Wednesday, May 11. 2005
 Venezuela es de Todos
From The Devil's Excrement: "Ad by Causa R Party (Radical Cause Party) - not your Mom's right-wing party, parodying the Government slogan "Venezuela now belongs to everyone" - except those who signed." The country is in a mess.
Hugo
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The 7 Plots We have all heard the rumor that there are only seven storylines in all of literature. Well, it depends. Denis Dutton reviews Christopher Booker's The 7 Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories. Sounds like an engaging if flawed book. The review is fascinating, and it happily digs into Aristotle a bit. Still amazing to me how everything tracks back to Plato and Aristotle. I guess we are a Greco-Roman colony.
Dean supports Sanders for Senate. Oh, man. Get real, Vermont. Can Air America Fly on One Wing? The latest on this donor-supported broadcaster. AARP is in in big trouble with me. A classic example of what Bird Dog wrote about last week - non-profits taking in dues and ignoring your wishes at HQ in DC. Their chief lobbyist here. These things deserve to be scandals. Taking Putin for a Ride, #2 Welch in Reason: "For nearly 15 years, anxious Russologists like Thomas L. Friedman have urged Washington to ignore the security pleadings of the "buffer states," treat Moscow with the deference it craves, and above all else avoid waking up the sleeping bear. Bush has decisively thrown that advice into the dustbin of history. For the moment, at least, it looks like Bush was right." Read entire. Behind the "Get Delay" movement: WSJ names the Leftist organizations here. Dick Morris Predicts Condi vs Hillary. I predict that neither will be nominated. Update on Aerospace in Jane's
Gorilla Warfare: War over gorillas in Africa., from NYT. The Sky may not be Falling: We understand the hidden motive of "Smash Capitalism to Save the Earth," but what if the earth is sort-of OK?
Big Green Let us fervently hope that the removal of the fascistic politically-correct speech codes at Dartmouth heralds a shift towards sanity in those hallowed halls of Hanover. I'd support codes of gentlemanly and gentle-lady-like behavior, but not political speech content.
Krauthammer on the Court: "Have that independence and supremacy been abused? Grossly. What other advanced democracy would radically legalize abortion by judicial decree rather than by democratic will expressed through legislatures or referendums? What sane democracy allows four unelected robed eminences in Massachusetts to revolutionize the very definition of marriage, the most ancient institution in society? This is not just deeply undemocratic. It is politically crazy. Democracies work as stable social entities because when people are allowed to settle issues themselves by debate and ballot, they are infinitely more likely to accept the results when they lose. To deny them that participation is to risk instability and threaten social peace." Read entire. Adscam etc.: Good update on Canadian politics and the effect of adscam. Who in Congress Takes the most Junkets? Not Delay. Brawl at NYSE: The playground brawl among the boys from downtown continues at NYSE as lawsuits are filed over the proposed merger with Archipelago Holdings. It looks like John Thain and Goldman Sachs are in bed together again. NYT: "In a suit filed in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan, William Higgins, a longtime owner of a seat on the exchange, argued that the terms of the proposed merger - which would grant members 70 percent of the merged company plus about $300,000 a seat - grossly undervalued the exchange. Among the employees who would share in the 5 percent is John A. Thain, the chief executive of the exchange. Goldman Sachs would own more than 5 percent of the shares, according to the terms of the proposed deal. The lawsuit noted that Mr. Thain was president of Goldman Sachs until he became chief of the exchange last year." Entire: Click here: A Big Board Member Sues to Stop Archipelago Merger - New York Times
Tuesday, May 10. 2005
 Lucas Happy to Retire from Star Wars
What a run. 25+ years of fine fantasy, even at its worst. One can only be grateful to him: "Lucas' accomplishments marked a one-of-a-kind revolution. He sneaked into a Hollywood that no longer had the verve or nerve to make the weird, giddy, goofy Saturday matinees of his youth. He found a lone patron among fainthearted studio executives willing to pony up cash for what was essentially an Arthurian sword-in-the-stone fantasy in space." Read entire.
