The 'God Particle' and God

From Dennis Prager, at National Review:

They found the “God particle.”

That was the headline splashed all over America’s news media. It turns out that the name actually derives from substituting “God particle” for “goddamn particle,” the original name some scientists had given the elusive particle. But the media adopted the former nomenclature.

Why?

Because otherwise the bulk of humanity would not pay attention.

Physicists went nuts. And no one can blame them. For decades, they have searched for the particle that may explain why there is any mass in the universe. And 10 billion dollars was spent on the machine that probably proved its existence.

Without any disrespect to the enormous intellectual achievement of these scientists, let me state that I identify with the mass of humanity that doesn’t really care about the existence of the Higgs boson.

Those scientists and science writers who have likened this discovery to the discovery of DNA are wrong. If significance means relevance to the human condition, the discovery of DNA merited a ten out of ten and the Higgs boson might merit a two.

This does not mean that the search was either a waste of time or money. Both the time and money invested were necessary because satiating our curiosity about the natural world is one of the noblest ambitions of the human race.

But scientific discovery and meaning are not necessarily related. As one of the leading physicists of our time, Steven Weinberg, has written, “The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless.”

And pointlessness is the point. The discovery of the Higgs boson brings us no closer to understanding why there is a universe, not to mention whether life has meaning. In fact, no scientific discovery ever made will ever explain why there is existence. Nor will it render good and evil anything more than subjective opinion, or explain why human beings have consciousness or anything else that truly matters.

The only thing that can explain existence and answer these other questions is God or some other similar metaphysical belief.

Continue reading.

Theo's Wednesday Hotties

In case you missed 'em, "Wednesday Wenches...", and "Bonus Babe..."

NewsBusted: 'June's Terrible Unemployment Numbers'

A really good clip, via Theo Spark:

The Surprising Moral Case for Free Enterprise

Via Theo Spark:

Get Brooks' book, The Road to Freedom: How to Win the Fight for Free Enterprise.

Obama's War on Women

Via Theo Spark:

B-2 Stealth Bomber Takes Off at Royal International Air Tattoo 2012

This is the U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, via Theo Spark:

And here's this from Wikipedia:

The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit (also known as the Stealth Bomber) is an American strategic bomber, featuring low observable stealth technology designed for penetrating dense anti-aircraft defenses; it is able to deploy both conventional and nuclear weapons. The bomber has a crew of two and can drop up to eighty 500 lb (230 kg)-class JDAM GPS-guided bombs, or sixteen 2,400 lb (1,100 kg) B83 nuclear bombs. The B-2 is the only aircraft that can carry large air to surface standoff weapons in a stealth configuration.

Rare Baseball Cards Could Bring Up to $3 Million at Auction

A great story, at the Los Angeles Times, "Found money: Treasure trove of baseball cards may be worth millions":

DEFIANCE, Ohio — Karl Kissner picked up a soot-covered cardboard box that had been under a wooden dollhouse in his grandfather's attic. Taking a look inside, he saw hundreds of baseball cards bundled with twine. They were smaller than the ones he was used to seeing.

But some of the names were familiar: Hall of Famers Ty Cobb, Cy Young and Honus Wagner.

Then he put the box on a dresser and went back to digging through the attic.

It wasn't until two weeks later that he learned that his family had come across what experts say is one of the biggest, most exciting finds in the history of sports card collecting, a discovery worth perhaps millions.

The cards are from an extremely rare series issued around 1910. Up to now, the few known to exist were in so-so condition at best, with faded images and worn edges. But the ones from the attic in the town of Defiance are nearly pristine, untouched for more than a century. The colors are vibrant, the borders crisp and white.

"It's like finding the Mona Lisa in the attic," Kissner said.

Sports card experts who authenticated the find say they may never again see something this impressive.

"Every future find will ultimately be compared to this," said Joe Orlando, president of Professional Sports Authenticator.

