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InterestingAnnie gets a modest and well-made no-prize for bringing us news of how the FLDS ladies are making ends meet. Have sewing machine, will travel!
Personally, I've always thought it was quite possible for women to rape men. Hasn't happened to me (sound of wood knocking), but just on principles I could picture it happening even before I read this article.
The fact that more than one member of the peanut gallery has scoffed at the mere mention of the subject is why I'm linking it here. Since self-correction is something most gallery members think only happens to me, I'm not counting on much. But I can hope!
Via Instapundit.
And yeah, Jason, you're pretty much going to hell. On the bright side, we have jackets!
While I'm nowhere near as optimistic as this guy, I do think it's time to break down and admit we may have started to (finally) make solid progress on the war on terror. He definitely makes some good points, in my opinion.
Via Instapundit.
They subtitle says it all: Can emergence break the spell of reductionism and put spirituality back into nature? I've thought for quite some time that there are some awfully peculiar coincidences in physics and nature which could not be explained by science. It's nice to see someone much smarter than I am apparently has done a much better job of explaining them, and what just might be "behind the curtain."
Globalization worked because transportation was so cheap it allowed businesses to leverage foreign labor for domestic goods. Now that transportation ain't cheap, globalization is slowly reversing. It's happening slowly and without as much dislocation as, say, protectionist policies advocated by labor unions and various watermelon environmental groups.
It would seem the on again, off again attempts by the Army to replace its main carbine is on again. Advocates of the 7.62 round shouldn't get their hopes up... the Army long ago decided the 5.56 is the way to go, and no amount of shouting has made them budge even the slightest in, what, fifty years?
Interest on the national debt: there's a lot more to it than you'd think:
Next time someone is wondering what we bought for the interest [on the national debt], I wish they'd also wonder what we bought with the principal that interest is supporting. Although it's impossible to pinpoint, I bet we have a Nimitz carrier, a few intelligence assets, several thousand more college-educated GIs, and a few more Head Start activities in the works because of the principal we were able to borrow -- all because we have been steady and reliable in paying interest on our debt.
To paraphrase a favorite song of mine, debt isn't always evil, and it is not always wrong.
I'm not quite old enough to remember it, but I've read enough different histories of the times to agree with this without question:
I can remember how opponents of the Vietnam War simply tuned out news of American success when at Richard Nixon's orders Gen. Creighton Abrams pursued a new strategy. Opponents of the Iraq war, including Obama, seem to have been doing the same.
Sounds a lot, a lot like the conversations I've had with certain members of the peanut gallery. Even ones who agree that Abrams got the short end of the stick.
Historical perspective is, after all, something that happens to other people when The Gallery is proven wrong.
Leave it to California to take a small mess, grow it into a medium mess, and then make it a big one. I'm ambivalent about gay marriage, but I am certain on one thing: this is a matter for legislative, not judicial, action. Put it another way: it's not like you need to give the lunatics on my fringe another set of targets to bomb, eh?
Why aren't we hearing more from the candidates about how their proposed policies would help to grow the economy, and therefore the average worker's take-home pay -- as well as the government's tax receipts? Why doesn't Obama take the muzzle off Austin Goolsby? Why doesn't McCain fire the Concord Coalition from his team, and get them out of Jack Kemp's way?
Bonus: a brain teaser that even the luddites on the left side of the peanut gallery may finally get. Then again, I won't hold my breath waiting on them.
So just what would happen if each side of Congress had it all its own way trying to lower the cost of oil? About what you'd expect. Of course, Republicans would figure out how to piss away our money in a different way. If it weren't the world's largest demonstration of a Chinese fire drill, it wouldn't be Congress!
Mark gets a no-prize which he'd do just as well tossing for bringing us this article on seven things most people think are recyclable, but really aren't. Ellen is absolutely obsessive about putting just about everything in the recycle bin. Now, maybe not so much.
Self-professed atheist Terry Pratchett seems to have walked right out the other side and found something there. We all come to faith in our own way and our own time. While not as spectacular as meeting the savior on an old country road, finding it while walking down the stairs will definitely do.
India has premiered what it bills as the cheapest car in the world. No, it'll never play well in Peoria, but it should do the trick in the choked streets of Bombay. And get a load of the build quality when they show the inside door handle. Gaps are not your friend!
The core belief of Masonomists is in spontaneous order. We embrace change that emerges from an evolutionary, trial-and-error process. We trust the process of entrepreneurial creative destruction, market solutions to market failure, and technological progress. What we distrust is central planning by experts. And I am sure that Pete Boettke would want to remind me of our intellectual debts to Austrian economists.
If this seemingly even-handed look at the Bakken oil formation in Montana is on the right track, it would seem we're a few generations of drilling technology away from a very significant oil deposit right in our own back yard. Of course, there will be a ton of "ifs" involved, not the least of which is an environmental movement which will vehemently appose any attempt to expand supply. Will the state of Montana use it's famous "going-to-do-it-my-way-f-you-very-much" attitude to stymie the watermelons' ongoing efforts to strangle the kulaks? We'll see.
Via Instapundit.
After years of big subsidies, India is being forced to raise fuel prices. This is one of the 800 pound gorillas which is actually causing the spectacular and sustained rise in gas prices. The other is China. Both heavily subsidize fuel prices, helping their countries sustain spectacular growth rates, but at the same time insulating their populations from supply signals prices provide. They do not conserve, they do not become more efficient, because they have no incentive to do so. And, as long as their respective governments continue to insulate them, they never will.
The story was, of course, buried deep inside the Post. I wouldn't be surprised to find out it wasn't reported at all in other places. It doesn't fit with the "it's the Evil Oil Companies / Vast Right Wing Conspiracy / Wasteful Lazy SUV-driving Americans that cause our suffering!!!" theme. It's not us, it's them, and until economic pressures squeeze their government subsidies on fuel out, things won't change.
