41st Vote

If Scott Brown wins the race for Massachusetts Senate, he can thank Al Franken.

For as much as I like Brown, he's been pretty much a nonentity in the State Senate ... not for any lack of vision or intelligent positions, but because the Republicans don't even have enough votes to uphold a veto. Massachusetts is a classic one-party state, even despite the widespread corruption among the Democrats here. As a result, Brown has largely been speaking to an audience of party sympathizers that isn't large enough to fill a classroom.

But when Franken won the U.S. Senate seat from Minnesota in 2008, he gave the Democrats in Congress exactly 60 votes, which is a filibuster-proof majority in Congress, because it takes 41 votes to uphold a filibuster and the Republicans only have 40. That's what "inspired" the Democrats to pass a health-care plan without any popular support. But, the entire fate of this plan rests on the Democrats retaining this Massachusetts Senate seat, since Brown's vote by itself would be enough to permit a filibuster to stop the plan.

Having been the minority leader of a one-party Senate, Brown has skillfully played his role as the potential swing vote to the hilt. Never mind the fact that he is a far, far better candidate than the deceitful Martha Coakley -- his appeal is his role as the potential "budget-buster killer." None of that would have been possible if he were the 39th or 42nd vote for the Republicans in the Senate.

Cold weather

The bitter-cold weather that the U.S. has been experiencing says nothing about the reality of global warming, let alone the possibility of man-made global warming. But I have to admit to finding myself stunned when a Washington Post weather column cited a left-wing advocacy group in discussing it:

So what, then, should the press be doing differently today? In my view, journalists should make an effort to include the broader climate context whenever it is scientifically justified. That means that it might be unnecessary to mention climate change in a story about a short-term cold snap, but could be integral to a story on heavy snowfall.

For perspective on how this might be done, I turned to Joe Romm of the liberal Center for American Progress, who has been pushing for more coverage of the links between extreme weather and climate events and global climate change.

I have to admit, I love people who refuse to let logic or scientific integrity stand in the way of a good story. In this case, discuss global warming theory when it's consistent with the weather event and ignore it when it's inconsistent.

Science has survived worse blunders, of course -- although most of those, like the current rush toward man-made global warming theory, were both politically and religiously motivated. The only good point that the global warmists make, and one which cannot be denied, is that an increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has to have an impact. No one can deny that. We can dispute whether it would produce global warming (I happen to doubt it), but it has to have an impact, just like any other chamical shift would. This is why we should be trying to reduce our CO2 output, not the overblown panic bleats from Luddites whose real objective is to return us to a secular version of the 19th Century.

More nukes!

Patriots in the playoffs

You know, end-of-the-year football games were cold enough back when the season ended in early January. Ask Dan Fouts about playing in the Freeze Bowl in Cincinnati. Or Don Meredith about the Ice Bowl in Green Bay. But now that the NFL season goes on until February, we all but guarantee awful weather for the playoffs.

All that is a polite way of saying that the New England Patriots and the Baltimore Ravens are going to freeze their butts off this Sunday in the wild card game in Foxborough.

Health care bill

I don't have the heart to complain about the piece of crap that is being foisted on America in the health care bill. Democrats have to take the lion's share of the blame, because they're trying to pass a bill on a straight party-line vote instead of negotiating a bill that fixes the fundamental issues in U.S. health care. But Republicans come in for some blame too, although their weakness in the Senate (only 40 votes) means that they really can't do anything about the Democrats' desire for a party-line bill.

Maybe Republican Scott Brown will upset Democrat Martha Coakley for the open Massachusetts Senate seat that used to be held as a personal fiefdom by the Kennedy family. That one vote change would make all the difference, as it would require that a bill actually be negotiated between the parties instead of being imposed as a test of party discipline.

All I know is that I'm contributing to Brown, and I intend to vote for him. Not only is he the leader of the tiny Republican contingent in Massachusetts, but his daughter Ayla was on American Idol. It's about time for us to elect someone who actually understands reality TV instead of railing about its evils.

Is blogging boring?

Yes. That's why I can't do it more often. But I'll try.