Zee Links and Minifeatures: June 2005 Archives

First off, I'm still looking for a free site meter and am soliciting input as to your experiences.



UPDATE: In the absence of suggestions, I'm trying SimpleHitCounter Here Limited but I think it'll do the trick. Please let me know if there are difficulties.



Second, I am kind of regretting the new amalgamation of links posts policy, as it effectively prevents me from sending things like "France Explodes! Film at 11" (See my post Tuesday 6/28) to carnival of comedy (as well as other things elsewhere). Nonetheless I'm going to stick to my guns.



Third (new) I'm told Powerblogs is going to migrate Searchlight Crusade to another server within a day or so. So if you try to comment and it won't let you (as opposed to requiring you to get a comment account) that's what's going on.

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Heh.Carlin on recent developements



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Da Goddess has a wonderful interview with a retired Marine, 86 years old. I love talking to people like this, and am sorry that I rarely meet them anymore.



Hat tip: World According to Nick



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What a maroon!



Hat tip: Uncommon Insanity



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By the way, I'd like to install a sitemeter if I can find a free one that's not obnoxious, and would appreciate suggestions and/or experience

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Chicago Sales tax is rising to NINE percent.



Must be planning a lot of Kelo condemnations.



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Christopher Hitchens has a great column debunking the liberal myth about sacrificing children

Hat tip: Althouse



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Jane Galt has a great piece on remaking the Donkey party at Asymmetrical Information



Ronald Reagan was successful because he was a market maker, as is George W. Bush to some extent. The Donkeys haven't had one since JFK, which is why they're in trouble. Many of the great countries and biggest corporations of yesteryear are dust in the wastebasket of history today because they played it safe. In other words, sometimes the biggest risk is not taking one. The Donkeys are in that position today. They're thinking "tactics" when they should be thinking "grand strategy". The only reason the Donkeys haven't self destructed already is that the Elephants have made some serious errors of their own. Our national politics resembles not so much a battlefield as a play battlefield run by six year old boys whose real motivation comes from ego and carnage, rather than winning the war. But the elephants have stumbled onto a position that looks like a winner, and unless the donkeys wake up and do something competent, they're going to leave their enemies in not only clear but practically undisputed possession of the field - something I've said repeatedly is good for no one.



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I'm sorry to hear that Edloe has left the building.



As someone with two dogs who kept me sane and somewhat human during a very difficult period in my life, and who are getting to the point both in age (They're both 12) and health (scare last month: Mellon, who is the sweetest dog in the world, spent a week at the vet due to a back injury. I was afraid I was going to lose her.) where I can see this as a cloud on the not far enough away horizon, I can sympathize. I don't post pictures or blog about them much, but I. Love. These. Dogs. I don't even want to think about the day when one or both will no longer be here. My heart goes out to the Simons.



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New site policy: I'm only going to do one 'links' post per day, and update, amend or add to it as the day goes on. I will not send trackbacks on anything in the daily links post. I will not send trackbacks unless I do enough work on something that it merits its own post (or if invited to).



(my apologies to those Powerblogs sends one to automatically)



No, nobody sent me upset email or anything. I just decided I want to refocus a bit more on the blog's raison d'etre. I still want to put as many cool links here as I have time to find. I'm specifically trying to look at all RINOs and all LLPers, especially the ones further down the current popularity list. But all the stuff I've been doing the last week and a half as individual posts distracts attention from my main issue.

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Text of President Bush's speech Here.



I didn't get to see it. Reading it seems like a rah-rah, albeit a rah-rah I believe in. See the "Holding Bush and Rumsfield Accountable" post. Perhaps more thoughts tomorrow.



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Glenn Reynolds writes a column articulating what I've been saying for months. First I've seen it in the professional media. There's no "professional" clause in the laws or regulations giving generic providers of financial advice immunity from liability. Matter of fact, in most areas the laws and regulations protect those who act without explicit compensation to a larger degree than those who are so compensated. Why should journalism be any different?



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On Chinese Strategy from Chris Cam



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More worthwhile stuff on Michael Ignatief's stuff from Decision '08



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Pigilito says... Interesting political developments in Spain



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Okay, this IS important



This video has an important message



Listen. Take Heed. Be the message.



(Laugh a little!)



Hat Tip: Dean Esmay



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FRANCE EXPLODES! Film at 11!



First, remember what happened last time they tried to build a nuclear carrier. Then click the link below. To paraphrase the Phantom of the Opera:



This has the makings of a Disaster beyond Imagination

From Villainous Company



Hat tip: POV



Okay, so it's not quite Bill Whittle. But it's good. And if you haven't read everything at Eject! Eject! Eject! go do so. Now. There will be a quiz for the rest of your life.

What planet are you from?



Hat tip: The Wisdom of Change

Here



Every so often, I get turned off by the nature of the easily available coverage, and I go check Chrekoff or Iraq the Model. They've never disappointed me yet.

MUSC Tiger posts with Live 8



$4,000,000,000 divided by 250,000,000 Americans equals $16 each.



I've got four people in my family $16x4 equals $64.



I think I can cover a couple outside my family also.



Two things required: Convince me it won't go to the kleptocracy. Actually, for this little, just convince me there's a decent chance it won't go to the kleptocracy.



A place to send the check. I haven't watched MTV since about 1985 coincidentally, so I'm likely to miss Live 8.



Got that, Mr. Bono?

Are now up at Says Uncle



Update: I can't believe I didn't catch that bad link to begin with.



