Wednesday, October 11. 2006
Massbackwards is getting his money's worth from
the Boston Globe: image to right. Federal deficit shrinking fast. Funny how tax cuts spur growth. More Bill Clinton screw-ups. "Charismatic incompetence", at Confederate Yank. Is Europe growing skeptical of Moslem "dialogue"? Israpundit says yes. Drudge is on a roll: Reid got 1 m in land sale; Seeking probe of Berger classifed papers heist in his trousers (about time); and Chris Shays hits Chappaquiddick Ted hard Always, I did everything for love. Chavez. h/t, Devil's Excrement Who timed and peddled the Foleygate IMs? Gateway Try doing this with Jesus! Gates of Vienna Are we short of fossil fuels? No way. Miller Blacks suppress white vote in Mississippi. Yes, I guess the blacks have entered the mainstream. Lucianne Does diversity damage society? Quite possibly. Democracy Project. For one thing, it seems to breed distrust. Ned Lamont is worth between 90 and 300 million. So the 9 million he has spent thus far to buy Lieberman's seat is pocket change. Calif. Yank. Now, he said on TV that he would consider attacking Iran. What's the deal, Ned? Gee, what if Kim Sung Mentally Ill doesn't want to have an honest, civilized, country club conversation? What then? 18 Doughty Street is on the internet air: an alternative to the Bolshevik Broadcasting Corp. Why can't they broadcast? (h/t, Instapundit) Riddle me a riddle: Our readers love these - There are three balls. One is red. Each of the others is either white or black. Now I give you a choice between two lotteries. Lottery A: You win a prize if we draw a red ball.
Lottery B: You win a prize if we draw a white ball. Which lottery do you choose?
Check it out at Volokh Does more money help public education, asks Education Wonks: For a number of reasons, that's not an easy question to answer. But Thespis Journal has some numbers that supports the idea that money has little to do with it. (Who would believe that there are public school districts out there that spend an astounding $51,828 on each student?)
The 95 things that fuel Moslem extremism, at Jihad Watch. It's ironic, of course. It fuels itself. Jack and Charmaine - now totally married. Mazel Tov! And many happy joint returns!
Once again: The once-venerable medical journal is at it again with their pre-American election propaganda. Rick covers it. Truly propaganda masquerading as statistics, dishonest, wrong - and shameful for a medical journal whose name still confers credibility to those unfamiliar with their political agenda.
Says Auster: This demonstrates my definition of the three types of politics. Reactionaries and traditionalists recognize a threat to their society the moment it appears. Conservatives recognize a threat to their society only after the society is half ruined. And liberals and leftists recognize a threat to their society only after the society is completely ruined, or they never recognize it at all.
Ideas are more powerful than guns. We don't allow our enemies to have guns, why should we allow them to have ideas? Joseph Stalin
Tuesday, October 10. 2006
Finally, a needed web site: CAIR Watch. 
They deserve some serious baby-sitting.
(h/t, LGF) The Religion of the Chronically Fake-Offended causes removal of more items from YouTube. Illegal Jaguar immigrants crossing border to US. Truth is, we'd love to have these guys back in the US. NYT Science. But it's a pretty lame argument against a border fence. Did climate change cause downfall of the Mayan Civilization? American Scientist A capitalist wins Nobel. Is Krugman disappointed? Details at The Conspiracy How religious are American professors? More so that one might think. A new study from Harvard and George Mason The Soros organization CREW has been holding the Foley info since April, waiting for election season. Gateway. Wow, such concern for the kids. And more tricks and distortions from CREW, at Am. Thinker. May I ask why the Repubs have think tanks, and the Dems have dirty trickster organizations? Top Dem operative warns: Keep gays away from boys. Gay Patriot. Is that a flip-flop? Image: Furtively borrowed from Theo Clark of Humbug, who had his own scenic blog until recently. Hope he doesn't see it...naw, he won't notice.
