Sunday, March 19. 2006
I am taking over The News Junkie's job this afternoon, while he goes pheasant shooting. In the beginning...Astrophysics, metaphysics, or revelation? Too stupid to know he's stupid? I do not think that applies to Jeff G. at Protein Wisdom, but it might apply to me. Mall-Walking, and soaking up the American Experience. Am. Spectator. I am glad he reports on it, because I'd almost rather be dead. "I didn't touch a girl or alcohol for seven months." Soldiers interviewed. Another Christian on trial? Where are the lions in the Colosseum? A few thousand visits per day. That is all that some excellent blogs get. I guess blogging is kind of like writing poetry - you do it because you have to, and you pray to have any impact. But we won't have much, I fear, because most blog-readers read the blogs that support what they think in the first place. We are politically centrist, but when I read the Lefty blogs, they seem too crude, angry and silly to take seriously - or to respond to. Academic Bill of Rights introduced to NYS Assembly. Let's support it. It is a counterbalance to academic Maoism. Mixing Memory addresses the cognitive factors which they believe interfere with the supposedly benighted American population's acceptance of Evolution as Gospel. I make two points: First, as psychologists, and not physical scientists, they lack the humility which the physical scientists possess, probably because they never took Quantum Algorithms and the Fourier Transformation in college - not for lack of brain-power, but lack of interest. Second, they lack metaphysics. They are psyche-centric, which is reductionistic. I enjoy their blog regularly, but everyone has their limited view of the world, as do we, no doubt. Einstein: "Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind." And, Yes, I do think ID is silly. But, on the other hand, I am more interested in the cognitive obstacles to connecting with God than in the cognitive obstacles to connecting with evolution. Heck - which is more important? And one piece about politics and science: from The Conspiracy: The environmental movement maintains that science and technology cannot be relied upon to build a safe atomic power plant, to produce a pesticide that is safe, or even to bake a loaf of bread that is safe, if that loaf of bread contains chemical preservatives. When it comes to global warming, however, it turns out that there is one area in which the environmental movement displays the most breathtaking confidence in the reliability of science and technology, an area in which, until recently, no one—not even the staunchest supporters of science and technology—had ever thought to assert very much confidence at all. The one thing, the environmental movement holds, that science and technology can do so well that we are entitled to have unlimited confidence in them is forecast the weather—for the next one hundred years!
Update: Will have an apology to Mixing Memory coming up soon, for our somewhat frivolous critique...we do enjoy his blog, as I mentioned.
 "Limited evidentiary value." Ahhh, the press has a new phrase. Funny the way it is selectively applied. Michelle. Dan Rather never heard of that expression.
More on Saddam and Al Quaida. Cap'n Ed. A nation on the downslide: More protests in France. Why so many pro-Mercedes Benz symbols at Calif. peace march? Haha A Tale of Two Fathers: Dads of soldiers. RWNH Tee hee hee: Excuuuuuuse me! A true medical mishap. Long Beach church victim of Kelo. So change the law, Calif. I wish churches would stay out of politics. Render unto Caesar, etc. Plus many pastors are politically hopelessly naive and prime useful idiots for any sentimental cause, regardless of consequences. The world of manipulators, con-men, professional victims, liars and politicians is just not their domain. CSM. Mark Roberts on the DaVinci Code: It's an opportunity.
Saturday, March 18. 2006
This photo, and more, at Atlas: 
 Mr. Bean was on the right side of this one: Brit Christians help defeat Hate Bill. Truthfully I cannot see why Labor would want to support this bill - blasphemy and irreverence are good fun. H/T, Burkean Canuck (Rowan Atkinson photo stolen from Atlas)
The Guardian tends to be far out, but they do a nice, irregular feature on Bad Science. The latest: Magnets for health. Did not know that Ben Franklin had tried that. Are we ready for cyborgs? The new neuroelectronics. Has Anarchy lost its mojo? Seavey says yes. Joe on Soul Mates and Manly Men. Really a fine piece. H/T, HH. The proof everyone wanted: Saddam and Al Quaida.
