-3C aircraft back in 1991 that claimed 26 of our fellow aircrewmen.  While we were talking I had to wonder "where were the Libs, who are all-so-concerned about the health and well being of our troops, back in 1991?  How about back in 1985 when 248 troops got killed when the Arrow Air DC-8 crashed?  Where was all this Liberal wailing about what our troops needed?  The guys in both crashes got burried, their families got their $20,000 in USGI insurance, and the world went on.

I hope all these Libs who profess to be so concerned about the safety and wellbeing of the troops now remember that it was they who took money away from the efforts to develop replacements for aging birds like the H-46, H-47, and the P-3, all of which are quickly turning into death traps for their crews, to fund all those little off-budget foreys into Haiti, Bosnia, Somolia, etc., during the 1990s.

Maybe after the next crew augers into the ground, the MSM will finally do some real reporting on why our folks are still being tasked to fly these aircraft well past their replacement dates.

No Shrub Report today.

Big-ass snow event in Pennsylvania!!! A lot of schools are closed. Run! It's Global Warming!

As I posted yesterday (liberal politics knows NO boundaries):

Grammy Sweep by Dixie Chicks Is Seen as a Vindication

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 12 — The Dixie Chicks’ big win at the Grammy Awards on Sunday exposed ideological tensions between the music industry’s Nashville establishment and the broader, more diverse membership of the Recording Academy, which chooses the Grammy winners, according to voters and music executives interviewed afterward.

To some, the voting served not only as a referendum on President Bush’s handling of the Iraq war, but also on what was perceived as country music’s rejection — and radio’s censorship — of the trio.

Jeff Ayeroff, a longtime music executive and an academy member, said the resounding endorsement of the group reflected the fact that the academy represents “the artist community, which was very angry at what radio did, because it was not very American.” Mr. Ayeroff said he voted for the Dixie Chicks in at least one category.

At the awards on Sunday, the band — Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Robison — swept all five of the Grammy categories in which it was nominated, including the top three — album, record and song of the year — the first time all three have been swept in 14 years.

The awards amounted to vindication for the Dixie Chicks, who found their career sidetracked in 2003 after the singer Ms. Maines told a London concert audience shortly before the invasion of Iraq that the band was “ashamed” that the president hailed from their home state, Texas. In the furor that followed, country radio programmers pulled the multiplatinum-selling trio’s music from the airwaves and rallied listeners to destroy their CDs.

The storm flared anew last year when the Dixie Chicks released the album “Taking the Long Way,” which included the single “Not Ready to Make Nice,” a defiant and bitter response to the group’s treatment. And things got worse when band members said in interviews that they were not interested in being part of the commercial country music business; Ms. Maguire, who plays the fiddle, said the group would rather have fans “who get it” instead of “people that have us in their five-disc changer with Reba McEntire and Toby Keith.” Country stations once again all but ignored the Dixie Chicks’ music.

The sweep reflected something of a retort to the Country Music Association’s annual awards, held in November, when the Dixie Chicks were shut out. The vote by the Recording Academy, which is composed of performers, producers, engineers, executives and others across the country, evidently took a different view.

“I think it says that, by and large, the creative community sees what has happened to the Dixie Chicks as unfair and unjust,” said Mike Dungan, a longtime music executive who heads the C.M.A.’s board and is also the president and chief executive of the Capitol Nashville label. (Mr. Dungan said he was not speaking on behalf of the C.M.A.)

Nowhere to Run....Nowhere To Hide.....

Tim Russert's "teeny weeny" lie is now about to bite him back in the butt big time.....LOL (thanks to Lucianne.com)....as reported by me two weeks ago, the next shoe to drop will be the revelation that David Gregory was in on this charade together with Andrea Mitchell and Tim Russert (ALL NBC NEWS).......

Imus On Russert And Plame: "I Think He Knew"

At approximately 7:45 Am (Eastern) Don Imus talked to Frank Rich on his MSNBC Show today and picked up on the Libby trial where he left off yesterday, saying that thinks Tim Russert knew about Valerie Plame (or Wilson's wife) prior to the publication of the Novak column.

Imus's launching pad was that Andrea Mitchell's answers were comically evasive and unconvincing in November 2005 when she recanted her October 2003 statement that it was "widely known" amongst reporters following the Wilson/Niger story that Wilson wife was with the CIA.  (More on Mitchell here.) [And more - did you know that Colin Powell was a guest at Andrea's wedding to Alan Greenspan?  Dum de dum, why might she want to protect Powell or his good buddy Armitage, help me here... Hey, if she gives up Powell we can call Andrea "The Wedding Singer"].

He added that when he talks to David Gregory about the Plame situation Gregory seems very tense.

Imus could not imagine a motive for Russert to lie, however, and went on to say that in a credibility contest between Russert and Libby, he would choose Russert.

Well - as to Russert's motive, this post has more detail, but the summary is this - Russert started with a little white lie to the FBI in November 2003, with the objective of concealing the fact that he (or Andrea Mitchell) had a source for the Plame leak.  Russert did not "lie" to the investigators; he misled them with carefully phrased testimony so as to avoid subpoenas, jail time, and the disclosure of NBC News sources.

And it seemed like a little white lie at the time - Russert knew that Libby had not leaked to him, so he reasoned that his chat with Libby was not the sort of primary leak (government official *to* reporter) that investigators were seeking.

Russert maintained this charade with his deposition to the grand jury in June 2004, then blanched when he finally saw the indictment in October 2005 - the investigation had morphed from a search for leakers into a search for perjury and Russert had become a star witness.

The most trusted man in news did not think he could keep his job if he came forward and admitted that he had misled the Fitzgerald investigation for nearly two years, so he kept quiet and awaited developments.

Nowhere to Run....Nowhere To Hide.....

Dang that BUSH ECONOMY.  Just keeps making me monies and I know that's not right!!  They must be using FUZZY MATH again with those market #s!!