Zee Links and Minifeatures: October 2005 Archives

Captain's Quarters has an article up on the universal outrage to the statements of Irans president on wiping Israel from the map. But the money quote is from the Palestinians:



In fact, Saeb Erekat said on behalf of the Palestinians that they had already accepted Israel's right to exist and that the extant question should be about adding Palestine to the map.



Did I read that right? I've been waiting for them to admit that the starting point for negotiations contains a sovereign Israel since at least the Six Day War in 1967. And they said it to Iran - one of their most steadfast supporters. Wow. This 1) Illustrates the changed environment since George Bush's anti-terror policy, and 2) demonstrates that miracles happen when you're not looking. Or at least the start of miracles.



Meanwhile Atlas Shrugs has a tally of why we have a War on Terror. But you won't see those numbers on any major newspaper, hear them on news radio, or see them on any television braodcast.



How about we start setting up a media event like the leftists had for the 2000 dead soldiers mark, for when it gets to be 5000 such attacks, since that's the next real milestone we'll be hitting (the current total being 3173 attacks - not number dead, number of attacks. I strongly suspect it's actually "separate attacks with at least one fatality each."). And yes, that means we've had more than 1.5 fatal islamic terror attacks for every soldier we're lost in Iraq.



Meanwhile, Iraq the Model covers the start of the Iraqi campaign season. I know that I suffer from election burnout from the Perpetual Campaign Season here in the US, but I'd rather have what we have today than no elections (or ones that offer no real choices), and they are getting ready for their third real election, so I can't help but get a little excited for them.



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Victor Davis Hanson has an article up that starts by agreeing with what I posted here yesterday, and takes it from there with what else the president should do. I agree. The DU on the left has been unremitting. It's past time to push back. It's hard to argue that his gentlemanly silence has slipped in effectiveness from last year.



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Michelle Malkin publishes the last letter of another hero, much like this one from Mudville Gazette that I linked yesterday. This is real moral authority, when despite the ultimate misfortune happening to you as a result of liberating Iraq, you still agree that liberating Iraq is a good thing.



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Wizbang about sums up my take on whole Libby-Clinton liberal-conservative lying thing. I didn't think I could get any more disgusted by the political hypocrisy and irregular verbs they use.



Irregular verbs, for those who don't follow politics regularly, are phrases describing the same actions that change materially depending upon the political allegiances of those who they apply to. For Example: "I am being persecuting by a mindless attack dog of the vicious right wing. He is an inveterate perjurer who should be locked up along anyone he ever worked for, and we're going to keep after him until we find the evidence!"



If Starr Fitzgerald can convict Libby, Libby should receive the appropriate legal punishment. But we're still in an innocent until proven guilty society, even if Libby is an Elephant.



(Later) Paul at Wizbang has the best exercise in perspective on this that I've seen.



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Hmm - I see my old .com URL has finally fallen out of Large Mammal Status sometime this last week.



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Captain's Quarters has an excellent review and thoughts concerning an article in the LA Times about the MS13 gang from El Salvador.



Quite simply, this is what comes from denying facts. Instead of a manageable but politically incorrect situation, we have a much worse and steadily worsening morass that will take much more invasive methods to stop than the original problem ever would. And for once, I'm pointing fingers squarely at everybody in both parties. I can name those politicians who have tried to do something real about the problem on the fingers of one hand with leftovers.



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Michael Barone has two articles about the significance of the non-indictment of Rove and the Indictment of Libby.



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"What are they afraid of?"/Censorship in America department:



Remember I told you a few days ago in this post about one of the worst and most misleading political ads I'd ever heard?



They are at it again. Michelle Malkin and The Political Teen report (anybody watching the video Michelle links to will have material to forever deride those who think the media doesn't tilt hard left. Basically, they commited robbery and possibly assault on a lone opponent at one of their rallies.



There is no justification for this whatsoever. Suppose it were 180 degrees reversed, with a lone dissenter at a pro prop 75 rally? Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez was present and egging them on. He needs to hear from us, and he needs a stinging rebuke at the ballot box on November 8th. His office numbers (from Michelle Malkin) Sacramento Office: (916) 319-2046 Los Angeles Office: (213) 620-4646



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Armies of Liberation has all kinds of news about the execreble excuse for a government in Yemen. Go read it all.



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Asymmetrical Information makes as concise an economic case for school vouchers as I have ever seen. So much for the teachers unions wanting to protect the interests of poor children.



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Tim Blair notes that soon the Australian government will have reduced to zero it's public indebtedness. Not "eliminated the deficit." Eliminated the debt. When you consider that public indebtedness acts like giant vacuum cleaner with regards to available investment cash, it's no wonder they're in the middle of their longest period of growth, as investors find alternative places to put their dollars. Places that really do cause economic growth.



This is a lesson for the United States, and an example to emulate. As I implied here to Q and O about the budget process reform that I favor, zero public debt, or better, the government actually making investments in private enterprise, is something to strive for.



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Stop the ACLU busts the ACLU's hypocrisy on suing the schools for a better notification of the right to opt out of having recruiters have access to student information, while not informing them of the deluge of marketing materials from organizations that the ACLU sells its membership and contributors lists to.



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I saw this somewhere before I started this website, but Mudville Gazette republished it. Note that none of this excuses what those people did, but it thoroughly debunks any notion that it was systematic, involved higher-ups, or was covered up in any way shape or form. Nor, as Bill Whittle observed, is is a fraction of the abuses that went on in the very same prison under the previous administration of Saddam Hussein. Those guards deserved to be punished. But claiming this went any further than the prison itself is nonsense.



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Eric's Grumbles has not only made Playful Primate, he's got a topical stance on California's Special Election with which I largely agree.



