Thursday, January 19. 2006
The French and Indian Wars, on TV tonite: Irish Pennants. Yes, they were a very important (to the future USA) aspect of the war between the Brits and the French. But not as historically important as the later series of Indian Wars in which the Indians allied themselves with the Brits to prevent migration into the Indian Lands, and the 19th century Indian Wars when land-hungry American homesteaders succeeded in conquering the country. CraigsList. Who is Craig? Dinocrat Powell on Iran: Confed. Yank. Hillary too (is she going to do a daily "major speech" between now and 2008? - or is she trying to distract from the Barrett Report?) When do women smell best? LiveScience Condi is shaking up State in a major way: Checkerboard Why Hollywood loves Johnny Cash and not Merle Haggard: City Journal (Maggie's Farm loves both - and City Journal too.) Response to Iranian nukes? RWNH goes through the thinking as if he worked for the State Dept. I wish he did. A way to stand up to the ACLU's attacks against American security. Michelle. PSA, Prostate cancer, medical tests, and economics. Very good, in-depth piece by Dr. Bob Osama (or his impersonator) cries uncle. RTLC Google vs. Yahoo: A VC Fuel economy to fall? Env. Econ. The UN maps that delete Israel. Atlas Another gun lobby, new to me, looks good, deserves donation. Citizen's Committee
This piece is making the rounds today: Number 10 - Life is a sexually transmitted disorder. Number 9 - Good health is merely a term for the slowest possible rate at which one can die. Number 8 - Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you see him without an erection, make him a sandwich.
Number 7 - Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach a person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks.
Number 6 - Some people are like a Slinky...not really good for
anything, but you still can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs.
Number 5 - Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing. Number 4 - All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism. Number 3 - Why does a slight tax increase cost you two hundred
dollars and a substantial tax cut saves you thirty cents?
Number 2 - In the 60's, people took LSD to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
AND THE NUMBER 1 THOUGHT FOR 2006 - We know exactly where every cow with mad-cow-disease is located among the millions and millions of cows in America but we haven't got a clue as to where thousands of illegal immigrants and terrorists are located. Maybe we should put the Department of Agriculture in charge of immigration.
Doctoring in Tibet. The new microjets. An excellent new trend: Local news blogging. Pressthink. This model could, and should, go worldwide. The Liberal Goatherd: Video satire on the Alito Hearings by Fidelis More humor: A redneck alcohol and ammo game. Chose your weapon. And even more humor: Broder praises Al Gore Earmarks and taxpayer-funded lobbying. Kesselman Custom-made bacteria, including germs that blink like Christmas lights. Science Times The Barret Report, finally: Captain Ed
Wednesday, January 18. 2006
Due to ferocious windstorms in southern New England (the second such storm in a week with gusts to 70 mph), Maggie's server in Connecticut was down until midnight Wednesday. Many trees down, power lines down, etc. And FEMA was nowhere to be found! Sorry for any inconvenience.
Tuesday, January 17. 2006
A Moslem cultural exception for smoking in bars in NYC? Gates. Similarly, in Scotland, Moslems want a Catholic school to teach Islam instead. Ace. What gives with all of these demands? Me and my friends have lots of demands, but the world ignores us. Do we have to go Moslem? A good Bush video parody. Senators openly discuss military options re Iran. Reuters. I'd prefer to see a revolution of sanity in Iran. Olduvai George is Carl Buell, an animal artist specializing in ancient animals, who now paints with Photoshop and graphics tablets. Very cool. Shows you how he does it, here. H/T, Synthstuff. Colorful Narcissists: Kennedy and Robertson. Austin Bay Greenwalt's new documentary goes after Walmart. Same guy who did MacDonalds. Now it's liberal Dems blocking the schoolhouse door. John Fund on Florida and vouchers. Why does. Mass. keep losing population? Jacoby
Monday, January 16. 2006
A fresh look at Stossel's Stupid in America. And "have the unions won?" The latest on vouchers at CSM A high school newspaper wouldn't be this dumb: Michelle with the NYT's latest. From Captain Ed: The debate over abortion has never gone away, and as science teaches us more about embryonic development, the question of killing a foetus for the convenience of the mother becomes more and more complicated. The electorate has the sense that Roe stole the ability of the people to make their own decision about policy regarding abortion and created an unresolvable political impasse as a result. The usurpation of authority that the Court committed also poisoned its role in America's governing system, with the current poisonous tone for Supreme Cout and federal appellate bench confirmation hearings resulting from that point. If anything, the Alito hearings show that the issue of abortion has become an albatross around the necks of Democrats.