Of course, Indian people aren't really that much different than American people or European people or any other people, so instead of bucking up, tightening their belts, and using less fuel, they're raising hell, blocking traffic, and jangling the cage of every politician and reporter they can get their hands on. It'll be even worse in China, because that nation does not have the mechanisms in place for peaceful regime change or even (relatively) non-destructive civil disobedience.
In other words, it's not over yet.
The Navy has finally admitted its role in the discovery of HMS Titanic in 1985. It seems Ballard's original mission was to make detailed surveys of the lost submarines Thresher and Scorpion. Ballard finished ahead of time, and, since Titanic was thought to be between the two wrecks, he sort of took the long way home.
I'm not completely sure this is all of "the rest of the story," as I recall reading vague references to Ballard's mission being used to "send a message" to the Soviets about certain capabilities the Navy had developed. Nobody that I know of has been specific as to what these were.
Another "Western Union by Other Means" test that I've heard of is STS-2, space shuttle Columbia's second flight. According to things I've read, the widely-publicized radar test which revealed the presence of ancient riverbeds crisscrossing the Sahara was actually meant to demonstrate the US's ability to image hidden Soviet bunkers and missile silos. At least, that's what I've heard at any rate. YMMV!
If The Washington Post is running unabashedly positive reports on Iraq, something good must be going on over there, eh? Lately I've noted a certain amount of bitter admiration of the Bush administration from several of his other implacable critics. However, the left side of our own peanut gallery continues to collectively roll its eyes and froth on cue whenever our not-quite-departed president is mentioned, so at least something is still right in this world.
Were it otherwise I'd start rushing outside to see if angels were arching across the sky.
Via Instapundit.
A recent effort to clean up a northern California canyon overlook site has resulted in the recovery of more than 50 vehicles. Some were simply rolled down embankments, others were quite obviously launched at high speed by drivers looking for a shortcut to the start of the reincarnation line.
This sort of thing would seem to be rather common. I remember reading years ago about a murder investigation involving the search for a woman thought to have been murdered, whose body was stuffed into the trunk of a car which was then rolled off an embankment into a nearby river. A search of the area didn't find that vehicle, but it did find some dozen or more others which had been... disposed of... for many other reasons.
People will just toss any damned thing in a river, it would seem.
Annie gets a no-prize that'll shriek at her in drag for bringing us news of a sales increase in everyone's favorite "pork product", spam. I used to eat that stuff a lot when I was a little kid, and then (for reasons I can't remember) just sorta stopped. Olivia's pretty passionate about bologna, something tells me she'd probably like spam too.
I've railed against the various Democrat-sponsored (or left-wing endorsed) health care ideas many times on this site. It would appear that, finally, people have found a state-run alternative that works:
Americans have grown used to buying every kind of product from overseas. So why not “buy” foreign ideas or social institutions? Why, for instance, hasn’t the United States adopted the same healthcare system as Europe, Canada, and nearly all the rest of the developed world?While the United States is portrayed as the outlier, the truth is that another developed nation has eschewed the European government-payer model—with a great deal of success. That nation is Singapore, a city-state with a population of just 4.6 million but a lot to teach America.
Can we create something like this? Well, in a sense I think we already have, albeit in a limited fashion, with "thrift savings" medical accounts (at least that's what I think they're called, at my workplace anyway). Not being Singaporeans, we most likely can't duplicate it, but at least it provides a template to start with that doesn't have a reputation for making its victims beneficiaries wait six months for an important operation. Stick that in your "why can't we have a system like Canada's or Britain's" pipe and smoke it!
Via Econlog.
Another day, another lunatic preacher learning that it's just not a good idea to take on TV professionals on their home turf. The twist: this time it's a Saudi woman reading a "learned doctor" the riot act.
Everyone knows "unconventional" warfare doesn't get a whole lot of cash from the federal government. Well, until you realize "not a whole lot" needs to be put in perspective. $23 billion dollars may not seem like a lot stacked up against, say, the F-22 program, but something tells me it'll buy a whole bunch of nifty widgets for secret battles.
Even though that's not what his article is about, to me it represents a pretty accurate and concise definition of what separates erotica from pornography. Well, it does in my opinion at any rate. Deciding what represents "respect for humanity," and when that line is crossed, is unfortunately rather open to interpretation. Were it otherwise, I think the whole adult industry would most likely have a much easier time doing business.
Alternate title: Paging Elliot Ness, white courtesy phone please. Of course, since Elliot almost certainly didn't speak Japanese, he'd probably be just as interested in finding out what being a beat reporter following the seamy underbelly of Japanese society is like as I was.
Horror film fans may be happy to find out a new, and perhaps the only, biography of Nosferatu star Max Schreck is now available. It would seem that, like many early film stars, there's not a lot to tell at first. However, it definitely seems to lay to rest the old "he was really a vampire" legend.
It would seem all those "myths" about eagles taking children just got moved from "busted" to "plausible."
Warning: The video is definitely a "nature, red in tooth and claw" sort of documentary. If you're upset by that sort of thing, the very least you should do is turn down the sound. The narration isn't in English, so you won't miss anything.
Via Ares.
Remember that little boy a few weeks back who raised a ruckus because his parents claimed he was trans gendered? NPR has th edetails. For me, the money quote is: "Suppose you were a clinician and a 4-year-old black kid came into your office and said he wanted to be white. Would you go with that? ... I don't think we would..."
Problem: A new study provides evidence that people who identify themselves as conservative are in general happier than those who identify themselves as liberal.
Solution: Spin, damn you, and faster!!!
That one is twirling so fast I'm surprised it's not smoking.
It would seem Hillary has finally found an economist to support her gas tax cut. I agree I don't think Hillary's campaign staff will be calling Brian any time soon.
