Saturday, March 1, 2008

Not to worry - there IS NO THREAT!!

British Islamists Threaten Prince Harry on His Return Home

Michael Yon adds:
For ten weeks, the press kept Harry’s deployment a secret. But now Harry’s being sent home, after photos of him in Afghanistan were published on the internet and in the press. The ‘journalists’ who broke the story got their scoop, and in doing so, needlessly endangered the lives of patriotic soldiers. There was no compelling reason to report on Harry’s service in Afghanistan. No public good was served. Shame on those who risked British lives.

What's their phone number again?

Don't worry, the New York Times will protect you...

The government hard at work making life "fair"

My Forbidden Fruits (and Vegetables)
"...consumers who would like to be able to buy local fruits and vegetables not just at farmers’ markets, but also in the produce aisle of their supermarket, will be dismayed to learn that the federal government works deliberately and forcefully to prevent the local food movement from expanding. And the barriers that the United States Department of Agriculture has put in place will be extended when the farm bill that House and Senate negotiators are working on now goes into effect."

All hail peace and love in Berkeley

I generally don't read movie reviews, but...

"Set your bosoms to heave and prepare to have your bodices ripped"

The Other Boleyn Girl
, which panders shamelessly to its target audience of upscale women by recasting history as a lipstick jungle, is about as convincing as Hillary Clinton was that time she claimed she loved to play pickup basketball.

Pay attention to someone who has been there...

MICHAEL TOTTEN on the Muslim world's moderate supermajority.

Friday, February 29, 2008

Not gonna work...

Barack Obama's Double-Dealing on NAFTA:
"Canadian Television has a bombshell story on the hypocrisy and double-dealing of Barack Obama; apparently a senior member of his staff told Canadian officials that Obama’s promise to repeal NAFTA was just “campaign rhetoric,” and should not be taken seriously."
Remember how upset the Canadians were over Iraq? Well, now we're talking about $$$$$$ and, all of a sudden, the perfect replacement for George Bush isn't looking so perfect.

Take a moment and realize what this means..

No Retreat, No Surrend
German authorities closed an art exhibition organized by a Danish artists group named Surrend after "after threats believed to be from Muslims " unless they removed a poster depicting the Kaaba. "The director of the art gallery in Berlin said there had been threats of violence if the poster was not removed, so they had decided to shut for a while."

Do they have the right to defend themselves?

Townhall.com
"The suddenness of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah stunned most Americans, but the start of this next battle is being telegraphed. American media might want to ask Senators Clinton and Obama about Israel's right to defend itself as the rocket attacks from the south escalate, and might also get about the business of informing the American public as to the aggressions against Israel being launched from Gaza."

Perhaps this is more important than the prison issue...

Percentage of Male Teachers Hits 40-Year Low
Why the downward trend in male teaching? According to Bryan Nelson, founder of MenTeach, a nonprofit organization dedicated to recruiting male teachers, research suggests three key reasons for the shortage of male teachers: low status and pay, the perception that teaching is "women's work," and the fear of accusation of child abuse.

Now what are we supposed to do?

U.S. Imprisons One in 100 Adults, Report Finds
"Nationwide, the prison population grew by 25,000 last year, bringing it to almost 1.6 million, after three decades of growth that has seen the prison population nearly triple. Another 723,000 people are in local jails."
Of course, this has absolutely no connection to crime rates being the lowest they have been in years, right?

Thanks, Julie!


Feb. 29, 45 B.C.: Julius Caesar Takes the Leap
45 B.C.: Roman dictator-for-life Julius Caesar, alarmed that the calendar is growing out of whack with the seasons, adds an extra day to the month of February every four years.

The new Julian leap day wasn't added at the end of February originally, but on the day preceding the 6th of the calends of March. The Romans didn't count the days of the months from 1 on up, but used an idiosyncratic system of calends, nons and ides -- and we all know what happened to ol' J.C. on the ides of March, 44 B.C.

The BS meter is running...

