Links and Minifeatures 12 22 Thursday

Mister Snitch has the idea for a Best Posts of 2005.

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Q and O has more on whether the President's surveillance was legal. I am not qualified to pass judgment on the legality. I am qualified to say it was rational, logical, and correct, even if it is emotionally unwelcome to most or politically frightening to the testicularly challenged. These days, nothing makes people stupid or crazy like the notion that the government might be watching.



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Carnival of The Vanities is up! Recommended: Smallest Minority, Sophistpundit,



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Think your boss is a jerk? No whining or we'll fire you, a compilation of employer horror stories.



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So we won't actually enter into insanity for six more months. Senate passes Patriot Act extension.



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Michael Yon has some perspective on the elections in Iraq.



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I got an email from a reporter about my little blurb on the proposed Sheboygan spaceport in this Links and Minifeatures. I suspect he's never really paid attention to a launch or launch broadcast, because the email said something about turning downtown Sheboygan into a pile of glass. Well, I've never been to the proposed spaceport or anywhere close, but I doubt it. There's not that much energy in a launch. On the other hand, it might not be the most wonderful thing in the case of an abort, and the extreme noise would likely be a factor as well.



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Speaking of being a RINO, is anyone else uncomfortable with the Kitzmiller decision due to the fact it is an unelected judge overruling the desires of elected school board members? Similar to Roe vs. Wade, I like the result, but am seriously unhappy with the means, which was a bad precedent. Yes, Intelligent Design is creationism in secularist's clothing, and no, I don't want it taught in science classrooms. It falls flat on its ridiculous backside as a scientific theory for a mind boggling number of reasons. Nonetheless, this is not the way to deal with the issue.



If I don't like judges overstepping their authority, I must be against it when they happen to agree with me also.



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Dean's World has some good advice for the Donkeys that I heartily agree with. However, I must point out that the exceptions to the offyear elections rules of thumb are, ahem - the most recent two offyear elections. In fact, the last time that rule's predictions were validated was 1994. We only get offyear elections once every four years.



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He chose... poorly



Wizbang has details



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I know it's a hard appeal right now. There have been too many causes with legitimate needs this year. If you have a few extra bucks, though, please consider helping the little girl Mudville Gazette talks about. American soldiers are trying to save her from spinal bifida, routinely treatable here in the United States. The donation page is here.



"No one is so wrong as he who does nothing because he can only do a little."



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Victor Davis Hanson brings some moral focus to our day.



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Volokh Conspiracy deconstructs some mind-numbing stupidity.



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HT to Hugh Hewitt for directing us to the Department of Justice laying out its case in the NSA wiretap brouhaha, and also The Faculty Blog from the University of Chicago.



Powerline also has its own thoughts on the matter.



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HT to Instapundit for a link to The Agitator and many Cory Maye items. This man is guilty of nothing except being a victim of bad procedure.



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I do not know if I will have time for any more of these until the 27th. I'm working on several "full" articles as time permits.



If I don't post another fest before then, here is wishing you and yours well.



If you are a regular reader who wants to give me something, might I request the gift of your participation? Not that I can't use money, but there have been no donations in the six months the donation button has been up, and the little girl above (among many others) needs it worse than I do. But participation costs nothing. Ask me about things that don't make sense to you. Challenge me if you think I'm wrong. Tell me when you think I've done something noteworthy - good or bad. If nothing else, ask me a question. So long as we keep it oriented towards the issues, it helps both of us to disagree (I keep trying to recruit an old friend who is a rational liberal as a co-writer here). Sometimes I feel like Voyager - broadcasting out into empty space and nobody is listening, despite the fact that most days my server logs now show somewhere over 1000 visits most days and nearly twice that number of page requests.