Test of LinksTest of Patience

I suppose I could make some comments to make this an actual post but I'm utterly poophed. It took me an incredibly long time to figure out procedure; in fact what I figured out was that what I'd been trying won't work.

This post is just two quotes from two articles linked to their source.

If it's a spruce tree adorned with 10,000 lights and 5,000 ornaments displayed on the Capitol grounds in December, it's a Christmas tree and that's what it should be called, says House Speaker Dennis Hastert. Hastert, R-Ill., in a letter to the Architect of the Capitol, recommended that the annual Capitol Holiday Tree, as it has been called the past several years, be renamed the Capitol Christmas Tree.
"I strongly urge that we return to this tradition and join the White House, countless other public institutions and millions of American families in celebrating the holiday season with a Christmas tree," Hastert wrote to Architect Alan Hantman. His office said the tree began to be referred to as the Holiday Tree in the 1990s. Spokesman Ron Bonjean said the reasons were unclear.

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The United States ruled out making extra pledges to fight global warming beyond 2012 on Tuesday, angering environmentalists who accused Washington of blocking a 189-nation conference in Canada.

Chief U.S. climate negotiator Harlan Watson also strongly defended President George W. Bush's environmental record, saying emissions by the world's biggest polluter had fallen more in 2000-2003 than in the European Union.

Still, U.N. data show the United States is doing worse than all the nations named by Watson in the longer term. U.S. emissions were 13.3 percent above 1990 levels in 2003 -- while the EU average in the same period was a fall of 1.4 percent.

(And just now it took me ten minutes to figure out how to get out of the block qoute so I could make a comment). The idea anyway being that the EU includes East Germany which shut down its old coal fired plants after the collapse of the Soviets. It would be an interesting post if I could find that article.