Fiona Hall is an Idgit.

Who is Fiona Hall you ask? She's the idgit politician responsible for this headline in the Daily Mail:

European Union set to ban patio heaters to help save the planet

There's really not much to add to this story other than to sigh loudly and be grateful I don't live in the U.K. where this sort of idiocy is rampant.

Beauty is in the eye of the bureaucrat.

Erect huge pile of hay bales, cover them in ugly blue tarp and old tires, leave them there for 4 years - no problem!

Remove blighted landscape and reveal handsome castle - tear it down or go to jail.



Maybe it's the use of "organic" materials in the hay bales that is appealing to the 21st Century British bureaucrat. In any case, I gather that these wonderfully eccentric 18th century British follies have fallen into disfavor.

Incontrovertible proof that some cases of the Earth's warming can be be blamed on man.

In a very popular USA Today piece entitled, Alaska the 'poster state' for climate concerns, we are presented with the usual scenario of impending doom of Biblical proportions due to rising temperatures. And we are told:

The permafrost that underlies much of the central and north of the state is a relic of the last Ice Age. Some of the frozen ground under Fairbanks is 100,000 years old, says Vladimir Romanovsky, a permafrost expert at Fairbanks. And it's now starting to get "slushy."

You know what? That is very true, and here's evidence of this phenomena:

For Ruth Macchione, that meant a more expensive design to her new home after the cabin her husband built in the 1950s sank into the ground. The permafrost under the cabin thawed because the structure wasn't built to keep the ground cold — a key trick in building in cold regions.

Wow. Who woulda thunkit? And get this! Five minutes of research into the topic of building on permafrost also led me to this this amazing scientific fact:

Most houses on permafrost begin to tilt in the direction of their stove or furnace.

So there you have it. Heat melts ice! For those of you who are thinking of building in Alaska, you're very welcome for this free bit of super amazing factual information.

We had some audio issues and Gov. Romney's mike wasn't working momentarily. Simple as that.

That is the nonsensical response from MSNBC VP for Communications Jeremy Gaines in response to inquiries from Raw Story about the source of the mysterious whisper that was heard during last night's debate Republican Debate.

Moonbats are blaming it on secret transmitters hidden in Mitt's suit or on a campaign aide playing Cyrano de Bergerac and coaching him from backstage.

How long will it it take for MSNBC to admit that it was Brian Williams coaching Tim Russert?

UPDATE!

Let's see what some of the Moonbats are saying. This is from Mike Luckovich's AJC blog:

By IN THE NEWS

January 25, 2008 1:21 PM

Romney Cheats With an Earpiece! Well folks that’s it for the Mittster - he was caught on tape with an earpiece! Listen for yourself as someone whispers “he raised taxes”

And -

By IN THE NEWS

January 25, 2008 1:47 PM

What makes this whisper even more bizarre is the fact the MSNBC’s political blog had a post about it immediately afterward. You can see a screen grab of that post here. They have since removed this particular entry. Odd.

One wonders what ITN thinks happened here. Does he imagine that the Romney campaign conspired with MSNBC to scrub the blog post? Maybe UFOs flew in overnight and aliens did it? Or was it men in black helicopters?

He knows it's odd but he just can't admit that MSNBC is at fault because that would ruin his dearly held conspiracy theory.

UPDATE!

No way of knowing who whispered, MSNBC says

Okay, it probably wasn't Brian Williams. It was probably Tim Russert's producer whispering a prompt in his ear. Maybe the ear piece mic fell out. It may not be the first time this happened.

As a commenter at Just One Minute notes -

A few years ago, Russert was interviewing someone, and a microphone fell out of his ear. I think Imus asked him about it, and he made a lot of excuses, but finally admitted that he was taking cues from someone offstage.

Never assume the obvious is true

Fox News Reports:

When Marie Lupe Cooley, 41, of Jacksonville, Fla., saw a help-wanted ad in the newspaper for a position that looked suspiciously like her current job — and with her boss's phone number listed — she assumed she was about to be fired.