Public relations agency: 1, News reporters: 0. For any other race driver, even Danica Patrick, an F-1 test ride is roughly equivalent to getting a ride on a Blue Angel F-18 or Thunderbird F-16. Except you're solo, and get to twiddle the controls. In other words, it's nice, it's fun, it obviously generates good publicity, and that's about it.
I'm only now getting back into Indycar now that they've merged with CART, but the few road races I've seen with oval-trained IRL drivers in the majority are... amusing. And not in a good way (well, maybe a little). The skill set required to be fast on a speedway will help a little on a road course, but not much. It's possible she'll be quick, just like it's possible for me to jump into an F-22 and fly a successful combat mission. Both have the same likelihood.
Still, it is quite a bit of fun to watch a driver used to actual race cars try to wrestle one of these starfighters around a track. The look on the crew cheif's face when they pitch a multi-million dollar example into the weeds is worth the price of admission alone.
But it's not something to bet half of a race team's season on. Even if you are as slow as Honda.
Via Instapundit.
Remember that cargo ship with all the Mazdas? Turns out it's more challenging to get rid of 5000 cars than one would at first think. I completely understand the company's motivation. It's a shame human nature prevents these things from being recycled as complete cars, instead of shiny metal bits.
Citizens of Israel, like those in the US, seems to be more than a little neurotic about their success. So much so that sometimes it's good to get a reminder of just how good things really are. I used to do this a lot with some (not all) folks I know, but got tired of being sneered at because of my politics. Meh. F- 'em if they can't take a joke, eh?
Via Yourish.
Remember that prediction I made that fuel might one day be brewed instead of refined? It's much closer to reality than even I thought.
Making the rounds: P.E.T.A. has announced $1 million prize for the first company to create "in vitro" meat. According to the article, this was a hard-fought idea within the organization itself. Considering the loopy politics too often associated with PETA, I'm not surprised.
Something tells me there's a man with a pitch fork and a tail wearing a parka and an extremely annoyed expression knocking on the office door of PETA headquarters.
While perhaps cerebral, this defense of gun ownership was nevertheless one I'd not heard before.
Liz recently featured graphic evidence for why vaccinations are a must-have for children. I didn't have the courage to actually watch the video, but if the text description is even close, I can only say that if my kid started to make noises like that there'd be one of those Road Runner-like flaming trails from my driveway to the emergency room.
Ours got her shots on schedule, BTW.
The movie Expelled is looking more and more like a Michael Moore film every day. I generally respect and agree with Stein when he's talking about things like liberty and economics, but his rants for intelligent design and against Darwinian evolution leave me cold. Yet another example of "smart in one thing != smart in all things", I guess.
Like I needed reasons to vote for the guy:
The big policy-wonk news was that [McCain] called for some new initiatives, including doubling the personal exemption for dependents from $3,500 to $7,000, an alternative and supposedly simpler two-rate tax code, a one-year spending freeze for all government programs other than defense and entitlements, some sort of wage insurance for displaced workers, a summer suspension of the 18.4-cent gas tax, and making wealthier seniors pay more for prescription drugs under Medicare Part D. He also reiterated the need to do away with the alternative minimum tax, cut corporate taxes, and allow immediate expensing of business purchases.
To repeat: any president who promises to cut taxes and shoot terrorists will always have my vote. I'm simple, sue me.
Mike P. gets a no-prize that will squirm impressively when the data go wrong for bringing us yet another watermelon proclamation about global climate change:
China has already overtaken the US as the world's "biggest polluter", a report to be published next month says.
...
"Our figures for emissions growth are truly shocking," [Dr Max Auffhammer, the lead researcher] said."But there is no sense pointing a finger at the Chinese. They are trying to pull people out of poverty and they clearly need help.
"The only solution is for a massive transfer of technology and wealth from the West."
Absolutely! No problem! Let me go get my checkbook, just let me know who to write it out to.
Just because you're smart about one thing does not make you smart about everything, eh?
Problem: You've been outmaneuvered by the administration and forced to debate a bill all your powerful friends don't like.
Solution: change the rules.
Clinton was justly famous for corralling a Republican-controlled Congress into endorsing legislation they didn't like, especially in his last years in office. I can't recall them ever pulling a stunt quite like this. Then again, since my own opinion of Congress would need to look up to see the proverbial snake's belly, I wouldn't be surprised if Republican congresses did actually try this and I just don't remember.
Ain't government grand?
It would seem speculation that Vista may end up "the next Millennium edition" may be true. Then again, considering how long it takes MS to come out with any new version of their main operating system, I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for the new version.
Mark gets a no-prize that'll convince him to crack open an innocent battery for no reason for bringing us the urban legend of the 6 volt battery. Just missed April Fool's day, too!
While suspiciously rah-rah in tone, this look at Switzerland seems to prove at least some parts of Europe work quite well indeed. Like a watch, if you will.
Pope John Paul II is widely credited with having made a substantial contribution to the ultimate fall of the Soviet Union. Will Benedict XVI contribute as much to the fall of radical Islam?
One does not fight a religion with guns (at least not only with guns) but with love, although sometimes it is sadly necessary to love one's enemies only after they are dead. The Church has lacked both the will to evangelize Muslims as well as the missionaries to undertake the task. Benedict XVI, the former Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, has thought about the conversion of the Muslims for years, as I reported just before his election in 2005 (The crescent and the conclave, Asia Times Online, April 19, 2005). Where will the Pope find the sandals on the ground in this new religious war? From the ranks of the Muslims themselves, evidently. Magdi Allam is just one convert, but he has a big voice. If the Church fights for the safety of converts, they will emerge from the nooks and crannies of Muslim communities in Europe.