 I am, in principle, in favor of a universal draft with service required for every young American boy and girl. I know the Armed Forces would not want all of those short-termers these days, as service has grown more technical and requires training well beyond Basic. Getting rid of the draft was an insidious, politically-motivated move by Nixon, and, as he cynically predicted, it did largely end the anti-war movement. So, although I do not have a Plan, I think it's an important concept. Service to the country used to be what all Americans (well, American guys) had in common. Now, there is nothing, other than paying taxes. This comes up because The News Junkie asked me to comment on a piece by Kim du Toit. A couple of quotes: At its most basic foundation, conscription addresses an unpleasant little fact: most people are cowards. They might be cowards on their own behalf, or because they want to protect their children from dying, but they are cowards nevertheless.
and We can dress this up with all the fine rhetoric, slogans and philosophy we choose: conscription is slavery; conscription is discriminatory; conscription is un-Constitutional, whatever. It’s all camouflage to hide the uncomfortable fact that many people consider their own lives to be more valuable than any ideal, or the needs of the community. (I don’t have a problem with people feeling that way: I just want people to be honest about it.) The most pernicious statement against conscription, however, is the famous one uttered by Robert Heinlein: “Any country that has to defend itself with forced conscripts is not worth defending.” It is depressing to think that a man who got so much right could utter such complete nonsense. The reason it’s nonsense, of course, is that (like many similar arguments) it ignores this basic facet of human nature: that many people value their own lives more than the existence of their country.
A coward? Me? Hell, yes. Read the whole thing. How can we be, as a country, comfortable and guilt-free leaving service to "others"? Freedom is not a free lunch.
A YouTube at Mr. Free Market. The food in Working Class looks tasty.
 70% of Britons are oppressed minorities. A truly fine demonstration of the absurdity of victim-think. Betsy. Man, I bet that keeps those mean old oppressors very busy.
Buy one for the neighborhood, and pass it around. You only need it once. Hammacher Schlemmer Two tips from Smart Christian: The end of limbo, and why, at Parableman. Second, the beginning of a series on atheistic ethics at Christian Thinker Moslems tip the balance in urban elections in Belgium. Brussels Journal Global chilling of free speech. Heretics must be punished. O'Neill in Spiked Cutting class size helps the union for certain, but does it really matter for education? Prof. Bainbridge Anna Politkovskaya: Comments at the NY Sun and the CSM. Something tells me Putin does not like independent journalists. Lieberman with strong lead in CT "NYT censors the fact that the NYT engaged in censorship - in an article about censorship' Patterico Dwarves who sit on the shoulders of dead giants. Atlas looks at VDH's piece on Europe. Whose song lyrics are most often quoted in judicial opinions and legal journals? LawBlog (thanks, Reader) The Foley stuff goes way back. I suspect everyone in DC knew about this stuff. Mod. Voice When North Korea collapses, who benefits? China, most likely. Kaplan in The Atlantic
I've been rich, and I've been poor. Believe me, rich is better. Mae West
Monday, October 9. 2006
 It is Indian Summer in New England. There is nothing finer. Nights are cool, in the 50s - perfect sleeping weather with the window open and the comforter tossed around, and the dogs at your feet. Blue skies, low humidity, nice breezes for sailing - and hunting season has begun, up north. And, at dusk, the crickets, which have grown large by now, cheer you up with their merry, end-of-life chatter. Here, near Hartford, few leaves have begun to change, but the crisp mornings tell you that they will, soon.
Why George Bush? Because he controls the weather, does he not? Thanks George, for this remarkable Indian Summer we are having. And, speaking of the diabolical Bush, isn't it time for a big Thank You to him for this economy too, which is rolling along with essentially zero unemployment, a shrinking federal deficit, a record-breaking stock market, and rising wages without inflation? Who shall we blame for this? It's called the Bush Miracle Economy, and it's the biggest news - except for the Foley thing, and NoKo's creepy nuke test - but it isn't reported, and will not be. The press will give Bush credit for nothing. They are on the other side.
Submission is, of course, the translation of the word "islam," - and also the title of Theo Van Gogh's film - the one he was killed for making. Willisms has Part one of the film on YouTube. And, speaking of YouTube, will Google buy it for 1.6 billion? Or is it just a fad?
Ye olde blogge has been interested in cattle, lately.
