Zee Links and Minifeatures: August 2005 Archives
This article on Duke Cunningham illustrates what I've been saying about federal spending as a tragedy of the commons.
To Watchful Investor, I say there are already markets (Southern California, Washington DC) seeing notable deflation of housing prices. Realtors here keep writing articles about how it's not a bubble until it pops. They are only embarrassing themselves.
Froggy Ruminations has a great point. I disagree slightly on the constitution, but he is correct in that without the military to defend us from external enemies, it would be just a piece of paper of some interest to historians. I also disagree with the paternalism and elitism of calling the troops "children." They are all legal adults who have chosen to serve, and most of them have actually re-enlisted after seeing what's going on. If that does not indicate a situation where it is impossible to "support the troops but oppose the war", then I don't know what is. Maybe we should start a list of those who have said "I support the troops but oppose the war." It does translate to english as "I'm claiming I support the troops to make me look like a good american to credulous idiots, but I have staked my political future and credibility upon them losing, which would mean that large numbers get killed or maimed and all of their aggregate services and sacrifices will mean less than nothing. And my words encourage our adversaries."
The aftermath of Katrina is something I am intentionally writing as little as possible about. Instapundit has a great list of where to donate, and if you want Katrina blogging, Michelle Malkin is a great place to start. The Hurricane Katrina Help Wiki is here.
I especially do not want to hear anything about blame until the emergency is over. Even then, I am certain there's more than enough to go around to everyone. This problem has been obvious since at least 1927. Walter Jon Williams did a very well researched fictional dramatization based upon the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-2. Everybody had a chance, and Nobody did what was necessary to prevent this. Right now, let's focus on getting those people fed, watered, and sheltered. The best thing to do is donate money. Later on, we can decide how much we should rebuild based upon necessary protective measures.
The one thing I'm not finding that might be helpful is a list of requested help - non-obvious goods or services requested by the folks dealing with Katrina aftermath. I'm 2000 miles away, and other than sending money, there's not much that's obvious that I can do. I'd like to know if there's something non-obvious (and where to volunteer), and I'm sure Glenn and Michelle would appreciate the information, too.
Oh, and people looting anything but food and water should be shot. Just because you may be hungry doesn't give you the moral right to a TV. Especially with the power out until the emergency is over.
There has been a mass de-linking of Instapundit, sponsored by Stop the ACLU. Now I'm a big non-fan of the modern ACLU, but they still do some good work. And let's keep a little perspective here. The Professor does the rest of us a lot of good. He's a real sport about linking to carnivals. He's not stingy with links, and he even links to the people and post advocating de-linking him. Furthermore, although I expect he's making a fair amount of money from Instapundit and it serves as an attention getter to get more, the bottom line is he's providing an important information nexus on the internet. None of the other big guns cover the territory in the fashion he does. At this point, he certainly doesn't have to continue and yet he does. Furthermore, I read and link all kinds of folks that I disagree with on many issues, because Groupthink is not my friend. I actually thought about linking the Instapundit once for every blog on the de-link list, just to make a point, but it wouldn't serve any useful purpose. The point is that the link to Instapundit will remain, and this is a figurative raspberry in your direction.
Restless Mania has more.
Rhymes with Right has a post on voter fraud and asking who it benefits. Well, in this case, likely the Donkeys, but I don't care who it benefits. I want them Off. The. Rolls.
Restless Mania has a great post on Darfur.
I don't know about everyone else. There's a sharp limit to what I can do as an individual, especially right now. But this really bothers me in how easy it would be to stop the vast majority of it while costing comparatively little in lives or treasure. The Janjaweed is nothing, militarily. Every person protesting the Iraq war, every person giving aid and comfort to our enemies with verbiage about how awful the Iraq situation is, every person accusing Bush of being a mass murderer and terrorist, makes intervention in Darfur that much more difficult. The Khartoum government is not going to stop this crap, any more than Saddam Hussein did. We can close our eyes and pretend we don't see and these suffering human beings will continue to suffer until they are driven out or extinct, or some country or alliance somewhere with a competent military is going to have to do something. The longer we take to take action the worse the total gets. If not now, when? If not US, who?
Respectful Insolence has an excellent post on the importance of clinical trials.
I am thinking that this is not a good sign. Peace with Israel is wildly unpopular with the Egyptian population, largely due to state media blaming the Jooos™ for everything (go figure!). It was only a matter of time before Egypt had to take a harder line than before with Israel, simply as a bid to attract the votes of a certain kind of citizen. Peace between Israel and Egypt is in for a rough patch; the fact that I believe the end product of Egypt becoming a democracy will be superior doesn't mean there isn't going to be some nasty violence, perhaps even a war. Anwar Sadat was no saint; still I'd hate for his sacrifice to be wasted (he had to know he'd be assassinated for making peace with Israel).
Vicotr Davis Hanson has the Palestinian verus Israeli angle covered.
This at LGF
just makes my heart bleed purple peanut butter.
A small ray of light for America's Finest
Captain's Quarters has his own commentary on the situation that I and Strata-Sphere covered yesterday. The Captain connects the dots a bit more solidly. Anaysis of intentions is always iffy and never certain, but when all of the omissions in the 9/11 commission report leave out data supporting the same conclusion, which conclusion those leaving it out had documented reasons for not wanting it to be reached, a reasonable person will believe it was intentional and likely malicious unless and until such time as proven otherwise.
La Shawn Barber also has her head on straight on immigration and getting control of the borders. This is also another reason why my earlier article today, found here, is correct.
Volokh Conspiracy debunks another smear attempt on Judge Roberts.
Carnival of Liberty is up at Resistance is Futile! Recommended reads: Stop the ACLU, Individ
Carnival of Vanities is up! Recommended: Mr. Snitch,
Michelle Malkin is a good place to start for aftermath of Katrina blogging. I haven't said anything because I don't have anything to add to the situation except "I encourage you to donate to the emergency supplies effort." Kudos to Chevron Corporation, among others.
Reason Online nails one. I can see concern with genetically modified crops, and want to see a bank of unmodified stuff kept somewhere, but bottom line, genetic modification it is just artificial acceleration and augmentation of a process that occurs constantly in nature. With the bad stuff confined to a laboratory, where it can be destroyed easily. Europe has fallen prey to a scare campaign sponsored largely by traditionalist farmers, which plays well to the activists but it still beyond reason. Luckily for this purpose, europe is accounting for less and less of global wealth, and becoming less important as more nations elsewhere join the first world. Unfortunately, the influence they have is still too much.
Michael Barone makes a point about gaming affirmative action systems very eloquently. I agree with him. Countries where citizens thought of themselves as members of some sub-group first have historically, not endured as well as countries where everybody thought of themselves as citizens of the whole first, and breakups have been uglier. It's fine to be proud of your particular ancestors, as long as you're an American first.
(Besides, I've tried haggis once. Never again! And I'll discourage the girls if I can!)
Indepundit reports on a successful "Operation Thank You"
Carnival of Capitalists is up at Casey Software. Recomended reading (in the same order they appear in the Carnival): Art of Peace, Gongol, Roth and Company, Econbrowser, The Prudent Investor, Small Business Trends
Carnival of Personal Finance is up at All Things Financial. Recommended: Steve Pavlina. I'm not a goals fetishist but they are necessary, and he provides some worthy thoughts. (There are some duplicates from COTC)
I guess I should say publicly what I have said privately in email on several occasions. The reason I do the recommended reading part of my Carnival links is that so many Carnival submitters seem to be intent upon telling me that their site is not worth my time or anyone else's. There is an inherent problem in submitting a trivial, poorly thought out, or poorly written article to a carnival. If you think the post is good enough to submit (which you do because you did), and it's garbage or a throwaway, that tells me your judgement isn't the best, and you're not likely to add value to future discussions. I feel that those who take the time and make the effort to do a thoughtful, original article, particularly one with with broad applicability, when so many do not should be rewarded. I may not completely and wholeheartedly endorse every bit of every article I recommend, but I am saying that they contain useful information, useful thinking, useful perspective, or they are truly amusing. They stand out from the noise. Want a recommendation from me or others? I love sharing good stuff (and this is a big part of what my Links and Minifeatures articles are about)! Give readers something worthwhile to take away from the time we spend reading your article. Information, thought process, perspective, laughter. Teach me something I can use, or amuse me. It's all about signal to noise ratio, and people are looking for signal.
Now that that's off my chest, I should immediately eat crow because the latest RINO Sightings suffers very little from the problem described above. It was fun and interesting going through every submission, not a slog. Almost every post has something worthwhile, so if I'm going to reward those who stand out, I have to say Especially Recommended: Don Surber, Strata-Sphere, Politburo Diktat. Thank you RINOs!
Captain's Quartershas the scoop on what caused the unraveling of talks with the Sunnis (basically they wanted to move the goalposts), and why the consitution has been submitted without concensus.
China. Iran. Speaking of scary regimes with nuclear weapons, Michael Barone has a good point about Vladimir Putin: he appears to have dismantled all possible domestic centers of opposition to him. This being the traditional method of dictators, particularly dictators with aspirations of conquest, to follow, it bothers me. I really hope Russian nationalism doesn't turn to be the stealth threat we ingored until it was too late. Just because they are not a world spanning superpower any more doesn't mean they can't still do a lot. Unlike the jihadists, they are a true military threat. They still have their nukes - more than any country except maybe the United States. Even if they are kind-of allies in the War on Terror, some allies can be harmful. Hitler had no desire to go to war with the United States until England and the USSR were put away. His pacts with the Japanese who attacked Pearl Harbor forced his and our hands.
Strata-Sphere has some good ideas on why intelligence warnings were ignored and compartmentalized to death.
Victor Davis Hanson articulates thoughts very similar to mine on the Gaza pullout. Politically and tactically, the pullout makes little sense; giving up something without any concessions in return at a cost of much internal strife. Strategically and Foreign relations wise, it makes a huge amount of sense. Granted, the arab states don't care how much Israel does, but many nations do. Now the Palestinians cannot pretend that Israel controls them or keeps them down any longer, and are out of excuses for failing to control their militants.
John Fund at Opinion Journal talks about the progress of a flat tax around the world.
Dean's World has a nice post on stereotypes and the truthfulness thereof, and how at least one has become a self-fulfilling meme. I believe there is a certain amount of truth in some stereotypes, but it is necessary to remember that these are likely to be statistical in nature and I cannot think of a single stereotype that doesn't break down in the individual case too often to be useful for any information. As Dean observes, many white american guys do look funny dancing, but there's always Fred Astaire and too many like him to enumerate.
