Links and Minifeatures 08 18 Thursday

Carnival of Vanities is up at Willisms. Favorites: Mr. Snitch, The Idiom, ROFASix,

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This is an interesting idea. Introducing African and Asian species into North America. I'm curious to know what the impact on native endangered species might be, and if we did it, would we essentially be saying that the preservation of elephants is more important than the Lesser Bell's Vireo, or lions more important than mountain lions? Also obvious issues in regards to whether beasts that have evolved for higher temperatures can survive a Nebraska winter, so we might be condemning both sets of species to extinction. More obvious issues in human political fallout - where are we going to get the land? Where's it going to come from? What uses is it going to be withdrawn from? Finally, I'm curious about what happens when (not if) something large gets loose? I seriously doubt that approval will be forthcoming for large carnivores. The article deals with none of these.



If properly thought through and feasible, I'll admit the notion is attractive to me. It'd be cool to be driving cross country and see elephants and maybe lions and tigers and cheetahs roaming free. But I don't want it to do more damage than good. Disturbing the ecological balance in this manner is something that requires a trembling hand of fear.



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Piling On Department: Pigilito says found a good article on what killed Zimbabwe. High taxes. Making war on the rich.



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Jawa Report has stuff on terrorists going to Bosnia. Are we playing whack a mole here, or do the French actually enjoy creating these problems?



On a similar note, Restless Mania tells us that the violence in Darfur is on the rise again, and now they're going after the displaced person camps.



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Dear RINOs and LLPers: I really am trying to hit ten different of each of you every day. Sometimes the bloglists I use get mixed up. Real Soon Now, I'm going to try to add everybody who isn't there already to my site blogroll so I have something under my own control to hit.



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Zenophobia has a report of a Marine who was serving in Iraq being denied Texas state resident tuition. I'd expect this crap in New Yok, but not in Texas. Maybe he should tell them he's an illegal alien. It works in California.



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Boxing Alcibiades has more on Hamas in the wake of the Gaza pullout. See the top of my Links and Minifeatures post yesterday for my thoughts.