A personal look at the abortion issue by Am Princess The Gaia Theory: I hope this fellow Lovelock is wrong. And, in keeping with the theme, very strong positive review of the 2007 Tahoe. Stunningly beautiful cinematography. See it. Hero (2004) Cats think HDTV is reality. Ahmadinejad update: Method to his madness? Telegraph. And more on the cult of the Hidden Imam: LGF Pacifists: One person highlighted by YARGB. And the Methodist Bishops. Did The Netherlands (!) take anti-terror efforts too far? RTLC Murtha needs a neurological check-up. Unbelievable. Ankle-Biting Rowland's successor, Repub. Rell, on track in CT. Calif. Yank. How did she do that? Shadegg seems to be the bloggers' favorite. Kudlow.
Sunday, January 15. 2006
 We had a magnificent wind and snow storm last night in southern New England. Powerful, exciting, exhilarating, and humbling Yankee weather. Trees and powerlines down everywhere, and roads blocked all over the place. Church had no power and no heat - like in the old days - so those of us who made it huddled in "The Upper Room" instead of the sanctuary and it worked just fine. Cozy. Those church candles found a real purpose - illumination, instead of atmosphere. And a sermon concerning the dark side of God which I will discuss on the blog one of these days, soon.
Listening to George Jones, Emmylou, Johnny Cash, and Alison Kraus, Norm, if you were wondering. Plus some of The Dylanologist's recent Dylan bootlegs which he gave me for Christmas. Will pick an opera later - not sure which yet. And putting off working on quarterly taxes as long as possible. Also wondering why no-one is commenting on my Truthiness piece - I thought it was a good take-off point. I guess not - damn. That's why I am not in the marketing business. Just no sense of "mass market." But we don't want to be a boutique blog: we want to be Walmart! Or, at least, Costco. The price is right, isn't it? One more thing - the blog Humbug introduced themselves to me via email. They specialize in detecting fallacy and bullshit, and have a good sense of fun. I will not permit Barrister to read their stuff - don't want us to inadvertently plagiarize on our new Fallacy of the Week idea, which we arrogantly imagined was an original idea. Here's one of their latest posts - on Princeton's appalling Peter Singer. And a final comment: Powerline is remarkable today. Too much good stuff. How do those guys do it? This one, to only single out one of many fine pieces.
Saturday, January 14. 2006
During his speech on Monday, Al Gore will demagogue, fear-monger, strike the podium, act santimonious, and decry Bush's Nazi Police State. But watch: the one thing he will not do is to demand that surveillance of terrorists, and information-seeking from terrorists, cease. He will Talk Loud, but Carry No Cohones. If he were to be consistent, he would demand that the US surrender immediately, and quit our surveillance of terrorists/ Why is the Left consistently soft on terror? We are always trying to figure that one out. Hornik gives it a try, at Am. Spectator Birgit Nilsson died on Christmas. NY Sun Hewitt has an interesting take on the coming changes on the Court, and the panic amongst the ACLU and the Left. He sees it as a Theist/Secularist issue. He thinks there's a great fear that people will begin to speak about morality and natural law in persuasive ways. Here. Belgium thinks the American school system is rooted in an antedeluvian past. In Belgium, the $ follows the kid. Schools compete. Democracy Project.