The stereotype set Dean spends the longest on is the old "stupid conservative vs ivory tower liberal."
To this, I note that presidents are not selected on the basis of intelligence, otherwise every single one would have an IQ over 180, and I can't think of one that did. Presidents are not selected on the basis of learning, or every one would have academic degrees in multiple subjects. Looking back on history, neither is a primary attribute of our best presidents. Indeed, most of our successful presidents were more than willing to solicit and take advice of how to get where they wanted to go. But they made the choice of where they wanted to go themselves.
What elects presidents is the ability to persuade the electorate that you will better lead it in the direction it should go. What sells the deal varies from election to election, but it's always something. Note that just because one person convinces more voters doesn't mean those voters were right, only that you got elected. But we certainly haven't got any better methods of choosing a president.
Did some Meta-work when I got back from the hospital. Checking my referral logs, I'm noting some of the unusual search engine referrals "U.S. Marines research agency" (Google), "border patrol check point" (MSN - I did do a series on the illegal alien border patrol agent who was caught smuggling other aliens - and I wish I was making that up if you missed it), and weirdest of all, "cat fisking" (MSN). Just for the surreality of it all, did a Yahoo search on "Pleasingly Random Serial Killings" hoping to find a really out there site, but this comes up as number one. I've seen the movie; it's worth watching. I guess my cognitive disjuntions need work.
Based upon data comparisons between my Powerblogs' bandwidth Reports function and Sitemeter's statistics, I'm pretty certain SiteMeter stats are FUBAR, but at least they are likely to be screwed up in a consistent manner between sites, and thus to be worthwhile data for comparison between sites. My ecosystem ranking has gone to 622 (and 535 This morning), which I would be very happy with indeed if I thought it were true. 623 (536 this morning) was Michael Barone of US News, one of my "Heavy Lifter" category sites, which is both a reason I don't believe it and a reason to be ecstatic if I thought it were true.
UPDATE: Getting ready to post, I checked email and found I am by no means the only person to have noticed how fouled up the ecosystem is.
Argghhh! has a post on Gunfight Rules. He missed the one about three useless things: Weapons not in your possession, ammunition you left behind, and friends who aren't there. I could add a couple more, but his are funny.
I consider this at aTypical Joe to be an encouraging sign. It is easy to demonize one's opposition; harder and more rewarding to actually try to convert them. Since the only dog I have in this fight is a desire to live in one United States, I see this as an encouraging sign.
Boxing Alcibiades has a modest proposal for Mexico. I'm not sure if I agree, but he's got a definite point. I've always said that were it not for the fact that the Mexican government is No Damned Good (and by the evidence, unfixably so), they'd be roughly where we are. I'd consider conquest for purposes of assimilation to be on the table, and certainly Mexico's southern border is a lot shorter than ours. The only alternative I see is massive revolution, a la Russia 1917, and those have a horrible record of installing good governments. Merger is only an option if we can permanently bar every last Mexican offical from governmental participation, right down to the corrupt cops on the beat.
We are the Knuts who say "Nay". George W. Bush and the Holy Grail at The Right Place. It's missing a John Kerry and his minstrels scene, though:
Bravely ran John Kerry, ran John Kerry, ran away
When danger reared it's ugly head
He faked some Purple Hearts and fled
...Except that Sir Robin was one of Arthur's men.
LATER: Re-reading just prior to posting, this does seem harsh. But the parallels with Robin and his minstrels are perfect. Kerry's whole political career has been built upon a self-generated legend that he was some kind of war hero, which falls apart upon investigation. I have no reason to believe he was anything worse than one not particularly competent officer while he was actually in the theater, but that's the most that can really be said for him.
High Energy Lasers. Cool. HT to Techography
So much for the pullout helping the Israelis or leading to peace. Israel endures suicide attack. Abbas denounces it as wrong to world press while no doubt praising them domestically and arranging payments to the family. It's fish or cut bait time, Mr. Abbas. Israel anted up more of a contribution to the peace process than anyone should ever have expected them to. Now control your people, or step down in favor of someone who can!
Captain's Quarters has more.
Combs Spouts Off has a post up on favorite quotations and invites trackbacks, and our favorites in email. Two of my favorites:
He either fears his fate too much,
Or his deserts are small,
That dares not put it to the touch
To gain or lose it all
-James Graham, Marquess of Montrose
and this one I've actually carried in my wallet for a long time now, not as my favorite quote, but as something to inspire me not to be lazy:
"Let George do it" is not just the slogan of a lazy man. It's the credo of the slave. If you want to be taken care of and not have to worry, that's fine; you can join the rest of the cattle. Cattle are comfortable - that's how you recognize them. Just don't complain when they ship you off to the packing plant. They bought and paid for the privelege - and you sold it to them.
-David Gerrold
A lot of my posts here deal with how not to be cattle.
Just when I didn't think my opinion of Fred Phelps could sink any lower: I found this on Blackfive, alleging that his objective is to be able to draw violence and file lawsuits for damages. I have no idea if the families have any civilly actionable basis against these twerps, but if any lawyers reading think there is, you could do a lot to redeem your profession in my eyes by contacting the families of those fallen he has hurt with his "protests", and offering your services pro bono. This is one group that cries out for as much special treatment as they can get in that vein.
Dean's World has more.
Captain's Quarters has a truly damning post on Able Danger, as well as this previous post worth reading. The earlier post is bad enough. The latter is a smoking gun. It's been pretty obvious for quite some time that the State Department and CIA have a bureaucratic "Whatever happens, don't rock the boat" culture. This furnishes the smoking gun. It's past time both organizations were cleaned out.
Kausfiles has more.
LGF directs us to this story about a real hero who deserves to be lionized.
Christopher Hitchens has an article you should read.
Below The Beltway emailed with an article on whether the government should have the power to issue a mandatory evacuation order.
My response is only for those not competent to make their own choices (Children and other legal infants), and I think they should physically evacuate those in that category. Competent adults should be told something like "If you stay, you absolve us of all responsibility for your well-being in this matter." Not that the government should normally have a high level of said responsibility, but warnings of this nature are a basic part of the reasons to have a government - so that somebody has the power to get your attention and inform you of threats to your well being. You want to be ignore them, that's your problem. But we're going to take your kids to high ground, right now.
From my recent adventure in hospital, I cannot pass up the opportunity to say this: Just because you've got a MD degree or have been hired by some hospital somewhere doesn't mean you are some sort of omniscient, omnipotent deity. If you have a problem discussing care with patients, paying attention to that patient's chart for relevant information, giving alternatives, justifying what you think is the best course of action to the patient, and just plain paying attention and attempting to treat the patient with common courtesy, then go get a job as a mechanic. You might actually be good at that. No matter how technically competent you may be, if you can't do customer service you shouldn't be in medicine. 'Nuff said.
(For those in San Diego, my most recent bad experience with Scripps is not my only one. The last time I went there was almost as bad. This time part of the blame falls on a Kaiser physician, but only part. The fact that Kaiser works with Scripps gets number one billing on my "Reasons I may want to leave Kaiser" list. When I was selling health care, I used to recommend Kaiser to clients even though it meant I didn't get a commission. I still like Kaiser, but their contracts with Scripps are a large counterweight to that, and since I have a health problem that has caused Kaiser to refer me to Scripps twice in the last year or so, this consideration looms large in my mind).
I wonder if this is what causes earth's magnetic field to die out and reverse polarity every so often?
If 'Bubble' Bursts, Legacy of Greenspan May Deflate. I am not one of Greenspan's bigger fans. By and large he's done a decent job. But he's got a banker's attitude, not that of someone trying to foster sustainable economic growth. He gives way too much importance to inflation worries, and this is part of what caused the 2000 recession, and what set up the subsequent events, including the current housing bubble.
On a related topic: Greenspan: Investments Won't Soar Forever. Why not? It works for banks. Cheap shot, I know, and not entirely true. Nonetheless, I wouldn't want to be too heavy into stuff with explicit dollar values right now.
This is one reason I'm actualy recommending 30 year fixed rate loans, something I never thought I'd do.
This is just weird.
Here's something for discussion. The Gold double eagles in question were never legally issued, meaning that they are stolen government property. On the other hand, we certainly have the precedent of the 1913 Liberty Head nickel, which was likewise never officially issued, yet six are known to exist, and the Treasury hasn't confiscated them.
Okay, so the gold was US taxpayer property. How about if the owner reimburses the US mint for the face value plus interest. The government charges and pays 7% interest, and it's been 72 years, so it's about 130.5 times face value, or $26,101.29. Anybody got a better idea?
This is just plain incorrect, as I explain in my article on Pre-qualification. A pre-qual or pre-approval is a waste of a piece of paper. They are feel good documents that mean nothing.
While we're dealing with free advice from journalists, there's this article. Repeat after me: Not all mortgage loans require points. Not all mortgage loans require points. Not all mortgage loans require points. Unless you've screwed your finances up to where you're in a subprime situation, most folks are better off not paying points, as I go into in this article.
Captain's Quarters has more on a third source breaking anonymity on Able Danger. I'm still willing - eager - to hear evidence. But I'm afraid that at this point in time I'm inclined to believe these military officers, and not the 9/11 commission. Effing political hacks playing at effing political damage control. If true, we have a factual replacement for the mythical meme of Nero fiddling while Rome burned. Just when I didn't think my disgust meter could go any higher.
At least we're going to get Senate hearings on the subject.
The Bush administration proposed higher fuel economy standards for SUVs and minivans. The Clinton Administration resisted all efforts for eight years. Explain to me again how the Bush administration is anti-environmentalist and a tool of big oil? Seems to me the evidence points the other way.
Captain's Quarters tells us about The Mom-He-Hit-Me-Back Accusation. I've been saying the Israelis are selling the Palestinians rope. One of these days, they're likely to find themselves unsupported at the end of all the rope the Israelis are willing to sell.
The Palestinians are claiming that the occupation of Gaza still isn't over.
Palestinians tells Israel: Go away but build us hospitals
Mark Steyn delivers the knockout punch of reality.
Micahel Barone is suggesting the President start doing "fireside chats" a la FDR. Interesting idea, but I'm not certain it wouldn't backfire. President Bush himself is too much of a gentleman, not is the media as eager to give time to the President as it once was - particularly not Republican presidents and for things that could be seen as political campaigning (remember McCain-Feingold). Mr. Barone has probably forgotten hundreds of times as much about politics as I will ever know. But my gut tells me he may be wrong on this one.