Advice to Bloggers Good post from RWN, who shares his years of blogging experience.
Among other suggestions, he suggests adding one's photo, so I have
dutifully posted my photo to the right.
"Arianna's Blog Blows": According to LA Weekly. Surprised? Dems Slowly Understand Campaign Finance Reform: Yes, it is anti-free-speech. Unconstitutional, too. The solution to free speech is more free speech. Sweden's Immigration Catastrophe: How soon will they become a Muslim theocracy? And now we have the wacko Islamist vote in the UK - thanks, Powerline. Another Good Interview with Brian Anderson. Guess he's on the book tour. Columbia Univ. Senate thinks it's Smarter than US Armed Forces: Damn disappointing, stupid, out-dated, and embarassing. How would they be with Al Quaida recruiting?
Babalublog Wins High Cuban Blog Award "Hats off to Babalublog which received one of the highest accolades in blogging when the Government of Fidel Castro banned Cubans from seeing his blog. It is unclear at this time if it was because of the politics, his criticism of Chavez or the Caja China ads, after all this high-tech gadget cannot be used in Cuba, it takes whole pig to use it, unavailable at this time to regular Cubans, except in the police corps." Read entire from Hog on Ice: Aging Murderer Frightened by Website Venezuela Follies
Venezuela News And ViewsVenezuela News And Views "Last week saw the visit of Chavez to Cuba to open offices for the Venezuelan state oil company, PDVSA, in Havana. The gross indecency of this ill management, not to call it by much deserved stronger words, of Venezuelan public monies has shaken quite a few people, including this blogger. The contained rage that I experienced at this act of authoritarian hubris inhibited me from writing on the subject for a few days until I finally could discuss at some level the craziness of it all."
Fidel and Hugo
The following editorial may lead to Ms. Socorro's incarceration since the language can be considered inflammatory and against the Government. Imagine if Maureen Dowd or Bob Hebert lived in Venezuela. El Nacional, Thursday 5, May 2005
Milagros Socorro (2)
The ballot shipwrecked on the shores of Cuba
The recent landing of Venezuelan billions in Cuba is an event of such enormity that it supersedes any previous scandal.
To underrate the great threat that is implied with the installation of a PDVSA office in a country not any foreign country which is the enclave of a long, cruel and awfully impoverishing dictatorship, is a mistake that the Venezuelan democrats cannot afford.
Teodoro Petkoff simplifies the business at dismissing the value of setting a "Caribbean" office in Cuba because we are not in the North Pole (3). It is true, the absurdity can only lead to incredulity and mistrust. And the editor focuses in the accusations on the "flock of traders" that would meddle with PDVSA business (against the current bylaw that establishes the state company to perform all of its operations directly with its final destination clients).
All of this, already being quite damaging, is not, in my humble opinion, the key to the situation. What we need to have clear in mind is that the investment -or should we call it "expenditure"?- that Venezuela is making in the island concentration camp of Fidel Castro does not follow from any analysis performed by Venezuelan experts.
Continue reading "The Latin Beat"
Anti-American Mosques in America: LGF is on the story. Joe Klein on Hillary: He thinks she's a bad idea. But he likes her personally. Global Cooling: Cooling could camouflage warming.
"A cynic is someone who, when he smells flowers, looks for a coffin"
H. L. Mencken
Monday, May 9. 2005
Bush Takes Putin for a Ride: Surprising photos.
Humility at the NYT? Drudge mentioned last night that this piece was coming out. The NYT is examining itself. About time. For one thing, they found a serious credibility problem, with only 21% of readers believing "all or most of what they read" in the NYT. Piece here.
Those Evil Christians Dems want to make Christians into the next Commies. It won't work. Somehow I missed the anti-Christian Hootenanny.
