Despite the wretched outcome of his wishes for 2010, WC will once again set out his wishes for 2011. While it is tempting to moderate his wishes, WC is not inclined to lower his expectations in the hope of greater success. But to offer some additional inspiration, WC will frame his wishes for 2011 in…
Certain nattering nabobs of negativism[1] have pointed out that The Quitter actually won her Big Lie Award WC described in late 2009. But WC is happy to report that even as late as December 22, 2010, our ex-governor was proving she still had what it takes to draw the derision of her intellectual superiors.[2] Mario…
The Chicago Cubs finished 16 games behind the Cincinnati Reds in the National League Central, in next-to-last place. Sigh. They were pretty awful. One hundred two years and counting. Some National League team from the west coast ended up winning the World Series. The American League continued to play some other game where the pitcher…
WC has been accused of always attacking Sarah Palin, and never offering praise. Well, WC is here to proudly announce that Alaska’s very own Caribou Barbie is the winner of Politifact’s inaugural Lie of the Year contest. Let’s have a big round of well-deserved applause for The Quitter. Her winning lie was the infamous “death…
U.S. District Court Judge Beistline, in a slightly surprising move today, not only lifted the stay on certification of the U.S. Senate election; he also threw out Miller’s lawsuit. Judge Beistline was brief, but he wasn’t kind. For those of you who are keeping score, since his upset win in the Republican primary, Joe Miller…
BP is a huge part of Alaska, politically, economically, socially and financially. It’s also responsible for the safety and reliability of the North Slope oil field production system. That makes the New York Times article on the final hours of the Deepwater Horizon critical reading for Alaskans. The article is long, but absolutely riveting. And…
Joe Miller announced over the holiday weekend that he “will not oppose state certification of the U.S. Senate race in Alaska. For the sake of the integrity of the election, Miller will go forward with the federal suit.” Now before WC’s readers get all maudlin about Miller’s Christmas gift of new found sensitivity to protecting Alaska’s representation…
A few readers took WC to task for his examples of conspiracies used in his post on the subject last week. It’s difficult to give examples, WC supposes, without treading on someone’s favorite conspiracy theory. But while researching a recent blog essay, WC stumbled across an entry that seems to conflate in an alogical sprawl…
In this age of tweeting and texting, slang and appalling grammar, the importance of punctuation has nearly been lost. For example, the normally punctilious Sheila Toomey, writing in her Alaska Ear column, wrote about the report that Palin spawn Bristol has purchased a house in Arizona: Does Bristol want to put Alaska in her rear…
WC approaches a discussion of the Joe Miller-backing, Lisa Murkowski-bashing Senator Jim DeMint in the same dispassionate way he approaches all his blog entries: WC wishes that hypocritical busy-body DeMint would mind South Carolina’s business, and not meddle in Alaska’s. His fund-raising site, Senate Conservatives Fund, has finally taken down its plea for money to…
The Alaska Supreme Court today issued a per curiam decision rejecting each of Joe Miller’s challenges to Superior Court Judge Bill Carey’s earlier decision. Bottom line: Miller loses, again, and badly, even worse than in the Superior Court. For example, here’s what the Alaska Supreme Court had to say about Miller’s argument that minor misspellings…
The final penguin species WC saw was the Magellanic Penguin. Not in order seen; the only place WC saw it was in the Falkland Islands, at least one of the places it breeds. It’s the only burrowing penguin among those seen on WC’s trip. And it’s probably the shyest. Given that they nest in dirt…
The sixth species of penguin that WC saw on his recent trip was the handsomest, the runway model of penguins, the King Penguin. Beautifully marked, as elegant as a penguin can be, outside of molting it’s hard for a King Penguin not to look drop-dead gorgeous. Most penguins are colonial breeders, but none are quite…