Friday, March 17. 2006
Pentagon plans Cyber-insect Army. All-volunteer, no doubt. Talk about stinging butterflies. Third Annual Nigerian Email Conference. Student violence in France continues. What is wrong with that country? And Confed. Yank quotes one of the students, re work: "You've got to do every single thing they ask you to do or you'll get sacked." Gee wiz, wow - that just ain't fair! These students are about as mature as the Moslem rioters were. Department of Dumb Criminals: Man caught with Billion Dollar bills. What do you say at the mini-mart when you buy a 6-pack, a pack of Marlboros, a pack of condoms and two Snickers bars? "Sorry, it's the only cash I have on me - can you make change?" The $100 computer for the world's poor. Not bad. But Bill Gates doesn't like it. Newspapers in error 20% of the time in medical articles. Be glad they aren't doctors. Polymorphous perversity in Holland. Yeah, be open-minded? Who is really hurt by necrophilia? Melanie Phillips. Oh, and more from Holland - the govt tries to bring Dutch gays and Moslems together. Ace. Only a govt could have an idea this dumb. From MassBackwards: 
Ordering a pizza in 2010. Very clever, even if paid for by the ACLU. Is spousal death as distressing as had been thought? Maybe not. Line item veto. Trying again. Calabasas, CA bans outdoor smoking. WFT? May I assume that applies to tobacco, but not weed? The night I became an American. Lee Harris Does the Welfare State prevent the pursuit of Happiness? Tony Snow There are only about 100 of them, but the Florida Panther is beginning to annoy people. Sorry, folks. The Panther was there first. If you want to live with real animals, move to Miami. Neo-neo takes the time to go over some internal Saddam documents. The MSM will not do this, will they? Not even the NYT. Our Fark link was bringing Maggie's Farm over 50,000 visits per day. That Fark is one popular site, and all of the visits gave our Chris a fun challenge to keep us in operation. Thanks, Chris. We hope lots of those people will return. SENIOR DRIVING As a senior citizen was driving down the freeway, his car phone rang. Answering, he heard his wife's voice urgently warning him, "Herman, I just heard on the news that there's a car going the wrong way on Interstate 77. Please be careful!"
"Hell,"said Herman, "It's not just one car. It's hundreds of them!"
Thursday, March 16. 2006
 We are trying to blog lightly today, due to our traffic-control issue, but John Hinderaker really gets it about Ginsberg and the Supremes. Hello, Justice G! Can you remember your Job Description? It is what we pay you for with our hard-earned dollars. (It is not to play God, nor to be a Founding Father, nor to be an original thinker - you do not get paid for those jobs.) Your job is to read the US Constitution while we go to work. If you forgot, be impeached or go home and water your house plants. Hinderaker has a brilliant, brief piece on the subject.
(News image of Justice Ginsburg asleep on bench.)
Here comes John Wayne and the cavalry - the good guys. I wish the world would understand that the US only wants to leave Iraq in peace and with our best wishes for freedom and the pursuit of happiness, as they see fit. Free from the violent intimidation of sociopathic thugs and murderers - masquerading as religious people.
 Dr. Bob encounters a shrill, angry Leftist who can shout empty slogans but is ignorant of history, and reflects on the experience.
Ed Koch asks the NYT to apologies for the "Bush Lied" nonsense. Don't hold your breath. The Princess addresses the Dem agenda? in response to Pelosi's speech on Tuesday. As usual, the Left in America has trouble articulating an agenda which will appeal to voters. They have one, but they don't dare to say it outloud because it is too extreme and too statist for American taste. Pejman says more about the growing Iranian leadership problems. Come on, Iranians. Return to the civilized world. We love Iranians, but their current leader, albeit elected, is a dangerous kook, like a Hitler on acid, and he gives the wrong impression of what Iran is like. Looks like an interesting book on the history of corporate America: The Prof Dinocrat says Sharia creates an economically and intellectually backward society.
