Weather: A fingernail-thin moon was riding low over the southern hills on recent mornings. It almost rained yesterday, but a light dusting of snow fell in the mountains.

Wildlife: Three boatloads of fishing fools drove all the water birds off of the lake, which is still 60% frozen over.

Charity Alert: A few clicks are all you have to do to give!

In The Community: Dr. Richard Stroup at the Honors Symposium was flacking for the Cato Institute and PERS, a "market environmentalist" propaganda organization. His lecture was an unfortunate example of disingenuous special pleading backed with anecdotes instead of evidence.
His point was the Endangered Species Act shouldn't have enforcement mechanisms, because people were angry when forced to obey it. He advocated private, voluntary action on behalf of wildlife as a viable alternative to laws, and had a couple of pleasant stories to tell.
I wish things worked that way all the time, but they don't. The Libertarian Credo of unregulated "Market Forces" ensuring benign activities is a long-discredited fantasy. The collapse of the Grand Bank Fisheries stands as a grim indictment of ideology over facts. Once upon a time this kind of presentation was called Sophistry, and considered bad manners when indulged in by a person who was obviously educated to know what misrepresentations are.

Media Watch: CSPAN is cringing more and more at the feet of the extreme right wing, but In Depth had a refeshing change with Helen Caldicott in the chair last Sunday: In Depth: Dr. Helen Caldicott -- Book TV's guest on the March edition of In Depth. Dr. Caldicott, named one of the most influential women of the 20th century by the Smithsonian Institution, is the author of five books: "Nuclear Madness" (1979), "Missile Envy" (1984), "If You Love This Planet: A Plan to Heal the Earth" (1992), "A Desperate Passion: An Autobiography" (1996), and "The New Nuclear Danger: George Bush's Military Industrial Complex" (2001; revised 2004)
This wonderful lady kept her temper, even when she was under assult by some awfully mean-spirited callers.
I'm reading The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris,thanks to Christy Kabler.
He talked about this book at the University Synagogue in Irvine, California on CSPAN a few weeks ago: Mr. Harris argues that religion plays a major role in the increasingly dangerous world we find ourselves in today. He criticizes the influence of religion in both the United States and across the Muslim world and says that for peace to exist, reason must replace faith as the driving force in society. I've observed that religions corrupt ethics, and manipulate people's emotions in ways that extinguish intelligence. I don't advocate setting aside politeness -- but he has a point that respect for the irrational beliefs of others can be used against well-meaning people.