This prank was funny. I also would like to know how he can be faulted for distracting from official services. He didn't tell them he was an escaped prisoner. Everything he did is perfectly legal. The Wal-Mart clerks jumped to conclusions (mind you, I'm glad they did, but still, they were false conclusions). HT to Opinion Journal
La Shawn Barber has a good piece up about the collapse of the Black Family. I think it's past time to generalize Daniel Patrick Moynihan's classic report to all families. All of the metrics are worse now than what had him alarmed way back then.
An excellent examination and debunking of the reasons given for the liberal bias in Academia. HT Volokh Conspiracy
If you want to know just how wrongly the New York Times is spinning the news, read this and then read this. HT Powerline.
Gonna buy five copies for my mother! Misha wants his name on a fatwa. Me, I think actual competition for a fatwa is just plain silly under the 'tempting fate' department. Misha et al are each individually worth more than a hundred 'splodeydopes. And the 'splodeydopes might accidentally do something competent and succeed.
Armies of Liberation has an article on press intimidation in Yemen. It's even against the Yemeni constitution, but it's being ignored.
If this is a hoax, it's a dangerous one. NOW is going to put out a fatwa for just considering it. They'll hang their cojones right next to Lawrence Summers'. HT Chrenkoff
Dean's World compares the Iranian government to, well, democracies, and then contrasts it with proposals for Iraq. I don't see much of a similarity. Kind of like Spain 1492 versus United States 1795. One run by a religion, the other has space for a religion, but not much more.
Looks like I dropped by Iraq the Model at precisely the right time! They are reporting agreement on a proposed Irqi constitution! He also had a previous article on the political dynamics involved.
Supposedly, Michael Moore is in a celebrity weight loss center. Iowahawk has all the details. Do not click with beverages nearby.
Pejman Yousefzadeh has moved from his old site to A Chequer-Board of Nights & Days.
Please go check out Michael Yon as often as you have the time. He's telling the boots on the ground and eyes in the neighborhood story of Iraq. And hit his tipjar if you can afford to do so.
Fellow San Diegans: Help Smash get a new job!
This is going to be my last post for a couple of days. I'd appreciate any good thoughts you folks feel like sending my way.
RINO Sightings is up! Recommended: Argghhh!, INDC Journal, Dean's World, Tinkerty-Tonk
Please check back here tomorrow for Carnival of Liberty VIII!
Captain's Quarters has the money quote on the whole "wall" issue:
...I assert that the main point about the Wall is that it was not a memo or a directive — it was a culture. There were many walls, throughout the Intelligence Community, as well as between the Intelligence Community and Law Enforcement. Most of these were of long standing and existed for good reasons — security and protecting civil liberties. But under Clinton, all the walls got taller and new ones were added...
Not believing there were critical national security issuses for which the support the Intelligence Community was vital; acutely concerned about the potential for scandals and political embarassements [as only so scandel-plagued an Adminisrtation could be], and having a strong personal distaste for the whole business, Clinton set out to reduce the risk that the Intelligence Community could do him harm by making it as difficult as possible for the Intelligence Community to do anything. He did this thru his appointments, seeing to it that political animals and risk-adverse adminstrators got key postions; by changing the rules by which intelligence could be collected — for example, banning using people with crimnal associations or "human rights abusers" as HUMINT sources, which meant that no one in the Intelligence Community could talk to a disaffected terrorist; a huge blow that badly hurt our ability to keep tabs on terrorist organiszation after 1998 — and by building walls.
This dates back to my first (limited circulation, in a 1992 APA) assessment of Clinton's character: that he would do literally anything if he saw a way to take advantage for personal gain, there was no principle he would not sacrifice for a 3% gain in an opinion poll (or to avoid a 3% loss). We have learned the hard way many times since exactly how correct that assessment was. He has spent his whole life gaming the system, and he's done well, but what about everyone else around him? How about the system itself?
Michelle Malkin directs us to Professor Bainbridge, who agrees that the transfer of Air America was likely a fraudulent transfer. Ms. Malkin also brings a comment up about Air America lasting until the judgement is rendered, but as I have said repeatedly, I don't think they'll last that long.
Utterly cool! Original Einstein Manuscript Discovered
I'll do some more later if I am able.
Be sure to come back Tuesday morning for Carnival of Liberty VIII. And I'd appreciate it if you'd tell me if my blog rolls to the right are missing any members of either group.
Armies of Liberation talks about a Yemeni sheikh convicted in the US to fund Hamas. This is damning stuff.
Armies of Liberation also tells us of a possible hopeful situation in Yemen as Saleh has said he's stepping down.
She's got a half dozen other articles all worth reading -worth linking. If you think I'm trying to say that Jane should be on the blogroll of and regularly visited by anyone interested in world freedom and democracy, you're right. I feel embarrassed that it's been a week since I got to her site. If you'll note, I've moved her up in my blogroll to the right.
Nathan Newman makes an excellent point about using aid as a weapon: It makes people mad, rendering it useless for the PR purposes used to sell it back home. HT to aTypical Joe
Ballon Juice provides a leftspeak to english translation of somebody who claims he was taken out of context. I am happy to see more people pointing out the contradictions in "I support the troops, but I've staked my political future upon the things that will happen if they lose."
Done With Mirrors scores with another argument dissection.
Forward Biased has more on the true level of non-support required to support the troops but not their mission.
Big Cat Chronicles has another worthwhile article on elder care, and facilitating their decisions. It has been my experience that children obsessing about their parents being ripped off often make the opposite mistake. When I worked the Long Term Care market as part of my planning business, I used to have an inflexible rule that said I had to try to bring the next of kin in if I were at all in doubt about their mental solidity. Many children automatically assumed I was trying to rip off their parents, and I lost a lot of income over it, but every once in a while I got a child who'd actually do their due diligence before assuming I was trying to rip off their parents. And I'm sorry for the parents whose kids prevented them from buying something that would actually help them. I got several phone calls that began "Listen, you con artist, I told you to leave my dad alone, and you went and sold him this policy. I'm calling my lawyer," where I had counter with "Look, Mr. Jones. I was the one who got you involved in the first place. You told your dad not to buy from me and he didn't. So somebody else came into the picture and probably sold him something more expensive and not as good as what I had because I only sell California Partnership policies, and I offered your dad the most effective bang-for-the-buck partnership policy for someone in his situation, and that other salesperson sold a policy it by not getting you involved. I hope that makes you feel just wonderful. So don't you threaten me with a lawsuit, because I'm not involved here." Not to mention two instances that I'm aware of where they subsequently tried to buy insurance after the parent developed an actual need for long term care. Once the problem is a certainty, you can't buy insurance against it, or at least not on beneficial terms. Nobody sells two million dollars of life insurance to people on their death bed for less than two million dollars (It may sometimes be a good idea anyway, but that's another essay). Nobody sells disability insurance to someone who's already in traction. And nobody sells Long Term Care Insurance to people already in Long Term Care Facilities. Insurance is something you buy before the fact. If you fit the need profile, get it. Got it? Good.
I've got to finish my article on Long Term Care Insurance soon.
Catallarchy has a great narrative on what they'd say if they had to sell the public on social security today. Check out the comments as well. The hard thing to get through your head is that every choice that's made is a trade-off and has good and bad. If the elderly people in Chicago that died due to lack of air conditioning had had the choice of where to invest their social security money, odds are long they wouldn't have been so poor. Scary as it may be, freedom must include the freedom to fail, or you get stuff like the current system. If retirees had had the ability to invest their social security contributions in the market, some few would still be destitute, but the vast majority wouldn't be eating dog food on $950 per month. Social Security as currently constituted is not going to last the life expectancy of anyone under 60. The train wreck is already unavoidable, and delay only makes it worse.
Libertarian Purity Test. I got a 50, but have no desire to become a hard core libertarian. HT: Classical Values
Combs Spouts Off has a good point in his article "Purity" vs. Principles. Unfortunately, I've found the average person avoids thinking even more than they avoid physical labor. They don't want to have to think; they want an easy answer. Unfortunately, as Combs notes, easy answers are suspect. There's the old question about "Do the ends justify the means, in general?" People with pat answers either way make me nervous.
Decision '08 has some information that may give the Clinton Administration some partial cover here, in that at least they were working on a known problem.
Done With Mirrors notes some campus speech codes. These are first amendment violations at state universities, but shh! don't tell the ACLU. They are not interested. So FIRE steps in.
I am a little more libertarian on drug legalization than INDC Journal. I'd like to see FDA's role reduced to an advisory one, rather than approval, I'd like to see everything legalized, and if that means that some poor souls will march straight off a cliff into oblivion, it's not like we're really stopping them now, and it would lessen or prevent all kinds of stuff related to the fact that this stuff is illegal now. But I would be extremely happy to take his position, or anything similar, as a starting point, and we fiddle with it plus and minus until we find something that works. Heck, I'd be ecstatic with taking the current situation, and experimenting on an incremental basis, to find out what works. Yes, it'll take a long time, and we'll make mistakes. But the position of changing nothing because this is the received wisdom of the ages is both akin to being safe again in the arms of the Inquisition of the fourteenth century and feudalism, and a belief that society should be static for all time, when in fact, the best solution is likely to change. Today's ideal is certainly not the same as a century ago, and it will not be the same a century from now. Our descendants will have more information, more thinking capacity, and better ways of exchanging ideas than we have.
And on the subject he really meant to cover, yeah, many people do fly off the handle with folks they disagree with too easy. Instead of interpreting it as an ego attack, how about considering it as an opportunity to check one's assumptions?
As I have said before, I'm trying to ignore a former Crawford Camper as much as I can. But Inside Larry's Head just uses her as a starting point for a well thought out logical post on supporting the troops. I don't agree 100%, but let him make his own case - go read it.
Mad Mikey has an excellent article on NIMBYism and trying the repeal the laws of economics. It doesn't work; neither does allowing hatred of corporations to rule your politics. He illustrates how.
No Angst Zone has an excellent article on the mindset of the military post Cold War. I largely agree with the proviso that the military and their civilian controllers are historically always preparing to fight the last war. I strongly suspect that we're going to need a military capable of frontal warfare again, so we cannot forget the practice.
Pigilito says has an excellent article on geology and medicine, of all combinations of technology.
Uncommon Insanity examines Hamas, the Palestinians, and Arab actions in dealing with Israel. What they say means nothing compared to what they do, and what they do is destructive.
As a reminder, please be certain to come back Tuesday for Carnival of Liberty VIII hosted here. I will set to auto-post at 6 AM Eastern time so you can look before work if you want. If any of you LLPer's need it earlier, email me before Monday morning!