The best of the bunch — 37 cards — are expected to bring a total of $500,000 when they are sold at auction in August during the National Sports Collectors Convention in Baltimore. There are about 700 cards in all that could be worth up to $3 million, experts say. They include such legends as Christy Mathewson and Connie Mack.

More at the link.

In Defense of Brad Pitt's Mom

From Michelle Malkin:

Hollywood and the American left love diversity, except when it offends their “progressive” value system.

Witness the reaction to actor Brad Pitt’s mother, Jane, who publicly opposed President Obama’s re-election. Mrs. Pitt’s pro-life, anti-gay marriage statement to her local paper last week enflamed the Tolerance Mob. And her mere expression of dissident political views exposed the glittering hypocrisy of the left-wing “No H8″ campaign.

Continue reading.

PREVIOUSLY: "The Sadly Obligatory Post on Brad Pitt's Mom Receiving Death Threats from 'Tolerant' Gay Rights Progressives."

Red Hot Jennifer Lopez Hits the Beach in Brazil

Remember, she's No. 1 on Forbe's hot Celebrity 100.

And she's looking good in her Brazil bikini.

At London's Daily Mail, "Red hot Jennifer Lopez shows off her trim figure in a sexy bikini as she hits the beach with boyfriend Casper and her twins."

Barack Obama Outsourcing Jobs

Here's the new project from the RNC, "Obamanomics Outsourced."

Also at Politico, "Mitt Romney: Barack Obama is ‘outsourcer in chief’."

Barack Obama's Tax Shelters

I can't ever recall as much class warfare in American politics. The Democrats always wage it, but this year the left is so utterly bankrupt that all they can do is hit Republicans as vicious, undeserving throwbacks to the (so-called) economic obscenities of the Gilded Age. 

Exhibit A this afternoon is the lead editorial at today's New York Times, "Mr. Romney's Financial Black Hole" via Memeorandum. Folks can read it all at the link. The editors really go off on Romney, attacking him for the alleged moral transgression of not releasing even more tax returns, and especially for his financial portfolio, which includes a number of offshore investments designed to reduce tax liability (a tax strategy that any good tax adviser would recommend). But for all the editorial's outrage and bluster (which zeros in on Romney's lingering ties to Bain), here's the key passage:

Firms like Bain park money in the Caymans because the islands have no taxes on capital gains, profits or income for foreigners. But just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.

Checking that Memeorandum thread, we see the radical lefties are all up in knots about this, as usual. The problem, of course, is the rank hypocrisy of the New York Times and its progressive minions. If folks want to call out presidential candidates for their tax avoidance strategies, then they should at least be fair and balanced about it. While President Obama enjoys far less wealth than Romney, he's clearly not ashamed of employing the same kind of tax avoidance schemes as the largest of the large private equity firms. See, for example, the Washington Free Beacon from April, "Obama Family Tax Shelter: First Family Transfers Wealth, Avoids Taxes:

President Obama and his wife, Michele, gave a total of $48,000 in tax-free gifts to their daughters, according to tax records made public on Friday.

The president and his wife separately gave each daughter a $12,000 gift under a section of the federal tax code that exempts such donations from federal taxes.

There is nothing illegal about the president’s taking advantage of this tax shelter, but it does raise eyebrows given that he has lamented the myriad tax exemptions used by the wealthy—“millionaires and billionaires” like himself—to pay less in taxes. He has yet to propose a comprehensive plan to reform the byzantine tax code.

The Obama’s tax return indicates that the gifts, likely for their daughter’s college educations, began in 2007, when the maximum exemptible amount was $24,000 per couple. The maximum exemption has since increased to $26,000 per couple.

The Obamas paid a total federal tax rate of 20.5 percent on a gross adjusted income $789,674, which would typically fall within the top federal rate of 35 percent. According to an analysis of the president’s tax return, he may have paid a lower rate than his secretary despite making more than eight times as much money as she did.

