Nigerian dog scam

English bulldogs, especially those from "champion bloodlines" and recognized by the American Kennel Club, are worth a pretty penny: upwards of $3,000 for some puppies.

So when 29-year-old Justin Gariott saw a classified ad in the Feb. 23 edition of the Review-Journal purporting to offer them free for adoption, he jumped at the chance.

What Gariott had stumbled upon was one of the latest schemes out of Nigeria to defraud Americans. The "puppy scam," as it's known, has become so notorious it prompted a joint press release by the AKC and the Better Business Bureau last year to warn consumers about it.

- Las Vegas Review-Journal (link here)

I would rather have a beagle.

Arborglyphs

Etched into the bark of aging aspens across Colorado, thousands of notes from lonely shepherds from afar linger on a fading canvas. They are lonely narratives carved carefully and passionately a century ago by Mexican, Peruvian and Basque sheepherders, delivering a blunt glimpse into their hard lives.

Known as arborglyphs or dendroglyphs, the impressions divulge the raw isolation of men far from the warmth of family and home.

- Denver Post (link here)

The liberal Republican

As goofs go, John McCain's slip at a town hall forum Friday was a small one. Contrasting himself with his likely Democratic opponent, he said, "I'm a proud, conservative, liberal Repub —" And then he caught himself, as the audience started laughing.

- Washington Post/Denver Post (link here)

Global warming

The world has seen some extraordinary winter conditions in both hemispheres over the past year: snow in Johannesburg last June and in Baghdad in January, Arctic sea ice returning with a vengeance after a record retreat last summer, paralyzing blizzards in China, and a sharp drop in the globe’s average temperature.

- Andrew Revkin, NY Times (link here)

Bias

Walter Shorenstein, a prominent San Francisco-based real estate developer, Democratic fundraiser and longtime supporter of Hillary Rodham Clinton, penned a memo to Democratic party "superdelegates" and other activists criticizing media coverage of the presidential campaign.

- AP/Forbes (link here)

Translation = His candidate is not doing well, and he needs to find a scapegoat.

Evolution

Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design (2006)

by Michael Shermer

The author is a former creationist.

Just as some ex-smokers become rabid anti-smokers, the author had become quite the anti-creationist.

The author points out that intelligent design is just creationism in another guise.

Raises an interesting question: who designed the designer?

A good overview in less than 200 pages.

Pandering

The Democratic candidates understand that trade with the developing world has both costs and benefits, which are not evenly distributed across the United States. Two days before this week's debate, Mr. Obama said, "I don't think it's realistic for us to repeal NAFTA," because that "would actually result in more job loss . . . than job gains." Ms. Clinton awkwardly pleaded that NAFTA has benefited some parts of the country -- such as Texas. Yet the urge to win Ohio trumped, and both Democrats made a threat that, if taken seriously, can be described only as reckless. In other words, we have to hope that they were only pandering.

- Washington Post (link here)

Pandering was always been a core tactic of Democrats.