Had the girls Friday, so it was light activity. Ramona, the baby, is sweet and easy to take care of, even if I am "Not the Momma!" Hilda (the five year old) hasn't quite gotten over the green eyed monster regarding the baby yet, so she can be difficult at times, but she has learned that Daddy means what he says, so she gives me a lot less grief than she gives my wife. She knows if I say I'll swat her bottom, I will swat her bottom, and so... I don't have to.
Activity may be light for a while. I should be signing the contract to develop my commercial sister site this week, and I got a call from the cardiologist today saying my test was abnormal. So I'm going in for another test Monday morning. We don't think it's serious, but I'm going to set Carnival of Liberty up to auto-post before I leave the house Monday morning just in case they decide I can't come home. My apologies if I don't get to "just before the deadline" submissions on time.
I do find it pleasing that 19 days into August, my visitors and bandwidth usage are already 20% more than my entire July statistics.
This one hits all the big political issues: Captain's Quarters has an excellent analysis of a 1985 Memo John Roberts wrote having to do with Terrorism and the 1977 Protocols.
Victor Davis Hanson shares some perspective and some good recommendations in "More Continental Drift? I think most of our old allies in Europe are in the same economic cycle the old communist countries were, just that they didn't have the military expenses or the ideological ones, and so they haven't gone bankrupt yet. But they're getting there.
Before I had a chance to post. he put another essay up The Biteback Effect
Terrorism Unveiled has an excellent post on the missile attacks. (HT La Shawn Barber
Daffyd at Captain's Quarters detailing more on how the wall between intelligence and law enforcement was built, and by who (largely 9/11 commissioner Jamie Gorelick). I have previously detailed that this whole idea was not only incredibly stupid, but didn't act to protect anything except the right of foreign and terrorist agents to be free of constraints in operating against us. When will the privacy kneejerkers learn?
Debbie Schlussel has a dynamite grocery list of reasons why it probably wouldn't have mattered if the FBI had been informed. She lists many places where they did nothing, or even killed the messenger. HT to Michelle Malkin
How far we've come from Eisenhower telling the press we were going to attack Sicily next: La Shawn Barber sends us to Accuracy in Media. Back in 1943, not a single reporter in the room told anybody. Anybody want to guess what would happen in an equivalent situation today? Does anyone have to?
Michael Ledeen at NRO gives us a Who's Who in Iran's government and a pretty good idea of their intentions, and accomplishments.
Air America
Radio Equalizer has the promised Part II. It does look like both the SEC and state regulators should be interested in this stuff. I'm only a financial advisor, not a lawyer and definitely not a judge, but it appears to me that there are serious violation of disclosure issues, as this went way beyond a so-called "tombstone announcement" which by my reading of the rules requires a copy of the prospectus filed with the SEC to be given out to every person who heard the pitch. Unfortunately (using a quick search), I don't see any evidence that said prospectus exists, or the required to be available Statement of Additional Information, much less that it was given out. This might be within the legal limits, but from the reported information I don't see how. They send this kind of crooks to the kind of federal prison described in "Office Space" all the time. If this is illegal, this is not an offense that the SEC or state regulators regard as a minor offense. It strikes right at one of the fundamental protections of potential investors.
Michelle Malkin has more.
The New York Sun has put together a web page with of all the stories they've run. HT to Captain's Quarters
PressThink asked Austin Bay what he thinks about the relationship of the White House and the press, and printed the whole thing. Good, rational food for thought, including on why the White House should cultivate the press.
Dean's World has an idea on how it might all shake out. I agree. If nothing good comes of it, why bother? This would be a loss; this is our country's closest approach to question time in parliament. Nonetheless, given the attitude of the press one wonders why the White House continues to cater to them. It's not like there's any mass conversion in the works.
Asymmetrical Information wants to ask John Kenneth Galbraith, "If you think that we should equalize the distribution of income, why do you not think that we should equalize the distribution of PhDs?" The answer to this is obvious. If everybody had a PhD, they wouldn't have anybody to look down upon. It's all about whose ox gets gored.
Chrenkoff has a great follow up to the Jawa Report's research of yesterday, and demolishes the meme about "you have to be X to write about X".
Wizbang has the scoop on fallout fron Willism's rating Carnival of Vanities Last Week. I'm hosting my third carnival (Liberty) on Tuesday, and let me tell you I've been tempted to do what he did. I am somebody that tries to read every submission to every carnival I submit to, but Will's got a point. A lot of them are simply traffic whoring with drivel, and I make a point to stay away from such blogs in the future. I think, "If that's your best post on the subject," and you can imagine where I go from there. I'm not going to do what Will did unless the traditions of the particular carnival permit, which Liberty doesn't, but every time I host I'm seeing posts that are nothing more than a quick link and a line or two of text, not clever at all. When I submit, I try and tell the person that I won't be offended if they decide not to include it. So I got a 6 rating from Will when I would have hoped for a seven or eight. It doesn't crush my poor little ego. Maybe he didn't think my snarky humor was as good as I did. Maybe he thought I should have done more digging. Maybe he thought I should have fleshed it out more. Big surprise - lot of QC failures going around all over the 'sphere. At least I got a 6 - he considered it actually good. I may not have agreed with all his ratings. But he gave me what can be regarded as a small amount of constructive criticism with his rating. Maybe I can use it to improve. There's a lot of dreck out there. That's why the sites that are consistently good get traffic. Will was Carnival Host and is entitled to his opinions. The host who refuses to include my post, which may I think is good but is in fact drivel, is likely to be doing me a favor. If the clown Will rated zero to gets mad at Will, he's hunting the wrong target. The post was drivel, and I should have taken Will's word for anything below 4. The constructive solution, of course, to do is submit better posts.
(and the fact that many people do quick checkouts is why I try and pick out posters who put effort and thought in and give them a recommendation when I link the carnival. I may not agree with the post, but if it's a good thoughtful post when so many aren't, it deserves to stand out somehow. Two rules: my own posts aren't eligible for carnival recommends. Nor are posts I've already linked.)
Carnival of Vanities is up at Willisms. Favorites: Mr. Snitch, The Idiom, ROFASix,
This is an interesting idea. Introducing African and Asian species into North America. I'm curious to know what the impact on native endangered species might be, and if we did it, would we essentially be saying that the preservation of elephants is more important than the Lesser Bell's Vireo, or lions more important than mountain lions? Also obvious issues in regards to whether beasts that have evolved for higher temperatures can survive a Nebraska winter, so we might be condemning both sets of species to extinction. More obvious issues in human political fallout - where are we going to get the land? Where's it going to come from? What uses is it going to be withdrawn from? Finally, I'm curious about what happens when (not if) something large gets loose? I seriously doubt that approval will be forthcoming for large carnivores. The article deals with none of these.
If properly thought through and feasible, I'll admit the notion is attractive to me. It'd be cool to be driving cross country and see elephants and maybe lions and tigers and cheetahs roaming free. But I don't want it to do more damage than good. Disturbing the ecological balance in this manner is something that requires a trembling hand of fear.
Piling On Department: Pigilito says found a good article on what killed Zimbabwe. High taxes. Making war on the rich.
Jawa Report has stuff on terrorists going to Bosnia. Are we playing whack a mole here, or do the French actually enjoy creating these problems?
On a similar note, Restless Mania tells us that the violence in Darfur is on the rise again, and now they're going after the displaced person camps.
Dear RINOs and LLPers: I really am trying to hit ten different of each of you every day. Sometimes the bloglists I use get mixed up. Real Soon Now, I'm going to try to add everybody who isn't there already to my site blogroll so I have something under my own control to hit.
Zenophobia has a report of a Marine who was serving in Iraq being denied Texas state resident tuition. I'd expect this crap in New Yok, but not in Texas. Maybe he should tell them he's an illegal alien. It works in California.
Boxing Alcibiades has more on Hamas in the wake of the Gaza pullout. See the top of my Links and Minifeatures post yesterday for my thoughts.
Stephen Den Beste over at Daily Pundit covers the Gaza withdrawal from a dispassionate viewpoint. I agree with the allegation that it is unfair, anti-Jewish racism. I agree that Israel has bent over backwards to be accommodating to any hint that the Palestinians would act civilized, and repeatedly been stabbed for it. I'm sorry those people lost their homes. Nonetheless, it was a tactical and strategic mistake for them to be there. I hope they are able to start over again, but given that Israel wasn't willing to annex Gaza, the settlements in Gaza were calculated risks from day one. They lost.
And I suspect and hope that this is the last installment of rope that Israel is going to sell the Palestinians. I think they're going to be looking at regular rocket attacks. Attempts to evade the security barrier both by terrorists and by job seekers are going to be an ongoing flood. But the reason they're bringing the Jewish settlers out of Gaza is so they can keep the Palestinians out of Israel. Israel is going to have to explain over and over that the Palestinians can now make their own destiny (How the Jooooos™ can keep the Palestinians impoverished when there are none around and the Palestinians control the area is beyond me; nonetheless that is what the PA is going to claim). The hope on the part of Israel is going to be that everyone will acknowledge they've done so much that they cannot do any more and still the Palestinians are killing Israelis for no good reason. I think Sharon is underestimating the power of denial, but I can see where this separation has to be tried, politically.
If it were the United States, we'd have lost patience with the problem a long time ago and solved it completely. Can you imagine if native american tribes were lobbing rockets at our major cities off their reservations? Sending out suicide bombers? Spewing the kind of hate that Palestinian TV is famous for? The Palestinians would be in one of three categories: Dead, Assimilated, or Exiled permanently and for real. Okay, four. There's also Jail, in all of its incarnations. But Israel is not the United States, and has constraints that we do not.
With stuff like this going on, I'd like to know how anyone henceforward and forevermore could possibly agree that Israel has not done everything it could to treat the Palestinians well and fairly. I'd really like to know.
LLP's Willow Tree has more. I hope she will accept my apologies for not remembering to seek her out sooner on this issue. I keep thinking I'm going to do a comprehensive list of issue blogs, and haven't done it yet.
(So I'm going to do it. Email me with your issue of choice. If it's too broad, like "Politics", I'll ignore it. But Isreali politics, that I'll note. Or to give a specific example, Decision '08, where his angle is how it effects the next presidential election.)
Related, and in both the Just What We Need Department and Business As Usual Department: United Nations Bankrolled Latest Anti-israel Propaganda with a HT to LGF. If ever terrorists attack New York again and only manage to hit the UN, that would fall under Poetic Justice Department.
