It is a classic military-political dilemma. The progress in stopping suicide bombers, the vast majority of whom cross into Israel from the West Bank, has brought enough quiet for Israel to resume peace talks with the Palestinian leadership there.I am sure that we will soon here that since there have been so few attacks, the Israelis have no "right" or reason to maintain the wall or their defensive posture. Sound familiar?
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Amazing how that works...
Israel’s Tactics Thwart Attacks, With Trade-Off
Very well said....
Over-Parenting and Social Disaster:
Besides being destructive, it's really quite disgusting, isn't it?
"Another pitfall of overprotection is a heartbreaking irony: Because over-parented children are taught to obsess over themselves, they don’t learn how to connect with others. Helicopter parents, who think they are drenching their children with love, are raising lonely sons and daughters. The kids’ constant self-focus, developed under the tonnage of unending parental intervention, handicaps them in every social setting."My personal term for them is "Toilet Paper Parents" - for what I consider to be obvious reasons (and my own way with words). They are all over the place for heavens sake. They can NEVER not answer the cell phone when one of their little darlings calls to discuss what the next ten minutes will bring; and they MUST end the conversation with "I loooove you!" because that little darling (even if he or she is 25 years old) might get the impression that there are other people on the planet besides themselves.
Besides being destructive, it's really quite disgusting, isn't it?
Friday, May 2, 2008
Someone with some sense...who won't be listened to...
Health care costs: no, not insurers' fault either
News flash: health care costs so much because we consume so much, not because evil insurers are price-gouging
Sorry, just had to post this....
Lesbians versus lesbians
Campaigners on the Greek island of Lesbos are to go to court in an attempt to stop a gay rights organisation from using the term "lesbian".
The islanders say that if they are successful they may then start to fight the word lesbian internationally....
The man spearheading the case, publisher Dimitris Lambrou, claims that international dominance of the word in its sexual context violates the human rights of the islanders, and disgraces them around the world.
He says it causes daily problems to the social life of Lesbos's inhabitants.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Food for future thought...
America's Dilemma: Close Security Holes, or Exploit Them Ourselves
Read the whole thing. The notion that the world is just a quiet, passive place is so out of touch with reality that it makes me want to scream. We do need Jack Nicholson on that wall....
On April 27, 2007, Estonia was attacked in cyberspace. Following a diplomatic incident with Russia about the relocation of a Soviet World War II memorial, the networks of many Estonian organizations, including the Estonian parliament, banks, ministries, newspapers and broadcasters, were attacked and -- in many cases -- shut down. Estonia was quick to blame Russia, which was equally quick to deny any involvement."
Read the whole thing. The notion that the world is just a quiet, passive place is so out of touch with reality that it makes me want to scream. We do need Jack Nicholson on that wall....
GayPatriot
Sad State of Gay America:
"Let me get this straight excuse the insulting word, by the way . Gay activists are up in arms because NC Governor Mike Easley used the word “pansy.”
Well, God help us all. If Gay Americans don’t learn to get a tougher skin…their heads are going to be lopped off even easier than straight Americans when the Islamists are in power in Western Europe."
Screw the tree-huggers....
Start Drilling
It may surprise Americans to discover that the United States is the third-largest oil producer, behind Saudi Arabia and Russia. We could be producing more, but Congress has put large areas of potential supply off-limits. These include the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and parts of Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico. By government estimates, these areas may contain 25 billion to 30 billion barrels of oil (against about 30 billion barrels of proven U.S. reserves today) and 80 trillion cubic feet or more of natural gas (compared with about 200 tcf of proven reserves).
What keeps these areas closed are exaggerated environmental fears, strong prejudice against oil companies and sheer stupidity. Americans favor both "energy independence" and cheap fuel. They deplore imports -- who wants to pay foreigners? -- but oppose more production in the United States. Got it? The result is a "no-pain energy agenda that sounds appealing but has no basis in reality," writes Robert Bryce in "Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of 'Energy Independence.' "
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
The sound of "THUD"......
