Mission accomplished -- destroying a once-thriving community in Delaware County:

Maybe it's because we were all outside walking our dogs in the glorious 67-degree February weather, but it was easy to miss a recent op-ed in Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal with the unfortunate title of "No Need to Panic About Global Warming," Luckily, some 40 top scientists who actually know what they're talking about took notice, and responded. So here's a brief message from the reality-based world:

The National Academy of Sciences of the U.S. (set up by President Abraham Lincoln to advise on scientific issues), as well as major national academies of science around the world and every other authoritative body of scientists active in climate research have stated that the science is clear: The world is heating up and humans are primarily responsible. Impacts are already apparent and will increase. Reducing future impacts will require significant reductions in emissions of heat-trapping gases.

Research shows that more than 97% of scientists actively publishing in the field agree that climate change is real and human caused. It would be an act of recklessness for any political leader to disregard the weight of evidence and ignore the enormous risks that climate change clearly poses. In addition, there is very clear evidence that investing in the transition to a low-carbon economy will not only allow the world to avoid the worst risks of climate change, but could also drive decades of economic growth. Just what the doctor ordered.

By the way, you'll be shocked, shocked to learn that many of the authors of the original op-ed are getting paid off by the oil and gas industry. You see, this is the problem with the climate change debate and traditional and deeply flawed "on one hand, on the other hand" journalism. On one hand, is science. On the other hand, is blood money.

UPDATE: I don't want to confuse anyone, but here are a few more facts.

The smallish one with the beard, far left, is actually the brains of the operation -- he's the one that came up with the plan for "self-deportation."

Meanwhile, can Romney be stopped now that he had the endorsement of Donald Trump on top of Christine O'Donnell and immigration hatemonger Kris Kobach?

More thoughts later...

There's been such a recent flurry of First Amendment outrages -- mainly against journalists but also private citizens -- involving cops arresting reporters, seizing videos and pictures, etc. But this new episode today make take the proverbial cake:

WASHINGTON -- In a stunning break with First Amendment policy, House Republicans directed Capitol Hill police to detain a highly regarded documentary crew that was attempting to film a Wednesday hearing on a controversial natural gas procurement practice. Republicans also denied the entrance of a credentialed ABC News news team that was attempting to film the event.

Josh Fox, director of the Academy Award-nominated documentary "Gasland" was taken into custody by Capitol Hill police this morning, along with his crew, after Republicans objected to their presence, according to Democratic sources present at the hearing. The meeting of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment had been taking place in room 2318 of the Rayburn building.

Approximately 16 officers entered the hearing room and handcuffed Fox amid audible discussions of "disorderly conduct" charges, according to Democratic sources present at the arrest.

Fox's "Gasland" is the definitive look at the environmentally abusive side of the gas-drilling bonanza talking place in rural Pennsylvania. Now, apparently, it's not just the deep earth that's getting fracked -- but constitutional rights as well.

Arising from my reporting for the new "Give It To Steve!" here's the flip side of football's glory days of the 1940s...the impact from way too many blows to the head:

The legend of the 1948 "Blizzard Bowl" -- when the Eagles won their first-ever NFL championship over the Chicago Cardinals, 7-0, in a raging snowstorm at even-then-aging Shibe Park on North Philly -- has only grown in the 63 years since, especially since the Birds have only won two more titles ('49, '60). The drama of actually staging the game in the storm -- players from both teams had to help remove the snow and the tarp from the field, and the Eagles' superstar Steve Van Buren almost missed the kickoff as he raced on trolleys, the Broad Street subway and through the drifts of Lehigh Avenue to make it to Shibe -- is almost as great as the tension of the game itself, won on Van Buren's iconic 4th-quarter touchdown plunge. It was a turning point for pro sports in America and here in Philly -- the last NFL championship game in leather helmets, and the first shown nationally on the newfangled television. In an era of a Roman-numeraled spectacle known as a Super Bowl and the NFL postponing a game (in Philly, no less!) based merely on a forecast of snow, the '48 Eagles bring us back to an era of blue-collar, smashmouth football played by a World War II-hardened "Greatest Generation" who made football America's new pastime.