Captain's Quarters has more on Colenel Shaffer coming out of anonymity. He also points us to The Corner who has some worthwhile background supporting Col. Shaffer's credibility. I'm don't think posting the whole interview would qualify as "fair use", so Here's the link (It's at the bottom). My impression is that Col. Shaffer is being very careful to keep it fact oriented. He has an opportunity to say that the commissioners were lying, and instead of allowing the reporter to put words in his mouth corrected the reporter to say that he didn't know why the report was wrong, but he could attest that it was wrong.
Austin Bay thinks it's time for the President to address this issue. I agree. It's not going to get the sustained light of scrutiny it needs otherwise. If it ends up looking like a political vendetta, so be it. Mr. Bush isn't running for anything, ever again. And when you have everything that has been documented on this subject, not investigating becomes dereliction of duty.
LLP's own Mover Mike adds more.
Michelle Malkin appears to have has the definitive scoop on the Air America stuff. I said some time ago that Air America looks to be teetering on the edge of insolvency, perhaps the kind of criminal insolvency where the feds show up and arrest the receptionist who doesn't know anything because everybody who does has flown the coup. This only strengthens that belief of mine.
Radio Equalizer is supposed to have part II this evening.
Somehow, I don't think Al Franken is a serious threat for the Senate in Minnesota. Now if he were to run for Barbara Boxer's seat here in California, or Nancy Pelosi's, or Hillary Clinton's...
Wholly Double Standards Batman! Generation Why talks about the disconnect between the Berger case (Admitted, convicted, felony level theft of classified National Security documents) and the fact that a few public documents on John Robert's affirmative action work for the Reagan administration were borrowed by White House lawyers, and returned but subsequently went missing.
La Shawn Barber has more, as well as a hat tip for the lead.
Who says it's slow season? All kinds of good stuff going on today! Volokh Conspirator Eugene Volokh debunks an ACLU spokesman, as well as carrying the guy's response, which in my opinion does not in any way explain or mitigate his offense. Evenhanded, fair, and still damning. Things of this nature are why that site deserves special mention on a blogroll.
Professor Volokh is also searching for
Unreliable Assurances: I'm looking for examples where (1) the opponents of some proposed law, constitutional amendment, or judicial decision argued "this action will be interpreted in this particular bad way" or "this action will set a precedent that will be used to reach this particular bad result," (2) the supporters assured the public that no, of course this won't happen, and (3) some time down the line -- preferably no more than 50 years, just to avoid especially hard questions of causation -- the foretold result did take place, despite the supporters' reassurances. (It doesn't matter whether you like the ultimate result or not; and it also doesn't matter whether you think the assurances were sincere or not.)
Now, I tried this morning on Yahoo and Google to come up with the cites for the debate in the Senate that proposed a ten percent cap on income tax in the original Amendment that allowed it, and also the warnings that allowing unwed mothers to collect welfare would cause an explosion in unwed mothers. But both of those debates are over fifty years old and I couldn't find a web citation through search engines. If one of you has one, you might send it to the professor. I found a cite here that AFDC does increase illegitimate childbirth, but couldn't find any cites on the original debate. On the Sixteenth Amendment, I couldn't find references to the original debate, although I did find a Cato report on the circumstances here, including other things that were warned about and have largely come to pass.
"If I Got My News From the Newspapers I'd be Pretty Depressed As Well" Chortle!
Iraq and the War on Terror:
I do subscribe to US News and World Report. Dead Tree Edition. It's worth it. My issue is late this week and I hope it'll be there when I get home today. In the meantime, thanks to the Instapundit for highlighting this Michael Barone piece about Multiculturalism.
Rising cost of oil may be saviour for Iraqi economy. HT to Austin Bay
State of Flux has a good take on Japan taking its place in the world by sending peacekeepers. I disagree with a couple of his analogies, but it's a good article.
All Things Jennifer has a cute "marriage" story.
Big Cat Chronicles has good suggestions on planning. I've just sent myself a reminder e-mail to do an article on it ... eventually.
Done with Mirrors has a nice post about Christianity and the separation of church and state. Actually, it's two posts, this one first.
My response to Environmental Republican is that I was actually wondering about the lack of public connections being made. I'm wondering if the press hasn't been asked to de-emphasize connecting the dots, and miracle of miracles, has actually complied. For those travelling domestically, please note that all of the significant events I noted have been not only foreign, but international - so no law enforcement on board. I also wonder what, if anything, is going on behind the scenes. (Keep in mind, also, that the average US yearly toll for traffic accidents is over 50k, as opposed to 3k for the worst year ever on this subject.)
Boxing Alcibiades has a good piece on modern political thought.
My Summer Ride was a Mustang Convertible, which is probably as close as they can get. I doubt they've got Morgan or Bug-Eyed Sprite listed. Not particular muscle cars, and I've never actually owned either, but can attest that they're both a joy and a blast to drive in a way that nothing else compares.
This makes me sick. The constitution and rule of law exist to stop stuff like this from happening. "Accuse a judge of misconduct, get hauled off to jail, and no communication with the outside world." Pass it along if you have a venue to do so. This needs as much Searchlight as it can get.
HT to Libercontrarian.
Anybody else been noticing an increase in Plane crashes lately? It's gotten to the point where I'm wondering if it's coincidence or enemy action.
More good news from Iraq, courtesy of Arthur Chrenkoff and Winds of Change. We're going to miss Mr. Chrenkoff when he goes, but looks like others will be taking over.
Powerline has an excellent debunking of Paul Krugman's foaming at the mouth while keeping head in the sand technique on Social Security.
Captain's Quarters covers an Independent Sources research about Barbara Boxer's campaign donations from Milberg Weiss. For anyone else reading this in California, I suggest that it's long past time to vote her out. This shows where her loyalties lie, and it's not with the economic well being of this state (Disclosure: I've always voted against her).
While we're talking about Captain's Quarters, he has a good article/editorial about the consequences of the Democrats deciding to offer only token opposition to Roberts. It would be nice if they did more of this. I may be a Elephant-leaning somewhat-libertarian, but the thought that the Donkeys may not be nationally competitive upsets me. We need at least two competitive national parties for a true democracy. We shouldn't allow any party a long-term monopoly of power. So when outbreaks of rationality on the part of the Donkeys happen, I think of it as an good sign and it makes me happy and I want to encourage it. ("Sir," says the sensor operator on the US Rational, "We just had a momentary contact. One ping and it was gone. Sir, do you think it might be the Democrats, come back to look for us after all these years?")
Carnival of Liberty is up over at Eric's Grumbles. Especially worthwhile: The Unrepentant Individual, No Government Cheese, Kid Various, Different River
I'm hosting next week. Please send your entries either to carnivalofliberty@gmail.com or submit using the form at Conservative Cat here. You may also submit to me direct at the email listed, but that means I have to forward the submission for the archives.
This and this from Iraq the Model are good signs. If you really want to read an excellent response to a certain unhappy camper in Crawford that I'm doing my best to ignore here, use the link on the right to go to their main page and scroll down to the entries for August 12th. I'm sorry the woman lost her son. It doesn't improve her grasp of any other subject, which, as far as I can tell by the way she runs her mouth, is non-existent. She wants attention, but I don't have to give it to her. 'nuff said.
INDC Journal has a wonderful debunking of the Anti RU-486 hysteria. I really don't like abortion. The whole idea behind having an abortion is you're killing what would otherwise and in the normal course of events become a human being. I have this old and outdated idea that if I help start a life, I'm indebted to that life to a certain extent, and even if I was a female, nine months of pregnancy is well within the bounds. But I can't build up anything more than a desire for fewer women to use RU-486. Maybe it's just the chemical nature of what's going on that bothers me less, and logically, I realize this is ridiculous; the same objections apply just as strongly to RU 486. But I don't want abortion banned, either. Severely discouraged, yes. Harder to get, yes. Banned? No.
I try to get to Michael Yon's site at least once per week. He's got three wonderful reports of what he saw while embedded. I suggest you read him for a real idea of what it's like in Iraq.
RINO Sightings is up over at Balloon Juice. Particularly excellent: MSM Misses Point Again, Oh Man, Why Does He Say This Kind Of Stuff?, The Hitler Zombie Escapes
This says the ACLU is counting more private security cameras. They don't like it. I disagree. I think that the more records there are the sooner bad guys are going to be caught, the more often they are going to be caught, and the more evidence that those who are in fact innocent will have to present on their own behalf. I think the trends show in the article are Good Things and Encouraging Signs.
Some non-technical stuff on the Mars Reconaissance Orbiter
Okay, this is weird: Ukraine gets steamed up over planned Russian porn film
Armies of Liberation talks about censorship in Yemen.
Armies of Liberation also has an article on malnourished children. This is despicable. Does anyone reading this not think there is be a connection between these data points?
Anyone doubting the kind of man our president is should read 'I'm So Sorry'. I don't know of any other president who made a habit of this. Certainly none have done so without the press there. You tell me if this is a warmongering cowboy, who had his mind made up that he wanted war with Iraq before 9/11. You tell me if this is the bloodthirsty tyrant eager to sacrifice our children in order to steal Iraqi oil. Ladies and gentlemen, I might have the strength to do this once, with one family. Again and again and again with multiple families, as our president has done? No way. I do think it explains how he keeps himself so focused on the end result of the War on Terror, however. (HT to Balloon Juice for the new article. I've seen similar ones before over the course of the last few years).
I have my disagreements with George W. Bush. Excessive spending and Intelligent Design are two that spring to mind right now. But whatever gods there may be blessed us when he was President on September 11, 2001. So far, his leadership on the front had been not only without significant fault, but stunningly brilliant and focused strategically. I can only hope that his replacement in 2008 will have a fraction of Mr. Bush's clarity and resolve in the War on Terrorism.
Michelle Malkin has a round up on the subject
Opinion Journal has some good stuff on the immigration debate.
Victor Davis Hanson has more ideas.
Captain's Quarters on Sunni denial and trying the hold the constitution hostage.
Victor Davis Hanson on the Palestinian Authority promising another Holocaust. And they wonder why nobody will trust them?
My wife and I have an ongoing joke about the alleged thriftiness of my Scottish ancestors. While I was cleaning out the fish tank, my wife showed my elder daughter the virtual bubble wrap popping thing that's been going around. I heard my wife tell my daughter that she couldn't create a new sheet until she popped the last bubble. Conserving virtual bubble wrap? I paused in what I was doing and went over to her, kissed her, and on the spot inducted her into The Ancient and Thrifty Order of Honorary Scottish.
Done with Mirrors has a great letter from an Iraqi man to Cindy Sheehan.
