Thursday, May 31. 2007
 Microsoft launches Virtual 3D New York City. Flares
If Liberals want to imitate Europe, here are some ideas worth imitating: Lowering taxes They will believe anything in Russia. Man, that is dumb. Do not eat any food from China, Part 5. Or any food in China. What is the ideal climate for the earth? Damn good point, from yet another skeptical scientist with the big picture in mind. Blue Crab. Sometimes I think the whole world is insane. Ferdinand the Bull and other children's books, and Iraq. Excellent piece from neoneo. Academic moonbattery isn't as bad as you might think. RWN. Sharpen up your message, Fred. Powerline What are people's images of God? Interesting, and not what you might think.
Tuesday, May 29. 2007
 Greenpeace: Lost whales as a good source of renewable oil.
Don't go to the beach. The sand can make you sick. Science Daily Whose jobs are the illegals taking? Coyote says "nobody's" Are CEOs underpaid? The Prof has the link. Britain has become a fascist state. Tangled Web. Not to worry, Brits. It's for your own good. Pictogames. Make games out of your photos. This actually looks kind of fun. Yesterday, Chavez closed another independent TV station. Gateway. It gives me the creeps that the American Left supports this. As Tammy Bruce says: "...that pesky tyrannical authoritarianism is a hallmark of "socialist revolution" folks. Always has been, always will be." I am saying nothing about Cindy Sheehan. How the government is going to tax your Social Security checks. Viking. Is "dyslexia" a euphemism for "not too smart"? Daily Mail At the Supreme Court: interesting Seattle case on the use of race for public school admissions.
Monday, May 28. 2007
 Our blog: Predictably and amusingly, lots of search hits on our Box Turtle post for "farm p*rn" and "animal p*rn." If we wanted hundreds of thousands instead of our elite thousands of discriminating readers, farm p*orn would surely be the way to go because there are clearly tons of still-closeted bestiality fans out there. Unpredictably but also amusingly, I see lots of hits on "Removing Pachysandra." At Maggie's Farm, one must admit, you never know what you might find. We are pleased that our Brit blog pal Theo named us his "Best Blog in the Known Universe" - or something like that - for the week. Thanks, Theo. You have exquisite taste in both blogs and women. And how was the sailing in Newport, I hear you asking. Wonderful, but we didn't win. Deservedly so. A fairly good strategy for the breezy but shifting conditions, but our tactics didn't work out and, in one race, we fouled another boat at the windward mark. Fouled them badly, but unintentionally, and put a nice ding in their fiberglass in addition to annoying their crew quite a bit in doing so to the point of using unsavory language. We were coming on too fast, and had little room to maneuver. We apologized profusely after that race, and bought them boat drinks.
Let's chat. Dems meet with Muslim Brotherhood. Activist Cash. Where does the money come from? Look it up here. Democracy is no defence against tyranny. Samizdata on the Venezuela mess. True to Socialist form, Chavez sent in his tanks. Another Worker's Paradise in the making. How I learned to love Vlad. A 2006 Guardian piece on Putin. h/t, Free Republic. Apparently Russians don't mind being ruled. The UK becomes more Orwellian. Small Drowned Baby Polar Bears Al Gore's fan club. Rich folks with SUVs. h/t, My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy Gag me with a spoon. The life of Bill and Hillary. These two are what my friend would term "rude, crude, and socially unacceptable." Soft drinks bad for your health? Somebody tell Mayor Bloomberg. Rachel Carson. A bad person? Moonbattery. True, she was a pioneer enviro-hysteric, but she was right that DDT was harmful to animals, especially those higher on the food chain. But if not for DDT, we would still have malaria in New England. In 1900 it was a major public health problem up here. It is not a tropical disease. Be very afraid of "Big Recreation." And quit using your grill, too. A town that told the food Nazis where to stick their transfats. Why infant morbidity rates in the US are higher than in other countries - we spend too much money. Right Thinking. Never take a statistic at face value. People are too stupid for democracy. An old argument in new clothes. Cafe Hayek
Sunday, May 27. 2007
We have not given Dr. Sanity proper credit for occasionally posting our insanities on her weekly, always-amusing Sunday Carnival of the Insanities. Thanks, Dr. S, for linking our piece on Nanny Bloomberg. And thanks for helping to resist the gowing crisis of Global Insanity.