VDH We seem to post every VDH essay we come across. I guess we place him and Steyn in the pantheon of essayists. VDH's new piece on "presentism." He maybe overstates the case, but he has a point, which is this: if you believe human nature is malleable, history doesn't matter. Decline and Fall of Germany Germany's socialist tendencies will be their undoing. Now they blame global capitalism for their economic ills. Does that nation have a thing about blaming? And are they making "Anglo-Saxon" a racial slur? But weren't the Saxons Germans, basically? I will invest nothing in German business. Deutshe Bank, eat your heart out. "The Germans are hardly alone. French President Jacques Chirac, faced with the possibility that his serfs may reject his precious European Constitution in a referendum later this month, is running around warning that "ultraliberals" with an "Anglo-Saxon" economic agenda are targeting the European welfare state.
But it is this welfare state to which Germans, and the rest of Europe, should be directing their ire. If unemployment is the evil for which the devil of capitalism is to blame, then a system which pays workers almost as much to stay home and watch football as it does to go out and earn a living is largely to blame."
Read entire piece in TCS.
 Vermont Health Care Revolution? McClaughry in Opinion Journal: "All of this would seem to be a tempest in a very small teapot, but for one thing: Over the past 30 years, Vermont, with a liberal majority, a hive of activist left-wing organizations, and a press corps largely hostile to anything smacking of conservatism, has become the nation's premier blue-state testing ground for virtually every imaginable liberal proposal. Putting single-payer health care in place in Vermont would be an enormous breakthrough for the left. This year its advocates are closer to victory than ever before. If they ultimately succeed, the reverberations will be felt from coast to coast."
Logic: Auster at The View from the Right explains the peculiar logic by which the Left equates individualism with racism.
 The Fart Tax
Virtuous New Zealand is doing its part to reduce greenhouse gasses - by introducing another tax on fuel, of course. I can see how that adds to government revenues, and I can see how it makes some feel good ("You have to try something"), but I'm damned if I can see how it accomplishes anything else. Governments love stuff like that. The story from Right Thinking reminds us of that infamous Fart Tax, which was finally rejected by New Zealand. Turns out half of their greenhouse emissions come from cattle passing gas. It was never mentioned what percent come from human gas, but there aren't many humans in New Zealand, which is why it's such a lovely country. Anyway, New Zealand, I guess I can say this: "You care." That's really really nice. And there's an interesting twist in Oregon, another "We Care" place, which pushed hybrid autos hard and successfully, but now finds their gas tax income dwindling, so they're coming up with a plan to replace the gas tax - with a tax on mileage! So much for supporting hybrids. So much for govt. wisdom. Why doesn't the Oregon legislature just propose a fart tax on people? It might help solve the elevator atmosphere crisis.
 Well, we took over $11,000 on our sugar this year, which ain’t chicken scratch in the Northeast Kingdom, and especially in this state where they want your every spare nickel to buy some vote from some lazy jackass somewhere in this commie state I live in. Not that I need the money myself you know but I figure in life you just keep doing what you do and do what you know how to do until the wheels fall off. Now that I have my bright shiny new Wallmart wellies, I can’t think of a single thing I need except my daily bread and the occasional, well maybe daily whiskeys. I know you fancy folks from Burlington and Hartford and Boston etc might see the way we live up here and think we need all sorts of ---- like 4 wheel drive and oil heat and semi-auto shotguns etc. but that’s because of advertising propaganda that they think that, plus too much time on their hands and not enough work and too much boredom and life maybe too easy so they have to go to exercise school or restaurants to get tired. Which we dont have any restaurants or exercise schools unless you count the Dunkin Donuts etc. down in St Johnsbury. I always figure those commies I helped kill in Korea had their propaganda and we have Advertising which at least aint from the ----ing gummint so at least Im not paying my own money to try to fool my own self. Well I guess I am waxing too philosophical for a Vermont farmer but it’s a lull time right now with too much ---ing mud up to your armpits of course to plow harrow and seed but soon enough so just the routine feed the