Maggie's Farm

When women feel fertile, they are drawn to alpha males. Pejman.

LaShawn is fed up with the Baby Daddy syndrome. So is everyone, LaShawn - you are not alone.

A professor at Michigan State Univ. got in trouble for saying this:

“I am offended not by cartoons, but by more mundane things like beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murders,” Wichman wrote. He went on to say: “I counsul you dissatisfied, agressive, brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Moslems to be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile ‘protests.’ ”

What, may I ask, is wrong with that? Isn't that what 99% of people are saying? Story at LGF

A fine holocaust memorial post, from Gates of Vienna: Last boat from Liverpool

Part-time Pundit gives a full-time effort on the subject of marriage and gay marriage. One quote:

If sex and procreation are merely private relationships, why can't friends be married for the sake of economics? I've never heard any explanation why polygamy won't be legitimized after gay marriage, and I've heard more than one supporter of gay marriage concede that it would. I challenge anyone here who will dispute the previous statement to explain to me how we can have gay marriage and not implicitly be forced to accept polygamy or other "forms" of marriage.

His whole piece here.

Emmylou Harris with Mark Knopfler. Reviewed at The Shelf

Jane Jacobs is dead at age 89. Her writing helped a lot of us see what a city really is. Driscoll

49% of Egyptians believe that Israelis bombed the resorts in Egypt - to drive Israelis away from Egyptian resorts. With this kind of logic, I could blame Jews for Katrina. Augean Stables and Big Pharoah agonize over the stupidity of it all.

The honor of working for a futile cause. S&M compares the Euston Manifesto with The Bridge over the River Kwai. Great piece. One quote:

Not everything is worth doing merely for extrinsic purposes. Some things we do to signal who we are. People give to charity even if they suspect the money's just a drop in the ocean. They protest, though they know they won't change the government's mind. They vote, though their vote won't make a difference. They even die for their country and their friends.
Instrumental rationality is not the only rationality. There's also, as Robert Nozick argued in his best book, symbolic rationality - the effort to show who we are.

I would have to put blogging in the latter category.

Why are Jews liberal? Prager explains it. (h/t, News for Christians)

In praise of opera on DVD: It's affordable, and has subtitles. Samiz.

Big Oil? American oil companies control a mere 13% of the world's oil. They ain't so big: they're just tall, that's all. Oil pricing, at YARGB

60 billion emails are sent daily. Lots are spam, though. Is there such thing as too much communication?

Are our media covering the war "on the cheap"? Kesler says so.

A cool politician in Finland! From No Pasaran - a quote:

"It may be good if the EU gets so big that it can no longer function — it will be like a rat with its hypothalamus removed, who keeps eating until it explodes," [Timo Soini] said, using the kind of colorful analogy that has made him popular with some voters.

What's going on with the Kurds these days? All kinds of complicated conniving, just as one would expect from Kurds. Strategy Pages.

State corporatism. Hillary likes it. So did Hitler and Mussolini. The very notion gives me the creeps. View from 1776.  Was there ever any doubt that the Left are the fascists? Why else would they call everyone else fascists, other than to deflect attention from their own impulses?

Fun with al-Zaquari's happy video time: Confed. Yank.  This guy is pathetic, but a sociopath.

Snow Storm: We were certain yesterday it would be Tony Snow. Good move, for all involved. Put him out there as much as possible (even tho he is wrong on immigration).

Regular readers of Maggie's Farm know that I am a newspaper reporter by profession, at this point in my still-callow youth.

I doubt that I will always be one, but it's good enough for now. I don't need much money now, and I enjoy the folks I work with.

I will tell you the problem with reporting: Reporters feel inferior to other people. Other people - no matter how silly and foolish or corrupt - are the ones who are doing things in the world. We are just the observers, the scribblers. It doesn't feel manly. We experience daily narcissitic humiliation just by working, which even Ed Norton, who was proud of being a hard worker in the sewers, did not.

The fact that we are not doers is a constant, nagging source of ego-pain.

How do we try to deal with that pain? By thinking that we are the noble, essential Fourth Estate. By seeing ourselves as heroic, altruistic warriors, fighting power and lowly commerce. By picturing ourselves as mini-gods, looking down from on high on the actions of lowly, flawed humans. By insinuating our view of the world into what we write - to try to "make a difference."  And by drinking too much. Trust me - our lives are dull, except for newsroom politics: I would feel more productive planning the sewers than sitting for three hours at a Sewer Commission meeting.

