Month: August 2007

I have been doing some more thinking about how to measure climate change. If we actually want to measure if the earth is heating, we ought to actually measure the temperature of the earth. If climate was my interest, I’d find the “constant” temperature transition point in the ground and string thermometers (electronic of course)…

When does a “little thing” become a big thing? Certainly, a tiny, near-worthless piece of plastic is a little thing by any standard. But when that piece of plastic acts as a spring supplying the pressure to hold an RJ-45 plug securely in a computer network card, I can think of few things more annoying…

Maybe I’ve been blogging too long (or maybe it’s OCD or something and I was this way before I started blogging) but I just have “issues” whenever I see something that’s obviously wrong — especially if it involves history. Last night I saw an otherwise very enjoyable French film, Moliere. Normally, I’m not much of…

The Vietnam narrative wars (which I touched on yesterday) continue. It’s even harder to understand why Bush raised a comparison between Iraq and Vietnam. So argues Trudy Rubin, in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer. I’m not sure it’s the comparison she doesn’t understand, nor is it the raising of the comparison. I think what she really objects…

Via Kesher Talk comes more confirmation that Islam will be Defeated by Pornography. From the Italian site ANSAmed. (ANSAmed) – TEL AVIV, AUGUST 22 – Despite the diplomatic ice reigning between the respective governments, Israeli erotic sites are reaping enormous success among the Internet surfers of the Arab countries. “We notice on our servers that…

Via Glenn Reynolds, my attention was drawn to an interesting observation by Matthew Continetti of the Weekly Standard: Bush’s opponents don’t have a problem with Vietnam analogies. They have a problem with Vietnam analogies that undermine the case for American withdrawal. They see Vietnam as the exclusive property of the antiwar movement. Can there be…

More than editorial writing, editorial cartoons are subject to interpretation, and different people might interpret them in different ways. But, no matter how many times I look at it, I’m having trouble with any interpretation of this Jack Ohman cartoon other than one which makes this confessed animal torturer a victim of the animals he…

Here an anecdote from Elie Wiesel’s book Souls On Fire. Let me define a few terms first for those of you not familiar with Jewish culture. Rebbe means Rabbi. Zusia is a famous and respected Hasidic Master/Rabbi from Europe. The “him” referred to in the first line is Rebbe Zusia. In an inn somewhere, a…

I had a pretty good education (at least I like to think I had), and in addition to that, I’ve read a lot of books about history, including many about the Third Reich. I’ve studied the origins and rise of both Hitler and Mussolini, and I’ve read about innumerable fascist and quasi-fascist regimes. The usual…

Clayton Cramer (not a Communist, nor even a socialist) makes what I’m pretty sure is a sarcastic suggestion that the government confiscate all wealth exceeding one million dollars: I’ve long been of the opinion that most of this countercultural stuff that San Francisco is awash in would evaporate overnight if the government confiscated all wealth…

We should be outraged that no one is outraged over this bloodshed. What does it take? Apparently, if the Michael Vick case is any indication, you have to be a dog to get anyone to care. If you want jail time, kill a dog. But black folks? Nobody seems to care that they are being…

Call me a pervert if you will, but I’m fascinated by the political implications of the Atlanta city government’s attempt to ban baggy pants which show boxer shorts: ATLANTA (AP) – Baggy pants that show boxer shorts or thongs would be illegal under a proposed amendment to Atlanta’s indecency laws. The amendment, sponsored by city…

In the early days of this blog, I used to take online tests and report the results a lot more often than I do now. In fact, Friday used to be “Online Test Day at Classical Values.” Why “used to be” (and there’s a ton more of such silliness), I don’t exactly know. I guess…

“The more ambitious fabulist is not Scott Beauchamp, however. It’s Victor Davis Hanson.“ By saying that, Andrew Sullivan is either exercising demagoguery, or else he has lost sight of a rather basic distinction. Facts are not the same thing as opinions. Sullivan calls Victor Davis Hanson a “fabulist” and argues that he was more dishonest…

I just received an e-mail claiming that the Navy has funded Dr. Bussard to complete his WB-7 fusion reactor experiment. In addition the e-mail claims the Navy is on board for the full up power demo if the WB-7 results are positive. If I get further confirmation on this and permission to post it, I…

As a Pajamas Media blogger, it struck me as unseemly to disagree with Roger L. Simon, so I wrote much of this post, but hesitated to publish it. (This blog’s archives contain many hundreds of “permanently-hesitated” posts, for other, innumerable reasons) But hey, now that Glenn Reynolds has seen fit to say what he thinks,…

A comment from Tom Scott just caused me to write a long and rambling comment that wants to be a post, so rather than expect people to read comments (a process many reasonable people avoid) I guess I should just let the comment become this post. Replying to my earlier comment that I had “seen…

Quite by accident, I found an oddity in a box of paper money which was for sale, and the seller gave it to me because it was slightly torn. I really didn’t care, because something about it intrigued me, and I figured once I scanned it and had the image, no one would care whether…

Speaking of violence, Michael Vick’s guilty plea seems to be giving rise to (or at least encouraging) new phraseology that I consider ominous: Now that Michael Vick has agreed to plead guilty to federal dogfighting conspiracy charges, animal advocates are hoping the NFL and others take action to continue working against dog violence. Dog violence?…

The idea that the status of being poor constitutes “violence” is in some ways quite a relief. Some ideas are so patently illogical as to cross the line that separates the sane from the insane, thus alleviating the need for any argument or discussion. It is literally relieving, because once it becomes clear that plain…