We have recently featured the most popular American diary breeds - the Holstein, the Jersey, the Guernsey, etc - for our city-folk readers who cannot tell a Jersey cow from a Jersey girl, and who have never milked a cow. (A post-test will eventually follow.) While there are many wild species of cattle - American Bison, European Bison, Gaur, Water Buffalo, Cape Buffalo, Yaks, etc, the domestic dairy and beef cattle breeds are all derived from the Auroch, a Eurasian species which has been extinct since the last one was killed in Poland in the 1600s. The word "cattle" is the antique French word chattel - same word as "possession". The word "steak" derives from the Saxon word for "stick" - that is, beef on a stick over the fire. Those Saxons ate well sometimes, I suppose, even without Weber grills.  A brief history of domestic cattle here. They were a great choice for domestication: relatively placid (not the bulls) grazing beasts which could provide milk, meat, labor, and leather. Since at least 6500 BC they were domesticated in Turkey, following pigs, dogs, goats, and sheep, but before horses.
Images: Aurochs from my time machine above, and an auroch from Lascaux to left.
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. D.H. Lawrence (that's the headline quote of the most recent addition to our blogroll: Never yet Melted)
Sunday, October 8. 2006
 Try this version of Smoke on the Water. Turn the sound up. My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
What Title 9 has done to screw up college sports. Yeah - how does it work if less gals than guys want to play college sports? Rhymes with Right Ka-ching. Suing Wendys because you're illegal. Sheesh. Moonbattery Is this your idea of an apology? “I apologize to anyone who feels we didn't come forward with all the facts.” Hahaha. Is that close to "I'm sorry that you care that I lie." Squaring the Boston Globe The Moslem war against the French police has been widely reported. Update from RWN Do food expiration dates mean anything? Here's a dhimmi, in person. Gates of Vienna Bill Clinton: We expect the media to be on our side. Just One Minute Lee Abrams on how they got Dylan on board with XM radio Liberalism is a religion. We agree. The will of the eschaton. Driscoll quotes Nordlinger: Jerry Taylor of the Cato Institute tells a story about Julian Simon, the late and great economist. He was at some environmental forum, and he said, “How many people here believe that the earth is increasingly polluted and that our natural resources are being exhausted?” Naturally, every hand shot up. He said, “Is there any evidence that could dissuade you?” Nothing. Again: “Is there any evidence I could give you — anything at all — that would lead you to reconsider these assumptions?” Not a stir. Simon then said, “Well, excuse me, I’m not dressed for church.” I love that story, for what it says about the fixity of these beliefs, immune to evidence, reason, or anything else. Read Driscoll's entire short piece. It captures a fundamental truth, and I think it helps explain why it is so difficult to discuss issues with liberals. Nancy Pelosi has a history of sympathy with pedophiles. Jawa Report. Oh well, what does it matter? Trying to seduce these pages is not pedophilia. Pedophilia is about pre-adolescents. When all else fails, blame racism. P/T Pundit Candidate for worst You Tube ever: Leonard Nemoy's Ballad of Bilbo Baggins. Do not watch this - life is too short. Image: Ring-billed Gulls at the beach on Saturday.You can read about Ring-bills here at CLO
 Look at the longitude in the photo to the right. Samizdata checks out the new Greenwich museum, with GPS in hand.
Cosmic rays affect earth's weather. Who'd a thunk it? Space News (h/t, the astonishing Anchoress) More Castro cancer news. Does the press run the Dems? Libertarian Leanings What do Playboy bunnies study in college? (h/t, SDA) "Compassionate politicians"? From a piece at Coyote: I hate it when politicians are called "caring" or "compassionate" when the sole evidence for this is the fact that they take my money and give it to someone else or build something with it that they can put their name on.
Ditto, Coyote. What's wrong with being rich? Obviously, nothing. National Post. But in Canadanistan, they seem to find that subject controversial. (h/t, SDA) The IgNobel Prize and the science of smelly feet: Worstall Happy Ramadan! Dissident Frogman Will this be a trend to abandon AP courses, as Scarsdale is considering? Not a bad idea. Another useful idea would be to return High School to 3 years the way it used to be. Proof that God exists. Ten Napel. But who needs any more proof? Pay us back, you sketchy scumbag. Wizbang. The slow death of the UN. We agree with Tangled Web: The UN is a corrupt sewer, it is incapable of ANY moral leadership, it is institutionally pro-terror, it is anti-Semitic to the core, it is rabidly anti-American, and the election of Mr. Moon will hopefully bring about its total eclipse. We need a forum for democratic nations - for those who uphold pluralist values - and the UN has moved SO FAR away from its original mission that it really is time to drive a stake through its rancid heart. The anglosphere nations should leave it and stop bankrolling this most hateful of organisations. History will record the UN as being even worse than the League of Nations.