We semi-lazy, semi-glib, semi-cynical reporters all want to be players in life, but we aren't - and we know it.  We envied the lacrosse players that we reported on, when we were in college: they were cool and we were not. We envy the doofus politicians, and feel flattered when they know our names. We envy the Sewer Commissioner, because he is doing something real in the world, and we are not. We envy people who build things and make things and make lots of money, and we try to find ways to rationalize feeling morally superior. We want to work for the New York Times, so we will be invited to parties instead of drinking at Rudy's. We secretly envy all people who do things, and wonder whether we really can do anything notable, or even normal in the hurly-burly world, ourselves. So we report, try to find fault, and try to build up our egos.

We all secretly want to be Woodwards and Bernsteins - to bring down presidents (preferably Republican ones, but that surely does not apply to me), and to be big celebrities instead of humble scribes whose work lines the bottoms of parakeet cages.

I know professors and teachers who feel the same way: who feel that they are out of the loop, or have taken themselves out of the loop, perhaps because of their personality type. If we sometimes behave arrogantly or wear bow-ties, or talk as if we believed we knew anything in depth about a subject, please understand that we are simply over-compensating for the castrating experience of not feeling fully engaged in life, like other people.

Thus when I see the big city reporters publishing pieces on classified material, and the like, I understand it completely. Reporters, in moments of weakness, will sell their souls, or their country, to try to redeem the sense of purposelessness of their lives. They want to be engaged actors, and not objective observers. In my opinion, that is reporting in bad faith, unless it is on the op-ed page.

In our newsroom, in our medium-sized, tired old New England city, we sometimes amuse ourselves with the New York Times, which many newsmen, regardless of political stripe, view as a political tool. We figure out what they leave out, what they bury on page 21, how they spin stories, and what they decide to cover. We howl over their lame corrections. They have become highly agenda-driven, with a socialist, multi-cultural, anti-Israel, anti-American bent, but will not admit it. And I am telling you why that happens - it's not just that they have a Leftist mission: it's about ego. They want to "make a difference" and they want to "feel virtuous" with other people's money - but without doing anything real other than typing on a keyboard. In other words, the NYT reporters are nothing more than full-time bloggers, who get paid and who kill trees. Our City Editor would kick our asses if we pulled the tricks the NYT does. He demands professional discipline, and no BS.

And it is a damn shame that great papers like the NYT have come to this, because reporting is necessary and important. But to do it right, for a long time, you have to be willing to accept a degree of humility and a professional sense of service, duty, and responsibility which is difficult in our ego-driven age. Like any professional, you must learn to put self, self-gratification, and self-expression aside to do the job right. You are not hired to change the world, but to report it as accurately and honestly as you can.

Writing for Maggie's Farm is my outlet - my effort to be a bit more in the world. But when I find my right place (someday everything is gonna be different) I will do some real things in the world, like raising a family and holding a real job - probably not worthy of the attention of reporters - and I will feel much better. Honestly, I might feel more worthy operating a backhoe, but I can't. I am a spaz with machines, and Bird Dog, the chain-saw king, will not let me near a chain-saw.

Image: Ed Norton, of course, with Jackie Gleason, in the best TV series ever made.

Pentacostalism: Growing fast, around the world, with a big shindig in LA. CSM. 

More bombs in Baghdad. The new govt must be driving them crazy. NY Sun.  Sorry, guys. The war is over, and the good guys won. Now they are just killing their own people, for the hell of it. Libertarian Leanings points out that Iraq is doing well. Let's admit it.

Male ratios in colleges dropping. Too bad. Of course, the feminists are not worried. Nor should anyone else be worried. Don't worry - Be Happy. Why does everything have to be a dang crisis? USA Today

Academic English and noun-intoxication: If they knew what they wanted to say, it would not be so complicated. Language, grammar, and forthright, clear-thinking are cousins.  Guardian

Kerry-Kennedy quickly line up with Al Quaida. What world do these guys live in? More on Kerry's emotional immaturity from Boston's Soxblog.