 Christina Hoff Summers on the silence of the feminists (h/t Thompson). They have no problem with multicultural denial of women's rights. One quote from the interesting piece:
One reason is that many feminists are tied up in knots by multiculturalism and find it very hard to pass judgment on non-Western cultures. They are far more comfortable finding fault with American society for minor inequities (the exclusion of women from the Augusta National Golf Club, the "underrepresentation" of women on faculties of engineering) than criticizing heinous practices beyond our shores. The occasional feminist scholar who takes the women's movement to task for neglecting the plight of foreigners is ignored or ruled out of order.
Which makes them look more like stereotypical cry-babies than heros. Photo to right - a lady friend of Theo. She is no cry-baby, and she seems so feminine that she must be a real feminist. Department of glass houses: Gore decries trivialities and nonsense in news. Mookie's party bombs. A lot of easy money to be made. Anybody with a pool could do this. (h/t, Patterico) Al Zawahiri: "Al Quaida is winning in Iraq. It's time to expand the war." The bit about the pangolins especially bothered me. Who would eat a cute lil' pangolin? Now mesquite-grilled raccoon I can relate to, but they aren't endangered. Dallas HS students protest not passing graduation exams. Good grief. What have we bred in this country? Sheesh. Show a little dignity. NYT immigration poll reported at Blue Crab. Just one bit from the piece: A New York Times/CBS News poll released yesterday found that 69% of American adults believe illegal immigrants should “be prosecuted and deported for being in the U.S. illegally.” Just 24% disagree and say they should not. The survey of 1,125 adults was conducted May 18-23, 2007.
Sen. James Inhofe's opening comments at Senate hearings on global warming and recreation. His focus is on unintended consequences - something which, it seems, Congress rarely considers in its short-term view of the world. The Shumer Strategy. The drip, drip, drip of manufactured scandal. This is war, folks. Bill wanted a divorce. Hillary had other plans. A lovely couple. Searching for leftist commentators worthy of respect. Hatemonger found a few. We agree, and we look for them too.
Saturday, May 26. 2007
 A fine day for the beach, but I am going to Rhode Island this morning for a couple of days of sailing.
Duke group mocks Group of 88. Here's their newspaper piece. Tawfik Hamid on how to end Islamophobia. Exactly. New York's Bravest lowering standards to avoid DOJ problems. Apparently literacy standards are racist. LaShawn digs into the subject. If those of African heritage really have lower average "g" than other races, as abundant studies show, it's a big problem. I remain a skeptic. Norwegians getting rich on oil. Norway? Git offa my lawn, kid. Synthstuff. And I really mean it. Is Fred Thompson the Reagan Reagan? Fred visits New England. Is Obama the liberal Reagan? RWNH The mess in Lebanon, thanks to Al Quaida. A damn shame, because it could be and once was a fine country. Top execs face pay crunch. Stockholders must be deciding that enough is enough. Sarko wants to eliminate "tu" for profs. Right on! He is demanding some respect from Iran, too. Should home ownership be the American dream? Yes, as a defence against inflation. But if not? Tigerhawk. I think it's more sentimental and historical. Not to mention that it is forced savings. Valerie Plame? Ho hum. But she did push her husband forward, after all. Just One Minute. That is not what she said.  The MSM refuses to discuss Al Quaida and terrorist torture. Thjey would rather talk about panties on the head.
Prediction: Immigration bill will pass Senate China hopes to clean up pests and disease before the Olympics. Maybe their food, too? Peggy Noonan's excellent piece on illegal immigration. A quote: We should stop, slow down and absorb. We should sit and settle. We should do what you do after eating an eight-course meal. We should digest what we've eaten. We should close our borders. We should do whatever it takes to close them tight and solid. Will that take the Army? Then send the Army. Does it mean building a wall? Then build a wall, but the wall must have doors, which can be opened a little or a lot down the road once we know where we are. Should all legal immigration stop? No. We should make a list of what our nation needs, such as engineers and nurses, and then admit a lot of engineers and nurses. We should take in what we need to survive and flourish. As we end illegal immigration, we should set ourselves to the Americanization of the immigrants we have. They haven't only joined a place of riches, it's a place of meaning. We must teach them what it is they've joined and why it is good and what is expected of them and what is owed. We stopped Americanizing ourselves 40 years ago. We've got to start telling the story of our country again.
The photos are of International Etchells
Friday, May 25. 2007
Warming has finally hit New England today. Very pleasant indeed. I have always wondered about cloud chambers, but never bothered to learn more about them. Eric took the trouble, and connects clouds to warming.
 Are bad manners and obnoxiousness hate crimes? I thought there had to be a crime before you could have a hate crime. Where's the ACLU? Heck, I've been called all sorts of names in my life. Sticks and stones...