Mark 10: 2-13 Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” 3He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” 4They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” 5But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. 6But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” 10Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; 12and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” 13People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. 14But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. 15Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” 16And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.
Saturday, October 7. 2006
 "I wish I could buy you for what you're worth, and sell you for what you think you're worth", and other good insults, at SC&A
Ramsey Clark really dislikes George Bush (h/t, Ace) Memorizes Pi to 100,000 decimal places. Count me a skeptic. This guy would have been quite handy in ancient Greece. Nessie finally found - the bones, anyway. Some Dino The blogosphere knows lots more about the ACLU than do most people, thanks to Stop the ACLU. Investor's Business Daily just ran a piece a week ago on the subject. A quote: The Enemy Within: From the beginning, the American Civil Liberties Union has aligned itself with America's adversaries. Its unrelenting strategy has been to twist our Constitution into a weapon against American values and security. ACLU founder and longtime executive director Roger Baldwin's infamous quote still haunts his organization today, a quarter-century after the radical activist's death: "I am for socialism, disarmament and ultimately for abolishing the state itself as an instrument of violence and compulsion. I seek social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class, and sole control by those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal." It's a statement that's been repeated and reprinted so many times, some Americans might be numbed rather than outraged upon hearing it again. But it's no urban legend. The man who started the organization that claims to be the leading safeguard of the U.S. Constitution did say it, along with plenty of statements mirroring those sentiments.
Whole thing here. Althouse has a fine rundown of the Columbia "protest" story, with TWO videos and recent admin. comments. One good comment from a reader: "Where was Security?" From the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion: The greater a population's devotion to religion, or "religiosity," the lower its level of acceptance of tax fraud, write Steven J. Stack, a professor of criminal justice at Wayne State University, and Augustine Kposowa, a professor of sociology at the University of California at Riverside. And, they say, tax-fraud studies have "neglected religiosity as a social bond that may deter" tax fraud. Instead, research has focused on how perceptions of apprehension and punishment decrease tax avoidance, and on behavior in the United States alone. In particular, they say, researchers have not previously explored the "moral communities" hypothesis: that religiosity's effect on deviance will vary according to the degree to which a nation's population identifies with a religious group. The authors analyzed data for about 45,728 individuals in 36 nations that were reported by the World Values Survey, a global network of social scientists who have studied the basic values and beliefs of societies around the world. Mr. Stack and Mr. Kposowa found that the higher individual levels of religiosity were, the lower was the acceptability of tax fraud. They also found, in a comparison of nations in which a majority of the population identifies with a religious group, that the presence of such moral communities had a marked effect on the acceptance of tax noncompliance. The researchers also found that in nations with communist regimes, which commonly suppress religious groups, the effect of religion on acceptance of tax fraud diminished. Comparing members of various faiths, the researchers found that Buddhists and Catholics were significantly more approving of tax-fraud than were Protestants, Jews, Hindus, and Muslims. "Persons with no religious affiliation were typically the group that approved the most" of tax avoidance, the authors write. Speculating on whether those variations could be explained by differences in teachings, the authors note that the only significant difference they found was the Buddha's argument that "crime, including theft, was mainly a function of poverty." Their findings, they say, indicate "that the promotion of participation in religion and confidence in government might be sound strategies for reducing tax fraud." They add, however, that "it is beyond the scope of the present article to address exactly how these goals might be best accomplished." The article, "The Effect of Religiosity on Tax Fraud Acceptability: A Cross-National Analysis," is available for subscribers or for purchase through Blackwell Publishing.
A blog named Dust my Broom would have to have a good feel for the blues - and he does. Push the button. (How is that done, Chris? We ought to do that too.)