Wednesday, March 15. 2006
Get your own Border Initiative coffee mug here.  How Chavez is helping the Colombian economy by destroying his own: Publius
The War amongs the Pacifists: I always believed that the Leftist Pacifists have the goal of being subjugated by anybody, in the hope that things would be better, somehow. Neo-Neo A nice cheerful rant against teacher's unions. Hitchens does Flashman: Part James Bond, part Bertie Wooster: Good stuff. The You Can't Make This Up Department: Graffiti at DePaul leads to prayer session. What idiots. A few blogs I have come to enjoy lately: Rantings of a Sandmonkey - entertaining Egyptian rants from a smart
and clearly highly immature Sandmonkey Always good for a laugh, even if a laugh of despair for the Commonwealth: MassBackwards Legal Beagles: Overlawyered is worth a regular read. Orin Kerr has a new blog - a spin-off from Volokh.
Tuesday, March 14. 2006
Ahmadinejad seems like a nut, but the conflicts he provokes with the West strengthen his standing with his constituency. But wiser heads are slowly leaving his side. We have to remember that Iran has a history of western ties, and westernization. It's not an Iraq. Philosophy in a New Key: The classic is on Norm's list, with an essay. How could anyone be this stupid and insensitive ? Someone should riot and burn an embassy or two. Raising Boys that Feminists will Hate. Giles. We are not "running out of oil." Government cannot give you love. Rev. Sirico in Detroit News Mugabe: All you need to know about this friend of Fidel. Front Page Teacher: Blame the Student. Everything Dan says in this thoughtful piece seems right to me. Is swimming in syrup slower or faster than swimming in water? Is the White House staff burned out? Oriana Fallaci, Swiss speech codes, and European dhimmitude: Atlas The US moves against Iran. CA Yank Stuck in Lodi Again? Zawahiri has been in the US Clooney's lies about McCarthy, etc. the Prof. Can we say that McCarthy was wrong, but right? Truthiness? Driven to a life of crime. What a nutjob. Moonbattery. What do you call a movement of one?
Monday, March 13. 2006
Sopranos: Wonderful television, although the trip through the sewer always leaves a bad taste. When Tony started singing in the kitchen, we knew trouble was coming. Bravo, Harper. Harper visits his troops in Afghanistan. Two from Cap'n Ed: A good reason to fire an employee, and France's latest kindergarten student rebellion: This reaction shows exactly why France will not reform its socialist economy -- too many people have invested themselves into the notion that government force should dictate terms of employment. Under these conditions, foreign investment will be more difficult to procure, as corporations will not want to subject themselves to funding a nanny state where workers cannot be terminated regardless of their work habits. The students who protest against high unemployment have kneecapped themselves and all but guaranteed that their problems will only worsen. De Villepin had the right idea, or at least the right start to the right idea. His modest proposal would have allowed French firms to take chances on younger workers, usually less reliable than those with more responsibilities. With so many looking for work, these employers do not want to waste a position on someone lacking a track record of reliability, especially since they can't get rid of an employee once hired. Why should employers take risks like that with students and new graduates, especially with their attitude of entitlement as expressed in the protests at the Sorbonne?
Steyn: How Liberal Britain let Hate Flourish. The same Steyn who is no longer writing for any Brit newspaper... Meathead provides a perfect case study of how the worst of liberal politics works. More on the Roe v. Wade For Men. Need a good travel company for this summer? Club ABC wins Maggie's Seal of Approval.
Sunday, March 12. 2006
Mardi Gras in Iraq. Nice. Tom Friedman lives in a world of his own. Tom Fox was tortured before he was shot. Was he a Christ-like man, or a foolish tool? Something tells me that this sort of behavior makes no positive impression on Jihadists. Doesn't that organization know that the Jihad hates Christians as much as Jews. And on a similiar note, the pious and feckless Jimmy Carter is subjected to some harsh criticism here. Everyone is talking about Dr. Sultan, the LA psychiatrist who gave the Jihadists a tongue-lashing on Al Jazeera, and is now the recipient of death threats. The mess in Darfur, summarized in the CSM. How does anyone help people so determined to create mayhem, and so lacking in what we rightly term "civilization"?