My Stances:



Proposition 73: I am responsible in all other ways for my daughters until they turn 18. If they damage someone's property, I can expect to be held responsible. If they break certain laws, I can expect to be charged also. If one of my daughters becomes pregnant and terminates the pregnancy (because the state says she can), how am I going to take steps to rectify whatever problem brought said pregnancy on if I don't even know it happened? I will be voting Yes.



Prop 74: is about making public school teachers (and other employees) a little more responsible for what they teach (or fail to teach) our children. Currently, they have this thing called tenure after two years. The original thought behind tenure was to prevent college level professors from being fired for researching controversial subjects. I don't know about you, but I have yet to meet a high school or lower level teacher who is engaged in serious scientific research on any level above "human guinea pig". I imagine it does happen, but can certainly the right of free scientific inquiry can certainly be protected while nonetheless being able to fire them because their students all emerge a grade farther behind reading level. Proposition 74 does nothing that anybody except a school union activist would object to. I will be voting yes.



Prop 75: As I've already said, union dues need to go to job actions and paying defense for those injustly accused, which really aren't that many. Political action and contributions can and should be accomplished by adjunct PACs - it's just that then unions cannot then force their membership to participate. I will be voting Yes.



Prop 76: School Funding. Even considered in isolation from our state's school budget history and politics, I see more good than evil here. Considered in light of the state's school budget history and politics (our schools budget is a monster, and current law says that the more we feed it today, the more we must feed it tomorrow, and still more the day after that - in short, a con game sold to the gullible People's Republic of California by the teacher's unions), it is essential. I will be voting Yes.



Prop 77: Redistricting: In last year's election, we had 20 State Senate seats, 80 state assembly seats, and 53 US House of Representatives up for election. Our electoral districts, currently drawn by the legislature, are so gerrymandered that not one of them changed party affiliation. This is not the way to have a representative, responsible state government. I will be voting Yes.



Prop 78 and Prop 79: Drug coverage. I don't know what business that state of California has mandating drug prices. Furthermore, setting price controls on drugs is one way to make certain fewer new drugs gets to market, as well as raising drug prices for everyone who is not covered. The pharmaceutical industry must charge more than production costs to stay in business. If you don't understand this, report back to your fourth grade school district for a refresher. Proposition 78 seems mildly less obnoxious if you must vote for one - at least it is only mandating that people covered receive the lowest price received by anybody else. I will be voting No on both.



Prop 80: Utility regulation. This proposition takes the fact that we had price gouging and rolling blackouts and reacts to it with a mindless "do something!" despite the fact that the system has now been largely repaired, those conspiring were charged with crimes, etcetera. In short, this permanently locks the barn door after the horse has returned of it's own volition, heedless of the fact that the reason you have a horse is that you want to use him to work the fields. In short, about what you'd expect from the People's Republic of California. I will be voting No.



And while we're on the subject of the election, I plan to hold my nose and vote for Saunders for replacement Mayor of San Diego. His opposition has convinced me she wouldn't understand or recognize what we need to do if it bit her, much less have the political will to actually do it (here's a hint, Donna - it starts with reducing public employee benefits as well as the number of said employees). At least with Saunders there is a possibility that we'll start doing some things right.

LGF takes us to an article at melaniephillips.com about Race riots in Britain between blacks and Pakistanis.



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HT to LGF for directing me to Baldilocks asking: what happens if the anti-war left wins? Quite frankly, barring another Ronald Reagan, we're done, as I talked about here and ranted about here. Oh, we'll be around for a while - former great powers usually aren't actually conquered right away. Rome lasted a couple hundred years, and the Ottomon Empire about the same. The Chinese Empire and Egypt lasted a millenium. But the end will start there. I have children I love. Therefore, I am determined to do everything in my power to see that the anti-war left doesn't win.



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Unfortunately, I've seen way too much of this kind of stereotypical manure to have any trouble believing it happens. Hope the Democrats keep you happy down on that plantation you like so much.



On a related note: HT to Eric's Grumbles for pointing me at this essay from Shrinkwrapped. Eric also has some things to add of his own. I keep harping on this subject, Eric keeps hitting it, La Shawn Barber hits it out of the ballpark every chance she gets, Condi and Colin Powell and Clarence Thomas are living embodiments of the fact that the pernicious memes we're all fighting should be dead - and the naked emperor slides ever further into denial.



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This is a hopeful sign of curbing lawsuit abuse. Unfortunately, the Trial Lawyer representative's quote is the predictable piece of garbage.



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Commissar over at Politburo Diktat has a meme: Who's Your Blog-daddy?. If I have to choose just one, it would be Hugh Hewitt who got me off my kiester and into doing this myself with a certain book. Additional inspiration provided by Scrappleface, where I used to comment sometimes before I started this thing. Official start date: June 19, 2005. Nobody has confessed to being my blogchild yet.



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Tim Blair illustrates yet another major speech where John Kerry's powercord doesn't quite reach the socket. And there are still people who claim he won the election, while I'm thanking my lucky stars that 62 million of my fellow americans who realize what a bozo he is outnumbered those who couldn't be bothered to wake up any time between February and November 2004.



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Mudville Gazette publishes the last letter home from one of our heroes in Iraq, a blessing be unto his spirit in perpetuity. For those of you chanting your anti-war mantras, this is what true moral authority looks like.



I also found a link there to The video that SHOULD be on TV.



Jawa Report has an article about the military finally getting frustrated enough with our allegedly professional news reporters to flat out tell them that they're being used as propaganda dupes by the terrorists.



My prediction of the effect it will have on the mental processes of the Fourth Estate: zero.



Wizbang makes an excellent attempt to inject some sanity into the left, giving historical context and experience. Good article, no name calling, perfect advice for anyone on the left who wants to move the country in their direction.