Incredibly, the saga of this iconic football game -- and moment in Philadelphia history -- never had a book of its own.

Until now. This week comes the publication of my new Amazon Kindle Single (that's a short e-book...more about that in a second) entitled "Give It To Steve!" -- which is what the Inquirer reported fans were screaming as the Eagles marched for the game's only score. It tells the story of the game, the unlikely odyssey from an obscure Caribbean island of the Eagles' greatest player ever in Van Buren (read the excerpt in Daily News Sports Week here), with a poignant aftermath about the price that this 1940s' superstar and some of his teammates as a payback for the glory of a brutal game.

Here's what Amazon's reviewer (fair and balanced, of course) said about "Give It To Steve!":

Based on exclusive access to the man who scored the game-winning touchdown, Will Bunch tells the remarkable story of the 1948 NFL Championship game, a battle between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Chicago Cardinals waged during a blizzard. A rematch of the previous year's championship game, which the Eagles lost on a snow-covered Chicago field, the game was nearly canceled when inch upon inch of snow blanketed Philly's Shibe Park. But the teams insisted on playing, even though Eagles star running back, Steve Van Buren, had to ride trolleys and buses and trudge through snow drifts to reach the stadium. Though the game was a thriller--won on a fourth-quarter Van Buren run, breaking a 0-0 tie--this is as much a story about football in the aftermath of World War II and an ode to the scrappy veterans who helped bring the game into the modern era. It was the first televised championship game, and Bunch flushes out his story with fun asides and arcana, like the history of the plastic helmet and the backstories of the ethnic and working-class players, many of whom held jobs and played ball on the weekends. It's a worthy trip back in time, to the earlier, simpler days of NFL football.

Two other things: "Give It to Steve!" is published in the Kindle format (and if you own a Kindle, fantastic) but it's important to know that you don't have to own a Kindle to read it. In fact, it only takes a few seconds to download Kindle and read the book on any kind of computer (PC or Mac) , an iPad or most other types of tablets, or most smartphones (including iPhone and Android). Also, you should know that a Kindle Single is an exciting new experiment in publishing pieces that are shorter than a conventional book but longer than a magazine article, and priced accordingly (in this case, $1.99). So it's just the right length for a fast-moving yarn about an optimistic time in America and in Philadelphia -- when rugged men went ahead and played NFL football games in the teeth of a snowstorm.

Here's some video highlights -- the long Eagles' touchdown pass in the film was called back for offsides.

It's typical that in the sorry state of American journalism that finally, now that Mitt Romney's about to be annointed as GOP nominee in waiting and maybe the 45th president (if this prediction about unemployment is correct) that we're finally getting around to asking who this guy is and what does he really want.

The cavalry -- in the form of senior officers Frank Rich and Eugene Robinson -- is making a belated charge here. First here's Rich -- who reminds us why the Times Sunday Week in Review section has been so lame since he bolted for New York Magazine:

For four years now, Republicans have been demonizing Barack Obama for his alleged “otherness”—trashing him as a less-than-real American pushing “anti-colonial,” socialist, and possibly Islamist ideas gleaned from a rogue’s gallery of subversive influences led by his Kenyan father, Saul Alinsky, and the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. And yet Romney is in some ways more exotic and more removed from “real America” than Obama ever was, his gleaming white camouflage notwithstanding. Romney is white, all right, but he’s a white shadow. He can come across like an android who’s been computer-­generated to be the perfect genial candidate. When forced to interact with actual people, he tries hard, but his small talk famously takes the form of guessing a voter’s age or nationality (usually incorrectly) or offering a greeting of “Congratulations!” for no particular reason. Richard Nixon was epically awkward too, but he could pass (in Tom Wicker’s phrase) as “one of us.” Unlike Nixon’s craggy face, or, for that matter, Gingrich’s, Romney’s does not look lived in. His eyes don’t show the mileage of a veteran fighter’s journey through triumphs and hard knocks—the profile that Americans prefer to immaculate perfection in a leader during tough times. Even at Mitt’s most human, he resembles George Hamilton without the self-deprecating humor or the perma-tan.