The mugging of Walmart: Cafe Hayek A new bio of Mark Twain. Reason What's the real tyranny? Bush, or the Regulatory State? Vodka Mona Charen reviews Kate O'Beirne's Women who make the world worse: Strangely, while feminists were burning with indignation toward men, they also enthusiastically endorsed promiscuity. O'Beirne quotes Harvard Law professor Mary Ann Glendon, who notes that early feminists who sought the vote and other rights "saw that the ready availability of abortion would facilitate the sexual exploitation of women . . . they regarded free love, abortion and easy divorce as disastrous for women and children." Modern feminists, by contrast, were characterized by a "puzzling combination of two things that do not ordinarily go together: anger against men and promiscuity; man-hating and man-chasing." Read the whole review.
Friday, January 13. 2006
NYT needs to hire a legal consultant- for their editorials. Patterico Krauthammer: Munich the Travesty. Harsh. Is Europe ready to deal with a war with Iran? No Oil Kinsley provides an excellent example of the cheap legal "Slippery Slope Fallacy," which will be coming up soon on Fallacy of the Week, I am told. Has anyone told Kinsley that there is a war on? Somebody named Ali wants to kill you, Michael, but we want you to stay alive, even if we don't agree.
The economic fate of the Boston Globe. UN gets in with the gun control crowd. Of course they would. Canadian Libs support polygamy. Hey - there's a way to win an election. In a Moslem country.Captain Ed. Well, you might get the guy vote. Alito v. Kennedy: A snippet. Libertarian Leanings Disposable cell phones and terrorists. Michelle Day-O. The Banana Brain Song. Paxety Doctors vs. guns. BFA The "A List" blogs. Where's Maggie's Farm on there? RWN
WHY PARENTS DRINK The boss of a big company needed to call one of his employees about an urgent problem with one of the main computers, dialed the employee's home phone number and was greeted with a child's whisper. "Hello." "Is your daddy home?" he asked. "Yes," whispered the small voice. "May I talk with him?" The child whispered, "No." Surprised, and wanting to talk with an adult, the boss asked, "Is your Mommy there?" "Yes." "May I talk with her?" Again the small voice whispered, "No." Hoping there was somebody with whom he could leave a message, the boss asked, "Is anybody else there?" "Yes," whispered the child, "a policeman." Wondering what a cop would be doing at his employee's home, the boss asked, "May I speak with the policeman?" "No, he's busy", whispered the child. "Busy doing what?" "Talking to Daddy and Mommy and the Fireman," came the whispered answer. Growing concerned and even worried as he heard what sounded like a Helicopter through the earpiece on the phone the boss asked, "What is that noise?" "A hello-copper" answered the whispering voice. "What is going on there?" asked the boss, now truly alarmed. In an awed whispering voice the child answered, "The search team just landed the hello-copper." Alarmed, concerned, and even more then just a little frustrated the boss asked, "What are they searching for?" Still whispering, the young voice replied along with a muffled giggle: "ME."
Site Meter  It seems as if most of the population of New England has hit the slopes today. I have always found this to be an annoyingly crowded weekend for skiing: by noon in Vermont or New Hampshire, you need skates, not skis.
So I am on duty at the olde blogge while everyone else plays in the snow, and I am here to inform our loyal and beloved readers that we finally have a Site Meter, which means that we will be properly listed at Truth Laid Bear in a week or two - if it all works. Not that we care....well, we do. Kinda sorta. Hope I at least get the chance to do some shooting this weekend.
Thursday, January 12. 2006
The dangers in abusing nominees: The Prof. Bush will get at least one more pick, probably two more. The court, plus freedom in the middle east, will be his legacy. Sense about Roe v. Wade: Whether pro or con, leave it to the conscience and judgement of the voters: RCP The anti-Al Quaida insurgents: Captain Ed No shame: the Alito hearings: Chapman 2006 predictions: NE Repub I rarely quote Powerline, because I assume everyone reads them, but I have to. John: For the left, however, things have changed since the heady days of the 1970s. History doesn't seem to be flowing their way anymore, and liberals are mostly hanging on, giving ground grudgingly and waiting for better days to return. In this context, the overruling of Roe v. Wade would have significance far beyond abortion. It would mean the end of the one-way ratchet, and would be a visible symbol of the receding of the liberal tide. For that reason, I can understand the Democrats' feverish efforts to lock Roe in as inviolate, even though the immediate political fallout, if the case were reversed, might favor the Democrats.