15 year-old outsmarts UN Climate Panel The model graduation speaker: Mr. Rogers. I am sure that I would agree. Illegals register to vote in Texas. Al Quaida is better at media manipulation than at war. So they do what they're good at. Hispanic immigrants to the US: 42% of births are out of wedlock. Sarkozy wants to reform the Sarbonne. Excellent ideas. 30 years later, Argentinian mothers still march for justice for their dead. A pill that stops menstruation. Volokh A plague of locusts. The 17-year cicadas are crawling up from their 17-year stay in the soil, and will soon be all over the place. Predictably, there will be articles about how to cook them. This piece from 2004 explains how the broods work. I have always enjoyed watching birds try to catch them when they fly. More about the new WalMart walk-in clinics. Always amazing the way markets can figure out things that experts and government cannot: it's because experts always have blinders on, and government is stupid. Atheist donates 22 million to NYC's Catholic Charities. Good move. Great organization, with no political agenda. Your friend Google wants to know you much better. Yes, it is creepy. But if you don't like it, use Dogpile. This invasive species seems to have no friends. Not cuddly enough, I guess. A treadmill desk. Not a bad idea. But the irony in the concept does not escape me. Hansen: Cut America Some Slack. I agree. A quote: ...radical American egalitarianism is what terrifies our Islamist enemies. Bin Laden—many of the terrorist’s family were living in the United States on September 11—knows the insidious dangers of Americanization, both from his own wealthy youth spent enjoying the high life, and the failure of his Sharia law to compete with Spiderman for the attention of most of his flock.
Read the whole thing.
Thursday, May 24. 2007
 The chorus of protest over the bill in the Senate right now (the "No Illegal Alien Left Behind" act, as some would call it, or the "Destroy America Now" act) is coming from so many places, and from so many unlikely sources that it is getting difficult to keep up.
While criticism has come from the usual quarters, even such open-borders advocates as George Will and John Podhoretz have come down hard on the bill. The staggering costs of the bill, only just now coming to light, have revealed a total outlay of as much as 2.5 trillion over the next two decades. Ed Morrissey notes that the bill has achieved the remarkable distinction of having almost every single voting group in the USA opposed to it: Not a single demographic in the study favors this proposal, except under Race: Other. Democrats oppose it 51-28. Republicans oppose it 47-25. Men and women both clearly oppose it. Only people ages 30-39 come close to overcoming opposition, 34-32 in opposition. But when the subject turns to border security, the numbers turn even more dramatic....The data is so compelling, one has to wonder why Congress hasn't realized that they could offer a win for everyone by focusing exclusively on border security as an entrée to immigration reform. They literally would please every possible constituency by doing so, and would almost overnight dial down the emotion over the rest of the issue. Only in DC could the governing class be so out of touch with the national mood.
Meanwhile, another blogger eviscerates the irrational arguments of those like Dick Morris, Robert Novak and Fred Barnes that the GOP must support this bill or risk losing Hispanic votes: The GOP has got to understand that they will never, ever be able to compete with Democrats when it comes to appealing to poor, uneducated welfare cases -- which is exactly the category most of these illegal aliens would fall into. That's because Democrats, being big government socialists, will always be willing to offer them more goodies for their votes. The GOP's target audience among Hispanics will be more educated, more successful, more middle-class Hispanics, not poverty cases or the La Raza crowd. That means for the GOP to gain with Hispanics over the long term, we've got to push policies that will allow the Hispanics who are already American citizens to become more successful, not bring in penniless, uneducated manual laborers from South America by the tens of millions and hope that they'll vote for us because we're "democrat light" on amnesty and welfare.
In the most amusing quote of the day, Barack Obama set some sort of Democratic first in the following critique of one of the few sensible changes in the bill - placing a skills requirement for immigrants above that of extended family ties: This change "constitutes at minimum a radical experiment in social engineering and a departure from our tradition of having family and employers invite immigrants to come," Obama said.
A Democrat criticizing something for being a radical social experiment that's a departure from historical tradition? I'm expecting to see pigs flying around Nashville right about now.
Do we need or want more women's colleges? Sister Toldjah "Short-dicked white boys" and "niggers." I never heard these details of the Duke story. Sen. Kyle is baffled. From one of his constituents, Linknzona It must be those dang Presbyterians again, violating dogs' rights. Blair Women are to blame. Good point, from Stumbling and Mumbling. The entry of women into the job market in massive numbers over the past 20 years has certainly held down wages - not because they are women, but because it greatly increased the supply of labor in all areas, from law to medicine to government to business to clerical to the military.
Wednesday, May 23. 2007
 Does "fair trade" coffee do any good? Berndt at TCS doubts it. It's more of a "feel-good" deal.