The papacy has an uneven record risking its collective neck defending faith against modern opponents. That said, it's sometimes worth remembering just how risky John Paul's stance against communism really was in the mid-70s. Will Benedict risk a car bomb in St. Peter's during Easter to take on the West's most dangerous existing threat? I can only hope he's up to the task.
In my own opinion, the world could do a lot worse than adopting a religion that learned how to cope with the modern world long ago.
Via Instapundit.
Mark gets a very earnest no-prize for bringing us this essay on what the author considers the fundamental differences between Catholics and Protestants. It unintentionally provides a graphic demonstration that Christianity's monomaniacal focus on doctrine is alive and well. All other religions believe it's important for the poor to be fed. Only Christians are concerned that it be done for the right reasons.
No, really, it's a porn school:
Sometime this weekend, at some sexy, unknown location in Tampa Bay, a woman named Courtney Cummz will show two-dozen prospective adult filmmakers how to make a porno.The film shoot is part of "Porn Camp," a weekend-long, $4,000-a-head seminar that'll cover everything from porn-star pay scales to set design to proper Web site design.
Considering that I've been told* the vast majority of sites are poorly designed sticky-traps that barely render at all, just about anything that improves the situation should be good.
----
* Mah story, sticking to it. U go wai.
According to this Instapundit roundup, it would seem the media are suddenly discovering that basic economics still applies to the housing market. We've got some friends who quite recently reaped the rewards of their house purchase timing, so this tracks well in our own experience.
Idle more than 10 seconds? Turn the motor off, save tons of gas money. According to the article, modern fuel injection stops the big start loss associated with carburetors. Discuss, please. :)
Pat gets a no-prize that'll worry her to death trying to get that last dime for bringing us this story detailing the return of haggling to even big-box retailers. I'm usually too much of a sap to actually try to bargain, but maybe if I come armed with info I won't feel too gobsmacked to try.
Annie gets a sad but important no-prize for bringing us a tragic tale of disease and death that's triggered a huge controversy in France. I'm quite deeply conflicted about things like assisted suicide, to the point I can only really say I'm very glad I'm not the one having to make such a decision.
I was wondering how long it would take Drew Carey to wander across a libertarian issue that'd send the left howling to the bell towers. I'm not wondering any more.
Legalizing the sale of organs is one of those issues that makes complete sense on paper but runs the creep meter right up to the peg. In my own opinion, I think it would almost certainly end the shortage of many organs available for transplant. With a judicious bit of oversight, I think it could work, even well.
But I do understand why people would be apposed to it. So, for now at least, let's at least start a discussion. If the country decides it's a good idea, we'll get legislation moved through. Ain't democracy grand?
While this diagram of .net classes confuses me more than it illuminates me, the trolls in the comments are an absolute scream. Anyone who thinks software engineers are mature and sophisticated need only peruse them to understand you can easily take the nerd out of high school, but you can't easily take high school out of the nerd.
As with most big media panic stories, a little historical perspective on the current value of the dollar is quite illuminating. Since Chicken Little never was much for history books, I'm not surprised we hear nothing like this.
A Christian who doesn't "believe the Establishment or Free Exercise Clauses created any such doctrine called separation of church and state,” seems to have had an epiphany:
If a Muslim teacher visited your kid’s classroom every week to give a Koran lesson, what would you do? I wouldn’t like it. I’d probably file suit.
Which is more or less what everyone I've ever known who argues for an explicit separation of church and state arising from the First Amendment has been trying to get across for years. The sign of a good design is its adaptability to tasks for which it was not originally intended. I think the usefulness of the First Amendment quite handily demonstrates its good design.
But that's just me.
And let's hear it for someone I respect, but at the same time think can be a bit reactionary, for coming to the logical conclusion!
Now we have video of the robotic gas station. Only in Europe (and perhaps New Jersey) would something like this be competitive with self-pumped gas.
Pat gets a no-prize nobody really wants for bringing us this summary of Microsoft's latest woes with Vista. It looks very much like the marketroids got just enough decision making power to comprehensively wreck expectations about the product. In other words, business as usual.
Neverland Ranch: a sad, abandoned husk of its former self. Spending yourself bankrupt will do that to a person, donchaknow?
Students of Vietnam-era history may be happy to learn the gung-ho attitude of combat helicopter units seems not to have changed all that much:
The pilots were about a half mile away from their parking spaces when the Predator relayed coordinates and the laser code to pilot CW3 Tom Boise ... and the left-seater was Chief Warrant Officer 2 Carlos Lopez ... [Earlier] Lopez introduced himself to me as an Iraqi interpreter. First I thought, “Why does a Kiowa unit need an interpreter?” And then, “This guy doesn’t look like any Iraqi I have seen.” Lopez must have seen the strange look on my face because he cracked up laughing. The pilots, when they aren’t killing terrorists, apparently are great practical jokers. Captain Brad Warr, an excellent medical officer I got to know in 2005, told me how the pilots stole the adult-tricycle he rides around base. What Brad failed to explain was how he had first stolen the pilots’ van, and then painted it pink and put hearts all over it. They might not seem like killers. .
Via Instapundit.
There are secrets, and then there are secrets:
She then hit me with a confession that would both thrill and confuse me. She explained that in the months that I had been away in Iraq her role within the AUC had changed; she had joined the urban militia and become an assassin. Her job was now to eliminate informers and traitors.
Many times over the years I've read in articles and been told by acquaintances in a position to know that Columbia is a uniquely violent, chaotic place. All I can say is it definitely won't be on my list of places to visit any time soon.
Meryl quite rightly points out the glaring double standard regarding reporting of the most recent events around Gaza. Every time I read about how awfully the Palestinians are being treated, how terrible the injustice and violence, I can't help but think to myself, "well, if they'd just stop shooting glorified bombed-up bottle rockets at Israel they might actually get some peace." And it's not just the media, there are some people I know personally to whom I'd say the same damned thing.