His most recent tax proposal—the so-called “Buffett Rule”—would increase taxes on about 4,000 millionaires and raise about $4.7 billion in new revenue per year, enough to cover about 0.4 percent of the projected budget deficit in 2012. Though the rule would apparently not hit the president himself.

Supporters of the rule have acknowledged that the projected revenue from the “Buffett Rule,” which the Democratic-led Senate is expected to vote down, is “not even a meaningful small amount.”

The Obama’s untaxed gift to their daughters will leave American taxpayers to subsidize the college education of the children of the multi-millionaire Obamas.

Again, it's not the amount of money at issue, it's the purported ethical implications of Obama's tax strategies. Not only has the president and his wife taken advantage of tax loopholes to shelter income in the name of the daughters' education, they've taken enough tax deductions to end up paying an effective rate below what the president's own secretary paid. All the stupid talk about "the Buffet Rule" is bullshit designed to mask a radical left-wing program of sticking it to those with more --- especially pernicious since there's not enough income available from the highest income earners to pay for the dramatic expansion of spending required under this redistributionist regime.

And that's just the tip of the hypocrisy iceberg.

Here's Daniel Halper, at the Weekly Standard, "Dem. Chair Invested in Swiss Banks, Foreign Drug Companies, and the State Bank of India." And also from Matt Lewis at the Daily Caller, "Nancy Pelosi made between $1-5 million on Asian investments in 2011." Plus, at Fire Andrea Mitchell, "Obama’s adviser and BFF Valerie Jarrett has a line of credit from a Bermuda insurance company valued between $100,000 and $250,000."

Check back on this. We'll see lots more Democrat tax shelters and off-shore banking hypocrisies as the days and weeks unfold. The trick is for Romney and the Republicans to hit back twice as hard against the left's despicable and completely opportunistic faux outrage.

Jonah Goldberg on Ideology

This is awesome:

And see Goldberg's, The Tyranny of Cliches: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas.

And check out the new book from Norman Berdichevsky, The Left is Seldom Right. I read the first chapter at the link. It's fascinating.

Mary Katharine Ham Joins Hot Air!

Hot Air just got a lot hotter!

See Allahpundit's announcement, "Welcome Hot Air’s new editor-at-large, Mary Katharine Ham."

And Mary Katharine has her first post, "Finally: Blogger works for site everyone always thought she worked for anyway":

Just a quick note to say hey and thank you for your generous welcome, everyone! I’ve been a fan of HotAir since its launch, and a fan of Ed’s and AP’s since almost the beginning of their blogging careers. It’s truly a privilege to work with them and the rest of the crew here.

Read it all at the link.

She's a very sweet and friendly woman, and an awesome conservative!

NRA Rallies Gun Owners to Go ALL IN for Freedom

Via Theo Spark:

RELATED: See Katie Pavlich, at Townhall, "Obama's Coming Gun Control: Through the UN."

National Gay Rights Organizations Silent After 'It Gets Better' Spokesman Dan Savage Attacks Conservatives With Hateful, Hypocritical Slurs

A great post at Gay Patriot, "Bloggers criticize Dan Savage for his “hateful statements” (GLAAD, HRC, NGLTF silent)."

Read it all at the link.

It turns out that Savage attacks gay conservatives as "cum dumps" on Twitter, the sick f-ker.

...if you know ANYTHING about the truth of who Dan Savage is, you likely already know that he’s among the biggest hypocrites to walk the Earth.

The quote's from Misfit Politics, and don't miss that post as well.

And here's another one of the "biggest hypocrites to walk the Earth."

Progressives freak douchebags destroying this country. Sheesh.

Obama Tax Hike on Incomes Over $200,000 to Hit Biggest Job Creators

At Heritage, "Obama’s Tax Hike on Job Creators."

Huge Glaciers in the Area Between Pakistan and China are NOT Melting — Flies in Face of Predictions of Climate Activists

The "climate activists" are idiots and liars, like, for example, Susie Madrak at the aptly-titled Crooks and Liars.