My prediction of the effect it will have on the mental processes of the left (even those who read it): zero, or actually a little negative. Denial can be an amazing thing to behold, and denial is the state of the left. I've attempted to hold discussions with die-hard Donkey partisans on how to make things go more their way. Yes, I'm actually trying to help the Donkeys because the country benefits from having at least two parties who could, in theory, lead us somewhere important with some kind of coherent government strategy. Two parties that someone such as myself with no explicit ideological stake either way could vote for. Problem is, all of the solutions require changes that would be very uncomfortable for them. And so the reactions I get are usually along the lines of one nationally known author who responded, "No, I refuse to address this lunacy!"



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On the hopeful side for those who hope the President can do something constructive with the rest of his term, VodkaPundit has the ideal issue: Government Pork. I agree. I think it would be just unexpected enough to work if the president threw the full weight of his administration behind it and made it "his" issue. Everybody hates pork, even in your own district, unless it's lining your pocket in particular. Less risky than a qualified conservative jurist who is nonetheless going to experience a borking far beyond anything the original suffered through, and more payoff.



Wizbang covers a meeting between Senator Coburn and several A-list members of the 'sphere. It's going to be a long hard slog if it happens, but the president could set up the momentum that would result in essential victory very quickly.



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Eric's Grumbles wants opposable thumbs. Okay, Eric wants to be a Playful Primate in the Ecosystem. Eric says he needs a gain of five links net over Eric's competition to do it. Alright, Eric, I'll help. Here are as many links to Eric as I can possibly justify in one paragraph. And there's no need to make good on your promise to link me back, Eric. I'm not doing this to get links of my own. I'm doing it so I can put you over the top into Primatehood, Eric. Of course, once this post scrolls off my front page, you're on your own, Eric, but you'll have made it once anyway. And as Paul Newman (as Harry Frigg) said, you'll know that you made it once.



UPDATE: So everybody added a total of 39 links to Eric, but the ecosystem shifted leaving Eric still high and dry at 101 this morning. Well, Eric, here's one more try to help you get Primatehood. The ecosystem shifts all the time, Eric, I go back and forth between 500 and 800 on the list, so even if you make it Eric you may well drop down again. But I will have done my best so that you make it once.





Captain's Quarters notes that Iran's new president gives a speech still off on the same hard line Islamist tack. Not a welcome thing for all that it is the same old thing for them. On the other hand, Iran has managed to alienate a lot of less radical Islamic nations.



Armies of Liberation debunks the notion that Yemen is really cooperativeng against Al-Qaeda. The more I read about Saleh, the more he seems like a Yemeni version of Bill Clinton. Those poor people have been through 27 years of this.



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Volokh Conspiracy has an excellent article debunking the whole idea that the second (and the fourteenth) amendments applying strictly to the national guard. Not that I think it'll make any difference to the gun grabbers, of course, but Professor Volokh correctly reduces the arguments against constitutional protection of gun ownership to the level of "Think Happy Thoughts and you can fly!"



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Asymmetrical Information has an article on core inflation and how some inflation can be good. Very worth reading. I wish certain fed governors took it more to heart.



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Jawa Report has an excellent post about blogging versus professional life, particularly in academia, but with applicability elsewhere.



Even with my profession related posts, of which there are many, I'm not looking to bring anybody up to a professional level of competence or cover all cases. I'm looking to give rule of thumb level of education to those outside my profession, so they are aware of the most common issues and problems, and have a strategy or two for defeating them. I'm looking to make you a better informed consumer, not make you into a loan officer, real estate agent or financial planner. For that, go get your own training. Some of it is fairly easy, some less so. There are exceptions and limitations on nearly everything I write in a professional vein, and while I do try and cover limitations with broad applicability, you still need to consult a professional in person on your specific situation. And I can be wrong.



For everything else, it is especially incumbent upon me to convince you, from first principles if necessary. Appeal to credentials doesn't cut it, especially when my credentials are in personal finance and I'm talking about foreign policy.



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Forward Biased has an article on the Legacy Media sliming a couple who are probably candidates for sainthood, then completely ignoring their exoneration.



My own experiences with the media getting it wrong go back further than this, but it's the oldest thing I can find on the net. The media managed to get the part about two planes coming together correct, but muffed just about everything else about the story. Ditto every other newsworthy story that I've witnessed or talked to those who were directly involved.



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Protein Wisdom highlights another case of multicultural idiocy. If it's no excuse for rednecks, it's no excuse for muslims, either.



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Recovering Democrat has more debunking of racism, for it is racism that expects one person to behave any less well than another, or holds one person to a lower standard, becuase of skin color.



Uncommon Insanity has a similar article.



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State of Flux has a post about removing marriage from government purview altogether that is worth reading.



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By the way, I have a policy for "the duration": in my clicking around the 'sphere, I will read one article per site on the Harriet Miers nomination. If it conveys no new information, I click away from the site. I hate tail-chasing. 'nuff said.



Carnival of Liberty is up at Eric's Grumbles. Recommended: Eidelblog,



While you're at it, stop by Eric's Tea Party. The idea is send your congresscritter a letter with a physical tea bag in it. Send it to the local offices. Looks like a good idea to me.



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Iraq the Model is coming to grips with manipulation of opinion polls, much like americans have had to do.



Meanwhile, Captain's Quarters reports that the Iraqi constitution has passed. That's the second biggest hump on the way to a democracy - the biggest being a peaceful transfer of power.



HT to Michelle Malkin for a pointer to this story: Military: 2,000 Dead An Artificial Mark



LGF has more.



Scrappleface has the ultimate Donkey fantasy on the Iraq situation. Of course, it's satire, but the Donkeys so badly want it to be true.



Faces From the Front has the real take. I tried to think of something appropriate to say for the 2000 service members who have died over there, and fell utterly short.