On an impulse, picked up Disney's "The Kid" on DVD, and my wife, elder daughter, and I watched it last evening. It was a thoroughly enjoyable movie, maybe a little heavy on the moralizing shtick, but nothing anybody who reads political stuff should have difficulty handling. Bruce Willis, Lily Tomlin, some young actress as the love interest, and a chubby little kid to play Bruce Willis' character as an eight year old. Bruce Willis does a really good job (don't let the fact that most people know him from the Die Hard series fool you - he can act, as those who watched even a little bit of "Moonlighting" know), Lily Tomlin is thoroughly enjoyable, and the kid is a joy to watch as well. All in all, an enjoyable family movie well worth the $10 I spent on it in the bargain bin at Target, and I imagine we'll be watching it again (knowing my daughter, and again and again...). By comparison with a lot of mindless melodramatic dreck out there, I have no idea why it didn't do better in the theaters. Ramona thinks it's because people don't expect Bruce Willis in this kind of role. I say, "Their loss."
Which Swear (Curse) Word Are You?
HT:Right Thoughts
Your word is BUGGER. You are generally quite
restrained, but sometimes your anger or
frustration come to the surface and it all
comes out. Yet you somehow can't stop sounding
polite, despite it all.
MuD and PHuD has a good article on the status of the second amendment in New Jersey (locked in the cupboard under the stairs).
Ogre has a funny worth reading.
Off to do workout and hold an open house.
Pigilito says found an article on whether the sun was burning when life started on Earth. Cool!
Nose on Your Face has an amusing satire of the blog poll.
Scrappleface take the right tack on the Indian names controversy. Read the comments, too! Most of the pro teams here in San Diego are already PC enough, but we'd have to change the San Diego State Aztecs to something else. Not as if the Aztec Empire ever got this far. So we need something relevant to the San Diego area that would strike fear into the hearts. Since the San Diego State Lawyers would be inappropriate (no law school), and San Diego State Illegal Aliens would have PC issues of its own, I'd have to suggest San Diego State Marines. Or Navy. (Yes, the last two suggestions are serious, although nothing else about the suggestions)
LGF has the scoop on why the Iranians even bothered to talk about nuclear weapons.
Captain's Quarters has more about the complete failure of the negotiations to accomplish anything positive, at least from the point of view of preventing the mullahs from frying however many millions of people, or delaying their ability to do so. When you're looking for an excuse not to take action, they'll talk. It won't mean anything except that they're giving the useful idiots cover, while they proceed with work on their facilities. Everybody with a brain predicted this months ago. Why is anybody surprised? I would really like to know. Or was this some kind of research project on the power of Denial? Can I request that next time we make the global consequences a little less extreme? Like say, using sports fans instead of totalitarian religious nutcase regimes that want to be nuclear powers as the research subjects?
Trying not to chase my tail: I know it's the August slow season, but I'm trying not to chase my tail repeating old information ad nauseum.
If you really want more on the Able Danger stuff, may I suggest Jim Geraghty over at NRO? Barring new revalations, this seems to be the definitive take. Everything else I've seen was tail-chasing without any real new information.
I don't anticipate much new of substance on John Roberts until the hearings begin on September 6, but Captain's Quarters has an excellent article on NARAL pulling their slanderous ad.
Michelle Malkin notes that The NY Times Wall of Silence on Air America has finally cracked. Now they're playing the "can we downplay this any more?" game. Would they have managed to avoid saying anything had it been any time other than August Slow Season?
One wonders why that this story hasn't gotten more attention. Of course, it isn't information on 9/11. But this is where the war on terrorism will be won or lost - by getting serious about the borders and security, not playing politics because politicians are afraid of offending a certain minority which actually wants the problem dealt with. There's quite a disconnect between what hispanics want and what leaders of "hispanic organizations" want. If we can't keep illegal aliens out of the Border Patrol, we've lost.
Cool! They're starting to decipher Inca knotwork!
Frivolous lawsuit number 123,456,789. I don't use Ameritrade, but universals of the business: It is never guaranteed to execute immediately, and the larger the order, the less likely it becomes, and the more likely it is that your order will have an effect upon the price before it is executed in full. Just because you tell your computer to do it now, doesn't mean it gets done now. If you're worried about a delay of a few hours affecting profitability, you shouldn't buy or sell. If you're worried about the price, put a limit order in. Of course, that costs more.
Strenthen Your Allies Project
Louisiana Libertarian has some good thoughts. It'd be nice if NASA would just get out of the way, but that jeopardizes bureaucratic jobs and power structures.
Art of The Blog makes a good point on money for stem cell research.
I'm The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog Which Monty Python and the Holy Grail character are you? HT to Unrepentant Individual
Okay, they've got a point. The drilling proposal doesn't belong in the budget bill. On the other hand, it's necessary, it's wise, and it won't hurt the environment. It's got to be done sometime, and although I'd prefer holding a drilling debate based upon its own merits and with a vote where we know who voted for it and who voted against it, at least this way they'll have to move it along. My guess is that the reason is that your vote on the budget bill is indicative of the pork your district is going to get next year, so it's harder to vote against. (HT to Hugh Hewitt).
Iraq and the War on Terror:
Politechnical has a good post about throwing the terrorists out.
I'm thinking this is not a good sign: the Palestinians are competing to get credit for the Isaeli pullout from Gaza. The factis the Israelis are leaving because they want to, due to a combination of not wanting the hassle of Gaza and selling the Palestinian authority rope with which to hang itself. The idea of the Palestinians throwing the Israeli's out is on a par with "Neddie, how dare you attack Moriarty's boot with the full force of your teeth!"
Michelle Malkin has a great followup on the 9/11 Report, and Captain's Quarters has more. As CQ notes, it has become past time for Congress to hold hearings. The commissioners have buried evidence and one of them was likely responsible for the failure to deal with the problems before they hijacked four airliners.
Mudville Gazette has a wonderful series of stories on the "Wounds of War". This is part III. It will link you to the first two parts, as well. Let us hope that we don't have a case of "and the thirty million English sent twenty pounds and four" here. Yeah, there's partisan sniping in the article. But let's not lose the main message. These heroes served us when we needed it. When others ducked, they stepped forward. It is incumbent upon all of us to treat them correctly should they need it.
Bwahahaha! Woman loses 37 pounds eating only at McDonald's. In 90 days.
Air America
Recovering Democrat has some worthwhile thoughts on Air America.
Michelle Malkin has all kinds of interesting news. Cohen moved to Hawaii, looking for jobs with nonprofits there. Maybe the ACLU will hire him. We can only hope.
More games with affirmative action, in this case trying to keep a "no preferences" measure off the ballot.
Teens urged to be future thinkers. Contest with kind of cool prize.
Iraq/War on Terror
Jawa Report has some good ideas and good thinking on how we can really win the war on Terror. Wars are won when 1) The other side is all dead, or 2) the other side believes it has lost. Jawa Report has some ideas to convince them they've lost. (Go Penguins!)
Chrenkoff isn't gone yet! Working for the KKKaliphate
Doesn't get much bigger than this StrataSphere has an article on how 9/11 Commissioner Jamie Gorelick kept the 9/11 hijackers from being spotted. Look, we were already at war, we just didn't realize it. I'm sure the Democratic partisans will point out that Ms. Gorelick did us a service in allowing up to be woken up. Except that this might be taken as an endorsement of George Bush's subsequent actions. Quite the challenging dilemma for the "Denial" wing. So of course, they'll try and ignore it, and change the subject. How about those Florida Hurricanes? Did you hear that failing to ratify Kyoto is all George Bush's fault?
On June 25, 1997, before the Kyoto Protocol was to be negotiated, the U.S. Senate passed by a 95-0 vote the Byrd-Hagel Resolution (S. Res. 98), which stated the sense of the Senate was that the United States should not be a signatory to any protocol that did not include binding targets and timetables for developing as well as industrialized nations or "would result in serious harm to the economy of the United States". On November 12, 1998, Vice President Al Gore symbolically signed the protocol. Aware of the Senate's view of the protocol, the Clinton Administration never submitted the protocol for ratification.
oops! See also: Wikipedia
The left is running out of subjects to change to.
Jawa Report has a report on finding bombs belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Iraq.
Bad news for California: Schwarzenegger Redistricting Rejected
Yemen:
YAY! Saleh orders minors released!
Move along! Nothing to see here. Move along! It NEVER happened!
Well, Papa Joe never pretended he was ready to relinquish power, but Ali Saleh: A Stalinist?
Big Hat tip to Dr. Sanity for pointing me to this: George W. Bush allowed 9/11 to happen so that Ann Coulter could kill The French. Go generate your own conspiracy theory! Why let the "progressives" have all the fun?
If this is what's going on, why are they there? Some question third year of law school
LaShawn Barber takes down Affirmative Action nonsense and points out the cognitive dissonances. I read people complain about her having a "queen bee" attitude, but I love reading someone who is not only determined to make it based on her own abilities, but who has done so, and expects others to do so. To those who criticise her (and my) anti-affirmative action stance, flame away.
While we're at it, Michael Barone comes out convincingly against Native Hawaiian sovereignty. I made my opinion clear in this article.
John Roberts Supreme Court stuff:
Boston Globe suggests catholics not be permitted to be Supreme Court justices as they have an allegiance to Catholicism, not Roe vs. Wade. I'm sure most readers are aware that there is a constitutional prohibition on sectarian requirements or prohibitions for public office, but the Boston Globe (among others) has forgotten. OpinionJournal has the best take down I've seen of this nonsense. Maybe it's time I ran my old essay on "atheism vs. Atheism".
Captain's Quarters has some wonderful reporting on the NARAL ad against John Roberts.
Speaking of Opinion Journal, Brendan Minter has a good article on why Jeb Bush may be a good pick for 2008. Assuming Condi really won't run, he'd be up there for me, too.
Air America:
Professor Bainbridge and Captain's Quarters have some thoughts well worth reading on the transfer to the current ownership of Air America.
Is there anybody who is not disgusted by this? Despite Illegal Status, Buyers Get Home Loans. This is actively circumventing the loan process so you can do business with lawbreakers. I've done hundreds of real estate loans. I ask a bank to do one without a social to check credit for legal residents, and I can hear the laughter and hoots of derision from underwriters across the country. Not going to happen. Why do illegal aliens get special priveleges?
links politics terrorism Yemen supreme court Air America
This is one instance where life should imitate Scrappleface: Hiroshima Survivors Celebrate Life-Saving Atomic Bomb
I would really love to have more for you folks on the Illegal Alien who got a job as a Border Patrol agent and was helping smuggle other illegals into the country (as well as being connected to a drug gang), but it's like the story has fallen off the edge of the earth. There is literally nothing. I sent emails yesterday, and I even called to ask OPM exactly how long background checks are taking, how long a typical agent is working before it is complete. Stone wall. Maybe I'll try a FOIA request, but those take a while.