It doesn't matter the Palestinian rockets hardly hit anyone and the Israeli bombs always do. Were I to trade places with an Israeli, it'd be just my luck to pull the short straw and walk underneath the thousandth one that actually managed to hit something. I can't imagine waking up every day for weeks at a stretch worrying about it. Not to put too fine a point on it, I'd actually be damned pleased my boys shoot straight, and horrified only that these Palestinian kids don't seem to understand being next to someone poking a tiger in the ass is a Bad Idea. Where the f--- are their parents?!?
The problem is I already know the answer, and so do the Israelis. I can only hope they finally manage to field one of the tactical laser ABM systems they've been working on, and soon. I have a feeling it'll take making the wall around Gaza infinitely high before the rockets will finally stop.
Only the music industry would be shocked to discover that when value is added to a product, people are willing to pay (and pay more) for it. I've long thought the reason why music is so readily pirated is because it's too damned expensive for what it provides. I think it'll probably take several big names to be successful in this route, and at least one unknown becoming a big name in the same way, before the paradigm will finally shift.
Those who think artists will be too greedy or beholden to record companies to make the attempt obviously haven't known very many musicians personally. You will never find a more contrary, risk-taking, just plain weird bunch.
"Zahra Maladan is an educated woman who edits a women's magazine in Lebanon. She is also a mother, who undoubtedly loves her son. She has ambitions for him, but they are different from those of most mothers in the West. She wants her son to become a suicide bomber."
One of the most bedrock common-sense axioms is that mothers protect their children. Everything goes pear-shaped when this fails.
It's when I read things like this, and only when I read things like this, that I think the sentiment in the title may be the only real solution. Which pisses me off more than you might think.
Via Instapundit.
After a period of relative quiet, it would appear combat submarines are seeing a surge of interest. Includes the new (to me) term "air-independent propulsion," which turns out to be more an improvement to diesel electric than it is a replacement for nuclear.
CBS gets itself into another political reporting scandal:
The chairman of the Alabama Republican Party sent a letter to "60 Minutes" producers asking for a retraction unless they could provide evidence backing up a segment on former Gov. Don Siegelman's prosecution- Birmingham News.
...
"Our staff has done an exhaustive search of Alabama Republican Party records going back several years, and we can find not one instance of Dana Jill Simpson volunteering or working on behalf of the Alabama Republican Party – as stated by 60 Minutes reporter Scott Pelley."
It's like they've got the gun superglued to their foot, and just can't stop pulling the trigger.
Via Instapundit.
At first I thought Obama might be a Democrat I could at least trust not to run the economy into a wall. Now I'm not so sure:
There are two general themes to his message that he has begun, to be fair, to articulate in more detailed fashion. At home, there will be an increase in taxes—income, estate, payroll—to fund more government health care, education, and general entitlement programs. The old Reaganesque notion that government subsidies can make one more dependent, angrier, and envious is forgotten, along with the notion that lower taxes stimulate economic growth and encourage risk-taking, innovation, and independence. I worry especially about the lifting of income caps (how far?) on social security taxes inasmuch as they were part of the original covenant justifying the caps on benefits paid out.
Distortion, you say? Prove it.
Steve Warshak, owner of the company which makes a number of herbal enhancement drugs such as Enzite, has been found guilty of mail fraud. They got his mom, too. Both are looking at some serious time in federal prison, as well as losing all the money they made bilking gullible men out of millions of dollars.
It deserves saying again: If you could get bigger boobs from pills, every woman's bra selection would start with C. So would about a quarter of the men.
If you could get a bigger wang from pills, most men would have to coil it to fit it in their pants. The rest wouldn't be able to leave the house.
Fling a rocket, bag a satellite, and suddenly every foil-hatter in the world comes twirling out of their tower to yammer at any newsie close by. We've had anti-sat capabilities for twenty years, people. Just because one system gets retired and you don't hear about a replacement, is not the same thing as there being no replacement around.
I love the sound of cages rattling in the morning. Smells like... victory...
It appears Toshiba, one of the last HD-DVD holdouts, is throwing in the towel. I'm still not going to pull that particular trigger, mostly because the players are still pricey and, except for the PS-3, don't even support the latest Blu-Ray standard. It is nice to know things seem to finally be sorted out.
And it's not really bad news for HD-DVD owners. Prices for existing titles should drop nicely, and it may be quite some time before studios stop releasing things in that format. By which time Blu-Ray may be down in price and ready to become your next upgrade!
Computer scientists have created a program that is apparently quite good at predicting terrorist targets in Iraq. On reading, the software sounds rather similar to what the New York City police department used in its successful fight against crime in the 1990s.
Hey, anything that puts Hajji in closer contact with his 72 wirgins is all right by me!
My own suspicions about what causes long term poverty just got a boost:
Alone on a dark gritty street, Adam Shepard searched for a homeless shelter. He had a gym bag, $25, and little else. A former college athlete with a bachelor's degree, Mr. Shepard had left a comfortable life with supportive parents in Raleigh, N.C. Now he was an outsider on the wrong side of the tracks in Charleston, S.C.
...
During his first 70 days in Charleston, Shepard lived in a shelter and received food stamps. He also made new friends, finding work as a day laborer, which led to a steady job with a moving company.Ten months into the experiment, he decided to quit after learning of an illness in his family. But by then he had moved into an apartment, bought a pickup truck, and had saved close to $5,000.
A few on the left side of the peanut gallery may sneer about sex and skin color, which to me is a demonstration of just how fast goalposts can be moved when a score would threaten to upset someone's most deeply held misconceptions.
Via Instapundit.