Fear and Loathing: On The Campaign Trail '08
"When Hillary tells you that she has lots of experience, she doesn’t really tell you what the experience is, but you’re supposed to imagine what it must have been. She must have been sitting in the Situation Room when the Joint Chiefs of Staff were making their judgments about how to proceed in Iraq and elsewhere. She never says that but that’s what you’re supposed to fantasize... Hillary’s claim to have had a lot of experience in government is [BS]; she doesn’t have any experience. She’s been a senator for [a few] years but she’s not talking about that; she’s talking about sleeping with the president for eight years as if that’s prepared her to run the country."

Discrimination used to be a bad thing....

Cal Poly - Saudi Arabia
Cal Poly wants to open a male-only engineering program at a university in Saudi Arabia.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Get me one of these puppies!

Heated Snoozing Suit Boosts Deep Sleep
"Researchers looking to treat insomnia have built a suit threaded with warm water-filled micro-pipes that promotes deeper sleep."

Because it's easier...

Why does Left see Global Warming as Most Important Issue when Threat of Islamofascism Persists?:
"The very nature of the global warming hysteria does seem a piece with the longstanding liberal criticism of Western society while the Islamofascist threat proves false the notion that the West in general and America in particular is responsible for all the world’s ill."
And that's what they think they learned in college....

What goes around...

Townhall.com
"Just 24% of American voters have a favorable opinion of the New York Times. Forty-four percent (44%) have an unfavorable opinion and 31% are not sure...."

Politicians are stupid everywhere...

Politics rears its Iraqi head
Today brought some bad news for the Surge. "Iraq's three-member presidency council has rejected a draft law to hold provincial elections and returned it to parliament, the president's office said on Wednesday." Fortunately, the other two laws which were part of the reform package "the 2008 federal budget and a general amnesty" passed. But "the law to hold provincial elections has not been approved and has been sent back to the parliament".

Each passing week forces commanders on the ground to extemporize while Baghdad's partisan politics plays its dreary games. And every delay raises the risk that stagnation would provide an opportunity for trouble to break out again. In the same week the veto was passed sixty four pilgrims were killed in the Shi'ite south, including the 74-year old chief of the Iraqi Journalists' Union, Shihab al-Timimi. The men on the ground have done their best. Now the politicians will do their worst.

Heh...

Articles - Guns Save Lives:
"While they search for -- excuse me -- their magic bullet, innocent people are dying defenseless."

It's still war...

NAFTA Nonsense Insults Our Allies:
"The demagoguery is particularly objectionable because it's dishonest. First, the NAFTA pact wasn't shoved through by fiat. It was negotiated over years by the Clinton administration, with major input from both Republican and Democratic Congresses."

Threatening to renege on a permanent treaty — as Clinton and Obama are doing through their identical vows to "opt out" of the deal — signals loudly that America's word is no longer its bond. A permanent pact with the U.S., it turns out, isn't so permanent.

An approach like that toward our treaty partners sends a chilling signal to our friends. It's Obama and Clinton who need to cool it.

Don't tell anyone...they really do not want to know this...

Instapundit
DAVE KOPEL AND HOWARD NEMEROV: Is There a Relationship between Guns and Freedom? Comparative Results from 59 Nations. "The data show that (although exceptions can be found) the nations with the highest rates of gun ownership tend to have greater political and civil freedom, greater economic freedom and prosperity, and much less corruption than other nations."

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Yeah, they're worth it...

Childless and Happy:
"Whatever else raising children may be, it's also an expensive and time consuming pain in the ass that sharply limits your flexibility to do a variety of things for a large number of years. One can easily imagine the joys of parenthood being roughly offset by the burdens. But later in life, having a solid relationship with grownup kids and their children seems low-cost and hard-to-replace. Loneliness is very hard on people. To acknowledge that reality isn't to say we need to get all freaked out if the norm moves from 2-3 kids per family to 1-2 kids per family."

The Belmont Club

First they stage it, then they denounce it

An interesting take.....