If anybody missed it, start here and read the other articles in the thread.
Iraq/War on Terror
Al Qaeda Magazine Published Openly in Turkey! (HT: LGF)
On the plus side, Captain's Quarters tells of discontent in the ranks in Iraq.
Victor Davis Hanson posted an essay on Saturday with more on more on comparisons between Islam and Christianity, which I covered in this article
I'm thinking this is not a good sign: Mauretania junta frees jailed Islamists. HT to Little Green Footballs
Air America/Gloria Wise
HT to Powerline for directing me to Radio Equalizer who shows that I may have been right in my speculation at the end of this post
Chortle!: "If every one of their listeners gave a dollar, they'd have, like, a dollar" Michelle Malkin has more.
Captain's Quarters shows us exactly how few Legacy Media crickets are chirping on this story, with a comparison to the Martha Steart story.
Michelle Malkin has the smallest violin in the world: It's Alive! Al Franken speaks on the scandal. Macho Nachos has more on Franken not being paid. My hunch is that he's still being paid too much.
Housing Bubble: "statistical canary in a mine shaft".
Given the state of the market here, the canary hasn't exactly died, but it's having difficulty remaining conscious.
Things like this article give me hope that we may conquer poverty and hunger after all.
Holy Shades of Tammany Hall, Batman! Michelle Malkin links to a Newark Star-Ledger about the governor's office steering Homeland Security funds to Donkey districts.
Stop the ACLU has an article about how the Florida ACLU is funded. Why do I feel like Kate Capshaw's character in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Bugs?
La Shawn Barber celebrates real diversity.
Scrappleface has more along the same lines
Amusing timewaster department: Virtual Bubble wrap (HT to Owlish Mutterings)
How did this guy get on the Huff'n'Puff? Greg Gutfeld. It's almost like something out of Sesame Street, "One of these things is not like the others" - amusing, that is. I had no idea who he was until I ran a Yahoo search on him, and I only looked at the first page of results, so that may not be representative, but I guess he's not quite a big enough name to get into a really top notch celebrity lobotomy clinic yet, so in the meantime he may be worth watching.
Powerline debunks a NARAL ad aimed at John Roberts. This is, sad to say, the sort of nonsense I've come to expect of them - "But trust us, it's okay , we're the good guys! Honest! Really! Would we lie to you?"
The background sound you hear is me losing my lunch again. Probably for the best, given my current weight, but it's no fun while it's happening.
Q and O has a good taxonomy of liberal blogs. Time to do a couple of quick adds to the roll. It doesn't cause cancer. I figure a certain portion of the time I will learn something, the rest I'll be able to get a laugh.
And for those who actually are enemies, I'd rather find out what they're up to now than find it out later. Everybody from Sun Tzu to Macchiavelli to Clausewitz and on has things to say about that.
links politics blogging Air America John Roberts Supreme Court Border Patrol iraq terrorism real estate
To leave the field clear for RINO Sightings here tomorrow, other posting will be light. No daily personal finance post, and any links/minifeatures I do will not post until Tuesday. I will continue with the saga of the illegal Border Patrol Agent if I find out anything more. Also, it seems I'm back at the "Large Mammal" level, and likely to stay there this time (Whether Powerblogs or Sitemeter is correct in my traffic count, the former saying about 250 per day, the latter saying 110, Large Mammal is good, and I'm not likely to go higher for a long time, if ever. I do tend to believe the figure that determines how much I pay in bandwidth charges, however).
Mudville Gazette has a moving tribute to some Every Day Heroes. If it doesn't move you, my utmost condolences.
Blackfive has a different take on the same subject, and also a Poem that should cause certain people to go into hiding if they had any kind of a conscience. If you think it's all about political gain, you should maybe step aside and let others talk, because you certainly don't understand what's going on. A turning point in the Byzantine empire was the battlefield betrayal of an emperor by a politician general who wanted his ally to be emperor. The battle turned out to be a disaster for the empire from which it went steadily downhill. These days, it doesn't have to happen on the actual battlefield to be a betrayal.
Makaha Surf Report explains things very well to a willful ignoramus.
365 and a Wakeup has an article about the infantry, and one about golden tracework repairs.
Michael Yon has the Boots on the Ground take; good, bad, and simply too sad for words at least twice.
Castle Argghhh! has an extended version of General McCaffrey's report on Iraq to the Senate Foreign Relations Comittee. I thought the predictions were interesting.
Armies of Liberation has more on the situation in Yemen.
Texas Best Grok links to a book review by a friend of mine, William H. Stoddard, on The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe
by Sydney Anglo. Bill is a wonderful encyclopedic synthesist, easily the best I know. Of course, it doesn't hurt that he's spent most of his working life as an editor for academic books and journals. And he writes and runs excellent RPGs, too.
State of Flux has an excellent article on failure of oversight.
Say Uncle has an article about 20 synonyms for canine flatulence. As a dog owner I found it tears-in-the-eyes hilarious (and no, neither of my two dachshunds was responsible for the tears. This time.).
Politburo Diktat has more, relevant, information on the ACVR, whose report alleged greater Democratic than Republican voter intimidation. I agree now that there are serious concerns about the group's bipartisan or non-partisan nature. So we have to examine the report itself that much closer. Just because a report is assembled by a partisan group doesn't mean it's wrong. If the report is that partisan, why did it report some Elephant dirty tricks? So I need to find the time to look at the report critically. I do suspect the balance is off, if nothing else. But is there any serious allegation of the ACVR making stuff up, or is it more in the line of "they say they're non-partisan and we don't believe it" like every left winger I've read keeps harping on without touching on the allegations themselves? Invalidating the report of Donkey wrongdoing just because it's reported by an Elephant group is equivalent to invalidating reports of criminal activity like rape or assault because the victim is the one reporting it. This is what is known to logical people as an "ad hominem," with perhaps a bit of "red herring" mixed in. Now let's have a Donkey report on Elephant shenanigans. Then have a good long public examination of the evidence, and what sorts of verifications of data and whether independent confirmations or contradictions exist then let us agree to and fix the real problems brought to light by both reports, while debunking the hype. That's the intelligent tack to take, not "Let's keep our heads in the sand and pretend it didn't happen" because the person reporting the crime happened to be the victim.
You should probably check out Jihad Watch every few days. Go ahead. I'll wait.
There has been a lot posted on the good and the bad of the atomic bombs, preceding and with the 60th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasakai. I haven't paid much attention; I considered the situation in depth years ago and made up my mind that knowing what Truman knew at the time, he made the right decision. Even with greater information available later, he made the right decision. Not that there wasn't a huge downside, but usually the choice war gives you is which option sucks the least. Even so, what the man put up with in the way of second-guessers the whole rest of his life (and it's only gotten worse since he died) should qualify him for sainthood right there, and I'm not exactly the biggest Truman fan in the universe. So I'm just not interested in plowing the ground for the millionth time unless you push your ignorance in my face to the point where I get angry enough to disassemble your pathetic pronouncements.
Pigilito says, however, has a unique angle that I hadn't considered before. His family were Dutch colonists of Indonesia under Japanese rule at the time.
Strange Fictions has a worthwhile take on the Intelligent Design thing. I'd link to a couple of others, but they've already sent them to me for RINO Sightings.
Dean's World has a great article on offshoring. I think it's simply that those who have been getting bonuses from offshoring other jobs are next on the list to be offshored. Mind you, I have no objection to american investors getting benefits from worldwide profits of formerly american companies, but many "american" companies don't produce anything in the US anymore. Nor do they research in the US. When only their corporate boardroom has an american address, you have to ask, "how american is this company, anyway?" Just keep moving offshore but don't object when we start treating you like a foreign company as we likely will within the next few years. Meanwhile, the people here will keep on creating jobs, and going to work at them. It's what we do. The corporate world is becoming less and less relevant to us.
links blogging politics iraq military Yemen intelligence humor Votes offshoring evolution
First, be sure to check back here Monday morning for RINO Sightings carnival!
Eric is begging for traffic to hit his 40k unique mark a little earlier. But he's got a couple actually worth reading so he doesn't really need to be begging. Scratch wherin he wonders how much support the elephants are going to get from the Libertarian/Independent wing of their coalition next time, and Finally about the subway searches in New York. I disagree with the latter post, but don't have the energy for more than a pocket refutation right now. It's still worth reading.
Pocket refutation: Traveling the New York Subway is not a right, much less using it with a backpack, and exposes all aboard to a certain degree of risk if those around you are not searched. There certainly is reasonable suspicion of intent on behalf of our enemies. Would you suggest that you could go into the White House, the Capitol, the Pentagon, without being cleared? What about airline travel, or is that somehow different, and if so, how? If there were no searches performed, could we not hold the subway liable for breaching a duty of care should there be any incidents? (Actually, with the token measures that are being taken, they're likely to be liable anyway.)
I like my privacy when we're talking about home and private property. But privacy in public spaces is a fallacious argument in the first place, and if you have read this book, you should understand the dangers of privacy. However much I enjoy my privacy, I have come to appreciate how much better off we would be with a right of public surveillance. Police Interrogation rooms? On webcam. Public offices? On webcam. Public spaces? On webcam. Anytime there's a crime in the area, access the webcams and find out who did what. Anytime you want to, look at any given webcam. You want to conceal something that happens in a public space? That requires a court order and legal witnesses.
Surveillance in public spaces is already here. We can call it evil, pretend socially that it doesn't exist, and refuse to benefit - and the rich or powerful or criminal use it anyway, and block it from being used on themselves. Or we can put it in our arsenal as well. Given a choice, I'd rather the latter.
Combs Spouts Off has an excellent critique of the special election in Ohio.
Louisiana Libertarian has another reason the Libertarian party shouldn't be taken seriously.
Watchful Investor disagrees with me on the 30 year bond. Seems our disagreement is the assumption of long term inflation. I don't think we're going to see huge inflation numbers, he fears that we are. Whatever happens, though, it's not going to happen all at once. Of course you can get hit big if the government does something severely inflationary, but there is a market for Treasuries. You can always sell. Of course, the government would still have the money locked at a low figure for 30 years, but unless you completely ignore the market or are king of the wishful thinkers you can sell if things start looking less than solid. Of course, you might get less than the cost of the bond, but that's the risk you take when you buy it.
Libercontrarian has more about the Zetas. Scary.