It would appear the Air Force is mulling over a shoot-down of the failed spy satellite that's been in the news lately. If it keeps the thing from falling on someone, I'm all for it. But it will definitely be interesting to see just what, exactly, is used to do the deed.
Mike Bunner calls it a ''cowboy mentality,'' the attitude he sees in so many people who come seeking jobs from him.
...
''They don't want to follow rules, and in a workplace there are certain rules,'' Bunner said. ''It's almost like it's a cultural thing.''
A culture where labor is subject to market forces just as any other commodity, and in which Mr. Bunner's area appears to have switched from a buyer's to a seller's. Which reminds me of a connection you get to make when your head is stuffed full of useless history...
What struck me was how much this whining sounded like the whining of Abbots and Lords about what happened after the Black Death. Then, a terrible disease tightened the labor market by at least 33% (perhaps 50%). Since, unlike the Ottomans or Chinese, Europe was unable to simply bludgeon its peasantry into working without wages, European employers had to pay a premium for good workers or settle for less. Since a medieval boss was not much different from a modern one, the chronicles of the day are filled to bursting with complaints about how it was impossible to fill jobs and the workers you could get were awful and how the king or the Pope aught to do something about it. The fact they couldn't is one of the fundamental forces which created our modern world, and why it started in Europe instead of anywhere else.
Fortunately today it's economic growth rather than the scythe of disease tightening up the labor market. However, as long as that market is allowed to function, no matter how bitchy employers get or how arrogant employees become, not only will the economy continue to function it will grow faster and more efficiently than any government program ever could.
Which is not to say people will like it.
Pat gets a no-prize that just won't go away for bringing us news of just how difficult it is to delete one's Facebook account. To me, this indicates more of a design problem than anything else. Their system's back-end is most likely cobbled together from a lot of disparate applications, and nobody's had time to write the requisite scripts needed to get rid of it all, all at once.
An interesting question: If as many factors are figured in as possible, which impacts the environment more, a dog or an SUV?
It's not as simple a question as you'd at first think.
Hugo Chavez's "socialist paradise" continues down its depressingly predictable path to destruction:
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, in an effort to deal with food shortages nationwide, threatened today to expropriate farms and raised the price rice producers are permitted to charge.
Old-guard Bolsheviks like Lenin or Stalin would've responded by stealing confiscating all food resources in the offending regions and letting the farmers and their families starve. Millions would end up dying in what was, to fans of Communism, a justified pogrom against traitors to the state. Fortunately, Chavez is no Stalin. At least, not yet.
Watch carefully. This is where radical socialism always leads.
Via Instapundit.
While the Republicans, by design, now have a single candidate and nearly a whole damned year to campaign against the Democrats, it's becoming increasingly clear the Democrats will be campaigning against each other until at least August. That's right folks! While the Republicans will be spending their time telling everyone about their platform, and how awful the Democrats are, the Democrats will be... explaining to everyone how awful the Democrats are. This too, is apparently by design.
Sorta says it all, eh?
A formal report has been released after a state investigation of the fatal explosion at Scaled Composites last year. Unfortunately, the investigators seem to have shrugged at what might have caused the disaster at the company known for its innovative SpaceShipOne and Two vehicles. The evidence has now been turned over to the district attorney to see if anyone may be liable for the deaths.
The thing that makes a good sulk so enjoyable is you get to ignore everything that contradicts it. Like, you know, this:
American "decline" is the foreign-policy equivalent of homelessness: The media only take note of it when a Republican is in the White House....
Now take military expenditures. Yesterday, the administration released its budget proposal for 2009, which includes $515.4 billion for the regular defense budget. In inflation-adjusted dollars, this would be the largest defense appropriation since World War II. Yet it amounts to about 4% of GDP, as compared to 14% during the Korean War, 9.5% during the Vietnam War and 6% in the Reagan administration. Throw in the Iraq and Afghanistan supplementals, and total projected defense spending is still only 4.5% of GDP -- an easily afforded sum...
(Emphasis added)
The key to real prosperity for everyone is economic growth. Whichever party most consistently supports policies which enable growth will always have my vote. Any party that chooses to emphasize an agenda that impedes growth (pushing agendas like "fairness" or "living wages" or "progressivism") won't.
Which should make my party choice, well, rather obvious.
Via Instapundit.
Much is said about principles, and since I am not able elect anyone BY MYSELF I have entered into this pact with the group of people who I feel most comfortable with in terms of values. If they, as a body, choose a candidate who is not my first, second, third or fourth choice, then I can look to the Democrats. There I find views so antithetical to everything I believe that I realize there is indeed something to this idea of party loyalty.
I have misgivings about McCain, but only because other people who I respect have misgivings about him. When it comes down to it, I have had misgivings about all the Republican candidates. But they're nothing compared to the flat-out fears I have about what would happen if the last bulwark preventing the Democratic congress from running amok were removed.
So I will quite confidently cast my Republican vote this November, because even though whoever is running won't completely represent my values, and even though that party sometimes says or does things I disagree with, it agrees with and does things I do value and agree with far more often than the other side ever will. You can, most of you do, disagree with me. That's fine. That's what elections are for.
See you at the polls!
F- the current candidate roster. I want the team who's producing this stuff:
But hey, we all know how accurate and well-meaning our MSM is. Why listen to anyone else?
Via Instapundit.
Michael Totten: "I met a young Marine named Austin — he did not give me his last name and he wasn't wearing his rank – who grew up in East St. Louis, Illinois. “I'm from a really bad area,” he said. “I didn't even go outside when I was a kid. Fallujah is a lot better.”
Via Instapundit.
Now that the media has bequeathed the Republican nomination to McCain, it's time for the loonies to lock on to their new target. At least if, and until, McCain loses said nomination. One need only ask previously "anointed" candidate Clinton on the accuracy of media bequests.