Limericks are the Haiku of Western civilization. They seek associative, allusive, connotative, and humorous revelation, rather than the mystical and ineffable, mostly. I will get it started: There once was a judge named Alito
Who the Left did dislike con spirito,
So they smeared him with slime,
But ran out of time,
So left crying in their beer and Doritos. Update: Emailed from an Italian-American reader "Vinny in NJ": There was a paysan named Alito,
To us Dems he's a nasty mosquito.
He's a working class wop
but he ain't union shop,
I'd rather vote for a friggin' burrito. It's a difficult rhyme. One more, emailed in from who knows where: There once was a judge named Alito,
They claimed he had gone incognito,
And hates women and blacks
Like all Reagan hacks,
But he stuck like a chunk of granito. Waste some time. Send us more. Email, or via Comments. There once was a justice named Sam Who got a Senatorial rectal exam. In the face of attacks From partisan hacks
He closed it up just like a clam. Sanity back to The Court? It's been like a venereal wart.
You scratch it and hide it
But you just can't abide it,
They abort and contort and come short.
I decided to re-post our Wood Duck entry from last March, m ainly to remind those with streams and marshes to begin to plan to build or buy, and put out, new duck houses before March. There are a few reasons to plan now: for one, it's a easy time to put out your nest boxes - you can get out on the ice, punch a hole in the ice, and hammer your post into the mud. Second, the males arrive early so it's nice to have everything in place when they arrive. If you clean out your old nest boxes in the winter, don't be surprised to find something roosting in there - screech owls or whatever. The male Wood Duck is the most flamboyant and exotic looking bird in North America. They have just returned here, where I live - saw a few on Sunday afternoon. It's getting late to put out nest boxes, but not too late quite yet. Assuming you have water - streams or ponds or marshy lakes. Their growing population relies on human intervention, because dopey humans cut down the dead trees they like to nest in. Build duck nest boxes: Click here: Wood Duck . Buy them: Click here: Duck Houses at BestNest.com! with good instructions re nest box placement, and learn about "Woodies": Click here: All About Birds
Ted Kennedy and Joe McCarthy: Funny. Volokh. Jonathan Turley: "A dangerous nominee". USA Today A quote from Am. Princess: "The things Democrats really care about have been placed in the hands of the courts, if by the design of Democrats: liberal judges, activist judges, Due Process mavens of the sixties took abortion, gay rights, civil rights, right to die, right to life, right to contract, right against cruel and unusual punishment, directly out of the hands of legislatures where they belonged. A shift on the court towards conservativism costs them not only their political stance on these issues, it likely costs them a lot of power. And thats not even considering the fact that it is the Supreme Court that is the sole arbiter between the Executive and Legislative branches. Curious about Presidential power to eavesdrop? Don't be. It'll be dealt with, and not in the liberals favor.
Win elections, Democrats, but you've made the courts powerful: that's where you wanted the power, after all, since most of the initiatives that you championed could never have won by popular vote. Now, its likely that the most powerful court is out of your control." Lileks on when ideologues turn loony: "Bad news is good news. Everything’s going to hell, but at least they’re smart enough to catch the whiff of brimstone. (Second-hand brimstone. There ought to be a law.) But what if the worst doesn’t happen? That would be worse than bad. That would mean all those bumperstickers they put on their cars had no effect whatsoever. What if people don’t Question Authority, visualize World Peace, speak truth to power, or rotate during cooking? What if letters to the editor don’t end up in CIA files? What if subversive college students are ignored? What if the dark night isn’t descending after all? However will they go on? " Hypocrisy about Whaling: Samizdata Barry Goldwater: his evolution to Libertarian. Busch at Opinion Journal
Wednesday, January 11. 2006
Syria and Iraq: The inside story at Protein Bush pushes back at defeatist critics Black-footed ferrets bounce back from verge of extinction. Are newspapers doomed? Epstein in Commentary A few reflections on the Alito hearings at Volokh. My feeling is that his approach is to bore them into silence.
