Todays Links and Minifeatures 2005 07 18 Monday

Slight title change today, because these aren't just links.

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UPDATE: Pursuant to the China situation, went out hunting on the internet and found:



Asia Times 2006 is year to beware

China Taiwan military balance

Taiwan Security

Some political background for novices

Front Page Magazine



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RINO Sightings is up!

Favorites: Armies of Liberation Environmental Republican Pigilito Says



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Carnival Of Liberty III is up!

Especially Good:

Angry in the Great White North Stop the ACLU Resistance is futile Willisms



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Carnival of Personal Finance is also up today.



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Carnival of Capitalists is also up!

Especially worthy: Social Security Choice Different River Wizbang



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Remember the car bomb last week that killed one soldier and twenty-odd children? Chrenkoff finds us a story about their funeral. Which the terrorists tried to bomb also.



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Politburo Diktat directs us to people who don't want the FBI to read their website. Seems to me that both United for Peace and Justice and the ACLU are unclear on the whole concept of law enforcement.



Volokh Conspiracy has more.



The point is made in comments that historically FBI surveillance has included the desire to criminally charge leftists. My reaction: So what? I see nothing wrong with visiting web sites, which are publicly available information, monitoring comments, etcetera. I see nothing wrong with using far broader powers of surveillance, so long as they do not manufacture wrongdoing or the appearance of wrongdoing in their targets. We pay them to find bad guys, preferably before they do their damage. As long as they do not manufacture bad guys, they are doing their job. If I found complaints that they were manufacturing evidence or something similar, I would worry. But accusations of (gasp!) surfing the web to find information on potential lawbreakers I find worthy of a hearty "Good job!"



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Rhymes with Right makes the point very effectively: The left does not support our troops.



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Q and O makes a good point about the London Bombers in that Timothy McVeigh makes a much better comparison than 9/11. They were homegrown, like McVeigh.



I think Q and O is right. Unfortunately, there is a class of folks in the west who hate their own civilization, and can be counted upon to stand up and howl at any possible bias in its favor. This includes large sections of the press and Academia, particularly in the soft disciplines. McVeigh was a white supremacist. His crime, in the eyes of these people was in believing that there are positive things to say about white people of european descent. The murder of 144 people was subsidiary to this in their minds. Had a minority chauvinist or feminist been responsible for Oklahoma City, they would have instantly joined the pantheon of saints of this movement. Instead, he was a white male, and therefore deserving of nothing but scorn.



Barcepundit has an article explicitly linking the 3/11 bombings to spanish elections (HT:Instapundit



Speaking of Terrorists, We need an apology from one of our congresscritters. The only time we should consider nuking Mecca is under assault from Saudi Arabia. Period.



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Eric's Grumbles has an article urging libertarian and libertarian sympathizers to band together rather than calling one another heretics and trying to ostracize people that may disagree with you on one subject but are much closer in political philosophy than either (for example) Socialist Democrats or Corporate Statist Republicans. If the libertarians in this country were as effective at building a big tent as the Elephants, they would be a serious force rather than a voice in the wilderness. I'm not certain that libertarians would be big party size, but they'd be big enough so that both of the majors would try a lot harder to win their votes. I've long thought that the best possible solution would be to disband the Libertarian party in favor of a national libertarian advocacy organization. When Libertarians are on their own, they're maybe 10% of the population - not a threat to either of the majors. Were they a mixed bag of folks in the middle that can go either way, candidates in the primary will want libertarian backers, and they will run on libertarian platforms.



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What she said. Mary at Dean's World on Venezuela's Chavez and Left Wing Death Squads. Although I think the reason you have to specify "Right Wing" Death Squads is because "Left Wing" Death Squads are so much more common that it is the default value.



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Common Sense and Wonder has an article making a worthwhile point about the Donkeys. I want to see the Donkeys based somewhere closer to reality and more competitive in national elections. It would be good on all kinds of levels. Until they take this advice from somebody, it's not going to happen, unfortunately.



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Speaking of wanting people to be competitive, I can't believe this 'ebonics' sabotage of young children is coming back again. Study after study after study finds that even for foreign language speakers, moving to traditional american english as soon as possible is beneficial in school and in later life. To move english speakers towards separatism is stupid. What's really going on, is that certain leaders and power groups want to control the intereaction between these people and the rest of society. (HT: Michelle Malkin)



More on multicultural fallacies: La Shawn Barber links to a piece in the Prague Monitor (certainly no mass media in this country will say this)



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The Immigration Blog has the scoop on the shootout that left a 19 month old girl dead. Illegal alien abducts daughter, abuses step-daughter, fires at police using daughter as shield. Police aid step-daughter in leaving line of fire, and attempt to negotiate out of the situation. One of them is shot. Police shoot perpetrator, unfortunately also hitting daughter. The community is blaming the police for the whole thing. Suppose the police did nothing. In accordance with precedent the Supreme Court then holds them not liable for protecting the other people the twit would have shot? "Sorry about that, folks, but we're not allowed to protect you against members of a special interest group?"



What's it going to take to return sanity to these immigration debate, a Kool Aid embargo?



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Speaking of voices of sanity, Radioblogger gives us a transcript of Hugh Hewitt interviewing Victor Davis Hanson. This fits in very well with my own piece on Islam today. (HT: Inoperable Terran)



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Mudville Gazatte on military pay and retention rates and bonuses. I agree with him that military pay isn't as bad as many people make it out to be. Heck, the free housing part around here is equal to a $10 to $12 an hour job (tax free!) all by itself. I still think they should make more.









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