As a Buffalo Bills fan, I have come to expect my guys to be ignored even in Hall of Fame complaint threads.

Up here in Western New York, the groundhog's prediction of 6 more weeks of winter augurs an early spring. Here's to some warm weather in March!

The whole brouhaha from the internet folks about SOPA reminded me about the first of Robert Conquest's 3 Laws of Politics: "Everyone is conservative about what he knows best."

Every conservative knows that a huge 1000 page law from Congress is probably the worst way to solve any problem, but those mostly-leftist internet users are only aware of it when Congress threatens their small corner of the world.

I had to laugh out loud at the cognitive dissonance limned here. A certain group of people (journalists, academics, most politicians, the rest of the left) just cannot think any bad thoughts about green energy.

Anyway, the piece is hilarious. Besides, it's not just that this could have been predicted. It was inevitable. But since climate skeptics were saying so, the thought that solar panels in Germany wouldn't work was a thought that couldn't be thought.

The Garbage Plate is unique to Rochester, NY.

Buffalo is home of the Buffalo Chicken Wing and the Beef on Weck sandwich. Although you can get wings just about anywhere now, I have found that no places outside of Buffalo really get the sauce right.

My parents are from Binghamton, the home of Spiedies.

It's true. Romney will not stand up to Barack Obama. He has no chance. Also, the rest Republican field is weak.  I believe that people began to support Newt because it looked like he might stand up to Obama, but it was a false hope. None of the other knuckleheads stands a chance either. All we can do is continue to "fight the long defeat" with joy and humor. Merry Christmas!

Later on in the show Rush did walk back on his comments somewhat, especially after talking to some callers.

In the Monty Hall problem Assumption 3 does not exist. Randomization occurs before it is revealed whether door B or C has probability 0 of containing the prize. The order of operations is such:

Assumptions: Pr(A) = Pr(B) = Pr(C) = 1/3.

Let the contestant choose door A.

At this point Monty looks behind the doors and knows where the prize is. There 2 outcomes:

1: The prize is behind door A, probability 1/3. Monty opens either door B or C.

2: The prize is not behind door A, probability 2/3. Monty opens either door B or C.

The opening of the door provides no new information to the contestant whether the prize was behind door A or not. Door A still has a 1/3 chance to have the prize.

The rise in unpaid internships looks like a new apprenticeship system. I surmise that it is growing in response to the inability of businesses to evaluate potential employees and the inability of the typical college graduate to do useful work. Apprenticeship solves both problems by allowing the new workers to be evaluated in a work environment for low cost and by training them on the job.

If it makes you feel better, Rob (using what he will learn in the future) called Texas the largest state. John Podhoretz correctly called Texas the 2nd largest state. By the way, what was the 3rd largest state when you were in junior high?

It's stories like this that make me wonder why the president can't find anything to cut in the budget.

Is this an assignment for a science class? Good grief.

I think he was arguing more for the conservative disposition, especially the reluctance to support sweeping change. But this viewpoint is one of an empiricist, not a philosopher. Trying to build a sweeping intellectual argument for conservatism isn't Derb's game. (Indeed, earlier in the piece he mentions the Englishman's distrust of intellectualls.)

I tend to agree with this. For example, in the podcast this week they talked about the rising illegitimacy rate, which  conservatives agree is bad news. You don't need to believe in the 10 Commandments to know that this is bad for society and to hope for traditional values to reassert themselves. The question is: does society need religion? I think yes. A few stragglers can live in a broadly religious conservative nation, but I doubt that without a prevailing shared religious morality a conservative nation can long endure.

Here's John Derbyshire's take:

"Q.   Can an irreligious person really be a conservative?

A.   Of course he can. The essence of modern conservatism is the belief in limited government power, respect for traditional values, patriotism, and strong national defense. The only one of those that gets snagged on religion is the second. But while traditional Western society has had a religious background, it has usually made room, at all points of the political spectrum, for unbelievers. ...

... I'd go a bit further than that. Conservatism, including (including especially, I think) religious conservatism, has at its core an acceptance of, a respect for, human nature. We conservatives are the people who see humanity plain, or strive to, and who wish to keep our society in harmony with what we see. Paul Johnson has noted how leftists always used to talk about building socialism. Capitalism doesn't require building. It's just what happens if you leave people alone. It arises, in short, from human nature, and only needs harmonizing under some mild, reasonable, laws and customary restraints. You don't have to build it by forging a New Capitalist Man, or anything like that."

For the inheritance.

He should follow Silent Cal's example and just send Congress a letter.