March of the Penguins Sends the Rangers to the Precipice
It could not have gone more wrong. More to follow.
It could not have gone more wrong. More to follow.
You're either on the bus, or.......
Albert Hofmann, the Father of LSD, Dies at 102
"Albert Hofmann, the mystical Swiss chemist who gave the world LSD, the most powerful psychotropic substance known, died Tuesday at his hilltop home near Basel, Switzerland. He was 102."
Let's hear it for the girls...
A Sporting Gesture Touches ’Em All
"Something remarkable happened in a college softball game last Saturday in Ellensburg, Wash. At least, I am conditioned to think it was remarkable, since it involved an act of sportsmanship, with two players helping an injured opponent complete the home run she had just slugged.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
How about a stylist recommendation?
TNR:
"...what do you think Obama would give Edwards for his endorsement? It'll have to be a lot, because according to the NYT, Edwards is reluctant to pull the trigger for anyone"
Oh Dear, this is a good one....
Dennis The Peasant: Amanda Steps In It Again
Ann Althouse has her own take that is worth reading, too.
"Evidently a rather large proportion of those wimmen calling themselves feminists are genuine morons."
Ann Althouse has her own take that is worth reading, too.
I find it worrisome that Herbert agrees with me...
The Pastor Casts a Shadow
"The Rev. Jeremiah Wright went to Washington on Monday not to praise Barack Obama, but to bury him."Read the whole thing, and then remember what I said last week about Wright being a classical terrorist.
Monday, April 28, 2008
If nothing else, it's a good quote...
Will Obama Set Back Race Relations?:
"Rand Simberg says Barack Obama may end up doing for race relations What The Clintons Did For Feminism."
How true....
TigerHawk
War crimes -- even covered up war crimes -- are just not front page news unless the people accused are American or Israeli. For example, where are the screaming editorials, documentaries, demonstrations, and long speeches when the United Nations is the alleged perp?
Is this disparity in the world's reaction because the United Nations has so much more legitimacy than the United States or Israel that people are willing to give it a pass, or so much less that criminality and corruption at the UN are just not newsworthy?
I am in the latter camp, but one of today's sad truths is that most of the world is in the former. Of course, most of the world outside of the Anglosphere and few paradisical European countries is also criminal and corrupt, so it all makes sense
Moxie On Dating:
Have you dated liberals before? If so, any difference you can tell between liberal and conservative guys?
Sure, I used to date liberals. They were always the ones who had a problem with conservative women. So much for the "open-minded liberal" myth.
It has been years since I intentionally dated a liberal. But I don't ask any more -- don't have to -- you can see it in their actions. Liberals were always happy to suggest we split the check; it must be some Clintonian socialist entitlement. They also tend to own clothing displaying their irrational fear of Dick Cheney, and/or love for Che Guevara. They are the shaggy haired, greasy hipster types you find loitering in the Apple Store.
Now we are getting somewhere..
The Biofuels Disaster Must End:
"Big-government, command-and-control technocrats believe that when central planning fails, the solution is a better plan and smarter planners. They never step back and look at whether planning makes sense in the first place. This was true of the Soviet Union, with tragic five-year plan after five-year plan. It was true of Communist China, with Mao’s revolutionary upheavals. And today, here in the United States, it is true of government energy policy."
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Mark Steyn...
In a scrupulously politically correct age, it's not offensive to organize a "Kill the police!" demo or to preach that the government invented Aids in order to perpetrate an African-American genocide. You can pull that stuff and still be part of respectable society, hanging out with presidential candidates and whatnot. What's grotesquely offensive is the chap who's insensitive enough to point out such statements and associations. So the North Carolina Republicans are denounced as "racists" for being so unenlightened as to bring up the subject of the neo-segregationist hater Rev Wright.Likewise, up north, this guy will never be hauled up for "hate speech" by the PC enforcers of Canada's "human rights" commissions. But, for quoting what he and like-minded fellows believe, I and my editors are on trial for "Islamophobia"*.