I wonder how the card-carrying Bush Derangement Syndrome Club members in the peanut gallery, who are generally McCain fans, will react when a picture of their "good" leader is being carried on a sign with a toothbrush mustache penciled in?
Via Instapundit.
It's nice to know I'm not the only one who notices how ridiculous MSM's coverage of the economy is.
What I remember most was, during the Reagan administration, at the ripe age of 13, how the media kept harping on how awful the economy was two years into Reagan's "revolution." The stock market had tumbled, interest rates were truly astronomical, and it seemed everyone was either in an unemployment or gasoline line. And then suddenly, say, around 1983, almost overnight the reports stopped being about how bad it was and started crowing when "the recovery would end." Addled as I was with teenage hormones, I quite distinctly remember shouting at the TV, "end?!? When did you sonsofbitches ever admit it'd started?!?"
I'm pretty sure my yellow-dog mom tossed a shoe at me. She still does.
After all, being right (in more ways than one), doesn't mean you get to swear.
All those "work from home, earn $$$" signs you see around the neighborhood? Yeah, they're scams. Look, people, if someone asks you to set up a chain in which money gets deposited in one place, is moved around one or more times, and then is withdrawn from a different place, they're trying to use you to launder money. No matter how legitimate they may seem, this multi-step process is always the sign of something fishy going on. These are not nice people, so don't think about doing something clever like accepting the money and then just disappearing. You may end up disappearing more than you wanted!
If this test is to be believed, "my" candidates for the upcoming presidential election are McCain, Giuliani, and (gulp!) Huckabee. The other Republicans are pretty close too. In other words, no surprises!
Via Daffodil, who likewise received no surprises, albeit from the opposite side of the aisle.
The democratic Republic of China, commonly called Taiwan ... frequently irritates Chinese leaders with calls for greater independence from the mainland. But while the American military mulls its options, Chinese missiles hit runways, fuel lines, barracks and supply depots at U.S. Air Force bases in Japan and South Korea. Long-range warheads destroy American satellites, crippling Air Force surveillance and communication networks. A nuclear fireball erupts high above the Pacific Ocean, ionizing the atmosphere and scrambling radars and radio feeds.This is China’s anti-U.S. sucker punch strategy.
It’s designed to strike America’s military suddenly, stunning and stalling the Air Force more than any other service. In a script written by Chinese military officers and defense analysts, a bruised U.S. military, beholden to a sheepish American public, puts up a small fight before slinking off to avoid full-on war.
...
Because the American public is “abnormally sensitive” about military casualties, according to an article in China’s Liberation Army Daily, killing U.S. airmen or other personnel would spark a “domestic anti-war cry” on the home front and possibly force early withdrawal of U.S. forces.
No, dumbass, launching a comprehensive pre-emptive strike on US interests which decimated our Pacific defenses with large military casualties would precipitate WWIII. Ask Japan what happens when you surprise the US and roll them up all the way to the California coast. Hint: it's not pretty, and it's not fun.
Reading past the blunderbuss opening and the confident "plan survives contact with enemy" naivete, the article appears to be based on a press release intended to rattle the Air Force's cage enough to get them to beef up base protection. Which I guess would be all well and good, if they had any money to pay for it.
Look, we plan on taking them down just as often as they plan taking us down. It's how the game is played, and China more than anything else wants to be a Player. However, unlike the USSR, and 1930s Japanese before them, China's prosperity is deeply rooted in the world economy, and they are extremely aware of it. Kicking the biggest member of that economy in the nuts over an island off the coast does not a prosperous country make, donchaknow?
But I gotta tell ya, this would make for a cracking good military thriller. Get Tom Clancy on the phone!
I'm sure someone in the peanut gallery's heard of the battle of Khalkhin Gol, but I sure hadn't. I'm not sure we'll ever know exactly how decisive this battle was to the course of the war, but considering how many times outcomes hinged on slim margins, I would think it would be significant.
In my own opinion, one of the biggest blind spots in both Ellen's and my own basic education was in the handling of money. While we make our own way reasonably well, neither of us are extremely rational about it (I try to reflexively save every dime; Ellen panics whenever she deals with money.)
I think a lot about how to teach Olivia spending, saving, and investing in a more rational way, but don't know exactly where to start. I'm thinking this book might be of assistance. It's certainly interesting enough to go on my wishlist, so I won't forget about it. She's already quite capable of making deals*, so it'll most likely not be very long before she's able to grasp the rest of it.
Via Instapundit.
* Actual conversation at a recent visit to a train museum:
Me: "Let me see your new bandanna, Olivia, I'll show you how to make a mas--"
Olivia: "NO! DADDY NO! BWAAHHH!!!!" Much wailing & crying ensues.
Three minutes later, Olivia: "Daddy, let me through, I want to see that train!"
Me, in a gentle voice: "Let me see your bandanna."
Olivia, in cheerful voice: "Ok!"
Personally, I think Glenn got it wrong. It should've been...
They told me when George W. got elected, government would take over our lives. And they were right!
Via, appropriately enough, the puppy blender.
It would appear a photographic archive of ancient manuscripts, long thought destroyed, may represent the next "fatwa" target for guardians of the "religion of peace". Barring a few famous but extremely small fragments, the oldest well-dated Christian manuscripts only go back to the 3rd century. Discovering a cache of manuscripts made only sixty years after Jesus's ministry would be a remarkable find indeed.
However, as noted in the article, Islam is tied much more closely to its foundational document than is Christianity on its Testament. Christianity's foundation in mysticism, its legendary flexibility, and its ease of adaptation (to the point of bloody schism), have allowed it to withstand scholarly critique of its foundational documents.