My Favorites:



Wizbang on what we don't know



Big Cat Chronicles on Pebble Bed Nuclear Reactors



Classical Values on Who Chooses The Choices



Entries I've Previously linked:

Kelo and the Third Amendment

Modern Day Bandit Gangs - in the US

Dean's World has a great post on Calling Fascists Fascists



As you might have guessed from my slobbering rabid foaming-at-the mouth spittle flecked polemic post Saturday inspired by a post I found on Hugh Hewitt, I'm to the point where I just do not care if someone is offended by me calling it like I see it. I've spent twenty-odd years trying to be "nice" to these who ally themselves with "Anybody but America" and convince them with sweet reason. Ironically enough, all of the liberals I argued with for years but nonetheless respected woke up on September 11th almost four years ago and none of them has gone back to sleep yet.



For those that remain asleep, I doubt cold water will serve.

Captain's Quarters has a thoroughly worthwhile post on more kleptocracy in Africa. I suggest you read it. Good stuff.

I think it's time to move CQ up into my "Heavy Lifters"

Ann Althouse has a very reasoned argument on how Kelo and the narrowness of the voting doesn't give developers (among others) quite the green light we've been fearing. I must say that I hope she's right. But I think the nuance may be lost in the shock of the decision and the furor over it, which latter I've been as guilty of arousing as anyone.



I might cite as a counterexample Roe vs. Wade. The cultural shift it gave rise to from just such a narrow decision of the Supreme Court has been profound. (I truly hope we don't have Kelo diehards requiring their own litmus test thirty years down the line. I doubt there's the strength for a determined public resistance on this one.)



Hat tip: Dean Esmay

The Third Amendment to our Constitution is one not often invoked, arising from circumstances no longer extant during the Revolutionary War, but still on the books.



Countertop Chronicles has a tongue somewhat in cheek (I hope) idea regarding how Kelo could be used to circumvent the Third Amendment.



Rule: Never give The Bad Guys free ideas.

This brings back memories of the old usenet days in the 80s. Some of them fond. Some of them less so. Yes, I see hints of my then self in several of the cards. I do hope I've learned since then.



Hat tip: Enrevanche

Everybody who reads him knows that Scott Ott of Scrappleface is a comedic genius with a biting satirical style. That's why he's just behind the Instapundit on my list of heavy hitters.



This is one more example



(Each person turned on to Scrappleface is a Ba'al Scout Merit Badge...)

from Jackson's Junction



hat tip: Dean's World



Oops! Double post! One deleted.

From Dean Esmay, who wonders:

Why then did they announce the crash of an obsolete plane?



Likely because the plane that did crash was one of the modern upgraded U-2 variants, which are pretty rugged but are complex machines and are likely used far more often than "Aurora" would likely be.



The military actually does try to conserve money as much as they can, for a variety of reasons. Blackbird was wonderful, but capitally and operationally speaking, expensive to operate - the pilots got maybe one or two hundred hours per year. I imagine Aurora is no less so. The reliable old U2 and more modern variants aren't exactly cheap, from the point of view of a middle class family budget, but they're considerably less expensive than Blackbird, or I imagine, Aurora.

From Dean Esmay



Tried to comment on his site but he's got permissions set higher than I do. Imagine: a big name long time blogger having permissions set higher than a fresh newbie. Go figure. :-)



May I suggest a web search for "Aurora Spy Plane"?



Also, it is my understanding that current U2s are an upgraded version from the early 80's, long after they stopped making the SR-71 Blackbird (Which was officially the RS-71 until Lyndon Johnson mislabelled it during an interview)



UPDATE: The airframe is broadly similar. Otherwise, the U-2 is pretty much a completely different airplane than the one flown by Francis Gary Powers.

Here and Here



They are talking about elected representatives writing a constitution!



Freedom of speech! Freedom of the press!

Women's rights in the heart of the old Caliphate!

People buying into a democratic political process as the way decisions are made!



All in a part of the world that has never had a tradition of any of those things!



I do not understand how people can be blase about this.



It may not be Philadelphia 1787 where there was nothing of the sort - no democracies or republics anywhere in the world, and there had been none for two millenia, but we are seeing a country that has put itself on the path to where we are today.



As much as I love the United States, I am too much of a student of history to believe we will last forever as a country. Given the state of the world, we may change into something else peacefully and of our own free will, but eventually we will no longer be the United States of America.



And that will be a sad day. Perhaps the saddest this world has ever known.



But things like this will give us a legacy to generations hundreds or thousands of years in the future, that will never know the United States except through the history books. People who, I hope, regard a democratic political process as something normal, natural, and universal. "Of course we do it that way." People who will know only through the history books that things were not always thus.



When you look back on the great empires of history, what did they bring? Engineering, Art, Culture, order. All of them worthwhile. Most of them gone when the empire retreated.



We're bringing these people an idea as to how governments should work - about how decisions should be made, and the process for making the decisions, and for who gets to decide, and what limits are placed upon their ability to decide.



All in a part of the world where the tyrant has held unfettered sway, and if you managed to translate and explain "the rights of the people" the best reaction you could hope for would be laughter, as if they took you seriously Steps Would Be Taken to make certain this Dangerous Lunatic's Heresy got no further.



We're going to be with the Iraqis a long time if things go right. But I think that even if a "cut our losses and run" candidate manages to win the presidency in 2008, the Iraqi people will have had enough of a taste of this heady thing called "Managing your own affairs" to decide that they like it and intend to keep it.



Barring outside conquest, they're coming along with us. And setting an entire country on that path is something I believe worth every last iota of the investment we and the members of our armed services have made.

This explains a lot.



Everybody knows guys brains are connected to the eyeballs and various other parts of their anatomy. Nice to know women have some of the same problem

as a good commencement address