So, police say, she went to the architectural office where she works late Sunday night and erased 7 years' worth of drawings and blueprints, estimated to be worth $2.5 million.

"She decided to mess up everything for everybody," Jacksonville Sheriff's Office spokesman Ken Jefferson told reporters. "She just sabotaged the entire business, thinking she was going to get axed."

It didn't take Steven Hutchins, owner of the architectural firm that bears his name, much time to figure out who'd done it — Cooley was the only other person who had full access to the files.

Police arrested Cooley Monday evening and charged her with causing greater than $1,000 damage to computer files, a felony. She was bailed out the following afternoon.

Hutchins told one TV station he'd managed to recover all the files using an expensive data-recovery service.

As for the job, Cooley originally wasn't in danger of losing it. The ad was for Hutchins' wife's company.

The firm told FOXNews.com that Cooley no longer is employed there.

Did John Edwards call McCain "crazy"?

Nah.

A source who was present at an Edwards fund raiser reported that he thought McCain was the likely Republican nominee and that McCain was “crazy”—unfit to have his “finger on the button.”

Pshaw. What a silly idea. Dontcha know this is what really happened:

"This is a bungled version of what Edwards said, like a bad game of telephone. As John Edwards has said many times, Democrats would be crazy to nominate the wrong person against John McCain. People will think about whose finger they want on the button and question whether Senator Obama's experience may or may not cut it.

Clearly, bad game of telephone is a euphemism for had too many cocktails. Wasn't it sweet of Edwards not to point out that the source must have been intoxicated and thus got it all wrong.

It's so nice to have civility back in politics again.

Meanwhile, across the cultural pond...

Allahpundit links to this story, UK Government Agency Condemns 'Three Little Pigs', via L.G.F.

Here's the official explanation of their idgit decision:

The Three Little Cowboy Builders has already been a prize winner at the recent Education Resource Award - but its Newcastle-based publishers, Shoo-fly were turned down by the Bett Award panel, run the government’s technology agency. The feedback from the judges explaining why they had rejected the CD-Rom highlighted that they “could not recommend this product to the Muslim community”.

They also warned that the story might “alienate parts of the workforce (building trade)”.

The judges criticised the stereotyping in the story of the unfortunate pigs: “Is it true that all builders are cowboys, builders get their work blown down, and builders are like pigs?”

I have a hunch that the real reason that this has been deemed "offensive" is because the Three Little Cowboy Builders reminded them too much of George W. Bush.

UPDATE!

Mark Steyn has weighed in on this. First They Came for Piglet

You're entitled to your opinion

In an appalling assault on free speech, Ezra Levant, publisher of the now defunct Western Standard has been hauled in front of the Alberta arm of the Canadian Human Rights Commission for publishing the Danish Cartoons which much offended one Syed Soharwardy. Click on the Title for the background.

His persecutor is Shirlene McGovern, and the You Tube videos of his interrogation are priceless. The last one may contain the best example of situational irony evah, in what Ezra describes as a "slip of the tongue".

Iowahawk does a great job of mocking the idiotic bureaucratic commission here.

Just for fun I checked out the Human Rights Commission website, and for some bizarre reason Human Rights and Diversity falls under the purview of Alberta Tourism, Parks, Recreation and Culture. Be careful what you say think at the local playground.

For more indecencies across the border, and what to note what you can do to help end this folly, read all about his comrade Mark Steyn's ordeal here. Depressingly, Steyn has noted that no one has ever won a case brought by the Canadian Thought Police, er, Human Rights Commission.

Mike Huckabee channels Monty Python

"For those of us for whom summer is not a verb, for those of us who didn't go to fancy boarding schools on the east coast, for those of us who didn't grow up with a silver spoon, who were lucky to have a spoon -- ask those folks and they'll tell you the economy is not doing well for them," says Huckabee.

Here's Monty Python’s Four Yorkshiremen comedy skit, which Mike must have confused with some serious drama.

Here's the script which I never tire of reading.