Not so Islam, whose structure was quite obviously informed by the blood-drenched religious chaos of seventh century Constantinople. Having read it myself, I can say many parts to me definitely seem to have been composed by someone who knew both Christian and Judaic traditions, albeit second-hand and garbled. It would be ironic indeed if, by so very carefully engineering itself against the weaknesses evident in the Christianity of its time, radical Islam left itself open to its eventual undoing in the face of modern inquiry.
However, I feel quite realistic in not expecting a "Mohamed Seminar" similar to its Christian counterpart to appear because of all this. After all, if one claims not all of Paul's letters were in fact written by Paul, and provides convincing evidence to prove it, one does not need to worry about the embrace of lunatics wearing complicated vests.
I only hope the relevant German authorities quickly take steps to secure (or at least create many copies of) the archive. While I doubt I'll see it in my time, Islam won't always be this loopy, and it would be a tragedy to lose such an important collection of ancient documents due to carelessness or sabotage.
Update: More info, from a more innocent time, is here. It would appear the manuscripts are from perhaps the first few decades of Islam's history, making them even more important and remarkable. It would at first seem outrageous such a find would be barely known, and (as far as I know) never published. An intact, original gospel or an original Pauline letter collection would rightly cause a sensation in the West. Then I remember who we're really talking about, and it's not so outrageous after all.
So you tell me, did we fake that whole "When Mooji Boats Attack" incident or not? I didn't doubt for a second everyone's favorite Persian Pranksters were spoiling for a fight. Now I know they also have no trouble lying about it.
Then again, considering how schizophrenic Iran's government is, I wouldn't put it past them to have the mullahs pull something like this without telling anyone else. Personally, I don't care. A few rounds from the ol' M2 should stop hajji in his tracks next time around.
I guess I'm just a little strange (shocking, I know), because I think this photo exhibit would probably be quite interesting:
Why are the Japanese couples in Kohei Yoshiyuki’s photographs having sex outdoors? Was 1970s Tokyo so crowded, its apartments so small, that they were forced to seek privacy in public parks at night? And what about those peeping toms? Are the couples as oblivious as they seem to the gawkers trespassing on their nocturnal intimacy?...
The series, titled “The Park,” is on view at Yossi Milo Gallery in Chelsea, the first time the photographs have been exhibited since 1979, when they were introduced at Komai Gallery in Tokyo. For that show the pictures were blown up to life size, the gallery lights were turned off, and each visitor was given a flashlight. Mr. Yoshiyuki wanted to reconstruct the darkness of the park. “I wanted people to look at the bodies an inch at a time,” he has said.
I don't think I'd much appreciate the whole "sneaking through the gallery with a flashlight" bit though. A guy's gotta have standards, eh?
(All pictures in the article are SFW.)
It would appear Dragon Skin armor isn't all it's cracked up to be. As it were. I've seen this stuff demonstrated a few times in various "Futureweapons"-like shows, and it was consistently portrayed as The Next Big Thing. Then again, pretty much everything those shows demonstrate is. I'd always suspected such programming was little more than a video press release with commercials thrown in. Now, it seems to me anyway, I have proof.
While this description of DNA as a sort of organic software is inevitably geeky in places, it does provide a certain amount of insight into just what makes biology tick. Well, insights for a sysadmin or developer at any rate. Those who aren't may not get as much out of it, but hey, it's my blog, I'll link what I want :).
It would appear there is at least one place quite a bit more dangerous than Iraq. Not much of a distinction, but I suppose you have to take what you can get.
Via Instapundit, who's point about Mr. Chavez's fans is well taken.
While this mash-up of a speech from Naomi Klien and clips from various Milton Friedman appearances can only barely be called a debate (and dude... volume matching!), it still provides a nice side-by-side comparison of what Friedman has actually said versus what leading lights on the left claim he said. Straw men don't exist just for Dorothy, don't ya know?
Go watch the whole thing (it's really only a few minutes long). It should definitely provide fuel for thought, if not fire.
Wanting to put his money (as it were) where his mouth was, a seemingly self-confessed conservative decided to find out just how bad waterboarding really was. The verdict: it's pretty damned awful. The author seems to consider it inhumanly so.
Being a student of European history makes gaining knowledge on the myriad and manifold techniques of man's inhumanity to man essentially inevitable. Knowing these things (albeit in the third-person context), I have to say waterboarding really doesn't sound that bad. Since all serious forms of torture will eventually result in capitulation, a method which acts quickly and causes no permanent physical injury would seem ideal for everyone involved.
In other words, waterboarding would seem to have it all over being pulled on the rack. But I've always had problems with moral relativism. Like you didn't know that.
US economy: 1, Anti-globalization doom-and-gloom luddites: 0. Money quote:
"For a long time people thought of globalization only as the loss of jobs," said Elliott Howard, who fills and labels the brown bottles of chemicals distilled in Tedia's eight large stainless-steel stills. "Now, I think of it as expanding the company."
Diversity, growth, and trade are what keeps the nation strong and going. The trick is to make sure the Democrats aren't able to take it all apart as a sop to their Big Labor backers.
Having just spent an extra two hours on the Jersey Turnpike for no discernible reason, I find this explanation of just why mysterious traffic jams happen rather timely.
Yes, I am being held prisoner in a Chinese laundry a Yankee paradise Indian country the inlaws for a holiday visit. Why do you ask?
It would seem that, under the pressures of combat, the underpinnings that made the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy seem logical are slowly being dissolved. I've always been ambiguous about the whole thing, seeing as how I'd never end up "live fire testing" any of it. But if it really is the case that combat units are comfortable and effective with openly gay members in their ranks, it would seem to me time to re-evaluate the policy. We need all the talent we can get, and if GI Joe/Jane's preference for a bed partner isn't affecting their own or their unit's capabilities, why should we care?
Graphs are nearly always interesting, especially when the trends are breaking your way. Iraq's still got a long way to go, but people who think they've made no progress whatever are selling something.