Saturday, March 11. 2006
Is Google chosing evil over good? Clockwork Google. LGF noted that The Telegraph removed this article on Moslems in Britain from their website. In praise of The Sopranos. The final season. Whatever happened to the people of Easter Island? New theory. Good debate on the economics of medical care. TCS. It seems that the wealthier a nation is, the more they spend on education and medical treatment - if given the choice to do so. Maybe we should trust folks to make their own decisions? Those are rational adult choices. (And, by the way, when people talk about the "uninsured" they never tell you how many of those are temporarily uninsured, or illegals, do they? Government power grabs always create a "crisis" to justify it.) Tom Wolfe praises America. Hey, intellectuals aren't supposed to do that. Billary in bed with evil evil Wall-Mart.
Friday, March 10. 2006
The $20 million bedbugs. Woops. A little problem with their case. Remember the bumper-sticker: "Please hit me. I need the money."? I heard this con-gal on the radio. "I was sooooooo upset. Bug bites all over me, blood..." etc etc. "Booo-hoooo." Throw these grifters out of court, and ban them from the Nevele. If women don't have to bear a child they don't want, why should men have to support a child they don't want? Fun is for fun, and Fair is fair. We'd need to invent her for humor, except she provides it herself. The ongoing Cindy Sheehan comic strip. All of the sheep issues, combined. Paxety. The press and the Left has wanted Iraq to = Vietnam. That silliness should be over now. I hope our pal Dinocrat doesn't mind if we quote at length from his excellent piece on Muslim bias in the MSM: When the story was just about Iraq, the MSM could set the following template: the Bush administration is responsible for the deaths of many innocent Iraqi citizens because of its incompetent planning and execution of the war. Moreover, US soldiers are known to have been involved in abuse and torture, and in any event, the terrorists were not in Iraq until the lying Bush and his WMD talk bungled America into the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s all Bush’s fault. Hmmmm, the MSM perhaps sound like the leading figures of one of our two great political parties, do they not? Those themes ran through 2003, the MSM and Democrat campaign of 2004, and right up to Jack Murtha in 2005. Almost every newscast, a new bombing, a new body count, and the subtext that it was all Bush’s fault. Then something changed. The MSM lost control of the template. The template fell apart in stages. First there was the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran, a man who made clear his intentions to wipe Israel off the map and to make Jihad a global goal, well beyond anything having to do with Iraq. Next came the election of Hamas in Palestine, a crystalline moment when political power shifted to the leading group manufacturing suicide bombers, and whose charter and raison d’etre was the destruction of the Jewish state — again, nothing to do with Iraq. The final straw came with the cartoon riots. The cartoon riots not only destroyed the old media template (”Iraq is Vietnam”), but it created a new one (”Muslims are totally out of control”). Previously, the MSM had no problem whatsoever showing car bombings and suicide attacks in Iraq — such violence was the mainstay of Iraqi coverage. Despite the MSM’s senstivitiy to Islamic issues in their precious refusal to show the cartoons, they could hardly refuse to show the riots in Damascus and Beirut and in Pakistan and Indonesia and elsewhere, and the torching of embassies — these things were not only news, they were well within the scope of previous reporting. Only now the context was entirely different.
Thursday, March 9. 2006
 Who pays attention to the Poles? Capn Ed does. They are tired of the EU.
UN=US? Who wants to invade Darfur? Nobody wants to. What a mess. Austin Bay The Ivy League faculty Hates You. And they are better than you, too: Yale's behavior illustrates how bankrupt academic liberalism has become. Other than deeply-rooted anti-Americanism, I can think of no coherent theory that would justify admitting a former Taliban official as a Yale student while not permitting the U.S. military to talk to Yale students on campus.
