Month: June 2009

  • Fareed Zakaria (whose Future of Freedom is a must read) has this to say about the possibility of revolution in Iran: It’s possible but unlikely. While the regime’s legitimacy has cracked — a fatal wound in the long run — for now it will probably be able to use its guns and money to consolidate…

  • If there’s one thing worse than a GOP sex scandal, it’s a Southern GOP sex scandal!

    Does the scandal involving a womanizing southern governor shed any light on the GOP’s “Southern Strategy”? While nearly everybody agrees that what Mark Sanford did was wrong, positions as to what the consequences should be are all over the map. Victor Davis Hanson described himself as baffled: I am somewhat baffled by the reaction to…

  • Overdosed on absolute relativism

    A lot of people complain about moral relativism, and over the years I’ve noticed that the term is often invoked inconsistently. Little wonder, for even defining the term is an immensely complicated undertaking. A frequently used definition of moral relativism is along these lines: …the position that moral or ethical propositions do not reflect objective…

  • No silence here!

    Honduras. There. I just mentioned it. Wouldn’t want some scold of a blog analyst to come along and ask why it is that only conservatives care about Honduras and where are the libertarians. But which side am I on? Why, the libertarian side, of course! I can’t help notice that Hugo Chavez is threatening to…

  • Neda Net

    I was checking out the home page of Neda Net and came across this interesting bit: I’m Eric S. Raymond. Some of you will know me from the open-source movement as “ESR”. Because of the real threat of terrorist action against us, most of NedaNet is keeping a low profile. I have volunteered to be…

  • EBAY ADMITS OBAMA WAS BORN IN KENYA!

    In the latest wrinkle of Birth Certificate Trutherism, an Ebay seller has been prohibited from selling what he calls “Barack Obama’s Kenyan birth certificate” — and for a very interesting reason: In the third listing from colmado_naranja, the seller explains, “This time their reasoning for the cancellation was that birth certificates and other forms are…

  • Something for nothing

    Even though I’m gloating over my good fortune, I feel guilty over a purchase I made yesterday. I’d been looking for canister filters (which are expensive — typically hundreds of dollars each) and I spotted a Craigslist ad for a bunch of aquarium stuff which included two canister filters. Everything was $100.00. I made a…

  • Iranian Says: Israelis Help Us

    An Iranian asks: “Dear Israeli Brothers and Sisters,” writes Iranian dissident Arash Irandoost, “Iran needs your help more than ever now. And we will be eternally grateful. Please help opposition television and radio stations which are blocked and being jammed by the Islamic Republic (Nokia and Siemens) resume broadcast to Iran. There is a total…

  • Climate of Change

    With ABC handing over hours of primetime to Obama’s infomercial for socialism (which failed utterly to attract viewers, thus giving the lie to the notion they’ve been kowtowing to him just because he’s a draw) I shouldn’t be surprised by this little piece of enviro-propaganda (enviroganda?) from the AP, furtively titled “analysis,” which I suppose…

  • The finest deficits money can buy

    I get emails, and this morning I was greeted by this one: let me see if I understand this. these deficits are bad,, but bush”s were fine. and I forget what was wrong with clintons surpluses. it is a hell of mess you people got us into.. this message was awful early, you repubs(now a…

  • Western colonialism comes in more than one flavor

    In a discussion of Barack Obama’s father, a piece in The American Thinker touched on an interesting point about Marxism: Like many educated intellectuals in postcolonial Africa, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. was enraged at the transformation of his native land by its colonial conqueror. But instead of embracing the traditional values of his own tribal…

  • Understanding Before Voting

    The Climate Bill passed the House 219 to 212. Which is a fairly slim margin since the minimum required for a House majority is 218 votes. Now the Senate has to go over it. It will be interesting to see how the Senators from Illinois (a coal state – I met my mate in Carbondale,…

  • EPA Scientist Drops A Bomb On Warming

    An EPA Staffer, Alan Carlin, has dropped a bomb [pdf] not just on global warming (it is currently not happening) but also on the “concensus” hypothesis about how the climate system works. The document makes these points: The EPA report is based on the last IPCC report which is now 3 years out of date.…

  • Parity in our time?

    Meet one of the newest members of my household (peeking from the inside of his secure PVC sewer pipe hiding place): It’s a young Jack Dempsey cichlid. I have a pair of them (each has his own piece of PVC, of course), in a tank with my Flowerhorn Trimac cichlid, which became too aggressive to…

  • sense of self

    Asking readers whether they have any ideas what the man might mean, Ann Althouse links a perplexing tidbit from former presidential hopeful Mark Sanford: I’m here because if you were to look at God’s laws, they’re in every instance designed to protect people from themselves. I think that that is the bottom line of God’s…

  • Whatever happened to Baby Dee?

    Until today I had never heard of Baby Dee. But a friend enlightened me after seeing her act, and I found this on YouTube. As Baby Dee explains in the above, s/he does not want to be called a “singer songwriter,” so I won’t. Your cultural mileage may vary.

  • Preventable tragedy?

    Culturally illiterate I may be, but I grew up listening to Michael Jackson, whose brilliant career and tragic life ended with an apparently preventable death. In life, Jackson was hyped to the max, and I don’t doubt the same thing will happen in death. Considering the monstrous cap and trade scheme that is poised to…

  • Soccer Moms Going To Pot

    The question of the day is: will Northern Lights replace Cabernet Sauvignon or Dos Equis? Mary is a 37-year-old, self-employed mother in Seattle who smokes pot several times a week. “It is relaxing, fun, and once in a while I self-medicate for cramps or headaches,” said Mary. She says she prefers smoking to drinking beer…

  • When in Rome, visit the ruins while attending the games!

    Speaking of my cultural illiteracy, I’m embarrassed to admit that until last night I had never heard of the Hygienic Dress League. However, I had my camera handy, and I took a picture: As it turns out, the “League” is all in the minds of the sign painters, who happen to be engaged in guerilla…

  • A conspiracy of cultural illiteracy

    Regular readers know I can’t stand television, and I don’t watch network television programming at all. As I freely admitted in two recent posts, this makes me a cultural illiterate. For the life of me, I don’t know what programs are on, and if I hang out with television watchers and they discuss programs, I…