Via Instapundit:

EU bans claim that water can prevent dehydration

The world is drowning in stupidity.

Last night on Redeye someone called Newt Gingrich "Jack Black's Father"

I didn't see it until this.Conservatives love him mouthing off to the media and challenging their assumptions, but that can't carry him very far, because they will just change their questions. He rose to prominence by giving firebrand speeches to an empty House of Representative which aired on C-span. It irritated Tip O'Neill enough that he pressed C-span to add cameras showing that the seats were empty. He finally came up with a great idea, the Contract with America, that helped the GOP take control of the House. Then his troubles started. Now he's 68 years old and ready to get back into politics, but this time, at the top. If he's elected, I predict he'll last one term.

I've been looking at some of the bilge about Mitt Romney being spread via the internet. It's really vile, saying that he supports gay marriage, that he excluded the Boy Scouts from volunteering during the 2002 Winter Olympics, even though all volunteers had to be 18 years of age, and the nonsense goes on and on. Obviously when something is as incongruous as these charges, it should be viewed skeptically, but if you spend all your time reading far right hate sites the air you breathe starts to make you paranoid. And if your first impulse when someone with such strong conservative credentials as Ann Coulter endorses Mitt is to call her a RINO, and ignore all of his statements and proposals of the past 4 years, it just might be that you've left the real world and moved into that place where nothing is as it seems and your best friends are secretly plotting against you. At that point, you are no longer of any value to your party or your country. You are the type who drives moderates and independents away from your own side of the issues.

Ann Coulter: If Not Romney, Who? If Not Now, When? She's right. We all know what the big attacks against him will be. Any conservative who won't support him, is helping Obama to get re-elected. His religion shouldn't be an issue. Massachusetts' health care program isn't an issue. He's committed to repealing Obamacare and cutting spending and he has lots of experience vetoing spending bills and balancing budgets without increasing taxes.

I'm listening to Duane FM, a 24 hour service for paid members of The Hughniverse. It's programmed by Duane Patterson, producer of the the Hugh Hewitt Show on the radio. I generally like his choice of music and admire his breadth of knowledge of popular music. I've discovered a lot of music I had somehow missed on his Sunday Night programs which he now feeds 24-7 on the internet. It's well worth the price, even if that's all you got.

Is Gingrich a Conservative? I'd say yes. I don't believe there are any Republican liberals anymore in the mold of Nelson Rockefeller. But it seems to be a favorite game these days to call other GOP voters and candidates "RINOs," for no other reason that they consider anthropogenic global warming a real possibility. Yes, the science is flawed, but I don't think anybody knows enough to say it doesn't exist, either. The real question is what we should do about it. My view is that there isn't much we can do in the direction Al Gore wants to go, because it would cause economic catastrophe, which we have plenty of already. Mitt Romney has already set a priority on achieving energy independence in the U.S., i. e. developing our own resources, yet he gets called a RINO because he allowed for the possibility that AGW is happening. His answer to it would probably be to continue studying the climate and technologies for dealing with it, but not setting our hair on fire and running around screaming. Newt Gingrich is as much of a conservative as anyone. Otherwise he wouldn't be getting so much enthusiastic support now. He's not my first choice as a candidate, but I'd have no trouble voting for him against Obama. The reason I support Romney is his experience in business, finance and executive public office. I'd be unhappy if Ron Paul were the candidate, because I don't think he could beat Obama. Right now I'm doubtful about whether Herman Cain or Rick Perry could win either, given their recent gaffes. Herman Cain is right to point out that the President doesn't have to know everything because he has lots of advisers and appointees to help, but he does have to be sharp enough to handle press conferences, and Cain's choice of advisers in his campaign isn't particularly reassuring. I think that Perry is doing better, but I don't know if he can get back the points he's lost. Santorum and Bachmann have peaked, but I could vote for either one. The point is that all of them, except perhaps Ron Paul, are conservatives and true Republicans, and calling any of them RINOs does no good for the country or the party.

I've been away for a while and sick with an eye infection. It seems much has gone on. Perry's blank out on stage. Cain's today. Newt Gingrich's rise in the polls. The primaries haven't really begun, but the candidates' prospects keep shifting. Newt has always been great at showing off his knowledge of history and dispensing red meat to the base, but he tends to be arrogant, which is the opposite of leadership. He's a great debater and I like the way he refuses to accept the assumptions underlying many of the questions from the media, but he can't help being arrogant, and I'm not sure that his penchant for new ideas is really what we need.

Just beautiful and amazing. Watching these lights and atmospheric fireworks reminded me of some of the claims and theories of Nikola Tesla.