Penn State goes over the edge, in dhimmitude. Censoring a Jewish view, in art. Imagine if this were pro-Christian? Maxed Out Mama

Estrich like totally embarassed by Dem Moonbats. HH has story. A quote here:

Professor Estrich and I did agree that the incredible level of venom on the left --not only undenounced by Democratic leaders, but actually embraced-- is a huge problem for her party. After Susan McDougal had gone on a bender of how she absolutely hates George Bush, and psycho-babbling Justin Frank had encouraged everyone in the pretty far left audience to unleash their hate of Bush, ("I'm going to stand up for hatred," he said to Estrich's amazement and my glee), Estrich admonished the crowd that their cheering of such rhetoric would only doom the party's chances.

Mary McCarthy, who was fired by the CIA this week for leaking CIA secret information to reporter Dana Priest, is just one of a bunch of ardently Democratic folks at State and the CIA who have been using their positions to undermine the Administration.

A great Left-Wing Conspiracy?, asks Ace.  McCarthy, Sandy Berger, Richard Clarke, Joe Wilson... 

Powerline has been talking about that for a year, in a non-paranoid manner, but I doubt that they imagined that such efforts might reach the level of treason. But it looks like it has, and she has let us down grievously and probably criminally. I doubt she was caught in a "mole hunt," as some have speculated - but she was caught in a leak-hunt.

It matters not whether the CIA or NSA was sending terrorists to Uzbekistan for interrogation: the morality of that is a separate subject. 

From a piece by Protein on the subject:

The subtext in the clause I highlighted suggests that these leak investigations could be a net negative inasmuch as they’re already beginning to “worsen” the White House / MSM relationship—one that the WaPo acknowledges was “already-tense.”

And that of course misses the point entirely, I think, and is doubtless borne of press arrogance (which is now practically institutionalized) and 30+ years of having ideological reign over shaping and controlling narratives:  because the fact is, the White House knows relations with the media will never normalize, it knows that it has been treated with hostility by an increasingly activist ideological press, and it has decided that protecting America’s security is more important than trying to get on the good side of the fourth estate, which has been hell bent on scandal-mongering, with the hope that something will stick and sink the Bush administration, ever since the start of the Iraq campaign.

Further, Porter Goss said he was going to clean up the CIA, and he—like John Bolton—seems to take his job seriously.  Which is why there was such resistance to both men, though the resistance against Goss happened once he was appointed CIA head and it became apparent he really meant to shake things up.

And if this story breaks like I’m starting to sense it will (for instance, McCarthy was Larry Johnson’s boss, and the connections between familiar players favored by the anti-war left are starting to pile up¹), the press calculus could play out in such a way that they see tough coverage of this scandal—an ACTUAL SCANDAL this time, mind you

IowaHawk has outsourced his humor to India! Rooty toot toot!

Protest season. Quote from NE Repub:

How come when Clinton or Jimmy Carter, or any Democrat won a Presidential Election…..we don’t have Republicans protesting on the streets of Washington? Call me crazy…but I strongly feel it has something to do with “having to go to work”…………Conservatives need to go to work-right? They have kids, and jobs and all kinds of responsibilities..I mean, even I do.

How soon will Hamas collapse?

The legal migration from the high-tax blue states to the red states: Why is it happening? Daily Pundit.

The sky is falling. Justin on environmental hysteria.

Russia's demographic choice: Suicide. Perhaps they might welcome 30 million Mexicans?

Venezuela become a military camp. What a joke. I guess it keeps the population from getting pissed off at Chavez - plus gives them a job. Pathetic.

Another quote from One Cosmos' confession (read it all here):

While harping on my own shortcomings, mention should also be given to my intellectual arrogance and my moral superiority. Scratch any leftist and this is what you will find: a bottomless reservoir of conviction that they not only know more than you do, but that they are a better person than you are. You are greedy, or homophobic, or sexist, or racist, or hate the poor, or don't care about the planet, while I am the opposite of all those things. I am kind, compassionate, wise, generous and tolerant.

The reason why leftist ideas are so devoid of substance is that they often come down to a simple affirmation of these self-flattering adjectives, as in the example a couple weeks ago of Jimmy Carter's abuse of the innocent elementary school student. To summarize, it went something like this: "Are you a nice person?," asked Carter. "Yes," says the girl. "Then you are a Democrat." Easy.

Second homes: They were 14% of the real estate market in 2004. Are they driving the real estate market? Clayton Cramer

Georgia's new immigration law: details here at YARGB

Free political speech and 527s. Coyote rips Repubs for their role in this mess.

Carl Bernstein makes a case for impeaching Bush. Claims it's not partisan. I think it's just payback time. Rick Moran takes a look.

What plants like to grow on beaches along the Atlantic coast? I have a project going, so I needed to check. Here they are.

