September 2019 Archives

Some physicists are speculating that "Planet 9" might be a small black hole. I sure hope so.

For nearly 5 years, growing numbers of scientists have blamed the weird orbits of distant solar system objects on the gravitational effects of an as-yet-undiscovered "Planet Nine" that lies in the icy realm far beyond Neptune. But a pair of physicists is now floating an intriguing idea that could offer a new way to search for the object: What if that supposed planet is actually a small black hole? ...

But if the object is a planet-mass black hole, the physicists say, it would likely be surrounded by a halo of dark matter that could stretch up to 1 billion kilometers on every side. And interactions between dark matter particles in that halo--especially collisions between dark matter and dark antimatter--could release a flash of gamma rays that would betray the object's presence, the researchers propose in a forthcoming paper posted on the preprint server arXiv.

It would be absolutely amazing for humanity to have physical access to a black hole! Just imagine all the science we could do with it.

This video has been floating around the blogosphere for months, but apparently the mainstream media wasn't aware that Vice President Joe Biden bragged about using American leverage to force Ukraine to fire the prosecutor who was investigating his son.

Joe Biden brags about how he threatened to pull $1 billion in loan guarantees from Ukraine if it didn't immediately fire Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.

The prosecutor, who was fired, was leading a corruption investigation into a company that employed Biden's son, Hunter pic.twitter.com/xZd3vIMbuL

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) September 20, 2019

From Hot Air:

Note well that Biden leaves out the context of what the prosecutor was investigating at the time of Biden's insistence on getting him fired. He was quarterbacking a corruption probe targeting Burisma, which was paying Hunter Biden a fortune ($50,000 a month at the time). In fact, it seems a little weird without that context as to why foreign aid to Ukraine depended on the person filling a state prosecutor's office at all. What foreign-policy interest would the identity of a state prosecutor -- an internal affair -- have involved that would derail a billion-dollar aid package to an ally in desperate need of the cash?

And yet, here was Biden bragging last year that "son of a bitch, he got fired" -- after Biden explicitly used the authority of his office and the president's to get rid of the man looking into his son's employer. Even if one assumes Donald Trump attempted to pressure Volodymyr Zelenskiy into reopening the Burisma probe, it can't be any worse that the explicit quid pro quo demanded by Biden ... in his own words.

I don't know what Trump said on the phone to Ukraine's leadership, but I'm pretty confident that Joe Biden used his authority as Vice President to protect his son Hunter Biden.

Tom Hanks is portraying Fred "Mr. Rogers" Rogers in a new movie and says:

"We never make fun of Fred. We slow down to listen to him," Hanks said following the film's screening. "It was always going to be, I think, deconstructing the myth of it to show he was a regular guy who went out for Chinese food. At the same time, there is this mystery. What's his motivation?"

"One of the most wonderful things, too, is he was actually an ordained minister who never mentioned God on his show," Hanks said.

There are so many ways to interpret Hanks' sentiment. I will channel my inner Ann Althouse and share a few possibilities. What do you think?

1. It's wonderful that Rogers was able to share the love of God without turning unbelievers off by mentioning God.

2. Some people look down on Christianity, but those people should recognize that Christianity inspires wonderful goodness even though Rogers didn't go out of his way to mention it.

3. It's wonderful that Rogers kept his beliefs to himself so we didn't have to hear about them.

4. It's wonderful that I, Tom Hanks, don't have to portray an active Christian whose accomplishments and beloved-ness are directly tied to acting out his faith.

5. It's wonderful that Rogers' legacy isn't tarnished by explicit references to his faith, which would be unpalatable in the modern era.

I'm sure there are more possible interpretations. I'm sure Hanks chose his words carefully.

Republicans are already creating damning supercuts from last night's Democrat Climate Change Town Hall. Check out these 37 seconds:

Democrats have shown their true colors when it comes to the climate: they're in favor of total government control over nearly every aspect of Americans' lives. pic.twitter.com/MIrc4MEcU1

— GOP (@GOP) September 5, 2019

I understand that Democrats have to "run left" to win the nomination, but these quotes will come back to haunt whoever makes it to the general election. If the Democrats don't figure out how to mitigate the influence of their most extreme members they're going to have a very hard time nominating a candidate who can win the Presidency.

Democrats: If you want more Trump, this is how you get it.