As a nature photographer, the weight of your gear is always a serious consideration. Big lenses are heavy; there’s no way around it. And in the age of digital photography, you simply have to carry a laptop computer to review what you have shot. Since there’s no practical way to reduce the weight of lenses,…
The delicately designed Chinstrap Penguin is another species we saw only around the Antarctic Peninsula. With its elegant little chin line and reddish-pink feet, it’s a snappy little bird among all of the ice and rock. Even if you have never seen a Chinstrap before, it’s a species you can identify on sight. For a…
Folks, it’s -40 F outdoors right now. Keeping warm isn’t just comfortable, it can be a matter of life and death. Or at least serious risk of frost bite. Stuff that keeps you warm is absolutely critical. And keeping your feet warm is an important part of the goal. Which takes WC to Steger Mukluks.…
Long-time readers of WC will recall that WC commented back in May of this year on the Alaska Judicial Conduct Commission’s complaint against Judge Richard Postma. That brief blog entry attracted an uncommon amount of interest, comments and emails. Not all of the emails were as polite as they might have been; some of Judge…
The Financial Crisis Commission was created by Congress as a bipartisan commission, to report on the causes of the current financial crisis and make recommendations to avoid similar problems in the future. It stated mission is to “examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States.” Now the…
WC didn’t get to see a lot of Macaroni Penguins; they prefer rocky headlands that don’t offer a lot of opportunity to land. As a result, all of WC’s photos are from zodiacs; mostly bouncing around in swells. These photos aren’t as sharp as WC would like, but it’s what he has. The Macaronis are…
At the risk of anthropomorphizing, Gentoo Penguins are the trailer trash among penguins. Messy, quarrelsome, noisy, dirty and ubiquitous. A clean Gentoo is a handsome fellow; clean Gentoos are just very hard to find. But like trailer trash, they are not without their charms. Muddy, messy, with haphazard nests, you can see Gentoos aren’t your…
The Adelie (pronounced uh-day-lee) Penguin is on WC’s short list for the toughest bird in the world. These are birds that specialize on areas at the edge of the pack ice, high latitude birds. They are nimble on their feet, less quarrelsome than other species and have the neatest, cleanest colonies among the penguin species…
WC’s visit to the Falkland Islands included West Pint Island, where there is a mixed colony of Rockhopper Penguins, Imperial (Blue-eyed) Shag and Black-browed Albatross. All three are beautiful, tough birds, but there’s no question that the Rockhoppers are the crowd pleasers. The very silly movie Happy Feet featured a penguin named Lovelace, voiced by…
Long-time readers of WC will recall WC took multi-zillionaire Paul Allen to task for acting like a greedy patent troll. The trial judge in Allen’s case agreed. He dismissed the case because the complaint lacked specificity. Allen’s company, Interval Licensing, can re-file the complaint if it does so by December 28. And it probably will.…
Back in 1973, on his excellent album, “A White Sports Coat and a Pink Crustacean,” Jimmy Buffet wrote “They Don’t Dance Like Carmen No More.” Walking down New Street, music is loud Neon signs bringing tumultuous crowds But I’m just an old man, I’d probably get sore ‘Cause they don’t dance like Carmen no more In…
Ron Santo is the greatest third baseman not to be in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. Overlooked by both baseball writers during his eligibility and by the various veteran’s committees during his long broadcast career, his absence from the Hall of Fame is a damning indictment of its deeply flawed selection processes. But…
One of the advantages of going on sabbatical for most of a month is that WC was spared the tedious circus of Joe Miller’s briefing in his legal challenge to the voters’ will. Instead, WC could simply read the briefs and read Superior Court Judge Bill Carey’s decision, announced yesterday in Ketchikan. As WC predicted…
For better worse, WC is back from his sabbatical. And as some you have guessed from WC’s last two posts, WC did indeed follow the Arctic Terns south to Antarctica, and for the last month or so, WC has been traveling in the the bottom of the Southern Hemisphere, and has returned to tell the…
Wickersham's Conscience 
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