Jetlag Cures: Water, darkness, and earplugs.

The Chinese organ-selling story. Hey, why not? It is "rational", isn't it?

Travel and Do Good: Adventurers bring cataract surgery to Indian villages. Only Americans would do things like this.

An MD with a Medicaid practice: That ain't a medical practice - that's charity.  God bless him.

We agree with Pejman:

Scott McClellan was never comfortable around the White House Press Corps. He was hardly what one would call an effective or charismatic spokesman for the Administration's interests. And at times, McClellan could just be clumsy. His successor will have a low bar to clear.

As for Rove, it (embarrassingly) never occurred to me to think that the White House's political problems may stem from the fact that its chief politico took up policy matters in addition to his political portfolio at the start of the second term. Correlation is not causation, of course, but one cannot help but wonder whether the expansion of the Rovian empire might have detracted from the effectiveness of the Administration's political operations. In any event, Republicans will likely welcome the renewed attention that Karl Rove will pay to political matters. The midterms, after all, will be upon the country quite soon now.

The Boston Globe tries its hand at multicultural "understanding." Seems like they "understand" suicide bombers. Of course they do. Who could doubt it?

As an essayist, I see Dinocrat rising to the level of the Great Right Wing Nuthouse. From a piece on multiculturalism:

Modernity carries within it the seeds of its own destruction. Modern society, with its technology, ease, mobility, and wealth weakens the traditional bonds of tribe, religion, family and tradition that have been the bonding elements of human society over many millennia. One of the chief sources of internal rot in modern society is multiculturalism. Multiculturalism arises out of a number of factors, including (a) the lack of understanding and instruction about how our bountiful time was created; and (b) the guilt of Western elites. Multiculturalism both creates internal rot, and finds itself easily intimidated by and unable to deal with pre-modern societies with deep tribal and belief structures such as the sharia societies of Islam.

Raskalnikov, a Canadian Indian, is fed up with blogging. One quote from Manitoba (with comments from S,C and A, where you can read the whole piece):

The white liberal guilt in this country has gone into overkill. It's like a dysfunctional family that buys new appliances when one son comes out of the closet, or the youngest daughter gets pregnant. Throw money at it, spend it away, ignore it under a pile of material compensation. Granted some if it does go to honorable ideas such as education, culture and health. These are vital aspects of life and the opportunities in them for us are now endless. The playing field may not be completely level, but it's much better than it was 50 years ago. Shit, 20 years ago. Any Indian not handcuffed by mental illness or addiction can be anything he or she wants to be. A doctor, a cop, whatever. It's sad most of them choose to keep on perpetuating the victimhood cult. In a society where we place such small value on thinking, is it any surprise the victimhood pimps use emotional fervor to brainwash future generations into whining and bitching? Mix this with the revolting, degenerate hip-hop destroying the minds of our youth and it sure beats having to take responsibility for yourself. And the welfare being handed to us by the Government only serves to put more value on the role of victim; not only does it appeal to baser human instincts, but you can get paid for it too.

As for our own Leadership, as much as I despise most Chiefs and Councils in this country, they are only human. How many of us could be handed endless streams of money, then find out all you need to do is cry racism when anyone asks what you did with it, and not be corrupted? This certainly doesn't pardon them, but I can sympathize with their fallibility. That being said, they are reprobate thieves and sawdust dictators for the most part. There should come a point when you recognize the errors you have made. We Indians are supposed to be so wise, especially our 'leaders". Yet we keep on making the same mistakes over and over, first and foremost keeping our lips tightly sealed on that big sweaty bleeding-heart progressive tit.

Raskalnikov is tired- and has been, for a while.

...I expect more. I am, by nature, a very cynical and skeptical person, however as I got older I realized, of course, most of that was just my own crap to deal with, and life, and people, really aren't that bad.....then I read something or hear something that just verifies my cynical outlook and I get enraged. Wow. People really are that stupid. Life really is meaningless and nasty, solitary, brutish and short. All that Nietzsche and Schopenhauer and Camus I read isn't just adolescent navel-gazing. People really are dogshit on the sole of the universe. And I guess nowhere is this more blatant than in politics and current events.

I can hear this Down Easter guy thinkin'  "I just think I might bring this one home fer myself." 

Indiana Federal Judge upholds voter ID law. How can that be news? How can anyone expect to vote without identifying themselves? Vote fraud in some of America's Democratic Machine cities is famous and well-known. There is no American who does not carry some form of ID, and I have always assumed you needed some to vote anywhere. The chutzpah of the Dems to angrily oppose this is an astonishing admission of devious intent.

Working on a tow-boat. A romantic, macho, outdoor career with echoes of Mark Twain. CSM

Some scientists need to determine to what extent the hot air from Al Gore's speeches contributes to global warming. I have become convinced that this "issue" is primarily ideological/political. The only good outcome of this movement might be to hasten the construction of new nuclear power plants. Like others of the limo liberals who don't need real jobs - Robert Kennedy Jr. comes to mind, these bozos, who couldn't pass Physical Chemistry - a highly cool area of rigorous study -  march off with their junk science as if experts, to make themselves feel, and appear, virtuous.

"Is a stay at home Mom a traitor to feminism?"  Sort of a bizarre question, since it postulates 1) a war, of sorts, and 2) that having a career is the highest expression of being human, when what it mainly is is a way to pay the bills. Cathy Young at Reason takes another look at careers vs. Mommys. As a bit of a Momma's Boy myself, I side with the Moms.

The Death Cult of Islam takes another step forward. Gateway.  If you want to be a suicide bomber, get in line. They have 70 already waiting to get into Israel.

Maggie's Farm has always been fond of our fellow blogger over in the UK, Norm Geras. Despite some different points of view (Norm seems to be a socialist, more or less, with that naive socialist faith in government experts and power - not that Norm himself is naive in the least), his blog has always been thoughtful, fact-based, responsible, and respectful of good-faith disagreement. (Like everyone else including us, Norm would be happy with any government run by people with the integrity, spirit, faith in the individual etc , that we want to have ourselves. A dream.)

Now Norm and his pub pals have put together the Euston Manifesto, which needs to be perused rather than summarized. However, in tone it is a progressive manifesto which rejects all of what we at Maggie's consider the loony, anti-American, anti-Western, suicidal, and anti-Israel traits of the Loud Left.

A quote from Geras' and Nick Cohen's piece in The News Statesman yesterday, regarding the manifesto:

The supporters of the Euston Manifesto took different views on the war in Iraq, both for and against. We recognise that it was possible reasonably to disagree about the justifications for the war and the manner in which it was carried through. We are, however, united in our judgement of the reactionary, murderous character of the Ba'athist regime in Iraq, and we recognise its overthrow as a liberation of the Iraqi people. We are also united in the view that, from the day this occurred, the proper concern of the liberal left should have been the battle to put in place in Iraq a democratic political order and to create, after decades of brutal oppression, a life for Iraqis which those living in democratic countries take for granted - rather than endlessly rehearsing the arguments over intervention.

Read their whole piece. The subject of the manifesto has attracted a great deal of attention, because it offers a path to sanity for the Left, and offers a basis for rational discussion between Conservatives and the Left and between non-Conservatives who take Jihad seriously and the Left. We moderates love and welcome rational disagreement and discussion. We are just sick of the hatred.

I thought MassBackwards was pulling our leg when he claimed that this was a .410 shotgun. But it is. Details here.  It is made by Ares. The below from StrategyPage.

The conservative divisions on illegal immigration: self-government vs. economic determinism. Auster.

Kevin Philips is worried about theocracy. Bogus scare tactics, if you ask me. Why is it creeping theocracy when conesrvative religious folks offer an opinion, but not then leftist religious folks do the same?

Enviros are finally coming around to nuclear. That makes sense. Instap.

Big White House staff shake-up coming soon. Good idea.

United 93. Prager says all Americans must see it, as an antidote to denial.

A look at past college sports team rape accusations, Revenge of the Nerds by Smerconish.

Bob at One Cosmos has written his story of his conversion from liberal to conservative. I have no doubt that it will ring true to many, and it contains most of the themes about we have written over the past year - but Bob writes gooder than we do. One quote:

Leftism continues to be a children's crusade against the adult world, and we are in desperate need of adults who will stand up to the children and not worry about trying to be their "friends." As a parent, you simply have to do what you need to do, because children don't really know how to raise themselves. (If I had more time, this would be a good place to expand upon this vis-a-vis Will's comment below on the spirit of rebellion that animates the Left. This rebellion is an inevitable artifact of childhood, and is oedipal to the core. To gratify it is to create a monster.)

Read it all.

I agree with John at Powerline, re the trumped-up Rumsfeld pseudo-issue (my bold):

JOHN adds: When you're President, you get lots of free advice. Some of it is well-intentioned; much of it is not. Here is why I think so many liberals are anxious for President Bush to replace Rumsfeld: they have staked a great deal on the proposition that the Iraq war has not gone well, and, in fact, has been a disaster. But they are troubled because they are not at all sure that is true. By any reasonable standard, casualties have been low and Iraq's progress toward democracy has been impressive. This doesn't mean the project couldn't still go off the rails; it clearly could. But it is also possible--likely, I think--that the Iraqis will succeed in forming a government, violence will continue to decline, our troops levels will be substantially reduced, and, in a year or two, the consensus will be that the war was pretty successful after all. This, I think, is what liberals fear most. They want President Bush to stipulate, in effect, that the war has been poorly conducted and has been a failure. That's the way in which firing Rumsfeld would rightly be interpreted. This would largely insulate liberals against the consequences if the war does, in fact, turn out to be successful. The same logic, I think, explains why liberals are always hectoring President Bush to "admit his mistakes." What they fear, deep down, is that the President's policies haven't been mistakes at all.

Rumsfeld is the "near enemy." The real enemy is Bush. Belmont explains it.  I also think that the "fire Rumsfeld" thing is due to his effectiveness: wars are always a mess but Rummy is about the most intelligent, incisive, confident guy in government, and I think his confidence and testosterone drive the Left nuts. (Do I detect a bit of jealousy of the guy's aggressive brain and masculinity, too?)

The Duke lynch mob. No idea whether team members raped this stripper/prostitute, but I do not see much evidence for it yet. TalkLeft has some legal defence considerations.Apparently David Brooks editorialized in much the same manner as we did here: true or false, the story fits the Left's preferred fantasy of evil white racist/sexist brutal jocks. (Do I detect a little jealousy, again? Who would not want to play a Division 1 sport, if they could?)

Is Moussaui a mainstream Moslem? Dinocrat thinks so. I have no idea. He sure is a mainstream Islamist. You have to read what Moussaui said at Daily Pundit, representing the Religion of Peace. Then scroll down at Dinocrat - he figures out the Dem strategy on immigration: it is to fool the Hispanics.

Granny Get Your Gun. Rambo Granny takes care of business in England. Wow. FMFT. She sets a fine example for the country.

Dems secret plans: race-based campaign against Steele in Maryland. Nice plan, guys. But it takes a little subtlety to run a racist campaign when you desperately need all black voters on your Dem plantation.

More on the new missing link hominids, at Science Daily and also more here.

Abdul Rahman killed in Pakistan. One by one, they are going down. Confed. Yank

Danger: Coke has fizz. Michigan court allows lawsuit to proceed by woman who had fizzy Coke spray in her eye.  Coke failed to warn that Coke was fizzy. h/t, Overlawyered. Note to scam artists and their lawyers: Carbonated beverages have fizz. Including beer. That's why you buy them: fizz is fun.

Do not look at these images of late-term abortions in Conservative Life. I mean it. Nor can I imagine a physician who would do this.

Fitzgerald gives false witness to New York Times. Charges will not be pressed against him.

Newsweek warns: Strong economy may lead to weak economy. Hmmm. I don't recall such articles when Clinton was President. Ace.

Hey, Ted Kennedy, read this: Man who lets Children Die in Car gets Life.

It is so beyond me how Kennedy gets re-elected. The story of how he avoided prosecution has been long-told.  It is true that none of us is without sin, but come on!

Even if you're drunk, you save the girl, or you die trying. Every gentleman knows that fun has a price.

Image of the Senator from Chappaquiddick's car, with diver, from here.

Tawana Brawley redux, at Duke? LaShawn wonders. I will remain open-minded, but it was amazing, and disturbing, to see the widespread assumption of guilt because the story fit a leftist myth. Man, when this stuff happens, the Left just eats it up, with the MSM cheerleading all the way. You might almost imagine that they welcome such stories...but to think that would be "mean-spirited," would it not?

The Medicare prescription plan: 8 in 10 are satisfied with it. Have you read that in the newspaper? Ca. Yank

The Wishful Thinking Theory of foreign affairs. Maybe Iran will change its mind? Huh? Have you ever tried to change just one person's mind about anything? The WaPo has no fear of Iran.

Kim du Toit announces a major immigration protest, to be held in November, 2006 and November, 2008.

The reductio ad absurdum of affirmative action: DNA-based job and college applications. NE Repub. This could get good: Every male has one entire X chromosome, which makes them 50% female. Every person has some African blood - duh! Not some - 100%, when you think about it - it was just a while ago in history, before that strange skin mutation turned my ancestors to a pasty, sickly, blotchy pale color, but what does that matter? I am a little worried about my Celtic and Norman warrior DNA - nobody seems to care about them. But hey, Harvard - I am 100% African, and half woman, and my DNA proves it. My skin color? It's just a Michael Jackson thing. My genitalia? None of your business, you filthy-minded Admissions Dept.  My character? Horrible: "malicious and so full of guile. Give it an inch, and he'll take a mile." It's a Human Thing.

Wierd men, and why they should marry foreign women. By a wierd man: Marginal Rev.

The Ugly Kid Crisis. What can the government do about this? If the government can solve the "Obesity Crisis" (shortly after abandoning the "Hunger Crisis") they can solve the Ugly Kid problem. I suggest we start with a $100,000,000 educational pilot program.

Italy returns to instability. My opinion? Not a serious nation; nice place to visit, with the most beautiful women in the world. From Publius:

Political instability is the result of political immaturity in a country that - in some respects - has still a fascistic mentality (statism, bureaucracy and wide corruption of politicians from both sides).

On Gambling, Stolen from News for Christians:

From Agape Press  -Apparently Americans have more money than they know what to do with. According to U.S. News & World Report's Kim Clark, each year Americans lose $80 billion to gambling in its various forms -- from casinos to bingo to online gambling to horse racing. Gamblers get plenty of opportunities to play. Forty-eight states have some form of legalized gambling, says Jeffrey Kluger of Time -- and that does not include the Internet, which is quickly becoming a wide-open portal for those with an itch to bet.  Read the complete article here. 

The backlash is growing. Thousands of illegals marching
and making demands is not the way to endear yourselves
with folks who spent their day at work.

Yesterday, our Barrister said his heart was hardening (scroll down). Today, our Chairman was moved to write about what citizenship entails. Today, I see the gentle Sensible Mom reach the boiling point. Pardon my English puts the lie to the old "jobs Americans won't do", noting how American workers were sent home from New Orleans because "the Mexicans have arrived." And everyone knows my opinion - Give California to Mexico and call it a day.

Hawkins has a powerful piece which I hope, but doubt, is being read in DC. It's not only good politics, but it's right. Quote:

Just imagine if the Republicans in the Senate took the same line as the Republicans in the House and pushed a bill that does nothing but secure the border and strengthen our immigration laws. Not only would it be wildly popular, but think of what a fantastic issue it would be for the elections in 2006. It would literally put the Democrats in a position where they would feel compelled to vote against securing the border.

Plus, think about the other issues that this would put in play:

-- The GOP would be the party that believes in respecting the law and the Democrats would be the party that believes in rewarding people for breaking the law.

-- The GOP would be the party sticking up for the jobs of poor Americans while the Democrats would be the party that wants to bring in foreigners to take jobs from Americans.

-- The GOP would be the party looking out for the American taxpayers, while the Democrats would be the party that wants to make illegals citizens so they can give them welfare and food stamps.

-- The GOP would be the party that puts Americans first, while Democrats would be the party for people who believe that foreigners should be given a leg up over Americans in America.

Read the whole thing.

The meaning of Passover. Extracted from a lovely and profound piece by Bruce Kesler:

Standing before Pharaoh, Moses did not merely demand, in the name of G-d, that he "Let My people go," but "Let My people go, that they may serve Me." What is the significance of this liberating "service"? It means that man, no matter how free of external constraints, is a finite creature, ever subject to the limits of his own nature and character. That to attain true freedom he must therefore transcend his humanity - his emotional, intellectual, even spiritual self - and access the "spark of G-dliness" that is his infinite, supra-human self….

For freedom is more than the drive to escape foreign and negative inhibitors: no matter how free of them we are, we remain defined by the boundaries of self and self-definition. Freedom is the incessant drive to "Passover" these boundaries, to draw on our divine, infinite potential to constantly overreach what we are.

Too funny. New Orleans using school busses to bus voters for Nagin into New Orleans.

The role of International A.N.S.W.E.R. in the pro-illegal immigration protests. Totaly ignored by the MSM. Driscoll

75% of Chinese like free market capitalism. What are the numbers for those of other countries? The Conspiracy

"Instant Democrats"? Will on immigration reform.

Excellent essay on the history of gunpowder.

Look who is running for the Human Rights Council of the UN. Atlas

Another view of the Mass. Health Insurance Law: Headed for an Iceberg? NE Repub.

Moslems for open borders. See, the problem is this - open borders for Mexicans means open borders for anyone. And then you are no longer a country - you're just a place.

Did global warming stop eight years ago? Ex Donk  And this piece on how cleaner air adds to warming.

It's vacation time again, in France. Watch the protests in France fizzle. What a country. The protesters will be at the beach in Spain with their parents! Vive la revolution des enfants.

Hey Sy Hirsch. We consider all options. That means consider. Can you consider anything other than reflexive anti-Americanism?

S,C and A has had it with the "colonialism" theme. Me, too. Those ex-colonial countries are lucky. They were given a chance to come out of the stone age, but many of them do not appreciate the opportunity, and wish to return.

A French econ professor tried the real world for a few weeks - and was converted. Of course. She was surprised to find out that people work fairly hard, with enthusiasm, and enjoy working. Why is the Left anti-work? Work is good. Work is fun. Work is interesting. Work is ADULT.

Will the MSM ever admit that Saddam was supporting Al Quaida? No. It doesn't fit their theme. Don't bother me with facts. Lib. Leanings

The economists at Marginal Rev. look at the Mass. Health plan. They sort-of like it.

Uncle Norm does the 101 best screenplays.

Reducing pollution is worsening global warming. Oh, man. Can we forget this yet? Whatever the cause, nothing effective will be done. Let's get over the hysteria. Ten years ago, the hysteria was the next ice age.

Ed Rendell is a good ol' boy, but he has a problem with Lynn Swann. Swann will win.

French "tribalism" is interfering with the Communism they need. Sheesh. What dopes. Hopeless.

For Cape Codders and Cape Cod lovers: Cape Cod Today. 

Roots was a big deal. Fake, but accurate? Classical values takes a retrospective look at the TV series.

Will is upset about Junk Science. So are we.

The Mafia campaigns against Berlusconi. Sadly, in Italy that isn't a problem - it helps. In the US, we still got some towns like that, ay, Ton'?

Hamas determined to eliminate Rotary Clubs. They are really getting serious, now. You would think killing all of the Jews would be enough for them. And now even the EU blows them off.

Who are the really cool radicals of today? The Libertarians. Ed Driscoll. It is true. The Left is old, dusty, obsolete, rejected, and done.

Trial lawyers and Vioxx and Merck: The doctors want Vioxx. Great drug. But all durgs have side effects. Duh. And guess what? If 500,000 people take Vioxx for arthritis, some of them will have heart attacks. They are mostly older folks, so some will get cancer too. This legal system remains corrupt as hell, while lawyers get rich with scams. Is that clear?

Hunting and illegal immigration. The swarms of illegals are interfering with hunting in Arizona. That is not good. Linkzona.

The Dartmouth Review got Mark Steyn. Wow. How can I attend?

How can we expel San Francisco from the union? Wish they would declare war, like the Confederacy. We could just say "No, thanks. Keep it."

Power, idolatry, Islam, etc. From One Cosmos:

The worship of power is the source of all idolatry. Thus, let's not pretend there haven't been Christian idolaters. It's just that the worship of power is a human flaw, not something intrinsic to Christianity. Jesus emphasized this point time and again: "the meek shall inherit the earth," "blessed are the poor in spirit," "blessed are you when they revile and persecute you," etc.

The cost of liquids in my neighborhood:

   Whole milk: 4.75/gallon
   Poland Spring bottled water: 2.79/gallon
   Regular Shell gas: 2.91/gallon
   Ballantine Ale: 7.67/gallon

Another new blog to monitor the accuracy of a newspaper. In this case, The Baltimore Sun. The Sun Lies

Milford, NH bans the Easter Bunny. Now it's the Government Bunny, I guess, that delivers the eggs for the Annual Egg Hunt.

Art bloopers in the DaVinci Code. Middlebrow.

Hard Life #1: Child Sorcery and the street children of the Congo. Remarkable photos.

Hard Life #2: on-line interviews with Ethiopian villagers struck with drought and famine.

Krauthammer on illegal immigration: Amnesty will only encourage more flow over the border. Build a wall.

The wife-buying market in India.