A day in the life of a Chinese internet officer. Do not mess with Voltaire in France. Moslems trying to, but they are making themselves highly unwelcome, all across the globe. France seems to believe in two things: Easy life, and the Prophet Voltaire. Time for the Moslems to begin learning to understand other cultures. The MSM continues to campaign for the Dems. Why isn't it required that such MSM reporting be a campaing contribution? Distortion of facts is politics, not reporting. Warren Buffet says you're paying too much for financial advice. No diversity of opinion at Duke. Students plan to shut down Horowitz. Why so fearful of ideas?
Berkeley High Schools finally find something easy to teach. What will the world do with Iran? Iran threatens US with pain and harm. Why can't we all just get along? Autumn of the Humanities. Kriegel at TCS: "We have recently witnessed something of a debate on the "science gap" between American universities and the rest of the world. We did not witness, however, any debate on the state of humanities in American universities. This is not because "all is well" in the world of the humanities. On the contrary, they are in a much sorrier state than anything imaginable in the sciences. It is just that the humanities have been satisfied with the status quo, and their decline has remained opaque to themselves."
Media Refuses to Report Moslem Violent Events. So thoughtful of them to protect us from truth. Blankley at RCP
If the Jihadists win:
Wednesday, March 8. 2006
A Canadian newspaper which is "too sensitive"
to publish Mohammed
cartoons: SDA. This is right out of Orwell. The Encyclopedia of American Conservatism. More on Space Tourism. $20 million. I guess nobody considers that the Earth is already in space. Earth is already a Space Tourism destination. I recommend Turkey, Scotland, and Cape Cod as fine destinations on this outer space Life Planet of Solar System #CD-397-4007-29D-300705T. A tourism boycott of South Dakota? : A law banning nearly all abortions without exception for cases of rape or incest in South Dakota was signed Monday by Governor Mike Rounds prompting women’s groups to call for a tourism boycott of the state. http://www.travelwirenews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000078/007821-p.htm 12 million illegals in US. As Canada begins to undo its socialized medicine, California proposes marching boldly into the past. Hamas opens kiddie website to encourage child martyrs. The Pope's new iPod. The new battle for the soul money of the Dem Party. Brit Marxists attack Islam. H/T, Protein Wisdom Showing your Ass at the NAACP.
Seen this elephant? Quick video download KickingElephants.wmv
What is the Dem agenda? They cannot decide. More socialism, plus defeat? Politics is disgusting. Is "Not Bush" enough? Balloon. Popular Mechanics is becoming a hot magazine. They deal with Katrina myths, via here. Why do newspapers pretend they have no political agendas? What do they have to lose? With housing values rising, property taxes rise too. And politicians get to use the $ to buy votes. Then the regular folks feel exploited, and get mad. India is within the Circle of Fire - the Jihad. The latest. Dem-minded Lefties declare victory! Meaning defeat! University of South Alabama stands tall. So much for the elite colleges. The Admin. is so out to lunch on immigration that it isn't funny. Who are they talking to? Are they really idiots on this subject? Hey, GW - it's our country. The Trevor Green story captures all of the unreported nuance that is needed about Moslem blood-lust. Normblog. The problem with the French economy. Teach people to be children, and they will act like children. Reconstructing American Indian languages. Useless, but interesting. Barry Bonds and steroids. A sad, bad, story.
Tuesday, March 7. 2006
Davidson College. It's a hot school, but can you get a date there? New campus speech code prevents "inquiries about dating." How about inquires about raw, uncommitted, transgender, gay, or lesbian sex? Is heterosexual dating the big evil? How will this be enforced? Santorum. No idea why he has been in trouble. He has a tough fight, but he's a nice guy. Not your father's Britain. Submission in the UK. I ask again - Why does the Left always welcome submission? And even worse: The Nanny State of the UK will now provide Nannies. We are rapidly losing respect, cousins. What happened to noble Self-Reliance? Is it now a Brit thing to have other people pay your bills? Where is the honor in that? Yet another good blogger burns out. The blog voice of Tennessee: One Hand Clapping. If the pay were better...like about $700,000 with good benefits and equity, it would be a pretty decent gig, assuming you don't live on the coasts.