European Union Punishes Microsoft for Being Better

The European Union is very jealous of Microsoft’s success: EU fines Microsoft record $1.3B.

That’s B as in Billion. Maybe the EU should put all that rarefied brainpower of theirs to work and write their own Intel-based operating system and GUI, instead of forcing Microsoft to give away trade secrets to second rate European companies.

Shudder. For one dark second, I imagined what an OS designed by the EU might look like.

Works for me...

Saudis Continue Steaming Toward the 7th Century
Here’s an official plan submitted to invigorate tourism in Saudi Arabia: Marry four women, domicile them in corners of the kingdom, travel to visit each during the year, and — boom — you’ve stimulated airline business, hotel occupancy, and car rentals. This was submitted by none less than Hassan Alomair, director of self-development in Saudi Arabia, at a Jeddah conference for the development of internal tourism.

She's not one to mince words...

Obama on Farrakhan
Seems like Hussein Obama was dancing as fast as he could last night around the Farrakhan lovefest. Even Hillary (schmuck!) let him off the hook. Kudos to Althouse for calling Obama and Hillary out on it here. Obama making hay of demagoguery. Smooth indeed.

Glenn Reynolds on the debate....

A DEBATE WRAPUP: "My take? NBC stinks. Tim Russert stinks. Brian Williams stinks. Keith Olbermann stinks. Chris Matthews stinks. Who won the debate? No one. Who lost? Everyone. NBC's coverage of its coverage? We are fair. We are great. How could anyone complain? What a joke."

UPDATE: Another bad review: "As of tonight's debate, I can't stand Clinton or Obama."

The convenient memories...

The next time someone brings up FDR and the New Deal as they relate to the politics of today, show them this:
The NRA, among other things, was intended to prevent the depredations of competition, and “allowed industry heads to collectively set minimum prices,” as this rather scant wikipedia entry notes. (The same page relates the story of the tailor who was arrested for charging 35 cents to press a suit; the NRA rules specified the price at 40 cents. So he was arrested. Consider that the next time someone complains that liberty and civil rights have been eliminated in the last 7 years.)

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

That's a lot of stuff....

The Encyclopedia of Life, No Bookshelf Required
It sounds surreal, and yet scientists are writing the Book of All Species. Or to be more precise, they are building a Web site called the Encyclopedia of Life (www.eol.org). On Thursday its authors, an international team of scientists, will introduce the first 30,000 pages, and within a decade, they predict, they will have the other 1.77 million.

Good advice

The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors

Xiang Yu was a Chinese general in the third century B.C. who took his troops across the Yangtze River into enemy territory and performed an experiment in decision making. He crushed his troops’ cooking pots and burned their ships.

He explained this was to focus them on moving forward — a motivational speech that was not appreciated by many of the soldiers watching their retreat option go up in flames. But General Xiang Yu would be vindicated, both on the battlefield and in the annals of social science research.

Nader as Jesus....

A Driving Force

It would have been impossible to believe during his heyday that Ralph Nader could be despised by many Democrats and progressives, that he would become a target of their ridicule and vitriol. He is now widely viewed as a hapless perennial candidate with no political upside and the ever-present potential of throwing an election the wrong way.

It’s a painful state of affairs for those who know how much he has meant to the country. But Mr. Nader, Nathra’s son to the end, has no patience with any of that.

More of the same here

Unfortunately, she's probably right

Alternatives to Palestine
Unless Israel gets out of the West Bank, it's going to have to recognize that it is the government--and that it is therefore responsible for the health and welfare of the Palestinians. In a liberal democracy, that recognition is incompatible with the way things are currently run in the West Bank.

Nobody admits the real problem...