Carnival of The Clueless is up.
A Passion for Teaching and Opinions is being accused of racism. It is not racism to want those of all ethnicities already here not to face such a buyer's market for their labor that they cannot live. It is not bigotry for someone not to want the border to be porous to those who may wish us ill. HT: News, The Universe, and Everything
SMACKDOWN! Victor Davis Hanson put a column up on Monday that I just got to, talking about historical facts versus hysterical theory and putting things in perspective by remembering all of the facts.
I went so far as to Google and Yahoo and Ask Jeeves about new stuff on Air America, but there's nothing new aside from tail-chasing.
Here's a good article in USA Today about the problems with our textbooks.
In case you missed it, there was a coup in Mauretania yesterday. I don't know enough to comment intelligently. Here are a few relevant articles and studies and rankings. CIA World Factbook entry
Evidently, the government was autocratic, not democratic, and the two indices I reference above were not imporoving. The military people who took over are saying the right things, but when haven't they? The proof is in the actual doing of what they say. One thing I did spot in the factbook is a nasty demographics bomb in that they've got a lot of young people - always bad for stability. Add desertification in there, and that's almost the classic recipe.
links politics Mauretania
Carnival of Liberty is up at Owlish Mutterings.
Oh-oh! Look out for interest rates to rise! Treasury bringing back thirty year bond. The ten year has been the index that mortgage people have gotten used to because it's been what has been issued for the past several years. Given the realities of the situation, I had hoped that the administration would resist bringing back the 30, which carries a higher interest rate than the 10 year bond, and so costs more. I'd like to see the study that says this will benefit anybody except bond investors and banks. It certainly won't benefit our treasury, and is going to be one more (albeit minor) factor in cooling off the housing market.
Iraq and War on Terror
Palestine Authority Prime Minister: Today Gaza, Tomorrow Jerusalem (HT: LGF
Air America:
Radio Equalizer tells us the amount under scrutiny is $800,000, not $500,000, among other things. (HT: Powerline
Michelle Malkin has a column exposing the Jackson/Sharpton hypocrisy on this. I just have a hard time believing anybody is actually surprised. She also points us to a NY Sun article that tells us that Air America has known of the funds for some time, and didn't disclose! She also directs us to Macho Nachos who tells us that Piquant Media, the current owners, is composed of the same people as Progress Media, and was likely formed in order to dodge Progress Media's debts.
Captain's Quarters wonders why we still have the sounds of crickets chirping from the Legacy Media on this, which seems to be their favorite narrative except in the perpetrators. He also has an email from a lawyer on the subject, and goes into the give and take of the exchange.
It Comes In Pints? has a hilarious take on the scandal. HT: Wizbang
Captain's Quarters links us to a report that says although the Republicans do have some voter intimidation and suppression to be ashamed of, the Democrats have done much more of it. Captain Ed's link seems to have gone bad but here is the link on the ACVR Website.
On the other hand The Moderate Voice has a caution that ACVR may not be a bipartisan group. Captain's Quarters shows they have a Donkey edge as well as Elephant.
Austin Bay tells us in one word why Japan is rearming: China. Well, duh. Nuclear power, largest military in the world in terms of numbers, totalitarian government, grudge against Japan for WWII, rapidly expanding economy looking for further ways to grow and more access to resources (What that compares to, I have no idea).
In short, when the Chinese decide they are ready to attempt world domination, we had better be ready for them.
Indepundit channels Monty Python to make a point.
Politburo Diktat has some information on the eventual shuttle replacement.
I thought I was the only one who felt this way. Wizbang has a great op-ed on why we should make it more difficult to register and vote. I want to set the bar higher, not lower. (Apportion districts by registered voters, or better yet, actual voters, not total population, for a true one person, one vote experience. This would really cause liberals to flame out in the legislative branch, so expect screams of displeasure from the left). Among these things is I don't want anybody voting who cannot participate in the political discourse directly, rather than by reading some third party's opinion because they cannot communicate in english. Voting materials should be in english only. Motivate people to learn enough english to join the debate, and join the rest of us. If we can't all talk to one another, we aren't really one country.
links politics Air America real estate economics votes china space shuttle humor
RINO Sightings is up! Favorites: I Want My CCTV and Santorum on gay marriage, his take and mine
John Roberts Supreme Court stuff
Captain's Quarters has an excellent post vaguely about Roberts disliking affirmative action. Except for the fact this guy is both a lawyer and a catholic, I haven't found any place where I disagree with him yet. This is scary. Affirmative action needs a stake driven through the heart of the whole concept yesterday, for many different reasons.
Ann Althouse has more on his clerking days. Evidently his writings stood out then for clarity also.
The Sacramento Bee has a good article on how there has been a reduction in abortions of late (which is a very good thing), and how the seemingly correlated decline in abortion related activism has made a difference on how much anti-Roberts activism there has been. It is good that people seem to be planning ahead more, from contraception to emergency anti-pregnancy measures.
Lest I not have made myself clear in the past, I do favor overturning Roe vs. Wade, as it was a bad decision. On the other hand, I also want abortion to be legal, although difficult to obtain, and I can't really think of a case where it should be publicly subsidized. This baby or fetus is at least a potential human being, and the presumption behind having an abortion at all is that it will be born a human baby if nothing happens. I happen to have a serious problem with people who want to kill others because they don't want to put up with a few months of inconvenience. On the other hand, I must concede that in the final analysis, nobody else is in a position to make that decision so much as the woman involved. I may dislike the decision she makes, but she has the right to make it.
Paul Mirengoff of Powerline has a column in The Weekly Standard recommending against non-judges on the Supreme Court.
Captain's Quarters has a great article, based upon one out of the Washington Post detailing Condolezza Rice's accomplishments in six months, and how she had outdone her predecessor. I'd love to see Condi change her mind and run for president - and her Secretary of State can be George W. Bush!
Volokh Conspiracy notes that the Washington DC market is cooling off in the footsteps of others such as San Diego.
Illegal Immigration:
Wizbang spots authority in the tenth amendment for the states to defend the borders if the feds won't. I'd like to see Arnold try it, but I doubt he'd get far.
The Immigration Blog has a great article about $50,000 bounties on American law enforcement officers, as well as another one on WHAT HISPANIC IMMIGRATION MEANS FOR AMERICA.
According to The Inquirer, the discoverers of the tenth planet wouldn't have announced it for a while longer, if their website hadn't been hacked with the hacker threatenting to release the information. Whereas I kind of see the hacker's point of view, it's not like there are a lot of people awaiting the discovery of a tenth planet so they can die happy. It's not like it's a cheap, easy-to-build FTL drive or anything. It just doesn't make a lot of difference to the average person on the street, and I suspect most astronomers were aware an application to IAU for a tenth planet name was in the works. But in today's academic environment you want to be certain you've got it before you announce it. That's kind of what peer reviewed journals are for.
Thank you, Senator Robert C. Byrd. May I have another? Japan imposes retaliatory duties. The EU and Canada have already done so.
Yet another reason not to smoke. Women who smoke while pregnant have about three times the chance of having an unruly child as those who don't.
My humor style: the Prankster
(43% dark, 34% spontaneous, 22% vulgar)
your humor style:
CLEAN | COMPLEX | LIGHT
My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
You scored higher than 99% on dark
You scored higher than 99% on spontaneous
You scored higher than 99% on vulgar
The 3 Variable Funny Test.
While I was there: The Would You Have Been a Nazi Test
Der Resistance
Achtung! You are 30% brainwashworthy, 13% antitolerant, and 57% blindly patriotic
Welcome to the Resistance (Der Widerstand)! You believe in freedom, justice, equality, and your country, and you can't be converted to the the dark side.
Breakdown: Your Blind Patriotism levels are borderline unhealthy, but you show such a love of people from everywhere and a natural resistance to brainwashing, you would probably focus your energy to fight Fuehrer with furor, so to speak.
Conclusion: Born and raised in Germany in the early 1930's, you would have taken up ARMS against the oppressors. Or even your friends' oppressors. Congratulations!
Less than 5% of all test takers earn a spot in Der Resistance!
Iraq and the War on Terror:
The United States stands on principle and loses a base in central Asia. HT to Austin Bay, who also points us to BBC links. It was the correct thing for the Bush administration to do.
From LGF comes a pointer to this story: Bombing suspect tried to have moderate imam sacked, and also a story about a Hamas Youth Camp
Worth Reading: President Bush's address to the Boy Scouts at the Jamboree.
Michelle Malkin has the best round up of the Air America bilk-the-Boys and Girls Club that I've seen. It is past time for their spinning to stop and their damage control to start. Unless, of course, a possibility that crossed my mind while reading Captain's Quarters is correct, and Air America is getting close to the end of the line anyway, like a Ponzi scheme just before the feds show up and arrest the receptionist who didn't know anything. I'd be curious to see their unaltered books. Their "talent" is evidently getting paid too much, because they are apparently going broke.
links John Roberts Supreme Court politics immigration science tariffs iraq terrorism Air America
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- Financial Rounds
- Free Money Financea> Other sites I've linked and visit
- Ace of Spades
- Ann Althouse
- The Anti Idiotarian Rottweiler
- Atlas Shrugs
- Professor Bainbridge
- Baldilocks
- Beldar
- Blackfive
- Classical Values
- Coyote Blog
- Daily Pundit
- Drudge Report
- IMAO
- The Jawa Report
- Just One Minute
- Libertarian Leanings
- Liberty Papers
- Normblog
- Patterico's Pontifications
- Right Wing Nut House
- Samizdata
- SCOTUS Blog
- Stop the ACLU
- Unalienable Right Consumer and Research Sites
- Better Business Bureau
- Consumer Reports
- NASD Home
- California Department of Real Estate
- California Licensee Lookup
- California Department of Insurance
- National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC)
- Do Not Call Homepage
- IRS Charities Search
- Internet Fraud Complaint Center
- SEC Home Page
- Stop Mortgage Fraud
- Report Mortgage Fraud Debunking Many so-called Real Estate Gurus
- John T. Reed Worthwhile Web Comics
- Sluggy Freelance
- Day by Day It is site policy to list the main page of every site I reference. Sometimes the real world intervenes and I haven't gotten to it yet, or one falls through the cracks on a long post with multiple references. It is also site policy to list the main page of every site that lists this one on their equivalent roll, as well as the main page of all sites that are members of any of the same groups this site is a member of. Please send me an email with a link to the main page of your site if I've overlooked you (dm at the domain name). For the clue-challenged, note that it is a requirement for your link to appear on every page of your site, just like mine does, and I will not link to spam sites.
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