Al Quaida in Lebanon. CSM. These guys say they will fight to the death of them all. More at Gateway. Meanwhile, the Taliban are having a tough go of it. It seems that the Brits killed all of their officers. Good show. Snow in Colorado this week. World CO2 emissions will grow 60% by 2030, and there isn't a damn thing anyone can do about it. 50% of Americans are pro-life, 45% pro-"choice." Those are interesting numbers. (h/t, News for Christians) 1/4 of American Moslem males would like to kill Americans. Of course, those are the numbers of those who will admit it. Contemplating that makes me uneasy around Moslems. The charted info is here. Maybe it's time to take a long hard look at our immigration policies...eh, Pres Bush? Nobody told Mayor Mike that hybrids are worse for the environment, so he is going to mandate hybrid taxis. Damn the data - he "cares". Am I the only person who is sick of this sanctimonious guy? Yes, he runs the place, but does he have to "care" so much? It's not masculine. I am waiting for him to mandate rubbers when it rains. When Reagan demolished RFK in debate. Like to see that video, but the Kennedys blocked its release. Boehner applies bad language to the immigration bill. Somehow, I think he is not fully behind Bush on this one. And Senator Kyl not looking strong right now after pulling a fast one on Arizona voters. Surber. And let me say that I like Prof. Bainbridge a good deal, but I do not want him to preach the Good Samaritan parable to me in the context of immigration law: there's a word for that sort of argument. Eric has some interesting thoughts from Gingrich about immigration: he feels he was hoodwinked the last time he voted for reform. Not surprisingly, Bush's poll numbers crash whenever he brings up amnesty for illegal immigration. I'm glad he isn't poll-driven, but how far will he go to destroy his party? News flash. Black kids from intact, religious families do best in school. LaShawn Last week Illinois overwhelmingly rejected a state medical care proposal. This week, California overwhelmingly rejects "free" preschool. Is this a pattern? The Nigerian Anglicans sending a mission to the US. The Nigerian Bishop's reply to the American Episcopal bishop is too funny. More on how the greedy geezers soak us working stiffs. Viking. It is, indeed, the rich stealing from the poor. Forcing lightbulb change is pathological. Thanks for saying so, Glenn. The Palestinians are victims. Victims of the Arabs, who want nothing to do with them. Neoneo. There is a real bias against them in the Arab world. It's kinda funny that the only people who really try to help them are the Brits, the US, and Israel. They are in the "difficult to help" category.
Tuesday, May 22. 2007
 Ball of Fire. If you didn't hear this Algore satire, it's good. By the great Paul Shanklin. Link here.
Nations, ranked by obesity rates. Tiger Hawk. Hey! We're Number One! I guess there is plenty of hunger in America - an endless hunger for carbs. Ant or grasshopper? If you aren't sure, take the spending habits survey. Ants win, of course. Everybody loves Sarkozy now. Pajamas. They are lucky to have him. Can he be France's Maggie Thatcher? He has the chance. How does illegal immigration harm American citizens' unskilled labor? It holds down wages. Dem Project Everyone has linked ex-Dem Senator Bob Kerry's essay on how Iraq should be handled. Why? Because it is sensible. Stalin as a "fine young criminal." Book review via A&L Daily. (h/t to one of our blog friends, but I forget who.) Sacrificing fetuses in utero. No Left Turns Thompson speaks. As usual, no BS, and no calculation. Three ordinary lives in Baghdad. CSM. A good look. Iran plans summer war campaign in Iraq to empower the Dems. Never Yet Melted. Sheesh - they are working hand-in-hand. Edwards charges $55,000 to speak about poverty. That $ came out of your tuition check, parents. Want Pat Buchanan's view of amnesty? National suicide, says Pat. More on Hillary's nationalized babysitting proposal. Betsy. Would those babysitters be the same folks who work at the Post Office? College boozing and heart problems. Time Gotta record that macaca moment, says Kos. From a Dr. Sanity piece on the greenies: The "elites" have never abandoned their dreams of imposing a socialist paradise, and one of their basic strategies is to undermine capitalism by using the talking points of their "environmental religion".
I suspect that they truly believe that if humans would abandon capitalism and technology; go back to the cave and live the "simple life", then their ideology would finally work in the real world and their dreams of a religious caliphate international socialist paradise would finally be realized.
Perhaps that is why they have consciously and deliberately joined forces with radical Islam, which suffers from the same inabilty to bring peace (unless you count death as the ultimate "peace") and prosperity to their adherents; and has the same fantasy.