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Remember wheh the people doing the kind of beating Michelle Malkin talks about here were Klansmen and Birchers and White Supremacists? Beating up on a person whose ideas you disagree with is always the sign of a weak mind and no moral convictions against violence. That this is staged for a publicity stunt makes it worse, not better. Instead of spontaneously losing his temper, not something to be encouraged but still something that can happen to any human being, he planned this ahead of time, and cooperated in the planning. And Al Franken has the ever-loving gall to question the Iraq war on pacifist grounds?



Somebody on the left better find him a rubber room before he starts leading groups of Code Pink in nationwide rampages. Or at least shut him up so that the rational among you can talk.



And if you want to make it socially acceptable to commit violence on those who disagree with you, consider who owns the guns in this country, and who has the expertise in their use. I like the status quo idea of no violence for words just fine, thank you.



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Volokh Conspiracy has an excellent write-up on the fourth amendment search of a computer. Seems that a warrant must traditionally be executed within ten days, but there is no real limit on the amount of time available to examine the data in the computer.



If it got to be as fast as most government actions, then the government's probably going to start charging people whose computers it takes money for the hazardous waste disposal fee. I really hope I'm joking...



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Random Fate has my favorite post on the death of Rosa Parks, whom we will all miss.



Carnival of Personal Finance is up! I got a couple ideas for new articles by developing what was there.



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"Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration"



...and some amount of pure dumb luck. Accidental Invention Points to End of Light Bulbs



Not to mention a certain amount of hype, hokum, and blarney:

Tests of Fabled Archimedes Death Ray Fail



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Well, it seems as if President Bush has redeemed himself with a highly qualified nomination to a post that's at least as important as Supreme Court: Bush Picks Bernanke As New Fed Chairman. Unlike Greenspan, he seems to have acquired the idea that some inflation is healthy - an idea with which I agree. Especially since once confirmed, Fed Chairmen tend to stay as long as they want to, this seems a gooid choice on the face of it.



Looks like Wall Street agrees .



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Victor Davis Hanson has an exercise in perspective.



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Armies of Liberation talks about Yemen's duplicity in the War on Terror and their aid to terrorists who assaulted the Cole.



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Carnival of Capitalists is up! Recommended: Jack Yoest for a worthwhile post about why government isn't more efficient.



Jeff Jarvis has a post about amateurism that's better than most of what was there.



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For TTLB: I support the Miers nomination. Yes, there are people out there more qualified. No, she isn't my first choice, nor my 100th. But she is more qualified than many justices who have served with distinction. The man we elected President nominated her, and absent more convincing evidence of unsuitability than I've seen thus far, she should be confirmed. This is all part of what we've been saying for the past five years to get Mr. Bush's other judicial appointments confirmed as opposed to filibustered. I happen to believe it, and not just for reasons of cognitive dissonance. This was an area where the founders intentionally gave the ability to nominate to our chief executive, not a committee of senators or anyone else, as the one person who has won a national election.



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Michael Yon has a post up called "Purple Fingers" about the second election in Iraq. Read it. It's mostly remarkable for what it doesn't report, violence.



Looking around the 'sphere yesterday, there seemed to be nothing but a whole lot of "tail-chasing" going on, so I mostly took the day off from here. Did some work on specialty articles, one of which published this morning.



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Captain's Quarters has a good article up on Wisconsin voter fraud and a congressional investigation. This was only one, albeit the most blatantly obvious, of Donkey antics to sabotage the last election. "We can't win, so we'll cheat, and if anybody catches us, we'll claim voter intimidation and accuse the other side of cheating!"



Speaking of elections, I have recently heard one of the most misleading political commercials ever, and that's saying something: "Propostion 75 will cut the paychecks of Police and Firefighters, hamper their abilities to deal with crises..." yada yada yada.



For those readers who are not in California (and those who are but may not be paying attention yet) what Propostion 75 would do - and all that it would do - is force unions to get their member's approval before spending union dues on political items. Since union dues are supposed to be for things like arbitrations and any unjust job actions, that's not what they're collected for. Well-run unions have adjunct PACs where their members can donate money for political action. But this way they have to keep the agenda to things the membership at large will support, because if they don't the membership will stop contributing. Every professional union seems to be firmly in the Donkey camp - but they also have a large portion of their membership that supports Elephants. In some cases, this can actually be the majority of, you know, working members.



I just don't spend a lot of time watching TV or listening to radio, so doubtless these have been carpetbombing California for a while, but this was the first I heard. I'm disgusted, and I hope you are.



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Victor Davis Hanson has an excellent article on the steady transition to the Iraqis doing the work of democracy.



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Maggie Gallagher has been a guest over at Volokh Conspiracy, talking against same sex marriage. I do not believe it should be treated as a civil rights issue, but am willing to be convinced same sex marriage will do society more good and less harm than the absence of same sex marriage. I voted against the ban California enacted several years ago, but want the activists in favor of it to start talking in terms of societal benefits and convince me that societal good that same sex marriage will accomplish is greater than the harm I see it causing. As far as I'm concerned, the "It's our right!" argument is a non-starter here.



Permalinks to previous her previous articles (in chronological order) several here, then more single column stuff here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.



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Captain's Quarters also has significant new information on the Miers Supreme Court nomination. I link new information whether it's for or against me, and this is against. The thing that CQ notes that catches my interest as to real possible trouble is the large amount of money paid to Miers' firm in the 1998 Texas gubernatorial election:



Reports filed with the Texas Ethics Commission show that two payments of $70,000 were made to Miers' Locke, Purnell, Rain and Harrell firm in Dallas within a month of each other during the 1998 campaign. Another $16,000 in payments were made between March and December 1999.

The 1998 totals dwarfed the $7,000 Bush paid Miers' firm during his first run for governor in 1994, and are extremely large for campaign legal work in Texas, an expert said.





People don't just wake up one morning and decide to pay their lawyers $156,000 because they feel like it. The lawyer obviously did some work. What precisely the nature of the work was may be politically damaging.



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Powerline has a good bit that somewhat agrees with what I wrote Wednesday on the Donkeys trying to make DeLay into a sympathetic character. DeLay himself seems to realize he's been given a politcal opportunity. Look at the mug shot at Powerline. I've seen people smile less broadly at their wedding or when they've just won a lottery jackpot.



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Dean's World has an article which delivers an amazingly good smackdown to the notion that earth is overpopulated. It misses the fact that each person's ecological footprint is considerably larger than the actual living space they occupy, particularly in wealthy societies. Nonetheless, it remains a valid article. If it bothers you, consider that we need a certain number of people to make it economically worthwhile to maintain our current technological level, let alone improve it. I consider both maintaining and advancing our current technological level to be very good things; I think that, once we have more places to put them like say, orbital cities and asteroid bases and other such extraterrestrial places, more babies would be an entirely good thing.



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Asymmetrical Information has a very rational article about illegitimate voters disenfranchising legitimate ones, with which I very much agree, including the end part about a national voter card.



I believe that it's past time to raise the bar to voting much higher than it is. I do not favor so-called "motor voter" and similar laws or any such thing. I do not believe that someone who is registered to vote because they have a driver's license is likely to cast a well-informed vote even if they do stumble into the polls on election day. Furthermore, because it's so easy to register people who have no intent of actually, you know, voting, many measures of voter participation are depressed, with implications of federal or judicial intervention (Voting Rights Act, among others) where we just have people who get registered and never vote. If we restrict registration to the people who actually want to vote, that would immediately boost our turnout significantly, as well as lessening the possibility that unauthorized voters slip in accidentally.



Plus I think that voting participation would actually rise due to the fact that people will say "I had to fill out that ****** form! The least I can do is actually vote!"



Lest someone decide they want to misinterpret this, what I am saying is this: people need to fill out an actual form saying they are citizens entitled to vote here (I also think a national voter ID card is a good idea to prevent multiple votes by the same person). If someone tries to keep you from voting (once per election!) after you've jumped over the same bar everyone else has, let me know and I'll volunteer to be part of the phalanx that gets you into the polls and puts a ballot in your hands.



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Mudville Gazette has an excellent article up on recruiting numbers. She (Mrs. Greyhawk made the post) makes an excellent post about those who joined purely as an avenue for advancement versus those who joined because they are willing to "move towards the sound of gunfire" taking risks for all of us. I have no objections to the former so long as they honor the commitments they have made, but agree that the latter are likely to make better soldiers.



In other words, yeah it's cool that we have poor people joining the army in order to get ahead, but we should expect them to act the same as any other soldier when we need the army to fight.



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Q and O has the best article I've seen on why the liability protection for gun manufacturers was necessary and desirable.



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Belmont Club has an excellent article on future "brown-water navy" vessels that the US is planning.



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Lileks Screedblog makes an excellent point.



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



The Kossacks, of course, are delighted



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



**********




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



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



**********




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



Iraq the Model has various items on the Iraqi election. From what I can see of his coverage, turnout was perhaps not as high as expected.



(later)Captain's Quarters seems to have had concrete results and good interpretations first. There is a limit to how far a minority can or should distort the process, and a good portion of the Sunnis seem to realize they've passed that level. Those Sunni-majority provinces seem to have actually gone for the constitution. On the other hand, those provinces most heavily invested in the old regime voted it down, but there were only two of them and rejection required three provinces do so.



Iraw the Model has video of a celebration of the election.



Justus for All has an op-ed with which I agree. It's hard not to get the same sense of history being made. Actually, it's stronger - this entire area of the world has no democratic tradition whatsoever.



On the other hand, Decision '08 reports on a possible area of 99 % turnout. If True: Houston, we have a problem...



**********




Carnival of Personal Finance is up. Recommended: Old Niu's Blog.



**********




RINO Sightings is also up. Recommended: Don Surber.



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Captain's Quarters reports that Tom Delay has done an about face on whether there is fat in the budget. Who ya gonna call? PORKBUSTERS! This is a severely good sign for the country as a whole and a sadly neglected part of the Elephant base. It also means that they're competing more strongly for the votes of Libertarians such as myself.



Q and O has some good ideas on a less radical restructuring of the budget process than the one I favor (basically, deciding on the total budget first, set 10 percent aside for emergencies. Then the remaining 90 percent gets budgeted. Some is mandatory (interest on the debt), some nearly so (retirement payments that existing retirees were led to expect), and the rest is pure discretion. Emergencies require an act of Congress to validate, and anything left over goes to pay down the debt or (when that's done) actually create a national investment fund to get us money. This forces those who want us to spend to tell us why this or that is more important than necessary defense spending or foreign embassies or national parks, a much higher barrier than "It's only $1.50 per person," which works out to $450 million dollars every time somebody says it - and it gets said a lot. $450 million here and $450 million there, and pretty soon it adds up to real money. It would likely force non-essential government functions to pay more of their own tab, as well. Finally, it would give those of us who want government spending minimized a real objective we can attack instead of spreading our energy everywhere.



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Michelle Malkin has a great article on how the Wall Street Journal, which should know better, misrepresented the bogging that has gone on about the University of Oklahoma bomber, Joel Hinrichs.



**********




Armies of Liberation notes that even Saudi Arabia is getting annoyed at Yemen, having gone so far as to deny hajj visas!



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Countertop Chronicles tells us that National Zoo has copied the tradition of Panda Cam!



The original San Diego Zoo Panda Cam is where we watched Hua Mei, Mei Sheng, and will watch the still unnamed 3rd cub grow up.



**********




Check back bright and early tomorrow for Carnival of Liberty Number XVI! I'll set it to autopost for 6:00 AM Eastern before I go to be tonight.

Looks like all kinds of stuff going on in Iraq: Baghdad Blackout Caused by Sabotage, Three Provinces Seen As Key in Iraq Vote, and of course, insurgents attack attack fellow Sunnis to avoid the election gaining more legitimacy.



Iraq the Model has a post about the differences in an election now as opposed to three years ago. If you can read this and be unmoved by the difference, please report to the mortuary. Yes, Saddam Hussein is a whacked out psycho who was a danger to the whole world. But we did a lot of good for the Iraqis, too, in removing him.



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They can have our illegals: Minister: Canada Needs More Immigrants.



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For those who think the Donkeys are going to win the next elections, Michael Barone has a wake-up. Their polarized base is pushing the moderate voters away, and they need the moderates worse than the Elephants do. About the only thing that would throw it into play, in my opinion, is the Elephant base pushing the moderates away even harder. Well, with Harriet Miers they are trying, but it's just not on the same level with "little Eichmans" and the International Freedom Center.



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this story about the Palestinians offing each other more often than the Israelis do puts my in mind of the classic William Tenn story "The Liberation of Earth." The situations aren't really parallel, but the last line of the story rings true: They have now been as thoroughly liberated as it is possible to be.



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Done with Mirrors has the best take on carpet bombing the smurfs that I've seen. He wants to see Jihad Smurf strap on a bomb and do the obvious.



(Mind you, I approve of carpet bombing the smurfs just on general principles)



**********




Dr, Sanity has a post worth reading on the real threat to science. Hint: it's not the religious right.



**********




Belmont Club has a good article on why not to be worried about the UN hijacking the internet away from the US: What the UN members who want to wrest control away want to do will render the internet useless. They want to control the information, like China, and prevent things that disagree with local pravda from being found out by their citizens.



The problem is that they might succeed in wresting control of the existing internet away from ICANN and the Department of Commerce. Now somebody would quickly create a replacement that does the same thing for everybody living in countries like the US. For those wresting control, this would be the victory they want, however. Their citizens get an internet, if not necessarily the best one, and the government can prevent them from using it to foment revolution. So I'm for doing whatever it takes and angering anybody we have to to keep control of the internet in the United States.







Seems like every time I go to a con these days I'm disappointed at how small they are. Mind you, Conjecture is supposed to be a small local con, but still the number of attendees in evidence was disappointing. The good news is Vernor Vinge told me he just turned in a new book to his publisher (he had a reading, but it was fully subscribed when I arrived). Saw a good friend of mine on an excellent panel on believable villains. A panel on fandom activity with the intent of vacuuming more people into fandom spent way too much time on costuming and con-going. The former is about the highest investment in fandom there is, and the latter can be intimidating to newcomers, not to mention that even one day passes to cons are twenty-five to thirty dollars. Going into an event at a hotel with a bunch of strangers that all know each other when you know nobody is a tough thing to talk a lot of people into. The thing that will pay dividends is the once or twice a month group that meets over coffee or soda or cheap dinner to discuss books or movies or ideas or gaming or all of the above. Yes, you're still wandering into a group of strangers, but the initial level of commitment is much lower, and the group is small enough not to be so intimidating. It's the first in a series of low bar items that gets them hooked. Put it on or near a college campus if you can. The worst mistake I've ever seen a club make was move away from its college roots.

So what if the people who make all the big decisions are 40 or 50 now? College campuses are your best source of new victims members.



All I can say is that the multiplier for science fiction entertainment units sold (books, games, movie tickets/DVDs) versus number of active fans is several times what it was in the years after the first Star Wars movie. They're selling more sf all the time, and fandom is getting both smaller and older. The people are there and available if we get them interested. Comic Con gets bigger every year (107,000 last year).



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Michelle Malkin has excellent coverage of Louis Farrakhan and his second attempt on the "Million Man Mooch". He's an embarrassment to the entire species.



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La Shawn Barber writes a very good article on a subject I've talked about any number of times: why our upper level politicians don't see the threat posed by illegal immigration. They've already got jobs, most of them with excellent pensions and health care for life. If they were to actualy be voted out of office, they would be set on the "consultant" or lobbyist gravy trains for life. They don't go to the same health care most of us do. Their children don't attend the same schools. They are not competing for jobs with illegal immigrants and they are not competing for contracts with those who employ illegal immigrants. If they opposed illegal immigration, what it would mean is that it would align a very vocal special interest group against them, making winning elections harder. And they are all about making election wins easier, not harder.



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I usually don't bother linking stuff I find through Instapundit, figuring most of my readers will see it anyway. But this Gateway Pundit article about the advancement of democracy in China is too important to pass up. Lest you not understand, China is a strong federal system where all power flows outward and downward from Beijing. They've had bottom level elections for a while now, but the communists are resisting allowing the elections to move any further up the chain of power. Why? Because the low level elections have convinced them that they will get tossed out on their keisters, of course. There is significant and increasing tension between the government and those who advocate democracy. I'm not certain where they're going, but China has a long and colorful history of civil wars.



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I've had a close family member admitted to hospice care in another city. I and my youngest brother are off early tomorrow to spend a couple of days saying goodbye. For the rest of today, I'm going to be busy winding up loose ends so my wife can more easily deal with issues while I'm gone. Not being a laptop type of person, I won't have access to the internet until I return late Thursday or sometime Friday unless I visit a public library or some such, which is unlikely. I'll probably have a repost of a past article tomorrow morning, but no further activity until I return.



Some innovative thinking about what to do with human remains. I like some of these ideas. In the abstract, the diamond idea seems good but I'm not certain I want my family to spend that kind of money. When the time comes, if they can use my organs to keep people alive, fine, my family knows I want to be a donor. If they've got actual uses for anything else, fine. Other than that, put the remains to use as fertilizer (If nothing else, this is continuing a lifelong project of fertilizer production...) The only memorial that counts is what you do while you're alive. I don't do funerals, and I don't want my family to do headstone, casket, burial plot or anything else along those lines.



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Wanted: Strongly religious muslims for an eternal commitment... Looking for work? Consider Al Qaeda...



I'd love to see the OSHA disclaimer on this one.



But for a truly appropriate treatment of this, we need Charles Schultz for one of his Snoopy sequences: "Here's the world famous suicide bomber setting out for his 48th mission..."



Or maybe Opus obsessing about what'll happen if he doesn't push the button and blow himself into herring chow? "Here I come, you 72 raisins!"



Sorry, but some things cry out for as much humor as you can throw at them. It may not be the best in the world, but it's my best.



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On a more serious note on the War On Terror, Captain's Quarters has a good article on a document disclosing Al-Qaeda's strategic plans, and how the president has the right response. You don't need their strategic plan to know this, only what they tell their own people, but it's nice to have more evidence.



Iraq the Model has the lowdown on Zarqawi forfeiting any claim to be defending the people of Iraq.



Michael Barone also covers the presiden't speech and notes the correct things and the good news, and talks about a wonderful piece of idea judo he's got: an Iraqi version of the Alaska Permanenet Fund, where each resident gets a portion of the oil revenue directly.



Victor Davis Hanson makes points worth making again and again.



**********




Looks like I'm not the only one appalled that El-Baradei won the Nobel Peace Prize.



LGF has a story about 360 organizations engaged in a nuclear arms race. (I really hope PETA is not one of them!)



Jawa Report has information on the awarding committee's politics.



You know what I said about some things crying out for humor? This whole situation is the Nobel Committee making fun of themselves. How far they have fallen since this hero or this one won their prizes? (The jury is still out on this one, but it's not looking good). Might as well laugh, because the alternative is not attractive.



Holy Spoofs, Batman!



Wizbang nominates somebody more deserving, and TBIFOC has another. The latter has the advantage of being completely non-controversial (except perhaps to Indonesia).



**********




Given the most recent radio market share reports, I strongly suspect that this: Long an outlet for the GOP message, talk radio undergoes a shift is wishful thinking, if not an outright attempt at damage control of the whole Gloria Weiss Air America situation.



**********




On the other hand, if Harriet Miers flubs easy questions like this as reported at Volokh Conspiracy, maybe we're better off not confirming her.



Beldar notes some of the published op-ed pieces, and also the court cases she tried. I am impressed, both by her trial record and by his research.



Art of the Blog gives one possible explanation for the nomination.



Upshot? I still think there were better picks available. But I'm not the president, and the person he picked seems qualified.



**********




Armies of Liberation covers the desire of the regime in Yemen to be seen as a foe of terrorism, right down to framing innocent people for crimes never committed.



**********




Remember what I said about a corruption indictment wounding DeLay permanently? If they keep finding stuff like Captain's Quarters has, I take it back. The more evidence I see, the more evidence there is of a witch hunt. Of course, DeLay is an Elephant, not a Donkey, so he won't get the kind of backing and bounce in the legacy media that an innocently (or not so innocently, Ms. Miller) accused Donkey would.



**********




Unusual searches that show up on my logs: "watts per square meter cannabis" on Google. Went to my politics category, where I have discussed both the solar constant and the border patrol smuggling cannabis.



Off to Conjecture!



I got distracted and forgot to post that Carnival of Vanities is up!



**********




Okay, this is weird. Just looked at the website on a preview and it said "Playful Primate." Just to be certain, I hit the link over to TTLB, and my true rank is about where it was last time I checked. Comfortably "Large Mammal" but needing to at least triple external links in order to have a prayer of Primate-hood. I checked a couple of other Large Mammal sites, and their rankings seem messed up as well.



**********




Captain's Quearters has some new information on the DeLay indictment. Seems that the prosecutor involved convened at least one grand jurt who refused to indict, and evidence presented to the grand jury that indicted was negligible. Check out the comments also.



I'm not a hard core Elephant. I'm not particularly fond of Mr. Delay's politics - in fact I'm more than a little displeased by some of them. I actually went around to most of the better known left-wing sites (Kaus, Kos, Matthew Yglesias, Oliver Willis)to see what they're saying, which is to say, not a peep. Given that, it's starting to look a lot more likely that this is indeed a vendetta on the part of Mr. Earle.



**********




LGF notes that the british have accused the Iranians of supplying weapons for insurgents to use against them.



However refreshing the candidness is, I think Iran needs taking down from inside, not outside. I have a belief (which may be founded in unrealistic optimism) that the mullahs are on their last legs politically. If we do nothing, they will be overthrown soon. If we invade, we will topple the regime but the mullahs a new lease on power as the resistance. Patriotic Iranians who may or may not have a use for the mullahs will use them as the center of the resistance. Iran is approximately the size and population of Afghanistan and Iraq combined. The correct strategy there is probably containment coupled with aid to any democratically inclined rebels who ask. Syria, on the other hand, is not only a smaller bite but the Ba'athists there are as vulnerable as Saddam Hussein was in Iraq.



Speaking of the War on Terror, the Senate voted for an amendment on the treatment of prisoners in custody of Department of Defense. I see mostly plusses to this. On one hand, it may be needless interference and political posturing. On the other hand, it's an affirmation of what the United States is about, it's an example of Congress giving clear guidelines (something to be encouraged, as anything else translates into part of the Attorney's Full Employment Act). Reading Mudville Gazette's research (the text of the Act and the relevant manual), it seems quite reasonable, however political their actions were intended to be. I hope I understand why those nine senators voted against it, but it isn't a "vote for torture" no matter what certain big name left wingers may say.



While I'm at it, Michael Yon has a retrospective of his recently concluded embeded tour in Iraq. Read it if you haven't already.



**********




Ann Althouse has an article on a young gentleman who may be removed from his education prgram because he doesn't kowtow to liberal cannon. Disgusting.



**********




Dean's World talks about his feelings on Intelligent Design, mostly that it's harmless twaddle, and that debate is to be sanctioned. He says he expects to get trackbacks from people labelling him all kinds of gratuitous Bad Things. He's probably correct, unfortunately. I however, think that whereas Intelligent Design is NOT harmless twaddle, he takes exactly the correct tack in how do deal with it: Debate it. Show it for the unscientific nonsense it is. Get down to details and brass tacks and exact context. Evolution as a theory holds together about like you'd expect it to, having been assembled using the scientific method. Intelligent Design at it's weakest and least objectionable is a philosphy of what's behind Evolution and Relativity and everything else, but it's philosophy, not science. On any stronger level, it falls on its ridiculous butt. The Creationists (now turned ID advocates) I've taken on from time to time in other venues want evolution discredited without being able to discredit it scientifically, much less advance a theory of their own that holds water scientifically. Nonetheless, Dean is correct in that they must have the ability to try. Without that, we'd still be talking about the ether and phrenology and Newtonian physics and ulcers being caused by stress, not bacteria. Suppressing it gives it legitimacy of a sort, legitimacy which ties well to the "believers are persecuted" meme of certain religions.



I'm not an accreditied scientist. But I know plenty enough to debunk most of their nonsense, and do research on the rest.



**********




Austin Bay has some new information on Harriet Miers in the form of an email from someone who has worked with her. I like what I read here.



Holy Popping Bubbles Batman! I just got an email from a representative of the lender who led the charge into some of the most aggressive practices going. They have now pulled back some of their most aggressive loan programs. Hang on folks, this is going to get rough!



People have to have places to live, and you can still make money investing in real estate, even in this market, but you've got to have somebody who knows what they're doing. There are risks in any real estate transaction, more so now. If your agent sounds like a cheerleader, dump them.



**********




Carnival of Liberty is up!



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Honda Designs Car Friendly for Dogs. Amazing.



**********




An important day in World History: On this day in 1969 we had the premiere of Monty Python's Flying Circus



**********




Captain's Quarters has an excellent article up about the Saudi Arabian government publishing anti-american islamic propaganda and distributing it here in the US. Some "ally".



**********




What he said: Wizbang talks about an illegal alien who was killed and his family's worker's comp claim, among other things. They were breaking the law by being in the country. He was breaking the law further by working at all. Workers comp is an insurance policy paid by payroll taxes. Insurance policies are a legal contract. I'm not a lawyer but one thing lawyers keep telling me over and over and over again is that in order to constitute a valid contract, it must have a legal purpose. There is no such thing as a legal contract for an illegal act. The claim needs to be denied, and if it is not, the grantor is violating their fiduciary responsibility.



Well, according to the server logs, I finished September with 24,587 visitors on the month, an improvement of 20 percent from the 20,442 I had in August. No, it's not Instapundit, but I'm happy. If I can increase visits that percentage every month, I'll be ecstatic. So thank you to the readers. Yes, I know Sitemeter says 8600 and something total visits, but it's wrong and I'm seriously considering deleting it altogether. (btw, as of the end of September, I had 58,349 visits since launch on June 19th, 183,564 page views. Thank you all again).



Next step, getting you all to participate.



**********




Several weeks ago, my wife and I needed to buy an algae eater, and we thought that as long as we were at the fish store, we'd buy a blue male guppy because we had too much orange. Unfortunately, the blue guppy we bought brought an ick-festation with him, killing all but three of our guppies (including him) before we got it under control. We only had two girls and one fodder-sized baby left. So we waited about two weeks to make sure the tank was stable, and went out and bought two pairs. Got home, and found that one of the boy guppies we selected managed to confuse us and the clerk long enough to substitute a similar looking girl (the stores tend to sell not-quite adults and once they're in the net, it's hard to tell). Plus one of the two girls we already had popped out half a dozen babies while we were getting the new fish; we noticed the little eyes looking out of the plants while dropping the new purchases in (Five sizes to guppies: Eyes, fodder, survivors, juveniles, and adults. They go from eyes to fodder within a couple days, survivors when they're too big for the adults to swallow, and juveniles when they start getting significant color).



**********




RINO Sightings is up over at Strata-Sphere. Recommended: ROFASix (I love the Trackback Squirrel!) Castle Argghhh!, Big Cat Chronicles



**********




Captain's Quarters covers the start of a civil war between Hamas and Fatah. Is anyone surprised? Anyone?



State of Flux has more.



Victor Davis Hanson has a Harry Turtledove-esque piece on the likely situation if Bush hadn't topple Saddam Hussein.



LGF reports on some of Iran's domestic propaganda, which confirms what I said here.



**********




Tapscott's Copy Desk completely demolishes a liberal meme in the ten seconds it takes to read his chart. It tends to be the well off that enlist, and more so now than before the 9/11 attacks. While recruitment in the poorest zip codes is off as a proportion of recruits, those better off have enlisted at higher rates. He also links Grim's Hall who has a break down by region. Could it be just that the northeastern liberals don't know anybody in the military and therefore assume that we don't either? We all know what happens when you assume.



I don't link Mudville Gazette as often as I probably should. If you want good information as to what's really going on in the war on terror, they've always got links to and from eyewitnesses. What brings this to the fore today is that he's got the low down on a great report on the recruiting situation.



**********




Smackdown! La Shawn Barber speaks truth to those after Bill Bennett for his recent remarks.



**********




Armies of Liberation has an article about the opposition coalition and another about a fatwa'd Journalist trying to defend himself who needs some assistance.





Sorry, but I'm out of time!

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This page is a archive of entries in the Zee Links and Minifeatures category from October 2005.

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