cattle and milk the cattle, bring em in and take em out, which the boys mostly do, but the cattle pretty much know what theyre supposed to do because they arent smart but they arent stupid either and more brain than ---ing horses which are now obsolete animals except for the Fancies and God knows what fool things they do with the dumb beasts. We did paint a side of the house and finished painting the barn connector that we started last spring. My boys don’t exactly enjoy scraping and painting and I can'tpull a Tom Sawyer on them and I think they would rather drag dead cows to the pit but I am paying them and have to keep them mostly busy or it don’t make sense, and these boys were made to work as long as it isn't scraping old paint and they are only happy if they're bitchin about something like some fat girl in town with already 2 fat brat snot nose kids or the valve on the milker or the cow kicking or the paint dripping or the rain fallin or the cost of gas. Bitchin, and beer, and the fat girls, and their slick pick-ups are what keep them going. God bless em they are both strong simple boys Seth and Reuben and basically honest maybe except to the fat girls and the hunting regs and maybe a few other things I would not care to mention online. They do hunt a bit and I know they both shot nice turkeys for their mommas for Mothers Day. I wont eat that dried out ---, and they can't call a turkey worth a damn in my opinion but they always get over their limit with nice clean head shots. I guess they play Indian in my woodlots, like kids, which they are grown-up kids with brains to match.
Bush's Historic Speech: John at Powerline provides an excellent exegesis of Bush's Saturday speech in Latvia. Freedom is the key. One guote: "To a greater extent than any politician since Churchill, President Bush has set forth and defended his policies in a series of speeches that combine intellectual brilliance and philosophical gravity. Today's speech in Latvia was the latest in this series, and, like the others, it will be studied by historians for centuries to come." Read entire Facts: Two dismal facts I recently stumbled upon: - There is one employee of the US Dept. of Agriculture for every farmer in the US.
- 1/3 of the inmates in federal penitentiaries are illegal immigrants. The Blog Revolution: Gawker Media in the NYT. Despite all of the sarcasm in the NYT article, there is a blog revolution, and Maggie's is pleased to be one small part of it.
"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will always find a way around the law." Plato
Sunday, May 8. 2005
All things are possible to him that believeth. Mark 9:23
Moms of the Blogosphere: Being a Mom entails a mountain of heartache and worry. May it be balanced by joy and delight.
Saturday, May 7. 2005
An email from back-country  Thailand, from a Medical Friend Farewell Thailand,
I am at the airport on my way back to the USA. I am most excited about the prospect of the Old Country Buffet.
I had my first bout of a non GI illness. My feet were quite battered given diving fins , hiking, rocks, ill fittnig sandals etc. They became both red and painful with ugly drainage from some of the cuts. Another doctor I happened to meet acknowledged that spreading redness is never a good sign. I could no longer use my sandals as they were so painful, so I limped around the town barefoot. Of course, I stepped on a piece of glass. I hailed a French tourist for help, However he looked taken aback by my feet, and did not want to try and pull the glass out of the black sole of my foot, so with the help of a kind hostess and a toothpick we got it out. I was forced to wear shoes for the first time in a month-I felt like Tarzan from the disney movie.
As recommended, I took a cooking course there. Look out mango salad, and thai green curry. Wada and Dee were my teachers and there mantra was, "smile and stir" by the end day they thought it best if I specialized as the taster-good kitchen fun had by all.
I rented a motor bike and cruised around the hills outside the town. I had a helmut that looked like a plastic tupperware bowl-perhaps it was at one point. The winding roads and scorching air made me feel a part of the "motorcycle diaries". gratefully, I only saw a motorbike accident, and wasnt part of one. The roadside police stopped me because I didnt have an international license and asked me to go to drivers bureau and pay a fine. I said no that I would not, and then they let me go. Why can't it be that easy in the US.
One afternoon I was hitchhiking from a distant temple on the outskirts of town. I got a ride from Donald M., a recovering alcoholic, he took to a great AA meeting in the outskirts of of Chang Mai-holy providence! We sang its a small world.
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