 We are a couple weeks late on the news, but Overlawyered reports that the tremendously successful website craigslist.org, which hosts individual ads for anything from housing to sports equipment and personals, is being sued by a group of Chicago-based lawyers for violating the federal Fair Housing Act. The site currently advises any would-be posters to avoid "discrimination" in their ads, and removes any postings which have been the subject of complaints, but the lawsuit (see the filed complaint here) would compel craigslist to pre-censor all posts.
The Fair Housing Act is already enough of a blow to the right to freely associate, but this lawsuit would prevent individual tenants from so much as describing what qualities they desire in a roommate. Are you a woman who would prefer to live with another female? A guy looking for someone close to his own age? Or even someone mentioning that their apartment is "across from the Catholic church"? Tough luck - mentioning any of these things in an ad would be considered "housing discrimination" and your carefully crafted ad would be screened out. Fortunately, it seems that the weight of precedent is against the "plaintiffs" - themselves just a group of lawyers, rather than any aggrieved party. Even if successful, such a law would only serve to waste the time of all people involved, as the tenant would be forced to deal with each applicant individually to get the same simple information that an ad would have screened for. (The psychology of discrimination comes into play here also: if I read an ad that states a preference for blacks as roommates, I am unlikely to be offended since there was no harm done to me, and in fact harm potentially averted since I was saved the emotional distress of having had my request rejected. If the ad instead said "no whites, asians or hispanics or indians, please," there might be more room for offense even though the meaning is more or less identical. Banning preferences in ads altogether will not make them go away, however, and only makes it much more likely that someone will experience individual rejection on sex/racial/religious grounds.) (Can you identify that unfair house in photo? And who paid the rent?)
The Right to Ridicule. Ridicule is a cruel, humorous, necessary, often clever, and time-honored form of discourse. Dworkin in the NY Review of Books discusses why we must preserve and protect it. Porsche: Made in Finland with VW parts. Outsourcing in the Auto industry. Why the Dems refuse to acknowledge Saddam-Al Quaida links. Duh. We hardly need Barone's talents to explain this. Iran came out of the closet over the weekend and revealed that it has played the EU for suckers. Yesterday, Hamas did the same. I think these guys know they have civilization on the run. LGF. And now we find that Iran is participating in the war in Iraq. Surely they know that the US is not up for one more war in the middle east. Most out-of-control school in the US? Why doesn't somebody call the cops? The thought of good kids in that school, who want to learn, breaks my heart. It is too damn bad that the kids who want to be left behind, can't be, nowadays. Not enough unskilled and semi-skilled work and skilled workers - or the Guatemalan illegals do all of it for peanuts. Stoneworkers get $30/hr; gunsmiths make $100/hr. There's lots of work out there for kids who hate school. My local camera/TV/VCR etc repair guy gets $175/hr. Blogger Ed Driscoll reviews Instapundit's new book about future trends, An Army of Davids. Quote from the book: "I think the way that you make it in the 21st century is going to be figuring out a way to help a lot of people do what they want, rather than as in the 20th century, trying to figure out a way to make them do what you want."
Schwartz at TCS on New Visions for European Islam. Wow. One quote: Western Europeans are, I fear, spiritually exhausted; and they express their "Christian" loyalties only as a means of declaring they are not Muslims. They are afraid of Muslims, but mainly because they are insecure about their own religious legacies. The peoples of New Europe -- Poles, Hungarians, Slovenes, Romanians, and even some other citizens of former Yugoslavia -- survived Communism thanks to their spiritual commitments, often to traditional Catholicism. They are stronger in their Christian belief and are in a better position to view Islam without fear. With these thoughts in mind, as executive director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism, I went to Slovenia and Croatia in February for university and think-tank conferences on European Islam and the "Balkan Muslim model."
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