Nailed it in that one paragraph. In a more down-to-earth style, the Post's Pulitzer Prize-winning Robinson asks the same questions:

Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul have all laid out bold visions — more properly, hallucinations — of where they would take the country. But where is Romney’s shining city on a hill? What’s his “compassionate conservatism,” his “hope and change”? What is it that Mitt Romney, deep in his heart or down in his gut, really believes in?

“Free enterprise” seems to be what he’s most passionate about, but that’s not really an answer to the question of core beliefs. Who doesn’t believe in free enterprise? Obama would advocate a bit more regulation of markets than Romney would; Santorum and Paul, less. Gingrich, of course, wants free-market spaceships to fly us to the moon.

Watching the recent GOP debates that bracketed Obama's State of the Union address really drove home how deeply flawed the Romney candidacy is. His core message -- which isn't about him, of course, but about the idea that Obama is fundamentally un-American, that he goes around the world apologizing for his country (he doesn't) and has embraced "European-style socialism" (he hasn't) is something that plays well, or at least OK, at an all-Republican rally. But those allegations will look silly -- or be rendered unusable -- when he goes toe-to-toe with Obama in a debate. (I think even GOP voters realize that, which is why they're not "all in" with Romney yet.)

Over the coming months, I think many voters will be asking the title of Rich's piece: "Who in God's name is Mitt Romney?"

If you've been paying any attention to the GOP primary race and now President Obama's ever-improving poll numbers against the weak Republican field, you've probably asked yourself, is it too late for somebody to jump in the race (picture a Chris Christie cannonball into the pool of candidates, if you must)?

The short answer is...yes, it probably is too late.

Do the math.

OK, I'm too lazy to do the math, but this guy did and the story is that the filing deadlines for so many states have passed that a candidate who entered now could win every delegate in every primary for which filing is still open, and still not garner enough delegates to take the nomination in Tampa. You can check out his graphic and here's some background:

No matter how you look at it, then, there are or would be enough delegates for a late entrant to possibly get to 1144, or in the more chaotic, yet more likely late entry (if it were to happen), scenario after Tuesday, earn enough support to keep another candidate from getting there, sending the decision to the convention; a brokered, uh, deadlocked convention.

But here's the thing: Who is that candidate? Let me rephrase that. Who is the candidate who can not only successfully enter the race late, but who can also marshal the organization necessary to cobble together enough delegates to take the nomination or throw enough of a monkeywrench into the process and still maintain support in the party to win the nomination at the convention? Let's think about this for a moment. There are people in this race now actively seeking the nomination (and who have been running for president for quite some time) who cannot get on the ballots in some states. And we are expecting someone to come in and immediately be able to beat these deadlines, organize write-in efforts and uncommitted slates of delegates to get within shouting distance of 1144 or a lower total held by the frontrunner.

I apologize, folks. But I just don't see it. There is no silver bullet. There is no white knight.

Notice, I qualified the lead-in to this with a "probably" and here's why. Let's say a strong candidate (probably not Christie, who is so tied to Romney that he wouldn't get in unless the ex-Massachusetts governor gets out) jumped in right now and the others -- Romney, Gingrich, Santorum and Paul -- all stayed in for their various reasons. You could see a scenario in which Gingrich and Romney, on the early primaries, get, say, 600 delegates each and the new guy wins enough late primaries to get 400, and thus forces an open convention. The new guy could point to his late momentum and try to pry delegates from the other four in the later ballots. That would be fun.

Or, about as likely, the Washington Wizards could win the NBA championship.

It was 30 years ago yesterday (in a great piece by my friend and colleague, Jack Morrison):

Staff members of what was then called The Bulletin didn't quite know what to do or what to think in the face of a disaster that they had all seen coming but were reluctant to accept.

The Bulletin closed on Jan. 29, 1982 - 30 years ago yesterday.

The newsroom at 30th and Market streets was vast and bright, with big windows letting in the light.

I don't remember what the weather was like outside, but inside the mood was uncharacteristically gloomy.

Staffers gathered in small groups to discuss the undiscussable. Some, including me, had offers, but many had no idea what the future held

Meanwhile, um, TODAY: