Saturday, June 23. 2007
John Barrasso, M.D. Read about him.
"Our goal is clearly not to find a qualified US worker." In Wizbang's words, ...a shocking video of a law firm offering a seminar to employers that teaches them how to deliberately avoid having to hire US workers so as to get guest workers on an H-1b visa. If the immigration bill that's currently in the Senate actually becomes law, be prepared for a massive effort by companies to find ways to dump American workers in favor of guest workers. Note how the speaker says that employers are "unfortunately" required to go through all resumes submitted for a job.
Here's the Youtube.
The world demand for oil. Look at this graph.
 Nashville announcement on Tuesday. Tour of primary states later in the week.
The Repub race already has plenty of talent. It will be interesting to see whether Fred has staying power. I hope he does.
Friday, June 22. 2007
Bill Roggio. Fascinating. He notes "No cordon is perfect." He leaves you hungry for more details about the traps and kill boxes. For another, I wonder who the enemy dead are. Where are they from? Do they carry identification? With what are they armed? Do they carry radios? How do they coordinate their actions?
 I predict that every life problem will eventually be labelled a "disease."
I wrote a piece on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder earlier this week, in which I suggested that some new diagnoses are being invented in psychiatry more for insurance and pursuit-of-disability reasons than because new diseases are being discovered. Perhaps the trend began in the 1970s, when addictions were declared diseases rather than very bad habits, for the purpose of obtaining insurance reimbursement for addiction rehab. Then "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" came along around the same time as "Sleep Disorders." Currently, we even have a diagnosis called "nicotine addiction," but I'm not sure whether we have "sex addiction" yet. "Morbid obesity" is surely a disease diagnosis nowadays, but I don't know whether being a fat slob is a diagnosis yet. We should no longer term such labels "disease diagnoses": We should just call them "Insurance-Codable Conditions (ICC)." For example, pregnancy is not a disease, and to term it a "diagnosis" is odd. Best just to term it an ICC. To support my view, we have two stories this week: AMA to vote on whether video game addiction is a disease. They vote on whether something is a disease? Disability for heavy metal addiction in Sweden. See what I mean? If medicine ever becomes politicized in the US, watch for an explosion of wacky ICCs. I have a few suggestions: Anger Disorder, Television Addiction Disorder, Unhappiness Disorder, Geriatric Disorder, Politics Addiction Disorder, Shopping Disorder, Hates-To-Go-Shopping Disorder, Can't Stand my Spouse Disorder, Carbon Abuse Disorder, and Ordinary Imperfect Person Disorder. Almost forgot an important one - Conservative-Thinking Disorder: the Libs will want to lock me away for that one. Photo: Dr. Emil Kraepelin, the father of Psychiatric diagnosis
 Surrender or die. Exciting. I'd like to be in Michael Yon's shoes, but I could not fill them: he is a retired SEAL.
It sounds like there is a major problem with Iraqi laziness and incompetence, but that isn't news. Al Quaida's plan is to outlast American defeatists. America's plan is to kill them first. Encircle and enclose them. Also, WaPo filed a report from Patrol Base Murray. The press is realizing that the real battle for Iraq is finally underway. Photo is a Stryker combat vehicle.
Rounding up illegals, illegal criminals, and gangs on Nantucket. Who knew? (h/t, Wizbang) When will they come to round up and remove the yuppies? The yuppies are the "root cause" of the problem because they don't want to do their own work. I can remember when Nantucket was a remote, rugged Yankee place that nobody wanted to go to, before the glitz invasion from New York, Dallas, Greenwich and Hollywood. I guess East Hampton got too crowded, and private jets have become more commonplace. What's left? Good old un-yuppified Cape Cod, and, of course, Maine (but you can't swim in Maine).
Good summary by A Jacksonian
Thursday, June 21. 2007
 Since when does "the public," ie the government, "own" the airwaves? A radio operator buys or leases a frequency, and then transmits radio waves on that frequency. Who gave the government ownership of frequencies? The government took them over in a weird example, I guess, of eminent domain, in the 1930s. However, the arguments used could just as well have been used for government ownership of news print.
Boortz makes the history of the notion very clear. Perhaps it would be analogous to the government taking ownership of bandwidth. How long until political use of bandwidth is regulated by Washington? We wrote about this yesterday. Photo: Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi. The first transatlantic radio message from the US was sent from Teddy Roosevelt to King Edward Vll in 1909, from good old Wellfleet on Cape Cod. The beach location is now called Marconi Beach, and it is surrounded by protected land - part of The Cape Cod National Seashore - thanks to JFK. Addendum: For fascinating historical detail about the early goverment intrusion into radio, read the first comment on this post.
Bill Roggio. On Day 5, it sounds good. I like the blocking troops to prevent escape. What kind of war is this, though? We are fighting al-Sadr's army which seems to be a proxy for Iran, and Al Quaida with all of their foreign fighters. This is no longer about Iraq at all. Iraq just happens to be the battlefield. That was the original idea, wasn't it? If this offensive goes well, watch Americans change their tune about Iraq.
Dalrymple reviews Walter Laqueur's The Last Days of Europe in The American Conservative. Naturally, it's about immigration, declining native populations, and economics. One quote: Laqueur is neither apocalyptic nor optimistic but measured and open-minded about the future. Yet given the earnest frivolity of the European political classes, who face up to and legislate for every problem except the serious ones, it is likely that his prediction for Europe is accurate: it will sink into insignificance, more important, it is true, than Africa but no more important than Latin America.
Here's the whole thing.
Take a minute and let them know your thoughts about illegal immigration and the bill which is back before the Senate this week. Phone - don't email or write. Phone info here. Addendum: Just heard Sean Hannity interview Trent Lott on the radio. Lott was unconvincing and I found his condescending manner obnoxious. It seems that his main point was "We have to do something." Why? Sean noted that Reagan had promised that his amnesty bill would close the borders, but had not. Lott explained that government is not efficient, things take time, etc. Sean said something like "If you couldn't do the border part of that bill, why should anyone believe that you will do the border part of this one?" Sean argued that a bill providing border control would enjoy huge popular support, and that Congress can deal with the other things later. Addendum: Congress is fed up with the voters. h/t, Insty. Why won't people leave them alone and let them do what is really best for us ignorant jerks?
 Czech Pres. Klaus interviewed on global warming hysteria.
I want Klaus to run for US Prez. How does a guy this good get elected? He is sensible on every subject, from climate to the EU to economics to tennis. The Czechs are lucky to have him.
Michael Yon in Baquba. Since Jules is following the battles so closely, I will rely on his links. It is getting quite interesting. Hey Harry Reid - It ain't over yet. I wish some wealthy person would donate Yon enough money for an assistant and a photographer. Yon does this work on his own, of course, and what is happening now looks like the big push of the entire Iraq story.
Yesterday we commented that the major offensive in Iraq was being ignored by the MSM. Turns out that the AP decided to write about it. Crittenden. Lots of links with other articles, too.
Wednesday, June 20. 2007
Story at Think Progress. It's a seriously, frighteningly wrong impulse to consider shutting up voices you don't agree with. The way I see it, conservative talk radio emerged and blossomed because conservative views had been suppressed for so long in all mass media - TV, print, and radio. Back in the 80s, I would hear people say things like "Until I heard Rush on the radio, I thought I was the only person who thought that way." Around 60 million people listen to Rush Limbaugh now, I believe. AM radio was a dying animal until daytime talk came along. The fresh viewpoints have been great for the country, in my opinion. The debate is good for everyone, because it makes us think and re-think instead of stagnating. Even when you disagree, it helps sharpen and clarify your thoughts. Talk radio remains one of the few places where alternatives to the MSM "establishment" views and spin can be heard. If print and TV were more balanced, some talk radio and some blogs wouldn't feel the need to exist. Their markets would shrink. Still, I suspect that if some cheerful, optimistic, warm-hearted, avuncular, humorous, and self-mocking (all traits I attribute to Rush) liberal came along on the radio, he or she could build a sizeable audience. But maybe not.
 About clouds and solar wind, from Canada's National Post, a quote:
Solar scientists predict that, by 2020, the sun will be starting into its weakest Schwabe solar cycle of the past two centuries, likely leading to unusually cool conditions on Earth. Beginning to plan for adaptation to such a cool period, one which may continue well beyond one 11-year cycle, as did the Little Ice Age, should be a priority for governments. It is global cooling, not warming, that is the major climate threat to the world, especially Canada. As a country at the northern limit to agriculture in the world, it would take very little cooling to destroy much of our food crops, while a warming would only require that we adopt farming techniques practiced to the south of us.
Not only will we all freeze to death in ten years, but the freezing of Arctic ice will kill off all of the seals and Polar Bears, not to mention all of the Eskimos. "Mommy, let's take the SUV so the Polar Bears don't freeze to death." Addendum: We tend to see it the way Vaclav Klaus sees it.
It begins right now. I need to follow Bill Roggio daily to keep up with all of the action. I thought the "surge" would entail more aggressive policing, but no. This is turning into the first set of battles with Al Quaida. The bad guys are now facing a large group of tough customers, and what seems most hopeful is that they are being attacked everywhere at once. No place to hide. But why isn't this battle being reported?
There are plenty of provocative ideas in this piece in The American Thinker that make sense to me. Education cannot be bought, even though it is marketed as if it could be. Credentials can be - and nowadays, must be - bought, but not education. All education is self-education.
We always hear about the uninsured. Who are they? Some answers. (h/t, Dr. Helen) Comment from Dr. Bliss: A recent exchange with a new consultation, after three office visits during which we had established some good rapport and understanding: "My recommendation to you is that we begin a course of psychotherapy to deal with all of these issues, which I believe are connected and which I think we can do something about." "OK, I knew that, and I guess I have known that for a long time. But will my insurance cover it?" "I don't know. I would need to meet with you two times a week to do this properly. But whether your insurance will or will not help you with that, I will expect you to pay me from your own pocket, beyond and above whatever your insurance reimburses you." "You will? I have car payments, credit cards, tuitions, vacations planned - all sorts of expenses. If insurance doesn't cover it, I don't want do it. I don't see how." "Well, it's a matter of priorities. I'd suggest that you think it over for a little while to decide how important dealing with these things is to you. If something is valuable enough to you, you will find a way to pay for it."
Life is like that, isn't it? Everybody is now trained to want a free lunch... but when they get it, it is no darn good, because the free lunch is a baloney sandwich on Wonder Bread. Life is filled with tragedy, is it not? These sorts of situations sadden me deeply, but reality is about limits. It is useless to pretend that it is not.
The true and best solution to illegal immigration will be for Mexico to get its act together.
Tuesday, June 19. 2007
Suicide bomb school graduates head for the US.
Eric at Classical Values has an excellent piece on creeping totalitarianism. His views on the subject sound like ours at Maggie's Farm. A quote: ...the problem is, people vote for it, and we live in a democracy. Perry de Havilland has also called the process "Democratic totalitarianism": ...a total state really is what a great many people have in mind for us all. They seek a sort of 'smiley face fascism' in which all interactions are regulated in the name of preventing sexism, promoting health, and defending the environment. The excuses will not invoke the Glory of the Nation or the Proletariat or the Volk or the King or the Flag or any of those old fashioned tools for tyrants, but rather it will be "for our own good", "for the Planet", "for the whales", "for the children", "for the disabled" or "for equality". But if they get their way it will be quite, quite totalitarian. It would be an error to dismiss such warm and fuzzy totalitarianism as the product of top-down rule by a Leviathan state. Pliant and well-meaning citizens (some of whom I suspect in my darker moments are wannabe eunuchs) voluntarily condition themselves first to accept self-imposed limitations, following which it becomes easy to impose them on others.
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