THE NEW REPUBLIC:
As you may have heard, Hillary Clinton recently blasted Barack Obama over a piece of campaign literature, in which the Obama campaign insinuated that Clinton's health care plan would force people to buy insurance they couldn't afford. Clinton objected both to the substance of the claim, which she said was inaccurate, and the imagery, which was evocative of the infamous Harry and Louise advertisements insurance lobbyists used to kill universal coverage back in 1993 and 1994.
The real problem, my friends, is that in order for any plan to really work, everybody has to be covered whether they want to be or not. There are rules in the insurance game, and adverse selection is the boo-boo that makes the house crumble. Of course, we cannot actually tell people this when we are trying to get their vote; but, sooner or later, a la Social Security, the nasties come home to roost when you forget to play the zero sum game properly. So, NO, people cannot really afford the insurance they need; but not because they can't really afford it - it's because they are not willing to pay what it really costs.

Am I making sense? Certainly not to any Democrats.......

Interesting theory.....

NY Times Shakeup Explains McCain 'Bombshell' Story:
"The New York Times published the shoddy McCain-Iseman story the very same day the Sulzberger family fought to stave off an attempt on behalf of investors to alter the board of directors at the NY Times Company. Coincidence? Craig Karpel doesn’t think so."
But the Times only exposes conspiracies, right? Read it all...

Monday, February 25, 2008

How about a whole state of their own?

Jew-Eating Rabbit Threatens Denmark:
"Yes, it’s Assud the Jew-eating Hamas rabbit, appearing again on the Hamas kid’s show Pioneers of Tomorrow with zombie child host Saraa, urging Palestinian children to boycott Danish products, kill anyone who “insults” Mohammed, and wipe out Israel.

Doesn’t that sound like fun, boys and girls?"

Almost makes sense, doesn't it?

The day after the Day After Tomorrow:
"I'm not sure we are headed for any Ice Age yet, any more than I was prepared to buy into the theory of carbon-driven manmade Global Warming. But I am sure that we don't understand the climate enough to enshrine any particular theory as The Truth. Nor are we in a position to launch an international, multi-trillion dollar, decades long project of climate engineering run by bureaucracies like the Kyoto Protocol."

lgf: Australian Muslim Students Want to Rearrange Classes

lgf: Australian Muslim Students Want to Rearrange Classes

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Read it all...

The Belmont Club: The return of Ralph Nader:

Ralph Nader is running for President because the two contenders for the nomination of the Democratic Party aren't far enough to the Left for his tastes. Here's a video announcing Nader's candidacy.

In particular, Nader is afraid Obama won't be tough enough on Israel. Red State has a transcript of Nader's recent accusation that Obama has 'sold out' to the Israelis.
Cults are dangerous things, the more so because they are driven by real visions. But in time they become less about visions then obsessions. Ralph Nader isn't running for President. He's looking for his Sailor from Gibraltar.

They're too busy not publishing cartoons...

EU withdraws from Northern Kosovo

"Hopes for a peaceful conclusion to the declaration of Kosovo's independence were fading as the European Union announced it had withdrawn its staff from the north of the fledgling country in the face of increasingly angry Serb protests."

So begins the utterly predictable reaction of the EU to Serb anger as their "army in suits" pre-emptively withdraws.

The Arab mind....

Atlas Shrugs: Da Motoons Made me Do it!

New excuse for Qassams: Prophet cartoons YNet News

Six rockets fired at western Negev since Sunday morning. After siege on Gaza and targeted killings, this time Qassams fired 'in response to Muhammad caricatures published in Denmark'

Steve queries, "and what, pray tell, is Israel supposed to do to redress this 'grievance'"?

Shoot the messenger...

Consumer advocate Nader starts presidential bid

The colossal ego strikes again!!

No kidding...

Gaza's Culture of Self-Destruction:
"The people in Gaza need to stop and take a good look at the culture and society that they are creating and begin to think hard about how they might begin to undo the damage to their social fabric that is, with every day that passes, increasing. They should begin their social re-engineering not for the sake of their Israeli enemies across the border, nor to increase their standing on the world stage, but rather for their own sakes because inculcating blind hatred, with a murderous twist, against another group has some unintended side effects for the culture that does the inculcating."
But as long as they can get some journalist to make their plight look as if it's the Israelis fault, they think they are doing their children a favor...

You will have to read it....

Has the Surge failed?