Links and Minifeatures 10 19 Wednesday

Carnival of The Capitalists is up! If you're a COTC reader/regular you might want to stop back later as he's adding commentary and what he might do with it in the future. Recommended: Foo Bar and Grill, Jonathan B. Wilson,

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Michael Barone talks about trendlines in Iraq and their elections. Mostly it's looking very good.



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Rhymes with Right has a good article I very much agree with: Let the Voting Rights Act expire. Among other things, it set a 50% turnout threshold for when it applies to a state. Back in 1965, this was a narrowly aimed measure at those states (chiefly in the old Confederacy, and who voted heavily Donkey at the time) who were practicing voter intimidation. The congress of the time knew who the culprits were, and pointed the measure at them. Forty years on, the heaviest, most hotly contested presidential race in recent history is just enough to drag our national turnout above 50% for the first time in twenty years. Reading Whose Votes Count back in the 80s made Senator Hatch almost a hero to me. It's time to let the poor thing die and be replaced, if we must, with something tailored to the realities of today.



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This should be about as surprising as gravity. Rice Won't Rule Out Force on Syria, Iran. It would have been roughly comparable for Roosevelt to say he wouldn't rule out direct attacks on Germany and Japan.



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On another topic, this is about what I expected from Saddam Hussein, whose trial began yesterday. Saddam Pleads Innocent, Gets Into Scuffle



Iraq the Model has more. I cannot read what he wrote without an immense sense of satisfaction and admiration for not only Mohammed the blogger, but also of all Iraqis for taking this fundamentally civilized step in dealing with some of the most thuggish, uncivilized people in the world today. For 35 years he and his minions brutalized the entire country, and here they are, holding his trial in view of the open scrutiny of the world.



Looks like it wasn't a great day for any of the family: Iraq Arrests Saddam's Nephew in Baghdad. They think he was financing the insurgency.



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The latest investor in green energy - the CIA. I'm not certain if this is a good thing or a bad thing from a libertarian small government point of view. From the point of view of making the world a better place, it's a very good thing.



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Keep it up, Ronnie Earle, and we'll be talking about St. Tom yet. Texas Court Issues Warrant for DeLay. Three grand juries for an indictment, and now you're arresting him for a highly technical violation? I don't like him but there's no doubt in my mind he's going to show up for trial. Mr. DeLay is house majority leader. I don't remember anybody arresting Bill Clinton. Mr. DeLay is somewhat less of a sympathetic character than your average drill sergeant, but they seem to be trying to make him into one.



Is everybody quite certain Mr. Earle isn't an Elephant pretending to be a Donkey?



The Kossacks, of course, are delighted



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While we are on the subject of partisan public officials, Georgia's Voter Identification Law Barred. On the grounds that it's a "poll tax". Hint to those who don't like voter fraud: Make the darned picture ID free. Require thumbprints, both on the ID and in order to vote. Require voter registration a minimum of 30 days in advance, and absentee ballots may only be done on a per election basis. Say the state governments spend 10 billion dollars per year on this. If it defeates voting fraud, cheap at twice the price. Our practices over the last forty years have, intentionally or not, made voter fraud easy and encouraged it. It's time for that to change.



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This looks like a painting, but is really a photograph of Dione, one of Saturn's Moons. Follow the link to Cassini mission's homepage, too.



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The Immigration Blog thoroughly debunks Michael Chertoff, Homeland Security chief.



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Armies of Liberation has the scoop on Yemen using Chlorine gas (!) on its own people. They also refuse to hand over a suspected terrorist, but are trying to extradite the founder of a non-violent opposition group. "Hey, all Zindani did was finance terrorism. This guy al-Asnag wants to vote me out of office!"



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Jihad Watch entertains the notion of being anti-Muslim. The fact that he would discuss it openly is a significant point in the "against" column, of course, but hardly proof. But the thing that really caught my eye was this exchange near the bottom of the article:

I said: "I would like nothing better than a flowering, a renaissance, in the Muslim world, including full equality of rights for women and non-Muslims in Islamic societies: freedom of conscience, equality in laws regarding legal testimony, equal employment opportunities, etc." Is all that "anti-Muslim"? Yusuf Smith thought so. He responded: "So, you would like to see us ditch much of our religion and, thereby, become non-Muslims."

Said opponent thereby validating Mr. Spencer's point of view out of his own keyboard. Christianity no longer insists on a geocentric universe. It's been at least a couple of centuries since heresy trials in any christian country, and, outside of nazi germany which wasn't exactly a friend to christianity, there has been no legal impediment and no official discrimination upon non-christians in any of them that I'm aware of since at least the start of the 19th century. For other significant world religions, the figures are the same or even longer. They are willing to allow others the freedom of unfettered worship. For some reason, a large number of Islamic countries are not (Turkey is an exception; I believe there are others but can't name them off the top of my head). But certain Islamic countries destroy major artifacts, forbid other religions to worship or forcibly evict them (most neutral article I could find quickly) as well as subjecting them to additional taxes and official discrimination and harrassment. They allow honor killings of women. There is no other significant world religion whose adherents practice any of these abhorrent things. And to give all this up is to "become non-Muslims"? If that's what it takes. Personally, I think that if the Medieval Christians could pull off becoming civilized people, and I just don't hear a lot of serious suggestions that church worshippers today are non christian, then maybe the muslims can do it also.



Providing, of course, that they're willing to make the adjustments. Which seems to be the issue, doesn't it?



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Wizbang has a good essay up on whether we need "Leaders of blacks" or "Leaders who are black". As I've stated many times, I agree with him that the latter is necessary, the former obscene. No need to go looking for them, though. We have them. When we need more, they'll step forward on their own. Funny how that works just the same as for every other category people insist upon inventing for human beings.



I was seven years old when Dr. King was taken from us all by the action of one murderer. But reading of his actions, I have a feeling he's going to have some strong words for his one-time disciples in any hypothetical afterlife.



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HT to Roger Simon for directing me to Transparency International. They seem to mostly deal with corruption rather than transparency per se, but it's a good site.