See London's Daily Mail, "Satellite study of Asian mountains show that glaciers are NOT melting - and some are actually gaining new ice":

Huge glaciers in the area between Pakistan and China are puzzling scientists - and disproving the doom-laden predictions of some climate experts.

The glaciers in the Karakoram Range between northern Pakistan and western China have actually grown, rather than shrinking.

Unlike most mountain glaciers, the Karakoram glaciers, which account for 3 percent of the total ice-covered area in the world, excluding Greenland and Antarctica, are not shrinking.

A team of French glaciologists has recently confirmed that these glaciers on average have remained stable or may have even grown slightly in recent years.

The new study used data from satellites to study the Karakoram Range of northern Pakistan and western China.

The researchers found that the ice had actually increased in thickness by 0.11 (plus or minus 0.22) meters per year between 1999 and 2008.

Experts cautioned that the gain is so small that the glaciers might not actually be growing - but what is clear is that the glaciers are not shrinking, according to a report published in Nature Geoscience.

Continue reading.

CNN's Dana Bash Covers #MASenate Race — Elizabeth Warren 'Really Surprised' Anyone Would Make Native American Claims a 'Political Issue'

It's a fair and balanced report, at CNN, "Bipartisanship isn't dirty word in Massachusetts Senate race." Elizabeth Warren stays on message, er, false message, that is.

From Bash's report:

Question over Native American heritage

But Warren has stumbled over an issue that she admits tripped her up.

When the Boston Herald reported that Harvard University had touted Warren as a minority faculty member and that she was listed as part Native American in law school directories, she at first said she knew nothing about it.

But after weeks of questions from the media and accusations by her opponents that she claimed minority status to advance her career, Warren admitted that she had listed herself as part Cherokee in faculty directories at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania in order to meet people with similar backgrounds.

"I listed myself in the directory in the hopes that it might mean that I would be invited to a luncheon, a group, something that might happen with people who are like I am. Nothing like that ever happened, that was clearly not the use for it, and so I stopped checking it off," Warren told reporters in May.

As a first-time politician, Warren admits she could have responded faster.

"I was really surprised that anyone wanted to make this a political issue. I was really surprised by that and very slow to respond to it," Warren said. "I'm like every other kid. I learned about my family from my parents."

Warren explained she heard stories from her parents about having to elope because her father's family did not accept her mother's because of her Native American roots.

"My mom and dad were very much in love. They grew up in a little town that had been Indian Territory just a few years earlier. When they wanted to get married, my father's parents said no because my mother was part Cherokee and part Delaware. And my parents fought it as long as they could and finally they eloped," Warren said.

"I lived with that, between two families," she said.

But Brown has not backed down, insisting that Warren's failure to explain herself from the beginning calls her integrity into question.

"When you run for high elected office you have to pass a test, and that test is one of honesty, trustworthiness and truthfulness, and she's failed that test," Brown said.

He continues to call on his opponent to release confidential documents to show whether or not she claimed her Native American roots on job applications.

A Republican source even gave CNN a copy of Warren's mother's death certificate, which listed her as white, not Native American.

Asked about that, Warren simply repeated that her parents "grew up in a very different time."

"They grew up in a little town that had been Indian Territory. My mother's family was part Cherokee and part Delaware. That's who they were," she said.

Harvard administrators said they did not know about Warren's ancestral claims when they hired her. And Warren bristled when asked if she considers herself a minority, saying simply that she is proud of her heritage.

"This is part of who I am. This is who I am," she said.

Warren said Brown is distracting from issues that really matter to people.

Asked whether he and other Republicans are engaging in divide and conquer politics, Brown responded that he is engaged in issues that touch people's lives "every day."
"With all due respect, I'm getting things done," said Brown.