From Horsefeathers: Horsefeathers has been fascinated by the decline of Liberalism. Perhaps this is because its rise and fall has occurred over the course of his own lifetime. It sometimes strikes us that all the people, now departed, whose opinions mattered most to us were liberals. While they are gone, Liberalism itself lingers, sick unto death, an almost moribund version of its once lively self. Liberalism was a part of the world of ideas in which we lived, part of what we admired in the older generation. It was the air we breathed and the way we thought of ourselves: we were Liberals, and proud of it. And now it is no more. How did a once robust philosophy devolve into a childish set of insular, self- flattering beliefs? How and why did the requirement for reasoned self-criticism, so vital to Liberalism as we knew it, give way to a whiny, feminized set of politically correct sentiments articulated with all the intelligence of a bumper sticker? How did feelings come to assume primacy over thought, while victim status became more sought after than real achievement? Finally, how did Liberalism come to reject reason itself, in favor of politically correct stances and naïve fantasies about human nature?
He is a recovering Liberal, like so many conservatives. For his answers to these questions, read the whole thing.
Friday, October 6. 2006
If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.
Sam Adams, Philadelphia, August 1, 1776 (h/t, Massbackwards)
Thursday, October 5. 2006
"Well, I ride on a mailtrain, baby,
Can't buy a thrill.
Well, I've been up all night, baby,
Leanin' on the window sill.
Well, if I die
On top of the hill
And if I don't make it,
You know my baby will.
Don't the moon look good, mama,
Shinin' through the trees?
Don't the brakeman look good, mama,
Flagging down the "Double E"?
Don't the sun look good
Goin' down over the sea?
Don't my gal look fine
When she's comin' after me?
Now the wintertime is coming,
The windows are filled with frost.
I went to tell everybody,
But I could not get across.
Well, I wanna be your lover, baby,
I don't wanna be your boss.
Don't say I never warned you
When your train gets lost." "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry," off 1965's Highway 61 Revisited. This bluesy song, originally titled "Phantom Engineer," became a staple of the early- and mid-90's phase of the Neverending Tour, but has been played much less frequently since that time. A version from 1995, with Jerry Garcia guesting on guitar less than two months before his death, can be downloaded here.
 Columbia College has the chance to stand up for diverse opinions, or to collapse ignominiously the way Grayson Kirk finally did so many years ago, when the lunatics ended up running the asylum.
Powerline wrote the story before we got to it, with the apt tagline "The whole world is watching." In the meantime, someone should inform these kids that it isn't 1968 anymore. The college is highly competitive - so where are they finding these infantile idiots? And will the college which prohibits a pussy reference for the hockey team recruiting (what a joke) stand up to these tantruming spoiled brat brownshirts-in-training? It's time to find out what Columbia University stands for: the mature discourse of civil, educated adults, or delinquent mobs. I think a semester's suspension might be reasonable. A little time to grow up, just like a "time out" for 4 year-olds. Your move, Administration. Update: More from Blue Crab here, and video from Michelle here.
 I am the world's biggest dork. RTLC blogger Lee calculates his social failings and his wasted time.
4% of the US hops crop burned. Who knew there were 17 varieties? CNN Foley's habits were an open secret in DC for years. Just One Minute French cops run away from youths. What would you expect? LGF Michael Jackson plans to run for Foley's seat: Borowitz Narcissistic Women celebrate baby murder: LaShawn Cuba's secret to longevity: Coffee, cigars, and sex. BBC Brit clergy blame Christianity for domestic abuse. Moonbattery. Well, then I suggest that they lead the charge to get rid of Christianity. Oh - they already are. Fjordman fans: Klein Verzet has started a blog called Fjordman Files to archive his essays. (h/t, Gates of Vienna) Stop the assaults on free speech. We agree. Betsy. Whatever problem - if there is one - that is being addressed hardly matters because any cure is far worse than the disease. Glenn R discusses the travails of air travel, and notes that, door to door, air travel runs around 60 mph. But new tiny jets are on the way: everyone should have their own. TCS Image from The Chairman. Nice boats in the harbor last evening. Ah, the simple joys of life: Your own dock in your back yard, with a his and hers Hinckley.
|
