Links and Minifeatures 09 15 Thursday

Yeah, Joe Biden has that effect on me, too.



Seriously, Dread Pirate Judge Roberts appears to be doing well in the hearings. Not that he has any serious or principled or intelligent opposition.



Captain's Quarters has a good analysis of what's gone on in the hearings so far.



Volokh Conspiracy has a spot-on editorial about Roberts, the senators, and politics.



Althouse has a worthwhile article on the hearings as she sees them.



SCOTUSBlog (has more for some reason they put it there rather than the SCT Nomination blog)

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Google has a new blogsearch function. I'm not impressed.



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The three year anniversary of Carnival of Vanities is up.



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Captain's Quarters dissects the 9/11 commission on Able Danger.



Strata-Sphere has another take.



Speaking of the War on Terror, Jawa Report has more on the situation in Iraq, including a declaration of jihad on all Shia Moslems, plus executions for apostasy. I've talked about this. Victor Davis Hanson has talked about it, Bill Whittle has talked about it, all varieties of people from all points on the political spectrum have talked about it. If you don't know about it by now, you aren't paying attention. Islam does not recognize an ability to leave the religion. Islam does not recognize (in any sense that would matter if Islam were victorious) an option to remain apart from their religion.



While you're at it Mudville Gazette has any number of fascinating things on the military side of things. Just click on over and keep scrolling down. Also, If you missed his post about "You make the call - if you've got the guts" having to do with Katrina second guessers, he's got an update up.



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La Shawn Barber takes on illegal immigrants and those who would accomodate them. Of course, this would all go away with meaningful employer sanctions. But Americans do not appear willing to give up their cheap manual labor.



With this in mind I realized it had been a few days since I visited The Immigration Blog, which has some interesting insights.



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Jihad Watch has a story on a minor but telling point of CAIR's antics: Photoshopping for official effect.



Jihad Watch also adds more evidence to the scale against those who continue to believe that Israel is the problem. I realize that most of those folks are intentionally blind to evidence against them, but let's keep piling on.



HT to Michelle Malkin



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La Shawn Barber notes some signs of civilization decline. For the record, I disagree with her about homosexuality. It isn't wrong, just different. Her history also has some gaping holes in it, which Dean's World drives some rather impressive trucks through. Other than that, she has some very valid points which Dean does not debunk. Yes, the Romans did everything under the sun, sexually, whether they were married to others or not. That's not the point. The point is that marriage as an institution was respected. Marriage was regarded as the institution in which to bring up healthy young citizens. One set of two parents, together raising the children. Marriage was regarded as an ideal to be aspired to, whatever else you did sexually before during and after. I do not believe the state should have any significant involvement in marriage (implied general power of attorney and implied inheritance and rights to assets in the case of death about covers it), but that doesn't mean that society should not regard marriage as beneficial, to be encouraged, and something that we should be very careful about extending any benefits which we have seen fit to extend it to adherents of other institutions meant to tear down, replace, or redefine an institution which has been the greatest constant in all great human civilizations since the dawn of time.



With that said, the sign I see that worries me most is that too many people are out after the welfare of their own sub-group, first and foremost. Very few champion the overall benefit of the United States of America above that. And I don't mean mouthing platitudes. I mean where the rubber hits the road, giving up something (or not asking for, or opposing) goodies to your individual or subgroup's benefit so that the entire country may be better off.



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Michelle Malkin has the goods on a second Air America officer at Gloria Wise.



Radioblogger asks some questions, and deserves a link anyway for his part in Malkin's report.



It is no longer a credible contention that it was "just one person" doing all this stuff. It was organizational.



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Armies of Liberation has all kinds of good stuff on Yemen. I can't pinpoint one post as especially worthwhile, so just hop on over and keep scrolling down.



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Roger L. Simon makes a heck of a good point about what you should do if you really want to abolish world poverty. One world leader has made the proposal. Want to guess who? No fair looking first!