At this point, it's going to be up to the voters to resolve the issue of Warren's Native American heritage. And that will be a political resolution, for or against the candidate. No amount of disconfirming evidence is going to shake this crazy woman from her fictitious belief about some long lost Cherokee heritage. It's family lore to her, even if her own actions as part of that family call into doubt everything she claims. For example, Warren's previous "high cheekbones" line has been called into question, at Legal Insurrection, "Serious doubt cast on Elizabeth Warren’s “Aunt Bea” “high cheekbones” story."

So no matter what evidence or non-evidence is presented --- like the reports CNN's Bash presented to the candidate --- Warren will continue to throw up smokescreens, whine about how surprising it is that her falsehoods have become a political liability, and decry the "right-wing extremists" who're attacking her "unfairly."

Legal Insurrection has more, "Challenge to Boston Phoenix: Defend Elizabeth Warren on Cherokee issue, or drop “right-wing smear machine” accusation." And see, "Elizabeth Warren has raised $24 million, but still is not Cherokee."

National League Wins All-Star Game, 8-0

At the Los Angeles Times, "National League defeats American League, 8-0, in All-Star Game":

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Pablo Sandoval and Melky Cabrera turned the All-Star game into a Giant blowout.

Flashing their bright orange spikes and booming bats, the San Francisco sluggers keyed a five-run blitz against Justin Verlander in the first inning that sent the National League to an 8-0 romp over the American League on Tuesday night.

Cabrera homered and won the MVP award, and Giants teammate Matt Cain started a strong pitching performance for the NL in its most-lopsided All-Star victory. Cain combined with Stephen Strasburg, R.A. Dickey, Aroldis Chapman and the rest of a lights-out staff on a six-hitter.

"San Francisco Giants show," Matt Kemp of the rival Dodgers said during the game.

Ryan Braun, an All-Star again after his drug suspension was overturned last winter, doubled, tripled and made a fine catch in the outfield to help give the NL its first three-game winning streak in two decades.

Chipper Jones singled in his final All-Star at-bat at age 40 as the NL, under retired manager Tony La Russa, once again claimed home-field advantage in the World Series.

Teen sensation Bryce Harper had a shaky All-Star debut. Fellow rookie Mike Trout, only 20, showed off his dynamic skills.

The game was pretty much decided a few moments after it started.

Yeah, that first inning was a blowout.

More at the New York Times, "N.L. All-Stars Crush A.L. to Earn Home-Field Advantage for World Series":

Melky Cabrera, who played for the host Royals last season before a trade to San Francisco, was named most valuable player. Cabrera singled off Verlander and scored the game’s first run, and smashed a two-run homer off Matt Harrison in the fourth inning.

Cabrera, who has played for four teams in the last four seasons, became the first Giant to win the All-Star M.V.P. award since another well-traveled outfielder, Bobby Bonds, did it at this ballpark in 1973.

“I didn’t come to win the M.V.P.,” Cabrera, sitting with his mother and grandmother at the postgame news conference, said through a translator. “That was just a surprise. It was a great gift the Lord gave me. But the same opportunity Kansas City gave me last year is the same opportunity San Francisco gave me this year, to play every day and show my talent. I’m just thankful for the fans who gave me an opportunity to be here.”

San Bernardino City Council Votes for Municipal Bankruptcy

The Los Angeles Times tweets: "San Bernardino council votes to file for bankruptcy."

And just now posted at the Times' website, "San Bernardino files for bankruptcy protection":

Facing a $45-million budget shortfall and the prospect of not being able to pay city workers, the San Bernardino City Council on Tuesday voted to file municipal bankruptcy, the third California city to do so in recent weeks.

The vote came shortly after the interim city manager recommended seeking bankruptcy protection, saying the city may not be able to make payroll over the next three months. "We have an immediate cash-flow issue," Andrea Miller told the mayor and seven-member City Council.

Here's the earlier report, "San Bernardino should file for bankruptcy, city manager says."

Two weeks ago it was Stockton: "City of Stockton Goes Bankrupt."