Kim du Toit imagines his singles ad, were he to find himself single: ”Foul-tempered old man, very set in his ways, not especially fond of women, but willing to put up with their shit for the occasional burst of laughter and even-less-frequent good time, seeks woman of any advanced age who will not scream and call for the cops when she sees him at her front door. Pets okay, as long as they don’t crap on the rug or chew his shotgun stock.”
Flares into Darkness on work, markets - and adult reality. Every young person should read this, and we wish we had written it. A quote: The sad fact of life in a market economy is that you have to do what somebody else wants in order to get paid. You don't generally get paid for what is fun for you or for what you want to do; you get paid for what somebody else wants you to do, and usually that's something they themselves don't want to do for some reason. Maybe the work is tedious, maybe it requires high levels of responsibility, maybe it is dirty or dangerous. One thing you can be guaranteed is that it's something somebody else doesn't want to do themselves.
Now this is contrary to what most of us learn in school and in our cultural role models. We learn that we should be "free". We learn that we should be self-actualizing. We learn that we should break the rules and make things better and in the end everyone will reward us for "doing the right thing". Don't bet on it.
Photo: Quaking Aspens in winter, from the Tree link earlier today.
In several writers' voices. Perfect Iowahawk.
Monday, May 21. 2007
 Prof. B. likes Fred Thompson because he isn't a doodyhead. Fascinating photo to the right in honor of Fred, who is was known for a red-blooded fondness for the ladies during his single years. Not a problem for me: I can relate. I am clean and thoughtful, but want to have fun and do not want a heavy "relationship."
Parenting. The Dems plan a parenting conference. No Moms or Dads invited. Meanwhile, Hillary proposes a national Pre-K program. This might be characterized as nationalizing the babysitting industry. No doubt specialized training and certification will be required. It's like "Healthcare," right? Need the government brainiacs, because we are so stoooopid. Another climatologist changes his tune. Tim Blair Bored by the Wolfowitz story? A brief synopsis at Willisms gets directly to the point. John Bolton vs. pompous Brit interviewer. Bolton is good. News flash. George Washington had slaves. Milton Friedman is poisoning your food. Worstall Sweden update at Brussels Journal. A good graph too. A quote: Sweden is viewed by many outsiders as a model nation. Swedes are keenly aware of this and want to keep up appearances. Since suicidal Multiculturalism is all the rage in the West, Swedes want to prove that they can be more suicidal than anybody else. It’s an ideological beauty contest, which serves Swedes fine, since they like to excel at everything they do.
When government tries to micro-manage the economy. The corn ethanol mess. Another live coelecanth. It is so cool. We have said it at least ten times: Never eat anything from China. What we term "garbage," they term "food." The Anchoress doesn't mind the immigration bill. It's a debate worth holding, but I don't think Congress will hold the debate. Photo: Fun with body-painting in Key West. It is apparently impossible to take a photo in Key West without including some dissipated drunk in the background.
 Immigration: John at Powerline:
Like most of what President Bush does, his position on immigration is heartfelt and sincere. Do you remember all the talk during Bush's first term about how he intended to "spend his political capital?" This was said to be a lesson he learned from his father's Presidency. I never realized that by "spending his political capital," he meant driving his approval rating down to zero by the time he left office.
Mark Steyn labels the immigration bill "a capitulation, not a compromise." Americans are depressed. Why? Have we become a nation of whiners like the French? Ridiculous. Our air is cleaner than it has been in 100 years. So what is the anxiety? American.com Carter, yet one more time, shows his dark side, via Drudge. This man needs to go to church more than anyone I can think of, because his sanctimoniousness contains/conceals a public meanness which I find nauseating. Math, Marx, and Mau-Mauing the multiculturalists. This is fun. Kid forced to see Al Gore's movie four times. WTH? Doctor goes to jail for writing pain meds. Apparently, a jury was convinced that medication control was more important than human pain. This story breaks my heart, but there is nothing I can do about it. Roger Daltrey thinks Al Gore is a jerk. via Drudge A movement to push back against Castro, in Spain. This looks good. Better late than never. China will take $3 billion stake in Blackstone Group. Clever of China - and clever of Blackstone.
Thursday, May 17. 2007
 Rudy Giuliani might not be your favorite candidate, but he is an impressive, likeable, and engaging communicator. Watch. It is quite amazing that the Repubs have such a deep bench. Lots of folks I'd happily vote for, and no-one is ever perfect. Rudy is not my candidate, but I'd vote for him without complaint.
Climate momentum shifting. Summary of scientists who have switched sides in the debate. (h/t, Jawa) Black-on-white crime just doesn't fit the narrative. LaShawn. More from Cramer. Another grim milestone. Dust my Broom. The ongoing lying of the pols about illegal immigration proposals. Rick at RWNH. But Kesler is not quite so negative about it. Widgets, drive-bys, and bots. Nasty things from websites. BBC The Hollywood blacklists. Mark Steyn via Driscoll. Probably like you, I was taught that the blacklists were one more reason that America was a bad country. Wrong. These guys were traitorous, hated America, and allied themselves with Russia via the Communist Party. Nothing was wrong with pointing that out. Al Gore threatens the free press. I missed this scary quote from Anchoress' piece: “I think if it is important to look at the pressures that made it more likely than not that mainstream journalists in the United States would convey a wholly inaccurate conclusion about the most important moral, ethical, spiritual and political issue humankind has ever faced.”
Sheesh. Al, check in with your doctor, and check your porphyrin levels. It looks like a set-up for a lawsuit to me. Protein. To what extent should religious accommodations be made in schools and the workplace? No more blunts. Vaporizers are the thing, dude. Like healthy, man. Behind the DC gun lawsuit. Alphecca. What ever happened to Magic Johnson? Classical Values
Wednesday, May 16. 2007
 Whales evolved from dogs. PBS Video. That explains a lot. We love dogs.
The new Puritans. A new moral code, but just as annoyingly controlling as the old Puritans. Betsy on this piece by Ferguson at Weekly Standard We don't know what it is, but there is a heck of a lot of it. Dark matter Not your ordinary small luxury cruise ship. The Atmosphere, at Forbes Cleared by DNA after 20 years in jail. A terrible story. Europe's demographic collapse. Quote from a piece by Sensing: There is no longer a single country in Europe where people are having enough children to replace themselves when they die. Italy recently became the first nation in history where there are more people over the age of 60 than there are under the age of 20. This year [1998 - DS] Germany, Greece and Spain will probably all cross the same eerie divide. [link]
The greedy geezers of the AARP. Conspiracy to keep you poor and stupid quotes a letter written to AARP: "Even though senior citizens are the wealthiest demographic group, your organization is forever finding new reasons to take trillions of dollars from working people to give to your constituents, so they can go on cruises while working families are struggling to pay the rent."
A harsh piece by Bernard Lewis quoted at Insty. One quote: During the Cold War, two things came to be known and generally recognized in the Middle East concerning the two rival superpowers. If you did anything to annoy the Russians, punishment would be swift and dire. If you said or did anything against the Americans, not only would there be no punishment; there might even be some possibility of reward, as the usual anxious procession of diplomats and politicians, journalists and scholars and miscellaneous others came with their usual pleading inquiries: "What have we done to offend you? What can we do to put it right?" . . .
 Old Cape Cod fireplaces. Sippican has photos of several. I stole the photo on the right from him. It's in Truro. Hope he doesn't get mad.
Why I am a nationalist. Tangled Web Manhattan residential real estate up 23% in the past 12 months. Average sale price? 1 million. That is mainly apartments, of course. Prices also up in the boroughs. Average sale price outside Manhattan: $411,000. Moderate drinking and heart disease. NYT Science News How cool is Fred Thompson? Quick video on Michael Moore Bottom-scraping fishing trawlers plow and destroy the ocean bottom. To what extent is addiction-proneness genetic? Live Science Video Is France ready for Sarkozy? LLosa at TCS thinks not: In a recent article in the Times of London, Parris wrote that for all their impatience with economic stagnation, unemployment, social ghettos burning in the suburbs and the proliferation of violent youth groups, the French are not ready to make the "emotional leap'' necessary to reform a system under which people are used to relying on the government rather than on their own efforts for their welfare. "I don't sniff in the wind in la France profonde (though I begin to in urban Paris) that palpable sense of having reached the end of a road," Parris wrote. "The changes France needs to embrace will be convulsive. The pain will be intense. ... We British found that when Thatcherism arrived. But even at the low point of Thatcher's first term ... you almost never heard anyone suggest a return to what had gone before. There was a sense, in 1979, that we had burnt a bridge behind us, and had wanted to.''
Whole thing here.
Tuesday, May 15. 2007
 Iraq: We could eliminate the enemy and stabilize the nation in 48 hours with a few of these handsome airplanes on the right (that's a model H on the left, and a B on the right). However, we are trying to fight a half-war - or a Nice War - or what I would term a Police Action. Neoneo takes a look at two of today's pieces on the so-called war in Iraq.
Free markets and medical care. Betsy. It's already happening. And (via Opinion Journal) speaking of government medical care, Illinois just nixed the idea. JK Rowling pleads not to leak the outcome of the final Harry Potter. Al Quaida in Iraq. Dino. Yes, they are there, and it is an excellent opportunity to kill them. Let's do it now. Whining about work. France is #1, but the US is up there. Spoiled babies. Everyone should be thrilled to have work to do. My friend says people need only three things: Something to do, someone to love, and something to look forward to. Public housing. Get rid of it, and give the apartments to the renters. Instant millionaires. Why not? NY Sun Special treatment for Moslems. Wizbang. Why do people do this? I like this quote from a piece on Clinton's legacy at The Anchoress: Why did welfare reform work? Perhaps when people were liberated from the shackles of socially-engineered government dependence, when they were freed from the quicksand and muck of “Free Government Cheese” and able to move to the higher ground of “Unleashed Potential,” they grew in self-respect, self-confidence and - most importantly - in hope. The message “you can, if you try” was a louder, clearer and more spiritually sustaining message than “you can’t, so just give up” The reformation of our Welfare system, which in the early 1990’s was burgeoning out of control, became a pushback against what President Bush has called “the soft racism of low-expectations,” and the long-term effect of that pushback is not surprising. Encouragement will always trump condescension, and the fisherman who catches his own supper will always feel better about himself than the man who begs the scraps.
I am planning my goose trip for this fall. Jerry Falwell. RIP
Monday, May 14. 2007
 A darn nice bass. 25 lbs. even, caught outside San Diego. Story here. With freshwater fish, you learn to display them towards the camera, to make them look more impressive - but this is a big fellow.
Stumbled upon a good website. The Real Cuba. Opie would like it. Lots to peruse. I was taught that Tulipmania was real. Now it is thought that it was a myth. Tulips are OK, but far from my favorite flower. Four months of Dems in Power. Kudlow. Same old. Thinking big about fuel, from an engineer's brain. Small Dead Lemmings. You need to read the whole thing. Ten billion served, and hundreds of millions fleeced. Transit subsidies, at The Commons. We usually agree with The Commons, but there is no comparison in the piece with the federal subsidization of highways. I am opposed to the latter, sort-of. Bush's greatest speech. Kim. I could have written that. Medical insurance should cover this. All male Coyotes need them. Eurabia. Add Kyoto to the mix, and they could create a new Afghanistan! Classical Values. How experts think. A Parliament of Clocks, via Kim, via Instap.
Excellent cartoon about Truthers and Conspiratorialists. No Pasaran. The arrogance of experts. Samizdata A reader brought to mind a book to consider reading. The Death of Satan, by Columbia prof Andrew Delbanco. It's about how the idea of the Devil was replaced by a de-personified, impersonal "evil," and how the notion of "evil" is being replaced by social and psychological, rather than moral, concepts. World's most powerful cordless drill. YouTube A very nice hydrangea we bought yesterday at the nursery. Kardinal, It is said to tolerate more sun than most hydrangeas can.
Sunday, May 13. 2007
 Moms are great! Our best to all Mom readers, and to all future Moms. How you put up with us when we were kids, God only knows. A bouquet of thanks to y'all. Just quit worrying about us, OK? Let us worry about you for a change.
Hilarious. The Hillary-Osama Obama Debate. Very clever video at California Yank Many are eager to visit Cuba when travel restrictions are ended. What could possibly go wrong with banning guns? TigerHawk Education, and sliding down the razor blade of life. Hatemonger Powerline throws down the gauntlet. Sue us, please. It must be fun to be a First Amendment lawyer. Mao embalmed. Roger Simon The New Puritans. It is getting strange out there. Driscoll. Thankfully, here on planet Earth, things are OK. More on the Tufts Psychosis. Captain Ed does a good job with it. I would think the alumni donors would be going berserk about now.
Saturday, May 12. 2007
 A vote for Romney is a vote for Satan, says one TV Fundie. That is the sickest thing I've heard today. Romney's dad ran for president, and nobody said that about him. And nobody has said it about the other Mormons in government, like Harry Reid. And isn't Orrin Hatch a Mormon too? This is just pathetic, if not downright evil. I don't mind fundies at all, as long as they worry about their own relationship with God, but leave other people alone to find their own way.
Is there any reason for the FCC to exist anymore? Driscoll doubts it, and so do I. Let markets deal with it. The sources for information and entertainment, these days, go so far beyond broadcast that the FCC is obsolete. Psychotic breakdown at Tufts. Fortunately, good old FIRE is on the job. I hope this story gets around, because it is a truly shameful thing for a fine American university. I read about it first at Powerline, and now Wizbang has an update, with good excerpts from Volokh. Yes, it's about those hypersensitive Moslems who must be protected from facts. Not that the Moslems are complaining so much - it's the loonies who want Islam to be a "protected class." I am opposed to windmill farms, but the Cape Wind story is hilarious anyway. Update from Libertarian Leanings. Why am I opposed to windmills? Because wind power is a joke and will never, despite subsidies, make a meaningful contribution to our energy wants. It's just "feel good" stuff, like fluorescent lightbulbs Sperm donor must pay child support? Not a joke. Hey fellas: God should have put a warning label on that thing of ours. Now Farmer's Branch, TX wants to be rid of their illegals. They are voting on it. Viking's Quote of the Day: "The more you fail, the more money they throw at you," he said. "We're filthy rich; I don't want any more of your money. Send me quality teachers."
Friday, May 11. 2007
 Adding to blogroll: Theo Spark, under Anglosphere. The charmer on the right with the very nice smile is borrowed from Theo, who posts lots of mostly-political graphics. Hmmmm, is the pool open yet? Where my Ray-Bans at? So I can stare without anyone noticing. Ya gotta love this globalisticalistic warmening.
Also adding to blogroll: No Left Turns. Also, re-adding to blogroll: Right Thinking from the Left Coast. We lost Lee somewhere along the way. Disaffected youths hold anti-Sarkozy riots in New York City. Haha. What is Babelgum? It is something new. Doomsday Called Off. The five-part CBC documentary, via S,C &A. The health Nazis now going after virtual smoke. RTLC. I am so sick of these controlling busybodies. Quit trying to "do good" for me, OK? I am an educated adult in a free country, which includes the freedom to be stupid and to defy "the experts" whenever I feel like it. NBC hires "Diversity Leader." Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Does anyone take this junk seriously? Michelle. It's called a payoff to Jesse Jackson, and everybody knows it. US cancer care 10X better than the UK. Anchoress Also from Anchoress, Class and Class Warfare. Anchoress appreciates true class. Oral sex can lead to throat cancer? Our reader suggests reading the humorous comments on this scare piece, but I will not go down on record by opening my mouth about this story. Sisu and Roger Simon are upset about PBS' cancelling of America at a Crossroads. I understand their point, but I don't watch TV, much less PBS, anyway. It's a waste of time. A gunless gunship. In From the Cold. (h/t, Reader) LA Charter Schools, and Steve Barr. The District and the unions hate him. Barr had the cojones to wonder whether the school district leaders are "pig f-ers." Nobody likes competition, but government hates it more than most because they like to think they are smarter than everyone else. And they are smart, when it comes to taking care of themselves. Politics is a very ugly business.
The photo on the left is a compelling argument for why Persian women should never be veiled. Indeed, covering such loveliness should be illegal. From a piece on rebellion against the burkha laws in Iran, at Gateway (photo borrowed stolen from the piece at Gateway). A propos of The Barrister's post on Market Failure, Dan Boudreaux discusses how "altruistic" lawmakers, and those with market agendas, conspire. The Bootleggers and Baptists theory. Since when were the '06 elections about Iraq? Just One Minute. Dems stalled out in Congress. Obama is for bans on semi-auto weapons. Hello? Does he know what semi-auto means? I have two semi-auto shotguns. Perhaps he means full auto, or does he not know what he is talking about? Why is income inequality a good thing? Because it indicates a good return on investment in human capital. It rewards it. Mankiw. If you tax away higher incomes to create an artificial income equality by erasing the free market for labor, you reduce the return on human investment, eg education, talent-improvement, self-discipline, delayed gratification, and skills acquisition - and thus discourage people from those desirable and life-enhancing things. Plus you obviously discourage people from working hard at difficult tasks. A divorce rate reversal in the US. AOL News Makers of Oxycontin get screwed. People get addicted to the meds, and the maker is blamed. Oxycontin is apparently a great drug: my oncologist friend says it has been a gift from God for patients with cancer pain and other chronic pain. There is no "high" at the correct doses. "Sending a chill." The NYT is worried. (But aren't they always worried about one thing or another, like a bunch of old women? They need a strong dose of optimism - or Oxycontin.) A darn good point from Dino. Read the Bonus Question about Imus. There is a movement to try to keep Paris Hilton out of jail, but did you know that there is a more worthwhile movement to keep her in jail - forever? Right Wing Nation. Truth is, I sort-of feel sorry for her: she is just a cute kid with a cute name, but without substance or brains, who has made herself an empty celeb. The attention must be gratifying, but what can it possibly lead to?
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