Links and Minifeatures 01 28 Sunday

Another story of one determined person making a real difference. Flat tire? Looks like a job for Nigeria's 'Lady Mechanics'

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The Republicans could do worse: Hunter Touts Experience, Conservatism in Bid for Presidency



He's local to me, and although I don't live in his district, he's always impressed me as a rational conservative, and his Armed Services Committee experience is a very strong calling card, given the international situation we find ourselves in. He's another Republican I could really support, along with Giuliani, Gingrich, and even McCain, if he stops trying to repeal the first amendment. Unlike Giuliani and McCain, Hunter doesn't have problems with the Republican primary voters, and he might be able to sell a large majority of centrists outside the party if he gets the nomination. Unlike Gingrich, he's still in government, which is a very powerful advantage to visibility. I'd like to see him get some traction, at least.



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Q and O on the progressive disintegration of the secular Turkish state.



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neo-neocon and Peter Mulhern on the threat we face.



neo's ending Churchill Quote bears repeating:

If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

I am well aware that with my politics, I alienate a considerable number who might pay attention to my area of primary expertise, and people who might do otherwise business with me who are turned off by my disagreement with their politics. I am nonetheless a citizen with children - two daughters to be precise. If I can not provide for them a world that is at least as good as the world my wife and I got from our parents, then I have failed, as a citizen and as a father, far more important than any economic failure I might possibly experience.



The Universe knows I have agreed to any number of debates when the opposing side wanted merely a diatribe. They talk, I listen, they get their way. One twit sent me an hour and a half of media; I did her the service of refuting the first, she sent me another propaganda piece that tried to make exactly the same points without responding to my refutation of the first. That's not how it works. In order to have a debate, both sides have to respond both intellectually and honestly, acknowledge the points made by the other side, and get on with the hard intellectual work of overcoming them, or acknowledge that perhaps you were mistaken. It is not enough to send copies of the propaganda to which your side subscribes to proponents of the other. That's not debate, that's shouting down. You must prove that you can stand up to and intellectually refute the best argument that the other side can make. The true test of debate is not tearing down the other side, it is in showing that even though they may have some things in their favor, you've got something better.



We've got the Enlightenment and the US Constitution and Bill of Rights and the scientific method and the study of logic and the experiences that brought our Western Civilization to the highest point that has yet been attained upon this planet, that wants to continue climbing while expanding out its privileges to the rest of the world. It isn't us, at least not as individuals; we're standing upon the shoulders of giants so immense and so powerful that those who would bring us down have only the hope that we will stand idly by why they tear us down to comfort them. Sadly, they have almost seduced us as a society into doing so.



I need to spend some more time thinking about this subject in order to articulate my thoughts sufficiently, but I;ll try to follow up within the week.



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A devastating critique of Arnold's health care proposal.



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My opinion is that The Pledge is entirely one sided, and yet, it is better than nothing at all. Of course, when was the last time anyone withheld a donation from a Democrat for failing to support the war effort? Nonetheless, the effort would be worthwhile.



I signed. So should you if you want victory, even if you're a die hard Democratic partisan.



Assuming you don't want to live in an Islamic theocracy in your old age. Also assuming you're not one of the ones they kill right off.



There is no acceptable substitute for Victory.



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Top Ten Myths of the Iraq War (via Instapundit)