Tuesday, January 10. 2006
The religion of peace: LGF Gender imbalance in India due to aborting girls: RTLC Germans advise US on Gitmo morality! RWN Short skirts and work: Ace Neo looks at "nukular" A new book about the Dust Bowl: CSM Good point: NYT claims their sources of leaked info are sacred, but the national security of the US isn't. There's got to be a word for that. Dhimmitude or something? Am. Future Bird Flu: This flu in Turkey isn't the one we're worried about. Still no human to human transmission. But this one will impact poultry farmers, and surely bird hunters, in time. Norm finds another liberal heretic. Bellows Falls or Pottersville. What kind of country do people believe is worth defending? Paul M in WS
Monday, January 9. 2006
 JFK
I see Mr. Kelly fantasizing about what might have happened in the wake of the JFK assassination, if info about Cuba's possible involvement had come out. (Pres. Goldwater) A President Goldwater would have been fine with me. Dylan, after all, thought he was great. I have often fantasized about what would have happened if Kennedy had survived. The country would be in much better shape today without Lyndon Johnson. JFK was a natural conservative, a tax-reducer, pro civil rights and confident about America's role in the world. A damn shame. (Are you old enough to remember this scene in the photo? I am. Robert Frost read a poem..."The Land was ours before we were the land's...")
Jay Rockefeller may be a leak investigative target. Am Thinker Is Ted Kennedy wearing out? Pittsburgh Post Gazette Rumor mill. Bin Ladin dead? Cap'n Ed Armstrong Williams reviews everything the press got wrong about Katrina The Leipzig School - trend-setting from the former East Germany. The Alito hearings? No news there. Just a formality and chance to grandstand. It's a done deal. Ho hum. We are sending no reporters over there.
New Stuff for 2006! We will have a Logical Fallacy of the Week (and a Dog of the Week during the Year of the Dog...just a photo, not much more, with special attention to the sporting breeds). Recently added or adding to our Blogroll: Libertarian Leanings, John Leo's Blog, Barone Blog, Bird of Paradise, Brendan Nyhan, Dinocrat, Sensible Mom, Just One Minute, the Political Teen, YARGB, Synthstuff, Wizbang, WILLisms, Shrinkwrapped, and Daily Pundit. Surely more to come. So many fine blogs, so little time.
Sunday, January 8. 2006
Just helping to pass it around Diligent blog readers already are aware of this report from Italy of the arrest of terrorists who were planning a major attack on the US, because Michelle and Powerline highlighted it. And there are two stories here: First, the terrorists. Second, the failure of the MSN to say a word about it. If I were the Sulzberger kid, it would be front page. But "see no evil" prevails, unless it is the Evil Bush. Sure hope wiretaps helped to catch these slimes.
Saturday, January 7. 2006
Most Senate Dems took Abramoff cash. Is this whole Abramoff thing a real story? I can't find the story in it yet. Politicans accept campaign donations from a sleazeball? That's a story? A real story would be a politican not accepting $ from sleazeballs, but that guy or gal would be a goo goo schlemiel loser, wouldn't he? "F-ing Welsh." Tony Blair said it, and now police investigating it as a possible hate crime. Protein. "F-ing crazy Brits." I said that. Arrest me. (Reductio ad absurdum) Cat evolution finally understood, via mitochondrial DNA. Two things pain me about this article: 1. The great cats of the world are essentially extinct, or on the verge of it. 2. House cats are not close to extinction, sad to say - it would be a far more perfect world without those damn things. How Alito might alter the balance of the Court. CSM 2005 was second warmest year since the 1890s. Reason unknown. Book of Daniel is an unholy mess. WaPo New Orleans refugees raise crime rates in Houston. City Journal Chavez' antisemitism. Tangled Web Duke Cunningham wore a wire for a while. I see sleepless nights in DC. Wizbang Zawahiri: US troop reductions in Iraq prove insurgent victory. BKP Hey, NYT, check this graph. Mine deaths rose during Clinton, declining now. Not that a Pres. has anything to do with such things anyway. Poor and Stupid Palestinians have begun fighting eachother instead of Israel. Gates
|
